Gods and forces of nature?

"What is that even supposed to mean, Four-eyes?" Sachi lifted Minato up by the collar of his shirt, but she winced painfully and let go to clutch the side of her chest.

Kari and Minato hovered over her with worry.

"No surprise you're hurt, too," Minato said.

"Got banged up pretty bad. No more points to buy sigils either after my health got run down twice. I'm down half now," Sachi explained and pressed her back against the wall to steady her breathing.

"It's my fault." Kari frowned. "I told you to stay out there."

She shook her head. "Someone had to keep them from getting in."

Things got worse by the minute. If only Rocky was here. Being out of magical girl form put a damper on a whole lot of plans right now.

Rocky, just where the hell did you go?

"W-Who said you can touch me, nerd?" Sachi went red in the face, looking like she was about to take off out of the bathroom.

"Believe me, you're the last person I'll get a hard on from. If that injury is bad enough to make you whimper, then sit still so I can wrap gauze around an ice pack for you!" Minato fired back.

The two were about to duke it out, but Sachi eventually relented. She dropped the transformation and lifted her shirt to let him take care of it.

"You guys play nice. I'm going to make a call," Kari said, waving her phone on the way out.

The survivors that had come with Minato traveled deeper into the museum. Bleeding head hounds probably didn't make for nice art displays when waiting around. Well, better they took their chances inside than outside. But if nothing was done, they were going to be found one way or another.

Kari dialed Makina's number with bated breath and nearly fainted with relief when the call connected.

"Hey! What's going on right now? Everyone's being told to stay inside, and I'm pretty sure I heard an explosion off the coast just now!" Makina frantically explained.

"It's the apocalypse… There's a gigantic snake monster lurking in the waters of Okinawa, so stay inside and as far inland as possible," Kari said.

There was a pause between them so quiet that Kari thought the call had disconnected. Listening closely enough, she could barely hear Makina's rhythmic breathing. Was she scared speechless or just deep in thought? Because it wasn't like her to be at a loss for words.

"Send me a picture of yourself right now," Makina demanded.

Kari flustered at the request. "What? You're joking, right?"

"If I ask to facetime, you're definitely going to say no. I just want to see you!"

Without even seeing Makina's face, she easily imagined the pouting expression.

Sighing, Kari tidied her hair, licked the back of her hand wet to wipe away the smudges and blood stains on her cheeks, and finally snapped a picture to send to Makina.

After what felt like an eternity, the picture was uploaded at last.

"Pfft…" Makina clearly stifled a laugh just now. "It's so cute how you can't smile."

Kari's phone buzzed with a notification, having received an attachment from Makina— a smiling photo of herself, the expression on the verge of laughter.

"Glad you're happy…" Kari rolled her eyes, thankful that a second picture wasn't being asked for now that her face was red.

Minato and Sachi walked out, both also blushing but for different reasons.

"Want to take a guess who's on the other end?" Kari asked, then passed the phone to Minato on speaker.

He placed it up to his ear. "Is it Makina—"

"MINATO!" Her scream came through so loud that Minato extended the phone as far from himself as possible. "I've been sending you texts every single hour! Losing your phone isn't an excuse in this day and age! There will be hell to pay on your forehead when we see each other."

"Sheesh. I'm in danger no matter where I go! Oh, yeah. Kari told me you two are finally an item. Looks like she actually grew a pair, huh?" Minato snickered at Kari's expense.

"Oh, I checked. There's still nothing down there except a mole on her inner right thigh."

"Hey!" Kari and Minato erupted at their friend.

"I'm giving the phone back before I hear anything else I don't want to. Glad you're safe, Makina." He returned the phone.

"Seriously, you have zero filters. The phone's on speaker and Sachi's also here," Kari said, only to then realize that now might not have been the best time to reveal that.

"...Sachi is?" Makina gasped.

Sachi was deep in thought, brows and lips scrunched up as she resolved something in her mind. She walked up to the phone which Kari held aloft between them.

"It's… It's me, Sachi Tamura. I've been meaning to apologize for all the horrible shit I did to you and Kari back in school. You didn't deserve any of that, and I understand if you won't—"

"I forgive you," Makina said, taking everyone by surprise, especially the recipient. "Kari isn't bullying you back, is she? That girl can be abrasive and rude, but she really means well when it comes to friends. So if she thinks about getting back at you, just let me know. I'll give her a good scolding!"

Just like that?

Kari could never be as good a person as Makina in any lifetime. Although Sachi received the forgiveness she sought, the weight of her guilt came crashing forth, and she apologized before running back into the restroom.

