Chapter 3: Twilight Town: Beach Trip!

Roxas and his companions led their new charge away from the train station, telling him all about Twilight Town. In their eyes the white haired boy was easy to get along with. He didn't seem used to smiling, but he had astounding manners and was always polite. The only time he seemed to get angry was when they tried to call him Shiro for short, saying his real name was too hard, but he was adamant against going by that nickname. When they asked why he went silent and they left it alone.

"So Toshiro, where did you travel from?" Olette asked and Toshiro's big teal eyes turned towards her before they scrunched up in concentration.

"Hm…I don't quite remember. I've been travelling around a lot so I don't remember every place I've been too. I heard Twilight Town was a good place so I thought I'd settle in."

Roxas noticed Toshiro pause and seem to think about something before he shook it off and continued the conversation.

"I forget to bring my things, though. The train cabby seemed confused about that as well."

"Usually he doesn't care." Hayner smirked. "So where are your parents?"

"I don't know…they've been gone a long time." Toshiro's expression saddened, but even that seemed strained. Roxas wondered what this young boy was hiding.

The other three shared a glance and let it drop.

Just then, four figures suddenly appeared in front of them, having arrived from a side alley to cut off their path. Toshiro put on a startled expression while steeling himself for a fight, as the four around him had also stiffened and scowled at the newcomers.

"Since when did you losers get permission to lead around the newbies?" The supposed leader, a blonde with a white trench coat and black hat sneered at them. "As the Captain of the Twilight Disciplinary Committee, it's my job to show around the new kids and teach him the rules."

"Back off, Seifer." Pence snapped back bravely, though Toshiro noticed he was shaking slightly.

"Oh, trying to start something?"

"Seifer will totally own you guys, y'know?" Added on a dark skinned boy in a red shirt and black baggy pants, hair covered in a black beanie.

"Domination." The silver-blue haired girl with a blue shirt and white pants finished.

'Disciplinary Committee? More like the bully squad.' Toshiro thought to himself.

"We're already showing him around, you've got no right to just show up and take him! That's kidnapping!" Hayner growled, hands balling into fists.

They paused as Toshiro walked past and stood in front of a mildly surprised Seifer.

"They promised to show me around, so I'm going to go with them, okay?" He said in his fake childish tone, slapping on a smile to try and disarm the bully. "Maybe later you can show me anything they missed." 'Dammit I hate acting like this.'

"Uh…yeah, sure." Seifer scratched the back of his head and stepped aside, letting Toshiro pass with Roxas and the others following quickly. After the group turned a corner and vanished, Seifer realized he'd been duped and scowled fiercely. "That kid is trouble, I just know it. He shows up right after the picture thief fiasco and if that isn't suspicious I don't know what is!"

"Thanks Toshiro." Olette said while walking in step with the white haired boy. "Seifer is always trouble."

"I know a bully when I see one." He replied, smiling. "Fighting them just makes them happy, so I learned that being nice confuses them enough to get away."

"That's genius, Toshiro." Pence laughed. "Too bad Hayner wouldn't be able to pull it off!"

"Shut up!"

"Hey, we're planning on heading to the beach later." Roxas turned to Toshiro. "Wanna go?"

'I hate the beach, too hot.' "Yeah, sure."

"Cool!" Hayner stopped the group. "Okay, a ticket to the beach for all of us is nine hundred munny each, so for all five of us that's four thousand and five hundred munny."

"If we want to get snacks there it'll be three hundred munny each, so fifteen hundred munny." Pence added.

"Isn't the watermelon like two thousand munny a piece?" Roxas questioned and Toshiro found himself perking up at the mention of watermelon. Virtual or not, it still sounded enticing.

"Yeah, this is why we're getting pretzels not watermelon." Hayner replied, though he noticed Toshiro's shoulders slump. "Okay, so altogether that's six thousand munny."

"How do you plan on getting that much?" Toshiro questioned, though he had no idea how much munny was compared to the currency he was used to.

"Oh, odd jobs here and there." The blonde shrugged. "How much do we have already?"

"I've got eight hundred." Pence offered.

"Six hundred and fifty." Olette said.

"I've only got one hundred and fifty." Roxas sighed. Toshiro just shrugged to show that he had nothing.

"So we have sixteen hundred already. That means we need to earn four thousand and four hundred munny."

"Split that between the five of us," Hayner stuck his tongue out as he did the math in his head, face scrunched up in concentration, "we have to earn eight hundred and eighty munny each to have enough for the beach trip!"

"Is that a lot?" Toshiro questioned.

"Like I said, just do some odd jobs and you'll get enough eventually. Let's all meet at the station when we're done. We promise to show you how fun the beach is, Toshiro!" After a big grin in said Captain's direction, Hayner darted off.

