Houryu ran as fast as he could towards where he sensed the fight.

"Tch… why did they have to be so far away." he cursed as he ran. He could have transmorphed and flown, but he was trying to be cautious as he didn't know what the situation would be like now, especially as this new variable popped up.

As he ran, he suddenly felt a drop of water on his face, many more followed an instance later, "It really just had to rain, didn't it?" He asked nobody in particular but kept on running.

The spiritual energies he was sensing had stopped clashing a while ago but he hoped to make it there to at least try to find out who of the two had a wisp of phoenix life force on them so he picked up the pace and this time he used flame explosions from under his feet to increase his speed, as it was already raining, no one would notice anything if they were watching.

Houryu finally reached the area, but he couldn't sense the foreign spiritual energies anymore.

"Fuck… they already left!" He cursed under his breath, but he still moved closer to see if there was anything he could find or see to gain more information concerning this issue, but all he saw were a half-dead Ichigo, with Urahara standing over him with an umbrella and an injured Ishida also on the floor a few meters away.

'Still nothing…' he thought as he used his sensing ability to go through the area but found nothing. He was about to open a garganta and run straight to soul society to find out about what was going on as he hated what was happening as it stirred up annoying memories.

But he suddenly stopped to calm himself down and think a bit. He first took a few deep breaths to calm his raging emotions as half of them wanted to run over straight to soul society and tear everything up until he found an answer, the other half was telling him to be rational and think things through logically.

This time his rational side won as he already knew from past experiences that listening to your raging emotions would do you no good in the long run.

His problem wasn't getting to soul society or getting answers after getting there, his problem was that doing that would be too loud and he'd end up doing somethings that'd be detrimental to his main goal which was gaining the hogyoku after it was completed… and going into soul society, swords swinging would totally change the whole story, even though it probably would not stop that from happening unless he killed Aizen himself in that scenario.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

'So, I have to find a way to get in… and to get in reasonably quietly… and there is currently only one such way available.' Houryu pondered, deep into his thoughts.

'...Do I really have to rely on following schoolkids to save the princess… oh how the mighty have fallen.' Houryu thought as he facepalmed himself in shame.

'Tch…Why don't I have a disguise ability…' he thought, annoyed at himself as he walked away back towards his house as he had no plans to meet with Urahara or anyone for that matter… tonight.

As he walked back to his house under the rain, he picked up a flower as he walked and started plucking off the petals. Sensing his life force somewhere outside his body reminded him of his morbid past and put him in an annoyingly melancholic mood.

Suddenly he stopped and stared towards the sky, the rain still heavily beating down on his face,

"They say after the rain comes the rainbow… but what if there is no light for the rainbow to shine through…"

The next morning…

Houryu woke up to banging noises coming from somewhere below him. As he blinked sleepily, he looked around him drowsily but there was nothing much to see, the same window, the same door, no Sylvia…

'Wait… where's Sylvia.' he suddenly thought out loud as he noticed the door was open. He quickly stood up from the bed and dashed downstairs towards the kitchen to see Sylvia on the kitchen table in front of the microwave, in which something was already being warmed up.

*SWOOOSH* Houryu dashed in front of the microwave.

"You don't get to eat my ramen… Sylvia." He said as he looked at her warily while squinting .

"Kyuuuu" Sylvia answered back as she looked at him with her puppy eyes.

"No… Sylvia, I already told you… that won't work he said as he looked away from her face, but as he looked away, she made a pitiful "Kyuuuuuu" sound as she looked at him almost with tears in her eyes.

"Tch, fine… only this time." he said, as he gave in to her puppy eyes. The microwave behind him then began to make a beeping sound as Houryu turned around to bring out the cup ramen that was inside it.

He opened the lid and placed it in front of Sylvia who didn't waste any time before jumping on her prize and beginning to wolf it down.

"You really like your food huh… well get ready we're going to a sweets shop… today"

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Sorry the chapter is a bit short guys, but I'll be travelling today, as I'll be resuming Uni classes tomorrow and didn't really have time to write much today.

But don't worry, the chapters would keep coming even while I have the classes. I'll try my best to make good on that promise, so encourage me with your reviews and comments.