Chapter 10: Twilight Town: Captain Strength

Toshiro stepped up to the heavily locked gate, sensing Naminé inside the large building. What was she doing here?

"You know something." Pence's voice reached their ears and Roxas jumped in surprise, Toshiro tensing at the sudden noise. He hated not being able to sense the virtual characters. "We were gonna check out the mansion tomorrow. It IS the most suspicious place."

"What is this place?" Toshiro questioned.

"Dunno, but it's been here, unoccupied, for years." Pence shrugged and stepped up beside Roxas, Toshiro staying at the gate and trying to pinpoint Naminé. "Seifer's gang was gonna help check it out."

"Seifer?" Roxas looked startled by this.

"Hayner asked him to." Pence smirked at Roxas's incredulous face.

"So…what are we looking for?"

"They say there's a girl at the second floor window, even though no one lives here."

Toshiro turned his gaze quickly to the window with white curtains, finally spotting Naminé. Her focus was on Roxas and her eyes seemed glazed over. Perhaps he could use a quick Kido spell on the lock to get inside and speak with her. It would help to get more real information from the Nobody instead of Diz's recent roundabout answers.

"Roxas?" Pence's voice caught Toshiro's attention and he turned to glance at them.

The boy's eyes were also glazed over, staring up at Naminé's figure. The Captain glanced between the two blonde haired Nobodies. Was this some kind of telepathy that Naminé was using? He didn't know she could do that, Diz never answered questions about who she was, only that she was the key to getting Sora's memories back together.

"What's going on, he won't answer?" Pence started to panic a little, turning back to Toshiro.

He was gone.

"Toshiro? Toshiro!" now Pence was panicked. Was the mansion truly haunted? He turned back to Roxas. "Roxas, wake up!"

"Huh?" Roxas looked at his friend, confused. Though it had been a short time, he felt like he'd been talking to Naminé for a while. "Oh, I saw the-"

"Toshiro's missing."

The white haired Captain had used the brief moment of distraction to leap over the gate and use Flash Step to get inside quickly. Now that he was in he started towards the stairs at the far end, wanting to speak with Naminé. There didn't seem to be any Nobodies around but he kept his guard up, hand resting on Hyorinmaru's hilt to draw at the slightest sign of a white body.

He moved up the stairs and to the left, heading for the room with the white curtains. Though still cautious, he was beginning to think there weren't any Nobodies in the mansion.

He froze as Diz appeared before him.

"What do you plan on finding in here, Hitsugaya?" Diz asked innocently.

"You know full well what I want." Toshiro replied. "Step aside."

"I'm sorry, I can't do that."

"Why? What is Naminé?"

Diz narrowed his visible eyes dangerously at the white haired Captain.

"I can trap you in this world forever if you step out of line." Diz warned.

"I assure you I can find my own way out."

"I doubt you can, considering it's easy to block off all exits to the real world."

Now Toshiro narrowed his eyes dangerously, Spiritual Pressure rising and causing the large central room to drop to freezing levels. Diz being virtual, however, he felt nothing. But he did see the results on his screen and widened his eyes in surprise. Toshiro had let his power rise before but not like this. It was already surpassing what he'd recorded from his battle with Axel. Just a little higher and he'd break the system, causing both he and Roxas to be ejected from the virtual world.

He considered Toshiro's warning taken and removed his virtual player from in front of Hitsugaya. But, Ansem had already taken Naminé from the virtual world, leaving Toshiro with no one to speak with.

Sensing that Naminé was no longer in the room, Toshiro growled and began to head back out of the mansion. No point in heading towards an empty room.

In the real world, Diz turned to Ansem.

"Please tell me you found something."

"Yes." Ansem replied and pulled up a data file. It showed a figure in black, similar to the outfit Toshiro had been wearing when he'd first arrived, a sword strapped at the waist. "He's one of them."

"That can't be right; he was wearing something else over that when he arrived." Diz scanned through the data quickly, taking in all the information. When he spotted what he was looking for his eyes widened considerably. "Impossible…He's a…"

Ansem, having also been reading, paled considerably as he realized just what they were dealing with.

