Nishka shrugged. "Seems like too much school and too little fighting to me." She turned to look at the small dispute at the gambling ring. "Despite the student's apparant attempts to say otherwise. What about you? You here for the school or the fight?" Her own stance on the matter made clear Nishka looked at Luis intensely, as though spending half a moment being serious and thinking about his response for a change. Once he answered the moment would pass and she would lose interest, looking back at the gambling ring curiously. Peacemakers and fighters in contrast again. It didn't matter if King was cheating or not, anyone who lost money gambling deserved to lose it. Nishka had been tempted to join in earlier and show them how you really played card, but now seeing their reactions she was satisfied that she hadn't. Pansies.

For the most part Reinhard was just sitting almost perfectly still in his chair, head resting in his left hand, with the left elbow resting on the table in turn. His eyes were loosely pointed forward, although visibly not focussed on anything; Reinhard was bored. He did like his free time, but right now, he had none, as he couldn't really leave the classroom without breaking the rules.
At most he would bend the rules to their limit, but he knew he shouldn't break them, at least not if it was avoidable; it was easier to cope with the rules, than with the punishments for breaking them repeatedly. If nobody could possibly find out, it certainly would be a different story, but any teacher could enter or pass by the classroom at any moment currently.
Boredom by itself wasn't too bad though, as an only-child one knows how to keep oneself occupied at any time in any situation.

Still, Reinhard had kept his belongings, including his noble arm, in his general field of view, simply as a precaution, considering what the students around him were doing.

"What about you? You here for the school or the fight?"

He thought for a second before replying: "Neither."

"To be honest, I was kinda iffy about the whole thing before I came, but Noble Arm academies have top notch facilities and good teachers, y'know? Even the second-rate dump we're standing in right now is three times better than the ones back home. As for the fighting..."

Gloria looked genuinely concerned for the pint-sized gambler. And King had just dropped his ridiculous gangsta impression. Oh my, things were getting serious.
"Everybody's got something to prove, but everyone here in particular is too eager to prove it. Just 'cos they can summon a weapon out of thin air, people think they're hot shit. I'd rather keep out of it."

Another pause. He stood from his desk and watched the pandemonium unfold from there.

"If things get too heated over there, I'm gonna step in. They should have known better than to gamble with King of all people." he said, immediately contradicting his earlier statement. But he couldn't help himself. Petty arguments were dumb as hell and needed to be resolved before someone (in this case, literally anyone besides King and Gloria) got hurt.

Pablo, disregarding the person who shoved him, went over to King's position, and looked around. First up, King was obviously lying, because the state of inflation meant that half a hundred was not a high sum. Heck, even half a thousand was not a high sum in the Philippines. But, despite said lie, King was not really a malicious person, and so he was going to protect the guy. Having positioned himself beside Gloria, the boy spoke, first to King:

"One US Dollar is 44 Philippine Pesos. You mean to tell me that you, the Great King, only had slightly more than half a dollar in twenty minutes of cheating?" The boy then sighed. "Or, more likely, you were referring to having half a hundered dollars, a large sum." Another sigh, he didn't want King to hate him.

Facing the angry group of students, he then said:

"Tell King what you bet, and he'll give you back the full amount. Then, I'll play with King and stake a hundred US dollars." A smirk. "However, I'm not playing cards."

"Instead, I'll be challenging him to a battle in the sparring room. Is that all a good compromise?"

@Keksalot@Progenitus@TheHangedMan

"H-o-o-o-old up, good man!" King rised both his voice and his first right hand, the index finger pointing firmly and surely into the skies, or rather into the ceiling like an ancient yellowish obelisk. "You want me to give up all my hard-earned fifty dollars only so that i'd brawl with you only to possibly - note that i very much accept the possibility of being defeated - win another fifty in addition?"
The chinaman cackled in a very strange and specific way, something between Skeletor and Woody Woodpecker in terms of tone and sound's frequency.
"Das' ain't 'ow roight'n'propa business is made, mate!" He spoke, wildly gesturing with a cigar, putting on a very nice impression of a british bandit. "I won't fight'cha for anything less than quadruple, meaning two hundred US dollars in any available currency for those mathematically challenged among us if there are any. You got that much? More importantly, you ready to part with that much?" The young enterpreneur looked Pablo in the eye, squinting slyly. "If anyone's interested in betting on this here showdown we are possibly going to have then we'll also have to appoint a bookie!"

Takumi perked up at the mention of such a challenge.

"I see your hundred, Pablo, and I raise you two," — he fixed his eyes on the guy, measuring his stance and gait with a semi-automatic call to Vox Vulgaris. "Do you call or fold?"

He observed the guy and his immediate vicinity with sparked interest.

「Social Dynamics Assessment」

"Of course I'll call," spoke Pablo. He'd made a good sum from working as an EMT; his Noble Arm allowed him to heal most physical injuries, at the cost of hope, which was easily replenishable from glad relatives and former patients. He had the money. Besides, I'll win anyway, he thought, not stating this aloud to prevent himself from posturing. A smile.

