A/N: Okay... Chapter 50 of SnO was... heavy... ALL THE FEELS, DAMMIT. But the deep development of shimayu is utterly beautiful. I love how they are there for each other. They are so pure. *sniff*

Back to fanfiction now...

I know this chapter has taken over a month and I am very sorry but you know life happens all the time. Plus, I have published two One-shots in the meantime and chapter one of a new shimayu fanfiction. (I wasn't lazy, I swear. XD) *cough* If you want, you might want to check out "Branches". It is fantasy and romance and yet another shimayu AU. :P

Alsoooo I like you all to know that this is chapter is presented to you by not only me but also zeropointzerotwo, the artist of the cover, who drew beautiful fanart to this chapter, starting off our collaborative work on this fic.^^ Yeah, you heard right, we are going to have more beautiful fanart to this universe in the future. 

And again, thank you so much for all the love this story gets! It means the world to me. 

Enough talking! Have fun reading!^^

The sound of the river washing over stones, falling into waves and ripples, was the only noise surrounding her. It's rhythm calmed her down and made her sigh while kneeling on the river bank. Her hands folded into the shape of a bowl, were filled with water. For a moment she stopped when she noticed her own wavering reflection staring back at her. A familiar image, contorted in the flow of the stream. Mayura recognized the sight but found something new, a different expression in her eyes which she had not had before she left her home. She focused on the image frowning back at her until a beam of light broke through the treetops. The mirror image faded. Sprinkling water into her face, she savored the tranquility of the moment.

These last few days they'd been on the island, they had made a lot of progress. The times she was washing up by herself were most welcome, not only to refresh herself and clean off the strain of the day but to have a moment for herself. It wasn't that Shimon's company was a nuisance. On the contrary, she'd been surprised at how well they worked together. Yet, this little time of having not to worry or think about anything was nice.

Mayura sighed contentedly and started her routine.

After loosening her obi, she picked up the rag she brought along, a piece she had torn off of her cape. Mayura began to wash her hair and body while keeping the clothes on, shifting them from one side to another to keep her body shielded from sight. If there was somebody else on this island, she wouldn't want them to see her. She didn't thought Shimon would look though. After getting to know him, she discovered that he wasn't the guy she had at first believed him to be. Rather than that he seemed chivalrous and courteous. He would do no such thing.

Shimon – he was a silent guy. He talked not much, if not needed. She had to ask him whenever she wanted to know something other than what they were going to do or how they were going to do it. Otherwise he'd stayed rather reserved; especially about himself. Very soon she'd learned what to ask and what not and so she had used the chance to learn more about Tsuchimikado and its people, what the country was like and how the people were. In return she'd told him about Narukami, making her miss the gloomy weather, the noises of the city being carried uphill, and the traditions they honored.

All in all it was funny, how she'd always had not truly believed in the rumors about Tsuchimikado people, but never came to think of something which grew clearer the more she'd learned about the other nation. Never had she seen past the name Tsuchimikado, never had she thought about their people being nothing but people. But learning about the land divided by the sea, she acknowledged that the distance was one of the fewer things dividing them. They also had monks and priest praying to the Crystal, they believed in the power of the sacred object, they had similar customs and ideals about family, friendship, honor and dignity. And they shared the same legends and prophesies. Using different titles for similar concepts shouldn't be a reason to bear arms but reach out for each other.

The more she had talked to the man from Tsuchimikado the less he was becoming exactly that. Everything she now saw when she looked at him was Shimon being Shimon.

Even though he had unique colored hair, a color that she had never seen before, it made him not different from her. She herself had uniquely colored hair when it came to others from Narukami. There were similarities even in their differences and she thought it was stupid of people to connect outer appearances to their negative feelings.

People of Tsuchimikado and Narukami were alike. First of all they were people and nothing more. Mayura concluded they were more like estranged brothers and into her mind drifted Jinya-sama's words of parting as he reminded her of the legend on how men came to be. The whole war and its reason was revealed to her as something much more senseless than she'd assumed it to be when she had set off on her journey.

So to her Shimon was no Tsuchimikado soldier anymore. And although she had no idea how he felt and what he thought about her company, she was glad to have him here on this isle. Not only because they worked good together and he had ideas and was handling things in ways she would not have thought of but because she would have felt awfully lonely. So far his company had been proven much more satisfying than she thought it would be. Plus – if she was truly honest with herself – being with Shimon felt more natural than being without and she felt happy about the routine they'd developed over the last course of days. It almost felt – homey.

