[IC] Academy of Noble Arms

[banjoanjo]

Luis didn't know whether to laugh or groan at Yuri's antics. Dude either had balls of titanium or a mental disorder to pistol whip a guy RIGHT IN FRONT OF A TEACHER and then claim to be defusing the situation. Luis had a negative opinion of the Italian asshole, but he could respect a guy who stuck to his guns, literally and figuratively. He offered a solemn mock salute to Yuri as he was led away by the instructor and continued to listen to Miss Lora. Luis mentally went down the list. Today's Maths homework was done, as well as next week's. English was the same. There was an asterisk after Small Unit Tactics. Huh, that was weird. Afternoon classes were cancelled, sweet. He could hit the town, have lunch at his favourite noodle place, run some errands. And that incident at Guererro Street sounded like it was worth checking out.

Luis wrote a note to pass back to Nishka. @Eklispe

"Wanna head to town with me after classes? There's some stuff I want to do," he wrote nonchalantly.

Whoops, almost forgot something.

"Not as a date, of course. It's just that I would appreciate the company."

There, perfect.

He passed the note and then raised his hand.

"Excuse me, Miss Lora. Why is there an asterisk next to Small Arms Tactics?"

@TheHangedMan

[M127]

Seeing the upcoming subjects, the day couldn't be too bad for Reinhard.

Mathematics, despite not interesting him on their own, were no problem for him. Since he could reason well, math problems were no difficult task, even without any effort, provided Reinhard had an interest in solving them. If the tasks at would just be mass calculations, especially if they weren't allowed to use calculators, Reinhard would probably intentionally perform them at a snail's pace. After all, true mathematicians don't calculate, they circumvent almost all calculations by clever applications of laws and theorems.

English on the other hand wasn't Reinhard's best subject, although not because of any sort of language barrier. Translating and speaking was no hard task, as these processes followed set rules, albeit in part complicated ones. His achilles heel was the content of the texts he was supposed to write, as he in most cases didn't really know what to write about, especially when analyzing the work of other authors. How am I supposed to know why Shakespear wrote this verse in this particular way, it's not like he wrote his reasons down somewhere, nor can anyone ask him.

Small Unit Tactics would most likely be interesting. After all a unit of one should still be considered small, in which case such tactics, if he didn't use them already, should make it easier for him to live.
As the question why an asterisk was attached had already been asked, Reinhard remained silent.

[Eklispe]

Nishka gave the teacher an analyzing stare as Miss M entered the room. An incident hm? Well that was a barely passable excuse, really she should've been here regardless but whatever. Maths, English and something that sounded slightly too complicated to be fun, whilst the others were like normal classes. Bleh. Nishka glanced at the letter that made its way to her desk and glanced at it. Wow. The surest way to inform somebody that they were on a date, was to tell them they weren't on a date. What was this middle school? "Sure nerd, I'll meet you at the gates." Nishka said without any attempt at keeping it discreet. Presumably he'd wanted to go without anybody knowing but that would honestly be kinda creepy. Not like she cared if anybody cared.

[TheHangedMan]

The instructor looked at Yuri with a look of utter disbelief.

"Listen kid, there's all kinds of bull--" he stopped himself with a cough, "all kinds of lies you can tell, but the worse ones are the obvious ones. Don't tell me you're actually serious about that?"

Once they got to the disciplinarians office, the man opened the door and ushered Yuri in. Waiting in a chair behind a long wooden desk was a middle-aged looking man. He was rather plump, with a receding hairline and graying hair. His eyes were lined with stress, and his expression was severe.

"Ah, Gio, another one today?"

"Assaulted another student sir, right in front of a teacher. Says he was trying to defuse the situation," he said with a shrug of the shoulders. The disciplinarian looked at Yuri with the same expression as the instructor did earlier.

Grumbling, the man brought out a stack of papers, in-triplicate. He signed his name on them, and wrote something down before handing it to Yuri.

The letter said "Notice of in-school suspension, due 35 hours of community service. Student is unable to take classes and/or field trips, and all activities held during said suspension is marked '0' with no make-up", and below it stated the reasons for the suspension. T

"Sign here please," he said, tapping on a line that said "student name & signature", "not sure how much good this'll do for kids like you, but try and reflect on your actions even a little.

---

Miss. Lora looked at Louis and nodded approvingly. She drew a small arrow next to it and wrote the words "joint class".

"A good question um," she paused to look at the clipboard in her hands, before looking back at him, "Louis, yes? Currently, we are understaffed due to a recent shift in school policy, so, in order to make up for the lack of teachers, some of your classes will be temporarily jointed with other grades or sections."

