The Goodwill Event Part 05

Mai was in their visible range yet Hanami didn't notice his presence.

Just as Mai arrived, he was there to witness Itadori's consecutive Black Flashes.

Putting his Focus to the maximum, concentrating his senses only on Itadori, time slowed down for Mai. Everything was slow and calculable in his sight.

Even the Cursed Energy in Itadori didn't feel rough and unpredictable. It was completely under his attention. As the Cursed Energy flashed black, there was a spark in Mai's mind.

The way the Cursed Energy was enhanced, the sudden change in the color of Cursed Energy, the distortion of space, the connection between the physical attack and the Cursed Energy in that attack, everything was observed in Mai's bullet time.

'I need to see it a few more times.' Then Itadori landed another. And another.

By the third one, Mai felt like he could do it. At least once in ten times. Or maybe one in twenty. But it was not impossible.

'That...that felt mesmerizing. I need to try it. Now!'

"Todo! Exchange!" he shouted just as Itadori landed the fourth Black Flash. Todo turned his head to see Mai already in a punching stance.

"Heh." He smirked and clapped instantly without even thinking.

*CLAP*

'Those eyes. He wants it more than anything.' Using Boogie Woogie, he exchanged places with Mai.

Turning behind to see Mai, he witnessed relentless punches raining down on the Special Grade.

One or two punches in between flashed black and it seemed like Mai was using everything from the get-go.

But then Todo sensed some Cursed Energy beside him to look at a Cursed Tool.

"Todo! Once again!" he shouted. Glancing at them, it seemed like Mai and Hanami were a bit away from Itadori.

He could see something that looked like a white brick appear in Mai's hands which he threw at the Special Grade.

"Now!" Just as he said that, Todo understood. *CLAP* He exchanged Mai with the Cursed Tool he set up beforehand.

*BOOM*

"If he's still alive, exchange me again." Todo didn't even complain about Mai's orders as he was impressed with Mai's usage of Todo's ability. Todo smiled and

*CLAP*

With that clap, Hanami appeared in front of Todo.

Hanami thought he was slowly getting used to Itadori and Todo's swapping but this was even more complex.

Taking the brunt of half a kilo C4 directly in the face, he was disoriented. Todo didn't fail to take advantage of that.

Understanding the assignment, Itadori once again joined Todo.

In the meantime, Mai got out of the smoke while getting the special gun pair, Donner and Schlag ready. His hands were tingling after the rush he had just a moment ago.

"Can't get addicted to it too much," he muttered before loading those exploding bullets.

To use the guns' full capabilities, the skill 'Lightning Field' had to be used. Energy would be gathered in the barrel which enabled shooting at a hypersonic speed like a mini rail gun.

And Mai didn't have any of that abilities and any attempts at dismantling might not make the gun not work properly. After all, he had zero experience in Techno-magical items.

Luckily, Hajime Nagumo, the creator, left out two tiny probes for connecting it to a DC source that would fill up its energy—truly genius.

[A/N: I don't know if Hajime did that. Probably not. I just added this part.]

"I thought they would be useless but Hajime was such a great designer."

Loading five normal ones and a special exploding bullet that could contain excess Cursed Energy in it for a period of time in both the guns, he was ready.

The problem was that he could only shoot once from each gun at its full power. For the second time, he needed to charge it again.

'So, I'll have to deal him with two bullets. One to test and one for the final blow.'

"It's time. The last minute or two shaved off its Cursed Energy by a lot for regeneration. I need to strike now."

--------------

'With Itadori and Mai's Black Flash rush and unexpected attacks, its Cursed Energy has trimmed a lot.'

'We can exorcise it. Together.' Just as Todo was inner-monologuing, Hanami manifested his Curse Bud Flowers to throw at them.

But before he could, *Click* *BANG!*

Hanami only had a moment to put up his wooden roots around him in defense yet the bullet tore through through tens of roots and lodged itself in his chest.

