Chapter 12: Twilight Town: Goodbye, Roxas

The pair entered the library in silence, Toshiro's sharp eyes catching onto a familiar drawing on the table. Carefully he approached it, pulling out the paper drawing he'd pocketed earlier as he did so. Roxas watched as he set the paper next to the drawing, the two almost identical save for the missing symbol on the bottom of the drawing on the table. It was a crown shape, similar to the teeth on Roxas's Keyblade. One of the other symbols was the strange shape found on the head of the Nobodies, with three spikes on top and rounded edges on bottom. The third was a heart, the bottom ends curling up.

"Well, I can see why Naminé dropped this now." Toshiro said and grabbed the yellow crayon lying on the table, quickly drawing in the crown symbol in the bottom circle.

Once he finished, the three circles lit up in a bright white light.

'I suggest you move.' Hyorinmaru warned with a growling tone.

He looked down and noticed the light was spreading outwards along the floor beneath them. Roxas looked stunned but Toshiro acted quickly, grabbing onto his arm and Flash Stepping to the edge where the light didn't touch. When he let go of Roxas, the Nobody fell in a slight daze.

"How do you move that fast?" He asked as the floor vanished, table with it, revealing a blue colored room with wires and metal coverings, a set of stairs leading down into it.

"Something all my kind can do." Toshiro replied and peered over the edge, noticing two doors, though one had pipes and broken metal plates barring the way. At least they knew where to go.

"What are you, exactly?"

Toshiro glanced at Roxas before heading down the stairs. He heard Roxas follow behind him quickly, the Keyblade appearing in his hands again, though the ice form had worn off again.

"Are you gonna-" Roxas began, annoyed.

"I'm a Soul Reaper." Toshiro cut him off, stopping at the door to the inside.

"Soul Reaper?"

"Yes. It means I'm technically dead."

He heard Roxas gulp behind him and stepped inside to see a small room with a platform, a laser above it, and multiple computer screens in the corner. Another door led further in and he was about to head that way when Roxas stepped towards the computers.

'This is a mirror version of the room we appeared in.' Hyorinmaru reported.

'Diz is probably in the real one, waiting for Roxas to get a move on.' His master mused.

On that note he turned back to Roxas, noticing the blonde was holding his head in pain.

"Roxas?" He called out but got no response.

Toshiro watched Roxas carefully, wondering what it was that was making him hurt like that. When the blonde fell to his knees he rushed over and looked to see if maybe a Nobody had wounded him and inserted some kind of poison. He saw none and returned to observing, not knowing how to help him.

Finally the pain went away, replaced with rage in Roxas's dark blue eyes.

"Roxas, what happened?" Toshiro demanded, taking a step away from the blonde to give him room to stand.

"I remember now." He growled in reply. "I remember what happened to me, how they stuck me in this machine."

The Keyblade appeared in his hand and Toshiro took another step back, not wanting to get in the way of Roxas's rage towards Diz and Ansem.

"I can't believe they did that!" The blonde snarled and promptly began to smash the computers.

Toshiro reached out and grabbed Roxas's hand, preventing him from hitting the monitors again.

"How about you direct that rage at the enemy, not at inanimate objects?" He said to him, teal eyes hard as Roxas glared at him for getting in the way. "I can sense Axel approaching."

"Axel?"

"Yes, and by the rise in his Spiritual Pressure it's obvious he's not happy. You can expect he'll do his best to take you out this time."

"Spiritual…Pressure?" The rage slowly left Roxas's eyes, replaced with curiosity.

"No time to explain, he'll come in here if we don't hurry."

The white haired Captain returned to the door and stepped inside, seeing a spacious room with glowing green lines tracing a pattern on the floor. The Nobodies were close and Toshiro decided this room was better for fighting in than the computer room, stopping in place with Roxas at his side.

"Be ready." Toshiro warned, taking a moment to grab onto Roxas's Keyblade.

When the first Nobody rose up from the ground he let go, calculating that Roxas had seven minutes before the Keyblade reverted back, plenty of time to get rid of the Nobodies and move on before Axel showed up.

"Way of Destruction Number Four, Pale Lightning!" He chanted, shooting the Kido out and killing off two Nobodies close together before jumping forward with Roxas to strike down the next few.

The spike-armed Nobodies soon made an appearance as well, being harder to kill thanks to how they moved through the floor. There were also tiny Nobodies able to shift themselves into various weapons, including swords and spears, and even shield themselves. These were also difficult to work around but with the right counter they could manage.

Ice had spread itself along the floor, creating slippery footing for Roxas who wasn't used to it, and was thickening on the walls in spikes that were useful for throwing Nobodies into. As the Nobodies finally began to thin out, Toshiro noticed the ice Roxas had made was quickly melting, while his own was beginning to liquefy as well at a slower pace. That could only mean Axel was nearby and getting rid of the cold with his power. He quickly calculated how long they'd been fighting; two and a half minutes. Roxas had a little over four minutes left with the icy Keyblade.

"Simply amazing, Roxas." Axel said with a snappy tone as he entered the room from a portal, his power quickly melting the ice around them into a pool of water on the floor. Toshiro took out the last Nobody quickly and turned to face Axel next to Roxas.

"Axel." Roxas said back to the red-head.

"So you do remember me this time?" Axel turned a glare on them. "I'm so FLATTERED!"

At his shout, fire lit up in a circle around them, the heat immediately evaporating the water and weakening Toshiro as he was surrounded in exhausting flames.

