Chapter 22: [Ch. 22] Late Night Cuddles

Panzram had never felt such a strong power before.

Ryu's Tamashii energy was so powerful, it shook Panzram's entire core. He knew some chaos users were so powerful that they could make you believe anything they wanted, but he had never heard of it being like this.

A chaos user being able to manipulate reality was only a legend.

Not only was he affected by the nauseating spinning sensation, but everyone else was as well. Panzram was overcome with anger and shouted viciously, "Stop!"

Suddenly, the entire building stopped shaking and spinning as if commanded. Everyone inside groaned while trying to recover from the sickening feeling. The working girls poked their heads out of their doors while shouting their displeasure.

Panzram growled and looked at Ryu, but all his anger quickly disappeared and changed to surprise. Ryu's eyes watered as his lower lip trembled. He broke out into a loud sob.

The Madame was just as shocked as Panzram was to hear Ryu wail. She bent down to him anxiously, "What is it little Ryu? Why are you crying?"

Ryu sobbed, "He-He-He hates meeee!"

Everyone's face instantly deadpanned as Ryu wailed miserably as if someone important to him died. They all turned their heads to look at Panzram who frowned at the attention.

The Madame cleared her throat and tried to placate Ryu with a gentle voice, "No, no. He doesn't hate you. You were just making him feel sick by causing the building to shake."

Ryu continued to sob, "Yes he doooes! He hates me!!"

Her face twitched. She looked at Panzram, "You don't hate him, right?"

Panzram's mouth hung open slightly as he was completely bewildered by the sudden turn of events.

Ryu continued wailing, "He thinks I'm uglyyyy!"

The Madame's eyebrows pinched together in exasperation, "You don't think he's ugly right?"

Panzram didn't respond as his brain still couldn't process how ridiculous this situation was.

She spoke quickly, "Quick! Tell him it's not like that before he drowns us in tears!"

Panzram let out a growling noise and grimaced. He forced himself to speak even though he felt a bit awkward, "I don't hate you."

Ryu only sobbed harder, "B-But you DO think I'm ugly?!"

Panzram's face twitched. He thought to himself: Is this man so shameless that he is even a blubbering crybaby while drunk?!

Panzram clenched his jaw, "You're not ugly."

Ryu sniffed, "I-I don't believe you."

Panzram shouted out in exasperation, "You're not ugly. You are shameless and carefree, but you're charming and beautiful. Whenever I see you, I just want to pin you underneath me. There! Are you happy now?!"

Panzram had only shouted those words because he was so annoyed. Whether it was true or not…

Well.

He wasn't lying.

Panzram did find Ryu to be quite beautiful and enticing. And it was true that whenever he saw that innocent smile, he wanted to taint it. However, admitting such a thing was something he wouldn't ever do.

Until he found himself faced with the current situation.

After hearing these words, Ryu's tears and wails instantly stopped and a goofy grin covered his face. He stood up happily, "I knew it!"

Panzram's mouth dropped open as he wondered if he had just been tricked. Did Ryu plan this all out, pretend to be drunk and cause trouble just to get Panzram to admit this? Could it be… Ryu wasn't actually drunk?!

As Ryu stood up and went running over to Panzram, his foot suddenly slipped. He stumbled forward, flailing his arms as he fell backward and right off the railing of the top floor.

*Thud*

Ryu landed on his back with a loud thud. Everyone quickly rushed over to the railing and those that were downstairs quickly surrounded him. Ryu lay on his back with his eyes closed and didn't move at all.

One of the girls gulped, "Did he die?"

The room got quiet.

Panzram broke the silence, "Unfortunately, he did not."

They all looked at Ryu who had a large grin on his face even though he was knocked out. One of the girls looked at Panzram with a mischievous smile, "Young master Pan, perhaps you could take Ryu to his room?"

Panzram grunted as if he was unwilling, but he still went downstairs and picked him up princess-style. The girls all squealed in delight as they held each other, witnessing the heart-throbbing scene. One sighed, "Ah, look at how tenderly he holds him in his arms!"

*BANG*

Ryu's head hit the railing as Panzram turned to go up. Panzram's face never changed even when he heard Ryu's head hit with a hollow noise. Panzram carried him the rest of the way expressionlessly.

One of the girls forced a smile, "He's not very delicate… Is he?"

The other nodded, "He seems to be a bit rough around the edges."

They all looked at Ryu's sleeping face with a look of sympathy.

Luckily, the large knot on his head from the hit was already healing itself.

Panzram entered Ryu's room and threw him on the ground without even bothering to roll out the futon for him. He sat against the wall on the ground and scowled. However, the unconscious Ryu didn't mind, almost as if he was used to this sort of treatment.

Panzram closed his eyes to sleep and felt something plop onto his lap.

He opened his eyes and looked down to see that Ryu was now hugging his thigh with a smile as he slept. Panzram had the urge to throw him out of the window. However, he swallowed down this urge and pushed Ryu off.

However, Ryu was suddenly attached to Panzram's arm, holding it as if it was his precious pillow. Panzram felt an uncontrollable chill come up through his spine when he felt Ryu's skin touch his own. Panzram looked down at Ryu in confusion.

Panzram always thought that Ryu felt colder than usual the few times he had been touched by him.

Panzram hesitated, then touched Ryu's face slowly. As he traced his thumb along his jawline, Ryu mumbled out something with a comforting expression. Panzram didn't pay this any attention as he was busy thinking about something peculiar.

Ryu's skin was cold to the touch.

It wasn't just a little cold, but abnormally so. Panzram had touched dead bodies before and this felt eerily similar to it. If one didn't know better, one would think that Ryu was actually a corpse. If not for him breathing and moving, Panzram probably would have assumed he was dead.

But how can a person have such a body? Wasn't that unusual?

Panzram began to realize that the more he looked at this man, the more questions he had. Although it's true that he was no longer able to cross the border due to the heightened patrol, he had chosen to find Ryu because his curiosity demanded it.

Panzram's questions regarding this man swirled inside his head. Why did this person know so much about him? Why did he not look at him with fear or hatred when he learned of his past? Why in the world would this man look at him with such enthusiastic eyes?

Panzram knew that this person had to be crazy. He constantly brought up visions from the Gods while clearly not caring if he himself lived or died. It wasn't normal behavior.

Panzram looked at the odd man and pulled away his hand that had been caressing Ryu's face. Noticing that he couldn't shake Ryu off no matter how hard he tried, he finally relented and rolled out the futon. He laid down and allowed Ryu to cling to him in his drunken state.

Panzram decided to teach him a lesson the next day for his shameless behavior.