CHAPTER 76

"Mission complete… You ended up saving Rukia in the end." Houryu said as he grabbed Byakuya by the shoulder and didn't let him fall.

"Yo…!" Houryu turned to Aizen and greeted him with a cheeky smile.

"Ahh… our most interesting visitor… finally decided to step in, did you?" Aizen answered back with a smile on his face as well.

"Oh, sorry about that… I was gonna show up earlier, but my grand entrance ended up getting delayed by the uh… idiots behind you." Houryu also responded with his smile still on his face as he slowly put Byakuya down.

"...Grand entrance…?" Aizen asked with a bit of a confused look on his face.

"Yes… when I appear, it has to be glorious…" Houryu stated as his spiritual energy began to flow.

"Kinda like this… Dynamic Entry!!!" He said as he flew toward Aizen's face with a flying kick.

*BOOM*

Aizen put up his arm to block the kick but was still pushed back by half a step.

"Hmmm… you're quite strong, aren't you…?" Aizen asked as he looked at Houryu who seemed to be pulling out a sword from nowhere.

"Quite…? Hahahahaha" Houryu suddenly burst out laughing

"You're quite interesting as well… and very smart too…" Houryu later responded

"Hope you fight as well as your brain works…" Houryu said as he dashed towards Aizen, but midway Tousen suddenly appeared in front of him with his sword drawn and trying to attack him.

"What's wrong with this mosquito thinking it can get itself involved in my fight…" Houryu cursed angrily under his breath and dodged Tousen's sword, before turning and jumping in the air and hitting him away with a spinning backheel kick.

Tousen flew away like a broken kite, but as Houryu wanted to rush at Aizen again, Komamura appeared behind Aizen and brought a heavy slash toward his head.

*BOOM*

A heavy booming sound came as Aizen caught the sword with his bare hand.

"Oh…Komamura-Kun" Aizen chuckled as he saw who attacked.

"How… can you still laugh…AIZEN!!?" Komamura shouted as he started ranting about their betrayal.

'Can you show up earlier and get decimated earlier… instead of showing up now and interrupting the battle… You're messing up the flow!!!' Houryu thought as he looked annoyedly at the new interrupter.

"BAN KAI" Komamura shouted as his spiritual energy started rising but Aizen suddenly appeared right in front of him saying,

"Hado no 90… Kurohitsugi" As a black coffin-like shaped aura appeared around Komamura and enveloped him within its darkness.

A few seconds later the black coffin-shaped aura disappeared leaving a bloodied Komamura falling to the floor.

"Now where were we…?" Aizen turned towards Houryu who was watching this scene nonchalantly. Aizen then put his hand on his sword hilt and wanted to draw his sword when suddenly Yoruichi and Soi fon appeared.

Yoruichi with her hand holding down his hand from pulling out his sword and Soi fon with her zanpakutou directly against his neck.

"What a… Nostalgic face!" AIzen exclaimed as he saw Yoruichi.

"Don't move… If you move even one muscle… You'll lose your head." Yoruichi and Soi fon said together.

"Tch… just great… even more interference…!" Houryu face palmed in irritation.

"Huh…? Houryu, what are you doing?" Yoruichi asked as she noticed his little outburst.

"Well, when you wait for idiots to be half dead before showing up… but then even more idiots show up and now I can't even get to enjoy m fight at all!" Houryu said with an irritated tone.

"..." Yoruichi just looked at him, speechless.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Three more people arrived at the scene, the guardians of the gates of the seiretei except for Jidanbo.

"See… more idiots." Houryu face palmed again in annoyance.

"You know what… at this point… fuck it. You can put whatever escape plan you have, into action, Aizen." Houryu said exasperatedly.

"Don't do that, friend… You'll spoil the surprise." Aizen said with a smile.

As he said that more people kept on arriving until he was completely surrounded by captains, vice captains, soul reapers, and others.

Yet even in all of this Aizen didn't act the slightest bit alarmed as he instead looked at Houryu and asked.

"This friend, would you tell me who you are…"

"Me… hmmm… The name's Houryu… for the rest you can have a good time figuring it out… you're extremely smart after all."Houryu responded with a non-chalant tone.

"Hmmmm… That firebird form of yours does remind me of something…" Aizen said as he removed his glasses while blatantly ignoring the fact that he was surrounded with a knife to his neck.

"Oho… sounds interesting… tell me more" Houryu asked back, intrigued.

"About a 100 years ago somewhere in the human world, there were reports from shinigami that a fire god had arrived in a town with fury and would have wiped them out… but it seemed to lose interest in them and left. After hearing the news not only soul society, but quite a few others were quite interested in finding this new… creature."

"...yet somehow, it avoided everyone's eyes and disappeared from the world as quickly as it arrived… who or what that thing was is a moot question… What I want to know is why it showed one second only to disappear the next and now why it is going around and involving itself in dangerous matters." Aizen finished with a smile, causing surprised eyes from all over to be diverted toward Houryu, especially those that knew about that issue.

"...Phoenix… not firebird… Hehe… and I was gonna light that place up, but then I didn't really see a point in killing so many insects" Houryu chuckled.

"You know… you'd make a good friend… or teammate…"

"Too bad I hate you, humans…" Houryu said with a blood lusty tone.

"Ooho… Now you've got me curious… I would love to know the rest of your story but…"

"...It won't be today," Aizen said and suddenly a light came from the skies and surrounded Aizen and then the same light also came down again and surrounded Gin and Tousen as well.

"To sink all the way to the level of allying with the Menos… What are you trying to do?" Ukitake asked as Aizen rose from the ground while standing on a chunk of rocks.

"To go higher." Aizen simply responded without much thought.

"Have you fallen in the process, Aizen…!?" Ukitake asked again loudly.

"You are too arrogant, Ukitake…"

"No one starts… on the top of the world… Not you… Not me… Not even gods…"

"But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over…"

"From now on…"

"I will be sitting on it…" Aizen said as he rose to the sky.

"Yeah, sit on it all you want… Just make sure to hold on to my hogyoku well for me…" Houryu called out to him.

"...I will be coming for it…" He finished with a blood-lusty and battle-crazy smile.

"hahaha…You really are quite interesting…" Aizen laughed and said before he disappeared into the void.

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I apologize for not posting a chapter yesterday, but I'll be posting 3 chapters today and that would be including the extra chapter I promised.