CLAC!

The strong slap echoed in the small, tensely silent room. Astonishment had gripped everyone. 

Stupefied, Jungkook stared at Jimin, feeling his cheek burn. How long had it been since he had been slapped? Long enough for the feeling to be forgotten. It didn't really hurt physically, it was painful inside him, like it was shaking something deep down. His hands had not let go if Yoongi's throat or his dagger which held a pressure against Hoseok's throat but he did not think to turn it on Jimin, too shocked.

Taehyung, by reflex, wanted to get up to push Jimin away from Jungkook but his injured legs prevented him and he fell back heavily. 

Namjoon remained petrified, his usually efficient brain refusing to tell him what to do at that moment

Yoongi continued to struggle to stay alive but while keeping his seeing eye fixed on Jimin, as if he were rediscovering him.

Hoseok smiled at Jimin, as if he was happy to see him join him in defending their family, completely ignoring the blade against his slightly scratched throat.

For his prat, Jimin kept staring at Jungkook with his angry eyes. Seeing that his captain did not react, he decided to vent his anger:

"Everyone tried to talk to you but it had no effect, I hope at least this slap will put your mind back in place. I don't know exactly what this thing is about with the admiral and you but it's not fair to kill your closest companions, people who fought for years at your side, for someone who hasn't been with you all this time. If you do this, everyone will be afraid to continue by your side, thinking that loyalty to you can still lead to death by your own hand. But if you want to do it, then do it, kill us all, you will find yourself all alone with this admiral who hates you. We won't be here to stop you anymore."

He had spoken in one go and did not regret a single word, waiting for his captain to throw his dagger across his throat to punish him for his insolence.

Yet, the latter did not move. Indeed, hearing this, Jungkook was particularly shaken as if he finally realized what he was doing. He looked at Yoongi's face which had turned red and was turning purple now. The Ming soldier didn't try to struggle anymore and stared back at him with his good eye narrowed in pain, the other eye being extinguished forever.

A long time ago, he had told Yoongi that it would become his right eye, replacing the one he had lost. And Yoongi, the suspicious Ming soldier who didn't trust anyone, had yet agreed to follow him and hadn't left his side since. And now, just as he had let Taehyung perform seppuku without trying to stop him, he was killing Yoongi and his blade was threatening Hoseok's life at the same time. Hoseok, the Joseon slave he had freed and assured he would protect him.

He suddenly released the dagger which fell on the tatami with a muffled noise and at the same time, his fingers released their grip around Yoongi's throat. The latter began to cough furiously as he regained use of his windpipe, and Jungkook stared at his hands for a moment, keeping his thoughts to himself.

Taehyung looked at him worriedly. 

Namjoon with relief. 

Hoseok with kindness. 

Jimin calmed down, repressing his anger and regaining his usual good nature.

"Are we good? You're not going to try to kill me?" he asked in a joking tone. 

Jungkook shook his head, far from wanting to joke what just happened.

"What you said earlier..." he said to him, turning his gaze away from his criminal hands, "say it again, I need to hear it."

"Glad it helped you. It's not fair to-" Jimin started, ready to give him the same speech again if it would calm him down.

"No, not that, earlier," Jungkook cut him. 

Jimin thought and Hoseok beat him to it, asking with a large smile:

"When he said you'd gone crazy?"

Namjoon looked at Hoseok like he was the one who had gone crazy and couldn't hold on to life. The fire in their captain's heart had finally calmed down, why was he blowing on the embers? However, Jungkook didn't get angry.

"Yes, that." he said. "Maybe you were right. Maybe I've gone crazy?"

Jimin's face lit up.

"So you admit it?"

Namjoon clamped his hand over his mouth again and before he could try to correct it, Taehyung beat him to it, feeling he needed to repair his relationship with his captain, lord and friend.

"You are not crazy," he told Jungkook. "You're just suffering from an ailment that's not physical. I struggled to find the right words to advise you earlier but the fact is that I don't know how to help you. Your friend was dead for fifteen years and when he miraculously came back to you, he rejected you and it hurt you to the point where you no longer know how to handle the situation. Yoongi did wrong but he obviously did it for you, and he doesn't deserve to die for it," he added.

