"Are you... are you a magical girl?"
A timid voice came from the ruins of a building.
Then a boy with a bob haircut peeked out from behind a collapsed wall.
He had a fair, delicate face and looked rather helpless. His straight black hair had thick bangs that brushed his eyebrows, while the ends were cut evenly at his shoulders.
The sight of him clinging to the wall and peering out made him look especially pitiful.
Moon Dew sat on her "Charge!" broom and looked down at him from midair. He was clearly twice her age, yet she still felt sorry for him.
Moon Dew descended slowly and flew up to him, extending a hand. "I'm not a magical girl, but I can save you all the same. Come with me. I'll get you out of here."
"Really?" Hope shone in the boy's watery eyes.
"Really," Moon Dew said solemnly. "I've already opened the exit. I'll take you out right—"
Before she could finish, the boy's pitiful expression changed. His head lolled onto his shoulder as though his neck had snapped, and the corners of his mouth curled into a crescent.
"You say you're not a magical girl, so that means you aren't?"
"Why didn't you come save me sooner?"
"Why didn't you save me when they tortured me, when they gnawed at my body? I believed in magical girls so much. I believed you would come save me..."
"But why did you wait until I was utterly ruined? I hate you! I hate you!"
Moon Dew frowned slightly at his sudden, frenzied muttering.
She had thought she had entered a fairly simple Large Dream Bubble and found a pitiful Dream Guest who needed rescuing. Why had this bob-haired boy suddenly turned so dark?
*Was he abused in the