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Chapter 24
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OurCasts Chapter 25
Though the style was wildly different, the principle of Sura's royal bath was similar to onsen, and Ryou found himself oddly reassured by this small familiarity. The light supper served on the benches of a warm anteroom was excellent; fine bread free of grit, meat that didn't taste a little funny, fruit that was not even slightly withered. The wine was almost as good as the one Ryou had barely tasted in Leyam's chambers. Urtupati took great care in shaving Ryou and anointing him with various fragrant oils, and then he gave Ryou a massage that felt like that Roman deserter, Gaius, working him over again. It wasn't for the faint of heart, but once Ryou cleaned off the oil, soaped, rinsed off and then slipped into the large basin of warm water with Darius, he felt just about as good as he'd ever felt since coming to the Outlands. The basin walls had tiers so that bathers could sit and recline with the water up to their chests. Ryou sank down in the warmth with a groan of relief. Darius
OurCasts chapter 26
Ryou waited until the sound of his lover's footsteps faded, then he hoisted himself out of the bath. He didn’t feel like wallowing in luxury just now. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he didn't want to stay alone in this ringing open space with the occasionally echoing drip of condensation as only punctuation to his thoughts. He walked over to the alcove where the bath attendants had placed towels and Ryou's dirty, travel-worn clothes. It was a shame to slip into that after finally getting thoroughly clean, but it wasn't as if he had much choice in the matter. Ryou currently had two pieces of clothing to his name, that and the tunic Darius had given him, which was in a small pack last seen tied to his horse, location currently unknown. The bath was rich with the scent of oil, water, wet stone and soap, but a new smell made Ryou wrinkle his nose in surprise; a heady fragrance like incense. "I can see what he sees in you." Ryou spun around, shock a heavy weight in his ches
OurCasts Chapter 1
In Tokyo's financial district and in Ujiie Securities & Trading co. in particular, a salaryman with any sense of ambition would never dream of leaving before his manager. Not even if that manager was Ujiie Ryou, son of the company's current president and all-around workaholic.Eight o'clock rolled around, and every tired eye in the room started ping-ponging between the clock on the wall and the back of Ryou's monitor. He ignored the distraction out of habit. After finishing the article on stocks in Norway, he noted down a few concepts he would need to research later if the new contract with that oil company's financial branch was signed. As if in answer to his thoughts, an email from the president popped up in his inbox. The old man was also working late, of course. There was a mention of the new contract, and a lunch meeting tomorrow. Ryou entered it into his planner, locked his station and switched off his screen.When he glanced up through the glass walls of his office, the eyes of
OurCasts Chapter 2
The light shining into his eye flicked off, leaving Ryou to blink away red afterimages.Yuki swapped the pocket flashlight for a pen and his patient's chart. Ryou took this as permission to put his glasses back on."Good eye movement, no signs of retinal tear. MRI showed no intracranial swelling or concussion. Sutures are okay." Then in the same breath and tone, Ryou's brother added, "I can't believe you would be dumb enough to get involved in a gang fight. Why didn't you call the police?""I was not thinking straight, I told you."The stare Yuki gave him above the rim of the chart suggested that the idea of Ujiie Ryou not thinking straight did not fit into his version of reality. It seemed he'd rather suspect him of some bizarre business-related reason to intervene in a fight. Fortunately the police had been nowhere near as suspicious of the department head of an important financial firm."I have some clothes here for you," said Yuki, giving up on stubborn brothers. "Your assistant d
OurCasts Chapter 3
Ryou walked into the hospital wing, dressed in his usual business suit and carrying his briefcase. He looked around until he spotted a nurse he recognized and waved her over, bringing her around the reception desk and right up to the sign stating that visiting hours were over."Hello, I believe we met two days ago, I'm Ujiie Yuki's older brother.""Oh yes, Ujiie-san. Is everything alright? Ujiie-sensei isn't here tonight.""I know, he's at our family house for dinner. I'm late myself, but I forgot some important documents in my room the other day. My brother put them on top of his locker near the emergency ward. He was supposed to bring them tonight, but he forgot. Would it be okay if I went in and fetched them?"Of course it was okay. The nurse knew who Ujiie-sensei was and, by extension, who Ryou was. There was an automatic feeling of deference, of maintaining a polite distance from his affairs. A man of Ryou's circle in society could walk out with a gallon of blood in a barrel and
OurCasts Chapter 4
Ryou stopped the car alongside the curb and took stock. So far so good. There'd been no signs of anything unusual happening in the hospital as he'd made his way out. He'd handed the badge back to the nurse near reception, and chatted about his health for a minute. He felt confident that she'd later testify that his attitude had been perfectly normal (only Yuki and their parents would know that Ryou chatting about his health was anything but normal right there). There was still a lot that was going to link him to tonight's escapade, but nothing solid enough to stand up in court which, thanks to that barbarian's handling of the situation with the policeman, was where this was now going to end up. There was still a chance this might all blow over as long as Ryou could get the man out of the reach of the Tokyo Metropolitan police and back where he belonged.Tilting his wrist to catch the light of the streetlamp without releasing his deathgrip on the steering wheel, he glanced at his watch
OurCasts Chapter 5
The smell of burning wood greeted Ryou on his return to consciousness.Since as far back as he could remember, he had never had the fuzzy transition between sleeping and wakefulness he'd read about in stories, where the mind wandered dreamlike between who, what, where... Ryou was either asleep, or he was awake and in full possessions of his faculties such as the memory of crashing the rented Honda through dimensions accompanied by a refugee from the Tokyo police to end up in a place where islands floated through the sky.Staying asleep was really tempting right now.The stranger shifted and leaned forward. It seemed Ryou was currently wrapped in a blanket, curled up against the man's chest and with the stranger's legs on either side of him, one bent knee helping to prop him into place. This was a complicated situation which even higher mathematics couldn't adequately handle, and Ryou really wished he could go back to sleep and not deal with it now. He still felt amazingly tired.The n
OurCasts Chapter 6
When Ryou woke up, he was feeling clear-headed once more. The fact that it was day again didn't annoy or confuse him this time. On the other hand, he was suddenly conscious of how very uncomfortable and full of small, sharp rocks the ground beneath him was.He was lying on his back in the dirt with the cut-out car seat cover over him. The fire was as dead as the squirrel's lower half, which was still there, complete with a fly scurrying around the haunch. Somewhere off to the right, high up in the air, the floating island persisted in flouting the laws of physics.Ryou felt a sense of surrealism so strong that even the stones poking him through his business suit trousers didn't feel solid enough to cling to. It was a sensation he'd never had before.It only lasted a few seconds, then he became aware of what had woken him; a crunch of footsteps through bracken and thick, dry grass."Bad luck, magian," said Darius, coming through the underbrush from the direction of the car. "Ryou, that
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