Taehyung and (y/n) sunk back to the hut with just enough time to catch an hour of sleep. (y/n) woke to feel sluggish and heavy. Like every morning before, she dragged herself up and got ready for the day.
The group headed up to the clearing in the woods as they would. They would pair up and aimlessly spare. Now and then, someone would make a mistake and lose. They would reshuffle partners and stat all over again. It was simple, but it worked.
"All against all," Jungkook called out. He enjoyed fighting in a group the most. Slowly everyone agreed. They got into position. On the count of three, they all flew into action.
With just a breath before one of them reached (y/n), her training took over. Her thought blanked as she took to her stance. With her sense expanded, she felt everything come together in her mind. She saw the strikes and knew the responses. She smoothly moved into combat.
They all passed through each other's blows and blocks in perfect-sink. That was until they started to use their tricks. It became progressively harder to keep up with their pace and abilities. The wooden swords blurred around, smashing into trees and limbs, splintering off tiny shards of wood. (Y/n) was getting tired, and it would only be a matter of time till she missed her footing or dropped her guard.
Jungkook began to charge for her, his sword raised and ready to strike, but she was already engaged in combat with Namjoon, which was hard enough as it is. She wouldn't have time to block both attackers. It was impossible. She would have to take the hit.
As she readied herself to take the blow - a sensation struck. It was powerful similar to a drug. With everything in slow-motion, she had time to find a way out of the cut. To her joy, she had clicked. The feeling she longed for had come back. The last time she had felt it was with Taehyung many moons ago.
With a smirk, (y/n) started to fire her own attacks on the boys. Everyone became swamped by her newfound speed and strength. Every cut was sharper and smarter. She still got hit, not hard, but she had known the cuts were coming and knew that taking a small blow would prevent her defence from opening.
She felt her body leap over a low cut. (y/n) let her body fall out of the jump and land with a roll. All eyes trailed to her moving form. Sweat dripped down her forehead. She had one sword and seven targets. Each was ready and waiting. She ran, knocking the group back with an entourage of blows. At this point, she had no control over what her body did. She only knew it would mean she would win.
Somehow Hoseok had managed to grab the hilt of her sword. She couldn't seem to remove his grip, however hard she tried. She had to simply abandon the sword. This startled him, giving a breath of a window to find a new weapon before it was all over.
(Y/n) voluted herself over someone shoulders and ripped something away from someone's waist. The small object would have to do. She continued to fight with the small dagger in a blurry state. She could feel her sense wrap around her surroundings dangerously. At this point, her mind was completely removed from her body. As she moved, her mind trailed off. Perhaps if she did what Shiro had asked of her, she could find out what this was. Maybe the people on the island knew about how to click and could teach her to use it.
It was something she couldn't stop thinking about even now, in the throes of a fight, (y/n) wanted to go for the island. If there were people there just like them, a whole community of nightblades, then maybe there was a place for them to belong. Not that she didn't like the hut and the boys were more than enough, (y/n) just didn't want to write the option off. They all had cycles worth of experience and training on her, and it was something she most likely was never going to catch up on, not unless he could learn how to control her click.
The smell of blood snapped her back. In one of her hands was someone's knife. The silver blade was peppered with crimson droplets. In front of her was a wide-eyed Jungkook holding onto his abdomen. Blood came thick and strong. It flowed through his fingers as they clasped the ripped flesh. He felt the blood move over his hand, the fluid no warmer or cooler than his own skin. He stumbled back into a tree, using the trunk to hold himself up.
The dagger made a clatter as it slipped from (y/n) clutch onto the ground. Tears started to brim in her eyes as she shook her head aggressively. A string of incoherent words fell from her mouth as she ran forward to Jungook. Her hands came to quickly press over his own in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
She felt someone pull her back from Jungkook as the other boys filled in the space, already rushing to take Jungkook down to the hut where the medical supplies were kept.
She felt Hoseoks hands clutch onto her elbow, stopping her from following. Yoongi followed suit standing close in front of her, blocking her view from what was happening.
"What happened?" Yoongi asked softly, void of any accusations.
(y/n) didn't answer, unsure herself, still not fully aware of what just took place. What she did know was she hurt yet another one of her friends.
