Chapter 27: Land of Dragons: You're a Woman?

Inside the cave, Sora used one of his ice dragons to take out the final Heartless that had ambushed them, Mulan standing by and only panting a little bit. Toshiro's training had really paid off.

"Captain Hitsugaya was right, this was just a decoy." She sheathed her blade.

"Good thing he stayed behind to protect the village." Sora grinned.

The barrier trapping them in came down and his two animal companions rushed over to him.

"You okay?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah, thanks to Ping." Sora put his hands behind his head. "And Hitsugaya's Keyblade."

"Come on, time to report to the Captain." Mushu called out.

"Hitsugaya knew Shan-Yu wasn't here, though." Donald argued.

"Not him, Shang!" Mushu growled. "And we're gonna tell him how Ping defeated thousands of Heartless before they could reach the village!"

Sora shrugged before leading the group out of the cave.

The sight that greeted them was not what they expected. The village was in flames, though it seemed they were recent, and a few soldiers lay dead. Those who had survived were helping out the injured, Shang among them, with Toshiro nowhere in sight.

"Hyorinmaru!" Sora called out after bringing Frozen Heavens to his hand. He still had some power left in it, enough to put out the hungry flames.

Giving out a roar, the white dragon of ice covered over the flames, putting them out and saving what was left of the village. Sora quickly got rid of the ice now covering it before rushing inside with his three companions behind him. Where was their icy friend?

"Sora, Ping, Donald, Goofy." Shang called out each of them as they approached. "Those creatures flooded in…Hitsugaya used some kind of magic to hold them off, he did his best to keep them out, but they got through. Their fire seemed to weaken him."

"He's partial to ice, so it makes sense fire is his weakness." Sora nodded.

"He lured them all up to the summit to get them away from the village." Shang leaned against a wall for support, sporting his own wounds and the four of them looked at him worriedly. "It's just a scratch. After he led them away, Shan-Yu arrived. He destroyed the place before heading up to the summit after Hitsugaya."

"Ah, Hitsugaya's in danger!" Sora turned to his companions. "Don't worry Captain Shang, we'll stop Shan-Yu and his army!"

"It kinda is our fault." Goofy added in a sad tone.

The air turned icier than normal and dark clouds began to from at the top of the summit, stirring up the snow even from their distance.

"It's Hitsugaya! Let's go!" Not waiting for an answer, Sora darted off for the mountain top.

At the summit, Toshiro faced off against the wave of fish-like Heartless with his zanpaktou released, an icy dragon twice the size of Sora's waiting behind him.

'There's so many of them!' Toshiro scowled. 'At least this place gives me a weather advantage.'

He sliced the air with Hyorinmaru and the ice dragon shot forward, jaws open wide. Many of the Heartless were destroyed in the icy wave while others darted forward. At the top of the summit stood Shan-Yu, a stocky man with greasy black hair and clothes of fur, a twisted steel blade in hand, glaring down at the white haired child who was managing to destroy his army effortlessly. At least the child was not unscathed, tears in his black uniform and the blood dripping from those cuts proving he wasn't as invincible as he seemed.

'If it's just him, I can probably use that attack to get rid of him and the Heartless.' Toshiro held his sword up high. "Subjugation of-" He paused, eyes widening in alarm as Sora and the others ran up the mountain top. 'Dammit! You have terrible timing, Sora!'

'He's still out of range, use it now!' Hyorinmaru roared.

'No, it'll spread out due to the amount of snow already here, they'll get caught in it.'

Instead, Toshiro put the tip of his sword in the ground before swinging upward, creating a torrent of freezing water that pushed up the slope and drowned the entire Heartless army, freezing quickly as it trapped them in. The torrent completely froze over before reaching Shan-Yu, though the Hun leader still looked a little spooked.

"Not close enough." Toshiro growled out as Sora and the others reached his side, taking a fighting stance.

"Here!" Donald shouted and cast a Cure spell on the Soul Reaper. His cuts healed in an instant, surprising him, but his Spirit Energy was still low.

"Nice move, Hitsugaya." Sora spared a quick grin before looking back up, more of the fish-like Heartless coming to wait next to the Hun leader.

'Wait…if I get Sora to use it…it won't be as strong, and it should take him out.' Toshiro mused, noticing the teen still had Frozen Heavens in hand. He had about two or three minutes left, so he had to make this quick.

'He's not ready for something like that.' Hyorinmaru warned.

'He's running out of time anyway, it won't take as much out of him as it normally would.'

Teal eyes turned to the summit again as Shan-Yu himself came barreling down the slope with the many Heartless at his back.

"We can handle this, Captain." Sora said before Toshiro could speak.

"Let us try."

They turned to see it was the short man in red who spoke, a rocket in his grip and the soldiers in blue and yellow right behind him.

"What are you doing?" Toshiro questioned as they stuck the end of the rocket into the ground and aimed it at the approaching Hun leader.

"Blowing him sky high." The man in yellow grinned.

They lit a match and were about to send the rocket flying before Mulan suddenly shoved them aside with a quick apology, turning the rocket up to aim at the very tip of the mountain. The others looked confused and alarmed, but as Toshiro looked at the tip he realized what she was doing. The snow there was thickly set and ready to fall, all it needed was a push…or a rocket.

"Get off the summit!" He snapped at them all. He wondered if he had enough energy left to stop the falling snow and launch it back up before it reached them, but he wanted to make sure.

