Sorry, this would have been up sooner, but War of the Chosen dropped a couple of days ago and my favourite streamers have been almost nonstop streaming it, so that has taken my time. Fret not, this is not abandoned, nor is it forgotten.
You think long and hard on this. Do you concentrate on your parents, and making sure everything is okay, do you try to apprehend the thugs so they will face the full brunt of the law, or do you follow them to their hideout, so you can...you're not sure what you will do when you get there, but you will do it, yes you will.
Your hands grip the bamboo umbrella in your hands and you feel it creak a bit as you worry your mind back and forth between just running up to them and kicking their asses, and sneaking behind them, somehow because you aren't the most stealthy, and trying to find out where their base is. For reasons. That you haven't decided yet.
Finally,you sigh and hand the umbrella to mother. It would be better to find out where they are coming from, rather than cut your information source off. Please, you will do something. Something big. Something that will stop them from coming. Something...that you still do not know.
"Hold this, I will be back in a bit," you say to mother, before bouncing off. Your hands absently rise up and tie your hair into a quick topknot and you try to blend in with the crowd of people -too fucking scared to come out when the thugs weren't limping away- that is starting to spill out onto the dusty streets once more.
"Resplendent Lotus, don't do…," mother starts to say, only to trail off and just heave a heavy sigh. You're not focused on her, but you imagine she just waves her hand vaguely at you. "Just...be safe, child."
"Be quick, Resplendent Lotus," father says in turn, and even though you are not looking at him as you travel further away, you imagine he's folded his arms in front of him and is glowering at you. "Don't be late for clean up, daughter."
You smile slightly, and as you pass out of hearing range, turn back and flash them a smile, and your index and middle finger held up in 'V' sign to show them that everything is alright and they shouldn't worry. You can't promise about being there to help with clean up, if only because you kind of want to not have to do it if you do not have to. You will never mention that fact. Never ever.
Now, following the thugs is both easy, and hard. Easy, because it is easy to follow the thugs, what with one still nursing your kick to his dick slowing them down, and being noticeable in the hunched way he walks. Hard, because you have to follow them on the street and it is hard to hide and still keep an eye on where the two thugs go.
Still, you manage to hang back and follow them along. Occasionally, you have to stop and do something else. Like pick up some newsprint to read, and have to buy because the shopkeeper is glaring at you. Or, or, start looking through some produce...and have to buy some because you accidentally drop the peach in your hand. Or...well, you manage to make it through the district you live in, and only have to spend most of your money on things you will never see again, because if you want to move you have to keep your hands free.
You sigh in relief when they, and then you, pass through into the 'lower' district. So called because it is where those that barely make enough money to survive live. Thankfully, this is not you, but it still kind of breaks your heart to see the people here shuffling along as they seek to make enough to live on.
But today is not about your sympathies with the poor. You are a stealthy stealth type following two thugs as they crawl back to their boss and master to tell them how they failed because of you, because of a girl. You hope they choke on having to report it. You doubt it though. Probably a lot of macho posturing, and chest beating...well, you'll just have to kick them in the nads again.
Only harder. Make them regret looking down on you and all that.
Then you hear a sound and you barely manage to frantically look around for a second, before jumping up and grabbing an overhang and pulling yourself up, out of the way. Two guys, dressed similarly enough to the thugs that are currently getting away, pass close underneath you as your arms strain to keep you from falling down and being discovered. Bend, don't break, bend don't break.
Bend, don't...and your muscles give out and you fall. Surprisingly, you manage to catch yourself and land almost silently on all fours. Stifling a squeak, you shuffle on all fours out of sight, pressing yourself into shadow as you wait for the two guys to turn a corner before dragging yourself back to your feet and dashing to relocate the thugs.
"Yeah, guess they were seeing things. Didn't find no slag following them," one of the two guys says to a third guy. Your fist clenches at the insult, but you keep listening. "Nah, let them tell the boss. No point in us borrowing any trouble, when it will all fall on them anyway."
So, these two, well, three, are also in the employ of whoever sent the thugs to the bakery. Well, with them standing outside of a...massage parlour -and doesn't that just make your skin crawl- you can guess that their base is inside Now is the time to decide what to do. Be all action-y, and fight your way in, when you have no fighting ability, sneak your way in, when you suck at stealth. Or something else.
Whatever you decide, at least you know where their base is.
So, what do you do now?
[X] Fight your way in
[X] Sneak your way in
[X] Go home
[X] Tell the authorities