Kari turned on the faucet to splash her face with cold water. She didn't stop there. Very meticulously, she began to wash her hair, wipe down her body with wet paper towels, and used a finger to rub toothpaste against her teeth. Rocky was doing the same right up against the mirror, then ran into trouble brushing down a tuft of fur on his head that just wouldn't stay down.

The rabbit's way of grooming involved licking his paws and wiping his face. That wasn't working this time around. It took until Kari wet her hand and kneaded her broken nails into his scalp did they finally work out the matted fur.

He smiled at her, and she smiled, too.

"Feeling refreshed?" Kari asked.

"Fresher than mint!" Rocky beamed back.

Kari threw on her new clothes, a white t-shirt and a gray hoodie purchased back at the last train terminal they had stopped by. The threads bit uncomfortably into her skin like some crown of thorns. She snapped a loose strand from the sleeve and blew it away. It wasn't due to shoddy material or that the clothing was poorly made. If she had a choice, she would rather dress in the magical girl outfit forever. She just didn't feel safe otherwise.

Even after cleaning up, the reflection of a sad girl with baggy eyes and cracked lips silently judged her disheveled demeanor.

As Kari was about to leave, a throbbing pain in her stomach brought her to the ground. Her vision flashed white. It was hunger, gnawing at her like parasites had wormed their way in and were eating through her guts.

"Is it happening again? Kari?" Rocky called to her.

The pain subsided, but she was covered in sweat again.

"You're hungry again, aren't you?" the anthem hesitated to ask.

"Yeah… But I think I'm fine for now," she answered with uncertainty.

The last time she had eaten a soul was Admiral Hackman's. The longer she went without, the more painful it had become. Although bearable and hardly noticeable at first, it gradually grew worse the longer she went.

A harsh knock on the door startled both of them.

"Can you hurry the hell up?" an impatient man asked.

Kari pulled the hood over her head, double-checked that [Incognito] was on, and opened the restroom door. An older man with glasses, who stood so close to the door his nose was probably pressed against it when it was shut, mumbled something derisively as she stepped out.

She saw now that a line had formed which led out to the other car. A mother and her two kids were next in line, their legs squeezed shut to keep from leaking and glancing out the train window to distract from nature's call.

"Mama, are we going to grandpa's in Himeji?" a young girl asked.

"Oh… No, dear." The mother's answer came out sullen and she picked her next words carefully. "We're getting off at Kobe. Grandpa will be taking a vacation overseas, so we won't be seeing him for a while."

"Aww! I wanna go, too!"

Kari squeezed past the family and returned to her seat next to Jade at the end of the adjacent car. She was gazing out the window to a Japan that was still mostly intact. At least in this side of the country. They had just passed Okayama and were planning to get off at Kobe, the farthest this shinkansen could go since the terminal in Osaka was destroyed by an incursion.

The shinkansen normally didn't make stops in cities other than where their designated stations were. However, given the state of Japan and millions of people losing their homes, it made an exception to stop in the middle of the tracks at certain locations. If it went any farther into Osaka, the train would derail from the broken tracks anyway.

"How you holding up?" Kari thought to make small talk with Jade but received a snort in response.

"How do you think?" Jade asked, wiggling the left shoulder stump.

She came out lucky since Jaws' blast had also cauterized the wound and prevented her from bleeding out. More so than Kari, she was dressed in thicker clothes. A beanie and hood covered most of her face, and a thick jacket and baggy pants weighed down the magical girl outfit underneath. All for the sake of avoiding attention because she couldn't withstand the pain in human form otherwise, and by extension, unable to activate [Incognito] to keep her identity hidden.

"Hey, what's that guy's name? The one from the cat cafe. You think he'd dig an amputee chick?" Jade took her eyes off the passing scenery beyond the window to meet Kari's for the first time in hours.

"You mean Shuu?" Kari scoffed. "You hardly know him and suddenly you're thinking about having his kids or something?"

