"You best get off my ship." Law growled at the Human-Mink, using every bit of his intimidation and authority. The angel user shrunk under his gaze yet stayed where she was, a look of apology on her face. But Law wanted no apology from her. Tricked or not, she put his crew in danger and tried to take his children from him, and no amount of ignorance would let him forgive that.
Dextra went into full animal form before landing on the railing behind Tebliel, wings spread in intimidation. Tebliel whipped around to her with surprise, the huge eagle quite a terrifying sight. No one could take her older sister away, and no one could get away with attacking her friends, Toshiro included among them. Law made no command to stop her.
Just past them, the Marine ship rocked violently as Hyorinmaru knocked Maleficent down, aiming to tear through her neck once he had her pinned, but a breath of fire backed him off. He stumbled back, the ship rocking the other way. Standing, Maleficent whipped her tail around, knocking the Heartless off completely. Snarling, Hyorinmaru dove into the water.
"Did she win?" Coby grimaced, concerned they would have to fight her themselves.
"Hardly, Maru is right where he wants to be." Zoro smirked. Coby looked between them for an explanation, but they didn't need to give him one.
The Marine ship was lifted up into the air, almost completely flipped over, Hyorinmaru's head having slammed into it from underneath. He was now easily bigger than the Marine ships. Maleficent stumbled from the violent movement of the ship, able to keep her footing using the cabin walls as a temporary floor until the front end dropped back into the water. She had to wait until the ship steadied before she could focus on anything else, and in the meantime, Hyorinmaru's huge jaws snatched at the ship, tearing right through the metal, barely missing the other dragon as she moved aside. If she took a bite like that she would be in huge trouble. Fighting Hyorinmaru in the sea had been a terrible decision, she had just grown tired of running. Her green fire seemed to be nothing more than a bother to him in his current size, though it did make him snarl and try to snap at her again. Flames not working fast enough, she pounced him while his jaws were busy with the metal, clawing off his icy armor and making him reel back.
"No wonder she wants to control him." Tebliel muttered as she watched the drakes fight, eyes wide. The fear of Hyorinmaru only increased, knowing that dragon could easily turn on her once he knew the angel user's connection to Maleficent. And he was using the water to his advantage, meaning as a Devil Fruit user she had no chance. The only thing even keeping up the Marine ship at this point was Maleficent's magic, since she couldn't fly, the vessel torn and broken by the Heartless.
"And you tried to help her with that." Thursday accused, Tebliel turning back to her as if just remembering where she was.
"I-I didn't know…I just wanted to help you. She saved me… from an auction house… she acted like she cared about helping children and I wanted to do the same so no one had to be like me. I didn't realize she was the reason those monsters are even here, she said it was the Nobody doing it."
"Toshiro can't summon Heartless, he only has Hyorinmaru because that's his other half, Papa's trying to turn him back to his normal self so they can stop people like Maleficent."
"I… I didn't know…"
"Clearly." Law scoffed, not accepting the excuse. "Now get off."
"I just…" Tebliel moved towards the edge, wings opening to leave, but cast one last glance at Thursday. The older girl did look sympathetic, but said nothing to help her. Law stepped between them with a scowl; Doflamingo had already taken them once, doing permanent mental damage to one, and he lost another to the Heartless, he wasn't about to let either situation happen again, no matter what good intentions the Human-Mink had.
Tebliel made no further argument, looking a bit scared, and took off. They watched her go high up into the air before turning back to the dragons.
A burst of lightning came off the Sunny, where they turned to see Toshiro had a hand held up, using Kido. The attack slammed into Maleficent's side, preventing her from striking at Hyorinmaru's face again as the Heartless took another chunk out of the ship. She hissed in fury, emerald eyes turning to look at the Nobody as her next target, darkness lashing out at him. He tensed, knowing what that darkness intended to do, but was surprised when a bolt of lightning from a different source dispersed it.
"Do I hit that smaller dragon next, master?" Zeus the thundercloud looked to Nami.
"Go for it!" The navigator grinned, looking proud of herself. Toshiro sent her a silent thanks, to which she winked back, and focused back on his dragon.
"Try some of this!" Usopp shot something over, the seed bursting into a huge plant shaped like a wolf with a bright red nose. "Midori Boshi: Impact Wolf!"
