Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Ma’am, you have to stay back!”

“I know them!” Celine shouted, trying to push past the beleaguered young Assistant Inspector. She was tired, exhausted, her leg screaming courtesy of a glancing blow from a demon club, the only things keeping her standing at the moment adrenaline and Miyeong’s desperate plea to keep her daughter and husband safe, “I’m a friend of the family!”

Unfortunately, her leg chose that moment to finally give out on her. She collapsed to a knee, biting her tongue to hide the hiss of pain as the inspector steadied her. 

“Ma’am, please-,”

“What happened!?” she demanded, “My friend got a call saying her husband’s car had been in an accident,”

It wasn’t a lie, not technically. But the call had come from the Honmoon itself, an agonized scream somehow more violent than the usual discord that accompanied breaches, one that each and every member of the Sunlight Sisters knew had something to do with Rumi. 

Unfortunately, they’d been delayed from answering by a demon ambush which had left Miyeong herself half conscious. Thus her plea, thus Celine’s urgency, and thus the cresting wave of dread as she watched the policeman’s face morph into something painfully sympathetic.

“Are they okay?” she whispered, forcing back the wave through sheer stubbornness. 

“We…haven’t found any bodies,”

“Bodies!?” she shot to her feet, ignoring the screaming of her injuries, the pounding rain which had turned the coastal road into a slipping hazard, and turned the curve.

It was only once she laid eyes upon the car did the wave crash. 

It lay crumpled and half submerged on the rocks like a reverse shipwreck, its front bumper flattened and its roof peeled open like a can.

She could imagine what the official story would be playing out before her eyes. A slippery road, a collision, a cinematic car flip which had carried the car over the guardwall. The man and five year old girl inside killed in the impact or drowned while attempting to escape the car, any sign of them washed away by the rain or tides.

Only she recognized the demon claws piercing the roof, the club which crumpled the bumper, the true danger of the water, or what the lack of bodies meant.

“We’re still searching the water,” the policeman offered, painfully earnest in some attempt to reassure her, “We’ll find something,”

Celine knew they wouldn’t.

What was she supposed to tell Miyeong?

---

“There’s been some suspicious activity with Zoey’s account,”

Miyeong shot Celine an ever so slightly judgemental look, “You’re monitoring her finances?”

“She asked!” Celine defended, “And I think she might have been hacked,” 

“Or maybe she’s just buying gifts for Mira,” Miyeong hummed, drawing a frown from Celine, “Oh, you can’t be holding her refusal against her,”

“I’m not, I just-,” Celine sighed, “You saw their chemistry, they’re destined to be Hunters, together,”

“Even destiny can only go so far in this day and age. And don’t forget not everyone’s cut out for the idol life. Trying to push her of all people is going to end disastrously,”

“It still feels like a waste,”

There was another look from Miyeong, loving but stern, and Celine gave a quiet nod of surrender.

“I’ll leave her be, let her remain Zoey’s secret dalliance,”

“Don’t speak badly of secret dalliances, Moonie. They can end quite nicely,” Miyeong mused, casually scratching her nose, flashing the ring that Celine had slipped onto her finger in a Las Vegas Chapel.

“Imo Celine! Imo Mimi!”

“Hello there little songbirds!” Celine smiled, holding out her arms as two eight year old projectiles barreled into her. 

Sori and Hyuna Oh were the spitting image of their mother Soo-Jin, only straighter hair which Sori left loose and Hyuna pulled into a pair of ponytails to separate them from her and each other. 

Now they wore identical grins as they practically vibrated with excitement.

“Something catch your eye?” Celine asked, “A gift for your parents when they get back?”

The twins shook their heads, Hyuna more sheepish than Sori.

“There’s a dance group down the street!” Sori said, the words practically bursting out of her, “And they’re soooo cool!”

“Oh really?” Miyeong asked, “Even cooler than your mom?” that fetched an out of sync nod from both girls. “Even cooler than us,”

That got another nod from the girls, a gasp of overdramatic offense from Miyeong, and a laugh from Celine.

“Betrayed by my biggest fans!” Miyeong placed a hand over her heart and Celine laughed harder.

“We’re Huntr/x’s biggest fans now,” Hyuna added, genuinely sorry for that fact, and Celine doubled over.

“Huntr/x, huh?” Celine heard Miyeong say, and she could envision her wife’s Assessing Producer voice.

“Yeah, Huntr/x! They’ve got these cool dance moves, these cool masks, and their center has these really cool patterns!”

The laughter died in Celine’s throat and she whipped her head to see Miyeong’s expression, frozen with barely hidden dread.

“Patterns, songbird?”

“Yeah!” Sori shouted as Hyuna nodded, “I don’t know if they’re tattoos or body paint or something but she looks like a tiger!”

“Why don’t you show us?”

Sori seized Miyeong’s hand while Hyuna took Celine’s, both girls dragging them along the street, ignorant of their dread.

