"I thought you wanted to keep it a secret! Why did you go and say something like that to your parents?" Rocky exclaimed in the privacy of Kari's bedroom.

"I wanted them to shut up. I didn't expect them to send me to the fucking burn unit," Kari groaned, jumping into bed and burying her face into the pillow which still had Makina's scent. It calmed her nerves, made her forget all about what her parents had said.

The anthem flew down to the bed, ears drooping to the sides.

"Does that mean you really aren't interested in becoming a magical girl?" he asked.

Kari sighed. She had given Rocky her word to take a look at it when Makina was gone. The least she could do was humor him and check out the skills.

"How do I transform?" She rolled off the bed to face him.

The anthem's ears perked right up. "Three ways: by shouting 'transform' with all your heart; tapping into the Apocalypse System via your soul; or I can do it for you!"

"Trans… form? T-Transform!" she stammered. "It isn't working.

"I said 'with all your heart' not like you're going through a seizure!" the anthem complained.

"Screw it. Just transform me already!"

Rocky did as ordered.

Her casual tee and sweatpants darkened like a colorless abyss, morphing itself into a new outfit entirely. It was painted mostly in black and red, like she had come right out of a fantasy vampire movie starring gothic lolitas. The dress was a tight fit around her chest, and the skirt was short at the front but flared out around the back. She liked the boots the most, which had wings framing the heels.

All in all, it was… an alright getup. However, the longer Kari stared at herself in the mirror, the less she liked how she looked.

The whole magical girl appearance didn't suit her scowling demeanor. She felt like a cheap knockoff compared to the other three.

"Couldn't you have given me a brighter, cuter outfit like Flare or Candy?" Kari frowned.

"What? I think it's cool!" Rocky said, buzzing around her with joy. "Can't change it even if we wanted to. Your outfit is a reflection of your soul. Don't you remember?"

Kari vaguely remembered the echoing words of 'synching soul power' chiming between her ears. Was her soul black and red? What did that say about her?

"Check your powers! Check your powers! Call for the Apocalypse System, but with unf!" the anthem urged.

"Unf? Apocalypse… System!" she repeated after him and was suddenly bombarded with texts flying across her vision. It took her by surprise, and she nearly fell onto her bed thinking to avoid them.

Large texts that read [Apocalypse System activated…] blinked in her face.

 "Uwah… It's like I put on a VR helmet or something. What is this? Some sort of video game?" Kari asked.

Rocky gasped so hard it almost sounded like he swallowed his own tongue. The anthem grabbed her by the face and squeezed her cheeks.

"How dare you call something as amazing as the Apocalypse System a video game! It was designed to help magical girls to better acclimate to it! Apologize! Apologize to me, to my creators, and to all the magical girls the system has helped!" Spit and bits of sushi rice flew out of his mouth during the spiel.

"Calm down, you stupid furball!" She ripped the anthem from her face and chucked him across the room. 

Rocky struck the door head first, fell to his ass, and saw stars spinning.

At least while the little bugger was knocked out, Kari could read her skills in peace. She started with the first one, recalling that it was what she had used to save herself and Makina.

[Wanton Smash (10): Deals 250% of your current physical strength as damage to all enemies around you in a single strike, pulverising them instantly if the damage exceeds 200% of their physical resilience threshold.]

When she worked out the math, her physical strength totalled to 67.5 with Wanton Smash. The head hounds must have had less than half that in physical resilience, which was why they were flattened.

Head hounds and other monsters must also have a quantifiable stats score like herself. She checked the other skills.

[Stampede (12): Become impervious to movement impairing effects and charges into one nearby enemy of your choice, dealing 500% of your current physical strength as damage to the primary target and 200% to all enemies in the line of path.

[Apocalypse Power up! (30): Increases your base physical strength by 300% at the cost of reducing your physical and magical resilience to 0. Lasts 1 hour or until removed.]

[Stand Firm (5): Increases your current physical and magical resilience by 200% against a single hit.]

"Yeah… not one of these skills are cute at all. What am I, some sort of brute?" Kari muttered. She opened her laptop to search the plethora of images of other magical girls. Unable to bear looking at Jade, she left her out of the search terms to only look up Flare and Candy.

Flare was the leader of the trio. Although 'leader' might not be the best term as all of them were independent fighters, the other two treated her with the utmost respect. In terms of seniority, she was the eldest at twenty-one years old and had been a magical girl since sixteen. Her outfit was the coolest.

