CHAPTER 56: LOST TO THE WIND

"IT HURTS!!!"

"THAT DAMN PUNK! WHAT IS HE? HE NEARLY KILLED ME!"

"DAMN IT… OUCH!!" Ichigo started ranting loudly as he brought his face up from the floor, that Gin buried his face in.

"Well, that's what you get for acting like a smartass and attacking without thinking about whether you can actually deal with who you're attacking." A voice came from his side.

It was Houryu who just spoke as Ichigo was actually sent flying to just a few meters away from him.

Ichigo looked at Houryu and was just about to say something when Yoruichi appeared behind him and said,

"Safety first, Ichigo."

Ichigo seemed to have finally thought about what his "impromptu" action caused and finally apologized to Yoruichi and the others about closing the gate.

Suddenly people began to appear out of the buildings and other places in the surrounding area.

"People…"

"Who are they…"

"They were here all along?"

"Why…" Ishida, Ichigo and Orihime asked as they saw the newcomers. Yoruichi then began to explain to them that they are the original residents of this side of rukongai and they were considered as intruders by the shinigamis and the troublemakers of soul society and why they hide away from shinigamis because they were scared of them.

Yoruichi was still explaining to them as someone in the crowd started pushing forward to reach out of the crowd before shouting out,

"M-Mister! Long time no see!!"

"It's me! The parakeet, Shibata!!" The kid shouted while waving his hands at them causing surprised looks on the faces of Chad and Ichigo.

'Shibata, huh… that should be the kid that was turned into a bird by some hollow… shoulda happened a while before I came.' Houryu thought as he stood up again after placing Sylvia on his head again.

The crowd of people that appeared helped to bring Jidanbou's arm and to hold it in place so that Orihime could begin healing it up while Houryu watched her as she did all this, intrigued especially as he still felt a kind of slight resonance within him whenever she used her powers around him.

Chad carried shibata on his shoulders as they caught up with each other, until another kid came to call him to go home. Apparently, Shibata had not found his mother yet as soul society was too big a place for them to just coincidentally meet each other and this happened a lot in soul society.

After leaving a few encouraging words with Shibata, Shibata left with his new big brother.

It was already nighttime with a crescent moon hung high up in the sky. Orihime still healed Jidanbou's arm and thought about how her prince charming looked today, motivating herself to continue working to heal Jidanbou's arm, when suddenly an arm appeared over her shoulder and presented her with a cup of water.

It was Ichigo who had come to give her a cup of water and to check up on her, and with the help of the people around, convinced her to go inside and rest.

Ichigo and Orihime walked off in the direction of one of the houses leaving quite a few eyes that were admiring Orihime's "racks."

They went in and Yoruichi was about to begin their plan on how to get into the seiretei when she discovered that Houryu wasn't in the house with them and so she went out to look for him.

Yoruichi walked out and looked around before finding Houryu lying on the roof of the house she was just in. She climbed the walls nimbly with her cat claws before approaching him, but instead of asking him to join the meeting, she asked,

"How did you know that He was there before the gates were opened?" Yoruichi asked as she looked straight at Houryu who was stargazing.

Houryu turned his head from the sky towards Yoruichi and looked straight into her eyes before saying, "As the former squad 2 which is the intelligence gathering station of the soul society, don't you think you are slipping a bit too much?" he asked back.

"You know even that… but figures you would, especially after knowing about Kisuke." She answered back with a sigh.

"Okay, I got another question for you…" Yoruichi continued.

"Seeing as I don't have much to do… ask away, and I'll answer if I feel like it." Houryu answered her.

"Okay then, first question… I can't sense any distinctive form of spiritual energy from you… so, what are you?" Yoruichi asked as she pounced on the chance to get information of this mysterious guy.

"Hmmm… Something different… A monster..." He answered back slowly, as his face morphed into a grin and his eyes shone as they turned crimson red with complicated patterns swirling around in it.

Even without him releasing the slightest bit of his spiritual energy, Yoruichi still felt shivers down her spine as she looked at his feral grin that seemed like that of an ancient beast's, but she quickly controlled herself so as to ask another question to make the most use of when Houryu was willing to answer her questions to get more information out of him.

"What are you going to do in the seiretei then?" She quickly asked him again while watching him warily now.

"Oi, Yoruichi… while your original form is a pretty hot woman that I'd like to… forget about that… this other form of yours doesn't have enough incentive to make me want me to loosen my lips that much." He said while looking at her with a normal smile this time.

"What is it you'd like to do with me?" Yoruichi immediately asked him with her eyebrow raised as she thanked herself internally that a cat couldn't blush, as she was finding it hard to not react while looking at his smiling face.

"I said, forget about it…" Houryu answered again.

"Well… I can't now, as you already started to say it, so you might as well just finish it." She quickly retorted.

"Tch… Well, what I was going to say was, I'd like to...!!!" Houryu started to say to Yoruichi before he was suddenly interrupted by a loud crashing sound in the building below.

Yoruichi suddenly turned and took off down the building… The moon still shone on Houryu's figure as his lips moved while he said the rest of the answer to Yoruichi's question.

Answers completely lost to the wind.