Nothing else of interest happened for several days, and Toshiro couldn't help but feel ashamed at the almost comfortable routine he'd gotten used to while traveling the ocean with these pirates. The submarine's advantage of submerging away from approaching dangers from enemy ships aided the Nobody in avoiding being seen and forced into fighting people he didn't want to. Enemies though they were due to his current alliance, they were still doing a job, one similar to his own even though his battles were against evil of people long dead and not other humans. Therefore, he did not feel comfortable joining any slaughters between factions while he was here, and kept his interference strictly to training and helping the poor polar bear aboard their crew keep cool with him. He enjoyed Bepo's company, the bear had no interest in being nosy and helped the small figure sleep when he otherwise had trouble. He heard the crew make comments that the only other person allowed to use Bepo like a pillow was Law and were surprised he let the stranger do so very quickly, but Law himself didn't seem to care about that, so Toshiro chose to ignore it as well.

But despite settling into the group, he was uncomfortable. It had been at least a week now, a very long time to have disappeared from his friends. Anything could have happened by now. Would the Soul Society have made a decision on his new condition? Would that decision be dangerous for him? What had become of Hyorinmaru? The dragon sure was having trouble finding him… And what of Sora and the others? Would they find him? Would they continue to help him if the Soul Society ordered him destroyed? He wasn't even sure of his own thoughts for such a case. On one hand, he agreed with such a decision, and would gladly make that sacrifice to offset whatever plans Aizen and Xehanort had. On the other…he really liked existing, and all he really had left was the hope he could go back to normal, and damn was he going to hold onto that hope with all the strength and memory he had left.

And there was that brief moment back on the island where he'd gotten his change of clothes. The voice haunting him in the mist…the memory made him the most uncomfortable, because he wasn't sure if his random appearance here spelled disaster for this world, making it visible to dark forces. If his fear was right and Maleficent was tracking him down, finding her way here, well…there was no end to the hatred and other negative emotions to prey on in this world, she'd have a whole new and dangerous army of Heartless in no time, and plenty of new homes to choose from should she manage to acquire them from their equally deadly owners. He could only hope the powers of this world were strong enough to combat her dark allure into the shadows. Riku had warned him, after all, the most dangerous aspect of the fairy was not her power, but her silver tongue, though both were on very high levels.

"Oi, land!" The shout brought him from his musings to look over the horizon. Sure enough, land was in view, and he scowled at the bright reflectiveness of sand that met his eyes. Must be one of those Summer Islands he was told about, and no doubt going to be one of his worst threats in this world. Other than anyone with heat or fire based fruit powers, of course. Other than the obvious desert landscape, the geography made some rather incredible shapes, and only the tops of these odd curled mountains bore any vegetation, apparently managing to shade one single pool of water that allowed a small waterfall to flow below, and it was at the base that a town could be seen. The rest of the island was hard to see, as this was all close to their side, extending to a dock for ships, but they were sure there wasn't much else to see.

Bepo shared the Ice Nobody's sentiment with a heavy sigh and flopped onto his stomach, Law scowling a bit as he had to sit up to avoid falling backwards after using the bear to lay against. A few others didn't look too pleased themselves, but gave no complaints. Supplies were supplies, and they needed some. Toshiro gave the bear some empathy with a light icy breeze through the thick white fur and was rewarded with a happy growl. A purr maybe? Either way, some of the crew chuckled but otherwise let it be.

"First and foremost, find out how long we'll have to be here, and secondly replace what we're low on. Spend your own funds how you see fit, but don't do anything stupid." Law spoke out. Apparently fine with that, he scooted back a bit and returned to laying against his first mate, not as interested in the island.

"Hey, Toshiro, wanna come with us?" Book asked the white-haired figure.

Toshiro raised a brow in response.

"We're not stealing anything right now." Thursday snickered, understanding his silent question. "Just figured you'd like to stick together; we can buy stuff for you if you're interested since you don't get an allowance like the rest of us."

"I doubt I'd want anything, and honestly I'd rather stay close to the water, so use your money for your own enjoyment, I'll be fine." He responded politely.

"Aw, come on, we figured you'd want to get away from the ship." Heinrich argued.

"He did almost have a heat stroke before so a desert might not be super fun for him." Dextra countered.

Toshiro nodded his agreement, grimacing a bit at the memory.

"Right, well…next island?"

