Second Chances (KPop Demon Hunters)-Chapter 54: Flames

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next FIVE chapters are up on
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Rumi returns from her trip downstairs.
-x-X-x-
Jinu is caught off guard when Rumi comes out of the elevator looking shattered. It wasn't like she was going down to do anything too strenuous after all, and she'd been in such a good mood when she left. So her arrival in the penthouse looking like death warmed over causes him to do a double take and then rush to her side along with Mira and Zoey.
"Rumi? What's wrong? Was this Celine? Did she take the time travel reveal that badly? I'll fucking kick her ass if she yelled at you, depression or no depression!"
In the face of Mira's concern (and immediate willingness to fight their mentor) Rumi manages a faint but genuine smile and shakes her head, letting out a hiccup of laughter.
"No, it wasn't that. Um. So… I've got good news and bad news."
Before any of them can speak, almost like she's in a rush to keep them from trying to choose, Rumi continues on.
"The good news is… Bobby and Celine are together now. Like… intimately."
"Holy shit! That's insane!"
"That's the good news?!"
Jinu raises an eyebrow at Zoey and Mira's reactions, though Rumi doesn't look too surprised by their instinctive shock and mild revulsion. Honestly, his first instinct is happiness for Bobby… well, so long as Celine didn't fuck it up. Hm, maybe he needed to have another talk with her…
"It's a good thing, guys. They're good for each other."
"I mean, Bobby is good for Celine maybe, but Celine being good for Bobby is another question entirely…"
"Mira! I'm serious, I think this is a positive thing and we should be happy for them. And supportive!"
Zoey nods rapidly, eyes wide.
"R-Right! Totally supportive! Um, Rumi… you didn't walk in on them, did you?"
Rumi blanches before shaking her head so hard her braid whips back and forth. She even gags a little bit.
"No! No, thank the Honmoon I didn't! Ewww, can you even imagine? I'm happy for them, but I don't need that sort of thing burned into my mind!"
Mira snorts derisively, crossing her arms over her chest and smirking.
"How'd you figure them out then, exactly? Did Bobby tell you against Celine's wishes or something?"
Rumi shakes her head even as her face goes a bit red in embarrassment.
"… It was the smell. The same way I caught you two the other morning."
Both Mira and Zoey go red at that too even as Jinu's second eyebrow raises. Rumi gives him a distinct 'look' as if to say 'please let me have this'. After all, it wasn't her sniffer that caught her girls after their night of passion and intimacy. It was his.
Still, he just smiles and inclines his head in easy acceptance, causing Rumi's shoulders to slump slightly in relief. Alas, at this point the other two are incentivized to change the subject, something that Mira proceeds to do to devastating effect.
"So if Bobby and Celine bumping uglies is the good news… what the fuck is the bad news?"
In an instant, the fragile calm that had started to come upon Rumi vanishes like it was never there. She shatters all over again, her face dropping and her eyes turning watery as her lower lip wobbles. Jinu isn't the only one to panic, Mira cursing and Zoey squeaking as they all rush to get Rumi over to the Couch and sitting down before she fully breaks down.
In the end though, she manages to remain composed enough to speak, even as her voice wavers and cracks.
"I… I finally found out the truth about my parents and what happened between them. It… it's not exactly a happy tale."
Zoey gasps and Mira sucks in air through her teeth. Jinu just frowns. He won't lie, he's been wondering how it worked since the first time he saw Rumi's patterns in the other timeline. He'd never heard about a demon betraying Gwi-Ma for a huntress, so her origins were a massive mystery for him. Not to mention Jinu wasn't confident that demons could even procreate with humans in the first place…
"You don't have to tell it to us right now if you don't want to, Rumi."
"Yeah, we can just put a pin in it and let it lie for now, you don't owe us anything."
But Rumi shakes her head at her girls' well-meaning words.
"No… no, I want to tell you. All of you."
Her eyes lift up to meet his and she smiles weakly.
"No more secrets, no more hiding. Nothing but the truth… right?"
Jinu nods, trying his best to offer his quiet support even as Rumi's girls press themselves close to her on either side. Silence falls over the penthouse for a moment as Rumi collects her thoughts… and then she tells them everything Celine told her. It's a lot and Jinu doesn't even have half the context the girls do.
Zoey gasps at finding out that her father was the Sunlight Sisters' manager for instance. Apparently, that was an old conspiracy theory among fans of the Sunlight Sisters that no one had ever been able to prove. Of course, the fact that Rumi's mother and father were that type of forbidden romance is perhaps the lightest part of the whole sordid tale.
