Kari saw the brief flash of the gun. Saw the bullet leaving the chamber. There were no more no second chances. No one was around to save her this time.

It seemed, however, in her moment of surrender, fate wouldn't have her die just yet.

A familiar shiv passed by her eyes, splitting the bullet in two and causing both halves to miss.

"What?" Sniper blinked twice, doubting her eyes.

"What are you waiting for?" the one dressed as a nun asked. "Send this nonbeliever to be judged by God so that we may be on our way."

Her companion took aim again, but something cut the gun in half before she could pull the trigger.

"We're under attack!" Sniper shouted, tossing the remaining half aside and picking up her sniper rifle to finish the job instead.

In the blink of an eye, Sachi swooped in to slash the nun's throat. She staggered away, desperately clutching her neck with both hands and choking as blood poured like a waterfall down the habit.

Sniper raised her rifle to open fire, but Kari kicked her legs out from under her. The shot went wide and demolished the corner of a building.

"We're getting the hell out of here!" Sachi flung her shiv as far as she could and clasped Kari's hand just as the other magical girl pointed the rifle at them.

"Assassin's Shiv!"

"Killshot—"

They reappeared much further down the street with Sachi wielding the knife that was previously in mid-flight. She wasted no time, throwing it again down an adjacent street and using her skill to escape Sniper's line of sight.

The moment their feet touched down on the other street, multiple shots rang out where they had escaped from.

"Keep watch from the skies, Iggy. Not too high, or that girl with the gun'll take you out," Sachi said to her anthem.

Iggy nodded and flew only as high as the buildings' rooftops.

"Can you stand?" she turned to Kari to ask.

As much as Kari wanted to answer, to say anything at all, tears rolled down her cheeks. She couldn't say anything anyway because the electric shocks had caused her throat to seize up. Instead of waiting for an answer, Sachi put Kari on her back and took off running.

They entered a convenience store that had already been broken into to hide as monsters began to spawn seemingly all over the place. In a matter of minutes, the skies were beating with the wings of countless flying monsters, and the earth rumbled from parades of broken ladies, head hounds, and new creatures neither had ever seen before.

The apocalypse was in full swing.

Their uphill battle had begun, and the Messiah scored a homerun right off the bat.

Most of the convenience store had been looted, but Kari was lucky to spot a water bottle that had rolled underneath the shelf. Although she twisted the cap off with ease, trembling hands made it difficult for her to drink.

"Come on, Kari… You're embarrassing us both here." Sachi smirked, holding still the bottle to Kari's mouth.

The water somehow hurt going down, but Kari was never more relieved to feel the sensation and knowing her body wasn't entirely fried.

"Feeling better?" Sachi stopped feeding her water halfway through to have some for herself.

"Yeah, thanks." Kari wiped her chin and leaned against the empty shelves. Or so she thought they were empty. A tin can of wasabi peas rolled off which she caught before it hit the ground.

When Sachi saw what was in her hand, she grimaced. "You like those?"

"Honestly? Nope. Makina does though. Boggles my mind how she likes super sugary things and weird spicy snacks." Kari opened the can and crunched on a few peas.

All they did was make her thirsty again, and she sighed at the sight of the now empty water bottle in Sachi's hand.

Those shots from the Sniper girl were no joke. They packed a punch. Of course, Kari couldn't forget the nun. Both of them combined did some serious magic damage, of which she was weak against. Someone did their homework and knew exactly who to send against her.

If there was one silver lining to this…

Kari reached out until her hand found purchase on Sachi's shoulder. She squeezed with what little strength she had left.

"You don't know how glad I am to see you. Seriously, thanks."

"Bet you'd never expected to say that to me of all people, huh? But from what I'm seeing outside, the three of us aren't out of the woods yet. Can't fly our way out either." Sachi sighed.

Slowly but surely, Kari was regaining control of her body. However, that meant nothing if she couldn't heal and fight as a magical girl.

"Where's Rocky? Candy and Yuyu?" Kari asked.

Sachi's demeanor soured over. The look on her face told Kari that nothing went down as they expected while in search of the other monster.

"You saw my message get cut off, right? We did get to the monster, but there were maybe three other magical girls there just… guarding it. Didn't get close enough to see their faces, but I'm guessing they were with the same people who almost offed you. I tried to convince Candy to come back and find you, but she insisted on confronting them. Those guys… they took her down instantly, so I ran. As for Rocky, I have no idea," she explained shamefully.

Rocky probably never made it to them.

Don't you go dying on me yet, she thought.

And Candy went down instantly? She might not be on par with Flare or Jade, but the gunslinger was certainly no pushover when it came to fighting. Knowing her and what Flare had said Candy would try to do, she likely tried reasoning with them. Which meant the Messiah attacked her anyway, those ruthless fucks.

