It was as though the world had frozen over for both Kari and Chu Hua. While Private Juuzo continued rambling, they stared at each other almost like old friends who had a falling out and never cared to repair that friendship. Both of them were hesitant to make the first move.

Unlike Kari, who had become tense the instant their eyes met, Chu Hua appeared relaxed and unbothered. Her posture was without any caution whatsoever. If Kari were to transform right now, she might actually kill the Chinese magical girl in a split second

So why didn't her hands move? Why didn't she will herself to transform?

When Kari gazed into Chu Hua's lifeless eyes, she saw her colorless self in the reflection and faltered.

"Do you two know each other?" Juuzo asked, snapping Kari from her thoughts.

Kari drew a sharp breath before saying, "No. I'm just a little tired."

"Well, rest up. Maybe get to know each other." The private turned to leave, but did an about face outside the door. "Didn't catch your name. You are…?"

"Kari," she answered absentmindedly.

Juuzo nodded and shut the door as he left.

Immediately, Kari transformed and let her bag slip from her shoulder. Rocky squeaked as he hit the ground, then popped the zipper open to reveal a pouting rabbit.

"That really hurt! I'm—" her anthem gasped upon seeing Chu Hua and balled up his fists.

"It's been a while, huh. Are we going to do this or what?" Kari asked her.

But Chu Hua looked defeated. She stared into her two own hands, clenched them, then uncurled the fingers as if too weary to keep them shut. Her white owl anthem was nowhere to be seen, but there was a good chance it was hiding elsewhere.

"Kari, it doesn't look like Chu Hua wants to fight. She seems… sad," Rocky said.

"You really think Messiah won't have any tricks up their sleeves? I don't buy it." Kari summoned [Destruction and Ruin] and tightened her grip.

Unconvinced, Rocky flew closer into the room against her protests.

"What happened to your anthem? The one that bodied me back at the hospital?" Rocky asked.

Chu Hua raised her hands, intending to perform sign language, then decided against it like she had no energy to do so, or perhaps remembering that they wouldn't understand it. She simply shook her head instead. It seemed her anthem must have died, and Rocky suspected that as well.

"Did you fight another magical girl?" Kari asked. "Maybe… it was a monster that killed it."

Chu Hua nodded.

Back when they had first met, the anthem was speaking in Chu Hua's place. Now that it was gone, she had no one to help her communicate. She might as well be dead, too.

"Rocky, get back here. If you care so much, I'll at least make it painless," Kari calmly said.

"I know I promised to help you, but I can't just let you kill Chu Hua like this. Look at her!" Rocky put himself between them.

"You're going to jeopardize your own existence for her?"

He swallowed hard and frowned. "If you became the next Flare and someone asked me like you had done with Blaze to stand against you, I would. Seeing you slowly turn into a monster isn't what anyone wants. It's not what Makina wants!"

And who was there to help me? Kari wanted to ask. Becoming a monster was a choice made for her just like every other decision up to this point. Did she have a choice when Flare asked her to kill Chu Hua and Hurricane? No. Did she have a choice to spare a monster-turned Candy? No. Did she have a choice when offered the ring to become a magical girl? None whatsoever. They all forced her hand. She had no other choice.

When Kari glanced up, she was surprised to see Chu Hua reaching out to embrace Rocky. He let her do it, but Kari was fearful that she might try something and remained alert in case she attacked him. However, nothing of the sort happened. They hugged, and the Chinese magical girl began to sob, her tears staining the top of the rabbit anthem's furry head.

Chu Hua finally let Rocky go and shooed him away, but he was reluctant to leave. Only after enough urging did he finally return to Kari's side, having realized that perhaps she wanted to die.

"I know how it feels," Kari began in an attempt to empathize with her before ending it. "Being alone sucks. Losing everyone you knew sucks. Especially when you thought that one person would always be with you. I bet you joined Messiah, hoping to find meaning in it all, huh? I was the same when Flare offered me to join the trio… Then it turned out they wanted to use you."

They faced each other. Chu Hua was no longer crying. She was prepared for her end, but Kari suddenly couldn't bring about finishing it.

Just one skill was all it would take.