"Anyway, I shouldn't take up anymore time, as I can see your math teacher waiting outside. Remember everyone, no staying behind after school, and head straight home!"

The day passed by quickly. The first two classes were as expected, with nothing interesting occurring outside the occasional screams of frustration over particularly difficult questions. Then came Small Unit Tactics. The instructor that entered their class was short, but stocky, and it seemed another section had gathered outside of their classroom.

"Good morning students, and welcome to Small Unit Tactics. Or SUiT class for short. I'm your instructor for now, though our schedule as of current is not permanent. My name is Armand Tan, and I answer only to Sir. Tan, understood?"

He picked up a chalkboard and wrote down three words:

- Action
-- Reaction
--- Initiative

Putting down the chalk, he turned to face the class. "Now, while my class has its own specifics, what I want you to know is that all Noble Arm classes are based on being able to properly achieve and obtain these three things. If you know what action to take, how to react to any given situation, and how to take the initiative, then you're pretty much set for life, never mind being an Arms Master. Still, being how this is a class, I am in charge of teaching you how to attain these three things for certain situations. Understood?"

With that, he asked that the class bring their PE uniforms and step outside.

"Head to the locker rooms and have a change of clothes there. Afterwards, head to Quadrangle A. Late comers will be penalized."

Outside the class, it looked like the section they were merged with had already changed. Judging from the trim of their uniforms, a dark green, they were a younger batch than they were.

After a few minutes, the class had changed and most of them had arrived at the quadrangle -- exempting some students who decided they would skip the rest of the day -- and the instructor took role-call. Once he was finished, he announced:

"Okay, for today, we are simply going to create groupings, before going through some basic drills. Nothing too complicated, however, this is going to be graded. As for the groupings, I want you all to form groups of three. I advise you to avoid pairing with friends, however it is not prohibited!"

At once, the two classes scrambled to get teammates, and predictably, most of them paired up with people they were familiar with.

@Keksalot-@Letter Bee-@KindledBeast-@banjoanjo-@Eklispe-@Altasaire-@Progenitus-@M127

[KindledBeast]

@TheHangedMan
"I'm sorry but if like to address both of you before I sign this, Lets say two teachers are about to try to kill one another with very destructive very dangerous weapons that could fundamentally put the lives of both other students and teachers at risk. In that situation would you sit back and watch the blood shed as a mediator gets no where with the two teachers, or would you ensure the safety of hundreds of innocents by taking down one of them? I don't feel bad for what I did, I'd do it agin under the same circumstances. Let's face fact I saved those two students from enduring critical damage and did it without anyone other than the aggressor getting hurt. Before I sign this I'd like to propose a counter offer, I take the 35 hours but We establish some sort of security force, such as a disciplinary committee and as such I'd like to lead such committee. Yuri spoke with a loud stern tone much like his father, his eyes full of pride and intensity, his demeanor much more serious and cold.

[Altasaire]

As for the groupings, I want you all to form groups of three. I advise you to avoid pairing with friends, however it is not prohibited!"

Takumi imperceptibly shrugged. He knew that the advice was sound — in a combat situation you don't always have the luxury of friends — but if he were to learn something, he'd rather group with people who care about getting something out of the process.

He stayed hovering at the edge of Gloria's privacy zone, without overtly moving anywhere, and brushed his hand along the sword's hilt.
His awareness shif̀te͡d̨, splitting into overlaid real world and highlighted links between objects and subjects.

[Keksalot]

Whilst meekly awaiting the inevitable, King looked around the quadrangle and over the second section, briefly fixing the gaze of his sly, slanted eyes on every at least somewhat interesting-looking face, silently dividing them between categories of jocks, nerds and, sometimes rarely, very rarely, cool kids - that was pretty much as far as his attempts at judgement of character ever went.

[Progenitus]