Kari tried to climb to her feet. Sachi and Iggy moved to help, but she placed a hand up to stop them. Using the shelves as leverage, she pushed herself to a standing position. A bout of dizziness almost put her back on the floor.

If this continued, Makina and Minato were—

Wait a minute.

Minato was in Meguro City, at least that was what Flare had told her. The place was sandwiched between Shinagawa and Setagaya.

Kari clutched Sachi's arms so hard she winced. "You said you were near Setagaya, right? You had to have passed by Meguro. How did it look? Did you see Minato?"

"The guy with the thick-rimmed glasses you hang with? Meguro is an entire city, you know? I have a better chance fishing a needle out of a haystack than running into him. The city wasn't in the path of any giant monsters though, so it was mostly untouched. A whole lot of people freaked the hell out and holed up in buildings. Right now though…" Sachi cast an anxious look outside.

It didn't matter. If Minato were to get hurt, she would never forgive herself. She had to tell him about Makina. About how they were dating now. They were best friends after all, he had to be the first to know. If only he would answer his damn phone.

Kari took an agonizing step forward only to fall into Sachi's arms.

"Whoa, there." Sachi offered a shoulder for her to throw an arm over. "I know you're raring to go, but have you seen how injured you are? Without Rocky—"

"I'm useless? The apocalypse didn't wait for anyone. Last message we got said monsters were appearing all over Japan. First, we need to find Rocky. Without him, I'm deadweight. If only we could rendezvous with Jade, but she's over in Toshima," Kari said.

Now was as good a time as any to get in touch with her. Hopefully she could still use the communications system without Rocky.

[Kari: Jade, you alive?

Jade: Barely.]

It worked.

Though the message was a little too curt to be Jade. Did something happen?

[Kari: I'm knocked out of form and got separated from Rocky. Flare is still MIA. Sachi and Iggy are with me right now, but Candy and Yuyu were captured by Messiah's group.]

A very long pause followed that made Kari and Sachi trade uneasy glances.

[Jade: Where?

Sachi: Between Setagaya and Meguro. It's my fault that Candy was caught.

Jade: I'll take care of it. I need you guys to get out of the city as fast as you can.

Sachi: Out? But the fight's here. We have a better chance of survival sticking together.

Jade: That's what Flare wants. All the eggs gathered in one basket. She and Messiah want to spawn a god for very different reasons, but the way they're going about it is exactly the same— us, as a feast on a platter.]

"N-No way…" Sachi shook her head from the revelation. "I just left Candy alone… If they kill her—"

[Kari: I'm not leaving until either Hurricane and Chu Hua die, or Flare dies.

Jade: Suit yourself, but I hope you've already said your prayers. One more thing: if you see Jaws, throw everything you got at it. That fucker ain't dead.]

They had all made their choices.

"We're really doing this? Fighting the Hurricane and Chu Hua?" Sachi asked.

"Yeah." Kari couldn't meet her eyes when answering, as she was one of the reasons why it had to be done after all. "Show me your stats again. I need to know what we got going for us."

Apocalypse System

User Information

Offensive Stats

Defensive Stats

User:

Sachi Tamura

Physical Strength:

53

Health:

105/105

Total Level:

Lv. 2

Magical Strength:

10

Magic Capacity:

45/90

Class:

Lv. 2 Assassin

Haste:

61

Physical Resilience:

12

Subclass

???

Magical Resilience:

12

Soul-Weapon

None

Current Points:

32,000

[Shroud (5): Become invisible for up to one minute or until a skill is used. During this duration, you move and fly twice your haste in speed. Successful skills or attacks while invisible deal 200% additional physical strength in damage after all values are applied.

Assassin's Shiv (20): Fling the projection of a dagger. As soon as it leaves your hand you control its movements until it hits something, dealing 500% of your current physical strength in damage. You may teleport to the dagger in mid-flight or up to three seconds after impact.

Fan of Knives (15): Spin in place, throwing daggers out up to 5 meters and dealing 300% of your current physical strength in damage.

The Assassin class had a powerhouse of a skill set, exchanging defenses for high strength and haste.

Flare did confess that turning me into a magical girl was a test, Kari thought.

Why hadn't it ever occurred to her to ask Rocky what class Inyanga was? Unlike Iggy who lost his memories after being reborn, they could have confirmed it easily since he outlived his magical girl.

She then noticed that Sachi's points were rather low.

"Did you not get any points from killing the nun?" Kari asked.

"Must not have died. I swear I cut through the windpipe though." Sachi stared at the shiv still wet with blood. "W-Wait… points? You're telling me killing other magical girls gives you points like killing monsters?"

Kari nodded, but gave no other explanation.

Yuria and Aiko couldn't use sigils without their anthems, but Kari didn't see anthems with either the sniper or nun at the time either. Then how? Were their anthems hidden or did the nun have a healing skill?

If that were the case, the nun was going to be problematic.

