Chapter Text
Celine brought the bottle of wine to her lips once more, taking huge gulps of the liquid until she couldn’t feel anymore in the bottle. She wasn’t proud about how she threw the bottle at the wall or cursed or started looking around for another but she hadn’t been at her best the last few weeks. Not since the funerals. Not since she’d lost them.
Losing Miyeong and Eun Ji felt like she had been stabbed in the chest and nothing she did would change it. That was to be expected. After all, Celine was at fault for their deaths. If she had been faster, had been able to defend them, had been able to warn them then they would still be here. They’d be here. They would cuddle and laugh and watch a movie together on the couch. Now Celine just sat alone in their living room, staring blankly at the tv while disassociating.
Celine had just found a new bottle to drink when the honmoon signaled its distress to her. She angrily pushed the bottle onto the counter with a huff and summoned her weapon. There was no sense in trying to ignore the distress signal. If she ignored it then the demons would either go for the people or her and either she’d feel like a complete failure—more than she already did—or she’d have to fight because she’d have fangs and claws flying at her.
Thankfully, the demons weren’t far from her home. She was able to spot them quickly—they were only forces that could move that fast and with that specific noise in the entire forest—and throw her blades at them with a flick of her wrist. There didn’t appear to be many demons either which Celine liked. If she was guessing, she’d say that these were scouts that had been sent to see if she was weak without Miyeong and Eun Ji. The thought of that somehow made her push forward even more. If she didn’t happen to have her swords, demons felt her fist collide with their faces or stomachs.
“Retreat! Retreat now!”
“Retreating? So soon?” Celine slashed through another demon, “Tell Gwi Ma that I am far from weakened by his attack. Every demon he sends up here from now until he is a dying ember, I will slaughter.” One of the demons nearly tripped over his own feet trying to get away from her, “Run.” The word came from Celine as a command and a joyful beg.
Despite her almost joy in hunting, the sadness still broke through too easily. Miyeong would have made a joke and asked if they wanted to get horrible takeout after they were done. Eun Ji would have tried to comment on how they were technically supposed to be eating well but broken the second Miyeong mentioned mandu. They would have ended the night stuffed with food and watching horrible dramas while laughing until their sides hurt. Now, Celine knew she was just going home to an empty house.
The sound of a demon's voice brought her back to reality in less than a second, “Have fun with the hunter, brat.” One of the demons pushed a small water demon—the smallest demon Celine had ever seen—straight into Celine’s path. She was so small that Celine had even jumped over her at first, mistaking her for a tree trunk or some kind of object. It was only after she had killed the other demons that she realized the thing she had believed to be an object was moving.
“A water demon, huh?” Celine muttered. Why would demons bring a water demon into a forest with no body of water anywhere near them?
Beneath her, the demon whimpered and curled up.
“Trying to get sympathy?”
“Please don’t kill me.” She whispered.
“I shouldn’t? Why not? Did you hold back when you murdered them!? Did you have sympathy?!” Celine snapped.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Of course you don’t. You demons never take responsibility for the damage you cause. You just take and destroy everything you touch.” Celine slammed her sword right next to the small demon. Close enough that the demon let out a startled cry but far enough that it didn’t actually hurt her.
The demon curled up even more, her head hidden under her stomach, “I want my mom! MOMMY!!” When she screamed, not only could Celine see her fangs but she could also see large tears fall down the demon's face.
That made Celine freeze.
She’d heard a lot of final words from demons in her life.
Many yelled.
A couple didn’t say anything except for some grunts and tried to attack her.
Some cursed her.
A few begged.
None of them cried for their mothers.
“You’re a kid.” Celine realized, “You’re a baby demon. Why did they bring you to a fight?”
“Because…” The water demon pushed down a sob, “Because my mom and dad are traitors. Gwi Ma said they spoke out against him, so they had a-a private meeting with him,” Celine winced at the words. No parents were waiting for her back in the demon realm it seemed, “and-and I was sent to go out on a hunt. Gwi Ma said that I needed to prove myself to be welcome back home or I couldn’t go back.”
“Do you want to go back?” Celine asked.
“...I want my mom and dad.” She sobbed.
