Chapter 9: Twilight Town: Seven Wonders

Toshiro once again avoided Roxas for most of the day. He'd spoken to him in the morning and realized that he and his virtual 'friends' were working on a project, so until he'd finished he was going to skip out on training. Though slightly disappointed, as he'd wanted to test out his power on the Keyblade, Toshiro let it go and went his own way.

He returned to the top of the clock tower to meditate and speak with Hyorinmaru for a while. He didn't trust Diz enough to train in Bankai while inside the virtual world so he did it mentally by sparring with Hyorinmaru. He'd finally made it a true Bankai thanks to eighteen months of training after the defeat of Aizen, but he knew he could still use practice with it and Hyorinmaru was happy to oblige. He couldn't let his skills dull while trapped in this virtual reality.

When he decided enough was enough he wandered around town for a while, remembering Roxas and his 'friends' had gone to the terrace. He hadn't been to that part of town and decided to check it out while he had free time. Perhaps he'd even see what the group was doing and help out. Being a prodigy, he was sure he could help get their homework over with quickly and train Roxas some more. The faster way there was the train, but he wanted to check out the underground paths. He'd been told it was a good practice area and with help from Diz he could seal it off and keep up with practice as well as train Roxas.

The minute he stepped inside he sensed the presence of one of the lesser Nobodies and frowned. How had it escaped his notice for so long? It seemed to have hacked a player again. He rushed through the tunnels towards the source, the paths being pretty straightforward and he fortunately didn't get lost in the brightly lit tunnels.

When he reached the area where the Nobody was he found the way there blocked by a metal gate.

"Seriously?" He sighed and looked for anything that would open it. There was a lever.

He pulled it quickly and ducked under the gate as it opened, coming face to face with Vivi's hacked player.

"What's their fascination with this character?" Toshiro mused aloud while unsheathing Hyorinmaru and stepping towards the hacked player.

About a foot away, two more Vivi players appeared, surrounding him. He looked between them, noticing that they were simply data copies. That was until the Nobody switched from one Vivi to another.

"You can move between them?" Toshiro's eyes widened slightly, turning to one Vivi only to have the Nobody shift to another. "Damn. I guess I'll just have to take you all at once for good measure."

One of the Vivi players jumped at him and he struck it down only for another to pop up in its place. They laughed evilly while Toshiro kept a passive face, putting the tip of his blade to the floor and dragging it around him in a circle. It spread outward away from him and the three virtual players were frozen in an instant, the Nobody with it. Now that it couldn't move around, Toshiro quickly cut through the player it had hacked and watched it vanish into blue spirit particles. The copies vanished in a swirl of data.

"You need to level up your security, Diz." Toshiro said aloud before sheathing Hyorinmaru, hearing footsteps approaching him from the terrace direction.

It was Roxas and Pence, both surprised to see him.

"You were down here Toshiro?" Pence asked.

"Yes. I was practicing." Toshiro replied with a nod, glad the ice had already broken up and dispersed before they stepped inside.

"That explains one of the Seven Wonders." Pence turned to a skeptical Roxas. "It's just people practicing down here."

"Seven Wonders?" Toshiro approached the two.

"We're looking into the mysteries of Twilight Town for our independent studies homework." Roxas explained. "One of them was a strange moaning coming from the tunnels so we came down here."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

"No worries, they've all been silly things so far anyway." Pence waved off Toshiro's apology.

"Perhaps I can help?" Toshiro offered.

"That'd be great! I know you don't really have to do it since you're new here but the help is appreciated."

The Captain nodded, simultaneously searching for any other Nobodies in the area. He felt faint traces of them around and thought perhaps they had something to do with the Seven Wonders.

"Which ones have you done already?" Toshiro asked.

"Well there are the steps that count differently going up and down." Roxas answered, counting on his fingers. "But that was just Rai counting wrong; he's that guy that says 'ya know' all the time. And then there was one where a ball flies out of nowhere from the alley and I could have sworn they were coming right out of the wall."

"But it's just people playing around and throwing a ball, Roxas." Pence countered. "Next is a doppelganger of people down near the water."