"If it's a cooler one, sure." The Nobody shrugged.

"Sweet, it's a promise!" And with that exclamation, the oldest led off his fellow siblings to the island to explore.

As the others trickled off on their own errands or back into the ship for other chores, Toshiro sat on the deck across from Law and Bepo, back to them, and looked out to the ocean. Normally he would take the chance to meditate, but that had not gone well for him recently, so he just kept to his own thoughts, using his magic to play with the water to better understand how his new powers worked. It froze easily under his influence despite the heat of the island, but still soft enough to morph at will. He allowed himself a tiny smirk; he was figuring this magic stuff out pretty well, if he said so himself, it was just like controlling his zanpaktou only with his hand instead. Not that difficult.

He paused and a frown returned, listening. Bepo was snoring, Law was awake but calm and probably thinking to himself, faint sounds inside the ship from the crew moving about, wind stirred the sand and made a light rustle, the water lapped at the island's edge softly.

But it felt too quiet, and Toshiro could sense something off here he hadn't noticed in the other towns. Concerned, he stood and looked towards the town. The town that was oddly silent. He couldn't see anyone roaming about, not even those who had left for supplies. Taking note of his alert stance, Law sat up and gave his guest a quizzical look.

"Something wrong?" The pirate questioned when Toshiro took no notice of the stare.

"I can't be sure yet…" Toshiro responded. "It's just…it feels quiet. And heavy."

"Heavy?"

"Where is everyone?"

Law raised a brow at the abrupt change of subject.

"Doing what I told them to do, half of them are in town."

"They should come back."

"Why?"

Toshiro was getting progressively more agitated as the conversation continued and it was stirring Law up as well, glancing into the sandy village trying to see if he could even see what was bothering the Nobody so much. There was definitely a lack of people in sight, but perhaps they just didn't want to deal with pirates, that wasn't uncommon, and being outside when the wind stirred up sand probably wasn't very comfortable.

"Something is here that shouldn't be here and it's getting stronger." Toshiro was glaring at one of the oddly curved mountains near the town. The cold was intensifying with his glare and now even Bepo was sitting up, blinking sleepily and wondering what was wrong.

"Any idea what it could be?" Law still wasn't sure if he needed to be worried about a threat or Toshiro's own mind at this point, he wasn't exactly stable, his senses could be off, but he also couldn't deny the strange quietness of the area they had docked at. He got no answer to his question either, which made him frown, so he stood and watched Toshiro carefully.

A faint sound grabbed the attention of all three on deck. Law and Bepo turned their gazes curiously to the same mountain Toshiro had been glaring at. The path of brush at its top seemed to be…wilting, the mountain itself seeming to vibrate slightly…or the heat waves were messing with their eyes. The wind began to still, leaving the sand to settle. The air seemed to heat up even more with the breeze now gone, said heat waves getting more intense, but as the sound grew louder into a distinct rumble, it was clear their mountain was shaking more than the others seemed to be in the light of the glaring sun.

"There's no way one could have gotten here so quick…and such a big one." Toshiro spoke aloud with alarm.

"One what?" Bepo asked first, as Law was keeping his focus on the mountain, concerned for his crew still in town.

"Heartless."

While the bear looked even more confused, Law whipped his head around to look at the Nobody in shock.

"You're kidding." He growled.

"Sadly…no."

As if to confirm their fears, the rumbling tore apart the mountain until it completely burst, chunks of compressed sandstone falling to the desert below with loud thuds, shadows bursting forth in a black flame as a huge form crawled its way out to freedom with a terrible roar. An enormous dinosaur-like creature of sandy color, striped with blood red that glowed with blazing heat, spines of a similar flaming glow. Half its tail was a chain with a heavy spiked ball at the end that it was quick to spin around and smash into another mountain as it bared its black teeth. Its Heartless symbol lay in plain view between muscled arms that bore extendable metal claws. Its feet bore anklets of terrible spikes to do extra damage as it stomped its way towards the town. As always, pure yellow eyes looked for the closest source of hearts to prey on and consume, and a town was a perfect target. It lifted its armored head and let out a furious breath of crimson fire.

"It had to be a fire type." Toshiro scowled, seeing the massive Heartless show off its armory while moving towards the town, dragging its tail through the sand with it, probably the only reason it wasn't already smashing through houses for victims.

