"It's nothing, just Mephisto's useless son causing trouble—it's been resolved. By the way, shouldn't you be in Asgard? Since you're here, where's Loki?"
After answering Thor's question, Tohka finally realized he was still on Earth. Wasn't he supposed to have returned to Asgard by now and taken his dear little brother along?
"Mm, I was planning to leave today. Of course, I stayed to look for the Space Stone, because leaving it here is far too dangerous." Though that's what he said, judging by Thor's expression, it was clear he had no intention of actually retrieving it.
What surprised Tohka was that he hadn't taken the Mind Scepter. In the original story, maybe because he took the Tesseract, he left the Mind Scepter behind, but as things stood, he seemed unaware it was an Infinity Stone.
"By the way, Tony, my armor got blown up—do you still have the previous one?" She had to admit, after getting used to Tony's armor, Tohka felt uncomfortable without it. That thing was extremely useful in daily life.
"Mm? Who could destroy your armor? Don't tell me it was those demons. Hold on, let me see the footage from the glasses I gave you with the armor—I want to see the recording." At that, Tony's curiosity about the demons was fully sparked. This was the first time he'd ever heard of demons—how could he not be interested?
"Fine—here." Tohka didn't object and handed over the glasses she'd previously given to Miku Izayoi. She'd only used them once—during the fight with the old Rider.
"Mm… there's only one recording? Did you even use this thing?" Connecting the glasses to a data cable, Tony was annoyed to find only a single video. It was such a useful device, but in Tohka's hands… Well, annoyance was one thing—his hands didn't stop, and soon he had the video playing on a display screen.
"What is this… a demon?" The start of the footage was fine, but when the old Rider transformed, both Tony and Nick Fury sat up straight.
That flaming skull was far too creepy—neither of them had ever seen anything like it. But that was it—because next, the old Rider blew up Tohka's armor with that special shotgun of his.
"That's not a demon—it's a human. Mephisto's tool for wiping out rivals and consolidating his power in Hell—a Ghost Rider. But unfortunately, these people all have tragic fates, and after completing their tasks, they often break from Mephisto or even turn against him. The old Rider has already lost his powers. He's just a normal man now, so even if you arrest him, it's pointless." The last part was directed at Fury.
After all, that power was from Hell, and Americans all suffered from a bit of persecution delusion—Tohka didn't want Fury sending agents to kidnap the man for research.
"Hmph. Got it." Fury didn't argue, though his face fell in disappointment. Clearly, he'd already been thinking along those lines. As the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., it was his job to be prepared for every threat.
"Seems my armor didn't help you much. Tell me—you haven't been treating it as just a means of transportation, have you?" Tony shot Tohka a look. He knew perfectly well that a big reason her armor had been destroyed was that it limited her reactions—otherwise, she could have blocked that attack easily. It left him frustrated. He'd also noticed that when she faced real opponents, she almost never used the armor.
"Ah, well… you're not wrong. But your armor really is convenient. Hahaha… All right, yes—mainly it's a pretty nice means of transport. At least it's way faster than flying myself." Tohka had tried to laugh it off, but when she saw Tony's expression, she couldn't keep up the act. She simply nodded—she really almost never used it for fighting.
"How about this—why don't we try a different design? I'll change it from full-body armor to a partial set. Your power means you don't need to rely on armor like I do." Since those Hell creatures were nowhere nearby, Tony shifted focus to the armor itself. He'd gotten so used to Tohka having a suit of armor that when hers got blown up, he immediately started designing a new one. "And by the way, the Chitauri's weapons are quite interesting—we could incorporate some of their tech."
"Hey, those things don't belong to you—how can you just help yourself?" Fury finally couldn't stay quiet anymore when Tony mentioned the Chitauri technology. After all, even if the war had wrecked New York, the spoils were enormous—arguably more valuable than the damage itself. This was cutting-edge alien tech—if America fully reverse-engineered it, it would leap ahead of the rest of the world.
Just like in the latest Spider-Man film, the government soon forced all unofficial salvage crews out. Only government teams and Stark's authorized contractors remained. Those private contractors had backstabbed the whole operation so badly that now they were stuck being extorted by Tony and could only swallow their resentment. And not just America—other major powers had surely gotten their hands on some of the "war junk." No one was stupid. If America monopolized it, everyone else would end up under their boot. Whether that really happened, Tohka didn't know—and she didn't care.
"How did you get that technology working so fast? It hasn't even been that long." Fury wasn't objecting to Tony making armor with Chitauri tech—he was just stunned that Tony already had results. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s scientists were still in the early analysis phase.