Yoongi, just recovered from Jungkook's attack, gave him a suspicious look but Taehyung didn't know how to lie, he was undoubtedly sincere. Jungkook for his part did not react, the gaze lost in the distance, but he seemed prey to deep regrets.

"I think I'm starting to understand what's going on," Namjoon murmured.

"Well, I don't understand anything," Hoseok said, without really trying to understand, fully appreciating that the situation has returned to the way it was before.

"The admiral is the captain's childhood friend," Jimin told him.

"A Joseon?" Hoseok wondered. ""But he's Japanese, how could he have a childhood friend from Joseon?

"Didn't you hear that the captain wants us to call him Jungkook? Jungkook is a Joseon name, not Japanese. This means that..."

He stopped, suddenly unsure of himself.

"Captain, are you from Joseon?"

Jungkook suddenly came out of his torpor where his regrets had plunged him.

"I spent some time there," he said slowly. "But then my father sent men to take me home and they massacred the people of the town where I lived. That admiral you brought back to the Princess, Namjoon, is a friend I left for dead when I returned to Honshu."

Namjoon didn't know whether he should feel honored for allowing Jungkook to reunite with his childhood friend or guilty for being the cause of this dramatic situation that had almost decimated their crew, because having caused the suffering of his captain.

"You allowed me to see him again and realize he wasn't dead, I'm grateful," Jungkook told him, seeing that he didn't know how to position himself. He placed a grateful hand on his shoulder and Namjoon felt it warm. "It seems that your addition to the crew continues to bring me luck, Namjoon." 

Namjoon smiled and tilted his head. But now, he had another question and dared to ask it:

"Captain, what were you doing in Joseon that led your father to come looking for you there?"

Jungkook's expression darkened and he removed his hand from Namjoon's shoulder.

"Ask me another time, I don't have time to tell you about it right now. Yoongi," he said drawing the soldier's attention, "where is the admiral?"

There was no longer a trace of anger in his voice and he no longer looked like he wanted to kill Yoongi. 

Despite, Yoongi frowned: he seemed disappointed, as if he realized that his suffering in his attempt to scare the admiral away had been in vain.

"Are you going to try to bring him back here against all odds?" he asked.

"Yoongi, tell me, why did you offer to help him instead of just letting him go?" Jungkook asked him instead of answering his question.

"To get him to the port without getting murdered by the ronins," Yoongi said and then, he understood: "You want to go lend him a hand. Are you going to help him return to Joseon then?"

Jungkook gave a mirthless smile which showed that he seemed to have capitulated.

"If he refuses to stay here then you are right, the best thing I can do is take him home. He will be free to do whatever he wants afterwards."

Yoongi was surprised to this turnaround because just a moment before, Jungkook was about to kill him. He decided that now was not the time to settle scores.

"I recommended him the northern path which is more discreet than the main path and which will allow him to reach the merchant port of Hagi," he explained.

"So he will avoid the fishing port where the Princess is docked and kept under surveillance," Namjoon understood. "Clever. But the path is much more dangerous from the north."

"That's why I offered to help him," Yoongi groaned, "I was thinking of accompanying him to Hagi, and he pretended to accept, but then pounced on me and left me like this. He left with the blades I took from Taehyung," he added with a grin, glad to not be the only one to come out a loser in this story.

On the opposite futon, the samurai's face fell and he gave him a hurt look.

"You'll have other blades made while we're here, in the land of katana forges," Yoongi replied, to which Taehyung responded with a contemptuous look that indicated his ignorance of the affective value of his weapons.

"What I don't understand," Taehyung said suddenly, "is why, given the hatred towards you, the admiral left you alive."

Yoongi glared at him.

"Maybe he thought he was dead?" Jimin ventured. "That's what I thought at first."

"And that's why you already gave yourself his food rations," Hoseok reminded him, bursting out laughing.

Jimin gave him a betrayed look and was about to denounce him too and remind that he was the one who started taking over Yoongi's things but he met Yoongi's murderous gaze. The Ming soldier gave him a predatory smile:

"Oh, really?"

"It was only the time you remained dead in my eyes, I will only eat your rations after you are dead, not before," Jimin replied, smiling innocently. "Because as long as you're alive, you're scary."

