Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was two days after the Idol Awards when Rumi woke up from a half-remembered dream in a disoriented panic. Her heart racing with a combination of fear and grief flooding her body even as the details faded with every confused blink. She looked around her room, unsure what she was hoping to see. It was just her, her own reflection was startling. She was wearing a short sleeve shirt and the sight of her own skin was enough to pull the rest of the dream from her mind. It had been Mira’s shirt but she was wearing it now. 

It had somehow felt less strange the night prior, her skin being so visible. Emotions had been so heavy in the immediate aftermath of the Awards the girls had spent the next day hardly moving from the couch together let alone leaving each other's sight. Now though, alone in her room she felt scandalously naked as she watched the iridescence of her pattern’s shift, following some system she wasn’t aware of. 

She moved fully from her bed, pulling sweaty hair off of her neck and deciding she wasn’t going to chase down the dream. There were too many kinds of things it could be, all better left hidden away. Braiding it back out of the way Rumi left her room, forcibly pushing down the impulse to grab a hoodie. She trusted them, she needed to prove to them that she trusted them. Her discomfort with her own arms didn’t matter. 

Mira was already out in the kitchen, the sun only just beginning to rise and she stood quietly watching it. Mira looked exhausted. 

Rumi cleared her throat before speaking, “You alright?”

Mira turned quickly, but didn’t jump, “Oh you know. Fine.” There was a tired half-smile that told a heavier story but instead of prying Rumi just moved to stand next to her and sighed.

There were too many things between them to find the words. They had given each other the hasty explanations and earnest apologies, they had cried more tears than should be physically possible. It was just the details that remained unclear. 

Mira shook her head a little, pulling herself from a revere that Rumi wasn’t invited to and smiled, turning back into the kitchen and starting to prepare three mugs for coffee. 

Rumi smiled, “You really think Zoey will join us in time for it to still be warm?”

Mira shrugged, “She can microwave it. It’s so much easier to make them all at the same time.”

Rumi leaned against the counter, both overwhelmed and fascinated by the feeling of cool tile against the skin of her arms. She couldn’t tell you how long it had been since she’d so casually existed in so few layers. That’s when the nearly forgotten doorbell echoed through their apartment.

They both froze. Rumi’s heart started beating quicker so ready to panic over the smallest thing. Who could that be? So early? What would they see? Bobby had a key of his own, the elevator door would just open for him. Who else could it be? She couldn’t help but look around desperately hoping for a discarded jacket or even a blanket to throw over herself but of course the kitchen offered nothing but dish towels. 

Mira put a hand on her shoulders and pushed her gently deeper into the kitchen, “Keep working on the coffee.”

Zoey moved out of the kitchen and opened the doors. There was a strange silence before Rumi heard Bobby’s voice, hushed, not nearly as upbeat as typical. Mira wasn’t talking. There was a very familiar sound of heels echoing through the apartment and Rumi knew who had just walked in. 

She focused on the coffee and pretended she didn’t see her own markings growing darker and darker. 

Celine walked directly to the kitchen like she’d known that’s where Rumi cowered from her. Bobby was only a step behind her, looking exhausted but still smiling wildly when making eye-contact with Rumi. Mira wasn’t in sight. 

There was a moment of quiet. Rumi continued to stir the drinks in front of her, she’s not positive she put sugar in them. She added more, the excuse of needing to dissolve the crystals giving her hands something to do. The marks down her fingers were purple. 

Bobby somehow passed Celine and stood right next to Rumi, wrapping one hand around her and pulling her into a warm side-hug, “Sorry to drop in so early on you! I’m glad you’re up so we didn’t wake you and also shouldn’t you be resting, you’ve got a hiatus planned for a reason!” He laughed at her, and she took a steady breath again. 

Bobby continued, “Mira’s grabbing Zoey. We’ve had something strange come up that we figured we needed to get all of your eyes on as soon as possible.”

Rumi nodded, she glanced up at Celine curious about her silence. She was holding a small box but otherwise was simply walking around the living room, having left the kitchen when Bobby entered it. Celine was staring at the view with her back towards Rumi. They hadn’t spoken since the night at the tree. Rumi didn’t know if she was still angry or if she was afraid, they tasted too similar on the back of her tongue. 

Bobby smiled at her and turned on some quiet music to help lighten the weight on her back and then he just kept talking. He pulled his phone out, reading out loud the funniest fan theories about the Idol Awards. Talking only nonsense, nothing serious and every so often pulling a true smile out from Rumi.

Mira and Zoey could soon be heard coming down the hallway. 

Mira raised her eyebrows when she stepped into the living room after a moment of pause, “Alright. We’re here. What’s going on Celine?” 

Celine turned back to face the group, no longer watching the way the sun was illuminates the Honmon. The prismatic kaleidoscope the shield would become at the right angles that was still shocking every time Rumi caught a glimpse of it. “Thank you all for being so prompt.” Her voice was familiar but the cushion on the statement wasn’t, the Celine of their grueling months of training was always poised but never soft with them. 

She moved to the living room properly, setting the box down on the table and gesturing for everyone to join her. “The Honmon gave this to me.” There was a moment of shock and the girls looked at Bobby, he’d gotten some crash-course context in the aftermath of it all to help with damage control. He didn’t look surprised, evidently Celine had already had some version of this conversation with him. 

The Honmon had disconnected from Celine when it chose the new trio to Rumi’s understanding, it was highly unusual for the Honmon to provide anything without a Hunter's request. Even stranger to provide something to someone who technically didn't fit the role anymore. Rumi looked closer as Celine opened it up; it was a small disk. That was it. They all looked up at her, confused "Apparently this new Honmon that you’ve created has a few new tricks up its sleeve.” Celine said dryly.  

She pulled it out, “It’s worried about you three. It’s worried about the things that are impossible to say, and it’s so proud of your accomplishments that it worked some kind of miracle to make sure they can’t be unmade.” She looked at each of them, fully. She still didn’t look Rumi in the eyes. 

“What does that mean, exactly?” Mira said. 

Celine went to speak but then paused, hunting for the words. Bobby stepped up, taking a moment to rest a calming hand on each of them, “Your magic shield has made you a movie about your own lives. It’s worried you won’t be able to talk about all the hard parts of what happened so it wants you all to be able to see it. Celine too.”

The trio look at him, then at Celine who begrudgingly nods about the accuracy of Bobby’s inelegant explanation. They then look at each other.

Zoey nods first, “Okay. That makes sense. A lot happened.”

Mira looks to Rumi for a moment, clearly waiting to see what she thinks before responding. 

Rumi takes a deep breath, wishing for long sleeves before nodding, who was she to defy what a magical force field thought was right.

Mira squints at Rumi for a long moment, “Let’s do this then.” 

The group quickly gathered around, the girls claiming a corner of the couch together, Rumi sandwiched between Mira and Zoey. Bobby sat next to them and Celine on the far edge of the sofa. After a few minutes of arranging themselves and settling in before Zoey popped up and put the disk into their tv. The screen was black for a few moments before the sounds of cheers sent Zoey scurrying back to her spot on the couch. 

The movie opens to the sound of cheers, a Huntrix  concert is ramping up. Lights flash and scatter across the audience jumping around in their seats as they chant their name over and over again, “Huntrix”

The girls smile, Bobby looks over the stage, some part of his mind unable to just enjoy the show and needing to time the lights and the slide show shifting to the beat of the warm up songs. 

Celine cocks her head to the side, it’s been a long time since she’s actually seen one of the girls' shows. Since Bobby took over as manager she’s delegated all of those decisions to him, she's not sure she would have made the same choices but it's good to see how joyous the audience was. They had clearly embraced the new direction.

Huntrix  visuals flash across the screen, focusing on each member’s face. Celene’s voice cuts through the noise and chaos of the crowds of fans, “The world will know you as pop stars, but you will be much more than that. You will be Hunters.”

The screen goes black, pink lines crack across the screen.

Celene continues, “Demons have always haunted our world, stealing our souls and channeling strength back to their king, Gwi-Ma.” The cracks grow and stretch across a town, people turning in worry as demons crawl out from the lines as they grow. Silhouetted through a window a demon feeds, removing a woman’s soul and she silently collapses. The blue light of her departed soul is sent straight towards the ever growing month of Gwi-Ma. 

“Holy shit.” Zoey said quietly; knowing better than to swear loudly around Celine. It was one thing to be told they were going to be watching a magically created movie. It was quite another to get a view into a past that could only be understood through writing. 

Mira and Rumi both smiled at Zoey’s enthusiasm. 

Bobby pulled his phone out, writing down names as they were presented. He’d been given a vague understanding of demons and hunters and Rumi being something in between. He knew that the girls had had a hard two weeks, and that the Saja Boys were brought to hurt them. He didn’t need to know any more but now that he had the chance he was going to do whatever he could to look after his girls; he glanced at Celine. He’d do whatever he could to look after his girls. 

“Until heroes arose to defend us.” A cornered mother and daughter are saved by the reveal of the first Hunters and their music breaks the silence of the flashback. “Born with voices that could drive back the darkness. Singing songs of courage and hope. But Hunters are more than warriors.” Their music is muted beneath Celene’s words but still able to be heard, you can see them fight with both weapons and their song to keep this town safe. As the tide turns the blue light of the villagers' souls fills them as their fear fades away.

All the girls and Celine were similarly stunned as they watched these women appear. They had heard stories of them and their success and now they could actually see what they looked like. The way they used their voices and their weapons. Some of it felt so alien, so distant from their own practices but others were tactics they used every day. 

“Our music ignites the soul and brings people together. With this connection, the first Hunters created a shield to protect our world, the Honmoon.” There is a moment of pause, connection and kindness between Hunter and the young girl before returning to the conflict. The Hunters stand next to each other again to complete the shield, the blue film spreading across the village and further than the eye can see. Returning the demons to the underground. 

The image shifts as Celene continues to speak, a rotating stage displays hunters throughout time. “Every generation, a new trio of Hunters is chosen to fulfill our ultimate duty. A barrier so strong it is impenetrable, that will keep demons and Gwi-Ma from our world forever, the Golden Honmoon.”

Celine looks away as the generations pass, unwilling to see herself on stage and the long grieved friends. 

Rumi watches with a small smile on her face, she has seen the shows the clips are from. It was her only true way of connecting with her mother after all. There is a heartbreak to it of course, she knows how much of herself is hidden from the stage. 

Zoey leans into Rumi, holding onto her friend tightly and letting herself enjoy the rush of nostalgia. She had loved the Sunlight Sisters and hadn’t watched any of them for a long time. 

Mira smiled looking over at the two girls, leaning over to a brief hug before focusing back on the movie. 

Celine now looks down upon the current generation, Huntrix . They stand in a quiet clearing before a spirit tree as their mission is outlined to them, “And now, that duty falls to you. That victory is within your reach. It is your voices, your song, that will create the Golden Honmoon.”

The girls  all link hands before nodding in unison and speaking in unison with each other, “Yes, Celine.”

Bobby couldn’t help the gasp, “You all look so young.” He knows realistically he started working with them probably only a year after this scene but it still felt so different. He’d been under the impression he’d been working with girls hungry for the life of an Idol, not a trio tasked with the safety of the world and a requirement of fame because of that.

Celine nodded, “They needed to debut as early as possible.” She offered no explanation as to why, her silence speaking  more than any words might have. 

Mira nodded, “It was definitely fast paced once we got found.”

Zoey laughed, “I wouldn’t repeat combat crash course if someone was willing to pay me my weight in gold.”

Rumi laughed at both of them, “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Of course you would say that.” Zoey said still holding onto Rumi tightly, grinning wider when Rumi shifted to settle more comfortably against her and her patterns stayed their happiest of colors even with the gentle tease.

We cut back to the concert, “World Tour: Final Show,” a large billboard promises to the lines of fans and bustling crowds. The energy builds as this finale grows ever closer to taking place, fans squish up against fences and direct their enthusiasm directly to the camera. Fans scream, “We love Huntrix !” In groups and by themselves, with different merch of their favorite star but all equally excited.

The girls and Bobby smiled that same familiar smile. This wasn’t new to them but still equally touching to see every time.

Celine couldn’t help but be slightly surprised, she knew the girls were good. She helped with the business of it all. She had the tangible proof of it but it wasn’t something she had seen in a long while. Fans always love the music so whole heartedly though; she knew that. She really shouldn't be surprised. 

A trio decked out in pink stands in front of the camera, “Mira's my favorite. She's the visual and lead dancer. Nobody can move like Mira.” A picture of a young Mira sitting on a tall stool with arms crossed looking displeased fills the screen, the other family members are blurred out. In the next photo Mira sits spread out across a chair, having lost none of the attitude, the rest of her family is still blurred, “Apparently, she was the black sheep of her family.”

Mira stiffened at the unexpected pivot in the conversation, not looking away from the screen but also not wanting to focus on the image. Rumi shifted her weight, casually adjusting to lean on Mira’s shoulder and not saying anything else. 

Bobby looked over, smiling and remembered some snacks he had in his bag. He slightly passed a few over to Rumi who opened the first bag in her ominously silent way and began passing out handfuls. When Mira didn’t look down to grab one or accept the handful, Rumi started poking her in the cheek with the chip until a small smile cracked across her friend’s face and she opened her mouth for the snack. 

A different fan starts speaking, “I don't know why, because she's so cool.” The camera now shows a short clip of Mira at the Met Gala wearing a sleeping bag and looking artistically unimpressed, “Who else could wear a sleeping bag to the Met Gala?” 

"She's iconic I fear." Zoey sing songs, in a clear bid to make Mira laugh. Of course it works.

The new trio of Mira fans appear, this time obviously mimicking her manner of speech, “Yeah. She's our role model.” 

“She's the best. Love her.”

Mira looked down at Rumi then who continued providing her with snacks quietly and couldn’t fight the smile. Zoey looks at Mira as well, winking at her goofily to make her smile grow.

A new group of fans, all wearing green and Zoey merch scream at the camera, “We're here for Zoey!” 

Rumi cheered quietly and Mira laughed. They both had a special place in their hearts for the hard-core Zoey fans. 

“She's the rapper and lyricist.” As this fan speaks the camera shifts to show  Zoey in the high school of Burbank, sitting at the bottom of the steps and working on lyrics, there is a shot of her notebook, full of words and images, she is not acknowledged by anyone, “She grew up in America. Somewhere called Burbank, USA.”

The scene shifts again to Zoey making cute faces during a game show, “She's the cutest maknae.”

The next scene shows Zoey rapping in front of a man easily twice her size and clearly winning, “But when she raps, she goes hard.”

All three girls burst out laughing at the image. “I haven’t thought about that in so long.” Rumi says, unable to control the giggling. 

Mira groans, “His face.”

Zoey laughs, flipping her hair and speaking in a fake-posh voice, “Well he didn’t know who he was talking to with an attitude like that.”

Bobby shook his head, not able to contain his own smile. The girls had gleefully recounted to him Zoey’s visceral verbal takedown of the literal giant several times over; it was like he had been there.

The camera returns to the fans from the beginning, “She gets real scary. So scary, like, ‘You better watch out.’”

A set of two fans dressed in purple Rumi merch cheer together, “We love Rumi!”

Both Mira and Zoey squeezed Rumi softly, smiling at the joyous fans. They loved them all so much, they were so clearly the best part of the job, the only reason to sign yourself up for something that can so often weigh so heavy. 

They continue talking, “She's pop-star royalty.”

