Chapter 4: "Monsters, Meatheads, and One Very Angry Ninja"
(In which Naruto finds that even without chakra, a punch still solves a lot of problems—especially if it comes with righteous fury.)
If Naruto had to rank the weirdest places he'd ever walked through, this city would've made the top five. And considering he once had ramen in a volcano during a fight, that was saying something.
The buildings scraped the sky like they had personal vendettas against the clouds. Everything was made of glass, steel, and impatience. Traffic lights blinked like they were trying to signal SOS. People moved as if the sidewalk owed them money, and every other person wore an expression that said: I haven't slept since the invention of email.
Naruto strolled through it all like a time-traveling monk—orange hoodie, hands in his pockets, eyes scanning. He was used to crowds. But this? This was different. This place didn't just feel busy. It felt… sick.
He passed a man in a suit yelling into a phone about profit margins, a woman crying silently behind designer sunglasses, and a street performer doing a magic trick while looking like he wanted to vanish more than the coin did.
"The people here are really filled with negative emotions," Naruto muttered under his breath, frowning.
On his shoulder, Gaia stretched like a cat in the sun, only she was less feline and more ancient-world-tree-spirit the size of a soda can. Her mossy-green dress shimmered faintly as she tilted her head to study the crowd.
"Mmm," she hummed. "The world moves faster now. Mortals have grown restless, and the pace… it crushes them. Peace is a forgotten word here." Her tone was wistful, like someone reminiscing about a long-lost garden while stuck in a traffic jam.
Naruto's brow creased as he looked around. The honk of a car. The buzz of neon. The thousand-mile stares of a hundred strangers. "Even though the supernatural's hidden," he said, "it's like this world's still bleeding from something."
Gaia nodded, her gaze far away. "I've watched civilizations rise and fall. I've danced through forests that don't exist anymore. This world… it's grown loud and lonely. Boring, even." She exhaled softly. "I miss when things were quiet. When they listened."
Naruto glanced at her. For someone who was basically Mother Earth with a shrink ray, she looked oddly small just then—like time had worn down even her. Gently, he touched the edge of her hair.
"Is that so?" he asked. "It really is the same everywhere. In my world, people struggled too. Always chasing peace, never catching it for long."
Gaia turned to him, curiosity flickering behind her bright eyes. "What does your world look like?"
Naruto's eyes warmed like embers catching flame. "It's wild," he said, a smile tugging at his lips. "Forests that stretch forever. Rivers so clear you can see your thoughts in them. Mountains that hum when the wind hits them right. It's dangerous, yeah. Monsters, shinobi, giant talking frogs. But there's beauty too. And heart."
Gaia's expression turned wistful. "It sounds like a place that still breathes." She curled her knees to her chest, hovering just above his shoulder. "Even with all that danger, I think I'd like it more than this concrete cage."
Naruto chuckled softly. "You'd fit right in. Especially with the frogs."
They walked in silence for a moment. Then Gaia said, almost too softly, "I want to see it someday."
"You will," Naruto replied, his voice firm. "I'll take you there once I get my power back. We'll fix this place too. One mess at a time."
Gaia looked up at him, and for the first time in ages, she didn't look like a tired Immortal. She looked like a kid with hope.
"I believe you," she said, and her smile—small, tired, but real—glowed brighter than any streetlamp.
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The golden hour painted the city in strokes of orange and rose gold, the kind of lighting that made everything look ten times more magical and twenty percent more suspicious. The sidewalks shimmered with warmth, though the shadows stretched longer with every step Naruto, Gaia, and Ella took.
They looked like an odd group: a blonde kid with eyes too sharp for someone his age, a Immortal perched lazily on his shoulder like some divine parrot, and a harpy who could probably ace a poetry class with her soft-spoken melancholy. Together, they marched onward, one city block at a time, Naruto's footsteps oddly hopeful for someone who'd just realized he had absolutely no clue where he was going to sleep that night.
"So…" he began, dragging out the word like it owed him money, "where do you think I should stay?"
He said it lightly, but the question hung in the air like one of those heavy backpack straps that dig into your shoulders. Behind the smile was a weight even ramen couldn't fix.
Gaia tilted her head. Her gaze went distant, like she was scanning through ancient satellite maps only Immortal could access. "There's a park. A quiet one. The nymphs there owe me a favor or two. You could rest among them for the night."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Like… literal nymphs? Wood spirits? That kind of nymph?"
