That pickpocket was pretty good at his job. He hadn't given the woman any chance to react.
"Robbery! Help, robbery!"
When the woman realized what had happened, she was frantic and stunned, and instinctively started shouting.
I hurried after him, quickly caught up, and snatched the bag out of his hands.
Just as I was about to throw a couple of punches for show, the guy actually broke our agreement and kicked me.
But he failed to knock me down and fell over himself instead.
"Holy shit..."
He gave me a startled look, then scrambled to his feet and ran.
That month or so of stance training really hadn't been for nothing.
Holding the woman's bag, I went back and returned it to her.
"Are you all right, beautiful? Were you hurt?"
"N-no."
She took the bag and hurriedly thanked me. "Sir, thank you so much. There are a lot of important things in this bag. Thank goodness you got it back for me. Please wait a moment while I call the police."
I quickly stopped her from calling. "You'd better not call the police. Anyone who dares to rob someone in broad daylight these days is a desperate criminal. He was wearing a mask and a hat, too. Clearly a repeat offender."
"People like that aren't easy to catch. If he finds out you called the police, he might come back for revenge."
The woman hesitated. Clearly frightened as well, she gave up on calling the police. "Ugh, what rotten luck..."
I comforted her. "What matters is that you're all right, and your important things are still there. This bag might be ruined, but just think of it as losing a little money to ward off disaster."
With that, I said nothing more to her and turned toward the