Reunited at last, Matsui and Jayla ushered the anxious children, leaving the ominous funhouse behind. Their sole focus now was locating missing Reira before more threats emerged. The park remained eerily silent aside from carnival jingles echoing through the empty lanes.

"Let's check the rides first, then food stalls," Matsui strategized, conjuring a glowing orb to light their way. As they walked cautiously onward, the young boy and girl stayed glued between them, their small hands clenched tightly.

Rounding the park's central carousel, Matsui heard faint grunts and curses rising over the tinkling music. Peering closer, she spotted Reira atop one of the circling unicorns, blasting fireballs at the pursuing zombies below. Trust her to find trouble, even here.

Leaving Jayla with the kids, Matsui sprinted forward, launching icy spears to skewer the zombies menacing Reira. Joining forces, the two girls soon cleared out the remaining ghouls scattering charred across the ride's floor.

As the carousel halted to a gentle stop, Reira jumped down, looking irritated but unharmed. "Took you guys long enough! This place is way creepier than I expected." She gestured at a singed animatronic clown slumped nearby.

Matsui laughed shakily, simply relieved to have their team reunited. No more splitting up for any reason - that was the lone way forward. Together, their torch blazed all the more brightly.

"Are you both okay?" Jayla asked once they returned, concern furrowing her brow. The ghostly park lights revealed dark circles under her exhausted eyes. Matsui wondered suddenly when any of them had last enjoyed a proper night's sleep.

The younger girl, who had introduced herself as Mei, spoke up bravely. "We're fine. Just wanna get back home now." She sniffled, wiping her grimy cheeks with a tattered sleeve. Her brother Kazu nodded, lower lip trembling.

Matsui knelt, speaking gently. "Let's get you both somewhere safe. Can you tell us where your parents are?" The girls had to ensure these children's well-being before moving on themselves.

Kazu looked up hesitantly. "We snuck out from a stadium shelter. Everyone's hiding there from the monsters." His admission sounded guilty as if expecting a scolding.

Instead, Matsui squeezed his shoulder. "We'll take you straight back, I promise." Standing slowly, she met her friends' resolute gazes. They set their course. As they left the garish lights behind, Matsui prayed this haven would offer a brief chance to mend their battered spirits too before continuing life's weary trudge ever onward.

The hulking sports complex soon emerged downtown, floodlights casting a halo atop its arched roof. Matsui peered up for any sign of guards or fortifications but saw only more eerie stillness. She glanced back at Dorki trailing above. "What do you make of this place?"

The creature paused, blinking silently. His lack of input about this supposed refugee shelter unsettled Matsui further. But the kids' hopeful gazes kept her doubts at bay. Right now, reuniting two scared children with family came first. The rest could wait.

The girls approached the stadium gates cautiously; the children sticking close between them. Guards in riot gear suddenly emerged, training rifles on the odd group. "That's far enough!" one ordered. "What's your business here?"

Matsui stepped forward slowly, hands raised. "Please, we only wish to bring these two children to their parents." Mei and Kazu peeked out behind her.

The second guard's eyes widened in recognition. "The Sato kids? Where the hell were they?" His harsh tone made the children shrink back fearfully.

"There was an accident, but they're safe now thanks to these kind girls," the first guard mumbled. He turned to Matsui. "You may enter, but we'll need to examine you three at the quarantine facility first."

Having no choice, Matsui agreed. The guards brought them to a medical tent occupied by personnel in hazmat suits. Dorki vanished before the guards noticed him. After a battery of questions and tests, the personnel in hazmat suits cleared the girls once they determined that they hadn't been bitten or infected.

Escorted to the main encampment inside the arena, they weaved between clustered tents and makeshift cooking fires in the grassy field. Mei suddenly cried "Mama!" and ran toward a weeping couple, Kazu close behind. The family embraced tightly, sobbing.

Approaching respectfully, Matsui met the mother's tearful, but grateful gaze. "You saved our babies when no one else could. How can we ever repay you?" She grasped Matsui's hands as if in prayer.

Matsui demurred gently. "Just keep them close from now on." Seeing children playing tag nearby, her heart swelled, thinking of the lives persisting despite the darkness seeking to smother them.

As Mei excitedly told her parents about the "magical girls and their talking cat" who rescued her from actual monsters, Matsui and her friends slipped away quietly to a vacant corner. For now, they could simply rest without fear of attack.

"So this is what passes for normal now, huh?" Reira mused, watching people cook canned food over fires. The atmosphere reminded Matsui painfully of simpler camping trips with her family, now just traces of stardust.

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Jayla shook her head. "I don't think I can handle staying cooped up in this little league life forever. We gotta get back to the real fight soon." She spun her staff.

Matsui looked up at the exposed night sky, allowing herself a moment to appreciate the gentle rhythms of humanity persisting around her - laughter, banter, singing. It reignited her weary spirit. But Jayla was right. Beyond these fragile walls lay their true calling still.

After wolfing down a humble but much-needed hot meal, the girls gathered their scant belongings, resolving to depart at sunrise. For now, Matsui pulled a threadbare blanket over her shoulders and laid down the sounds of the living surrounding her. Tonight, her sleep would be dreamless, unhaunted by horrors waiting in the shadows. But dawn would always come, and with it, the endless battle continued.

*****

Matsui drifted into dreamless slumber, the camp's rhythms a soothing lullaby. For once, her weary mind and body felt wholly at peace. Which made the shattering screams that much more jolting.