They pulled them towards the sound of fast paced music and an excited ring of people singing along to the words.

“Huntr/x don’t miss!”

“How it’s done done done!”

“Certainly catchy,” Celine groused, earning her another glance from Miyeong, donning a mask to further disguise herself.

They shouldered their way through the crowd, their nieces acting like cute battering rams to get them to the front and see what they’re dealing with.

And what they were dealing with…well, there was a reason why Miyeong was always the lyricist.

The three women were in street wear and matching jackets colored green, blue, and pink. Two of them wore masks, while the third, their center in the pink jacket, had her tiger mask clipped to her belt, exposing her shoulder length purple hair, her teasing, fang edged smile, and shimmering pearlescent tiger markings covering her face.

“Yeah, something about when you come for the crown”

“That's so humbling, huh?”

The center, the demon center, delivered her lyrics with a cocky smile that set Celine’s teeth on edge, before the one in green swept forward, tall and graceful and wearing a mask patterned after magpies as she delivered her lyrics in a burst of aggressive Korean.

“Gapjagi wae geurae? Meonjeo geondeuryeo, wae?”

“Ijeya pogihae, what?”

The blue one leapt to the forefront, uncontainable energy compared to Pink’s confidence or Green’s grace, her wide smile as clear as day even behind a mask that reminded Celine of a turtle ship’s figurehead.

“Nothin’ to us, run up, you’re done up we come up,”

“From sunup to sundown, so come out to play,”

For some reason, the blue one rankled her the most. Something about those lyrics, the way she sang them seemed frustratingly familiar.

She looked to Miyeong, but her wife was frozen, her eyes trained on the pink one as she retook the central position, her lyrics issuing a challenge. 

Because that’s what this was, a challenge so blatant she wanted to start laughing again. 

Last night there’d been a breach in the Honmoon, larger than they’d ever thought possible with their almost golden barrier (that almost rankled her to no end). She and Miyeong had spent half night running all over Seoul in search of seemingly non-existent Demons, with only sleep deprivation to show for it.

Now it all made sense.

A demon girl group. An idea so ridiculous she was almost impressed.

She pulled at the Honmoon, her hwando weaving together-

Then Miyeong caught her wrist, shaking her head slowly.

Not here. Not now.

Fine. But soon.

The demon center’s voice cut across their silent conversation.

“Hear our voice unwavering,”

“'Til our song defeats the night,”

“Makin' fear afraid to breathe,”

“'Til the dark meets the light!”

Celine had to hand it to the Demon: her voice was devastatingly impressive. 

As her voice crescendoed, the crowd around them went silent, dumbstruck as the note rose higher and higher and higher.

The moment passed, and the crowd’s cheers crashed around them like a wave, Sori and Hyuna’s chief among them.

Then she saw it. A Honmoon, like the Honmoon but centered entirely around Huntr/x, pearlescent strings the same color as the center’s marks coalescing around them. 

And it was growing. 

Fuck.

---

Zoey slipped through the door as nonchalantly as possible, adjusting her bucket hat as she scanned the bar.

The person she was looking for found her first, stepping out from the back and making an oh-so-casual beeline towards her.

“Hey, pretty girl,” she drawled, turning Zoey’s carefully planned greeting to mush on her tongue.

“Hehe, wassup?” she fired back with a pair of finger guns.

“I see you’ve taken my advice and stopped wearing tropical shirts,” Mira teased.

“I suppose I was dressing a little too gangsta,” 

Mira rolled her eyes, still smiling, “Something like that. Why don’t we talk somewhere a little more quiet?”

Zoey didn’t bother hiding her goofy grin as Mira grabbed her hand and led her to an out of the way booth.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Do I need a reason to see the prettiest girl in the world?”

“What, you don’t have a mirror in your fancy penthouse?”

Zoey giggled, her banter once again melting at Mira’s words. It was unfair, really, how easily she could do that.

“You could always see for yourself,” she suggested.

“As long as Celine isn’t there,”

“She’s not going to try and make you an idol…again,”

“Still don’t want to risk it,” she half-joked, “I’ve spent too much time tormenting myself to fit other’s expectations, I’m not going to join an industry built on that. No offense,”

“None taken,” Zoey waved her hand flippantly, “Although…”

“Zoey…,” Mira groaned warningly, but Zoey had already unleashed her puppy eyes full force.

“I would like to use your designs. We don’t even have to put your name on it! You could use a pseudonym!”

Her offer was met by the harsh press of Mira’s lips, and Zoey couldn’t help the sinking feeling in her gut as she refused to properly answer.

“Really?” she demanded, unable to hide the hurt in her voice.

“I’m thinking about it, okay?” she said roughly.

