Chapter Text
“Stop right there!”
A monster, looking no different from a dragon, turns around from the building he was crushing to stare at who called out to him, “Hello there Avys. So nice of you to join me.”
Standing there was a tall boy. His top was a white frilly blouse with that puffed out along the shoulder continuing out before frilling off at his wrists. Over it was a purple bodice. Ruffles lined the sides, while three purple bows lined the center, one big one at the top and two smaller ones underneath.
His bodice matched with his skirt, almost looking like a pinafore skirt. It, too, was a light purple with two bows resting on his hips. The skirt had three layers, the middle one being white. Little star patches were sown into the skirt as well. In contrast, his hair was a faded blue, almost sliver. It was wavy at his bangs that fell almost to his eyes, while the rest of his hair reached just above his shoulders.
Avys pointed at the dragon, “If you don’t stop, I’ll have to force to!”
The monster laughed, “You may have defeated me before, but today will be different,” The monster spread it wings, letting out a deafing roar as fire left its mouth.
Avys narrowed his eyes as he ran closer to the dragon, jumping up, and kicking it in the face, “Having fire now won’t help you!”
The battle continued, with Avys dodging fire attacks and the monster tanking Avys’s attacks. It was an even match, neither side being able to defeat the other.
“You should just surrender now!”
“Never!”
“Fine. Then I'll have to defeat you…” The boy strikes a confident pose, pointing at the dragon like monster with one hand and the other on his hip with another. Blue mist like magic swirls around him as a creature is summoned in a shining flash of light, illuminating both the creature and the boy. “…With my friends!”
Kai stared at the TV in absolute horror, the remote slipping from his hand. Why was he like that? He swears he's not normally that cringy. Did transforming change his personality or something?
“Hhmnyaring,” Kai calls out, knowing the little creature was somewhere, “Does being a magical boy change my personality?”
“Nope! (≧▽≦)” Hhmnyaring says, Kai can hear his wing fluttering around, “And you're a magical girl not boy (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)”
Kai turns to glare at the angel like creature. Finding them floating somewhere above his head. The small creature floated closer, landing on Kai’s shoulder. The expression on the hoodie was a neutral one as it started into his eyes.
“Can I at least get rid of the skirt?”
“You can try. (ㆁωㆁ)”
Kai groans as he leans back on the couch, Hhmnyaring moving to float above the coffee table.
“Your outfit came from your heart! (≧▽≦)” Hhmnyaring says cheerfully, doing a small spin and knocking some things off the table.
Kai goes back to glaring at the creature, “I don’t want to wear a skirt.” Nothing wrong with skirts, Soobin’s roommate, Yeonjun, looked great in them. He however did not personally like wearing them, especially when he was running around town fighting monsters.
“Then you need to change something inside your heart. (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)”
Kai jumps up to swat at Hhmnyaring, tripping over the table and knocking it over in the process. He gives Hhmnyaring an unimpressed look as he floats above his head, the expression in the hoodie a worried one.
“This is your fault-” They both jump as they hear the door being unlocked.
“Hhmnyaring!” Kai whisper shouts, watching as the creature turns into a plush keyring in a puff of smoke and landing on his head.
The door opens and Taehyun walks through. He gives Kai, who is still on the floor, a weird look. “Hey there…”
“Hi Taehyunnie!” Kai tries to say in a cheery voice as he gets up and shoves Hhmnyaring into his hoodie pocket. He smiles at Taehyun and see another head behind his roommate, “Hi hyung!”
“Did you trip over the table?” Taehyun asks before Beomgyu can respond to his greeting. He’s still giving Kai a look.
“There was a bug.”
Beomgyu nodded sagely, as if Kai had told him something tragic, while Taehyun’s stare turned pointed before he sighed, “Fix the table at least.”
“What are you guys doing here?” Kai asks as he moves to right the table and put everything back on it.
“I live here,” Taehyun says, his gaze still a little pointed, “He just wanted to come along.”
“Well it’s always nice to see you hyung!” Kai really hoped his voice wasn’t coming off too happy.
Beomgyu smiles, it’s a pretty smile, “Yeah, you’re always disappearing on us.”
Kai laughs, giving a small sorry. He blames Hhmnyaring. He wouldn’t be disappearing if he hadn’t been turned into a magical boy. Almost every other day had him running off to save the city. He was going to run out of excuses, especially since he had used up all the good ones and Taehyun always looked 10 seconds away from cornering him and demanding answers. And Kai would tell him, because they told each other everything.
“We’re going to eat out somewhere,” Taehyun said, as he disappeared into his room, “Wanna join us?”
