Akito Ishura was careful he was ferried over to Heiya Island. At over ninety years in life, he had seen a great many things and enjoyed a fair number of hobbies. Many of them were rather eclectic, but the things that he had enjoyed the most often involved things related to the sea. A part of him had wanted to join the navy when he was younger, as he'd seen that as a way to go out to see and possibly see many of the things about the wide expanse of ocean that had always fascinated him. However, he was too young when World War Two began, and when Japan's military situation had grown desperate enough to take him in, they really didn't have a navy to sail with anymore. His service was ultimately limited to manning AA batteries along the harbors and docks where what remained of the Imperial Navy were kept as they couldn't move due to oil shortages and nearly everything else. In time, he found himself lucky to have survived and the American occupation was never as bad as he'd initially been told to believe.
The time after the war then gave Akito the opportunity that he'd really wanted. To go to sea, and this was in a way that didn't involve militarism. He'd gotten a job on a fishing boat as part of the new fishing fleets that were built after WW2 and he enjoyed the work. He could help feed his people and could go out and see the wonders of the ocean. He long remembered pointing to friends when animals like dolphins and other sea creatures trailed or came close enough to be seen. It was captivating and he loved it. It also gave him time to look at other stories and information that related to the sea, including the various prehistoric seas. What drew his greatest interest were the stories on the prehistoric sea turtle, Archelon. It didn't live near Japan, but its fossils indicated that there were sea turtles in the Mesozoic Era, and it fit with the collection of pet turtles he'd also raised to provide for something to do when not at sea and to have someone other than his crew mates to talk to.
The establishment of Animalia came as a surprise and Akito never expected genetic science to actually come up with something so transformative. It was intriguing and the becoming young again was the most appealing thing to him, but when Animalia started, prehistoric animals weren't an option and if he were to become something, inhuman, he'd long picked Archelon, his favorite sea creature. After Dinotopia got started, he started working on arranging to save up his money and going over the old books he'd read as a young man and looking up to see if there was any new information found since then. Now he had come to Heiya Island for his conversion and finalizing the moving of things to the island that was being set up as the Dinotopian Colony in Japan, Ishinoha Island.
He was greeted on the docks by Kumiyo. The female Tylosaurus Dinotopian stood calmly and had her webbed hands in a position where she would be able to catch him if he fell. Akito accepted that, as while he was reasonably healthy, he knew that he was older. He raised his hands politely as he approached.
"Easy there, young one," Akito spoke fairly clearly, "I'm not so decrepit, yet."
"I'd just want to make sure," Kumiyo commented, "someone wanting to come and become a Dinotopian hasn't been super common... probably because so much of the work Horizon is done with that program is focused in Dino City. And with your age, and the potential for bad storms, I would not wish to see you hurt. Particularly when the airport probably could have been safer and easier for you."
"Bah, I never really liked planes," Akito commented, "some of it is bad memories from the war and some is that I had to fly from Kure up to Hokkaido once. Spent the whole flight being air sick."
"And yet you like the sea?" Kumiyo raised an eye ridge.
"I've never been seasick," Akito answered, "and besides, the ferry will be better served for moving my things to Ishinoha Island. From there... it will be establishing a new fishing fleet... or maybe engineering a way to do fish farming. Raise food fish and then harvest them."
"Sounds intriguing," Kumiyo replied, "if you're looking for help... my cousin and her mate would be more than happy to once you get things set up."
"Fishing or setting up a fish farm?" Akito asked.
"Yeah... our fathers run a decent fishing business in Hokkaido... but passing that on to us would require either larger homes being built or larger boats commissioned," Kumiyo replied, "particularly for me... as Tylosaurus isn't a small animal. And I think they've run into the same logistical problems they've run into with trying to build the main colony building in Tokyo. In this, my cousin and I could stand to have a spot to live and work, particularly when Heiya Island is becoming a tad... crowded." She paused as she watched Akito nod before continuing, "though, we're also waiting on whether or not Ty agrees to move here or if things get to a point where I'd actually consider moving to live with him. And that's... complicated for the moment."
"I won't press on it," Akito answered and offered Kumiyo his hand, "though best to let me get on to Horizon. I'm assuming they're waiting for me."