'Tch. The bullet deflected.' Mai was aiming for the head and yet, this Special Grade Curse manifested those wooden branches in an instant.

Even in that situation, Hanami went for the offense throwing out those wood attacks. Wooden balls, Curse Buds, and wooden roots all at once.

But in that instant, *BOOM*

Before the bullet could come out of his chest from his rapid regeneration, it exploded in his chest.

"Gah!" Not expecting the attack, Hanami got down to his knees. His whole chest was exposed as the tiny shrapnel tore through.

'Not bad. But for next time, I need to make sure that he won't be able to block it.'

"Brother!" Todo and Itadori understood the situation and immediately went for the attack.

Mai didn't intervene as they both were pummeling Hanami left and right.

The scene was almost the same as Itadori and Nanami pummeling Mahito before he asspulled a Domain Expansion out of nowhere.

'Wait. Am I jinxing it? No way. Gojo should be here any moment-.'

'Shiiit!' Mai remembered that he was the one that sent Gojo after Mahito.

Hanami backed away diverting Todo and Itadori with his wooden roots. and started absorbing all the life force from the trees into that weird flower.

Looking at the energy contained in the flower, Itadori and Todo backed away.

"Plants don't generate Cursed Energy. So my left arm steals the life from plants and converts it to Cursed Energy.

But that never gets returned to me. It all goes to this flower offering -"

*BANG*BANG*BANG*

Mai was never one to listen to speeches and shot bullets at Hanami but Hanami didn't let his guard down here.

Most of his wooden roots were there between him and Mai to protect him against any projectiles.

Mai was certainly annoyed at how Hanami could create this much wood in a fraction of a second.

And he already knew what Hanami was about to do next.

That is why he was doing his best to not let Hanami perform his move.

But alas. Hanami was much more careful against Mai than Itadori or Todo after getting hit by that exploding bullet. That's why he was doing his best to not give any chance to aim at him.

"Damn this weak body!" Mai muttered annoyed at how he had to dodge those wooden spikes.

Three of those spikes were already lodged in his left hand and he was bleeding.

"I didn't want to use this if I didn't have to," Hanami muttered.

"[Domain Expansion: Ceremonial Sea of Light]"

'Fuckin shit!'

The light from the flower illuminated all over.

Usually, Mai was never the type to get annoyed but looking at these Special Grades throwing out their Domain Expansions left and right, he was certainly annoyed enough to curse them.

As he expected it an instant earlier, he threw himself back to not get caught in it.

-----------------

--*Inside Hanami's Domain*--

As the Domain formed, all three of them were suddenly in the middle of a grassland. The size of the Domain was quite large as the space inside was expanded.

The grasslands were at least twice the size of three football stadiums. [A/N: No it's not the American one.]

It was actually a very cozy and enjoyable space. It was almost like that of Dagon's Domain except there was no sea.[A/N: Dagon is the Octopus Curse that was with Mahito's group, if anyone doesn't know or forgot.]

"I wanted that green-haired one to be caught in it too but oh well. I'll take care of him after I'm done with you two."

'His Cursed Energy hasn't reduced.'

Todo understood that all the Cursed Energy required for Hanami's Domain Expansion came from the flower itself which seemed to have shrunk now.

Itadori was worried on they will come out of this predicament as he already saw superior Domains before.

"Brother, stick close to me."

"My Domain creates what you humans perceive the ideal form of nature to be. A nice sunny day on these pastures with a light breeze." Hanami showed off his domain and then continued.

"The sun, the sky, the clouds, the grass, the flowers, the ground, the wind, all these encompass what is nature. And you humans corrupt it."

A flower on the ground that was seemingly normal, glowed for a moment before shooting a laser beam.

Itadori ducked down instantly and the attack grazed his hair burning it a bit.