A Sunlight Sister’s poster takes up the whole frame, “Uh-huh! Her mom was a Sunlight Sister, but passed away when she was an infant.” The photo shifts to a picture of Celene and a young Rumi at the Idol Awards before shifting to an image of the whole group standing with Celene at the Idol Awards again clearly many years later, “But Celine raised her, and built Huntrix  around her.”

The whole couch gasped at that point, only Celine and Rumi staying quiet. “Oh Rumi! You were such an adorable little baby!” Zoey said happily.

“I can’t believe you went to the show that young! I mean I know you did but I still forget.” Mira added.

Rumi shrugged, “Yeah I guess so.”

Celine looked over at them, waited for a second before speaking, “It was important to get Rumi established as a semi-public figure early. We knew that she would be the initial buy in for fans and wanted people to invest in the new group as soon as we established it.”

Rumi nodded and Bobby couldn’t help but agree. The business was sound, even when it made something in his stomach twist to think about a Rumi that young already performing so often.

Mira and Zoey looked down at Rumi, her patterns still iridescent, unbothered by the technical breakdown of her life. They looked at each other with the same kind of worry; they loved their friend so much and couldn’t help but worry how many worrying things they would learn about her over the course of this movie. What secrets has she kept completely by accident, the barometers of her life so different that she just doesn’t know what requires help from others. 

The camera returns to the group of fans, “Rumi's voice is just incredible. Like…”

Shifting to a trio of weeping boys, “It brings us to tears!”

A group of fans wearing more general merch starts talking, “They're taking a break after this concert and they totally need it, but we're gonna miss them so much!” her voice gets higher pitched and faster as the lights change, cuing the beginning of the show. 

The camera pans over the audience and the stage as the already loud crowd gets even louder before leaving the fans behind and tracking Bobby who is running final checks alongside much of the venue crew, “Everyone look alive! All right. Looking good over there. Okay. Ready? Ready.” 

The girls cheer, “Hey! There you are!” Zoey says.

Bobby laughs, “So it seems.” 

It’s the first part of the movie that feels real, this is a thing that they know happens. It happened recently, not a window into a past they’d never known or something from years prior intercut with press releases. This was behind the stage, not surrounded by cameras and yet magically here for them to witness. 

He pauses and gets confused, “But where are the girls? What?” He pulls his phone out, “What? Where are they going?” You can see on his phone that the recently landed plane has taken off again in the opposite direction of the stage.

Celine looks at the girls, her frustration with tardiness overpowering the backset role she has established for herself. She doesn’t speak but they do immediately confess.

Zoey and Rumi both stumble over words before Mira talks over them, “You’ll see Celine. Don’t worry we handled it.”

Rumi shifted, immediately stressed by even the minor interaction. Mira and Zoey both returned to their positions, trying to get Rumi to relax. Her patterns were darker, no longer shining in all her happiest colors but not purple like the worst of days.

The scene shifts to Huntrix sitting on a fancy plane speaking to each other. They’re in a team huddle, arms wrapped around each other as they prep for the show ahead of them. Unaware of the problem that Bobby has just noticed. 

“Okay, this is our biggest show yet.” Rumi says.

“The most songs.” Zoey says

“The most moves.” Mira follows.

“Which means the most carb loading.” Rumi cheers.

They in unison chant, “For the fans!” before eating as much food as they can, with little regard for manners or even pausing to take breaths. While they eat they continue chatting to each other.

“I need 10,000 calories to get through the choreo.” Rumi says while grabbing her next bite.

“A thousand percent. A gajillion percent.” Mira agrees.

“Mira, that's not even a real number.” Rumi lightly argues. 

“It is for our fans.” Mira responded.

Bobby can’t tear his eyes away from the joyous disaster that is this pre-show ritual. It’s been a long time since he’d been able to sit with the girls before a show and he couldn’t help but grin at the knowledge that it remained as chaotic and blood thirsty as it always had been. 

Celine winced but knew better than to say anything. She wanted to remind the girls about images about status and how they were perceived but bit her tongue. They were in their own plane, they were allowed to do what they wished there.

While aggressively smelling her food Rumi says, “Our fans deserve the best.” Before stuffing her face as quickly as possible, “Okay, time for our pre-game ramyeon!”

All three lift their cups up to cheers them together before completing this pre-show ritual, “Happy fans, happy Honmoon!” They clink the cups together but the weight of the cups isn’t right. 

Zoey looks down into the cup, “Wait there's no water in these.”

Rumi turns to the stewardess of the plane, “Um, excuse me, miss?”

The Stewardess is pouring coffee into a plant while nervously responding, “Yes, Miss Hunter…-ix?”

Celine sighed, “Oh of course.”

“Yeah.” Mira answered.

Bobby looked at them confused, but turned back to the screen, wanting to understand more then ask questions.

“We asked for hot water…”

“Right away. You're welcome. Arrideverci. Goodbye.” The nerves of the Stewardess were clearly building and only confused Rumi more.

“Uh, okay.”

Rumi’s phone rings so she quickly picks it up and they all answer it in unison, “Hi, Bobby!”

Bobby is visibly worried through the FaceTime call, “Yeah, hi! Um, what are you doing?”

Zoey couldn’t help but laugh, “That makes so much more sense now, we were all so confused why you would be freaking out. I don’t know how we missed the literal plane taking off.”

Bobby smiled, “You had food, it is not surprising to me in the slightest.”

They all laughed. 

“About to eat our pre-show ramyeon.” Rumi answers

Bobby gets more confused, “Pre-show? What about the show-show?” His phone is then taken from his hand and he can be heard off-screen, “Hey, that's my phone!”

The fangirls who grabbed the phone scream, “We love you!”

The trio responds happily, “Aww, we love you too!”

The weeping fanboys from earlier also snag the phone, and they all get emotional as well, “Aww, that's so sweet.”

A new fan grabs the phone and shouts, “Yo! I just got this!” and pulls his shirt up to display a giant heart with Huntrix  written within it. It disconcerts Rumi and Zoey while Mira is more impressed by the ink. 

Mira laughed, “You’re gonna have to get more comfortable with ink Rumi.”

Rumi looked up at her confused. Mira ran a hand along the patterns, “People are definitely going to be getting things that look like these.”

Rumi looked down at her arm, the patterns shifting to a light pink hue. She doesn’t say anything, immediately overwhelmed by the weight of the idea. Mira just smiles at her as she watches the gears spin.

Bobby finally reclaimed his phone shouting, “Gimme that!” as he grabs it again, now that he’s finally able to speak to the girls again he moves away from the crowd, “Why are you so late!?”

“Late?” Rumi says, clearly both confused but also immediately worried.

“Fifty thousand fans are waiting for you. They made cute signs and everything. How can you be late!?” Bobby works himself up as the girls grow increasingly irritated, they look up and see that they are in fact flying away from the stadium they had just arrived at and that their flight team is behaving oddly to say the least. 

Bobby laughed at the profound irritation on their faces, “Goodness. Remind me to never get on your bad side."

Zoey cooed, “Bobby you couldn’t do anything to get on our bad side.”

Rumi looks back to the phone, “Keep your shirt on, Bobby. We'll be there in three.” She hangs up and sets the phone back down.

Mira starts groaning, “I didn't even get to finish my ramyeon!”

“Why do they always interrupt our snacking!?” Rumi complains.

Zoey with a mouthful of chips screams, “They will face my wrath!”

Rumi gets up and walks towards the Stewardess, “Um, excuse me?”

“Still always professional.” Mira remarks.

Zoey nods, seriously, “Can’t have the demons leaving a bad album rating.”

Rumi sinks down into the couch further, flushing but smiling.

Bobby looked at the girls, “Demons? They don’t look at all-”

Zoey winced, “Oops. Hah guess we never explained that part, don’t worry you’ll see.”

“Please take your seat.” the Stewardess says, still looking incredibly uncomfortable. 

Rumi is unphased by the antics this time, “Yeah. We don't have time. You're a demon, right?”

“W-what do you mean?” she pants.

“You're smiling all weird, watering plants with coffee, and those guys? Come on.” Rumi simply looks vaguely disappointed as she lists off the now countless indicators that something unusual is going on. The captain is in the background pushing random buttons and another man is attempting to buckle a seatbelt incorrectly. 

The Stewardess flounders for a justification, “O-ohhh, we were just…”

Rumi grabs her arm, pushing up her sleeve to reveal the purple patterns indicative of all demons, “Oh, look! Patterns.”

Rumi instinctively shifts her body, hiding what she can. Zoey leans in closer as a response, Mira continues her earlier game of following the lines with her finger tips. Neither make the pressure of eye-contact just make themselves nearer and louder than the worries they can feel filling her up. 

“Oh, these? These are just…” the Stewardess continues to try and find the perfect lie but before she can find it Rumi stomps on her foot, reverting her to a demon before bumping into the seatbelt man, revealing him as a demon, too, “The rest of you can come out. We're in a hurry!” Rumi shouts out to the rest of the plane.

The Captain emerges as a demon as two more demons appear. They all sport patterns on their arms and start moving toward the group.

"Woah!" Bobby yelped, flushing at his surprise when the rest of the couch turned to look at him, "Hey I bet you were surprised the first time you realized that could happen." He lightheartedly defended himself. The girls smiled and agrees and Bobby continued updating his notepad. 

“Aww, you got the patterns. Now you gotta die.” Mira says. 

Mira winces. Rumi’s expression doesn’t change and the lack of reaction makes Mira’s guilt even stronger. Rumi’s not surprised, she expects this kind of thing from her closest friends. What a kick in the stomach to know that she couldn’t even begin to imagine the amount of times she’s stabbed her friend in the heart in the name of companionship and purpose. 

Captain Demon ominously begins, “The only ones dying tonight are your—” he is interrupted by Mira loudly burping, “Uh, I said, the only ones dying tonight are your—”

This time he’s interrupted by Rumi’s stomach gurgling, “I'm sorry, what?” she adds. 

“Girls.” Celine says, not able to stop the irritation. 

They exchange glances, the pattern of this conversation well trod and don’t make the wise choice to not start it over again now.

Exasperated, the Captain Demon shouts, “Your fans! We're gonna eat your fans!!”

The trio looks at him, abundantly displeased, “Whoa!”

“No.” Mira says.

“No, thank you!” Zoey continues.

“No, no, no.” Mira repeated. 

“Not our fans.” Rumi adds.

“When you mess with our fans…” Zoey says slowly.

Mira cracks her knuckles, “We need to make it hurt.” The Honmon visibly shines throughout the cabin as the instrumental track kicks in.

The song How It's Done by Huntrix begins and they begin to fight the demons while singing. Throughout the whole process crafting their ramyeon and ensuring that the cups have enough time to sit and cook. Throughout their conflict parts of the wing of the jet and the entire cockpit completely separate from the main cabin and begin to fall down, taking the remaining demons down with them. 

Bobby can’t fight the smile at watching his girls so wildly competent in a way he’s never seen before. He’s heard this song so many times, in so many stages and with so many different backing tracks and sample lines and yet it feels like the first time he’s ever heard it. He watches the way they move around each other seamlessly, avoiding damage and prioritizing their emotionally significant snack and he doesn’t know if he’s ever been prouder. 

The girls can’t help but study the fight more seriously, they’ve never had angles like this before to see themselves. There are micro=moments where a leg kick should have been higher or a toss was unnecessarily frilly. The ramyeon thing was definitely a skewed priority, they can hear Celein’es thoughts from the other end of the couch but none of them care enough to regret it.

The trio take the moment free from conflict to examine the damage, seemingly unworried of any remaining danger while Mira dryly remarks, “Yeah, this plane's trashed.”

They all inhale their noodles as quickly as possible, drinking the soup up before preparing to finish the mission they started.

Bobby laughs, “That’s the most impressive thing I’ve seen today. That water was boiling three minutes ago, how are you not burning your tongues off.”

Mira pretends to flip her hair, “Oh it’s a Hunter thing, you know how it is.”

Zoey laughs, “Oh yeah magical voice powers, summoning weapons and ramyeon speed eating.”

“Okay, let's do this.” Rumi says before jumping out of the plane, quickly followed by Mira and then Zoey and the song continues again as they fight while falling through the sky.  Incapacitating and preparing for their show with last minute make-up checks. 

The camera shifts down to the fans as people start looking up at the falling lights that indicate Huntrix ’s pending arrival on stage, “It’s them!” a fan screams. 

Rumi laughs then, surprising even herself as the moment pulls her from her silence, “I forgot what that would look like from the outside. I can’t believe anyone was looking up, and that they could recognize us from that far away.”

The remaining demons land on the stage, silhouetted by the giant statue-like fog apparitions of Huntrix  who quickly reveal themselves, now holding mics and allowing the performance to truly begin. The presence of the demons is thought of as costume or effect and the fans are entranced as the tempo, combat and music hit new peaks. Blue light fills the stadium as the fans' joy fuels the Honmon. The trio can see the shield growing stronger and at certain moments, from certain angles the Honmon is already becoming golden, the girls can’t control their excitement at their near victory.

The final note rings out amongst the stadium, “Huntrix don't miss how it's done, done, done!” The crowd goes wild. The Honmon flickers strongly across the stadium and the camera pans down revealing the demons kept trapped below the earth. The title fills the scene at the last note of the song. 

Bobby starts applauding, “Wow girls. I mean I knew you could do a lot, but I can’t say I would have ever anticipated anything like this.”

Zoey looks at the title, “I can’t believe the Honmon named a movie that only four people are going to watch.”

Mira nodded, “Not the greatest name in the world.”

Rumi hummed an agreement, “Not sure that fully describes the last few weeks in the best way.”

Bobby rolls his eyes at them, “I think it has a certain charm.”

Celine puts her head in her hands, fighting a headache at all the back and forth. She was here to fulfill a duty, to unveil the secrets and she was surrounded by people who wanted to make a joke out of everything. The world had almost ended three days ago and they argued about the creative direction of the shield for the entire world.

Unaware of Celine’s frustration the girls smile and laugh, pulling each other a little closer, finding a way to lay comfortably and still see the screens as the title fades and the next scene begins.

Chapter Text

The screen returns to the Stewardess Demon nervously walking past seemingly endless rows of demons deep in the spirit world, as she moves toward a set of stairs and an eternally burning fire with a gaping mouth. 

The girls watched in silence, quietly studying the demonic landscape. The place they had heard so much about but had never seen. They had never seen the consequences of what it meant to be defeated by their efforts. 

Bobby gasped, unable to hold it back. There were so many demons. The fight had made it feel real, the girls really did fight to keep the world safe from monsters but the scale was so much more than he could have imagined. 

On the first step of the staircase she seemingly hesitates but instead her feet are pulled out from under her and she is flung through the air and closer to the enraged flame. 

Gwi-Ma speaks with a fake kind of curiosity, “Let me guess. They got away again?”

Tearfully and tying herself internally in knots the easily defeated demon whimpers, “The Hunters, they're too strong.”

Rumi couldn’t help but grimace watching the demon whimper and cry. She did that to her. 

Mira could feel Rumi shifting back down against the couch and leaned over, just enough to apply some pressure across the eternally nervous girl's shoulder. 

Gwi-Ma, still speaking resonantly and with a voice that echoes through the spirit world, almost whispers, “I understand.”

Quietly the Stewardess Demon seemingly unwilling to hope to receive compassion says, “You- You do?”

She was right to not trust it, for Gwi-Ma roars ever louder, “I understand you are weak!” He incinerates the demon alive and continues to rage at the eternally present and watching demons, who cower away from him terrified, “Pathetic! Useless! All of you! Don't you idiots know?! Once the hunters turn the honmoon gold, it's over for us!”