The red and orange of Flare's dress made her stand out the most compared to Jade and Candy. She was like a comet whenever she flew across the sky, her long, burning ponytail streaking behind her. The anthem that fought alongside her was even a burning falcon..

On the other hand, Candy exuded cuteness. The seventeen year old was always bright and bubbly when giving interviews. Her personality matched well with the white, yellow, and light orange color palette of the outfit, making her appear like a shining star.

Then there was Kari.

Black and red like coagulated blood.

"Hm?" She noticed her points had increased. Previously, it was at [130,000]. The new total was [133,000]. A whole [3000] increase.

What changed?

She picked her anthem off the ground and shook him awake.

"N-No! Not the wasabi peas— Huh?" Rocky glanced around the room, slightly dazed.

"What are Apocalypse Points for, and why do I have more than I started out with?" Kari asked.

"Good question!" Rocky materialized a pointing stick as the texts in Kari's vision changed. He directed her attention to the points, seeming to know how exactly the interface is laid out. "Points are used for leveling your class and buying helpful items called 'sigils' to aid you in battle."

The pointer moved to a shopping cart icon and an upwards arrow icon tucked at the top right corner of her sight. When the anthem selected the arrow, a familiar menu popped.

Apocalypse System
User Information		Offensive Stats		Defensive Stats
User:	Kari Tachibana	Physical Strength:	27	Health:	100/100
Total Level:	Lv. 1	Magical Strength:	6	Magic Capacity:	40/40
Class:	Lvl. 1 Destroyer	Haste:	39	Physical Resilience:	35
Subclass	Locked			Magical Resilience:	35
Soul-Weapon	Locked
Current Points:	133,000

 

Rocky gave Kari a few seconds to refamiliarize herself with her stats before continuing. "Currently, you require 100,000 points to reach level 2 of your class, at which point the threshold increases. All of your stats will incrementally increase as you level up, and sigils from the shop can boost your health and magic capacity in a pin. Additionally, the shop has useful add-ons like [Incognito] or [Flight Sigil] you can buy!"

"I can get to level 2 Destroyer right now or buy random stuff in the shop? I'm not an avid video gamer, so stop me if I'm getting ahead of myself. What's stopping me from buying a bunch of healing sigils to keep myself up?" she asked.

"You can, levelling up is the only way to gain new skills and raise stats. At level 3 you gain your soul weapon and get to choose a subclass!" he explained.

Kari always wondered where magical girls' powers came from. A system like one would see in a video game was the last thing on her mind. It used to be so cringe to hear Candy shouting 'Starfall Blast!' or Jade yelling 'Judgement!'. She knew now those girls didn't have a choice in the naming conventions of their skills.

The anthem also mentioned a weapon at level 3, which meant the trio had already reached that point. Candy wielded a hand cannon, and Jade had a javelin that always returned to her hand after being thrown. Flare should definitely have one, but no one has ever seen her use it.

"Got any ideas on how to spend your points?" Rocky asked.

"Let me see…"

The smart thing to do would be to reach out to one of the veteran magical girls and ask for advice. However, she didn't want to reveal to anyone who she was just yet. From Rocky's explanation, she couldn't go wrong with levelling up. Might as well go with that.

"Alright, furball. Level me up. We'll save the remaining points."

"Levelling up!" Rocky spun so quickly in place he became a miniature tornado. As this happened, her Apocalypse Points decreased to 33000.

[Congratulations! You have levelled up!

Apocalypse System
User Information		Offensive Stats		Defensive Stats
User:	Kari Tachibana	Physical Strength:	27	Health:	150/150
Total Level:	Lv. 2	Magical Strength:	6	Magic Capacity:	60/60
Class:	Lvl. 2 Destroyer	Haste:	39	Physical Resilience:	35
Subclass	Locked			Magical Resilience:	35
Soul-Weapon	Locked
Current Points:	130,000

 

New skill gained.

Come Here! (5): Clench your fist in the direction of one enemy, dealing 150% of your current physical strength in damage and pulling them to you.]

Kari didn't feel any stronger. Although her health and magic capacity increased, the other stats remained the same.

As the outfit dropped and her casual clothes returned, a wave of drowsiness struck her as the dawning realization of being a magical girl became too real to ignore. Her new power and status didn't make head hounds any less dangerous, or make her feel anymore safe than before. The monsters terrified her.

Yet when Kari balled her hands into fists to keep from trembling, a feeling she didn't expect welled within the deepest reaches of her heart. There was fear.

There was also thrill.