This is the story of when I first met her, long before I became a renowned artist.

My encounter with that mystery—Shinbi—took place in a rural village overlooking the sea. After I lost my parents, my mother's friend, whom I shall call 'Uncle,' took me in. Uncle, who already had a family of his own, supported me and let me live in his home. Feeling that I had incurred too great a debt at such a young age, I told him on the day I turned twenty that I would become independent immediately. Both Uncle and his son, Jegang, were naturally shocked. This resolution was a major decision in my life, but... Uncle seemed to view it as the commendable courage of a naive duckling who knew nothing of the world. He asked me to do him one favor before I left: he sent me to his late grandmother's old traditional tile-roofed house.

That was the beginning of my meeting with her.

I looked around the house at my leisure and discovered a locked bathroom. Thinking I should wash up first, I opened the door. That thing next to the hourglass... is it a bath bomb? Or a water ball?