Maleficent turned to the wolf plant in surprise, not expecting anything like it, and took the hit to her side. The seed that made its nose explode into a shockwave, knocking her off her feet and stunning her.
"I don't think I've seen that one." Toshiro said to the sniper, impressed.
"I've got tons more!" Usopp smirked, ready to grab another pop green if the dark fairy turned dragon got back up.
Hyorinmaru wasn't going to let her recover, smashing his body down and completely crushing the Marine ship while she couldn't hold it up with her magic. He, the ship, and any sight of Maleficent all vanished under the water.
"Well, it's unfortunate I lost my ship, but it could have been worse." Coby said with a nervous laugh. "Fortunately it looks like no one got too hurt."
"Coby!" Helmeppo called out, the remaining two ships having sailed around to be behind the Sunny out of range of the fighting dragons. Now that things seemed safer, they moved closer to get their commanding officer off the pirate ship.
Just before Coby moved over to his soldiers, the water churned, green fire lifting back into the sky. Maleficent was not done, but she seemed to decide this was too much trouble to continue and the fire took off away from them before Zeus could attack, likely to find a place to recover her energy. Hyorinmaru returned above the waves as well, much smaller so as to fit on the Thousand Sunny. Coby watched the dragon warily, Hyorinmaru returning the gaze, remaining quiet, waiting to be provoked.
"I am sorry we shot at you." Coby spoke first, holding his hands up slightly with a light smile to show he meant no threat. "It's been made very apparent you are unlike normal Heartless."
The dragon gave a snort.
"He's not happy about it, but he understands why you did it." Toshiro translated. "Under different circumstance we might have been working together, so I know me traveling with pirates is less than ideal."
"And yet you have still risked it all to keep people safe." Coby's kind smile was unexpected considering everyone else Toshiro had met so far. Compared to the cautious Fujitora, Coby completely trusted him, and was even okay with being on a pirate ship.
"There is… something I'd like to ask you to do… before you go." The Nobody's cautious tone made Coby tilt his head in question. He was briefly distracted as Law appeared on board using his powers, along with Dextra – back to human form – Thursday and Bepo, but otherwise kept his attention on Toshiro's request. His soldiers observed carefully, hands still on triggers just in case, especially since Law was more likely to lash out at their Captain than Luffy since the latter was a friend of Coby's.
Holding his left hand out, Toshiro brought back his Keyblade. Now that they weren't worrying about Heartless, Coby got a better look at it, realizing just how strange a weapon it was.
"I think you have one of these now." Toshiro said, holding his in front of him.
"Eh!?" Several pirates exclaimed in surprise while Coby still looked confused.
"When you picked this up earlier, I saw it glow. The last time it did that, the one who was holding it awakened their own." He left out the person's name, as he rightly guessed telling the Marines that Shanks had a new magical weapon would not bode well in the future. It would not bode well for him now, either, if they knew he gave a new power to a Pirate Emperor.
"What is it?" Coby was intrigued, but still completely lost about what it was he was being told and why the Straw Hats looked so shocked.
Getting better at explaining the Keyblade and its purpose, it didn't take long for the Nobody to summarize everything for the Marine to understand. Or, at the least, to understand the same amount Toshiro did.
"Amazing, so normally only these things could destroy the Heartless?" Coby had more appreciation of the news now.
"That's one of their bigger purposes. I don't know when you will awaken yours or what you can do with it, it changes per person and I'm by no means an expert, but you are at least capable of using it now."
"These things are picky, aren't they?" Sanji observed, holding onto the Keyblade when Toshiro allowed him to only for it to return to its master quickly, the cook scowling. He was not a chosen it seemed.
"Which is why I'm surprised it passed on to two different people in less than a week." Toshiro agreed with him.
"Well, I wish I could have time to learn more from you, but now that things have blown over I'm afraid I'll have to be on my way." Coby did look a little disappointed he couldn't get some training with this Keyblade – if it was indeed there – but still offered a friendly smile, grateful for the information he did get. "If I remain I'll have to take up arms before anyone gets suspicious."
"Yes, it would not be ideal if we had to fight." Jimbei returned the grin, realizing now why Luffy and the others still liked Coby despite being on opposite sides.
