Chapter 59 - Overcoming Despair (1/2)

From the light of the explosion, Ulquiorra emerged as he jumped out of it, with an arm missing and the damage spread through his body. Ulquiorra looked at the crater that resulted from Itachi's act of self destruction.

”It appears that true despair was too much even for you, Uchiha Itachi.” Ulquiorra said out loud to himself. His wounds began to slowly heal and his arm started to grow back.

Suddenly, the ground erupted from behind Ulquiorra, causing him to turn around. Ulquiorra was surprised when he saw Itachi was behind him as Itachi swung his blade at Ulquiorra, prompting him to raise his arm in response to block it with his hierro.

”You're still alive...my pesquisa didn't sense you. You hid your spiritual pressure well for me not to notice.” Ulquiorra commented as Itachi's blade pushed against his arm. Suddenly, Ulquiorra disappeared and reappeared behind Itachi. As Ulquiorra was about to strike Itachi from behind, Itachi turned around and parried the blow. Ulquiorra disappeared again and reappeared behind Itachi once more as Itachi continued parrying his attacks.

'In terms of raw speed, he is faster than me. But I can read his movements well enough with my Sharingan to react. At the rate this is going though, I won't get anywhere parrying his attacks like this…' Itachi thought to himself as he continued blocking Ulquiorra's onslaught of attacks.

”This is getting nowhere.” Ulquiorra commented as he backed away from Itachi and raised his arms out in front of him. In his hands, a green javelin of reiatsu formed.

”Amaterasu!” Itachi concentrated the black flames towards Ulquiorra as he was forming the javelin. Ulquiorra quickly raised the javelin in front of him and spun it quickly, causing the black flames to fan away from him as he spun it. Parts of the javelin eventually caught on fire, causing Ulquiorra to let go of it as the reiatsu burned away.

”A trick like that won't work on me again.” Ulquiorra commented as he quickly reformed another javelin and threw it at Itachi. Itachi quickly moved his head as the javelin flew past him. In the next moment, a large tower of green reiatsu exploded behind him.

”This attack has always been hard to control. But I won't miss it again.” Ulquiorra stated as he created another javelin to throw at Itachi. Ulquiorra suddenly vanished and reappeared to Itachi's side.

”I would have rather not used this up close.” Ulquiorra said as Itachi turned to face him. As Ulquiorra prepared to jab Itachi with the attack, a large armored figure surrounded Itachi and raised a shield in front of him, creating a loud screech as Ulquiorra's attack collided with the front of the shield.

Both Ulquiorra and Itachi's Susanoo became engulfed in a green reiatsu as it exploded into a massive towering column of energy.

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Orihime continued running as she felt the reiatsu of Renji and Rukia in their fight against Starrk. 'I should be getting close to Urahara's shop...I just need to-' Orihime's thoughts are cut off as she felt both Rukia and Renji's reiatsu drop.

'No...they're hurt and I'm just running away leaving them…' Orihime stopped in her tracks and turned around to go back, only to see a tall man with long brown hair standing in front of her.

”Don't make this difficult. You're coming with me.” Starrk said as Orihime looked at him in horror.