Chapter Text
Ants.
Lower life forms made to be exploited, killed, consumed by the demon lord.
Corrupted.
Disgusting.
But so delicious.
That was what human souls were to Gwi-Ma.
If humans were the ants, then the demons were the spiders. They were quick. Cunning.
They spun their webs to catch their prey, only for their catch to be collected by the higher lifeform.
What a sorry display, Jinu thought, his eyes scanning the vast dark realm before him. An assembly had gathered around the fiery mountain, and on top was the blazing purple inferno they called their king.
Progress had just started. A demon boy band wasn’t just going to miraculously build itself, wasn’t it? Jinu had only about one percent of his plan finished, and that was to propose his idea and recruit demons that were… somewhat willing to go through with his plan.
The incentive of having their memories erased was most certainly a big factor in why most of them had joined.
The human realm had drastically changed since they had been damned. They’ve seen glimpses during soul harvesting, but they were never able to stay for very long to enjoy any of the sights.
But damn, the more they enjoyed modern conveniences, the more that they fell into their greed.
The food? So much better. There were so many foreign foods they could just… buy. They could just walk five minutes to the convenience store, which had just about everything they needed in one tiny room and buy it.
The transportation? Screw walking, they never had to walk more than a meter away from their apartment. Now, they could flag down giant vehicles made of metal and rolled on rubber to get to their destination. They could hail taxis, take a high speed metro system, or go on buses.
Technology. This was surely the most convenient thing to ever come out of their mission. With just a second of contact on square glass that met wire and electricity, they could order food, order a ride, speak to each other at long distances, with endless entertainment at their fingertips.
Gwi-Ma was sure to remind them of their place, of course. They were here for a reason. They were here to take down the newest generation of hunters and destroy the Honmoon once and for all.
Jinu didn’t know all too much about the new hunters. He only possessed the knowledge that they have gotten the closest to achieving the golden Honmoon, a sentence that would surely curse them all to the demon realm for all eternity.
To stew in their own suffering even more. To waste away at the hands of their creator.
Jinu scowled at the very idea. He didn’t think, he knew, that he wouldn’t be able to live with his guilt and baggage any longer.
It wasn’t their only objective for the mission. While yes, destroying the Honmoon was one of the main targets, they’ve been assigned another.
Specifically, a person.
They were given little information on them, only that they knew of the existence of demons, despite not being a hunter or a demon themselves.
Even more intriguing was the fact that they knew of Gwi-Ma’s existence. To Jinu’s knowledge, not even the generations of hunters knew about the demon lord. If they did, they most likely didn’t know him by name.
A human? What made you so special that you knew about demons? How could you possibly know anything about Gwi-Ma himself if you weren’t a demon?
He decided to pocket the information for later. If you knew about demons, then despite not being a hunter, you most likely have some ties to them.
He would focus on the girls first before getting to you.
But even before then, he had to weave together an award winning, chart-breaking boy band to overthrow one of the biggest K-Pop girl groups in the entire world.
No pressure.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
HUNTR/X.
Everyone in Korea knew them by name.
Their songs would play everywhere, during any time. They broke records, shot up the music charts, and their ads would play on every single screen.
But even pop star royalty had their own problems.
They were an internationally famed girl group by day, but demon hunters by night.
Little did two of the members know that there was a demon hiding amongst their own group.
No matter how hard she sang, no matter how hard she scrubbed her skin raw from frustration, no matter how hard she worked to free herself from her demon heritage, she would always be one.
At least until the hunters could seal the Honmoon.
Once they do, then she would be free of those patterns, and she will live her life as a normal human being again.
No more secrets, no more lies.
All her life, she’s had to hide who she truly was from the world.
And it seemed like it was starting to catch up to her.
The patterns that had once only circled her upper arm had infiltrated most of her body, now climbing up towards her throat.
Her voice had become affected by this, when she was so close to fixing everything.
Oh, how cruel the world was.
If there was just one person that would be able to understand, then maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
If she could just tell her friends…
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Hums echoed across the chapel walls. The hymns and the continuous journey of the notes painted an auditorial picture of the grace of the Lord.
The chapel itself was sparse. There were only about a handful of people inside, some kneeling on the floor rests, rosaries clasped between interwoven fingers.
Prayers escaped their lips, ones of forgiveness and mercy.
Prayers in hopes of an everlasting life.
Reincarnation was suffering.
It was a small church. Nothing like the lone churches that were surrounded by the city buildings, their dark bricks out of place with the bright grey and white color palette of the rest of them.
Actually, it wasn’t even its own building. It was the top floor of a mixed use establishment. Underneath it rested a naengmyeon restaurant.
The windows gave the illusion of stained glass, which was really just stick colored window film. Some of the corners have even begun to curl into itself from time.
You sat on the dusty pew, one arm propped over the backrest. Your single leather gloved hand ran a finger over the wood as you lazily hummed with the hymns.
You tugged your sleeve over the peeking flesh underneath.
It was too hot in the chapel. You were steaming alive in your long sleeves, and it didn’t help that the air conditioning unit was broken.
You’ve never been inside a real church. You grew up spiritual, but not exactly religious. You could see the world beyond, spirits and demons alike.
But you didn’t worship anything. You never gave your spirit and faith to any sort of god. Coming into any type of place of religion were recent experiences for you.
There were so many rules, so many restrictions, and so many willing patrons that subscribed and submitted to all of them.
It was one thing if they have ever truly witnessed their deity’s presence, not just by their belief, but you’ve learned first hand from a young age that these types of laymen were guided by only their blind faith.
