Hoshi felt bored as the others did their own thing, Garrus was bullying Madoc while Amp was sound asleep humming a tune. Feeling adventurous, he jumps over the edge of the box and lands on his head, crushing his hat. He then sets off after adjusting his clothing: a teal poncho jacket, harem pants and a pointy hat with tassels hanging on the sides as well as two holes cut on the top for his wolf ears to poke through. Scanning the area with his golden eyes while brushing some dirt out of his teal and white hair, he explores further into a forest east of the Institute of War. He picked an assortment of flowers along the way, some had strange patterns while others glowed, this was basically a gift for Nami and Soraka.
Night soon followed, but light bugs and illuminous plants lit a path for him to travel. Running through the forest with a full banquet, Hoshi would occasionally stop to pet a Krug after feeding it a flower, even a Gromp hopping by helped him cross a river after it helped itself to the light bugs flying around the adventuring tyke.
Running further into the unknown, he comes across a familiar celestial deity collecting herbs from a small cluster of stones. Right away, Hoshi dashes towards her.
"Lady Soraka!" He yells, causing her to jump a little.
He glued himself against her backside, dropping the flowers in the process. Giggling and rubbing his face against her, Soraka turns around to contemplate the sudden turn of events. Watching his tail wag, she assumed it was a Yordle, but the moment he gazes up to her and shows a smile, she saw an illusion of the Hoshi she knew, barking at her. She drops the herbs in her hands and snatches him up.
"Hoshi! What happened to you!?" She yells with delight, hugging him with all her might.
After placing him down, he reaches into his poncho and takes a piece of paper.
"What's this?" She asks.
"I don't know, but it has your name on it." He answers before running around to collect the fallen flowers.
Unfolding the paper, she finds an message detailing a method to collect certain exotic and rare plants all with the purpose of healing. That method being... Hoshi. The message didn't really make any sense, but it did reflect on her occupation as a traveling healer.
"Hmm, strange. I guess we should return to Ionia and reunite with Nami." Soraka calls out, placing the message in her pouch.
"Lady Soraka! Look what I found." Hoshi yells from a bush.
Soraka walks over and parts the branches to find him holding a root, glowing blue.
"Look!" He told her as he taps the root causing it to hum and vibrate like a tuning fork.
It was without a doubt a mandrake, but Soraka knew it wasn't any normal herb.
"Can I see that, Hoshi?" Soraka asks kindly and filled with excitement.
"Yeah. I hear some more over there!" He says then takes off, digging under another bush and pulling out more mandrakes with all sorts of color variations.
"I-Is this what that message meant?" Soraka asks herself as she inspects the mandrake that is said to be as effective as the potions made from the legendary Yggdrasil trees. She looks back at Hoshi while he brings the rest over to her. She naturally strokes his cheek with her thumb to show her appreciation, making him purr. Wasting no time, she gathers the mandrakes into a sack and walks out of the forest with her little helper. Joyously running circles around her made the Starchild think of possibly taking up an apprentice or an assistant at least.
Daydreaming for the majority of the walk, they find themselves at a pier. Boarding a ship, they set sail for the land of Ionia. In the meantime, Soraka and Hoshi share an orange for lunch. After biting into a slice, Hoshi cries out and spits out a seed. So from that point on, Soraka had to bite off a portion of the fruit before giving him a piece, but she didn't complain. Soraka believed nothing bad could happen during the trip, sadly, a volley of cannonballs thought otherwise. (that escalated quickly)
The ship they were on gets rocked by cannon fire and the passengers start to panic. Looking over the railing, Soraka could see another ship coming from the direction of Bilgewater. A sinister laugh travels across the water, inducing more fear into the passengers. The sails were blown off, halting the ship's movement and Soraka quickly tends to the wounded with Hoshi not far behind. The ship once again rumbles as the Bilgewater ship crashes into the side. Pirates start pouring onto the ship, looting and tying up the frightened passengers. Soraka was cornered while shielding a group of people, ready for a fight. Then the pirates surrounding them make a path for their captain.
"Ya ha har! Ahoy, me beauties. A good day for plunderin, don't ye agree?" Gangplank asks as he points his pistol at Soraka.
"The summoners won't tolerate this behavior, Gangplank!" Soraka yells with her arms spread out to defend the passengers.
"Aye, but we be simply collectin a fee for these waters... a toll fee. Ain't that right, ye scurvy dogs!" Gangplank hollers in which his crew laugh and shout out in agreement.
