Chapter Text
Yoongi comes to with a powerful gag that ripples through his lungs. Heavy burning scorches in his chest, which he clutches, unable to breathe after several desperate inhales, tears prickling at the corners of his stinging eyes.
After several airless coughs, Yoongi hurls properly. For the most part, only water is expelled, and he wonders when he last ate. With a tightening cord of panic running taut through his body, Yoongi realizes he can’t remember anything. Then, his surroundings slowly unfurl and the stench of sulfur violently saturates the air.
Where am I?
With trembling legs, Yoongi sways as he stands, reaching out to grab something to steady himself. Nothing’s there. He stumbles forward, knees digging into the gravel beneath. At least, it looks like gravel.
Except the consistency is weirdly soft. Then it gives away and Yoongi plummets through.
“What the fu-“
Yoongi lands with a thud, and a dull ache spreads over his knees. For some reason, he thinks a fall like that should have hurt more, yet his numb body barely registers pain.
“Oy, I think we caught one.”
Yoongi cranes his neck, realizing he’s trapped in a muddy hole. A threatening sense of claustrophobia urges him to climb out but he can’t move.
The wispy voice above him rings with static-like laughter, and Yoongi tips his head back and screams. Blood red eyes meet his underneath a sickeningly yellow moon cast upon a deep purple sky.
“Scared, puny human?”
Yoongi cringes back into the hole in an effort to separate himself from the creature looming above him. Drool drips from its mouth as it bares a sharp set of teeth.
“You look pretty tasty to me.”
“We’re not supposed to eat ‘em, dumbass.” Another voice, equally as wispy butts in.
“Not even one?”
“Nah. We could have a nice sip of his blood for the journey back, though. Might make ‘em more docile.”
The creature’s grin spreads maniacally, and despite the situation, Yoongi can’t help but think this is what an Orc crossed with an ogre must look like. As that thought passes through his mind, a knobby, green hand juts down and frighteningly long claws graze Yoongi’s chin.
A sharp intake of breath, and Yoongi thinks he’s going to be split in two, heart beating against his ribcage relentlessly.
Just as claws dig into his shoulder blade, the ogre-like creature lurches forward, bellowing as he crashes into Yoongi, who scrambles beneath the heavy weight.
This is it. I’m going to get buried alive underneath this-
Yoongi registers a warm sticky, substance oozing onto his shirt, while he tries to shove the creature’s oily hair out of his face, nearly retching at the putrid smell.
Without warning, the weight lifts all at once and yellow moonlight floods through the small space. Yoongi wipes at dark blood staining his clothes before daring to glance up.
Faint voices whisper above him, and then another hand waves in front of his face. He registers tanned skin and trimmed fingernails. Tilting back farther, he can’t see who it belongs to, but it can’t be worse than whatever was thrown off of him moments ago.
“We don’t have all night,” a deep voice mumbles, riddled with impatience.
Yoongi clasps around the hand, which he finds surprisingly cold, and is yanked upwards. He sits back, feet dangling over the edge of the hole, and twists around to face the stranger who pulled him out.
Long dark hair, wavy enough to be unruly but not quite so. Even darker eyes, somewhat sensual. Lithe legs and arms, fitted in a tight leather jacket and jeans. Something within Yoongi sinks as he senses more danger from this person, though he can’t reason why exactly.
Then Yoongi’s eyes flit toward the bodies of the two similar, disgusting creatures, lying in pools of their own blood, and he inhales sharply. The handsome stranger flashes him a lazy, sideways grin in return.
“Thought you would be thanking me by now,” the stranger admits in a sultry tone.
“Can you please stop playing with the human?”
The higher pitched voice comes from behind the dark-haired man, who turns laughing.
“I don’t play with humans, Jimin. I simply saved him from an unpleasant journey.”
A shorter, red-haired man steps forward, and his eyes are alarmingly bright, as they fix upon Yoongi instantly, squinting. He wears a set of traditional robes that remind Yoongi of a hanbok, black with intricate designs etched in gold thread.
“What does it matter, Taehyung?” He asks with a heavy sigh, looking Yoongi up and down. “He’ll get taken one way or another.”
Taehyung ponders this with an amused expression, before shifting his gaze back to Yoongi, who feels like crawling out of his own skin and sinking back into the hole. What the fuck is happening?
“Not unless we take him with us…”
“I-I don’t want to come with you,” he blurts instantly.
Taehyung barks out a laugh, and Yoongi stands shakily.
“So you just want to wander around here, alone?”
Yoongi blinks, hesitantly turning left and right, and remembering he doesn’t know where is or who he is. Around them spreads some sort of grey, barren wasteland blanketed by a dark purple sky. It must be a nightmare. The initial panic he felt upon waking settles over him once more.
“U-um, where are we?”
Taehyung and Jimin exchange mildly surprised glances.
“Ah, you don’t know,” Taehyung murmurs with a twinge of interest, brushing his chin.
“Know what?”
