Chapter Text
“Okay, I finished sewing extra pockets onto our favorite sets of leather outfits, so that we can put extra weapons in the pockets if we need,” Zoey said, emerging from their towering closet. “They're hanging up in your changing rooms now if you're ready.“
”Thanks Zoey,” Mira said, getting up off the couch. Both of the tiger and the bird trailed her eagerly, the three-eyed bird especially flying up and onto Mira's shoulder. It cooed appreciatively when she pushed her stray hairs back to make more space for the tiny bird.
Rumi and Jinu were on the couch themselves, hunched over a drawing that Jinu had made of Gwi-Ma's ziggurat.
”I still can't believe how accurate this looks. Baby Saja was in one just like this,“ Rumi remarked, holding up the map.
”The court cartographer gave me a few lessons in exchange for performing at his daughter's birthday,“ Jinu smiled, tracing his linework with his fingers when the map was back on the table. ”But Gwi-Ma's ziggurat will be much larger than Baby Saja's.“
”I know, ten times bigger you said,“ Rumi nodded, growing serious again. ”And we won't forget the ramp in the back, in case we need to sneak up on him.“
Jinu nodded. “It'll be hard, but it's possible. Especially when some of you are fighting him, he can't keep track of all three of you and control the demons.”
“Right,” Rumi said, taking a final look at the sketches and the map.
“Rumi, your battle outfit,” Zoey said, peeking her head around from the closet's door again.
“Right, coming!” Rumi said, rolling the map up.
“Are they going to be the same ones you wore when you squeaked down the slide?” Jinu teased, leaning back on the couch.
“Probably. Zoey likes those a lot,” Rumi said, shoving the map into one of her pockets. She leaned down to give Jinu a quick kiss, then went off to change.
The three girls stepped out of the closet looking like superheroes, their chunky leather getups looking infinitely more practical than before. But they had spared no effort in also making themselves look glamorous, with glittery eyeshadow and elaborately braided hair. Even Mira had tied her hair up into a long, glossy ponytail.
“Wow,” Jinu said, rising from the couch with wide eyes. “I didn't get to appreciate your outfits last time, but you look great.“
Rumi beamed.
”Do you have all of your extra weapons?“ he asked, and each of the girls flashed a shiny blade, tucked somewhere on their person.
”Ready?” Rumi asked, and Zoey immediately shot back up, grim determination in her eyes. Mira merely nodded.
“Okay, remember, as soon as I get down there, I'll send Derpy and Sussie back up.”
“I still can't believe you're naming him Derpy,” Jinu said, arms crossed.
”I think it fits,“ Rumi scoffed. ”Plus, he seems to like it,“ she said, just as she patted him easily on the head. In one smooth motion, she slid onto the tiger's back, and the bird fluttered from Zoey's shoulder onto Rumi's head, and the three of them started to descend.
“Wait!” Jinu suddenly bolted across the room, and the sinking paused. The tiger's eyes were just barely visible off the ground.
Rumi stared at Jinu solemnly, willing him to speak.
“I... I love you.” Jinu stuttered, cupping Rumi's face, which he had to crouch to do. A slight tear built up at the corner of his eye, and he wiped it away quickly.
Rumi watched him, stunned. ”I...“ she started, but couldn't finish her sentence. She averted her gaze.
Jinu dropped his hands, face struggling to stay collected. “Please come back to me.”
Rumi stared at him mournfully, and then the tiger began to sink again, and her face slipped from Jinu’s hand as she was consumed by the ground.
-
Rumi emerged on the other side of the Honmoon with tears welling up in her eyes. Why didn't the words come easily to her? Why couldn't she find the space to utter those words to Jinu? As she slid off of the tiger, she wiped her tears.
As Derpy and Sussie made their way back to the overworld to pick up Zoey and Mira, Rumi inhaled sharply as she took in her surroundings. It was just as dark and cold as she remembered it being, but in the distance, instead of the tiny figure of a minor reaper at the top of a ziggurat, she saw a great flame, twisting and turning. Instantly, she felt a shiver run through her spine. They were truly here.
The tiger and the three-eyed bird returned once, twice, bearing the weight of the other two hunters.
“Wow, it's cold in here,” Zoey had said when she finally got there.
“That's why we're wearing full outfits,” Mira grimaced, looking at the giant flame in the distance.
“Weapons?” Rumi prompted, and the girls drew them out of the shimmering ether. Zoey nearly dropped her shin-kal when they appeared.
In the human world, their spirit weapons shone with a white, celestial light. But here, in the demon world, there was a purplish flame to them, one that ran like veins through the white light.
Mira touched the blade with her fingers gingerly, as if she could break them. “Fascinating,” she whispered, and wielded the gok-do with a few experimental strikes in the air. The wind whistled sharply.
Rumi's sain-geom was still her thicker, slightly curved version, which was no heavier to wield but sang pleasantly through the air as she delivered heavier strikes than she could before.
