Kuri Harmon never saw himself as a hero or a villain. If anything, he was a man running from too many things at once. His home, his failures, the punishments waiting for him, and above all, the family he couldn’t face again. Especially his sister.
Everyone believed Kuri abandoned his world because he was dangerous, and in a way, they weren’t wrong. Before he vanished, Kuri had built a reputation in the underlayers of his planet’s cities. A leader of people no one else would guide, a man who could calm chaos or start it, depending on what the moment required.
He fled before they could make him disappear, like the rest.
Earth became his hiding place. A quiet, miserable existence where he tried his best not to be noticed and failed at living in every possible way.
Then, one night, while buying cigarettes, a sudden impact struck his head, like something falling from the sky aimed at him. In the seconds between consciousness and oblivion, he found himself in a void, as if drifting in the core of the universe. When he awoke, dazed, a toddler with soft pink hair stood outside the store. Everyone thought she was just a normal little girl.
But Kuri sensed something.
Something lived inside her. Something watching him.
Something choosing him.
The little girl never spoke, but she followed him everywhere,
through streets, across rooftops, even into his apartment. She blocked every attempt he made to throw his life away, almost as if she had seen his thoughts before he acted on them. Annoying. Invasive. Impossible to get rid of.
But over time, the silence between them felt less like a curse and more like company. He named her Tune, for the soothing hum she made whenever she slept.
Then the dreams began, dreams where Tune’s celestial presence took shape as Rula, a being with knowledge woven through the fabric of universes. Rula never threatened him. She simply whispered:
