Chapter Text
Chuuya shoved food into his mouth as he and Shirase watched Yuan down an entire plate of snacks in one go.
"Man, the carb loading is the best part of show-prep," Shirase said through a mouthful of sushi.
Yuan nodded vigorously in agreement. Chuuya laughed as he reached for his ramen, stopping short as his phone rang.
"Hi, Adam!" They said in unison as Chuuya answered the call. Adam was backstage, the slight twitch to his brow the only indicator that he was nervous.
"Where are you? The show is going to start any minute." He asked, looking worried.
"Oh shit, wait what?" Shirase did a double-take, checking the clock on the plane. "We haven't even eaten our pre-show ramen!"
"Forget pre-show, we need to make it to the show-show!" Yuan exclaimed. "Don't worry, Adam, we'll be there in two minutes!"
Chuuya hung up the call, groaning as he turned to the incredibly suspicious flight attendants. One of them was currently attempting to water a plant with coffee, and another was putting on a rather pitiful show of clicking a seatbelt together.
"Um, hey," Yuan tried to grab the flight attendant's attention. "Why is there no water?"
"Oh, so sorry, Miss Hu—Saya, my apologies." The woman was smiling too widely.
Chuuya made eye contact with his friends, signaling that something was up. They both sighed, and Chuuya stood up to approach the woman.
"Hey, you're a demon, right?" He asked, tapping on her shoulder. "Let's just get this over with."
"Whatever do you mean?" The woman tittered nervously, flinching away from him.
"You're smiling all weird, watering plants with coffee, and I don't know who those guys think they're fooling." Chuuya pointed out, exasperated.
"I'm sure I don't—" The woman tried again, but Shirase was beside her in a flash, holding up her arm to reveal reddish markings along her arm.
"Oh, look. Patterns." He sighed, reaching for his weapon. "Now you gotta die."
The woman growled, shifting fully into her demon form. "The only ones dying tonight are your—" She was interrupted by a loud burp from Yuan, who had risen to stand on Chuuya's other side.
"Sorry, what?" Shirase asked, following suit. Chuuya held back laughter at the demon's frustrated faces.
"We're gonna eat your fans!" One of them shouted. Yuan and Shirase immediately turned serious.
"Ooooh, bad move," Chuuya winced. "Now we gotta make it hurt."
Chuuya summoned his katana, slicing through one of the demons with practiced ease. Finding the hot water jug, he tossed it to Yuan, who used it to smash another demon's face into a chair before pouring the water into their ramen.
"Wait!" Chuuya called to Shirase as he was reaching for a ramen, his kusarigama still cutting through a demon. "It says to wait three minutes!"
Shirase made a face at him, but refocused on the demon he was currently dismembering.
Unfortunately for them, they were still thousands of feet in the air, and demons had ten times the strength of regular humans. One of the larger ones managed to tear off the entire first half of the plane and cackled as the two remaining demons fell towards their crowd of what must have been hundreds of thousands of fans in the stadium below.
"Well fuck," Shirase sighed, stretching. "This plane's trashed."
Yuan sighed, nodding in agreement, passing them their ramen, which was thankfully done. They quickly slurped it up and followed the demons down.
Chuuya managed to stab one of the demons, but Shirase's kusarigama barely missed the second.
"I bet I can get it before you!" Yuan called to Shirase, her voice barely audible over the wind.
"You wish!" Shirase shot back. Chuuya shushed them both, reminding them they were almost to the stadium. Somehow, being hunters meant they had a strange relationship with gravity and force, so they landed on the stage without breaking all of their bones.
Shirase immediately launched into the song they had planned, Chuuya and Yuan following suit.
Chuuya spotted the demon at the same time Yuan did, attempting to hide in the front of the crowd.
Before Chuuya had the chance to worry about how they'd get rid of it with all the people around them, Yuan threw one of her kunai into its chest, causing it to disappear in a cloud of glitter. The crowd around it went wild, screaming and cheering.
Chuuya grinned as he sang, pouring all his emotion into the lyrics. Suddenly, a flash of gold caught his eye, and he had to keep himself from doing a double-take.
Subtly turning his head, he saw it. A ripple of gold moving along the honmoon, illuminating the faces of exuberant fans singing along to their song.
Shirase and Yuan seemed to see it as well, moving to stand closer on either side of him, excitement lighting up their faces as they finished the song.
The crowd cheered and clapped wildly, and they hurriedly waved and enjoyed the praise before rushing offstage.
Red fog swirled angrily as the demon king's head rose to greet the failed demons.
"Tell me, how was it?" He asked, his voice deceptively soft and polite.
"Um," The failed demons trembled under his gaze, frozen in place.
"You failed." Mori's voice remained even, as though he was discussing the weather and not the failure of their last-ditch attempt at stopping the hunters before they turned the honmoon gold.
