Chapter 22: Land of Dragons: Chinese Terrors

Once back in the Gummi Ship and starting to take off, Donald pulled up the map to see which pathway they had opened. The pathway split off to two different worlds, which surprised Toshiro. He expected that they would have to open up each world one by one.

"Hey! What happened to Twilight Town!?" Chip's voice echoed into the ship.

Pulling up a visual of said world they found it cloaked in darkness.

"It's gone!" Dale exclaimed.

"That's not good." Sora frowned, hoping Hayner and the others were okay. "Well, when it comes back let us know and we'll go check it out."

"Got it, Sora!"

Donald picked one of the two new worlds randomly and opened up a closer view of it over the darkness cloaked Twilight Town. It held a large empire within it that looked faintly Chinese and Toshiro grimaced. He would not be treated kindly there in his obvious Japanese garb, for the style of the castle looked to be around the same time that the Chinese and Japanese hated each other. Well, it was a different world; perhaps they wouldn't know Japanese here.

"Land of Dragons." Donald read the world's name aloud and Toshiro perked up for a moment. "Hm, wonder what's there."

"Gawrsh, looks like we're gonna pass through an asteroid field first." Goofy pointed ahead where Sora was following the path through a dense field of comets.

"And I'm sure there are Heartless ships." Sora sighed. "Got the guns, you guys?"

"We're on it!" Donald saluted and grabbed onto a set of control, as did Goofy.

"Oh great." Toshiro groaned and held tight to his seat.

"Sorry Captain, this is gonna be bumpy." Sora called back and Toshiro frowned further. "We've got to get the Heartless off the path before we can travel between worlds safely."

True to his word, the flight was terribly shaky, but with Sora's flying skills and the animals' good aiming, they managed to clear out the Heartless and make it through with barely a scratch. The same couldn't be said for Toshiro as he held his head, the familiar feeling of a migraine beginning to surface. He nearly shouted in relief as the world came into view and Sora drove in to land in a secluded area where no one would find the ship. He was once more the first off the ship to settle his stomach while the trio shut down the Gummi Ship.

'No more…' The ice Captain inwardly groaned. 'Let this mission be long enough so I can get over this migraine.'

'Only to get another one?' Hyorinmaru asked.

'Shut up.'

Once able to take in his surroundings, Toshiro realized they were in a bamboo forest. He could sense two people up ahead along the pathway they were heading down. Sure that Sora would follow the same path, Toshiro went ahead and began walking down to see who it was that was so close by. He could tell one was definitely a person, but the other was not. It was somewhat strong but not by much.

'I think the second being is a young dragon.' Hyorinmaru suggested.

'How would you know that?' Toshiro questioned before kneeling behind a boulder and looking into the clearing.

'Because I'm a dragon.'

Toshiro rolled his eyes and examined the two inside the clearing. The human was a young man by the looks of it…no, wait, it was definitely a woman. She was dressed as a man, though, and made a rather convincing one to those who didn't pay attention. Her hair was in a tight top knot to make it look short and she wore traditional Chinese armor with a green sash around the middle. As for the dragon…all he could see was a large, red-eyed shadow.

"Admit it, you're just scared." The dragon teased the woman.

"Aren't you?" She replied.

Toshiro decided they were friendly enough and stepped into the clearing.

"Excuse me." He called out for their attention.

The shadow of the dragon vanished as a small red dragon leaped onto the woman's shoulder and hid.

'Definitely a young dragon…' Hyorinmaru stated.

"Oh who-" The woman began to ask before clearing her throat and making it deeper. "Who are you?"

"I know you're a woman, cut the act." Toshiro sighed. "I guess here they don't allow women into the army?"

"Is there somewhere where they do?" The woman had returned to her normal voice.

"My wo…er, country, does. In fact, one of my subordinates is a woman."

"Subordinates?" The red dragon popped up on the woman's shoulder. "How old do you think you are, kid?"

"Probably older than you." Toshiro snapped.

"Oh yeah? I'm a bona fide guardian so while I'm little I'm ancient."

"Same."

"Ha! You've got nothing on me, kid!"

"Mushu." The woman hissed at the tiny red dragon.

"Oh come on, Mulan, he's tiny! Not to mention he's got some weird hair color going on there."

"I'm not tiny! And it's naturally white!" Toshiro growled as the air began to drop in temperature significantly.

"Uh-huh." Mushu looked skeptical.

The woman sighed heavily at the dragon's consistent teasing. She looked the boy over closely and realized something.

"Those garments…" She saw the boy stiffen. "Are you, perhaps…Japanese?"

"What!? You've gotta be kidding me!" Mushu exclaimed. "Just what we need, with Shan Yu running around."

