Tanaka Masao raised the necklace in his hand and asked,
"You say this is yours—how are you going to prove it?"
Jahy, who had always stood high above others, had never suffered such humiliation before.
In the past, when facing anyone other than the Demon Lord, whether something belonged to her or not didn't matter—if she wanted it, it was hers.
"A mere human dares to toy with me… I'll let you see what I'm capable of."
Jahy had already come to her senses after the collapse of the Demon Realm and accepted the reality that she had arrived in the human world.
Now, she was going to let this weak, ignorant human witness the might of the Demon Realm's second-in-command.
Jahy stood up from the river.
She rolled her wrists and shoulders while staring coldly at Tanaka Masao.
"Human, you're unlucky—you messed with someone you shouldn't have.
I'm in a terrible mood right now, so I'll use you to vent."
As soon as her words fell, Jahy rushed forward and swung her fist at Tanaka Masao.
The resentment of being sneak-attacked by a magical girl, the despair of the Demon Realm's destruction, the helplessness of losing her magic, and the anger of being mocked—
"All of it—take this punch! Ahh!"
Jahy gathered all her strength, pouring every negative emotion she had into that single blow.
The weak, powerless punch landed on Tanaka Masao's stomach… and caused absolutely no damage.
Instead, due to Tanaka Masao's unconscious counterforce, Jahy was bounced away by his protruding belly.
Yes—bounced away.
Tanaka Masao hadn't used much strength at all, yet Jahy was sent flying nearly two meters.
Even he himself was stunned.
[When did I get this strong? Or… is she just putting on an act?]
On the other side, Jahy lay sprawled on the ground, tears welling up at the corners of her eyes.
[That hurts… are humans this strong now?!]
Perhaps because she had lost her power and her body had shrunk, Jahy's heart had also become far more fragile.
Such a simple setback and pain nearly made her break down.
Fortunately, Jahy managed to rein in her emotions, forcibly holding back her tears.
She glared at Tanaka Masao, clenched her fists, and said viciously,
"Don't get too cocky, you lowly human. A magic stone isn't something just anyone can touch. Humans who come into contact with magic stones will be cursed—just wait for your bad luck."
Faced with Jahy's warning, Tanaka Masao felt no fear at all. Instead, he felt a bit guilty.
[It's my fault for hitting too hard… the kid's about to break down.]
To him, Jahy looked no different from a child who had lost a scuffle and could only resort to harsh words and threats.
Just as Tanaka Masao was about to comfort her, the core of the Mark armor in his chest suddenly reacted.
Countless nanomachines spread out and covered his entire body.
Before Tanaka Masao could even react, a rock came flying from somewhere and smashed into his armored helmet.
Without the armor's protection, he would've at least ended up with his head split open and bleeding.
After that first rock, several more came flying in from unknown directions, all aimed at Tanaka Masao.
This time, reacting quickly, Tanaka Masao used the armor's targeting assistance and fired palm cannons from both hands, blasting the rocks into pieces.
After the armor's scan confirmed that the danger had passed, Tanaka Masao finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Good thing I turned on the armor's automatic defense system. Otherwise, that could've been bad."
The Mark armor was equipped with an automatic defense function—when its owner was in danger, the armor would automatically deploy.
In the original story, back in Iron Man 3, Tony, plagued by anxiety and constantly on edge, once accidentally summoned the armor in his sleep after a nightmare, nearly injuring Pepper.
To prevent something like that from happening again, he disabled the armor's automatic deployment and required manual activation instead.
That way, he wouldn't accidentally hurt the people around him—but it also compromised his own safety.
You really had to hand it to Tony—he always put others first.
Meanwhile, Tanaka Masao, inside the armor, also noticed something unusual about the magic stone in his hand.
According to the armor's analysis data, the small red gemstone emitted a special magnetic field and contained some kind of unknown energy.
This surprised him.
[So this isn't just an ordinary object… then this little girl is—]
He shifted his gaze back to Jahy and noticed something else out of the ordinary.
According to the armor's scan, the cat-ear-like features on her head weren't accessories at all, but actual biological tissue.
Tanaka Masao was utterly shocked.
On the other side, Jahy was equally dumbfounded.
She stared at Tanaka Masao in his armor, her mouth hanging open.
"What is that thing? Have humans really developed this far already?"
Jahy felt that, in her current state without magic, she would be instantly killed by a single attack from him.
She wanted to make a strategic retreat—but when she thought of the only remaining magic stone, she couldn't bring herself to give it up.
Just as Jahy hesitated, Tanaka Masao suddenly tossed the magic stone toward her.
Jahy hurriedly caught it.
Feeling the magical power within the stone, she finally felt a bit more at ease.
She held the magic stone close to her chest and watched Tanaka Masao warily—this little bit of magic wasn't nearly enough for her to fight.
With caution, Jahy asked,
"Human… what are you trying to do?"
With the danger gone, Tanaka Masao deactivated the armor—being seen by others like that would be troublesome.
Facing Jahy, curiosity got the better of him, and he spoke,
"You don't need to worry. I don't mean any harm. You said earlier that this magic stone brings curses to humans—so that means you're not human, right?"
Seeing Tanaka Masao release the armor, Jahy's guard lowered considerably.
In that form, relying on the magic stone's power, she was confident she could still fight back if necessary.
After putting the magic stone necklace back on, Jahy stood up and declared proudly,
"That's right! I am not a weak human—I am the Demon Realm's second-in-command, Jahy-sama!"
"Second-in-command of the Demon Realm"… It sounded pretty chūnibyō, but Tanaka Masao believed her anyway.
"Jahy, I'm Tanaka Masao. Since you're from the Demon Realm, why did you come here? Are you planning to invade the human world?"
When it came to demons and the Demon Realm, invasion and conquest of the human world always seemed to be their favorite pastime.
But judging by her current state, Tanaka Masao couldn't imagine her pulling that off.
Hearing this, Jahy replied disdainfully,
"Invade the human world? What kind of joke is that?
This place doesn't have even a trace of magic. Even if you conquered it, it'd be completely pointless."
Indeed— a human world without magic held no appeal whatsoever for Jahy.
What she wanted most right now was to quickly gather the scattered fragments of magic stones and rebuild the Demon Realm.