I didn’t want to have to carry a backpack in order to carry my plastic book case around and I was tires of wedging it between my butt and trousers. Yes, natural selection gave me hands, but those I want to have free. So, I bought a belt at a thrift store, some rivets and that belt lock thingy at a… Store that sells sewing stuff? And voilà. I dunno. Obviously I went with practicality over looks. 😅
When someone pulls a gun on you, you pull out a book. They’ll run away since they are afraid of knowledge.
I was reading your comment slowly and carefully, imaging some Hans Zimmer esque music building up in the background, in anticipation for what surely would culminate in you saying, “[…] you pull out a book, opening it with a swift and elegant hand gesture, but your hand never actually touches the book. The sky turns dark, a deep rumble is heard as the ground starts shaking, a purple shimmer engulfs you and your eyes emanate a light that outshines even that of the Sun. You begin to mutter. The gangsters cannot makes heads or tails of your words. How could they? Your words of incantation are not of this world. Blessed are those who do not know their dark and depraved meaning! Suddenly, your hand, which you until now had been letting hover above the open pages of your book, seems to catch fire, but the flames are of a dark red color. You twist your hand ever so slightly, so that its palm faces the gangsters. Now, wielding the powers of the underworld, the Flame of Mormûldr, you cast a firestorm onto the gangsters. Unbeknownst to them, those that die by the Flame of Mormûldr do not easily pass to the afterlife, but are instead scorched for all eternity in the underworld.”
But, to be fair, your version was good, too.