Kaede Nagase

is a character that introduced in the Mahou Sensei Negima! series. She is one of Mahora Girls' Jr. High Class 3-A student.

Personality
Kaede is the gentle and calm yet strong and tall girl. She has an easy-going attitude and is almost always seen with her eyes almost closed. She frequently ends her sentences with "de gozaru", an archaic verb form historically used by samurai. She also has a tendency to address people, particularly in the second series, with the honorific "-dono" ("lord", used by samurai towards superiors; example: Konoka-dono, Setsuna-dono) In her free time, she trains in the mountains, displaying a wide range of ninja-like abilities such as kage bunshin no jutsu. She later uses her abilities to great effect when aiding Negi and his companions during their battles. She actually comes from the Koga ninja clan, but was born a generation too late, since her parents do not carry on the family ninja traditions (Volume 3). As a result, many of her abilities are self-taught. She is "Baka Blue" of the "Baka Rangers" study group, meaning that she is among the lowest scorers on tests in the class. She is also a member of the Mahora Walking Club, along with Fuka and Fumika. Kaede acts as one of Negi's guardians as well as a surrogate mother figure towards him.

Part in the Story
Kaede was the second girl in the class (Asuna being the first) to learn about Negi's magic. When Negi had fled into the woods during his conflict with Evangeline, Kaede found him while training, and helped cheer him up. She saw Negi flying off the next morning, but kept this a secret even from him until she helped Negi rescue Konoka at Kyoto where she fought and defeated Kotarou. During her fight with Kotarou, Kaede introduced herself as a chūnin (中忍) of the Koga ninja clan (甲賀流). Graf Herrmann did not capture her when he fought Negi and Kotarou under the World Tree, but she was watching the battle with Evangeline and Chachamaru from a distance. She did quite well during the Mahora Fighting Tournament, but she knew that she was no match against Colonel Sanders and although she lost to him, she was happy to know that she did her best, and even forced him to invoke his artifact in order to defeat her in the time allotted for the match. She later suggested that she and Kotarou train together to become stronger. She and a few other girls were trapped in the future with Negi after Chao succeeded in revealing magic to the world. After returning to the past, she chose to fight alongside Negi, where she fought with Mana until well after the end of the battle, when their fight carried all the way into the middle of the post-festival celebration. Kaede calls their fight a draw, but Mana considers the battle Kaede's victory, as she was able to prevent her from assisting Chao in the final stages of her plan. Kaede suggests the two have a real battle some other time, sparking a rivalry between her and Mana. This is most apparent in chapters 175 and 183, where short vignettes depict Mana and Kaede's multiple attempts at getting a better discount for a movie. In 183, the two attempt to resume their battle, but because they are disguised as elementary students, they are threatened to be kicked out of the theater for misbehaving.

Kaede is the second tallest girl in the class, and has the second largest breasts.

Kaede also joins the girls who form a club -- Ala Alba -- to help Negi travel to Wales, and then the Magical World, to find his father. During their visit at the gateport, Ala Alba is ambushed by Fate Averruncus and his minions, and Kaede is forced to fight a shadow mage without her weapons. However, Kaede is eventually subdued by the mage's powerful attacks. Although she is able to escape, an attack by Fate scatters Ala Alba into smaller groups across the magic world. Kaede is later found working her way through the lands by slaying dragons, with assistance from Konoka. She and Konoka later reunite with Asuna and Setsuna. The four travel together to Ostia and later on rejoin the group, sans Anya and Yue. After another encounter with Fate and his group, Kaede makes a pactio with Negi, becoming the ninth girl to become his pactio partner. So far, her artifact is a cape that allows her to "disappear" inside of it; it seems to contain a traditional style Japanese home, complete with garden. Using her new artifact, Kaede carries some of the other girls to the ruins of the old Ostia, following the signals of two Ala Alba badges. After Negi's first encounter with Governor Kurt Godel, Kaede watches Rakan demonstrate Godel's impressive "Zanmaken: Ni no Tachi" technique.

During the ball, when discussions break down between Negi and Godel, Kaede is able to fend off the Megalomesembrian soldiers alongside Setsuna and protect the other girls. During the fight, the students are separated by an unknown attacker, whom Kaede recognizes as the shadow mage she fought at the gateport. She is then tasked with using her artifact to carry the sports girls to the second meeting point.

During their infiltration plan to rescue Asuna and obtain the Great Grand Master Key, Negi goes into a comatose state after his fight with Dynamis. She the uses her artifact to transport Makie, Nodoka and Yuna to the alter as to help with retrieving the two objectives without Negi.

