A/N: KPop Demon Hunters has me by the throat. Please give this a try for me, I'm desperate for feedback.

-x-X-x-

"… when darkness meets the light, this is what it sounds like!"

Jinu ends up lasting a couple minutes after absorbing Gwi-Ma's final strike and being disintegrated by the beam of pure hatred that the Demon King had spat at Rumi. He's glad for that, because it means he gets to see the aftermath of his sacrifice. From Rumi taking his soul in and using it to strengthen herself and her friends, to Mira and Zoey finishing off the rest of the Saja Boys and joining their leader in banishing Gwi-Ma from their realm once and for all.

It's not the Golden Honmoon that they manage to create… but rather something better. The Rainbow Honmoon seems so much more powerful, but maybe that's just because Jinu can tell that he's a part of it. He can feel the strength of the Rainbow Honmoon even as he finishes fading away, woven into the very fabric of the protective barrier.

Despite being a demon, despite the Honmoon being designed to keep demons out of the human realm and in the demon realm… Jinu finds himself accepted by this new version of the barrier. And he knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Gwi-Ma will never be able to break free while Rumi and her girls still live and love, still sing and dance.

All in all, it's a good ending. The best ending that a demon like him could hope for. And as he fully fades from existence, Jinu is… at peace.

…

Until he isn't. Until suddenly, he's opening eyes he shouldn't have anymore, drawing breath into lungs that shouldn't exist, and sitting up in a place he'd hoped to never see again.

"No…"

The Demon Realm. He's back in the demon realm. Back in his old form, back in his old attire. His wide-brimmed hat rests atop his head and his tattered black hanbok covers his form. How is this possible? Why is he alive? He would have preferred anything then to come back here. He would have-

-a second chance-

Jinu twitches, eyes widening as he feels the quietest of female voices run across him, causing the hairs on the nape of his neck to rise. Jumping to his feet, he whirls around in a circle… but there's no one. No one except for Derpy and Sussie that is.

The massive blue tiger with his unfocused eyes and the six-eyed magpie with a small hat atop his head. Jinu's pets, the companions he'd allowed himself, look up at his sudden movement. Sussie is perched on Derpy's head like he tends to prefer, both of them staring at Jinu expectantly. He stares back at them, swallowing thickly.

"… Sorry. I would have wanted you both to be able to r-remain on the other side of the barrier… if it was possible."

Admittedly, he hadn't known if they would even continue existing once he was gone. They were both constructs that Jinu had breathed 'life' into decades and decades ago at a couple of his lowest points. He didn't control them or anything like that, and indeed it often felt like they had developed minds of their own with how they acted, but he could never be sure whether he was just imagining things or not.

He's glad to have them by his side, truly he is. But that doesn't make Jinu any less confused. Until a glimmer catches his attention out of the corner of his eye and Jinu looks down to see something that should… honestly be impossible.

Demon Patterns tended to be purple most of the time. They turned red only when Gwi-Ma, their tyrannical ruler, took direct control of them. Rumi's demon patterns though… they'd been… different near the end there. He'd seen them, how she'd somehow turned them iridescent in nature.

In fact, looking back at it all now, the Rainbow Honmoon almost seemed to start from Rumi's Demon Patterns. Her patterns had been prismatic before the new Honmoon was even created, looking back.

And now so are Jinu's. It doesn't make any sense, but that's what he's seeing. It's like a piece of the Rainbow Honmoon is with him, like he's somehow both alive and a demon AND in the Demon Realm… but also part of that amazing tapestry of protection and defense that he watched Rumi, Zoey, and Mira craft together with all their fans after his sacrifice.

It's more than that though. Because when he looks past his iridescent patterns and deep within himself, Jinu collapses back to his knees, gasping for air as he realizes… he has his soul back as well.

-you earned this-

He twitches as the female voice from before hits his ears again. A full body shudder runs through him as he belatedly realizes it's also the ONLY voice hitting his ears. No recriminations for his past crimes. No Gwi-Ma telling him he will never be anything good ever again. Just silence… and the voice.

-don't waste it-

Is this the Honmoon? Staring down at his patterns, at his hands, Jinu bites his lower lip hard enough to almost bleed. Then, he turns and stares out in the direction where he knows Gwi-Ma holds court. HUNTR/X's Rainbow Honmoon was strong enough to hold back the Demon King and his followers, but Jinu knew that it hadn't actually killed Gwi-Ma. It hadn't ended him.