“You’re dead.”
It’s Jimin who says it with finality, while Taehyung only stares curiously at Yoongi.
Funny enough, Yoongi only wants to laugh in response, because how could he be dead of all things? Then again, he doesn’t remember any specific details about himself apart from his own name.
“So what is this, heaven?”
“Heaven?” Jimin parrots incredulously. “Like where humans think good little humans go?”
“Uh-“
“No such thing. As heaven. Or good humans.”
Yoongi can’t really argue with that.
“Okay, so hell?”
“I wouldn’t bother trying to describe this place with your earthly vernacular,” Taehyung cuts in, eyes filled with mirth. “It’s where you go when you die.”
“So an afterlife-“
“Sure, whatever,” Jimin mumbles. “Taehyung, we can’t take him with us. He’ll be dead weight and will make us a target.”
Yoongi tunes them out as he finally faces the actual crisis he’d been blocking out since waking up in this hell-scape. He’s dead. Or on drugs. Say he is actually dead, then how the fuck did he die? And why doesn’t he remember anything? He doesn’t feel old he thinks, glancing down to look at himself.
He’s wearing a black blouse and matching pants, both with an almost unnaturally loose fit, as if his skin needed room to breathe. His feet are bare.
Several buttons on his blouse are undone, he realizes, fingering his bare collarbone. It stings.
“Hey, is it normal not to remember anything when you die?” He asks with growing hysteria.
The other two shrug.
“Wouldn’t know.”
“Aren’t you dead?”
They tilt sideways to eye each other again, as if sharing a mocking secret. Taehyung laughs first.
“We’re not human.”
“Y-you’re not?” Yoongi asks, looking back toward the creatures who were gouged in the abdomen then toward the human-like figures in front of him, realizing they don’t carry any weapons. Well, shit.
Taehyung’s smile turns wickedly lopsided again as he raises his hand dramatically slow. In a flash, claws are unleashed as his eyes flash blood red.
“We’re demons, little human.”
Yoongi stumbles back in surprise, and if not for a sharp set of claws gripping the front of his shirt, he would have fallen in the hole again.
Taehyung releases Yoongi’s shirt, retracting his claws.
“Well, seeing as how frightened of demons you are, we won’t bother you any longer. I would be careful though. There a several traps set out to catch little humans like you.”
Yoongi wants to protest, but his voice sits in the pit of his stomach and his limbs refuse to budge. He cannot deny that keeping company with these two is far better than whatever awaited him in that trap. Yet, he says nothing.
Jimin and Taehyung set off in another direction, but only for a few paces. The shorter stops Taehyung and beckons for his ear. Taehyung leans down and Jimin whispers something.
They both turn back simultaneously, and Yoongi’s breath catches. After a long pause, the two demons turn around fully.
“If you would like to join us, we would protect you,” Jimin offers hastily, as if he didn’t just spend the last few minutes complaining that Yoongi would be dead weight.
“How nice of you,” Yoongi mocks. “Why would you even do that? Thought I was going to slow you two down doing your…” he pauses, having no idea what they do. “Demon activities.”
“Simple. You could be useful.”
“So you want to force me into being some demon pawn?”
Taehyung raises his eyebrows, leaning back.
“You wouldn’t be ‘forced’ into anything,” he says impartially. “It’s your choice to join us.”
Yoongi’s face warms as he feels silly for the accusation when he was clearly given a choice. There’s no doubt in his mind he needs to go with them considering they saved him once already and who knows what other danger lies ahead.
“Do I actually need protection? Aren’t I already dead?”
He’s not really helping his case here. He wonders if he was this good at sabotaging himself back when he was alive.
“You can’t die again, if that’s what you’re asking. However, don’t let the fact that you’re dead fool you into thinking you won’t feel any pain. And if you do ‘die’ again you’ll just reincarnate. Which definitely isn’t painless.”
“Like re-spawning in a video game?”
They stare at him blankly.
“Sure… anyway, are you coming or not? We don’t have time to stand around all day in the open plains.”
Yoongi grimaces, nodding.
“Great, let’s fucking go,” Jimin grumbles.
Before they get far, Taehyung stops and glances over his shoulder, dark eyes washing over Yoongi forebodingly.
“What’s your name?”
“Yoongi.”
“Welcome, Yoongi,” the demon says, voice laced with but a hint of parody. “To life after death.”
The two strut on ahead with Yoongi tailing behind. The newly deceased human distracts himself by trying to remember the cause of his untimely demise as they trudge through the grey wasteland of gravel and dead trees.
It definitely resembles what Yoongi might have imagined some sort of underworld to look like, except maybe a bit emptier. He figured there would be more demonic creatures lurking around.
“Where are we going?” He eventually asks after exhausting his attempts at recalling any memories.
“City of Demons,” Taehyung answers in a bored tone. “Might sound scary to you but really it’s just a bunch of lowlifes.”
“There are cities here?” Yoongi finds himself asking.