"Don't get any ideas," Gaia warned with a sideways glance. "They're the 'protect-the-flowers-or-get-sprayed-with-acid-sap' type."
"Noted," he muttered quickly, adjusting his pace.
They turned down a narrow street where the buildings leaned a little too close, as if eavesdropping. Ella had landed on a nearby lamppost, her feathers glowing red against the darkening sky like a little fire that refused to go out.
"What do you think, Ella?" Naruto asked. "Park with flower spirits? Or keep walking till we find a bench with less pigeon poop?"
Ella blinked her bright eyes. "Ella is okay… anywhere where it does not hurt," she said gently, wings fluttering like dry leaves in the wind.
Naruto gave her a thumbs up. "That's the spirit!"
And just like that, the plan was set: crashing with the nymphs. Which, honestly, sounded way cooler than it probably was.
But as they continued walking, another thought slipped into Naruto's mind. It had been nagging at him for a while—like a sneeze you can't quite catch.
"Hey, Gaia?" he said, slowing down just enough for the question to sound casual. "Why haven't I felt hungry yet?"
He expected a laugh, maybe a tease about his legendary bottomless stomach. But Gaia's answer was almost too practical.
"Oh," she said, like it was no big deal, "the energy orb I gave you earlier? That nourished your body for the day. All your cells are full."
Naruto blinked. "Wait… you fed me with light?"
Gaia smiled. "With energy, not light. Different wavelength. Fewer calories, though."
Naruto let out a low whistle. "Huh. That… actually makes a weird kind of sense. So what, I don't need food anymore?"
"Not quite," Gaia said. "It'll sustain you temporarily, but your body still craves actual sustenance. By tomorrow, you'll be back to normal hunger. Unless, of course, you'd prefer another dose."
He considered it. On one hand: magical energy meals. On the other: real food. He still missed the taste of miso ramen.
"I'll think about it," Naruto said. "But thanks. Really."
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Naruto had seen darkness before.
He'd walked battlefields soaked in blood, faced Immortals and monsters who'd wanted to rewrite reality with the snap of a finger, and survived teenage hormones—arguably the most terrifying of all. But nothing, nothing, prepared him for what he saw as they rounded the bend into that narrow, trash-littered alleyway.
The city had been strangely calm up to this point, like the calm before a storm or the quiet before an explosion—an explosion made of teeth, fire, and very bad decisions.
They passed more mortals on the street—some huddled in doorways under ratty blankets, others wandering aimlessly, eyes vacant, dreams long since evicted. Naruto had seen poverty, but not apathy like this. In Konoha, if someone was hungry, people fed them. If someone was hurt, the village rallied. Here? The city just stepped over the broken and moved on.
He slowed, guilt gnawing at him like a persistent tick. "How can they live like this?" he murmured.
But Gaia didn't answer. She had stopped walking, and her eyes had fixed ahead with a cold fury.
And then Naruto smelled it.
Burnt meat.
Not beef. Not chicken. Something... wrong. The kind of wrong that hit the back of your throat and made you want to rip out your own tongue just to be sure it wasn't lying to you.
He turned.
Three towering figures stood in the alley like a glitch in the city's reality—each one massive, grotesque, and more muscle than brain. Their skin was the sickly gray of dried cement, and tusks curled from their mouths like they were trying out for a live-action Shrek remake—with a lot more murder.
One of them was holding a makeshift skewer.
A skewer.
And on it... Naruto's stomach turned, and his fists clenched before his mind even caught up. A man—homeless, probably forgotten by the world—roasted over an open trash fire. His face had long since become unrecognizable. But it was the way the giants laughed that snapped something inside Naruto.
It wasn't just cruelty. It was sport.
"Laistrygonian Giants," Gaia said with a voice like cold iron. "Cannibals. Blood-drinkers. Olympian pests."
"They're barbecuing people," Naruto said slowly, his voice dangerously even.
"And no one stops them," Gaia replied, her gaze darkening. "The Immortals don't care for those who don't worship them. The mist hides the crimes. And demi Immortals are too afraid—too hunted—to risk action."
The words hung in the air like poisoned mist.
"Cowards," Naruto spat. "Hiding while this happens? Watching mortals get eaten?"
His rage wasn't loud. It was focused. Sharp. The kind of anger that knew where to cut.