Rumi stopped herself from gasping only by closing her eyes and taking several purposeful breaths. She did not set this demon on fire, she was doing what she had to do. It kept her breaths even, it did not silence the guilt.

Bobby’s eyes were wide as he watched a demon die. He thought they had already seen a demon die but in this moment it became clear that whatever the girls did was gentle compared to this sudden and gruesome death. 

The audience cowers in fear, a water demon wraps and they are all silent until a melody begins to echo over the hills catching their attention. On the far shrine a purple demon stands, playing a bipa. 

Rumi had opened her eyes again and immediately regretted it. She had been looking forward to not having to verbalize everything that had happened, the strange connection she had shared that might have been something with time. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that she would be learning things about Jinu that she hadn’t known. 

Mira and Zoey made eye contact with each other above Rumi’s head. Their friend hadn’t tensed or sighed but her marks had noticeably darkened. Looking at the screen and the shadowed figure they both had suspicions about who they would be seeing. 

This mysterious demon begins to speak, his voice traveling with that same supernatural power, “There once was a mighty demon king. Stop me if you've heard this one before. He was in total control. He feasted on souls. The world trembled when he roared.” He floats with ease down from the shrine and begins that familiar walk. His feet are steady where the Stewardess was a trembling leaf, he also is not alone, for something large and powerful walks behind him. “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.” 

Rumi couldn’t fully conceal her expression. It was the same story from the beginning, the same story that Rumi had grown up on. Interesting to know that it lived on in the demon world; and that Jinu used it to poke at Gwi-Ma.

He moves closer still before breaking into song, still only backed by his own hand on his own bipa as he musically issues a challenge to an unending hunger, the demons part for him, “And will he let the fire go out? Is this the end of him now? Dying king with a crumbling crown? Will he let the fire go out?”

Zoey looked over at Mira sharing matching surprised expression. They knew obviously Jinu could sing but it was still surprising to hear him using his voice to push back against Gwi-Ma. 

Celine turned her head to one side as she watched the demon sing a challenge to Gwi-Ma; the challenge was soft but was present non-the-less. How unusual. 

He finishes his song at the foot of the stairs and Gwi-Ma speaks frowning, displeased but much quieter than before, “ I let you keep that voice, Jinu and you dare to mock me with it?”

“I'm not here to mock you. I'm here to help you.” Four more oni gather around Jinu, “It's time for a new strategy. We fight the Hunters where they least expect it.” He and the others fly to the top of the stairs,  “Go after the very thing that powers the Honmoon… The fans.”

The demons pose like a boy band.

The musical sting made all three girls and Bobby burst out laughing. The pose and the music was ridiculous. Even while they knew that things would become heavy and difficult they couldn’t fight off the silliness. 

Celine  looked over at them, raising an eyebrow and smiling very slightly. Their chaotic laughter was reminiscent of a simpler time; during their rare breaks from training and work when they would watch movies or make up their own dance routines in her living room, trying to see how many flip jumps they could do in a row without falling over. The girls rarely laugh so hard they fall over in her presence anymore, she is lucky to get a true smile and not the idol treatment she so carefully curated within them. She supposed that even then the girls would pull themselves together when she entered the living room, she mostly overheard their childish antics through the walls of her office.

Gwi-Ma laughs, his humor in the situation inviting laughter from the audience as well, “A demon boy band? What makes you think that could work?”

Jinu snaps his fingers, showing new forms: pink hair, glowing orange eyes and slick lilac hair.

Zoey groaned a little, leaning over to the girls and whispered, “I know they were problems but goddamn…"

Mira and Rumi both snorted and Mira gently swatted the back of Zoey’s head, “You simply must have higher standards than that.”

They laughed again, quietly. 

A set of demons in the crowd start nodding, “Yeah. That's totally gonna work.”

“Yeah. 100%.”

This time they all laughed, even Celine couldn’t fully contain herself at the absurdity of the moment.

Gwi-Ma responds, “Okay. I know you, Jinu. In 400 years, you've never done a single thing that didn't serve yourself. What do you want?”

There is a flash of a moment, a mother and daughter, crying at a door closed in their face. Jinu blinks it away and answers, already knowing the price of his help to destroy the world, “The memories. I want them erased.”

The humor faded. Rumi sat stunned by seeing the family she had thought so often about over the last few weeks. What a strange kind of grief, for a family abandoned hundreds of years before she was born. 

The rest were confused. Demon's were demons, with the one notable exception sharing a couch with them. They did not have families and pasts, they were hungry animals living in a world of their own and desperate for more.

The scene shifts, returning to Huntrix standing in an elevator after their concert.

Rumi is cheering, “Did we just see gold”

“Yeah. I can't believe we're doing it.” Mira says.

Zoey is jumping up and down, “It's so exciting!”

“Okay. You know what this means. It's time to release the song.” Rumi says.

“Yes! It's finally time!” Mira draws out clearly with enthusiasm. 

“We're gonna turn it gold. Yay! The moment we waited for.” Zoey cheers.

“Yes!” Rumi shouts before pausing as her voice breaks oddly, “Whoa. That was weird.”

Zoey and Mira looked at each other again, wondering, not for the first time, what the truth of their friend's illness was. 

Rumi shook off the fog and the worry, focusing on the joy she'd felt then and embracing the break from the intensity while it was present. It would not last for long if she remembered correctly.

“Good thing we're taking a break.” Zoey says seriously.

Mira nods, “Yeah. Sounds like you need the rest.”

Rumi smiles and pushes aside their worries, “Yeah. Just need a little water.”

Celine looked over at Rumi who hadn’t looked away from the screen, she had always been exceptional at concealing her weaknesses. It was unsurprising she hadn’t heard anything about troubles with her voice. The girls would only come to her if things were apocalyptically dire; even then only Rumi came to her. It was unlikely that Rumi would ever come to her again, so perhaps her time advising the Hunters had come to a close.  

The doors to the elevator slide open revealing Bobby alongside a large team of crew, “Did someone say water?” He sings-songs.

“Hi, Bobby!” the girls say in unison. 

“Water! Now!” Bobby snaps as the rest of the team rushes in to buff nails, provide snacks and pre-strawed water bottles to the girls, “What a way to end the world tour! That finale with the guy in the demon suit exploding into confetti?”

A team member says to Zoey, “So chill.”

Another worker adds to Mira, “Those special effects looked amazing.”

Mira laughs, “Yeah. ‘Special effects.’”

Bobby couldn’t help but smile when watching the way the girls smiled and joked with him. He knew there were secrets between them at this moment but it was good to see them still be happy while interacting with him. When he’d started feeling more unsure he’d forgotten that, how while they didn’t strictly need him often they wanted him around.

Bobby keeps walking backwards while talking, “This is gonna break the bank, but, ooh, look at these social numbers! They're off the charts!” He shows the girls his phone and the large lead they currently hold over the other k-pop groups, “And to celebrate, I booked you a week-long staycation at the fanciest, most exclusive relaxation resort in Korea.”

Mira interrupts, “Sorry, Bobby. We already have plans.”

“What? What plans?” Bobby says, worried about being out of the loop.

“We got the hottest ticket in town.” Zoey adds.

Mira & Zoey say in unison, “To our couch!” They continue chanting “Couch!” as they move off of screen.

Mira and Zoey both happily settled into the couch more, pulling Rumi down half-on top of them when she was too focused to enjoy the moment. 

Rumi moves closer to Bobby putting an encouraging hand on his shoulder, “Bobby, you should go enjoy the resort. This tour has been grueling for everyone. You deserve it.”

Bobby smiles, “Me? Oh, no. I couldn't possibly.” Without a moment's hesitation he adds, “Just kidding. Robe me. I'm a 34 short. See you in a couple weeks, girls!” He spins away and the girls cheer him on.

“Bye, Bobby!”

Rumi begins scheming immediately, but the group does arrive at their own personal tower. Mira and Rumi begin moving towards the living room. 

Mira and Zoey both laughed from their slouched couch positions with Rumi sprawled on top of them, “You’re lucky we were so focused on relaxing. You were not being subtle at all.” Mira adds.

“All right. Two weeks of vacation.” Mira celebrates.

“Yes. Vacation.” Rumi responds suspiciously. 

Zoey looks over at Rumi, giggling and grabs the end of Rumi’s braid, pulling it slightly, “Seriously sound more diabolically suspicious. I don’t think you could even if you tried to.”

(The song "Strategy" from TWICE begins playing)

They all exit the elevator together, in comfortable robes and chatting. Rumi is in the back of the group working furiously on her phone and making sounds of acknowledgment without actually listening. They keep walking and Mira says, “Mmm! I can't wait to eat kimbap and stare at the ceiling.”

This time Rumi joins in the laughter, “It’s not my fault you weren’t paying attention.” She whispers between breaths of laughter. 

Zoey agrees, “I already picked a movie for us. It's actually a list of 700 two-second videos all about turtles.”

Mira smiles, “Sounds super boring. I'm so down.”

Rumi looks at her phone for a moment before clicking the release button on their new single, “Let's do this.” She smiles and opens the door to a long hall-way like closet full of the girls' different stage outfits on layered mannequins. She stops in front of a set of three all in matching white with gold and black accents. “It's time.” she says to herself studying them.

Bobby shakes his head, amused, “You’re truly non-stop.” Rumi smiles sheepishly at him. 

Mira and Zoey are chanting “Couch!” again as they carry piles and towers of food back towards their resting place. They slouch down their chants getting slower and slower as they begin to relax. 

Zoey practically purrs, “Oh, yeah. That's the stuff. Yeah.”

Mira whispers, “So relaxing.”

Rumi rises up from behind the couch with a funny look on her face, only partially revealed, “Hey. Have a good break?” As she continues to stand her new costume is fully revealed.

Mira stops confused, “Huh? What? No. We literally just sat… down.”

Zoey questions, “Why are you in your new costume?”

Rumi attempted to shuffle off the other girl’s laps. Seeing a little clearer in this revisiting the true exhaustion on her friends' faces. She had been running out of time, exhaustion was a thing that could be pushed through and she was a ticking time bomb. They didn’t know that though, they just thought she didn’t care. 

Mira and Zoey both tightened their respective grips around her though, “Knock it off.” Mira hissed.

Both Mira and Zoey come to the conclusion at the same time, “Rumi, you didn't.”

Mira’s clearly confused but also growing more aware, “Did you announce the new single?”

Zoey sounding more resigned,  “And the promo starts tomorrow…”

Mira and Zoey’s faces fall at a look the camera can’t see from Rumi, “Tonight?!”

Rumi smiles an awkward but genuine expression as she displays the new costumes to the whining Mira and Zoey. 

Rumi didn’t look at either of them but stopped trying to wiggle away, giving up after it became clear that she would have to make far more of a scene then she was comfortable with to give her friends space from her. 

Zoey started running a gentle hand up and down Rumi’s arm, not avoiding the patterns across her skin or paying them any particular attention and it was only that slight shift in stimulation that allowed her mind to move past her own casual cruelty. 

Both begin whining, and weeping, complaining in an overlapping pattern of, “No’s.” that only escalates even as they move to do what has been asked of them. 

Bobby comes out of the elevator, still in his relaxation wear but clearly in work mode, “Girls, you won't believe this!”

Bobby wanted to make a joke about his ever present timeliness but when he saw the puddle the girls had dissolved into he refrained. He knew it would have made them laugh though.

The camera cuts to the girls all dressed in their new costumes with Mira and Zoey still all slumped over and groaning. Mira and Zoey both attempt to garner sympathy for the shortcutting of their well-deserved break but rather than responding Bobby makes a far more fascinating announcement. 

“Your new single is on fire! Everyone's listening to it!” he cheers.

The misery of the moment breaks as the girls cheer along with him, “Yay!”

Bobby spins, removing his robe and eye mask as he whips the girls away, “So let's go promo!”

“I’m always ready!” Bobby said this time.

Rumi looked over at him still looking guilty, she opened her mouth to apologise or offer an explanation or something else that Bobby wasn’t truly worried about so he interrupted before she could even begin, “I knew who I was signing up to help out. I came prepared.”

Rumi smiled a bit and looked down at her hands before nodding a little bit and relaxing back into the couch and her friends. 

The camera pivots to moments throughout Seoul, as fans and strangers alike pause in their typical routines to enjoy the new song and most welcome surprise. 

“New single?” a woman says.

Another confirms, “New Huntrix?” as the music and beat begin to be heard from every phone and tv that can access the now frantically longed for new song.

The girls all smiled, they knew “Golden” had been well received but obviously they hadn’t been paying attention to those early reactions. They hadn’t even known it was live for a while. It was cute to see how immediately it grabbed people and how quickly they invested. 

Celine would never stop being surprised by the exponential effect technology had on the Honmon. It had once been such a laborious and individual process and now a click of the button and fans began investing in the still young group. 

The video begins, Rumi singing about her isolation as she stands on the soul tree, Zoey is pulled between the worlds of Korea and the US and Mira is stifled by her parents. They are not blurred out in this music video. They sing of coming together, making a life for themselves away from their pasts as they  fight their shame and reveal their secrets in the safety of their relationship with each other. 

Celine hadn’t ever heard their new song. They were very talented; they always put too much of themselves in the music though. People desired perfection from their idols, they thought they wanted to know more and so they would want and want but eventually they would discover something they didn’t like and the whole fragile balance would collapse. They needed to remember that, they needed to be careful. The fate of the world relied on them being loved.

The lyrics and music are paused to be intercut with an interview, the host charmingly ques the girls’ up, “You see my head bobbing? Tell us about that new single.”

Mira responds first, “Golden." It's the story of us.”

Rumi follows, “It's a song about who we are, and where we're going next.”

Zoey then adds, “And the first live performance is tonight!”

The music continues, only paused momentarily by Rumi’s description of what this song means, “It's the beginning of a new chapter for us. For the whole world. And we're so excited to show you what's next.”

The tempo and beat of the songs slows in the bridge, Zoey and Mira are getting ready in a brightly coloured dressing room, filled with make-up and their own enthusiasm. The next door over does not hold any of that same joy. 

Rumi took a shaky breath. They already knew. They already knew so she needed to get over herself. 

Rumi sings quietly the next part of this beloved song, “Waited so long to break these walls down. To wake up and feel like me.” While preparing for this highly anticipated live event Rumi reveals her arms for the first as she adjusts her costume jacket, Patterns cover them, “Put these patterns all in the past now, and finally live like the girl they all see.” 

It was only in this moment that Mira and Zoey could realize the impossibility of the song that Rumi had to sing. The notes were hard, sure Rumi was a masterful singer. They watched her build her mask, hide herself in a room without even the lights on and sing about a kind of honesty she thought she had to kill and bury a part of herself to be allowed. 

They both pulled Rumi closer into a tight hug, not drawing attention to the ever darkening marks, and not fighting when Rumi took their closeness to shield her patterns from the room at large. She wasn’t wearing a jacket, they could accomplish the same purpose for her. 

She studies herself in the mirror with a particularly unknowable kind of grief in her face as she covers the marks again and returns to the painfully untrue song, “No more hiding. I'll be shining like I'm born to be! 'Cause we are Hunters, voices strong, and I know I believe!”

The camera shifts and the trio are rehearsing, drilling choreography and the lines on the stage for their live performance only moments away. 

Fans continue to build hype alongside expectations, “Rumi's voice is so incredible!”