Although the plan goes well at first, the group becomes ambushed by the newly revived Quintum, the Averruncus of wind and lightning, as he knocks out Nodoka and takes back the Great Grand Master Key. With Nodoka knocked out and Kotarou wounded by Fate, Kaede takes it upon herself to fight Quintum. Although she seems to do well at first, Quintums wind and lightning based magic soon overwhelms her. Despite her defeat, she was able to have one of her clones retrieve and give the Key to the group while the real her fought.

It is later revealed that despite her defeat at Quintum's hands she is alive and conscious, having been spared due to Cosmo Entalecheia's orders against killing non-illusory beings. She comes across a knocked out, but still living, Kotaro and reunites with Yue, Makie, and Asakura, who then proceed to the ritual site, with Kotaro presumably inside Kaede's artifact. As she witnesses Negi's ongoing battle with Fate in the distance, she remarks at how extraordinary it is that her teacher can not only fight evenly, but push back the Averruncus of earth and is amazed at his strength.

Epilogue

She, like the rest of the class, assists Negi in saving Nagi and defeating the Mage of the Beginning. For one whose life is a vagabond voyage of training, as a result, she became able to traverse space in flesh and blood. Whenever a classmate is in danger, she is always the first to appear out of nowhere. A dependable Ninja of the Space Age.

Abilities

 * Pactio: Speculatrix Clandestina (literally, "Hidden Observer"): Fitting well with her ninja skills, Kaede's artifact, Tengu no Kakuremino, is a cloak that can be used for camouflage/invisibility purposes. While underneath the cloak, Kaede is in another plane of reality which includes a house, complete with a kitchen. Aside from stealth and travel, Kaede's artifact has other clever uses, such as absorbing enemy attacks or catching someone who is falling in midair. Her artifact appears to be based on a folk tale of the same name. Kaede is the ninth student to make a provisional contract with Negi.

Weapon Mastery: Kaede also appears to be adept at using several ninja-style weapons, such as kunai and a giant shuriken. One of the attacks she uses with such weapons is the Bakusa Bakuenjin (translated as "Binding Chain Eruption").
 * Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Being a Ninjutsu master, Kaede is skillful at various ninja techniques, such as kage bunshin no jutsu, which allows her to split into numerous shadow clones, and shukuchi mukyou, a speed-step maneuver. In one instance, Kaede is able to combine ninjutsu and body manipulation techniques in order to make herself appear younger. Kaede refers to her ninjutsu techniques Kaede ninpou, or "Kaede ninja arts". She also appears to be teaching Kotarou these techniques, as Kotarou demonstrated the kage bunshin in the fight against Fate's harem. The Narutaki twins also mention using the "stealth escape technique" passed down to them from Kaede, although little is known if she has truly taught the twins any abilities. Kaede sometimes fights blindfolded as part of her training.

Techniques

 * Shukuchi (縮地, lit. Ground Contraction): Kaede's own version of Instant Movement.
 * Shukuchi Mukyou (縮地无疆, lit. Boundless Ground Contraction): A extreme long range version of Shukuchi.
 * Kage Bunshin (影分身, lit. Shadow Clone): This technique allows Kaede to split into multiple shadow clones.
 * Bakusa Bakuenjin (縛鎖爆炎陣, lit. Binding Chain Eruption): Kaede ensnares her enemies in a chained shuriken before causing a giant explosion. This technique was powerful to take down a dragon.
 * Kage Nui (影縫い, lit. Shadow Sewing)
 * Tenma Fukumetsu Bakusa Chimoujin (天魔覆滅 縛鎖地網陣, lit. Demon Annihilation Binding Array): First used in chapter 305

Appearance in Other Media

 * Negima!: Her Pactio artifact is a giant shuriken, but what it does isn't seen. Her hair is also somewhat darker.
 * During Negima!?, Kaede often dresses in old-fashioned brown robes, taking on a appearance similar to how a kitsune looks. She also acts as a surrogate mother figure for the Narutaki twins in the same series. Although she primarily is seen alongside the Narutaki twins, she does make a Pactio with Negi early in the series. During her only true battle, she reveals a Cosplay card that turns her into a tengu with transformation abilities. However, she also turns into a kappa during the "Suka incident".

Trivia

 * Popularity: 15th >> 5th >> 6th >> 9th >> 12th >> 14th >> 14th >> 15th
 * She has a habit of using the first person pronounce "sessha" and she uses "de gozaru" at the end of her sentences instead of the more modern "desu".
 * She has the second biggest bust of the class, beating Mana only by a miniscule amount.
 * Kaede wins the 10th place of Mahou Sensei Negima! Mahora Girls' Jr. High Class 3-A Students Popularity Poll 2017.