The feast hall gradually emptied as the Babylonian citizens retired for the night, leaving only the Eternals and their unexpected guest behind.
Satoru sat cross-legged on a stone bench near the wall, a strip of dark linen now wrapped firmly around his eyes. Sprite had produced it from somewhere, muttering something about "weird humans and their weird requests" before tossing it at him.
The makeshift blindfold wasn't as effective as his Mind Stone artifact, but it dampened the sensory overload enough that the splitting headache had receded to a dull, manageable throb.
"So," Sprite said, hopping onto a bench across from him with her legs swinging. "You're telling us you're a sorcerer from the future who accidentally got sucked through time because you were playing with two magical rocks?"
Satoru found it necessary to tell them his situation when he found out that they are 'aliens' and right now? They're the best shot he's got at finding a way home to the present time.
"Infinity Stones," Satoru corrected, his lopsided smirk returning. "And I wasn't playing. I was conducting very serious, very scientific research."
"That blew up in your face," Sprite added flatly.
"Details."
Gilgamesh let out a booming laugh, slapping his knee hard enough to echo through the cavern. "I like this one! He's got spirit!"
Thena remained silent, her sharp eyes studying Satoru with the cold calculation of a predator assessing whether something was prey or threat. Her bronze spear hadn't left her grip since he'd entered the hall.
Ikaris stood with his arms crossed, his jaw tight. "You expect us to believe you traveled through time? That's not possible. Not even for us."
"And yet, here I am," Satoru said, gesturing vaguely at himself. "White hair, black robes, zero supplies, sitting in a city that shouldn't exist for another few thousand years according to my history books. Unless you think I'm just a very committed method actor."
"He speaks the truth."
Everyone turned toward Ajak, who had been standing silently near the golden brazier at the center of the hall. Her expression was contemplative, her eyes distant as if listening to something only she could hear.
"I communicated with Arishem," Ajak continued, her voice carrying the weight of absolute certainty. "The Celestial confirms that a temporal anomaly occurred in this region. A rift opened briefly, depositing a single humanoid entity before collapsing. The energy signature matches what Satoru describes."
Ikaris's posture stiffened. "The Celestials know of this?"
"They are aware," Ajak nodded slowly. "But they have deemed it... inconsequential to the mission. The timeline will correct itself naturally, or it will branch. Either way, it does not interfere with the Emergence."
Satoru filed that word away — Emergence — but didn't interrupt. He needed information, and the Eternals seemed willing to talk as long as he stayed non-threatening.
"So I'm officially 'inconsequential,'" Satoru chuckled dryly. "Story of my life."
Sprite snorted. "You're taking this weirdly well for someone who just got told a giant space god thinks you're irrelevant."
"I've been called worse by shorter people," Satoru replied without missing a beat.
Sprite's eye twitched, but before she could fire back, Phastos stepped forward from the shadows near the entrance.
He was a broad-shouldered man with dark skin and intricate golden lines running along his armor. In his hands, he held a small, glowing device that hummed with an energy Satoru's Six Eyes immediately recognized as incredibly advanced technology — far beyond anything Earth would develop for millennia.
"I've been scanning him since Ajak brought him in," Phastos said, his voice measured and analytical. "His biology is baseline human, but his neurological activity is... anomalous. His brain is processing sensory data at a rate that should be physically impossible. It's like his optic nerves are connected directly to a supercomputer."
"That's the Six Eyes," Satoru said, tapping the side of his temple. "It's a trait I was born with. Lets me see things others can't. Downside is, without a specific type of energy to regulate it, my brain starts cooking itself. Hence the blindfold."
Phastos's eyebrows rose with genuine scientific interest. "A biological mutation that enhances perception to the atomic level? That's... fascinating. I'd love to study the mechanism."
"Maybe later," Satoru said, pushing himself to his feet. "Right now, I'm more interested in figuring out how to get home."
The room fell silent.
Ajak stepped closer, her expression softening into something almost sympathetic. "Satoru... the rift that brought you here has already closed. Temporal manipulation is not within our capabilities. Even the Celestials do not freely interfere with the flow of time."
"Then I'll find another way," Satoru said simply, his voice lacking any panic or desperation. "I've dealt with dimensional rifts, reality warping, and a genocidal AI with a god complex. A little time displacement isn't going to stop me."
Gilgamesh grinned, clapping a massive hand onto Satoru's shoulder — a gesture that would have sent a normal human stumbling. Satoru didn't budge an inch.
"I told you I like this one!" Gilgamesh declared. "He's got the heart of a warrior!"
Thena finally spoke, her voice cold and precise. "Heart means nothing without power. You claim to be a sorcerer, yet I sense no mystical energy within you. You are empty."
Satoru's smirk didn't waver. "Temporarily. I ran out of gas during the trip. Give me a few days to recover, and I'll show you what empty looks like."
Thena's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing further.
Ajak raised a hand, silencing any further debate. "You may stay with us, Satoru Gojo. Until you find a way to return to your time, consider yourself under our protection. In exchange, I ask only that you do not interfere with our mission."
"The Emergence?" Satoru asked, testing the waters.
Ajak hesitated for a fraction of a second — a hesitation Satoru's perception caught perfectly despite his closed eyes.
"Yes," she said finally. "The Emergence. It is... a sacred process. One that cannot be disrupted."
Satoru nodded slowly, filing the information away alongside the growing list of things the Eternals weren't telling him.
"Fair enough," he said, shoving his hands back into his pockets. "I'll stay out of your cosmic business if you help me figure out a way home. Deal?"
Ajak extended her hand. Satoru grasped it firmly.
"Deal."
As the handshake ended, Sprite hopped off her bench and strolled toward the exit, throwing a glance over her shoulder.