"A girl's gotta have a future to look forward to, man. Last boy I dated was a shit head. Be nice to date someone with a bigger vocabulary. Real talk, if we make it outta this alive, introduce me to him," she said, almost pleading.

"You're the one who said we have a score to settle. If we make it out alive that is…"

By the bewildered look on Jade's face, it seemed to have slipped her mind. She returned to silently gazing out the window.

In the seat in front of Kari, someone was reading the newspaper with headlines that all magical girls were wanted. Public opinion about them had finally shifted since the apocalypse began and the prime minister's suicide note had painted them as enemies. There was no going back. No future waiting for them at the end of it.

Even if the monsters, apocalypse, Hurricane, and Flare were finally dealt with, the entire world no longer regarded them as heroes.

"You still pissed off at me for what happened in Akiba?" Jade suddenly asked.

"No. It's more like I stopped caring," Kari mumbled.

"That so? Guess I should do the same," she added, then squeezed her eyes shut to try and sleep.

Unbeknownst to Jade, the answer had left Kari in shock. She was about to ask her what that meant until a commotion drew people to the left side of the train.

"Hey, what is that?"

"It looks like a bull…"

People seated on that side were pressing their faces up against the window. They looked to be distracted by something in the distance. Since Kari was on the opposite side, she couldn't see what it was. However, as the passengers' panic began to grow, she realized something was very wrong.

"Oh, my god— It's going to crash into us!" a woman shrieked.

Gauntlet snapped awake in Jade's arm. "Uh… Kari, Jade! We've got trouble!"

The instant Kari stood up, she was thrown against the side of the train. Everything went sideways. The lights went dark, and everyone was screaming or crying in pain. The train eventually came to a stop. Electricity was sparking from the ceiling lights flickering back to life.

Kari's nose ached. She peeled her face off the window in which her impact had left a crack on it. Jade was rubbing the side of her cheek, sprawled out in an uncomfortable curved posture on her back between the seat and window.

"Ahehe… ahehehahaha!"

Five fingers pried into one end of the train car and ripped the side right off like a banana peel. An enormous humanoid monster, with its thick, dome-like head attached directly to the shoulders was grinning down at them. It had horns flaring out the side of its head and thick muscles that pulled the skin taut. As it reached in to grab a group of screaming children, a golden javelin punctured the hand and forced it back.

Jade cast aside her disguise and flew up to shove away the other hand from reaching in.

"Hold him there for me!" Kari transformed and planted both feet on the armrest of her seat. She leapt upwards, summoning her soul-weapon on the way out. [Destruction] connected with the monster's chin, and without either hands on a grip on anything, the impact launched it off the train.

Kari glanced behind herself to see that most of the shinkansen had derailed. The monster had tackled the train so hard, it caved one of the cars into a V-shape. She dreaded looking inside for any survivors. Thankfully, the other cars were mostly intact if not fallen on their sides.

"This monster must have escaped from a Malevolent Domain," Rocky said.

Lying on the grassy field with its lower jaw destroyed was the monster that had attacked them. It looked like a hairless minotaur, with legs as thick as tree trunks and fists the size of wrecking balls.

Without giving it a chance to get up, Jade filled it full of javelins with Judgment and pinned it to the ground. However, the volley ended much sooner than Kari expected her to normally dish out. The emerald magical girl dropped like a rock from the sky.

"Jade!" Kari shouted to her.

"It's no use!" Gauntlet replied from his magical girl's side. "She's lost too much blood from earlier!"

The monster climbed back to its feet, feeling up the rippling flesh of its own body punctured up to hell and back. It took one look at Kari and lost interest. Instead, ravenous eyes turned to the incapacitated Jade, lying still and guarded by Gauntlet who wasn't in Grand Cavalry— and ran right for her.

Kari twitched reflexively. She thought to fly and intercept them, but the hunger was coming back.

Let her die. Consume her soul once she is killed. Aren't you… starving?

