Lub, dub… lub, dub… lub, dub… lub, dub...

Something like a heart was beating in the sea of darkness. It wasn't red like a human heart, but a deep orange with black veins. Each successive pulse emitted a light brighter than the last.

Kari wanted to get closer but had no legs with which to move. She was formless, suspended in the empty black. Perhaps she was the space itself, because everything around her didn't seem… unfamiliar?

By now what she thought was a beating heart had brightened to the point of revealing its true form. A crystalline core, an amalgamation of flesh and metal that throbbed a gruesome, rhythmic tune.

Lub, dub… lub, dub…

The darkness and heart vanished at once, replaced with a blinding light. Feeling returned to Kari, and she felt first cold metal against her chest.

"Oh, thank goodness," a relieved voice uttered.

Kari's eyes snapped open, staring up at the ceiling and the face of a worried nurse. She backed up in the bed in panic, knocking the stethoscope away and hitting her head against the wall.

"Relax! It's me. The school nurse, Iori Wakana! Your classmate Minato found you outside of my office, so he carried you in," the nurse explained, then knelt down to find the stethoscope that fell out of her hands.

In the short reprieve afforded to her, Kari clutched her body and expected to touch the magical girl outfit. Instead, it was her school uniform. Although her shirt had been partially unbuttoned when the nurse was checking her heartbeat.

If Minato picked her up outside like she said, it was possible he and Ms. Wakana saw her in the costume. Kari quickly buttoned up her shirt, saw Rocky sitting by the window alongside a row of small stuffed animals, then glared at him for answers. He shook his head and made a poor okay sign with his paw, confirming that they should be in the clear.

"Whew. It looks fine." Ms. Wakana stood up and brushed the dust away from her stethoscope.

Kari apologized. "Didn't mean to freak out on you."

"No, no! It's alright. Heat strokes are getting a lot more students lately," she said.

That wasn't it. Just before passing out, the Apocalypse System activated. Kari had somehow learned a new skill without leveling. A quick glance at Rocky, and he returned a just as confused shrug.

As if this was something she could tell the nurse.

"Yeah. Probably just dehydrated." When she tried to hop off the bed a wave of dizziness kicked her back down.

"I know you're eager to get home, but please rest for at least another ten minutes. I'll fetch you some water, so just stay put," Ms. Wakana urged.

Kari clutched her throbbing head. The other bed's lack of an occupant reminded her who she had come to find.

"Did Makina leave?" she asked.

Ms. Wakana returned with a glass of water and a pain reliever. The cool drink was a welcome relief to her parched throat.

"Makina left a little before lunch. She didn't look too good, so I called her parents to pick her up." The nurse frowned.

Coming here was a waste if Makina wasn't here to begin with. Did Ena Mizushima know?

When Kari glanced up from the glass, Ms. Wakana was waiting with a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure Makina will be fine. A little rest should fix her right up," she said.

Ms. Iori Wakana likely didn't know the full story.

The nurse could easily have been mistaken for a student wearing a cosplay. As the youngest of Suginuma High's faculty at age twenty-three, she was the quickest to get along with because of their small age gap. At least, that was what many students have said.

In reality, boys and male faculty just saw her as an attractive woman to hit on. Some girls weren't any better, using her as gossip fodder to spread baseless rumors that exacerbated high school boys' baser instincts. The young college graduate with silky black hair and naturally sleepy eyes made for an easy target.

A shame, too. Ms. Wakana genuinely cared for students' health. Even going as far as writing pamphlets for nutritional diets and posting weekly newsletters on how to take care of mental health. No student cared enough to give them a glance over, as evidence to the untouched, pristine stack on her desk. Yet she continued to make them to this day.

The moment Kari thought to leave, someone knocked on the door to the infirmary. Ms. Wakana left her side to see who it was.

"You always knock when you come by, Principal Nishida. You know my door is always unlocked in case students need to come in," the nurse said.