"I'm off!" Olette waved to the boys. "Roxas, how about you show Toshiro around and help him with some of the jobs?"

"Got it." Roxas nodded to the brunette as she and Pence went somewhere. He then turned to the white haired boy at his side. "Come on Toshiro, I'll show you where the request board is."

Toshiro silently followed the spiky haired blonde down the sweeping hill where people turned to look at Toshiro strangely before returning to their odd jobs.

'They had Roxas take you since his questions would be more authentic than the ones from the computer. They hope he can catch you off guard so you'll slip some information.' Hyorinmaru warned his master.

'They almost had me back at the station when they asked where I came from.' Toshiro replied. 'I'll have to be careful.'

'The odd jobs involve some skills, how much are you willing to show them?'

'Not much, I'll play down all my skills to the bare minimum required to get into the academy and I won't use any Kido. I'll even mess up if I have to.'

'I'll let you know if they get suspicious.'

'Thank you.'

By now Roxas had led him to a big blue board with several posters on it. He was looking at three of them carefully, debating on what his new friend could do well.

"Let's try this one." Roxas pointed to a poster calling for someone to deliver mail and quickly. "Any good at a skateboard?"

"Er, no." 'What the Hell is a skateboard?' "But I can run really fast."

"We'll work together then. I'll take the skateboard to get to the ones further away while you run to anybody close by."

Toshiro nodded and they walked towards the person who had put up the poster. The woman's face lit up when they said they were there for the job.

"Thank you so much. Here, Roxas, can you take these to Sally, Ricky and Steve at the station?"

"You got it." Roxas smiled and took the three stacks of mail before grabbing a board with wheels and riding off on it.

"Here young man, these go to George at the sandlot and this is for Vincent who lives nearby at house 647."

"Understood." Toshiro nodded and took the two stacks before darting off. 'I won't use Flash Step, but it shouldn't be too surprising that I can run fast.'

'They are slightly surprised, but they noticed the amount of muscle you had before they put you in here and so are not too surprised.' Hyorinmaru corrected.

Handing out the letters and returning within three minutes despite the distance, Toshiro didn't break a sweat or slow. Roxas zoomed in on his skateboard just as the white haired boy was given his share of the reward from the lady; one hundred munny. She gave the same to Roxas as he returned.

"You two are so fast." She smiled.

After that they continued on with various jobs together until they'd earned enough munny put together for the trip. Toshiro thought the grandstander challenge would be a good training exercise for his squad, having to keep the ball up in the air, but obviously more challenging for his kind. Here, however, he had to play down his sword skill – though he was using some kind of blue bat called a Struggle bat – to keep his captors from knowing too much. His purposeful slip ups were apparently entertaining enough comedy wise to earn a little extra though he hated every minute of it.

"Come on, let's go meet Hayner at the station." Roxas said, running ahead in that direction with his new friend close behind.

They passed an alley and Toshiro could have sworn he saw a man in black and felt a dark Spiritual Pressure, but he ignored it and kept running. He couldn't give away that he knew him thanks to Hyorinmaru.

The others were already there waiting.

"Finally." Hayner smirked. "So, what have we got?"

Both boys held out their share of the expenses and Olette counted it before slipping it into a small woven bag.

"Wow, all together we have six thousand and five hundred munny." She exclaimed.

"Sweet!" Hayner grinned broadly as did the others while Olette gave the pouch to Roxas.

'The black cloaked man is going to take that from him, attempt to catch him then.' Hyorinmaru reported and Toshiro tensed, noticing the dark Spiritual Pressure lurking in the shadows. 'Apparently they won't extend the virtual world past Twilight Town.'

'Right.'

Though frustrated that he basically did all that running around for nothing, Toshiro kept his façade of an eager child awaiting a beach trip and lagged behind the others as they walked towards the station. Hayner said something to Roxas that made the boy pause before he shook his head and continued on.

A stick flew out of nowhere and knocked Roxas over. Toshiro pretended not to notice as the black robed man bent down and jerked Roxas to his feet.

"Can you feel Sora?" The man muttered.

Confused, Roxas didn't notice Toshiro's expression darken as he glared at the man in black. The robed man did, however, and released Roxas to run. The virtual world began to run again as Hayner and the others called for Roxas while Toshiro darted after the robed figure, ignoring the warping around him that tried to hide him.

The chase for an escape began.

And so plans for the beach are ruined and Toshiro is attempting to get out. Will he catch the mysterious man?

Anyway, I'm really into this story ^^ Don't worry, still working on Gaian Reapers, i'm not planning to drop that one yet, just a little stuck is all. I'll probably read through it again to get my muse working. Enjoy!