Of all the times the voices had to come back, it was now. Their words left her reeling. But whose was it? Another monster? The fragments of magical girls within her? Or was it her own voice?

"Kari!" Rocky yelled, slapping her repeatedly across the cheek. "You're better than this. Whatever it is, don't listen to it. Listen to yourself, listen to me!"

It was on top of Jade now, two giant fists raised above its head and getting ready to kill her.

"Come Here!" Kari pulled the monster up to her. Since she was still in [Destruction Incarnate], the crushing slam came to a stop on her head as nothing more than a tickle.

Confused, it continued to wail into her to little success. When it finally realized that they were the worst possible match-up for, fear sent the monster running.

Kari made short work of the humanoid bestial creature. As it tried to crawl away, digging the same clawed fingers into the dirt as it had the train, she thought it appeared to have a sort of desperation to it.

Then she smashed its head in with the blunt side of her weapon.

[+800,000 Apocalypse points.]

Defeating it brought Kari no sense of satisfaction. Not this time.

As she dragged her feet over to help Jade, a can struck Kari on the side of her head. It fell to the ground and, since the hill was on an incline, began to roll back down until it stopped at the tracks. Someone threw another can at her, but she caught it this time and accidentally crushed it, splashing the contents of coffee on her face.

"Fuck you, Kari!"

Passengers who had gotten out of the train or were peeking over the ripped open side were screaming obscenities at her.

"Why didn't you do more to help us!"

"My brother was part of the JSDF you got killed in Kyoto!"

"You're the reason this is happening to us, bitch!"

When Kari glanced over her shoulder, many of them flinched. They held her gaze with glares so full of hatred like an oppressive heat that Flare didn't compare.

Not wanting to stay any longer than her brittle mental state could take, Kari picked Jade up onto her back and flew off. She looked back one more time to see people mourning the ones who died in the other car. All Kari could do was silently apologize for not being the magical girl that could save any of them.

"Where are we going now?" Rocky asked.

"To grant Jade her wish," Kari said.

For the next two hours, they headed in the direction of Nagoya. Kari had to fly over Osaka and Kyoto on the way there and was harshly reminded of the destruction left behind by her hands— Not only just hers, but from the infighting and inaction of magical girls whose selfish goals had fractured their unity.

They landed on the outskirts of the city at Tomita Park where the Toda River ends and splits into three separate channels of water. Framed by a wall of trees on all four sides, with piles of leaves having fallen to the base from Autumn's arrival, the area provided a decent hiding place for them. The sun had drawn a purple glow across the horizon, and it would soon be dark enough that Flare couldn't see them anymore.

Kari laid Jade down between a tree and row of bushes, facing away from the paved path where pedestrians walked. She dropped magical girl form and turned on [Incognito], leaving Gauntlet and Rocky behind to look after Jade while she went in search of a phone booth.

She found one near the north entrance, nestled between a fenced-in tennis court on the left and another on the right. The booth sat across a couple of vending machines on the other side of the walkway. Instead of going right to the booth, Kari visited the vending machines first and knelt down in search of coins. There were a few coins shining underneath, but the machine was too low to the ground for her arm to reach in.

Fed up trying, Kari transformed and used the skill [Come Here!] to pull the coins to her. She counted 120 yen, enough for a phone call and a drink. She dropped her transformation and entered the booth to make a call, waiting anxiously with bated breath and counting each ring.

The call didn't connect, and Kari cursed under her breath. She thumbed the coins in her palm, wondering if Shuu was busy and whether it was worth trying again. Sighing, she tossed in another ten yen coin, and it was picked up immediately

"Hello?" Shuu answered.

Kari was so relieved she could cry.

"Hey, Shuu… Could I trouble you for some help?" Kari asked.

"I can't believe who I'm hearing," Shuu said after a pause. "Kari, holy crap. Is that really you?"