She was glad to have him there indeed.

There were of course moments in which she liked to be alone – for various reasons. Cleaning herself, washing off the sweat of work, was one of them. Although she felt like she would give everything she had for a hot, long and relaxing bath but that did not seem possible around here. Neither was there an opportunity nor time to bath.

After their discovery they had agreed not to leave each other sides for too long. There hadn't been any sign of somebody being here on the island with them but they had decided to be cautious nevertheless. So they took turns, giving each other some time.

Now that she thought about it, she should better return to their meeting point unless she wanted to have him look for her and find her half naked at the river bank.

Quickly she finished up, reorganized her yukata and retied her obi, before she squeezed the rag dry.

Following the path they had trampled into the woods by now, she hurried to cross the bushes and trees up to their meeting point. Only to find that Shimon wasn't there. Confused she huffed.

Weird. Where was he?

They had agreed to stay here not far from the lake but shielded from the trees in case of an emergency. So why wasn't Shimon here?

Mayura's eyes scanned the area but within the forest this part was one where the trees were very condensed and the undergrowth very high. Walking a few feet to get a better perspective, she noticed a brief but very close noise. She came to a stop and concentrated on her sense of hearing.

And there it was again. A slight rustle of the leaves.

It was gone in the blink of an eye and must have been the wind brushing the leaves. Yet it made her nervous. With no sign of Shimon she felt the cold shower of anxiety rush her skin .

Why would he leave their meeting point?

The rustle appeared again. This time it was louder. Closer. Then it stopped.

Mayura turned around towards the rough direction of the noise.

Was Shimon hiding in the undergrowth? She thought this to be hardly possible. What other reason would he have than to scare her? And he didn't seem to be the joking type at all – far from it. The only person she knew who would pull such a prank was Rokuro. And he had once done it and faced the consequences directly.

Mayura felt her anxiety rising by the next rustle. Not far from her the leaves of a bush quivered.

Her heart beat accelerated. Nervousness transformed into fear clenching on her lungs. Her sense of hearing sharpened. The sound next to her drowned out her own heartbeat and her short and skimpy breaths.

With a small voice she asked, "Shimon?"

The rustling stopped for a moment and then it started again. Furiously. The leaves quaked.

Mayura breathed out shakily. Then held her breath. She pressed her lips together, tightly. This wasn't Shimon.

Fear crawled over her skin like a spider.

Moments seemed to pass more slowly as the rustling continued. In her mind Mayura saw herself getting attacked by the person who had burned the bodies – after killing them. An evilly grinning black shadow consuming her.

The picture in her mind overlapped with what was happening in front of her when a shadow jumped out of the bushes with a high pitched screech.

Mayura screamed in terror.

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Shimon pulled at the two ends of the weaved grass, binding a log to the raft he and Mayura had worked on the last few days. It was terribly small. These last few days they had made little progress.

However, they made progress and that was the important thing.

It hadn't been easy to find the right wood to use or to find out how to weave small ropes. Without Mayura's help he would have been very clueless on how to proceed at all. Though she had not left it at that. She had proven him wrong about his first impression of her. Seeing such a proud girl kneeling in the dirt next to him, weaving ropes until their backs hurt and their stomachs ached with hunger, was the least he would have expected. Yet, she had.

Thinking about it, she had surprised him a lot these last few days. Her knowledge, her ideals and the way she rose her head again again no matter how many times they had screwed up.

She was something else. So unlike the girls he had met so far. Of course it had been mostly servants of his house and the one at the tavern in Shiromi but all of them behaved in similar fashion. He couldn't place Mayura into the picture. He did wonder if all the girls in Narukami were like her. Feminine but determined, graceful but easy to smile, proud but kind and generally more knowledgeable. Was everyone educated in Narukami? Did they learn how to read and write like they learned how to make a fire? If they did, that was inspiring. How would the world look, if everyone was able to read? Would they listen less to the prophets screaming their wild theories feeding hate against Narukami on their self built platforms in the main street?

Seigen-dono had not told him such a thing. Shimon would have remembered. Especially since she talked a lot about Narukami, rising old memories in his heart and mind. She had wanted to learn more about Tsuchimikado and told him about her nation in return, unaware that he felt familiar with their customs due to Seigen-dono. More than once he'd needed to remind himself not to chip in and talk about what he knew about Narukami, when she had worn a soft smile and tender eyes looked back at him as she relived her memories.