"Is it possible to access their records?" Ansem questioned.

"I don't know but I'm sure going to try." Diz replied, typing away rapidly on his keyboard. "I need to see just what kind of power Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya has."

Said Captain had returned to his temporary room after checking with the others to calm their panic. He didn't expect anyone to worry so much about his disappearance.

There was a knock on his door.

"Just a moment, Roxas." Toshiro replied and grabbed Hyorinmaru from his place on the wall before stepping outside. "Come on, I think training in the underground passageways would be a better idea."

"But Vivi trains there." Roxas countered.

"Not today, I heard he's out with the others at Sunset Hill."

"Oh…"

To be honest, Roxas was looking forward to the training. Toshiro had told him the plan of bringing out the ice Keyblade once more, though he didn't give details about why it did that when Hitsugaya touched it, and wanted to see what kind of powers he could use. If only he could find out how to keep the Keyblade that way. Apparently it only stayed like that for a little while.

They reached the open area where Vivi usually trained and Toshiro ordered Roxas to summon the Keyblade. Once done, Toshiro placed his hand on the blade. Roxas's eyes widened as the Keyblade absorbed icy-white energy from Toshiro's body into itself.

After waiting about five seconds Toshiro let go and the Keyblade reverted to the ice dragon from.

"Wow." Roxas breathed, examining the icy blade closely. The dragon's teeth looked far sharper than the crown of the original Keyblade and would definitely be good for cutting. "So, why does it do that?"

"It's copying my blade." Toshiro replied, unsheathing Hyorinmaru. "Remember, I was able to create ice and water with this blade, the Keyblade is giving that power a form." 'No need to tell him about Hyorinmaru.'

'Will you tell Sora?' Hyorinmaru questioned.

'That depends.'

"And you can teach me how to use it, right?" Roxas looked excited before seeming to remember something and returning to a calm expression. He was remembering what Naminé had told him, that he was only half of Sora and that he needed to give everything back. He didn't want to. No, he wouldn't. He would use what Toshiro taught him to remain his own person.

"That depends." Toshiro shrugged to Roxas's question. "It may have the same abilities or it may not, only one way to find out."

"How?"

"What I'm about to show you stays between us. It is also why I wanted to use the underground." Toshiro held his blade out in front of him.

"Surely you don't intend to use that power here, Captain." A voice said and both boys whipped around to see Diz, Toshiro wondering when Diz had been told of his rank. "You'll ruin this world with that."

Though Roxas looked confused and angry, Toshiro understood the hidden meaning; releasing Hyorinmaru would cause the virtual world to shatter. He didn't know if that would trap him in data or eject him from the system, but either way he couldn't do it.

Still, he wasn't on friendly terms with the man yet and spun the summoned chain-blade in his hands before tossing it at Diz, only for the man to vanish. The message was sent and Toshiro had understood, there was no need for him to stay.

"Do you think he meant what he said?" Roxas turned to Toshiro, the icy Keyblade still in hand. "Will Twilight Town be ruined?"

"It's possible." Toshiro mused aloud. "There's more to my blade than the wave of ice-water you saw before, it's likely it could cause some damage."

"Oh…" The blonde looked at the Keyblade in his hand, wondering if it was just as powerful. "Well, can you teach me how to use it without using your blade?"

There was a moment of silence as Toshiro thought about that. Never had he needed to teach anyone his own abilities; they were unique to him and couldn't be taught to others. Plus, Roxas couldn't simply dive into his Inner World and speak to Hyorinmaru since the Keyblade wasn't the ice dragon, so it couldn't be learned that way.

"I can try." Toshiro nodded.

With some adjustments to the kind of training he himself had gone through, Toshiro managed to teach Roxas how to shoot an ice dragon from the tip of the Keyblade, though Roxas's dragons were lighter in color, almost white. He also taught Roxas how to quickly remove the ice so the area could be cleared and no one would find giant spikes of ice in the underground, people like Vivi coming to train.