"We're going to have to pass through Meguro to get to Setagaya anyway. No matter what, I need to make sure Minato's okay," Kari said.

The three of them exited from the employee's back entrance of the convenience store, sticking close to the buildings to avoid monsters as they made their way through Meguro City.

"Hey, I get that you're close with Makina. But what's so special about that Minato guy?" Sachi asked.

Minato was somehow always there. He was the one who picked her up when she had passed out near the nurse's infirmary, always the first to ask if she was okay, and never once treated her any differently after becoming a magical girl. That time at the park, if Minato hadn't talked her down like that…

"He believed in me when I didn't. That's all there is to it," she quietly replied.

Six years had already gone by so fast. Kari remembered their first meeting in the first year of middle school like it was yesterday. A scrawny kid with an even smaller back who kept his head down most of the day from his own bullying problems, and she steered clear despite sitting behind him to avoid falling into the same trouble.

At the time, Makina didn't share the same class and would drop by during lunch. From the second she came into the room, the loud mouth just had to introduce herself to Minato and ask what he was reading on his phone. It turned out to be the latest news on the start of Flare's meteoric rise to fame as a magical girl of all things.

A couple of kids came by to make fun of him for his interests. Started calling Makina out for it, too. That was when Kari told them to screw off and they did. Then Minato spoke to her for the very first time.

You're kind of like a hero, too, he told her.

Words that have stuck with her ever since.

"Kari, over there!" Sachi snapped her from the daydream.

Across the street, two head hounds were trying to break into the Meguro Museum of Art. The entrance was barricaded by furniture from within, but the doors were beginning to give way.

"We don't have time to help them. Let's keep—" Kari gasped.

On the other side of the barricade, trying to hold back the monsters were a group of people, including a very disheveled Minato.

"Ahehehehaha!"

"Ahahahahehehe!"

Sachi and Kari spun around to more monsters attracted by the noise— a broken lady lumbering down the street and a lizard monster clinging to the side of an adjacent building.

The barricade into the museum finally collapsed and screams could be heard as people retreated further in.

"Tch. Can you handle these two?" Kari asked.

"If I'm careful, yeah." Sachi nodded. "You're not seriously going in there like that, are you— Wait, Kari!"

The seconds were ticking. A head hound could kill countless in a single minute. Faster. Faster. At the very least, let Minato be safe.

Kari vaulted over the destroyed barricade of tables and chairs. The wide open lobby of the museum offered no places for the group of people to hide. Both head hounds had already killed five people by the time she entered.

"Hey! Over here, you freaks!" she shouted at them, succeeding in only attracting the attention of one. The other chased people deeper into the museum.

The instant the head hound leapt into the air, Kari picked up a broken chair leg from the debris and used its own weight against it to jam the point into its throat. They both fell to the ground with the full weight of the hound on top of her.

[+1,000 Apocalypse Points.]

It was much more heavy than when fighting as a magical girl, but the residual strength allowed her to shove it off.

Kari broke another chair leg for a weapon and quickly checked the bodies. None of them were Minato. She made haste inside to find a brave few trying to hold the second hound off with brooms, her friend being one of them.

"I'm the one you want! Untransformed magical girl on a silver platter!" She waved at the monster and got its attention away from them.

"Kari?!" Minato gawked in shock.

This hound didn't jump. It charged straight at her like a bull. She stuck the chair leg out, but the monster ripped it out of her hands. The large mouth opened wide, revealing sharp rows of teeth that put a long lost fear of the mutts back in her.

Instead of diving out of the way, Kari wedged her elbow into the lower jaw and both hands on the upper jaw as it clamped down. The knife-edged teeth bit into her. Fresh blood poured into the gaping maws. With each step forward the hound took, she had to take one back.

It started giggling at her.

"What do you think you're laughing at? I'm not dead yet…" she growled in return.

"Get away from her!" Minato stabbed the broom into its right eye, causing the monster to rear back and knock him into a samurai mannequin.

"Minato!"

"I'm fine… just winded…" He rubbed the back of his head, saw the spear that had fallen from the statue, and kicked it over. "Think fast!"

Kari picked up the spear and snapped it in half. With the hound blinded in one eye, she was able to avoid getting hit more easily. She ducked from a wide swipe, stabbed one half of the weapon into its remaining left eye, then swooped the forelegs out from under it and forced the metal point through the right socket and into its skull.

[+1,000 Apocalypse Points.]

"Hey, that's Kari, isn't it?" someone among the survivors asked now that the danger had passed.

As Kari got to her feet, she was struck in the head by an empty soda can.

"What happened to stopping the apocalypse?"

"My son is dead because of you!" a woman cried.

"Where's Flare, Jade, or Candy? Why aren't you with them, trying to stop this?" another shouted.