'Nobodies could make a perfect doppelganger of people.' Toshiro mused, and then turned to Pence. "I'll do that one. "

"Okay." Pence smiled. "Roxas can do the moving bag on Sunset Hill, then."

"Oh boy." Roxas sighed and shook his head with a laugh, Pence joining in.

Leaving quickly, Toshiro headed towards the area Pence had said the doppelganger was. If he had known the Nobodies would be getting involved he would have gone with them from the start. So far, the only one not to involve a Nobody was the stairway. That one was just an idiot trying to count.

He reached the small square with the small waterfall, fenced off with short white railing. He sensed a dark Spiritual Pressure coming from it and approached the waterfall, seeing a perfect reflection of himself. He still wasn't used to the clothes Diz had put on him while in the town and preferred his Soul Reaper uniform and haori, but knew it would only make him stand out more.

His reflection smirked at him before stepping out of the waterfall and right through him, sending a cold and dark feeling through the Captain, and stopping in the middle of the square. After shaking off the dreaded feeling, Toshiro whipped around and unsheathed Hyorinmaru, watching as his doppelganger became encased in shadows and turned completely black, a black version of Hyorinmaru in its hands.

'What all can it copy from me?' Toshiro mused, taking stance, his doppelganger following suit.

Both figures darted forward, clashing before Toshiro pulled back and struck at the shadow's side. It blocked and countered with a stab for his chest, which he avoided, grabbing onto the hilt of the black Hyorinmaru and using the real Hyorinmaru to strike at the head. It ducked underneath and pulled its blade away from him, staggering a foot or two away.

"You have no skill." Toshiro frowned at it. He brought the chain-blade out and spun it.

The shadow made to do the same but Toshiro had already thrown his forward and trapped it in the chain, the crescent-blade digging harshly into its side.

"Vanish." Toshiro said to it before the ice encased the shadow and he tugged on the chain, breaking the shadow to pieces. The Nobody playing as Doppelganger vanished quickly.

That done, Toshiro removed the chain-blade and sheathed Hyorinmaru, walking towards the area of Sunset Hill where Roxas was going. He would tell Roxas the truth later, but for now he would say the doppelganger was just a mirror reflection due to the waterfall.

As he was walking up the path to Sunset Hill he took his sword out once more, sensing the approach of the last Nobody as Roxas and Pence remained on the hill, unaware. The creature didn't even see him coming until the icy blade cut it apart, the blade quickly returning to its sheath. Toshiro continued on like nothing had happened, joining the two boys.

"Well?" Pence questioned eagerly.

"Just a reflection in the water." He replied.

"Thought so. The moving bag was just a trapped dog. Roxas let it out."

"That last wonder wasn't exactly wonderful." Roxas sighed.

"I know what you mean, say no more." Pence grinned broadly. "But this next one's gonna be great. Wonder number Six!"

Hayner and Olette rushed over to them as they spoke, panting for breath and looking excited.

"We got a lead." Hayner said between breaths. "The Ghost Train Mystery!"

"Everyone knows about Wonder number Six." Pence shrugged off the blonde.

"I didn't." Toshiro and Hayner replied together, the latter being a little more aggressive about it.

"Settle down, guys." Olette giggled. "It'll come under Sunset Hill in just a few minutes. All we have to do is wait for it."

"I'll pass for now." Toshiro said and turned to walk away. "I'd be glad to help with the report, let me know if the train comes."

"Okay." Roxas called back, waving goodbye to the Captain.

Toshiro walked back to the station to take the train back to the clock tower instead of going back through the tunnels this time. Since he had to wait it gave him time to think about how the Nobodies kept getting past Diz's security. Maybe his presence was causing glitches in the system, he had stopped pretending to be nice to the virtual people unless Roxas was close by, and even then he'd dropped it to the bare minimum of manners needed here.

He heard the train come in and turned, seeing not the orange and yellow of Twilight Town trains but a bright purple train with blue and yellow starred across, a blue wizard's hat on top.

"What the…?" He blinked, hoping the strange colored train would go away.