"I'm collecting their essence," he said, voice like frost cracking underfoot. "Gaia, you ready?"
She nodded once, solemn. "Always. But be cautious. They're not brainless brutes. Just... mostly."
Naruto turned to the red-feathered harpy fluttering silently nearby. "Ella, stay out of this. It's going to get nasty."
Ella blinked. "Ella understands. Ella will perch. Observing. Not intervening. That's Ella's plan."
And just like that, she fluttered gently onto a lamppost, her wings folding tightly around her as if in prayer.
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There were bad days, and then there were Rick-Riordan-bad days.
For Naruto Uzumaki, this definitely qualified as the latter.
Sure, he'd fought everything from world-ending maniacs to interdimensional parasites, but nothing—and he meant nothing—prepared him for the revolting sight of three Laistrygonian giants hosting a street BBQ with people as the main course.
It was enough to make his ramen churn.
The city around him was unnaturally quiet, as if the buildings themselves were holding their breath. Even the wind refused to blow. All Naruto could hear was the greasy crackle of roasting flesh and the occasional crunch of bone. The giants were laughing, swapping jokes like they weren't literal nightmare fuel in the flesh.
Naruto's fists clenched at his sides.
He didn't speak. He didn't shout a heroic line. He just walked forward, eyes locked on the monsters. The silence broke under his steps, boots slapping against cold asphalt like a countdown to reckoning. No flashy chakra cloak, no tail-beast backup, just Naruto—and that old friend: righteous fury.
The giants turned, and for a moment, it looked like they were trying to process whether this was dinner walking toward them or the guy delivering dessert.
"Brothers, we got another tasty treat offering itself to us," the tallest one said, its yellowed teeth glinting in the firelight. Standing well over three meters tall, he looked like a walking dumpster that had swallowed a barbell factory. His breath alone could cause plant life to curl up and die.
The stockier one with a mop of greasy blond hair and a comically large bat clapped his hands like a kid on Christmas morning. "Dibs! I called dibs! Big bro, let me smash him first!"
The third giant, older and wearing a bear's skull as a hat (because why not lean into the creepy?), waved a hand lazily. "Fine. Knock yourself out. But if he's chewy, I get his legs."
Naruto stopped about ten feet away, cracking his neck to the side with a satisfying pop. "You guys talk too much."
And then, like a flipped switch, everything moved.
The blonde giant rushed forward, roaring like a deranged linebacker. His bat swung with the grace of a wrecking ball, and it would've flattened a truck if Naruto hadn't sidestepped at the last millisecond. The wind from the swing blasted past Naruto's ears—and then Naruto's fist came up like a piston.
It crashed into the giant's jaw with a sound that was way too satisfying.
The giant stumbled, blinking like someone had just rebooted his brain. "That hurt," he growled, blood dribbling from his split lip.
"Good," Naruto muttered.
But the hit wasn't enough to bring him down. Not like the enemies back home. These weren't rogue shinobi or chakra beasts—they were ancient, brutal, and dense. Like, physically and mentally.
The giant swung again, and Naruto rolled beneath the blow, grabbing a chunk of shattered curb and launching it into the giant's knee. It buckled just enough for Naruto to get in close. He vaulted off a nearby fire hydrant and brought his heel crashing down on the giant's nose with a brutal smack.
"Okay, that REALLY hurt," the giant howled, reeling backward.
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"These giants are tougher than I expected," he muttered, dodging a swing from one of the brutes that could've flattened a minivan.
The Laistrygonian snarled and brought down his bat again, this time with the subtle grace of a wrecking ball. Naruto didn't bother countering. Not yet. He shifted his stance—calm, collected, terrifying.
The wind obeyed his call before he even raised his hand.
It began as a whisper, swirling around his fingers. The air shimmered, coalescing into an impossibly thin, glowing arc. Rasenshuriken's leaner, meaner cousin. A blade of wind so sharp it could split atoms and ego in half.
The giant didn't even notice. Big mistake.
He took another lunge, predictable and lumbering, and Naruto vanished from sight—only to reappear behind the giant in a blur. His hand lashed out like a guillotine. Wind sliced through muscle and vein like warm butter.
The roar of pain that followed could've shattered windows.
"Did that hurt?" Naruto said, too casually for someone who'd just carved into a monster. "Good."