With a sigh, Celine pushed back her hair, “Look, kid, I can’t help you but, if you don’t take any souls and stay out of the news, then I’ll leave you be. Demons can create illusions to hide their true forms. You do that and some orphanage will pick you up.” Turning on her heels, Celine headed back towards her house. Behind her, she could hear the demon starting to realize that Celine had no intention of killing her and got up.
“Wh-Wait!” The sound of footsteps approached her, “I don’t want to go to a human colony! They hate demons. They’ll kill me!”
“That’s why you disguise yourself as a human and they’re not called colonies. They’re called towns and cities. Fix the vocabulary.” Celine suggested.
“But I—”
“You have three choices: disguise yourself as a human child and blend in with human society, try to take a soul from someone and I kill you, or return to the demon realm and see what Gwi Ma will do when you haven’t taken a soul. Take your pick.” Celine turned around once again. The small water demon did not say another word or move to follow her.
This time she made it all the way back to the house and back inside, passing out on the couch without another interruption.
——————————————
When Celine woke up next, she woke up to the sun in her eyes, a headache pounding against her skull and the smell of fish in her nose. That last one got Celine sitting up seconds after she woke, trying to detect where exactly the smell was coming from. She was too far from any body of water or the cities for the smell to be coming from there and she didn’t have any fish in her fridge.
“Where…?” Celine’s nose led her to her door. At first glance, the area didn’t appear out of place in the slightest. Her garden was still hidden behind a small fence like always, the second building on the premises—filled with hunter journals and books—looked untouched and the ground possessed no new tracks.
Then Celine looked down and saw it.
A basket of fish right in front of her.
With the same water demon child standing behind it.
“Fish!”
“I told you to go into a human town. This is not a human town.” Celine crossed her arms over her chest, “And why did you bring me fish?” She had to give the little demon credit, it was filled to the very top. The water demon must have worked all night to fill it up.
The demon instantly backtracked, like she realized she had just made a really big mistake, “Because…because you spared me and you didn’t eat so…so fish!”
“I told you to leave me alone.” Celine hissed.
“You told me I had three choices and I want a fourth choice.”
“Oh?” Give the demon even more credit, she had to be either incredibly brave or stupid to be this insistent.
“Yeah! I want to be a hunter!” She chirped, “I can sing and you can teach me to dance and I can be a pop girl! Like you!” She bounced on the heels of her feet with a joy Celine hadn’t truly seen or experienced since Miyeong and Eun Ji died.
“A pop girl?” Celine asked, “Did you mean a pop star?”
“Mmhmm!”
“You do realize the ridiculousness of what you’re saying, right? A demon can’t be a hunter. The honmoon was created, and by extension its weapons were created, to protect the world from you and your fellow demons. It would never select you to guard it.” Was she being a little harsh? Yes but she was also hungover and not in the mood to talk to a water demon.
“I can learn!” She snapped, stomping her foot, “Didn’t everyone say someone born outside Korea could never be a hunter! You’re a hunter!”
Celine visibly snapped back at that. When she first came to Korea, the moment she told her mentors she was from France they told her to leave. She found out later, after confirming she could see the honmoon, that it was because of her home country that she was instantly disqualified. She knew she was a first, Miyeong and Eun Ji knew it, she just hadn’t expected demons to know it too.
“That was different.” Celine said, “Anyways, it doesn’t matter. You cannot become a hunter.” Turning towards the door, Celine was about to close it behind her and wait the demon child out. If she stayed inside and worked all day, eventually the kid had to get bored or want to go home at some point.
“But I’ll protect the honmoon!” She cried, “I promise! I’ll be the best hunter ever!”
“Kid, you can clearly fish and you should have a disguise. So why are you—“
The water demon ignored Celine’s words, “And-and I’ve seen the Honmoon respond to me! It showed me how to get here.” She protested.
In front of her, Celine froze. The kid’s words replayed over and over again in her head. Why would the Honmoon help her? Could she be lying about that? No, she wouldn’t have known that the Honmoon could help like that. Plus, how did she manage to find her out here?
“It responded to you?”
“Yeah.”
“Show me.”
“I don’t really know what I did.” She pressed her hand down against the grass, displaying not only her tiny claws but webbed hand as well. Exactly as she had said, the honmoon came alive and glowed beneath her. Though not in the way Celine would expect it to. This wasn’t a distressful glow that signalled a demon was hurting it but a proud hum that welcomed a hunter, “See? It likes me! It’s purring.”
