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Alicia gently nodded after Nolan spoke, offering another soft smile in appreciation for his gesture. In the silence that followed she began to think of the future and what lay ahead in her journey towards redemption, the words which had been spoken in the tavern now imprinted upon her mind as if the experience had been burned deep within her. Willpower is what he spoke of, a force of which could not be measured by any known science, tested by hardship and the resolve of one's being along with their persistence to carry on. Alicia had seen examples of this and had read stories about great fighters, not just swordsmen, who had fought against insurmountable odds and walked away breathing, devastation left in their wake. Nothing but pure willpower to continue moving ground beneath their feet. [i]Hakairyoku[/i] also known as 'The Power of Destruction' had been mentioned a few times throughout these stories and various legends. But then she'd always took that exactly as it was, a legend and nothing more. This Shouta had changed everything, warping the reality she'd once thought was certain and opening her to the concepts of the impossible. 

She said nothing as Runali took a seat beside her, deciding it was better to await the words of her captain before explaining herself should she be required to. However, it seemed Runali was more interested in lightening the mood, favoring to accept what had happened over the lament of what they'd lost. Her eyes looked down to the dagger as Runali explained about what had happened and what the dagger had meant to her. It brought Alicia more hurt to hear that her arrogance had not only brought her own misfortune, but had also brought a similar fate to a friend. When Runali had finished talking Alicia finally spoke, "Yet here we are, following your orders" she replied in counter argument to her last statement, "You may be young Runali, but your mental age and maturity extends far beyond that. And I think a part of you is quite aware of it" she said, giving a small smile and a pause before she looked away from her and back to the horizon. "But yes, I believe we will improve. In fact, it is not even a question" she said with confidence. 

After a long pause she spoke again, taking a deep breath as her tone asserted in a seriousness she hadn't shown in the time they'd known each other. "Runali, I allowed my arrogance and eagerness for a challenge to cloud my judgement. Because of this, I've lost my honor and caused you to give up your own. It is paramount to my family that what he's taken from me is returned and restored and to do that I will eventually have to defeat that man in a fair duel. If I do this and win, you will be unable to restore the honor of this crew. So in light of this, I have decided that I [i]will[/i] take the insignia of the StarDusk pirates on my skin, so that when I defeat him... I can restore the honor of this crew as one of it's members and my own simultaneously. That is if you're still content to keep me of course" she said. stating the man's defeat as an inevitability.