>>3174624>>3174657It's been there since the beginning. The creators noted that their first meeting (pic related) ended up defining their relationship. And it's true - for all his bluster, Kotetsu generally doesn't have the will or foresight to actively change his circumstances. Barnaby, on the other hand, is defined by bull-headed perseverance; he knows what he wants and he goes after it, laser-focused on his goal. Consider what the novels have to say about it:
>At the brink of the fall someone’s hand grasped his. A red-armored arm.>Their reunion could have taken so many forms, and yet it had to look like this. Kotetsu’s feelings were mixed. But on second thought, this was just so them. Kotetsu and he. >Even their very first meeting had been the same; with Kotetsu caught in circumstances pushed well past disaster, he lifted him up and saved him. It was always he who came running whenever Kotetsu was in trouble, as if drawn to him by the magnetic force called Fate.And Barnaby's introduction in the novels:
>I don't believe in miracles.>Or rather, it's not that I don't believe in miracles as such. However, too often people rely on this word when, faced with difficulties, they refuse to exert the effort necessary to overcome them, or when they are trying to sugarcoat the reality. That, I hate.>Choose your objective and then do everything to accomplish it, even if it means shedding your own blood. Those who persevere until the end get their results, and people around them then call it a miracle.Focused drive and assertivity are his core traits . Much later, Ryan narrates that Barnaby and himself are the rare breed of people who are "the architects of their own life". Kotetsu, for all his good traits, doesn't have this iron will and ability to know himself and others.
>That man, however, was pretty much his direct opposite. There was no strength in him, but there was something else that captivated people. 