It had felt wrong every time. He hated to be deceptive. Disguising his identity behind a cape was different to being dishonest in words. It was something he definitely hadn't planned to do when he had sneaked out of Tsuchimikado but then he had not expected to get into such a close contact with anybody either.

Releasing a sigh Shimon rose to his feet and examined the result of his work with conflicted emotions pulling at his guts and unfocused eyes fleeting from one knot to another. Why was he so worked up about this?

He had not lied.

He did not lie to her.

Suddenly he felt like he should return. She probably was almost finished with her washing routine. Maybe he shouldn't have even left. But the moment he had found a piece helping them on their mission to escape this island, he had not thought it would take him so long to attach one log.

Guilt pushed his legs and dragged his feet as he walked in long strides towards their meeting point, hoping against all chances that she wasn't waiting for him.

Yet, it wasn't the guilt about him leaving their meeting point that pushed his legs over the ground.

While he did not lie to her, he wasn't telling the truth either.

Just like the evening, when she had asked him if he was a warrior or if he had ever killed somebody from Narukami. He had not wanted to lie to her so he had pondered on what to say to keep his identity hidden.

In the end he hadn't lied. But he had mislead her, keeping the picture of a warrior upright and from that point onward he had continued to mislead her.

It was bothering him more than he liked to admit. Not only was it eating on him because of his sense of honor and righteousness. He knew as much. He had been sour before when Seigen-dono had made fun of his self-righteous ideas and it had taken him a while to recover but that hadn't been like this feeling. This bad consciousness clouding his mind. The reason was buried much deeper and he had yet to uncover it.

A noise pierced through the silence, making him stop. His head whipped upwards in the moment he heard her scream.

Gasping, Shimon started running towards the noise.

The direction, he recognized it, it was their meeting point.

His legs flew over the ground, ramming sticks and stones into the soles of his shoes. Giving his feet no time for the pain he broke through the green wilderness trying to hold him back.

Dammit. He would be damned if he would break the one promise he gave her. All because he hadn't waited as agreed.

Breaking through a line of bushes he finally glanced upon what was happening as Mayura's figure dressed in her dark blue yukata came into sight.

She was cowering against a tree and a large brownish beast on four legs sprinted towards her.

"Mayuraaa!"

The beast steps faltered at his yell. It turned around to him while he entered the scene with huffed breaths. It's snout was long, two big holes in what was a flat nose. Horns seemed to grow out of his mouth. It was huge.

Suddenly it leaped forward in high speed.

Shimon tried to roll out of the way, unable to stop his own run so abruptly. The beast hit his legs, throwing him backwards.

His body flew and spun before he crashed to the ground with his head colliding against something hard, making him bite his tongue.

His sight was blurred. A metallic taste filled his mouth. Trying to rise to his feet again he felt nauseous. A second later, his vision cleared. Too late.

The beast stomped its feet to the ground and advanced again.

In a swift and trained motion, Shimon pulled his sword. Just in time to block the horns and keep the beast from piercing him.

It pushed against his hold and he had to rise the second hand to the blunt edge of his sword to keep the beast at bay. He groaned against the exertion while the beast screeched and kicked its forelegs in midair.

A dull pain exploded in his stomach, sending needles of fire into his limbs. His breath left him and he skipped his eyes down. The beast had stomped its hoof into his stomach. Scooting to the side, he tried to save himself from another heavy blow.

Shimon grit his teeth. His arms quivered from the pain and the tension, slowly budging against the push of the monster towering over him. Damn.

He was sure he would loose this fight, when something caught his eye. Small stones hitting the beast's side and falling with clunks to the floor. The beast shook its body and eased off pushing.

Looking for the source of distraction, Shimon saw Mayura picking up another small stone and throwing it towards the thing. The beast did not budge though.

If he didn't get it off, Shimon knew, he was soon to be trampled or stabbed to death. And afterwards the thing would go for Mayura again. He needed to shake or push the thing off. The sooner the better. Shimon seethed in exertion and skipped another look at Mayura.

Then he noticed how she approached with a shaking dagger in her hand.

"Mayura, no," he uttered breathlessly.

Pulling his legs from beneath the wild monster, he stomped his feet against its bulky body and pushed as much as he could, heaving the thing off the ground. It worked. Its forelegs swirled in the air and it lost its balance falling to its side.