Law could only look at the massive beast in shock for a moment before remembering he had crew in that town still, no doubt as freaked out as he if not more. He had to get them back in and get away from this horrible place. The kids, especially, they had already been through too much. He turned towards Toshiro hoping he could get him to find the five children and get them back safely.

The white-haired figure was gone.

"What the Hell!?" He scowled. Had the boy abandoned them the moment one of the monsters chasing him appeared? With a growl, the surgeon set it aside and raced off into the town to find his people, Bepo close behind and ignoring the stifling heat to save his companions. That dinosaur was terrifying, but he'd fight it best he could if it let the others escape.

Huddled up against a house, the five children earlier mentioned stared at the approaching beast with wide eyes of fear. They had no hope against such a towering creature on their own, even Law's powers would have trouble with it since it seemed to be capable of splitting itself apart as its head floated off its neck briefly, the armor proving not to be a defense but its actual head.

"This must be why no one was here." Book whimpered, hugging his twin tightly, Dextra's feathers ruffled up over her body, terrified. Indeed, there hadn't been a single soul in the village no matter how hard Dextra searched with her Haki. It seemed they'd long since fled…or maybe already fed to the creature now rampaging towards them.

"We…we have to get back to Papa." Thursday stammered frightfully. "We have to get to the ship and go down!"

"We won't make it!" Dextra shook her head and Daniel began to cry.

The Heartless opened its metallic jaws towards the house they huddled against, as they'd gone the farthest out.

"Hado number thirty-three, Soukatsui!"

The dry desert air crackled with static electricity before a beam of blue lightning slammed into the monster's head and sent it reeling back in surprise. The kids watched on in startled shock at the spectacle before their view was abruptly blocked by a familiar figure.

"Toshiro!" Heinrich exclaimed in surprise. "How did- "

"Bakudo number seventy-three, Tozanshou."

A blue upside pyramid formed around the five of them, creating a barrier to protect them but also trapping them inside, to their surprise when they hit against it. The point hid under the sand but was definitely there, so even if all the earth around them was stripped away they would still be safe.

"Magic!" Daniel exclaimed, looking at the barrier in wonder.

"What the hell is all this, Toshiro, you could do this kind of stuff!?" Thursday slammed a fist on the barrier in an attempt to get out, but it was solid energy and they had no chance of budging it.

"I'll explain later, so please be patient until I finish this thing." The Nobody responded, his back still to them. He brought his beloved sword to his right hand, spinning the chain blade in his left as he watched the Heartless carefully, the beast shaking his head to recover and yellow eyes picking this new target out to strike at first.

"But it's huge! And it's got fire!" Dextra warned.

"I'm afraid you haven't seen everything I can do. I had never meant to reveal myself fully, but with a situation like this…I have no choice. And there's plenty of water to use just a mile away at the coast."

"What?"

Heinrich got no answer as the figure seemed to teleport away before becoming visible again at eye level with the dinosaur. Mouths opened wide as not only the children but others saw their odd passenger standing easily on thin air as he faced off the enormous monster with just a sword in hand.

"Damn, I didn't know he could fly!" Shachi exclaimed, reunited with Law and a few others as they got everyone back to the ship.

Law watched the scene with worry for a moment before focusing back on taking care of his own. It seems this was indeed a bad situation if secrecy was now completely out the window, their guest forced to reveal his true strength.

The dinosaur growled angrily at this new threat, smoke rising from its metallic mouth, yellow eyes fixed and hungry. Toshiro kept its gaze, solid ice through and through. The sky began to darken as the ocean churned dangerously, those still at the ship quick to tie it down best they could and wait worriedly for the others. The winds stirred up again, but this time the sand that rose became cold and frozen as the water was brought in. In response to the declining heat, the Heartless roared and flared its body to life with fire, protecting itself from any environmental harm and bringing up the temperature again.

"This is insane!" Heinrich exclaimed, watching the battle of elements. "They're not even fighting yet and I can practically feel how pissed off they are!"

The air did indeed feel heavy, a result of Toshiro's power, though they were unaware of that, only that the weather was in turmoil between these two forces. Dark blue ice began to spread on parts of the town, but around the Heartless stone walls began to blaze red from heat.

"This is some crazy power, I would have thought Kuzan was here if we didn't know he used ice too." Volpe mentioned as he and a few others held down the ship. "That's one powerful kid…"

Law found the kids, hitting against the barrier to find out just like they did it wouldn't go away easily.