As Kari raised [Destruction and Ruin], she saw Makina's horrified expression next to Chu Hua. One filled with disgust and loathing for what she was about to do, and it left her unable to act.

Kari flinched from a shift in movement by Chu Hua, and before she realized what had happened, the other magical girl was embracing her. The soul-weapon slipped from her hand and a flood of emotions overwhelmed her heart. She couldn't remember the last time she felt the warmth and touch of another human being since Makina. The thought that Chu Hua could plunge a soul-carving knife into her didn't even cross her mind.

"Get away from me!" Kari tried to struggle, but that only served to make Chu Hua squeeze tighter. She finally found the strength to shove her away, knocking her back into the stack of desks. "You think I want your sympathies? In case you need reminding, I'm trying to kill you! I freed you that one time because you helped me find Candy, but it doesn't matter anymore because she's dead! I killed her! I… killed my own friend…"

Kari said it. She finally said it, but it wasn't a confession that lifted any sort of weight from her shoulders. Hearing those words from her own mouth was filling her with a guilt she had pushed to the back of her mind since then.

"I… I killed Rie… all the while she was crying and now… not even Makina will forgive me."

I'm sorry for your loss, Chu Hua signed with her hands.

The gesture came so naturally that Kari practically heard the words in her head seeing it performed. She was taken aback by yet another inexplicable phenomenon. She was somehow able to understand sign language, and Chu Hua, her eyes widening in surprise, reached the same conclusion.

You can understand me? She signed again, more erratically.

"You understand her?" Rocky also asked.

"I… do," Kari said.

It was just like with the gun. Somehow, she possessed an innate knowledge of how to use one. Why? And how? Nothing had changed, unless…

Did consuming souls grant her a piece of them and their knowledge?

"This is going to be a weird question, but did you know anyone in Messiah who knew sign language?" Kari asked, herself recalling the magical girls she had gulped.

Yes. One magical girl who was stationed in Osaka knew both American and Chinese sign language, Chu Hua answered.

Then it was true. Knowledge of how to work a gun must have come from Hackman, and from one of the magical girls, the ability to read sign. If Flare had also been consuming souls, what did she know or learn and have been keeping from them?

Kari sighed and dropped her transformation.

Have you decided against killing me? the Chinese girl asked.

"I'm postponing it. Why the hell are you so desperate about dying?" Kari slumped down on the opposite side of the room.

I lost my only friend when Piper died, and there's no home waiting for me back in China. Only a dark cell until they let me out again, she signed.

"And Messiah?"

Chu Hua made a sour expression. A means to end it all, and the only purpose I ever had in my bleak life.

So they were both tools at the end of the day. Kari was to Flare what Chu Hua was to Hurricane and Messiah.

"Wait a minute," Rocky said, spinning to each of them. "If you two can understand each other, then this is great! You can team up! Right? Right?"

When they looked at each other this time, Kari realized that she didn't really have any good reason to kill Chu Hua. Other than gaining her points, it still most likely wouldn't grant enough to take on Flare, who was the one that wanted the leaders of Messiah dead anyway.

"That all depends on Chu Hua, because it would ultimately mean fighting Hurricane. But what I really want to know is what trump card you have against Flare. She was pretty damn insistent about me killing you two." Kari distinctly remembered the conversation she had with Flare about how they were among the strongest magical girls capable of fighting her.

There was a moment of hesitation from her as soon as the question was posed. A lingering loyalty towards Messiah, it seemed.

It is a skill that returns all magic damage done to me back at the aggressor for a short time, Chu Hua signed, rising from her seat to walk over to Kari's fallen backpack, then picking up a bag of chips from it.

That would do it. Though in a fit of rage, Flare had declared to Kari and Jade at the time that her stats numbered in the triple digits. Even if they were to use her own magic against her, once she realized what was going on, then—

Then Flare would turn to dealing physical damage, of which Kari was immune to. Maybe there was an alliance to be formed after all.

The sound of heavy footfalls were rushing down the hallway. They peeked out the door to see JSDF soldiers hurrying out back, many of them with a look of terror on their faces.

