Does さっさと here mean "quickly" or like "hurry up"?

Question

I just read a fighting manga where 2 characters fight after years. For context the 1st character is much older than the second (about 15 year gap). The second character is about 22 years old at this point. That older character said this line.

あんたがこんなにたくましかったなんて.

こんなことならさっさと襲っちゃえば良かったかな....なんて

I understood the 1st line as "How the hell did you get this strong?" or like "To think you'd get this strong." Please correct me If I'm wrong.

The second line is what I have trouble with. My guesswork understanding would be "It would've been good if you had attacked me earlier." But can さっさと function as earlier? I've only so far heard it as "hurry up" and only used it by itself.

Answer 1

Yes, さっさと can denote "earlier" or "sooner". In this case, it could translate to something like "shouldn't have waited (this long) to (...)". You could also think of it like "should've hurried up and (...)".

And I would assume the speaker is referring to himself. Something like "(If I had known) maybe I should've just assaulted you when I still had the chance... heh, just kidding". The 襲う ("assault") and かな……なんて make it seem extremely unlikely that he would be referring to the other party.

And as in English, 襲う can refer to sexual assault as well (or just 'making a move', like kissing or hugging, but I find such a mild connotation unlikely in this case). Since it's a battle manga, he could have just meant it literally though, depending on the larger context.

Answer 2

The speaker is regretting about something in the past (years ago).

あんたがこんなにたくましかったなんて。
I never thought you were sturdy like this!

こんなことならさっさと襲っちゃえば良かったかな....なんて
If I had known this was going to happen, maybe I should've hit on you without hesitating... just kidding!

• See this for the first なんて, and this for the second one.
• こんなことなら literally means "if it's a thing like this", or "if this were to happen". It's a common set phrase of regret.
• さっさと means "without delay/waiting/hesitating", but since he is referring to his past, you could use "earlier" in this context. It implies the speaker had had an "interest" to the other person for a long time.
• 襲う used like this usually has a sexual meaning (it's somewhere between seduction and rape, depending on the context). Its subject is the speaker.
• かな is "I guess", "maybe", etc.