The maids gaped in shock as Matsui freed herself and her friends. Ichigo recovered first, stomping her foot petulantly.

"No fair, Masters! Your role is to accept our hospitality, not reject it." She waved her sparkling wand in admonishment as the other maids nodded in agreement.

Reira crossed her arms defiantly. "Well, I didn't find your 'hospitality' too damn welcoming when I went upstairs." She jabbed a finger at them. "I saw the bodies you psychos have stashed up there!"

The maids froze, exchanging unspoken looks. Then, moving in unison, they all reached beneath their skirts and pulled out gleaming pistols. Cold metal pressed against each girl's temple before they could react.

"Have a seat please, Masters," Cocoa instructed in a singsong tone, as if merely offering them cake. Hands raised in surrender, the girls complied, sitting back at the decorated table. Their earlier bravado withered in the face of death, literally staring them down.

"Mistress Reira is correct. We have been very naughty," Azuki said, smiling sweetly even with the gun cocked. "But if you listen like good girls, we'll explain everything!"

“When the outbreak first hit, our cafe staff had prepared to abandon the location like so many other businesses,” Ichigo explained. “But we refused to leave our beloved cafe behind. It was our entire world!”

“So we took matters into our own hands - preventing everyone from leaving by any means necessary,” Cocoa continued. “It was a shame we had to get messy and leave their poor bodies upstairs.”

"We couldn't let them take our happy place away!" Ichigo said with a manic gleam in her eye. The other maids nodded rapidly. Matsui felt sick learning the dark truth underpinning their cheerfulness.

“With the staff eliminated, we required new people to dote on,” said Cocoa. “We captured anyone who entered our territory and forced them into the role of master. But if they are naughty… Well you saw the bodies upstairs already.”

"Now you understand, yes?" Azuki grasped Matsui's hands earnestly, despite the pistol still aimed at her head. "We care for you so very much! You mustn't leave Moo Moo Cafe."

Jayla spoke up, voice strained but calm. "Have you ever considered just... leaving the cafe behind? You could find a new purpose." Three gun muzzles pressed harder against temples in response.

"We will never abandon Moo Moo Cafe!" Cocoa shrieked. "It is our special place! Right sisters?" The maids exploded in harmonized affirmations of their twisted devotion. They would never sway their brainwashed minds.

"Here are your choices, Masters," Ichigo leaned in, rotting sweetness filling her voice. "Remain here, letting us love and serve you forever... or join the rest of the ungrateful swine upstairs." She giggled airily at the death threat.

Matsui's palms sweated as she attempted reasoning with madness. "We understand you now. Please, lower the guns and we'll try being...better masters..." She put on her most sincere smile, straining to see any trace of human empathy remaining behind the maids' fanatical gazes. There was none - just hollow devotion.

Their only hope was to locate their confiscated weapons. Matsui subtly scanned the room, hoping to spot the telltale gemstone gleam. But the garish decor offered far too many hiding places. She had to keep them talking.

"So... tell us more about this lovely cafe," she encouraged with forced cheer. "We want to appreciate its charms, too." The maids' eyes lit up, distracted by describing every painstaking detail that encompassed their warped world. Matsui silently prayed for a miracle before a bullet shattered their hopes permanently.

Matsui nodded along vacantly as the maids described every painfully cute detail of their cafe. Rainbow streamers...hand-decorated table settings... themed desserts. Their detached descriptions of past carnage blended chillingly with reminiscing about flower bouquet arrangements.

A sudden crash followed by screams snapped Matsui from the disturbing monologue. The cafe doors burst open as a flood of zombies poured inside, drawn by the commotion.

The maids whirled, stunned to see their sanctuary violated by the undead monsters. They opened fire wildly but ran out of bullets. The horde overwhelmed them in seconds, their wails silenced under ravenous mouths.

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Grabbing her friends, Matsui dove under the cashier counter, cramming them into the tiny space. Pistol shots rang out, followed by sickening wet impacts. Matsui clenched her eyes shut, focusing only on keeping still and quiet.

Once the last maid's sob faded into gurgles, Matsui risked peeking out. Seeing only the zombies' feet shuffling nearby, she felt along the counter's shelves until her hand closed around three smooth staffs - their confiscated weapons!

Passing them to the others, Matsui fired up icy magic across her skin. At her signal, the girls burst out with a war cry, unleashing their full magical fury on the remaining stunned zombies.

The undead host never stood a chance against the renewed onslaught. In moments, the cafe interior cleared, scorched, and shattered by the raging elements. Silence hung once more, but the air now smelled of ozone and decay rather than pastries.