"Aha! It's a habit. Besides, I can never know if you're alone. Maybe you spend some of that free time… you know? I don't want to intrude in your private time!" Principal Nishida's blatant sexual harassment wasn't what Kari was used to hearing around school. Since she was behind the curtain, he couldn't have known she was here.

Ms. Wakana cleared her throat, evidently unamused. "Actually, I have a—"

"Since you're still here, Iori, have you given what I said before any thought?" he asked, interrupting what she was about to say. "Just dinner with a drink or two couldn't hurt."

"Nngh… cough, cough!" Kari rolled over on the bed to ruffle the sheets and took shallow breaths to pretend she was still asleep. Principal Nishida gasped. She didn't need to see to know he had turned white as a ghost trying to come onto Ms. Wakana, thinking they were alone.

"I didn't know you had a student in here! You should have said so sooner. We'll talk another time," he whispered, then shuffled out in a hurry.

Fucking gross.

The way Principal Nishida spoke to Ms. Wakana reminded her of how Tetsuo spoke to Makina. His mouth was so full of shit with the whole 'serious about Makina' that it needed a diaper.

"Sorry you had to hear that." Ms. Wakana popped in again. "The principal's a good man. He just needs to learn to keep it in his pants."

"It's nothing. Thanks for looking after me when I passed out." It was about time for Kari to leave, too. She handed the cup back to the nurse, hopped off the bed, and bowed low to express her gratitude. When it seemed fine to walk and the dizziness was gone, she made for the door only to be stopped by Ms. Wakana a second time.

"Before you go— Why don't you take this?" The nurse fumbled over to the desk to fetch a small pamphlet. She appeared almost hesitant to hand it over, like she had seen it in the trash bin far too many times to count, and would break her heart if she found another in there. "Summers are getting hotter. You and Makina take better care of yourself out there!"

"I will, but you won't have a job if students are too healthy to need looking after." Kari cracked a grin and earned a chuckle from the nurse.

Rocky flew to her side and Kari bowed a second time at the door. Maybe it was just her imagination, but it looked like the nurse could see the anthem on their way out. She snatched him out of the air once they reached the hallway, holding him by the scruff of his neck.

"Mind explaining to me why I passed out earlier? Or how the hell I learned a new skill out of nowhere?" Kari asked.

"I don't know! As far as I know, that's not supposed to happen!" he cried.

Kari checked her new skill.

[Enrage: When your health is reduced to 20%, your base physical strength is doubled. The effect is lost when healed above 20% or health reaches 0%.]

This didn't seem like a reliable skill at all. If her health dropped that low, retreat would be the only thing on her mind. Screw everything else.

"What happens when my health drops to 0? Do I just die?" She let Rocky go before he suffocated to death.

"You come out of your magical girl form. In the middle of a fight, that might as well be game over," Rocky answered, smoothing out his fur.

At the lockers, Tetsuo was talking to a group of friends. He chatted happily like nothing had happened between him and Makina. Anger boiled within Kari's chest, and she made a beeline for him, grabbing him by the collar of his uniform. The crutches dropped away from his arms, and the friends around him were startled by the sudden confrontation.

"Whoa! What did I do to piss off the lioness?" Tetsuo put his hands between them as if that was going to stop her.

Makina told her to forget about it, but how could she?

"Should we call the teachers?" one of his friends asked.

Tetsuo put a hand up to tell them not to.

"The hell did you do to Makina yesterday?" Kari growled.

"I'm too much of a gentleman to kiss and tell. Don't worry, though. I'm not chasing after her anymore. She's all yours, you flaming lesbo," he taunted.

She raised him enough that he had to stand on his toes. It wouldn't take so much as a finger flick to make his head pop like a balloon.

But Tetsuo saw the hesitation in her. "You're not gonna hit a cripple in front of all these people. I won't stop you, but say bye-bye to your social life."

"Kari, it's not worth it. Come on, let's go and check on Makina. I'm worried, too!" Rocky whispered.

"One day, I'm going to stop giving a shit that you're crippled." Kari shoved him into his friends and kicked the crutches away.

