Law and Brook had just entered the fight, managing to corner the creature, but its armor was tough and they were running out of energy, the Stigma eating away at their bodies and stamina. They were ready to give it one last shot though, and once it was dead they could get to Chopper and get rid of this plague. Law was saving the vial of cure in his pocket still for the right moment. Brook was capable of rushing for the reindeer doctor, stigma free as he was, so he needed to try and use it to get rid of this monster.
The already cold air dropped below freezing in seconds, frigid air blasting over them as they inhaled sharply and stopped, even the Heartless pausing where it was in surprise. Ice spread over the ground and up over the walls of buildings. It wasn't the dark ice they were expecting with the sudden bout of freezing air; it was… lighter. There was more of a blue-gray tone to it now, almost like paper snowflakes that spent too long in the sun and were fading in color.
"Whoa, he's glowing!" Luffy exclaimed as they all turned back to Toshiro.
Sure enough, the Nobody was shrouded in an aura not of darkness, but a dull gray, as if trying to brighten and white out the black. Hat having long fallen off, his white hair tipped in black covered his eyes from them as he just seemed to stand there and let out his energy, taking control of the air and water around them in a small storm.
"Trafalgar… if I could have that vial." Toshiro sounded oddly… calm, considering the situation. As far as Law knew from experience, all this glowing and winter storm was a bad thing, yet the small figure seemed in control of himself. The ice over his arm was cracking now as well.
The surgeon hesitated, not sure he trusted such an important piece to the Reaper as he was now.
"It's in a liquid form, isn't it? I can fix all this now." Toshiro lifted his head. His teal eyes had the same odd glow as the aura around him, but other than the strange color there was nothing but confidence in his gaze.
"What changed?" Law still looked suspicious.
"I had a change of heart." The pirates could have sworn a light smirk threatened to pull at the boy's mouth.
The ice on his arm shattered in the next moment, a flash of light bringing their attention to his hand. The Keyblade was back, Law starting to understand whereas the Straw Hats were shocked and confused by the odd weapon. The black scars on his left arm, sleeves destroyed same as in his thoughts, began to fade until only pinkish scars remained. With the return of the Keyblade, the infection of darkness holding it back was cured. The wound in his shoulder began to bleed freely once more, but that was more easily ignored now.
"Whatever you're planning, you better not mess this up." Law shot at Hitsugaya, removing the cure from his pocket and tossing it towards the other. He had glanced at the snowflake necklace around the other's neck as well and noticed it was back to a blue color, a clearer indication of Toshiro's mental state.
Seeing the offending poison to it flying through the air, the Heartless gave an angry shriek and darted after it.
"Hey! Get back here Bugshroom!" Luffy was having none of that and let his rubbery arms stretch over and wrap around the creature, pulling it back. It snarled and shrieked, straining against the rubber arms, but to no avail, spiny legs leaving gouges in the road as Luffy drug it backwards and away from Toshiro.
The Keyblade swung through the air and broke the vial, but instead of the cure inside dropping useless to the floor, it gained a bit of a shine and circled around the head of the weapon. It swirled faster and faster until it resembled a halo of bright green liquid. Toshiro lifted the Keyblade towards the sky and with no other provocation needed the cold wind around them followed, a backwards flowing tornado that grabbed hold of the small amount of liquid. Even as Luffy kept his hold on the Heartless he watched with open mouth just like the others as the cure began to freeze, not completely solid like ice, but into a flurry of gray-green snow as the winds kept it from becoming one mass.
"With Tensou Jurin I can control the atmosphere around me, anything with water that's easily accessible is fair game. Creating flakes from each drop increases the volume, so now I can do this." Finishing his explanation, Toshiro brought the Keyblade downward in a confident swipe.
The snow followed as the wind dispersed, falling over all inside their small area of the town. Luffy let go of the Heartless in surprise as it started squealing and rolling on the ground. Its body fizzled and bubbled where the fragile snow touched down on it as if made of acid. Sanji and Zoro each held a hand out curiously as the snow touched down on them softly as well, but it did not burn them. Despite the cold, the snow melted the moment it landed and let off miniscule green specks of light as the cure absorbed into their skin. In response, the black patches began to disperse and they felt their strength coming back to them.
Law was quite impressed as his own Stigma vanished as well. The cure he made hadn't been capable of absorbing through skin, but somehow, when Toshiro changed it to ice, he added some power to it that allowed such a thing. He made one small vial that might have only saved one person into an area wide spell that cured all of them. Not to mention it was removing the field of mushrooms from the area, cleaning away the tainted air, and causing a lot of pain to the Heartless who started it all. Law's rushed effort to make anything that would remove this plague combined with a Reaper's strange magic turned the tide in their favor in a dramatic way.
"That was amazing, it's all gone!" Brook exclaimed, spinning around in the snow.
