Still riding the high of breaking Daisuke's leg, Kari skipped across the city with a spring in her step. She stopped in front of a closed bakery and pressed her head against the window. The face in the reflection was drenched in sweat, grinning like an idiot, and cheeks flushed red. This high was like an orgasm that wouldn't stop.

She did it. She really did it. Daisuke was lucky he got off with just a broken leg. She could have taken his life, but didn't because she was merciful. Or maybe it wasn't about mercy. He needed to suffer just a fraction of what Makina was going through.

Daisuke wasn't the only one. There were others to take care of. Tetsuo, Ena, and Principal Nishida needed to be punished for what they did. School remained a living hell for Makina otherwise.

"Next, I'll deal with Tetsuo. Then…" Kari nibbled on her thumb to stop the jitters.

"Kari? That you?"

Her heart nearly leapt out of her chest. She whipped around, thinking she had been caught red-handed. It turned out to be Shuu on his bike, one foot on the pedal and the other on the ground, his helmet under his arm.

"N-No…" Kari turned to leave, but he rode past to block her way.

"It is you!" he exclaimed.

"It's not nice to follow girls in the middle of the night, you know?" she teased him. "If I shout 'stalker!' that's the end of your social life right there."

"You're not going to do that to me." Shuu folded his arms as if daring her to.

Kari cupped her hands over her mouth, taking an audible deep breath to call his bluff.

"Stop! Stop! I just got off work. I swear to god, running into you was a coincidence." He put his hands up in resignation.

She burst into laughter. As the tension left her shoulders the fog clouding her mind dissipated, but the gravity of what she had done dawned on her.

Kari dropped to her knees, clutching her head with both hands. She replayed in her mind the moment she broke Daisuke's leg. Why did that feel so good? It shouldn't. She hurt someone. Probably ruined their future.

And yet, she did not feel an ounce of regret.

"Hey, don't faint on me. Are you okay?" Shuu cradled her in his arms. He had let his bike fall to the ground just to help her up.

"Yeah… but the guy who hurt Makina isn't," she said, clutching his shoulder.

They went to an izakaya that Shuu frequented. The place was packed full of salarymen still in their suits and faces as red as tomatoes. Despite only being eighteen, Kari was allowed in but couldn't be served alcohol even if she wanted it. A drink might have done her some good. After all, didn't people drink to escape their cruel and boring realities?

Her senses weren't the only things that returned. Hunger gnawed at the pit of her stomach. She was starving so badly her knees and hands were jittering.

Kari stared at the food laid before her with a hint of shame because it was all on Shuu's yen. The table was cramped with plates of mouthwatering crispy and golden fried chicken, grilled squid, edamame, shrimp tempura, and crab cakes.

"We're already here and food's been ordered. You better eat so my money doesn't go to waste," he chided.

The invitation was given. She helped herself to everything on the table. Each intake of breath met a new morsel to be devoured until the plates were licked clean. Shuu had to place additional orders just to feed himself.

"I'm stuffed. Grub is a lot better on someone else's money." Kari leaned back in her seat, stroking her belly like a pregnant woman.

Shuu frowned. "You ate half my day's pay in less than an hour…"

The remark reminded her that it was getting late. She shouldn't stay out too late in case Makina woke up in the middle of the night.

"I appreciate the looking out. I'll pay you back by someday!" She thanked him for dinner and was about to leave when he cleared his throat.

"You can repay me by explaining what the hell you meant back there. The two of you are my favorite customers, of course I'm going to be worried when I see you almost pass out on the street." Shuu's genuine worry gave her pause. She had her guard up because recent events chipped away what little hope she had for humanity. It was easy to forget that there were many more good people out there than not.

Kari returned to her seat, figuring Shuu deserved to know as much. Things might have spiraled more out of control if he hadn't shown up. She gave him a quick rundown of what happened, taking care to make obvious omissions like her brutal act of vigilantism.

"Well… shit. I didn't think it was going to be something so heavy. Is… Is Makina doing alright?" he asked after taking a moment to sort through what she said.

"She's at my place tonight, so I can make sure she doesn't add to a statistic. In retrospect, I should've stayed home, but I really needed some air." Kari sighed.

Shuu swirled the open beer can and heaved a sigh of his own. Judging by the sound of how full it was, he hadn't taken a sip. Poor guy was coming home from work, hoping to get a drink, and she showed up out of nowhere to put a damper on his night and lightened his wallet.

"Yeah. Yep. Definitely. If I was in your position, I would have beaten him to a pulp. Good on you for taking the high road with just a slug." Shuu offered a smile that wracked her with guilt. Not in what she had done to Daisuke, but that she had lied to a good guy like Shuu.

She didn't let it show on her face. It served as some semblance of comfort that Shuu at least expressed an urge towards using violence. Were people just naturally predisposed to violence to resolve things? In the end, it seemed what made right was up to those who could enforce it.

How ironic that she'd been given the Destroyer class as a magical girl.

"Not that I can do anything," Shuu continued. "I lay one finger on a minor and my life's over. You're all teenagers though. This will blow over when the next trend or something worth gossiping about appears."

"People my age really do have the attention span of a squirrel. Makina's been getting harassed for a week now. It's going to take—" It struck her like lightning.

Something else worth gossiping about.

