A/N: Here you go. Second part of this chapter. Have fun!^^

The world started spinning, when her consciousness returned to her.

Within the darkness surrounding her, she felt like being tied to an endlessly turning wheel.

Her throat was constricted with nausea as she regained consciousness.

Turning to her side, she carefully breathed in and out. Her head felt heavy and throbbed in pain.

The wheel slowed down, giving enough space for the pain, that throbbed through her, starting from her stomach. With a moan she squinted an eye open.

She had no idea, where she was.

The blurry image showed a wall with dents and splints visible in the shower of daylight.

Turning around, she noticed, that she lay on a soft ground – a futon. She hissed when she rolled over her strong hand. Looking down, she saw it wrapped being wrapped up in bandages. Slowly memories of her hitting wooden pins to unlock prisoners' cages appeared in front of her inner eye. Was she in some kind of prison herself now?

She turned her body once more, this time more careful about her hand.

When she was finished shifting her weight to the other side, she saw a small room. Light broke in from under the irregular planks of the wooden door. There were sacks of rice and ground wheat in a corner. A stack of eggs was placed on some kind of cupboard. She smelled the scent of dried meat filling the room. Another wave of nausea hit her and she moaned.

Fortunately this wave faded into a bearable headache after a few deep breaths. At least she knew now, where she was. She had to be in some kind of storage.

Just then she heard a knock on the door. Rising herself into in an upright position, she called the person on the other side of the door in.

The door opened, blinding her for a moment with the bright sunlight streaming in. A figure darkened by the shadows cast from the light in their back stood within the frame. Blinking her eyes, she could recognize the figure was Jinya-sama, carrying his staff in one hand and a tray in the other. The rays of light were filled with sparkles of dust levitating around him.

"Good morning, Mayura-sama. I hope you are well rested." He walked into the room and placed the tray on the ground in front of her.

She looked at the bowl filled with rice and the tea standing beside it. She felt hungry and nauseous, looking at it. She should have ate something yesterday. "Where are we?"

"The storage room of a small tavern of Gaja. We were lucky, the escaped prisoners went riot, so that we were able to escape unnoticed. I wanted to make sure though, nobody could recall your face."

Her face?

With a gasp Mayura reached out for her hood, but instead of the roughen cloth her fingers touched her soft hair.

Shocked Mayura stared ahead. She was frozen. Who had seen her like this? Was it possible Jinya-sama knew about her true identity?

Perhaps – perhaps she was lucky and he hadn't heard about the princess of Narukami, having uniquely blonde hair fading into green. In the city of Narukami everyone knew. That's what she heard from Rokuro at least. Unlike her he could walk around, without being noticed as someone special. He wouldn't need to cover his face and hair to stroll around the city and had listened here and there of people talking about the princess with the fair hair.

She dropped her hand from her hair to her lap. Her eyes jumped to him. He was standing there with a stern face. Yet his eyebrows were slightly curved. In suspicion?

Jinya-sama turned away from her gaze. "I wonder," he began, while sinking to the ground next to her, "how did you get inside the prisoner camp?"

Should she let it rest? Maybe he wasn't onto her. And even if he was, she could trust him, right?

She recalled the events from yesterday. The prisoner camp, the guard, her trick, which had miraculously worked just like it did in the stories. She huffed a giggle and mumbled, "The guard probably never heard the tales about Abe no Seimei, the legendary samurai of unheard lands."

"Pardon?"

She looked at him. His face was painted with confusion.

She smiled at him. "Never mind." Feeling much more at ease, her gaze rested on the food in front of her. The nausea she felt moments prior, had lifted a bit. "I had some inspiration."

He hummed. After a few moments, he told her, "I hope, you don't mind me, having brought you here."

"Not in the least. You have my thanks, Jinya-sama. I'm obliged to you."

"You are very welcome, Mayura-sama."

Her gaze fell unto the ground again. And it was in this exact moment, in which she recognized, that something was missing. Her ears rung, her head felt like struck by lightening.

"Are you alright?" Jinya-sama's voice reached for her, drawn out behind the droning ring in her heard.

After the realization punched into her, she felt panic rise within her throat. Feverishly she searched for her pack, turning left and right, looking in each corner and niche. It wasn't there.

Not beside her, neither under the blankets nor in corners between the stored goods. It wasn't here.

Shocked and frightened, she mumbled, "My belongings. They are all gone."

"They had been already taken by one of the prisoners, when I found you in between the havoc. I am sorry," Jinya-sama informed her.