“I want you to be successful. You were the one who told me that it’s all about who you know, and, well, you know me! And…,” she looked up at Mira with wet eyes, “I want to show you off in whatever way I can. Your designs deserve detention and I…I don’t want to keep loving you in snatches,”

“We’d still be doing that if I joined you. Plus we’d have to deal with people like Dispatch picking apart our private lives. If something like us went public-,”

“Something like us could break tomorrow and we’d be in the same boat,” Zoey pointed out.

“I know that, alright?”

“Then do we stop seeing each other?” 

Mira froze, her expression hardening as Zoey’s heart sank into her stomach.

“I dunno,” she whispered, harsh and frosty, “Do we?”

And with that, the falling sensation tumbled into an unexpected rage.

Mira was trying to shift this onto her?

“I’m not talking to you about this,” she said, tamping down the anger. If this continued, she was going to get angrier and angrier, turn it into a fight, and she didn’t want to be angry, not at anyone, not Mira, and she didn’t want to fight, especially not with Mira.

“So you’re leaving?” Mira hissed, a blade against her heart. 

“I have stuff to do,” she lied. She’d cleared her entire afternoon in the hopes of spending some quality time with Mira, “Answer that question for yourself and call me when you do,”

She stood, making for the door before Mira had a chance to respond.

But there was no response, no call of her name, no hand on her shoulder, which somehow hurt even more.

She stepped back into the street, pulling her hat down low to hide her identity and the tears as her mind began to fall down a dark spiral.

The buzz of her phone to the tune of her favorite Sunlight Sisters thankfully distracted her.

A message from Celine flared on the screen:

Celine: Situation, get to the house. Now.

---

“We have a problem,”

“That’s to be expected,” there was a click as a makeup mirror snapped shut, its owner tucking it into the inner jacket of a pocket as its owner turned mismatched eyes to the one who had addressed her.

“You say that,” her companion offered, casually stroking the large spirit tiger which wound itself around his legs, “I’m just not sure it extends to what I’m looking at,”

“Oh my god, are you being difficult on purpose?” she snatched the phone from his hand, staring in confusion at the video on screen, depicting a trio of street performers, only for the realization to hit her harder than the demons responsible for her combat training.

“Jinu. What. The. Fuck”

“I know, she looks just like you,”

“Not that,” she growled, even as her ire at Jinu’s sass mixed with growing fury at the leader of this trio, with a face just like hers but different, more settled, despite the glowing patterns which seemed more extensive than hers. She glanced up, past Jinu, past the other demons recruited for this scheme, using their glamour for a money laundering operation, landing on the still figure clad in black Talchum clothing watching over them.

“She’s stealing our act,” she declared, not removing her eyes from the figure.

“So what’s the plan?” Jinu drawled, almost playful, “Hunt them down, drag them back to Gwi Ma so they can explain what the fuck they’re doing?”

“No,” she answered automatically, “We lay low, if need be we go with the original plan just with you instead of me. I’m going to gather info,”

She glanced down at her doppelganger, smiling wider and more genuinely than she could ever remember. Her patterns pulsed as the resentment in her gut curdled.

“I’m getting to the bottom of this,”

Chapter Text

“So, let’s recap,”

Mira and Rumi settled into the mattress of their hotel room as Zoey paced, leafing through a yellow legal pad with all the intensity of a lawyer preparing a closing argument.

“Final leg of the Sugar, Spice, and Everything Savage tour-,”

“I can’t believe you made us into the Powerpuff Girls,” Mira mumbled.

“I can’t believe it took us until we actually got to Townsville to realize it,” Rumi added.

“-When some freaky demon beyond our ken hijacks the plane and sends us a few years into the past, in a world where Huntr/x doesn’t exist,”

“A bit of a hat on a hat in terms of a plot,” Mira snarked, “What? Time travel and alternate dimensions aren’t interesting enough, you had to mash them together?”

“Right!?” Zoey exclaimed, turning back to her legal pad, “Anyways, our statuses: Rumi is dead, which— sorry Rumi,”

Rumi let out a resigned, almost long suffering sigh, “I’ve come to terms with it,” 

“Mira is a hot bartender with some very interesting tattoos and piercings-,”

Mira held up her hands as if balancing a scale, “Trade off for being in the spotlight. No visible body mods,”

“Emphasis on visible,” Rumi pointed out, getting an appreciative nod from Zoey in turn.

“Meanwhile, I am the Sunlight Sisters’ specialist little apprentice and the only one with an accessible bank account,”

“Though for how long remains a question,” Mira pointed out, glancing at the duffel bag full of cash gathered through an afternoon of…dubiously legal withdrawals through various sources with slipshod disguises and helped along by Rumi’s feeble demonic glamour.

“Eh, I’m loaded here. We probably have some time before anyone notices. Moving on, we have the Sunlight Sisters themselves, who are all alive and as an afternoon of digital stalking reveals, still performing in both individual and group capacity, and presumably maintaining the Honmoon,”

Rumi’s expression soured, though Mira was quick to press a grounding kiss to her cheek.

