...ari… Kari… Kari!

Kari was roused from her sleep by a weight on her chest. It was Rocky, shaking her awake and calling her name. She grabbed his head and flung him across the room. He hit the wall with a loud thud.

"H-How come you always go for the head…?"

"It's 11 at night," she groaned. "I'm trying to sleep in; I get little enough as it is!"

"There are monsters hurting people nearby. We have to help them!" Rocky exclaimed.

Her eyes snapped open, fearing the worst. "Is it an incursion?"

"I don't think so. These might be just stray spawns. We still have to take care of them or a lot of people can get hurt," he said.

The image of the head hounds' gnashing jaws kept her anchored in bed. Going out was an option, or she could leave it alone and the other magical girls would take care of it eventually. No need for an amateur like her to get involved.

"I'm not going. Leave it to Flare, Jade, or Candy," she said, throwing the covers over herself.

"A lot of people will die if we wait for them!" The anthem yanked the bedsheet away and frowned. "You're a magical girl, too. You can handle this."

Kari chewed on her lip. The black and red ring on her finger glinted from moonlight that squeezed past the curtains. She went to the closet and was about to throw a hoodie on, but remembered that whatever she wore would change upon transforming anyway.

"Hold on. Can't I fly like the other magical girls?" Kari asked as she put her hand on the doorknob.

"Well…" he began reluctantly, "that's a skill you gain at level 3. Or you can spend Apocalypse Points for temporary flight sigil, but you don't have enough after spending it levelling."

She clicked her tongue and forgoed looking through the Apocalypse System's item shop. It should have been something she did earlier, but having put it off so much she had almost forgotten about it.

They raced into the city to a multi-story construction building that was mainly just concrete walls and rebars. Neither of them could make out any sounds other than plastic tarps fluttering loudly from the wind. Blinding flood lights illuminated the construction area outside of the building. Inside, however, was pitch black.

Kari was having second thoughts. She didn't feel any stronger in her magical girl form. Coming out here might have been a mistake.

When she stepped inside, Rocky cast a light centered around him to brighten the surroundings. It wasn't enough to light up the whole place and still left them vulnerable to being ambushed.

"Can you sense where they are?" she asked.

Rocky shook his head. "Not directly. Only that they're somewhere nearby."

They crept forward slowly one foot over the next, keeping their eyes peeled for any movements. Someone was sitting with their back against a concrete column. From here, she only saw an arm since whoever it was was on the other side.

"Are you alright?" Kari called out. They dashed up to the man only to find half his body missing. Fresh blood caked the ground around him, and a horrified expression captured his final moments.

Kari turned away and vomited last night's dinner. Her stomach knotted, throat stung, and eyes watered. Nothing prepared her for this. The news had always kept cameras away from the dead. She made an effort to avoid internet forums sharing pictures uploaded online. Her close encounter with the incursion became a distant memory because all she remembered was trying to escape with Makina, blissfully ignorant of the carnage that was around her.

Was this the reality of those monsters? To leave such a gruesome scene behind to taunt her?

"Ahehehehaha…"

She spun around to the human-faced mutts staring her down. Two of them. Giggling at her like hyenas ready to toy with their new prey. Fear petrified her legs. Despair gripped her heart. She saw herself in the half-eaten man's place, rotting and festering, to be found tomorrow by construction workers and added to the statistics of the dead.

"Now's not the time to freeze up. Fight them! Use your skill!. They're nothing compared to you," Rocky screamed in her face.

"My… skills?"

What were her skills again? She drew a blank, unable to tap into her thoughts or even form a coherent image in her mind. Only the grotesque visage of the head hounds filled her vision.

Before Kari could react, one head hound tackled her to the ground. She collided hard into a cement column. The back of her head stung, but it didn't hurt as much as she thought.

However…

The status screen appeared to show her decreased health.

[Health. 135/150]

What was going to happen if that number dropped to 0? Was she going to die?

Kari saw the second hound charging and dove out of the way. It smashed into the column and caused cracks to snake up the structure. She crawled away in panic, scrambling for the exit, but Rocky cut her off.

"Where are you going? The fight's that way!" he shouted.

"Screw that! I didn't want to come out here, and I never asked to become a magical girl. I don't want to die. If you want to fight them, you do it." She was about to walk past him when a pair of jaws clamped down on her waist and threw her back into the building.

[Health. 113/150]

The hounds must have known she was a new magical girl. They prowled around her, giggling and licking their sharpened fangs. Powerful claws struck out, shoving her around like a ragdoll. She was a toy to them.

Every hit brought her health lower.

[Health. 99/150]

And lower…

[Health. 85/150]

And lower…

[Health. 74/150]

Something had to be done, or she was going to die. Makina's face appeared in her mind and filled her with a sense of peace. If she was to die thinking of her, it might not be so bad.

But Tetsuo appeared next to her, with a disgusting grin on his face. Makina clung to his arm. It should be Kari in his place. If she died, Makina would be sad and nothing would stop Tetsuo from having his way with her.

Prickling thoughts tormented the deepest reaches of her mind. She wanted to live. She wanted to be with Makina.

"You're not… getting rid of me!" She growled.

The hounds backed off, unnerved by Kari's sudden exclamation. They knew playtime was over. The more aggressive one of them opened its mouth over her head to finish the job.

She swallowed her hesitation and recalled a defensive skill in her arsenal. "Stand firm!"

The dagger-sharp fangs clamped down on her head, but she didn't feel so much as a pinch. She had one eye staring into its abyss of a throat and another glaring into its eyes. Her would-be killer bit harder to no avail, and this time her health decreased no further as if impervious to its attack. A moment too soon and it might have been too late.

Kari hooked her fingers underneath the upper and lower jaw. She pried open its mouth with ease, then shoved the hound back.

"Stampede!" She moved faster than she could blink and smashed into the hound, splattering it into a bloody mess on the concrete wall behind it.

[+1,000 Apocalypse points.]

For the second monster, she figured now was a good time to test out the new skill. She stretched an arm out in its direction and said, "Come here!"

As if Kari commanded telekinesis at her fingertips, the pull yanked the hound into her grasp. She pounded into it with her fists until the human face was unrecognizable.

[+1,000 Apocalypse points.]

The scene returned to an eerie calm, too quiet for her liking. The battle had ended, and she emerged the victor.

2,000 Apocalypse Points were added to her total.

What a rush, she thought.

Every inch of her body tingled. Her heart raced, beating louder than taiko drums and head flashing white from the near death experience. The aching in her fists were a delight. Pain reminded her she was alive.

It was hard to tell if the hounds' black blood had stained her outfit a deeper shade. Maybe it had always been this dark.

"You did it!" Rocky whooped. "A little messier than I'd like, but you really wrecked them, Kari! Are you hurt?"

"Aha... haha… I'm not hurt. I'm alive." Kari dropped to her knees, clutching her abdomen. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks. "I can do it! Screw mom and dad! Haha— ahaha!"