… That was where Jinu came in, wasn't it? That must be why the Rainbow Honmoon had brought him back and put him here. So he could end it. So he could finish this once and for all and even when Rumi and Mira and Zoey grew old (preferably together) and finally passed on, the threat from the demon realm would never be able to rise again.

His jaw clenches. His hands curl into fists. Jinu nods slowly. A second chance. Earned through his sacrifice. He couldn't waste it.

"I understand."

Floating up into the air, Jinu doesn't hesitate to begin flying forward. It's time to destroy Gwi-Ma once and for all.

-x-X-x-

The Rainbow Honmoon could have put him closer; Jinu can't help but gripe to himself. In the end it takes him days of traveling across the endless expanse of the Demon Realm to reach Gwi-Ma's Throne. The crumbling dais where the Demon King holds court is one of the only structures around and also where most of the remaining demons congregate, so it's not hard to find or anything… just irritating to get to.

Still, as he closes in, Jinu's eyes narrow thoughtfully. The pink-purple bonfire that represents Gwi-Ma can be seen from miles away. However… it's much smaller than it should be. Had being cut in half and then sealed by the Rainbow Honmoon really taken that much out of the Demon King? Hell, he hasn't looked this diminished since-

Jinu stops on the hongsalmun gate at the back of his crowd as he stares down at a truly unexpected sight… that of a single red-skinned demoness wearing the uniform of a human airline stewardess. She's hesitantly and fearfully making her way towards the first step of Gwi-Ma's dais, her shoulders hunched over and her entire body curled in on itself as she trembles in fear.

The problem isn't how afraid she is though. The problem is that Jinu recognizes this moment. The uniform is too damn distinctive. The walk of shame as all of the other demons keep a wide berth is too familiar. But this is…

Jinu's lips turn downwards into a deeper frown as the demoness reaches the bottom of the stairs. She hesitantly puts one foot up on the first stair… but can't make herself move any further. A moment later it proves not to matter as Gwi-Ma takes ahold of her, controlling her through her demon patterns and dragging her all the way up to the top of his Throne.

Unbidden, the words come to Jinu's mind before Gwi-Ma even speaks.

Let me guess. They got away again.

"Let me guess. They got away again."

Same for the response from the demoness.

The hunters. They're too strong.

"T-The hunters… T-They're too strong!"

I understand.

"I understand."

You do?

"Y-You… you do?"

I understand that you are weak! Pathetic! Useless!

"I understand that you are- what is this defiance?!"

The conversation initially plays out the exact same as last time by Jinu's estimation. He's able to run their lines through his head before they even say them. Until the very end, just as Gwi-Ma is about to incinerate the female demon and consume her right then and there.

The interruption comes from the most unexpected of places… Jinu himself. Reaching out with a clawed, demonic hand, he snarls as the fragment of the Rainbow Honmoon filling his body responds to his desires. Gwi-Ma's flames hit a protective barrier instead of the red-skinned demoness, causing her to shriek and stumble back before falling ass over tea kettle all the way down the stairs of Gwi-Ma's Throne.

But she's still alive by the time she hits the bottom. Demons are somewhat resistant to blunt force trauma, after all. Not that Jinu had saved her for her sake. He saved her for his own reasons… because every demon Gwi-Ma consumed added to the tyrant's power in the same way human souls did. And even one more demon sacrifice would make it harder to do what Jinu had been sent here to do.

So he was in the past. So what? That just meant it would be even easier to take out the bastard who had tormented him for four hundred years.

"Hello Gwi-Ma."

Floating forward from the gate, smiling from beneath the brim of his hat, Jinu tilts his head to the side.

"I've come to kill you."

There's a pregnant pause as everyone takes that in for a moment… and then Gwi-Ma laughs, his flames rising along with his amusement.

"… HA! BAHAHAHA! You, Jinu? You're going to kill me?!"

Jinu is almost to the bottom of the dais when Gwi-Ma reaches out to try and take control of him through his patterns. Jinu feels the attempt… and also feels the Rainbow Honmoon lurking within him deny said attempt as well. Gwi-Ma rears back as if struck, even as Jinu takes step after step up the stairs, ascending the Demon King's Throne at an almost leisurely pace while all of the other demons watch on with open mouths and wide eyes.