"But you're too late!" The Nobody growled out, smirking as he noticed Toshiro back away from the flames with a slight stumble.

Roxas gave his white haired friend a worried glance before turning back to Axel, releasing the icy blade and instead reaching to his side as though grabbing a sheathed blade. Moving his hand back out, a different Keyblade came to his hands. It was white, the teeth in a star shape with yellow at the ends and white wings at the hilt, a silver keychain with a star made out of seashells.

"A different Keyblade…" Toshiro mused aloud.

Teal eyes widened as Roxas used his other hand and summoned a second one, this one black with black dragon wings at the hilt, a chain traveling up the shaft to the piercing black teeth made of sharp black swirls.

"Two?!" Axel looked surprised as well, before he growled and summoned his chakrams to his hands in a flash of fire and darkness. His head was bowed for a brief moment before he lifted it with a smirk. "Burn, baby!"

The floor became red hot and fire lifted up, weakening the ice Captain even more from the heat.

"Just hang on, Toshiro." Roxas called back as Toshiro held his head in pain, raising his Spiritual Pressure as much as he could to counter the heat, creating a small ring of cooled metal around him to protect him from the fire.

Roxas launched forward with his two Keyblades and struck at the man he used to call best friend, Axel fighting back with just as much vigor as the blonde. All his skills were back, much to Axel's dislike and he eventually knocked the red-head into the air before jumping up after him. They clashed blades several times before Roxas got the upper hand and sent the man crashing into the ground, flipping away to Toshiro's side as the floor returned to normal, the flames surrounding them lessening as Toshiro's icy Spiritual Pressure took advantage of its weakness.

"Don't think this is over!" Axel snarled as he shot back up to his feet and threw a flaming chakram.

"Reign over the Frosted Heavens, Hyorinmaru!" Toshiro shouted out and sent the ice dragon straight towards Axel.

The two projectiles clashed midair, creating an explosion of steamy water that weakened the fire around them. Axel simply made it stronger before lighting himself aflame and jumping towards Toshiro.

"Don't even think about it." The ice Captain growled and pulled the chain-blade back to him.

Axel's eyes widened, not having noticed Toshiro throw it behind him. However he didn't have time to move as it wrapped around his body and began to slowly spread ice, causing the fire Nobody an immense amount of pain. Using all the power he could he melted the ice off and broke free of the chain, Toshiro quickly sealing his blade as he noticed the virtual world glitch terribly around them.

"Tch, you're one stubborn brat." Axel growled at the white haired child. Toshiro replied with a cold glare.

"Axel…" Roxas said sadly, noticing how tired out the man was. The fire around them had vanished.

"Heh," Axel smirked at him, "let's meet again in the next life."

The blonde nodded sadly as the Nobody faded away in darkness. However, Toshiro didn't think he was dead. He didn't vanish the way other Nobodies did and that was a cause for concern. Was this a trap?

"I'll stay here and make sure there are no more Nobodies." Toshiro turned to Roxas. "You move on."

"Okay, thanks." Roxas released the two Keyblades and proceeded to the next room.

Once the blonde was out of sight, Toshiro let out a pent up sigh. That fire took more out of him than he liked and not being able to fight at full power was a problem. He cursed being put into this virtual world. He sat down and put Hyorinmaru on his lap to rest a moment while keeping his senses alert for any Nobodies on the prowl.

'Let's hope he's the last of the fire kind.' Hyorinmaru rumbled.

'We'll just have to assume there's more.' Toshiro sighed in reply.

There was a shift in power in Roxas's direction.

"It's started."

Diz looked at Roxas with new eyes, Toshiro's actions having forced him to rethink his opinion of Roxas. The boy had just tried to attack him after he called Roxas nothing more than a tool. However, Roxas stopped after the first attack failed.

"My apologies." Diz said, testing him. "This is only a data-based projection."

"Right, because you're afraid of Toshiro." Roxas growled and Diz turned to face him with a glare. "I'm right, aren't I? You won't bring your real self anywhere near a Soul Reaper."

"He told you what he is?"

"Yeah, which is a lot more than can be said for you."

"Hmph, I see no reason to say anything to a Nobody."

"Then shut up and get on with it." The blonde turned away. "I would actually like to help my friends, and only Sora can get Toshiro home."

Diz's eyes widened in shock at that statement. The boy was actually willing to disappear for the sake of someone he only thought he knew?

"It seems Captain Hitsugaya has had some rather good influence on you, Roxas." Diz said and then vanished in a flash of numbers. "Sora is waiting."

Roxas felt his non-existent heart sink, but carried on for Toshiro's sake. Before he moved to the white flower in the center where Sora no doubt slept on, he took out the yellow crayon he'd picked up from earlier and wrote something on the ground. In the next moment, he was gone.

From his place in the real world, Diz looked at what the boy had written to see if he should delete it.

"Trust Toshiro." He read aloud. "Hm…perhaps finding Hitsugaya was a miraculous twist of fate."

Meant to post this yesterday but I was away from home all day ^^'. Went to a flea market and found a sword booth; they had so many zanpaktous! I felt like a kid in a candy store, i could recognize a lot of them. I really wanted Hyorinmaru but i'm broke T^T. So, now we'll have Sora lead Shiro back home. Tried to keep the fight as normal from the game as possible but I didn't want a ridiculously long chapter and i'm not the best at writing fight scenes. I try. Plus, with Toshiro there, it is gonna be a little different because Shiro's Spiritual Pressure would have been draining away Axel's energy to keep the fires up, thus making him a little easier to beat. Enjoy!