Once again, Coby's shift back to his own ships was halted, this time by a flutter of wings. Tebliel had come back, still feeling obliged to apologize for her actions, especially to the one she manipulated and the one she had targeted. She had hesitated, seeing as Law and the two children from earlier were on the Sunny now, but after hearing about the Keyblades and their purpose she wanted more than ever to apologize, realizing just how wrong her thoughts about Toshiro had been. He was anything but evil.
As soon as she came in sight, Hyorinmaru startled them all with an angry snarl in her direction, the air turning bitter cold as the dragon gave her ample warning to leave. It was the Human-Mink's fault they were in this situation, that his master had been targeted and himself shot, he would not forgive easily.
"Wait, Hyorinmaru, let's not do that yet." Toshiro responded to whatever dark thoughts the dragon had, as the Nobody had noticed Tebliel was not here in a hostile sense, currently cowering under the dragon's golden glare.
"She was told to leave." Dextra argued, an angry scowl on her own face as she returned to eagle form despite her captain's protests, flying over closer to Tebliel in a threatening manner. This one had tried to take her older sibling away, had come after her family, she was lucky Dextra didn't go full harpy and take her out.
Coby looked at the eagle with wide eyes, now able to recognize her from the Wanted posters.
"So you're the one who was with Doflamingo." He spoke aloud.
Dextra stiffened at the name, looking at Coby in surprise. Law scowled; this is exactly what he wanted to avoid, but she had insisted on coming to check on everyone, promising to behave. Tebliel returning had thrown that out the window.
Noticing the reaction these two had, Toshiro had an important piece to the puzzle that was Dextra's odd behaviors and a nightmare of Law's past. There was still more to know, but having a name was a huge step.
"I-I'm sorry, I was going to leave, I just wanted to-to apologize." Tebliel's quiet, nervous voice reminded them she was still there.
"You almost got us killed!" Chopper snapped back.
"And controlled Coby!" Usopp added just as loudly, the man mentioned looking a bit sullen at the reminder. Tebliel flinched at both accusations, curling her wings slightly around her as if to hide.
"I just… I thought that… I thought I was helping…"
"If you'd like to help, we could always use some information on that Maleficent woman, and you were closest to her." Coby offered, his kind smile ever present.
"But… I manipulated you…" The angel user looked surprised, as did a few others.
"That's true, Coby, are you sure you should be trusting her!?" Helmeppo called over with a scowl on his face.
"Well then, I'll guess you'll have to make it up to me." The Marine Captain said to the Human-Mink with a small laugh. "Besides, these guys don't look too happy with you, so I'm just doing my duty to protect a citizen who escaped an evil master." He winked.
Tebliel looked over the pirates briefly. The majority of them were still glaring at her, and she could sense their hostility, especially from the dragon, Dextra and Law. Though shocked, she had to admit going with Coby was the safest option; she didn't know how far away another island was to be flying off on her own.
"O-okay." She agreed.
Now that the interruptions were over, Coby was able to rejoin his men, Tebliel following them in a subdued manner, Helmeppo watching her closely. The two pirate ships remained anchored for a moment longer while the Marines headed off, moving out of sight over the horizon.
"Jeez, we'll never catch a break will we?" Usopp seemed to deflate as he relaxed the tension out of his body and fell onto the grass.
"I can still leave." Toshiro replied, though this time his words didn't have any weight behind them.
"Not without Maru." Nami said with a wink, holding up a plate of watermelon treats. Zeus was in a tiny cloud form munching on some thunder infused weather orbs. It seemed bribing with treats was her ultimate technique.
Shifting into his smaller form, the dragon darted over to land on her shoulder, long draconic neck allowing him to grab one before she moved it away.
"Traitor." The Nobody grumbled at his partner.
'They're good.' Hyorinmaru argued.
"The great Heavenly Guardian trained to Nami's will." Brook couldn't help a chuckle.
Normally the dragon would growl and argue, but as Nami offered another treat he chose to ignore the comment instead, only serving to prove the skeleton right.
"I would appreciate if you didn't spoil him." Toshiro sighed.
"I'm not spoiling him; I'm just making an offering to our guardian spirit." The navigator winked again.
"You're a thief!"
