Nishka shrugged.
— Unless I got assigned one, then no. Small unit tactics, hm? Well that doesn't sound too boring. Lead the way, gray man. — she said casually. "Just what kind of classes did this school have anyway? And when can I see a fight?"
— Sure. It's definitely gonna help people who try their hand at the team qualifiers, even if you don't go military after graduation, — said Takumi, leading her to his class. He'd likely have to talk the instructing officer into having her in his class, but whatever. Allies are useful.
— Are you going to climb the ladder this year, by the way?
— You mean beat the living daylights out of people so my rank goes up? Yeah, I mean isn't the like, at least half the point of coming here?— Nishka asked, somewhat rhetorically. She didn't know about working in a team, it seemed kind of pointless if they were just going to fight each other anyway, but hey, she didn't run the school.
— Yeah, that. You seem sceptical. Why?
— Not sure what you mean. Skeptical of the system? I think the system's great, seems fun. Are you skeptical?
"This guy is weird. He's like that blondie, just wants to know things for some strange reason."
— Well, you were kinda... Unbelieving, when I said about teams. Are you some sort of loner?
Takumi noted that most of her weight was on one leg with the other stuck out, both hands in pocket, head tilted in a slightly questioning look. Accent-wise she sounded like someone from New York.
— Well that's cause generally relying on a team is stupid. So I guess you could call me a loner, seems melodramatic when you put it that way.
— Relying on a team is actually not stupid in a ladder-based rating like this.
Nishka raised an eyebrow.
— See, you may be stuck having a specific person as the next rival you have to beat to progress further. And their ability just so happens to be a soft or, worse, hard counter to your own. Now, what happens if one of your 'teammates' who can challenge that person too, would beat them? They fall in rank, right? And you have a fresh enemy before you, which you are possibly more well-equipped to take on. You can do only so much when exploiting the system on your own.
Nishka frowned.
— Okay, first, you're way overcomplicating things. If ya wanna exploit the system. you just team up with someone who you 'hard counter' and beat the daylights out of everyone up to #1 as a duo, then backstab and boom, top rank easy. If two of you isn't enough you just get more people you 'hard counter', assuming you're too weak to climb on your own.
—This assumes you can challenge people to a 2v1. Why do you think they would allow that?"
— What the hell is the point of teaming up if you can't fight in a team?
— To progress as a team. Besides, there are six-person team events at the festival, and they are bound to have some sort of qualifier for that with a similar tourney system. Besides, they are teaching us for SOMETHING, aren't they. I have faith in the instructors here, even though the history of the school is kinda crap.
— You seem to know an awful lot about how this thing works. How do you reach rank 1 if you have to be a team to do so? Are only teams ranked? If they're training us to be like an army or something then why not only teams? These is getting more and more stupid, the more and more you explain.
— They are training us to be both cohesive as a unit and self-reliant as just one Arms Master with logistics support. This does make sense. As to how ranking rules change this year, I'm not sure yet. Besides, do you consider the rank 1 as the only one worth having? You can just go top ten or even top hundred to graduate with honors, you know.
Takumi smiled slyly, looking at the girl's reaction.
— Besides, you're mixing up official teams with emergent cliques and groups and such.
— Well sure its better than nothing, but not by much. After rank 100, like does it matter? Rank 200 or 2000, does anyone really care? You both get the shaft regardless, whether is 199th loser or 1999th loser. My head hurts, this makes as much sense as the government makes jobs, — Nishka said, clearly indicating her distaste for the way the conversation had strayed. She began walking again, despite not knowing exactly where class was.
Takumi shrugged and took the lead again, entering the Small Unit Tactics class.
