The Heartless was definitely a tough one, and the constant flame it spewed from its body and mouth both gave the Ice Nobody some trouble. Despite the constant supply of water around him from the ocean, his ice had a hard time putting out the heat practically rolling off the dinosaur like lava the angrier it got, its extendable claws harder and harder to dodge as it tried to latch onto him to pull him in and destroy, its tail large and definitely high priority to avoid lest it flatten him on impact. The ground was also too risky as the spikes on the monster's feet would skewer him if it tried to stomp on him, so in the air he stayed to try and focus on the head and eliminate it.
By now it had taken off the Kido chains, and most binding spells Toshiro tried wouldn't hold it for long, so he focused on just bringing in as much water as he could to lower the temperature and put out those dangerous fires, trying to utilize his new magic with the Keyblade to direct all that ice to trap the Heartless.
It roared and flared up once more, but now Toshiro know what that meant, bringing forth another ice dragon to clash with the breath of fire, waiting for it to calm back down before deciding he had no other choice. It was too big to keep fighting like this. He had one shot, had to move with its patterns to pull this off, or he would have to start over. His existence as a Nobody was still new, and the darkness was still pressing heavily on his mind even as he tried to focus on defeating his opponent, he wasn't sure he would have the energy to try again if this failed, not if the darkness took advantage of it.
"At least they moved out to sea." Toshiro muttered to himself, glancing to the water to see that Law and crew had indeed moved away from the island to avoid the churning waves at the shore where he drew on the ocean's power. "And with the villagers here gone, no one is around to get caught up in this."
With the Heartless at a low point after having expelled its breath of fire, Toshiro used Flash Step to appear down at its tail. Yellow eyes looked around for its target before finding itself unable to move, turning to see the mace of its tail frozen to the ground, the ice slowly climbing up to encase the full tail in a glacier. Furious, the Heartless tried to turn itself to claw at the ice, but could no longer turn well enough to reach, even as it tried to extend its steel talons.
The creature focused on that, Toshiro was able to move back up above it, holding his hand with zanpaktou out in front of him, releasing the Keyblade to put his left hand to his blade, letting a yellow orb light up at its edge.
"Hado number thirty-two, Okasen!" Moving his hand along the blade, the yellow light spread across it, and once the chant was done it shot out from the sword in a wide arc of bright lightning onto the monster's head. It rattled across the metal armor and stunned it. Perfect.
He wasn't sure how well these techniques were going to work without Bankai, but he had a little extra help power wise with his newer weapon, returning the Keyblade to his left hand as he used the momentary distraction on the Heartless to prepare something.
The dinosaur shook itself rapidly to stop the ringing in its skull, snarling and growling as it pawed at its own head to clear away the buzz and focus again. It took a bit, the electricity strong and lingering, but now it could try to focus on freeing its tail again, and then destroy the annoying being that kept making it so cold. Even as it burned as hot as it could, lava pouring off its body, the ice just wouldn't go away, so it knew it had to kill the tiny person making it appear.
"Ryusenka!" A blade stabbed at the Heartless's shoulder as it turned to try and strike at the ice on its tail again, and next thing it knew, even more ice was encasing its whole body in a huge flower.
Now very angry, the monster thrashed and thrashed, heating itself up and melting through all the ice, steam rising from it as it evaporated the nuisance trying to contain it. Fully lighting itself aflame once again, lava pouring from the stripes on its body, it broke free of the ice and released a jet of flame again, chasing the figure darting to get away. Toshiro scowled a bit, as it hadn't followed him before, but did not dare to stop moving until it was out of fire. It was a push, he definitely would not be able to try all this again if he failed, but push he did.
Finally, the flame stopped, the Heartless following up with throwing out tis talons to catch him. Taking a move from a friend he'd left behind, Toshiro let his Keyblade hover beside him and block the attack by willpower as he came to a stop in the air and held out his katana before him, the second blade vanishing through the air.