Jimin snorts.
“Look ahead.”
Yoongi peers between the parting of Taehyung and Jimin’s shoulders and spots a bluish hue in the distance, feathering against the purple atmosphere, with shapes of tall, crooked building carving the skyline.
“And is it crawling with demons?”
“More like grunts if you ask me,” Taehyung remarks in a venomous tone. “Much like the ones that disturbed you earlier.”
Yoongi’s gut twists, far from eager to see the likes of them again soon.
“I still don’t understand how you’ll find me useful.”
Jimin turns toward him, eyes flashing a vibrant shade of orange.
“You’re undetectable,” he explains in mild excitement. “Humans don’t really have a scent. Your souls are like tiny blips in the universe. Quiet as a mouse.”
“Light as a feather on your feet, Yoongi. Better seen and not heard.”
Yoongi blinks as the fuzzy moment teases his brain and then dissipates as quickly as it came. Jimin and Taehyung are several steps ahead when he starts walking again, shook by the clammy feeling that wriggled through his body.
As they approach the city, its lights saturate Yoongi’s vision, and he wonders if they stumbled into an 80s cyberpunk fantasy in the middle of nowhere.
Taehyung suddenly extends his arm, flicking his wrist as a cloak wraps around it swiftly. The demon drapes it over his back and draws the hood, concealing his face.
“Let’s make this quick. I can’t bear this hellhole for very long.”
They worm through dingy streets lit by crackling neon signs. A chilly mist settles in the air, like an afterthought of rain, though Yoongi finds no sign of a storm in the midst. They pass what resembles a traditional ramen shop, and Yoongi eyes a hunched figure sitting on a wobbly stool.
When it turns and reveals two bloody eyes, Yoongi trips and grabs onto Taehyung’s jacket and Jimin’s robe, one hand fisted in each.
“Careful, human,” Taehyung hums with warning. “Just because most of these grunts rely on their scent and can’t smell you very well, they’ll still spot you if you create a ruckus like that.”
“Also, you’re completely useless to us as a klutz,” Jimin adds in annoyance, smoothing his robe.
Yoongi says nothing, alarmed at Taehyung’s comment about making a ruckus. He knows he can be silent, and somewhere in his brain screams that he’s not a klutz, though he can’t discern where it originates.
They stop beneath a bright pink sign that glows out “Sakura’s Revenge”. Yoongi expects there to be some sort of bouncer guarding the door, but they easily pass through, descending down several flights of stairs.
Taehyung pushes through a set of double doors and instantly waves of smoke filter through Yoongi’s lungs. He chokes, gripping his neck and thumbing over the tender skin.
Scanning the hazy space, Yoongi notes how the squarish, multi-floored room reminds him of old Japanese architecture he saw in a movie once. Yet, dark buzzing in the air and disconcerting flashing lights creates the ambiance of a sleazy club.
Spread around the room are several men drinking at low tables, which makes Yoongi think they’ve walked into a gentlemen’s club (sans the strippers). They certainly don’t look like the demonic creatures he’s seen skulking about in the city.
“Think she’s going to show?”
“I know she will because he’s here.”
A thrumming beat vibrates against Yoongi’s ears as he follows Taehyung and Jimin up to a table on the second floor. He sits down on ground with them and ignores the suspicious, crimson urn at the center of the table.
The longer they sit there, the more his body violently rejects their environment, vision slipping into sparkling tendrils of blackness. He remembers clubbing, remembers the stickiness of sweat, the relentlessness of the beat pounding through his chest. Remembers—
“It will be fine. Just don’t take too many?”
“How many is too many?”
“Just take what I tell you.”
Tonight, he will do anything to escape, even if it means disappearing on the cold floor of a fluorescent-lit nightclub bathroom. Even if it means taking too many.
“She’s here.”
Yoongi eyes snap open and he glances over the balcony through the strobing clouds of smoke. A petite young woman (perhaps teenager), who couldn’t be older than 20, stands in front of the double doors. Long black hair drawn into two thick braids, dressed in a ruby pleated skirt, she doesn’t fit in. However, her brows are knit together with disturbing intensity, gaze set on the corner of the room.
“You might not want to watch this,” Taehyung informs him absentmindedly.
“Watch what?”
With harrowing speed and precision, the woman whips out a bow and knocks an arrow.
“Finally had the gall to reincarnate?” She threatens in a rigid tone that grates over the beat of the music.
Men start scrambling, but it’s far too late. The arrow flies across the room, landing square in someone’s chest, and bright blood seeps through his white shirt. It doesn’t end there, though. She leaps over several tables, rips the arrow out of her target’s chest, and unsheathes a long knife.
The man’s bloody hands grab at her thighs, staining her flesh a vivid red.
Horrified, Yoongi can’t tear his gaze away, despite the bile forming in his throat.
The woman slits her victims throat quickly before tossing his body aside like a rag doll.
“Told you not to look,” Taehyung says, one eyebrow quirked.