“Rumi’s demon daddy also existed, though from what I found he seems to have died when this world’s Rumi did, when she would have been five, so no, Angel, your mom’s not only alive because you’re dead, so stop thinking like that,”

“So it’s just the universe’s problem that we can't be in each other’s lives,” Rumi pouted.

“But not yours,” Zoey pointed out.

“The universe is a bitch anyways,” Mira added, pulling Rumi against her chest as Zoey nodded gravely.

“Speaking of the nature of the universe: The Honmoon. It’s Golden, sorta, at the very least goldenrod, but only in some places for some reason? Either way, very strong and stable, but patchy and rigid, and breaches tend to be…more dramatic than ours. Case in point: the massive breach that occurred a few hours after we landed. As of yet, I’m unsure whether our arrival had anything to with that,”

She turned her legal pad to face them, showing a diagram of a wormhole and scribbled notes in English and Hangul, including blocky ‘Weakened Multiversal Borders?’ and ‘Honmoon as Barrier/Bridge?’

“But strangely, we didn’t find any demons when we investigated, and the tear sealed up before we could get there in the first place,”

Mira grunted, “Usually I’d love our problems solving themselves, but I doubt we’re that lucky. So there’s at least a few demons kicking around Seoul that we just didn’t find,”

Rumi raised her hand like a student in a lecture, earning a laugh from Mira.

“Yes, Rumi?”

“I have my own theory about that. A huge rip with no sign of activity…it honestly reminds me of Namsam,”

Both of her girls’ stares turned intense, “What are you saying, Rumi?”

“I was ridiculously attuned to our Honmoon before we rebuilt it, I nearly tore it apart without meaning to…what if I was doing that intentionally?”

“Whoah, whoah, whoah,” Mira said, “You’re saying that this world’s Rumi is alive and powerful enough to casually tear a near Golden-,”

“Ooh, Fool’s Gold!”

“-Honmoon a new one and put it back together? Why?”

“....Because maybe this Rumi didn’t grow up in the human world,”

Neither girl responded, at least not immediately.

“Where are you going with this, pretty girl?” Mira said gently, rubbing her shoulders.

“Well, best case scenario, this me’s an escapee. But it’s much more likely she’s here on Gwi Ma’s behalf,”

The silence of their room grew heavier, Zoey shaking away a distraught look on her face as she consulted her legal pad again.

“In the interest of covering all our bases, let’s say that Rumi is alive and working for Gwi-Ma. Is this another Saja Boys Debacle? But with a reverse Darth Vader plot twist?”

Rumi couldn’t help but chuckle at the Star Wars reference, “Seems like it,”

“So how do we deal with this, assuming it is a Saja Boys Debacle, but with a living Anti-Honmoon weapon?” Mira said, “And then how do we get home? And what will messing with another universe’s Honmoon do? Do we even bother helping?”

“We’re helping.” Rumi said resolutely, “As for how, I actually have an idea…” 

“Oooh, Zoey, she’s steepling her fingers together, you know what that means,”

“What are you plotting you sexy evil genius?”

“We pre-empt them. The Sunlight Sisters, the Demons, everyone. We’ll need disguises, especially for Zoey, but we make ourselves as big of a spectacle as possible and draw them in, empowering us in the meantime,”

“Out-Saja-ing the Saja Boys! That’s insane!” Zoey cheered.

Mira put a finger to her chin, more thoughtful, “Risky, especially since we could be inviting the wrath of up to half a dozen Hunters and however many demons. I’m in,” she pulled away to reach for the bags which had somehow accompanied them into this new world, “I think I might already have something,”

“I’ll keep cyberstalking, see what else I can dig up,”

“And I’ll put together a playlist. Thankfully, all of our songs are free,” she pulled out her phone, before pausing and looking up with a pensive expression.

“Would playing Golden be too mean?”

---

Mira, in her own way, would gladly admit that street busking was fun. All the fun of performing for a live audience, but lacking the sheer pressure and intensity of a full concert. So they could be a little more casual, a little less faultless, a little more themselves, disguises notwithstanding. So it was fun, the energy of the crowd was nice, especially if their personal Honmoon had anything to say about it, and they’d made enough of their own won to not be completely reliant on what they’d stolen from Zoey’s doppelganger.

The only problem was the gaze of a dead woman.

This world’s versions of Celine and Ryu Miyeong stared at them from the throng of fans, accompanied by two children who were the spitting image of Soo-Jin Kim, (Or Soo-Jin Oh in this world). The kids were as excited as anyone else in the crowd, just like their younger fans at home, but Celine’s expression was a forced neutrality that set Mira’s teeth on edge. 

And Miyeong…

Her eyes were wide, and focused entirely on Rumi.

Well, they’d certainly gotten the attention they’d wanted.