"Papa, he can use magic!" Daniel shouted through the blue energy field.

"What?"

"He shot some kind of lightning at that thing before it could get us and then put up this shield with some kind of chanting." Thursday elaborated.

"Magic, seriously?" Shachi gaped.

"Guess that Kido he mentioned to me before is more flexible in its uses than I first thought." Law responded. He put up a Room, the sphere expanding through barrier where physical beings could not and switched the children for some broken rubble from the house nearby, successfully freeing them from the barrier. That done, the Captain led them all back to the ship for safety.

"But Papa, he might need help, that thing uses fire." Dextra tried to persuade her Captain to help their guest, but did not argue with returning to the ship.

"I think our mysterious passenger has more to him than we first thought."

A different roar made them pause, tense for battle, looking to the sky to see a serpentine shape form from compressing ice and a swirl of water, a dark and foreboding azure in color that held its mouth open in rage as it flew towards the Heartless. The icy dragon-like being struck head first at the dinosaur creature and exploded into a huge array of cold spikes, causing it to stumble back a few steps. Its spines flared with scarlet flames and it smashed its head against a nearby building, destroying it and the encased ice, freeing itself and immediately launching forward for a counter attack. The small figure that was Toshiro vanished from sight before appearing again above the beast's head, swinging his sword down into a barrage of icicles, the force of the hits pushing the Heartless's head to the ground as it stumbled to the ground.

It had no intention to quit there however, practically allowing itself to be thrown down so its momentum tossed its tail up, the spiked mace swinging right at the Nobody. Surprised, Toshiro barely moved out of the way in time, but the distraction allowed the creature to push himself back up, flaring up once more to relieve himself of the ice trying to crawl on his body after touching the frozen surfaces around it. Snarling furiously, it took a swipe, its claws coming clean off its arm to extend out almost like a trap, chains following to keep it attached. Toshiro managed to block them, knocking them away from spearing him, only to see them get pulled back in to grab him from behind. Scowling, he dodged downwards back to solid earth.

"You're a smart one, I'll give you that." He muttered under his breath. He raised his hand palm open towards the creature. It gave a hiss and stomped its way over, destroying any buildings in its way. "Bakudo Number sixty-three, Sajou Sabaku!" He closed his hand to a fist.

A glowing yellow chain dove from the sky and wrapped itself around the creature's torso, causing it to rear back in surprise at the obstruction. The chain held its arms tightly against its body and the beast had to spread its legs out to avoid becoming unbalanced, thrashing its upper body angrily at the tight bindings. Not about to let it try and escape, Toshiro launched up, bringing to hand a second weapon, one the pirates had not yet seen, not even Law. A swirling blade of ice in the shape of a dragon, its head and fangs looking like the teeth of a key, ice covering the handle where it was held in his left hand. It appeared in a flash of light and snow, reminding them of the light they'd seen briefly when he'd almost lost control to the darkness weeks back, somehow saving him. It glowed even now with an odd light as he used it in tandem with his katana for a huge attack of ice and wind.

Not about to be taken down, the Heartless unleashed its own power, opening its jaws wide and releasing a jet of flame at the wave of frozen water, the two powers clashing midair and letting off an explosion of steam. This gave the dinosaur time to get its balance and lunge at its prey, chains be damned, but Toshiro was prepared for the bite, tossing forth the odd shaped blade from his left. Though the pirates wondered why he would throw his blade, they gasped as it lit up brightly and knocked the jaws of the monster away before vanishing in a burst of ice that took out one of the beast's eyes, causing it to roar with pain. The weapon then returned to its owner as if it was never thrown.

"Just what all can he do?" Law wondered aloud as he and the others watched from afar.

"He's as much a monster as some of the big shot pirates and Admirals." Shachi added on with a shudder.

"He practically owns the ocean, look!" A member pointed out to the water as small twisting waves rose up like a watery tornado, fueling the blizzard forming on an otherwise desert island. The only reason everything wasn't frozen yet had to be the volcano of a creature fighting against the user of this storm.

"This one is dangerous for sure." Jean Bart grumbled. He'd been wary of the boy from the start, but now his worries were tripled as they watched their odd passenger singlehandedly take on a living ancient behemoth.

Another dragon formed from ice around Toshiro as he glowed with energy, the air heavy with power. The Heartless lit aflame and roared in anger. They lunged again and the battle continued.