“The honmoon chose you.”
“So…I can be a hunter?” She asked.
Celine narrowed her eyes at the demon before letting out a long breath, “You still need a disguise.”
“I can do that!”
“And your demon heritage is never to come up. Do you understand?”
“Mmhmm!”
“What’s your name?”
“What?”
“Your name. What is it?” Did demons even have names?
“Oh!” The water demon held out one of her webbed hands with a giant weird smile, “I’m Rumi!”
——————————————
The first thing Celine took care of were the practical issues. She purchased any items Rumi would need, alerted her lawyer to her recent “adoption” of a child from America—far less likely fans would dig deep if she said the company was from the States—and fixed up the couch for Rumi. For the time being, she’d sleep there until Celine had the time to clean out another room at the compound for her.
“Why can’t I sleep here?” Rumi asked, opening the door to Miyeong’s room. Celine shut it so fast Rumi nearly fell back.
“You never go in there. Do you understand? Never!”
Curling into herself, Rumi nodded, “Sorry.”
“You’ll stay on the couch until I can clear a room for you. Did you have a bedroom in the demon realm?” She opened the door to her own room to show Rumi, “Is there anything you want in it?” Celine asked.
“No. Water demons have underwater caves we stay in but nothing like this.” Rumi said. She scrambled onto the bed and jumped up and down, giggling as she did.
“Do you want a…tub in your room? Would you feel better sleeping in water instead of a bed?”
“What’s a tub?”
For the next hour, Rumi gleefully swam in the bathtub in the compound. Given that she wasn’t hurting anything or anyone, Celine let her swim around to her heart's content. There wasn’t much distance for Rumi to travel but she still tried to use her webbed hands and feet as much as she could. Finally, Rumi pulled herself from the water and flopped down on the floor.
“You look like you had fun.”
“More water!”
“Didn’t you go into the ocean to get the fish from earlier. You could go swimming there.”
“That’s too far. I want a lot of water here at home.” Celine decided to ignore Rumi’s ‘at home’ words.
“We still have to go over basics like food and, for the hundredth time, a human disguise.”
“I can just eat fish!” She chirped.
Celine raised an eyebrow. Truth be told, she had never really taken the time to think about what demons ate as her mentors had made it sound like they ate souls or, at least, that souls acted as nutrition for them. It was an odd thing to hear a demon say that they could live off of fish.
“You don’t require souls?”
“No. Only Gwi Ma does. Most demons eat fish or cows or chickens or bugs or something like that.” Rumi shrugged, “I really like fish!”
“Alright. Well,” She turned to stare at the fridge where she’d stored the fish, “we have plenty of that. Are you hungry? I can cook something.” Celine almost laughed. How long had it been since she actually cooked herself food and didn’t just eat out or skip meals? Based on the small bit of dust growing in the kitchen, it had been too long.
“Yes, please! I’m so hungry!”
“Okay, okay. I can make you some food as soon as you confirm you can create a human disguise.” None of this would really matter if Rumi couldn’t look human. That had to be a priority.
“Mmhmm!” It took Rumi some concentrating but her human form washed away, her patterns hidden under human skin, until the human girl before Celine was fully revealed. She had long purple hair with brown eyes and wore a simple outfit that Celine had seen some kids in the city wear. Looking at her now, Rumi couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5 years old.
“Purple hair?”
“I-I can’t change my hair.”
“It’s okay.” Celine sighed, “Alright, you did what I asked. Time for some fish.”
The meal that Celine cooked filled the entire compound with a smell Celine hadn’t experienced in months. She had Rumi gather vegetables from her garden and bring them inside so they could be cooked. While waiting for the fish, Celine gave Rumi a plate of sliced carrots. The demon sniffed at them in confusion and stared back up at Celine.
“What are they?”
“Carrots. They’re good for you.” Very slowly, Rumi picked up a carrot and chewed it. Instantly, she tossed it back on the plate and spat out whatever was in her mouth. Celine was about to react until she noticed Rumi shaking in her seat and wrapping her arms around herself, “Hey. Hey. Can you…not eat vegetables like this?”
“Tastes so bad and the texture is gross.” Rumi whimpered.
“Huh? Let me try something.” Celine gathered up the remaining carrots and began boiling water on her stove.