"Kari!" Private Juuzo grinded to a halt while his fellows continued. "Stay inside. Something's happening outside, and we're going to take care of it."

"Is it the egg?" Kari asked.

"I hope not," he glowered before taking off to follow after them.

The troops dwindled to a trickle until eventually there were none at all. Kari thought that the monster outside must be hatching, but Chu Hua was confident that wasn't the case.

Chu Hua beckoned them to follow her out.

They exited the room when the coast was clear and came to a fire escape. Chu Hua cracked open the door to a chain link fence that closed in a generator and ladder, and they took it up to the roof. Looking down, there were possibly 200 soldiers at a glance, each pointing their guns at the pulsating cocoon.

Kari transformed and shuddered at what might come out of it. Something stronger? Much stronger that it could kill them both?

The cocoon began to crack and splinter, and the soldiers were given the order to open fire. They unloaded into it, succeeding in doing little other than tarnishing the glossy surface. Someone fired a rocket, but the explosion only very slightly tilted it.

"Take cover and reload! It's coming out!" the voice of Colonel Naba shouted.

However, as parts of the shells gave way, something like another egg was revealed within it. The monster was a ball of white feathers and didn't move at all.

One terrified soldier fired his gun, causing Naba to bark an order to stop. The bullet hadn't so much as punctured even the feather. Several, more brave JSDF members moved closer to inspect it. They remained alert, unsure when or how it might awaken.

"Is that… a god?" Kari swallowed the lump in her throat.

Not yet, but I can tell you have the wrong impression of what a god is. What do you currently know about them— what seraphs can turn into? Chu Hua asked in sign language.

"Only that Flare wants the soul of one, and that seraphs need to kill a whole lot of people and magical girls in order to manifest. What more is there?" she asked, backing away from the edge to avoid being seen.

Everything went to shit because Flare wanted to let a god spawn from one of them.

There is more to it. I have to tell you about Hurricane's plan, Chu Hua began, putting force in her hand gestures to show emphasis. Allowing one to come into existence was never Messiah's intention until recently.

"Because you were only trying to let the apocalypse run its course, right? A god isn't necessarily needed for that," Rocky wondered aloud.

She nodded. If it were to happen, then it would expedite the apocalypse. That is all. Hurricane only accepted the invitation to Japan because it gave the United States military a reason to send the USSMMF. That reason was to collect data and live samples of monsters known as cherubs. Unfortunately, they didn't know most of their own magical girls were members of Messiah. When Hurricane caught on that Flare wanted to manifest a god, she was more than eager to give that woman free reign and begin Messiah's goal of initiating the apocalypse. We were confident Flare didn't know the full truth.

"But you let her believe she did. Then what really is a god?" Kari asked.

What Hurricane is trying to achieve has another step long after Messiah succeeds, and she has only shared it with a handful of us. Namely Sniper, Sister Claire, and myself. You saw the culmination of that in Fukuoka, Chu Hua signed.

Both Kari and Rocky's jaws dropped.

"Are you saying… Hurricane really did turn Candy into that monster?" Rocky asked with a trembling voice.

Not a monster in the sense that it is natural like head hounds. Kari, you said you killed Candy. Do you remember gaining any points? Chu Hua asked.

"No… I didn't. It completely slipped my mind at the time…" she answered, only now coming to that realization.

"You had just killed a friend. There's no way you could have noticed while so distraught." Rocky consoled her.

It explained why the seraph was missing from Fukuoka and why the apocalypse system showed it as an abnormality.

This thing below us, Chu Hua continued, is not a monster. It is an amalgamation of souls collected from all over Japan that has become a vessel. Similar to whatever had given us these powers, that vessel is like another suit of armor.

All the same, but molded in different shapes.

Instead of the souls taking the shape of a monster, it took the shape of a different existence entirely.

"A vessel… for us?" Kari hesitated to ask.

That's right. The truth is seraphs are the strongest a monster can become, but if we can continue growing stronger, how would they ever stand a chance against us? The answer was Messiah, to pit magical girls against each other. Hurricane was the first to be reached out by a higher being, and she accepted. Our plan, if a vessel were to take shape, is that one of us would take it and grow strong enough to face the likes of Flare. Hurricane tested that in Fukuoka and the results were… unexpected. A magical girl must be willing, otherwise those souls will come into conflict, and Candy was not. Chu Hua shut her eyes in apology.

