🔶 POV: Alex (Third-Person)
The Idiot Trio reacts to the smell again.
They turn in perfect unison.
Their noses twitch.
Food.
Food.
FOOD.
Alex opens his mouth to say, "Please follow me, the dining hall is—"
Too late.
Naruto bolts forward.Luffy vaults over a railing.Goku phases past Piccolo like a ghost.
But the Infinite Hotel is not Euclidean.Its hallways bend.Space folds.Gravity becomes optional.Direction is merely a suggestion.
So naturally:
Naruto ends up running sideways along the wall
Goku somehow phases through the ceiling tiles with his stomach growling
And Luffy…
…is gone.
Alex blinks.
Then hears:
knock knock knock
From the outside of the extradimensional window.
The same window showing the Omniverse.
Alex shifts his focus.
And there is Luffy.
Outside the hotel.Outside reality.Floating in the void between universes.Punching a screaming mass of shifting cosmic tendrils—
A "Universal Parasite."
A creature evolved to latch onto universes and drain them slowly over billions of years.
It is older than stars.
It should be unstoppable, unkillable, unimaginable.
Luffy is winning.
Of course he is.
🔶 POV: Luffy (First-Person)
This thing tried to touch me.
So I punched it.
It made a weird sound.
So I punched it again.
Now we're fighting.
I don't know where I am.I don't know what this thing is.I don't know why the air tastes weird.But I'm hungry and angry and confused—
So I punch harder.
🔶 POV: Goku (First-Person)
OH MAN THAT LOOKS COOL.
I WANT TO FIGHT IT.
🔶 POV: Naruto (First-Person)
I'm on the ceiling.Why am I on the ceiling.Why is Luffy outside.What is that monster.Also food.
🔶 POV: Alex (Third-Person)
The adults scream.
Nami: "LUFFY!?"Bulma: "WHAT IS THAT!?"Piccolo: "This energy—what IS that thing!?"Kakashi: "A creature BETWEEN universes…?"Robin: "An interstitial predator. Fascinating."Chi-Chi: "GOKU DO NOT—DO NOT GO OUT THERE—!!"
Goku is halfway to the window already.
Alex raises a hand.
A ripple of power freezes Goku in place.
"Ahh—come on, just one punch—!"
"No."
Now Alex must deal with the situation.
He teleports.
One moment Luffy is punching a universal apex predator.
The next, he is standing inside the lobby, blinking.
"Wha—? Oh. Food still smells good."
The parasite screams.
Alex turns his palm outward.
A golden-white annihilation wave fires from his hand—silent, clean, surgical—erasing the parasite's existence.
It disintegrates into chunks of cosmic matter.
Those chunks fall.
Down.
Into different Omniverse branches.
Robin watches, mesmerized.
Bulma and Piccolo panic.
Sakura faints.
Vegeta swears.
Naruto clings to the ceiling.
Goku tries to break out of Alex's freeze.
Jiraiya scribbles furiously.
Kakashi sighs.
🔶 POV: Bulma (First-Person)
"What—WHAT—just fell into those universes!? Is that going to cause damage!?"
🔶 POV: Alex (Third-Person)
Alex shrugs casually.
Calm voice.Even tone.Like explaining a weather report.
**"Depends on which Omniverse the pieces landed in.
Some Omniverses treat that kind of cosmic material as normal background waste.
Others might… accelerate technological development after studying it.
Some might weaponize it.
Some might panic."**
Everyone stares at him.
Alex continues:
**"Universal Parasites carry genetic information from outside creation.To some worlds, that's valuable.To others, dangerous.
But honestly?
It's Tuesday.Tuesdays are boring."**
Silence.
Complete silence.
Not from awe.
From sheer confusion that anyone could say something so apocalyptically significant in such a casual voice.
🔶 POV: Kakashi (First-Person)
He knows what that creature was.
That wasn't guessing.
That was experience.
We cannot ask about this yet.
Not here.
Not with these idiots standing around.
🔶 POV: Jiraiya (First-Person)
He recognized it immediately.
This… being knows far more than he tells.
This requires patience.
Observation.
And notes.
Lots of notes.
🔶 POV: Bulma (First-Person)
He said that like it's NORMAL.
What has this hotel SEEN?
🔶 POV: Alex (Third-Person)
Alex claps his hands politely.
"Now—shall we continue to the dining hall?"
Naruto, Goku, and Luffy—STILL drooling—nod violently.
The adults shiver.
The Infinite Hotel waits.