Battler felt like he was going to be sick. He probably should have expected it, but Heather drove like she was auditioning for an action movie. Battler was a chess and cotton candy sort of guy, not so much an action movie and roller coaster guy. Snickers in the back was handling this better than him. On top of that, Heather chose now to fill him in on what was going on. He caught details here and there like "church," "void," "magic whistle," stuff like that. He was having a hard time making sense of anything. He couldn't well let out his flames in a place like this. If someone saw fire in a car driving<span style="font-style: italic">this</span>spastically, the police<span style="font-style: italic">would</span>be called. He told himself to save his questions for the boat ride, and focus on keeping down his lunch for now.<br/><br/>It was a relief when the arrived at the port where their boat was. Battler accepted his ticket and let Heather carry his bag with little complaint. He looked around briefly and supposed Snickers had vanished back into her bag. It was a brave cat if it was following them to Graecia. That had to be the least cat-friendly place on the planet, besides the ocean... or a volcano.<br/><br/>Ijemaru and Ebisu were already on the boat when the arrived. They still had a couple of minutes to board before the boat would set sail. Honestly, the second-year felt a little intimidated. Everyone else on this mission had way more experience than he did, and they were probably stronger too. If nothing else, he didn't want to be a burden. He didn't want to make Ms. Paulson regret bringing him along.<br/><br/>They showed one of the crewmen their tickets and he let them on. It took three days to get to Graecia by boat from there, so each of the guests would get a room of their own. Since their four tickets were purchased as a set, their rooms were all linked to the same little living room type thing. It wasn't a luxury cruise or anything, but it was pretty nice. It was almost like they were going on vacation. They each picked a bedroom and took a minute to arrange their stuff before meeting again in the main room.<br/><br/>"So, about this mission," Battler started. He was interrupted as an announcement boomed throughout the ship.<span style="font-style: italic">"Attention all passengers: this is your captain speaking. It is three o'clock, we'll be setting sail momentarily on a nonstop cruise to the Graecian Continent. Please obey safety signs, and dinner will be served in the dining hall at seven. Thank you all, have a wonderful cruise."</span><br/><br/>"I'm hungry now," Ebisu complained, crossing his arms behind his head and smiling with sad eyebrows. "With all this traveling I missed lunch."<br/><br/>Ijemaru shook his head at the Graecian. "You had a question?" he asked Battler.<br/><br/>"Uh, well, I could use some details cleared up." Then the boat gave a massive heave as the engines kicked on and it started to move.<br/><br/>"That can wait!" Ebisu said excitedly. "The boat's moving. You have to see your city get swallowed by the ocean!" By now he was already at their doorway, more than ready to get up on the deck.<br/><br/>"My Grandpa lived on a private island," Battler objected as politely as he could. "Me and the rest of my family would go by boat to visit him every summer since I can remember... And you don't have to talk to me like a kid. I'm seventeen," he gestured at Ijemaru, "same as him."<br/><br/>Ebisu stuck out his tongue tauntingly. "I talk to him like a kid too. You guys can talk about serious stuff without me. I'm going to watch your sinfully hot city drown."<br/><br/>Ijemaru sighed as the Graecian ran off. Hopefully he was a lot more dependable than he seemed. Then he flashed a look at Heather, "Didn't you explain things to him on the way here or something? You had an hour."