Outwardly, Rumi was unbothered, performing with the same energy she’d adopted since coming to embrace her patterns, loud, passionate, just a little bit cocky, and inexorably freer than she had been before. 

But through the connection between their souls that they’d forged while remaking the Honmoon, what Zoey had labeled their ‘Force Bond’, Rumi didn’t try to hide the feelings of distress/worry/sadness running through her mind.

Mira sent over pulses of calm/reassurance/trust, feeling Zoey do the same as the show went on. Luckily, Other-Celine and Other-Miyeong left before they finished, much to the disappointment of the two girls, and they concluded their show to rousing applause and a generous donation from their newly adoring public, and made a quick retreat to a cheap bar to count their loot.

Only then did Mira ask if Rumi was okay.

“She recognized me,” she answered, staring blankly at the pile of won set before her, “-And it hurts, and it hurts worse that it’s not what really bothers me,”

“...Celine,” Zoey said softly, not truly asking. Rumi just nodded, her lip wobbling.

Because this wasn’t their Celine, who’d raised Rumi and had made mistakes that Mira still had trouble forgiving her for, but who still loved her more than life itself and dedicated herself for making it up to Rumi in whatever way possible.

This wasn’t Rumi’s eomma in all but name. This was a Celine who'd only ever been a Hunter, presumably a devastating effective one.

“She looked at me like a demon,” Rumi whispered, “Our Celine never looked at me like that, not really,”

Mira tangled her fingers with Rumi’s, while Zoey bumped their foreheads together like an affectionate cat. 

“Do you still want to do this?”

Rumi sucked in a hitched breath, but nodded nonetheless.

“We already threw down the gauntlet, the Sunlight Sisters have seen us,”

“And we’re already trending,” Zoey confirmed, waving her phone, “People love us, at least. The masks were definitely a big hit, the public really loves the mystique,”

Mira just grinned, “When have I ever let you down?”

“What are they saying about me?” Rumi asked, ever so nervous.

“Nothing bad, unnie, except for the assholes. Everyone else is giving you the praise you deserve, admiring your patterns, and-ooh, oh, okay, yeah, I’m saving that idea for when we’re back at the hotel,”

“Zoeeeyy,” Rumi whined, placing her face in her hands, her cheeks red, though Mira could see the edges of a smile.

“You’re everyone’s type babe,” Mira teased, running her foot up and down her leg, “And we’re open to suggestions,”

“Let’s go to a bath house!” Rumi blurted, “We have enough money for a bath house,”

Zoey pouted exaggeratedly, as bathhouses were strictly off limits for the purposes of sex, nudity be damned, but it quickly gave way to a smile, “Alright!”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mira purred, pulling Rumi into a hug, “We're due a little relaxation anyways,”

---

“~Unnie~,” Zoey sang.

“Hmm,”

“Rumi, wake up,” Mira laughed, “You’re going to drown,”

Rumi’s head snapped up, slow blinking like Derpy, “Sorry, I’ll stay awake,”

She pulled herself up in the bath, only to almost immediately slump forward before she caught herself again.

“Okay, come here,” Mira pulled herself to Rumi and draped their sleepy center against her side.

It was a quirk that Rumi had developed, now she didn’t have to look over her shoulder 24/7, a sign that she was truly relaxed. Long Day + Hot Water = Sleepy Rumi + Possible risk of drowning and/or falling in the shower.

After that time where she actually had fallen in the shower, Zoey and Mira had taken to bathing with her.

“We got to break you out of this,” Mira murmured, “Otherwise you’re gonna get into the bath alone one day and actually drown,”

Rumi mumbled something before tucking her face into Mira’s neck and releasing a deep sigh, like a sleeping puppy.

“It’s no use Mira, we’re bluffing and she knows it,” Zoey said, tucking herself against Rumi’s open front, pressing a kiss to Rumi’s cheek. Bathhouse sex may have been verboten but Zoey would happily take advantage of their privacy to cuddle her girls. She leaned back into Rumi, who melted back into Mira, who looped her arms around the two of them, leaving them to bask in each other’s presence.

Unfortunately, the silence left her vulnerable to an attack of melancholy that they couldn’t do this openly. They were idols, in a sapphic relationship, and there were three of them, all of which were no-nos to varying degrees. Sure, they could yuribait the fanbase to a point, and Honmoon knows how much fuel she had added to #Polytrix via her alternate account…s, but their love existed quietly, in their home, in the aftermath of hunts and stolen moments of privacy between concerts, interviews, and fansigns, restrained to quick kisses and lingering touches. 

Courtly love could eat her entire ass, she wanted video evidence that Huntr/x could top the five purest and most passionate kisses in history on blu-ray.

Her train of thought was derailed by Mira’s finger poking her cheek.

