Kari, Jade, their anthems, and Chu Hua ventured into Fukuyama City and couldn't be more awkward about it. Jade and Chu Hua were walking on opposite sides of Kari, using her to keep their distance from each other. The atmosphere between them was so thick not even [Ruin] could cut the tension.

After filling Jade in on what Chu Hua had told Kari about the Messiah's goals and how god-tier monsters came into play, all of them fell silent.

"Whew… Is it just me, or is it a little stifling out here?" Rocky asked, tugging absentmindedly at a loppy ear.

No one humored him. Not even Gauntlet, whom he had thrown a look to for backup.

On a lighter note, the rain had let up to a light sprinkle. The dreary landscape was made more peaceful by the storm clearing up. Instead of a dark gloom, it became a dim glow with a lot more sunlight being diffused by the clouds.

Something must be going on with Hurricane. Maybe Flare and Makina had already made it to Hokkaido to fight her. Maybe not.

Until they got there, there was no telling what's going on.

The group entered the ghost city on foot, squeezing past abandoned cars which packed the streets, their windows broken open by whatever foolishly brave looters came through hoping to find treasure. After the evacuation, the only living souls around were birds perched on rooftops and electrical lines, stray dogs and wild racoons that rummaged through buildings for scraps, and insects swarming trash left behind when people rushed to leave.

"I'm with Rocky," Kari said at last. "Whatever you two are hung up about, better get it out of the way now before it holds you back in the fight."

"Oh, now you want to be a team player?" Jade glowered, folding her arms and facing away from them.

"Same goes for me, too. I'll start— fuck you for leaving me and Makina to die, you pissy bitch."

When Jade turned to face her, Kari met the glare head on with the same indignant scowl.

"I told you before. Flare forced me not to intervene," Jade said.

"Doesn't change the fact that you left us to die," Kari sharply fired back.

"Oh, no. This is going to lead to another fight, isn't it?" Rocky pulled both ears down to cover his eyes.

Kari rolled her eyes and noticed Chu Hua signing in Jade's direction, then casted a pleading gaze to her way for help in translating before continuing.

"Chu Hua's apologizing… about Candy," Kari relayed for her. "I feel responsible for what Hurricane did. Nothing I say or do will absolve me of my hand in her death. Until the apocalypse has ended, please make use of me as a tool to do whatever it takes to stop her so that I may atone."

Jade clicked her tongue and walked ahead until a lion leaping onto a car startled them. The metal frame creaked and shuddered under its weight. The lion had a dead monkey in its powerful jaws and stared fearlessly at them. More than likely, both had somehow escaped from the Fukuyama City Zoo.

Kari had almost forgotten what it was like to fear. Seeing the lion, holding a caught prey, was a stark reminder that the strongest always came out on top. She wondered, by the end of the apocalypse, who between her and Flare would be the lion, and who would be the monkey.

The proud beast, having lost interest or seeking to dine in private, hopped off the car and disappeared into an underground parking structure. With it gone, nothing stood in the way between them and the malevolent domain that covered a third of the entire city.

"Not going to say anything back?" Kari asked the emerald magical girl.

"Kari, fuck you for killing Candy. Chu Hua, I got nothing against you. It's Hurricane I got beef with. And I ain't in the business of telling people what to do, so you do what you gotta do and stick to those guns," Jade said, all without turning around.

They reached the threshold of the malevolent domain and immediately felt something was off. The creeping sensation was nothing like the others they had faced. An ominous terror permeated the space around them like mist… like facing the Hundun in Osaka. Beyond this barrier was an evolved seraph after all, and similar to the ones before it, the monster had a quirk that needed figuring out.

"It's stronger than the others we've faced," Rocky warned.

"Same for us," Gauntlet said, smashing his plated fists together. "But it's going to fall all the same. Right, boss?"

Jade pressed a hand to the surface of the dome and recoiled.

"What? You touch a hot stove?" Kari asked.