“Okay, so they're still pretty much the same,” Zoey sighed in relief. Mira nodded, mouth gritted in determination.
“Does that mean it's time?”
”Yes,“ Rumi responded, swinging her weapon easily over her shoulder.
Gwi-Ma seemed to sense their presence, which didn't surprise them. Honestly, Rumi was surprised that he hadn't noticed her the first time that she came down there, but she supposed that with more of them, there was more hunter energy to sense.
Hordes of demons sprang from all angles, this time in assorted shapes and sizes, unlike the amorphous blobs that attacked them at their last concert. Rumi concentrated - they were still quite far, and appeared to rumble forward like an army of foot soldiers.
“Let's try flying,” Rumi whispered to her fellow hunters, and they nodded solemnly.
Rumi took off towards the direction of Gwi-Ma with a powerful sprint, racing towards and gathering more momentum before she launched herself upwards. She drifted easily above the other demons, their masquerade faces staring up at her in shock.
She looked back at Zoey and Mira, who were trying the exact same maneuver, except they skidded down to the ground when they tried to launch themselves upwards.
“Interesting,” the voice of Gwi-Ma boomed. “Her demon powers are awakening.”
“Shut up,” Rumi gritted her teeth, and dove to ram her blade into the demons that were closest to her fellow hunters. But instead of vaporizing into thin air, the demon remained corporeal at the end of her blade. It looked in shock at the sword that cleanly entered and exited its body, and struggled to pull it out. Rumi stared in disbelief.
“They don't poof when we kill them!“ she shouted at Mira and Zoey, who were quickly discovering the same thing as they faced their own attackers.
Rumi dissolved her sword into light, and the demon fell to the ground, clearly incapacitated but still alive. She had to summon her sword again to fully decapitate him. He finally stopped moving after that.
The hordes of demons now faced a much larger threat to them, and the hunters stood back to back, much like they had practiced, to face the incoming waves.
They slashed through groups of demons, all of them now much more conscious to completely incapacitate them before leaving their bodies and focusing on new threats.
”There are so many bodies!“ Mira yelled over the tumult. “I'm not used to it!”
“Me neither!” Zoey said, sending her shin-kal straight into a demon's eyes. It howled in pain, clutching at them once Zoey recalled the spirit weapons to her hands.
“We can't keep fighting them forever, there are too many of them,” Rumi said, casting another glance towards Gwi-Ma. The flame hadn't changed much since she last saw it, but its demeanor almost seemed smug. If a tall wall of fire could even be smug.
“We have to get closer to Gwi-Ma!” Mira said, slicing through another demon's body.
“Okay, let's go this way!” Rumi said, slashing in one direction. “Zoey, you stay at the opposite end and keep them away. Mira, I need you and your gok-do at the front.”
The girls shifted their position, and started slowly crawling their way through the masses of demons. They seemed to be pouring in from every direction, demons they had fought before and new ones, all twisted with contorted faces and claws for hands.
Rumi tried to pick up the slack when either Mira or Zoey faltered, but mostly, she guided them towards the direction of Gwi-Ma. In her relatively defended position, she recalled the last time they had fought the demon lord.
Darkness and harmony
She hummed the tune beneath her breath, just to herself, but there was a small sonic boom that released, sending several demons toppling backwards. Mira and Zoey turned to look at her.
“Rumi?” Zoey asked. “Did you just sing?”
“Yeah,” Rumi said, surveying the damage around them. “I was thinking-” a demon from behind the fallen had made their way to the three hunters, and Rumi thrust her blade clean through her body. She fell to the side with a weak thump.
“Stop thinking, sing some more!” Mira said, slashing at another demon.
My voice without the lies, this is what it sounds like
A larger boom this time, and in the distance, Rumi watched as Gwi-Ma's flame wavered. Maybe their music was just as powerful down here as it was in the human world. Maybe they could use that to their advantage.
“Let's sing Golden,” she said to her fellow hunters, and they nodded seriously.
They started their song, and it was getting easier and easier to get through the waves of demons. They sang, demons fell, and soon, they were moving expeditiously towards Gwi-Ma, barely needing to swing their weapons at the demons as their music cast wave after wave of sonic booms towards the surrounding demons.
“No!” Gwi-Ma roared as they got closer. “You can't defeat me with your music in my own realm!”
The girls grinned at each other, boldly separating now so their sonic noise could be spread over a greater distance. They slowly made a circle around Gwi-Ma, the demons he had summoned much too far and incapacitated to do anything, and finished Golden with a flourish.
The minute their song ended, a shimmery golden veil reverberated throughout the demon world. Gwi-Ma had been reduced to a small flame, burning at the end of a torch. The demons around them looked bewildered, some of them clutching their ears in shock.
”I can't hear him anymore, can you?“ one demon asked another.
”I can't either,“ they said, and wide grins spread across the faces of the hunters as they realized what had happened.
”Celine’s going to freak,” Rumi said with a grin.