Uuu... it's finally over." Lying on the table in despair, Tohka stared helplessly at the pile of boxes stacked beside her.
Most of them contained things that sent her shame meter skyrocketing. Tony and Pepper had also bought her similar things before, but she'd thrown them all away at Tony's villa.
Pepper even scolded her about it once, but she'd completely ignored her.
"Hmph hmph, don't forget—this was the whole point of today. Just look at what's in your wardrobe. Don't forget, you're still a noble young lady."
Smiling sweetly as she looked at the devastated Tohka, Miku didn't really know why she looked so dead inside, but that didn't stop her from enjoying the moment.
Gotta say, Tohka looked especially cute like this—so of course, she couldn't resist teasing her.
"Come on, let's eat. After we finish, we'll head back. Just look, the streets are getting congested again. Honestly, last night you really went overboard."
"Why'd you have to make a hole there? Of all places, you had to do it right in the middle of the main road. Now it's not just the traffic on the surface; even the underground subways got affected by your fight."
At that moment, Miku Izayoi noticed that traffic down on New York Avenue was once again completely gridlocked. She couldn't help but complain to Tohka.
She hadn't even been here that long, and this was already the second time she'd seen this city get hit by disaster.
"Hey hey, how is this my fault?"
Tohka immediately protested her innocence.
"This was the spot that guy chose last night. Who knew he'd build something in that location? If you ask me, doing it by the seaside would've been way better."
"I could've just tossed all that stuff into the ocean—wouldn't have had to put in all that effort. Besides, if the roads are blocked, we can just fly. Don't we always fly anyway?"
"Hmm... well, you've got a point."
Hearing that, Miku Izayoi realized that most of the time they did just fly around.
No matter how bad traffic got, it really had nothing to do with them, so she stopped worrying about it and just began eating.
While eating, Tohka casually pulled out her phone and scrolled through it. To her surprise, last night's incident hadn't caused much of a stir.
Compared to that huge battle not long ago, this really wasn't anything. It was just a big hole in the road. New Yorkers were already used to it. As long as nobody died, everything was fine.
"So, what exactly have New Yorkers gone through to get nerves this tough?" Looking at the bland report, Tohka couldn't help but admire their resilience.
Anywhere else, this would've triggered a lengthy emergency report. But here? Barely a ripple. Not even as much buzz as the last time when she fought Graviton.
After lunch, Miku Izayoi took one look at the jam-packed streets and lost all interest in continuing their outing.
So, she grabbed Tohka and went straight home. That finally let Tohka breathe a sigh of relief. She'd been a dress-up doll for an entire day and was about to collapse. But she didn't stay happy for long, because...
"Hey hey, what are you doing?! I haven't even worn these clothes much yet. Isn't that such a waste?!" Just as she relaxed, Tohka tensed up again—Miku had started tossing her clothes out without warning.
What, was she planning to force her into wearing all those shameful outfits forever? That would kill her!
"Hmph, say one more word and see what happens." Miku shot her a cold glare.
She had made up her mind—she was going to fix Tohka's fashion sense no matter what. That girl's sense of style was seriously messed up.
"Uh..."
One glance from Miku and Tohka caved again. She shut her mouth immediately and just stared with big round eyes, silently pleading: Look how cute I am, please have mercy.
"Uuuugh, so cute... No! I must resist! I can't let this corrupt behavior go unchecked!"
Miku nearly coughed up blood from the cuteness overload. But she steeled herself—if she gave in now, that girl would only become more brazen. Her mission would fail!
"Fine, I'll spare a few."
But facing Tohka's pitiful puppy-dog look, the yuri-obsessed Miku finally relented. She pulled a few items back out of the donation pile and set them aside.
Tohka let out a long sigh of relief—only for her expression to darken when Miku added: "You're not allowed to wear these without my permission."
"Ughhh, kill me now..."
At that moment, Tohka let out a scream of despair.
Miku Izayoi's control was getting terrifying. She was starting to feel like she had a terminal case of "wife obedience syndrome."
This wasn't the right rhythm at all! But faced with Miku Izayoi's threatening gaze, Tohka decided to imitate a certain ahoge queen—curled up in her clothes, trembling.
She could already see herself walking down a road of no return.
While Tohka was trembling and Miku Izayoi was burning with righteous fire... On the other side, at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, Nick Fury and Coulson were busy at work.
With Tony Stark's help, their instruments had been set up quickly this time. Soon, they'd be ready to start the experiment.
After all these recent battles, not just Nick Fury—but governments around the world—realized they needed weapons they could use in normal situations, non-nuclear weapons.
And the Tesseract… this cube that defied all known science…
It was something completely beyond human understanding. So now, the world governments were treating it with extreme importance.
With support pouring in from all sides, a lab centered around the Tesseract was soon completed.
"Director Fury, should we ask Tony Stark to come in? Don't forget, a lot of this equipment was provided by him. It wouldn't be unreasonable to have him participate in the research."
Coulson asked, a bit uncertain, looking at Fury.
After all, Tony's capabilities were impressive.
His constant stream of high-tech inventions spoke for themselves.
"Hmph, no need. That guy went and saved the one responsible for last night's mess. And he's busy laying out a new energy pipeline for his tower. He's got enough on his plate—we won't bother him."