Gloria mostly sat through clasees of Math and English trying very hard to do one thing - not fall asleep. It will be extremely bad form to be found sleeping on the first day of the class, especially since it was promising to be a short one anyways. Not that she cared about teachers or anything - it was more of a traditional value to her. You should at least try to be alert at something you start, after all. Still, neither piqued her interest(just as she expected), and so she was rather relieved to move on to something that was interesting in the past, groups of underclassmen or no(and they were not that much younger, in her personal opinion - what's a year or two, after all?).
On the way to the lockers(with those two slowpokes with her, Gloria did not arrived first, as she did before meeting them, but she didn't mind, not being that competitive) she briefly considered to ditch PE clothes and instead arrive in her "combat" attire, but decided against it - this was not sparring and will probably be more about pacing and advantages of groups of different sizes and stuff like that, and teacher seemed not like the one who would be lax on the rules, so arriving in shorts and tanktop will get her singled out....not a welcome disruption, not at that time of day - she just wanted to get things done as expediently as possible, for now, and get out of school and to that workshop mentioned earlier by an instructor. She smiled mischievously at the thought of trolling said teacher later in the year.
Then came the thing Gloria have waited for and patiently keeped nearby Takumi and King - division of their class into the trained group. Acting without much(if any) hesitation, she grabbed both of them at the same time into the crushing hugs.
- No freakin' vay I'm going to be paired vit someone else. - she announced loudly enough for everyone interested to hear - If I'm going to vork vit someone - it's gonna be tose tvo. - she snorted, realaxing her hold - For one, I don't vant to scrap all the shit ve came up vit and re-make it all over again.
To the Takumi, Gloria for a moment became the towering inferno of light, not unlike to the incandescently glowing ball of plasma - not unlike the sun. Two bright tendrils enveloped around himself and the King, warm to the touch. Those were not the only tendrils - there were a few more, but the ones between him, girl and the King was by far thickest and brightest.

[Altasaire]

@Progenitus

Takumi allowed himself to be grabbed. Gloria's proximity was sudden, but not really unexpected — he saw her idea-form in the quadrangle's social system flare into a nova of golden light, connecting her to him and King (and weaker still, to other people present, who perceived the change in the social atmosphere) a moment before it actually happened.

"Please don't crush my ribs," — he muttered under his breath.

[Keksalot]

King, who, as mentioned, was waiting for this - but still wasn't quite ready and as such just quietly wheezed in Gloria's embrace, his feet dangling in some distance from the sweet, already so very missed solid ground and his arm energetically patting his battle-hardened and emotional comrade on the back.
"You are... pretty cool... too," He coughed out, together with what little air he had left. "I've the same... sentiments!"
In Takumi's eyes, King's bond to him and Gloria was not quite as bright or all-encroaching, but equally strong, solid and, like his tower, seemingly immovable and permanent - apparently, he has very soundly decided something for himself about their relationship.

[Letter Bee]

Pablo, after having changed to his PE Clothes, moved closer to Reinhard once the students had been asked to partner with each other, saying:

"Hey, sorry about what happened two classes ago. Anyway, why don't we work together today? I can fill in several tactical roles, while you have a couple of useful specialties." A wide smile at the German, before the boy began looking for a third partner.

Luis' shield would save him the trouble of taking up defense, but somehow, Pablo couldn't think that the other boy would be willing to fight alongside them, if at all. Which is a shame; he admired the other boy's silent, almost imperceptible, defiance of convention and the system. So, would that mean that he'd have to include Nishka, then? After all, a bag of ever-filling rocks that can interchange with other items...those sound good. But on the other hand, he can see that Luis had...emotional issues that Pablo would like to know about, in a way that wasn't prying. Okay, that decided it, and so, after making his pitch to Reinhard, the Filipino boy walked over to the Puerto Rican.

"Hey," he said, "listen, I know that you don't like fighting, but we have to do it in this class, so why don't we do it with me and Reinhard? I promise, anything that requires harming a person; you won't have to do that." Assuming that what he observed about Luis was right...

@M127@banjoanjo

[banjoanjo]

Ah jeez, group work. And it was going to be graded. Absolutely perfect. Luis sighed audibly as he changed into his PE uniform. Small Unit Tactics is a class that he had dealt with pretty capably previously, mostly due to his own initiative. As long as he wasn't grouped up with completely incompetent teammates, he'd do fine.

"As for the groupings, I want you all to form groups of three. I advise you to avoid pairing with friends, however it is not prohibited!"

Well the latter point wouldn't be a problem. Luis had trouble considering anyone in his class as a "friend", they were all either delinquents or just plain weird. Pablo came over and asked Luis to join. The guy spoke like he was talking to a kid who just dropped his ice cream cone and Luis had to admit, it was kind of irritating. But even so, being in a group with classmates would be better than having to work with the underclassmen, even if it meant potentially playing third wheel between Pablo and Reinhard. Plus, with them, it was more than likely that Pablo would be doing all the heavy lifting.

Luis waved the Filipino off. "Relax, bro. I can fight if I need to. Let's just try to get a good result here."

He walked to join Pablo.

