"That's not even fair!" Heinrich whined.

"I could have done a lot worse." Toshiro shrugged nonchalantly, sipping some tea. He'd at least told the others that what he'd shown them had still only been a portion of his real power, and that his skill with a sword had a century of experience behind it, even if they weren't sure if he was serious about the age or not. "I didn't freeze you at least."

"You almost did the other night." Dextra reminded, wary of the other now but still the one who was more willing to approach things others weren't. Such as reminding him about the lack of control he sometimes had.

"That was unintentional." The Nobody muttered, frowning.

"How can you even do all that stuff anyway? Make ice and control weather and all that?" Shachi pressed for information.

"Look, I told everything to your Captain, it's up to him now whether or not you can learn of it as well. Ask him, not me, I'm just the guest." Toshiro snapped. "Now may I drink my tea in peace?"

"Grouchy much." Thursday pouted, hoping she'd get a few answers. They all did.

"I'm not budging on the issue. Your Captain's power is the only reason I said what I did to him, an exchange, and a way to help him help me if he can. Therefore, if I want to keep that deal and earn his help, I'm going to play by his rules, and that means not telling you anything unless he feels it necessary. It's dangerous enough he knows, best to keep the number low."

"But I don't get it, why is it dangerous to know something?" Dextra frowned.

"Once you know a secret you're open to the consequences of that secret. It's a secret for a reason, if people outside those allowed to know finds out, they're usually taken care of. I'd prefer to keep that number of casualties as low as I can."

"So then…there are dangerous people after you or something?"

"People, beasts, there are a great number of dangers lurking my way."

"What about that darkness?"

Toshiro stiffened and sent a chilly glare at the speaker, Penguin, who tensed up and backed away quickly.

"Yes, that is one of the dangers." The small figure said with an icy bite. "And something your Captain can potentially cure. I'd suggest keeping your nose out of it, the darkness cares little about who it drowns in its power."

"But then isn't Papa in danger?" Daniel looked concerned about this fact.

"I won't be allowing any tampering with the darkness, I've seen what those curious about it have become, I promise he won't meet the same fate."

The children definitely looked relieved about this.

"So the darkness is like a living thing, is it?" Shachi scratched his head in confusion. "Then I wonder about Blackbeard and that Dark-Dark Fruit he uses."

"One of the fruit powers is darkness?" Toshiro seemed interested now.

"Yeah, elements are the Logia type of Devil Fruits, I think there's Shadow and Dark in that type of element, though I think the Shadow one was a Paramecia type."

Toshiro went quiet for the moment, taking this in. Two fruits known so far had powers of darkness. He didn't know the people so he didn't know the effects…but maybe this world had its own balance for light and dark using the fruits, condensing the two powers into various Devil Fruit abilities. Maybe that's why Heartless didn't seem to be here, they messed with the balance of the fruits and were kept out. That could actually be useful to him.

He wondered, though, how his presence may be affecting that balance. Bringing the darkness attached to him here may not be safe, if Devil Fruits allowed one to basically control that power, what could this Dark-Dark Fruit user do to him? And there was also those with an Ice or Snow power, would they also be able to control him somewhat? Or would he control them? He supposed it depended on who's will was stronger. Then again, the source of his ice and water abilities was different than the darkness in him. He might just need to worry about the latter.

"Who is this Blackbeard?" He asked, cutting off their discussion about whether the Shadow-Shadow Fruit was more Logia or Paramecia with its abilities and if maybe it had gotten classified wrong.

"Eh?" Penguin had to take a moment to switch gears for the new question. "Oh, Marshall D Teach, or Blackbeard as he's more often called, he used to be some nobody in a different crew, but he killed a crew member and stole the Dark-Dark Fruit, starting his own crew and getting super powerful. His fruit power let him steal another fruit power from one of the four Pirate Emperors, Whitebeard, and now with both those powers he's gotten a spot as a Pirate Emperor himself and is getting a bigger and stronger crew every day."

"So he's got a lot of influence and power…do you know how his original ability works?" The Nobody was worried about this power stealing ability now, nearly as much as his ability to control darkness.

"Honestly it kinda works like a black hole, really, it sucks stuff up into darkness and he can spit it back out from it. That's how everyone thinks he got the Quake-Quake Fruit power from Whitebeard, because it seems to be able to negate fruit powers if he touches them."

So it couldn't really control darkness itself, it seemed, it worked more like a gravity ability with darkness's ability to absorb powers. Maybe he just needed to worry about the Shadow user, then, though from what he'd overheard the user was deep in hiding and he'd be unlikely to run into him. And the power stealing seemed to just work on Devil Fruit powers, so he was probably safe from that. Other than the influence and ranking of the man Toshiro had little to worry about from Blackbeard, then, he just needed to keep away to be sure.

