Little Human Girl

First appearance of the Little Girl in-game, holding Mad Rat

## Little Human Girl (Music Tracks)

"Kind of Hope"

“*[Giggle]* ”

ー *The Little Human Girl, after meeting Mad Rat.*

**The Little Human Girl** (unnamed in the story) is a young, human NPC who encounters Mad Rat and Heart multiple times throughout the story, appearing first in stage 4-4, a second time in 5-3, and her silhouette can be seen in the credits.

## Appearance

The Little Human Girl is a young human child with fair skin, brunette hair tied into two braids, a red dress with white sleeves and a checkered front pocket, white knee-high socks, red dress shoes, and a yellow sunhat with a red bow tied around it.

## Abilities

The Little Girl appears to be an average human child with no extraordinary abilities. She is able enough to hold Mad Rat with ease due to his small stature, and, like every other character else besides Mad Rat, seems unable to perceive Heart.

## Story

### Role in the Plot

The Little Human Girl first appears before stage 4-4, picking up Mad Rat by the tail and sparing him a death at the claws of The Cat, who had just wiped out an entire group of Stray Rats in one swipe. Mad Rat is initially shocked, fearing he's been eaten. Once he realizes a human has just saved him, he becomes angered, exclaiming *"What do you want?! I'll kill you too!"*, much to Heart's dismay, who demands he should thank the human for saving his life. All the while, the Little Girl remains blissfully unaware of the conversation, being unable to understand. She only smiles and giggles, clearly amused. Mad Rat manages to free himself of her grasp, and falls to the ground, escaping. He remains conflicted and upset after the encounter, saying to Heart: *"Being saved by some human... Ugh, and even worse... It's some kid!"*. Heart does not understand his anger, as usual, and responds with *"What's the matter with that? Doesn't change the fact that you were saved."*. Mad Rat insists that he never asked to be saved, much less from a human, especially considering he's on his way to kill the Doctor.

Later on, before stage 5-3, Mad Rat is making his way through the city and back to the lab, when he hears what sounds like a car crash, though he himself does not recognize the noise. He runs ahead to inspect the commotion, where sees blood and a little red shoe in the middle of a crosswalk. Confused, he asks Heart if what he's seeing is a hallucination, but he confirms that it is indeed not. From offscreen, the recognizable hat that the Little Girl had worn flutters down in front of Mad Rat, soaked in blood as well. The camera then pans over to reveal the hand of the Little Girl, confirming that she was indeed the victim of the traffic accident. Mad Rat and Heart are both visibly upset at the revelation, when Mad Rat makes the decision to once again turn back time to selflessly save another, first The Cat, and now The Little Girl. He and Heart travel back to the beginning of the previous level. *"We already came this way! We can get back faster!"* he says, commencing the start of level 5-3. At the end, Mad Rat quickly runs ahead, and bumps into the Little Girl to get her attention, while a truck narrowly misses her before she steps onto the crosswalk. She kneels down to greet her, but he initially jumps back with aversion.

Mad Rat scolds the Little Girl for almost dying, saying that she's going to live a long time and can't waste her life dying here. She doesn't seem to understand a word of it, simply smiling and giggling as she did before. Heart points out that humans cannot understand Mad Rat, which causes him to ponder that if, perhaps, he could talk to the Doctor, maybe he wouldn't have hated him so much, and he could have learned to accept his own death.
The Little Girl then stands up and reaches into her dress pocket, pulling out a small, half-wrapped piece of cheese. Mad Rat is initially afraid, worrying it's another hallucination, but Heart confirms it's actually a real piece of cheese. Mad Rat is unsure if he can really accept it, even if it is real, but Heart insists he should. The Little Girl hands it off to him, waving goodbye as a car beeps at her offscreen (presumably a caretaker of hers picking her up). *"This is the same as with that cat... Helping others isn't so bad I guess."* Mad Rat says, smiling and holding his treat.