"And what about you?"

I… no longer have it in me. I couldn't after witnessing Piper die. She grimaced.

What does it mean to be willing? If Flare were to seize this, would she be more in control than Candy was? Kari wondered what might happen if she took the vessel. How much stronger would she become, or would she instead become insane?

Flare… must know, right? Unless she had the wrong idea like Kari until recently. Assuming she somehow discovered it, she would have needed to consume a soul or inherited the ring with certain memories.

"Was a magical girl named Isis a member of Messiah? Did she know about the seraphs, too?" Kari asked.

Isis was accused of being a part of Messiah to turn Inyanga against her. She consumed Isis' soul after feeding it to a monster and subsequently carving it out with Jhenne's weapon.

You knew about Isis? Yes, she was sent to South Africa in case a vessel manifested, but one never did, Chu Hua explained.

"Flare knows the truth about seraphs and gods then! If she comes and takes this thing, that's game over. I'm… I'm going down there to take it before she does," Kari declared.

"You can't be serious!" Rocky tugged on the back of her collar. "What if it takes over you like it did Candy?"

"She wasn't willing, but I am. I'll take whatever power it has and fight Flare with it."

Without turning back, Kari leapt off the building and landed in front of the soldiers who were momentarily stunned, then raised their rifles at her. She locked eyes with Juuzo, who might be the only one not pointing a weapon.

"That's magical girl Kari!" one soldier cried.

"Colonel, what do we do?!"

"Don't fire! Don't fire, damn it!" Naba shouted.

Chu Hua leapt down after her in a panic and urged her to stop in sign.

It's not worth it! You don't know what it will do to you! At worst, you will lose control of yourself! Chu Hua transformed and created multiple copies of herself.

"I have to!" Kari exclaimed.

No, you don't! You have a choice! she pleaded desperately, hands trembling with each gesture.

The moment Kari stepped forward, a dozen ribbons shot out at her. She gathered them all up on one arm and pulled hard, launching Chu Hua and all the clones to the ground.

"Wanton Smash!" Kari destroyed all the clones except for the real one who blocked the attack by wrapping herself with the ribbons, but Kari smashed her with the blunt end of her weapon, sending her through the building.

"You were that Kari all along? The same one that killed all those people?" Juuzo asked, having put himself between her and the monster.

"Juuzo, get out of the way! You're in the line of fire! We're filling Kari full of lead in five seconds whether you're still there or not!" Naba yelled.

"I'm not your little sister, and I'm not anyone's savior. Do me a favor and get away while you still can." She grabbed him by the shirt and chucked him into a sandbox. Immediately a hail of bullets rained down on her, but every projectile bounced off her body. Upon placing a hand on the monster, it shuddered to life.

A crackling ball of bluish energy appeared on Kari's palm as she retracted her hand. It had the same feeling of the souls after carving them from a body, but this was stronger. Malignant even.

Many ribbons latched onto her again in a vain attempt to pull her away. Kari glanced over her shoulder to see a tearful and frantic Chu Hua, refusing to let the only person who could understand her go.

Kari, however, had already made her decision. As she raised the soul to her salivating mouth, a rumbling voice boomed.

Your soul is foul and unfit, too profane and undeserving.

The amalgamation of souls began to pull back into the monster's body.

"Destruction Incarnate!" Kari empowered herself to hold on, but the ball of energy slipped through her hands like mists.

When it had all reentered the monster's body, Kari saw the only chance at defeating Flare disappear.

Then a rippling gale knocked everyone back.

The incomprehensible monstrosity unfurled its six wings to reveal countless eyes all over the feathers and all of which blinked in unison. Three golden bands rotated and spun around a central eyeball much larger than the rest. They stared at Kari with venomous spite.

There is a more fitting host.

Its eyes glanced past Kari to Chu Hua instead, then vanished and reappeared above her.

"Shit— Chu Hua, run!" Kari cried, but by the time Chu Hua looked up, it had already tethered her like a puppeteer to a marionette.