Kari had been trying to keep her mind off what happened yesterday to little success. Fortunately, swimming class today offered a brief reprieve.

"Pass, pass!"

The ball would fly right over Kari, too high for her to reach by normal means. She launched out of the water, diving backwards with her hand outstretched and managed to intercept it from the other team.

"Nice, Kari!" a teammate shouted.

Water polo. Possibly one of if not the most physically intensive sport known to man. Seven players on each team, six players on the field and one goalkeeper minded the net. Now that she had the ball, she was open season to be manhandled by the other team. Her team had red caps on, while the other team wore blue, and two students in blue caps were closing in fast.

"Over here!" Minato erratically waved his hands and swam further to create distance from the opposing players.

Kari was about to toss it, then noticed one blue cap swimming towards Minato underneath the water's surface. That was a bait. She took her chances and tossed it to a group of three red caps and two blue caps, then dove under before getting mobbed.

However, as she was about to swim past the two blue caps, someone's foot kicked her hard in the face. A mouthful of chlorinated pool water filled her throat. She returned to the surface coughing her lungs out and saw who had done the cheap shot— Sachi, one of Ena's groupies.

The aggressor glanced over her shoulder and sneered, mouthing the word 'bitch' before swimming off.

Even after that scare the other day, those cunts hadn't let up.

Kari rubbed the side of her cheek where she had been kicked. It didn't hurt at all. She was sure her teeth cut into the upper lip.

The battle went back and forth across the pool for almost ten minutes without either team making a goal. Everyone was exhausted from swimming so much, and the allotted time of half an hour before teams were swapped out of the pool neared.

Any other day Kari would have swam off to the edge and pretended to play instead of actively participating. The extra strength and stamina from becoming a magical girl gave her an edge over the others, even over the more seasoned swimmers. And with Makina watching, how could she not show off a little?

"Go, Kari! Go!" Her friend cheered from the sidelines.

"Holy crap, Kari… you possessed by a demon or something?" Minato asked, treading through the water up to her and looking like he'd drown if his feet stopped.

"Just feeling a little competitive today." She grinned, then noticed one of their teammates lobbing the ball to another. "I got a plan. I want you to catch the ball, then pass it to me."

"Wait, what?" The inflection in his voice dripped with more doubt than pool water. "As in you want me to swim far to catch it then?"

"Nope. Just stay right here— PASS!" she shouted.

Their teammate tossed the ball just as he was pushed into the water. Two blue caps, including Sachi tried to block the ball but were too slow to react. Minato surprised himself having caught it square in his hands, and the opposing team's goalkeeper was already getting ready to defend. Two additional fielders rushed in to play defense.

"Eehh— aah? What was the other part of your plan? I pass it to you now?" he asked, flicking his gaze between Kari and the fast-approaching opposing players..

"You'll know when!" Kari put a hand on his chest and shoved hard.

"Oohuuggh?!"

Thanks to her strength, Minato skidded much further than the enemy team could slow their own momentum, missing their chance to grab him. The goalkeeper moved to defend the opposite end of the net, but Minato chucked the ball into Kari's hands. She threw with all her might and scored an undefended goal.

2-3 in favor of Kari's team.

The seven of them gathered to give each other high fives.

"Alright, switch teams!" the teacher announced.

Makina came up to the edge of the pool and beckoned. A huge smile awaited Kari as she swam over to her.

"You scored the winning point!" she exclaimed gleefully, then pretended to hold a microphone between their faces. "Do you have a few words for the camera? Maybe someone you'd like to thank for getting you this far?"

"Shut up and help me out of the pool already." She splashed Makina and rolled her eyes.

"Hey, I have a practice concert after school. You wanna come? It'll be quick. I go in, play a piece and go home," Makina said.

"You know I'd never miss a chance to hear you play."

Makina lowered a hand, but as she was about to pull, Sachi walked by and nudged hard. Both Makina and Kari tumbled back into the pool. They emerged coughing up water.

"Are you fucking serious? Hey!"

"Ignore it." Makina said, tugging on her hand. "I'm next to play anyway, so if anything she helped me in!"

Kari swallowed the urge to succumb to rage. Sachi did them dirty twice in one day. Those girls should have been too scared out of their wits to try anything anymore after seeing her crater a wall. Was breaking one of their wrists not enough?

As much as she would like to ignore the problem, she wasn't Makina. At some point, her patience would run out completely. If Sachi kept screwing around, there wasn't going to be a third time.

