His reflection in the mirror was a familiar stranger to Ryu. His eyes gleamed like wild treasures beneath the intensity of the yellow light. This was no ordinary transformation. Every curve of his irises reflected the intense focus of a predator stalking its prey. As if these eyes were no longer his alone; they were the eyes of a panther, a hunter, or worse.
"Are these… are these my eyes?" he murmured, his voice a trembling, muffled echo.
Even his own voice felt alien; it seemed to echo in a dark void. His heart pounded in his chest as if it wanted to shatter his ribcage. The heavy, harsh rhythm he felt inside his ribcage echoed in his head, drawing him into a whirlpool. Panic quickened his breathing, and his hands involuntarily reached for his pockets.
The watch.
That old, rusty watch. After the struggle he had endured in pursuit of that thing, he had never dared to look at it again. His fingers trembled in his pocket, grasping the watch, and the cold metal of the watch made him shiver.
He pulled the watch into his palm and examined it with trembling hands. Even its appearance was depressing. The back still had its old, elegant workmanship; it retained the elegance it had once held. But the front… it was in pieces. Only broken and cracked shards remained in place of the glass, and the metal frame was crushed. The clock hands were bent like inoperable junk. Even the mysterious aura that had previously emanated from the clock was gone.
"So the attack came here…" he thought, his mind instantly making the connection between the clock and Lion's attack.
But this connection didn't explain the change in his eyes. The old watch he held in his palms was like a symbol mocking his fate. "Is that why…" he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Is that why my eyes are like this?"
His thoughts were cut short by a sharp lightning bolt that coursed through his mind. At that moment, the pain he felt in his head wasn't like a needle, but like a gigantic sledgehammer. His breath caught, his hands involuntarily flying to his head.
"Ah!"
The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt. His skull felt as if it were about to explode from the inside out. He fell to his knees; his world blurred. Everything would go black, then brighten again, but it wasn't a bright light, just a reflection of the chaos and pain inside his head.
And that's when the sounds began.
At first, it was a humming sound, a faint echo carried by a light wind. But soon the hum gradually intensified. Children's laughter, the women's gossip, the screeching of tires on the cobblestone road… The shrill crash of breaking glass, the groans of stray cats squabbling in the distance…
Each one echoed in Ryu's head. The sounds merged, blended, and became a chaotic symphony. Each note stabbed into his brain like a sharp knife. Ryu's heartbeat quickened, as if keeping pace with the chaos.
"Stop this!" he shouted, but even his own voice sounded like a scream echoing in his head.
He pressed his hands tighter to his head, as if trying to block out the noise. But it was no use. The sounds grew louder, their intensity overwhelming him mentally and physically.
"Fuck! My head feels like it's going to explode!" he said, but his words were unintelligible even to his own ears.
He sank to his knees, bowed his head, and tears welled up in his eyes. He was overcome with despair. All this noise, this noise, this chaos… It was all crushing down on him. He would have given anything for even a moment of silence.
But that peace didn't come. Every cell in his body couldn't bear the torture any longer. His eyes fluttered shut, plunging the world into darkness once more.
Ryu opened them heavily, the first light of dawn filtering through the corners of the walls. His vision was still blurry, his body feeling tired and drained. He slowly lifted his head and looked around. The sun, reflected in the window, struggled to penetrate the walls, highlighting every speck of dust in the street. The air was heavy, damp, and still clinging to the darkness of the night before. Ryu's every movement felt slow, as if he were wading through a mud mire. Every muscle in his body trembled along with his muffled voice in the dead of dawn.
He thought nothing had ever been so intoxicating. His mind was still filled with the chaos of last night; something was missing, something was lost. He tried to sit up quickly, but his knees hit each other and he stumbled. This time, the weight of his body clung to the earth, making him dizzy. Shaking his head rapidly, he tried again, and finally stood up.
The stones beneath his feet seemed incongruous at first, but then each one struck him like an almost tangible blow. The pain he felt from each step, the hard contact with the ground, reverberated through every corner of his body. "Do I feel that bad? It's as if what I experienced last night wasn't even real," he thought, trying to move forward without shaking himself any further.
