CHAPTER 77

As the void closed and Aizen disappeared the sky returned to normal. Houryu turned back and the battle-crazy smile and blood-lusty look on his face disappeared as if they were never there in the first place.

Houryu paid no attention to the various types of looks that he was been given and flash-stepped to where Byakuya lay and then sat down beside him before resting his head on his chin and closing his eyes.

"I'll explain when she arrives…" He said to Byakuya still with his eyes closed.

"Who…?" Byakuya asked as he still lay on the ground

"Oh… you'll know her when she comes… now stop talking, please." Houryu responded, still with his eyes closed.

As time passed more people arrived and then a new group of people arrived from the Kuchiki family, and the figure leading them was…

Kuchiki Hisana.

Hisana walked quickly up the hill quickly with Kuchiki guards following her and nobody even dared to get in their way. As soon as she saw Byakuya she ran up to where he lay, then knelt and hugged him while Byakuya just opened and shut his mouth like a goldfish, forgetting the fact that he was in pain.

"...How…?" He barely whispered.

Houryu simply opened his eyes, revealing his mangekuou sharingan as a white flame type aura was quickly conjured around him to form a skeleton rib cage and an arm causing a bit of a commotion.

Houryu controlled the Susanoo to pick Rukia up from where she was some meters away from his location and brought her to where Byakuya and Hisana were hugging each other.

Rukia simply stood there stunned not knowing what to make of the situation while Byakuya and Hisana hugged each other, not privy to what was going on around them.

*CLAP* *CLAP*

Houryu clapped his hands sharply to call their attention to him.

"You guys can get a room after this is over… but for now… please do keep it in your pants," Houryu said as he looked at the hugging lovebirds.

Hisana broke away from Byakuya with an embarrassed look on her face after hearing what Houryu said but then she noticed Rukia who was also stunned after seeing her face. She was about to stand up and run to Rukia as well when Houryu said,

"Hold onto the hugs for now please… I'll only be explaining once so pay attention."

"Ok… Now let's start with introductions… Rukia, this is your elder sister, Hisana and Hisana, this is your younger sister, Rukia." Houryu said without caring about the rush of emotions happening in their minds before continuing.

"Any further information about this side of the story, you can ask moody over there," Houryu stated while pointing to Byakuya causing both Rukia and Hisana to almost burst into laughter, but they held it in.

"What I do have to say is majorly about you… Hisana." Houryu went back to a serious tone.

"For a matter of fact… you shouldn't be alive… You should have died fifty years ago for that matter." Houryu said casually as if he wasn't talking about the life and death of someone.

"About why you're still alive… You somehow came into contact with my life force and that is what kept you alive for the past 50 years…"

"...but like I just said, it was MY life energy and not yours, so keeping you alive was the best it could do…"

"When I went to find my life energy that was somehow present in you… I was originally gonna solve you…" Houryu said with a smile while doing the cutting-throat motion.

"... but I instead decided to save your life by taking my signature, literally my essence from the life energy and then letting it slowly flow into you and that created the illusion that you were dying because what was keeping you barely alive was going somewhere else… thereby letting your vital signs seem to be deteriorating."

"Then I left after putting a sword in your chest…" he tuned to Byakuya

"Okay, finish… I'll be leaving now," Houryu said as he stood up and started dusting his trousers.

"Well, you can hug yourselves now," Houryu said as he started to walk away leaving every dumbfounded and confused at his half-assed explanation.

Ukitake stepped forward and blocked Houryu's path,

"Could you elaborate more on that, Houryu-Kun?" He asked with an amenable smile.

"...Uh, no… now step out of the way, Ukitake," Houryu answered back a bit rudely.

"Kids these days… No respect…" Yamamoto's old voice came from somewhere behind Houryu.

"...Kid…?" Houryu asked as his spiritual energy suddenly flared.

"...Despite how young I look… I'm a few thousand years older than all of you." Houryu turned and said as his mangekyou sharringan started spinning and glowing an eerie red.

"...And stronger too…" He continued as his spiritual energy continued to rise until suddenly a red-coloured aura suddenly appeared from his aura.

It was Houryu's bloodlust, a blood lust so strong everyone there felt death's hands on their shoulder right there. Their backs were suddenly covered in a cold sweat as they were pressured by his aura and bloodlust.

"Kyuuuu." Sylvia's cute sounds came as she came running up towards Houryu.

Houryu's energy and bloodlust quickly disappeared as if they were never there in the first place. Houryu picked up Sylvia who had come running towards him and then turned back towards the captains and the others present at the scene.

"...hahaha… Sorry about that." Houryu apologized with a smile.

"... I did mention that I hated humans after all…" Houryu continued as his smile turned cold.

"... Now you can get back to wor…" Houryu started to say but then noticed that Byakuya seemed to be breathing heavier and his life signs had grown weaker after being exposed to his heavy spiritual pressure and bloodlust.

"...Tch… Now I feel bad…" He said to himself as he walked towards Byakuya.

As he walked forward, he drew a zanpakutou from a bystanding shinigami and walked over to Byakuya, and then raised the zanpakutou.

*SCHWING*

Blood dripped from Houryu's wrist that he had just cut with the zanpakutou. The blood fell from Houryu's wrist towards the floor in drops, but before they fell to the floor they stopped and started levitating before all the other drops began to gather to each other until it formed a bead-sized drop of blood.

No more drops fell as Houryu's injury had already closed, Houryu stretched out his palm and the bead-sized drop of blood came flying to just above his palm. Everyone watched this scene with bated breath as they didn't know what he was doing, but they could barely move to stop him… the pressure of his mere presence and bloodlust was still fresh in their minds.

Houryu knelt beside Byakuya and grabbed his face and then pushed the blood bead down his throat.

"You're a lucky human… you get to taste my blood."

"Twice."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be honest, I was pretty tempted to end the arc with this cliff hanger, but with the spirit of fair play on my mind I decided to go on and release the next chapter as well