[Ch. 29] An Unnatural Body

As Panzram drew his face closer, the door to Ryu's room slid open abruptly. Ryu and Panzram both looked to see the Madam standing in the doorway with a stony expression.

She bowed, "I've interrupted your intimacy once more. Please forgive me."

She hurriedly closed the door without another word. Panzram and Ryu looked at the door speechless as the Madam walked away, pretending not to have seen a thing.

Panzram pushed off Ryu who scurried away with a flushed expression. Ryu averted his eyes shyly, "Should we... Go into town now?"

Panzram granted in agreement.

As they walked through the town, Ryu skipped looking at all of the stalls lining the street while Panzram followed after him with a scowling expression. Everyone who saw Ryu called out to him with smiling faces. However, when they saw Panzram they quickly shut their mouths.

Panzram wasn't a fan of going out and shopping. He much preferred to stay far away from as many people as possible. This was due to his years on the run or avoiding the law. However, he didn't just avoid large shopping districts due to the crowd size.

It was also because he made everyone else extremely uncomfortable. He would only see their look of fear when he walked by. Usually, when he went into town, the store clerks would be unwilling to sell him anything out of fear of being harassed or they would run away.

Panzram glanced from the fearful faces back to Ryu's childlike expression. Ryu noticed his intense stare and turned to face him, "What's wrong? You're not having fun?"

Panzram frowned, "Why did you bring me?"

Ryu was startled by this, "What do you mean why?"

Panzram glanced around and noticed as everyone quickly jerked their eyes away from his. Some people even started sweating when his cold sharp eyes were upon their bodies. Panzram looked back to Ryu noticing he never even flinched, "Isn't it obvious?"

Ryu looked around as if he just now noticed how everyone was staring at Panzram. While Panzram carefully analyzed everyone, no one even made it into Ryu's line of thought. Ryu didn't care a bit about them. So why would he try to acknowledge them?

Ryu turned back to Panzram and smiled enticingly. He grabbed onto Panzram's hand which caused Panzram to flinch in surprise. Ryu noticed that Panzram flinched from his touch and misunderstood.

Ryu quickly removed his hands with a look of dejection, "Ah… Sorry. I forget that my body is unnaturally cold."

Panzram opened his mouth to say that he didn't mind, but then he closed it before he could admit it. He didn't understand why he couldn't force himself to say those few words, but he just couldn't. As Panzram watched Ryu looked at his own hand, he was surprised to see that Ryu looked at it in self-deprecation.

"I understand why you wouldn't like it." Ryu muttered to himself, "I truly am disgusting. Anyone would hate my touch."

Panzram spoke quickly, "No, I-"

However, Ryu didn't give him an opportunity to say anything. In an instant, his entire personality seemed to change completely. He looked up at Panzram with a large grin, "Well don't mind those people too much. They have nothing better to do than gawk. If they annoy you too much, I could always teach them a lesson not to stare. Would you like that?"

Anyone within earshot instantly turned pale at this and quickly rushed away while keeping their heads down. Panzram looked at Ryu with complicated feelings.

He wanted to explain that he had only flinched from habit.

In the past, Panzram wouldn't waste energy on other people. He didn't trust anyone else so he kept up his guard to protect himself. However, when he saw Ryu's response, he felt guilty.

Panzram had recognized that Ryu seemed to have some kind of aversion to his own body. Although he couldn't really understand why, he had always wanted to ask about it. It seemed that each day that passed, Panzram was finding himself more and more curious about this mysterious fourth young master.

However, Panzram didn't fully trust this man yet. So, he decided to not say anything about it. Instead, he said, "It's fine. I'm used to this."

"That makes it even more important to correct this behavior." Ryu clicked his tongue, "Oh well. I guess I will ignore it since you don't mind. But I wouldn't worry too much. If you are by my side, I'm sure people will eventually stop gawking at you like this."

Panzram shook his head and thought to himself: No. I'm sure I will get even worse stares. Everyone is sure to think that whoever tamed the fourth young master would be a monster themselves.

Panzram continued to follow Ryu who had a skip in his step. Panzram glanced at every single person as if he was assessing if they were dangerous or not. He was tense and guarded to the point where it even started making Ryu nervous.

Ryu turned to Panzram, "Should we go somewhere more private? I know a good tea house. We could get our own room."

Panzram looked at him suspiciously.

Ryu chuckled, "It's not the kind of place you're thinking. The owner is a good friend. Also, he makes those mochi sweets that you are really fond of."

When Panzram heard the phrase "mochi sweets", He couldn't help but grunt in agreement.

Ryu chuckled, "How cute."

Panzram glared at him, "What's cute?"

Ryu's smile fell and his pale white cheeks were colored bright red. He looked away feeling flustered, "Oh… I just thought it was cute that such a large man actually loves eating sweets…"

Panzram was rendered speechless as he heard this. Who in their right mind would consider him cute?!

Ryu rushed to the tea house quickly as if he were too embarrassed. He walked into the tea house and the servants quickly showed him to a private room before he could even ask. Panzram sat down in a seat across from him. Ryu sat down still blushing from the nonsense he said earlier. They both place their orders with the waitress who was serving them.

The waitress bowed, "Honorable customers, I will bring you both something to drink while you wait for your orders. Please call on me if you need anything."

The waitress bowed once more before leaving.

Panzram glanced suspiciously at Ryu, "You seem familiar with this place."

Ryu chuckled and scratched his cheek, "Well I suppose I come here a lot. The owner is a good friend of mine so whenever I have time I stop by."

Panzram suddenly felt as if his mouth tasted sour. He spat out, "And how do you meet this friend?"

Ryu opened his mouth but hesitated. He averted his eyes, "I... I really don't think it's my place to say..."

This response made Panzram clicked his tongue in annoyance, "You can't say? But you seem like you loved to talk. When you first met me, you kept mentioning visions from Gods. Did you say something like that to him?!"

Panzram's intention: Is this how you pick up men?!

Ryu didn't understand why Panzram was getting so upset and reached out to hold is hand. However, he recalled that Panzram had flinched last time, so Ryu held himself back. Ryu averted his eyes with a guilty conscious, "I didn't say that to him. I've only had visions of you! Honest..."

Panzram clenched his jaw, "What a joke. I should have known that you only said that to get me to stay. Pah! Why am I even still here..."

Ryu's eyes shrunk back in fear at the thought that Panzram would actually leave him this time.

His fear seemed to cause something to snap inside of him.

Ryu suddenly leaned forward and grabbed his head. His face scrunched up in pain from the sudden assault of a mind-splitting headache.

Panzram saw his expression and felt anxious. "What's wrong?!"

Visions blurred Ryu's sight.

Soon, a mountainscape was sprawled out around him. Ryu's eyes were stuck on an ongoing battle far from the mountain he was on.

It was the battle where Panzram would lose his life at.

He had been shown this scene before, but he didn't understand why he was watching from a different location. Before, he was watching as if he was a ghost hovering above. Now, he was watching as if he was actually there in that moment.

He could feel his heart thundering in his chest as he watched. His hand was propped against a tree, trembling from the effort of holding himself up.

Ryu didn't understand why he felt so weak.

...But there was one thing he understood.

That was the urge to stop the battle.

Before Ryu could see anything else, a blinding white light covered his vision. As his eyes fluttered open, he saw Panzram over him with a strange expression on his face. Ryu realized how odd he must seem and shook his head forcefully.

Ryu forced on a smile, "It's nothing. Just a small headache."