"Iwasaki-san? Are you all right?" calls the nurse.

Don't be alarmed.

"Y-yeah, just, nightmare."

You're Kyūbey?

Would you look at that, he can't stutter in telepathy.

Yes.

And you don't have nine tails*.

* 九尾, "kyūbi", literally means "nine tails"

No.

Okay.

What the fuck. But also it's kind of... cute?

He stands up straight, looking at the little... furry... thing... with some wariness.

It puts its forepaws on his knee. You have magical potential, it informs him. That's why you can see me.

Yeah. Okay.

Do I get an exposition episode now? —you can let Swan Masaharu listen, too, now, I guess.

What do you want to know first?

The thing where I almost died? That part, probably? I was having a shit day but not that shit?

What time is it, he didn't mean to nap, does he get to go home now?

(Yeah, the nurse will send him home if he looks like he'll make it on his own without incident.)

There's these monsters called witches, they affect people's moods and stuff - driving people to suicide or violence.

(Cool cool he can totally make it on his own without incident he would in fact like to be somewhere safe and personal and away from everything and everyone else.)

Wi... tches.

(Unfortunately he's still staring at the fox thingy and not actually leaving.)

The nurse doesn't rush him. The fox thingy climbs into his lap. Witches are creatures of despair, it says helpfully. But magical people like Haru are empowered by hope and joy!

Magical people.

Blink.

Is Haru a magical girl? ...boy? Like Sailor Moon?

...it's really kind of cute, though. The furry thing. He pets it.

It leans right in to the petting. Yes!

You know, in the West they let boys star in superhero comics too.

It's really not the same genre! Do you have a transformation sequence that is only ambiguously diegetic, too?

What would it mean for my transformation sequence to be ambiguously diegetic??

Well, I don't know, I just know that Sailor Moon monsters didn't just sit around twiddling their thumbs for the thirty to sixty seconds straight of teenage girls glowing in plausibly deniably erotic ways while changing clothes but I have no idea what was happening instead.

I'll have to take your word for it on what happens in Sailor Moon. It doesn't take thirty to sixty seconds but it's admittedly got a bunch of steps that I might experience as happening more slowly than they do by the clock.

He looks at the cute fluff on his lap. Shouldn't you be with Haru now or something?

Why?

'Cause he's your magical boy and I'm not?

You could be, if you make a contract with me.