Like…

"Like the fourth magical girl's identity?" she asked.

Shuu chucked the last edamame into his mouth and gnawed on the shell. "That girl, huh? She's the hottest topic at my workplace since the Tamachi Station incident. Customers come in talking about her, too. One of my coworkers called me a creep because I've been staring too hard at black-haired high schoolers that come in, thinking any of them might be her. I mean… she's got to be walking among us, right?"

Kari tuned him out as he fell into a spiel about the fourth's identity. Shuu, just like everyone else, was crazy about magical girls. And who could blame them? If she were to unmask herself, it would take attention away from Makina.

In fact, when people realized that Makina's friends with a magical girl, they wouldn't so much as dare look at her in the wrong way.

But then the cat really would be out of the bag. On the other hand, ending her short stint as a masked hero for Makina's sake was a small price to pay.

"What's up? You're shaking in your seat. Don't tell me you got the runs after eating so much." Shuu chuckled.

She swallowed her hesitation and looked Shuu in the eyes. "I'm the fourth magical girl."

Shuu went from astonished, to disbelief, and finally to outright laughing his ass off in the span of two seconds. They had suddenly become the loudest table in the izakaya, and there were a lot of boisterous drunkards to compete with in there.

After laughing to his heart's content, he wiped the tears in his eyes and took several deep breaths to recompose himself. Their gazes met again, but his giggles stopped upon seeing that she wasn't laughing.

"Alright, where's the punchline?" he asked as the lighthearted, humorous atmosphere turned thick with uncertainty. His eyes went wide and the edamame slipped from his lips. "You're not joking."

"Thanks, Shuu. Remind me to owe you one later!" Kari jumped out of her seat and went for the exit.

Behind her, Shuu also stumbled out of his seat.

"Kari!"

"Excuse me, sir! Your bill!" One of the waiters stopped him before he could give chase.

She bolted out of the izakaya and into the streets. Stray spawns or an incursion. Something. Anything to make her debut. It had to be tonight, as soon as possible. There was no telling how close Makina was to breaking. Even one more day of bullying painted a lifetime of misery.

"Stray spawn…" Kari skidded to a stop, recalling the head hound trapped behind the sewage gate.

The monster was still there when she arrived, hidden in the shadows and occasionally giggling. She wiped the sweat from her head and suppressed the urge to retch from running on a full stomach, then walked up to its prison.

"Just what the hell are you that you can survive for so long like this?" She glowered at it and received a low growl in response. "Not that it matters. I'm going to kill you, but first I need you to run amok in the city."

Fortunately, no one was around except the two of them. It would have been a problem if someone saw what she was about to do.

Kari kicked its face, causing it to tumble back. She then used her incredible strength to pry open the metal bars just enough for it to squeeze through and escape. Not wanting to draw its attention, she hopped above the concrete sewage entrance and watched as it slowly crept out. The head hound looked left, right, then took off running into the city.

When she transformed, her mask appeared along with the outfit.

"How should I debut? Without the mask, or taking the mask off after I defeat the head hound?" she asked herself. The train of thought, however, was cut off by a high-pitched shriek. Closer than she'd like. "Shit— What's someone doing out here so late and far from the city?"

The body of an elderly woman laid dead, face down along the grassy riverbank. A chunk of her right abdomen had been bitten off. Kari cursed her luck and gave chase.

Her heart dropped when she saw three corpses littering the ground leading up to the intersection. This was supposed to be a quick chase, but the damn thing went on a killing spree.

Cars blared their horns. People ran in every direction, screaming in terror and for help. Two terrified men ran into her and staggered back with a start.

"Twilight! Or was your name Eventide?" The older of the two gawked.

"Who the fuck cares what her name is. There's a monster eating people!" the younger one cried.

The head hound was in the middle of an intersection. It jumped on top of a minivan, gnawing on the arm of some unfortunate victim. The occupants within the car thought to make a break for it, but the child tripped. His yelp caused the head hound to take notice.

"Flare… Jade… Candy… please, help me…" he whimpered.

She pushed the two men out of the way as the head hound leapt from the car hood.

"Oh, no you don't. Come here!" Kari shouted just before the creature's gnashing jaws reached the child. In the next instant, the hound appeared in her grasp. She slammed it into the ground and caved its face in with a single punch.

[+1,000 Apocalypse points.]

The addition of points signalled its long overdue death.

Kari raced over to the kid whose parents had returned and cradled him in their arms. She gritted her teeth, glancing over her shoulders at the damage done from just a single monster.

"Thank you so much!" the mother said.

"Don't mention it. You okay?" she asked the boy who couldn't be much older than eight.

He broke free from his parents grasp to come closer to her. "Are you… Flare?"

Kari was taken aback, then remembered that having her hair in a ponytail resembled Flare's much longer style. That must have been where Makina got the inspiration from.

Before she could give an answer, people began to crowd around them. They pulled out phones to snap pictures, most of them cheered and clapped their hands.

This was her moment. It took a few casualties to give her this opportunity, but what were a few deaths at this point?

She wondered what name she should give them. Twilight? Eventide? Maybe spare a few seconds to come up with a cool name? No. There wasn't a need to beat around the bush.

"No, I'm not Flare." The crowds gasped as she pulled her mask off and pressed it into the kid's hands. "I'm magical girl Kari."