"This isn't a normal malevolent domain. The whole thing feels alive. Feels wrong," Jade said, then threw a look to Chu Hua. "You ain't transforming?

I can't, Chu Hua signed.

"I beat the magical girl out of her, and her anthem's dead," Kari explained, herself placing a hand on the barrier and recoiling from a strange sensation traveling up her spine.

"The only way for her to restore health is a full night's sleep. Maybe we should all take a rest somewhere and fight tomorrow?" Rocky suggested.

As they set off in search for a place to hunker down, Kari couldn't shake the eerie feeling from touching the malevolent domain. It was smeared like dog shit on her shoe. Jade must have experienced the same thing, but there was little to be gleaned from her poker face.

Crashing other people's homes was beginning to feel like routine now. Kari had lost count how many times she had done it. They found an apartment building and broke into the first room on the first floor. The modest place was furnished with a single futon and an old school tube TV with a piece of cardboard underneath it. Although the power was out and the foods inside the fridge had long perished, Jade uncovered a gas burner to use. After enough scrounging from the other rooms, they managed to gather enough futons and canned food for all of them.

The canned beef rice Kari was filling but didn't satisfy her craving. Instead, it seemed to only intensify the other hunger that she had recently discovered.

Night rolled around and Chu Hua had gone to sleep first. She knocked out as soon as her head hit the pillow. Meanwhile, Jade had found a pack of cigarettes and was smoking outside. Kari was lying on her side, watching Rocky's snoozing face. The rabbit anthem was also on his side, but curled up like a crescent moon. She poked his nose, causing him to wrinkle it and roll over.

Unable to sleep, Kari got up and walked outside. Still in magical girl form, Jade was in the hallway, leaning against the wall and smoking absentmindedly. Her thoughts were somewhere in the clouds. Three cigarette butts at her feet told Kari that she had been out here for some time.

"Been a while since I smoked. Kinda forgot how addictive these damn things are," Jade said, taking a long drag of the cigarette.

"Everything's going to shit. Don't think anyone's going to blame you for smoking." Kari sat slumped against the wall and gazed out the open front entrance.

"Rie is. I can practically hear her scolding me with a pout." She sighed, eyes fixed on the space between them as though Rie was really there.

Kari wondered how much different things would have been if Candy was here. Instead of this gloom, she would be lighting up the night like fireworks, trying to make them laugh and being a chatterbox. They lost that ray of light that day, vanished like the clouds obscuring the stars.

Now, of the three magical girls, two were only a brittle goal away from going at each other's throats, and the third has a death wish.

Come to think of it, Kari never really tried to get to know any of the magical girls. Not even Rie when they hung out. If Makina was in her place, she would probably be firing off questions left and right.

"So… How'd a delinquent end up becoming a magical girl?" Kari awkwardly asked.

"The fuck do you wanna know for?" Jade squinted as though trying to discern any ulterior motives from her question.

"Alright, forget I asked. Geez." She was about to go back inside until Jade slumped down to a squat.

Jade pressed the cigarette into the ground to snuff it out, then pulled out another one from a carton to light.

"Happened when I was hospitalized. Was told my heart stopped twice before the docs finally got me stable," she said.

"What the hell did you do that put you there?"

"Series of bad choices. Ran with a gang called Ryuugaki when I was in middle school. I ain't talking about some petty street gang. Some of 'em were out gutting folks and robbing homes. I got roped into that life by their hotshot leader, a third year high school punk with nothing going for him except a cute smile and his sick bike. He loved riding that shit more than he loved riding me, lemme tell you. But you raise hell and hell catches up with you. One night, I shoved some old geezer a little too hard in his house. He hit the head and started bleeding from his ears. I froze up, wasn't sure if I should help or what. Next thing I knew, we were on my boyfriend's bike, racing down the streets to lose the cops that were chasing us. Never did know for sure what happened, but he was screaming about not being able to brake."

"You guys crashed," Kari said.