"I'm not here to cause any trouble, I just-"

"Is that Mushu?" Goofy's voice came behind him and Toshiro sighed.

Sora and company stepped up next to their Soul Reaper companion, to Mushu's shock, and officially became part of the conversation.

"Hey Mushu!" Sora greeted.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy!" The red dragon beamed and leaped off of Mulan's shoulders to the ground.

"You know them?" Mulan questioned.

"Know them? Man, we used to kick all kinds of bad guy butt together."

"I'll believe that when I see it." Toshiro snorted.

Turning angrily to the white haired Captain, Mushu was about to snap something when he felt a strong presence coming from the boy that he'd failed to pick up earlier.

"Oh, right." Sora realized the dragon didn't know their new companion. "Mushu, this is Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya. We're trying to get him back to his home." Toshiro was surprised how easily Sora was able to cover up the identity of other worlds. Perhaps he was smarter than he made himself look.

"Hm…you aint human, are ya?" Mushu narrowed his eyes. Toshiro glared back in warning and the dragon noticed. "Meh, but what do I know? Anyway, I've helped Sora and his pals here out of a lot of tight spots. 'Cause I'm a mighty dragon, right?"

'And I'm made of fire.' Hyorinmaru snorted.

'He's obviously got an ego bigger than he is, it's a bad idea to argue with him.'

'Your pride has already done that.'

Sighing mentally, Toshiro turned back as Mulan glanced cautiously at the four of them.

"Something like that." Sora smirked at Mushu's earlier comment. "So, who are you?"

"I'm Mulan…no, wait I-I mean." Mulan panicked as she realized she'd messed up again at hiding her identity as a woman.

"Too late." Toshiro said. "There's no hiding that you're a girl."

"Wait, you're a girl!?" Sora exclaimed and Toshiro looked at him in surprise. He didn't know?

"Well…perhaps you could have continued on with the charade then." He turned back to Mulan.

The woman laughed lightly at that.

"You didn't notice?" She asked Sora.

"Eh, he'll believe anything." Mushu waved her off; Sora scowled at him. "But listen up you four, Mulan's trying to get into the army so she'll be going as Ping, got it? Girls aren't allowed into the army."

"That sucks." Sora crossed his arms.

"It's the way certain countries work, Sora." Toshiro reminded. "So, where are we heading, then?"

"Hold up, Japanese kid." Mushu singled out the Soul Reaper. "If Mulan gets seen with you she'll be turned around at the gates."

"I'll come behind you all, then. I'm a prodigy in my country, so thinking up a solution won't be a problem."

"Before we go, Mulan…er, Ping." Sora corrected himself quickly to get used to calling her that. "How do you know Mushu?"

"He's one of my family guardians." Mulan replied with a slight smile.

"Wow, we didn't know we were borrowin' anyone as important as a family guardian." Goofy replied in awe.

"That's right, which puts you three up to your eyeballs in debt to 'Ping' here. Now come on, let's get a move on! Lag behind, Toshiro."

"That's Captain Hitsugaya, dragon." Toshiro growled back.

As they began to walk off, Toshiro stopped Sora for a moment.

"What did Goofy mean by borrowing?" He questioned.

"Oh! On our last journey we were able to summon other people to help us, since they didn't have a world anymore and were trapped in a crystal. When we brought peace to the worlds after defeating Ansem they went back home. Mushu was one of them."

"Now I understand what he means. Go on, catch back up. I'll join you all shortly if I have to dress like one of them to get in."

"Be careful, Captain." The Keybearer ran to catch back up with his companions.

He waited until they were a good quarter mile away before following their path at a slow pace to keep distance between them. When they turned a corner and were out of sight he followed the traces of their Spirit Energy to keep him on the right track.

'So what is your plan, Master?' Hyorinmaru questioned.

'They obviously won't let me in if they think I'm Japanese, so either I make up some spy excuse or I say I was forced into the Japanese forces. If neither of those seem like they'll be good enough then I hide using a Kido spell and find a disguise.'

'You know there's no one small enough to be your size.'

'Don't even go there.'

'Perhaps you could simply tell them you've defected?'

'Maybe.'

He saw Sora and the others follow Mulan into the recruit camp and sped up his step a little. There were two guards at the entrance, both muscular and strict looking.

'This will be interesting no matter what happens.'

So Shiro might have a little difficulty working his way through this world, but hey, at least there's another dragon XD Not that Mushu's making his life any easier, lol. This world will be one of the longer arcs since there's a lot to do here. Hollow Bastion was a very short mission the first time around, you don't really stay there for very long except for the thousand Heartless battle much later on (I think I might have more Soul Reapers in here by then, hint hint, nudge nudge. Just don't expect them TOO soon). Enjoy!