“I can't wait to hear her live!”

The build of the moment is undeniable as  the song reaches its highest and most difficult notes even Bobby is overcome with the joy of their dance and his pride in them, accidently smacking the cameraman with his mimicry of their dance. When Rumi falters, the notes off-key, clunky and uncertain in her mouth.

They had all been there except for Celine and even still they couldn’t help but wince and tense at the note and the stress it summoned even after the moment was over. Rumi needed to be perfect or the song didn’t work, an impossible standard of course but one that she’d be able to hit for so long. 

Everything stops, Bobby freezes and Mira is immediately concerned, “You okay?”

Rumi quickly reassures them, “Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Let's take it again. From the top.” She returns to the trouble some line again the build feels even more stressful now, and yet again she misses it, coughing as she cracks on the note. 

Celine studied the girls, neither of them quite watching the screen anymore or looking at each other. This is looking like the kind of emergency she should have been brought in on, she had her suspicions immediately as to the true cause of this crisis. It would make sense that in these final, oh so vital moments that Rumi’s demonic half would attempt to silence her. Of course it would. 

Bobby moves closer, “Um, Rumi, are you okay? Do you need some water?”

Rumi is clearly flustered and moves away from the stage, “I just need five. I'm gonna take five.” She heads off without waiting for permission only half hearing through her panic the worker expresses how short on time she truly is. Mira and Zoey look at each other worried.

Rumi couldn’t help the small smile at the kindness and worry in their faces. They should have been furious, she was ruining everything, but of course they would never. 

Bobby turns, clearly now panicking, “Um... Okay, I can handle this. I'm not having a nervous breakdown. Visualize there's not 10,000 fans at the door screaming and sounding really scary.”

There’s a sharp cut outside, the crowd is going crazy, wanting to be let in and two profoundly fearful security guards desperately folding them back, “Mayday! There's 10,000 fans at the door screaming and sounding really scary!” They cling to each other and photograph the chaos.

Zoey didn’t fight the small laugh, they could use the moment of levity, “You know I love the fans as much as the rest of us do but they can be intense.”

Mira nodded and Rumi matched her with a small smile, “That’s very true.” Rumi said softly. 

Rumi is back in her dark dressing room speaking quietly to herself, “Okay”. She unzips her jacket to reveal the patterns spreading across her throat, grown by several inches even from just moments prior when she’d finished getting ready. Her breathing grows more unsteady as she touches her throat, “My voice? Oh, no. No.”

The sound of her own panicking breaths in the past was enough to trigger Rumi’s heart again. She could feel it thrumming through her own body, the kind of panic that would stop up your throat and your lungs and paralyze you. 

She took several shaky and uncertain breaths, she could feel the patterns awakening, not glowing but smoldering. The burn that had not yet turned to light and was just an aching fiery pain within her body. 

Mira could feel Rumi’s breath change. Her expression was still the same depiction of quiet and control but she was no longer paying attention to anything but her own past fear. 

The arm under Zoey’s hand got warm, it wasn’t hot enough to burn her but she couldn’t allow her palm to linger. She thinks she should probably be afraid, or at least unsure, but she moved as close as she could and continued rubbing Rumi’s arm. Wanting to say something but not quite sure what the right words would be, even more unsure what Rumi would be okay with their current audience overhearing. 

She pants, breaths getting bigger but providing nothing in terms of oxygen as her panic grows. The door slams and she leaves the building, the evergrowing mob of fans unknowing of the side entrance she slips out of as she runs frantically away.

Bobby knew better than to watch Rumi panic, so once the panic of the moment broke into the chaos of Rumi’s escape from the show he paused it. He got up, ignoring the confused sounds that Celine was making and grabbed three cups of cold water for the girls. 

He looked at his phone, of course work emails had come in even in the approximate twenty minutes he’d been sitting and not paying attention. He scrolled quickly and found one that was justified as an excuse, “Celine, would you mind stepping out with me real quick?”

She looked at him, seeing through his excuse but either not caring or unsure how to step around it and she followed him out into the hallway. He pulled her into one of the less used offices and quickly began asking for the proper response to the legal email he’d received, he’d give his girls as much time as he could to debrief and reset before returning.

Chapter Text

The second that Bobby and Celine left the room the pretense of control Rumi had over her emotions snapped, her breathing grew louder and more shaky. The movie was no longer playing but she could still hear the reminders of her fear, could feel the burn of the patterns against her skin and she wanted them away. She wanted them off. She fought desperately to keep from crying, hiding her face in her hands and uncaring how harsh her grip was growing in her need to contain herself. 

Zoey ran out of the room quickly. Mira looked after her, for a moment confused and uncertain but she shook her head to herself and focused on Rumi. “Rumi it’s okay. We wanted to watch this to know more, not to fight.” After waiting for a moment Mira pulled Rumi tighter into her arms, “Just focus on breathing Rumi.”

Mira continued instructing Rumi on her breathing pattern, slowly feeling her friend begin to listen when Zoey slid back into the room half-tripping down the steps. She had one of Mira’s hoodies, some of her own fluffy socks and the blanket that lived in their writing studio in her hands. 

Rumi was still clearly attempting to wrangle her emotions but Zoey sat down next to her wrapping her arms around her and trapping her in the middle of their hug, “Alright. Give me your feet.” Zoey said seriously. 

There was a moment of pause. Rumi pulled her face away from Mira’s shoulder, wiping away the few most determined tears, “What?”

Zoey gently grabbed her face, kissed each of her cheeks and then pulled Rumi’s feet into her lap, toppling Rumi across Mira’s lap and making both girls gasp and groan as they knocked into each other roughly. Zoey tossed the hoodie over to Mira, “Put that on her. I’ve got the socks.”

Rumi blindly cooperated for half a moment, stunned by the strangeness before attempting to sit up between the tangle of limbs and clothes, “Zoey- what?”

Zoey paused; Rumi was now wearing one fluffy yellow duck sock, “You have never had to look at your patterns this much before, let alone deal with other people seeing them when we’re relieving something tricky. Just because we know that you have them doesn’t mean that you need to always show them, not when you’re uncomfortable with them being seen.”

Mira finished putting the hoodie over Rumi’s head, Rumi instinctively finished putting it on but before she could cover her arms Mira stopped her, “Even on your worst day in the world, when your patterns are the darkest you’ve ever seen them or if they’ve grown even more. We will always be okay with seeing them. It’s an honor to see you how you truly are, but you never half to. Not with us.”

There was another moment of quiet, this one a little calmer. Rumi’s breathing started growing more even as she pulled the oversized hoodie on, “I don’t want you to think I don’t trust you. That I’m keeping secrets.”

Zoey moved closer, throwing the blanket over all three of them, “Rumi, you know how sometimes I have a bad dream and I wake up super early and drink specific tea and don’t talk much?”

Rumi nodded.

“And how you ask me if I want to talk about it and sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.”

Rumi nodded again.

“When I don’t talk to you about the dreams, am I lying to you?”

Rumi opened her mouth, trying to find a rebuttal, before she could Mira added, “I don’t like talking about personal things, ever. Is that secret keeping?”

Zoey leaned around the still quietly processing Rumi and lightly pinched Mira on the arm, “Hey that one time I learned about your super-secret childhood celebrity best friend- that one counts as a secret!” 

Mira swatted away Zoey’s fingers, laughter spreading between the group. Rumi pulled the rest of the sweatshirt on, and adjusted the socks, “I just… I know I have some ground to make up. I don’t want you to think I’m back tracking.”

Zoey smiled, “Rumi I love your patterns.” Zoey grabbed one of Rumi’s hands and gestured to the small scratch marks she’d left in a panic across her skin and temples, “If having your patterns out when you’re stressed, when we have guests over, for any reason at all makes you need to do that to yourself in order to remain visibly composed. I never have to see them again. I mean it.”

Mira nodded, wrapping an arm around Rumi and pulled her in close, “We can tell they hurt you when you get really scared. You aren’t so good at hiding pain. If putting on some more layers helps you stay calmer, if it helps you hurt less? That’s always worth it.”

Rumi nodded, rubbing her eyes to fight the sentimental tears this time, “I love you guys a lot. I’m sorry, for everything.” She ignored both of their immediate arguments against her apology and gestured at the freeze-frame on the tv, “This was like three weeks ago, I remember it all so vividly, it feels like I should be able to keep it together. I remember what happens next.” 

Mira looks at Rumi, “You were really scared. Of course it’s overwhelming to see it all again.”

Zoey nodded, resting her head on Rumi’s shoulder, smiling when she bumped into Mira’s hand as well, “I’m glad we get to see it. I wish we could have been there then; but I’m glad we get to be here now.”

Rumi groaned, shaking her head and frantically wiping the still slowly falling tears off of her face, “You guys have got to stop. Bobby can’t stall for much longer and I need to pull myself together.” She took a shaky breath and continued to wipe her hands across her face. 

They both held her tightly for a long moment Zoey checked the time, “I bet he can manage another five minutes. Look at this.” Zoey pulled out her phone and quickly went to saved videos, scrolling through her most recent favorites. Offering a small moment of levity. Only when the laughter outweighed the tears and the hint of patterns on Rumi’s hand had settled into a less turbulent shade did Mira text Bobby the okay to come back in.

They continued scrolling, leaning over each other and laughing quietly for a little bit before Bobby and Celine stepped back in, “Sorry about that girls. Damages… lawyers… you know how they get about being kept waiting.” 

Mira laughed. Zoey smiled, “No worries! Thanks Bobby.” 

Bobby laughed their praise off and settled back down on the couch. Celine behind him, watching the group impassively. Bobby grabbed the remote, “We all set?” They nodded, “Here we go!” He unpaused the movie and took a deep breath, here we go indeed. 

Rumi runs through Seoul, passing large posters of herself and her friends, the advertisement for the song she just failed to sing. As she runs a haunting song fills her head, it’s her own voices serenading her with the rules she lives her life by, “We are Hunters, voices strong. Slaying demons with our song. Fix the world and make it right.... when darkness finally meets the light.”

“Oh.” Zoey said softly to herself, Rumi’s voice was so small and so cute and so profoundly sad. 

The vision of a terribly young Rumi is joined by Celine who sings the final stanza of this Hunter Mantra along with her young charge. Rumi’s hair is being taken care of by Celine when she speaks in a very small voice to her guardian, “Celine, do Hunters kill all demons?”

The answer is clear, “Yes.”

Bobby turned over to Celine, shocked and horrified. She did not look away from the screen. 

“So everything that has patterns?” This young Rumi rolls up one of her sleeves to reveal a very small swatch of purple on her shoulder, nothing compared to what it will become but clearly already weighing on her very small heart.

Rumi didn’t look away from her patterns on the screen, she hardly remembered a time they were that small. She had hardly even needed to think about them when she was that little, that’s probably why it had taken so many years for it to start growing visibly. 

Celine reaches out and pulls her sleeve back down, “Cover those up. You only have those because…”

Where Celine hesitates, Rumi does not, “My dad was a demon?”

Mira and Zoey looked at each other, they had never thought to ask why Rumi had patterns. It had only been two days, it had mattered far more to remind their friend that they didn’t mind that they were there. That they were willing to push past their first reaction if she was. It was another punch to the gut to learn that her patterns had always been there, since she was a child.

Celine doesn’t answer the question but draws a line in the sand, “You're not one of them, Rumi. You're a Hunter, like your mother was. When the Honmoon is sealed, all demons will be gone from this world. And so will your patterns.” 

Rumi holds a hand over her sleeve where we know the pattern is, “So these will be gone?”

Celine speaks with a certainty that cannot be doubted, “Yes. Those will be gone.”

Bobby looked over at Celine, “How did you know that?”

Celine didn’t look away from the screen, even as it stayed frozen in anticipation of her words, “That is how the Honmon works. It traps demons and pulls them away from our world.”

Mira interjected, “Has there ever been someone like Rumi before? How do you know that the Golden Honmon wouldn’t have just trapped her as well?”

Celine shook her head slightly, “If there has been anyone else like Rumi there is no record of it.”

“You didn’t answer the other part of the question.” This time Rumi spoke, she looked over at Celine for several long moments.

“I suppose I just had to hope that the shield you crafted would be smart enough and deft enough to not punish one of its own creators.” Celine ultimately said. 

A tension grew in the room, Mira and Zoey looked at Bobby and together they tried  to find the words to force a realization onto Celine. Rumi popped it, “That’s what I suspected. I’d always been too nervous to ask though.” 

They all turned to look at her, everyone surprised. Celine included. Rumi looked back to the tv and after a moment of silence leaned  over to unpause the movie without another word.

We return to a tearful, fleeing Rumi before she falls back into remembering, this time she’s much older standing in her apartment, leaning against a closed door and overhearing Mira and Zoey as they attempt to encourage her to join them. 

“You always say no, Rumi.” Zoey whines.

“You're so modest. It's just the bathhouse.” Mira adds

Rumi’s leaning against the door, everything in her face indicating a desperate want to join them, “Maybe some other time. You guys go ahead.”

Zoey wrapped her arms tighter around herself as she leaned onto Rumi’s shoulder again, she wishes she knew. She wishes Rumi wasn’t so alone, wasn’t so willing to accept a bad hand in life and just move on with it. She wanted Rumi to get mad; she wanted her to claim a space for herself loudly. Even now she was quiet in her existence, as she always had been. 

She hears Zoey and Mira walk away in disappointment. She follows after a moment and passes Celine in the kitchen, “Maybe they'll understand.” she says, hopefully.

Celine doesn’t look up from her work, “No, Rumi. Nothing can change until your patterns are gone.” The hope fades from Rumi’s face.

“Celine.” Bobby said before he could stop himself, staring at Rumi’s guardian with shocked disbelief.

There was a moment of outraged silence.

“Rumi was… and technically is… a grey area. My teachings, the teachings of the hunters do not provide an outline for such cases. They needed to stay focused, we couldn’t afford for the team to fragment or for trust to be lost.”

“Look what happened though?” Zoey said, “Because we didn’t know things got so much worse.”

Celine nodded, “I suppose with hindsight there is always a perfect solution, I did not have the luxury of knowing the future when I took my actions.”

Mira groaned and rolled her eyes, it was a deflection and a non-answer but not a fight she knew how to have right now. 

The flashback ends and Rumi is racing to the top of a roof breathing heavy and uncertain, frantically unzipping her restrictive jacket. She stands alone on the roof, her true Pattern covered self and she tries the song again. When once again she misses the same note she falls to the ground, knees landing hard against the roof. 

Rumi wrinkled her nose, running her hand across her knees and remembering the bruises that had formed there.

Her panic is shifting into grief, her solution is falling apart in front of her eyes, “How am I supposed to fix the world, fix me, when I don't have my voice? Why now, when I'm so close?”

Her desperation pivots to anger as she screams, “Why? Why!?” The second “why” has a force behind it, a resonance that echoes out from her in a pink wave that maps itself against the honmon. This kind of power has been heard before, she sounds very much like Gwi-Ma. She gasps, afraid of the thing she might inevitably become.

The room gasps as well. Her power looks so similar to that of the demons, they can’t help but be nervous of what it might do. 

Zoey studied it for a moment, “It moves away from you in an interesting way, like a wave or echolocation. I wonder what it’s doing? It doesn’t look like it’s creating more weaknesses in the Honmon.” 

Rumi nodded, “I don’t know what it could have been used for, I only ever saw it in moments like that, when I was emotional and angry, it never seemed to do anything but startle me.”