Kumiyo nodded and escorted him on the way to Horizon. The walk wasn't terribly far and Akito enjoyed the exercise, and while he was outside the smell of the sea air that drifted on the winds. Though they did have to go inside where they were eventually greeted by Dr. Miyamoto and Chel. The pair of them had flown in from Tokyo to help things be ready earlier and had the formula ready for Akito's conversion. Akito was led into a more sterile room that had little decoration to it.
"You'll probably want to undress as you change," Dr. Miyamoto advised, "Archelon isn't as big as Tylosaurus... so won't become as big as Ms. Tahara, but given the maximum size for Archelon was estimated at around 3 tons, you aren't going to be small, either."
"I'll probably need new clothes regardless," Akito commented, "as all Horizon's papers indicate that Sea Turtle Animalians can't remove their shells the way those based on tortoises and freshwater turtles can. Which means certain things would be left... open... so to speak."
There were some nods to that, which Akito took as Dr. Miyamoto recognizing that he understood the main point that was made. Akito also figured that the doctor was also impressed by his knowledge on Animalians and could tell the difference between the various types of Turtle Animalians that there were. The doctor gave a small smile to Chel, who presented him with the alcohol swab and then the two syringes for the does. Unlike Jeremy in Dino City, who needed a specialized syringe built for his fingers, Dr. Miyamoto as a Human could use the standard syringes that were most often used for conversions, and he quietly gave Akito both shots. From there, Akito was welcomed to "Dinotopia", and Dr. Miyamoto then left the room with Chel.
Even as the door shut, Akito could feel many things happening. Wrinkles and age lines on his face were rapidly straightening and then vanishing, and while Akito had lost most of his hair with age, as what remained began to fall out and into his hands, he noted that that hair was actually black in color, and not the faded silver-gray it'd become over the years. It was something that made him smile, as he could feel the transformation happening and the revitalization of his youth. He quickly began working on undoing the buttons on his shirt and then on his pants. Both of which were starting to get a bit tight as he felt his muscles increase and grow in both strength and size. Some of that became even more apparent as he began to undress more. His hand and arms were covered scaled skin that looked sort of like a Leatherback Sea Turtle's, which made some degree of sense, given the presumption that while Archelon was not thought to be a close relative or ancestor to the modern Leatherback, it was felt to have at least convergently evolved similar forms. Some of it was even starting to form webbing between his fingers and toes.
"This will be amazing," Akito said as he looked to his hands.
The leathery scaled skin was a dark shade of green on the dorsal side and faded into a lighter shade on the underside of his hands and arms, something that fit with a great many animals and particularly sea creatures. Having darker colors on top and lighter colors on the bottom so that anything above them might lose them in the "darkness" of the depths while anything below them might lose them in the sun. Nothing really hurt, though there were some things that felt a bit odd. Many of his ribs were flattening out and merging together under his skin. Even as his pectoral muscles grew stronger, he could feel his bones move and cover more of his chest, and even flattening out so that they would function like the front plastron of a turtle's shell. The key difference, which Akito found as he brought his hands down to feel these changes was that this shell on his front only came down so far as his belly button.
There was no shell on the front there, and it gave Akito a clear view of the weirdest part of his transformation, though it was also one to be expected. It happened as he felt pressure on his back and as his spine and his ribs there moved and altered to form the shield-like back shell that Archelon had. He couldn't see it, but the dark leathery skin of his shell was an even darker shade of green. It was dark enough that it almost looked black and was only interrupted by a series of small white spots that actually followed the center line of his shell and the back ribs that helped support the frame of it. And that wasn't the weirdest part of the transformation. The weirdest part was when his testicles and penis suddenly pulled within him, and it almost felt like a "sucking" sensation. It was something that he half expected as no reptile was known to have external sex organs. All of them were held internally, though that didn't entirely change the worry over things. As he didn't sign up to be a herm Animalian or to try and be one hundred percent female. He still very much saw himself as male, and he was soon probing that opening with a webbed finger and hoping that he still had his penis.
"Phew," Akito managed as his organs did respond and revealed hardening penis that telescoped out from that opening with a more whitish-pink color to it and contrasting with his greener colored body. He had some sigh of relief as his face began to push forward and with his teeth merging with his lips. As his arrow shaped beak formed, Akito opened and closed his mouth a few times to hear the clicking of his jaws. As this happened, there also came an instinctual pull to get some calamari. Maybe after being given the vaccine, Chel, Dr. Miyamoto, and Kumiyo wouldn't mind joining him.