19: Nightmare of the Guilty

"Where am I?"

Blinking her eyes, Defolta found herself yet again at the familiar surroundings of a particular prison cell, the very same which imprisoned the children who were turned into play dolls by none other than Matilda.

And speaking of the children, they were right before his very eyes, all chained to the wall with their ever-blank presence and open yet lifeless eyes.

Before Defolta questioned the whole scenario as to what she was doing here, she was interrupted by Nekowa. The cat spoke loudly and cheerfully that was very unfitting to the dark situation that they were in, "Come on, Defolta!! Just get on with it and kill them already!! You are doing a favor to them, after all, heh."

"Nekowa!?" Defolta was utterly appalled by what the cat just said, "What are you saying?!"

"Don't pretend to be some hero goodie two shoes, we all know how you find all of this troublesome, heh." The cat's eerie smile sent shivers in Defolta's spine, "I mean, killing is all you are good at, yes? Really, is it that hard compared to you slaughtering the bandits and that witch along the way? One little tinie winie stab is all it takes, and good riddance to them, heh."

"What the fuck, Nekowa!? This is not like you!!!" Defolta angrily screamed at her.

"You could not save these children…" Nekowa's voice turned dark and deep, a spine-chilling demonic tone that's the complete opposite of her adorable voice, "What makes you think can you save that girl?"

At that very moment, the children all broke free from their chains and begun marching slowly towards Defolta. Raw, unbridled terror instantly took over and she was restrained by the fear gripping her entire body to a halt.

The children eventually reached and grabbed her mercilessly. Defolta was left defenseless as the children looked at her and said all together, "Why? Why did you not save us? Why kill us instead of taking us away?"

"Why, oh why indeed?" 'Nekowa'…. No, whatever demon this is, questioned her with a mocking tone, "Instead of taking the extra step, you opted for the easy way out, dear Magical Girl. What a bad, bad, weak, pathetic girl you truly are, heh."

"Who… who the fuck are you!?" Defolta frustratingly yelled.

Nekowa's form morphed and was replaced by a tall humanoid figure of a white hare staring right at her very face. The hare was garbed in long scarlet red suit and khaki checkered slacks with a pair of long black boots.

"My esteemed Magical lady, you may simply call me… Buddy." The hare introduced himself, "And I look forward to the day where you surrender yourself completely to me, both you and the girl."

"Surrender!?"

Before she questioned this Buddy's motives, one of the children held her to a chokehold and she was now clinging for dear life as her fragile neck was being twisted and pressed violently at the same time.

The last thing that she saw was Buddy taking a gentleman like bow before everything fell to darkness.

***

"Defolta, wake up! Get yourself together!"

Nekowa vigorously shook the Magical Girl's sleeping form and Defolta thankfully reacted and got up from her nightmare-induced sleep.

Defolta wiped the sweat off her face and managed to even the rhythm of her frantic breathing. All panic was gone fortunately, thanks to a large part of the presence of Nekowa and the girl who both looked at her worryingly.

"Having a bad dream?" Nekowa asked about the Magical Girl's state.

"You could say that again. I'm not so thrilled at having these kinds of nightmares for the rest of my future sleeps." Defolta sighed and got up from her bedroll on the floor. The more comfortable bed was occupied by the girl when Defolta offered it to her last night. In addition, Nekowa also slept with the girl by her side since both were small and the bed was huge enough for the two of them.

"Wanna talk about it?" The cat inquired.

"I suppose." Defolta nodded, "It's probably bad for the heart to keep it all close."

Defolta then indulged them about the nightmare's tale, but not going too much in the gory details since the kid was also listening intently despite her still blank face. Naturally, she also told them regarding this "Buddy" who she met along the nightmare's way.

"Buddy… I don't know of any man, rabbit, or hare who fits the description." Nekowa shook her head, "And I transformed into him? Yikes."

As usual, silence was all they got from the girl, but just like Nekowa, she too shook her head as her way of saying that she also does not know who the mystery hare was.

"Hmm, it's just a dream, Defolta. It's all in the mental! They're not real!" Nekowa assured with a tone brimming with enthusiasm, "We are here, alive, and healthy. Don't let some nightmare, especially when it's from the past, drain you down in a gutter."

"Haha, yeah, you're right." That somehow convinced Defolta and her spirits got lifted by the cat's cheering, "Instead of pondering over some sleep induced hallucinations, we need to figure out what our next move is going to be."

"We're in luck, then." Nekowa said and pointed at a parchment on the table, "Yet again, I've scrummaged things over the camp and found a map for us to use."

"Nice." Defolta gave a thumbs up, "But before that… I think I've overstayed my welcome in this Magical form of mine."

In a flash of light, Defolta transformed back to her original human form, bringing Liam Strife back to the fold.

"Ah, it's good to be back!" Liam was seemingly overjoyed in returning to his male persona, "While being a woman, I have to admit, is kind of nice and all, nothing beats from being a bona fide young male of the human species."

"Welcome back, Liam." Nekowa chuckled at his amusing reaction, "I'm surprise that you manage to remember that you are a man, given how you enjoyed at being a Magical Girl."

"Yeah, which is why it's necessary that I transformed back should the opportunity arise," Liam replied, "So I won't truly forget myself and lose what is left of my original identity."

"Indeed. What's even more surprising though was the fact that you can maintain your transformation for so long." Nekowa added in her list of pleasant revelations, "Back at home, a Magical Girl can only maintain her transformation for three hours tops, but you, you can do it for days! No, perhaps even permanent! As a Magical Guide, I sort of possess like an internal timer in any of my girls' transformations, to determine how much tank they have left before reverting back, but you… not once did I sense yours running out anytime soon. Perhaps it's the Mana constantly flowing here in this world? I'm not exactly sure."

"Huh, if I can maintain my transformation indefinitely, then that's pretty convenient." Liam sounded impressed, "But even so, I'm still transforming back, for my mental sake, at least."

"Yup, you do you." Nekowa giggled and turned her eyes to the other occupant of the room, "And speaking of mental, the girlie over here looks rather confused right now."

"Ah… right."

Indeed, the girl's mouth could not help but turned agape as she glanced back and forth between both the young man and cat, looking utterly bewildered as to how Defolta turned to a man of all people.