"Tsubasa, how many am I to make?" Crouched in front of his stack of blank cards, marth looked up at his teacher.

"Place cards are your main ammunition. Any projections made on the fly are only reserves. Therefore, you should always enter a battle with as many as you can carry."

"As many as I can carry? These cards are pretty light, but with enough stacks, they might start to encumber my gait."

"That's where a 3 day pack comes in handy." Tsubasa gestured towards the pack in the distance she had abandoned before their sparring match.

"What good is a pack if you're not hauling it?" Marth looked at it's rigid blue and white cloth.

"As the name implies, the pack is large enough to carry supplies sufficient for three days of survival. It's heavy, so it's not suited for combat. The best way to use it is to stash it at a base camp before fighting, returning to it as needed to resupply your on-person inventory."

"So that's why you unclipped your belt from your pack before we fought. But what if the opponent finds your pack? Any extra Place Cards stored within would be sweet loot for an enemy!"

"Right. It's best to hide it." Tsubasa offered a solution.

"With camoflage?" Marth wondered.

"Camoflage is a poor method in most cases. Remember your opponent will be other Espers. Using Remote View, they could easily scout out the position of your camp, and the contents within. It's best to hide the entire camp on another plane, out of sight from Remote Viewers."

"A Plane Shift for concealment? Sensei, I can't do that!" Marth looked bewildered.

"As expected. Luckily, most of your opponents are in the same boat; they haven't learned Planar Shift yet."

"Wait, can you teach me?" Marth saw an opportunity for an edge.

"Unfortunately, no. We don't have the time. You will need to win this competition using other means."

"You said most of my opponents haven't learned Planar Shift. Do you mean to say that there are some who do know it?" Marth stood up from his crouched position.

"Yes, a few third years do know it."

"What if they shift me into another plane, and leave me there? I'll be trapped, as good as eliminated!"

"It should be fine, Marth. As long as you keep your distance from them, they can't shift you with them."

"Oh great, another element of complexity. Don't get close to the other competitors."

"Remember before, when you tried to get up close for a sure to hit Resonant Wave?"

"Yes, you kept jumping away."

"It's called kiting."

"Kiting? Meaning your evasions were as if to tell me to go fly a kite?"

Tsubasa smiled.

"My movements were as the outline of a kite. I held my position at a point in the kite's outline. Then, I moved quickly to another point, where I held my position. During a fight, holding position gives me the opportunity to project. After the projection is created, I immediately move, maintaining space between my pursuer and I."

"If you're using ranged attacks and your pursuer has only melee attacks, they would never be able to hit you!" Marth blurted out his interpretation.

"Precicely. Kiting plays on the strengths of my ranged projections, while minimizing my exposure to the opponent's close range attacks."

"It seems kind of cheap to me." Marth pouted again.

"This isn't Final Fantasy, Watanabe." Tsubasa shook her head. "Having turns and taking hits isn't going to get you anywhere you want to be. Winning is always about gaining the upper hand, honorable or not."

"Geez, sensei. When you put it that way, being an Esper doesn't seem so glorious."

With eyes closed, Tsubasa exhaled deeply before speaking.

"Being an Esper means choosing a side and honoring ideals. Our battles may be for the right reasons, but that doesn't change the fact that we take lives. It's dirty work, I feel no glory in it."

"This doesn't make sense." Marth put his hand on his chin. "Most stories of Espers are bristling with a sense of righteousness, duty, and strength. But you're telling me you don't feel a sense of accomplishment?"

"I feel renowned and honored by those who do not fight, but I do not feel encouraged from it. Killing others, seeing my friends be killed... In Esper combat where a gruesome death can be as simple as a thought, there isn't a split second to consider honor or your own humanity. War makes me ill."

"Tsubasa..." Marth looked at his teacher sympathetically. "I didn't know."

Tsubasa looked at the ground for a few moments before shaking her head and laughing.

"I lost track of time. It's almost 10PM already! I think this is a good point to call it a day."

Marth looked up at the sky, the bright sun shining down from the green sky.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. 24/7 sunshine on this planet!" So busy with his training, Marth hadn't though to check the time all day.

"Let's head back" Tsubsasa said as she started walking towards her backpack.

"Right." Marth replied. Crouching down, Marth collected his stack of empty Place Cards, careful not to disturb the dirt below. After picking up the cards, Marth jogged to catch up with his teacher.

