Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The Saja boys floated in pain for what felt like an eternity, disintegrated; then one by one found themselves reassembled in the human world. They were deposited in the same field, crouched beneath a large tree under the moonlight, silhouetted against the sky. Awareness came to them slowly. They stood to their feet and examined their sore bodies and tattered black robes, yellow eyes glowing in the dark. There was no conversation for quite some time.
How long had they unexisted? After their final performance and subsequent defeat, the crowd's connection and newly formed honmoon intermingled painfully with their demon selves, which were shredded to pieces by the hunters' blades. The song of healing preserved the shattered pieces of them, when by all accounts they ought to have ceased to exist or landed in a prison of torment in the depths of the depths of the underworld. That was the penalty for traitors, and for reapers of souls.
Instead they were here.
There were no voices in their heads, no pull to the underworld. No invisible chains. The crushing exhaustion that usually hunched their backs and dulled their thoughts was missing. Each one of them noticed they were oddly hungry, in various ways. Something had clearly changed.
Jinu's body had also reassembled, leaving him disoriented and unsettled. The Derpy guardian tiger lay quietly beside him, head nestled against his leg. Jinu gave him an absent pat, grateful for his presence.
What was he, now? Maybe giving his soul away hadn't been the brightest idea. He felt stretched thin, like something was missing and only just out of reach. His soul felt like a word on the tip of his tongue; out there, calling to him. The problem was, he'd given it to. . . .
"Couldn't you have tried singing with her, if you were going to have a hero moment?"
Jinu gave Baby a withering glance, gritting his teeth in annoyance at the penetrating, knowing look the older demon gave him. "That's a great idea. Why didn't I just sing to Gwi-ma? Can't believe I didn't think of that."
"Oh Jinu," Romance said with a smirk, pulling his arms back one at a time in a stretch. "Letting your emotions get away from you as usual. You think you're so calm and slick, but you seriously have zero chill."
Jinu's jaw tensed at this insult. He had come up with the idea for Saja Boys, he had made the bargain with Gwi-ma, and he had planned to betray him. "You think any of you would have gotten that far without me?"
Baby stared at him calmly. "None of us were stupid enough to try, let alone consider a double-cross."
"So I'm stupid?" Jinu tilted his head to the side. "You three feeling tough now that Gwi-ma's not holding you in a box? Watch your mouths."
"You could have had it all, but when it comes to that hunter. . ." Abby continued, mirroring Romance's smirk.
"Zero chill," Romance and Abby declared at once. Jinu looked away. The modern world had rubbed off on those two way too much.
"Yeah. Well, you should thank me," he retorted, straightening to his full height and dusting off one shoulder. "If she hadn't developed an obsession with me, whatever put our bodies back together again probably wouldn't have. Guess she just couldn't let go." He looked away to hide his expression, remembering the Idol Awards. Would she ever forgive him?
"Obsession," Baby quoted with an eyeroll.
"Her with him," Abby added.
"Denial," Romance sighed.
"Okay," Jinu said, rubbing the back of his head. "On to more relevant things. We're stuck here, we appear to be free of Gwi-ma, and we have no idea what is going on. We need a plan."
Mystery stood nearby, leaning against a tree with his head facing away. To an observer he might have been resting, but you could never be sure. Underneath his trademark mop of hair, his expression was pensive.
Baby glanced over, sensing the tension. Of all the Saja boys he and Mystery were the oldest, but unlike Baby who had maintained many of his human personality characteristics (which to be fair were quasi-demonic to begin with), Mystery's nature had been severely warped by Gwi-ma. In some ways he'd become more a demonic creature than a fully lucid reaper. His lucidity was only returned to him when it served Gwi-ma's purposes. Mystery had been kept on a short leash. When you make a deal with the devil. . .
Not that he himself was any exception.
"What is it?" Baby asked the quiet demon bluntly. The others glanced in Mystery's direction. His curled lip was the only response.
The Saja boys joined Mystery at his lookout. Rolling hills spread before them. In the distance, the sparkle of the city winked in the rising sun. They flinched. The sun seemed warmer than last time they'd been up here. Golden, not harsh and fluorescent like it had appeared to their demon eyes for centuries. As the warm sun climbed above the horizon they could feel it on their skin, hitting them with heat that, they now noticed, seemed to sink into them the way it should not sink into dead flesh. Except. . .
"The hell is that?" Abby blurted. He examined his hands and arms frantically, holding them up. Around him the other demons were doing the same, flipping their hands back and forth in the light and examining them. Mystery alone stood with his hands loosely at his sides, but his face was tense.
Jinu stared at the sunlight against his skin, which looked human aside from the light patterns which remained. "It feels good to me," he said, marveling at the difference. "Like before. Like when I was human."
"Pretty sure you are human," Baby replied. "Mostly. But what is this?" He examined his outstretched hand, wincing.
"It itches," Romance complained, now scratching his nails up and down his arms and over his neck.
"Itches?" Jinu raised an eyebrow.
"I feel like I'm trying to crawl out of my own skin," Abby said irritably, also scratching his arms and chest. "What happened to the sun here?"
"The hunters didn't turn us into vampires, did they?" Romance bit out. "Because I am not in the mood for another curse."
Jinu was about to say he didn't know, but a sudden change in his friends' appearance gave him another thought. The patterns on their exposed skin were rippling ever so slightly with gold, then fading away. They were still extremely prominent, but lighter than before. He took a step forward and grabbed Baby's hand, examining it. "Is it healing you?" he asked.
"Healing us of what?" Baby replied drily. He pulled his hat over his face, blocking the sun as much as possible, and tugged his hand away to slip it into his pocket. "We're not injured. We're demons."
Behind his hair, Mystery's eyes were narrowed. The crushing heaviness of Gwi-ma's bondage had lifted, but he still couldn't think clearly. Still, a suspicion was brewing. After the hunters destroyed them, they'd floated in a mix of light and fire, pains of different kinds drifting in and out of consciousness until they found themselves where they were gathered now. That soul energy, the power of the honmoon, the hunters' song. . .what had that combination done to them?
What had the little one's blade done to him?
Romance and Abby were scratching themselves furiously, frantically positing what the matter could be -- "Are we dead dying?""Are we allergic?""This feels weird!" --- when Mystery spoke.
"We need to find the hunters."
Abby, Romance, and Baby looked at him in utter shock. "Aw hell no," Abby replied.
Jinu's face lit up, and he walked over to give Mystery a friendly slap him on the back.
"Great idea," he said with a grin that failed to hide his excitement.
The other three shook their heads.
"You're embarrassing," Baby muttered.