@Letter Bee

[Eklispe]

Nishka ignored the boring classes and managed to avoid getting called on, having perfected that look of paying attention but really not from a young age. Finally they got to the class that seemed least boring, SUit, taught by Sir Tan. Nishka hated it when people were named stupid things like that. Tan isn't a name, its more like a noun, at best some sort of adjective, certainly no good for being a name. That was like naming your kid 'smart'. Then when you said things like 'my kid is smart' you have to explain what exactly you mean and the whole thing is more confusing for everyone. Stupid names are stupid. Nishka rolled her eyes upon hearing they would be in groups, what a bunch of work. Of course it was called small unit tactics for a reason but still. Rather than searching for a group Nishka did what she usually did, nothing. Either the teacher would lump her into a group or some geek would recruit her, she didn't particular care either way. Frankly she was surprised the nerd that'd asked her to hang out with him hadn't immediately latched onto her. Whatever.

[TheHangedMan]

Silence settled in the room as Yuri finished his grand spiel. The adults in the room were taken aback by the sheer certainty in his voice. The fact that he was acting not only as if he was not guilty, but also a dispenser of true justice was . . . an experience, to say the least.

The instructor stared at Yuri intently, and then rolled his eyes. "All hypothetical circumstances that can't be compared to the situation at hand. I would like to point out, very clearly, that the only one who actually injured anyone was you. You acted on nothing but your own assumptions as to what would happen," he said, sliding the form closer to Yuri, "and from what I saw back there, rather than attack an aggressor, it looked like you picked a side. That lady he was glaring daggers at didn't look like much of a victim."

"As for your proposal," said the DO, standing from his chair and approaching the door, "I can't believe you have the arrogance to not only suggest that our disciplinary faculty is not enough, but to even suggest that you of all people be at the head of such an organization. It speak a lot about of your personality."

"In any case, your punishment hasn't changed, and we will not compromise."

---

The instructor waited for a minute or so, observing as the class clustered into different groups. Eventually, the class was more or less grouped. For those stragglers that didn't bother to even look for partners, Sir Tan put together. All-in-all, there were twenty teams split among the classes.

Two underclassmen were paired with Nishka. A timid pair of identical twins. The two of them fidgeted around the older girl, staying close enough so that it was obvious they were grouped with her, but not close enough for Nishka's hands to grab them if she simply stretched them.

Once the groupings were settled. The instructor nodded.

"Okay then, kids, our warm-up for today's session is very simple. Ever hear of the game "freeze tag"? Well that's what we're going to be doing. Here's the catch though: There are eight teams of "it's", and only members from the same team can unfreeze a frozen player. We play for ten minutes, and for every member on your team frozen, a corresponding penalty will be carried over for the day's drill. No Noble Arms, and the entirety of the quadrangle is your battle ground. Any questions?"

With no questions asked, the instructor randomly picked eight teams to represent the "it" side. Those that were chosen were given sleeveless jerseys to wear over their PE uniform, to distinguish them from the other players. Pablo, Reinhard, and Luis were an "it" team. Takumi, Gloria and King, along with Nishka and her group-mates were part of the running teams.

The teacher separated the two teams on opposite ends of the quadrangle, and blew his whistle.

At once, all hell broke loose.

"It" players began charging straight towards the other side, who responded by scrambling chaotically, sometimes getting in each others way and tripping over each other. Others had outright abandoned their teammates and soon a fast exchange of freeze and unfreeze was taking place.

Nishka's group-mates had left her alone and were running together frantically. A team of three approached Takumi and attempted to box him. All the while, the teacher looked on impassively. It was about as he expected, really.

@Progenitus-@Eklispe-@banjoanjo-@Letter Bee-@Keksalot-@Altasaire-@KindledBeast

[M127]

Unlike most of the others Reinhard took a rather slow approach at the problem of being a good "it" in freeze tag. While the other its were frantically expending energy chasing their 'prey', which in turn for the most part just ran away as fast as they could, Reinhard didn't move much, at best he walked. Admidst the chaos he positioned himself, so that the flow of escaping students would either pass him, or be deflected by his presence into another "it".

His strategy payed off somewhat, as small clusters of one to three frozen students formed around his paths, but Reinhard didn't guard them in any way himself, so unless another "it" did so, either intentionally or unintentionally, they were quickly unfrozen.

[Letter Bee]

Pablo analyzed the situation; he was not going to go after Takumi, King, and Gloria; too strong. But, he wasn't going after those that were too 'weak', either; he might get accused of fighting too dirty. So, he was going after the middle tier, and that meant Nishka and her group; this task was made easier by the fact that said group abandoned the Russian-American, meaning that he, Reinhard, and Luis can safely go after her.