The street had returned to the peace of the morning, but Ryu was scanning everything around him like a hunter, sniffing almost like an animal. The joyful laughter of small children, the sound of a ball rolling on the dirt… All of it mingled, filling his ears with every turn of his head. But instead of bringing him peace, these sounds hit him like a wall. His mind was producing discordant sounds, like the timbre of an instrument.
He opened his eyes a little wider. Then he realized something.
Three small children were playing with a ball in the corner of a narrow, old stone street. The old, dirty clothes they wore seemed so primitive that they might once have been part of another life, another world. The children were passing the ball to one another cheerfully. Although it seemed like an ordinary scene, Ryu's eyes were searching for every aspect of the moment. The laughter of young children echoed sharply in his ears. Even the sound of a ball rolling when someone dropped it resonated like a hammer in Ryu's mind.
Suddenly, someone appeared from around the corner. A man, his clothes crumbling, his beard stubble, and his grime lost in the dirt, was watching the children. The man's eyes were cold as metal; he could feel his breath. At that moment, something happened; Ryu felt everything slow down. As the ball hit the ground, the man straightened his back and kicked it. The ball shot through the air like an arrow, and Ryu's eyes tried to slow it.
One of the boys shouted a warning:
"Brother, watch out!"
Ryu's reflexes sharpened like an animal catching its prey. His eyes focused on the ball, fixated on it. Time seemed to stand still as the ball floated in the air like a shadow. Ryu's fingers reached for it like the branches of a tree. He felt everything suddenly stop. And then he heard the sound of a puck. The ball was clamped between his fingers, gently but firmly
Ryu stood still for a moment. His eyes focused on the ball's surface. The ball's rough texture and surface were very noticeable, as if it had tiny scratches on it. His mind still couldn't grasp what had happened, when he heard one of the kids around him ask, "Brother, are you okay?" Ryu didn't answer, just backed away a few steps.
He took a deep breath and shook his head, trying to regain his composure. At that moment, his eyes met the gaze of the thug he'd noticed around him. The man had noticed Ryu's reflexes. There was something strange in his eyes. Ryu quickly tore his gaze from the man and looked down at the ground, remaining silent for a moment.
One of the kids, still worried, kept asking, "Brother, are you okay? Did something happen?"
Ryu felt like he was going through everything. Instead of answering that question, he simply bowed his head slightly. He walked right past the kids' eyes and quietly walked away.
A question mark hung in his mind. The clock… that damn clock. "One of those silhouettes over there said it was the Black Panther's clock. I wonder if that guy has experienced something similar?" he thought.
Burying his hands in his shorts pockets, Ryu continued through the narrow streets of Blightin. With every step, the sounds of the city's crowd echoed in his ears. The sounds of people talking loudly, of people shopping, of fights… All of these sounds, as if they were surrounding Ryu, grew clearer and closer by the moment.
Blightin's streets merged and diverged like a labyrinth amidst the city's chaotic structure. His feet darted from dark passages between buildings, to squares, and then back into narrow backstreets. As he moved in every direction, he felt the city once more, lost in the crowd, yet unable to disappear. The people's screams, their sorrowful conversations, their joyful laughter, all seemed to blend together to form a melody.
As Ryu's steps merged with the noise, the questions in his mind intensified, just like the chaos of the crowd. There were so many things he needed to think about, but he couldn't find the right answer. "Those silhouettes will probably follow me and will definitely try to kill me, especially that pimp named Eagle," he muttered.
As the streets narrowed, the sounds around him became more distinct. A child's scream, a woman's cry, a man's laughter rang in Ryu's ears. They all echoed in Ryu's ears, like reminders of a lost time. Ryu paused for a moment and took a deep breath.
The voices of the people only heightened his unease. No matter how long he passed, there was always a buzzing, a noise in his ears. The sound of a woman's voice behind him startled him suddenly. The woman spoke as if she were watching him. When Ryu turned his head to see who the woman was, she kept moving forward as quickly as possible.
As he walked, those silhouettes and the watch kept coming to his mind, and a restlessness filled his body. "I need to get some information before they find me, especially about the Black Panther. Maybe if I can find that guy again, I can learn a little about the other silhouettes," Ryu thought. He paused for a moment. "Wait, what if he tries to kill me? After all, I stole his watch; there's no guarantee I won't do anything," Ryu said. "Fuck, why do these things keep happening to me?" he said with restlessness inside him.