Vol.2 Ch.22 - Minor altercation

Walking around town right now didn’t feel nearly as freeing nor asenchanting as it did yesterday. We were now under pressure to find a job.Most of the job listings were of clerking and retail, as the primary economyof this town was tourism.Once again we’re reminded of Springwood as we slowly made our wayfarther from the plaza and closer to the slums. Going from one worn-downalleyway to another we only then realized how easy we’ve had it withArthur. Just then a lad looking to be about a year older than us approached.“Hey, c’mere.” he whispered to us in Hianic.“~!!!”Just as we followed his request he suddenly pulled out a knife from hispocket and continued talking as if it was second nature.“We don’t gotta complicate things. Give me some money and I won’t doanything.”“…Okay, okay. We don’t want trouble.” I said in my poor Hianic as I handedour pouch filled with our remaining money.I know it’ll leave us in a vulnerable state, but it’s better than getting stabbed.He examined the pouch’s weight then grabbed my arm.“Y’think I’m stupid, huh? I know yer’ on’a them ITA agents! And I know youhave more on you!”The knife was about an inch away from me at this point, screaming outwasn’t a good idea as it’d probably startle him into stabbing me. But notdoing anything was also bad. Ed was about to lunge at him when areprimanding yell shouted out.A cloaked girl suddenly ran towards the lad and slapped him as she gave hima stern talking to. Well, seeing as they spoke in Hianic, we didn’t reallyunderstand much, they had a country accent. The only thing we got was thathis name is Carter, and her name was Cecily.***-In Hianic-“Carter! What the fuck are you doing? I told you the knife is for self-defensepurposes ONLY!”“Ahh, Cecily…” he grumbled, “I was jus’ aboutta complete the heist of’alifetime!”She stopped the lecturing to correct him.“It’s not a heist, when you’re robbing someone on the streets it’s called amugging.”“What’s the difference? Either way we get money!”“The dif erence,” she emphasized, “is that we don’t do muggings. If we wantto make it in this world, I told you I wanna be righteous with our approach.We only attack rival gang members and take their money, not civilians’.”“Ahh,” he whined, “you and you’re big words again! See, these guys’ aren’teven scared anymore!”She turned to the two tourists, who are looking quite listless as they waitedfor them to finish their conversation.“And you!” she shouted, “What do you want in our turf, huh??”They seemed taken aback by her suddenly raising her voice against them. Shedefinitely knew they were foreigners, so she just wanted to scare them off abit for laughs. What she didn’t expect, though, was for them to answer her.“Uhh…We Ulgami…We sorry! (How do you say it again?) Uhh, kill us not,renki we have!” he spouted pathetically.“Oh? So you speak some Hianic, huh? Well then, friends, lead the way!” Shesaid as she took off her cloak.“Of course, just hand back money. We need for buying renki.”Carter laughed audibly as he heard their poor verbal intellect.“Looks like there’r sum’ folks who’re worse ‘n me!”She regretted taking in two more idiots to add on to the first one.***Sitting around at the table, we ate together as Ed and I learned more aboutour new friends. We requested for them to speak a bit more clearly, as wellas to teach us a few of the words they used. The conversation was sluggish,but we got to learn a bit more Hianic as they talked about themselves.The boy and girl were apparently brother and sister, orphans who survivedoff in the streets. Their goal being to overturn a government that allowed forsuch a fate to be placed upon mere children. They planned to accomplishsuch lofty goals by mugging and stealing from rival gang members, but it wasobvious they wouldn’t make it that way.The boy was a wildcard. He didn’t really use his brain, instead relying onhis instincts to thrive. Rowdy and rambunctious was the best way to describehim. He had unkempt curly red hair and a Band-Aid on his nose rightbetween a pair of scary red eyes. When Ed inquired about it he was met witha violent reaction and an It’s cool! so he backed off quickly.The girl, on the other hand, was the brains of their little operation. She wascunning and calculating, which we found out quickly enough after shepickpocketed the waiter while simultaneously ordering her food. Like a rose,she was pretty, but prickly. The cloak she wore was raggedy, contrasting withher short, yet properly groomed red hair that all but hid her golden-tingedpupils. We made sure to be on guard when talking to her at all times.Pointing out the faults in their plan made them all too sad about hownonsensical it really was. And we really thought we were on to a winnerwith this one, she sighed. I almost recruited them to work with us in therestaurant out of habit, but quickly realized my mistake and instead askedabout the food. I guess I still haven’t gotten used to being jobless.Speaking of food, we ate lamb. It was succulent, juicy and most of alldelicious, sure, but since Ed and I already had lunch recently, we weren’treally that into it. Them on the other hand…“This tastes so good!” she squealed in joy.“Mhm! Delish!” he spouted as he chomped away with all his might.As they appeared to be nearing the ends of their plates, I had discreetly askedabout when they’re gonna be leaving us to our devices. I didn’t wanna getinvolved in their plans, plus we still have our own money-making problemsto deal with.Whilst Carter didn’t even bat an eyelid at my question, Cecily was looking atme with her eyes wide open. She murmured something under her breath andsmiled heinously. Just then I noticed something pointy touching my knee underthe table. She repeated what was murmured, accentuating the feeling of dreadI got from her.“Where’re ya’ going? You’re mine now. You two are gonna be helping ustake control of the Great Hiana underworld.”I looked at Ed for a second, but he was apparently too busy talking to Carterto even notice the situation unfurling in front of him.“Yeah!” Ed spoke up, “When you put it that way, Carter, your plan mightactually be sorta’ good!”It appears Carter was peacefully inviting Ed into their gang as I was gettingthreatened by Cecily. I guess they’re both thorny in that aspect.“I mean, the idea is dumb,” Ed continued,” but it has some merit to it. Thestealing part is a no-go, you gain little to nothing with it and lose too muchenergy, but if we were to take control of a territory, then we could request acut from each business located there. We’re not robbing, per se, but ratherbuying stock with a 100% discount.”They both got excited at gaining their first new recruit, meanwhile I was stillprocessing almost getting my leg cut up. And what’s this about a good plan?It’s got too many holes in it! First off: we have no idea what these “enemygang members” are like and what their numbers are. For all we know theycould be a large city wide group, in which case we’d be dead by sundown.Second: while it is normal to take a cut from businesses located in your turf,we still need to somehow accomplish getting said turf.Even still, it was 3 against 1 (and of those three, one was holding me atknifepoint), in the end I had no other option but to agree as well. With that,our new course of action was set. We are to destroy our enemies and claimtheir land, to raise our newly formed gang to heights previously unreachable.The “overthrowing the government” part can wait a few years, though…