"Can you catch fish with a straight hook?" By the sea, Robin looked doubtfully at the fishing rod in Shin's hand. She had clearly seen that the hook Shin had cast out was straight.
The sea was calm. Shin smiled. "Don't overestimate a fish's intelligence. Want to give it a try?"
"Can I?" Robin blinked. Since coming here, that was the phrase she had said most often.
Shin did not answer. Smiling, he stood and made an inviting gesture.
Robin carefully sat where Shin had been sitting and took hold of the fishing rod with some surprise. Even so, she still doubted whether she could actually catch a fish.
Shin stood beside her and guided her with a smile. "Your heart must be calm, with no distracting thoughts. Listen to the sounds of the sea and nature, become one with your surroundings, and believe that you can do it."
"It feels so hard!" Robin said with a tearful face.
The days that followed were perhaps the happiest period of Robin's life so far. Shin built her a little house beside his own wooden cabin. When she saw the magical sight of lumber and stones moving by themselves, Robin displayed the wonder natural for someone her age, pestering Shin to teach her that miraculous ability.
Shin merely smiled and told her to catch a fish first. Her face immediately fell, and she stopped talking. At that moment, she had the same thought Dracule Mihawk once had: Shin had to be messing with her.
But children forgot their tempers in the blink of an eye. When Shin had several flowers turn into human forms to play with her, all her unhappiness was swiftly thrown to the back of her mind.
From that day onward, Robin never returned to her uncle's home.