I admit I had mixed feelings when I learned Tsu'na had spared the parking lot guy. He tried to kill her...I suppose he indirectly tried to kill us. On the other hand, it means she knows restraint. I mean, I never expected her to go mowing down people indiscriminately. But it's still reassuring and reaffirming to know.

Hopefully her mercy won't come around to bite us in the ass, like the Die Die Die Guy from Doma Castle whose name I can never remember. But then, we put him down in the end. Just like all the others.

I went to Flying Tigers in the morning. It occurred to me that whoever shot the window might be back. Not back from the dead, but Clive talked to someone on the phone, so that meant there were more of them. Tony was over his shock from yesterday and had the energy to be resistant to my presence.

"Hey, I'm just here to help out. Least I can do. What needs doing?"

"I'm not hiring you."

"Free labor. Seriously. Put me to work."

He glared at me for a bit, probably sizing up my sincerity and wondering what he could get away with. "Mirrors need polishing."

"On it."

They in fact did need polishing. Most of it was hand prints around waist level...I'm guessing from the kindergarteners he got in by the busload. Except there wasn't a busload today. Nor were there any power lunchers or yoga ladies. Seemed a lot of people were put off by the window getting shot out.

Since Tony didn't have customers distracting him, he was able to warm up to the idea of bossing me around. The mirrors got polished. The mats got scrubbed. The mats got folded back so the floor could be vacuumed. I started to feel a little like the kid Caine sweeping the temple in Kung Fu. But I wasn't there to learn martial arts. Not from Tony.

Tony spent most of his time at the door, leaning against the wall and gazing out into the street. I wonder how long it'll take for business to pick up again. Replacing the window alone wouldn't do it...a drive-by carries a stigma. But maybe Tony's a decent salesman.

In the afternoon the neighborhood youth demonstrated they weren't put off by criminal action. I think some of them thought it was cool and edgy that a martial arts school saw actual violence. They were less impressed with me. One boy asked me, "Who are you?"

"I'm the new Grasshopper."

"The what?"

"...Padawan?"

He gave me a funny look and wandered off. Gee, kid, way to make me feel old.

There was nothing to clean while Tony taught, so I took a break in the back room. I saw he had replaced the BOB Tsu'na and I had splintered; I had no real desire to splinter the current one, so I took out my phone to game for a while.

I saw Tsu'na had messaged me: Your engine arrived. I put it in the workshop. Like I'll be able to work on it while babysitting Tony.

I'd started to think maybe I didn't need to babysit Tony after all. There hadn't been any problems all day, and the teenagers would be the last customers before Tony closed up. I saw them via mirrors from the back room, I saw them finish up their session, I saw the last of them finally wander out after getting some extra pointers from Tony.

Then I saw a couple guys wander in. They didn't look like Tony's typical customers. They in fact looked rather like the dead guys Tsu'na had taken a picture of. Same kind of scruffy. Though of course less dead.

I stowed my phone, shifted to Ninja and Stealthed. I went into the main room to see what they were up to. For all I knew they were there for martial arts training.

They were not there for martial arts training. One lingered by the door while the other approached Tony, who perked up at the prospect of new customers on an otherwise lackluster day. "Hi, welcome to Flying Tigers! Looking for training?"

The guy taking lead glanced around the room before focusing on Tony. "You run this place?"

"Sure do! I'm Master Shen. How can I help you?"

"Looking for a woman. We heard she comes here." Lead Guy pulled out his phone, fiddled with it and showed it to Tony. "Seen her?"

Tony's face fell into his familiar oh-shit look. "I...can't really talk about my customers, sorry. Who are you?"

Lead Guy got closer to Tony. "I'm the guy who really wants to know about this bitch. And you're gonna tell me."

"I just said I can't..."

Lead Guy reached up to grab Tony. Granted, Tony doesn't impress me and never did, but still, assaulting a martial arts instructor you don't know seems like a dumbass move. It certainly was in this case. Tony grabbed Lead Guy's arm, elbowed him in the chest and flung him to the floor.

Sadly, this was exactly the sort of thing we'd been hoping he could teach Tsu'na when we first came to him. Had he actually taught us stuff instead of pawning us off on Murray's, none of this would be happening.

It might have worked for him if the two guys had been closer together, but Lookout was across the room, and he suddenly had a gun. "Hold it, asshole!"

Tony froze. Lead Guy painfully picked himself up, rummaged for his own gun, which had come out of his pants when he hit the floor, and raised the barrel to Tony's chin. "Nice move, dipshit. Maybe you can give me a lesson later. Now tell me about the woman."

"I...I don't know anything about her, okay? She said her name's Tabitha or something. She comes in here, we go over wrestling moves, that's it. That's all I know."

"How do you get ahold of her?"

"I don't! She just shows up! I don't have her number or anything!"

Lead Guy shoved his gun more firmly. "That's not good enough..."

I could see this wouldn't end well for Tony. I could maybe backstab Lookout and make it to Lead Guy in time, but not before someone did something stupid. Even money on who that might be.

It was time to pull aggro. I moved to the door, then shifted to Paladin, suddenly un-stealthed, full armor, helm visible, visor down. Cryptlurker gear is cryptic; all they would have seen is metal. I kicked at the door behind me, like I had just come in. I tried to make my voice deep and throaty as I yelled, "Hey! Who's in charge here?"