“You look mopy. Tell me what’s bothering you so I can get rid of it,”

“I just want to shout my love for you to the world but the world’s stupid and not ready for it,”

“I know,” Mira said, blowing out a quiet breath of disappointment, “I wish I could make it better. I wanna show you two off too. But know that if someone blows up our spot I am going to show you two off anyways if you’re comfortable with it,”

“The public wedding ceremony better make the Royal Wedding look like amateurs,” she joked. All three of them knew any wedding ceremony was going to be private, just between them and what few people they trusted. Maybe on Jeju Island.

But those were future plans, to be future-ly planned when they’d gotten back home.

“Okay,” Zoey declared, sitting up after another moment of relaxation “I’m getting too pruny, let’s get out and back to the hotel,” 

Mira agreed with a hum, gently shaking Rumi, “Come on Tiger, we’re getting out,”

Rumi mumbled something vaguely negative sounding, melting back against Mira.

“Rumi, you’re gonna turn into soup,”

Rumi whined but allowed herself to be pulled from the water like the spoiled princess she was. 

They dried and dressed slowly, letting the humid air of the bathhouse fill their lungs as Rumi woke up, stretching like a cat and blushing at the chorus of “ooh, big stretch,” she received for her trouble. 

“I’m hungry again,” Zoey announced, pulling on her disguise, “Do we want takeout or snacks?”

“We’ll hit up a convenience store on the way back,” Mira answered, pulling Rumi against her. Zoey slid into her place at Rumi’s other side, placing her hand on Rumi’s back.

The three of them stepped out of the bathhouse into the night air, as calm as nighttime Seoul could be.

At least until Rumi’s head snapped up straight, eyes swiveling throughout the alley. Zoey and Mira didn’t even need words, snapping to attention, fingers tangling in the threads of their personal Honmoon as they surveyed the alley as well.

There was a flutter of wings, and all three of them turned to see a very familiar six eyed bird in a tiny gat alight onto a nearby railing.

Rumi blinked, “...Is that…Sussie?”

The Honmoon rippled before anyone could answer. It was distant, muted by the effort of traveling through two Honmoons, though the ripple grew wilder and wilder, growing in time with a single, distant note carried by a very familiar voice.

“Rumi,” Mira whispered, “Is that-,”

“I think we’re about to discover what happened to this world’s version of me,” Rumi muttered, not yet drawing her sword. They were operating on a limited battery, and wanted to keep their identities as Hunters as quiet for as long as possible.

Then, just as suddenly as it started, the singing stopped.

The three of them traded glances, none of them dropping their guards.

“Well,” Zoey started, prodding at fate like it was an aching tooth, “Talk about an anticli-,”

There was a scream, tri tone and demonic, and Huntr/x watched as the Honmoon filling the sky above them tore as if sliced with a seam ripper, leaving a gaping, magenta edged wound looming over their heads.

And that’s when it started raining demons.

Chapter Text

Celine was just as efficient as she’d ever been, taking them home, shooting off a text to Zoey, parking the twins in front of the TV before making a call to Soo-Jin. 

Throughout all of this Miyeong let herself be dragged along like a lump, appreciative for Celine’s focus on the task at hand, content to come back to Earth at her own time.

She stared at the TV, listening to the twins laugh but not absorbing anything of what they were watching.

Her mind hadn’t left that street, and the cocky Demon girl with her father’s smile and her grandmother’s eyes.

Rumi, her brave, spoiled, sweet Rumi, whose body had never been discovered because Demons didn’t leave bodies.

Her Rumi was alive, it didn’t matter how much sense it made her Rumi was alive.

And she was doing something to the Honmoon. That’s all she was willing to say. That’s all that they really knew for certain, though Miyeong was intimately familiar with the conclusions Celine & Soo-Jin would have drawn.

“Mimi?” Celine murmured with a gentle hand on her shoulder, a grounding rod pulling her back to Earth.

“I’m back, Moonie,” she whispered, “Thank you,” 

“May I ask where you were?”

“Off in Anxiety Land,” she answered, “I’m just worried about the Honmoon, and the kids”

Just whose kids she didn’t dare say.

“Don’t worry Mi-ya, we’ll take care of our Demon problem in no time,” she pressed a kiss to her forehead, and Miyeong let her expression slip for a split second.

Celine’s phone buzzed, heralding Zoey’s arrival, and they slipped out the room while the twins were still distracted.

Zoey met them on the verge of tears.

“Zoey, what happened? Is everything alright with Mira?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” she answered after a moment of pregnant silence.

“You saw the footage I sent you, correct?” Celine asked, steering them back to more important matters.

“I did, it was freaky,” Zoey bounced on her heels, some of her cheer returning, “They’re good too,”

Miyeong nodded, while Celine grumbled a very reluctant affirmation before again guiding the conversation.

“We need to stop them before they do anymore damage to the Honmoon,”

“So we track them down and send them back to the depths where they belong,” Zoey summed up to Celine’s eagre nod.