"I'll make sure she's okay." Minato followed Sachi back in.

"D-Did I just make her cry?" Makina asked.

"Sachi lost a whole lot of people before the apocalypse, and… well, she decided to become a magical girl—"

Before Kari could finish, the ground began to tremble as if the world was heaving in agony. Ceiling lights flickered and loose debris rained down outside. The day quickly grew dark. She raced outside to find unnatural, dark clouds rolling across the horizon. Just as troubling was the earthquake earlier which created deep fissures in the streets.

"Sorry, Makina. We'll talk more later!" Kari said, but was reluctant to hang up.

"Be safe for me," Makina replied, then hung up for both of their sakes.

Kari put her phone away just as the others joined her outside.

Iggy pointed to the skies. "I'm 100% sure that's not the apocalypse or monsters' doing. It has to be from a magical girl!"

Those clouds continued to stretch far beyond the confines of Tokyo. Who the hell had that kind of power to blanket a chunk of Japan like that?

"We have to find Rocky. I hope you don't have any attachments to the group inside." Kari turned to Minato who shook his head.

"I got separated from my folks a few days ago, so I'll take my chances with you guys. Doubt we'll have any easier time finding Rocky though," he said.

Think, Kari.

Where would Rocky be? When they had separated, he should have been flying towards Setagaya to find Sachi and Candy. He couldn't be much further than Meguro. If the apocalypse started and monsters were appearing all over the place, he might be taking his chances flying low, just enough to avoid flyers and grounded monsters.

The skies…

"Sachi, how far can you throw your dagger straight up? A whole lot of people are probably wondering what's up with the sky right now. After all, the first thing we did coming out of the building was look up," Kari explained.

"Oh, I getcha!" Sachi flung the shiv with all her might that it sung all the way up and disappeared from sight.

What little sunlight remained reflected off the metallic weapon and served as a sort of flare. Rocky wasn't going to be the only thing to see it. Whether this worked or not, they were about to have a whole lot of company.

The dagger fell back into Sachi's grasp a few minutes later, and with it, a group of head hounds and flyers zeroing in on them.

"I can take 'em." Sachi stood her ground until a monster, frog-like in appearance with a bloated throat, hopped ahead of the horde. "Maybe not that thing…"

"Run for it!" Kari shouted.

The four of them made a break across the avenue. Sachi cut through the monsters in their way, but the ones behind them were gaining fast. A long, powerful tongue slammed into a car next to them and was pulled into its gullet. They threw themselves into an apartment complex, the entrance of which was too small for the bigger monster to fit through.

Its tongue fired off again and caught Minato by the legs.

"I got you, Four-eyes!" Sachi sliced the tongue, freeing him.

The creature shrieked and abandoned pursuit.

It seemed safe for now, but Kari's reckless move did more harm than good. They went to the highest floor and broke into a room at random. Though the power was off and most of the food in the fridge had spoiled, Iggy found some instant ramen inside a cabinet. Luckily, the plumbing still worked.

"Guess we're having noodles," Minato said.

"I'm going to see if I can spot Rocky from the roof. He had to have seen the glare from Sachi's knife" Kari left them to head for the top through the stairwell and cracked open the door to check if it was clear first.

While this building was mostly fine, others had flying monsters circling or perched on the rooftops. Countless pillars of smoke across Tokyo rose into the darkened sky. Distant screams were quickly silenced, including the ones in the direction of the museum they had just escaped from.

Kari cupped both hands over her mouth, then hesitated. What were the chances anyway? She would only become a megaphone to invite more monsters. Or worse.

Fuck it.

She swallowed the deepest breath of her life and yelled, "ROCKY!"

Her voice echoed far and wide. A swarm of flyers off in the distance grew closer, but it wasn't because they heard her. They were chasing something much smaller…

"H-Help!" Rocky screamed.

"Rocky?" Kari squinted and was floored that it worked. She ran to the other end of the roof and took a sprinting start, then leapt off at the edge. "Buy a healing sigil and magic sigil and put them in my hands! Now!"

Two crystals appeared in her grasp, she crushed them, transformed back into a magical girl, and summoned [Destruction and Ruin] to decimate the flock in one swing.

[+2,000 Apocalypse Points]

[+2,000 Apocalypse Points]

[+2,000 Apocalypse Points]

[+2,000 Apocalypse Points]

[+2,000 Apocalypse Points]

"I thought I was a goner!" Rocky buried his face into her chest in tears.

