Chapter Text
Rumi floated through the demon realm. She still wasn’t sure she wanted anything to do with the real world, so for now she was busy exploring this new space. She had figured out how to move herself around through thought and was finding some enjoyment from just zipping around.
She occasionally looked through the holes in the Honmoon, looking into the “real” world. That practice ended the first time she had looked up and seen a group of demons sucking a soul from a human.
Rumi had known that she should probably do something about it, it was her duty as a hunter. Then again, she wasn’t even sure she still was a hunter anymore. Plus, the thoughts pressed too heavy. It felt like her mind was weighed down and she found herself unable to summon the capacity to intervene.
So, instead of helping Rumi just continued drifting along. Now, she avoided looking through the holes and was just left with her thoughts. She had a lot of things to sort out, but she was tired and her thoughts were mostly slipping by like running water.
The thoughts that had been easier to keep hold of were about the demon realm. Looking at things through a lens of curiosity helped her be able to think. Emotions felt too fragile and raw right then, but she had always loved learning how things worked.
Eventually, Rumi had come to the conclusion that she could go here because of her demon side. Thinking back, her patterns had flared right before the red consumed everything. It made perfect sense, the confusing part was that she still didn’t have a body.
Rumi thought back to conversations with Jinu. He had definitely described having a body in the demon realm and he’d never mentioned any demons that didn’t.
At the time Rumi had two main theories for why she didn’t have a body there.
The first was that she was wounded badly and the Honmoon was protecting her by simply removing her body. It could make sense, Celine had once described how the Honmoon had more control inside the demon realm. Perhaps here it was able to protect her more than it had in the normal world.
The second theory was that perhaps she was able to exist like this because she still had a soul. Even then with more patterns, she still wasn’t fully demon. She didn’t have a true demon form so perhaps there simply was no form for her to take here. Or maybe demons only got forms in the demon realm that Gwi-Ma gave to them and because Rumi never made a deal, she never got a form.
Okay, so her second theory was sort of two theories but Rumi decided it counted because they were close to the same. Also, she had decided that only having to choose from two theories sounded a lot easier than three.
Rumi was interrupted from her thoughts by a familiar voice faintly heard through one of the tears. Her head whipped up and she found herself staring up at Bobby holding a Saja Boys lightstick.
That didn’t make any sense, Rumi knew Bobby appreciated the Saja Boys’ music, but he wouldn’t ever support a Huntr/x rival like that.
Rumi abruptly halted her rapid movement through the demon realm and backtracked to where she had caught a glimpse of Bobby.
“Saja Boys. Saja Boys.” The words drifted through the tear again.
Something was definitely very wrong, Rumi had never heard Bobby sound so monotone in the entire half a decade that she’d known the man as her manager.
Rumi looked closer, drifting up to the Honmoon until she was almost close enough to touch the edge of the tear. That is, if she had hands to do so. She squinted at Bobby and found his eyes strangely glazed over.
It was obvious the demons, or perhaps Gwi-Ma himself had done something.
Now paying more attention, Rumi noticed that Bobby was a part of a whole procession of chanting people, all walking in unnatural synchronization. A flash of panic broke through Rumi’s muted emotions as she realized how many people were affected. She had to make sure the same thing hadn’t happened to her girls.
Rumi didn’t really care that Mira had stabbed her. Well, that was a lie, she cared because it had hurt, physically and mentally. But she didn’t blame Mira for it, in fact she was fairly confident now that Mira had made the right call.
Hence, Rumi was still worried for her girls. She had to make sure they were alright. She had to.
Rumi left Bobby to his fate of chanting. He seemed unharmed physically so she just had to hope he would be okay a little while longer. She had to prioritize making sure her girls were also unharmed.
Rumi squeezed her eyes shut tightly and focused on picturing Mira and Zoey, trying to do what she had done with Celine.
Red filled Rumi’s vision once more. It was a strange sensation to be seeing colors with her eyes still closed but it happened all the same.
The sound of cheering abruptly exploded in Rumi’s ears and reaching a few decibels above the excited screams was the voices of the Saja Boys.
Rumi’s eyes snapped open and she found herself outside a stadium. Her hands trembled with a mix of anticipation and nerves. It was a tell she had long ago managed to suppress but she didn’t have time to wonder about it resurfacing right now.
She quickly whipped her head from side to side, looking for any sign of Mira or Zoey. The pain had reared its head again but Rumi continued to ignore it, she had more important things to worry about.
Rumi’s hands started trembling harder with every moment that passed without sight of her girls. Her thoughts lost any sense of clear words, instead her mind became filled with a thrumming feeling that demanded she find her girls.
A twinge in Rumi’s chest briefly interrupted her spiral. In the moment of pause the Honmoon gave a little glow in the direction of the stadium. It was clearly too weak to do much more than that, but it didn’t need to. Rumi understood the message, Mira and Zoey were in the stadium.
Rumi quickly gathered her nerves, forced her hands to still, and began walking into the stadium.
She didn’t really have much of a plan. But she figured she just had to fix the Honmoon so that it had enough strength to prevent the demons’ song from having any effect. Of course, that didn’t sound very simple. All she could really think of to accomplish that was singing.
Rumi opened her mouth and started to speak. She wasn’t very focused on the words, just the fact that it got Gwi-Ma’s attention.
She took a deep breath and focused on walking straight, without a limp or any sign of injury. She couldn’t afford to let the demons or her fans know how weak she was.
Singing was easy, it was second nature. Rumi tried to make lyrics that she thought would inspire Mira and Zoey. It helped that with every word the Honmoon thrummed stronger, encouraging her. Soon, Mira and Zoey’s voices joined hers.
Rumi summoned her saingeom and ignored Mira and Zoey’s concerned glances at where she was wounded. They all had a job to do and Rumi had confidence that the girls would all focus on that, at least until it was over. Just in case though, Rumi ran ahead, not allowing the girls to fully catch her.
Pain. The feeling was slowly overtaking all of Rumi, even as she fought. She wasn’t thinking as she sliced through demons. Even blocking Gwi-Ma’s fire she just did, she didn’t really think about it.
Rumi couldn’t understand what Jinu was saying as he shielded her, but the moment his soul hit her sword her pain was gone. It felt like Jinu had taken away all her physical and mental pain and was shielding her from it in the same way he had shielded her from the fire.
With a clear head Rumi turned and ran for her girls. Feeling their arms around her was the most amazing thing she could ever imagine.
Mira’s arm immediately slotted around Rumi's waist and the taller girl shifted slightly to help support some of Rumi’s weight. Rumi could feel Mira’s concern burning into her.
“Rumi-” Mira started.
“After. We have to get rid of Gwi-Ma first.” Rumi interrupted firmly, sounding like the leader she was supposed to be.
Zoey’s arms held Rumi tighter and Mira looked like she was about to argue. So, Rumi started signing again, forcing the girls to join in.
The song lifted the three young women into the air. Rumi could feel the souls start to swirl around her and the Honmoon was humming along joyously.
Rumi’s saingeom sliced through the air and she watched in awe as a powerful slash erupted from it like she was in one of Zoey’s video games.
It suddenly felt like the energy was sucked from Rumi, like all the protection she’d had was gone and now that energy was redirected to sealing Gwi-Ma away.
The pain returned full force and Rumi felt overwhelmed by it and the cheers and arms around her. Everything was too much and Rumi was so tired as the Huntrix trio drifted back to the ground.
Rumi barely felt her feet touch the ground and then the world went black around her.