"This is Akabane-san. He's been the only student of this class up till now." Karasuma introduced him to Kaede while they were walking on a tiny road outside of the city.

"I know, principal Akabane's nephew." Kaede nodded and looked towards Karma, "Nice to meet you Akabane-san, I'm Kayano Kaede."

"Ah, the wind tribe prodigy?" Karma suddenly remembered, "I'm surprised they let you join the academy instead of locking you up in the tribe." Karma wondered. It was rather common for the tribes to restrain the few offspring with great potential until they're strong enough to hold their own. Karma was a special case since the principal of the school he was in was his uncle.

"…Things happened." Kaede frowned slightly seeing Karma prying into her past, "I haven't been back for almost 3 years now."

"You ran away?" that response finally piqued Karma's interest, just as with Nagisa, Karma only started to befriend him after catching him sneaking out of the academy at night. This way of thinking might be a little twisted, but in Karma's eyes, people that have their entire life planned out for them and simply have to follow the script are not worth anything. They might have a head start, but their achievement in the future was limited. Of course, there were exceptions, but most of the times people that are raised in that manner will never surpass their elder generations.

"It's complicated." Kaede just said and shook her head.

"Well, anyways, welcome to the team Kayano-chan." Karma shrugged after realizing that Kaede was getting uncomfortable and said with a smirk on his face.

"…Thank you." Kaede answered with another frown. She hated dealing with people like Karma, people are uncomfortably friendly right from the beginning, but you could sense that there were other intentions behind their words… and she wasn't exactly liking the way he was calling her.

- The complete opposite from Hiru… -

Was what Kaede thought when she got a grip of Karma's personality. While Hiru seemed like an asshole and unfriendly at first, once you get to know him better you could see that he was an earnest and nice person… well as earnest and nice as an assassin could get.

However, with Karma, Kaede could sense that even if she somehow managed to get along with him in the future, she will always be wary of him even if she trusted him. He seemed like the kind of person that you could completely trust when it came to really important things but would do everything in his power to mess things up for you when the consequences of failure are neglectable.

"So Kayano-chan, have you been hunting before?" Karma decided that he has pried enough and asked Kaede.

"Not really, no." Kaede was relieved that Karma finally changed the topic, "Is there something I must especially pay attention to?"

"Never let your guard down, magical beasts are not like normal animals. Their intelligence is in no way inferior to us humans, so you have to be wary of them playing dead and going for the kill when you put down your guard.

Always go for the kill, you don't have the leisure to feel sorry for them. Even though I said that their intelligence in on par with a human, they are still beasts, the thirst for blood is still in their nature. If you get intimidated or hold back, you're already one step closer to being dead.

Whether in or out of combat, always pay attention to your surroundings. We're going into the mountains, it's their territory. Never expect a fight to be a fair one on one, already be ready to be ambushed.

Survival is your top priority, do everything you have to do to survive, whether it comes to the choice of food, beverage or resting places. Never start a fire when camping, it only draws in unwanted attention, if you want your meat cooked ask Akabane-san, he's a fire mage and can cook the meat by heating it from the inside. But take into consideration that you're using up his mana supply by doing that, consider the position you're currently in.

Now to the most important one, do NOT abandon each other. Once we enter the mountains, I will not be with you two. And unless your guys are going to die or are attacked by a beast way above your level, I will not interfere. What I want to build is a team, I don't care what you guys think of each other outside of the mountain, but when you are in there I want you to completely trust each other.

Everything clear?" Karasuma suddenly stepped into the conversation and held a lecture.

"… I don't have a problem with the points above, but the last point isn't that easy to do." Kaede frowned after hearing the last point. She had just met Karma less than an hour ago. She was pretty sure that she wouldn't even be able to do everything Karasuma had listed if the person she was teamed up with was Yoruhiru, who she was already acknowledged as her partner.

She did trust him, but only to the point when his own life wasn't in danger because if she would ask herself that is where she would abandon Yoruhiru currently. She would do everything to save him as long as her life is not threatened. Naturally, this might change with the time they work as partners, but she did not expect more from her partner than she expected herself to do for him.

There was only one person in this world that she would entrust her life with and sacrifice her life for, but that person was already gone.

Now back to Karma, to be absolutely honest, currently Kaede would love to completely avoid getting involved with Karma. She really didn't like the feeling of him trying to see through her, so in simpler words, she was extremely wary of Karma. With this feeling towards him, she really doubted that she would even be able to somehow cooperate with him at all.