Her younger self sings in the background as she stares at what she’s done, what she might do with more time, “We are Hunters, voices strong.”

It’s clearly been several hours when Rumi returns home, her jacket back on. Mira and Zoey are dressed in comfortable clothes but still in their show make-up, they have clearly been waiting in the living room and as she arrives come to her. The scene jumps, they’re sitting in a restaurant, grabbing dinner and all looking quietly worried.

Bobby smiled softly at the care in his girl’s faces even when things had gone so wrong and they’d been kept so out of the loop.

Rumi breaks the silence first, “I- I'm sorry about the show.”

Zoey comforts her, “Rumi, it's okay. I'm sure everything will be fine. Bobby can handle it.” Her phone rings, and she quickly answers it, “Hi, Bobby!”

Bobby is panicking, “Girls, I can't handle this! There's thousands of disappointed fans, and the network is losing their minds.” Rumi’s face is shuttering closed with guilt and Mira looks ready to interrupt when Bobby pivots, “Okay, this is why you pay me 3%. Okay, back off! My girls will sing when they're ready.” Mira hangs up the phone.

The girls all laughed, Bobby was eternally consistent while also regularly getting overwhelmed and forgetting just how effective he was at the job.

“It's okay. We can reschedule another live show within days.” Mira adds in the new silence.

“I-I don't know if that's going to be possible. My voice, it's in trouble.” Rumi says, quietly.

“Wait, in trouble? Then why did you push up the "Golden" release?” Mira is confused.

“Because we're so close, and it's so important.” There is a weight to Rumi’s response. Mira and Zoey look at each other before continuing to speak. 

Rumi smiled, unsure how she’d missed that when she’d been there. She couldn’t help but wonder if she’d seen the signs that they knew something bigger was going on if she would have confessed or hidden it all even deeper. 

“Okay, how do we handle this? What do we tell the fans? Maybe we should call Celine?” Zoey starts.

“We know what she'd say, Zoey.” Mira pushes back.

Zoey makes a face and prepares to begin mimicking their mentor, “Oh, right. "We are Hunters.”  

Mira then joins in the game, “Voices strong. Your faults and fears must never be seen." It’s enough to crack a small smile on Rumi’s face.

The girls all looked at each other sheepishly, their mimicry of Celine was hardly a new game for the trio but it wasn’t something they’d ever done in front of Celine herself. 

Celine did not look at them.

Bobby turned to Celine, his eyebrows raised and disappointment visibly radiating from him. 

“Whoa. You sound exactly like her.” Mira compliments. 

“Yeah, that's exactly how she says it.” Zoey smiles. 

At the same moment though the game is over, Mira returns to the problem at hand and the knowledge of what Celine’s response would be, “No. We gotta hide it and fix it.”

“Girls.” Bobby said, looking over at them tragically. They winced a little bit before shrugging. They were Celine’s pupils at the end of the day, her lessons had been instilled in all of them. 

Zoey seconds that notion, “For sure. We have to hide it. Mm-hm. Rumi, why don't we take a break? We'll skip the Idol Awards this year and…”

Rumi interrupts, “No. No way. It's our most important show. It's when we strengthen the Honmoon for the entire year. We can't skip it. We just can't. Not when I'm so close.”

The “I’m” is clearly noticed but not pushed back on, Zoey shifts gears, comforting her friend, “Hey, we'll get through this. We can get through anything. Together.”

Rumi pulls both of the girls closer to her, “Thank you for all of your help, even when I was hiding so much.” she whispered. 

They both smiled, “Any time.” Zoey said.

“Imagine how much more helpful we will be when we get to know what’s actually happening.” Mira lightly teased. 

Rumi didn’t fight the laugh.

Mira nods, “Okay. We have two weeks to fix Rumi's voice. Any ideas?”

Zoey smiles, “I do have one idea.”

“Just one?” Mira challenges a growing smile on her face.

Zoey grins and starts talking much faster, “Actually, 57, but let's start with my favorite. Don't worry. It's totally legit.”

Bobby stared at Zoey for a second, “What did you do?”

She just laughed gleefully, offering no comfort to the worried man. 

The following day the girls are walking down the street in their casual disguises. Mira is wearing a base-ball cap, Zoey a bucket hat and Rumi has her hood up and tightly cinched. 

Zoey’s describing her plan, “He's got this special tonic. Apparently, it can heal anything from sore throats to relationships.” Her voice doesn’t get quieter as they pass more people along their walk.

Rumi whispers, “Ssh! Quietly, Zoey.”

Mira looks around, “Why are there so many people today?”

Zoey points, “Down that alleyway.”

“Goodness girls…” Bobby whispered, unable to fight off the laughter at the insane things his girls commit to when they don’t come to him with their problems. 

They move down the alley. Unaware of the poster for a free Saja Boys concert that is attracting a large amount of the crowd. “Free concert? It's at noon.” a girl remarks.

Another wonders, “Who are the Saja Boys?”

“That makes so much more sense.” Zoey said, “I’d been wondering how they got their first crowd.”

Standing outside the entrance of Doctor Han’s, Zoey looks ecstatic while the other two look less impressed and partially worried. 

“Yep, about as legit as I expected.” Mira remarks.

Rumi shrugs, “Earthy and herby. Smells legit to me.”

Zoey grins, “Yay! That's the spirit!” wrapping Rumi up in a tight hug.

Celine looked over at Zoey, unknowingly mirroring Bobby’s look of tired, amused exhaustion with the bizarre actions of the trio. 

Mira gestures to them to go inside the sketchy establishment, “Hurry, before someone sees us.”

The scene cuts and Rumi is sitting inside the doctor's office, Zoey and Mira are sitting off to the side. Rumi looks around uncertainly while examining the Doctor’s wall of pictures with other notable K-Pop Idols. She makes eye contact with Zoey who gives her a cheerful thumbs up and Rumi returns it smiling awkwardly.

The three girls laughed, remembering the insane conversation and circumstances of this visit, unable to stop themselves even though they knew that Bobby and Celine didn’t understand what they were up to. 

Doctor Han comes in, “Rumi Nim. Sit. Sit. You need no introduction. So, a problem with your voice.”

Zoey speaks first, “Yes. So we need one of your awesome tonics. Something that will work super fast.”

“Okay, let me see.” the Doctor responded, studying Rumi carefully. Rumi opens her mouth obligingly before the healer corrects her, “Uh-uh-uh. In order to heal a part, we must understand the whole.”

“Uh…” Rumi says uncertainly. 

Han moves closer to her eyes practically popping out of his head, “I see. I see…” he backs out of her space, eyes returning to normal size,  “No. Actually, I don't see. Very strange. You have lots of walls up.”

“Clocked.” Zoey teased, shoving Rumi over lightly, their laughter quieter now but still present. 

Zoey gasps, “Whoa! He's so good, right?”

The Doctor repeats, still studying Rumi, “So many walls.”

Rumi laughs uncomfortably, “Walls? I don't have walls.”

“Oh kid.” Bobby said, smiling but shaking his head at her frantic dismissal. 

Mira looks up from the magazine, “Uh, yeah, you do.” She looks over at Zoey, “He is kind of good.” Zoey grins wildly. 

Rumi attempts to shift the conversation, “I'm just trying to stay focused.”

Healer Han nods, “Hm... Focus is good, but focusing on one part leads to ignoring other parts, making you separated, isolated.”

Zoey chimes in, “Ooh! Emotionally closed off?”

“Yes! Yes!” The Doctor cheers.

Mira looks up from her magazine, half-folded now that she’s invested in the show as she adds, “She's also a workaholic, doesn't know how to relax.”

Rumi, frantic to regain control, jumps in, “I know how to relax!”

“You’re learning how to now at least.” Mira added. 

Healer Han is unphased by her interruption, “I bet she refuses to go to the bathhouse with you.”

Zoey’s eyes light up at his ability to read her friend, “Oh my gosh, yes!”

Rumi is quietly stunned, “How did you even…”

Rumi shook her head, “He had to have had a source. How would he…”

Zoey shrugged, “I don’t know man, I guess you just desperately gave off I don’t want anyone to see me naked vibes. He could smell it on you.”

“I do not smell.” Rumi hissed, laughing and grabbing a nearby pillow to smack Zoey with.

Mira was trapped between their scuffle laughing and not doing anything to stop it while Zoey yelped, “That’s not what I said!”

Zoey complains, “Dude, we've been trying to take her…”

Mira chimes in along with her, “Forever!”

Rumi interjects again, “How is this helpful?”

Mira snarks, “It's helping me a lot.” Rumi makes a face at her, which doesn’t seem to surprise or affect Mira much.

The pillow fight had mellowed out, and the laughter had finally settled. Bobby looked fondly over at the girls, watching them squabble and fight, breaking the tension and settling Rumi in her own skin in a way that she hadn’t been for the whole movie. Maybe ever. If Bobby is truly honest with himself, he’s never seen her fully comfortable with herself and everyone around her. 

Zoey gasps admirationally, “I can't believe you got all that wisdom just from looking at her.”

Doctor Han then shifts to look at Zoey, “Hm. I see…”

Zoey immediately is having less fun, “Wait, why are you looking at me?”

“Eagerness to please. Maybe a little too eager.” he says with certainty.

Zoey whispers and laughs it off, “What? I'm not like that. You'd tell me if I was like that, right?” She looks frantically at Mira and Rumi who laugh and look at each other uncertain what the right thing to say is.

Zoey blushed, seeing her friend's expression this time, “I’m not that bad…” she groaned. 

“You’re perfect.” Rumi said, snuggling closer to her friends.

“Exactly.” Mira added, “No one has anything they need to work on. The status quo is great.”

“Hey!” Mira and Rumi interjected in unison. 

The Doctor moves to repeat the same practice with Mira, “Hm... I see…” She is much less easily phased however, staring back while matching his intensity before snapping her teeth and causing him to flinch backwards. 

“Yeah, that's right.” Mira says confidently.

“Yeah no one has anything to work on.” Rumi added. 

Rumi attempts to get this appointment back on track, moving to stand next to the girls “How does this help me get my voice back?”

Healer Han looks at her and gestures to the group of all three, “As I said, to treat the part, we must understand the whole.”

Rumi is much less interested in entertaining this conversation any longer, “That's great, but I thought we were here just for your tonics.”

Mira is equally unamused, “Just give us the voice juice.”

So the Doctor shifts gears, “Hm... I know just the tonics you need.”

Rumi waits outside of the front office for her tonics, she looks at a photo of Huntrix and Han. “Is that us?” she says quietly to herself. However, the Han sticker falls off the picture and she groans, “ Zoey…”

Zoey gasped and laughed! Mira rolled her eyes, “Wow, we are all shocked that this man would use false advertising to attract customers.”

Bobby looked over at Rumi, “Don’t tell me you still used it…”

Rumi shrugged, “I mean…”

Bobby groaned, “Oh no…”

The Doctor interrupts her worries about the genuine nature of this practice by handing her a large box, singing “Your tonics are ready!” 

They leave the office behind and Mira and Zoey chant, “We got the tonics! We got the tonics!” Giddy with the success of their mission.

“Yay! Once your voice is fixed, we can get back to the important stuff, like the fans.” Zoey cheers. 

Before they can continue speaking they hear a voice from further up the alley talking to someone and they immediately panic, “Fans!” Zoey yelps.

“We can't let them see us! Hurry!” Rumi says, equally flustered.

“Be cool. Look normal.” Mira orders, as both Mira and Zoey duck behind Rumi who attempts to hide both in her hoody and behind the box. 

Celine looked over at them, not saying anything but clearly hunting for words to describe the chaos happening on screen. After a moment of thought she just turned back to the movie. 

Turning the corner down the alley is a group of boys all walking forward. Two boys have pink hair, one light, and one dark brown, one had sky blue hair, and lilac hair covering his eyes. Mira and Zoey's eyes turned into hearts, as they study the boys who turned the corner. Zoey gets a particular eye-full of abs and skin her eyes transform into popping corn while she squeals.

“So hot.” Mira says.

Rumi rolls her eyes at her suddenly boy-crazy friends, “Ugh. You guys are so gross…”

Bobby couldn’t help himself but burst out laughing, he had not been told that the girls had met their rival band before they blew up. Especially knowing how much they despised the group later, the tone of this meeting was especially silly.

Rumi then is stunned to silence by a handsome black-haired boy who turns the corner last. The world slips into a dramatic slow motion when he walks past bumping Rumi, causing her to fall and letting the box of tonics go flying in the air. Rumi looks up seeing the man almost reach out to help her up but instead dusting his shoulder off for making contact with her.

Rumi shook her head at the interaction, also forcefully not looking at her friends who she could tell were watching for her reactions to see if they needed to step in. She was fine, this was hardly going to be the most intense interaction between her and Jinu. 

Jinu looks down at her dismissively, “Uh…”

Rumi is thrown by the rudeness of the interaction, “Huh?”

“Watch yourself.” Rumi says as he turns away without any further acknowledgment.

“Watch my- Watch yourself! Look at this mess!” Rumi says, stumbling over her words and not quite landing the rebuttal she might have hoped for. 

Zoey and Mira help Rumi up and they begin picking up the spilled tonics and returning them to Rumi’s box, “Yeah. They're not even that cute.” Zoey says.

“They're so bleh!” Rumi adds.

The girls spend several minutes mimicking the assorted kinds of puking sounds that best match the vibes of this while quite attractive, clearly aggressively rude group.

Bobby couldn’t stop smiling. 

Mira stops the game by groaning, “I'm gonna throw up.”

Mira was wincing too, “I don’t know why we did that.”

“You’re so sensitive.” Zoey said, laughing again.

Then they can hear music coming from a distance, “Wait. What is that?” Rumi asks and the group peaks around the corner and notices a purple dust cloud. The girls prepare themselves, with Zoey pulling the strings of Rumi's hoodie, accidentally strangling her and knocking her to the ground.

[Song: Soda Pop, by the Saja Boys]

“Ooh. Sorry!” Zoey says as Rumi dusts herself off the ground again. 

“You do not know your own strength.” Rumi said smiling, surprised by how calm she felt. Maybe it was because everyone had seen this, if they weren't there they watched the videos of it that went viral afterwards. None of this is secret, it’s just what happened. 

They walk toward the source. It was the same boys from before, now performing a song. As the song builds the girls get more annoyed and confused with the circumstance, “These guys are a boy band?” Rumi asks.

They watch Jinu seductively drink what is revealed to be one of Rumi’s recently purchased tonics, so the girls move ever closer growing more and more furious with the bizarre attitude of this newly revealed boy band. 

“Theif!” Zoey cheers, Rumi laughs and rolls her eyes. 

Despite their irritation they can’t quite contain themselves from matching the beat of the song, moving their shoulders back and forth, again and again. 

“It’s going to get stuck in my head again.” Bobby said mournfully, it had only been a few days since the last time he’d caught himself humming the evil song without thinking about it.

The boys summon hearts out of thin air that fly out into the crowd to the growing confusion of the girls, only then does the entire boyband flash with a very familiar purple color. Their patterns revealed for just a single moment. 

 “They're demons!” Mira and Rumi say.

Zoey first guesses wrong but course corrects quickly, “Magicians! Demons. Obviously demons.”

Celine turned to the girls, “I understand why some things were not revealed to me. When the plot of Gwi-Ma became obvious you should have told me, his tactics haven’t changed for hundreds of years. Did you not think you might need a second opinion on developing a wholly unique battle plan?”

Rumi looked down, not knowing what the proper defense would be.