Bolting upright, Matsui glimpsed panicked figures grabbing supplies and sprinting past. Nearby tents already lay abandoned, flaps fluttering aimlessly. Heart seized by familiar dread, Matsui hastily shook her friends awake.

"What the hell...?" Reira mumbled, bleary-eyed. Around them, the orderly refuge had descended into anarchy. They grabbed their weapons and prepared for anything. Did something breach the compound?

Matsui stopped a frantic woman loaded down with bags and squirming children. "What's happening?" she pleaded. "Please, we can help!" Behind her, Jayla and Reira stood ready, elements swirling.

The woman's eyes widened at the magical display, but she was too panicked to question it. "They - they're evacuating us! Military is going to bomb the city in two days! We have to run!" Not waiting for a response, she disappeared into the chaos.

Matsui's stomach dropped as the implication hit her. The military was destroying the entire infested area, with them still inside it. After days of isolation, the countdown was now mercilessly real. Just two days left to stop Doomsday.

Reira kicked a nearby cooler angrily. "How the hell are we supposed to find one hidden psycho in an entire city in less than 48 hours?" She looked at Matsui helplessly, fear cracking her brash facade. Their quest suddenly seemed desperately impossible.

But Matsui refused to surrender hope. Taking Reira's hand firmly in hers, she stated with utter conviction, "We're going to do it. We have no other choice. All our loved ones depend on us." She saw Reira's clenched jaw relax slightly at the reassurance. Failure was not an option. The task simply had to be done.

As the panicked exodus continued around them, the girls knew where their duty lay. Approaching the barricades, they offered their powers in service, guarding the evacuees. These innocent lives had to be protected come hell or high water. Which, given the circumstances, felt imminent.

The convoy vehicles soon rumbled through the gates, loaded with crying children and frightened families clutching their meager belongings. Matsui kept a vigilant watch as the transport departed, praying its precious cargo reached safety outside the coming firestorm.

But fate, as it often does, had other plans still. Just as the last truck disappeared into the night, an unearthly howl arose, chilling Matsui's blood. Cresting the hill came a surge of zombies unlike any they had battled before, single-mindedly drawn to the compound.

The camp's defenses quickly collapsed beneath the endless tide. As the undead horde flooded through shattered barricades, Matsui knew with haunting certainty that their lights would not all see the sunrise. But they had to rage against the coming darkness, however futile.

Planting her feet, Matsui unleashed her power alongside her stalwart friends, carving through the horde with ruthless abandon. She silently prayed the convoy reached open roads by now, so these deaths had a purpose. Locked arm in arm, the girls slowly advanced against the onslaught, unified until the inevitable bitter end.

The girls struck with merciless fury, their magic scything through the endless zombie legions flooding the stadium. But it was mere drops in a horrific bucket. For every creature mutilated by frost or fire, ten more emerged crazed for warm flesh.

"There's too many!" Reira cried out angrily, unleashing a punishing vortex of flames that barely slowed the advance. Nearby, a few zombies ripped a family apart before they could reach the convoy. The screams of the dying fueled Matsui's desperate attacks.

Cleaving a path with relentless precision, the girls provided cover for more fleeing evacuees. But Matsui knew deep down that many would never escape this nightmare. Still, they had to keep trying against hopelessness, threatening to drown them.

In the distance, a lawnmower's sputtering engine rose over shrieks and howls. Matsui spotted an undead groundskeeper riding the decrepit tractor towards them, sickle raised high. The girls dove apart, the rusted blades barely missing them.

Before Matsui could react, a zombie tackled her from behind, fetid breath swamping her senses. She struggled fruitlessly as it dragged her towards the tractor's churning blades.

She screamed until the weight pinning her lifted. Reira single-handedly hurled the zombie away before leaping onto the tractor herself. With a maniacal cackle, she seized the wheel from the startled groundskeeper and stomped the gas pedal.

Matsui watched in shock as Reira mowed down the scattering horde, their dying shrieks barely audible over the tractor's roar. Jayla provided gory help, lightning-frying zombies into twitching husks.

Caught up in macabre exhilaration, Matsui added her power to the gruesome onslaught. The girls cut a path of merciless carnage through the outpost, their laughter tinged with hysteria and horror as viscera coated the earth. How easily that line blurred now between protector and destroyer.

When no signs of life remained stirring, Matsui lowered her staff, gasping. The stands and field now resembled a massacre, not a sanctuary. She spotted tire tracks leading out through the wrecked gates - at least some had escaped this nightmare because of their stand. That knowledge anchored Matsui against despair.

As they caught their breath amidst the reeking corpses, a heavy beating sound grew audibly closer. Matsui searched the dark sky desperately. Had the bombers come early?

A winged silhouette emerged through the smoke, sailing rapidly towards them. Matsui braced for another grueling battle as it approached, but the shape soon crystallized into Dorki, circling down to land gracefully.

"Thank goodness you're alright!" Dorki exclaimed. "After I woke up and heard the attack, I feared the worst." His tail drooped at seeing the devastation surrounding them.

Matsui reached down to stroke Dorki's soft fur. "We're just grateful you found us. No more splitting up for any reason." Reira and Jayla murmured agreement, the trauma of their ordeal etched across their haggard faces. They could only rely on each other from now on into darkness, with dawn now in sight.