Aqua watched Kimiko for a while before turning toward Ethan with genuine concern. "Are you really going to let her walk around like that? Didn't you say she's dangerous? Aren't you worried she'll attract trouble?"
Ethan looked at her with obvious surprise. "Wow. Even you have functioning brain cells."
Aqua blinked, looking proud for a moment. Then realization hit. "Wait a minute. Did you just insult me?" She grabbed his shirt with both hands and started shaking him violently.
"I always had intelligence! I am a goddess! People pray to me for wisdom and guidance!"
Ethan stayed completely unmoved through the assault. "I suppose even idiots become slightly smarter after spending enough time around truly intelligent people."
Aqua stopped shaking him, eyes narrowing. "So that's your excuse?"
"It isn't an excuse. It's generosity." She pointed at herself.
"I crossed dimensions and arrived in a world without magic. I immediately adapted, learned about money, food, modern society. Doesn't that prove how capable I am?"
Ethan set his empty cup aside. "Even idiots survive. That doesn't automatically make them intelligent."
Aqua puffed up her cheeks. "Hey!"
He ignored it. "If I hadn't found you, you would've probably announced to everyone that you're the Goddess of Water within the first hour. Knowing you, you'd even demonstrate your powers in public just to demand worship."
Aqua opened her mouth, then closed it. Because that was exactly something she'd do.
"If you want, you can still do it right now. Walk outside, tell people you're a goddess, perform a miracle, and see what happens."
"They would worship me."
"They would lock you inside a laboratory."
The confidence in his voice made her hesitate.
"This world isn't the one you came from. There are no adventurers, no guilds, no kingdoms that respect gods. There are corporations, governments, and people who make fortunes turning living beings into products." He leaned back on the sofa.
"Vought performs experiments that would make ordinary people sick just hearing about them. Compound V alone has ruined countless lives, and that's only the part the public doesn't know about."
Aqua's expression gradually changed.
"If people discovered an actual immortal goddess with healing powers, purification abilities, and divine energy, they wouldn't build temples for you. They'd put you on an operating table and spend decades trying to understand how you work."
The room went quiet. "For the first time in your life, being loud and seeking attention is genuinely dangerous."
Aqua instinctively stepped closer. "So... staying here is the safer option?"
"Very much so. Compared to where you came from, this place is far more messed up. At least demons in your world are honest about wanting to kill you. Here, people smile, shake your hand, then sell your organs for quarterly profits."
Aqua swallowed. The image of scientists cutting her open while she stayed alive sent a chill through her. After a few seconds she sat back down. "Maybe... maybe I won't tell anyone I'm a goddess."
"Congratulations. That's probably the smartest decision you've made since arriving here."
***
Kimiko eventually found the woman who had sold her. The encounter was brief — years of fear, anger, and pain ended in a matter of seconds. When it was over she walked away, leaving the past behind without looking back.
The problem was that freedom didn't tell her where to go next. She didn't know the city. She didn't speak the language.
The only place that felt even remotely familiar was the strange house she'd woken up in. So she started walking back in the direction she remembered.
She'd almost reached Ethan's neighborhood when something struck her from the side with tremendous force.
Her body slammed into a narrow alley, crashed through a stack of trash bins, and rolled across the concrete.
Kimiko pushed herself upright. A-Train stood at the entrance, his expression furious.
"You fucking bitch," he snarled, breathing heavily. "You're supposed to be locked in that cell. Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me?" He took several steps forward.
"The Triad lost their people, and now everybody's looking at me like I screwed something up." His anger kept building. "You ruined my life."
He disappeared. Kimiko reacted on instinct, but a fraction of a second later he was beside her, driving a kick into her ribs.
The impact launched her into the alley wall. Concrete cracked. She dropped to one knee before forcing herself back up.
A-Train grabbed her by the collar and slammed her against the bricks. "You have any idea what I've been dealing with? Now this disaster lands right on top of me."
Kimiko answered the only way she knew — driving her elbow toward his face. He jerked back just in time, missing it by inches.
"Oh, you wanna fight now?"
He vanished. The next hit came from behind. Kimiko crashed across the pavement and rolled through broken glass. Even injured she kept getting back up, which only seemed to make him angrier.
"You just don't know when to stay down, do you?"
The frustration wasn't really about her anymore. It was about everything — Compound V, Vought, Homelander, the feeling that his life was slipping out of his control. Kimiko had simply become the nearest target.
He disappeared again. The pavement cracked beneath his feet as he leaned forward, intending to end it.
Homelander had made his position clear — the Triad operation could never trace back to Vought, and nobody involved was supposed to survive long enough to talk. Kimiko existing outside that cell was a problem that needed to disappear.
His hand reached forward.
Then something hit him first.
A fist crashed directly into his face, shattering several teeth and twisting his jaw sideways before his body launched across the alley.
A-Train slammed into a brick wall hard enough to crack it and collapsed into a pile of broken masonry.
Kimiko turned her head. Ethan stood between her and the street, his expression carrying genuine disbelief.
"No fucking way. You actually tried to sprint at her right in front of me. That's impressively stupid."
A-Train shook his head and spat blood onto the ground. The world was still spinning. Nobody had ever intercepted him like that. Nobody. He slowly stood up, touching his ruined mouth. "Who the fuck are you?"
Ethan looked at him with complete indifference. "Well, considering the circumstances, probably your nightmare."
***
A/N: And on Patreon, The Boys arc started.
The Patreon version is already updated with 46 advanced chapters. If you'd like to read ahead of the public release schedule, you can join here:
👉 patreon.com/JamesA211