Zoey met Celine’s gaze, “You trained us to handle it all on our own. We knew better than to involve you while we still had options.”

Celine looked at them, knowing how truly dire it had become and strangled back the anger at their naivety and unwillingness to accept when they were in over their heads. She took a breath and refocused on the screen, knowing better than to start a fight that they were so clearly longing for.

As the song continues the girls continue to marvel at the catchy nature of the song and try to understand what the point could possibly be behind having a demon boy band. 

“I don't care. A demon's a demon. We kill them.” Mira says as she moves forward through the crowd, only stopping when Rumi grabs onto her.

“No, it's too public.” Rumi says.

“What if they try to kill these people?” Mira worries.

Zoey watches for a moment, “It doesn't look like they're gonna hurt anyone.”

As the Saja boys move through the crowd they do small acts of charity, Jinu passes by and squeezes mustard for a struggling girl, and the Saja Boys give presents to the kids weighed down with homework.

“What is their plan?” Bobby said, confused now that the full context of the situation was sinking in. What did demons want with stardom and song ratings?

“The fans.” Rumi said succinctly, “Magic sways souls, and it can clearly shift it in a few different directions.”

Bobby watched, stunned. The true stakes of what the girls had been fighting for the past several weeks hitting him.

“In fact, it almost seems like they're nice demons?” Zoey suggests. 

Rumi and Mira respond in sync again, “Demons are never nice!”

Mira winced at the fight in her voice, only distracted from her ever growing guilt at the way it was matched by the anger in Rumi’s own voice. Mira wasn’t saying anything that Rumi didn’t think herself, and that was far more heartbreaking. 

The girls stomp on the corn dog and crush the kids' presents, frantically screaming about not touching or eating the gifts while the Saja Boys claim their stage and continue their masterful performance. 

“Risky.” Celine said simply, examining the girl’s behavior rashly and with little regard for being observed. The tension in the room grew. 

Rumi begins to understand the true heart of this mission and encourages the group forward, “They're coming after the fans. We gotta stop this now.”

At the same moment of this realization and the girls fight through the crowd the Saja Boys finish their song and Jinu looks out across the audience, making eye contact with Rumi and whipping the imagined dirt off of his shoulder again, “That's it for now. See you tonight on everyone's favorite variety show. Saja Boys love you!” He and the rest of the boys all disappear leaving behind a soda-pop themed stage that hadn’t been there only moments before.

The final sting lingering in the air as the audience reacts, “My little soda pop!”

A man to the left of the group responds, “That was incredible.”

Another woman says, “I liked that.”

Zoey turns to Rumi and Mira and says slightly disgruntled, “To be fair, that's also something a magician would do.”

Rumi’s voice is low and angry, “Oh, those are demons. And we're gonna kill them. Let's get battle ready.”

Bobby looked over at the girls, hearing for the first time the power behind their voices. They had killed demons on the screen before but it was a task, it was a mantle they wore and a way to protect the world. This moment was full of anger, a volatile and violent emotion that he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen within his girls and watching Rumi wield it so deftly only worried him further about the patterns on her skin now hidden and the conversations she wouldn’t have with any of them. 

Chapter Text

All the girls prepare themselves, in a montage wearing black leather suits, colored accessories, and black nail polish outlining their plan to kill saja.

Offscreen Rumi’s voice can be heard, “Let's go kill these guys.”

Zoey caws like a bird, “Caw-caw!”

Bobby and the girl’s laughed, the utter seriousness of the moment broken by the Zoey's bird performance. 

The title screen and intro of a variety show takes over the screen, the studio intro playing in an autotuned jingle, “Play Games With Us!”

An announcer voice fills the space, “Spicy challenge.” The Saja Boys are sitting at assorted tables with bottles full of hot sauce that they are in the process of drinking as quickly as they can.

The Variety Show Host takes the stage, “Welcome back to “Who Can Chug the Most Hot Sauce?”

Huntrix hide just off-stage finalizing the details of their plan, Rumi lays it out, “Once they come off stage, we'll jump down for the attack, and these boys'll be....”

In unison the girls chant, “Done, done, done!”

They laugh evilly and head to the top of the stage. On stage, the Saja Boys continue to play the hot sauce challenge with the co-host.

Bobby blinked at the cynical laughter, his girl’s did often lose themselves in the task in front of them. He supposed this was just another variation on that, the mission in front of them was very different then the tasks he would often provide his girl’s but they likely approached them in similar ways.

The Variety Show Host continues describing the order in which members of the Saja Boys tap out of the challenge, “That's one flaming-hot Jinu. And Abby is down. Mystery is history. Looks like Romance is out due to heartburn? It's a dead heat between my handsome co-host and Baby Saja. Can our host catch up?”

Soon, the spice proved too much for the co-host while Baby Saja can handle the heat.

Co-Host clearly suffering whispers, “So spicy! So spicy!”

Variety Show Host cheers, “He can't! Baby Saja is the winner!”

Baby Saja looks dead to the camera, “Goo goo, ga ga.”

The girls all wrinkled their noses, they had been pretty uniquely positioned that they’d been able to avoid a lot of the more punishing game shows through their Sunlight Sisters connection. The audience had been a lot more curious to hear them talk about the way the group had been formed and put them through challenges their predecessors had passed with flying colors. It came with its own stressors but at least it wasn’t chugging hot sauce quipping pre-written jokes to allow fans to have some element of your personality to run with and obsess over. 

Rumi standing at the top of the stage watches impatiently, “Come on. Wrap it up.”

Jinu notices the girls on top while the Host makes preparations to end the segment. “Hard to say goodbye when we're having fun.” the Host remarks placidly.

“So hard. So hard.” The co-host adds, still distressed. 

Jinu interrupts, reclaiming the microphone,” Then why say goodbye when we have extra special guests coming up?”

“What is he doing?” Rumi whispers.

Jinu shouts, “Please welcome Huntrix!” He gestures, and a spotlight hits the girls who frantically conceal their weapons. 

Bobby shook his head, he’d wondered about their unsanctioned appearance and had even been irritated about it initially. Their appearance led a credibility to the Saja Boy’s that gave fans, advertisers and the industry at large the permission to run with the mysterious group. Knowing that their intention had been more deadly then he would have guessed made the whole interaction make far more sense. He’d thought the girls had just been annoyed about the viral videos and had wanted to attempt to one-up the group by stepping on the end of their show. He turned to the girls, “You know this whole mess is making so much more sense now.”

Mira laughed, Zoey nodded, “Yeah I’d imagine so.” 

The audience cheers, a fan wearing their merch screams his love and Rumi frantically attempts damage control without stepping on the stage. “We just wanted to stop by and congratulate our hoobaes on their debut and…” 

Jinu smiles and deftly interrupts her, “And of course, Play Games with Us!” he sings the jingle before gesturing off-stage, “Bring out the slides!” A three part slide is wheeled out, already modified with their name and ending in a small ball pit. 

The audience begins chanting, “Slide! Slide! Slide!” showing no signs of stopping.

Rumi attempts one further time, “Oh no. We couldn't possibly....”

The audience only grows more hungry for their participation, “In the balls! In the balls! In the balls!” 

“Sure. For the fans.” Rumi says uncomfortably. The girls leap on the slide but, because of their leather suits, they slid down, squeakily, loud and agonizingly slowly. 

The whole room cringed, even though they’d lived it or seen the video footage afterwards the moment still stretched on agonizingly slowly. 

“Wait. What the..?” Rumi says quietly, as the girls and the audience cringe and cover their ears from the unfortunate sound.

“What's happening?” someone cries out from the audience. 

“The leather has betrayed us…!” Zoe hisses with profound discomfort. 

They finally landed in the balls, somehow still losing their footing even with their slow speed, “and Huntrix is in the balls!” the Host announces. 

“Well, this was fun.” Rumi says awkwardly. 

Jinu examines Huntrix with a pretense of genuine expression, “It was truly an honor to share the stage with you.” The Saja Boys bow to the more established group.

The audience is overjoyed with the new dynamic, “So hot!”

“And respectful!” another girl screams. 

Rumi shook her head, “We really should have seen this coming.”

Mira nodded, “Nothing fans love more than a boy band who’s been given a girl group’s stamp of approval.”

The girls bow as well, “The honor is ours.”

Jinu bows lower, “No, it was ours.”

Huntrix and the Saja Boys go back and forth passing honor and attempting to bow lower before the stage curtain falls with the Saja Boys unfortunately the clear winner in this game of respect. The second the curtain falls however the Saja Boys run from the girls. 

“Let's go get these guys.” Rumi says and the chase is on. They have left the studio behind and only catch a glimpse of a closing door, the Saja Boys have escaped to a bath house to attempt to hide from them. 

Zoey gasps with enthusiasm as they race forward, “We finally get to go to the bathhouse with Rumi!”

Rumi laughed, “Oh yeah we had so much fun… definitely going to have to relive this experience.”

Zoey groaned, playing up the dramatics to bring a smile to her friend’s faces, “I promised it’s not normally like that Rumi… Come on… I even said it when we were in there!”

The girls enter the spa bathhouse and quickly realize it's the men's bathhouse; they all groan. 

“Wow. Did you really follow us in here?” Jinu says with a mock surprise.

Rumi couldn’t help but laugh slightly, the whole game of cat and mouse had been so predictable. The Hunters were using the same tactics and tricks they always had, something the demons had had centuries to learn from and understand. The tactics on the demon side had changed, it was no wonder that they had been on the back foot for so much of the fight. They’d been winging the whole situation. There was nothing in the wheelhouse of the Huntrix team that would have phased the Saja Boys. Rumi stopped her train of thought, well there was one notable thing that phased the Saja Boy’s she supposed. 

Abby Saja speaks gruffly, “I knew they would. That one's always looking at me.” His shirt flutters just slightly, revealing his abs yet again. 

Zoey and Mira both attempt to defend themselves while also very pointedly looking, “No, we're… not!”

Rumi looked over at her friends who were laughing at themselves, looking slightly embarrassed but hardly phased. She supposed that was the benefit of not being shy to talk about things, everyone knew that they’d thought Abby was hot before he started being too difficult to enjoy looking at. Sue sighed softly, there wasn’t a world where she revealed her secrets earlier and confided in her friends, she knew that, but if she had this whole experience would be a whole lot easier. 

Rumi remains focused, “You think we're just gonna let you steal our fans? You'll have to fight us for them!”

Zoey chimes in, “Yeah. Keep your hands off our Honmoon!”

Jinu drawls from the other side of the bath house, “We're not here to fight. They are.” He pulls his arms wide and gestures to the many baths between the girls and the Saja Boys. Water demons begin to emerge in droves. 

“Water demons.” Rumi hisses.

Mira groans, “Oh great. My favorite.”

Jinu leans down to the demons and promises, “Get rid of the Hunters. Then you can eat all the souls you want.” The fight begins. 

While attacking the quickly circling demons Zoey yelps, “Don't let this turn you off bathhouses, Rumi! It's usually really fun and relaxing!”

Bobby and the girls laughed at Zoey’s promised defense of bath houses happening so early on in the encounter. . 

Jinu cheers from the other end, “Have fun!” in his attempt to move out of the way of the fight though he takes a turn too quickly and nearly slips on the water, “Oh! Oh jeez.”

Rumi chases after Jinu who’s running away giggling. She leaps in front of him and throws herself into attacking him. Mira and Zoey are without her in the bath house quickly finding themselves surrounded.

Jinu yelps and moves away from the weight of Rumi’s blade, “Whoa! Whoa! Hey.”

Mira and Zoey watched the fight with eyes wide, they had fought the demon’s truly during the final show, after gaining the new power of the fans but Rumi was clearly evenly matched with Jinu, if not stronger then him even with her voice gone and their fan base already beginning to splinter.. 

Zoey is looking frantically around at the many demons that surround them, and the new cracks in the Honmon opening in front of their eyes “What's going on with the Honmoon? It's getting worse.”

Mira has her back to Zoey and both are doing the best they can, “We can't hold them. We need Rumi.”

Rumi winced, she couldn’t be in two places at once but she wished she could always be there for her girls when they needed her.

Rumi slashes out at Jinu who moves swiftly out of her way before recovering, “Whoa! Mind the face. I need it to steal your fans.”

Rumi continues to dodge his attacks and during their fight, the arm of her leather suit gets ripped in the conflict without her noticing. She pins Jinu against the far wall of the bathhouse. 

Jinu laughs, surprised but also seemingly enjoying the true challenge being offered before him, “You're strong.” His face changes as his eyes catch on the broken part of her sleeve, her Patterns visible through the tear, “A Hunter who's part demon?” he whispers. 

Everyone turned to look at Rumi, he knew? Mira and Zoey grabbed one of Rumi’s hands each while looking at each other. Both of their minds were buzzing, going over all the interactions they had seen the two have. Things had always been… charged between them but the fact that he knew and they didn’t put a strange taste in their mouth. Was Rumi blackmailed? Did he just not tell them out of some sense of demonic loyalty? What were they missing?

Bobby was worried. Secrets left you vulnerable and the panic on Rumi’s face on the screen made it clear just how vulnerable she was. 

Celine was livid, her face was calm but she didn’t fight the anger. All of those years, all of those sacrifices all made worthless in a single moment. Rumi should have come to her immediately with this.

Rumi looks down at her own arm, stunned, distracted by the patterns and the panic of being seen; allowing Jinu to temporarily gain the upperhand and push her off of him. At the same time as Mira’s voice echoes there’s a crash and the wall that had been separating the sections of the bath house falls in. There is a direct window between the girls and Rumi is frozen in panic that she will be revealed. 

Rumi winced, she didn’t realize how obvious her fear had been. Mira and Zoey tightened their grip on her hand though and didn’t let her slide away. 

Distantly Mira can be heard calling for her, “Rumi, we need your help!”

Zoey cries out, “Rumi!”

Mira yells alongside her, “What are you doing? Where are you?”

They both need her so desperately, and are turning in her direction and there is nothing she can do but have a hand over the torn section of her sleeve and hope that they won’t notice or worry about what she might be hiding. Before that terrifying moment can come to pass Jinu wraps her close in his arms and spins her around in a disorienting if not somewhat romantic moment. She stands stunned as her friends continue to call for her help before she looks down and realizes both that Jinu is gone and that her sleeve has been wrapped in a towel, concealing her patterns again. 

“No way.” Zoey whispered. 

Bobby worried his fingers against each other, and now a debt was established. A connection, a secret and then a favor, there was a version of events building up in his mind that only led to a more isolated Rumi more solid in her secrets and he could only be desperately grateful that this movie would reveal all the moments the young girl didn’t have the words or the strength to share on her own.  

Celine turned to Rumi, “How dare you keep this a secret.” She hissed. Rumi didn’t blink, she looked up to Celine but didn’t respond, Celine kept going, “You put all the Hunters at risk by exposing yourself.”

Rumi’s gaze stiffened, “I didn’t do it on purpose! It’s honestly a miracle that something like that had happened before.”

“I thought I trained you better than this.” Celine said, her disappointment rattling through the room and cutting through the defensive energy. None of the girls wanted to start a fight that they’d only lose. 

Mira and Zoey shout her name again, breaking the frozen contemplation of the moment, “Rumi!”

Rumi shakes herself from inaction and throws her sword at the demons, destroying them and allowing Mira and Zoey to rejoin the battle. The trio reunited, making quick work of the remaining water demons, working in a clearly practised unison. The Saja Boys are long gone.. 