Yoongi realizes he must be gaping and shuts his mouth. Just as he thinks he’s soothed his body’s reaction, another man rears behind the murderous woman and she whips around to knock him down, her knee digging into his throat as he flounders beneath her like a fish.
Yoongi gags and stands abruptly as the metallic scent of blood travels through the air. He bolts from the table and barrels through the first door he sees in the open hallway.
Keeling over a lone sink against the wall, he retches, clutching his sides for stability. This has to be some sort of sick nightmare that he’ll wake up from soon. Except, he doesn’t know what he’d even wake up to. He doesn’t even know who he…
Yoongi glances up in the cracked mirror and gasps at his reflection. He doesn’t find his face surprising. Rather, the red swollen skin raised around his neck, like the imprints of a rope, like he tried to—
“Yoongi- Yoongi please wake up!” Someone screams, voice wet.
Yoongi doesn’t want to wake though. He’s warm here, though the floor is cold.
“Please, Yoongi! What’s wrong with you!”
I’m free, he thinks. Just let me go.
The voice fades and the floor grows colder. Yoongi refuses to open his eyes.
As faded as the memory lives within his mind, the emotion of it runs through Yoongi’s veins with unforgiving vividness. He knows what he tried to do, remembers the ache. The desperation. The hopelessness. And as he brushes his fingers over the tender skin on his neck, he reckons those pills were to calm his nerves before he…
Yoongi chokes as he bends over again, throat raw as he tries to cry out. Nothing happens, though. He can’t even force a single tear out of his eyes. Perhaps there’s no crying after death, but he reckons that he’s simply too numb for tears.
Once he accepts this strange feeling of indifference, the irony of it barrels though him like a crazed bull. He tried to kill himself to end his suffering, and wound up in some twisted version of an afterlife where his suffering will only be prolonged indefinitely.
“Can’t win, can I?”
Yoongi turns on the sink to wash his face but regrets it when a stream of coal-colored liquid pours thick from the faucet. He shuts it off and exits the bathroom.
“Oh, he didn’t run away!” Taehyung announces with amused delight.
Yoongi frowns, eyes landing on the woman in the pleated skirt sitting at their table now. Droplets of blood adorn her face like delicate freckles.
He plops down opposite her, so now the four of them sit at their own side of the square table.
“I felt ill.”
The woman laughs hollowly.
“Oh, so you’re new new. How did you die?” She pries before taking a swig out of the urn on the table and wiping her mouth.
Yoongi hesitates, and senses Taehyung’s dark eyes on him.
“He doesn’t remember anything,” the demon answers.
“Ah, mysterious. Well, I’m Yuqi.”
“Yoongi.”
She holds out a hand, which Yoongi eyes suspiciously, searching for bloodstains. Eventually he shakes it, and she lets go quickly.
“Try not to kill him,” Jimin proposes casually, leaning back so his robes part slightly. “We might need him and don’t have time to wait around until he reincarnates. Or worse, gets captured by the Demon Army.”
Yoongi isn’t sure what sudden idea Jimin and Taehyung conjured up that involved using him, but it seems to have solidified in their minds.
“Oh? And why is a human like him useful to you? In fact, why are you even meeting me here? You know I don’t work with men — human or demon.”
“I can answer both those questions at the same time,” Taehyung replies, eyes dancing around the room as if searching for eavesdroppers. “We need to slay The Red Serpent.”
Yuqi’s hazel eyes darken with interest and disbelief. She leans back on her elbows and crosses her legs, laying perpendicular to the table.
“Aww, does Prince Taehyung miss his throne?”
“Keep your fucking voice down,” Jimin hisses as Taehyung sinks further into his hood.
“No,” Taehyung remarks in an even tone. “I never said I would claim the throne. But I can’t let this go on. If it does, there won’t be a single human soul left. The entire domain will be his.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true,” Jimin inserts. “And he will come for you, Yuqi. After all, you’re human.”
Yuqi’s eyes narrow.
“Oh so now you’re a saint? This is what got you dethroned in the first place, Taehyung. There’s no room for a merciful demon underneath that crown.”
Suddenly, Taehyung’s hood is thrown off as his claws bury into the table. Yoongi forces himself to stop staring into the demon’s deep, red eyes.
“Watch your tongue or I’ll show you how merciless I can be.”
“Put your claws away,” Yuqi requests without fear. “I’m only trying to give you advice. As a friend.”
Taehyung sits back, prying his claws from the table while Yoongi blinks wearily, scooting a few centimeters away.
“Anyway,” Jimin continues, sensing Taehyung’s stubbornness. “You know we can’t let this continue. He needs to be stopped. Which is why both you and the human are gathered here.”
Yoongi wonders why he even offered his name if they’re only only going to refer to him as ‘the human’ or some variation of that. He also doesn’t understand why Yuqi isn’t being referred to as ‘the human’, considering she is one herself.
“And you need us for what exactly?”
