Chapter 13: Twilight Town: Keybearer Awakens

Sora woke up to Donald and Goofy shouting at him, the giant white flower encasing him slowly opening. He yawned loudly only to hear them laughing, causing him to stop in a huff.

"Donald! Goofy!" He greeted with enthusiasm, jumping out of the flower.

He stumbled a bit, legs still waking up, and put an arm on each of them to hold steady until he could stand. The three of them laughed happily, glad to be reunited.

"Wow, that was some nap." A small cricket yawned.

"Hey Jiminy." Sora greeted the bug. "Hang on, we were asleep?"

"Seems so." Donald shrugged.

"How'd we get here?"

The three of them crossed their arms in thought.

"Well, we defeated Ansem…found Kairi…restored peace to the worlds…oh yeah, and then we went to find Riku. Right?"

"Sounds about it." Goofy agreed. "What does your journal say, Jiminy?"

"Let's see." The cricket jumped off Sora's shoulder and pulled out a journal and flipped the pages, noting with alarm that what should have been recorded words of their adventure after defeating Ansem were only two words. "Gosh. There are only two words in here. 'Thank Naminé'. Wonder who that is."

They shrugged.

"Some journal that is." Donald grumbled, Jiminy looking a little sheepish.

"Hey look!" Sora pointed out another two words written in yellow on the white floor. "It says 'Trust Toshiro'. Anybody know who that is?"

They shook their heads this time.

"So we have to find someone called Naminé to thank and if we find anyone called Toshiro we have to trust them." Goofy mused aloud, counting the two things on his fingers. "Gawrsh, maybe we'll find them while we're looking for Riku and the king."

"Guess we better find out where we are first." Jiminy said, leaping back onto Sora's shoulder.

"Right." Sora nodded and started leading the way out.

They passed through the room with smaller flower shaped pods and into the room where only minutes earlier had been a fierce battle of fire, ice and light.

Inside the room, Toshiro opened his eyes and looked towards the door, seeing three figures step inside. One had the same dark blue eyes as Roxas, but his spiked hair was brown and a little more outspread. His clothes looked a little small for him. Next to the boy was a white feathered duck with a blue hat and jacket and a large dog walking on its hind legs in tan pants and a green shirt, fur black. Toshiro guessed he must have already been transferred to the real world while he was speaking to Hyorinmaru.

"Oh, who are you?" The boy questioned, tilting his head curiously at the sight of the white haired boy sitting in the room, a deadly looking sword in his lap.

"It's rude to ask someone's name before giving your own first." Toshiro replied, sheathing Hyorinmaru.

"Oh, sorry." He smirked. "I'm Sora, and this is Donald," He motioned to the duck, "and Goofy," the dog.

"Nice to meet you." Toshiro nodded and stood. "I'm Toshiro Hitsugaya."

"Toshiro?" Sora's eyes lit up and Toshiro wondered if the boy had Roxas's memories. "Hey, there was a message on the floor that mentioned you." Guess not. "It said 'Trust Toshiro'."

'That Roxas.' Toshiro inwardly sighed while his dragon chuckled. "Well, I'm glad that was there. I'm not quite sure how this meeting would go if it wasn't."

"Hang on a second." Donald stomped forward and Toshiro half didn't understand him. It took him a moment to adjust to the duck's nasally voice. "Who are you exactly?"

A white eyebrow was raised curiously at the duck before those cold teal eyes that made Donald shiver were turned to Sora.

"If I give you my full title I'm Squad Ten Captain, Toshiro Hitsugaya, of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. I'm a Soul Reaper."

Donald and Goofy seemed to know what that was, if vaguely, and gave him a cautious glance. Sora, however, had no clue what a Soul Reaper was and crossed his arms, trying to think if he'd ever heard those names before.

"Um…what's a Soul Reaper?" He finally gave up and asked.

"In short, I'm dead." Toshiro answered and Sora recoiled. "I'm a warrior that helps leads souls of the dead to a place called Soul Society. That's the world I come from. However…something managed to invade my world and took me out of it. I'm trying to find my way back."

"Oh…" The brunette took a moment to process that information. "Well, I'm a Keybearer, so I kinda do something similar when I destroy Heartless."

"Hey Sora, shouldn't we figure out where we are?" Goofy turned to the brunette, wary of the white haired Soul Reaper.

"Yeah." Sora nodded, and then turned back to Toshiro. "Hey, wanna come with us?"

"I planned on it. I was told you have a way of getting me home."