They stand quietly, breathing hard but satisfied with their accomplishments when an old man walks up to them and scolds, “Hey! This is the man's bathhouse. Get out of here.”

The girls frantically apologize, bowing and looking away as they escape the bathhouse. 

The girls smiled lightly at each other, remembering how grateful they’d been when that hadn’t turned up in a gossip magazine somewhere. The tension in the room was too heavy for the humor of the moment to last for long. 

The camera remains in the now eerily empty space, watching that old man sit on a stool and start bathing, humming along to the iconic Saja Boy single, “My little soda pop. My little soda pop.” His off-tune humming draws a secretly remaining water demon. The creature appears behind him to steal his soul and the man is gone.

Of course that was why the story had never spread. Of course. 

Bobby closed his eyes for a moment, wishing peace on the vanished man. The first casualty. He wanted to find the right words, to lessen the burden on his girl’s shoulders but Celine was still too angry. He could feel her sitting next to him coiling in preparation for a fight. He was angry too, but he knew better than to give her what she wanted. The girls did too, a lesson hard learned. He made a promise to himself though, sitting in silence watching Celine misunderstand and in some cases willfully ignore how difficult a standard she had set for his girls and knew that things would be changing or Celine would never be seeing his girls again. 

We leave the bathhouse behind and follow Jinu, walking outside alone, clearly lost in thought, “A Hunter who's part demon.” he whispers to himself. He freezes suddenly, patterns lighting up and darkening across his arms as he’s pulled down to the demon realm. 

He stands on the dias in front of Gwi-Ma looking down at the cheering oni and demons, they wear merch and are clearly captivated by the boyband as they cheer, “Saja Boys! Saja Boys!”

The other members of Saja Boys are standing amongst the crowd and a moment remove their disguises, revealing their true selves. Causing further weeping amongst the crowd, “They're just like us!”

“I guess they had fans on their side too.” Zoey side quietly.

The other girls nodded, it was something they’d never thought about, but of course it did make sense.

The fan behavior pauses as a blue light passes overhead, like a shooting star directly into the mouth of Gwi-Ma, “Oh, souls incoming!” The man from the bathhouse has been the Demon King's first meal in a long time. 

Gwi-Ma speaks with a smile behind his still ominously resonant voice, “My Little Soda Pop. It's catchy. Surprisingly, your plan is working.”

Jinu nods, “I know, and that soul is just a starter. So let me get back to work, and you'll be feasting in no time.”

Gwi-Ma’s voice turns contemplative, “One of the Hunters bears my mark, but I have no control over her. 

Rumi watched stunned, she’d never heard Gwi-Ma’s voice in her head. Her demons had been far less literal and more often than not self-inflicted. She had never suspected that the King would be aware of her, or that he would have shared that with Jinu. She supposed then it was probably in her favor that he’d learned in the bath house, forcing him to react emotionally to the information rather than logically. 

Mira brought up a new point, speaking loud enough for the others in the room to hear, “What does he mean control over her? Does Gwi-Ma control all the demons?”

There was a moment of silence, everyone waiting for Celine to provide the answer even when most of the room could not look at her. After a lengthy pause she did, “Some suspect he might. Though there is no proof one way or another.”

The silence fell between them again, the girls looking at each other quietly as it became more obvious how little they truly understood of the task they’d been raised to accomplish. 

Jinu is unsurprised by this information but doesn’t indicate that, “This is good. This means she has shame. I'll find out what it is, and we can use it to destroy her and the Hunters for good.”

Gwi-Ma smiles, “I've taught you well, Jinu.” 

Mira and Zoey fought off the instinctive fight when Rumi didn’t react at all to this revelation. She seemed unsurprised by the task set forth for the demon and Mira and Zoey only grew more worried. 

The scene shifts to the girls back in their apartment. They were now covered with bandages and in more comfortable clothes as they looked through their window out at the city. The once practically perfect Honmon is covered with pink glowing cracks. 

Celine hissed softly. She’d monitored the status of the Honmon from her home but there was something about the high vantage point that made it clear just how quickly everything collapsed. 

Rumi speaks softly, “How do we go from gold to this?”

“Look at all the weak spots. We've never seen the Honmoon like this before.” Zoey says.

“Gwi-Ma must know we're so close to sealing it for good.” Rumi respondes.

“So he sends a demon boy band?” Mira adds, rightfully confused.

Rumi shrugs, “Well, it's working.”

Zoey attempts to cheer the girls up, “Don't worry. I'm sure "Soda Pop" is just a fad. These boys will be old news by next week. You'll see.”

The elevator doors ding and Bobby can be heard from off-screen, “Girls?”

The girls quickly pull make-up out from seemingly nowhere to clean themselves up and more importantly  cover their wounds and bandages.

Bobby whistled, “Impressive girls.”

They smiled and laughed slightly, choosing not to explain just how much practice they had at that particular skill knowing how it would upset him. 

“Hi, Bobby!” they say in their typical unison and with no sign of the wear of the day.

Bobby moves closer to them with his phone out, “It's a lot more serious than I thought. The Saja Boys have gone completely viral after that variety show. They even have their own fandom.”

Bobby scrolls through his phone, showing many, many different fans, all the Huntrix themed account names but notably performing in a Saja Boy’s themed dance challenge with Soda Pop playing in the background. Both Bobby and Zoey can’t help but dance along to the catchy chorus. 

Rumi and Mira notice and scold both of them, “Bobby! Zoey!”

“Control those shoulders.” Mira adds.

Zoey laughs a little and mimics the dance aggressively enough to consistently knock into Rumi’s shoulder and push her into Mira. 

Zoey looks down at Bobby’s phone again, “Wow, it is catchy.”

Bobby sighs, “Yeah, you're right, Zoey. They're amazing, but they suck. I'm sorry. I've been glued to this tiny screen for hours. I just need to look away and…” He moves closer to the window, putting his hand up against the glass and looking out at a seemingly peaceful skyline, “Woo! Relax, Bobby. It's just social media numbers. Not the end of the world.” The camera shifts to focus on the girls, the reflection of the pink fragmenting Honmon shadowed across all three of their faces. They look haunted. 

Bobby doesn’t fight the laugh, “Oh no girls. I know the situation is much more serious than it looked like for me but your faces…” 

The girls laughed along with them, it would have turned into a strange conversation to say the least if Bobby had looked back at the shell shocked girls when taking his moment to reconnect with the city. 

Rumi snaps herself from the panic, “This is the battle for hearts and minds. A battle for the fans. And what's the biggest battlefield of them all?”

Mira and Zoey respond, “The Idol Awards.”

In unison Bobby adds, “State Fair?” even as he says it seemingly unsure what Rumi could be going for. 

Rumi doesn’t acknowledge Bobby’s response, looking at Mira and Zoey, “That's right. We have to crush that stage. Be better than we've ever been with the show to end the Saja Boys for good. Zoey, we're gonna need a new song.”

Zoey nods, “I got 23 notebooks full of demon insults ready to go.”

Bobby cheers, “Yeah! Let's make it 30 notebooks.”

Rumi looks at Mira, “Mira, the choreography?”

Mira smirks, “Yep, making them hotter.”

Bobby jumps up behind her, still typing quickly on his phone, “Backup dancers, ready to go.”

Rumi studies the group, “We'll write a brand-new song. A diss track to expose the Saja Boys.”

Zoey jumps up and down, “And send those disgusting demons back to the depths where they belong!”

The girls break out into battle cries! Ramping each other up and getting ready to shift gears towards a more antagonistic song-writing mode.

“We're gonna kick their butts!” Zoey screams while the girls race from the living room. 

Bobby remains in the living room cheering the girls on, “That's my girls! Not sure about this whole demon thing. They seem nice, but loving the energy!”

Bobby shook his head, “See Bobby of the past that’s how they get you. When the girls call people demons you should just blindly agree even if you don’t understand.”

Zoey grinned over at Bobby, “Hey we knew even if we didn’t give you all the background we could still trust you. See you even encourage the energy!”

“Even though it was objectively crazy.” Rumi added, smiling. 

Bobby grinned over at his girls, “Well obviously.”

Chapter Text

Rumi is in her room with the box of tonics. The room is only slightly lit and doesn’t have much personal decor, she has empty shelves and no posters on her wall.

Rumi talks to herself as she opens up the box, “Okay, tonics. Let's do this.” She pulls the first tonic out and immediately notices something off about it, “What?” It’s a sticker, rebranding what is just a sample of grape juice into the promised medical miracle. Rumie groans, “Zoey.” 

Zoey slouched back against the couch laughing a little while hiding her blush with her hands.

Mira laughed along before stopping suddenly and looking over at Rumi who was biting her lip and purposefully positioning herself so Celine was fully hidden behind Bobby, “Rumi,” Mira said softly, “I thought you said that the tonics helped get your voice back?” 

Rumi looked over at her slightly panicked, she opened her mouth but several long seconds passed as she tried to find a clear explanation for her own story. The moment stretched on, Mira’s question was quiet enough that only Zoey heard it so before Rumi could twist herself further up in knots Mira rested a hand on Rumi’s shoulder, “It’s alright.”

Rumi rested her head on Mira’s shoulder, not making eye contact before quietly saying, “I said a lot of things because I didn’t want you to know.”

Mira gently runs her head through Rumi’s hair, “It’s okay. You were doing your best.” 

She sets the tonic to the side Rumi can’t help but remember the conversation from the bathouse, Jinu being the only person other than Celine who knows who she really is, “A Hunter who's part demon?” She touches her arm, where Jinu had helped her keep her secret as she thinks. Suddenly though hears chirping and notices something outside that pulls her from her thoughts.

“Is that a bird wearing a tiny hat?” she says 

She steps outside to indeed  see a crow wearing a small hat , “What?”

She gets closer and the bird roars before opening its mouth with its tongue moving wildly and revealing three eyes where there should only be one. She flinches away but doesn’t run, studying it for a movement longer. It walks along her porch and she follows it, fascinated and confused when she hears a new noise from the bushes and sees giant eyes staring at her. 

Everyone, Celine included this time, stared over at Rumi truly flummoxed by this stange animaliatic twist in their story. They had known to anticipate some of what was coming in the movie but could not have even thought that they’d been meeting a demonic creature, let alone multiple. 

Rumi pulls her sword out as the creature steps towards her. It’s a blue tiger, its orange eyes unblinking as it studies her. It approaches only to knock over a flower pot and freeze. Rumi still holds her weapons but stares at the bird as they both watch the large and intimidating wild-cat attempt to right the flower pot. Still never blinking it makes many attempts to fix the plant before Rumi allows her sword to fade and moves a step closer. She bends down and picks the flower pot up. The tiger looks at her and when she stands again it takes another step, once more knocking the flower over. The bird rolls his many eyes in exasperation. 

Laughter spread throughout the room. 

Rumi takes a step closer laughing a little bit and speaking softly, “No. No, really. It's okay. Just leave it. What are you?”

The tiger, still not blinking, opens its mouth and a card falls out.

“It’s eyes are so big.” Zoey said still laughing. 

Rumi grabs it, reading the envelope outside first, "Hello, friend." She opens it and reads the note written in Korean, “Jinu? Ji... Jinu? Oh! Meet you? I'm not gonna meet you. Who do you think you…”

Before she can continue to generate excuses the bird flies past her getting its wings in her face before perching on the tiger's head as they both slowly sink through the floor of her balcony. They disappear in through the blue portal before reappearing on the streets below.

Rumi nods to herself, growing resolved and angry, “Okay, Jinu. Let's meet.”

Mira and Zoey looked over at each other, worried, the humor of the moment fading as they see their friend choose to go out alone. 

Celine bites her tongue, aware even as humor conceals the tension that it is still very much present in the space.

Rumi follows the tiger through the streets, jumping on rooftops and flipping around with ease. She stops when she notices a recognizable figure standing a few rooftops over. She leaps onto his roof, summons her sword and charges. She swings, cutting off the head, only to find out it's just a mannequin.

“What?” Rumi says, clearly thrown.

The room gasps as well. Rumi is a notable fighter, trained as both an individual and a member of the team and it is rare that someone can get the jump on her. 

Jinu materializes behind the mannequin, “Wow. I wasn't expecting a hug, but…” Rumi moves towards him with her sword, “Jeez, okay, okay. Calm down.” He jumps to get away from her as she attacks, “I thought the mannequin was gonna be a fun icebreaker. But I see I was wrong.” He dodges again, Rumi ramping up and Jinu still not fighting, merely deflecting, “Whoa! Hey! I just wanna talk.”

“Talk?” Rumi says, incredulously, her sword still out. 

Mira furrows her brows, “What’s his plan here.”

Rumi shakes her head, looking mildly amused but also exasperated with the antics, “It’s unclear even now how he thought that was going to work.”

Jinu embraces the moment of pause, “About your patterns? But first, I wanna talk about those pants.” He gestures down at her pajamas, “Teddy bears and choo-choo trains? Really?” After a moment of pause he continues, “Choo-choo.”

Mira and Zoey looked at each other again, their confusion growing as Jinu continued to not instigate a fight and instead playfully teased their friend.  

Annoyed at this point more than fueled by the anger she’d started with, Rumi swings her sword again but Jinu just disappears.

“You were supposed to be dead by now!” Rumi hisses

Jinu reappears, walking around the roof tops, pointedly keeping a large distance between them, “Whoa. Hey! I could've told your friends what you are. But I didn't, did I? Because they don't know.” He waited a moment to see if she would attempt to argue when she doesn’t, he continues, “Ah, I did guess right. A demon girl. Also Hunter. Hiding, walking around free in the human world.”

The implied threat is not subtle and the whole room feels it, he has power over Rumi by knowing her secret and knowing that no one else knows.

Celine rests her head in her hands and stifling her sigh, she should have come to her the second things started to get complicated. Rumi was not equipped to handle this on her own, Celine had raised her to be able to fight and work in isolation while they looked for the rest of the Hunter’s but it was never a long term strategy. While Rumi often took point on missions and in combat she needed other people and it was highly misguided that she refused to acknowledge that. 

Rumi hisses, “Just Hunter, not demon.”

Jinu is unphased by her fury, “Then how'd you get the patterns?”

“That's none of your business.”

Jinu attempts to placate her, “Huh. I know what it feels like to have them.”

Rumi scoffs, rolling her eyes, “Feel? You're a demon. Demons don't feel anything.”

This is the first time Jinu seems surprised by her in this conversation, “Is that what you think? That's all demons do. Feel. Feel our shame, our misery. It's how Gwi-Ma controls us. Do you not hear him in your ear?”

Rumi’s anger melts with a genuine confusion, “What are you talking about?”

Bobby looked over at Rumi carefully, as the conversation twisted to become more genuine but Rumi remained visibly calm. This conversation wasn't vulnerable enough to phase her in the way some of the earlier moments could. 

Jinu is still stunned, “Huh. You're lucky. I'll never forget the first time I heard him. That was 400 years ago.” While Jinu speaks the camera shifts to his perspective on his childhood and difficult upbringing, you see his bipa, his family and can feel his desperation when he studies his own reflection, “My family was extremely poor and miserable. I had a single possession to my name. An old bipa. So I busked the streets, but it didn't get me anywhere. I was desperate. We were starving. Then, I heard him.”

Gwi-Ma in the memory sounds just as he does now as Jinu recounts what he whispered to him, “You can't do anything for your family. You're not good enough for them. But I can help you be good enough.”

