I woke up to a bright light assaulting my vision. It was in that moment I realized I was laying on something soft.

"One day sun... I will defeat you and sleep for three days!" I yelled, shaking my fist at the sun.

"I see you're more lively." A female voice said. I looked to it. Oh it's Sphinx.

"Hi." We stared at each other for what seemed like an hour.

I rolled over and fell back asleep.

"Asshole! Get up!" Sphinx yelled as I was pulled up from my squishy bed and into the hands of the giant creature.

"But sleep!" I responded while pushing away her fingers until I fell back on the squishy bed.

"You have questions to answer!" I ignored here before she sighed. "Are my breasts really that soft?"

I was on the ground in an instant. Okay, so Sonido is definitely going to be my best movement technique for a while.

"Alright, you got me up. What do you want answered?" I asked in a defeated tone.

"That monster... What was it?" Sphinx asked.

"In short... It's a soul that lingered in the living world for too long. Or it was devoured by another Hollow."

"So they're called Hollows?" I nodded.

"And if I'm going to be transparent, it's technically a less evolved version on me... an Arrancar." I then opened the top portion of my coat. There wasn't a hole where my heart was. "However, as you can see, I'm pretty docile."

"I can obviously see that. You have these strange abilities that I've only seen those hollows have." I began to walk and try not to break down a wall. Now that I can use Sonido, it's going to be difficult to control it. I feel like my Reiryoku rush to my legs.

...

Wait, wall?

"Where are we?" I asked.

"The mayor wanted to thank you for saving the town and wanted to give you a house." Sphinx said before Hunter opened the door. "I told her about our journey and she agreed to allow us to stay here until we leave."

"Not going to lie, that might take a while." I sat back down. "I have to improve my control and sword technique... wait, did you say 'Saved the Town'?"

"Yeah, why?" Oh God.

"That Hollow is barely a blip on the radar to most others... shit, I have to fight them." Why did Harmony think giving me powers was a good idea. "That was a simple Hollow. No consciousness, just instincts. God forbid that it had the ability to think."

I started walking again. I practically had very little Reiryoku to begin with. I need to focus on the core of my combat...

---

(Third Person - Klugetown)

A bright glem bounced off one of the few reflective surfaces in the town. It was raised high, but the object suddenly fell to become parallel to the ground. A few of the towns people stopped to watch the object fall.

They watched as it was lifted up with a little difficulty. The object in question was Byakko's Zanpakutō as he swung it with a little difficulty. He still had the same strength as he did before appearing and needed to get used to two things when wielding a sword; it's weight and the recovery.

Even more so, he was taking steps forward and back with each swing to train his body to move while striking. What shocked everyone was that this was the seventh day in a row that he's been doing that.

He would train until his arms got tired, then he'd hydrate, and finally he'd close his eyes and focus on feeling Reiatsu. He didn't want to continue visualizing the Spirit Ribbons since it would block his vision, but wanted to focus on each individual he could feel in the area. Wandering aimlessly from the town he was in would only lead to disaster.

This was his routine.

He was making process slowly and he was still very thin, but he'd been pushing himself a little more every day.

"Shit." He grunted as he slowly lifted his sword, trying despite to control its assent.

He swung it down, struggling to keep it level with the ground.

"Just five more."

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

Up... And went past the point he normally stopped and was impaled into the ground.

"Damn it." He said before pulling out his Zanpakutō and making it level with the ground again.

"You're still at it?" Sphinx asked as she walked to him from a random path.

"I have to. I need to do three more." Even he knew that only doing the swings could only get him so far. "At the very least I can get used to my sword."

As soon as he lifted the sword, he swung it down. Once, twice, and, finally, a third time. He rested the center of the katanas mass on his shoulder, it's weight was barely registering to him with the pain in his arms. Sweat dripped off his brow, nose, and chin from the fatigue and the blistering heat of the sun.

He lazily summoned his saya and, with a lack of precision from his fatigued muscles, struggled to sheath his Zanpakutō. It took Sphinx guiding the tip into the saya for Byakko to finally secure his weapon. He placed the sword across his back as a string tied itself across his body.

From there, he began his stretches to reduce the soreness of the next day.

"130 isn't bad for a single day." He said before he placed his hands on his back and leaned back. Several pops and cracks echoed from his spine. More cracks came from him as he twisted his upper body. "I'm improving, but I probably won't get any muscle for a good while. So I'll be a noodle for a few more months."

He froze as he thought of something. He was surprised that he never thought of it. He knows how important it is, but with everything that he's had to get used to(from having to deal with an overzealous fan group to hiding from a couple stalkers); he never thought about his education.

On the bright side, he had a very long time before the school year began. He actually checked his pockets for a specific object; something he hasn't done in a long time. He pulled out his phone. He checked the date and found out that it was his birthday.

"Well shit, happy birthday to me, I guess." He stated with a little bit of a sad tone.

"It's your birthday? Well, happy birthday-?!" Sphinx began being immediately closing her mouth forcefully. It surprised her.

"Do not incur the curses wrath?" Throughout the week, she had never seen him say or do anything that would suggest that he was superstitious so hearing him talk about a curse surprised her. "I always get the worst luck on my birthday."

"Fine, so what's that?" He silently thanked whatever God he had to that made it so he won't have to explain it to her. Either it's luck or she didn't care to get an answer from him.

"My phone. Hopefully it'll have a map that'll help with terrain and distance." Of course, the direction of our journey would be impossible to miss with Harmonia's overwhelming Reiatsu. If Byakko focused enough, he could feel three more in that direction with a fourth appearing and disappearing.

Now there's a second question he need to have answered, and that's where he was in terms of the timeline. Was it prior or after the Canterlot invasion or sometime near the defeat of Tirek. I, with possible extension for Harmonia, know what will come next, but our involvement and the subsequent changes are a mystery.

"Wait a second... What is that?" Byakko lightly whispered. He looked in the direction of the new feeling of Reiatsu coming from a closer source. Unlike Harmonia where he just had a general direction, this one was definitely weaker, but far easier to sense.

Sphinx looked in the same direction he was with a little confusion.

"That's the direction of the mountain range we came from. But in that direction in particular is the Bad Lands." Sphinx answered as rotated my shoulders and felt the fatigue he had just a minute ago vanish. Byakko thanked God for Chōsoku Saisei. He believed regeneration is a god send.

"I see... I'll be heading in that direction in another week. I feel Reiatsu coming from there." He responded before he began to start his sensory training.

"What... Why alone?"

"I doubt that whoever I sense is going to do anything, but it's better to split up so if something does happen, we have a rescue party." Byakko though if he encountered her before the wedding, then he could change the course of history.

Also, he wants to meet his favorite villain.

Next Chapter: Chapter 6 Estimated time remaining: 7 Minutes