“To slay The Red Serpent. To curse him back to the depths of wherever came from for at least several millennia.”
Yuqi bursts out into a fit of bubbly laughter. Yoongi watches how Taehyung and Jimin roll their eyes together.
“The four of us can’t do shit, Taehyung. Not to mention your darling sister is marrying that creep. Believe you forgot to include that tidbit in your plan. Are we going to ‘slay’ her as well?”
Yoongi’s head snaps toward Taehyung, whose eyes twinkle with a sad sort of recognition.
“Ah, yes my twisted sister. If we have to, we will.”
This quells Yuqi’s laugher, and she gazes back at him with reserved emotion, something akin to understanding.
“Let’s say I do want to help you, what’s your plan? Do you even have a plan?”
Taehyung and Jimin turn to each other sheepishly, and Yoongi realizes they have no damn plan. Hell, they picked him up from that forsaken wasteland on a whim. When the silence stretches, Yuqi groans, grabbing the urn haphazardly before taking a messy sip.
“Don’t tell me you hooligans came to me with a crazy proposition and don’t even have a sound plan to back it up?”
“Well, this was a part of the plan,” Jimin says. “Recruit you and come up with a better plan.”
“At least tell me how you plan to use this weak, little human.”
Yoongi should take offense to that but he’s relieved it implies they can’t use him for anything requiring strength.
“He can be our sneak. Not detectable by dumb grunts as long as he’s quiet enough.”
“That’s it?”
“You have a better idea? It could come in handy, especially if our plan involves sneaking back into Castle Nightfall.”
Yuqi frowns, unimpressed.
“That’s not good enough. Grunts might be stupid but they will outnumber us by the thousands. It’s suicide.”
Yoongi winces.
Taehyung crosses his arms, grabbing the urn as an upbeat tune with heavy synth permeates through the air.
“Exactly. The fact that their numbers are growing so rapidly means we have to stop them.”
Yuqi shakes her head.
“We would need a miracle weapon in order to stop them. Getting this little human to sneak around Castle Nightfall and somehow allow you to assassinate The Red Serpent isn’t going to cut it. We would need—“
She pauses abruptly, as if considering her thoughts more seriously before speaking them aloud. Yoongi watches the contemplation churn behind her eyes.
“We would need what?”
She licks her lips.
“You’re a descendent of the original Ancient Demon King, are you not?”
The phrase send shivers over Yoongi’s skin, while Taehyung leans forward on the low table, lips pulled tightly downward.
“Of course I am. It runs through the royal bloodline.”
“Isn’t there a way to harness that power? It would be more than enough to make the Demon Army bend to your will.”
Taehyung’s eyes fix upon the urn at the center of the table and glaze over.
“There’s a reason that power became diluted through the bloodline over time. It’s completely unstable. Besides, how would I even do that? Surely, if it were possible one of my crooked family members would have taken advantage of it in a heartbeat.”
Yuqi taps her chin thoughtfully.
“Maybe not, though. The one person who might actually have the answer to this would never give it up to any wicked members of your family.”
Jimin’s eyes flick toward her.
“You’re not actually talking about—“
“Seokjin,” Yuqi interjects. “I am. If it’s possible to harness that power, he’ll know how to do it.”
“Right, and you’re forgetting the fact he’d never give that information up to any members of Taehyung’s family. He’s an asshole who will throw us off his mountaintop as soon as he gets the chance too.”
“Wicked members of Taehyung’s family,” Yuqi corrects. “I know one family member he won’t throw off the edge.”
“No,” Taehyung protests firmly.
“Yes.”
“We’re not getting Jungkook. Fuck, he’ll kill me before we even get to Seokjin.”
Yuqi sits up and drums her fingers against the table.
“Probably should have thought about that before marooning him on that island.”
“I did not maroon him,” Taehyung seethes. “He ran off to that island.”
“Hm. Wonder what made him do that.”
“Taehyung, this is the closest thing we have to a plan,” Jimin intervenes. “As crazy as it sounds, I think we need Jungkook in order to talk to Seokjin. And we need Seokjin’s knowledge to defeat The Red Serpent.”
All of this information soars over Yoongi’s head as he tries digesting the conversation. Thousands of questions cross his mind, but none he feels comfortable enough asking. He wonders how the hell he wound up here, wonders bitterly if ending his own life was worth this…
“And the human?”
Three pairs of eyes suddenly land on Yoongi, who lays propped against the balcony, dizzy under the haze of smoke and strobing lights.
“He stays,” Taehyung says, though in a noncommittal way. “We’ll ask Seokjin if he’s useful.”
“Fine. Let’s go to the beach then. I hate wasting time.”
And so Yuqi joins them.
The beach is dark. Charcoal sand stretches for as far as Yoongi can see, with dark waves crashing against the shore, thick and ominously obsidian. Despite the eerie sight, Yoongi feels only melancholic, and when his bare feet burrow into the sand, it’s soothing — neither warm nor cold, and it wraps around his ankles softly, much more welcoming than the gravel of the plains.
