CHAPTER 43: PRELUDE TO CANON I

The garganta opened up in the sky above a busy city and Houryu walked out and looked down to see a bustling city, fully technological and all.

"How long did I even sleep for?" he asked himself with a quizzical look on his face but all he got was a "I don't know 'kyuu'" from the top of his head

"How would you even know, you were asleep with me." He answered back to Sylvia who looked away with a pouting face.

Houryu descended into the city quietly before becoming physical again and then using a sharingan genjutsu to make Sylvia appear as a puppy to people that saw her.

Now Houryu had to find a way to get to Karakura town, which was somewhere in Japan, and he was pretty sure that he was not in Japan right now.

As he walked down a street in the city, he saw a store that sold stationaries and other weird stuff. He walked in and asked the balding store owner if he had maps.

"Yes, we do have maps." the store manager replied without looking away from what the TV was showing and pointed in a particular direction.

Houryu just followed the man's directions without saying another word and found the maps. He spread open a map on the table and looked at it, but it was a world map, so he went back to the shelf to look for a map of Japan.

After searching for a while, he found it at a bottom corner of the shelf. He then spread the map and looked for Karakura town and quickly found it.

After finding it came the next issue which was how to go there. 'I could fly there or run there but first that is calling too much attention to myself as even if I stay in my spiritual form, a gigantic flaming bird cannot exactly hide from soul society's eyes, and I need to do that at least for now.'

'I need the hogyoku to see if I can find a way to increase my strength with it and I need it at its best, which means the storyline must go on, at least until the hogyoku is completely ready and showing myself as a force of nature would probably prompt Aizen to change his plans and that, I cannot allow to happen.

'So, flying there, no. Opening a garganta is even worse as it leads to the same thing with even worser repercussions and also doing it is tiring so… why not just take a plane.' Houryu thought and brightened up.

(A/N: This lazy mot**r fu**er.)

He picked up the map and went to the counter and tapped it twice to call the attention of the manager.

"How much?" he asked as the manager looked into his eyes.

"Two hundred." the manager replied.

Houryu then put his hand down as if he was placing money on the counter, but his hands were empty.

The manager took the empty air that Houryu put on the table and put it into the counter as Houryu turned away and walked out of the store.

"Weird eye colour." he silently commented as the customer left, before focusing back on the TV

Houryu had walked away from the store before realizing that he did not know the way to the airport. Going back was a drag and he'd rather not do it, so he walked towards the nearest person to him, which was a female teenager that looked about 17 years of age and asked her.

"Excuse me, could you give me directions to the nearest airport?" he asked with her a blank look on his face.

"...Uh…" she stuttered before finally asking "Is that your pet?" as she looked at Sylvia on top of his head, or at least, Sylvia's illusion of a puppy on Houryu's head.

"Yes, she is. So, directions?" he answered back and then asked again as his eyes slowly narrowed.

"... Uh… do you have a phone?" she asked him again.

"I get it, I'm hot and No I don't have a phone. So, directions?" he asked again with an exasperated look beginning to show forth on his face as he began wondering if he'll have to use his sharingan to get her to actually answer his questions.

She finally gave him directions after which he quickly turned and left, to not have to deal with this baby, he was over 5000 years old for crying out loud.

He made his way to the airport and went in through the sliding doors into the building. He was now wearing a nose mask that he "bought" on the way here.

After entering he looked around to see if there were any indicators for a flight to Japan. Unfortunately, he found none, so he went to the nearest counter and used his sharingan to get information about today's flights, but there were no scheduled flights to Japan today that hadn't already taken off.

"Tch… Now I have to do things the hard way." he said annoyed as he made his way into the staff area and went to the Airport's Managing Director's office and "persuaded" him to let him charter a private jet to Japan.

The manager unsurprisingly agreed and a few minutes later he was being treated like a VIP and being ushered into the most luxurious private jet available.

After checking the weather and all the things required for a safe flight, the plane took off with Houryu and Sylvia on board.

As he lay into the seat with Sylvia lying all curled up on the seat next to him, he silently sighed.

"I have a hard life."