“Did you come here just to ask me?”
“Taehyun wanted to drop his stuff off and change, asking you was just part of it,” Beomgyu answers.
“Could’ve said that instead of being smart when I asked why you were here earlier,” Kai pouted slightly as Taehyun emerged from his room, wearing more causal clothes with his glasses.
“You were being weird.”
Damn, can’t deny that.
Beomgyu eagerly grabs both Taehyun and Kai’s hands, dragging them out the door, only pausing to let Taehyun lock it. Beomgyu’s hands were always the perfect temperature. It felt nice to hold them. He was rambling as he continued to drag the younger two down the street. Kai didn’t even realize he was staring until he and Taehyun both made awkward eye contact with each other, catching the other staring.
Kai gives the other a silly smile, causing Taehyun to laugh. Almost a giggle sound. Beomgyu looked at Taehyun offended, clearly thinking he was laughing at him. This time it’s Kai turn to laugh.
Kai will always be thankful for these little bits of downtime. Easy to forget about his (relucent) magical boy duties and the stress of school. He can just hang out with two of his favorite people.
══════◄••「★」••►══════
Being completely honest, Kai isn’t a hundred percent sure why he’s meant to keep his identity a secret. It’s not like he’s fighting another person, only a monster that’s meant to be a manifestation of negativity. He supposes it could be made from one person’s negative energy, but that’s a lot of negativity for one person. Really, he suspects there’s something he's not being told. Anytime he asks, Hhmnyaring always responds with ‘It’s for your safety, of course! (⸝⸝> ᴗ•⸝⸝)”
And while the little angel like creature wasn’t threatening in the slightest, Kai had a feeling he didn’t want to find out what would happen if he didn’t listen. Maybe the universe itself would come and give him punishment. So he listened and didn’t tell anyone.
He glanced up from his notebook to stare at his bag. Not that he was paying attention to the lecture at all. The little plush of Hhmnyaring that hung on said bag has moved slightly. He was being told something.
Just as leaned down to pick up the creature, the whole wall was blasted open. Thankfully no one was hurt, but the panic was immediate. He gave an unimpressed look to the plush in his hand.
“A warning a little earlier would’ve been nice,” Kai muttered, throwing his bag on and started weaving his way through the crowds of people trying to escape the attacking monster. He tried making his way in the opposite direction of everyone else, no one would be there, and he could easily transform.
He was stopped when someone grabbed his wrists.
“Kai-ya, where are you going?” It was Soobin, eyes wide and worried. He started tugging Kai towards the exit, where everyone was heading.
“Uh- My apartment is that way?” Kai says, trying to find a random excuse, thank god his apartment is actually that way.
“Are you crazy?” Soobin asks, his eyes wide in disbelief rather than worry this time, “You’re not going to get anywhere with that monster and all that rubble!”
“Taehyun will be worried?” He will be, Kai can already sense the number of concerned texts from him and Beomgyu.
“He won’t be if we go!” Soobin begins picking up the pace, Kai didn’t know he was this strong, “You can stay with me and Yeonjun for the time being.”
That’s great and all, but Kai had a magical boy transformation to do and a monster to defeat.
Kai appreciates Soobin. Loves the other to death. But right now he wishes he didn’t have such good friends. His mind is a mess, trying to figure out any excuse he could give to get out of this situation. He knows he’s run out of time as Soobin drags him into his apartment. (He’s not even sure how this is any safer than his own apartment)
“Hi, hyung,” Soobin says as he basically shoves the younger into the apartment, “I brought Kai with me.”
“Hueningie!” Yeonjun calls from his place on the couch with a smile, the TV is playing the news, “Welcome! I don’t really know how safe we’ll be here.”
“We’ll be fine,” Soobin moves to sit next to Yeonjun, he pats the empty space for Kai to sit.
Who slowly starts inching his way to the bathroom, “In a second hyung, I’ll be back,” he says before turning and trying his best not to run and slam the door shut.
“Hhmnyaring…” He whispers, as the creature appears in front of him, “What do I do?”
“You still have to transform and save the day. (っº - ºς)” Hhmnyaring says unhelpfully.
“I can’t transform here! What about Soobin and Yeonjun hyung?” He gestures to the door.
“Jump out the window? ╮ (. ❛ ᴗ ❛.) ╭” The creature suggests, “You won’t get hurt from the fall. ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧”
“I’d still be jumping out the window- I really have no choice…” Kai points at Hhmnyaring, “If I get caught, it’s your fault.”
“∘ ∘ ∘ ( °ヮ° ) ?”