Giant pillars of ice rose from the ground, the Heartless looking around curiously at this new development, unsure what its purpose was. He followed one as they began to circle around him, able to go completely around as his head was not fully connected to his body. It looked odd, but Toshiro didn't have the luxury to cringe at it, just focused on making sure this monster was trapped.
"Sennen Hyoro." His tone was firm as he twisted the blade in his hand, the pillars moving inwards towards the baffled Heartless.
But now it realized what the intent of the pillars was and snarled angrily, setting its head back correctly and turning to slam its tail into the approaching obstacles.
"Your tail is still frozen." Toshiro reminded it. "Or rather, I froze it again with my Keyblade once your fire went out."
Sure enough, ice once more encased the beast's tail, the Keyblade Frozen Heavens embedded at the base. Job done, it vanished in a flash of light as the pillars closed in on their prisoner, the dinosaur giving out one last furious roar before the sounds of ice crashing together smothered it, hopefully for good.
Toshiro did not relax yet, extending his senses to make sure the feeling of darkness was gone, that the Heartless had been defeated. He would wait until he was absolutely sure it had vanished from this world. Eyes narrowed as he got no sign of such victory.
Then, a bright blue light within the ice prison, which broke as the light engulfed it and spread out in a small but harmless burst. Specks of that light floated up into the air, almost soothing compared to the horror it had once come from. It was only at that sign did Toshiro release a breath of air and realize how much that battle of fire had taken out of him.
"Good to see my ice can still beat some fires at least…" He sighed in exhaustion. He turned back towards the ship, able to see it from where he stood in the sky. The waters were calming down and the sky clearing as he released his hold of the weather. For a moment he thought he saw the ship getting closer, but with the temperature quickly rising back to summer island levels, he felt perhaps it was his eyes just messing with him.
On said ship, the crew still outside watching heard a rustle of feathers and turned to see Dextra in full eagle form ready to take off.
"Where do you think you're going?" Law stood in her way, hand on a wing to prevent her going anywhere but not firm enough to hurt.
"To help him, he's gotta be all kinds of hurt after that fight." She argued just as firmly.
"Come on, Dextra, did you see all that? He's probably more than fine!" Shachi looked less than willing to have the boy back.
"He fought that thing so we could get out safely, you just going to let him die after that?" The female twin ruffled her feathers in angry determination at her fellow crew member.
No one responded to that.
"Then be quick." Law surprised them as he let her go and stepped aside. Sparing a happy glance his way, Dextra didn't wait another moment to take to the sky in a powerful flap of wings back to the island.
"But Captain, with a power like that, he could take us out with one swipe of that crazy blade of his. He controls the whole ocean!" One man attempted to argue.
"He could be dangerous." Jean Bart agreed.
"And yet he saved us instead and fought that thing alone. There's more to his story, more than even I know it seems…after this, he may have no choice but to tell us." Law responded. "For now we still have an agreement, one I intend to keep if he does, and until the conditions are met that makes him an ally. We don't abandon allies, do we?"
"No sir, Captain." Many replied.
"Good. If he's in bad shape, we let him rest and explain in his own time, watch your mouths in the meantime. I won't have any of you disrespecting someone who risked their life for ours."
They all agreed this time, trusting their Captain, and went inside to wait until Dextra returned with Toshiro to submerge and wait. They still had to linger until the Log Pose was ready to move on, and thankfully with a submarine it was easy enough to do so and avoid any incoming sailors, be it rival pirates or Marines.
Toshiro was just about to head down to the ground to scout for a place to hide, as he was sure he would need to find a new ride, when a ruffle of feathers caught his attention, a familiar presence approaching. Turning back to the ocean once more, a giant bird heading his way made him raise a brow, before he remembered one of the young pirates had an ability to become such a creature through the odd Devil Fruits. Dextra came to hover next to him in the sky.
"Hey, you don't look too bad after all." She spoke up. Her ability to speak in that form surprised him a bit, but he'd seen so much traveling worlds it didn't show in his expression, he just accepted this new information quickly.
