"Took care of the Hong Kong problem."
Satoru teleported into the middle of the central hall. He was wearing his black blindfold with the Mind Stone again. Wong and the three Sanctum Guardians were still standing around the map, looking exactly as they had when he left.
Tina Minoru, the Hong Kong Guardian, blinked and checked the clock. "You... you were only gone for a few minutes. Your speed never ceases to amaze me. What was it?"
"Just some sorcerer, I don't remember his name though. Who cares anyway, right?" Satoru said, reaching into a small paper bag he was now carrying and pulling out a pastry. "He was at the Pak Tai Temple. Kept talking about being gone for five hundred years and how he was going to take over. I didn't feel like listening, so I used Purple."
The room went quiet.
The past month had been a relentless grind, like literally, Satoru had been grinding nonstop.
With the Ancient One gone, it was like a dam had burst. Every opportunistic dimensional ruler and bottom-feeding spirit had tried to take a shot at Earth.
Satoru, Wong, and the Sanctum Guardian had been running a 24/7 surveillance operation on the planetary grid without a single break.
Every time a ripple appeared on the planetary grid, Satoru was already through a portal. He'd spend his days blinking across the globe, killing or destroying any incursions before they could even fully manifest.
One minute he was in London vaporizing a shadow-demon, the next he was in New York snapping the neck of a spectral titan.
He honestly didn't know how Saoirse had done it for centuries and still found time to drink tea and spare some time to train the apprentices.
Satoru was undeniably faster and stronger than her, yet the sheer volume of threats popping up simultaneously was exhausting, although her passing has contributed to the amount of incursions, Satoru still can't wrap his head around how she does it.
Maybe she has a method or routine of doing things?
Regardless, he was dealing with problems as fast as humanly possible, but the junkyard just kept throwing more trash at the door.
Finally, over the last few days, the frequency of the attacks had started to taper off.
The Sorcerer Supreme, or the 'Honored One' as he preferred to be called, had effectively traumatized the local dimensions enough that most were now too scared to peek through the veil not unlike how the former Sorcerer Supreme acted as Earth's deterrent.
"I'm taking a break," Satoru announced, finishing his pastry and dusting the crumbs off his black robes. "Don't call me unless the sun actually explodes or something."
Wong looked up, dark circles under his eyes. "Where are you going?"
"I've been a terrible teacher lately," Satoru chirped, already turning around to leave. "I need to go see how my students are doing. I haven't checked on Rintrah, Wanda, or Illyana in ages. I bet they've forgotten what I look like."
He didn't wait for an answer before teleporting out of the hall. He appeared in the secondary training courtyard where he knew they usually gathered.
…
Satoru appeared in a corner of the secondary training courtyard. He looked around but didn't see Rintrah or Illyana anywhere, but he did spot Wanda sitting on a stone bench, hunched over a thick book. She was so focused she didn't even notice him appearing.
He walked up behind her after removing the blindfold with the Mindstone and casually rested a palm on her shoulder. "Where are the others?"
"AHHHHH!"
Wanda shrieked, jumping nearly a foot off the bench.
Instinct took over; her hands flared with a violent crimson light, and she whipped around, throwing a massive projectile of Chaos Magic point-blank at his face.
"Woah!"
Satoru tilted his head, the red bolt whistling past his ear. The attack sailed across the courtyard and slammed into a small storage building.
BANG!
The structure groaned and then toppled over in a cloud of dust and splintered wood.
The noise echoed through the compound, and within seconds, several apprentices and a couple of Masters came running to see what caused the commotion.
Satoru just leaned back and gave a lazy wave of his hand. "Nothing happened! You can go back, false alarm."
The sorcerers looked at the wreckage, then at Satoru's calm face. They didn't ask questions. They all bowed deeply, chanting in unison, "We greet the Honored One," before dispersing back to their duties/training.
Once they were gone, Satoru snapped his fingers. The Eye of Agamotto appeared around his neck, glowing with a soft green light. He made a circular motion with his hand, and the destroyed building began to stitch itself back together, the stones flying back into place until it looked brand new.
"What was that about?" Satoru asked, turning his gaze to Wanda.
Wanda was staring at him dazedly, her chest heaving as her heart rate slowed down. She looked at his face — uncovered and grinning — and felt that familiar flutter in her stomach. She quickly snapped out of it and pouted, crossing her arms over her robes.
"Don't just walk up to me like that!" she snapped, her face flushing. "You scared me!"
"Sorry, sorry." Satoru rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"Where are the others, anyway?" he asked again, glancing around the empty courtyard.
