I do believe the vines were from his special ability because he did say some things his sword could do was from his "Special abilities". Also I do believe that Kouga is Byukuya's father because in the flashbacks they kept showing this girl who may be Genrie's daughter who was in love with Kouga, which is another reason why they adopted him into the family as a son-in-law. Byukuya is the grandson of genrie so you never no, he just might be his father.I thought the episode was amazing, Kouga's kidou was obviously more greater then Byukuya's, he kept doing the same thing while Kouga had new kidou. I can't wait for the next episode.