Himiko's exit was not as smooth as she had hoped it would be. After ducking below the surface and out of Ochako's view, Himiko had to swim quite a ways using just her human legs before she could transform.

She wanted to look cool in front of her crush, okay? Swimming a few miles with her puny human legs was just a small price to pay, even if it did hurt like a sonofabitch.

Once she was a decent ways away, she found her buoy - one that she had been using as a sort of rest area while the Death's Inferno floated along this particular stretch of shore - and heaved herself up onto its platform.

The waves danced along her ankles. Himiko had never got up any further on the buoy than sitting up, and her toes were beginning to tingle in the cold water. She was used to standing on shifting surfaces - being a pirate, after all - but in the end she chose to lay on her side on the rusty-red steel platform. There was quite the height difference between her human form standing up and her selkie form, and it would do her absolutely no good to get a concussion while trying to transform.

Himiko pulled her seal skin tight around her shoulders and tried to steady her breathing. It was painful work breaking and reshaping her body. Under normal circumstances, she would have transformed on the soft sand of the beach or (should she be regaining her human legs) on the ship's deck where Magne would be waiting with a blanket and a drink of water. She never transformed underwater, afraid of the possibility that she would choke on seawater. The pain of the transformation was another factor, as well as the predators that would come at the scent of fresh blood.

She prepared herself, drew in a sharp breath, and began the process of changing. The process in and of itself of changing into her selkie form is the exact opposite of changing into her human form. Everything happens that same way, just in reverse. Her face elongates into a snout - from which human teeth fall and seal teeth emerge. Her fingers and hands merge into her arms to become front flippers, whereas her legs merge together to form her tail with her feet as the back flippers. Her blonde hair falls out of her scalp, fluttering like corn silk into the waves to add to the various debris that already littered the ocean - along with her human teeth. All was washed away, and she slipped into the waves like a hot knife through butter to continue her journey.

The Death's Inferno was relatively large, which made it very easy to spot on the horizon. The ship was farther out this time around than what they normally had it, and to the east of where Ochako lived. Himiko had to swim out past where the shallows dropped off into the depths. The blues surrounding her became deeper, and the water got cooler. A large sea turtle meandered slowly in the distance and large schools of fish swirled in endless curlicuing clouds of shimmering silver scales. As Himiko got closer, the barnacles that lived along the bottom of the ship got clearer and clearer until she finally arrived at the base of the ship's hull.

The Death's Inferno was in and of itself very unique. Because of its crew and their needs, modifications had been made to make all of their lives a little easier. None of the selkies - even Tomura, who rarely graced the waves out of his human skin - enjoyed changing forms while submerged in the water. This, of course, caused quite the conundrum if one of them wanted to come back on board as seals cannot climb vertical ladders. It was their own Atsuhiro who proposed the idea of attaching a spare rowboat to either side of the ship at water level for the selkies to change in, with ladders leading up to the top deck once they were 'human' again. Jin called these rowboats the 'loading docks'. The name had been a bland one, but it had eventually stuck (much to Atsuhiro's disdain).

The Loading Docks was where Himiko presently was, transformed back into her human form and shivering as the ocean wind picked up speed. Dressed in only her seal pelt, Himiko ascended the long ladder and vaulted herself onto the deck.

"Well, well. Look who the cat dragged in."

Spinner - residential dragon-shifter - stood near the rail, holding Mittens in his scaly hands. The kitten looked perfectly content where she was, batting at one of Spinner's fingers. Spinner himself had a smug look on his face, proud of hte pun he had just made.

Despite herself, Himiko let out what could only be described as a guffaw.

"Have you been waiting to use that joke? It was awful." She said in a teasing tone.

She did mean it, though. That joke was god awful.

Himiko began walking across the deck to the cabin door, intending to change into some actual clothes and get warm.

"Actually," Spinner said, adjusting Mittens so that she was cradled against his shoulder. The kitten didn't seem bothered, and began to swat at and chew on Spinner's purple hair. "I just cam up with it. My brain flexed its glorious muscles, and produced a frankly hilarious joke that clearly wasn't appreciated by my present company."

Himiko scoffed and finished walking the distance towards the cabin door. She opened it, and before she walked through it she looked over her shoulder and said, "I'm going to tell Atsuhiro that you made that joke, and he will shame you for your lack of performance and showmanship."

Spinner's look of mild panic made Himiko smile sharply as the door shut behind her and she started down the stairs.

The cabin area was a bit cramped, but overall cozy. Lanterns burned low, casting an intimate light about the room as they swayed on their hooks. Everyone's hammocks were separated by sheets that had been tied to the low hanging rafters, though the sheets were usually flipped up unless someone was sleeping or wanted some privacy. No one's sheet was down as she walked down the makeshift lane between posts. Tomura and Dabi were in one hammock - though there were plenty enough for Tomura to be in his own - snuggled close to each other. Not that they would ever admit to cuddling or snuggling or anything, but the description was accurate. Magne was sitting in her hammock, polishing some large bit of weaponry that Himiko couldn't quite identify. Jin was laying - though the more accurate term would be hovering - in his hammock, doing not much of anything. Atsuhiro sat in a chair in front of a small table, playing a card game with himself (probably solitaire). Everyone stopped what they were doing when they saw Himiko.

"So," Magne began. "How was tonight's delivery?"

"It went great!" Himiko said, hoping that that would be a sufficient answer. As much as she loved her crewmates, she was hoping to keep her encounter with Ochako to herself for a little bit longer.

As Himiko finished changing into actual clothes, she could tell from the silence that her answer had not at all been sufficient.

"You're usually a bit more talkative, blondie." Dabi said. He hadn't moved from his comfortable looking position with Tomura, though one of his eyebrows was cocked at her. "Did something go wrong?"

"Well now, I wouldn't say anything went wrong, per say-"

"'Per say?' Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine I-"

And just like that, everyone (including Spinner, who had joined the group behind Himiko) began speaking - even yelling - over one another trying to get a more concise answer from the young girl. The change from almost complete silence to loud cacophonic shouting made Himiko's head spin and her ears ring. Almost absently, Himiko noted that if they as a group had just let one person ask, then perhaps they might have gotten the answer without as much chaos. Probably not, though. Her little family never did anything without a healthy dose of chaos. Himiko also noted to herself much later that she probably wouldn't have given them a more concise answer, as the barrage against her senses made her blurt out the following without so much as a thought:

"I met up with Ochako and told her I was a selkie, okay?"