"Now I can pay this piece of garbage back properly." Zoro rolled his shoulders and sneered down at the writhing Heartless. In response to the hostile glares directed at it and the cold power covering the area, the mushroom covered Heartless shakily skittered back away from them. For all its earlier ability and prowess, once its vulnerabilities were laid bare it didn't seem worth even a fraction of the trouble it had given them. Its armored hide was falling off in chunks of fungi and black flesh similar to how its Stigma affected the people, an almost ironic end.
An interesting aura caught Toshiro's attention, causing him to turn away towards the sea while the pirates cornered their foe.
"With this we can finally set to getting rid of the plague on everyone." Law spoke with a scowl, remembering the pain his orphans were going through because of this beast, and Puffin as well in his efforts to aid his Captain as best he could. He would save the three of them as soon as this monster was dead.
"Then let's waste no more time!" Brook responded as he brandished his blade.
Just before they could do anything, however, a shadow passed over them and made them all pause. An unpleasant chill settled over them just as a huge black figure crashed down in front of them, crushing their previous foe effortlessly under one foot.
"What the Hell!?" Sanji exclaimed as he and his companions jumped away and out of the beast's shadow in surprise.
"A new one?" Zoro scowled fiercely.
The mushroom Heartless dispersed into shadows with a pathetic sounding wheeze, and the heart that flew free was promptly snatched up in the giant jaws of what could only be a dragon. Pitch black and a body that looked to be made entirely of ice, standing well over the heights of the buildings around it. Golden-yellow eyes were looking hungrily at all of them next as black ice spread from where its feet and the claws of its forewings touched a solid surface. It was as if this dragon sucked out all heat in the air, covering everything in solid ice. This Heartless was on an entirely different level than the fungus they had just been fighting. Heart swallowed, the creature's jaws opened partly once more so that they saw the armament of razor sharp back fangs.
The Straw Hats all tensed for a fight whereas Law's eyes widened in recognition.
So this was Hyorinmaru.
Just before Zoro could jump at the black dragon, there was a blur of motion and Toshiro forcefully pulled the swordsman to a stop.
"Wha-hey!" Zoro snarled at the smaller figure.
"Attack him and this is where we cross blades." Toshiro snarled back with equal force, eyes daring the green-haired man to lay a finger on the beast.
"But Hitsugaya…" Brook looked confused.
"It's Hyorinmaru, his dragon." Law pointed out for them. They vaguely recalled such info being given to them from the other Heart Pirates and looked back at the Heartless with a new perspective. He was a lot… more intimidating than they were expecting. So very unlike the tiny soul he supposedly belonged too, and a lot angrier.
The topic of their discussion, however, did not seem to care that his Master was in sight. If anything, the icy spines on his back seemed to bristle up larger and sharper than before as he let out an aggressive hiss. He saw not an ally, but a challenge, drawn by the ice storm in search of a goal he couldn't quite remember.
"Hyorinmaru, it's me." Toshiro turned back to his companion, surprised by the hostility. He reached out to hear the voice of his beloved dragon… only to be met by a wall of resistance. "Hyorinmaru?"
"You sure it's him?" Sanji sounded less than convinced as the black dragon lifted its forelegs up to spread its wings out in a show of power, hissing once again.
"Of course I am." Toshiro snapped back. How could he not recognize his partner? "He's just… something isn't right. Normally he still listens to me."
"Well then let's beat some sense into him." Luffy said with a confident grin, hitting his fists together.
"No!" Toshiro was quick to shoot that idea down, and the rubber man seemed to deflate as he pouted. "This is my responsibility; I'll take care of him. You all still have a Stigma to cure."
"I gotta agree with him on this one, Luffy." Zoro grumbled, though he still kept at least his two swords in hand, his eye never leaving the dragon as Hyorinmaru swung his ice-spiked tail. Another building fell to the ground as it was struck, a sound like glass shattering as black ice broke with it only to reform over the rubble as the tail rested on it. "Chopper could probably use some help getting it out to everyone."
Law didn't wait on the Straw Hats for their decision. He DID have people he needed to cure, and he had no time to waste on arguing allies. Hyorinmaru was not his problem, it was just as Toshiro said. Seeing his fellow Captain dart off and hearing Zoro's point, Luffy gave a huff and conceded to their decision.
"Alright, but we'll be right back!" He pointed at Toshiro and said with firm promise in his tone. Then, along with his crew mates, they hurried back to the docks.
"Hopefully by then I have this fixed." Toshiro muttered this more to himself since they were already out of earshot.
He held his blade out before him and in response Hyorinmaru gave an angry hiss, lashing out without any further provocation. The force was the same as a truck slamming into a small statue. But thankfully this statue was sturdier than that, so while Toshiro was pushed back several feet by the force from the blow, his stance did not falter and let him recover quickly.