"We have the Gummi Ship." Sora grinned before Donald pulled his ear down, Toshiro wondering why a ship made of 'gummies' was capable of flying. He might as well use Bankai and fly through space for all the good a chewy dessert did.

"Sora, we don't know him." Donald growled.

"Yeah, but that message said to trust him." Sora argued.

"But we don't know who wrote the message." Goofy brought up.

"Well…I dunno, I feel like I can trust him, and not just because of the message." He smiled at his friends. "My heart says I can trust him."

Donald and Goofy shared a glance, concerned about Sora's sudden trust towards this dangerous stranger. It was obvious by the way Toshiro held himself that he was an experienced fighter and not to be messed with and was capable of turning on them any second. But the mysterious message was about him, and the boy had shown slight surprise when it was mentioned. So either he was a really good actor or he truly didn't know about the message, and Sora seemed to believe the latter.

"Alright, we'll trust him for now." Donald finally huffed in submission.

"Great!" Sora grinned broadly at them, turning to see Toshiro waiting patiently for them to finish. "Sorry about that Toshiro, let's go."

"That's Captain Hitsugaya." He snapped on instinct.

"Oh, okay."

Unperturbed, Sora led the way out with Toshiro close behind. There was really only one way out so he didn't feel the need to lead Sora around.

"So what kind of sword is that?" Sora asked Toshiro, hoping to strike a conversation with the quiet Captain. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"This is my zanpaktou, Hyorinmaru." Toshiro replied.

"Zanpaktou?"

"It's a blade used by all Soul Reapers and each one is unique to that Reaper. The end of it has a mark that, when placed on the head of a soul, sends it on to the Soul Society. We use the blade to fight creatures called Hollows, which is what a soul turns into if a Soul Reaper doesn't reach them in time."

"Sounds like a Heartless." Sora mused.

"They're very similar, yes." Toshiro nodded. "A zanpaktou is designed to counter a Hollow and purge them of their sins as one, thus sending them to the Soul Society."

"Cool. Does it have any special powers?" Sora grinned. "The Keyblade lets me use magic, and it changes shape depending on the keychain I put on it." He dug through his pockets. "Aw, man, I lost all my key chains!"

"Don't worry, Sora." Goofy assured. "You'll probably find more."

"Yeah, I guess." He sighed.

"To answer your question, Sora." Toshiro brought attention back to him. "My Hyorinmaru is an ice-water type, the strongest in Soul Society. The spirit inside the blade takes the form of a dragon made of ice and water."

"Awesome! That sounds like a really strong sword!" Sora put an arm around Toshiro's shoulders with a goofy grin on his face.

Scowling, Toshiro pushed him off. He was beginning to wish for Roxas back, as the blonde wasn't so 'in your face' and gave him room to breathe.

"Sora, let me see the Keyblade." He said as they stepped out of the mansion grounds and into the forest. "There's something else I noticed."

"Huh? Okay." Sora summoned his Keyblade with ease, wielding the same silver and gold one that Roxas had. "This is the Kingdom Key."

Donald and Goofy watched carefully as Toshiro put his hand on the blade, holding onto it for a second before letting go, white energy being sucked from his body into the weapon. It changed into the same icy blade as when Roxas had it.

"Whoa, it changed without a keychain." Sora examined the new Keyblade.

"It's borrowing my power." Toshiro explained. "That dragon is my zanpaktou spirit, Hyorinmaru, and it's possible you can even use my same techniques. However, there's a limit."

"There is?" Sora raised an eyebrow.

"Yes."

Sora jumped as his minute was up, the Keyblade reverting back into the Kingdom Key in a flash of light.

"Oh…" He looked disappointed by this.

"It takes some of my energy and converts itself into a Keyblade version of my zanpaktou, but it can only run so long until it's used up what it took from me. I'd say for every second I touch the blade it can hold the form for a minute."

"Cool, you'll have to teach me some of your moves." Sora grinned and they began walking again. "Hm…what should I call that one?"

"How about Frozen Heavens?" Goofy suggested and Toshiro tensed for a moment, catching Donald's eyes.

"Hey, that sounds perfect." Sora nodded and the name was picked.

"Funny you should pick that." They heard Toshiro mutter.

The trio glanced at him curiously, wondering what he meant by that. He gave no answer, leading the way out of the forest and through the town in silence.

And so Sora! And now the icy Keyblade has a name! So unoriginal, I know, but I figured I might as well make it fit to the Zanpaktou release command of the Zanpaktou it's copying. So now we start finishing off Twilight Town and head to the wizard's tower where Yen Sid is. Finally getting out of town! ^^ Enjoy!