First afterschool

Lín Jìng, whose mental defences were currently at full power, took half a second to realise what happened. But now she had a plan for action, and she began repeating a thought like a mantra.

I can be like Melissa, like Motoko, like Misato, like Mion. I can be like Melissa, like Motoko, like Misato, like Mion.

She became visible, and swaggered a few steps towards the fighting duo, like a tigress emerging from the shadows and walking through her den, and casually took off her jacket.

"Sumeryu-kun, allow me to take care of you with this," she threw the jacket in Sumeryu's direction, and it snagged neatly on the dragon's shoulder, loosely wrapped around the front half of her torso - after all, it was too small for the dragon to wear.

Hell yeah, I'm doing it! This is not as hard as I thought! Nobody needs to know I'm using TK to hold the jacket in place, just far enough to not blend with the rest of Sumeryu and her real clothes. This is going great! . . . err, so long as none of that crowd approaches me wtih pointed questions . . .

Sumeryu has nothing to be ashamed of. She is just as beautiful without clothes as with them, and her selection of expensive, lacy black lingerie shows off her figure excellently. More than just pride in her appearance keeps her from being embarrassed, though. The seven-foot-tall, gorgeous body isn't her natural one. Sumeryu is actually a dragon, and until she learned how to shapeshift into her reasonably-human-ish shape, she didn't wear clothes anyway.

To outside appearances, her indifference to being largely naked in front of other people comes across instead as heroic, steely focus. Unflappable disregard for danger or discomfort.

"Miscreant," she addresses Rikishi with calm contempt, "You're going to reveal everything about your plan, what you stole, what you made Momochichi-san do, and why. You are going to apologize to each and every person you wronged, and then we are going to take you for punishment. Don't make me repeat myself."

She tightens her grip on his head until it stings and he gets the point. She's holding him two feet off the ground by his head and could easily pop his skull like a grape, which would be terribly inappropriate for the rating of this series. He wouldn't want everyone, including him, to get censored!

She glances over her shoulder at where Lin Jing's voice comes from and blinks a few times in confusion.

With less certainty than before, "Uhm. Ah, thank you, Jing-san. You are very kind."

That's a rather large audience. An entire mall's worth of people. Many of them are taking pictures. Several have fainted. Oh dear. Causing so much inconvenience to innocent people was a much more flustering thought than being half-naked in public. But the admiration of hundreds was intoxicating, too...

No, pay attention to Rikishi! She whips her head back around to glare back at the boy.

"Not just her! You need to apologize to that big dumb guy, What's-His-Face, for screwing with his memory. There's also everyone who had their panties stolen. On that note, where are the panties!? Tell me, before I extract your teeth without anesthesia!!" Hanami reached into her bag... and pulled out a gleaming pair of dental forceps. She clicked them together forebodingly, glasses shining with malicious intent.

Luna breathed a sigh of relief as it seemed this whole fiasco was about to be over with. Nevermind the questionable acts Hanami was about to commit, or the fact that Sumeryu's clothes were still invisible.

Dr. Matsuyama is turning into an excellent princess. She's even being an assistant in interrogations!

Sumeryu sets Rikishi down and puts a hand on each of his shoulders, pushing downward to root him in place. An average adult man comes up to the middle of her chest, so he is likely shorter than that, and she can probably touch her fingers together with her hands on his shoulders.

She glowers down at him. Lin Jing's coat provides the only bit of physical modesty she has, and there's a perfect opportunity to bonk Rikishi in the face with it if Lin Jing feels like taking it.

"You will not run again. Now, answer Dr. Matsuyama's questions."

"Tch, next to a chapel? You are never seeing the pearly gates, you dog." Hanami shakes her head in disgust. However, she does put away the forceps and takes out a few tissues instead, gingerly wiping the blood from her nose. "I don't think you should let him go just yet. It's only fair if the girls he stole from get their turn with him."

Just to make sure Rikishi isn't pulling one last trick, she consults her still magically enhanced intuition, trying to divine whether they'd actually find the stolen goods at the location Rikishi provided. She also searches the future for any danger or surprises they might run into, if any.