Tsubasa-sensei and Marth walked through the dry hilly terrain for some time before reaching Tsubasa's pack. Tsubasa crouched down and unzipped an outer pouch, revealing rations of food and water. She grabbed two plastic pouches, tossing one to Marth. Marth reacted, barely catching the container.

"What's this?" Marth inquired, looking at a silvery sealed plastic drinking pouch.

"Electrolyte water. Drink up." With her serving in one hand, she zipped closed the food pouch of her bag. "Hold this." Tsubasa tossed her drink to Marth as she swung her backpack over her shoulders. Standing up, Tsubasa clipped the sternum strap of her pack, and rejoined the pack with her belt.

"Let's move out." Tsubasa commanded as she reached out her hand towards Marth. Marth handed the drink back to Tsubasa and they began walking towards the mine.

Tsubasa and Marth sipped their drinks on the quiet walk back to the mine. Upon reaching the steep drop to the quarry, Tsubasa readied her Place Cards.

"Watch and learn, Marth." Tomorrow I want to see you repeat this technique. Tsubasa bent her knees slightly as she threw a card from her pouch. "Burst of Embers, high intensity, ten second delay, two second duration." Tsubasa spoke her chosen parameters as the card fluttered down to the quarry floor.

"What the hell are we about to do?" Marth's heartbeat quickened.

Tsubasa didn't answer, instead she counted down from ten as her fingers ran through her stacks of cards. "Seven. Six. Five. Bubble Shield!" Tsubasa quickly threw a card directly in front of her over the edge of the cliff. "Jump!" Tsubasa grabbed Marth by the shirt as she leapt forward over the cliff.

"AhhhHhhh!" Marth cried out in fear as Tsubasa's foot touched down on the Bubble Shield's forming dome bottom. The weight of the two sent the Bubble Shield into a descent as it continued to form upwards into a translucent perfect sphere.

"Two. One." Tsubasa counted calmly as she and Marth fell towards the hard quarry ground inside the Bubble Shield. "Zero."

A roar of flame erupted from the Place Card below, spewing hot conflagration upwards and meeting the Bubble Shield, slowing it's descent. Like a pillowy cushion, the heat of the flames brought the ball to a halt mere centemeters above the surface. The flames extinguished, and the Bubble Shield gently plopped into the quarry's gravel.

"Oh my god!" Marth's voice echoed inside the bubble shield as it's exterior faded away, starting from it's base. Collpsing to his hands and knees, Marth shook from the excitement. "You're crazy! We could have died!" Marth's hair flew back out of his face as he yelled up at his teacher.

Tsubasa just smiled, stepping forard as the bubbleshield's translucent dome gradually disappeared from the bottom up.

"The first bubbleshield dissolved from the top down" Marth noted. "Do your bubble shields have an initialization function for that direction?"

Tsubasa began walking as the top of the bubblsheield vanished.

"No, I just threw the card upside-down." She said plainly.

Marth struggled to his feet and he jotted after his sensei among the disparate mining equipment.

"Food?" Marth asked simply.

"Food." Tsubasa and Marth walked side by side as Tsubasa Plane Shifted the two back to the administration building.

Tsubasa and Marth ate in the cafeteria under it's vaulted brick ceiling. It was late, but a few students were scattered throughout the mess hall, having a bite to eat or studying with their notebooks spread across the table.

"I'll be going ahead." Tsubasa put down her chopsticks and stood with her empty tray.

"Same thing tomorrow?" Marth asked as Tsubasa prepared to leave.

"No, tomorrow I have pressing matters I must attend to. I would like you to practice on your own." Tsubasa said as she stood holding her meal tray. "The range should be empty, use that place to project. Be sure to remember our deal."

"I remember. Non-stop projection during every waking hour." Marth waved his hand in front of his face.

"Good then. I'll be off now." Tsubasa carried away her tray toting her large pack on her back.

"Why's she in such a hurry?" Marth wondered, poking a bit of uneaten food with his chopsticks. "She didn't even remove her backpack to eat." Marth grabbed the remeaing morsel and immediately put it in his mouth.

Marth closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the moment as he chomped his food. From the kitchen he could hear the clinks and clangs of pots and pans rattling together in the sink as they were cleaned, and freshly cleaned ceramic dishes being stacked at the ready. From the nearby tables, the voices of students as they chattered, laughing at jokes and pondering difficult textbook questions.