"Then hurry up with your business and leave, you saltwater rat." Soraka hisses as she glares at the Saltwater Scourge.
"Of course, lassie." Gangplank smugly says before signaling one of his crewmates.
Soraka gets blindsided by the handle of a pistol and falls unconscious. Gangplank then demanded everyone to empty their pockets and move onto to the lifeboats. After throwing Soraka on board with the passengers, the pirates drop the boats and tell them good riddance. As the lifeboats drift towards Ionia, Gangplank makes his way to Blue Flame Island with his big haul. Though the ships were crawling with pirates, they never noticed Hoshi as he dragged around a large bag fill with humming mandrakes. You could say the pirates would fall asleep instantly once they hear the symphony of hums from the magical plants.
"Lady Soraka! Where are you? Hey. Hey, do you know where Lady Soraka is?" Hoshi calls out for his friend and asks a sleeping pirate, poking his face in attempt to wake him.
Hoshi pouts a little before giving up and walks across a rope onto Gangplank's ship. This time he sets the bag down and walks around the deck that was covered in loot. Nonchalantly navigating around the maze of chests, barely avoiding detection he reaches a door and knocks on it. A man with bad eye sight looks around after opening the door and closes it, mumbling something about pranksters. Hoshi just strolls past him when he opened the door and found himself walking around a poorly lit room. Walking past pirates who were getting drunk from their recent plunder posed no danger, but Hoshi doesn't know better.
His ears suddenly perk up and shifts his sight on another door. Walking to it, only to find it locked, he asks the man guarding the door for passage. The guard was too drunk to think straight and opens the door before falling asleep. Unaware to Hoshi, he enters the personal quarters of Gangplank. He tries to find the source of the pleasant sound and comes across a box on Gangplank's desk. The container was the same size as Hoshi and looked fragile, but he pushes it off the desk anyway. Pushing it further towards the door, he waits at the entrance until Gangplank stumbles inside drunk. Hoshi took the opportunity to push the box through the door.
"Thank you." Hoshi says as he exits the room.
"Yar, anytime time.*hic*" Gangplank salutes him and continues to stumble to his hammock.
Pushing the box through the other door with convenient timing, he reaches the bag of mandrakes and sits by, thinking that Soraka would find him eventually. Much like the other Shens, sleeping took up a majority of his schedule, but before he could fall asleep, he ties the bag to the handle of the decorative box just to be careful. Later the ships start to rock violently from a nearby storm, causing everything on board to slide around including Hoshi.
Eventually he slides off the ship along with the mandrakes and box. Luckily the bag was buoyant enough to support the weight of Hoshi and the box. He finally wakes up after an hour adrift. Confused for a minute, he sees Ionia's outline in the distance and begins to paddle with his small hands. He was getting more and more tired with every passing minute, but continued to paddle until he fell asleep again. Curled up in a ball with his tail resting in the water, it begins to attract some hungry fish. Suddenly a sharp pain courses through his body causing him to jump. Grabbing his tail with a fish using its sharp teeth to clamp on, Hoshi begins to cry his eyes out.
Crying and Crying, the pain suddenly fades away and he was able to open his teary eyes to see his savior holding the fish by the tail.
"Lady Nami!" Hoshi cries out, jumping into her arms and shedding more tears.
"Huh?" Nami was confused when the little guy started hugging her like his life depended on it.
And just like the time with Soraka, when he faced her with his yellow eyes, the image of the Hoshi she knew appeared.
"Why are you all the way out here, Hoshi? (And why are you in a different form?)" Nami asks, rubbing his head to calm him down.
"I don't know. Lady Soraka was with me then I fell asleep then a fish tried to eat me." Hoshi stumbles over his words, skipping a lot of stuff.
"Okay, okay. Let's return home first, so we can get you something to eat." Nami tells him after hearing his stomach growl.
Swimming towards Ionia, Nami made sure to bring along the bag of mandrakes and mystery box. Curious about the box, Nami decides to open it after reaching a beach and almost passes out when she saw its contents. Hoshi was curious as well and looks inside.
"What kind of rock is that, Lady Nami?" Hoshi asks, looking at the glowing, crescent-shaped stone.
"I-It's the m-m-m-moonstone." Nami stutters, sounding out of breath.
"Hmmm, okay. What's a m-m-m-moonstone?" Hoshi innocently asks.