Tanaka Masao held up the necklace in his hand and asked,
"You say this is yours, how do you prove it?"
Kashi, who had always been high and mighty, had never experienced such humiliation.
Before, when facing anyone other than the Demon Lord, whether something belonged to her or not, as long as she wanted it, it was hers.
"A mere human dares to toy with me? Let me show you my power!"
Kashi had now recovered from the collapse of the Demon Realm and accepted the fact that she had arrived in the human world.
Now, she was going to let the weak and ignorant humans witness the might of the Demon Realm's second-in-command.
Kashi stood up from the river.
She stretched her wrists and shoulders while looking at Tanaka Masao with a cold expression.
"Human, you're unlucky. You've provoked someone you shouldn't have.
I'm very angry right now, and I'll use you to vent my frustration."
As soon as she finished speaking, Kashi rushed forward and threw a punch at Tanaka Masao.
The unwillingness from being ambushed by the Magical Girl, the despair of the Demon Realm's destruction, the powerlessness of losing her magic, and the annoyance of being teased.
"Can you take this punch? Ah~"
Kashi gathered all her strength, pouring all her negative emotions into this one punch.
Her weak and powerless fist landed on Tanaka Masao's stomach, causing no damage whatsoever.
Instead, due to Tanaka Masao's intentional counter-reaction, Kashi was bounced off by his large belly.
That's right, she was bounced off.
Tanaka Masao clearly didn't use much force, yet Kashi was simply sent flying nearly two meters.
This even left him a bit stunned.
"When did I become so strong? Or is she just acting?"
On the other side, Kashi, who had fallen to the ground, had tears welling up in her eyes.
"It hurts so much. Are humans this strong now?"
Perhaps it wasn't just because she lost her power; as her body shrunk, Kashi's heart also became more fragile.
A simple setback and pain almost made her break down.
However, Kashi managed to control her emotions, forcefully holding back her tears.
She glared at Tanaka Masao, clenched her fists, and said fiercely,
"A mere human, don't get too arrogant. Not everyone can touch a Demon Stone.
Humans who touch a Demon Stone will be cursed. Just wait for your bad luck."
Facing Kashi's warning, Tanaka Masao showed no fear; instead, he felt a little guilty.
"It's all my fault for being too rough. The child is almost broken."
In his opinion, Kashi's current behavior was no different from a child who lost a fight and could only resort to threats.
Just as Tanaka Masao was about to comfort her, the Mark Armor core on his chest suddenly reacted.
Countless nano-armor pieces covered his body.
Before Tanaka Masao could react, a stone, seemingly from nowhere, hit his armor helmet.
Without the armor's protection, he would have at least suffered a bloody head injury.
After that one stone, several more stones, also from unknown origins, pelted Tanaka Masao.
This time, Tanaka Masao, having reacted, used the palm cannons in his hands, aided by the armor's targeting system, to shatter these stones.
With the threat neutralized according to the armor system's scan, Tanaka Masao finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Good thing I turned on the armor's automatic defense function, otherwise it would have been dangerous."
The Mark Armor has an automatic defense function, which automatically deploys when its owner is in danger.
In the original story, Tony, in Iron Man 3, lacked a sense of security and was mentally strained.
While sleeping at night, he accidentally summoned the armor during a nightmare, almost hurting Pepper.
To prevent such incidents, he had turned off the armor's automatic deployment function, requiring manual activation.
This prevented accidental harm to those around him, but it compromised his own safety.
One could only say that it was truly Tony; he always considered those around him first.
Meanwhile, Tanaka Masao, inside the armor, also discovered the unusual nature of the Demon Stone in his hand through the armor's scanning system.
According to the armor's analysis data, this small red gem emitted a special magnetic field and contained some unknown energy.
This surprised Tanaka Masao.
"This isn't an ordinary item after all. So this little girl is..."
He then turned his gaze to Kashi and also noticed something unusual.
According to the armor's analysis, the cat-ear-like things on her head were not decorations but biological tissue.
Tanaka Masao was utterly astonished.
On the other side, Kashi was also dumbfounded.
She looked at Tanaka Masao, clad in armor, with her mouth agape.
"What is that thing? Have humans developed to this extent now?"
Kashi felt that she, having lost her magic, would surely be instantly killed by him.
She wanted to strategically retreat, but looking at the last remaining Demon Stone, she didn't want to give up.
Just as Kashi was hesitating, Tanaka Masao threw the Demon Stone in his hand over to her.
Kashi hastily caught the Demon Stone.
Feeling the magic within the Demon Stone, she finally felt a little relieved.
She clutched the Demon Stone to her chest, looking at Tanaka Masao with some wariness; this little magic wasn't enough for her to fight.
Kashi asked cautiously,
"Human, what do you mean by this?"
With the danger cleared, Tanaka Masao also deactivated his armor, as it wouldn't be good if others discovered it.
Facing Kashi, he was also very curious and spoke,
"You don't have to worry, I mean no harm. You just said this Demon Stone would bring a curse to humans, so that means you're not human."
Seeing Tanaka Masao deactivate his armor, Kashi's wariness significantly decreased.
In his current form, she was confident she could contend with him using the power of the Demon Stone.
After putting on the Demon Stone necklace, Kashi stood up and said proudly,
"That's right, I am not a weak human, but the second-in-command from the Demon Realm, Lady Kashi!"
"Second-in-command of the Demon Realm"—while it sounded a bit chuunibyou, Tanaka Masao still believed it.
"Kashi, I'm Tanaka Masao. Since you're from the Demon Realm, why are you here? Are you planning to invade the human world?"
When it came to the Demon Realm and demons, their favorite thing seemed to be invading and occupying the human world.
But looking at her, Tanaka Masao didn't think she could do it.
Upon hearing this, Kashi said with some disdain,
"Invade the human world? What kind of joke are you telling?
This place has no magic at all; even if we occupied it, it would be useless."
That's right, the human world, devoid of magic, held no appeal for Kashi.
What she wanted most now was to quickly collect the shattered Demon Stones and rebuild the Demon Realm.