A few minutes later, she was setting pieces of fish on her and Rumi’s plates with sides of carrots. All she had in the house was water—and a few drinks that would need to be locked away from Rumi—which meant a trip to the store for some milk or juice was probably in order.
“Give this a shot.” Celine suggested.
Slowly, Rumi plopped the food into the mouth. This time, rather than spitting it out, Rumi’s eyes grew and she began devouring the rest of her carrots. Celine chuckled at Rumi’s speed while eating. Maybe it was a water demon thing that she had a problem with cold and crunchy foods. It would make sense. Water demons probably wouldn’t come across anything like carrots in their lives.
“Good?”
“Delicious! More fish tomorrow?”
“Maybe we halt on that for just a bit. I want to introduce you to a bit more human food before we eat fish for a month.” Not that that would be any worse than what she’d been eating but it probably wasn’t a good diet for a kid.
“What other human food?”
——————————————
In the weeks that passed, Celine had not only introduced Rumi to the world, claiming that she adopted her from America and was requesting fans practice privacy for Rumi’s transition to Korea, but had also set up a room for her in the compound.
It took a few sleepless nights to clear out an office space for her but for the first time in a long time Celine felt a drive to get something done. Yes, she still couldn’t believe a water demon of all people was selected as a hunter but Rumi’s presence offered a chance at new motivation, at a new purpose.
During a visit to Seoul, Rumi had spotted a teddy bear in the window of a store. She didn’t ask for it but Celine saw her eyes grow and knew the girl wanted it more than anything. She ended up buying two, one Rumi could keep on her bed and the other she could travel with if she wanted. It didn’t take long for Rumi’s room to become decorated in teddy bears and the color purple, along with toys scattered all across the room, children’s books carefully stored in cabinets and a few books on demons that Rumi kept under her bed.
Aside from all of that, Celine had also constructed a medium sized pool in the compound. The depth and width reached to about 20 feet giving Rumi much more room to swim if she desired. Celine had also shown Rumi a nearby lake where she could swim. It was a fair distance from the house and there was always the chance she could be spotted by hikers but it was closer than the ocean and there was more water in the lake than in the indoor pool.
All in all, as Rumi’s visit entered its second month, Celine had become a changed woman. She noticed it. Everyone did. Her energy was returning, she was eating again, she was out in public, she was attending to not just her needs but Rumi’s as well.
“It’s nice to see you happy again, Celine. It’s been too long.” One of her idol friends had texted her a couple days after Rumi’s introduction.
Celine stared at the text for at least ten minutes unable to think up what to say or even think. Was she upset that he pointed it out? Upset it was true? Upset because Miyeong and Eun Ji were dead and here she was stuffing her face and laughing and—
“No!” Celine’s head shot up.
“Rumi!” The tv room in the compound was an open space so there was no door or full wall to keep Celine from seeing what Rumi was watching, “Rumi, what’s wrong?”
“The fish!” Rumi cried, pointing at the screen, “She’s trusting the octopus!” At the house, Rumi often walked around in her demon form without issue. At the moment, her claws, although small, shook as they pointed straight at the television.
“The fish?” Celine’s eyes narrowed until she saw what exactly Rumi was watching, “Ohhh! Little Mermaid?"
“She’s a stupid fish who shouldn’t trust her! Everyone knows you don’t trust octopuses!” Rumi cried, “Why would she give up her voice too? You need that!”
“You’ll just have to see how the story ends, won’t you?” Taking a seat next to Rumi, Celine put her phone away and turned to stare at the tv.
“Cece, it’ll have a happy ending, right?”
That name.
She hadn’t heard that name in so long.
Not since Miyeong and Eun Ji called her that. That had been their whole thing. She was Cece, Miyeong was Mimi and Eun Ji was Jiji. No one else could call them the nicknames except for each other.
“Right?”
“Yes. Yes. It’ll have a happy ending.”
“Good. I don’t like stories with sad endings.”
Rumi fell asleep against her side that night, curled up against her and nuzzling close to her side. Celine scooped Rumi into her arms, moving carefully so as not to wake her. She brought Rumi into her room and set her down, carefully tucking her in and getting her her bed teddy bear to cuddle with. While Rumi slept, Celine could hear a soft purring coming from the water demon.
“Me neither.”