CH32 (162), Academy Trip/First Day

I decided to use a steady pace while making my rounds around the field. Weiss and Ace had no problem keeping up with me and were running beside me. It took us about 15 minutes to finish the 17 rounds.

I was semi-confident that the circumference of the field was roughly 600 m, so 17 rounds were around 10 km. Since we had kept up a pace, that was pretty easy for us, we were fresh as daisies after our last lap.

The same could not be said about our compatriots, most were still running and those that were done were panting. Still, 5 others were as unfazed as we were.

I made sure to remember their faces since their condition told me they were at the high ends of Tier 1 First-class, which meant they could potentially be useful in case of team events.

It took another 10 minutes for the last student to finish his rounds and as soon as he was done Mr. Koetsuji told us to gather together without waiting for the stragglers to recover.

Afterward, we left the camp and the teachers began to show us how to use the things in class to track down Pokemon in real life. They explained how to recognize how old the tracks were and how to discern the number of Pokemon if there were multiple tracks.

Along with identifying which Pokemon left the tracks, came determining the target's moving direction, and how to not startle it once one came close enough.

They actually demonstrated all that by using a real-life example. With the teachers explaining and leading the way we followed the tracks until we found the Furret that left them behind. Mr. Koetsuji had his Gallade knock out the Furret before he addressed all of us.

"Now, here comes the part that changes depending on the purpose of tracking down your target. If you just wanted to find its location you can retreat.

However, your approach changes depending on whether you tracked it down to catch it for someone else, catch it for yourself, or to kill it. In case you want to catch it for someone else you can use any method to catch it like traps or an ambush, but if you want to catch it for yourself, then using such methods will make bonding with it later on much harder.

There's also a high probability that it won't listen to you and that it will dislike you. The best approach for personal catches in most cases is the direct one. There are exceptions where the species respect cunning, like certain ghost-, poison-, and dark-type species which will respect you for trapping them, but most of the time the direct approach is the best one.

That's because all species respect strength. Now, just because I said to use the direct approach does not mean you have to directly fight them. In some cases, negotiation or talking with them might be enough for them to join you.

For us Aura Users this is made much easier thanks to our aura. I'm sure you remember a lot of aura uses that could be used in such a situation like the calming aura or the friendliness aura to name a few.

In many cases, even if the target accepts joining you it will ask for a battle to see your strength. Now, it is also possible to straight out challenge the target instead of talking. Nearly all Pokemon are willing to follow you if you catch them after beating them.

It's something that is accepted as a universal rule. Still, if you mistreat them after capturing them they might try to run away or even retaliate. Many such examples can be found on the web.

I'm sure you as students of our aura academy would never do that, but if it comes out that you do mistreat your partners you will be hunted down by other Aura Users. We, Aura Users, especially the Aura Guardians, do not tolerate such behavior, so please don't be a d*ck or suffer the consequences." Mr. Koetsuji explained and his tone began to turn darker when he said the last part.

*cough*

Ms. Yu released a cough, most likely as a warning and Mr. Koetsuji's tone returned to normal afterward when he continued talking.

"Now, I'm sure you know this because it should have come up in class, but capturing or hunting down Pokemon younger than 1 month is forbidden, as long as it is not an extermination mission, and even during that capture is preferred compared to slaughter. However, hatching eggs is no problem.

Capturing or hunting down Pokemon younger than 3 months is frowned upon, and everything older should be okay. Recognizing their age should be easy as long as you paid attention in class.

Now, let's talk about the last approach. If your goal is to kill it, the only limit is set by you. You could set a trap, ambush it, poison it, or straight out attack it. Still, I would like to point out that poisoning it is not a good idea if you plan to eat it." He stopped here and Ms. Brown stepped forward.

"All of you will be part of the hunting group at least twice during this week, and the purpose of the hunting group is to gather edibles, which includes tracking down Pokemon and, or, animals for food.

We need a certain amount of meat each day and that amount can only be met through hunting a certain number of Pokemon each time. For Furret that number can vary from 8 to 10.

Also, let me make one thing clear right now, each one of you will have to kill at least one Pokemon during these hunts. All of you will return to the Academy having made your first kill, and there will be no exceptions." She said before nodding at Gallade who beheaded the Furret.

Quite a few of our year mates screamed at the sudden move, both males and females among them. My right eye twitched in surprise, even though I expected it to happen.

Ace and Weiss flinched at Gallade's sudden killing move. Still, to me, it looked more like they did it at the suddenness of the action than the killing itself.

After the Furret died Gallade levitated its body to the air and let it bleed out. Ms. Brown took out a cutting knife before she resumed speaking.

"Now, there are two things to pay attention to while handling a carcass. The first is to let it bleed out, after which you can decide if you want to pack it up and place it inside your bag to dress it later or if you want to dress it on site.

No matter which one you choose you have to make sure to keep it clean while doing the dressing. A psychic type levitating it would be ideal, hanging it up somewhere is useful as well, but placing it on a clean surface is also acceptable.

Another important factor is temperature. It would be better if a low temperature could be kept during and after the process. Now, some skin their catch first, but we recommend gutting them first. As for doing a gutless dressing, we don't recommend that one at all.