"That's what the docs said. Got a gnarly scar to prove it." Jade dropped her transformation and lifted her shirt to reveal a much larger scar than Kari had expected. It began at her right clavicle, traveled diagonally down her chest and ended at the bottom of her left rib cage.

Although Kari had wounds and scars of her own sustained over the months, nothing compared to how gross it was. It even made her wince, trying to imagine how bad that must have hurt.

"I came to consciousness with most of my body in a cast and wrist cuffed to the bed. Spent those months recovering thinking about that old guy more than my boyfriend the doctors told me died on the scene. What was the point, right? Well, the day I was supposed to be discharged, the cops were waiting to put me behind bars. Then Gauntlet showed up, told me I had potential, and asked if I wanted to be a magical girl. Crazy, right? But I thought maybe I was being given a chance to make up for all my shitty choices," Tsubasa said, chuckling from the memory.

It seemed to Kari like Jade was literally given a get-out-of-jail-free card. She really went and turned that around to become known as the magical girl of Justice.

"What about you?" Tsubasa asked.

"Me?" Kari was surprised by the question. "I… was just in my third year of high school. Worst I had were parents nagging me about what I wanted to do in life."

"Sounded like you had it luckier than most," she said.

"Yeah… I think I did…"

Looking back on it, Kari had every reason to be good. Until she took everything for granted. If only there was an option to go back in time to redo everything.

"Can I get something off my chest?" Kari reluctantly asked.

"What am I, a priest?" Tsubasa snorted, then clicked her tongue after looking Kari in the eyes. "Alright, fine. It ain't changing a damn thing how I think about you though."

She swallowed hard before beginning. "I… cut the soul out of my school principal because he tried to blackmail my friend. I broke someone's leg because he raped her, and I would've killed him, too, if Flare hadn't gotten to him first. I let a bunch of students get eaten because one of them set it up to happen and his pals were messing with another friend of mine. I killed a grieving police officer and father after he lost his daughter, then accidentally killed my school nurse that same night. I baited a battalion of JSDF soldiers just to avoid—"

"Stop. I don't wanna hear anymore. You need to tell that shit to someone who cares. What am I gonna do? Say something to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside? It ain't me you wanna hear from anyway." Tsubasa flicked the cigarette away and folded her arms.

Kari hung her head.

It couldn't be closer to the truth. She might have been looking for forgiveness, but there was no one around to tell her it was okay or that it would get better anymore. Her parents were gone. Minato was gone. Makina more than likely thinks she has gone crazy, and Sachi went missing.

"Let me try one of those." Kari gestured to the cigarettes on the ground.

"How old are you?" Tsubasa asked.

She stared at her incredulously. "You've got to be joking."

"I ain't giving a minor cigarettes."

Both of them turned in for the night, and in the end, Kari never got a cigarette or the closure she sought for the sins committed up to this point.

The trio and anthems were getting ready the next morning. Chu Hua was able to transform back into her magical girl form without her anthem. However, being unable to properly access the Apocalypse System meant that she was cut off from the use of sigils. She was severely handicapped and only had one life.

"That monster withstood an attack from me in [Destruction Incarnate] form and didn't move when I used my [Come Here!] skill. I'm thinking it's got some sort of physical immunity that isn't defensive in nature?" Kari wondered aloud as they flew for the malevolent domain.

It might be similar to Hurricane, Chu Hua began. She is able to directly convert physical damage taken as magical damage, and since her magic resistance is incredibly high, it is significantly reduced.

"Sounds like cheating to me, but I managed to force it to retreat, so I doubt it can keep that up for long," Jade added.

However, as they were about to cross the malevolent domain's threshold, the barrier splintered and cracked. It was shattering before their eyes, like someone had taken a giant hammer to a glass vase. As purple shards rained down around them, their gazes were drawn to the middle of the streets where the mangled corpse of the angelic seraph laid.

The once rotating rings had been broken, its magnificent wings soaked in blood and twitching, and the many eyes were shut. Standing atop the dead monster was another monster. A monster that each of them were all too familiar with.

