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[url=https://youtu.be/WPHKAZgCPjU][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019cef99-4ff8-726b-9a3f-da926ae26e90.webp[/img][/url]

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Suika sat quietly in a dusted off corner of the room, barely illuminated by the windows, not quite confident enough to hide behind a box or in front of one. She simply lay against it, head resting on her arms over top of it, and listened to the others with her eyes closed.

Each of them seemed to have some sort of idea. The others had given their information, but she still hadn't gained the courage to give hers. Luckily, the conversation was able to somewhat distract her from it.

She stayed almost completely still as Evil Eye spoke, showing the Club her skill with information, and she only got more still as Nyxia replied, Suika's breathing going silent for a moment. 

Truth be told, there wasn't anything in their words that caused it. She simply couldn't get any thoughts to go through her mind other than the repeating sense that she was failing somehow. 

But as seemed to often be the case with the only Light Girl in the Detention Club, Haruna's words somehow changed things. Perhaps they weren't soothing, per se, but they gave Suika's own thoughts the traction they needed to start moving. 

Her eyes opened halfway as she spoke up for the first time in the meeting. [color=00aeef]"... That's right."[/color] The words were followed by a long pause, as if she had returned to her old, slow self. 

But this was not out of a lack of investment, this time, but out of self-doubt. She didn't want to mess things up somehow.

[color=00aeef]"If the problem is that the boss is drawing in the results before we can, then we don't need to get away, right?"[/color] It seemed obvious, but she knew that herself thinking so didn't make it true. She also knew that it was hard for the others to pick up on her thinking, so she paused again while she tried to put her intent into words, her finger tracing circles atop the box she lay on as she did.

[color=00aeef]"If the gems follow us, that's good, because they're not Dark Girls. Boss accidentally taking the power-up the Miseria drop means that..."[/color] Suika's finger stopped its circular movement to begin drawing a square instead.

[color=00aeef]"... if we don't beat the Miseria ourselves, if we're the only Dark Girls around..."[/color] 

Her finger stopped moving entirely, as if she were punctuating her own point to herself. [color=00aeef]"... it shouldn't matter that they did it, right?"[/color]

The girl's eyes widened for a moment as another thought struck. [color=00aeef]"Actually, that might be why she's so strong..."[/color]

The obvious answer was that Rei had gotten so powerful because of the Club, either in its current form or when it was first formed. Gaining power for her from the actions of the members. But that couldn't be the case, if what they thought was true actually was. 

If the 'theft' was due to a stronger Dark Girl being nearby, then Rei couldn't have only started taking in the others' work after the Club entered its current form. She'd have to have been so much stronger to start with. 

But if that was the case, then how did she get so strong, and how did it happen by her own efforts? Did she start super young, and single-handedly defeat every Misera and Giga Miseria that had been in Hibusa for years? Surely not...

Which left the next obvious answer: Schrade was, in addition to her own work, benefiting from the proximity of the City of Light, where Dark Girls all but couldn't even [i]exist[/i] in, making her the strongest Dark Girl in quite a range. If she was getting boosts from the work of the Light Girls as well... well, it would certainly explain the absurd level of power she had.

[color=00aeef]"Maybe we just need the boss to go on a trip instead?"[/color]