Snatching up her dragon companion, Mulan forced him to light the fire before ducking down and covering her ears. The others began to head back down the path to the village, Toshiro remaining with Mulan to get her out if the snow reached them.

The rocket launched, Mushu on it, and headed towards the tip of the mountain with a trail of smoke behind it.

"Ah, Mushu!" Mulan called out.

Vanishing with Flash Step, Toshiro intercepted the rocket and grabbed the small red dragon before quickly heading back down.

"What does she thinks she's doing?!" He shouted, climbing onto the Soul Reaper's shoulder.

"Bringing down the mountain on him." Toshiro replied. He ran back over to Mulan. "Come on, that snow will fall down here too."

"Right." Mulan stood quickly and they began running off the summit.

They passed the Chinese Captain and Ping quickly grabbed his hand, pulling him off the summit and back to the path just as the tons of snow flowed down, burying the Heartless and their leader within its white depths, and over the edge of the ridge. Toshiro could sense his energy no more.

Breathing heavily, all of them took a moment to recuperate from the close call. The soldiers sat in the snow to cool off, as the running had actually heated them up quite a bit. Donald and Goofy checked on Sora, Ping and Shang while Toshiro checked to make sure all the Heartless were gone.

"Is he gone?" Mushu asked him, still on his shoulder.

"From what I can tell…" Toshiro replied quietly. "It seems like he might still be there…but it's muffled."

"The snow, maybe?"

Toshiro shook his head.

"Snow wouldn't be a problem for me. I think the Heartless are blocking him."

Then they heard voices, that of the Captain, and turned to see what was going on.

"Thanks, Ping." Shang said.

"It…was nothing." Mulan replied in her deep voice, standing quickly to brush off the snow.

"I should never have doubted you. You have my trust." Shang offered the woman a smile and she bowed to hide a slight blush.

"Thank you, Captain."

At Toshiro's shoulder, Mushu gave a huff, thinking Shang wouldn't hear him.

"First she uses me as a lighter, then she turns me into a cannon ball." He growled. "Thanks for the help, by the way. But man, the head ancestor's gonna hear about this. I give up! Mulan's on her own…"

"You really are too loud." Toshiro sighed, noticing Shang turn to them with wide eyes.

"Mulan?" He scowled, turning back to said woman. She looked very nervous now. "You're a woman!?"

"To be honest, I thought it was obvious." Toshiro said nonchalantly, stepping closer. The red dragon was hiding in his haori, ashamed.

"So you knew the whole time?" Shang growled.

"Did you not notice how I never specified her gender?" Toshiro pointed out. "I called her Ping because that's what she wanted, but I never promised to call her a boy, I just didn't call her a girl either."

"We're sorry, Captain." Sora pleaded.

"I can't believe you lied to me." Shang snapped at Mulan, making her jump and turn away, ashamed.

"She saves your life and you turn your back on her?" Toshiro raised an eyebrow.

"What she's done is treason and deserves the penalty of death." Shang growled over his shoulder. "The fact that I'm leaving her alive means I'm willing to overlook it due to her saving me. I've repaid my debt…now get out of my sight."

"Pompous bastard." Toshiro sighed, going unheard by the man.

The soldiers with Shang trudged after the man at a slow pace, wore out from all the running. They were heading for the city now it seemed, leaving Mulan and the others at the mountain's summit. As they left, Toshiro narrowed his eyes at the soldiers…something wasn't right.

"Way of Binding Number Four, Crawling Rope." He said calmly and let the yellow energy chain shoot forward and wrap around one of the men.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Shang whipped back around in alarm.

"Saving your life." Toshiro leaped forward and cut down the second soldier.

The one in chains gave out a shriek and showed what he truly was under the Kido's power, a large cylindrical Heartless with a small head that shot out in an attempt to attack Shang, the second vanishing in blue spirit particles after showing its form as well. Hitsugaya sliced the head attempting to kill the Captain in two before sheathing his blade quickly.

"You've been duped." He said coldly to the Captain. "I assume that means Shan-Yu isn't as dead as we'd like to believe."

"How did you know?"

"Now is not the time for explanations. Get to the city, most of your 'soldiers' were heading that way before they vanished from my senses."

"The Emperor!" Shang was quick to dart back down the mountain.

Ping removed the oppressing armor, now dressed only in a light green tunic and black pants as was normal for the warriors. She also let her hair down, reaching just past her chin.

"I can move better like this, let's go!" She said, holding her sword at her side turned backwards.

Just before they could head down the mountainside, they heard an angry roar further down the mountain. Peeking over the edge of the ridge they saw the Hun leader himself, standing tall and unharmed, with many Heartless hovering around him. Black eyes looked over his army before he began to trudge down the side of the mountain, a hawk diving down to land on his shoulder.

"He's heading to the Imperial City." Mulan whispered to them.

"And he's already sent his mimic soldiers ahead to stall Shang." Toshiro thought of a plan quickly. "We need to move quickly. Now!"

"Sir!" The four of them replied.

With Toshiro leading, they all ran down the mountain as quickly as possible to get to the city before Shan-Yu.

Honestly Mushu, you messed it all up *sighs*. Did anyone else notice how when Toshiro spoke about Ping he never used a gender? That's harder to do than I thought...gotta use the right words. Anyway, secret's out and now it's time to save China! Enjoy!