Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

What would it have meant for the Huntrix had the girls found out about Rumi’s secret? Would they have shunned her, tried to kill her, rejected her? Would they have reacted the way Celine had always told Rumi they would? Would Zoey and Mira break up the Huntrix if they found out that the group was set up for the very cause they were fighting? Would they understand and accept her?

Would they invite her to the bath house again?

Would it have made a difference if the Huntrix knew of Rumi’s half-demon origins in the result that caused Jinu’s demise?

After sealing the Honmoon, Rumi doesn’t know how to deal with Jinu’s death and spirals. Zoey and Mira tried being there for her but after finding out their best friend was part demon, the race they’ve always been taught to hate, and kill, they didn’t know what to do or how to behave around her anymore. Zoey convinced Mira to give Rumi some space, still a little bitter about the fact that she didn’t feel safe enough to confide in them. Especially after everything they had been through .. Zoey thought she knew everything there was to know about Rumi, even better than Mira. But some secrets are better left unsaid.

Huntrix goes on undecided hiatus; while Zoey and Mira start working on Huntrix’s new comeback, Rumi obsesses over her origins. She researches and digs deep into secrets better left unknown, having now caught the eye of Gwi-ma, Ruler of the Demon Realm. Against all of Celine’s warnings, Rumi continues digging when she finally tracks down Baby SAJA. The demon who was supposed to be sealed in with the rest of them. What is he doing in the human world now?

Amidst the chaos, Baby SAJA had managed to make his quick escape right before the Honmoon turned golden, severing the seal between the demon realm and human realm. What did she hope to find now that she had found one of the SAJAs? Surely, there’s no way to bring Jinu back, right? Was Baby SAJA the only SAJA that escaped? Did others escape too? If yes, then how many? Too many uncertainties make Rumi uncomfortable. She continues her search with Baby SAJA, who couldn’t be any less helpful, to look for other demons and run a damage control. Alone. She knows she can always ask the girls to join but it’s been awkward ever since. Baby SAJA still seems to have access to his full powers, even after being cut off.

Wait, what were their demon powers anyways?

Chapter Text

“No .. you can’t—Jinu!” I yell as suddenly the whole world starts to tilt. The blue light of his soul that’s supposed to float up and towards me—in me, somehow powering me—ceases to exist. Gwi-ma, thousands of fans, Zoey, Mira, everyone and everything just .. disappears. Snaps to an empty pitch black of nothingness.

My voice echoes back to me as panic fully sets in. That’s not how it’s supposed to go, even if Jinu had to die, this is not how it’s supposed to go! I pick up my blade again, only to notice the light dying out softly.

I failed. I failed everyone. I failed Zoey and Mira, Celine, Bobby, my fans, my oath, my promise, everything .. and Jinu.

I had promised he could be free, I promised everyone would be free. Including me. But the patterns still exist, I can still see them, feel the power within. I see them burning brighter, burning further into my skin, through my bones. It burns, it burns so painfully. I yell into the void to relieve me of this pain, this burden. To get these disgusting patterns off of me. To rid of me this shame so I can be normal. So I can be with Zoey and Mira again. I just want to fit in. I want to be whole again. I don't want to live in the shadows, covered up. Never able to fully express myself, be who I'm supposed to be. To not be ashamed of something that isn't my fault or in my power to change. To be accepted for who I am while at the same time change everything about me. I want to change that part of me so bad, I thought sealing the Honmoon would do that. Why didn't it do that?! Did I do something wrong? Was it because I am part demon that caused the Honmoon to not fully seal properly? Did I really not mistake the color change from Golden to a different one? Did I delude myself into thinking everything is fine and everyone is safe now? Was I always the problem?

And that was pretty much how all of my dreams usually go. My patterns getting discovered publicly on stage, Zoey and Mira abandoning me, Me failing to save Jinu and for the last scene, the burning, sizzling hot pain all over my body as the patterns dig themselves deeper into my skin.

I kick my blanket off and roll out of the bed, covered in sweat. It’s still dark outside and the bedside clock flashing 3:40am just pisses me off more. Mira and Zoey are probably still sleeping peacefully in their rooms while I’m left to suffer with .. with whatever all this is. How do they not have nightmares? Probably because they haven’t had to deal with anything this traumatizing. How I envy them both.