"Jaws," Jade muttered the name with more disdain than how she regarded Kari.

"I don't believe it… Did Jaws… kill one of its own?" Kari asked.

"No… Something isn't right about that monster. I'm not sensing it as one! It's almost like… Do you feel it, too?" Rocky asked the other anthem.

"You're right," Gauntlet agreed. "I feel like I'm looking at another—"

A bright beam of light fired from Jaws' gaping mouth. They scrambled away as the laser-like attack carved through the city, bisecting every building that was unlucky enough to be in its path.

"Whatever the fuck is going on, we ain't letting it get away this time!" Jade launched Justice at Jaws, whose entire arm transformed into a mallet to swat it away.

"I'm going in!" Kari summoned [Destruction and Ruin], activated [Apocalypse Power-Up!], and entered her empowered form. She crushed a health and magic sigil to restore herself to full, then charged in with [Stampede].

Because the skill always hit its mark, holding her soul-weapon on the side of [Ruin] always meant that she would cleave the target's soul. The impact did just that. Unable to dodge the attack, Jaws braced itself with both arms that were shaped like hammers.

However, as Kari cut into it, she wasn't prepared for the screeching souls that were ripped from Jaws and squeezed her ears shut from the cacophonous cries.

I̴͙͛͝t̷͖̭͒̐'̴̥̎͜s̶̺̣͆ ̸̥̾h̶̨̤̎͝ǘ̶̜̥͋r̶̠̬̔ṫ̸̝s̷̢͎͋̈ ̷̛͖s̴̥̱̿̊ŏ̵̹̗̆ ̴͖͛̎ͅm̷͔̪͗̈́u̴͇͚͋̊c̶͖̥̅͝h̴̨̛͗͜!̸͕͂́ ̴̣͇̐S̷͇̑̒t̴̤͌͛ô̸̫̣͌p̶̲̟̀̔!̴̭͒̍ ̷͖̮͘P̸̮͗͌l̵̜͂e̵̲̤͂ȁ̵̞͚ś̸̡̳e̴͈̯͌,̷̼͂̊ ̶̙́͊I̵̘͚͊̍ ̸͓̏̕ć̴̜á̶̞̌n̸̢̏̔'̴̤͗t̵͉̍ ̶̦̀t̴͔̃̒a̸̪̾͝k̸̻͚͐e̸͇̮̍̒ ̸͕͑i̷͖͕͘̕t̴̛͍̞͝!̶̪́—

They ceased when Jaws dragged the souls back down his gullet while Kari was stunned.

"How many did you—" She was picked up by her head.

"So… hungry…" Jaws spoke in a guttural voice like it was perpetually choking on blood.

When Kari tried to strike out at it, she was thrown down the street. A net of ribbons caught her from going too far, and Chu Hua landed to help steady her.

"What the fuck was that?" Jade asked from above.

"Souls!" Kari shouted. "Thousands— Maybe… hundreds of thousands?"

It was too loud and had far too many voices to know for sure. Jaws had been busy. Magical girls, people, monsters… it gulped them down all the same.

"Not… enough…" Jaws growled, sending shivers through them.

The monster clutched its abdomen like it was suffering from a stomach ache. It shrunk in size to the height of a normal human. The fly trap-like head sealed up, forming an upper face with eyes and a nose. Its naked body became more shapely, hips widening and chest filling with definition. Black blood running down its new eyes solidified into a robe, obsidian in color, and similar in appearance to magical girls with ribbons and frills at the ends of the dress.

Slits emerged from along its limbs and robe which snapped open to reveal themselves as eyes. Jaws— if it could still be called that anymore— plunged its fingers into the chest cavity and ripped itself open for an even larger mouth than it previously had on its head. Blood dripping down its arms created something like a sword in each hand which took the shape of half a mandible with serrated teeth.

"I'm starving…" it said in a much clearer, feminine voice and pointed a mandible at them. "Are you here to feed me?"