Yoongi’s three companions splinter off to ‘find a ship’ while he splays out and watches the waves ebb back and forth. The motion is hypnotic, whirling. Yoongi loses all conscious thoughts as he gazes out toward the black sea, fingers buried deep in the sand.
Back and forth. Back and forth. Around and ar—
“Twirl for me, darling.”
“You know I can’t…”
“Oh, but you can.”
Yoongi can’t make out the other man’s face, a rippling image beneath the water’s surface.
“You look best when you do. It’s like you’re flying to the moon.”
“Don’t says such ridiculous things.”
He laughs at Yoongi, warm but chastising.
“Just twirl for me, darling. We can fly to the moon together.”
Yoongi inhales as Taehyung plops beside him. His eyes break away from the water toward the demon at his left. Taehyung stares at the sea with similar composure.
“What has you staring in silence? You look like your were ready to walk to the bottom of the sea.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Yoongi murmurs, letting sand shift through his fingers.
“Oh?”
Yoongi realizes the implication he offered up, unprepared to disclose anything. Taehyung doesn’t push him though, just stares forward with a relaxed expression. After a minute of silence, Yoongi itches to say something, and knows Taehyung won’t pry him into it at this point.
“I think I killed myself.”
This turns Taehyung’s head. The demon’s expression doesn’t change, apart from a twitch in his eyebrows. Yoongi allows for a pause before continuing.
“I still don’t remember much but. Back at ‘Sakura’s Revenge’ I remembered something from my past life. I tried to kill myself once and—“ he clutches his sore throat, lips quivering. “This time I was successful.”
Taehyung’s eyes flicker to the sand where Yoongi’s fingers are buried before shifting toward the red marks around his neck.
“And you’re sure of that?”
Yoongi shudders, wrapping his arms around his legs and pulling his knees into his chest.
“I feel it in my bones. While I don’t have any solid memories, I remember the horrible emptiness. How the thought crossed my mind so casually. I remember trying to…” Yoongi sighs shakily. “Whatever. I guess it doesn’t matter anymore now that I’m dead.”
Taehyung hums neutrally.
“Well, it should only matter if you want it to matter. For Yuqi, the cause of her death is the only thing that matters to her.”
Yoongi raises his brows, turning to Taehyung, who’s frowning a bit wistfully.
“She was raped and murdered a few centuries ago. Ever since then, she’s been terrorizing any rapist she crosses in the afterlife. Killing them, biding her time until they reincarnate just to do it again. Over and over.”
“Good,” Yoongi finds himself saying.
Taehyung’s lips turn upward knowingly.
“She’s not quite fond of men, as you may have noticed. Though, not all rapists are men of course.”
“How many times has she killed her own murderer?”
“Never.”
“Never?” Yoongi repeats in disbelief.
Taehyung shakes his head.
“She’s never been able to find him. It’s one of the reasons I secretly knew she wants to help us. If The Red Serpent consumes every human soul and turns their bodies into useless grunts, it will disrupt her purpose.”
Yoongi still doesn’t understand what’s happening or who The Red Serpent is or why any of it even matters? Why can’t people just die and be done with the bullshit…so much for ‘rest in peace’.
“Who exactly is The Red Serpent?”
“Ah,” Taehyung laughs, patting Yoongi’s shoulder, and it feels like he’s burning a hole through the shirt. “Hard to explain to a human. I suppose is like a descendent of an ancient deity.”
“Like yourself? ‘Ancient Demon King’? Sounds dangerous.”
Taehyung tilts his head observationally, meeting Yoongi’s curious gaze and detecting the modest amount of teasing in the human’s tone.
“Try not to wrap your pretty little head around it,” the demon smoothly suggests after a pause, and Yoongi’s face floods with embarrassment.
Before Yoongi can further dwell on Taehyung’s last comment (and unsatisfying answer regarding The Red Serpent), a desolate ship approaches them around a stretch of bluffs. At the helm, Jimin and Yuqi appear to be arguing over something.
“Excellent, our vessel is here.”
This ship is disgusting, Yoongi thinks as he nearly slips over the main deck, which shines with a slimy, green moss. He doesn’t want to dwell on the rotting wood or dotting of holes throughout the ship. His companions seem unbothered by this.
Yoongi thinks there’s no way they have enough people to man a ship (though he knows nothing of sailing ships), but Taehyung assures him it’s fine with a mysterious glint in his eye.
Yuqi climbs all the way up to the crow's nest, armed with her bow and arrow, so she can watch over the dark seas. Yoongi doesn’t know what she’s looking out for, yet it makes him feel a bit better.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to say to Jungkook when we arrive?” Jimin asks, leaning against the railing.
Taehyung shrugs, one hand lazily resting at the helm.
“Not really.”
Jimin rolls his eyes.
“Well, it would be great if you could think of something on the way there. You know, so he doesn’t kill us on sight.”
