Chapter Text
Rumi walked into the old nursery, almost hitting her head on the ceiling. Yoo-ri was there, handing a spinning top to calm a screaming demon child.
Yoo-ri looked up. “Rumi, visiting again? Goodness, look at how you’ve grown.”
Rumi crossed her arms. Twenty years in the demon realm, and unlike every other demon in the place, she aged. Most demons didn’t even recognize her, as no one else could age in this cursed realm. “Unfortunately.”
“Oh, don’t be that way.” Yoo-ri clicked her tongue. “Better than being a child for eternity.”
Children were rare in the demon realm. It was difficult for Gwi Ma to take control of someone who hadn’t had the time to make mistakes. Rumi glanced down at the youngest, Hwan, who was eight and tended to spend a lot of time drawing on the walls with charcoal nubs. She remembered growing taller than Hwan, and his confusion and anger when she did. “Maybe. I just thought I’d help out for a bit.”
“Ah, they’re being cruel again?”
Rumi dropped on the carpet and started spinning the top to entertain the children. “We’re demons. I just can’t seem to be cruel back.”
Yoo-ri paused, in the middle of wrangling charcoal away from Hwan. “You need to fight back.”
“I don’t have the teeth.” Rumi bared her pitiful fangs at Hwan, who giggled and ran off. “I’m so weak compared to the others. Pathetic.”
“Yes.” Yoo-ri said, simply. “You make for a poor demon. It’s that dratted human half, that’s what you need to take care of.”
“How?” Rumi demanded. “I can’t exactly go to Gwi Ma himself and demand a new body.”
“He sometimes offers great favors.” Yoo-ri said. “All in exchange for souls.”
“I can’t go soul collecting, I’m not—” Rumi sighed in exasperation. She couldn’t create the draft that all the other demons could, the one that grabbed human selves. “It’s the human half again!”
Yoo-ri shrugged. “Well, it’s going to be terribly miserable for you, as long as you’re still human. Might as well try to ask, and see if you can just be regular miserable like the rest of us.” Yoo-ri nodded sagely. “Besides, what else are you going to do? Pick fights with demons, then come back here to lick your wounds and whine? You don’t exactly fit in the nursery anymore.” Yoo-ri paused, tilting her head as she examined Rumi. “And well, you age like a human. You don’t have all the time we have.”
Rumi frowned and started twisting the beads on her cloak. “There has to be something I can do.”
“Go figure it out-HWAN!” And Yoo-ri dashed off to grab more charcoal from his hands.
***
Rumi slipped through the cracks.
It was the only feeling she could recall from when she was first in the human world. She remembered a woman who hummed as she took Rumi on a walk, and how the woman let go. She dropped Rumi, as if Rumi were only a cracked stone tossed in a lake.
Looking back, Rumi understood why. Half-human, half-demon, and not enough of either.
Returning to the human realm felt much the same. She walked through the desolate landscape of the demon world for a few hours before a pink scar tore its way through the landscape, offering a glimmer of skyscrapers and cars.
Rumi paused and let the glamor shimmer over her body. Another issue with her human half was how inefficient her glamors were compared to the others. Her whole right arm was covered in patterns and nothing she could do would hide it.
The first thing that hit her was the noise. Cars swept past and honked, people talked in quick tones and pushed past her. Music rang from the speakers. Rumi winced at the sound, then the voices registered in her mind.
She turned to face the TV in the shop window. Of course it would be HUNTR/X.
The two girls danced on the screen, with the pink haired one staring the camera down and the shorter one making a heart shape with her hands. All the demons talked about the Hunters, but Rumi’s visits to the human realm were so infrequent that she was lucky enough to avoid them. No point in going to the human realm when she couldn’t collect souls.
The camera panned to show the massive crowd, all cheering for the hunters. Rumi frowned at the screen. The fans sang along, and Rumi noted the way the Honmoon shimmered in time to the beat.
“Aren’t they amazing!” A human exclaimed next to her. “I feel so powerful when I listen to their music.”
Rumi turned to look at the human, who was wearing a workout outfit and was jogging in place, as if she couldn’t physically stop exercising. “Powerful?”
“Yes, I mean, they’re so cool, and empowering.” The human gushed. She started doing high-kicks. “Perfect workout songs! And they’re catchy, too! Fit check for my napalm era—”
Rumi saw the Honmoon shimmer blue around her, and regrettable, the pink tear she found her way through to be closing up. “Stop!”
The human stopped, her eyes wide. “What, not a fan? Booo.”
“No, I just, uh….” Rumi trailed off, as she saw the pink tear stabilize, then crack open a little more. “Yeah. I guess I’m not a fan.”
The human stared at Rumi, then shrugged, jogging off.
Rumi stared at the tear, then back at the TV with the crowds. The demons tried many things to disrupt the Hunters, sometimes sabotaging the microphones for the performance (useless, as the Hunters could project their voices constantly) or other methods, but had any tried to stop the backup singers? Had anyone tried to stop the fans who constantly were…lipsyncing, karaoke, and whatever else humans did?
Rumi tugged the sleeve down her arm and stepped back into the tear. It seemed so obvious! How had no one thought of it before?
The demon realm’s landscape yawned before her, vast and without mountains. She could see for miles and miles of red rock. The focal point on the horizon was the giant tower, glimmering like a slight imitation of the sun. The capital city, where Gwi Ma laid in wait, for the souls that Rumi couldn’t collect.
She started walking.