'Take care of them,' the last words in that message he got from Elena. So the tower wouldn't even let the Them grieve. Clearly a bad thing now, given how she was torn from people that cared for her. And now he was left with those words and the Materia. It was already a challenge to take care of himself and Kirika, but he couldn't just not follow her wishes. He owed it to Elena, and to himself if he really wanted to aid the tower. For now, he had hoped hunting for food might lead him to one of them.

Luckily it had.

He jumped down from the trees, grabbing Shion's hands before he did anything else. "That'd enough, Shion. Hurting your hands won't help."