Everyone's eyes got wide, and both guns shifted to me. I drew my sword and shield. Lookout was within reach, so I shieldbashed him. He flew backwards, bounced off a mirrored wall and landed in a heap on the floor. There was no blood on the mirror, which I hoped meant he was just out cold. Not that I particularly cared for his welfare, but if he was still alive he could drag himself off in time.

Tony did a duck-and-cover when Lead Guy started shooting. One shot went somewhere, two more bounced off my armor. I marched up to him, put my shield to his chest and kept on marching until I had him pinned to the wall. "Drop the gun!" I growled.

He struggled, trying to angle his wrist around the shield to shoot at me again. I pulled back the shield and shoved the point of my sword into his gun arm. "I said drop it!"

I confess to having anger management issues.

When I was younger I'd smash my share of furniture and put my fist through various stretches of drywall. I didn't hurt people...that's what the furniture and drywall was for.

This became less of an issue as I aged and lost the strength and energy for these expressions of anger. The anger was still there, just not the capacity to express it in ways other than grouchiness and road rage.

When I got to Eorzea I got my strength and energy back and it only grew with time, but it was okay. The IPH there (Idiots Per Hour, a term I coined doing Tech Support work, though it also works well on the highway) was much lower. And even if I did need to vent, there was always something I could go out and kill, often for pay.

Now I'm back on Earth, I've got much more strength and energy, and there are idiots here. Like the guy I was facing in Flying Tigers that was an associate of the people who shot at my wife.

That my magnificent miqo'te dealt with the people who shot at her wasn't the point. That Lead Guy wasn't one who did the actual shooting wasn't the point. That said guy had been threatening someone who I might not have respected much but was still taking advantage of wasn't the point.

At that particular moment I might not have been clear on exactly what the point was. But I was very angry about it.

Lead Guy dropped his gun. I leaned in. "Are you in charge here?"

He shook his head and gestured at Tony with his uninjured arm.

"Then who the hell are you?"

"We're just..." He had to grit his teeth against the pain. "...looking for someone."

"Any chance that's a woman? Pro wrestler, wears cat ears and a tail in the ring?"

His eyes locked on my face, or at least my visor. He nodded.

"No, you're not looking for her. I'm looking for her. I've been after her for more than a year. What do you want her for?"

He seemed reluctant to talk. I was not at all reluctant to press harder on my sword. He hissed in his breath. "We got paid to take her out, but our guys got killed when they tried!"

"Who's 'we'?"

"Fuck you!"

I twisted the sword a smidge. He screamed.

"Who's 'we'?"

"Southside Long Shots!"

I thought, that's a street gang? Sounds more like a community basketball team.

I pulled the sword out of his arm. He grabbed the arm, breathing heavily. I got closer to his face.

"The woman you're after is dangerous as fuck. You approach her again, she'll probably kill you. You get in my way, I'll probably kill you." I raised my blade to his neck. "I will carve you and your Southside Long Shots like a peking duck. She's all mine. I'm gonna get her. You understand?"

He managed a nod.

"Good. Now take your trash and get out of here."

He started to lean down and pick up his gun. I grabbed him by the shirt and flung him toward Lookout. "No, that trash! Get the hell out!"

Lookout was starting to come to at that point. Lead Guy helped Lookout up with his good arm and started dragging him to the door. Lookout pointed his gun at me until Lead Guy muttered something to him.

I turned to Tony and raised my bloody sword point at him. "And you! What do you know about her?"

Tony was convincingly terrified. As I'd hoped, between the voice pitching and muffling by the visor he didn't recognize me yet. "Nothing! She just comes in here! Her name's Tabitha-something! That's all I know!"

"Where do I find her?"

"I don't know! I swear!"

"Next time I come back here, you'd better have some answers for me!" I saw in the mirror that the Long Shots had lingered a bit by the door, maybe hoping to overhear something useful. It was useful to me that there was nothing for them to hear. I swung my sword at them. "I said leave!"

They left. I angled around to make sure they were actually leaving and saw them get into a car. I turned back to Tony and raised my visor, only to see him pointing Lead Guy's gun at me.

He blinked at my revealed face. "...You? I thought you were a ninja!"

"Among other things." I holstered my sword and shield. "What are you doing, Tony?"

"I..." He looked down at the gun in his hands. "I...was...protecting myself?"

I sighed. "That gun was dropped by a gang member. You might have just put your prints on a murder weapon."

"...Oh."

"I was going to leave it somewhere for the police to find, but I can't do that now. Here." I held out a gauntleted hand. Tony reluctantly gave me the gun. I stuck it in inventory to desynthesize later. "Southside Long Shots...ever hear of them?"

"One of the high schoolers might've mentioned them. I thought they were a basketball team."

"Okay, with any luck they're now worried enough about me and my wife to not care about you, but I can hang out for a few more days to be on the safe side."

"You knew they'd come back?"

"Didn't know. Thought it was possible."

"You could have told me!"

"Thought it was obvious."

"You don't think they'll be back now?"

"Hopefully not."

"Then I want you the hell out of here! I'm sick of having you come in here dragging your shit with you!"

"Okay. Just let us get the window up and..."

"I don't care about the window!"

"It'll be bulletproof."

"Why would I need a bulletproof window? Why would anybody be shooting at me if you're not here?"

"It's just safer, that's all. Good investment. A couple more days and you'll never see us again."

"...Fine."

"Okay, I'm gonna go change." I looked down at the floor. "Clorox for the blood?"

"...Dry-sponge it first."

I hope Tsu'na's making progress on her plexiglass.