Within his domain, Hakari took the moment to relax, laying on his back as he looked up at the white void. He had to figure out how to get out of the barrier they had erected.
Presuming it was made in the same way barriers he knew were made, then it was probably very powerful. By letting anything else in or out, he could be excluded from leaving. The inverse of that barrier that had held Gojo back during the Goodwill Event.
That might be the idea. Overwhelming force. Just bust out. The issue was that Hakari lacked anything even close to a hollow purple in terms of power. He lacked the proper tools.
Maybe he could up the pressure of his cursed energy? Just try and use the entirety of his jackpot to stress the container and bust out that way.
Hakari didn't like using Binding Vows so casually, but it was this or possibly not be a free man ever again. He had to break out and, more importantly, make them understand that they couldn't do that shit again.
Another Binding Vow was made, this one far more conscious. In exchange for not using any of his techniques, such as the reserve ball or the train doors, he would up his output.
Hakari stood up, stretching as he had the numbers roll. His arms stung, still dislocated as the numbers clicked into space.
[1, 1, 1]
[JACKPOT]
The domain cracked, and from the outside, Wakako Kinokuni, the superintendent of the Ohmyou Agency, felt a gentle dread crawl through her as Hakari reappeared in the nude, before the barrier was filled with a blue-black energy, hiding Hakari from view as music from inside, muffled, leaked through.
While Wakako wasn't a part of the barrier team she had brought for a case such as this, she could see the strain that spread across the group as they felt the barrier give for a moment before they reinforced it. Dr. Hayabusa and the five shrine maidens were some of the best barrier crafters within the greater Anti-Demon Corps.
That didn't seem to matter however, as Wakako saw the barrier, which shouldn't have been able to act like a physical object, buckle and deform over the pressure from within. The shrine maidens visibly struggled to withstand the deluge of energy, hands held up as if to physically keep the barrier in shape.
Across the room, Wakako could see how the first shrine maiden fell, dropping to a knee as she pushed herself too far, blood rolling down her face from her eyes. To her right, she could see how another was gritting her teeth in concentration, so tight that they were cracking in her mouth.
Inside the barrier, Hakari felt like his soul had grown to fill the space as his energy coiled and crawled around him, seeking exit from its confines. The Binding Vow had, in a shocking development, been more than he had thought it would be. The difference in flow rate was insane, like going from a faucet to a firehose. He wasn't even stressing it, and yet he was already almost free.
He reached up, and pressed his hand against the wall. The black flash from days ago had let him understand the intricacies of cursed energy in ways that only those blessed by it can. Like knowing instinctively how far one could throw a ball, Hakari knew what this output let him do. Something that he would never be able to do again, past this day.
He bid his power to his hand, and held it. Hand curling softly, as if holding a boiled egg, the cursed energy pooled there, swirling across his palm. Just the right amount of control, the perfect level of output.
Only a few people had been able to do what he was about to do. Kokichi with his cursed puppets. Yuta with Rika.
The monster of the Culling Games that was Ryu Ishigori.
Hakari opened his hand and pressed it against the barrier again, and this time a great tide of energy went with it, blasting through the barrier and into the wall, impacting one of the shrine maidens in its way.
Wakako took a step back in horror as the energy flowed out and over her and the rest of the people in the room. There had been an explosion, a beam, and now there was a hole in the wall, punching through the various walls of the Ohmyou Agency until it reached the outside.
Her gaze drifted to the ground, showing all that remained of the shrine maiden. Two legs, cut off just above the knee, tossed across the floor like a child's forgotten toys. The rest of her body wasn't visible.
The wooden floors squeaked as, from where he had been confined, Hakari walked. He sauntered over to his clothes and bent down, casually beginning to put his clothes back on as the music that signified his technique played. Even over the music, Wakako could hear the guards that were assigned to the agency moving in on their location.
Hakari got his pants on before he turned to look at Wakako, and she felt her heart skip a beat as he looked her in the eyes.
"I'll only offer this once, you hag." He said, turning to fully face her. "Stand down. Surrender. Or more people are gonna die."
Wakako's face tensed, before she frowned hard and bowed her head. An apology, and an excuse to hide her gaze from his.
"We cannot do that."
Hakari hissed out a sigh, and made for her. Wakako stood there solemnly, willing to take the consequences for her actions.
That was, if it wasn't for one of the guards moving into the room catching Hakari's attention with a few shots of a gun into his chest.