"I don't want to fight you, Hyorinmaru… not again… but I will if I have to!" The Ice Nobody yelled his challenge to the Heartless, though within his voice was a pang of sadness at their situation. He had done this once before already, thanks to a rogue zanpaktou, and while it bothered him to fight his own spirit partner after all the pain they had already suffered, he was determined to bring him back, just like he had before. Hyorinmaru was a prideful dragon, so it was only power he would respect. Once again Toshiro had to prove he had that power, and maybe once again it would bring Hyorinmaru back to his senses.
Going back a bit, the storm Toshiro first summoned forth with the cure caught the attention of those back at the ship. The odd color of it made Nami narrow her eyes at it suspiciously. What was the odd white-haired child doing with that snow?
She was brought from her musings as a flurry of feathers went past her, causing her to let out a yelp. Dextra paid the noise no mind and continued her slaughter of the Heartless. The Straw Hats had managed to thin out most of the Heartless so that the child wouldn't keep up this attack any longer, but the swarm would slowly replace itself, and it was impossible to keep her out of a fight. Jimbei had tried, his tone calm to get her attention away from bloodlust to a hopefully milder state, but the moment a Heartless made a leap at her or someone just nearby, her feathers ruffled in fury once more and he lost her. Instead he could just do his best to keep her away with stray water sprays to divert her path. The sharp glares she sent at him made him shudder, as no child should look so murderous, but fortunately she did not make him a target.
With the blizzard in the distance, though, they noticed the Heartless stop rising from the shadows whenever they felled the others. They also seemed disoriented, their little heads twisting around and looking, the antennae on the small Shadows twitching as if waiting. This made them much easier to take out, and soon there was just a small batch of them left. Plants were strewn about the road to corral the last of them in, scorch marks on the gravel from controlled weather bursts. Nami and Usopp had made sure to add to the barrage of bullets and water from their stronger members, and Robin helped with pinning the rest down for easier extermination.
"Franky, if you would." Jimbei asked of his cyborg companion, his attention focusing once more on Dextra. This time he was determined to calm her down however best he could.
She went to make a dive at the trapped creatures, but came to a fluttering stop as Jimbei jumped in her way. A grunt of annoyance escaped her throat. Seeing as she hadn't spoken the whole time she had been in this form, Jimbei assumed she either couldn't because of the beak or this odd persona of she just refused to. That mattered little, all he needed was to keep her attention on him, ignoring the sounds of bullets as Franky did as he was asked.
"Dextra, my dear, there is no reason to continue this." The fishman spoke in a soft, soothing tone. He considered himself good with children, but he knew the eagle fruit user had been through a lot and was not in the mindset of a normal child, he would need to tread very carefully. "How about we return to the ship and take a moment to relax ourselves?"
She narrowed her eyes at him before looking behind him. The last of the Heartless were disappearing into black wisps, the floating hearts vanishing into a place none of them could know at that moment. The plants in the area withered away and the multiple sprouting hands popped into a flurry of flower petals that were lost to the winds. There was indeed no more danger here, but Dextra did not lose her feathers, instead perching menacingly on the railing of the submarine and looking back at Jimbei with harsh predatory eyes. The Straw Hats felt uneasy with the harpy girl still waiting to tear something up. How could they return her to the child they knew?
"Dextra!" A small voice came from the ship as the girl's twin rushed out, along with Daniel and Bepo. "Sis, come back!"
"Hey, whoa, stay over here." Shachi and Penguin, having stayed back unable to hurt the monsters with normal weapons, rushed over to the children to stop them from running towards the tense harpy.
"You have no need to remain in that form, child." Jimbei continued speaking to the girl to keep her attention on him. It wasn't too hard, she seemed to ignore the commotion behind her as her twin argued with his elders to approach her, just staring stoically back at the fishman. She wasn't being hostile, but she didn't seem interested in what he had to say, either, as if waiting for a command, a patient predator awaiting their master.
"Whoa, is that a d-d-d-d-DRAGON!?" Usopp's terrified shouting abruptly cut off any activity around the ships as they followed the sniper's pointing. Sure enough, they saw Hyorinmaru as the huge dragon made his dive down to where the others were. They just didn't know it was Hyorinmaru, so they all paled in worry for their companions as they saw the creature flare its wings in challenge and smash a building, huge as it was they could see it fairly well over the two story housing and slightly bigger office buildings.
"Another Heartless?!" Franky scowled over at the shadowy beast.
"Damn it's like Hitsugaya is a magnet for them, does that weird witch want him so bad?" Shachi looked nervous. Unlike their Captain, while they knew of Hyorinmaru, they never got to see what he looked like as a Heartless, only Law having seen the small statue Toshiro had made as an example. Plus, Toshiro had told them all he had control of his dragon, so all they could assume at this point was another enemy.
Feathers flaring back up, Dextra lifted her arms as if to take off, fixated on the giant creature.