The giant staggered, blood spraying from his arm like someone shook up a ketchup bottle and ripped off the lid. He turned, wild and panicked—right as Naruto's palms crackled with electricity.
"Here," Naruto whispered. "Let me jolt your memory."
He launched upward, spinning mid-air as his hands connected with the giant's skull. The lightning surged, a crackling storm that lit up the alley like Times Square. The smell of burning hair—and whatever giants had for nerves—filled the air.
The brute twitched violently, eyes rolling back. But Naruto wasn't done.
In one fluid motion, his hand turned into a blade once more, wind coiling into a razor's edge. He slashed.
The windpipe was gone.
The sound that followed was less a scream and more a choking gurgle, like someone trying to scream underwater. The Laistrygonian collapsed in a heap of sizzling, twitching muscle.
One down.
The alley trembled as the older, broader, much uglier giant let out a war cry that could've scared a thunderstorm.
"You bastard!" he bellowed, his eyes bloodshot and wild. "You'll pay for that!"
He raised his axe—a slab of iron the size of a Prius—and charged like a sentient bulldozer.
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If there was one thing Naruto hated more than paperwork—and that was saying something—it was being interrupted. Especially mid-fight. Especially by monsters the size of apartment buildings with the hygiene of moldy yak hair.
The older giant let loose a roar that could've made an opera singer cry with envy. His eyes blazed with fury, and his massive arms swung up an axe that was probably forged from a fallen mountain and bad decisions.
"You freakin' bastard!" the giant bellowed—though, in giant-speak, it sounded like a mountain avalanche mixed with a goat choking on gravel.
He charged.
Naruto didn't blink. Didn't flinch. Didn't even spare the guy a pity look.
As the massive axe tore through the air like a comet of doom, Naruto ducked, rolling under the swing with a grace that no human—or demiImmortal, or alien ninja—had the right to possess. The wind from the blade practically gave him a haircut.
A knee like a boulder came swinging next. Naruto twisted mid-roll, letting it pass by with a whisper of space between them.
Then—he struck.
In one smooth, impossibly fast movement, his hand shot out. The wind chakra formed instantly, curling around his arm like a purring cat with knives for fur. The air shimmered, then screamed as it became a blade of pure, merciless force.
Shhh-thk!
The blade of wind carved across the giant's exposed side, slicing hide and muscle like wet paper. The giant stumbled, howling in outrage and agony, swiping at his own wound like he could pull the pain out with his fingers.
"Yeah, that's not how healing works," Naruto muttered under his breath.
But before he could finish the job—
Whump.
Something hit the older giant in the back with a sickening crunch.
A human body.
Naruto's gaze flicked up, instantly tracing the trajectory. The third giant—the silent one, the one who'd been lurking in the background like a suspicious side character in a murder mystery—had thrown the corpse like a fastball.
That… did it.
Naruto's fury flared hotter than a tailed-beast barbecue.
With a yell, he leapt up and kicked the older giant straight in the chest. Wind chakra exploded outward from his foot, compressed and honed so fine it acted like a blade. The shockwave didn't just knock the wind out of the giant—it decapitated him.
The giant's head sailed through the air like a really gross soccer ball. The body dropped to its knees, arms twitching, mouth still locked in a confused snarl as it slumped face-first into the dirt.
Naruto didn't spare it a second glance.
His eyes were locked on the third giant, who—surprise surprise—was now fleeing like a cowardly schoolyard bully who just got called out.
"Never show your back to an enemy!" Naruto barked, launching forward like a thunderbolt given human form.
In a single bound, he landed squarely on the giant's back. Before it could throw him off or even scream properly, Naruto's fingers, glowing with lightning chakra, stabbed straight into its ears.
What happened next was not pretty.
The current surged through the giant's nervous system like a divine punishment. Its eyes bulged. Its legs spasmed. Its brain probably forgot how to be a brain.
It screamed—a sound so high-pitched and raw that birds fled the area and a nearby car alarm went off in sympathy.
The scream turned to a gurgle.
Then silence.
The third giant collapsed, its limbs twitching like a puppet with its strings cut. Naruto rode it down to the ground, then flipped off its back and landed lightly, as if he hadn't just turned three giants into organic confetti.
He exhaled slowly, wind curling around him like a cloak.
"Three down," he muttered. "Still not the worst Monday."
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The battlefield was a mess.