He came to realize just how much of a coward he sounded then. Before, he got knowledge of others to find their weakness to use against them, now he used it to see whether or not he needed to run. He'd all but given up on trying to control his new curse and instead was trying to hide it away until he could get rid of it. A scowl crossed his face; this was not how he should be, he had to stand firm and strong.

But looking back on how that had gone before, landing him in this situation, the scowl faded and he slumped a bit instead. He had let that damn Kurosaki convince him to rush in head on and his own stubbornness against enemies pushed him on, and now he was half his former self.

He wasn't sure what to do anymore.

"Hey, how about some ice cream?" Dextra spoke up, bringing him out of his thoughts. "Do you like ice cream? It fits."

"Um…not particularly." Toshiro replied.

"Really? Seems like someone who needs to keep cold would like cold stuff." Heinrich wondered aloud.

"I'm not a fan of sweets." The white-haired being explained, cringing as he remembered all the times one of his fellow Captains practically showered him in candy. He barely ever touched them, they usually went to bribing little rambunctious Lieutenant Yachiru to leave his office alone.

Not knowing this particular reason for his dislike of sweets, the five children – and some of the adults – gawked at him like he'd grown extra limbs. He stared back at them in his own state of confusion.

"What?" he snapped, defensive. "Look, just because I look like a kid doesn't mean I have to like sweet things! They're not exactly healthy anyway!"

"Aw come on, it's not necessarily a kid thing, it's just living a little!" Penguin countered with a big grin. "Everybody likes sweets!"

"Well I don't, now lay off."

"What do you like?" Shachi questioned.

"Drinking my tea in peace." The small figure growled with finality.

"Do you ever have fun?" Heinrich grumbled with a pout. From what he'd seen so far their guest was very tense and closed off, and while he supposed there was a good reason behind it – that darkness sure was scary and he didn't have to deal with it all the time – it still made it hard to get along with the newcomer.

"When you're in the position I am in, fun is the last thing on your mind."

It was pretty much clear at that point that Toshiro was done chatting, so the pirates soon left him alone and went about their own jobs. He indeed got to finish his tea in peace, but left him alone with his thoughts as they went through his mind rapidly, a series of questions and questions about how he would go about this world safely without messing anything up, avoiding anything that would make his 'condition' worse, and finding out how to get Hyorinmaru here to have Law potentially 'fix' him without causing some huge fight. The big black ice dragon would be menacing to anyone, he couldn't blame someone for wanting to flee or attack Hyorinmaru, he just had to make sure his dragon got out of it safely.

Because if he lost his dragon, there was little to no hope of becoming whole again.

Yes, they were looking for a way to do so. After all, the Nobody Demyx had his other half destroyed, so in a sense he should have no way to return, but that didn't stop them from looking. While that gave Toshiro some hope, he still would rather not have his dragon lost to him, it had already happened once and that was once too many in his opinion, the damage had been excruciatingly painful, both to his body and his mental state.

He lifted a hand and spun a small snowflake over his palm. It was back to a dark azure, which was good for now. His ice seemed to be a good warning signal for the darkness getting out of hand. The darker his power, the closer he was to losing it. Intrigued, he gave the snowflake in his hand a harder shell. He would have to thicken it back every now and then but his ice was much harder to melt once he got it like this. It would be his warning charm, to let him keep somewhat of a look out on his darkness.

"What's that for?"

Toshiro looked up at the voice, seeing the tall Captain of the ship standing before him, mild curiosity on his face as he looked at the snowflake.

"Ever heard of a mood ring?" The small figure asked. Law nodded. "I noticed my ice gets darker the less control I have, so this will essentially warn me if I'm going too far and remind me to watch myself."

"If it's made of your ice won't it melt?" The doctor didn't look convinced by the idea.

"I've packed the ice in tightly to the point it could almost be metal, so while yes it will melt it will do so very slowly and I can always pack more back on."

"Pretty finite control."

"It has to be, otherwise it wouldn't be combat worthy."

Law nodded approvingly, impressed. This charm was good for all of them, because if Toshiro kept a tighter watch on his darkness there would be far less trouble with it trying to lash out at them. The small figure revealed a chain around his neck that seemed to once hold a different charm, but he froze the new snowflake to it instead where it would be easy to see.

"We'll be stopping at a new island soon; do you still plan on leaving?" Law spoke, his original intention for coming over before seeing the charm.

