The doorbell rang and Naru ran happily and relieved out of her room to open the door. It had to be her Nephrite. About three months passed since the fall of the dark kingdom and her moving back to the appartement above the jewelry store, which Naru now shared with her mother and her mother’s new husband Dr. Jiro Kimura. Nephrite came over almost every evening to have their supper altogether, but today he was late.

The door went open and Naru startled back making a small choking noise.

“Nephrite?! Is it really you, my love?” Tears were starting to fill her eyes “What in the world have you done?? You had promised me to never ever cut your hair short, remember? Why did you do that?”

“You know why, I just couldn’t walk around like this anymore.” He shifted from one foot to another. Nephrite himself seemed to feel uncomfortable with his new hairstyle.

Naru couldn’t keep a couple of heavy sobs from escaping.

“Should I go again?” He was offended by her reaction. It was everything but easy for him to let his long wavy auburn hair go, but he looked more like a plucked chicken then a smooth lion with his mane lately. The massive hair loss started soon after the defeat of the dark kingdom, as Nephrite was about to relax and find back to the new daily routine. Vain as he was Nephrite made soon an appointment at a very renowned hair institute of Tokyo to learn, that his problem was due to his bad injuries, general anesthesia, poisoning and high fever back last autumn. The hair expert assured him, that everything would go back to normal and his hair would soon regrow all healthy again, he just had to be patient. He already cut back the remaining damaged hair to the shoulder length, but despite this measure and all the expensive hair products he was using recently, Nephrite’s hair looked really unkept and messy. He just had to cut it short and let it regrow then.

“No, no! Please don’t go. I’m sorry, and yes, I am shocked. You should have warned me. I would have wanted to accompany you to the hairdresser place.”

“I know you well, you would try to talk me out of this. I was determined to do it anyway.”

“You look handsome. Please, turn around.” Naru seemed to get herself under control “Oh, you have a nice head shape, and your hair looks way more reddish now, it’s kind of cute. Why did you let it cut that short?” She reached high to touch his temple, where the hair was trimmed back with a clipper almost to the roots.

“I didn’t mean to, I was taken by surprise myself, how short it turned” He sounded glum.

“Why didn’t you tell the hairdresser to stop cutting your hair so short?”

“Hm, I actually wasn’t looking in the mirror at all, it was too embarrassing. I was seated in the chair, closed my eyes, and let it happen. That was it”

“I see” Naru could smile again “Hair grows fast, and you do look good the way you are now. So now come on in, the meal is ready to be served, I’m starving” she took his hand and pulled him inside the appartement “Mom?! Masato is here, come and take a look at his new hairstyle!”

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Art by Ana Dell: Nephrite's New Hairstyle
Nephrite's New Hairstyle 2

Author's Note: This mini outtake is based on “Sanctuary”. As I was reading the chapters about Nephrite’s hospital ordeal for the first time, I really thought, poor Nephrite, he would be dealing with a really massive hair loss some months after that – high fever and general anesthesia let a lot of hair roots die out. After a hair is damaged it lasts ca. 3 months, until it really falls out (and once its damaged, the process is irreversible). Hair follicle itself doesn’t die out so easily, and so after 6 weeks resting a new hair starts to grow out of it (so that’s why all goes back to normal finally). Yes, I am a self made hair growth expert.

I also love his lux long hair, but sometimes I think, he mainly had his long heavy hair curtains to hide behind them his real emotions and feelings and it made him easier to tell the lies. Also, I was working hard to catch his essence and filter out the evil out of his face in my paintings. Some of the anime episodes showed him really different and only recognizable by his hair. I wanted to show, he isn’t just his hair. That’s why I “cut” his hair in a really short style, as I have this dark gift to let it happen. Well, first I felt guilty seeing the result, but then I got used to it, and now I think, it doesn’t look bad at all. He is also definitely recognizable and is just himself even without hiding behind his mane. Later I asked myself, what would Naru say facing Nephrite like this for the first time, and added her to the picture. I had a small conversation between the two on my mind and wrote it down. Its an outtake on your fanfic Sanctuary (before Epilogue). In this fanfic you touched some very serious subjects as stillbirth or hospital pneumonia, and you were very experimentative with Nephrites styles. That’s why I had to go with it and let Nephrite be an ambassador for an issue, people dealing with after recovering from bed injuries.

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The Nephrite and Naru Treasury