Wanda gripped her book a little tighter. "I don't know," she murmured, still trying to get her heart rate under control.
"Really?" he leaned over her shoulder, his face inches from hers as he peered at the heavy tome in her lap. "So, what are you reading that's so engrossing you didn't hear me walking up?"
Wanda's breath hitched.
The proximity was overwhelming; she could smell the faint scent of… is that strawberry? Whatever it was, it smelled sweet.
She instinctively leaned away, her face burning a deep red, but she kept the book open.
"It's the Book of the Five," she stammered. "I'm just... researching more about my magic. Trying to understand more about Chaos Magic's foundations, history and uses."
Satoru stood back up and nodded approvingly. "Good girl. I'm glad my absence didn't make you lazy. It'd be a shame to come back and find out you've forgotten how to throw a proper hex."
He let out a sigh and sat down on the stone bench next to her, stretching his long legs out. "Will the others be joining us? Or am I just stuck with you today?"
Wanda sat back down slowly, keeping a polite distance but feeling the warmth radiating from him.
"I don't know," she said, shaking her head. "We didn't have a formal plan to meet, but Rintrah and Illyana usually swing by every now and then. Sometimes it'll be either of them here, this time, it's just me."
"Fair enough," Satoru said. He leaned his head back against the cold stone of the bench and stared up at the clear sky with a peaceful expression.
The silence that followed wasn't awkward, but for Wanda, it was deafening.
She watched the side of his face — his sharp jawline, the way his white hair caught the sun, and those impossible blue eyes that usually saw everything but now seemed focused on nothing at all.
'Should I... tell him now?'
The thought screamed in her head. He had been gone for a month without them knowing what he was up to, though Rintrah shared his assumption that he was likely doing 'Sorcerer Supreme' stuff.
However, he was finally here. With her. Alone.
'I'll tell him.'
She decided, her chest tightening with a mix of terror, expectation, and resolve.
She took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly to steady her voice.
"Honored One."
"Hmm? What is it?" Satoru didn't move his head, but he did answer to know he was listening. "By the way, you can just call me what you usually do."
He turned his head to face her then, catching her gaze. Wanda flinched for a split second, tempted to look away from the sheer intensity of those eyes, but she forced herself to stare right back.
"...Okay. Uhm, Master Gojo."
"Yeah? What is it, Wanda?"
"So, I've been meaning to share w—"
"Master Gojo!"
"Gojo!"
The moment shattered as Rintrah and Illyana burst into the courtyard.
Wanda bit her lower lip, the words dying in her throat as she quickly looked away, trying to hide the lingering flush on her cheeks.
Rintrah trotted up, his large hooves clicking against the stone, while Illyana strolled beside him, her hand resting on the hilt of her Soulsword.
"You're finally back!" Rintrah rumbled, his tail swishing with excitement. "Master, I have so many questions. But, first, did you finally get my papers from the dwarves—"
"Forget the paper, Rintrah." Illyana interrupted, her eyes scanning Satoru. She noticed he wasn't wearing his blindfold and smirked. "So you finally decide to visit us after a month. I hope you're here to train us?"
Satoru stood up, stretching his arms high above his head with a wide, confident grin. "Train? Are you guys itching for a workout?"
He glanced at Wanda, who was quietly closing her book. "What do you think, Wanda?"
Wanda took a breath, shoving her disappointment into a dark corner of her mind. She stood up and nodded. "Yeah, sure, why not?"
"Good!" Satoru chirped, clapping his hands together. "Then let's go somewhere where I won't have to fix the buildings every five minutes."
…
[ A Cliffside, Himalayan Range ]
They stood on a wide plateau a few miles away from Kamar-Taj, overlooking a sea of clouds.
Satoru stood at the very edge of the cliff, his black robes billowing in the wind. He turned to face his three students, his blue eyes shimmering with a playful yet sharp light.
"Alright," Satoru said, shoving his hands back into the pockets of his robes. "Let's see if you guys had evolved or devolved during the month I was away. But, we're stepping things up."
He crooked a finger, beckoning them forward.
"The goal is simple: try to make me move from this spot. Use everything — magic, swords, hooves, whatever. Whoever can force me to take even one step back, I'll buy you or give you anything you want."
Illyana's eyes lit up. "You're on."
Illyana didn't wait for a countdown.
She vanished through a stepping disk and reappeared directly above Satoru, bringing the Soulsword down in a swift vertical arc.
He tilted his head back sharply. The tip of the Soulsword hissed past his nose, actually snipping a few stray white hairs.
"Whoa!" Satoru chirped as he dodged. "Easy there, Illyana. I haven't even said start yet."
