[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/sno7KOz.png[/img][/center] [color=tomato]"Oh."[/color] Yikes. That rough huh? Stripes wasn't close to Lilac, but that had to be one of the least convincing attempts to look strong Stripes had ever seen. Not that she really blamed her. Dynasty Queen was quite the handful when a fight broke out, and Roma likely wasn't too fun to fight. The right ally could make a fight easier and harder. Stripes was blessed and cursed with a grimoire that made teamwork less than ideal, but she could relate to being stuck in a fight with unreliable team mates. Then there was just the horror of the situation. Had any of them seen a magical girl get her grimoire corrupted by a pageless before? Unlikely. She supposed it would be best to start cleaning up. But before she did... [sub][@McFazzer][/sub] Stripes dragged her feet over to Dynasty Queen. [color=tomato]"Wow."[/color] The lethargy in her voice was only matched by her tired steps. [color=tomato]"You did this?"[/color] She looked around, not once making eye contact with Dynasty Queen. [color=tomato]"It doesn't matter how hard you strike unless you hit them. You know that, right?"[/color] With a shrug of her shoulders, Stripes started to pile up the rubble. [color=tomato]"Might wanna practice that hand eye coordination."[/color] [center][img]https://i.imgur.com/nIlIbdu.png[/img][/center] It all happened so fast... One minute, Lilac was charging into the fray while Dynasty Queen was fighting Roma. Then in what felt like a few seconds Drossel showed up to start stabilizing the infected girl's grimoires. It seemed like the missing class teleported back to Marrywell Academy. And then as soon as Xol attacked, Roma teleported away, only to be intercepted by Val. And then Ozzy ran into Val, what were the odds!? During all this the Apex Pageless was sundered in a single burning attack by Mar-Star! It was so much to take in, and while Mika's sword may know and see almost everything, she was still only a human that needed time to process the information. She let her sword slide into its sheath before sticking the tip of her thumb in her mouth. It was just a tick of hers, something she tended to do when she was thinking. But the sort version of all this was that everything worked out fine without any long term problems for Marrywell. [color=goldenrod]"Guess that's over... For now!"[/color] Mika sheathed her sword. With a snap of her fingers, her clones all dove into portals. With everyone back at the academy it felt silly to keep her clones on the lookout, especially with the "mastermind" apprehended. She also reverted back to her original form. It was a little disappointing that Roma hadn't realized she was making fun of her by turning into a Japanese pink-haired bunny person. But even when she laid waste to the pageless, she didn't seem to care very much about it. If Mika had to guess, Roma wasn't crazy and had a real motive behind all this. She certainly didn't care that much about the pageless once the fighting broke out. It was almost like the real motive was just to infect as many grimoires as she could before departing. But there was no reason to speculate. They had apprehended Roma, so getting the truth out of her wouldn't be too hard. Well, she had other people to pester. [sub][@KoL][/sub] [color=goldenrod]"Strudel!"[/color] Mika ran up to Drossel and hugged her. [color=goldenrod]"We were able to scare away the bad guy, and then Val and Ozzy caught her!"[/color] The horrorling might have helped contribute to that too, as well as the rest of the class showing up. [color=goldenrod]"It's out of season, but we should have some nog to celebrate!"[/color] And with that, she released Drossel and moved closer to one of the students. [sub][@McFazzer][/sub] [color=goldenrod]"Sorry about earlier."[/color] She placed a hand on Dynasty Queen's shoulder. Her tone was hushed, barely more than a whisper. With everyone talking amongst themselves or zoning out, it was unlikely anyone but Tesni could hear Mika's words. [color=goldenrod]"You said you could solve all of your problems with brute force, so I was interested in seeing what would happen if I left you to your own devices. I would have stepped in if things got bad, but you handled yourself well enough. I'd like to talk to you later about how this fight made you feel. That is, if you want to."[/color] Many of the students and faculty reacted to the Grand Minister's presence the way a flower would react to sunlight. They stood up a bit straighter and leaned towards their leader's invisible radiance. Whatever sort of plant Mika seemed to be was more suited to shade however, as she scoffed at her timely appearance. [color=goldenrod]"Of course you do."[/color] Mika folded her arms behind her back. [color=goldenrod]"Don't hold us in suspense, Miss Marywell. We may live forever but time is of the essence."[/color] While Mika had cute pet names for everyone, she had only ever cared to call Merlin by her last name in the most formal manner possible.