"I'll go to the Sparring Arena now; I'm actually eager for this."

@Keksalot@Progenitus@TheHangedMan@Altasaire

((Sorry for short post))

@TheHangedMan
Yuri followed the group of students getting ready to watch the fight, he started pushing through the group Intel he approached the guy who was about to fight. "Excuse me but I'm not going to let you fight a girl if you want to fight anyone fight me instead. I mean you've obviously got something to prove do you not?" Yuri began smiling in a mocking manner to upset the student.

Aleksis slowly stood up fro her seat after she learned that the teacher wouldn't be there for a while and decided to walk out of the room with the group that was ready for the two students to fight. The fact those two students with guns for Noble Arms were so eager to fight concerned her just a bit because of the sheer fact that they could actually kill or at least seriously maim each other. She walked up behind the group but didn't do what the others were attempting to do which was try to stop them because there was no real point at the time. She took off her headphones and just listened to how the others in the group talked about how the two that were going to fight have been at it all day even before this problem arrised.

Nishka couldn't resist a giggle at what was going on. It was ridiculous. A simple card game turned into a cage fight for money. Nishka was eager for a fight but this was ridiculous. They even knew Teach would show up soon and that if they left class they would probably miss it. "Don't worry about it Luy. They got it under control or at least think they do. I'd like to see rainbow boy get in a fight, but someone'll probably interrupt like usual." Were these people so confident in their own abilites they didn't even stop to consider the possibility of other's being equally stronger or stronger? Nishka knew her own Noble Arms was primitive at best, but her skill with it had served her well so far. So did wonder how she would fare against someone else was a Noble Arms. It would be fun to find out. She watched the gambling group intently to see just how this would play out, if a fight did go down it'd be a real shame to miss out on it.

"Aight, catch you later then," he waved as she left to follow Pablo and King's group.

He had to admit, he certainly wasn't expecting this sort of bravado from the guy. It certainly was an original solution, though he would have never taken Pablo for the gambling type. The budding hero must have had complete confidence in his skills. Luis wondered how he would fare against a cunning cheat like King. His curiosity wasn't enough to get him out of the room though. The same could be said for the gun wielding idiots. If they were that keen on filling each other with lead then that was not his problem. And so he remained in the classroom, with the minority that had chosen not to spectate either of the fights. He'd left his phone and headphones in the dorms this morning, so there was no escape from the terrible electropop music taste of whoever was commandeering the room's sound system. He sighed for yet another time this morning and noticed the other student who had yet to be affected by the ruckus.

"Ay, Reinhard! You up to anything?" he called out to the stalwart young man.

@M127

((Collab Post between Letter Bee, Altasaire, and Keksalot, with Altasaire mostly observing and maybe providing some context))

vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/rakudai-k..

Retcon Notice: With HangedMan's agreement, the fight between Pablo and King has been Retconned to this:

Pablo tries throwing seeds that grow into custom-shaped trees at the guy's demisphere, only to find that it's a failure.
Then, he grows a blanket of cotton from a cotton plant to restrict the movements of King's Siege Tower.
After that, should King reveal himself, he's going to throw one of his vine seeds at King, only to fail again.
Then, he's going for broke, and creates a giant shower of flower petals to block King's vision, to rush at him with his fists.
And snag him with another cotton seed.

And it ends like this:

Pablo creates another cotton mesh filling and enclosing the breathing hole, hoping that the hole now cannot be closed because it's now occupied, then seriously thinks of yielding.He would then say:

"Yeah, I'm alive!" in a slightly exhilarated tone.

"That's a good thing, right?!" King responded.

"Also, I'll yield if you let me hire you to do this to me regularly." The words were out of Pablo's mouth before he can think.

There are some long moments of silence, disturbed only by Steve Harwell's jolly singing, which also settles down when King turns the music off.

"What?" King was disbelieving.

"You know, encase my body in metal, through my clothes," Pablo's voice lowers to a whisper so that few people would hear.

There was a brief period of coughing, as if someone began choking on a chewing gum and then another question.

"What?"

Pablo's whisper got lower.

"I like what you're doing to me, and am willing to hire you to do it again," the 16-year old said through his light-mesh. "I don't want to spell it out, for obvious reasons."

"That's na-a-a-a-asty, damn! And you almost killed me! No!...Yes. Maybe. Dunno. Uh."King, seemingly, was quite awkard around the subject.

Pablo took another deep breath.

"Look, I'll set a price; 2 American cents a minute of encasement."

"WE can, uh, discuss it. Later," King was creeped out.

"All right," said Pablo, his libido getting the best of him. "I'll yield; you deserve the 200 dollars anyway." This was not heroic. It was not intended to be heroic. Pablo had side priorities now, somewhat skewed ones. That said, though, no one heard.

"I'll uh, give you fifty so we won't talk about THAT for some time." King bargained.