"How did you even find me?" Kari asked, holding him so tightly as if to be sure he was real.

"I tried to find the others, but monsters started spawning all over the place. Just earlier, I saw something shining in the sky. I came to check it out, but monsters caught my trail, then I heard you call my name. More importantly, you're alive! How?" He patted her cheeks, just as much in disbelief.

"Sachi saved me. We should go inside and fill you in," she said.

Magical girl and anthem reunited at last, they returned to the room to tell the others of the good news. Unfortunately, their untimely return intruded on Sachi having pinned Minato to the couch in an uncompromising position.

They separated from each other faster than Kari using Stampede, but the flushed faces couldn't conceal the truth.

"Cold noodles so bad that you went tongue-deep in each other instead?" Kari grinned.

Minato pointed an accusing finger at Sachi. "She pushed me down first."

"S-Shut up!" Sachi stammered. "It's not what you think!"

"I could leave you two alone again, but I thought I'd tell you guys that Rocky's back," she teased.

"Heya, lovebirds! A lot happened while I was gone, huh?" Rocky waved from her back.

Iggy floated over to high five Rocky.

"Looks like the ability to fly is back, too. I can carry Minato out of here unless you guys want more time to get friendly?" Kari offered in half jest.

"Better I'm out of your guys' way before things get worse," Minato said.

Their reunion was interrupted by two arm-sized bullets punching through the windows and into the floor.

"Get down!" Kari braced herself as they sparked.

Sachi shielded Minato and Iggy from the explosion, but they were blasted out of the building. Kari managed to catch and carry them onto the streets.

"Is the nerd okay?" Sachi coughed.

"Thanks to you, I'm toasty, but still alive." Minato groaned. "What the hell happened?"

From the dust and debris came the silhouette of someone in a habit.

"The Lord asks that we practice mercy and forgiveness. I should thank that girl with the knife for almost sending me to Him, but it's far too soon for me to go."

[Destruction Incarnate] didn't matter against their magical strength. Better to keep health up and fight them with other skills. Judging by the trajectory of the bullets earlier, Sniper was somewhere in the buildings.

"Minato, find somewhere to hide. Sachi and I have some cleaning to do," Kari said, watching him take cover behind rubble.

"This is bad… I'm almost out." Sachi panted.

A shower of bullets forced Sachi on the defensive, but Kari wasn't going to waste this chance to get the nun.

"Stampede!" Kari charged at the woman for the kill, but her weapon smashed into something like a barrier.

She wagged a finger. "It's amazing how complex the Apocalypse System is to be like a video game. My class happens to be a support. I can also do this— Cage of Light!"

Kari dove away, but the skill wasn't meant for her. Pillars of light trapped Sachi in place, but she teleported out with the help of her shiv. However, when she appeared at the handle of the weapon, a bullet struck her in the chest.

"Sachi, no!" Iggy cried.

The electrical shock that followed took Sachi out of magical girl form, and as quickly as the form dropped, gunshots more deafening than the previous one rang out.

"Sister Claire, stop!" Sniper leapt from her hiding spot to disarm the nun of the smoking gun.

They didn't stop to spare Sachi, but because the one hit was Minato, who had shielded her. The bullet wounds on his back were fast staining his shirt red.

"Oh, no…" Rocky gasped.

Kari's blood went cold. She dropped her weapon and raced over to help Sachi staunch the bleeding, but there was just too much.

"You can heal, right?" Sachi screamed at their foes. "This isn't his fight! Help him!"

"I-I didn't mean to shoot him… My healing skills only work on myself," the nun said.

"Did I… make it?" Minato asked, his breathing coming out in quick, ragged bursts.

Sachi nodded tearfully.

"Thank goodness… My bad, Kari… Tell Makina, I'm sorry… should've hung out with you guys more… when I had the chance…" Minato went still in her arms.

"Hey, Minato… Wake up for me, man. Wake up!" Kari clutched his shoulders so hard she felt a bone snap and flinched from the sound.

How was it that she could feel so empty and in so much pain at the same time? Everything was like a fever dream. She checked Minato's wrist for a pulse— nothing. Her hands were soaked in his blood, and for the first time, she was horrified by the color of it.

Sister Claire whispered a prayer from afar. "Those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. I didn't mean to kill him, but you should rejoice. I have sent your friend to the Lord's embrace."

Rejoice? There was nothing to rejoice about.

Kari shut Minato's eyes and passed him into Sachi's arms, who cradled him as she and their anthems wept.