"What the -"

"All the plants in my Domain have the capability to absorb the sunlight and throw it back as attacks in the form of concentrated light beams. Add to that the guaranteed-hit rule of a Domain, you -" Hanami explained his Domain's abilities.

"-are definitely going to die. Is that it? Certainly, the amount of attacks you can make is limitless. But you're wrong about one thing."

"[New Shadow Style: Simple Domain]"

Erecting a Simple Domain inside one's innate Domain helps in removing the guaranteed-hit rule.

Simple Domain is a barrier that counteracts that cheat ability of the Domain Expansion technique. It was created a long time ago as a counter against Special Grades and strong Curses.

"But how long can you hold until that barrier goes down? How long until you're hit by my attacks and dispel that technique?"

Hanami started attacking them with his light beams that would come from random flowers. Itadori and Todo had no choice but to evade the attacks while remaining in the tiny area.

Both of them were putting all their efforts with extreme focus as the space they had was limited.

Even though they were physically not tired, the concentration needed to dodge the laser beams while looking for any traps at the same time, it was harder than it seemed.

The situation looked grim. Then suddenly the whole Domain shook violently as if an earthquake occurred.

Cracks appeared in the sky and ground but they started to refill themselves.

Unfortunately, our Pay-to-Win character Mai would not give that chance. The most vulnerable part of the Domain's barrier broke completely and a missile entered their view.

It headed straight toward Hanami and hit him.

*BOOM*

Slowly, the cracks spread through the barrier, and the whole Domain broke down releasing all of them back into the real world.

--------------------

*Outside the Domain*

~A few minutes ago~

Mai knew he couldn't kill Special Grades by normal means. At least his current self couldn't.

So, he did what anyone with great luck would do.

Pachinko! Mahjong! Horse Racing! Powerboat Racing!

He started betting and raked up a lot of cash which he used to buy all the items he thought would be necessary.

Illegal websites, Dark Web auctions, underground connections,... he used everything he could to get weapons, bombs, rocket launchers, chemicals, blah blah blah.

Basically, he was a Pay-to-Win character with a shit ton of accessories and weapons.

"Well, Todo has Simple Domain. They should at least be able to hold for a few minutes."

As Mai already saw Todo's Status before, he was not worried too much.

'Well, it also depends on the type of Domain.' he had to act fast, and he had options.

The first one was to keep punching as Itadori did with Mahito's domain. The second option was to use the special bullets.

And the last option was just to use sheer physical force to break the barrier. That was by using a ton of bombs. (Not literally)

He already speculated the fact that Hanami didn't actually spend his own Cursed Energy to activate his Domain Expansion.

Still, he focused all his senses on the Domain to try and see if he could go past the barrier.

And voilà! He could sense the other side of the barrier. But it was weird for him to perceive the Domain like that.

'The space is expanded! Wow. Its inner space is at least 40...no, 50 times larger than the space it occupied outside.'

The truly bizarre thing for Mai was the Barrier Techniques. It was the same as Fuinjutsu from Naruto. You could do a shit ton of things while creating barriers. Well, no time to be impressed!

Taking out more than 5 kilos of C4(~11 pounds), Mai started sticking the C4 bricks onto one side of the Domain's spherical barrier.

When he was able to perceive the inside of Domain, he sensed all three of them, Hanami, Itadori, and Todo. But the senses felt muddy and unclear.

Sticking all the explosives to the side where Hanami was, Mai joined all of the bricks electrically and took some distance away from the point of explosion.

"Aaand *Click*"

*BOOOOM*

The explosion was large enough for everyone in the Curtain to see a large smoke cloud.

The explosion made a small hole in the barrier and cracks formed throughout the barrier with the hole as its epicenter.

In the meantime, Mai pinpointed the senses into the Domain and it was much clearer than before. He could clearly distinguish the location of Hanami.

"Finally, it's time for the bazooka." He took out the rocket launcher, loaded it, and launched it pointing at the annoying Special Grade.

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