The horrible image of Celine’s hwando sinking into Rumi’s chest flashed across Miyeong’s head and she threw her arm between them to curb their enthusiasm.

“Let’s slow our rolling stones here girls, I don’t think we should just kill them. We need answers about who they are, what they’re doing,”

“They’re demons and they’re trying to destroy the Honmoon,” Celine said, sounding almost taken aback, “Why would we need to know anything else?”

Zoey began counting on her fingers, “Well, off the top of my head, ‘How are they destroying the Honmoon? What’s up with their Honmoon? Why a girl group? Are there more of them?’”

Miyeong turned to Celine with a raised eyebrow, gesturing at their protege.

“...Point taken,”

“But,” Zoey continued reluctantly, “How are we going to find them?”

At this, Celine gasped, “I might have an idea,”

Miyeong had a sinking feeling she’d already heard Celine’s idea.

“Moonie, you can’t expect that to work,”

—

“I can’t believe that worked,”

Celine just raised an eyebrow, while Zoey crouched next to them, frantically looking over her banking app, “How did they get my info!?”

“Cyber security’s always been shoddy,” Celine said flippantly, crawling forward to get a better look at the alleyway.

They’d tracked bank withdrawals to a motel, where the very nice, very starstruck attendant had confirmed that yes, the girl with tiger stripes had rented a room, and had pointed them to a nearby bathhouse that one of her companions had mentioned going to.

Now, they watched as a trio of figures stepped out of the bathroom pressed into each other like they couldn’t stand to be apart.

“They seem chummy,” Celine mused, and Miyeong agreed.

Demon or not, she was glad Rumi seemed to have found two people who seemed to complete her as Soo-Jin and Celine.

Then a magpie flitted into the alley.

“Is that bird wearing a tiny hat?”

Miyeong squinted, her eyes no longer what they used to be, but still keen enough to confirm that yes, the magpie was wearing a tiny gat, and more importantly, six eyes.

She was prevented from pointing that out by a single note, high and clear, echoing through the night and threading through the Honmoon, sinking into her bones as it grew louder and louder, shaking them as if it was honing in on the frequency of glass.`

Then it cut off, leaving her shivering as she turned to Celine and Zoey.

“My teeth feel fuzzy,” Zoey moaned, clasping her head, while Celine looked like she’d taken too many rides on the tiltawhirl and was about to lose her lunch.

“Well,” Miyeong squeaked, “That wasn’t as bad as it could have-,”

Someone screamed, and she felt a red hot poker stab her in the soul and tear. She collapsed to her knees, breathing through her nose to keep from joining in with the cry.

She looked up and suddenly lost the breath to scream.

A gash had been torn in the Honmoon overhead, demons spilling out of it like blood from a wound.

Zoey and Celine released identical curses as they pulled their weapons from the Honmoon, and Miyeong followed suit, watching as the demons rushed Huntr/x as they retreated back into the bathhouse. 

She summoned an arrow and aimed at the mass of demons, only for the Honmoon to falter behind her.

She spun on her heel, greeting the first demon through the breach with an arrow to its non-face. More followed in its wake into Zoey and Celine’s waiting blades, but their efforts were stopgap at best as an ogre barreled after them, its club sweeping low. The three Huntresses leapt onto the club, using the momentum as a spring board that carried them into the alley, swarming with demons at both ends, but the bathhouse’s entrance surprisingly empty.

It suddenly occurred to Miyeong that this ambush might not have only been targeting Huntr/x.

—

It was Sussie who’d found Rumi’s Doppelganger and her lackeys, and had led her to a small bathhouse on some quiet side street.

A part of her wanted to end this here and now, tear open a gash in the Honmoon and drown them in Demons, but it wouldn’t give her any answers, if they were even there and Sussie hadn't led her astray.

So she was content to sit and wait.

Then two thirds of the Sunlight Sisters and their apprentice rolled up onto the rooftop next to hers, and her vision went ever so slightly red around the edges.

Who wouldn’t, when faced with the women who’d kill the monster you’d become without thinking?

She sunk deeper into her little patch of shadows, observing the trio.

They seemed completely at ease, her mother and the woman she remembered as Aunt Moon-Moon bantering, both of them speaking to the younger girl with a warmth and fondness that fell like sparks onto the kindling of envy stuffed between her lungs.

Then a trio of figures stepped into an alleyway, pressed into each other like they couldn’t stand to be apart.

The kindling sparked.

She jumped away, just far enough that no opportunistic archers could snipe her, and began to sing.

Her voice rose higher and higher, reaching out to and threading through the Honmoon, entwining herself within like a blanket on a warm summer’s night, what should have been comforting a touch too warm and tinged with bittersweet memory.

She paused, allowing the flames of sadness/resentment/shame to build and build and build.