Honestly, he’s pretty surprised no one saw him jumping out of an apartment building window. Maybe it was the divine forces of the magical boy gods. It doesn’t matter. Cause he’s even more surprised no one saw him reenter via the same window.
(“Kai, you okay?” Soobin’s voice calls from the other side of the door. Kai had just finished detransforming before opening the door.
“Yeah, sorry,” Kai says, easily thinking of an excuse, “I was just texting Taehyun and Beomgyu hyung.”
He ignores the almost teasing smile on Soobin’s face.)
══════◄••「★」••►══════
Kai vividly remembers meeting Hhmnyaring.
It was kind of a hard thing to forget. It was quite life changing after all.
He saw a cute plush keychain, bought it, then a monster started attacking the city.
A monster that was big, scaly, and had wings. It was like a western dragon without any fire. It had bitten the top off a building, roaring about a star. Kai had been hiding underneath some rubble of the building he was in. Trembling as he watched the monster rage on.
Taehyunnie ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Kai
Where are you?
Hello?
Huening?
Kai
I’m under a building
Taehyunnie ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
You mean in, right?
Kai
Nah, the monster thingy destroyed the building I was in
I’m hiding it out
Taehyunnie ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
That is not safe
Kai
It’s okay
I have a keychain to keep me safe :D
Taehyunnie ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ
Kai, that’s not what I mean
Kai abandoned his phone to stare at his newly purchased keychain plush. It was cute.
“You’ll protect me, right?” Kai asks, giggling to himself as he did. He held the plush closer, once again glancing out to see what the outside looked like.
Only the plush starts glowing, causing Kai to scream. He threw the plush, not that it went very far seeing as it hit the rubble. The glowing plush started floating, before seemingly exploding in a flash of light. Once Kai could see again, he stared at the spot the plush was floating.
Or it wasn’t a plush anymore. More alive, as if the plush as been modeled after the creature in front of him.
“Hello! (≧▽≦).” It said, and Kai started screaming again.
“I’m Hhmnyaring! (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)” The creature, Hhmnyaring, continued undeterred. It did a little spin in the air, “Thanks to your heart resonating with me, you have unlocked the powers I can give you! (˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)”
“...what?” Kai whispered, he wasn’t really scared anymore, more concerned for his own mental state, “What are you?”
“I’m Hhmnyaring! (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)”
“I got that part,” Kai vaguely gestured to Hhmnyaring. “What are you, though? And what was that about resonating with my heart?”
“I shall explain then. (‘-‘*ゞ” Hhmnyaring did a bow, “I am a magical creature that comes from another world! Most of the time I am in a dormant state, however when there is danger I must resonate with someone’s heart I unlock my full power.◝(ᵔᗜᵔ)◜”
“Danger..., like that dragon out there?” Kai pointed outside.
“Yes! (˶ˆᗜˆ˵)” Kai thinks hhmnyaring sounds way too excited, “My powers are the only thing that can defeat the monsters. ( ꈍᴗꈍ).”
“Right…”
“The monsters are created by channeling negative energy, intentionally or unintentionally, and I am the opposite of that! ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-”
“Positive energy?”
“Not quite. (ᵕ—ᴗ—)” Hhmnyaring floated closer, “But! I need to resonate with someone who has a kind and positive heart. In this case, you! ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧”
“I’m going crazy,” Kai put his face in his hands. He stayed like that for a few seconds before he sighed, “So you just go and defeat the monster now?”
“Well, I need something to channel my energy through too. (˙ᵕ˙)” Hhmnyaring said, “Aka you! ( •̀ᴗ-)✧”
Kai lifted his head from his hands, “So you channel your energy through me and then defeat the monster?”
“Mhm!( •ᴗ• )”
“How do I do that?”
“It’s easy, just open your heart to me. (⸝⸝> ᴗ•⸝⸝)” Hhmnyaring started backing up.
“What does that mean - OH MY GOD!” Kai shouts as Hhmnyaring starts barreling towards him.
Instead of colliding, just when Hhmnyaring reaches him, there’s a light as the two of them combine. Or at least that’s how Kai sees it. He can feel the energy in him, it’s weird, almost warm and comforting. He felt as it seemed to wrap around him before dispersing into sparkles.
Kai blinked, the first thing he noticed was that his hair was longer. He grabbed a piece of it and awkwardly tried to look at it. It had changed color as well. Shuffling around, he looked down at what he was wearing.
Kai groans into his hands, “Oh my god, he made me a magical boy.”
He spent a good few minutes standing like that, contemplating life, before signing and accepting reality.