"Stop, you must not go there!" Jimbei put more force in his tone this time, worried what would happen if the tiny eagle tried to go against such a monster. It could easily fit her whole in its mouth, he was not about to risk such a scenario if he let her leave. "Luffy, Law and the others will take care of this, as I'm sure they've taken care of the other Heartless."
At his words, Robin seemed to remember something, her eyes lighting up before she hurried back inside the submarine. As this happened, Dextra also seemed to perk up, but her interest was caught by Law's name. She still looked eager to go charging the dragon, but at the mention of Law returned to a waiting position. Jimbei looked a bit confused by this.
"Only Captain can get her out of this state, Jimbei, honestly I'm surprised she's even bothering to listen to you." Penguin explained at the fishman's confused expression. "Ever since Dressrosa, when she becomes a harpy like this, she only obeys Law, and even that took a bit at first. She can't help it; it was just kind of… beaten into her."
Realizing the Heart Pirates all looked tense and fidgety about the topic, the Straw Hats all gulped and let the conversation drop. If what they were told was true, then all they could do was wait for Law.
"Maybe we better go help them." Franky replaced the cola in his fridge-stomach, recharging and ready for some more fighting.
"Ha, no way!" Nami denied immediately. She was not going anywhere near such a monster if she could help it. They saw it charge, fighting with at least someone way out in the city. "It's those three, Brook and Law, they'll be fine."
"And the Soul Reaper kid, he can make blizzards, they're good." Usopp added on, also not keen on taking on a dragon.
"But the dragon looks like it's made of ice." Franky pointed out to counter that Toshiro might not be as effective in this fight. The Heart Pirate engineers shared looks at this, a light going off in their minds.
Opposite of this, Nami waved her hand dismissively. "Then Sanji can take care of it just fine."
Though a little disappointed, Franky settled for continuing to guard the ship. After all, he told himself, there may be yet more Heartless that come their way. He wouldn't leave the Sunny unguarded.
A figure did come running towards them, but it was no Heartless.
"Law?" Nami recognized the tall figure, wondering why he was running so fast, with such an angry look.
The angry look turned to shock the moment he spotted Dextra, skidding to a stop close to Jimbei, the fishman still doing his best to keep her attention on him and away from the dragon. The harpy eagle immediately focused all of her attention on the Captain among them, her earlier predatory stance switching to a submissive bow in his presence, her head down.
"Captain!" Shachi exclaimed.
"We're sorry, Heartless were here, she just came out of the ship like that!" Penguin added.
"Heartless? Here?" Law was no less happy about that news, worried for those inside.
"They came towards us like a swarm, but none of them got past us!" Usopp allowed himself a proud stance as he told the ally Captain this. He did help, so some pride was warranted, but Nami couldn't help a roll of her eyes. "Ah, Luffy?"
"Wait, why are you all coming back?" Book spoke up from the doorway of the submarine as the rest of the Straw Hats returned to their group on the docks, looking back at the dragon which was clearly fighting SOMEONE. Shachi and Penguin were just looking between everyone in confusion. So much was going on. Law was back, so he could stop Dextra, but he had to come back for a different reason. And if they were all here…
"Hitsugaya is handling the dragon." Law voiced their conclusion aloud though not really answering any other questions, putting his attention on Dextra. "The Heartless in control of the Stigma is dead, I need all of you to start getting that cure out, and EVERYONE gets a dose. I'm not taking any chances."
"We'll help too!" Luffy spoke up happily. He didn't seem to notice Dextra's odd behavior, or rather, he chose to ignore it. He knew about it and frankly didn't want to mess with her the way she was now, that was her dad's job. Sanji and Zoro were a little tenser about it, and Brook chose to scooch over to his crew mates by the Sunny to give the harpy a wide berth, but they had other priorities.
Bepo was given the two children to hold onto while the engineers went inside to see how progress was going. Robin already had Chopper prepared, having understood their only obstacle left was gone and meeting the pair halfway out of the ship. Thursday had been given her dose and left inside in peace and quiet to sleep, tears streaming down her face in the silence. Even as the patches lifted from her skin and the pain eased from her body, the pain in her heart only grew sharper. Chopper felt helpless, not being able to cheer her up, but Robin made the right choice to gather up the cure and let her be for now.
As they set about making sure every Heart Pirate still waiting tense and nervous inside was given a dose to ensure they had absolutely no possible Stigma left, outside Law set about trying to bring Dextra out of her current persona.
"Are you certain Hitsugaya should be left on his own against such a monster?" Jimbei questioned the surgeon with some concern for the odd child.
"It's his dragon, even if we wanted to help he made it very clear he doesn't want any of us attacking him." Law responded stoically.
While the Straw Hats not present over at the fight all gaped at this information, Law was about to give the order for Dextra to cease her hostility when…