Jinu continues telling his story as the visuals grow more hopeful, or at least less hungry, “Overnight, my fate was changed. I was praised for my voice. Even by the king himself. My family and I lived on the palace grounds. Our bellies were finally full, our clothes clean. We were happy. But the patterns, they kept spreading until they consumed me. And I was condemned to the demon world. Prisoner of Gwi-Ma for all eternity. My family lost everything. And without me, they were even worse off than before. Every day since, I've been haunted by the memory of failing them.” The image pivots his mother and sister alone, crying with hands outstretched.

Gwi-Ma twists the knife, “You left them. Left them behind. Failed them.”

Rumi breathed carefully even as she tried to not get lost in the visuals. She’d heard the story, she knew the parts Jinu kept hidden but it didn’t stop the grief of the moment watching a family be torn apart and watching how it shattered someone she’d come to trust. 

Mira, Zoey and Bobby are surprised not by the tragic backstory but by the familiarity of Gwi-Ma’s voice, the remembered through the haze their own worst fears and worries being pulled to front of their minds. They were far more like the demons then they’d realized and it was an uncomfortable thought to sit with.

Jinu continues speaking, his voice heavy with memories, looking down at the glowing patterns on his hand “These are a constant reminder of my shame.” He looks down at his arms, bright and vibrant with the recollection of his past, “A shame I can never escape.” He moves closer to Rumi, she leans away from him but doesn’t step back. He brings his hand up to her neck, revealing the bright patterns on her own skin, “Yours are a reminder, too. Of a shame of your own.”

Mira shook her head a bit to pull herself from her thoughts looking over at Rumi instead, “Does that always happen?”

“What?”

“When you’re around other demons, do they glow?” 

Rumi pushed up her sleeve looking at the marks on her arm, they were purple from the stress but not turbulent, not glowing, “I don’t think so. They always responded to emotions, Jinu was…” she paused for a moment gathering her words, “being very intentional I think about the way he wanted me to feel after  that conversation.”

“He wanted you to feel like a demon?” Zoey said quietly.

Rumi shook her head, “He wanted me to feel like him.”

“You don't know me.” Rumi says, clearly affected by his story and his certainty. 

Jinu responds with a kindness that all the same further isolates her, “You know you can tell me. I'll understand. I'm the only one who can.”

Bobby hissed quietly; watching a very lonely girl encounter someone with struggles adjacent to hers but intentions far less kind and wished more than anything that he would have been trusted with the truth when Celine first reached out about him managing the girls. He can only hope that Rumi would be able to weather it on her own.

Rumi shakes herself, undoing the spell of tragedy woven around her and pulling her sword out again, “I'm nothing like you.”

Jinu smiles half-heartedly and shifts onto his back foot, “Denial. I get it. I was once there too. I'll be here when you're done pretending. Until next time.”

Rumi’s anger returns, “There won't be a next time!” She swings at the demon again but Jinu just disappears. She yells, frustrated.

Zoey leaned against Rumi more, feeling the tension in her body even if it’s been hidden. 

The next scene is just a shot of Rumi throwing the pajama pants away. The scene shifts again and now the girls are together, surrounded by paper and instruments, in the middle of crafting their new song. Rumi is clearly still stressed and annoyed.

Mira and Zoey are singing a potential line, “You'll never beat us. Your plan will never work. We're gonna-”

Zoey abandons it, “This song sucks!”

Mira throws herself back on the cushion she’s sitting on, throwing darts at a series of posters of the Saja Boys the girls have taped up the wall, she doesn’t watch where they land, instead staring up at the ceiling, “We only have to write the best diss track ever to crush the Idol Awards, or there'll be a demon apocalypse. No pressure at all.”

Bobby winced. It wasn’t only Rumi left isolated by the decision to keep everything so secret. Everyone was struggling and he hadn’t been able to help them at all. 

Zoey agrees, similarly disheartened,  “Yeah! We gotta get up close and insult their stupid faces!” she crawls off of her seat moving closer and closer to the posters and quickly finding herself distracted by the one of Mystery, “Their nasty, disgusting, not beautiful, perfectly dewy, symmetrical, shimmering…”

Zoey blushed while the girls laughed at her. Bobby smiled at the antics having witnessed Zoey’s complex hate crush enough times.

Mira gets up, moves Zoey out of the way and pulls the posters off of the wall, “Okay, enough! I'm taking these down! Just like how we're gonna take down these boys!”

Rumi sits up, “Take down? Takedown! That's the song! It's a take down!”

Zoey’s eyes light up with inspiration at the title, “So sweet, so easy on the eyes, but hideous on the inside.”

Mira nods, “Nice.”

Zoey smiles, “You like it?”

Instead of responding Zoey finds the next line, “Whole life spreading lies, but you can't hide.”

Rumi jumps in, “Baby, nice try.”

Mira laughs, “Whoa. That's sounding good.”

Rumi continues, “I'm about to switch up these vi-” stopping as her voice breaks and she coughs again, “Sorry, guys.”

Mira didn’t look at Rumi but her worries about her voice only grew. The tonics were fake, so what had her friend had to do?

Celine closed her eyes, strangling her emotions and continued watching with only that singular moment of tension, her foolish child.

Zoey looks worried but immediately comforts her, “No, take it easy.”

Mira does the same, resting a hand on Rumi, “Yeah, rest that voice for Idol Awards.”

The scene cuts to an awards show, the host announcing, “This week's winner is "Soda Pop" by the Saja Boys!”

The girls face the demons growling, as a montage begins. “Takedown” is created from a backdrop of desperate attempts to fight the demons who are gaining ground both musically and literally within their home. 

The sound of a demon ricocheting through an alleyway is how they discover the heartbeat of the song. Mira and Zoey are gleeful at how things are coming together. 

Rumi is questioning everything, she has a demon cornered up against a wall but instead of fighting she tries to talk to it, “Are you a prisoner, too? Is Gwi-Ma making you do this?” The oni only grins until Mira stabs it. Rumi turns, sounding guilty but also grateful, “Mira.”

Rumi didn’t look at Mira but leaned against her softly, all three girls getting as close to each other as possible.

Mira smiled, “I knew I wasn’t crazy, you were talking to demons.”

Rumi smiled, there wasn’t much emotion behind it but it was still there, “Yeah, thanks for noticing me even though I wouldn’t tell you anything that was going on.”

Mira pulled her even closer, practically pulling Rumi into her lap, “Anytime.”

Mira looks suspicious but worried, “You okay?”

Rumi nods, smiling uncomfortably, “Yeah, thanks for having my back.”

They’re back at the same awards show, this time with more confidence as the announcer cheers, “This week's winner is "Golden" by Huntrix!” They continue to fight the demons who are desperately jumping out at fans and strangers alike.  The tiger appears on Rumi’s balcony with another note, she closes the door on it gently. 

They continue crafting “Takedown” going back and forth over lyrics. 

Mira adds, “Oh, how about "A demon with no feelings doesn't deserve to live"?”

Zoey cheers, “It's so obvious!”

Rumi writes it down looking uncertain and even more lost than before. The billboards they walk past every day shift from advertising “Golden” to “Soda-Pop”. Bobby scrolls nervously through social media watching the tide shift as behind him the sky is more pink then blue.

Zoey and Mira felt their heart’s in their stomachs, nerves and guilt growing as they watched Rumi write down the lyrics and already be hurt by them. How many times had they made her practice lines that she hated.

The scene shifts, the girls are now sitting at a signing table with stacks of posters in front of them. Bobby stands before them with a determined expression, “All right, team, I know everything is all Saja, Saja, Saja, but we're gonna turn it into Huntrix, Huntrix, Huntrix! Yay! These fans slept on the sidewalk, overnight!”

The girls all hold their pens together in a version of cheer and whisper softly, “Happy fans, happy Honmoon!”

Celine nodded. The girls needed a readjustment, it was a smart business move even when Bobby didn’t know the full circumstances of what was going on. They needed to refocus themselves on the fans rather than simply in opposition to the other group. 

Bobby smiles, “Let's bring them in!” The doors open and a large crowd pushes through, desperate to get to the signing table, “Welcome. Hey, single file, no pushing.”

A group covered in sleeping bags walks up first, Rumi smiles, “And who should I make this out to?”

Jinu speaks from within the sleeping bag, "To our biggest fans."

The group all reveal themselves, and the fans scream, “It's the Saja Boys!”

Bobby pivots quickly, business minded at the end of things, “It is an honor! Table, now!” 

Fans scream, “Joint signing!” and quickly decide who they care about seeing more, splitting the crowd in half.

Rumi whispers to herself, “We lose half the fans?” she speaks louder, announcing to the crowd, “The Saja Boys will sit with us!”

Mira and Zoey are equally confused and frustrated, “What? Rumi? What are you doing?”

Bobby weeps, “Genius!”

Bobby nods, “Even knowing what I know now, I still stand by that move. Savvy on all the levels.”

Rumi laughed and the other girls nodded, “It’s true.” Zoey added.

Rumi looks at the girls, “We need every fan.” The Saja Boys quickly settle in between the girls along the table. 

Romance coos at Mira who is visibly unimpressed, “Hm. We keep meeting like this.”

Zoey has her hands on her hips, “I am not sitting with no Saja Boy…” her tune quickly changes when Mystery sits on her other side, “What's up?”

Abby begins handing out etchings of his abs the moment he sits down. 

Jinu sits next to Rumi at the end, separating her from the rest of the group and whispers, “I didn't think you liked sharing.”

Rumi glares at him, “I love sharing.”

Jinu smirks, mock surprise, “Oh, so you shared your secret with your friends?”

Mira groaned, “He’s nothing if not consistent.”

Zoey laughed, “That’s for sure.”

Rumi smiled at them appreciating how tightly they held her even as they teased and made jokes about what was happening on screen.

Mira hisses at Romance and Abby, “If only I could smash your demon face now!” the pitch of her voice rapidly escalates as she coos to a fan, “Thanks for coming!”

Jinu looks over his shoulder, “Should I tell them?”

Rumi whines, “No, I'm gonna tell them. Eventually.”

A girl standing in front of them interrupts their conversation, “Are you whispering?” Both Jinu and Rumi frantically stammer out attempts at an excuse before quickly signing an autograph on a Huntrix poster to get the nosy fan to leave. She doesn’t move, instead revealing her handmade shirt, Rujina written on the front with Rumi riding on the back of an angel winged Jinu. “Your secret's safe with me. Oh, so cute!” the fan whispers before walking away from the deeply flustered pair. 

Bobby laughed, “Wow, fans work quickly!”

Mira and Zoey didn’t even attempt to silence their own laughter, they knew that ship wars and shipping content was very common but they hadn’t realized it happened that early, and in person. There was something so funny about the complex pseudo-blackmail, partial friendship, demonic alliance being interrupted by an instigating fan immediately creating a far more genuine alliance of, ‘allow us to escape this interaction’.

Zoey waves goodbye to a fan, “Thanks for coming!” Mystery Saja barks at them and she smacks him with her pen, “No! Bad Saja Boy!”

Mira and Abby go back and forth wrestling over signing a fan’s leg casts with no clear victor.

Rumi whispers again to Jinu, “Not gonna talk to someone who's helping Gwi-Ma.”

Jinu sighs, “I'm helping myself. Look, if I help him, he's promised to erase my memories, and those voices in my head will be gone.”

Rumi sighed softly, unsure how she felt about the whole gift that Jinu had been seeking. She could understand needing to forget in the version of events she had been told, if you’d been stolen away by the demon king and cursed with the knowledge of your family's suffering perhaps there is no price too high for the pain to be erased. If you make a choice that leads to the suffering of the people you love most in the world, do you not owe it to them to remember? 

Rumi rolls her eyes as she continues signing, “Pathetic.”

Jinu gasps, he moves closer to whisper in her ear, “I'm pathetic? You can't even talk about your patterns.”

The girls hissed at the escalation, making eye-contact with each other remembering the pivot this signing had taken and wondering what could have caused such a tonal shift. 

Rumi stomps on his foot, hard, causing him to wince and nearly fall into the table, “You want me to talk about my patterns? I hate them! Just like I hate all demons. How I hate Gwi-Ma.”

Bobby looked down at his hands grief-struck by how earnestly Rumi meant that.

Celine paused, the anger in Rumi’s voice jarring for a moment. There was a heavy moment where she wished things could have been different, she knows Rumi’s angry with her Celine knows that she was imperfect. All she knew to do was to guide her friend’s daughter down the path she walked herself. She cannot be held responsible for not knowing every permutation of the future. Vulnerability invites weakness, weakness shatters the Honmon and destroys the world, the structure is simple and there is no room for flexibility. 

Jinu, now recovered, looks at her seriously for a moment, “If hate could defeat Gwi-Ma, I would've done it a long time ago. Trust me.”

The moment lingered and for the first time Mira and Zoey understood how though Rumi loved them they could not be her allies in this fight. They all hated demons but Rumi hated them personally, she hated herself alongside them and Jinu did as well. It was a weight to the emotion that the girls could not share with their dearest friend and they could only hope to one day free her from. 

A young fan interrupts their conflict, speaking seriously and adorably, “Excuse me, Mr. Jinu. I made this for you.”

Jinu pauses, “Uh, for me?” He reaches out and carefully takes the hand drawn picture, looking stunned at what is on it. There are echoes of fans cheering him on.

Rumi leans over his shoulder and studies the picture for a moment, “Maybe listen to those voices instead of the ones in your head.” She then stands and addresses the crowd at large, “Isn't he great? Woo! Jinu, everybody! Yeah, Jinu!” Fans throw bouquets of flowers at the Saja boys when encouraged.

Mira stops fighting and looks up at Rumi, visibly shocked, “"Woo, Jinu"?”

Mira laughed a little, trying to shake the realizations from her mind yet again, “Maybe one of the more surreal moments of our career.”

Zoey smiled, laughing as well, “Truly thought you’d lost your mind.”

Rumi smiled, shrugging a little. 

The fans start chanting Jinu’s name and he’s immediately uncomfortable and grabs the Saja Boys, “Unfortunately, the Saja Boys have to run. Thank you, everyone.” The Saja Boys leave and all throw the flowers away easily. 

Jinu holds onto the note though. It’s a picture of him flying with angel wings, the note reading, “Jinu, you have a beautiful soul.” He stares at the word soul, stricken.  

The room glanced over at Rumi, how quickly she had upended the moment, perhaps even gaining the upper hand. 

“How did you know what to do then?” Bobby asked gently. 

Rumi shrugged again, “I mean both groups were doing basically the same thing.” Celine gasped and went to interrupt but Rumi didn’t stop speaking, “Huntrix was building the Honmon up, Saja Boys were tearing it down. Both were doing it through the power of the fans, there was a connection there even if he didn’t want to recognize it.”

Bobby nodded, surprised though perhaps he shouldn’t have been at how quickly the power-dynamics grew complicated. A demon hundreds of years old sets out to fuel insecurities and tear apart a group, but by doing so has to step into the spotlight. His target has been in the spotlight for decades and is far more equipped to manage it. 

After the signing Bobby is looking at his phone, “The Internet loves this, and the Internet is never wrong! Rujinu! That's genius. Zoeystery. Where did they come up with that?” He is flipping through social media examining the ships that have emerged over the course of this single signing. 

Mira examines a dramatic heart pairing her and gags, “Miro-mabby?”

Zoey coos, “Aw, you're so cute together!”

The girls laughed and Bobby shook his head. The fans were the center of it all even when they were ridiculous, but sometimes at least the art was beautiful even if the situations were inconceivable.