Toshiro cut the training short, eager to speak with Diz. He'd never told the man of his rank as Captain or of what he was, yet Diz seemed to know it. He wanted to know how much he knew and how he knew it. He lagged behind Roxas before finding a secluded area and staying put after the boy left the area. There, he waited, knowing either Diz or Ansem would eventually reveal themselves.

Sure enough, Diz's virtual form appeared before him.

"How do you know I'm a Captain?" Toshiro demanded immediately, teal eyes narrowing.

"Rather direct, aren't we Soul Reaper?" Diz replied, emphasizing the last two words. "I found some old files on your kind in the databases after hearing about your zanpaktou. The word seemed familiar and it was, as I've run into a Soul Reaper or two before."

"The Soul Society has no records of other worlds." Toshiro countered.

"Of course not, they sealed themselves and their connecting realms off from the rest of the worlds centuries ago. The Soul Reapers I met had been off world when they closed the paths and were trapped. They eventually became Keybearers."

Toshiro's eyes widened considerably.

"You're saying that the Keyblade was originally a zanpaktou?" His voice held obvious disbelief.

"More like the Keyblade first chose Soul Reapers as their masters, merging with the zanpaktou. There's a whole story behind it, one I don't have memorized. However, to be blunt, Keyblades and zanpaktous have very similar purposes, the difference being that Keyblades also have the ability to open any lock, including one's heart. Not the anatomical one, the heart where emotions and memories are stored."

"If the first Keyblades were formed after the Soul Society cut itself off, therefore trapping Soul Reapers outside the realms, then how come you met Soul Reapers? You can't be that old."

"My goodness, no." Diz chuckled slightly and Toshiro scowled. "You're not the first Soul Reaper to be dragged out of your realm by the darkness, and most likely won't be the last. You see, your world tends to weaken its shield occasionally when the balance of spirits fluctuates, causing a temporary rift that allows the darkness to enter. Once the barrier stabilizes it dies off, but it tends to take a Soul Reaper or two with it."

"So I can't go home?" Toshiro felt his heart sink slightly at this but hid it expertly.

"There might be a way to temporarily open the barrier using the Keyblade." Diz replied. "I don't have any knowledge of how to do that, however, so I unfortunately cannot help you.

"Now, back to our earlier topic of how I knew what you were. Once I realized you were a Soul Reaper I did a bit more digging through the information we do have on you. The fact that you were wearing a white haori means you are a Captain, one of the thirteen strongest people in the Soul Society."

"Correct." Toshiro nodded.

"The number on your back marked you as the Squad Ten Captain, and I happened to meet a member of your squad, though when I heard anything about you from him he said you were a third seat."

"I used to be, I was appointed Captain only a few decades ago when the former Captain vanished."

"I see. He barely mentioned you, but I do recall him saying how powerful your Hyorinmaru was, and that you were a prodigy."

"They call me a prodigy, yes. And as I said, Hyorinmaru is the strongest ice and water type zanpaktou in the Soul Society."

"And if possible, I would like if you used that power to put a stop to Organization XIII."

"I only want to go home."

The two figures stared each other down, Diz feeling rather overwhelmed now that he knew this 'child' was probably three times his own age, and he was starting to feel the weariness of his age, and far more powerful than he could imagine.

"I'll think about it." Toshiro finally replied.

"Thank you, Captain." Diz bowed respectfully to hopefully ease the Captain's dislike towards him before removing his character and relaxing in the real world, glad that was over with. One wrong move and Toshiro might have decided to break the virtual world.

Toshiro sighed; the faster he could leave this world the better.

So Diz figures out just who he's dealing with and Toshiro learns that Keyblades and zanpaktous aren't so different...and that there's possibly another Soul Reaper running around the worlds. *insert creepy music*

That aside, Roxas is learning how to use the icy Keyblade (name comes later with Sora). Wonder how this will go. Enjoy!