"I couldn't risk getting hit by that beast for sure, so no, I'm not injured. But I'm…very tired, ever since I became this way heat has a much higher toll on my system."
"What are you anyway, I've never seen someone use magic like that, or fly without wings. And what was that big dinosaur? And that weird sword you had?"
"I'm sure you're not the only one with lots of questions." Toshiro responded with a tired sigh.
"Definitely not, but I mostly came over to make sure you got back okay." She chirped.
"Back?" Now his surprise did become visible. He did not think the pirates would let him anywhere near after all of that.
"Of course, you've got a deal with Papa, right? And you saved us, so we can't just let you stay here and melt, we may be pirates but we're not ungrateful."
Toshiro thought this over for a moment. Law was still his best chance at fixing this mess, and now that Heartless were making themselves known…this group may already be in trouble thanks to him, so it was a little late now to leave them defenseless and blind to the dangers.
"Alright…and after this, I think it's time I let go of a few more secrets…if things are already progressing this way, it may be the only way you can survive."
"That sounds foreboding…" Dextra put her head down since her beak didn't allow for frowning.
"It's going to sound worse soon…"
He left it there and seemed to leap across the sky as Dextra flew back next to him, returning to the ship promptly. She returned to a human form and they followed a waiting Law into the ship where they then submerged just enough under the waves to not be spotted, but not too stuffy for their guest. Everyone gathered themselves into the control room so that those working the ship may be a part of this improvised briefing as well.
"As you've probably guessed, I'm not human." Toshiro started, standing firm under their hard and suspicious gazes. "I'm the furthest you could be from one without being an outright monster like the creature you just saw."
"I dunno, fighting that thing head to head puts you pretty close, don't it?" Volpe questioned sternly.
"I fight it because I have enough of myself left to not allow it to follow its instincts and devour every heart on this world. That creature is known as a Heartless, it is a shadow of something that may have once been human, or perhaps it's form suggests an ancient spirit of this world corrupted into a ravenous hollow beast of its former self. Whatever it may have been, it was now lost and had to be stopped. A Heartless will consume anything with a heart, and I don't necessarily mean the physical heart, but perhaps the soul of one. Because once a Heartless devours enough life on a world, they will eventually devour the heart of the world itself. That is something I could never allow."
"Okay, so where did this Heartless come from? I've never seen that symbol on its chest before, I'm guessing they all have that?"
"The majority, yes, but there are some called pure Heartless that look like living shadows and they don't have a mark, but easy to recognize all the same. The yellow eyes are another indicator." Toshiro explained. "As to why you've never seen them…they must have never known this world existed, perhaps the powers of this world even held them at bay…but my coming here may have tipped the scales and put a target down…for that, I am truly sorry, and I will do my best to stop them."
"What makes you a target then? What are you?" Shachi questioned.
Toshiro took a deep breath and once more explained his existence, that he was a warrior of the dead, hence his inhuman powers, further split from mortality as a Nobody. The darkness he fought was attempting to erase the last of himself so that he would be truly nothing, even more of a husk of who he was than a Heartless, and his deal with Law was to find his other half, which he made sure to explain he could still command, and return them to his true self, return him whole. The ice dragon he spoke of before was not a mentor, but a part of himself and a dear companion, now a shadow and unlike himself. He expanded on the questions about him being a target as he told them of how he became this way, tricked by a powerful foe of the darkness trying to obtain his power and control him, a foe that may be dead but had a hunch was not yet finished…
"Damn, this is some messed up shit." Penguin scratched his head. "Heartless, Nobodies, other worlds, crazy organizations stealing hearts, Soul Reapers, this is straight out of a book of horrors."
"You're telling me, I'm not too fond of getting eaten by a shadow." Shachi gulped.
"I wouldn't allow that, though I ask you refrain from trying to fight them." Toshiro spoke up. When he got multiple looks of irritation, he continued. "Heartless are not affected by normal weaponry and attacks. You have to have a certain…let's say power of the heart to hurt them. They are shadows, and Nobodies not meant to exist, so destroying them takes some extra power most humans don't possess. There may be exceptions here, but just to be safe I would ask you let me handle them."