Lín Jìng looks at Sumeryu, as if expecting an approval. "The mighty should be magnanimous in their victory against the weak, I've been told."

She turns to face Rikishi and away from everyone else, and winks as a sign of mild support.

"Though I do have to wonder: were you also somehow involved in stealing, or re-stealing, Ao-chan's tie? Because as far as I understand, that was part of a series of thefts of the day."

She nods at Hanami and Lin and then addresses Rikishi again, staring down at him with palpable force that feels like a ton of bricks on his head.

Or maybe that's just her monstrous, titanic strength that could crush him in an instant if he did anything funny.

Who knows, really?

The jacket Lin is holding onto her manages to look fetching and dashing at the same time.

To Rikishi, she says, "First, we will get those panties. Then you will help us return them to the victims, and you will apologize, one at a time. Momochichi-san and the boy you magically coerced will also be on that list."

Sumeryu's primary concern is justice and right conduct, but it does have the added benefit of keeping Rikishi along in case he was lying about where he hid the "proceeds" of his theft.

She deliberately includes the other members of Magical Girl Combat Squad: "Ibuki-san, Watanabe-san, Luna-san, please get some zip ties and a rope from the hardware store so that we can keep track of him, then put the ties on his wrists and the rope around that."

"I think someone may have stolen the tie from the thief, and that means you might be the mastermind behind that.

Anyway, about the return, don't feel too embarrassed - it could've been worse. For example, some might've asked you to put them back on, like that s-type catgirl from the judo club."

"We will return them, and you will admit your guilt and apologize," Sumeryu repeats, while she waits for zip ties and a rope. She would be willing to just let him walk normally, but since he can make things vanish, she wants a lead to increase the discreet number of things he would have to vanish to slip away.

She hasn't even considered that the other girls might go with her and Rikishi on his humiliation tour. She would be happy if they did, but it simply doesn't occur to her to obligate others in doing the right thing. Demanding other people help her administer justice wouldn't be just in itself!

Ibuki wanting to excuse herself from the current undergarment focused conversation will run over to the nearest hardware store to acquire the rope and zip ties as she laments how she managed to ended up in this situation from attempting to find a place to meditate

"I can confirm he's telling the truth. I can't sense any danger in the future either," Hanami informs the others. "That means he didn't set a trap."

"Anyways, you can have these back, bowl cut." She finally takes off Rikishi's glasses and puts them back on his face. "Don't bother begging anymore. It's unsightly for a senpai to whine. The best thing you can do now is accept your loss with dignity."

"Hello, Momochichi-san. It's good to see you, too." She graces Katsuya with a gorgeous, pleasant smile.

"Rikishi-san has something to say to you. Is everything he had you steal in this box?"

Sumeryu pushes Rikishi in front of herself, to face Katsuya. She squeezes his shoulder to let him know that she'll break him in half if he does anything hostile or is too hesitant. She also points at the box with the underwear in it using her free hand.

As Rikishi is being led on a tour of apologies, Lín Jìng seems to be one (perhaps only one?) who seems to be pretty nonchalant about the whole incident, and shows no further hostility towards Rikishi, aside from occasionally prodding the captive with questions regarding the other theft that he's allegedly involved in too.

Hanami had dug up the box with a shovel. Good thing her enhanced intuition gave her the foresight to bring one. "There's only one way to find out, Sumeryu..." She grabs the box's lid and opens it carefully...

She's treated to the sight of panties galore. "Ugh." However, she decides to look through it to see if Rikishi's stashed away more than just panties.

Luna merely stands to the side as she watches Rikishi get his comeuppance. She thought things seemed to ending on a just note at the very least, and there wasn't much left for her to do. She'd like to help Hanami raid the panty stash, but some of the pieces in there seemed to be too stimulating for her...

Wah! I-is that what the other girls my age are wearing? B-but it's just strings... Luna had a slight blush as she peeked at the panty stash from time to time.

Hoho...! So this is what garments women wear in this era. Very interesting~! Meanwhile, the other voice in her head seemed to be enjoying it all.