A couple of boys sitting on the benches whispered derisively amongst each other, eyes fixed on Makina and snickering. It didn't take a genius to know what they were talking about, especially after that picture got leaked.

Kari snatched Rocky out of the pool while he was lounging on a stray kickboard given to students who couldn't swim. The anthem even had a swimming cap and goggles on in case he fell in.

"You see those guys behind me? I'm going to need you to splash them every time they start perving on Makina," she said.

"They're nowhere near the pool for me to make it look natural!" He pulled his goggles off and dared talk back.

Kari lowered him just above the surface of the water and pretended to fetch the board so as to not look suspicious.

"Then do it unnaturally. I'll buy you something nice to eat later. If you don't do it, I'm going to show you how fun waterboarding can be."

The anthem gulped hard. "Somehow… I don't believe that's fun at all. I'll do what I can for Makina then!"

After letting Rocky go and wishing Makina good luck, Kari decided to turn into the lockers early to catch a shower before the rest of the class. She didn't have to, but the teacher did say students who finished their match had the okay to do so.

A pair of girls who were in the same team as Kari exited the locker room looking a little spooked.

"I wouldn't go in right now," one of them said.

"Why?" Kari raised a brow.

"Queen Bitch is inside," the other remarked.

That certainly narrowed down the list.

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks." She nodded as they walked away.

Once Kari dried her feet, she made her way towards the entrance, stopping short of entering when a hushed conversation was in earshot.

She slipped inside unnoticed and hid behind an oversized laundry cart of towels. They were a group of four girls, but she couldn't tell who they were hidden behind the multiple rows of lockers.

"Why are you getting cold feet now?"

Her ears twitched with recognition. It seemed those girls weren't kidding. The one who just spoke was Ena. She wasn't part of this class cluster swimming today and shouldn't be here to begin with.

"I already kicked Kari and pushed Makina into the pool. They're gonna know it's me if I do this. Where'd you even get this many?" The other voice belonged to Sachi.

It sounded like she was hesitating over something. More bullying?

"Another school in my dad's district had an infestation problem, but forget that. You were about to carve Kari's face open yesterday. You're chickening out now?" Ena asked, her pitchy voice echoing painfully in the lockers.

"Kari… don't you think she's like not normal at all? Someone doesn't just break a—"

"You're still going on about that! My dad said the wall behind the cafeteria was cheaply constructed anyway." She shoved a box into Sachi's hands. "The roaches are dead. Just dump it on one of them and get out. I got eyes in your class, too. I'll know if you chicken out."

Ena scoffed at the person who was supposed to be her friend and stormed out of the locker room.

Kari emerged from her hiding place and found Sachi, her wet bob cut clinging to her troubled face, sitting on the bench between the lockers with a cardboard box in her hands.

"More roaches? You guys are running out of originality." She folded her arms and confronted the would-be perpetrator.

"What are you— I dunno what you're talking about. My stuff's in here." Sachi jumped from her seat, clutching the box so hard it wrinkled the cardboard. She couldn't lie to save her life. It was written all over her face and glare.

"I heard you and Ena talking about it. You still going to play the ignorance card?" Kari asked.

"I… have to do it…" she said, looking a lot more terrified than expected.

But terrified of who? Me or Ena? Kari wondered.

This was going to go down in one of several ways. She could take the box of roaches by force or tell the teachers beforehand, ruining Ena's plans. That wouldn't stop the bullying in the long term. They would just do it again. Sachi was their fall guy to take the blame if it ever went back to them.

Maybe there was another way. Sachi was on the fence. This rift between her and Ena could use a push. A little kindness might worm its way into Sachi's head.

"Leave Makina out of this. Dump the roaches on me instead," Kari said.

Sachi's mouth flopped open like a fish out of water.

"I don't know what Ena's got on you," she continued, "but it doesn't look like you want to do this. If you have to do it to anyone, do it to me and not Makina. How's that?"

"You think you're some kind of goody-goody magical girl by doing me a favor? Just rat me out to the teachers already!" Sachi cried.

"Who cares what I think. Either you do it or don't. Other girls from our class are coming back in ten minutes. I'll be in the last shower stall on the left end." She picked up a towel and shower cap, then headed for the designated stall without turning back.

When she reached the entrance to the stall, her fingers and shoulders started shaking. Dead cockroaches. Just what was she thinking? It sounded so disgusting, she wanted to barf. Her eyes stung as hot tears dripped to the floor first, followed by the shower water once she turned the dial.

