The chapter starts in the early hours of September 7th. Undine and Heartful Punch go their separate ways, with Undine thanking Heartful Punch as she leaves and telling HP her real name.
Heartful Punch goes to a boarding house where she seems to live, while Undine has a sleepless night.
Undine wakes up at 10:00 am and departs for school. At school, Heartful Punch learns about the deaths of Team Alchemical from Vedika and Cassidy and freaks out over her ignorance of the tragedy, worrying about what Undine thinks of her because of this ignorance. Meanwhile, Undine wonders if the school cafeteria is serving turkey that day.
Undine comes across Zoe being harassed by another student; the other student berates Zoe for attending their school without fighting the monsters every night. When Undine attempts to intervene, the other girl tries to use her as an example of why Zoe should be fighting. However, Undine, angered, tells her off and walks away. Zoe runs after her and thanks her. Zoe confesses that she is scared to face the monsters every night, but Undine tells her that she should only fight if she wants to.
At lunchtime, HP, accompanied by Bud and Harley, runs into Undine. To make up for her ignorance last night, she offers to buy Undine lunch. Undine refuses but asks for her company during lunch, as other girls now ignore her.
While they eat together, Undine confesses that she was happy last night fighting with HP because things seemed normal for a moment because of HP's unawareness of her situation, and is ashamed because she feels this way. HP replies that there is no shame in wanting to feel better. Undine then asks HP why she fights alone. HP deflects the question by stating that some things frighten her far more than fighting alone. She also tells Undine her real name, Kokoro (which means "heart" in Japanese).
After school, Tessa meets Undine at the gate and begs her to look for a new team so she can protect herself, which Undine agrees to. They hug, and Undine calls Tessa a good friend. As she walks away, Tessa thinks to herself that if she truly was a good friend, her teammates would not have been killed, revealing that she blames herself for the destruction of Team Alchemical. During this discussion, the reader learns that magical girls' powers don't last forever. The chapter ends with Undine (and elsewhere Heartful Punch) beginning their nightly rounds.
Interstitial[]
Anemone sketches out more details of how the magical barrier generally works to keep out monsters, and hints that magical girls could also break the barrier.