“I’m sorry… I’m showing you my belly… I didn’t mean to steal your food… Please don’t hit me…”
Morning light slanted through the kitchen blinds, spreading a thin layer of soft glow across the dim room and landing right on Su Ruanruan’s dazzlingly white belly.
Hoshino Haruka’s fingers, hanging at her sides, twitched violently.
Su Ruanruan tilted her head up.
Through her blurry, tear-filled vision, she finally saw clearly for the first time the person who had picked her up.
In front of her stood a girl who looked about fifteen or sixteen.
She had long, ink-black, straight hair that fell to her waist, gleaming with a cool luster like black satin under the morning light.
Her features were exceptionally refined—sharp brows, a straight nose, and lips with clean lines as if cut with a precision knife.
And—she was huge!
Her legs were so long!
From Su Ruanruan’s low angle, crouched and trembling on the floor, the other girl was wearing nothing but a simple pair of dark home shorts.
Yet those straight, well-proportioned legs looked almost as long as Su Ruanruan was tall.
She looked insanely strong!
Hoshino Haruka forced her gaze away from that glaringly white stretch of belly.
She bent down.
Her black hair cascaded like a waterfall from both sides of her shoulders, carrying a faint orange scent.
Hoshino Haruka placed the bread, milk, and strawberries from her hands onto the nearby low cabinet—at a height Su Ruanruan could easily reach even while squatting.
Then she straightened up, lowered her eyelids, and looked down at the white-haired ball on the floor who was clutching her shirt tightly to her chest.
“If you’re hungry, just say so. You can eat these.”
Hoshino Haruka paused.
“…Put your clothes down. Don’t be afraid.”
With that, she turned and left.
The ends of her black hair swayed gently behind her before she disappeared.
Su Ruanruan stayed crouched there in a daze.
Only after confirming the other girl had really gone did she cautiously reach out with a trembling little hand, grab the edge of a pale yellow piece of toast, and stuff it into her mouth.
It was soft and carried a faintly sweet wheat aroma.
Phew… She had dodged a bullet.
Two hours later.
Su Ruanruan sat cross-legged like a little hamster that had built its nest, curled up in the soft corner of the guest room bed.
She was nibbling on her third strawberry—she had figured out the name from the packaging earlier.
When she bit into the red fruit, it let out a tiny pop. Sweet-and-sour juice burst across her tongue.
It tasted so good that the cat ears on Su Ruanruan’s head couldn’t help twitching comfortably.
She lined up the leftover strawberry stems neatly on a paper towel by the bed.
Looking at the three little green tails arranged in a perfect row, Su Ruanruan tilted her head.
A strange sense of accomplishment rose in her chest.
Click.
The door opened without warning.
Su Ruanruan nearly bit her tongue in fright and jerked her head up.
Hoshino Haruka stood in the doorway.
She had changed into a strange dark blue uniform.
A snow-white shirt was tucked neatly into a pleated skirt with zero wrinkles, the waistline sharply defined.
A matching necktie was tied at the collar in a perfectly measured bow.
Her long black hair had been pulled into a low ponytail, with a few stray strands slipping down beside her ears.
Su Ruanruan’s gaze stuck to the outfit for several seconds before she guiltily whipped her head toward the window.
Hoshino Haruka walked in, pulled over a chair, and sat down beside the bed.
Her back was ramrod straight, hands folded neatly on her knees.
“So, my name is Hoshino Haruka. What’s yours?”
“…Su Ruanruan.”
“Su Ruanruan.”
Hoshino Haruka repeated it clearly, pronouncing the three soft syllables with perfect enunciation.
“Where did you come from?”
Beep—beep—beep—
A red alarm blared inside Su Ruanruan’s brain.
How was she supposed to explain suddenly appearing in an alley, covered in injuries and wearing weird clothes?
If she said “I came from another world”—she would definitely get dragged off to a laboratory by the evil magical girls of this world, sliced up, preserved in formalin, and turned into a specimen!
