KINTSUGI ⊳jin sakai x yuna

じゅうろく (sixteen)

Even the air feels warm. Jin could fall asleep on the spot if it weren't for a certain gaze fixating him.

"How you made it without either of you bleeding out is still a mystery to me." Sensei Ishikawa pauses, then looks at the other side of the small temple, where Yuna's passed out form lays, surrounded by two monks. "Jury is still out on her, I suppose."

Jin's too worn out to muster the will to talk. His thighs hurt from the awkward position on Kage, since he had to switch to riding bareback to accommodate both himself and Yuna. Doing so in the saddle designed for one person was impossible. And getting her onto Kage's back had been close to impossible, too.

By that logic, making it to Jogaku without him passing out or her dying is a gift from the Kami themselves.

Jin jumps slightly when the monk that works on one of the cuts on his arm guides the needle through a particularly sensitive spot.

Sensei Ishikawa says nothing, only watches him with narrow eyes from his spot near the entrance of the temple, with only his shoulderblades rested against the wall. He's even more prone to biting remarks when he has been woken up in the dead of the night, Jin notes, and tells himself to avoid repeating this mistake.

"What samurai were it that you fought?" Ishikawa asks, and Jin shakes his head, then pinches the bridge of his nose.

"I'm not sure. But as far as I could tell, it was a family: a man, his brother, and his two sons. They were supposed to take over my estate in Omi."

Only Ishikawa could make a sigh sound so derogatory.

"Is that why you fought them?"

Jin frowns at that, head perking up. "What—?" His stomach starts to churn with anger. Does Ishikawa genuinely consider him this stupid? Sure, someone taking over his estate was not good news, but fighting them about it? He would not have put himself at risk for something like that (Yuna even less so!). "No. I'm not a fool, sensei."

"I'm starting to doubt that." He affirms, but unlike his usual jabs, Ishikawa sounds genuinely convinced of what he's saying. "I heard what happened with Lord Shimura. The shogun will be breathing down your neck for the rest of your life, Sakai. If he doesn't send his best men to hunt you down."

"I know that." He clarifies, then sighs tiredly when the monk stands up from beside him and announces that he has finished tending to his wounds. Jin gives him a thank you.

"I hope you do." Ishikawa glances over Jin's shoulder, to the other side of the temple, where Yuna lays on the floor. "Seems that everyone around you ends up dead, one way or another."

Jin feels like his words have knocked the wind out of him. In the most literal sense possible. He's not sure if he's angry or shocked. Because as much as he'd like to say it's another one of the sensei's nit-picky remarks, Ishikawa's right. His father, Yuriko, Taka, and now Shimura.

"I hope it won't be my turn to die any time soon." Ishikawa says, but with a drop of humor added compared to his usual tone. "And I hope that that sake merchant is the next on the list."

He must mean Kenji. Jin wants to ask him, but figures he'd rather wait until morning. No point in waking him up, too. Jin's too busy trying to process everything that happened today, and, for the first time since they had laid foot in Kamiagata, he feels warm. Talking is one of the last things he wants to do.

He remembers Yuna's breath barely grazing the back of his neck when he had stopped Kage in front of one of the temples and shouted his lungs out for help. He remembers his fingers barely gripping the reins, frozen with cold — he's warmed up now, and only a tingling feeling remains in his fingertips.