And not the fun kind of mess where confetti's involved and someone ends up with frosting on their nose. No, this was more the "Hey, remember that street that used to be full of buildings, laughter, and literally anything alive? Yeah, not anymore" kind of mess.
Naruto Uzumaki stood at the center of it all, breathing like someone who'd just run a marathon with a backpack full of anvils and regret. Around him, fallen giants lay like scattered bowling pins after a particularly aggressive strike. Smoke curled lazily from the cracked pavement, and faint trails of electric blue energy fizzled in the air like leftover fireworks from a party no one enjoyed.
From a rooftop safe distance away, Gaia and Ella watched him.
Ella clutched a little book to her chest—because apparently, even post-apocalyptic showdowns are a good time for reading—and Gaia just hovered in that annoyingly graceful way only magical nature spirits can pull off without looking smug.
"This world needs more people like you," Gaia whispered, her voice soft as moonlight and just as hard to ignore. There was something in her eyes—admiration tinged with a sadness that didn't belong on a face that pretty.
Naruto turned to look at her, his eyes losing some of their battle-hard steel. "It needs more people willing to fight for it."
Boom. Trademark Naruto Response™: short, deep, and 100% capable of inspiring at least one spontaneous tattoo.
Gaia drifted down beside him, close enough to admire the ridiculous way his hair still managed to spike after a fistfight with a ten-story thug. Her lips curled into something between a smirk and a sigh. "That was a really nice show," she said. "I wouldn't mind watching you fight for a long time."
She might've meant that as flirty. Or poetic. With Gaia, it was hard to tell.
Naruto didn't reply right away. He just exhaled a long breath—Huuu—the kind that deflates not just your lungs but about half your soul too. The kind that says: I've seen too much, and also I think I pulled something.
"It was nothing," he muttered. "They were just thugs. No skill. I'm used to fighting real warriors."
And there it was—that edge of bitterness Naruto tried to bury under ramen jokes and smiles. Gaia picked up on it immediately. Because of course she did. She'd lived through enough wars to recognize guilt when it dressed up as indifference.
She fluttered right up to his face, her wings a blur of golden-green light. Her tiny hand rested on his cheek—not heavy, not forceful, just there, grounding him.
"Naruto," she said gently, "it's not your fault. You were outnumbered. You didn't even have your powers. You did what you could."
He looked at her, his eyes shadowed. Not because he doubted her—but because some part of him wanted to carry the blame. Like grief was the price for surviving.
Gaia wasn't having it.
"You can't save everyone," she continued, her voice warm but firm. "People die every second. If you grieve for each one, you'll stop moving. You'll die inside long before your body gives out."
Naruto winced. Not because the words hurt. But because they healed. And healing, contrary to most anime logic, wasn't always painless.
"You have a goal," she said, eyes locked with his. "Don't let sorrow chain you down. Let it push you forward."
He blinked. Once. Twice.
Then, slowly, the ghost of a smile crept onto his face.
"Thank you, Gaia," he whispered. "Sorry I showed you that side of me. I'm a shinobi, after all."
Gaia smiled, brushing a lock of golden hair behind her ear—despite the fact that her hair never seemed to move unless it wanted to. "It's okay to feel bad, Naruto. It keeps you human. Keeps you from turning into one of them."
And just like that, the mood lightened.
Mostly because Naruto chuckled.
"That tickles," he said, as her fingers brushed his skin.
At that moment, Ella fluttered over, clearly deciding it was her turn in the emotional support rotation. Her wings grazed his ear as she nestled into his shoulder like an overly affectionate bookmark.
"Ella is here for you too, so don't feel like that," she chimed with a proud nod. "Ella will share her books."
That was possibly the highest honor the tiny bookworm could offer. Naruto blinked, touched beyond words. He reached up and gently rubbed her head, making her squeak with delight.
"Thanks, Ella. I feel better now," he said.
And maybe he did. Because somewhere between Gaia's wisdom and Ella's unconditional weirdness, the ache in his chest dulled. Just a little. Enough to stand tall again.
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The tension in the air had finally deflated, like a balloon that realized it wasn't invited to the party. Giants were dead, the world hadn't ended (yet), and Gaia, Mother of Earth and occasional provider of mystical medicine, clapped her hands like a mother who had just finished cleaning up her toddlers' mess. With a satisfied smile, she conjured three glowing power pills from the leftover essence of the not-so-lamented giants.