No, this is just my jealousy and anger at not being able to become normal again. I shouldn’t be taking this out on them but damnit it’s tempting. Walking into the balcony, I take a deep breath. The late night cool air chilling the sweat off my back and face. The Honmoon still going strong is the only good sight on this balcony. I still can’t bear to see the plants I know are dying without thinking of Jinu and his demon tiger and bird. The stacks of invite letters he wrote to me still safely tucked away in my bedside drawer. Too painful to even go looking for. I know it’s not love for him or anything, but certain kinship, he knew what it’s like. Maybe more so than I do. But at least I could talk about it with him, be open, be free. Be myself. He made me realize demons feel too. Maybe not all, but he did. I want to know more about that. About what makes demons feel. If .. if my other half can feel too. I don’t know if I am only feeling because of my human half or because I’m told that’s how humans are.

Knowing anything about the demon world is a taboo, not even Celine would help me there. She’s strictly forbidden me from looking into it, said it would come with heavy price I wouldn’t want to pay. I hate how vague she’s being—that’s how she’s always been. Hide it, cover it, never show, never feel, never tell. That’s what it’s always with her. Reject, reject, reject. Always rejecting one big piece of me. How can one be just half a person? How is being a half demon my fault? I never asked to be this! And isn't information power? We are deliberately choosing to be weak by refusing to learn more about them, by choosing to stay ignorant!

“Screw this, if no one’s gonna help me then I’m gonna help me.”

I storm out of the balcony and into the shower, change into my least conspicuous clothes and sneak out of the house so as to not bother anyone. I stop for a second when I spot Bobby passed out on the couch with a pizza box on top of his stomach. Guilt started eating away at me for not doing my part but that’s almost irrelevant to me right now. I am a woman on a mission right now.

Right, so what was my mission again? Oh yes, finding out more about the demon world and demons who are currently sealed away from the human world along with every demon in existence, so technically, my first step is to figure out how to undo all of that, right?

Am I insane? UNDO all of THAT? I groan into my cup noodles at the convenience store—yeah, I really need to find a more private space—but where do I even start? Libraries? Dig into all the myths? Go on conspiracy sites? Done, done aaaand done. I found absolutely nothing of use. Even r/SupernationalSiting was not helpful! And the shoddy user by the name u/ComunitteeReject008 has been getting on my nerves real good. If only I could track that—no, Rumi, breathe. They’re just rage baiting you. Don’t fall for it.

I lock my phone and shove it in my pocket, discarding my waste and walking out of the store to I don’t know where. Just, anywhere. Subconsciously, I end up on the same path I used to meet Jinu at. I look over the spot where his demon tiger would hang out while we conversed—more like argue, but that’s mostly his fault for disagreeing. I sigh, leaning against the railing and watch my patterns glow slightly. It’s not a constant glow, it’s more like someone’s increasing and decreasing its brightness. Following a hum and rhythm of its own.

“Why didn’t you go away? You were supposed to go away!” I’m not sure why I’m letting my frustration out on these stupid patterns on my arms but that just seems like the thing to do now. Because there’s no more of that pesky demon here to annoy the shit out of me, or his weird oversized cat and six-eyed bird who stole the tiny hat to distract me from all the voices in my head. There are no hypnotized eyes with a cheshire smile following my every move or fixing every tossed bucket, basket and bin. No idiot who had the audacity to say I wasn’t his type when a cute little grandma said we made a nice couple. Nobody who knew and truly understood who I was.

I slide down the railings, not caring that I’m sitting on the pavement and hug my knees to my chest. I might not have anybody on my side right now but that also means there’s nobody who can stop me right now, because I’m about to do something Very reckless. I’m going to test out what my demon side can do.

All those years of hiding and suppressing resulted in me never knowing what stuff I’m capable of, so what better time to test it out right?

