[Collab between HangedMan, Altasaire, Progenitus, and Keksalot]
Takumi slowly picked himself up from his roll, removed the gun back to where it was, and walked up to the instructor.
"Yes, sir?"
The instructor gave Takumi and strange look, before sighing. "Alright, Takumi, care to explain what you're doing using a gun in a, I repeat as I did for your friend, game of tag?"
"You have deigned it necessary to remove my support, sir. I could not ask for further instructions due to the field's... configuration, so in absense of further orders I tried to fullfil the one you gave to the running teams — "to get tagged as little as possible" to the best of my ability, since it seemed to me that you attempted to challenge me in atypical problem solving and lateral thinking. To that end I used the resources at my disposal, using the pistol as a non-harmful tool of psychological warfare and a non-body extension to be able to act upon people boxing me in without being frozen, sir. Should I have used a flashbang, sir?"
Takumi turned fractionally to Gloria, giving her a slightly quizzical look.
"I should note that it was rather effective, and I wasn't tagged yet, sir."
King chuckled quietly at the notion of the flashbang but immediately took hold of himself after a stern gaze from the instructor.
Gloria coughed, before stepping forward:
"Sir, ve see veapons brandished on te regular basis in tis school, yet te amount of damage populace sustains is minimal. Ve assumed ve could use veapons and, uh, movement tactics as a deterrent and stalling tool, since tis field is devoid of any cover or concealment, vhich does not leave us many oter options: ve did not vant to endanger oter teams to save ourselves. - she pointed with her tumb at teens haggling with their wallets out - And ve are not te only ones trying unortodox metods, as I can see from 'ere."
The instructor withheld sighing for the n'th time. It wouldn't do to look too frustrated with them. "Okay, the main problem here, really, is the use of tools. I know I only said no Noble Arms, okay, but there is also the implied understanding as per school rules of not using other tools as well," he said, staring at Takumi. "Using the resources you have at your disposal is something I can accept, but this isn't the time for it. I laid down ground rules, you simply have to maked do with them."
"Understood, sir!" King barked, then immediately inquiring:
"Question, sir! What constitutes a tool?!"
Takumi shrugged.
"I probably wouldn't have escaped otherwise, skill or no. Permission to rejoin the exercise, with clarified instructions, sir?"
"Of course, though for the record, Takumi, I would've excused you had you gotten tagged." He turned to King, after a moment. "Anything that you can take off painlessly from your body," he said bluntly, "In all honesty though, just use a little common sense."
"Then should we disrobe completely for this excerci~" King spoke when the instructor finished the first part of his sentence. "Ah. Yes, excuse me."
Gloria facepalmed silently.
"This also means cutting yourself a bit with the knife first works," — noted Takumi wryly. "Are those hagglers going to get a similar treatment, sir?"
"Money is painless to remove, I guess..."
"I'm not haggling!" King turned to Takumi. "I'm asking!"
Takumi pointed at the people trying to out-bribe each other instead of saying anything else.
The instructor looked at the kids. He was about to say yes, up until he realized one thing. The instructor began laughing, and began waving a hand dismissively. "No, no, they're fine. Hahaha, smart sons of b- er, yeah."
"So," King inquired, his head tilted to the left slightly and his fingers interwined, "Knives are not okay, but bribery is"?
"Twenty-first century at it's finest."
"Look closer, they haven't given a single peso," he said, with a grin. "Empty promises. Just words, nothing else." Sure enough, the kids were simply popping their wallets open, spouted promises, and never actually took out a bill or coin.
"Hrm. Could ve use non-combat-rated veaponry too as an intimidation factor ten?" - scratched her chin Gloria.
"I fail to see how weapons are non-combat, but like I said, no tools . . . used, anyway," he said, with a non-commital grunt.
Gloria shrugged:"Permission to demonstrate te example of non-combat weaponry, sir?"
" A weapon with no wounds inflicted is functionally the same as a wallet with no money paid, sir."
"I think Gloria means that."
"Still a tool, so I fail to see how it's different from our situation, sir. And, more pertinently, I'm pretty sure we're out of ten minutes. Are we going to go on, sir?"
The instructor looked at the watch in his hands, before nodding. He gave Takumi a sly glance. "You didn't plan on getting called out here to avoid being tagged, did you boy?"
"I didn't, but if I did, it would have been a viable plan to deal with the situation while having limited resources at my disposal, would it have not?"
Takumi is calm and doesn't emote much.
