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Chapter Text

The steps leading up to Gwi-Ma’s throne may be licked by flames, but they were always cold. As angry as he was, he could not fully enjoy the shivering of the demons he gathered. The hunters were growing more numerous. Three in the last generation, four in this one. And an extra that had potential to be useful to him.

Rumi understood the situation well. She had drawn up her plans and lain in wait for weeks. This exact moment of frustration was what she had been waiting for.

“The more he has, the more he holds,” Rumi sang softly. She restrained the full weight of her contempt but only just. “He grows so afraid that he’ll lose what he owns. But what he doesn’t know is that what he’s defending…”

She stepped to the front, instantly feeling 5 degrees colder. “… is already gone.”

The fiery face growled, “you insolent girl.”

“The souls aren’t coming anymore," Rumi said, undaunted. "You have all these demons at your beck and call but what good are they to you if they can’t make it to the human world?”

"You forget who you are speaking to.”

“I think I’m speaking to someone who gets what he wants. And I can get it for him.” Rumi said fiercely. “With this.”

She sang a beautiful sustained note. Mira and Zoey materialized from nearby and joined in, harmonizing with her. The three struck a pose.

“We need to hit Hunta X where it most hurts: their fans.”

Gwi-Ma was quiet for a moment, instantly suspicious. “In the ten years you have resided in my realm, I have known you to be a sly and fiendish girl.”

“It will work,” Rumi insisted. “You will have your souls-”

“And you? How will you benefit?” He asked.

She paused. A lot longer than she would have liked. When she spoke, her voice came out as cold as the flames at her feet. “The hunters abandoned me. I will bring them down.”

This was the tricky part. Gwi-Ma didn’t control Rumi’s soul like he did the demons. He’d want some assurance that she wasn’t scheming. Or if she was scheming, that he’d get the last laugh.

“Perhaps.” Gwi-Ma pretended to weigh his options. “If you are truly loyal to your king, then I see no reason I should not allow you to ascend. A show of loyalty, then. Your soul, Rumi?”

She knew it was coming but she still couldn’t hide her momentary hesitation. Gwi-Ma laughed and started to speak but Rumi interrupted him.

“Of course I am loyal to you,” she demurred. “But taking my soul for such a small errand? That’s not necessary. As you can see, I won’t go alone.” She gestured to her friends.

His voice took on an amused tone. “No, no. That’s not nearly good enough.” A light appeared and hovered closer to the three girls.

Mira eyed it warily, her glowing gold eyes narrowing; Zoey fidgeted, fighting the urge to shrink away. Rumi extended her hand and the light lowered into it, fading until it left behind a piece of jewelry. It was thin and flexible, one end shaped like a snake’s head. Two black gems glittered where its eyes would be.

She did her best to keep her voice even and her fingers from clenching. “What’s this?”

“A simple trinket,” Gwi-Ma said. “Put it on your ear.”

Rumi closed her hand around it and raised the chain to her head. It wriggled in her grasp and wrapped itself around her ear. From her right ear she heard Zoey gasp. From her left she heard a low gravely voice.

“Don’t you find it unfair? That you are the only one without the benefit of my presence?”

Rumi shivered, hating her obvious reaction.

“This way I may call you back whenever I wish.”

She swallowed thickly, then composed herself and looked into the face of flames. “Alright then. May we go?”

“Show me your idol group can get me those souls. That you can take down the honmoon. If it fails…” He chuckled. “I think you know what I will ask in return for wasting my time.”

The girls made their way to the tear in the honmoon.

“Can you believe it?” Zoey grinned, unintentionally showing off her large fangs. “We’re actually going to be idols.”

Mira flashed a small smile at her, then turned to Rumi. “Are you going to be okay with that thing?” She gestured to her ear.

Zoey’s face fell. “Oh yeah. You’ve never had Gwi-Ma’s voice in your head before, have you?”

Rumi sighed. “It’s not ideal, but you gotta do what you gotta do.”

“Do you think he can listen through it too?” Mira asked, leaning over to get a look at it.

“No way,” Zoey said, without confidence.

“Oh I’m sure he can,” Rumi said dryly. “Don’t worry, girls. We just need to focus on our jobs.”

She reached for their hands and they held each other. She looked at each girl – at their blue-gray faces and purple patterns, their glowing eyes. It had taken her a long time to see past the appearance of the demons. Newly arrived, at age 10, she had fought the inhabitants of this realm daily. Eventually Gwi-Ma tired of her antics and put her in her place.

And now Rumi was finally returning to the human world. She couldn’t fight the anticipation building in her chest anymore.

“Let’s do this,” She smiled, and together they walked through the veil between worlds.

Chapter Text

Oh, this could not be happening.

It seemed every other day there were more demons to take care of. On a good day, it was just three or four, and Abby would call dibs on all of them. After dealing with the first one, Abby would turn around to find that Romance, Mystery, and sometimes Baby had taken care of the others, much to his irritation.