"Kayano-chan is right… I don't think I'll be able to do that." Karma also frowned and admitted very bluntly. This surprised Kaede a little, most people would try to somehow talk around it or make promises they know they can't keep.

"Naturally I don't expect you two to be able to do that right on the spot, but I would appreciate you two trying to achieve that. Remember that I am aiming for a group of four. If we can't even manage to get two people to work perfectly together, we might just give up right now." Karasuma answered calmly.

"…Fine." Karma sighed and shook his head a little, but when he looked back up, the lax and mischievous look on his face was completely gone. Replacing it was a serious and focused expression that seemed kind of out of place on him, "I'll be counting on you then, Kayano-chan."

"Likewise." Kaede was taken aback for a second but managed recovered quickly and answered in a serious tone.

"Good, now give me your backpacks and weapons." Karasuma nodded and demanded.

"Huh? Ehh sure?" Karma raised an eyebrow but still did as Karasuma said.

"Okay?" Kaede frowned out of confusion but still followed Karma's lead.

"Good." Karasuma nodded after taking over the bags and weapons that were handed to him, "we're already deep in the mountain's outer ring, remember to stay away from the center, now let the practice begin." Karasuma announced and disappeared with both their bags and weapons.

"…Huh?" Kaede blinked a few times while staring at the spot Karasuma was just standing. "Did he just…"

"Urgh… fuck me." Karma groaned while rolling his eyes, "Really?! Right on the first trip?" Karma complained loudly, he was certain that Karasuma was still somewhere where he could see and hear them.

"Mind explaining what is going on?" Kaede got a bit impatient hearing Karma just complaining and not knowing what was going on at all herself.

"Karasuma does that from time to time, but I can't predict when, since he always tells me to prepare and pack my bag." Karma sighed and said.

"So, a survival trip without any preparation?" Kaede started to understand, "But if he already did that in the past why did you give him your bag?" Kaede questioned.

"You think not giving it to him now would change anything?" Karma rolled his eyes, "He will take them no matter what. Sometimes he suggests a break and disappears with our equipment during it without me even noticing. Sometimes he asks me to check if I have brought something with me and just grabs my bag and disappears when I'm searching, and the one time I resisted no matter what he did, he just took it by force."

"…"

"But this is the first time he's taken all the weapons as well." Karma sighed again.

"Probably because this time we are two people instead of just one," Kaede suggested after hearing Karma's explanation.

"You're taking this rather well, have to say I'm surprised." Karma finally noticed that Kaede wasn't panicking at all, actually, she was terrifyingly calm. Karma remembered when Karasuma did that to him the first time, he completely lost it and was swearing at Karasuma for the first 10 minutes before accepting his fate and starting to prepare, well, but he was also only 10 back then.

"Hmm… kind of used to it." a bitter smile appeared on Kaede's face that she quickly shook off. "So, I guess our task is to get out of the mountains in one piece?" Kaede took a deep breath and finally asked.

"Pretty much, and he always left me at a different starting point every single time." Karma shrugged and confirmed Kaede's suspicion, "You can also forget taking the same way back since I can guarantee you that the road is packed with beasts."

"…Luring powder? Seriously?" Kaede let out a long sigh. Not that she was nervous or afraid, but all of this was going to be a major annoyance.

"Well, I thought you would freak out and lose it, but you're more capable than I gave you credit for, that's a huge relieve actually." Karma was slowly starting to acknowledge Kaede, or at least her abilities.

"Thanks?" Kaede didn't really care about Karma's opinion of her but him willing to cooperate was a good start nonetheless. "So, I've never been in these mountains before, and judging from your stories you've been here quite often so I'll leave the pathing to you?" Kaede suggested.

"Yeah, that makes sense." Karma nodded in agreement, "But before we start to move, we need to get some equipment, a temporary weapon and some water are a must. Food is good but optional. We won't die not eating for a day."

"That might be true, but I would still keep an eye out for some easily portable foods. We can't predict how much energy we will consume for this trip. An unexpected encounter with a beast when you're completely famished and exhausted could be fatal." Kaede noted while looking around.

"True… also do remind me when I misjudge the amount of equipment we need, I'm used to doing it alone, so I might do some things out of habit." Karma agreed.

"Are you a mage or a combatant?" Kaede asked while some wind blades were shooting out of her stretched-out hand.

"A mage, why?" Karma looked at her with interest, if he didn't know better he would've thought that Kaede was an idiot and simply wasting mana but judging from everything that happened till now he could hardly imagine her doing something this pointless.