Anyway, after letting it bleed out, you have to gut it. Make sure to remove any innards. Using water Pokemon is helpful in this step, not only to ensure the temperature stays low but also to ensure the carcass says clean." She explained while demonstrating how to gut the Furret.

"Afterward, we skin the catch since that makes dividing the meat easier." She said before showing us how to expertly skin a Furret, pointing out what to consider and what had to be done differently for certain species.

After she was done skinning it, she showed at what points to divide the carcass, how and where to remove the meat from the bones, and which places were better with the meat staying on the bones.

Once everything was done, she explained what to do with the leftover. She told us to bury the non-useful part at least 75 cm deep. I took a look around the crowd and saw that a lot of them were green in the face and I believe I saw 2 people puke.

After she packed away the meat, Mr. Koetsuji stepped forward once more and told us that, everyone except for those of Group 1 would return to the camp now. Group 1, which Weiss was part of, would stay behind to hunt for some more meat and to gather some berries.

Ace and I patted Weiss on the shoulder and wished her good luck before we walked back to camp with the rest. The whole thing took us more than 3 hours and lunchtime was not too far off.

Once we were back Mr. Koetsuji told Group 2 to prepare the kitchen and that they could relax afterward until Group 1 returned. They would have to cook once Group 1 brought back their harvest.

As for Group 3, we had nothing to do, so we were given leave to do whatever until after lunch as long as we stayed inside the camp. Ace came out 30 minutes later.

He told me they had to make sure the kitchen, as well as everything in it, was clean and that all appliances worked. It took another hour until those of Group 1 returned and we immediately signaled Weiss out.

Ms. Brown walked towards the kitchen, presumably because she planned to hand over their harvest, while the others of Group 1 were dismissed until lunch.

We swiftly headed towards Weiss and saw her looking a bit paler than normal. She was looking at her hands, which were shaking a bit. She seemed to hear us approach because she looked up.

Ace remained quite obviously unsure what to say in the current situation. I was about to open my mouth to ask her how she felt, or rather if she was okay, but she seemed to see through my intent and spoke before I could.

"That was my first time, you know?" She said with a slight tremble in her voice.

"Don't misunderstand me, I killed before, and I'm sure you two have done the same, but those kills happened due to battles in the wild. Those were things that happened in situations where the other party was trying to kill me and my Pokemon or where we had to hunt down those that harmed our people.

This time I slit the throat of a defenseless Pidgey so that we could eat it later. I never had any problem with letting our opponents die or even outright killing them if I deemed it necessary, but this was the hardest thing I have ever done until now.

I feel really bad for killing it this way, without allowing it to fight. It wouldn't be as bad if I had killed it in a fight. I can't really describe it, but it definitely doesn't feel nice." She told us, and I believed her.

I felt the same way the first time I killed one of the Magikarp inside my sub-space to use it for food. I nearly puked after I killed it. However, like with everything else, one does get used to it after some time.

Still, I made sure they were not conscious whenever I killed a Pokemon outside of a battle, because I couldn't bring myself to do it otherwise. Still, I knew that in most cases whatever I said right now would not help her.

She would just think that I said it to make her feel better since I was her friend. No, she had to talk to a third party about it, so I just hugged her instead.

Ace hesitated for a moment before joining in as well. I could see that Ace was a bit nervous about his turn tomorrow after seeing the otherwise always cool and calm Weiss being slightly shaken.

We stayed like that for a minute before we separated and Weiss thanked us quietly. Ms. Brown came out of the kitchen at that moment and called every one of Group 1 over. Ms. Yu joined them and they went to one of the buildings beside the barracks.

I heard them say that they were going to talk to the students of Group 1 about their (first) kill. I was relieved that the Academy was not just expecting the students to get over/deal with their kill on their own when I heard that.

Ms. Brown also told everyone that those of Group 2 had to go to the kitchen, so Ace had to move there. With both gone I just returned to the bench we had been sitting on before Weiss returned.

I decided to just wait for her there while thinking about random stuff. Weiss returned roughly 40 minutes later looking a bit better than before. I was sure she still felt bad about the thing but I was also sure that she would get over it over the next one or two days.

She said as much herself and I nodded at that. Less than 20 minutes later everyone was called to the canteen to eat. Weiss told me that they had hunted down another Furret, 2 Sentret, as well as 4 Pidgey, and 6 Spearow.

So, the choice was red meat or white meat with potatoes and berries on the side. Ace and his group handed out the food to everyone else before they joined in as well.

The taste was passable, but I believe no one had expected the food to taste great anyway. The purpose of this was that everyone learned how to prepare some food after all.

Still, I was sure that some could in fact cook, but we would have to see when it became their turn and what work they were assigned. Anyway, after lunch Group 3 was told to clean up the canteen and the kitchen, which took roughly 90 minutes, despite 22 people cleaning.

This was not only because there was a lot to clean, but also because we were a bit disorganized. In the end, I sacrificed myself and took command, telling everyone what to do while Ms. Yu decided to kick back and enjoy the show.

After we were done cleaning, Ace and Weiss told me they had free time until we came out. As soon as that happened Mr. Koetsuji called everyone over and had us run 20 rounds around the field before we went through a lot of bodyweight exercises.

The whole training session went on for 2 hours before he told us that we were free for the rest of the day and that dinner would be in 3 hours.

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