“Okay. I can do this!” Kai peaks out from his hiding spot, easily spotting the monster. A few roads down it was crushing a building and being load. “I guess I just start running.”
Kai steps out from the rubble and makes his way towards the monster. Only to be surprised with his newly found ability of super jump. It causes him to run face-first into a building, but it’s fine. Doesn’t hurt as much as it probably should.
Easily, he makes it to the monster, standing beside it and the building it was destroying.
“Stop it you… Monster?” Kai uncertainty yells out, hesitantly pointing a finger at the monster, “I’m here to- You know what, this isn’t necessary.”
Abandoning his speech, he jumps up, prays to what ever magical being had forsaken him to this fate, and attempted to punch the monster. The punch was sloppy, and he knows Taehyun would definitely make fun of him if he saw, but it made contact. And it sent the monster flying.
“Holy shit...” Kai looks at his hands, mouth agape as he (way too gracefully) landed on the ground, “That was kinda cool.”
“Who dares stand up to me!”
Kai looks over to the monster, who seems to have had recovered from being punched. Its voice was loud and clearly angry. Great.
He sighs before raising his hand, “Me. It was me.” Kai has barely any time to react before a tail is being swung at him. He thinks he looks cool as he dodges by jumping backwards, landing on one hand, which he uses to push himself off the ground again and onto his feet in this weird flip like action.
Kai isn’t actually too sure how he’s supposed to defeat the monster. He bet Hhmnyaring knew. So far, he’s just been punching and kicking the monster, which seems to be somewhat working. The fight isn’t going anywhere, but at least he's not dead. What he doesn’t expect is the monster to suddenly let out a roar. A loud roar, creating a shock wave that sends him flying out of the air and into the rubble of a building.
He groans as he attempts to get up from the pile of rubble. That had actually hurt. Kai stands up, not even able to get his bearings before a large claw stomps down, trapping him between the rubble and the monster.
“You may have caught me off guard, but this is the end for you!”
He doesn’t have any room to dodge as a tail is swung at him, hitting him through the rubble. Cool, nice to know he wasn’t completely immune to damage. He tries to get up again, but hisses as pain shoots through him.
Well shit. This was a little embarrassing. Kai vaguely registers the monster laughing and monologuing in the background. He tries thinking, how do magical girls (and boys) defeat the evil? Usually with some power. He doesn’t have any. Must be some comedic timing cause it’s just them he feels something. Like something wants to spill out of him.
“What the fuck…” Kai whispers to himself as blue misty swirls surround him, lifting him off the ground. He’s floating in the air as he feels something calling out to him. Almost like something is reaching out, trying to get his attention. Similarly to the transformation, it feels warm. So he reaches back out to the force call to him.
From his literal heart, there’s a burst of light before in front of him is a giant white bird. Hovering in the air with him, it’s almost angelic with the way it’s white feathers shimmer in the light. It closes its eyes and leans forward to touch its forehead with his. Then he hears something.
Caladri
A name Kai assumes.
Caladri, a friend
The white bird, Caladri, moves using its whole body and long feathered tail to almost curl around Kai. It lets out a screeched towards the monster before looking down at him, almost expectantly. Looks like he’s a summoner.
“Uhm, let’s go?” He tries. It works, the bird screeches before charging at the monster. Kai watches in mild awe as Caladri starts dive-bombing the monster. He doesn’t realize he’s no longer floating in the air.
What he does realize is his hands starting to glow. He panics, is he supposed to do something. He glances at Caladri still attacking before deciding to trust his gut and thrusts his hands out towards the bird. There’s a beam of light that hits Caladri. It doesn’t seem to do harm, in fact Caladri glows bright, opening its mouth and blasting the monster with its own beam of magic. That definitely has an effect.
“Who are you!” The monster yells as it’s blasted with magic.
“I’m uh- I summoned a bird, right? Avys! My name is Avys” Kai shouts, his pose changes to point at the monster, much more confident than earlier.
“This isn’t the last you’ve seen of me!” The monster swats at the bird, causing the magic to stop, “I’ll come back again, stronger!”
“Well, if you do, I’ll have my friends by my side to defeat you!” Kai will cringe about that later, “Be gone!”
Kai watches as, with a screech, Caladri blasts the monster, sending it into the horizon. He’s pretty sure that’s a sign that he’s gonna be doing this again.
Caladri screeches, flying down to once again touch foreheads. It’s warm. The white bird starts glowing before seemingly bursting into swirls of sparkly mist. Everywhere the mist blew, the buildings magically repaired themselves. He feels the pain slowly leave his body as well. Convenient.