Kari instinctively wiped the tears from her eyes, sucked in a quivering breath, and glanced behind herself.

The stall door was low enough for someone to tip something in, and the space inside was cramped enough she wouldn't be able to avoid it.

"What the hell am I even doing?" she muttered.

Dozens of footsteps entered the lockers. Some made a beeline for the showers. Any minute or second now…

She preemptively turned the water all the way to hot. Her skin was on fire, but at least the burning water would dull the sensation.

Then it happened.

The sound of the box hitting the top of the door, followed by the shower of roaches.

She felt it. Every single carapace, every leg, and antenna that clattered off her head and back. As they rained down, Kari shuddered and wept, keeping her mouth shut for fear of one hitting her lips despite the urge to shriek. She screamed into her hand instead until the avalanche of insects stopped, and she couldn't so much as move an inch without kicking a pile.

There were so many it clogged up the drain, and she had to turn off the shower to keep the roaches from flowing out of her stall. She brushed a few off her shoulder and plucked another off her head. This one was alive.

A pest like head hounds.

Her horror warped into pity and disgust as she gazed upon the wriggling insect, trapped between her index finger and thumb. Then she crushed it, killing it as easily as snuffing the life out of a head hound.

And just like that, she stopped trembling and the tension left her body. Kari was no longer afraid of roaches.

She stepped out of her stall, naked and without her towel. Other girls who saw what had happened stared in astonishment and repulsion. One girl barfed into a trash bin.

"What are you doing?!" Makina rushed over to shield her body with a towel, then glanced into the stall and gagged. "Let's… get you washed up in another stall, okay?"

They went to tell the teachers what transpired. As expected, no one who saw was willing to snitch on Sachi for fear of getting on Ena's bad side. Makina wasn't present when it happened, and Kari was the only person who knew but pretended to be none the wiser.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Makina asked as they walked out of the faculty office and towards the shoe lockers..

"I'm really okay!" Kari tried to assure her.

"It's not okay! Like at all. I can't believe someone did that to you. If it was me, I… I'm not sure what I would've done." Her lips were quivering.

Kari knew then that she made the right choice. If anyone, due to what's been happening to Makina lately, she understood how painful being bullied was. That was precisely why she couldn't let Makina go through that.

"I couldn't be a magical girl if a couple of dead bugs freaked me out," she said.

"That doesn't make it okay…"

"Hm?" Kari found a note inside her shoe locker. She thought it was a love letter and almost crushed it in her hand but gave it the benefit of the doubt. Turns out, only a phone number was written on it.

"Ooooh. Did you get a confession letter?" Makina asked, peering over her shoulder.

"Nope," she answered, crushing the note and stuffing it into her pocket. "Just a self-reminder to buy some milk after school."

They were both leaving school when Kari saw Sachi waiting outside the school gate, back pressed against the wall and eyes cast to the ground. She looked like she wanted to come over and say something, but Kari shook her head. Quick on the uptake, Sachi abandoned her approach and pointed at a phone in her hand.

That explained who the mystery number was from. It seemed Kari's little act of kindness did get through to Sachi, and that was all she needed.

Slowly but surely, she chipped away at Ena's inner circle. If a bit of violence couldn't send a message, there were other ways to get back at someone.

Until then…

Both of them took a taxi into the city. The music arts festival on August 10th was held at the Minato City Performing Arts Center, built within the past year in an effort to viciously promote fine arts to Japanese citizens. This was the prime minister and National Diet's master plan to curb rising suicide rates, hikikomoris, and declining birth rates.

A tone deaf response to a nation-wide pandemic going on for decades now, but at least it gave Kari a chance to see Makina at her best.

Makina was among several student performers, along with some big shot composers in the music world, invited to the center's grand opening. Applicants were screened a year in advance and auditioned by sending a video performance sample. She couldn't stop grinning the day she got accepted.

They arrived at the concert hall to the sound of the piano playing a classical piece. Heavy velvet curtains were drawn open, revealing a stage upon which someone played on a Yamaha grand piano. Off to the left wing, prospective musicians were waiting their turn for the piano or with an instrument of their own.

At a glance, the concert hall probably had some number of 1,000 seats on the first floor. God knows how many more were on the balcony. She wasn't about to break her neck to check.

A man in white dress shirt and comically large, round glasses descended the stage to greet us.

"Daigo Shinozaki. Are you two performers? May I have your names?" he asked, raising a clipboard to his face.