She looked back at Hoseok, who was still flanking her back with watery eyes. The discomfort was plastered on her face. Her heartbeat seemed to echo in the almost empty clearing. The guilt was like gasoline in her guts. Her insides died slowly in the toxicity, needing no more than a spark to set it ablaze. The fire burnt her out so badly. What had she done? She had hurt someone once more. "It happened again, remember when I came back home and saw you,"
His eyebrows furrowed, and his lips folded back on themselves. Hoseok nodded as he moved closer, his hands sliding along (y/n) arms to hold her hands.
Guilt was eating her up. "Shiro said I should go to the island. I think there I can learn how to control it,"
Yoongi let out a huff and took a step forward. His hand came to hold her face. The pads of his finger brushed under her eyes at the tears threatening to fall, "You don't need to travel across the world. We can help,"
"I don't want that to happen again." She said.
They made their way back home slowly.
(Y/n) hesitated to go inside the hut, too apprehensive of what to find. She didn't know how she could possibly live with herself if Jungkook was seriously hurt, but he had managed to walk back to the hut with help. So surely it wasn't that bad. With a deep breath, she opened the door and followed the other two in. Jungkook was nowhere to be seen in the main room, though she could sense him close by.
She zoned into where he was, back behind the curtain in her tiny room Jungkook sat. There was a slight squeak of the floorboards as she walked over, and the curtain separating her room swayed slightly, pausing to go behind. She gingerly opened it. And there he was, looking completely fine, well as fine as he could be. The top half of his robe was open, and she could see the peak of a white bandage wrapping around his stomach. He looked up and smiled.
Jungkook opened his arms. (y/n) didn't hesitate to go into them. His body was soothing, even the sound of his heart beating. She was cautious not to touch his injury as she squeezed him tightly. They caught eyes for a brief second, and the world began to disappear. Her eyes locked on his brown ones. They were full of forgiveness and worry. Worry and forgiveness she didn't deserve.
"I was starting to think you weren't coming back," Jungkook said, not a hint of hurt in his voice, though she caught him wincing as he shuffled around so they could both sit comfortably on her bed.
"I thought you'd be mad at me,"
Jungkook rolled his eyes as if it was the world's most outrageous thing she could have said, well in his eyes, it was. He knew her well enough to know that something more complicated than taking the duel too far had happened.
"Well, that's a bit stupid of you. I had to entertain myself for a whole couple of minutes, not including the time that I had to spend getting bandaged up,"
In all honesty, the moment Jungkook had the all-clear from Jin, he had wanted to race back outside and find (y/n). However, the boys had shot his plan down in a heartbeat. He had taken the next best option and decided to wait in her room until she returned, desperate to show her that he was ok, that the cut on his stomach wasn't too deep and he'd be right as rain in a week or so. He had seen the look on her face when she had snapped out whatever trace she was in, and he had to make sure she knew that he didn't care, not one bit.
"I'm sorry," (y/n) said, guilt riding across her face. It suddenly felt far too serious.
"Alright. However, I'll only forgive you one condition," Jungkook reached down next to his side to pull out a brown book he had been killing time with. You have to read me this,
(y/n) took the book from his hand. "Why?" She looked up at him suspiciously.
"I don't know, Don't question my conditions, just do it,"
"What even is it?"
"Book I found on Doseok when Yoongi and I went."
"What-" Before (y/n) could ask another question, Jungkook had quickly cut her off. "No more questions, just read."
He watched as (y/n) placed the book in her lap. The papers were bound by a deep red leather cover. It had a golden crest of the third kingdom imprint in the centre. Carefully, (y/n) undid the ties that kept it shut. On the first page was a statement in cursive. Property of Lord Akira. The book was filled with reports on the Third Kingdom, from trade routes to its relationships with the other Kingdoms. Handwritten notes were scribbled in the margins, adding more information. Doeksu must have worked for Lord Akira. It would explain why he was hardly around in the monastery.
She began to read the first page. Her voice carried into the night until late, where they both laid in (y/n)s bed until they drifted to sleep.
Hello, sorry for the lack of update I was a bit ill so I kept putting it off, but we are all good now, thank you for reading and sorry for the wait :) Love you all x