The Unpredicted Friendship ~ [PRIVATE: Raijin and Utena]

Stark saw the situation he was in and understood well that he was no match for this boy. He floated in midair staring at the two glowing orbs of the black monster and then up towards the wormhole that had opened within the barrier.

Lilynette: "Stark!!!! Stark!!! Get out of here!"

He smirked, "Well....Turns out that this was fun after all! Sorry Lilynette, but my body is in no condition to get out of here. We're done for......It was fun while it lasted." Stark turned his head in Keiko's direction and then smiled. "Forgive me Keiko....." In a matter of seconds his body was vaporized by his own attack. The barrier had died down and one final explosion had gone off, sending a massive surge of raw power. Stark had been defeated!

This time the Respira wasn't even working. It had hit a barrier that was invisible to the eye but had a pretty sizable radius and it festered itself around Keiko. Keiko was standing in front of us, the forefront of the team right now, and glaring daggers at the Skull King. Through her intensity, she never faltered once. And the Respiras just died off, flowing away with the breezes blowing. Her eyes focused quite hard on Barragan, preparing herself mentally for this battle. Oh she wanted so bad just to rip him apart and she was quite aware she was able to, but she didn't want to rush into things. After all, she had battled Barragan briefly in Hueco Mundo for training a few days. And those few days in the sands of that barren place, she'd learned to fight for her life.

When she was sure the Skull King was perplexed by his attacks not working, she gave the nod to the two of us, to go attack. The barrier faded and Soi fon darted in; She knew she probably wouldn't get anywhere but she was pulling her fastest moves on him and she thought it smart to at least try to injure him with Shikai abilities first. So she tried to sting him. She was jabbing and darting Suzumebachi in and out of Barragan's radius to try and mark him. But it was to no avail. Surprisingly, the old man was able to slow her down as well, even being so fast as she was, and not only that but he was able to dodge when things weren't slow and she was just outside of his range. He was quite impressive.

And I knew I had to take a chance. I wasn't sure how hard his grip was on that weapon of his, but I had to at least try. It'd better our chances at winning if I could disarm the enemy. And perhaps if my physicality couldn't do it, I'd get it off of him by magic. Soi was distraction enough. She was punching and kicking, and fighting well for someone without an arm. It was at that moment I made my move and darted in there to try and take the weapon from him. I had to take a chance; even if it was cursed with his rotting powers. I waited for the right moment and then tried to knock it directly out of his grasp with my kick. I was sure that wasn't going to work, and now he knew I was there...

Grasping his weapon even tighter now, he looked at me with a hard glare (I could tell it would have been with pure hatred did he have eyes in those sockets) and whacked me down with the weapon with quite a lot of force. Soi fon too soon followed the same fate. We got back up, but more concentrated this time, he formed an aura around himself that froze us almost completely in time. (When in truth it just slowed down time immensely enough for us to be captured by his hand and thrown down again.) This time we both got tossed into the awaiting pavement on the ground beneath this fight in the air. And into the concrete we went, both of us make sizable dents in the shape of our forms. How was a skeleton able to have this much capacity for strength?

But what was Keiko doing? She was just standing there, floating in mid air, doing nothing. So what was the point in transforming into what she did and attaining that second resurrection form? I was sincerely confused, and I think so was Soi Fon, which made her angry. But as soon as we both sat up more to watch what Keiko was doing, all at once I saw her fists clenched, which in turn shut Soi up from a potential screaming session as well. Her eyes closed and then her fists began to shake. Some strong emotions were coming from inside of her; But why? What had happened? Surely us getting tossed around couldn't have done it? I could tell she was doing her best to fight off tears... but it just wasn't working.

Within a matter of minutes, Keiko's tears began to shed down her face. And it seemed they weren't stopping. Then she opened her eyes and continuing death glaring Barragan even through the waters. And for a moment all seemed silent as Keiko's voice protruded the air...

"I was discharged from Lord Aizen's Espada army for the purpose of being weak and not needed. I was discharged because I was called frail and meek. And eventually someone's power level had come into knowledge that was far greater than my own and he replaced me with him. But you goons said it all the time; 'Why is she #1?' 'She doesn't deserve to be in that spot.' 'If I were #1 I would be 10 times as strong as she is.' But the truth is... I was just a child among you men and women. I was younger, more loving, naiver, and had more of an open and willing heart. I went wherever you went, I did whatever you did, and learned from all of you what it was I should be doing..."

There was a break in her speech. Soi and I watched intently as this unfolded.

"When I was exploring the grounds of Hueco Mundo, I came across my first soul reaper. Told that I should hate soul reapers and destroy them, we had a fight. But she lived, even if she couldn't defeat me, and even if I could have killed her; She lived. When she was weakened and holding onto that last little strand of life she had I watched over her and I couldn't help but feel this longing to help her get better and that it was wrong to kill just because of a plan set forth by a man we all were assembled under. So I let her get away and some of the words she spoke to me that day taught me a lesson and changed me for the better. After that, I just continued to seek the love of a father figure from Aizen and he continued to deny me. That's the real reason I was cast away! The real reason has nothing to do with pleasure or not, the real reason has to do with neglect and as you know, that's my aspect of death isn't it? Neglect. Neglect kills. It doesn't seem so but it does. It kills your heart, your mind, your soul, your body, it kills you. I can't count all the times that all of the neglect from people I've loved has hurt me enough to make me feel like I was dead inside. But you know something..."

And this time she smirked and looked up at him directly. Her tears were still present and her voice was shaky, but it was clear and what she was saying was truthful. Heartbreaking and real but truthful.

"You too have neglected me all this time, didn't think me much of a threat. Refused to pay attention to me, refused to address me in the form of a talk or a battle, either or. You've neglected me Barragan.. and now... She stood up tall and wiped the tears from her eyes with her sleeve briefly before exhaling a giant breath.

"Your neglect... is going to kill you!" She shouted and then she was in action. She went on all fours and zipped around like a madwoman. I questioned if she was faster than the Flash Master herself. She sure seemed like it. She zoomed all around him and began to fire ceros at Barragan, pretty powerful ones too, from all different directions and they were from a certain distance away from him so they would all converge upon him.

"Cero Incendia! Cero Decus!" She cried out and the fiery cero and the bluish white cero both flew at him, a number of these same attacks did. And eventually she zipped back to her original position and stood there on all fours, panting and waiting to see what would happen when the smoke cleared. Soi watched with eyes widened.

"Incredible... Utena.." I looked to her as my name was said.

"Yes?"

"I have an idea, but I'm going to need your help. It can only contribute to the damage being done to Barragan right now. But this will only work if you help me..."

"Say the word, then Captain."

"We're gonna start a lights show... and blow away the competition." She smirked and began walking to a secretive spot after getting up. I got up after her and followed. A new plan was in motion and this trouble upon the city would fall soon.