Fish Without The I

On the next day's dawn, Faith woke up and peered down to the bottom of the deck. She had some sort of dream she couldn't remember, rubbing her head and squinting her eyes to boost their efficacy.

When she looked down to the dock, Sky and Ra seemed to be competing for something with rods in their hands. They were... fishing...?

"I'm telling you, you idiot! You have to be patient!" Ra said to Sky. They were loud as if they had no regard for people sleeping this early.

"But why be patient when I could just drag the rod through the water and catch something on the move, the more ground you cover, the better your chances," Sky suggested. Of course, he wasn't serious with Ra, but he found it funny to tease him.

"What kind of stupid rule is that? Do you guys really do it like that up on The Pinnacle?" Ra asked Sky. He was a smart kid, but he was being made into a fool during the conversation.

"Well, not really. I just used my Strands as a net to catch fish," Sky lied to Ra, causing him to brainstorm new ideas for catching fish to eat for breakfast.

"I got it! Why don't you just do that again?!" Ra suggested. Sky took a moment, running his hand against the rough wooden railing while shaking his head.

"Yeah, I don't really do that anymore. Besides, it's so much easier to just continue to cast out and reel in as fast as possible," Sky teased once more. He had deduced the meaningful conversation to playful bickering, resorting to Ra getting fed up with him.

"Okay hotshot! Go ahead then, I want to see three fish in the next ten minutes then if you're so good at it!" Ra threw a contest out at Sky, and Faith saw him deviously smile as he whipped the rod back past his head.

"If I catch more than three I get your breakfast, sound good?" Sky asked him. Ra nodded, acting as cocky as possible, while Sky cast the rod out to the ocean.

In doing so, he infused the rod with strands, having them spread out under the water and collect fish as if it were a net. Once he picked them up and attached them to the hook, Sky whipped it out of the water, holding all four by the hook at once and showing Ra. He caught them and showed them off to Ra, who had his mouth wide open.

"See? Not too hard. Plus, I get all of these fish and yours for breakfast, seemed like it worked out really well to me," Sky said. He spun the fishing rod around his finger with ease, placing it back in the bucket while throwing the fish into another. Ra was still baffled by his performance, sneering while looking at his left hand.

"Did you do something? You used Strands, didn't you?" Ra accused Sky of a truthful crime, but he didn't budge. Sky found great pleasure in messing with him.

"Doesn't sound like me. I don't use Strands," Sky told him. Although true that Sky didn't use Strands in situations where he could help it, he often played around with them to hone his skills and make sure he didn't become rusty. Since the situation wasn't dire, he decided to use them to add a layer of fun to his debate with Ra.

"You totally did! Watch, I'm going to do the same thing, and I won't catch a thing!" Ra said. He threw his rod out next, and Faith scoffed, watching the two talk back and forth about such pointless things. 

In all honesty, Faith had laughed a little at Sky's encounter with Ra. He had a sense of comedy that he lacked before. He wasn't serious all the time, which meant that he was confident in being as silly as she was before. Even without fighting our meaning to, Sky had proved himself to her in a way she didn't expect. Faith watched Sky with soft eyes, attempting to understand what about her father made him so strong now.

It could possibly be because he knew how to joke around now, but he refined control of Strands spoke to her. Sky was still the same man, but decided not to use the Strands for his own reasons. Perhaps it could be a spark that would ignite a fire that Faith could return to.

Then again, she considered the thought that she might be overreacting about it. Her father was a remarkable man, but not in a way that put him above everything else. While thinking about him, she realized that she began to refer to Sky Asterio as 'Dad' once more. She shook the thought out of her head, taking away the pillow and blanket, and casting her own rod off the opposite side of the boat.

Using the same method she thought Sky used, she was able to bring up two fish, half of what he was able to complete. The scary thing to Faith was that she wasn't sure if he got four fish because that was his upper limit, or because he just wanted to mess with Ra. His power was still unparalleled, no matter what she tried to do.

"Just put your back into it!" Sky said to Ra. Sky upset him even more, leading to cackling from Sky and him throwing his head up in the air while he fell onto his back. As he did, he spotted the girl who called herself 'Shinigami' fishing as well. Sky didn't know she moved up there, and also didn't know she brought a fishing rod. He ignored her actions and looked back to Ra, who was content with catching at least one fish using Sky's method. The two weren't friends before, but they had some sort of connection now.

"Great! Now just do it like, four more times and you'll be me!" Sky said. He slapped his back, taking his fish to the kitchen to cook them up.

"Hey, Ra, what do you call a fish without an eye?" Sky said. Ra looked over to him with a scowl while Sky smiled, "A fsh! Haha!" He said. He even got Faith to laugh from above.