Her books, her purse, all of her things were gone. Her books... She had read all of them once before but-

And how would she reach Tsuchimikado now? She didn't believe anyone would take her along without any form of payment.

Even if she found somebody, who could give her the passage to Tsuchimikado, even if the man Jiny-sama had talked about, was able to do that, she would never get on with her journey now. If he wanted money, she couldn't pay him. She had nothing. Everything that she had brought with her on the journey, had been in her pack.

The idea of failure slowly started to torment her as pictures stumbled over each other in her head. They showed her returning home without having accomplished anything and having brought shame to the house of Amawaka. They showed the disapproving look of her father, the pity and sadness of her mother.

Sad and disappointed about herself and the world, she faced this hopeless situation, holding a hand to her chest and looking unfocused ahead.

Under the cloth of her yukata, she felt it now.

No, she hadn't lost everything. There was one thing of high value and importance to her, pointing out under the material of her clothes. If she would seize this...

But she didn't want to. The events that lead to this desperate action lay heavy on her heart. How was she supposed to sell the one material thing, that meant the world for her, when the world outside was cruel and ungrateful?

She really didn't understand, why this happened. How could a prisoner rob her, after she had saved his life? Why would anyone do that? Hadn't they been thankful? How could they stomp on her and take her belongings after she's freed them out of their disgracing confinement?

Feeling beaten and exploited, she murmured, "I don't understand. I freed them. Yet, they stole from me."

She heard a heavy sigh coming from Jinya-sama. Her eyes skipped to him.

With a grave gaze he watched her. He rose his voice to a firm and strong level, "Mayura-sama, excuse me for saying this, but you seem very unfamiliar of this world." His eyes felt like they bored into her, reminding her of her father's eyes. Shame and repentance crawled in her throat and behind her eyes. "Who are you really?"

Taken aback Mayura stared at the man with the scar under his eye. Had he recognized her? Had she been caught? What would he do, if he really knew, who she was? Would he bring her back? Carefully she inquired, "What do you mean?"

He folded his arms and shook his shoulders. "First of all you storm a prisoner camp on your own, as if you'd never heard the likes of it before. Also it seems to me, as if you never saw humans, who lost their soul during the war. The people you freed, no matter how courageous your actions had been- Some of them aren't human anymore, having lost themselves on the battle field and after being held captive like beasts for years."

He was right, wasn't he?

She had seen herself as victim. But who was the real victim here? It was a question nobody could answer.

She had lived on in a sheltered world with foolish ideals.

She had been blind to the world outside.

She had been wrong in her image of the war.

She had believed, she knew a lot about this war. She had thought, she could picture the misery emitted by this war.

Now she came to the understanding, that she knew nothing at all. Knew nothing about the pain of the victims. Nothing about the hate of their families. And nothing about the consequences war left in its wake. So far she had lived a life sheltered away from this.

She had believed the solution to this war being easy. Had believed that the people would want to end it, too. That they just needed to see the wrong interpretation of their religion. How naive she had been.

Now she could see a clearer picture. She understood, why the war was going on without an ending and why the sovereigns had to refer to certain methods to end it. The possession of the Crystal was one thing. It had started this. But the war had also fed itself. With every victim the hate rose, with every loss the wish for revenge had grown into thick layer of flesh. This war was a big giant of hate and prejudices.

Their religion, the subordination to the Crystal, it was just a disguise covering the body of hate beneath, just like the cape of a commoner had hid her royal appearance and her ignorance of the world.

"So, who are you really?"

His voice broke her out of her train of thoughts. He looked at her in question and she returned his gaze with one filled with resolution. This way of life couldn't continue like this. She had to find a solution.

As the princess of Narukami.

If she would need to sell the one thing that was important to her, she would do it. For the course of something greater a leader should be ready to take sacrifices. Even if it meant to sell the one token of her mother's love, that was strapped to her neck.

As the princess of Narukami, it was her duty to head forwards, no matter the price.

With a strengthened heart, she lay a hand directly to the piece she wore close to her heart and told him, what he needed to know and she needed to say, "Maybe I am the one, whom you believe to see in me."

"I thought so," he looked down, seemingly lost in thought. Then he openly smiled at her. "Come, eat up and then I'll bring you to the man, who will grant you a passage to Tsuchimikado."

She nodded at him and dug into her food.

A while later they made their way through the town of Gaja. The fishers were bringing their second catch of the day into town. An heavy cloud of smoke rose from the forge, accompanied by the thundering hammer blows, as the smiths worked hard to produce their metal goods for soldiers and people alike.