The more Jinu hears, the angrier he admittedly gets. His hands curl into fists at his sides as Rumi paints a picture that is all too familiar to him. Desperation. Despair. Tragedy. It's the same sad tale that had befallen him, in the end.
Except Jinu's mother and sister got to live. They didn't just survive his separation from them; they managed to thrive in his absence. His little sister even became a Hunter in her own right, something Jinu would always be proud of.
Rumi's father wasn't so lucky. Jinu is well aware of Gwi-Ma's capacity for control. It's the work of a single second for him to use a demon's patterns to drag them before him so he can do whatever he wants to them. But everyone knows it goes deeper than that. If Gwi-Ma is willing to spend the power, he can take over his pawns entirely if he wants.
It sounds like he found a good reason to burn some power up back when Rumi was born. Having a human-turned-demon within the heart of the Hunter's Sanctum wasn't that big of a deal, admittedly. Especially because one single demon would be chump change against your average Hunter even under normal circumstances, let alone in the center of their strength.
However, if that Hunter was in a weakened state… say from giving birth to a little baby girl… and if that Hunter was left alone for even a moment, well then one demon would be all Gwi-Ma needed.
Jinu's jaw clenches as Rumi tells them how her father apparently tried to fight it. How he begged her mother to flee but her mother had to stand her ground for Rumi's sake. He trembles as she tells them how Celine arrived too late, slaying her father but not able to save her mother.
As much as he hated to acknowledge it, the plan was a masterstroke on Gwi-Ma's part. The whole thing stank of more intelligence than Jinu really expected from the braindead bonfire in fact. With one single demon he'd managed to break the Sunlight Sisters. Mi-yeong died. Jia forced Celine to kill her. And Celine was left all alone to protect the Honmoon while raising Rumi.
If it had been any other Hunter, Jinu isn't sure that the Honmoon would have survived till present day. Celine truly was something else and he can admit to a small smidgen of pride for his distant descendant, at least in his own head.
Still, once Rumi is done telling them the whole sordid tale, there's really only one thing to do and that's aftercare. The next several hours are spent on comfort, from cuddling up on the couch watching Zoey's Turtle Documentaries to ordering certain foods delivered up to the penthouse to eat on said couch.
Jinu doesn't mind eventually being the center of the cuddle pile. He has the most surface area to his body, so it only makes sense that they would wind up using him as a bed more than anything. Rumi in particular refuses to move her head once she lays it on his chest, and he, Mira, and Zoey all take turns hand feeding her dinner with her cheek all but glued to him. Jinu's shirt gets a little messy as a result, but he doesn't mind. His mind is already elsewhere…
From the couch they eventually move to the bed as it gets late and day turns to night. Not for anything carnal, there's no mood for that, but rather just because Rumi is starting to nod off and better for her to sleep in a real bed and not risk a pinched nerve from sleeping on the couch.
She's out like a light soon after they crawl under the covers and Mira and Zoey leave to get ready for bed themselves one by one before rejoining the cuddle pile. Jinu just stays where he is, ever present, letting Rumi continue to use him as a pillow until all three young women are in a deep, deep sleep.
His own eyes, however, never dim. They never even so much as begin to drift shut. By the time Rumi, Mira, and Zoey are fully gone from the waking world, Jinu is still quite aware and staring at the far wall. After a moment… he lets out a breath and replaces himself with a physical illusion once more. This one, however, he doesn't get rid of afterwards. He leaves it there just in case, making sure none of the three will wake up to realize he's gone any time soon.
As he steps out into the hallway, Jinu freezes in place upon seeing Derpy and Sussie both waiting for him. His sister's guardian spirits watch him in silence with more intelligence in Derpy's eyes than Jinu has seen a single time in almost four hundred years.
Smiling crookedly, he carefully closes the bedroom door and then gives them a half-hearted shrug.
"Has to be done, right. Never again."
Derpy's eyes blink together, one of the rare time where the tiger's eyelids aren't half a second off from one another. Sussie lets out a trilling sigh, as if exasperated. But neither of them try to stop him as Jinu reaches out to the Rainbow Honmoon.
Gently so as to not alert the girls, he runs his fingers through the iridescent barrier… and smiles at the lack of resistance. Physically anyways. Words do brush across his senses, words he hasn't heard in a little while.
-second chance-
-you earned this-
-don't waste it-
"… I know. And I understand now that my second chance was never about him. I'm not going to waste it, not for anything. But if I can't at least do this much for them…"
Jinu trails off… and then lets out a sigh as he slowly sinks through the floor.
