Kyouya searches for Dino through the blackness, but he has to swim in large circles to cover more ground because the current would push the small sea creature instead of letting it drop straight down. He goes slowly, searching carefully.
Dino can't have gone that far.
They exhaust their entire repertoire of things to do and eventually regress until they play a painfully long game of I Spy, somehow finding ridiculously creative ways to have the answer be 'the ocean'. It just keeps going until finally Lal puts an end to it by announcing that she has a sword and is perfectly willing to use it.
They all glance over to the pile of clothes, shoes and weapons that sit on the deck raft, stacked up to give Reborn a pillow. One long sword pokes out from underneath, but the second is clearly in Lal's grasp.
"You're still carrying that on you?" Byakuran asks in bemusement. "What are you going to need a sword in easy reach for?"
Lal raises an eyebrow and starts making a list, raising a finger for each one. "Sudden fish stampede, sharks, as weight training, habit, to stab any of you if necessary, to stab any of you if I get bored, to-"
"I get it," Byakuran interrupts with an eyeroll. "You're a badass soldier, yay."
Lal narrows her eyes. "Bitch, I'm a Lieutenant-General-"
"Used to be," Colonnello pitches in quickly. "We're kind of not in the army anymore."
Lal simmers but does calm down a bit.
"Did you sleep with someone as well?" Mukuro smirks and Daemon snickers.
"I don't know why everyone says it like a bad thing," Reborn huffs with a fake frown.
"We didn't sleep with anyone," Colonnello chuckles. He shrugs carelessly but the humour is gone now. "We got labelled as spies and they tried to kill us. Kind of ridiculous considering how much of our lives we've given the army, but that's just what happened."
Skull winces a bit and then holds out Oodako. "Do you want to hug him? It comforts me…"
"I want water," Lal grumbles. "I'm so freaking thirsty."
Reborn grabs his hat, still half full (or half empty, depending on your view point) with rain water from the night before, and holds it out to Lal. The material is damp and a lot of the water has leaked out because it's hardly a proper container, but it's cool and a relief from the thirst.
Daemon takes the hat after Lal has a drink. "Reborn, I take back every time I've called it stupid."
"…And when, exactly, have you insulted my hat?"
Daemon scans the doctor and then makes a decision, beginning with; "Clearly, this masterpiece of a hat is just so far above my level that I cannot fully comprehend its magnificence. I deeply apologise for my previous statement and I hope we can get past this error of mine."
Reborn raises an eyebrow. "Maybe next time you should do that without the condescending undertone."
"It's built in," Daemon explains seriously. "I honestly don't know how to turn it off."
Kyouya finally reaches the bottom and looks around the ocean floor, scanning for his fallen seahorse, but it's no use.
Kyouya has officially lost his tiny Dino.
"Where do you think Kyouya is?" Fon murmurs, lying on his stomach next to Mukuro and peering into the dark water. "He's been gone for three days."
Mukuro rolls over and joins the martial artist in staring at the ocean. "He's probably terrorising the other mermaids."
"Got bored and found other people," Skull chimes in.
"Got bored and is now eating other people," Reborn corrects the circus performer.
"I don't know why you're worrying about a mermaid and not about dying," Verde argues. "Kyouya is perfectly fine in the ocean. We, on the other hand, are out of food and water and will probably kill ourselves if we play another round of I Spy."
"He's right," Daemon sighs. "I really hope a ship comes past soon; I just want to be dry for once."
"You should worry about what kind of ship," Lal lectures.
"Pirate would be nice," Reborn suggests. "Merchant might avoid us and Navy… well, we were on a smuggling ship for a reason."
"No, no," Byakuran berates. "Don't lump me in with you guys, I'm just avoiding paperwork while I still can."
"We would get off with a lecture from our parents," Daemon says, Mukuro nodding in the background.
"I wouldn't get in trouble since I haven't done anything," Skull proclaims happily. "This ship was just going to the port I needed."
"Lal and I were framed," Colonnello volunteers.
"Seconded," Fon admits.
Verde looks away from them all.
"Wow, mister rebel," Reborn teases with a wicked smirk. "I guess we're the only two who actually committed a crime."
"I hardly became a serial killer," Verde grumbles. "I just met with some pirates, and I highly doubt any of us here can say they haven't."
(Not that anyone knows, but strangely enough… Verde is the only one not lying.)
Kyouya knows his seahorse is gone but he still searches on the way up so it takes an incredibly long time. He finally reaches the ocean's surface and pops his head out of the water in the approximate area that he left from.
His humans are nowhere to be found.
Kyouya sighs heavily and debates on just giving up because this is taking more effort than what he thinks is strictly necessary. He could continue his nomadic lifestyle until he finds another ship and then he can sink that…
But it wouldn't be the same, would it? He's starting to like them, so it would be a shame if he just let them leave. The creature ducks under again and starts swimming with the current.
They can't have gone that far.