"Wait, a mage?" the barrage of wind blades that were flying out of her palm had stopped, "That's bad… I thought you were a combatant when I saw your sword. We can't both use ranged attacks, so someone will have to be vanguard while the other one assists from the backline." Kaede started, she was looking into some two-man-squad formations ever since she formed her partnership with Hiru to prepare, but since Hiru was a melee combatant, all she did was to look into some melee and ranged combinations, "Why do you have a broadsword as your weapon then?" Kaede asked confused.

"Karasuma didn't fill you in yet?" Karma asked surprised, "Mages in this class have to choose to train themselves in some sort of physical weapon. According to Karasuma, there are situations where magic can be completely neglected, like a barrier or something. So, to prevent us from being completely defenseless, Karasuma has set the rule that the mages under him have to at least achieve a combat power equivalent to a stage two 1-star combatant without the support of their mana before they graduate." Karma explained, "So right now, even if I don't have a single drop of aura, I am confident that I can fight with a stage three 2-star combatant in close combat with my broadsword and applying some spells to my sword and body. Without my mana, I can currently match a stage one 2-star combatant until I run out of stamina while he can keep supporting himself with his aura."

"… A physical weapon huh, I think I have an idea." Kaede nodded after hearing Karma's explanation while starting to shoot out wind blades again. Achieving the battle strength of a novice combatant was possible even without the existence of aura. Just theoretically speaking, the limit of a human body was equivalent to the strength of a stage tow 2-star combatant. The decedents of the dragon tribes, however, could theoretically reach the strength of a stage four 1-star combatant just with their body alone. Of course, it was all in theory, nobody has actually managed to push their body that far yet.

"Then why don't you play vanguard?" Kaede suggested after putting her arm that was casting the spells back down.

"Well, I would, but I still need a weapon." Karma shrugged.

"Good, then we can get going. Let's find a drinkable water source first." Kaede nodded, ignored Karma's retort and started walking in the direction she was shooting her wind blades in.

"…" Karma simply raised his brows but decided to follow her. When they arrived at the spot, Karma couldn't help but to let out a whistle looking at what Kaede had done while talking to him. In front of him was a large blade made out of a huge rock that used to be here, "Nice control."

"I made the blade according to your height and your actual sword, hope the size is alright." Kaede turned and said to Karma.

"The size is good, just need to track down a beast to wrap the handle with some sort of leather." Karma said after picking the blade up and swinging it a few times, "It's kinda hard to keep my grip with the weight of this thing and nothing wrapped around it. Actually, how did you know that there was a rock here." Karma questioned after fastening the stone blade on his back where his own sword was originally at.

"I just tried out my new Unique Skill, it lets me sense my surroundings by sending wind strokes in all directions, kinda like how bats do it with soundwaves," Kaede explained.

"Do you want to take over the pathing part then?" Karma suggested but Kaede instantly shook her head.

"I need to increase my mana output to expand the field to an effective range and keeping it up costs an insane amount of mana. I think it's better if you do the general pathing and I can use the max range to check every now and then." Kaede suggested.

"Too bad." Karma said but didn't seem disappointed at all, "It's strange, but somehow you give me similar vibes as my roommate."

"That so?" Kaede asked but was clearly faking her interest.

"Well, you'll meet him eventually, I think you'll like him." Karma shrugged with a smirk on his face.

"Somehow I highly doubt that…" Kaede rolled her eyes, "Can we focus now? I'm trying to concentrate." She was trying to hint that she had no interest in keeping this conversation going as polite as possible up till now, but somehow Karma simply saw that as an invitation to keep talking.

"Aww, don't be so cold Kayano-chan, we're supposed to be classmates now." Karma's smirk only got wider hearing Kaede's response.

"…" Kaede instantly increased the speed of her walking to gain some distance between her and Karma.

"Weird… she gives off the same vibes as Nagisa." Karma frowned and muttered to himself after Kaede was an already quite a distance ahead of him. He had the same vibes coming from Nagisa, he could tell that the two of them are definitely not bad people, but there is just this faint sense of danger coming from both of them.

Well, here's another chapter :D I finally have some free time now and nothing to do, so there you go. Nothing much to say here, just Kaede's first encounter with Karma :D. It felt a bit hard since there aren't many scenes of Kaede and Karma interacting with each other in the anime or manga, and they also cleverly skipped the stage where they still didn't know each other that well by simply having Nagisa, who knew had a good relationship with both of them, join them in their conversation.

If I'm not too wrong with my pacing (which I usually am…), I think we'll see a new character in the next 1 or 2 chapters.

So, how did you like this chapter? Please tell me what you think about it in the reviews. Have a good day, hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you in the next one! ;)