"Just me. Makina Oikawa, pianist." She then leaned into Kari and lowered her voice. "That felt good to say."

Daigo wrote something into the clipboard, then turned it and a pen over to Makina.

"Please sign your name next to your printed name and wait your turn behind the other performers. Your friend may watch from any of the seats, but no filming and recording." After Makina signed her name, he stuck the clipboard under his arm and returned to the stage.

"I can still text though, right?" Kari called out.

"Quietly!"

She noticed Makina shaking uncharacteristically and asked, "What's wrong? Nervous?"

"Just jitters," Makina answered, pinching her own cheeks until they turned red. "It's been a while since I performed on stage. Still embarrassing even if there are only a handful of people watching."

"I'll be sitting right here, so you'll know where to look." Kari moved to take a seat but Makina stretched out her arms.

"Jitters won't go away. Hug me," she demanded.

"You can't be serious…"

"Hug me!" she repeated, much louder this time that people from the stage turned their way.

Kari relented, hugging Makina until she was satisfied enough to make her way to the stage.

It would probably be a whole 40 minutes before Makina's performance. In the meantime, she added Sachi's number to her contact list on LINE.

Kari sent a text, "Sachi?"

A minute later, her phone buzzed.

"Yah. Sry and thx 4 earlier," was Sachi's response in typical teenage girl fashion.

"You owe me." Kari hovered her finger over the send button, then reconsidered the blunt response. She deleted the text and sent another instead. "No prob."

If she was going to turn Sachi against Ena, the first step was to not act like her to begin with. Play the role of their hero, even if none of them deserved it.

After what seemed like an eternity, Makina was finally up on the stage. Something about her posture was off. She slouched, one side of her shoulder was lower than the other, and the previously cheery demeanor had withered to a somber one.

The reason was obvious. Performers waiting by the left stage wing snickered, checking their phones and making double takes at Makina. Had the photo spread so much that students from other schools got hold of it?

Makina took several deep, audible breaths and placed her fingers on the keys. Whether she had successfully calmed her nerves or not, Kari couldn't tell. Daigo tapped impatiently on his clipboard.

However, much to the delight of the audience members and Daigo, Makina began to play.

Kari instantly recognized this piece. Harpischord Concerto No. 5 in F minor, by Bach. Normally performed by several stringed instruments, Makina alone breathed life into the whimsical piece by slowing it down.

"Wow! Makina's really good," Rocky said.

"Damn right."

It brought her peace, to a time where neither of them had to worry about magical girls or bullying. The music touched her heart, lifting her very soul onto a cloud to gaze upon the lush blue sky, then— thunder.

Or not quite.

Discord.

Makina leaned over the keys, staring down as if peering through a microscope. She had messed up and struck the keys with such dissonance it shattered the audience's peaceful reverie.

"Ah…" She gasped at her own mistake, then turned to Daigo, who twirled a finger to signal her to start again from the top.

And she did. Makina continued to make the same mistake even as she restarted from the beginning. She couldn't finish the piece. Her hands shook so much, Kari didn't have to squint to see it. Members from the audience began to whisper mockingly.

"Alright, that's enough. Make way for the next performer." Daigo shooed Makina off the piano. Kari rushed up to the edge of the stage as he continued to berate her friend. He double-checked his clipboard and grimaced. "I would have expected someone playing piano for twelve years could play a piece from start to finish."

"She's fine," Kari said.

Daigo followed them off stage. "The music arts festival is around the corner—"

"I said, she's fine!" Kari snarled, loud enough to give the next performer a fright and silencing any more of his attempts to spew doubt.

Kari led Makina off stage by hand. As soon as they exited the concert hall and into the lobby, she wouldn't move another step.

"It's not like you to mess up like that. There I was, hoping to hear you play, too. What's eating you?" she asked.

"I can't help it! It's my fault they started bullying you, too. I never wanted to drag you into this… Every time my fingers hit the keys, I thought about why someone would throw those bugs on you!" Makina cried.

"Help me out, Rocky." She and her anthem each squeezed one side of Makina's cheek.

"Uu— whah are you hoing?"

"Reminding you to focus on your music and not me. Now promise me you'll do better next time, or we're not letting go." Kari smirked.

"Ohay, I phromish!" Makina rubbed her swollen cheeks after they had let go. She leapt into the air to snatch Rocky and hugged him tightly to her chest, then raced to the exit. "I promise to focus more on music and on you!"

"You little…!" She sighed as Makina stuck her tongue out and hightailed it out of the building.