Her mouth opened and closed, opened and closed again.
Finally, she forced the words out through gritted teeth, ready to face death:
“…I’m human. Yeah, human. From abroad.”
By the time the last two words left her lips, the white cat ears on her head had drooped guiltily, their tips burning bright red.
“Are you sure?”
Hoshino Haruka’s gaze lingered on her cat ears for a second.
Her tone remained flat, showing no ripple of emotion.
“…Yes!”
Su Ruanruan clenched her teeth hard. Her face flushed crimson all the way down to her neck.
The lie was so weak even a three-year-old wouldn’t believe it.
She could barely stand listening to herself.
But Hoshino Haruka didn’t press further, which was unexpected.
She simply sat there quietly, watching her.
That bottomless gaze traveled from Su Ruanruan’s flushed cheeks, down to the oversized T-shirt that had slipped off one shoulder, then to the fair, slender calves beneath the hem, and finally back up to the shifty eyes that refused to meet hers because of the lie.
Looking at this little thing who was like a homeless kitten—using bravado to hide her fear—Hoshino Haruka felt something stir abnormally deep in her chest.
She remembered last night, when she had treated the wounds on this petite body and seen those marks.
Fair skin covered in overlapping old and new red welts. Bruises left by some kind of rope.
And around her neck, dark red friction marks from repeated rubbing by something rough.
The most glaring was the black leather collar she had personally removed—thick with humiliating intent.
Inside, gold-embroidered letters spelled out some name’s initials.
Last night, she had stared at those letters for a full minute before expressionlessly unfastening the buckle and tossing it into the trash.
And now, this injured little cat girl she had picked up from the muddy alley was wrapped in a T-shirt that carried her own scent.
A smear of strawberry juice still lingered at the corner of her mouth.
Those pale pink eyes looked at her with a mix of wariness and pleading.
Small. Beautiful. Completely defenseless.
In this world, she had no one to rely on. She could only rely on herself.
In that instant, an utterly insane thought surged uncontrollably through Hoshino Haruka’s mind.
Keep her.
Don’t report her to the Magical Girl Association. Skip all proper procedures.
Don’t let anyone outside know she exists.
Hide this wounded little thing forever inside this empty house.
Lock the door.
Yes. That way, she would only be able to look at her. She would belong to her alone.
But no.
You are a magical girl, not a perverted loli who kidnaps underage beings from another world!
Hoshino Haruka gritted her teeth hard inside her mind and repeated that final sentence three full times.
Only then did she forcibly yank her wavering sanity back into place.
When she opened her eyes again, her face had returned to calm.
Hoshino Haruka leaned forward slightly, closing the distance.
“Things you don’t want to tell the truth about can stay unsaid for now.”
Hoshino Haruka’s voice was still soft, but every word carried an undeniable pressure.
“I can take you in. But not so I can watch you lift your shirt and show your belly in my kitchen every time.”
She stared straight into Su Ruanruan’s eyes and delivered the final warning: “No matter who you are, since you’re staying here, if you don’t follow the rules—I won’t keep you.”
Su Ruanruan only heard the last few words.
Her face went deathly pale in an instant.
Not keeping her = kicking her out = losing her meal ticket = ending up on the streets and getting turned into a plush toy?!
“…Don’t throw me away.”
Fear once again overpowered shame.
Su Ruanruan scrambled forward on her knees and grabbed the hem of Hoshino Haruka’s pleated skirt.
“I swear I won’t cause any trouble… I can clean the house… I can wash your clothes… And I don’t eat much at all!”
She pointed desperately at the three rows of strawberry stems on the bedside table.
Her eyes instantly reddened, and tears pattered onto the back of the hand clutching the skirt, more and more with every wipe.
“Look, this morning I only took two of those yellow squares and three of those red fruits… From now on I can eat just one a day if you want…”
“I’m sorry… so please—please don’t kick me out…”