“Why does everyone want to kill us?” Yoongi pipes up, wondering if he selected through wrong crowd to hang out with in this hell-scape.
Jimin grunts.
“Taehyung can tell you that.”
Taehyung glances between Jimin and Yoongi uncomfortably.
“It’s just because we’re brothers,” he explains ambiguously. “Who doesn’t want to kill their own sibling?”
Jimin laughs in disbelief, straightening and heading toward the front of the ship. With the silence stretching onward, Yoongi splits off as well, opting for leaning over the railing and staring at the ebbing water.
The previous memory that tickled his brain returns as he stares at the hypnotic sea. Twirling. Why does he remember twirling? The word sticks but in a grating way. Twirling..twirling…turning. Turning sounds better, he thinks. But he does’t know why.
As he stares blankly, his lids grow heavy and he wonders if people sleep after they die. They must, because he-
“DUCK!”
Yoongi hits the deck instinctively as an arrow flies past his ear. He scrambles against the mossy floor and hears a deafening groaning noise, metal scraping against wood. When the railing splits in front of him, a firm grip yanks him backward and he lands on his ass.
“Get out of the way, human!” Jimin cries.
Before Yoongi can come to his senses, he sees a large metal vessel threatening to split their already rickety ship in half.
“Fuck,” he mutters.
“Go hide, little human!”
It’s Taehyung yelling, albeit calmly, from the helm.
Yoongi stumbles up, eyeing the mysterious metal contraption dripping with water, massive enough to spread farther than their own ship. Suddenly the top blows off, and Yoongi thinks it must be some sort of submarine.
“What part of ‘go hide’ do you not understand!” Jimin grits, grabbing the front of Yoongi’s shirt and throwing him below through the hatch and into the hold.
Yoongi lands with a thud, shin-deep in black water. And then all hell breaks loose above him.
Heavy feet land on the deck, and more clanging, banging, and screaming fill the air. He hears several arrows land in flesh as bodies hit the floor above him. Yoongi winces, feeling both useless and perfectly content with staying below.
For a while, Yoongi thinks it will never end, but then a precursive silence stifles the ship, and then —
“Ah, if it isn’t Taehyung, the dishonored prince! How I longed to meet you again.”
“Admiral Wu, I am please to say I wished to never meet you again!” He hears Taehyung’s voice greet cheerfully.
“Paying a visit to your dear brother, are you?”
“I am afraid that’s none of your business.”
“Ah, but you see it is. Because I have received an order from King Serpent himself—“
Taehyung’s deep yet cold laughter cuts the intruder off, and if Yoongi didn’t know Taehyung for all but a day, he would not have been able to detect the odd mixture of amusement and vindictiveness.
“Bold of him to be calling himself ‘king’ already, when he has yet to marry my sister.”
“Bold of a dethroned nobody to dare say anything about the King. We’ve been looking for you, Taehyung. The chase ends here.”
Taehyung laughs again, though less confidently.
“What chase? I have been merely going about my own business. Who even knew I was being chased?”
“Oh fuck off. I don’t know how we didn’t catch you earlier, not when you stink like a fucking bitch. And speaking of stink, where is that wretched fox demon?”
“Who?”
“DON’T PLAY DUMB. I CAN SMELL HIM. WHERE IS HE?”
The situation seems bad, but Yoongi doesn’t know what he can even do. Overcoming the tremor in his legs, which are growing numb in the cold water, Yoongi creeps forward until he can see through the grates of the hatch.
Above, there are several grunts like the ones that had attacked Yoongi before. Taehyung stands atop the quarter deck with a long-haired, bulky man towering over him. A thin crimson sword is tipped against Taehyung’s chest threateningly, though Taehyung pays it no mind. In fact, the demon appears far too relaxed for the situation.
Yoongi then notices that both Jimin and Yuqi are missing, perhaps the reason Taehyung doesn’t look nearly as worried as he should. Coincidentally, as this crosses Yoongi’s mind, some sort of wild animal jumps out of nowhere and sinks its teeth into the Admiral’s shoulder.
“FUCK!”
This spurs Taehyung to lunge at the intruder, throwing their bodies against the railing. The grunts step in, drawing mismatching weapons. However, the fox disarms them with swift bites to their necks.
Just as Yoongi thinks they’ll overtake the Admiral, a broken whine cuts through the air. Yuqi.
“Ah!”
Suddenly, she’s thrown against the hatch, and her eyes staring straight into Yoongi’s. They widen, as if to say move away. So Yoongi draws back as another figure, less bulky but with equally long hair, steps over the hatch and yanks Yuqi up by the braid.
“Stand down, demons, or I set her back a thousand years by ripping out her throat.”
Taehyung stalls, as does the fox, one leg raised in apprehension. As its orange eyes meet Yoongi’s through the small space through the hatch, he realizes easily that it’s Jimin. Jimin is the fox.