"Do you know what will happen if the honmoon turns gold?" Mori asked when the demons didn't respond. "We all starve. Without the ability to die like humans, we will wander this wasteland with empty stomachs, our minds slowly turning primitive and savage as the need for souls consumes us."
"We're so sorry—" One of the demons tried.
"Dispose of them," Mori commanded idly. One of the lizard demons struck out with their tail, slicing all of the failures into screaming pieces.
Demons physically couldn't die unless Mori himself killed them, as Mori sealed all of their souls into their bodies when they were inevitably dragged down with him, so they couldn't leave their bodies, like they would need to to truly die.
"Dispose of them" merely meant to cut them into small pieces and add them to the piles of flesh all around them. Mori rarely killed demons.
The echoes of their screams were everywhere.
Dazai stood, brushing off his robes and picking up his shamisen. The stringed instrument had been an idle hobby of his for the past hundred years, and he considered himself rather adept at playing it.
"There once was a mighty demon king. Stop me if you've heard this one before." He started, plucking the strings to match the rhythm.
He was in total control. He feasted on souls. The world trembled when he roared." Dazai hopped down from the roof he'd been standing on. "But then some Hunters sang some songs. Now all he does is starve. Can't get at the souls, and his flame grows cold. Just a whisper in the dark."
"Dazai," Mori greeted him placidly, though Dazai could tell he was irritated. "What is this? Am I being mocked?"
"I wouldn't dare," Dazai responded, using all his self-control not to be sarcastic. "In fact, I'm here to help."
"And how are you planning on doing that?"
Dazai beckoned his companions forward. Unfortunately, the only demons who'd been willing to help had been the Flags, an obnoxious group of demons who enjoyed pulling pranks and laughing too loudly.
The only upside to this was that they had originally been human and, therefore, would be able to mimic human mannerisms better.
"My plan is simple," Dazai told Mori. "If we distract the humans from The Sheep and give them a new sensation to focus on, they will lose their power and be unable to make the honmoon gold. If we manage to drive them apart, we could dismantle the honmoon entirely."
Mori appeared suspicious. "I know you, Dazai, you're so much like me. What do you get out of this?"
"I want you to free Odasaku."
"You do realize that will kill him? I'm the only thing keeping him alive."
"I want you to kill me, too."
Mori was silent for a long time. Then, finally: "Alright, let's see how this plan of yours works."
"Was that gold?" Yuan exclaimed, her exclamation bursting out of her all at once as soon as they were in the elevator.
"I think so!" Shirase said, his eyes wide with enthusiasm. "We're almost there!"
"I think Golden will do it, though I am glad we're taking a break after this," Yuan agreed, slumping onto the elevator wall.
"Yeah, that really did a number on my vocal cords," Chuuya laughed. "Water sounds amazing right now."
"Did someone say water?" Adam greeted them with a smile as the elevator doors opened, motioning for someone to hand them a water bottle.
"You all did amazing up there. I especially enjoyed the special effects with the demon costume and the glitter," Adam said warmly, winking as he praised the "special effects."
Adam originally hadn't known about demons or hunters, but about a month after he'd become their manager, he'd walked in on them mid-fight, and they'd had to explain everything.
He'd been surprisingly cool about it, and they'd grown close as a result.
"Oh man, I can't wait to lie on our couch all week," Shirase sighed, his shoulder slumping.
"Couch, couch, couch, couch!" Yuan chanted, skipping down the hall with Shirase to collapse onto their sofa.
Chuuya hung behind, watching his friends go to relax with a fond smile.
"You did great out there. I'm very proud of all of you," Adam told him, ruffling his hair. "If I'm not needed, I'm going to take a bit of a vacation, but call me if you need anything, and I mean anything, alright?"
Chuuya scowled and swatted at his hand, but nodded, giving Adam a goodbye hug.
"Don't overwork yourself, kid, you deserve this break," Adam called over his shoulder.
Chuuya swallowed the protests that rose in his throat and gave his best smile and wave.
He took deep breaths and tried not to rush to the bathroom. He'd felt his marks spreading during the plane ride, but hadn't had enough privacy to properly check on them.
Chuuya placed his hands on the side of the sink to steady himself and slowly took off his jacket and gloves that hid his demon markings.
"Fuck," He whispered as the gloves came off. The marks, which had originally only been just touching his wrists, had now branched out to cover his entire palm and were spreading partway up his fingers.
He choked back a sob as he looked at himself in the mirror. Thankfully, the marks hadn't reached his neck and were only partially up his collarbone.
Even so, he looked like a monster. Angry red scars lined a few of his marks from where he'd tried to cut them off as a young teen. The red demon markings themselves made him look wild, dangerous.
Stop making a fuss, Chuuya told himself, forcing his lungs to work properly. They'll be gone soon.
As he covered up the markings, Chuuya straightened his shoulders and made a decision.
He would let them have a few days of rest. They deserved that much at least.
But he couldn't wait much longer.