Quickly Shimon jumped to his feet. On shaky legs he stood in front on the beast and tried to straighten his posture to strike back. His sight wavered again. The world surrounding him fell into a screen of blurry shades. Sucking in brief and painful breaths, he recalled the last of his strength and blinked his eyes until his sight cleared.

The thing had regained its footing and was beginning to rise. Shimon did not plan to give it a chance. Pointing his blade towards his foe he jumped at the beast. As his blade sank into the flesh, he watched the beast's limbs twitch. It screeched again. This time it was more awfully, making his eardrums soar in stress.

Nevertheless Shimon stayed like this, his sword deeply buried into the beast while accumulating his breathing. When the last sign of life faded, he withdrew the Vermillion Sword. It was worthy of its name, fully covered by blood.

"Shimon! Are you hurt?"

He turned around to see Mayura dropping the dagger from quivering hands and running towards him.

Tired Shimon fell to his knees and let go of the bloody sword, which hit the ground with a clatter.

"I will survive. Just feeling a bit dizzy. Hit my head hard," he groaned when he shifted his weight to sit back on his heels and received stabs of sharp pain in return at the region of the spot the beast had stomped its feet into. He raised his eyes and met her worried ones, "What was that beast?"

"It's called 'boar'," Mayura explained after blinking. Her face dropped in sadness as a she looked at the dead animal. Shimon followed her gaze.

Boar? Shimon remembered having eaten meat of a boar once in a while. Dryly he achknowledged, "I knew how they taste, now I know that they are not to be angered."

A funny sound rose from her direction. He looked up at her blinking. She... giggled. Holding a hand to her mouth to muffle the noise, she laughed softly. Light danced in the sea of her eyes, transfixing him for a blink of an eye or two. Irritated he asked, "What?"

"The thing you said was actually funny," she replied smiling softly and he felt something stir in his stomach. This time it wasn't pain though.

"Oh," Shimon swallowed hard. He tore his gaze from her towards the dead animal and tried to change subject, "Anyway, why did it attack you?"

Her smile eased off a bit and he watched her chew on her lips in concentration, until they had a pinkish color. "They are very territorial creatures," she started saying, "Maybe it did not like my presence or maybe it did not like us eating all the mushrooms."

"A warning would have done it," Shimon huffed with a frown.

"Thank you, Shimon," she said in a soft voice,

"You're welcome," he replied. The boar could have killed him or Mayura. It was just by chance that Shimon was able turn the wheel of fortune into his direction. Yet, it might wouldn't have come to this, if he had not left Mayura alone. "I'm sorry I wasn't there when it attacked you."

"Don't be," Mayura shook her head and crossed her arms behind her back. "I am sorry I could not help when it was pressing you to the ground."

"If you'd approached with the dagger, it might have attacked and killed you," Shimon quickly replied.

She turned her face away. Confused Shimon leaned his head to the side. When he wanted to raise his voice again, her body slumped to the ground. Her arms supported her weight on her legs. Her eyes – they were filled with tears.

Surprised Shimon blinked until understanding dawned on him. Sympathy made the corner's of his lips curl into a scowl as he thought that this must be a form of stress release. She wasn't used to fighting or the sight of blood after all. Had her life been in danger ever before?

Next to him Mayura released a shaky breath. "The problem behind it all is that I-" she stopped and averted her eyes. Above a whisper, she mumbled, "I am weak."

His heart skipped a beat. She stole his breath with her unconcealed honesty. How could the person that was so proud and strong, hard headed even, transform into a girl with watery eyes sharing a secret with him a few days after she'd was so scared of him that she'd stolen his dagger? He reached out for her and laid a hand above hers. "If you want, I'll show you. I'll show you how to use a dagger and a sword."

She raised her big eyes at him. A red hue formed on her face. "What about the raft? We need all time we have to built it."

The corners of his mouth lifted. "It's fine. Besides we'll save time looking for food after we butcher this thing," he nodded towards the corpse of the boar.

When he looked at her again, he saw her staring at him with big eyes.

Feeling too self-conscious, Shimon cleared his throat and rose to his feet. Holding a hand out for her, he said, "Come. Let's go back to camp and prepare dinner. Afterwards I'll show you."

(Fanart by zeropointzerotwo.tumblr.com / @shinytofu (twitter). Don't repost or copy, please.) 

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A/N: *gasps* Isn't the fanart beautiful? This fanfiction is blessed with an amazing artist drawing pictures for it!^^