He sighs to himself before become very aware of the crowd of people staring at him. Kai looks around before striking a pose, throwing up a peace sign and smiling brightly.
“I’m Avys! I have defeated the evil!” He pauses before bowing, “If it comes back, so will I to defeat it once again!”
He stands there for a few seconds before sprinting as fast as he can away, managing to hide in an alley. There’s a small flash of light before Kai is back to his normal self and Hhmnyaring is floating in front of him, smiling.
(Later, sitting in bed at night, he demands a thorough explanation. Hhmnyaring says he does well and scolds him for swearing.)
══════◄••「★」••►══════
Kai groaned into his hands as he saw the same stupid monster attacking a building. He had just finished his classes and was trying to get home. He promised Taehyun and Beomgyu a movie night. He looked down at his phone, multiple notifications of an excited Beomgyu turned very concerned and a worried Taehyun sending texts. He scowls before shoving the phone into his pocket and ducking into some random alley way.
“Hhmnyaring.”
“Present! ∠(^ー^)” Kai felt as a little bit of weight disappeared from his bag and Hhmnyaring floated in front of him, “Let’s go save the day! ৻( •̀ ᗜ •́ ৻)”
He allows the familiar warmth of Hhmnyaring’s power wash over him, easily transforming into Avys.
“Let's get this over with.” He dashes out of the alley way towards the monster.
He knows this fight is about to take ages as the monster starts controlling crystals out of nowhere and uses them to help destroy the buildings. Kai experimentally punches one, it shatters easily enough. He takes the deep breath, the sooner he defeats the evil, the sooner he can get home.
══════◄••「★」••►══════
Beomgyu’s gotten accustomed to walking into Kang-Huening apartment and seeing some weird things. Taehyun surrounded by multiple broken plates, Kai looking like he lost a fight with his favorite plushie, both of them standing on the countertop as if playing ‘The floor is lava’ (they weren’t), every time he walks in it get weirder and weirder.
“Taehyun.”
“Yeah?” Taehyun looked up from where he was leaning down to pin a photo.
“Is this a conspiracy board?” Beomgyu asks, looking at the various photos and red string pinned to the cork board, “For our friend. Huening Kai.”
Taehyun spun around, almost frantically, and takes a telescopic pointing stick out of his pants, “It’s important for my presentation.” Taehyun begins to extend the pointing stick.
“Presentation?” Beomgyu asks as he sits down in the chair Taehyun is pointing at.
“On our friend, Huening Kai,” Taehyun repeats his own words back at him, “Why do you think I asked you to come over?”
“To hang out?” Beomgyu squawks indignantly, throwing his hands in the air dramatically, “Like a normal person?”
“We will hang out,” Taehyun aggressively taps the top of his cork board, right on the words ‘Why Kai is a magical boy’ and Beomgyu is tempted to check if his friend is drunk. “After I give my presentation.”
“...Where is Kai?”
Taehyun pulled out his phone, “He says he’s stuck because the monster was attack near where he was,” he suddenly turns pointing at Beomgyu with his stick before pointing at 1 on his board, “This leads me to my first point! Kai is never, and I mean NEVER, around when there's an attack!”
“…Is this why you demanded I get here as soon as possible with a dragon destroying the city?”
Taehyun nods his head, “Not only is this another instance of him not being here, but this was a great time to try and convince you when he’s not here!”
Beomgyu kinda zones out the rest of the presentation. He feels bad about it. Especially since Taehyun seems so engrossed and excited about it. The younger is pretty cute when he’s all excited, Kai does too, but it’s rare with Taehyun. So Beomgyu tries to keep up to the best of his abilities.
══════◄••「★」••►══════
Kai groans as he unlocks the door. The fight had sucked. It took forever, and he had gotten trapped in the crystals multiple times. When he was finally able to summon a creature, it went far smoother. He wished he could just go into the fight and summon right away. But noooo, his heart needed to call out or something.
“I’m finally home!” Kai calls, closing the door behind him and immediately being hugged by Beomgyu.
“Welcome home!” Taehyun says before joining the hug, “You’re not hurt, right?”
Kai had gotten hurt, but they couldn’t know that, plus he was fine now, “I’m fine.” He smiles, still holding on to Beomgyu even though they’ve both let go of him.
He lets the older drag him to their couch. He detaches from Beomgyu to instead latch on to Taehyun as they discuss movie options. It’s nice and comforting. Even if he has to awkwardly hide his magical boy abilities from his friends, at the end of the day he always ends up here.
══════◄••「★」••►══════
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“You’re weak. Let me help you.”
The shadows move.