"These should delay their return for years," she said, her tone like someone announcing a sale on apocalypse prevention. "By the time they're needed again, the gate should be closed."
Naruto nodded like a guy used to casually swallowing divine artifacts. He took the pills, examining them like they were mystery-flavored jellybeans, and without hesitation, handed the largest one to Ella.
"Here, Ella. Eat this. It's good for you."
Ella didn't hesitate—because, frankly, hesitation wasn't really her thing. She opened her mouth wide like a baby bird in a mythology class, and Naruto gently placed the pill inside. It was kind of adorable. Kind of weird. Mostly adorable.
Then it happened.
A glow lit up her skin like someone turned on her inner LED settings. Her body stretched, bones reshaped, magic zipped through her frame with the enthusiasm of a child on a sugar high. She grew taller—now a solid 1.7 meters—and no longer looked like she needed five bowls of soup and a warm blanket. She looked strong. Confident. Slightly terrifying in a "tiny tornado in human form" kind of way.
"How do you feel?" Naruto asked, half-expecting her to sprout another head or something.
"Ella feels great!" she chirped, practically vibrating with energy. "Ella feels like she can take on Phineas now!"
Naruto snorted. "That's a very small goal. Let's see you take on something bigger."
Ella puffed up like a proud pegasus. "Ella will fight giants and beat them too!"
Her wings fluttered like a hummingbird on espresso, and Naruto couldn't help but laugh. Gaia, watching the interaction like a babysitter whose charges just ate a handful of Skittles, rolled her eyes.
"Stop playing with the kid and eat," she said, though her smile said she wasn't really annoyed.
"Okay, okay. No hurry," Naruto replied with a smirk, eyeing the two remaining pills. He popped them both into his mouth like vitamin gummies, swallowed, and waited.
Nothing.
No glowing. No stretching. No angelic choir.
His abs remained ab-tastic. His arms remained Hulk-lite. But something inside shifted—like the engine of a sports car revving in his gut.
Boom.
Power. Raw, dense, heady power flooded his limbs like lava through veins. He wasn't just strong anymore—he was halfway to titan-class.
I should have about half the strength of that big giant now, he mused, mentally flexing. Not bad. Not bad at all.
"It should be close," Gaia said, watching him with the intensity of a cat watching a laser pointer.
"Meh. Good enough," Naruto replied. "Better than the three times human strength I had when I started off."
Gaia blinked, her expression softening. "Sorry for only giving you that much. It's not like I had any choice."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, grinning. "I'm not complaining. But don't make that face. Even though it looks cute."
The pout on her lips vanished faster than a pizza at a demiImmortal meeting. "Just kidding," she said, the grin creeping back.
They both laughed, the tension between them fading like mist in morning sun. For a moment, they were just people—two warriors sharing a strange road and weirder fates.
"Well, everything's good now. Let's head toward our destination," Naruto said. As he stepped forward, something glinted on the ground—an axe, comically huge and left behind by one of the now-powdered giants.
He bent down and picked it up.
Gaia tilted her head. "Sometimes monsters leave behind items."
Naruto tested the weight in his hand, the grin returning. "Feels like a game."
"It's the Olympians," Gaia muttered, her voice somewhere between annoyed and disgusted. "They thought heroes deserved loot boxes."
Naruto nodded. "Makes sense. I hope to see one of those demi-kids actually carrying a weapon next time. I feel naked without something in my hands. This axe will do for now… though I've never used one like this."
"I can teach you," Gaia offered, her tone suspiciously innocent.
"Not now," Naruto said, voice low, eyes sharp. "If I need help, I'll ask."
There was something behind his words—something darker. Gaia felt it like a chill beneath sunlight. She nodded, saying nothing more.
Silence followed. But not the awkward kind—the good kind. The kind where even the wind seems to respect your journey.
Their footsteps echoed as they walked, the road ahead stretching into the unknown. Danger was out there. More giants. More Immortals. Maybe a talking llama or two. Who knew? But they moved forward—not because it was safe, but because it was necessary.
Naruto rested the axe over his shoulder, the weight comfortable. Ella walked beside him, fluttering occasionally, humming a song she might've made up just then. Gaia followed, quiet but alert, her eyes watching the world with the patience of someone who'd seen it born and broken a thousand times.
Whatever lay ahead, they'd face it.
Together.
And possibly with glowing power pills and sarcastic commentary.