"You really don't hold back with anyone," Her anthem remarked as they exited the building.

"You got it wrong. I'm doing my best to hold back right now," she replied through gritted teeth.

They stopped in front of the gymnasium where basketball practice was being held. The double doors were left open, and players could be seen racing back and forth across the court.

Kari stopped at the entrance hoping to speak with Daisuke in spite of Ena's threats, but the bitch and her groupies were watching from the sidelines. Showing up specifically to talk to the basketball team's captain would probably piss her off, and consequently intensify Makina's bullying. She decided against confronting either of them, opting instead to leave school and head to Makina's house.

"Think fast!"

A shadow flew across her face. She caught the bottle too hard and caused the cap to pop away, splashing Rocky and the ground wet. A now-empty water bottle was crushed into an hourglass in her hand, only a small gulp of water left in it.

"Uh… That was supposed to be my gesture of kindness you have crushed in your gorilla hand," Minato said, coming out from behind the gate.

"You're going to rack up a list of favors at this rate. Thanks for earlier. Heh. Thanks for this, too, even though there's only a sip left." She tipped what little water was left into her mouth and tossed it off to the side.

"How you holding up?" he asked.

"Like I want to wring my hands around a certain someone's neck." Kari scowled.

"Tetsuo? So, are the rumors true that Makina was—"

"Don't go adding fuel to it. If you ever hear someone say that shit, just tell them it isn't true and move on," she said.

"We should tell Principal Nishida. Or hell, the police. If they did something as despicable as that, they deserve to rot in jail. This is a crime. If you aren't going to the police, then I will—"

"You aren't going to tell anyone," she growled, giving Minato both a fright and pause. Having realized how forceful her words came out, she cleared her throat and spoke in a much softer tone. "Makina doesn't want anyone to know. Whatever happened, she and Tetsuo look like they are staying away from each other now. She just wants to put it behind her."

Minato appeared as if he had forgotten to breathe, and it wasn't until he ran out of oxyen did he find his speech again. "No, you're right. Sorry, I was getting ahead of myself. If that's what Makina wants, I won't push it. You going to go check on her now?"

"Yeah. I'd ask you to come with, but…"

"Makina hasn't told me. It'd be better if she was ready to tell me herself, I understand. I got manga to read back home anyway. Counting on you to cheer her up," he said.

"Thanks, Mina-taku." She clasped his hand as he chuckled at the stupid nickname.

They wished each other well and split ways at the intersection.

Kari apologized to his back as he left. The school was already blatantly ignoring the issue anyway; their homeroom teacher turned a blind eye this morning. She couldn't tell him she wanted to take matters into her own hands instead.

Makina's mother answered the door in a plaid apron. A woman who was a more suburban housewife than any other woman in the city, greeted Kari with such a warm smile that there might already be cookies waiting inside to be offered.

"I have printouts for Makina. She's home, right?" Kari asked.

"She is, but… She hasn't come out of her room since returning home. Maybe hearing from you will cheer her up," her mother suggested.

Rocky straightened his back and started acting up.

"Incursion…? No. Stray spawns in the city again, but there's something stronger. We have to stop them," he said.

Now? At a time like this? She hadn't a single inclination to leave, not while Makina needed her.

"After," Kari whispered to him, then took the invitation to go into the house. "Sorry for the intrusion."

Unlike her house, Makina's place was a single-floor home. Right through the front door led into the hallway that branched into the rest of the rooms of the house, including Makina's bedroom at the very end.

The door was locked. It was quiet on the other side. Makina's mother assured her that she was in her room. Maybe she was sleeping.

"Makina, it's me. I have your print outs from class. Bought a slice of cake and your favorite wasabi peas, too. " Kari considered knocking, but thought against it.

"We're wasting time. Innocent people are dying! H-How about I sneak inside to check on her?" Rocky offered, desperation growing.

Kari sighed. As they were about to leave, the door creaked open. Makina stood under the frame, wearing a long-sleeved shirt and sweats even though it was summer.

"Will you stay with me for a bit?" Makina asked.