"Say your prayers for yourself— Destruction Incarnate!" Her robes took on a savage appearance, causing Sister Claire and Sniper to falter at the sight of the empowered transformation. "I'll rip both your fucking heads off!"

"Sister Claire, we're retreating!" Sniper fired a shot at Kari, but she caught the bullet and crushed it before it could explode.

Although Sniper was faster in her retreat, the nun was too slow. Kari shattered the barrier and went for the kill. The two who had been so confident in taking her on before, even successfully subduing her, were now terrified beyond reason.

"Come Here!" Kari grabbed hold of the sister by her throat and punched a hole through her stomach, then let go just enough so that she could breathe. "Go on, heal yourself."

And the nun did.

Sister Claire muttered a skill to repair her wound in an instant, but Kari repeated the fatal blow. Over, and over, and over. Eventually, the nun's eyes grew fearful. She was running out of magic.

"Ahahaha! Very well. Send me to Him! The Lord receives me with open arms!" she bellowed fanatically.

Kari was about to crush Sister Claire's throat when a whirlwind enveloped the nun and carried her away. She tried to give chase, but strong winds kept her grounded.

"That's far enough," a silhouette behind a curtain of smoke said to her.

"I don't think so— Stampede!" Pure rage carried her fist into someone's palm. A punch that should have destroyed this person appeared to have done nothing. She was stopped cold in her tracks.

Towering over her was a woman dressed in camo. The wind whipped her blonde ponytail into a frenzy. This commanding demeanor, the piercing blue eyes—

"Hurricane," Kari snarled, her voice dripping with spite. She kicked her weapon out of the rubble to pick up, then swung it with all her might.

Hurricane grabbed Kari's wrist and twisted the hammer axe out of her grasp.

"Wind Tunnel!"

A powerful force pushed Kari back, making it difficult to stay standing. It didn't matter how hard she tried, she couldn't advance. Not against this wind.

The skill ended abruptly.

"Kari Tachibana, clearly trying to kill you was my only mistake. May we talk?" Hurricane asked.

Talk? Now they wanted to talk? What kind of sick joke was this?

"It's too fucking late. One of your groupies… killed my friend!" Kari choked up and wiped her stinging eyes. "You have another thing coming. Until you let me wrap my hands around those two behind you, there's nothing to talk about!"

Hurricane seemed perplexed. Her eyelids fluttered and face contorted in consternation.

"What does she mean you killed her friend?" Hurricane turned to her two companions for answers. "Your only orders were to incapacitate or kill resisting magical girls. Sniper, Sister Claire?"

"Sister Claire tried to finish off a magical girl with our service pistol like you ordered, but a boy jumped in the way. I tried to stop her, but I was too late," Sniper explained .

Sister Claire shut her eyes, nodding in confirmation.

"Accident or no, it isn't our place to intervene in any way. We're only here to impede the magical girls and bear witness to the apocalypse," Hurricane reprimanded them.

Recalling those fresh memories brought Kari to tears. Minato was gone and nothing was going to bring him back. Three bullets into his chest. It just wasn't fair. He didn't deserve to die like that. How was she going to face Makina like this?

"Kari, I'm so sorry for your loss. But rest assured your friend is in a better place. By God's side, at peace in Heaven," Hurricane said.

"Screw your sorry! It won't bring him back!" Kari shouted.

Who was this magical girl named Hurricane? The way she spoke, the guilt written on her face, was nothing like Kari imagined the leader of Messiah to be like. Her shoulders slackened. She returned an empathetic frown.

"Do you know why it's called the apocalypse?" Hurricane asked. "People have often forgotten what the word really means. In religious texts and concepts it simply refers to a revelation, having originated in ancient Greek as the word apokaluptein— to uncover."

"I'm not here for a history lesson. We're done talking!" Kari balled up both hands. "Stam—"

Thick, gray clouds obscured Hurricane.

"No, I suppose you're not." The voice seemingly echoed from everywhere at once. "I'll have to show you what God showed me."

A bolt of lightning struck Kari, and her vision went dark.

As quickly as Kari lost sight, she snapped awake to a vast blue sky splotched with clouds as far as the eyes could see. Her feet dangled over an infinite drop with no earth in sight. The view before her seemed to stretch on forever.

This place wasn't like the cosmic abyss she had encountered before. A warmth enveloped her here. And somehow, she wasn't alone.

When Kari focused really hard, she could see the vague outlines of… people. Souls. They passed by her like the clouds, drifting endlessly in the sea of blue.