This was not a good day, however, and around eight demons approached them. It looked like Jinu would have to actually fight today.

He reached into the honmoon and pulled out his saingeom. His fingers wrapped around the hilt of his ceremonial sword and the patterns on his shoulders twinged. They always did when he touched the magical barrier.

Jinu brushed off the small pain and spun around just in time to block the claws of a demon aiming to rake his back.

Strength wasn’t Jinu’s problem. He shoved the demon off and swung the blade down towards it. The demon stepped out of the arc of descent easily and took another pass at him.

He dodged this time. At the same moment Romance zipped by, wielding his samjichang, twin tridents. Jinu tried to change his trajectory, but he tripped on Romance’s leg and landed sprawled onto the floor.

Romance looked back at him, startled but not surprised. “You okay?”

“Fine, fine,” Jinu waved him off as he scrambled to his feet and started to run. He needed to get some space. He turned to keep an eye on the demon following him, and groaned when he saw that there were now two of them on his tail.

He looked around. They had been walking to a restaurant after a late practice, and the dark surroundings were illuminated by sporadic streetlights. He spotted an alley that he remembered leading into a larger street, and he turned there.

As he did he heard a thwup thwup. Jinu turned, hoping Baby had managed to shoot both the demons following him. No luck. Well, one was vaporized. So he had a little luck, Jinu supposed.

He returned his gaze to the front and his stomach clenched. Never mind, he thought. No luck at all. He’d run into a dead end alley.

The demon laughed gleefully but Jinu wasn’t done yet. With his free hand he knocked over a surprisingly sturdy cardboard box and kicked it hard at the demon. It wasn’t prepared and yelped as the box hit it in the face.

Jinu took the opportunity to close in, but the demon recovered and swiped at him, nicking his arm. Jinu dropped and rolled, and managed to pop up just as the demon got to him.

Sword against claw, they wrestled. Then Jinu kicked again, this time at the demon’s right leg. It lost its balance and as it fell, Jinu shoved his sword into its chest.

He watched it dissolve with a grimace, and then sat on the ground for a breather.

“You’re really bad at this.” A voice called out from above. The speaker sounded half-confused and half-offended. And a little like they were holding back a laugh.

Jinu shot to his feet and looked up. A young woman with a long purple braid was perched on the wall at the end of the alley, staring at him. No, not a girl, he realized, taking in the patterns creeping up her bare arms and spilling onto her face.

“Seriously,” she continued. “You’ll never seal the honmoon at this rate.”

He registered her words then and he glowered at her. “Why don’t you come down and I’ll show you what I can do.” He raised his saingeom threateningly.

She smirked and rose to her feet. For a second Jinu worried she was going to take him up on his offer, but she turned away. “Maybe next time. See ya,” she gave a short salute and disappeared.

Jinu barely had a chance to process the strange demon girl when he heard Baby behind him.

“Oh, wow,” he said. “You’re alive.”

“Told you,” Abby came up next to him, dematerializing his weoldo. He folded his arms over his chest and bumped Baby lightly with his shoulder. “He’s not as clumsy, shit at fighting, cowardly, dumb-”

“Hey!”

Abby grinned and raised his hands in faux innocence. “What? I’m saying you’re not those things.”

They left the alley to rejoin the others.

“Well,” Romance said. “He’s still new.” But even he didn’t really sound convinced by that.

Abby rolled his eyes. “How long can he use that an excuse?”

“Probably another ten years,” Baby said. The others laughed and Baby shot him a sly look that Jinu took to mean if you live that long.

“Lots of demons these days.” Mystery said soberly. “We need to seal the honmoon.”

The echo of the demon girl’s taunting rang in Jinu’s mind. “And fast,” he agreed.

He couldn’t keep up with the others, who had been learning to fight demons since they were kids, or at least teenagers. He’d always known that sooner or later, the demons would realize that Jinu was the weak link and start targeting him when he was alone. Judging by the demon girl’s appearance, it seemed like that time had arrived.

He frowned. “The better performance we give, the faster we can get it sealed. We should go practice.”

Baby and Romance groaned.

“We just finished practice,” Abby said.

Mystery grumbled, “I’m hungry.”

“And it’s my turn to pick the restaurant,” Baby crowed.

“No way!” Romance and Jinu said at the same time.

Jinu continued. “You like your food way too spicy.”

“I don’t like it or dislike spice,” he shrugged. “I’m just not a weakling about it like you guys.”

“If you don’t like it then why do you always make us go get the most miserable fiery hell?” Romance demanded.

Baby smirked. “It’s funny watching you try to eat it.”

The five of them made their way down the road, arguing companionably. Rumi watched them from a nearby roof.

“What am I going to do about you,” she murmured.