"We should probably get a move on before any other Marines show up." Law cut in, looking somewhat irritated, though whether it was them or Coby recognizing Dextra they weren't sure. The eagle child was back to her human self, looking a bit spooked.
"But we gotta celebrate beating dragon lady!" Luffy argued. By the drool around his mouth it was clear he just wanted an excuse to eat a ton of food.
"We didn't even beat her, she ran off!" Sanji pointed out to the Captain.
"That's still beating her!"
"I am kind of hungry." Brook patted where his stomach would be.
"Same." Franky added with a grin.
"I'll help you Sanji!" Thursday offered, Law watching with disapproval as Sanji accepted making the feast only after her suggestion.
"Let's raise anchor while they work on the food." Robin said with a smile up to Franky. He saluted her and went to go do just that.
Satisfied they were at least moving on like he wanted, Law used his Room to return to his own ship, allowing Dextra and Bepo to stay with the Straw Hats, the latter looking excited for some grilled fish.
Seeing that Dextra hadn't hurried over to join everyone like the Mink, Toshiro approached her.
"Judging by your reaction, this Doflamingo is the one you were mentioning to me before?" He asked her quietly, not wanting to push her if it made her uncomfortable.
She nodded slightly.
"He's our Aizen basically." Her voice was small, almost hard to hear with the rowdy Straw Hats behind him. "Like that Captain said… Doflamingo was the one to train me as the harpy. And he did a lot of bad things to Papa when he was little, so the way that man trained me upsets Papa a lot. That's why he hates using the commands, cause that man was really… twisted."
"You don't have to explain further, I just wanted to confirm things." Toshiro reached over and patted her head. He had noticed this helped calm her sometimes when her siblings or Law did it. He used to do it for Momo as well when she was truly upset. "He told me a few things while we were studying the Heartless, since I told everyone about what happened with Aizen."
"He told you about Corazon?" Dextra looked surprised; Law had a hard time talking about those days.
"Very vaguely, and not with any names, but I assume that's who he meant, yes. Mostly he mentioned how he had lost a sister and a mentor as well and understood why I got so upset a few days back talking about it. You and the Straw Hats weren't the only ones trying to help me." He smiled briefly. "We were able to relate to each other for a bit, and surprisingly that helped."
"I'm… I'm glad." Dextra grinned, her sadness starting to fade away. "You do seem to feel a lot better recently, other than the nightmares."
"Yes, unfortunately no amount of personal talks with everyone will stop those." The Nobody sighed. "But I promise I won't try to run off or anything bad, not anymore."
"Good!"
"Ouch! Maru, why'd you bite me!?" Luffy's angry cry made them turn back to the others. Apparently Luffy had tried to snatch a treat, too impatient to wait for Sanji and Thursday to feed him. As a result, Hyorinmaru had snapped at him. The dragon growled back in response.
"Don't worry, Maru, there's plenty for you~." Nami cooed to the Heartless, and Toshiro was startled to see her petting the dragon without any aggressive response. In fact, Hyorinmaru seemed to purr.
"Oi!" Toshiro scowled, irritated she had somehow tamed his partner.
Normally, Toshiro would have kept to himself, but he found himself pulled in before he knew it, trying to get his dragon to leave Nami as the navigator continued to entice the Heartless with watermelon candies. Chopper and Usopp poked fun at the Reaper where they dared, Toshiro scowling at them but presenting no threat. Dextra, hoping to help, showed off her own thief skills as she snatched the candies from Nami and brought them over to Toshiro, his dragon following quickly, and the Nobody smirked at the startled Nami, high-fiving the eagle girl. Luffy laughed as he watched before trying to take some of the candies for himself again, only to pull his hand away when Hyorinmaru gave him an ice cold bite, again. Don't steal from a dragon. The Straw Hat Captain challenged the dragon, Toshiro laughing when his partner refused out of spite.
As the feast came out of the kitchen, the festivities were split between the two ships, members of each crew on both ships. Brook's music echoed into the sky along with cheers and laughter. It was the first time Toshiro had actually felt like participating, even if he didn't join in with drinks. The darkness was still there, lingering in the back of his thoughts, trying to drag him back to the state he was in a few days back that had scared everyone. But it was much easier to ignore that now. He trusted these pirates, something that was very, VERY hard for him to do… and it changed everything.