"Welcome to Heaven." Hurricane appeared beside her and gazed on.

Kari threw a punch, but it went through Hurricane as if she was an illusion.

"What kind of magic trick is this?"

"No trick." She shook her head. "All of this is real. Here, our souls are able to take shape. Here is where our souls belong. You want to see your friend again, right? His name was Minato?"

"Bitch, don't say his—"

Kari!

Kari spun around to the sound of her name being called by a familiar voice. Minato's voice. She couldn't have mistaken it for anyone else's.

"Minato? Where are you! Hey!" she desperately called out.

Kari!

When Kari spun around a second time to locate the voice, she found herself staring at her own body, lying unconscious behind the corner of the school's hallway.

"Kari! Kari! What the hell?" Minato uttered in shock. "This suit… are you a…"

"Minato!" Rocky dropped into the field of vision.

The perspective pulled away and bumped into the wall.

"Y-You're an anthem… and if Kari's in that getup, is she… a magical girl?" he asked.

The vision cut to him in front of the nurse's infirmary. Her arms were clearly over his shoulders, and he seemed hesitant about going in.

You know, Kari? It kind of hurts that you didn't tell me about this. I can be reliable sometimes, too. We're all friends after all, the three of us.

Hot tears began to flow again.

Minato knew back then, too, and just played dumb. So it was him who had found her that day. But why was she seeing this memory?

"You're seeing them because these are echoes of his soul. There's no way I could have reconstructed this memory. It's unique to you and him alone." Hurricane returned, and so did the endless skyscape.

God, Heaven, souls… What did any of it matter when Minato had already died?

"So, say all this is real. You're telling me… God is brutally killing everyone to send them to Heaven?" Kari asked.

"That's right, and we magical girls have been fighting against that, delaying it, putting a hold on His plans. You're seeing the apocalypse— the revelation of it all. This is Rapture, the end times spoken of in scripture. Those monsters that we call them, they are angels or valkyries, or whatever a religion refers to ferrymen for the dead," she explained.

This had got to be a lie. It was all so… Then was Minato not really dead? Millions of souls passed through her every second. Somewhere among them were her parents.

"What happens to all the souls if we stop the apocalypse?" Kari questioned further.

"They will continue to be reborn in a dying world," Hurricane answered with grief in her voice. "Imagine how much they would suffer, trying to carve their way through life amidst famine and pollution. That's why all this has been happening. Because Earth has run its course. Humanity must leave for a time so that it can reshape. Eventually, we'll return with a new start. As different people, but—"

"No! This is wrong. Don't try to sell me on that crap. I don't want another world or a new life! I want this one where I can be with Makina and Min… if I can't have it… if I can't be with her, I'll tear everything down just to keep it that way." She summoned [Destruction and Ruin] and sliced the space in front of her.

The realm around them began to crack. Blissful sighs morphed into horrified screams and ghastly moans. All at once, like a glass fishbowl dropping to the ground, everything shattered.

Kari awakened back in the material world.

"You… How can you be so selfish?" Hurricane gaped. "You will send people into oblivion, to nothingness when they could be going to Heaven! We're trying to save countless souls, but you're willing to let everything go to ruin because… of one person?"

"You know what I think? If the old man in the sky couldn't save this world with humans on it, then like hell he can save it with us out of it." Kari glanced over her shoulder to see Minato held in Sachi's arms and apologized silently for her selfish decision.

They were going to have to meet again in another life, if there was one waiting for them after all of this.

"How dare you speak of our maker that way! Blasphemy… Blasphemy!" Sister Claire roared, stomping the ground indignantly.

Hurricane sighed. "I tried to be reasonable. Doing the right thing is always so hard… Kari, I didn't choose the name Hurricane because it sounded cool or it resonated with me. I actually didn't choose it at all. Those jarheads up the chain of command who think they know better, think they're holier than thou, have no idea what I'm really capable of, but I played along just to get to this moment. It is the only way we can save this world."

Sniper, Sister Claire, and four other magical girls with them backed away to give Hurricane space. The winds had grown stronger. Everything between cars and concrete debris near her was swept up by the violent gales.

Flying monstrosities that couldn't fight against the maelstrom were swallowed in. The swirling darkness grew in size with each creature it consumed, blanketing the sky until nothing, not even a shade of blue or streak of sunlight could be seen beyond it.

Hurricane rose into the sky as lightning tore through the world around them.

"I am the storm and the blizzard. The Messiah who serves as the hand of God. Rapture has come, and we must all repent for our sins. Especially you, Kari Tachibana."