CHAPTER 15: GLASS VEINS

The quiet hum of monitors lit the dark surveillance room in Jujutsu High's underground base. Faint echoes of cursed static bounced off the steel walls.

Utahime stood with arms crossed, staring at a flickering map of Tokyo riddled with red and blue sigils—each marking a sorcerer or a fight. Behind her, Shoko leaned against the control desk, sipping her coffee with the calm of someone far too used to impending disaster.

"She's close," Utahime said, eyes narrowing at a blinking blue icon.

Shoko nodded. "Mei Mei's five kilometers from Kenjaku's inner circle. She's fast."

On the central monitor, footage scrolled—Mei Mei and Ui Ui advancing through a shattered cityscape, ruins folding around them like a graveyard of ambition. Mei Mei walked with silent resolve, axe strapped behind her. Ui Ui trailed quietly, his gaze tense.

Shoko turned and glanced toward the sealed prism gate where Gojo's presence was trapped—a translucent hex-prism pulsing faintly, like a heartbeat underwater.

From inside, Gojo's voice echoed faintly, slightly muffled but still cocky as ever.

"So… how's my rescue party doing? Anyone died yet?"

Utahime clicked the comms and replied dryly, "No one's dead yet. And Mei Mei's almost at Kenjaku's front door."

"Mei Mei?" Gojo responded, voice amused. "She still charges people to breathe near her or did she finally get a conscience?"

"She volunteered to die," Utahime said quietly. "To exhaust Kenjaku before anyone else fights him."

There was a long pause.

"…Tch," Gojo muttered. "Of course she did. Damn woman never cared about winning. Only finishing what she starts."

Utahime looked up at the monitor again. Mei Mei's figure stood against the horizon, wind in her black cloak, the shadow of Kenjaku's cursed domain in the distance.

"She's almost there," Shoko said, tightening her grip on the coffee cup. "Whatever happens next… it's starting soon."