Kari boiled over with anger, listening to their abuse after saving their lives. She bled for them. Almost died for them. This was their gratitude?

"Why don't you guys have some self-respect and shut up? We would all be dead if it wasn't for her," Minato chided. The sound of his voice was an offbeat tune in the discordant choir, but it was enough to put them on mute. He turned to her and frowned. "Dude, you're bleeding. Like a lot.

All the strength in her legs drained away, and she threw her arms around Minato. They dropped to their knees, overwhelmed with relief.

"Aw, geez. Now you're getting blood all over my new shirt! Seriously though, we should get you patched up," Minato said.

"Before that…I got to tell you something, " Kari began, tearing up for the second time today. "Makina and I… We're, uhm… dating now, I guess?"

He stifled a chuckle and returned a doubting gaze. "Really? 'I guess' is the best you got after all these years? Feels like I'm at the front row seats of a teen drama where the love interests never get anywhere. But, hey… I'm happy for you two."

Sachi and Iggy raced in seconds later, panting. She saw the two dead head hounds and gaped. "Kari, did you— The hell are you even made of?"

While Minato was wrapping bandages around the wounds on Kari's hands and elbow in the bathroom, she and Sachi filled him in on everything that had happened so far. They and the survivors kept at a distance from each other, their antagonisms towards magical girls were palpable.

"Well that explains why the entire country's gone to hell." Minato sighed. "What are your plans now?"

"Find Rocky, get you to safety, then pay the Messiah a visit," Kari said.

"Magical girls fighting magical girls… What is even happening? Don't get me wrong. You pull off some crazy shit, but I don't think you're beating anything bigger than a head hound like that." He tightened the bandages and nodded approvingly at his shoddy handiwork.

"She's got me. We can handle ourselves." Sachi grinned.

"I still haven't even processed that you're a magical girl! You're like the least deserving after what you did to Makina and Kari," he said, glaring at her.

"Chill out, Four-eyes. I know what I did. Don't need you chastising me like some preacher. There's a whole lot more at stake here, and I'm just trying to do what's right." She returned his stare with a dirty look of her own.

"I don't blame you for thinking that way, but Sachi's saved me more times than I can count. Put your trust in me if you don't trust her." Kari patted him hard on the back and might have reopened some of her own wounds doing so.

The three of them peeked outside. Those people were still there, huddled in the corner. Even with the entrance barricade broken, they took their chances here because two magical girls were their best shot at survival like they weren't just cussing her out earlier.

Many of them were whispering about other cities and the mention of Okinawa caught Kari's attention.

"What are they talking about over there?" Kari asked.

"One of you got a phone? I lost mine. Maybe you guys have been too busy to check what's going on. I wasn't kidding when I said the country went to hell," Minato said.

"Here. Use mine." Sachi tossed him hers.

He navigated to the browser and typed something into a search engine. A whole list of headlines and images popped up. As they expected, the world had been whipped into a frenzy by the apocalypse in Japan. The United States and China were particularly riled because their magical girls were here. Talks of sending military forces across the sea to help were thrown as casually as confetti. Whether the blustering had any actual bite behind them, no one was sure.

Social media and news were set alight with terrifying monsters, and more disturbingly were the giant ones that looked almost… angelic or straight up horrifying. Some weren't attacking outright, just waiting still as a statue.

Among the hastily-written articles…

Gigantic monsters appearing all over Japan!

A six-legged, winged beast flying over Osaka is causing electronics to malfunction.

Impossibly enormous serpent sighted off the coasts of Okinawa

Monster with the head of a crocodile, front body of a lion, and hindquarters of a hippo wreaks havoc in Shimane.

Scorpion with three tails and a humanoid upper body stalks eastern Hokkaido.

Six-armed, obsidian-skinned humanoid appears to sit patiently within Nijo Castle in Kyoto.

"What the… hell am I seeing?" Sachi gasped, the blood draining from her face.

"I'll forgive you guys for not knowing, so let me explain. That monster in Osaka? It looks eerily similar to a hundun, a beast of chaos from Chinese mythology. The chimeric one with a crocodile head? I'm pretty sure that's Ammit, an Egyptian deity associated with death. The multi-armed one with black skin, I could be wrong, but it definitely looks like the Indian deity Bhairava… Kala… or something. You starting to see a pattern?" Minato asked.

The Apocalypse System called them 'seraphs'. Were these mythological entities all angels?

A dreadful chill pricked across the surface of Kari's skin.

"Check Okinawa!" Kari demanded. "You know what it is, right? Makina's there right now. I need to know if she's safe!"

"Okinawa seems safe for now." Minato looked her straight in the eyes, and she saw not a glint but hopelessness in his gaze. "If I had a guess, the most prolific snake-like being of that size could only be Jormungandr, the World Serpent. Kari… you guys aren't fighting any ordinary monsters. You're fighting gods and beings that are forces of nature.