KINTSUGI ⊳jin sakai x yuna

にじゅうし (twenty four)

The crickets stop chirping once the sun starts rising.

What's left of the way to the shack goes by much slower than it should. Benjiro follows, though Jin often has to call out his name to make him keep up.

He knows the feeling, knows how it gets to someone. The shock is just settling in, he's sure the boy has much to think about and no idea how to handle it. He truly wishes there was some kind of advice he could offer (the way Yuna does so often), but he's clueless.

"Just into the forest, up this hill, and we'll be there," He tells him, and Benjiro only gives a nod. Jin's not sure what he expected, but his respect for Yuna grows, only because of the fact that she dealt with him while he was still in a state like Benjiro's.

"Jin, you're back." Yuna's voice causes his focus to snap back to his surroundings. He doesn't get a chance to answer, her gaze drifts away from him, to Kage. "And you brought rice—" She sighs before she speaks again. "I told you I would—"

He's about to retort, but once Benjiro enters her line of sight, she goes completely silent. He's unable to interpret her expression, but one thing can certainly be read out of it. She was expecting many things, but not him bringing a boy — a teenager— to their momentary home.

"Yuna, this is Benjiro."

—

Once the water is boiling and the rice has been added in, Yuna practically leaps Jin's way, grabbing his hand by the wrist and dragging him away. Benjiro is smart enough to know what that means, so he stays beside the fire, staring into the flames.

Once they're inside the shack she stops, turning to face him.

"I need explanations, Jin. I need them fast."

"I saved him." He tells her earnestly. The look in her eyes melts into one of compassion, but the urgency from before remains present. "I was going to take him to a survivor's camp, but...he needs help. And so does the rest of his family."

She sighs, Jin can tell she wants to say something among the lines of "You can't save everyone", but she refrains. Yuna knows that would mean going against Jin's very nature; he'd rather die trying than quit.

After a long inhale, she speaks.

"How do we help?"

"I will go back and free his family from a camp he escaped from," Jin explains. "You don't have to do anything, Yuna. Your wound is still healing."

"If you think I'm just going to sit around while you do the fighting, you're wrong." She says it like it pains her, and in a few seconds time, Jin understands why. "I've made that mistake before."

He knows what she means. Fort Koyasan. Taka. She had refused to fight that day.

But this is different. This was Mamushi farmstead, a place she hadn't been able to enter even when she wanted to. Jin could never forgive himself if he knew that Yuna had gone against her own wishes just to provide help.

"Where did he escape from?" She asks, and Jin almost chokes on his own breath. It's a question he should have anticipated, but he hadn't come up with an answer that was just the right amount of precautious. Not yet.

"He escaped from..." There is no point in hiding it, Jin thinks. He doesn't want to tiptoe around the truth, Yuna can handle this. "Mamushi farmstead. The mongols are still there, even after we killed the brothers. And I need to put an end to it."

"You killed the brothers?"

At the sound of a new voice, he turns to face the source.

It's Benjiro. He's looking at Jin with wide eyes, his throat bobs.