"What? Feeling scared, Gojo?" Illyana smirked, her eyes glowing yellow. "Rintrah! Now!"
The minotaur charged, his hooves cracking the plateau. He wove the Bolts of Balthakk, sending jagged blue lightning to corral Satoru.
Satoru dodged the electricity, but the distraction worked.
Wanda stepped forward at the side. She used her Chaos Magic to warp Satoru's infinity and the ground beneath him.
As Satoru tried to sidestep Rintrah, the ground beneath his feet turned into something akin to a slick, friction-less patch of ice.
Satoru's foot slipped. It wasn't technically a 'step', and Illyana, Rintrah, and Wanda knew that, but it was enough.
Illyana appeared from a disk behind him, thrusting the Soulsword toward his shoulder. Simultaneously, Rintrah swung his fist at his chest, and Wanda
launched a crimson hex bolt to lock his joints.
Satoru was caught in a perfect three-way pincer.
'This guys…' he thought, his smirk widening.
He snapped his fingers, and the Mind Stone blindfold donned itself on his head.
To him, the world froze. He saw the Soulsword's edge, Rintrah's sweat, and the flickering chaos in Wanda's hands.
In a blur of motion too fast for their eyes to track, Satoru grabbed Rintrah's wrist and used the minotaur's own weight to swing him around like a shield. The Soulsword's flat side smacked Rintrah's cheeks hard with a loud CLANG! And Wanda's hex bolt splashed harmlessly against Rintrah's thick fur.
Satoru then let go of Rintrah and performed a soft palm strike to the minotaur's chest, sending him sliding back. He spun around, catching Illyana's wrist before she could open another disk, and banged the Mind Stone on his face against her forehead with a shark jerk and beat of his head.
Bang!
"Ow... my head!" Illyana groaned, sitting on the dirt and clutching a massive, rapidly swelling bump on her forehead.
Rintrah sat beside her, looking dazed. One of his cheeks was puffed out like a green apple, and a patch of his green fur was singed black from Wanda's stray bolt. He let out a pathetic whimper.
Satoru turned his attention to Wanda, who was the only one still standing.
He adjusted his blindfold, the Mind Stone glowing with a soft light. "So? What's it gonna be, Wanda? You're the last one left."
Wanda didn't answer.
She closed her eyes, and the air around the plateau began to distort as crimson gas began to be released from her body. When she snapped her eyes open, they were not beginning to glow crimson, then she aimed her hands at Satoru.
But, she didn't fire anything, no hex, no projectile, nothing. However, what she was aiming for was the space that Satoru occupied.
Suddenly, the section of reality Satoru was standing on turned inside out. A chaotic eruption of crimson energy burst from the very atoms beneath his boots, creating a localized spatial collapse.
Satoru's eyes widened behind the silk.
The instability was so erratic that even his Infinity began to flicker. Realizing the ground was no longer 'ground,' he instinctively teleported with the flash of light from the Mind Stone, needing to use its power and appeared twenty feet away on the left.
Silence fell over the cliff. Satoru looked at the spot where he had been standing — now a charred, twisted mess of stone — and then back at Wanda.
"Okay, you win, Wanda," Satoru said, a genuine note of impressed surprise in his voice. He rubbed the back of his head. "Though, I have to say, your magic is growing frighteningly fast. You really are studying hard, aren't ya?"
Illyana and Rintrah stared, mouths agape. She had actually made him move.
Illyana stared at Wanda intensely and her grip on her Soulsword began to tighten.
"So," Satoru chirped, walking toward her. "A deal's a deal. You know the prize, name your prize. What's it going to be? A private island? A mountain of sweets? Name it."
Illyana and Rintrah watched on curiously, not knowing what Wanda would ask themselves.
But Wanda just stood there, her fingers reaching up to clutch the warm crimson pendant Satoru had given her. She looked at the ground, then lifted her gaze to meet his.
"I only need a few minutes of your time," Wanda said, her voice small but steady. "Is that possible? Alone?"
Satoru raised a brow. The playful smirk faltered for a second as he scanned her face with the Six Eyes. He saw the tremor in her hands and the weight of the words she was holding back. After a few seconds of silence, he nodded.
"Yeah? That's easy," Satoru said softly. "Are you sure you don't want anything else, Wanda? I'm feeling generous today."
Wanda shook her head, a small, resolute smile touching her lips. "I'm sure."
...
[ Author's Notes ]:
Released this chapter a few hours before its release time because I have to go to sleep, and I don't really trust/know how to set this publish timer-majig.
See you on Monday!
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