"Well what about your stuff then? That weird looking thing you had, and your katana."
"My katana is the manifestation of Hyorinmaru, my other half I mentioned, and is no ordinary blade. It's…less powerful now, but it still isn't a regular sword. As for my other weapon…" His left hand lit up in a bright light and he held the odd shaped weapon up for them to see, the dragon glinting brightly even in the submarine's pale lights. "This is a Keyblade. It may sound a little silly, but it is a very, very effective weapon against the Heartless and Nobodies. You could say it was made specifically to go against their kind, to unlock the soul within the shadow and return a Nobody back to existence, destroying the shells and allowing them to move on. This weapon is actually fairly new to me, compared to Hyorinmaru…I'm still trying to understand it. Sometimes it even seems to have a mind of its own, a guide almost, and very picky about who gets to wield it."
He handed it over to Heinrich, who looked surprised.
"Even if it was a constantly physical object, and you attempted to steal it, it would not let you. Even if I tried to give it up by choice." Toshiro explained, backing away from the confused child. Heinrich examined the odd weapon in his hand before attempting to make a swing to see how it felt. Before he could finish, it gave a flash and vanished from his hands, giving him quite the scare, and appeared once more in Toshiro's left hand. "I suppose it is one of those responsibilities you don't have a choice in…and my only hope against becoming like them…"
"I guess that's why you could throw it without having to worry about it." Law finally offered conversation, having been silent throughout the briefing as he knew most of what had been told.
"It makes it a very adaptable weapon to use, but it also makes you a target for Heartless. They are drawn to it…someone I knew thought perhaps it was because they wanted to be freed, though most agreed it was probably an instinct to take out what was most dangerous to them, as any animal with a base instinct would."
"Either way, they chase you wherever you go."
"Yes, they will."
"Anything else we should know?"
Toshiro looked hesitant to answer, but before he could speak, his mouth open to, the ship gave a sudden shake, startling them all.
"What's happening?" Law demanded, turning to his men on the controls.
"No idea, but I can't do anything, I'm locked out. We're surfacing!"
"Surfacing? On who's control?"
"I don't know…"
Toshiro had a bad feeling about this. Another shake went through the vessel to signal they were above water, the windows in the room flooding it with sunlight. The Heart Pirates looked concerned but had no hesitation grabbing weapons and moving out of the room. The Nobody followed, as he was sure this wasn't something they were prepared for. Another Heartless so soon? Or worse?
Moving quickly through the halls he, the Captain, and a few others found themselves on deck. The sea breeze kept off some of the heat of the nearby island, but nothing else was in sight to indicate what had forced them above water. Everyone remained tense and searching but could see nothing other than the empty desert island with its quickly melting ice structures and miles of surrounding ocean as far as they could see.
"What do you make of this?" Law questioned, turning to look at Toshiro. "You caught wind of the Heartless before it appeared, sense anything now?"
"No…no Heartless at least, but the air feels odd." The white-haired being responded.
Answering with a questioning hum, Law continued to look around for anything suspicious.
A bit of wind stirred and Dextra landed on one of the railings as an eagle, fairly menacing with a mean predatory glare and very sharp talons, her twin coming up next to her with an assortment of things on his belt Toshiro thought may be explosives, one of which he handed to Dextra. Seemed like they had a combo going on even with one able to become a bird. They waited with the rest of the crew for any sign of a threat.
Finally, the tension in the air finally snapped.
"I wasn't expecting you to find new friends, Hitsugaya Toshiro." A sinister female voice echoed through the air around them, giving some of the crew a fright, the following condescending laugh even more so.
"You…" Toshiro gasped, surprised. So the voice he heard from the forest over a week ago… he had been right to worry. He regretted ever letting his guard down. She was here, and now she was corrupting this world and letting loose Heartless.
