"You... you're full of shit! How could I possibly have secretly tried those weird alchemy products of yours?!"
Seeing Sherlock laugh so hard he was nearly losing control, Tony's face looked like an overturned paint palette, a riot of colors. His rebuttal sounded utterly powerless.
Faced with Tony's dying struggle, Sherlock had no intention of letting him off. After forcibly reining in his laughter, he looked toward Tony with a grin uglier than an AK.
"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, but even his expression grew increasingly strange.
But Sherlock had no intention of sparing Tony. Ignoring the constipated look on Tony's face, he went around him and directly gave JARVIS an order.
"JARVIS, pull up the garage footage from around 7:30 p.m. 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 recordings from that time throughout the building were manually erased."
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 turned tense again.
"JARVIS, attempt database recovery!"
Following Sherlock's command, JARVIS fell silent for a long time. Cold sweat had even begun to bead on Tony's forehead.
After quite a while, JARVIS's voice finally sounded again.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Sherlock. Database recovery failed. The operator erased everything very thoroughly."
As JARVIS spoke, Tony visibly let out a huge sigh of relief. But when he lowered his head, he saw Sherlock wearing almost the exact same expression Anya made when looking at this kid.
"Deleted very thoroughly, huh, my dear genius, the great Mr. Stark! I just wonder, did you grab a little whip, or were you wearing little panties?"
All that could be said was that Anya truly was the god of reaction memes. Faced with Sherlock's matching expression, Tony's mental defenses completely shattered. After hurriedly throwing out a vague, nonsensical line, he turned and left without hesitation.
"Bullshit! You little bastard! I wasn't wearing anything!"
As Tony fled in defeat, Sherlock's laughter rang out behind him again, even wilder than before. He had already collapsed onto the floor, clutching his stomach and rolling from side to side with laughter.
As for why Sherlock reacted like this, the reason was simple. When he had made the Zanpakuto, he had also created quite a few "little trinkets" out of sheer mischief.
Among them were the two Transformation Devices Tony had mentioned.
Of course, while the two Transformation Devices completely replicated the powers from the original work—and were, in some ways, far stronger—the original work itself was hardly serious, so the transformed appearances were naturally not very proper either.
That was right. Sherlock had made the Transformation Devices of Utena Hiiragi, the first female lead, and Kiwi Araga, the second female lead, from Gushing Over Magical Girls!
Anyone who had seen the show should know exactly how outrageous the two girls' outfits were after transforming.
(If you haven't seen it, go find the original online. It's hilarious!)
Whenever Sherlock imagined Tony standing in the garage with a dumbfounded look on his face, wearing Kiwi Araga's little panties or Utena Hiiragi's extremely revealing queen outfit, utterly at a loss...
Then having no choice but to frantically work at the computer and erase JARVIS's database while wearing an outfit humiliating to the absolute extreme for either men or women, Sherlock could not control the corners of his mouth. Wild laughter burst out of him.
After all, Sherlock had maliciously added a setting to the Transformation Devices: once transformed, the user could not revert for fifteen minutes.
It was hard to imagine what kind of mental state Tony had been in when he completed that entire series 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 milked this embarrassing past for the rest of Tony's life.
Honestly, if Tony had not lost it just now and blurted it out instinctively, Sherlock might never have learned about this embarrassing episode. He certainly would not have imagined that the thing he had casually created to satisfy his own twisted sense of humor had actually found a user.
And that user was none other than the famous Iron Man of the Marvel Universe!
The more Sherlock thought about it, the funnier it became. After laughing for quite a while, he finally managed to barely suppress his amusement 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 other than you and me finds out, you're dead!"
Faced with Tony's blatant threat, Sherlock did not care in the slightest. He stepped forward, slung an arm around Tony's shoulders, and said with a mischievous grin.
"Don't worry, Tony. I definitely won't tell anyone. But likewise, you have to guarantee absolute secrecy regarding the alchemical items I make here."
Faced with the shady deal Sherlock proposed, Tony only thought about it briefly before agreeing outright. Under those terms, he would have been an idiot not to agree.
But what Tony never expected was that after seeing him nod, Sherlock's smile turned even more wicked as he continued.
"Don't worry, Tony. If only you wear it, that's social death. But if everyone wears it together, then it's just funny."
"???"
Tony's head was filled with question marks at Sherlock's statement. But no matter how he pressed Sherlock, Sherlock would not say what exactly he intended to do. He only smiled more wickedly and mysteriously.
Ignoring Tony's questions, Sherlock threw himself straight into that day's work, creating as many alchemical tools as possible. After all, these things would all become his "power" in the future. Sherlock would not pass up such a good opportunity.
As for Tony, seeing that Sherlock would not answer him, he could only silently begin his own work as well.
With neither of them 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 that night.
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 for help with. It's just... well..."
Watching Tony squirm, a huge question mark gradually appeared over Sherlock's head. Seeing Sherlock's expression toward him grow 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 somehow felt that Tony was up to no good. He left Tony with one word before turning and walking away.
"Fuck off!"
Seeing Sherlock leave directly, Tony, standing in the garage, curled his lips in annoyance. Looking at Sherlock's retreating back, he muttered quietly.
"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?"
Before you continue