So he ran for the former street urchin, but not so fast that he would outpace Reinhard and Luis to the point of breaking the team's cohesion. Taking quick gazes to ensure that his former team members were by his side (Turns out Reinhard chose to go his own way), Pablo positioned himself to Luis' side, presuming that Luis followed his non-verbal cues and went after Nishka as well.

Luis would at least dislike me for this, which is a shame, as I want to be his friend. After a split-second of that thought, he would put it out of his mind for now, and keep going after Nishka, his eyes alert for any tricks and feints. If she went to her left left, he would gesture at Luis (who might still be entertaining thoughts of dislike) to catch her, if she went to her right, well, he himself would go on the offensive, and try and catch her, while being ready to roll away in case her teammates had a change of heart...

@TheHangedMan@Eklispe@banjoanjo

[Altasaire]

No Noble Arms, — Takumi smiled, unsummoning Vox Vulgaris with an effort of will.

Taking note where the three boxing him in were, he then did a weird hopping half-step backwards, swinging his arms erratically, and vanished from view as people's eyes slid off him, not being able to find purchase on his form visually.

He's suddenly out of the "box" twenty, then thirty feet to the side, flitting around like a coked up colibri — always just a tiny bit out of reach, drawing people away from teammates.

[Eklispe]

No Noble Arms? Bullshit. That and her two partners were underclassmen that looked like they'd just taken speed and were likely to be entirely useless. Nishka's keen eyes made an observation of the quadrangle before the whistle blew, noticing several objects that she could use if she got into dire straights. Not that she expected to be caught, few people were faster than an angry store owner, and fewer still faster than those that outran them. Of course these weren't crowded city streets, but the concept was much the same. Not too much to her surprise she was immediately targeted by- white knight? Weird.

Still, she doubted someone like him could catch someone like her. His slow approach indicated that he was expecting feints or jukes, meaning his reaction time would be slowed to an outright response and he would be hyper responsive to feints. Which meant that a fake feint was the best response. Not that any of this really went through Nishka's mind as conscious thought. It was more of a split-second awareness of the best course of action to take, born out of years of necessity reading a situation in less than a moment. So Nishka made eye contact with Pablo, stepped to the right, pivoted to face left as though she were going to run in that direction: leaning forward to support that idea, but instead with her weight on pivoting foot, pushed herself in the opposite of the direction, turning midstep and running to the right with urchin quickness. She silently noted the presence of the purple-eyed boy standing remarkably still, simply tagging those foolish enough to ignore him, not a mistake she would make.

[KindledBeast]

@TheHangedMan
Yuri laughed to himself quietly before pulling a pen out of his pocket and signing the form, he shifted his attention to the DO. "You're lucky that no one died because your staff wasn't capable of stopping the situation." Yuri stood and faced the solider. [/color=red] "It's been a pleasure sir it's a shame we had to meet under such unfortunate circumstances. One thing though sir you should know better than anyone that when you hesitate in a situation like that people can end up dead." [/color] With that Yuri saluted the man.

[banjoanjo]

It was a shame that Pablo wanted to focus on Nishka, it really was. It was bad enough that Luis had ignored her in favor of Pablo's group, forcing her to team with those meek twins, but actively targeting her would probably be the final nail in the proverbial coffin. And he really needed her skill set later. There was practically zero chance of her being unfrozen if she was tagged, if his initial impressions of those twins were anything to go by. But if he didn't at least look like he was trying, Nishka would probably look down on him. Argh, he should have just done what Reinhard did. Trying but not really trying at the same time.

At this point in time, Nishka had made a few feints before aiming for Pablo's side of the two-man barricade (a move Luis thanked the gods above for in his head). So Luis came up with a move that would make win-win situation. An incredibly stupid and reckless move, but at this point he was willing to sacrifice anyone to get this game over with already.

He pushed Pablo to the side. Hard.

It was less of a push and more of an "assisted lift". Luis had spent many hours in the fitness center during his time at Trinidad, enough hours to easily make him the bulkiest in the class. The training was necessary in order for him to wield his hefty Noble Arm properly. This assisted him greatly at the moment. If the saying "I trust him as much as I can throw him" applied to this scenario, then Luis could just about count on Pablo to take a bullet for him. Or a well slung rock, depending on how this ended. Pablo was quite a bit lighter than boys his age, so it made Luis' manoeuvre a lot easier. Luis grabbed the Filipino's left arm and jerked it out to get Pablo off his feet a little. Luis then shoved Pablo's lower torso with his right arm and put a bit of shoulder into the armpit in order to get a bit of upwards motion. The Filipino was launched into Nishka's direction, just as she was going past them. Hopefully none of them would end up with anything broken.

"Pablo! Think fast!"

@Letter Bee @Eklispe