"Well, this is going to be interesting," she muttered. "A time-displaced human with a broken brain and an ego the size of a Celestial. What could possibly go wrong?"
Satoru's grin widened behind the linen blindfold.
"You'd be surprised."
...
Three days passed.
Satoru spent most of that time meditating in a quiet corner of the ziggurat, forcing his body to regenerate Cursed Energy through sheer willpower and breathing techniques he hadn't needed since his teenage years.
It was agonizingly slow. Without the Mind Stone acting as a buffer, every hour of concentration only produced a trickle of energy — barely enough to maintain a thin layer of Reversed Cursed Technique to keep his brain from overheating.
But it was progress.
On the fourth morning, Satoru sat beneath the shade of a massive palm tree overlooking the Euphrates River. The dark linen blindfold was still wrapped around his eyes, but his posture was relaxed, his breathing steady.
"You've been sitting there since dawn."
Satoru didn't turn his head. "Good morning to you too, Thena."
The blonde Eternal stepped into his peripheral awareness, her bronze spear resting against her shoulder. She moved with the silent grace of someone who had been fighting for thousands of years.
"Ajak says you are recovering," Thena noted, stopping a few feet away. "But you still feel weak."
"I feel depleted," Satoru corrected. "There's a difference. Weak implies I can be beaten. Depleted just means I need a recharge."
Thena's lips twitched — the closest thing to amusement she had shown since his arrival. "Arrogance. Either it will save you or destroy you."
"Worked out so far," Satoru replied with a shrug.
A long silence stretched between them. The distant sounds of Babylon's construction echoed across the river — the rhythmic pounding of hammers, the shouts of workers, the creaking of pulleys and ropes.
"You remind me of someone," Thena said eventually, her voice quieter now. "Someone I knew a long time ago."
Satoru tilted his head slightly. "Oh? Who?"
Thena didn't answer immediately. Her gaze drifted toward the horizon, where the morning sun was painting the desert in shades of gold and orange.
"It doesn't matter," she said finally. "He's gone now."
Before Satoru could respond, a thunderous roar split the air.
Both of them snapped to attention. Satoru's Six Eyes flared beneath the blindfold, immediately locking onto the source of the disturbance.
Three massive, twisted shapes were barreling toward the eastern edge of the city. They moved on multiple legs, their bodies a grotesque fusion of flesh and chitin, their mouths filled with rows of jagged teeth.
Deviants.
Thena's spear was already in her hands, golden energy crackling along its edge as it transformed into a long, gleaming blade. "Stay here."
"Not a chance," Satoru said, pushing himself to his feet.
He still didn't have enough Cursed Energy for his bigger techniques, but he had enough for this.
Satoru raised his right hand, fingers snapping into a familiar gesture.
"Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue."
A small, brilliant orb of azure light flickered into existence above his palm — barely the size of a marble, but the gravitational pull was undeniable.
Thena's eyes widened as the nearest Deviant was violently yanked off its trajectory, its legs scrambling uselessly as it was dragged toward the tiny sphere of compressed space.
The creature slammed into the ground with bone-shattering force, pinned beneath an invisible weight that crushed it into the dirt.
Satoru exhaled slowly, the strain of the technique visible in the slight tremor of his hand. "Okay... that's about all I've got for now."
Thena didn't waste the opening. She blurred forward, her golden blade carving through the pinned Deviant's neck in a single, fluid motion. Black ichor sprayed across the sand as the creature's body went limp.
The remaining two Deviants screeched in fury, pivoting toward the pair.
Before they could close the distance, twin beams of searing red light slammed into them from above. Ikaris descended from the sky, his eyes blazing with cosmic fire as he unleashed another barrage of optical blasts.
Gilgamesh landed beside him a moment later, his fists encased in golden energy constructs. He punched clean through the chest of the nearest Deviant, tearing its heart out with a triumphant roar.
The final creature tried to flee, but Thena was already there. Her blade flashed, and the Deviant's head separated from its body in a spray of black blood.
Silence returned to the riverbank.
Ikaris floated down, his glowing eyes fading back to their normal blue. He looked at the crushed, pinned corpse of the first Deviant, then at Satoru, who was still standing with one hand raised.
"That was you?" Ikaris asked, his voice unreadable.
Satoru lowered his hand, flexing his fingers to ease the strain. "Told you I wasn't empty."
Gilgamesh let out another booming laugh, slapping Satoru on the back hard enough to actually stagger him this time. "HA! The sorcerer has teeth after all!"
Thena said nothing, but the look she gave Satoru was different now — less suspicious, more... Satoru didn't know, but whatever that look was, he didn't want any part of it.
As the adrenaline faded, Satoru felt the familiar throb of exhaustion settling behind his eyes. Using Blue without a full reservoir was like trying to sprint on an empty stomach.
But it had worked.
He was getting stronger.
And the sooner he recovered fully, the sooner he could figure out how to get home.
...
[ Meanwhile — Present Day Timeline ]
Wong stood in the center of Satoru's quarters, staring at the two Infinity Stones sitting innocently on the crumpled bedsheets.
The Mind Stone pulsed with a soft golden glow. The Eye of Agamotto hummed with a faint green resonance.
Both objects were completely intact.
But Satoru Gojo was gone.
Wong let out a long, weary sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Of course," he muttered. "Of course he managed to get himself lost in time."
He reached down and carefully collected both artifacts, securing them in a protective enchantment before tucking them into his robes.
Then he turned and strode toward the door, his mind already racing through contingency plans.
"I need to contact Rintrah and the girls," Wong said to himself. "And then... we're going to need Thor."
...
[ Author's Notes ]: Stone me?
11+ Advanced Chapters & For General Support: Patreon.com/Shiriai