CHAPTER 49: ENCOUNTER

"You think, you're big shit now cuz some hollows were praising you when you arrived… HUH!!!?" Houryu asked as he gazed at this "piece of fresh meat."

The menos was trembling from a deep primal fear ingrained in its mind but could not answer the question since it was not intelligent enough to talk.

Houryu just raised his sword and slashed horizontally cutting through the hollow's mask.

He then jumped to the ground and then turned his head towards Ichigo with his eye's now beginning to swirl.

"Now you."

Sometime earlier…

'I wonder if that happens for everyone that Ishida guy touches or is it just Ichigo?' Houryu thought as he enjoyed his ramen, his attention already shifting from the "show" and unto his "Ichiraku ramen."

He looked at Sylvia who was now focused on the drumsticks that he had given her, even though he had said he wouldn't less an hour earlier.

'Since I already know what happens next and though it's the peak of this fight, it doesn't really make a difference to me.' Houryu thought just before withdrawing his senses away from the fight and then relaxed them from being hypersensitive as it got annoying quickly when he could see, hear and smell everything around him all at once.

After relaxing his senses, he could now fully focus on what was in front of him, the ramen. He put his chopsticks to work as he quickly picked up a slice of pork and put it in his mouth before following up with more noodles.

'Now I know why that Naruto guy never had time to hate the hidden leaf village, he was too busy enjoying this ramen.' Houryu thought between bites.

He was about to take in another mouthful of noodles when he from the corner of his eyes he saw something coming at him at breakneck speed.

Houryu quickly looked up to see a cero coming in his general direction, he didn't really care or feel threatened as while it was spread out, only a little bit of it would actually reach him and he was strong enough to block or ignore the attack.

He was about to get back to his ramen when he noticed that most of the cero blast was directed towards Sylvia's direction who was a bit away from him.

He quickly left the chopsticks spinning in the air as he dashed towards Sylvia's direction, reaching there in an instant and just as quickly, pulled out his sword and slashed away the cero.

As he looked behind him to see that Sylvia was perfectly safe and relatively unharmed, though she was a bit scared, he also saw his ramen, or what was left of the now destroyed bowl.

"Those bastards." Houryu cursed under his breath as he turned to look at the gillian that was now injured by Ichigo's power filled strike trying to run away.

"Oh no you don't!" he said as he sped away towards the hollow before using a modified sonido to literally disappear and then reappear on the long nose of the gillian while releasing a slight wisp of his spiritual energy.

The gillian upon sensing the vasto lorde type spiritual energy froze in fear and began trembling but Houryu didn't care as he just slashed his head in two before jumping down with his back facing the former battle participant.

He slightly turned his head and then saw Ichigo and slowly his eyes began to swirl.

"Now you." He said as he turned to face Ichigo and Ishida who were staring at him in shock.

Houryu had already begun to flow his spiritual energy into his sword to use in an attack when suddenly Ichigo fell to the floor face first.

"ICHIGO!" Ishida shouted as he saw Ichigo fall.

"What…What are you doing! This is not funny!" He said again as he began to run towards Ichigo

"...Ah…? What the hell…? I can't move…" Ichigo barely gasped when suddenly his right arm holding his zanpakutou swung sharply and raised itself in the air before the sword started twisting weirdly and deforming from its natural shape.

"AH..? WHAT?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Ichigo shouted as he saw what was happening to him, but he couldn't do anything about it.

Ishida still ran towards him when suddenly his spirit weapon suddenly increased in size and this time it was a lot bigger than the last time. He quickly noticed that Ichigo had lost control of his spiritual power and if left alone his body would be destroyed so he ran began to shoot his arrows that were being supplied with spiritual energy by Ichigo to try to exhaust the energy to prevent Ichigo's death.

"Right. I can do this…!" Ishida said to himself as he continuously shot arrows to help exhaust Ichigo's spiritual energy.

He kept on doing this until his hand got bloodied from injuries, but he didn't stop shooting the arrows, while this was going on, he and Ichigo also made emotional shouts at each other, ignoring Houryu who still stood where he landed with his sword in his hand.

'Are they idiots?' Houryu questioned himself as he watched this scene play out, as they had literally ignored someone who could kill them and was standing right in front of them.

Ishida finally managed to stabilize Ichigo's spiritual energy outburst and he then collapsed to his knees looking physically and emotionally drained.

"...Ugh… How can I beat him when he's looking like this… Damn it." Ichigo said as he looked towards the sky, still laying on his back.

"...Tch… How can I kill them when they're as useless as this…?!" Houryu said as he withdrew his spiritual energy from his sword and then returned it back into his earring.

He was about to return to where he came from when he felt something touch his leg. He looked down to see Sylvia already here, with her right paw on his leg and her head looking up at him with a cute expression on her face.

Houryu bent and picked her up and brought her into his arms. After giving a look at the shady man in the stripped hat, he disappeared.