Jinya-sama lead her into the outer corners of Gaja, far from the hustle and bustle of the center, were people worked for their living and a group of children played with a kitten. He told her the man they were looking for was earning a lot of money with his information and not so legal businesses. But thanks to his field of work he was discreet.

Ujii Kengo – she hoped that he could truly help her. She hoped, the necklace would be enough to pay for the trip. Selling the last piece of her belongings was the hardest thing, she could imagine. Not because of its value in gold but its value to her.

But no, it was not the last piece, Mayura had to admit. Earlier she had noticed another thing that had not been stolen from her. The map. It was still hidden underneath her obi, waiting for being made of use on her journey.

Close to the barracks weren't many buildings for professional purpose. There was one that was banished into a corner, in front of which large pieces of skin were stretched out to dry. Even from her standing point the pungent, rotten smell of the tanner's work reached her.

Mayura was shocked, when the monk headed towards that place all of a sudden. Would her passage to Tsuchimikado be found between fells and skins and buckets of water, removed grease and fat?

Trying to ignore the increasing stench, Mayura followed him around the building and truly he knocked at its back door.

The door opened. Sunlight fell onto the enormous amount of leather pieces and fur filling the room. In between sat a man in front of a table writing something in quick, practiced strokes. A soroban (1) was placed next to the papers. After a while he lifted his gaze at them.

He turned towards her male companion and asked, "How can I help you?"

"This girl seeks for transportation towards Tsuchimikado,"Jinya-sama said.

The man looked at her now. He mustered her with one fast gaze and claimed, "She can't pay." Having said that he returned to his scribbling.

Jinya-sama looked at her now and nodded for her to show him her one treasure, of which she told the kind monk while eating.

With a heavy heart, Mayura reached for the necklace around her neck and pulled it off her head. Her mother had given her this, when she had become 14 years old. She told her it was once a present from her father to her mother and that she deserved to have the one sign of their love because she wasn't the largest one of them all. Since then Mayura had worn it every day, feeling like she had her parents with her, close to her heart. As it was ripped out of the proximity of her heart, her chest started to ache painfully in remorse and the feeling of loss.

Before she had always had her parents next to her heart, now she had nothing. All of a sudden she felt homesick and scared.

She wanted to go home.

She wanted to cuddle up in her mother's embrace.

But she needed to do this. Not as the daughter of Amawaka Seigen and Yukari but as the future lady of Narukami.

For the means of the future, her past had to wait for her return.

And so she held out the pendant, a small piece of the Crystal and let it dangle in front of the face of Ujii Kengo, "I can."

He rose his bored looking eyes. All of a sudden his facial expression changed. His eyes widened, growing big as plates. "Where did you get this?"

"It was a present. One of high value to me."

He nodded excitedly and tilted his head from one side to another, examining the tiny piece of the Crystal, that shone mysteriously, "Most certainly. With this you could travel back and forth at least fifteen times."

She hadn't known, that it was worth so much. Yet, it didn't feel like it was enough to repay the significance it held for her. Digging the fingers of one hand into her yukata, she recalled a bit of her strength. At least enough to go through with this. With a controlled voice she told the man sitting in front of her, "For now one time would suffice."

"Certainly," he rubbed his chin and grinned like a cat.

"Do we have a deal?"

He finally tore his gaze from the shining pendant and looked at her. "We would. But I fear I cannot pay you back accurately."

"It doesn't matter," she mumbled and looked down at her now folded hands.

With a smirk he grabbed the soroban and pushed a few pearls in a row. The smirk turned into another grin. "I like profitable deals," he said and nodded, "There is a vendor ship, which soon will set sail. Officially it's headed towards Crystal Island, to bring the soldiers the goods. In truth it's headed towards Tsuchimikado island. I will see to it, that you will be brought along as well."

After all her struggles, her goal finally seemed to be within reach. But in comparison to her earlier accomplishments this time, the next step tasted sour and bitter. She bowed towards him nevertheless. "Thank you."

"Wait at the third landing stage from the right. A man will come to you and take you to the ship."

She nodded.

"And don't forget your change."

He handed her a heavy, leather pouch. With a smirk he said, "May the Crystal guide you."

"And you," she forced a polite smile on her face.

This pouch weighted too much.

(1) Soroban- Japanese name/form of an abacus, e.g. the thing Kengo carries around.

A/N: I guess, it's time for Shimon and Mayura to meet, isn't it?^^

Oh and don't forget to vote, if you liked the story. :)