"Yeah. Can you do me a favor? I'm at Tomita Park with Jade. Think you can let us crash by your place?"

The next pause lasted longer than the last.

"My friend and her cousin say it's fine if you're alright with the living room," Shuu finally said to her relief. "Need the address? You flying over or what?"

"Can you pick us up? Don't know if I can keep flying anymore." She sighed.

"Alright. Wait there."

The call cut, and Kari was left with the monotonous dial tone.

On her way back to Jade, a scuffle caught Kari's attention. Three men had singled out a poor salaryman who was keeping his head low and ignoring them, hoping they would leave him alone. It didn't work. One of them threw an arm over the guy's shoulder and guided him into the park and into the public restroom.

"Oh, come on. Ya gotta help us out. We're strapped after coming down from Kyoto."

"You heard what happened, right?"

"Spare some cash if you got a heart, bro."

Kari followed after them. The larger of the three, a portly man with a necklace likely made of fake gold and shirt unbuttoned to reveal his belly, had a thick arm pressed to the salaryman's throat to pin him against the wall. Meanwhile, the two other cronies rummaged through his pockets.

Another man, this one scrawny, in shades and beanie, saw Kari peeking in and pointed her out.

"Mind your business, kid!" He waved dismissively at her.

The salaryman turned to her with pleading eyes. "Please, help! Call for—"

His pleas were cut short when the man in shades buried a fist into his stomach, knocking the wind from his lungs.

Kari spun on her heels and walked away. But as the beating continued, pangs of guilt gnawed just as painfully as the hunger in her stomach. She marched back inside but in magical girl form, startling all four of them.

"Get out of here," Kari told the salaryman, who then picked up his briefcase and made a run for it.

The other three backed into the wall, eyes wide with fear.

"Y-You're… magical girl Kari…" the fat one stammered.

"If there's anywhere to shit your pants, this is a good place," Kari taunted. "You know, I really fucking hate bullies. Seriously, the worst scum of the Earth. It pisses me off so much."

Kari summoned her soul-weapon and brought [Ruin] right up to the fat man's neck. When she gazed into his terrified eyes, she didn't see a human being, but an entree. Her mouth was salivating. The tantalizing thought of consuming another soul was all that filled her mind. The desire to sate the hunger was so great it left her quivering.

"They ain't worth it." Jade appeared in a gust of wind that kicked up resting leaves, holding tight the end of the shaft to keep Kari from cutting through. She was flanked by Rocky and Gauntlet, both filled with worry.

"No one's going to miss them," Kari said, eyes held fast on the man before her. "I'll be doing the world a favor getting rid of guys like him. Kill two birds with one stone, too. My stomach won't feel like it's blending itself."

"For how long? Half a day? Then you're back to starving for more, and more, and more— When's it gonna end? What's your girl gonna think?" she asked.

Kari shut her eyes, fighting back her baser instincts. She relented and vanished the weapon from her hands, then dropped magical girl form.

"Beat it." Jade growled at the three, causing them to book it as fast as their legs could carry.

She sat down on the dirty restroom floor and clutched her stomach. "I'm just… so hungry… It's getting harder and harder to think about anything else. I see a human being, and I wonder how their souls taste. Earlier, when you passed out, I was willing to let you get killed so I could eat your soul. If it wasn't for Rocky—"

"Not Rocky. That was you, Kari. You made that decision to save me. Can't believe I'm saying this to you, but thanks. Maybe you ain't as bad as you think, rookie."

When Kari looked up, Jade had a hand extended down to her. Seeing it left her in tears again. She had been crying a lot lately, and it didn't feel good. Why couldn't this have been the sight she saw back in Akiba? Before everything went to shit?

Before she could take Jade's hand, the sound of multiple helicopter's beating blades boomed rhythmically in the distance.

"Kari Tachibana, come out with your hands in the air. We have Tomita Park surrounded by the JSDF and police. You have nowhere to go. Surrender peacefully," someone called to her through a megaphone.