Volcano Girls: Returning to the Battlefield... [Episode 15831]

Ranma, female and wearing a tight, revealing, super-hero costume sat near the edge of a platform of air Soyokaze had conjured up to transport the 4 of them to the park. Ranma, or 'Sensei' as the other girls had half-joking, half-seriously dubbed her was sulking at having to wear what she was. Ranma had resisted the whole idea of appearing as a super-hero mightily, manfully turning down Nabiki's blandishments and refusing to accept her blackmail, even - with some effort - fighting back a puppy-dog eyes attack by Akane. Kasumi had intervened however and now Sensei was in costume and on her way to inspect the site of the Elemental Trio's first battle, still uncertain as to how a few soft words had gotten her to agree to come out in public like this.

"Ah well", the cursed boy thought, "at least this costume comes with a mask."

Landing in an isolated corner of the park at dusk, the group moved towards where the battle had taken place and promptly ran into the police team carrying out an investigation and cleanup of the area. Sensei had taken some measure of vengeance upon the sisters by consigning them to the mercy of the police officers wishing to interrogate them while she had disclaimed any part in the battle. 'Sensei' had stayed around to listen to the account the girls gave the police, but had wandered off when the police had started going over irrelevant, to her, details.

Sensei currently wandering the battlefield looking over what was left and peering into police evidence bags to see what they had found. While she drew odd looks, none of the lower ranked police cared to interfere with an obvious super-hero looking over the remains of a super-hero battle. It was when Sensei reached the edge of the park and peered down the direction Soyokaze had claimed to have first seen the golems that the detective came up to her.

The detective looked over the girl in front of him. She was wearing stylish but practical knee-high boots, of black leather, fine gloves, also of black leather, a red leotard, modestly cut, but still a form-fitting leotard, a black jacket with short sleeves and a number of pockets, looked suspiciously like a leather jacket, her head was covered by fiery red hair that flowed freely out from underneath a black silk mask/bandana that covered the top-half of her head and was tied in back with neat bow, it reminded the detective of the mask worn by the hero in the gaijin movie, 'Zorro'. Around her waist the girl wore a belt, hanging from the belt were two, one on either leg, scabbards which appeared to hold short staffs or rods.

The detective cleared his throat to get the girls attention, letting out a soft sigh, the girl turned to face him and offered a brief bow of greeting. As the girl remained silent the detective's eyes narrowed, then he spoke:
"Find anything we missed hero-chan?"

Ranma suppressed the urge to beat the detective into the ground, it would make life too difficult if the police were after her. Turning to look back the way she been facing, Ranma replied:
"I'm called 'Sensei' when I'm... working. And while I haven't found anything... I was thinking about this battle. It originally it didn't make a lot of sense to me. Empty metal robots powered by magic on a rampage, shouting 'Flaming Hair must die'... seemed pointless when Soyokaze told me about it", Sensei turned again and focussed her attention on the detective, "but having looked around... I can make a guess at why the fight happened."

Taking a breath, Sensei continued on before the detective could interrupt, thinking aloud as much as talking to the watcher:
"The direction they came from is the key... the roads are good in all directions, but the main roads, the usual access... it's on the other side of the park. There's no real terrain to take advantage of, and those things ignored everything like that anyway. But in this direction, the ground rises a little, and you have those...", Sensei waved towards some tall buildings still visible in the fading light, "perfect places to watch what happens while your toys kick the anthill. Can't say what, if anything, they were after, or what they expected. But the fight only makes sense as a probe... or a diversion, but I haven't heard of anything else that happened at the same time, so...", trailing off Sensei shook her head and looked at the detective, "...did anything else unusual happen at the same time detective-san?"

The detective eyed the girl cautiously, then answered:
"Not that I've heard. Not even a regular robbery", turning to look at the buildings Sensei had indicated, "You think there might be cameras or something set-up on those buildings?"

Sensei considered for a moment:
"Probably not. Those things didn't have any parts, they were animated by magic. I can't see a magician using camera's", for a moment Sensei paused then shrugged, "and if camera's were there, I wouldn't know if they meant to be there or not."

The detective eyed Sensei for a moment and then decided to give her the benefit of a doubt:
"I'll check it out. Drop by the station tomorrow at lunchtime and we can talk", sighing the detective went on, "you and your friends are clear for now, all the witnesses agree that they didn't start the fight and the other things were clearly homicidal."

Sensei nodded and then went over to the trio, detective-san trailing behind, who were begining to get a little worried at the unceasing questions from the police. At a nod from the detective the police doing the questioning, broke it off and effusively thanked each member of the Trio for their patience and co-operation. In response Jishin growled, Soyokaze was emotionless and Kagayaki smiled and apologized for not being more helpful.

Freed from police attention, although not observation, Sensei had the Trio walk through the fight as they remembered it, giving brief demonstrations of their power as they did. Finishing up, the Trio and Sensei rose into the now dark sky on one of Soyokaze's platforms (to he sound of quiet grumbling from Soyokaze, who disliked being the taxi).

Watching them go the detective rubbed his chin:
"From the look of it she really is a sensei. Oh well, I just hope we don't end up like the Americans, overrun with heroes and villans."