It didn't.

Confused now, Toshiro got up and went closer to examine it, sensing Roxas coming as well, no doubt with Hayner and the others. Had they seen it? Was this the Ghost Train they'd mentioned?

"Can you see it, Toshiro?" He heard Roxas ask and turned to look at the blonde. He had to decide quickly whether or not to let Roxas be believed or make it out as fake just like the others. Well, he had planned on telling Roxas later. He shook his head.

"See what?" He asked innocently.

"What?" Roxas looked taken aback and confused before he put on a determined glare. "I'll check it out."

Before he could step onto the train, however, Hayner grabbed onto him.

"You'll get hurt." He said as Roxas jerked away and gave him a look that read 'why would you do that?'

"The train is coming in." Toshiro added on. As he looked back the strange train was gone, the normal Twilight Town train heading in for the stop.

"But…it was just there." Roxas pleaded. "I saw it, it came from the beach. Right?" The others looked worriedly between them, Toshiro remaining silent and getting onto the train before them. "Right?" He turned to Olette and she knitted her brows in worry.

Hayner scowled, growling a little, and pushed the spiked blonde onto the train where they sat next to Toshiro, the white haired child saying nothing and seeming to be asleep already. The ride was silent.

They exited at the station and the four started heading back to the usual spot, Toshiro trailing behind to try and catch Roxas on his own.

"Let's just go home and finish the paper." Hayner grumbled. "'The rumors were bogus, the end.'"

"We can still make it sound good if we write about all the work we did." Olette offered.

"What about the seventh wonder?" Roxas piped up.

"Who cares?" Hayner growled back at him.

"I do. C'mon Pence."

"Tch, whatever." Hayner, obviously upset, stomped away quickly to get away from his friend. Olette sighed and ran after him to try and calm him down.

Pence looked between Roxas and the two leaving, even glancing once at Toshiro standing behind Roxas, before sighing heavily.

"It's at that haunted mansion." He said and turned to follow Olette and Hayner.

Toshiro thought this was the perfect opportunity, quickly following after Roxas as he went towards the mansion in the woods. He wanted to wait until they were in the forest, though, because even if they were virtual, any potential eavesdroppers could mess up the system and create more openings for the Nobodies.

"Guess it's just you and me." Roxas sighed as they made their way through town.

"I'm rather curious about these Seven Wonders." Toshiro shrugged in reply. "They seem to have someone interfering with the system."

Roxas glanced at his white haired friend.

"So you noticed it too, huh?" He whispered.

"I did, but here is not the place to talk about it."

Silence reined once more with only their footsteps against pavement any indication of movement between them. Once they finally made it into the quiet woods, Toshiro stopped, causing Roxas to pause as well.

"I did see the train." He started.

"You did?! Why didn't you tell me?" Roxas asked accusingly.

"Because your friends couldn't. Don't you think something is a little weird about this town? How come only we can see these things?"

"I dunno…maybe something to do with the Keyblade?"

"I don't have a Keyblade."

"Well…your sword isn't exactly normal; it made that big wave of ice that other day with Axel. And that chain-blade that appeared out of nowhere."

"I know my blade is different but it's hardly a Keyblade. Whatever's going on these creatures seemed to be focused on you, and I just happen to have the ability to see everything as well."

Roxas chewed on that thought for a moment, wondering what could be going on. Toshiro knew he wasn't allowed to let Roxas know about the virtual world yet nor about where Axel was from, but he wasn't about to leave the boy completely unprepared.

"Come on, let's check out the mansion." Toshiro brought Roxas out of his thoughts and made his way towards the haunted house. "We'll think about this later while training."

"Wait, we're still training?" Roxas blinked.

"Obviously. You're always training, be prepared for anything."

"Like you attacking me out of nowhere?" Roxas teased.

"Possibly."

He gulped.

Didn't really want to focus on the Seven Wonders, it was one of the more boring parts of the beginning. But, since Nobodies were involved, Toshiro had to do something. So now we're going to the mansion, which will be a little different from the game version ;) Enjoy!