"After striking a deal with you, no, my best bet is with this group now that you know the most about me." Toshiro responded easily enough, Law felt he couldn't be lying. "I think the real question is what I should do once there. I'd rather not draw attention to myself in a pirate crew if possible…anything potentially following me would only have an easier time tracking me down."

"Even your comrades?"

Toshiro gave an icy stare in response to the question. Sensitive topic, duly noted, but Law wasn't about to back down.

"Surely I can't be the only capable of reversing your condition." He continued.

"Maybe not…but can you blame me if I say it's because I'd rather not put them in danger?"

Law gave a scoff and smirked.

"I suppose not, I'm a stranger to you and expendable I'm sure."

"Perhaps not expendable, and while I would feel guilty if you became a casualty in reversing my condition it would not weigh as heavily on my mind if it was a friend." He paused for a moment in thought before his face scrunched up in a look of dislike and then shuddered, Law tilting his head in curiosity at the reaction. "One of the people I know that could also potentially reverse this I would actually be glad to have as a casualty…the problem is he doesn't seem to know how to die and he'd probably fuck around with me a lot more than actually fixing me."

Having not heard the Reaper curse before, Law was a bit startled, wondering who he knew with the ability to reverse becoming half a soul but make the powerful child refuse to go to him.

"And who would that be?" He asked.

"…trust me when I say you do NOT want to know him." Toshiro scowled. "He's constantly been trying to make me his guinea pig and this little incident would be his perfect excuse to get his grabby hands on me, and I'd rather go to Hell if I'm honest."

"I'm assuming that's an actual place where you are from?"

"Oh definitely, and a terrible place at that, but I could deal with that better than Mayuri Kurotsuchi's freakish experiments. I'd like to go back to my normal self, thank you, not get turned into some dragon hybrid or more of a freak of nature than I already am, whatever he has in mind."

Law couldn't help but chuckle a bit, which only made Toshiro frown and glare at him. If the pirate ever met Kurotsuchi he would NOT be laughing, that's for sure, but for this world's sake that was a meeting best avoided. If that mad scientist learned of Devil Fruits he'd be all over Law and any other fruit users, especially if all it took to weaken one was sea water. He'd have an invention for that in seconds, the poor fruit users wouldn't have a moment's peace. Yes, that was a future that should be avoided.

"We have one of our own versions of him, it sounds like, but luckily ours is a coward once cornered and I'm long past having to deal with him." Law sat down at the table and leaned his sword up against it, settling in comfortably. "Pains in the asses aside, if you want to avoid attention from your side, perhaps a change in outfits would be good."

"I'm not wearing those suits." Toshiro immediately argued.

"It would help you blend in best but considering your reaction to heat probably not the best idea." Law shrugged, apparently not offended by the blatant refusal to wear his crew's uniform. "A hat would be good for you though, and something at least similar to us."

"I would like to get rid of these…it wasn't exactly a voluntary change of costume." Toshiro pulled at the leather coat with disdain.

"How so?" Law wondered why he'd be wearing it if it wasn't by choice.

"When…When I was first changed, I…I had a collar on. My memories were still missing at the time, I'd only just woken up, so I didn't even recognize that I was following commands by force rather than my own choice." Toshiro definitely seemed ashamed and angered by this part of his transformation and Law kept silent, observant. A collar? So he'd essentially become a slave for a time. And a collar that controlled his willpower against him. He couldn't help but glance at the small figure's neck before remembering he'd never seen any type of collar there anyway, it was clearly long gone. Looking closer now, though, he noticed small scars…like fingernail scratches. Law's mouth tightened as he realized the Reaper had clawed at his own throat at some point to take this collar off. That didn't seem right to him.

"So one such command was to wear that?" Law asked, getting his mind off the collar and the scars for now.

"Yes, it's their uniform, the Nobodies. My Soul Reaper garb was torn up anyway from previous battles but I'd still prefer those to this damn thing."

"I suppose a new outfit will be what you'll be getting at this island, then. I'll have one or two of my men go with you."

"Perhaps it's best I stay alone until I have my 'disguise' so I'm not seen with you just yet." The Nobody countered. Noticing Law's slight glare, he sighed. "I understand your plan was to keep an eye on me, but like I said, I've made a deal with you…and I'm not backing out this early, not unless I know your powers can't fix me."

The glare went away. That's right, Law thought, he'd been so desperate for a solution his stubbornness to not tell them anything did a complete turnaround to telling him everything the moment he saw an opportunity. He wasn't going to run away now.

"Alright then, that's insurance enough." The pirate Captain agreed. "Just be quick about it, we're not yet sure what this island holds. If it's one with heavy Marine influence we won't be hanging around long."

"Understood."