Byakuya's spiritual energy flared as he asked Houryu slowly,

"You… What did you do?"

Houryu followed Byakuya's line of sight to see him looking at his bloodied hand, "Oh you mean this?" he asked as he raised his bloodied hand up to his direct line of sight.

"I helped both of us solve a problem… she's been lying there for 50 years after all…" he started to say with a gracious smile on his face.

"Someone had to do something… and luckily I felt like it… so I did."

"You should thank me." he finished with a smile on his face and wanted to start walking away when Byakuya's spiritual pressure intensified on the surrounding area as his spiritual energy rose rapidly.

"... What… did you do," Byakuya asked again sounding even angrier.

"Why do you keep repeating the same question like a broken record… I told you already… I solved her, she was your wife, right?" Houryu responded impatiently as he was already tired of the happenings today and just needed somewhere to rest his head, get his shit together, and rethink his plans.

'This has almost turned to something I do almost every time… how annoying.' He thought as he didn't take the rise in Byakuya's spiritual energy seriously.

Houryu started to walk towards Byakauya and just as he was about to pass by him the sharp side of Byakuya's sword found its way into his path.

"... what is it you want this time…!?" Houryu asked again as he looked at Byakuya, his impatience rising by the second.

"... You just came out of a room with my wife in it… with blood all over our hand… and you expect me to just let you leave?" Byakuya answered back with an angry voice.

"...Hmmm… good point… but I already told you what I did in there… so Imma be on my way."

"You aren't going anywhere…!" Byakuya responded, his voice rising slightly as he was slowly losing his cool.

"Bold declaration… but I don't have time to play catch with you… you should have had your fill of that with Yoruichi."

"...! How do you even know that if you weren't there…?" Byakuya suddenly asked.

"... very smart question… unfortunately I'm not interested in answering that question." Houryu answered back with a lax attitude.

"...Now move out of the way… Kid!" Houryu stated firmly as his eyes morphed into his mangekyou sharingan while he stared dead straight at Byakuya, but Byakuya suddenly attacked with a flash step and a slash directly at Houryu's back but,

*CLANG*

His sword clashed with a pure white long sword that Houryu held and used to block his sudden attack.

"... seriously… I don't have the patience to deal with your antics right now." Houryu stated annoyedly as he held away Byakuya's sword before quickly pushing him away and then following up with a sword attack,

"Arie Swordsmanship: White Crescent!"

He breathed out as he slashed a white crescent shaped blade of energy at Byakuya who quickly moved out the way and charged at Houryu once again with flexible application of his flash steps.

*CLANG… CRRRRRRR*

Sparks flew as their swords clashed and rubbed against each other before Houryu pushed Byakuya away again with great strength and quickly began sending a flurry of slashes as he followed after him.

*Left slash, right slash, diagonal slash, downward slash, horizontal slash, upward slash*

Slash after slash, slice after slice came from Houryu's sword at Byakuya who obviously couldn't defend all the attacks at him and already had a few nicks off his captain coat and a few minor injuries on his body.

Byakuya quickly flash stepped backward after seeing that he wasn't getting the upper hand in their confrontation. He then held up his sword right in front of his face,

"Chire, Senbonzakura." He said in a low tone, as his sword crumbled into pink like petals and flew at Houryu at high speed.

Houryu's sharingan started spinning rapidly as he ran at Byakuya again and then somewhere in between started to swing his sword rapidly at the pink petal-like things, driving them away from his path and then continuing to run towards them before flowing his spiritual energy into his sword again and sending a spiritual energy filled attack at Byakuya, who once again quickly tried to get out of the way but didn't manage to completely get out of the way and was injured by the attack on his left shoulder.

As Byakuya landed after getting away from the attack's path, he looked around to see his house in ruins as blood dripped to the floor from his injuries. He then turned back towards Houryu who simply stared at him with an impassive look on his face, hardly looking like someone who was in a fight.

"..." Byakuya first opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something but then closed it again and then held his sword facing the floor in front of him as he let it drop.

"...Bankai… Senbonzakura Kageyoshi…"

Byakuya's sword fell into the floor creating a ripple as if it fell through a liquid, then swords started rising on his sides before all of them scattered into huge pink clouds of sakura petal-like things before everything charged at Houry's location.

Houryu's sharingan continually spun rapidly as he dealt with them coming from all sides, but the attacks were too much and were coming from all sides, so he was continually being pushed back as he used quick movements to move out of the way once they became too much to handle.

Houryu continually defended against and jumped out of the way of Byakuya's attacks until somehow one of the petals managed to hit him and draw blood from just below his eye.

Byakuya saw that and immediately began to use his hands to control the petals doubling their speed and surprising Houryu with the sudden rise in speed and then pincer attacking him until it overwhelmed him and drowned him in the continuous attacks of the pink petals.

Suddenly a blast of spiritual energy pushed away all the blades away as Houryu emerged, the source of the spiritual pressure outburst. He was bloodied from head to toe as he had been cut all over and his cloth had a new red color, but his hand was covering a particular area of his coat where Sylvia was inside.

"...Phew… didn't expect that one…" He gasped out, as his wounds began to close at alarming speeds, releasing steam as they did. Byakuya watched his injuries heal with surprise evident in his eyes.

"... I admit I underestimated you quite a bit… now I can actually get more serious…" Houryu said as he suddenly closed his eyes,

"...Please… try not to die…" He said again as he opened his eyes to reveal more complicated patterns in his eyes spinning as suddenly a burst of a white flame-like aura surrounded him before it began to condense to form a skeletal rib-like shape which began to surround Houryu until it built up to form a huge skeletal upper body.

"...What is that…!?" Byakuya asked, quite shocked at what he was seeing.

"...Susanoo!" Houryu said as he controlled the Susanoo to conjure a white sword and quickly swept it at Byakuya.

"...!" Byakuya quickly manipulated his blades to get in the way of the sword coming at him and he quickly got in the way, but he was still swept back by the wind pressure.

Byakuya flipped in the air to right himself as he flew back and as soon as his feet touched the floor, he flash-stepped back in the direction of Houryu with a sword now formed in his right hand and using his left hand to manipulate the rest of his blades, sending them at Houryu.

Houryu also flowed his spiritual energy into the Susanoo's sword and sent a blade of spiritual energy at Byakuya's flying blades, clashing with them and scattering them but they quickly reformed back and still came at the Susanoo.

*BOOM… Ping …ping…ping*

The colossal number of blades first collided with the Susanoo, pushing it back a bit, and then it was followed by a bunch of pinging sounds as they continually attacked the Susanoo's body.

Houryu waved his sword continuously at the flying clouds of pink, but they were like flies that refused to go away.

*CRACK* A part of the Susanoo suddenly cracked after being exposed to the continuous assault of Byakuya's countless blades, but Houryu simply looked at the cracked area before turning back to trying to get the annoying blades from around him as he tried to attack Byakuya, sending a wave of spiritual energy filled slashes at him.

Byakuya had also noticed the crack in the Susanoo's skeleton and also began to focus his attacks there as he continuously avoided Houryu's attacks… until finally, some bits of the Susanoo started to fall out like shattered glass.

'Now!' Byakuya thought as he dashed for the crack at high speed and broke through with his flying blades before entering the body of the Susanoo and was already stabbing his sword towards Houryu.

*PUCHI*

blood ran down the sides of his lips as he looked toward his chest to see a blade sticking out

"How…" Byakuya gasped out as he looked over his shoulder into Houryu's blood-red eyes, blood running down his chest.

"Don't believe everything you see…" Houryu replied his mangekyou patterns spinning slowly.