Stepping outside into the chilly night air, Matsui turned back to see Reira envelop the building in a swirling inferno. "I hate maid cafes," she muttered before walking away with a grimace on her face. Matsui recalled the disturbing secrets those walls had held. The fire was a fitting end.

"Excellent work, girls!" Dorki emerged from an alley unscathed. "I apologize for the delay in assisting you."

Jayla rounded on him angrily. "You sure took your sweet time! Where were you when we were held hostage, huh?"

The creature sat back on his haunches. "I observed the entire incident from outside. Once I determined your peril, I could lure zombies to the location as a distraction." His fluffy tail waved proudly.

Reira glared down at him. "What the hell! You intentionally set a horde on us!? We could have been killed!"

"And yet, thanks to my cunning plan, you escaped unscathed," Dorki replied smoothly. "As I knew you would."

Before Reira could lunge at him in fury, distant shrieks carried on the wind. They had lingered too long. Scooping up Dorki, the girls took off once more in the plaza. But doubt now lurked in Matsui's mind. Has their trust in Dorki become lost? Or were his methods simply beyond their understanding? The line felt dangerously blurred.

*****

The girls sprinted through the open-air plaza, putting as much distance between themselves and the raging blaze consuming the cafe. Their brief sanctuary had become a pyre encapsulating a grim memorial - to lives lost within its warped walls, and to the last shreds of their innocence.

But survival left no time for mourning. Primal hunger roared at their backs as zombies spilled out of the inferno, clothing ablaze. The girls made it to a small clothing shop and slammed the door just as decayed fists began pounding the glass.

"That won't hold them long," Reira said, already grabbing anything loose - hangers, platforms, mannequins - to pile against the entrance. Matsui and Jayla joined her desperate barricading efforts as fractures spider-webbed across the glass.

The door splintered moments after they staggered away, decayed forms spilling through. Matsui blasted the first ones over her makeshift barricade while scanning the boutique for any way out. "There, to the back!"

They slipped through a door labeled 'Employees Only,' finding themselves in a cavernous storage area. Racks of apparel boxes formed a maze ending at a solid concrete wall - cornering them. Matsui's gut twisted. After everything, would she fall helplessly now in a forgotten back room?

"Brace yourselves, they're coming!" Jayla yelled. The horde was already forcing its way inside, shuffling closer no matter how many burnt and shattered bodies the girls left in their wake. Their magic decimated every zombie, but more appeared to take their place.

With a primal shriek, Matsui summoned her deepest reserves of power. Shards of crystalline air tore through the room unrelentingly, fueled by her refusal to fade quietly into oblivion here. She had promised to keep it before she rested.

At her sides, lightning and fire rained down in endless streams, holding the tide at bay. Locked in a lethal dance, the girls spun and struck, bodies moving instinctively to intercept each attack. But fatigue weighed their limbs as the battle raged on. Their lights were flickering dangerously low.

Just as the last zombie collapsed, heavy footsteps shook the concrete floor. From the shadows lumbered a gigantic maid, pasty skin giving way to mottled purple bruising across her swollen frame. One clouded eye wept vile fluid while the other blazed fury. The undead beast hefted a rusted mace, chain trailing behind her.

Reira's groan echoed through the room. "You have got to be kidding me. Another freaking maid?" Despite her disgusted tone, Matsui glimpsed the girl sway unsteadily, hands trembling around her staff. They were running on fumes now. But surrender remained no option.

The maid zombie roared, foul spittle spraying them as it hoisted its giant mace overhead. Matsui and her friends scattered desperately, the crushing weapon pulverizing the floor where they had stood moments before. The beast pressed its advantage, swinging furiously, forcing them into frantic evasion.

Jayla attempted a few weak lightning strikes, only for the bolts to fizzle uselessly against the maid's immense frame. With another guttural bellow, it brought the mace down in a lethal arc. Reira barely deflected the blow with her staff, crying out as the force rattled her whole body.

Matsui searched desperately for any advantage against the hulking monster, steadily overwhelming them. But no brilliant tactics came. They could barely keep avoiding the crushing strikes targeting them.

Soon her lungs burned more from panting and choking on the stench than actual exertion. The attacks came swifter than their weary limbs betrayed them. The maid sensed victory, grinning horribly with each attack they narrowly evaded.

They were down to their last reserves, relying purely on instinct to evade the hungry jaws of death. Matsui silently prayed for the strength to survive just one more day.