As his automatic Reverse Cursed Technique healed the wounds, Hakari rushed the guardswoman. She lifted the gun to fire a round into his head, and he retaliated by dropping his hand in a chop on her collarbone. Wakako felt bile rise in her throat as she saw how the bone broke and let Hakaris hand travel down into her chest, before he kicked her away, her skin unbroken despite the trauma.
Hakari stepped into the hallway to see the litany of guards there, all members of the Anti-Demon Corps, all brandishing weapons, either guns or more classical items, like spears and swords. There was no moment of quiet, the moment they saw him, they charged, those with guns firing at him while others moved closer to subdue him.
He lifted his hand again and another beam fired. It swept through the charging force, swallowing them like a great abyss. The hallway was a mess, the wood construction ruined as a large divot was carved into the ground from the blast. A majority of the opposition were just gone. No bodies, maybe some left over limbs or smears of blood, but not enough to bury.
Hakari continued to dress himself, walking forward through the divot before he stopped, spotting movement in a small closet. A survivor, who was glaring at him. She was in a pool of her own blood, her left arm and leg gone, the other arm desperately trying to stem the blood flow.
They looked at each other, quietly. Her gaze was defiant, angry and scornful. 'Do it' It demanded, showing some bravery in the face of death. 'End me, finish me off. I dare you.'
Hakari only slipped on his shirt all the way and continued walking. The statement is clear.
'You aren't worth the effort.'
Hakari walked out of the Ohmyou Agency, lamenting how that all went down. It wasn't like he wanted to kill all those people; it was just a necessity. His freedom for their lives. He may not have liked it, but that needed to be the payment.
He stopped, however, upon seeing another action squad of Anti-Demon Corps members, each as well armed. Each with their faces set in a stern visage, resolute.
Hakari tried anyway. "Let me leave. You don't need to kill yourselves."
A few of the closer women, he could see, clenched their fists and snarled at his words. He had taken over a dozen lives just leaving the building. They would have him in custody, if not dead, or they would die trying.
Hakari didn't want to keep stacking the bodies. He took another look around at the women, seeing them readying themselves for the inevitable engagement, the only sound across the battlefield was the wind and his music, thumping along as his Jackpot worked itself out.
He almost didn't hear her, the battle cry just quiet enough under his music. He spun, and saw the girl he had left to die in that storage closet was far closer than she had any right to be, a salvaged blade piercing the air.
Hakari moved, and then stopped, suddenly locking up as the blade sunk into his chest. Blood splattered out of his chest, his back, and his mouth as the woman sank the blade up to its hilt. Her gaze hadn't changed, glaring at him as she leaned heavily on his still paralyzed body.
Hakari's mind raced, desperate for a reason why he had been paralyzed. One of these women's techniques? She would have been with the initial team. A byproduct of the binding vow? No. Wait, Yes! That Binding Vow to increase the space between his hands to make the hand sign!
He hadn't mentally checked the balances of that vow, and now he knew the cost. A cap on his speed. If he moved above a certain threshold, he would be forcibly stopped.
Hakari grit his teeth, feeling the darkness begin to encroach over his mental capacities.
She stabbed him perfectly. Both lungs, and the heart. His automatic reverse cursed technique was the only thing that helped keep him in this fight, but it couldn't heal around the blade.
His luck really decided to screw him right now, it seemed.
Didn't mean he wasn't going to spin the wheel though.
From Hakari's slackened hand, light bloomed, and the wounded woman had just enough time to look down before the cursed energy fired, hitting the ground with a great explosion. She and Hakari were engulfed, but Hakari had the benefit of enforcement to help try to keep his body together.
He was thrown over the battlefield, launched from his position. The blade had been removed from his body, ripping downward through his abdomen as he flew in the opposite direction. As his body healed, his mind unshackled his body from the Binding Vow.
Hakari turned his body as he neared the ground, seeing he was going to be intercepted by a fat lady with knuckle dusters. She leapt to meet him, throwing a superhero punch, and Hakari met it with his own fist. She howled in pain as her forearm was compressed, the bones pushing through the back of her elbow as he rolled onto the ground, lifting himself to his feet.
Hakari didn't want to kill them, but he was okay with himself if he ended up crippling themselves against him. They were choosing to do this.
His gaze drifted above the women surrounding him, gunshots sinking into his flesh as he saw his prize. A portal to the regular world.
Get there, lay low, come back to Mato when they aren't so fucking angry. Simple. Easy.
Now just to actually do it.