"Indeed, I am. Maybe since I'm not dead, I should eat you?" Yoongi retorted, losing his smile, a scary expression replacing it. "I'm suddenly very hungry for Ming food."

Jimin swallowed and took a few steps back and found himself hiding behind Jungkook, as a precaution. Yoongi then turned away from him to turn to Taehyung and finish his conversation.

"The admiral spared my life and he told me why," he said through gritted teeth. He then spoke to Jungkook : "He said and I quote him, that for the last time, he would spare a friend of the captain, in memory of their friendship dead and swallowed up forever at the bottom of the sea. He said that the next time he would see you again, it would be to kill you."

The latter seemed particularly touched by the words Yoongi reported and his hand gripped his heart forcefully. He knew his men looked at him with pity and he hated it, but he couldn't hide his pain, because it tore at his heart.

"Namjoon, Jimin, Hoseok," he called to get their attention, "the admiral's name is Kim Seokjin. I had the impression that he got along well with you, am I right?"

"That was before he swears to kill you and all of us with it," Jimin interjected. 

Jungkook nodded.

"Even so, you might be the people he least wants to kill here. Follow in his footsteps as quickly as possible and if he is in difficulty, help him leave Japan."

"But-" Namjoon started.

"It's an order, go ahead, and be careful, the ronins are on the prowl."

"You're not going to kill anyone while we're gone, are you?" Hoseok asked, looking at Taehyung then at Yoongi, who seemed unusually defenseless.

Jungkook followed his gaze and smiled despite himself. He shook his head:

"I won't kill them, now go."

The three pirates hurried out of the room.

"I should go with them," Taehyung said, trying to stand up. But his injured legs gave way beneath him.

"You can't," Yoongi replied with a smirk, "I made sure you wouldn't be able to walk for at least a day."

"When I recover and have a katana reforged, I will cut off one your foot," Taehyung promised. "So your one-eyed eye will feel less alone seeing another pair of your limbs lose a piece."

Jungkook couldn't help but smile facing this familiar scene. It had been this way for many years. Hoseok and Jimin were right to stop him before he killed all the men dear to his heart. Were they, like Hoseok had said, family?

At any rate, he was grateful that Seokjin had spared Yoongi's life. He couldn't imagine Taehyung without his rival, in the same way that he could not imagine his crew without the fierce and grumpy Ming soldier, without the cheerful Hoseok, without the candid Jimin nor without his faithful samurai. And yet, he had almost killed them all in a fit of mad rage.

He suddenly had the conviction that Seokjin had wanted to spare him the vision of another of his friends, dead without him being able to do anything. Was this a sign that Seokjin, despite what he had said, still cared for him? Was there any chance that he would ever forgive him?

He lost his smile when one of his men, a Japanese man named Makoto, burst into the room. He seemed to have run for a long time before reaching them, as if he were coming from outside.

"Captain... it's the daimyo Usagi..." he said, panting, body contorted and hands on his knees as he caught his breath. "Lord Kaïto Usagi already returned!"

"My father is here?" Jungkook asked abruptly, dismayed.

It was unexpected and he felt an old fear grip him because he knew in which port his father's imposing ship, The Red Emperor, usually docked.

"His ship docked recently in Hagi," Makoto said, confirming what he already knew.

This was precisely where Seokjin was going and he was likely to cross paths with them on his way. And his father's crew that was thirsty for Joseon blood

Not to mention that he also sent Namjoon, Hoseok and Jimin there, two other Joseons and a Ming, member of his cosmopolitan crew whom his father despised. He absolutely had to reach all of them before it was too late.

Captain, there's something else I need to tell you," Makoto said hesitantly. "It's about the Admiral of Joseon." 

Jungkook tensed. 

"What about him?"

"I'm sorry, something terrible has happened..."

__________

A/N : I have decided from now on to vote myself for all the chapters of my story. Please don't judge me but when I realized that on my own and with 36 chapters, I could have 36 more votes (I'm not great at math, I was surprised), I couldn't help it, it was too tempting. 

But it's also a reminder that it's really easy to vote and, above all, that one person alone can bring a lot to this book. Don't doubt the value of your votes. Do not doubt your individual worth. 💜

Thanks again to everyone who supports my work.