Yawning and sipping a lovely mint tea to try and erase the taste of the nasty black brew that the Captain swore by that he'd used to keep up on his watch, Isawa O-washi made his way into the Sick Bay and made his way to the last of the crew who'd been less than seaworthy. It had amused him, at first, that the Crab should send forth a person so...flimsy...but that had changed to true concern when the man failed to improve. He'd been helping with magic before the crossing of the Sea but during that voyage, they'd had to resort to cruder methods.

It was at such times it was good that O-washi was so big...it made pinning down objecting patients easier. Not that there'd been much fight left in the Toritaka by then to struggle against, mind, but it had made the job of the poor eta easier. Now that the'd left the fouled region, however, the big priest was sure he could magic enough life back into the man to get him back on his feet and to work.

Besides, he had a few things to ask the man...things that only a Toritaka might know.

It was not that difficult to find the Crab, his energy had still not fully returned to him after the... ordeal of the last few days. He was at least awake and seemed to have managed to find his feet, though he still looked less than steady.

"This might have been a mistake" he muttered to himself, thinking himself still alone in the room. There was surely so much he had missed amongst those on the boat so far... so much information still to take in.

Slowly he started to tie up his hair and stopped arms raised over his head as he noticed the large gunso. "Good morning gunso-sama. That time again is it...?" There was a certain touch of dread to his voice.

"I am feeling a little better, I do not think such methods will be needed today..."

"You're in luck, Toritaka-san." The gunso was in much better humor today, his grin broad and teasing despite the lines of weariness around his eyes. "We've left the Kami-forsaken Sea and so I can use the kami to help you instead of the more, shall we say, drastic measures. While they do their work, though, I've got an interesting question to put to you so you may as well sit back down."

"Sitting... yes..." Gingerly the Crab did just that, though carefully.

A smile touched the edges of his lips in delight that he would not have to undergo the procedure again. "What is the question?" he asked curiously, silently bracing himself for a joke or two about his unsuitability for life at sea.

O-washi propped a hip against the berth, taking one of Hoitsu's hands and touching the back lightly so that the kami would flow between them before chanting a fairly complex prayer under his breath. As the water kami began to replace those that he'd lost, O-washi's grin faded slightly, though it didn't disappear.

"Have you ever heard of a spirit that looks like a person and grows gills?"

Hoitsu's eyebrows rose a little at the question, unexpected as it was. His families knowledge was a source of pride in him, but he'd of been the first to admit that he had not expected it to be all that useful either out here or so soon.

The Crab's eyes took on a more thoughtful look as he sat stroking his chin thinking over the question.

It was good to see the man pleasantly distracted for once and so O-washi let him think in silence, lifting his hand from Hoitsu's to go about the business of brewing more of the restorative tea that had been the primary component of most of the hapless Crab's intake for the last several days.

"There are any number of spirits that are capable of altering their shape... in fact it would probably be quicker to mention those that cannot." he mused, thinking over the very brief description. "Though, those that have gills in their true form are significantly less."

The Toritaka shrugged a little, stretching out his muscles that had seen little use in the last few days. "Shark hengeyokai perhaps."

"Tell me gunso-sama, is this something you have seen for yourself? Or more of a curiosity you overheard?"

"Something I heard of recently." He shrugged. "It's a matter of curiosity more than anything...do you suppose a child of such a being would have some of the same skills? I know that's the rumor about the Kitsune but I've not met one to know the truth of it for myself."

There was a small sigh of disappointment from Hoitsu, who had been secretly hoping for a man-shark to be trailing after the boat.. or at least failing that, to find out that the man he was talking to was a little bit... interesting.

"Almost certainly, there are no end to the tales of such things that you can come across. As you say, they tend to almost all be referencing the Kitsune in the tales... I don't see why it wouldn't work the same way for any other children from a spirit - human pairing though."

Glancing around the room for a moment, he continued on. "I never did get a chance to look over the ship before succumbing, given the stretch of water we just passed through... I assume the ship is protected?"

"As well as anything can be. It's not the same as warding on the Wall, at least how one of the Kuni I know tried to explain it." Black brows drew together in thought over eyes that swirled a serene and sparkling blue today. "Ships get ritually purified after they leave the Sea of Shadows and those that serve there overlong may be burned if things start happening that are too unfortunate and too frequent to be accidents."

Hoitsu nodded as the Isawa explained things to him. It would have been too much to hope that in the Empire's current Jade shortage for the ship to have Jade studding and the like.

"A shame that I was not feeling myself in the last few days or I would have made sure to keep a careful eye out. While I do not doubt those that protect the ship from such things... Well. We all have our specialties. Can't be too careful when it comes to spirits."

"You might talk to one of the Yoritomo about that, actually. Choukichi-san." Bemusement crossed the priest's face. "He's got so many ofuda on his berth he probably can't see out of it...which isn't necessarily a bad idea, really, but it's damned peculiar. I'm not sure what it is he's so fussed over but maybe you could reassure him we're haunt-free, it being your Family's specialty and all, now that you're feeling better."

A mischievous smile appeared on the Crab's face at that. "Oh. Certainly I could. At the same time though, one has to wonder at the appeal of having somebody else on board for people to occasionally poke fun at, rather than just me after the last few days."

"Can't hurt to ask him about it though."

"Won't just be you..my Cousin was almost as green, though he managed to avoid certain indignities." Now it was the Phoenix who's eyes lit up with mischief. "The crew's still debating what's better to call you, Bilge or Chum."