Tony's Embarrassing Past (Part 2)

"You... you're full of shit! How could I have secretly tried those messy alchemy products of yours?!"

Seeing Sherlock laugh so hard he was nearly losing control, Tony's face looked like an overturned palette, a riot of colors. His rebuttal seemed utterly powerless.

Faced with Tony's desperate struggle, Sherlock had no intention of letting him off. After trying hard to rein in his laughter, he looked at Tony with a grin uglier than an AK's.

"Really? Then tell me, how did you know I made transformation devices?"

"You... I..."

Faced with Sherlock's questioning, Tony could only stammer incoherently this time. Not only could he not explain himself, even the expression on his face was becoming increasingly strange.

But Sherlock had no intention of letting Tony go. Ignoring the look on Tony's face as if he were desperately constipated, he walked around him and gave JARVIS an order.

"JARVIS, pull up the garage footage from around seven thirty in the evening a week ago, after I left the garage."

The next second, JARVIS's emotionless electronic voice echoed through Tony's mansion.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Sherlock. There is no footage from that period in my database. All footage from that time throughout the building has been deliberately erased."

Upon hearing JARVIS's words, Sherlock's smile widened, while Tony visibly looked relieved.

But the instant Tony heard Sherlock's next words, his expression immediately grew tense again.

"JARVIS, attempt database recovery!"

Following Sherlock's command, JARVIS fell into a long silence. Cold sweat had even begun to form on Tony's forehead.

After quite a while, JARVIS's voice finally sounded again.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Sherlock. The database recovery attempt failed. The operator erased everything very thoroughly."

As JARVIS spoke, Tony clearly let out a huge sigh of relief. Then he lowered his head and saw Sherlock wearing almost the exact same expression Anya wore when looking at that brat.

"Erased very thoroughly, huh, my dear genius, the great Mr. Stark! I wonder, were you holding a little whip, or wearing little panties?"

Anya truly deserved to be the god of reaction memes. With that same expression on Sherlock's face, Tony's defenses completely shattered. After hurriedly throwing out an ambiguous remark, he turned and left without the slightest hesitation.

"Bullshit! You little bastard! I wasn't wearing anything at all!"

As Tony fled in embarrassment, Sherlock's laughter rang out behind him again, even wilder than before. He had practically collapsed onto the floor, clutching his stomach and rolling from side to side as he laughed.

As for why Sherlock reacted like that, the reason was simple. Back when he had been making Zanpakuto, he had made quite a few "little toys" out of his own twisted sense of humor.

Among them were the two transformation devices Tony had mentioned.

Of course, while those two transformation devices perfectly replicated the abilities from the original work—and were even far stronger in some ways—the original work itself was not exactly wholesome. Naturally, the transformed appearances were not exactly wholesome either.

That's right. What Sherlock had made were the transformation devices of the first female lead, Utena Hiiragi, and the second female lead, Kiwi Araga, from Gushing Over Magical Girls!

Anyone who had watched the anime should know exactly how questionable their outfits were after transforming.

(If you haven't watched it, go find the original online. It's hilarious!)

Whenever Sherlock imagined Tony wearing Kiwi Araga's little panties or Utena Hiiragi's incredibly provocative queen outfit, standing dumbfounded in the garage without knowing what to do...

Then having no choice but to frantically operate the computer and delete JARVIS's database while wearing an outfit embarrassing beyond measure for either men or women, Sherlock could not stop the corners of his mouth from twitching upward before bursting into wild laughter.

Back then, Sherlock had wickedly added a setting to the transformation devices: once transformed, the user could not transform back for fifteen minutes.

It was hard to imagine what kind of mental state Tony had been in when carrying out that entire sequence of operations.

Sherlock was already regretting why he had gone back to shower that day. If he had only turned around and seen Tony like that, Sherlock swore he could have held this embarrassing past over Tony for the rest of his life.

Honestly, if Tony had not cracked just now and blurted it out instinctively, Sherlock might never have learned about this embarrassing episode. He certainly would not have imagined that the little thing he had casually created to satisfy his own twisted amusement had actually found a user.

And that user was Iron Man, famous throughout the Marvel Universe!

The more Sherlock thought about it, the funnier it became. After laughing for quite some time, he finally managed to barely suppress his laughter and returned to the mansion's garage, where Tony greeted him with a murderous glare.

"Sherlock, I advise you to bury this matter in your stomach. If anyone besides you and me finds out, you're dead!"

Faced with Tony's blatant threat, Sherlock did not care in the slightest. He walked over, threw an arm around Tony's shoulders, and said with a sly grin.

"Don't worry, Tony. I absolutely won't tell a single person. But likewise, you need to keep absolutely confidential the alchemy items I make here."

Faced with Sherlock's proposed backroom deal, Tony thought about it briefly before agreeing outright. Under these conditions, he would have been an idiot not to.

But what Tony had never expected was that, after seeing him nod, Sherlock's smile became even more smug as he continued.

"Don't worry, Tony. If you're the only one dressed like that, it's social death. But if everyone dresses like that together, then it's just funny."

"???"

Tony's head was filled with question marks at Sherlock's words. But no matter how he pressed Sherlock, Sherlock would not say what he was planning. He only smiled more smugly and mysteriously.

Ignoring Tony's questions, Sherlock threw himself straight into the day's work, creating as many alchemy items as possible. After all, these things would become his "power" in the future, and Sherlock would not let such a good opportunity slip away.

Seeing that Sherlock would not answer him, Tony could only silently begin his own work as well.

With neither side disturbing the other, the entire day passed quickly.

Because Pepper's lioness roar yesterday had taught both Tony and Sherlock a lesson, neither of them had any intention of staying up late to work overtime tonight.

But what Sherlock never expected was that just as he was about to leave the garage, Tony awkwardly called out to him again.

"Sherlock, um... there's something I want to ask you. It's just... um..."

Seeing Tony's awkward manner, a huge question mark slowly appeared over Sherlock's head. As Sherlock's look toward him grew increasingly strange, Tony finally gritted his teeth and continued.

"Um, could you lend me those two transformation devices for one night?"

Hearing Tony's words, Sherlock inexplicably felt that Tony was up to no good. He left Tony with one word before turning and walking away.

"Fuck off!"

Seeing Sherlock leave without hesitation, Tony, standing in the garage, curled his lips in annoyance and muttered quietly at Sherlock's departing back.

"Fine, don't lend them to me! I've got money. I can have someone make custom ones! Now, what were Pepper's measurements again?"