A bright flash of green fire on the top of the ship brought everyone's attention there, spotting a gray skinned figure in a long black coat, horns atop her head. She sneered down at them all, specifically Toshiro himself.
"What an interesting world you've found, Hitsugaya, I quite like the power I feel here." She almost purred, as if praising a good student.
"Don't think I would let you lay a finger on this world, Maleficent, you and your Heartless are not welcome here. Ever." Toshiro snarled back, zanpaktou appearing in hand. She may use fire, but he could beat her, it's why she never fought with him herself he was sure of it.
"And why would you do that? You're not a Soul Reaper anymore, my young friend, why bother continuing this false quest to save the living from their fate?" The witch chuckled.
"Let's say it's more out of spite at this point, I would never forgive myself if I became like you."
"Such harsh words from someone just as likely to kill his friends as his enemies." Maleficent sneered. At Toshiro's shocked look she continued once more. "I learned quite a lot from your fight with that Nobody Organization, this Aizen fellow was an interesting study."
The pirates saw Toshiro bristle angrily at the name, a biting chill entering the air around them.
"To single-handedly fool an entire army of undead warriors of vast powers and knowledge, how impressive, but I don't think I would like to deal with another seeking to control the ultimate kingdom."
"You're right, he would take you out first chance he got." Toshiro shot back and Maleficent's sneer turned a bit sour. "Not himself of course, you wouldn't be worth his time."
"I would be if I had you under my wing." She responded maliciously.
"Keep dreaming." He scowled back.
"Well, where I come from, the phrase 'dreams do come true' is quite popular…so who knows."
"Even if you did manage to catch me to bargain with him, he would still kill you. Aizen doesn't have allies, everyone is a pawn and he sees himself as a god. You have no chance beating him."
"Even one such as he wouldn't have a choice if I alone controlled the Heavenly Guardian."
"What the hell are you two talking about?" One of the Heart Pirates finally spoke up. "Aizen? Controlling people? Some guardian? What in the world is going on?"
"Oh, keeping secrets, how dirty of you Hitsugaya." The dark fairy looked smug again, Toshiro narrowing his eyes at her, knowing what she was up to. She was a bit late for that, however…these pirates were in too deep at this point NOT to know. She had just decided to interrupt. "Now what would a group of pirates think knowing how absolutely valuable a person you are?"
"They know I'm being hunted." Toshiro responded back icily. "They knew as soon as your pile of bones came bursting out of that mountain."
"And such a lovely Heartless you destroyed, too." The pout was easily seen past; why should she care about creatures she could easily make more of? "But, do they know WHY you're being hunted?"
"You never did get to that." Shachi couldn't help but point out to their guest. Law hit the back of the man's knee with his sword and his fellow pirate stumbled, surprised.
"Playing mind games to turn us on him isn't as easy to do with us, miss." The surgeon spoke up. "You may think you have an advantage here with our world new to those outside, but you're sadly mistaken if you think anyone will go down without a fight. I know of your Heartless, and my particular abilities could make short work of them."
The witch looked intrigued by this and Toshiro almost turned to reprimand the Captain for shining a spotlight on himself like that. Almost.
"Now I see why he chose a group so different from his other friends." She purred. "Looking to 'cure' yourself, Hitsugaya? You should know that's no easy task, impossible even."
"Didn't one of your own subordinates free himself already?" The Nobody was quick to respond, feeling successful as anger flashed in her eyes. She wasn't beating him yet. "You're definitely not going to help, especially after all this talk of trading me off."
"There will come a time you have to choose a lesser of evils, Nobody of Hitsugaya Toshiro, and compared to your dear foe Aizen and Xehanort's forms, I think you will find you may have no choice but to come to me."
"No, I won't. Because once I'm whole again I'll take you all down."
"Will you now? And how will you do that when you don't even know what you're capable of?" The witch chuckled menacingly and green fire nipped at her cloak.
"Hey!" Toshiro flashed up to her position, but in an emerald flare she was gone, her laugh echoing in the air around them before disappearing along with her presence. "Damn…"