-x-X-x-
Gwi-Ma burns. It is in his nature, after all. He burns and his demons burn with him. The defeat at the bathhouse had been a massive setback, but it was one he should have been able to recover from. Not his last chance by any means.
Only, before he could do anything else, before he could put another plan together, the Honmoon had changed. Not Golden as he'd feared for so long, but something else. Something
different
. Needless to say, Gwi-Ma didn't like different. And he didn't like this new… iridescence either.
He'd tested the barrier a few times now and nothing he did worked. Attacks that would normally have ripped tears in the Honmoon for him to send his demons through weren't strong enough anymore. He would need to expend far more energy to break through now.
But what other choice did he have? Starvation? And so here he was, feasting upon his demons. A full fifth of what remained of his forces would have to be culled, unfortunately. The faceless had been the first to go, but now he was starting to have to pull from the ones who actually still cared about their miserable lives.
At least their begging and squealing was like a balm on his ever-burning rage and-
"There once was a mighty Demon King…"
Gwi-Ma's flames rise as the sounds of a familiar bipa alongside an even more familiar voice reach him.
"Stop me… if you've heard this one before."
Impossible. Simply impossible.
"He was in total control, he feasted on souls
The world trembled when he roared."
And yet… there. Coming towards the throne, coming toward Gwi-Ma… not even floating, just walking along without a care in the world. Glowing with those blasted iridescent patterns that Gwi-Ma knew had to do with the iridescent form the new Honmoon had taken.
"But then some Hunters sang some songs…"
The remaining demons surrounding his throne stare at Jinu in sheer disbelief and privately Gwi-Ma can't blame them. Why would Jinu come back here? Why would he leave the safety of the human world especially after whatever had been done to strengthen the Honmoon? Even if Gwi-Ma couldn't control him anymore… he had to know coming here was certain death.
"Now all he does is
starve
."
Once he gets over his stupefaction at Jinu's presence, it finally dawns on Gwi-Ma that he's being mocked. Hissing, his flames bristle.
"What are you idiots doing?! TAKE HIM!"
"Can't get at the souls, and his flame grows cold
Just a whisper… in the dark."
Finally, his demons jolt into action. They fling themselves at Jinu from all sides and Gwi-Ma leans his flames forward in anticipation of the extremely satisfying beatdown that is about to happen. This… this he would enjoy immensely.
"And here we see the fire go out~"
Except, before the first demon can touch him, Jinu starts singing and his patterns react. Much like the last time they'd met face-to-flame, iridescent energy erupts out of Jinu, whipping all around him, tearing and shredding through each and every demon foolish enough to get too close.
"This is the end of him now~"
Gwi-Ma growls. Impossible! Jinu was even more powerful than he was the last time! How?! Where had this all come from? Already, demons are retreating, pulling back, fleeing from certain death at Jinu's power.
"Do not run! FIGHT, YOU COWARDS! OR I WILL CONSUME YOU MYSELF!"
"Dying King with a crumbling crown~"
Even Gwi-Ma's threats don't do much good as Jinu rises into the air. Hastily, Gwi-Ma begins to try and make good on his promise… not even because they're running, but because he can feel in the depths of his embers that he is in danger.
However, those he reaches for, that flee from him and ignore his commands… Jinu in turn reaches out and stops him, blocking him with that iridescent energy of his and defending them with it. Gwi-Ma roars at being denied his rightful due, even as HIS demons cower in the shadow of Jinu's power.
"This is where his fire goes… out."
Jinu's song comes to an end with one final pluck of his Bipa and then he's stringing his instrument on his back, a smile fixed on his face that doesn't meet his eyes. Gwi-Ma forces himself to laugh in Jinu's face. What? Was all that supposed to have done something?
"Foolish Jinu… My flames are far from going out. Even now I am stronger than you can possibly imagine! And you… you are far from the power of the Honmoon you betrayed me for."
But Jinu's confidence neither sputters nor dims. Instead… he looks up. In spite of himself, Gwi-Ma turns his senses skyward as well, to where the Honmoon has blanketed the demon realm for four hundred years.
"Am I? O' Demon King… I ask you, is the Honmoon truly as far from us as you think it is?"
Jinu lifts an arm into the sky and for the first time in a long time, Gwi-Ma feels more than fear. He feels pure horror as the Honmoon in all its newly iridescent glory answers Jinu's call, winding down from above and flowing over the renegade demon's arm and then the rest of him.
"Let's test that, shall we?"
-x-X-x-
A/N: This fight was originally gonna be an epilogue thing lmao. But it made more sense to me here tbh. Might be because we're probably closing in on the end of this story anyways.
Feedback is GREATLY appreciated, every comment helps me shape a story like this one!
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