Then she screamed, the fire in her chest tearing apart the Honmoon above the street, unleashing her rain of demons. From the initial tear came spiderwebbed fractures that the waiting second wave were free to pry open at their leisure. She allowed the initial rush of demons to push Huntr/x back into the bathhouse, and into the waiting arms of the Gwisin and Jeosung Saja now stationed below.

She turned her attention to the Sunlight Sisters and their little friend, still reeling from their nigh invincible Honmoon splintering around them. Another tide of demons washed them into the street, where her Faceless and ogre-like Dokkaebi penned them in, forcing them into following Huntr/x’s footsteps.

Maybe, if she was lucky, Huntr/x and the Hunters would soften each other up.

She just couldn’t have them killing each other. Yet.

She jumped below, only to find that her fellow demons probably wouldn’t be up to the task of catching Huntr/x. The trio were a whirlwind, littering the ground with unconscious Saja and Gwisin, battered by the tall one’s impromptu staff, the short one’s wrestling moves, or her doppelganger’s claws and bestial strength.

So, she was a demon, free of Gwi Ma’s control.

Like her father had been, like she had been.

Resentment burnt the back of her throat like vomit.

But the hunters burst into the room with their own tornado of demon killing violence, and survival instinct pushed down any thought of lashing out.

She retreated further into the building, leaving the battle behind her, envy dogging her heels.

—

God did she hate Gwisin.

“They look like you when it’s humid out!” Celine teased over the sounds of combat, proving her point. 

She grunted, falling between Celine’s vanguard and Zoey’s reluctant rearguard, splitting her arrows on the demons descending on the rapper and the shapes moving between the baths.

One of those rocketed through the air to be plucked from the air by an arrow, and she traced the trajectory to see Huntr/x as the eye in a whirlwind of chaos.

And between their showing this afternoon and now, the three of them would make excellent Hunters.

Turtle Dragon caught a saja’s neck in a hurricanrana and pulled it off its feet, throwing it into the upswing of Gumiho’s makeshift staff. Gumiho flowed from the strike into a throwing position, her toss pinning a gwisin to a pillar by its knotted hair, leaving it open for a spinning kick from Rumi to pulverize its head. She pulled the bar from the pillar singlehandedly before sending it back to Gumiho, impaling another Gwisin as it did so. Gumiho grabbed and stabilized it, allowing Turtle to rebound off it to perform another dazzling aerial move.

A claw interrupted her Miyeong, coming way too close to her face before the sharpened edge of her bow reaped it. She snapped off another arrow towards the trio, claiming another Saja and catching Rumi’s attention.

“Turtle!” she shouted, “Arm us!”

Turtle used a Saja as a platform to soar over everyone’s heads, giving everyone a view of the impossible.

Huntr/x’s rainbow Honmoon knotted into a pair of Shin-kal identical to Zoey’s which she promptly tossed towards Gumiho and Rumi. The two women caught the Shin-kal and turned the one sided fight into a slaughter, cutting through whip like hair and filleting Demons with a brutal efficiency as Turtle slammed into a Gwisin’s back and rode it to the floor, embedding another pair of Shin-kal into its ears.

Her gaze caught Celine’s wide eyes as another Gwisin lashed out at them, Celine’s blades scything through its hair before Miyeong put an arrow between its eyes.

“Zoey! We move together!” Celine shouted, falling into a moving triangle, Zoey darting forward as Celine took up their rearguard as Miyeong once again took up the middle, firing off a warning arrow that came worryingly close to Rumi’s head.

Rumi’s girls mirrored them, falling into a triangular formation as Rumi led them towards a side exit.

“They’re getting away!” Zoey shouted, the ever eagre girl darting ahead, too far ahead, as a Gwisin’s hair wrapped around her ankle and slammed her into the floor, another pair lunging to disembowel her.

Miyeong screamed but Celine cleared her, landing in a whirl of blades that cut hair and demon alike to ribbons. She rushed to join them but a trio of Saja jumped between them, one of them catching an arrow for its trouble but the other two drove her away from her girls, but caught a glimpse of Rumi being peeled off from her girls with a similar maneuver.

She ducked below a swipe of claws, driving her sharpened bow into their legs before darting between them just as another trio of Saja tackled Rumi through the doorway.

She followed, her heart in her chest, an arrow killing one, allowing her daughter to slit the second’s throat and send the third into the ceiling with an uppercut and sending the Rainbow Shin-kal through its head. 

Rumi flipped to her feet, and demonic eyes met hers and widened.

Miyeong felt her mouth drop open but for once she couldn’t find her words.

Rumi didn’t give her the chance, darting down the hallway and through another door.

“Wait!” she shouted when her mind stopped buffering, dashing after her daughter and dispelling her bow. She just needed to talk to her. She didn’t want to look like a threat.

She pushed through the doorway, breathing heavily as the night’s combat caught up to her.

“Rumi-,” she started, but froze as her daughter whipped to face her.

Both of them did.

“-And, Rumi?”