And if their deity was perhaps real, where does their dedication end? Will they give their lives up to them, even if their merciful god weren’t how they were spoken to be?
You pitied them.
Belief was a flexible thing, a lesson that you learned long ago.
Your power was an inherited gift from your family line. A gift that you had invested your entire life into.
And you excelled at what you could get your hands on.
You were never the type to be tethered down to one specific thing. You wanted anything and everything.
You had to know. Had to have it all.
And even after you lost almost everything, after you realized that everything had been a lie, you were determined to gain every single thing you once had all back.
Standing from the pew that you sat on, you turned away from the altar. You didn’t even bother to genuflect as you exited.
You needed no god.
You were the closest thing that came to one.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
Advertising wasn’t easy.
The guys had been able to gather a small team to handle all of their bigger tasks, leaving most of the scheduling, the rehearsals, and the booking to Jinu.
He was the one that approved everything in their brand and his word was final, much to the dismay of the other boys.
Of course when he had proposed his plan to them all, some fought for his leadership position. Once they realized how much work needed to be invested in a plan such as this, they had yielded to him.
The boys wandered around the streets of Gangnam, killing time and handing out the remainder of their fliers until they were supposed to debut in the middle of the plaza.
He had to wrangle the boys in the group together. Romance and Abby were especially easily distracted, what with the amount of stores and the bright city attractions.
It had only been about a week since they had arrived in the human realm. A week was all they needed to prepare a makeshift boy band to top the charts and successfully dethrone Huntrix.
Despite some of the minor conflicts that arose between the boys, they had been able to put together the bright bubbly future song of the summer.
Jinu was aware that Huntrix’s penthouse was somewhere in the area. He had deliberately chosen the streets of Gangnam, one of the most influential and popular places in Seoul for their debut. If their street performance wasn’t going to get their attention, then surely their appearance on the game show later tonight would.
They had to stick the landing here.
Jinu suggested a detour through the alley. They were going to be late, and the agenda for today was much too booked for them to be anything but punctual. He wasn’t going to let his plan be a complete waste of their combined efforts.
He and the rest of the boys knew that centuries of torment would finally be able to come to an-
A single footstep did more than break all of them out of their trance.
A wave of overwhelming dread had crashed into them, so powerful that it flooded the surrounding atmosphere.
They all fixed their gaze forward, their focus zeroing on the person walking past the alley they were about to enter.
No. A layman like that surely wasn’t the source of all that power.
They ran a finger across their nose with their singular gloved hand, seemingly unaware of the boy group walking up to them.
As they passed the guys, they unknowingly revealed the poorly disguised girl group in the alleyway.
So that was where all that power was coming from.
It did make sense, considering that this generation of hunters was the closest to achieving the golden Honmoon.
The boys were admittedly intimidated. If this was the power that the hunters wielded, then they were extremely outmatched.
No matter. With this performance, they would weaken the Honmoon and steal their fans, too distracted to stand up to them face to face.
If the boys couldn’t keep up with them, then they would drag them down to their level.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
If you thought the chapel was hot, then the outside was one giant frying pan.
You were being cooked alive, sweating like a pig in your much too long sleeves and glove.
You had checked the weather app this morning and it had most certainly lied to you. Fake news.
Not like you could wear anything else other than long sleeves, though.
God, what were all of these fliers on the street? Why were people just littering now? There was no more respect for the planet nowadays.
You tore one off from one of the electric poles. The colors on the paper were neon and garish, an amalgamation of abominable colors. You fought the urge to cover your eyes with your hands.
After you got over the design, you realized that it was a pamphlet for a new boy band. You nearly flung the paper over your shoulder when you noticed that their debut performance was going to be in the middle of the plaza.
You were already heading there anyway. Might as well.
You didn’t even need to pay attention to the directions. The music was so loud that all you had to do was listen.
Maybe you should have come quicker. The crowd was forming quickly and if you didn’t secure a good spot now, then your trip here would have been a waste.
Pushing through the ocean of people, you shoved your way through.
You made your way to the front and weaseled to the spot next to a girl with pink hair, wire rimmed glasses, and a black baseball cap.
Damn. If you were sweating in your outfit, then those boys should be dead of heatstroke.
Especially since they were dancing around too.
They weren’t half bad in your opinion. It was a bright fun song, and it suited the tropical colors of their whole band.
The girls next to you were constantly murmuring. You couldn’t quite catch their conversation, nor did you really care that much.
It wasn’t until you spotted a quick flash of stripes on one of the boys’ skin.
Very familiar patterns.
Ah. They were demons.
You swallowed, your throat tight and your eyes narrowing.
It was terrifying how human these demons are appearing. You hadn’t fought a demon in a while. The last time you had encountered one, you remembered that they barely had a grasp on any type of human culture. They tended to stay out of sight to most humans as well, even with their disguises.
Their disguises were always a bit too distorted. Their eye shape wasn’t quite right. The way they smiled was too wide, and their appearance would shift noticeably every time you blinked.
They were also very poor at hiding their patterns at all.
Yet here these five were, jumping and prancing around the streets as they advertised their new boy band.
They had still set off your uncanny valley senses, but it wasn’t because they seemed flawed in any way.
Quite the opposite, actually. They were too perfect.
Too real.
They looked like dolls, completely inhuman.
And yet look at the people they managed to attract.
With glamour as flawless as that, they must be one of the more stronger demons.
Actually, it wouldn’t have been a stretch to say that they were most likely the strongest demons you’ve encountered so far.
You began to turn back around, pushing through the crowd once more.
Gwi-Ma must be getting desperate.
And he had sent them after you.