The next morning, the Tanaka household emptied out. Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka left for work, and Masao headed for school, leaving Jahy home alone.
After finishing her breakfast, she stood in the silent, empty living room. A profound boredom descended upon her.
"Very well," she announced to the stillness, puffing out her chest. "The time has come for a thorough reconnaissance of this new base of operations."
Though she'd been here for two days, most of the rooms remained unexplored. With the coast clear, she could now investigate properly.
Her first target was Masao's room.
With a flick of her wrist and a whisper of magic, the lock clicked open. She carefully slipped inside.
Her last visit had been under the cover of darkness, a brief, mission-oriented incursion.
Now, in the full light of day, the room revealed itself—and Jahy gasped.
"By the Dark Realm... what is this?!"
Dominating one wall was a massive, multi-tiered display case, its shelves packed with meticulously arranged figurines of cute, beautiful girls in various poses.
These were the legacy of the previous Tanaka Masao, a collection painstakingly acquired starting from his elementary school years. The sheer number of figurines he had collected was staggering.
When the current Masao had taken over his life, he'd found the collection and, thinking the figurines looked rather well-made, he simply rearranged them to his liking instead of disposing of them.
Jahy swallowed hard, a tremor in her hand as she crept closer to the glass.
"These... these can't be... are they all beings he's captured and imprisoned? Forced to stand as his silent slaves?" A shiver ran down her spine. "He's a monster... more terrifying than any demon lord!"
She leaned in, her eyes scanning the tiny faces and forms.
"Humans... beast-kin... succubi... elves... Magical Girls..." Her voice hitched. "What?! Even angels! And fellow demons! A dragon!?"
She stumbled back, her small face pale with horror.
"To have subjugated so many races... Just what manner of being is he? So that's why I was so easily defeated. It wasn't my weakness... it's his unimaginable power."
A strange sense of relief washed over her. Her failure wasn't a mark of shame, but an inevitability against such a foe.
"Eep! Eep!" She shook her head, her hair whipping about. "No! This is no time for excuses! That fiend must have me in his sights! If I'm not careful, I'll be the next one trapped in this glass prison!"
Jahy clutched her head, her composure crumbling. "What do I do?!"
Her wide eyes darted back to the figurines, and a spark of desperate inspiration ignited.
"Facing him alone is suicide. I need allies!"
She yanked the cabinet door open and carefully retrieved the figurines of a demon and a succubus.
"Hey! Can you hear me?" she whispered urgently. "We're kin! We must unite against our common captor!"
There was no response. Jahy focused, channeling a thread of magic to sense any lingering spirit within the plastic shells. Nothing.
She let out a disappointed sigh.
"Empty... just hollow vessels. Their souls are long gone." She placed them back with a touch of reverence.
Her gaze then fell upon the angel and the Magical Girl. She grimaced, the very idea distasteful but she was desperate.
"Ancient enemies... the thought of working with you turns my stomach. But we are all victims of the same tyrant. Swallow your pride as I swallow mine! Lend me your strength!"
One by one, she tried—the angel, the Magical Girl, the majestic dragon, even the ordinary human girls. The result was always the same. Silent, empty shells.
"How ruthless! Not a single soul left to bear witness?" Jahy's small fist thumped weakly against the floor, a mix of fury and cold fear coiling in her gut.
Running away was the logical choice. But Jahy was prideful. To flee from a challenge, no matter how dire, was a stain on her honor that she couldn't bear.
She took a deep, steadying breath, forcing the panic down. Her eyes, now sharp with determination, scanned the room again.
"There must be other secrets here. Something I can use."
Her attention settled on Masao's computer, the room's central command.
It was the largest object besides the bed, and its well-worn peripherals suggested constant use.
Jahy hopped onto the ergonomic desk chair.
"Ooh, this is surprisingly comfortable," she murmured, squirming a little. "The tyrant at least knows how to be comfortable."
After a moment of indulgence, she turned her attention to the machine. She pressed the power button.
"This one, I think... Ah! It works! As expected of me, a natural prodigy of human technology."
After some clumsy fumbling with the mouse, she managed to navigate the system. Her cursor hovered over a folder innocently labeled "Study Materials."
"If he uses this for his studies, it must contain vital intelligence."
She double-clicked. The folder opened, revealing a gallery of video thumbnails.
"These are the prisoners!" she gasped, recognizing several faces from the display case. "Why are they in this machine?"
Her heart pounding with morbid curiosity, Jahy clicked on the first video.
Several minutes later…
Jahy stared, her jaw slack. For a full minute, she was frozen, trying to process the sheer, chaotic depravity unfolding on the screen.
"Wh-what in the blazes is all this?!" Jahy's face was burning a brilliant crimson.
On the screen, a succubus—a race she knew well—was engaged in... strenuous activity.
The young, beautiful, and generously proportioned succubus seemed to have an endless stream of clients. Sometimes one, sometimes two or three. At the peak of the chaos, she was surrounded, pressed in on all sides by a teeming crowd.
Jahy's breath came in ragged, indignant pants.
"How dare they subject a lovely succubus to such... such indignity! It's unforgivable! Absolutely unforgivable!"
In the Demon World she hailed from, succubi were celebrated icons, beautiful and popular idols. This scene was sacrilege.
It felt personal, too; as one of the most charismatic figures in the Demon Realm (second only to the Dark Lord herself, of course—a matter of political prudence), Jahy possessed a trace of succubus bloodline herself.
She couldn't bear to watch the succubus's ordeal any longer. She closed the video and opened another.
"Oh, you poor dragon-kin... such brutality."
"Oh, you poor elf... what humiliation."
"Oh, you poor human... how tragic."
"Oh, you poor... Hah! A Magical Girl. Serves you right."
"And an angel? She absolutely deserved that."
She skimmed through the other races with a sense of pity, but when she found the "defeat scenarios" of the Magical Girls and the angels she found herself watching more intently.
Perhaps some forms of justice were worth observing.
After her grim review, Jahy leaned back, her mind racing.
"These recordings... they must be the final, tortured moments of these souls. Their spirits are likely trapped within this machine, forced to relive this humiliation for all eternity."
A cold dread trickled into her heart.
"Could... could that be my fate as well?"
The mental image of her own "defeated scene" playing on this screen made her shake her head so violently her hair snapped through the air.
"No! I will never, ever allow that to happen!"
She jumped down from the chair, landing firmly on the floor. She pointed a stern finger at the now-dark monitor.
"Endure it," she commanded, her voice low and resolute. "Just a little while longer. If the chance ever comes, I swear I will find a way to free you all."
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