"Of course I couldn't do it alone. But there are other people—like Dr. Bruce Banner and Dr. Otto Octavius. They're downstairs in the lab right now." Tony shrugged, but Tohka wasn't surprised. With that roster, every one of them was a genius. Look at Doc Ock—even if his experiment had failed, in the comics he'd caused plenty of major events.
"You guys chat—I'm going to check on my brother. Make sure he doesn't cause more trouble. But since the Tesseract can't be found, we're leaving tonight." Seeing there was nothing else for him here, Thor turned to go. After getting burned by his brother before, he couldn't help but feel some trauma.
"See you later. We'll all come see you off this afternoon." Tony called after him, then turned back to Tohka. "Take a look—this is some preliminary data on you. It's incomplete—we still can't measure your power accurately, so this is provisional. Let's figure out how to design your armor. I can't do it alone every time."
"Mm, let me see." Tohka studied the data display thoughtfully. "The full external exoskeleton can go—it restricts my movement too much." She crossed out a large chunk of the Iron Man suit design. It didn't help her much and only got in the way.
"Great—then we'll keep the limb thrusters—wait, no, better to replace them with amplifiers." Tony had originally planned to keep the thrusters, but after thinking it over, he switched plans. And so, as they kept adjusting, a brand new armor design took shape.
"Why do I feel like I've seen this somewhere before?" Tohka tilted her head, pondering. Finally, she changed the shoulder plating and added a demon-mask faceplate. At last, the armor was complete.
"Not bad—it suits you perfectly." Tony nodded in admiration. He hadn't expected Tohka—who usually had zero girlish awareness—to design something like this.
"Yeah, it's nice… but isn't this the Oni Armor…?" Tohka's face twitched. She finally remembered—wasn't this Raiden Mei's Oni Armor from the Honkai series? She'd never played the game much, but she was familiar with the popular characters. And now she realized—maybe it was just convenience, but she really did look a lot like Raiden Mei. In this armor, you probably couldn't even tell them apart.
"Wow—Tohka, that armor is amazing! And… you finally have some sense of style!" Miku Izayoi had wandered over to stare at it, drooling a little.
What really caught her attention was that wearing it would leave a stretch of snowy white thigh exposed, which looked incredible against the blue-black plating.
"Mm… not bad. But I wonder how it will perform. Should I change my name to Thunder Tohka?" With a self-deprecating joke, she gave up pretending and said to Tony, "Can you also make me an energy sword shaped like a katana? That way it'll feel perfect when I wear this."
"OK, no problem. The Chitauri power systems are very advanced. We'll combine them with my old converters. Since you yourself are an energy source, we don't need to supply power separately—so this armor is easier to make." Tony nodded, then tapped his screen, and a katana-shaped energy sword blueprint appeared.
"By the way—do you still have any rooms in this tower? Save one for us. I read in the news that you planned to turn Stark Tower into Avengers Tower. So, this will be our headquarters?" With the design settled, Tohka asked about housing. After all, New York hadn't fully recovered, and buying a new place wasn't practical—she might as well let Tony help.
"Don't worry. This is our base now. Of course there are plenty of rooms—leave it to me." Tony patted his chest confidently. "Jarvis, get them set up with accommodations. From now on, you'll live here."
"No problem, sir. The room is prepared. I've registered the two of you. You can move in anytime." Jarvis's voice sounded in Tohka's ear. She had to admit—having this kind of butler was really convenient.
"Then we'll go get settled. You and Fury can keep chatting." Seeing she had nothing else to do here, Tohka led Miku Izayoi toward their new quarters.
"Hey, Tohka—why do you need armor anyway? Even that suit can't be stronger than your Spirit Dress." As they walked, Miku Izayoi looked at her curiously. She didn't understand why Tohka insisted on having armor. Even she herself didn't need it.
"Well…" Tohka thought for a moment before replying, "I have a feeling it might not see much use here. But in your world, it might be necessary. After all, if that thing really exists, returning to your world might not be too difficult."
She wasn't making it up. She suspected that in that world, she'd need armor—and since she had the chance, she might as well have Tony build a set. Marvel's black tech was no joke. Though it developed in a different direction, it wasn't necessarily inferior to the Date A Live world.
"Necessary…?" Miku Izayoi was puzzled. In her impression, her world was peaceful—this stuff should be useless.
"Mm, yes. Anyway, let's go check out our room first." Tohka didn't explain further, instead leading her to their quarters.