The Admiral basks in their discomfort, ordering the minions to tie them up against the mast. Yoongi grimaces as he watches from below the deck. What is he supposed to do if they get captured? Not that he’s particularly attached to them, but his alternative companions seem far worse.
“I am going to sink this ship,” Admiral Wu announces thoughtfully. “That way you will slowly, slowly die, and your reincarnation will be thoroughly painful.”
“Oh? I thought Serpent Boy wanted me brought back alive.”
“You dare mock your King when you’re nothing but a—“ the intruder stops, shaking his head. “Not worth wasting my breath on the likes of you. I am doing him a favor by leaving you at the bottom of the black sea.”
A deadly panic rises within Yoongi at the thought of the ship submerging under water. And as he looks down and finds the dark water reaching past his knees, he gasps. Inhale, exhale, he needs to quell the panic somehow. Dying by sword sounds better than drowning down here.
Yoongi inches closer to the hatch, noting the grunts just in front of it. The Admiral has tied Taehyung, Yuqi, and now human-looking Jimin to the front mast. They’re far enough away, but the grunts are too close.
However, Yoongi remembers they’re not supposed to be able to see or smell him well. His gut swells with fear as he pushes against the hatch experimentally. When no on turns around, he pushes more and pokes his head out.
Instantly Taehyung’s gaze lands on him across the way, the demon’s eyebrow twitching in recognition. He says something to keep the Admiral’s attention, and Yoongi scoots up. For a moment he freezes in terror, staring at the green, oily creatures several feet away.
This shouldn’t be the time to realize he needed a plan before emerging, but he doesn’t really have much time in general. He needs to get to the others without being detected, and has no idea how, not when the Admiral and the Admiral’s first mate loom just in front of him.
Then he thinks it’s really odd no one has even seen him yet, especially as he crouches on the main deck within plain sight. Then again, they had no idea he would be here in the first place, and they can’t smell him. Huh.
With a sliver of confidence, Yoongi edges near the railing, glancing down at the restless sea. His stomach drops at the churning water, but in order to get out of this he needs to overcome the tight coil of fear in his belly.
After glimpsing over his shoulder once more, Yoongi climbs over the railing with ease, sliding down until his body clears the height of the deck. Oddly, he feels strong and balanced hanging over the edge and finds no difficulty moving with the length of the vessel.
Slowly but surely, he skirts around the ship until he reaches the front. Peeking over the railing, he aligns himself behind one of the sails. Once convinced the sail conceals his body, Yoongi hops over the railing and lands gently.
He think it’s ludicrous he hasn’t been spotted yet, feet sticking out beneath the sail. Regardless, Yoongi moves closer, watching the Admiral pace back and forth in front of his minions.
As lucky as Yoongi was before, he thinks there’s no way he can make it to the mast undiscovered, yet he has no other option. However, the Admiral whips around suddenly, instructing the grunts to blow holes in the ship and curse it to the bottom of the sea.
Yoongi dives forward, low to the ground positioning his body just behind the mast. Jimin and Yuqi are tied to both sides and pretend not to notice while Yoongi hastily attempts to untie the bounds against Taehyung’s hands.
“It won’t work,” Jimin whispers. “That’s not normal rope.”
“Then what will?”
“Reach into my robe.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
Yoongi tentatively slides a hand into Jimin’s robe until he fingers something heavy and metallic. Pulling it out, he reveals a short, black dagger.
“That will work,” Jimin mumbles. “Forged with demon blood.”
Great, Yoongi thinks.
Haphazardly, the human tries cutting the bounds again and the dagger slices through the rope instantly. Without hesitation, Jimin’s body shifts into that of a fox and lurches forward.
Before Yoongi even processes the change in advantage, Taehyung claws are at the Admiral’s throat, Yuqi’s at the second demon’s. Meanwhile, Jimin has already disposed of the remaining grunts.
Despite the dangerous predicament, the Admiral chuckles.
“Oh, Taehyung. You think I fear you? The merciful dem-“
Taehyung clenches his fist and digs his claws into the Admiral’s throat with chilling certainty. Black blood sputters out of the demon’s mouth, and Yoongi can’t avert his gaze, horrified. Taehyung squeezes a bit tighter, forcing the intruder to his knees.
“Shame,” Taehyung murmurs callously. “Guess I’m not feeling very merciful.”
He turns to the other long-haired demon, currently splayed out on the ground underneath Jimin’s paws, and smiles.
“Send a message to my sister,” Taehyung instructs, hand still clenched around his victim’s throat. “This is what will happen to anyone she sends, including herself.”
With finality, Taehyung flings Admiral Wu over the edge of the ship and into the black sea.
Jimin allows the other demon to scramble up.
“Y-you-“ he barely manages before scattering back to the metal vessel they came from, nearly tripping over the railing.
When he disappears (and once they throw the other bodies off the ship), Taehyung turns to Yoongi with the same sideways, boxy grin as before.
“See, I knew you would be useful. Now, let’s go get my estranged brother.”