Hidden in Plain Sight - Chapter 94
Chapter 94: Hidden in Plain Sight
The morning sun slipped through the curtains of Ren's apartment, soft and quiet. Mei stirred slowly, her hair a mess of stray black strands and her body still wrapped in Ren's oversized shirt.
She blinked twice, looking around the room. Empty.
Ren was gone.
She sat up, yawning, and instinctively reached for her phone. A missed call from a private line—likely one of the higher-ups—and a recent call history showing her message from the previous night:
"Mission successful. Ren is no longer a threat. He's… compliant."
The words still tasted strange.
Compliant? That boy?
Mei leaned her head back against the pillow, staring at the ceiling. "I still don't believe what happened last night…" she muttered. "That brat… that monster… that mastermind."
Her lips curved slightly.
A smile.
She didn't know why she was smiling, and it irritated her.
Before she could analyze it, the doorbell rang.
"Ding Ding Dong~"
Mei groaned and rolled off the bed, bare feet padding over the hardwood floor.
Still in Ren's shirt, she made it to the door, muttering to herself.
"Is he back? Damn it, I should've changed…"
She pulled the door open with a bit more haste than necessary.
Only to freeze.
"…Gojo?"
Gojo Satoru stood at the threshold, one brow raised behind his blindfold. His eyes—hidden but ever-perceptive—swept over Mei, over the shirt, the bare legs, and then—
Ren's pants were folded on the couch.
"…AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Gojo screamed.
His dramatic voice echoed through the hallway.
"Mei Mei! How COULD YOU?! Ren is just a BOY! A child! A BABY BOY!"
Mei pinched the bridge of her nose. "God, shut up, Gojo. He's not here."
Gojo paused, arms flailing dramatically. "…What?"
"He left me like this and went off somewhere. I have no idea where."
Gojo gasped, pointing a finger as if she'd just confessed to murder.
"Temptress! Jezebel! Scandalous sorceress!"
And then he turned tail and bolted.
"Ren, where are you?! I'm saving you, my boy! I'll cleanse you of this vixen's curse!"
The door slammed shut.
Mei stood in silence.
"…Did he even get played too?" she muttered. "He did. That brat fooled Gojo."
Elsewhere, in a quiet, wood-paneled meeting room inside Jujutsu HQ…
Laughter.
A few claps.
Tea being poured.
"Finally," said the old woman with the long pipe, "we've resolved the Ren Sato threat. He's been… tamed."
Others nodded in agreement.
"Well done, elder. Your strategy was… unorthodox, but effective."
"Using Mei Mei was inspired."
"Thirty million yen well spent."
The elders sipped their tea, none of them knowing the full picture. None of them questioned what they hadn't seen.
And Ren?
He was sitting on a broken chair in the ruins of his old apartment.
The one he'd leveled during his first sparring match with Gojo.
The walls were blackened. The windows shattered. The place looked abandoned.
Which was perfect.
Rika had carried in the chair and table. Ren sat alone, sipping soda from a can, the carbonation fizzing loudly in the dead air.
He placed the can on the table, interlaced his fingers, and brought them together in a precise clasp.
指組み.
His hands began to glow faintly.
He muttered softly:
"Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness… hide all that is impure and pure."
A small veil shimmered into place.
Not a full curtain. Not a territory-wide concealment.
But a focused, perfect bubble. One room. Absolutely.
Ren looked around.
The air shifted. The sounds outside dimmed.
"…It worked."
The curtain wasn't massive. It couldn't hide a whole building. But it didn't need to.
"This is enough," Ren whispered.
Enough to hide him from senses.
Enough to block even Gojo's Six Eyes.
"Gojo wouldn't think I'd come back here," Ren chuckled to himself. "Hiding in plain sight? Who'd expect that?"
He sat cross-legged on the floor and cracked his neck.
"Uh, I should have six more days of leave, right? ha..."
His smile deepened as he stared at the flickering cursed energy in his hands.
It wasn't as refined as it could be. But for now it was enough…