"Aww..." said Pablo. "Fine, but only because I aim to please." Yet another 'good' trait of his'.

"Yeah..." When the tower disappeared as suddenly as it sprung into being and Pablo was once again free to move and look around, King spoke very slowly while staring into distance with a thousand yard stare. He was visibly tired and sweating profusely, one hand rubbing the place on his face where Pablo's fist landed not so long ago, with very surprising strength. "Yeah, you do..."

"Thanks," said Pablo. He then turned to Takumi, saying:

"That was a fun battle, Isamaru-san! I acknowledge defeat to King!"

Takumi nodded sagely, trying not to laugh because of nigh palpable awkwardness radiating from the scene. He wasn't sure what triggered it, but having run 「Social Dynamics Assessment」 for the majority of the fight, to intervene in case people went for blood, he was fed the minute changes to the attitudes of both combatants with helpful highlights.

— I guess it's time for you to pay up, then. And then, would one of you kindly go check what's our next thing on today's curriculum is? — he said all solemn-like, while coming down to the arena level from the bleachers, preparing to exit the combat room once he saw to it that the transaction was completed successfully.

Pablo took out his gold credit card, saying:

"This, when put in an ATM, ought to have the required money. The school does have an ATM, right?" Pablo was telling the truth.

His face had a wide grin on it, before the boy remembered what he knew of Takumi's powers. Something about sensing and communicating?

"Oh," he continued, "let's just say that King's powers had...interesting applications." The promise not to talk with King about this stuff for a while applied, and applies, only to King.

@Altasaire

King, who was still there, just sat down for a bit to rest, right on the ground.
"Yenno, Takumi," He gasped, wiping his face with his own shirt. "You think... actually nevermind. Let's go get the dough."

@Letter Bee

— You're quite clueless, aren't you. You don't go around here giving away your credit card to people. A golden one you don't even show much.

— I will accompany you to the ATM, but please do keep it in mind. You may be a whatever rank blaster-person, but an Arms Master dies from a rock to the head as readily as a baseline human.

— Most of the time, he added, glancing at Gloria sideways.

"Yeah..." Pablo was ashamed of himself. "Guess I spend my time in books too much."

Pablo began walking to the ATM.

@Altasaire

((Sorry for short post))

"How about you mind your own fucking business?" the boy shot back. "You wanna be a knight in shining armor, huh? Well why don't you ask your precious 'Lady' if you-"

"Shut it, asshole," the girl suddenly snapped, before turning to Yuri, "and you, what the fuck do you think you're doing? Bitch, I want to fight! Anything that gives me a chance to cave this feckers head in."

The other students accompanying the two promptly agreed and started to boo Yuri. They wanted to see this fight, and in their eyes, he was trying to kill their fun. Not to mention they also thought he was incredibly lame. It was one thing to defend a girl who did not want to fight, and quite another to try and take the place of a girl who was all but a rabid dog set on its target.

But none of them would get what they wanted, in the end.

A short woman -- about mid-twenties -- approached the class, and the group caught her sight.

"Excuse me, but shouldn't you be inside the classroom right now?" said the woman. "I have an announcement for the class, so hurry on in."

---

Meanwhile, with Pablo and King, the lights around the stadium suddenly shut down.

A man in military fatigues stood at the control panel, a disapproving frown on his face.

"I was wondering why the stadium lights were on. We don't have any scheduled fights for today."

The man, an instructor for the school, walked towards them. Up close, he was much larger than he looked. His strides were powerful and heavy, much like the man himself was.

"So, mind telling me what a group of students like yourselves are doing here, without a supervisor and not on schedule?"

@Letter Bee-@Keksalot-@KindledBeast

"Well," said Pablo, "King got accused of cheating in cards while the teacher was away, and so I asked him to give back his winnings; in exchange, I'd fight with him with 200 dollars as the prize. We did so, I lost - though it was close, and now the dispute is resolved."

"As to why there was a dispute in the first place, well, there was a delay with the start of class, and the students, including me, went a little out of control. So, I went to the faculty room in order to see what happened, and was told that the teacher would be there, but when I came back, there was about to be a commotion involving King."

"Either way, sir, I apologize if my attempt at resolving the conflict was bad. I take all the blame." Pablo looked up at the instructor openly, trying to see if his attempt at taking the blame worked.

Inside, however, he was still exhilirated from the outcome of the fight with King, yes, he lost, but he still couldn't forget the feeling of cold metal all over his bare skin. He was willing to face punishment just for that.

@TheHangedMan

Nishka bounced a rock off the wall, expertly ricocheting it back to her hand. She figured the wimps would either not fight or get shut down so it wasn't worth trying to spectate. Which put her here, with nothing to do. She didn't want to take a nap, hardly could with this shitty music. When was this stupid teacher supposed to get here anyway? It'd felt like hours since class had 'started'. Nishka threw the rock harder, bouncing off several surfaces before returning to her hand, leaving small imprints in the classroom walls. Stupid school.