“Alright, Rumi. Lets try something small and easy. Like .. levitation. Wait, I already know that. Okay, wait—fireball! No, wait that’s dangerous. Ugh, what kinds of stuff do demons even do? Should I go touch a cross? What if it burns me?! Ugh, c'mon Rumi, this is ridiculous. For all I know I could start sealing contracts to sell souls or something.” I groan, hitting a wall again.

It’s already 6am and a lot of the people have started waking up and going about their day, making it extra dangerous for me to try anything. I sign pulling my hood up again as I make my way back to the apartment. I pretend that the demon tiger is still walking with me, nuzzling my waist at random moments when I lose balance here and there. I have been running on low sleep for days now, its bound to catch up to me in some way. But it is so difficult to sleep, especially not without nightmares. And they’re the same ones too. You would think I’d be used to it, but nope. It progressively gets worse somehow. I try rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I make my way up a hilly road when I see discrepancies in my vision. At first it looked like a crack or a tear. I stared at it closely and soon, the shape started solidifying and started to look more like .. like patterns! In thin air! But that wasn’t the only shocking part. It was leading me to a general direction of something. Something moving from the way it keeps changing directions.

I’m filled with a sense of urgency that somehow overrides my drowsiness and I find myself sprinting wildly, trying to figure out where this string is leading me to—who it is leading me to. Since it looks more like a pattern, I’m feeling confident it is my one and only chance to get in contact with anything that would help me figure out my demon side. I’m glad I still have my hunter powers that allow me to dodge obstacles and run faster without running out of breath. Running around three miles is no easy feat, especially in the state I currently am. I’m pretty sure I’m so heavily sleep deprived that I might be hallucinating but I don’t care. This might just be what I’m looking for.

Every time I get close to it, I’m somehow further away than before. Still, I keep chasing it, but every single time, I end up in a dead alleyway or in the middle of a huge crowd till I lose its trail. Ugh! Can one thing not go my way? I stomp my foot, determined more than ever now to figure out what thing thing I keep seeing is and where it wants to lead me to. Is it ideal to go in a place I’m not familiar with which could potentially be very dangerous and who knows whats waiting for me there, possibly something hostile given my luck but I’m still going to do it anyways? Yeah, sounds about right.

I dash out of the crowd before I am recognized and continue walking in the general direction of where I last saw the pattern streak out. It’s almost like it is reaching out to me instead of me running after it. Once I reach a relatively deserted place, I start hopping through short distances and over the fences not possible by just human strength. Could this be my demon side or hunter side? I always questioned what side of my power is the hunter side and which one is the demon half. Being forced to hide it away and never think of its existence didn’t help me with getting any real answers.

I must have followed it for a good hour or so since it got me out of the city and now the pattern streak is so much more prominent than before. It almost seems .. tangible. I try touching it, but of course it dispersed like smoke. Then, I tried again, more calmly and concentrated and you would not believe what happened. Yep, it disappeared on me again. I’m so close to just kicking this random, innocent tree down in frustration but what we’re not gonna do is harm the environment. We anyways need more trees so I settle for smashing tiny rocks.

Just as I was ready to stomp my ass back to the apartment, I see it again. I see it leading me to .. a person? Is that a demon? Did we not seal and destroy every demon? But it seems a little different than a regular demon. This one seems to have patterns like an extra layer wrapped around them, like clothes. Its not etched into their skin. Could they be close to turning into a full demon? But, the markings show up on skin, not like this. Could they be controlled by demons then? Oh, no this is bad. Very, very bad if that’s the case. And they are beelining towards the city at an unnatural speed too.

It doesn’t take me very long to catch up to him—yes I could now make out their figure and it was a man. I tackle him to the ground but he’s got good reflexes and took quite a bit of a struggle before I had him pinned down.

“Stay the hell down if you know what’s good for you, demon,” the venom in my voice couldn’t be more ironic. “Now tell me why are your patterns showing up so differently? Is it because of the Honmoon being completely sealed? Or did we make a mistake and the link to the demon world still exists but is hidden to us? You better start answering if—”

“Yeah, yeah, if I know what’s good for me. I heard you the first time. And honestly, I’m a little disappointed, Rumi. I thought you would know who I am by now.”

There is no way in fucking hell you could guess who I was talking to right now.