"Something the matter, Gwi-Ma? Performance Anxiety, perhaps? Cat got your tongue, maybe?"

"How?! How is this possible?!"

But Jinu isn't in the mood for explanations. So he just reaches out… and the Rainbow Honmoon responds, flowing out of him and at Gwi-Ma, cutting and slashing the Demon King apart just as Rumi's sword had done after his sacrifice.

Unfortunately, just as had happened in the future that never was, Gwi-Ma comes back together, reforming in an instant. And he lashes out in response, snarling and trying to strike Jinu down. The ensuing blast hits Jinu in the chest, sending him flying back through the air, tumbling end over end until he rights himself while hovering.

Snarling right back, his demonic features twisted in hatred and defiance, Jinu lunges forward again. He's determined to win, determined to end this, determined to kill Gwi-Ma even if it means he dies again in the process. If he could stop Gwi-Ma here and now, if he could end the Demon King's threat before everything that was about to happen, then maybe Rumi-

-second chance-

-you earned this-

-don't waste it-

Only to be blindsided mid-thought by the feminine voice from before, repeating her words as they resound in his skull like a melody in his head.

Growling, Jinu finds himself locked in a battle with Gwi-Ma, his hands holding back the Demon King's flames even as he seeks to tear him apart.

"I'm not wasting it! This is what NEEDS to be done!"

Gwi-Ma growls right back, pushing his flames forward menacingly.

"Who are you talking to Jinu? Who holds your leash now?"

Funnily enough, it's Gwi-Ma's curious, almost casual tone that causes Jinu to truly falter. Because… the Demon King doesn't sound nearly as strained as he should be. He SHOULD be as weak as he's ever been without the souls that Jinu would have harvested for him in the coming days. Gwi-Ma is nowhere near his full power right now, that's for sure.

And yet… it doesn't matter because Jinu doesn't have the full power of the Rainbow Honmoon backing him right now either. The Rainbow Honmoon doesn't exist yet in this world, in this timeline. Jinu has brought a fragment of it back with him somehow… or maybe he'd been sent back with it… and now he's endangering it, wasting it, and screwing up his second chance.

And for what? Revenge?

What was it he'd told Rumi in the future that never was? If hatred could defeat Gwi-Ma, then Jinu would have killed the bastard a long time ago.

… Fuck.

Rearing back, Jinu flies. No, he flees. Gwi-Ma laughs, reaching out for him.

"Where are you going Jinu?! I thought you were going to kill me! Don't leave so soon! You've only just become INTERESTING!"

But Jinu is at least able to escape the grasping Demon King. To run. To retreat. He's always been so very good at that sort of thing. Of course, as soon as he's fully out of Gwi-Ma's reach, the Demon King just has to make things more difficult for him.

"AFTER HIM! IF YOU WISH TO EARN MY FAVOR, BRING ME JINU!"

Right. Because it was never just him versus Gwi-Ma. The moment he went for the Demon King in front of the rest of the demon realm and missed his shot, it became Jinu versus Gwi-Ma and all of his subjects. Some of which can, of course, fly just like he can.

As they chase after him, a swarm growing bigger and bigger by the second, Jinu knows he only has one choice left, one place to run to. And somehow, intuitively or what not, he knows this will work. So, reaching out, his demon patterns glowing iridescent, Jinu tears himself a small hole in the current Honmoon… and slips through the crack, sealing it behind him with a portion of the illustrious rainbow power that lurks within him.

With that done, Jinu knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that demons won't be following him into the human realm any time soon, save for the ones he actually likes. Indeed, a moment after collapsing in a back alley somewhere in Seoul, both Derpy and Sussie come out of one of Derpy's signature portals, with the big blue tiger padding over to Jinu's side.

Jinu, for his part, just groans as he slumps against the wall and slowly slides down it to the ground. He can't beat Gwi-Ma by himself. It was never going to be just him, obviously. He needs… he needs HUNTR/X. And truth be told, he would be lying to himself if he said a not-insignificant part of him didn't want Rumi. To hold her. To love her. To be with her in a way he couldn't in the future that had now never happened.

The only question is how the fuck he goes about things. Because while he hadn't pitched his demon boy band idea to Gwi-Ma this time around… that didn't mean it was entirely off the table. After all, the other Saja Boys, with their dumb fucking names and nonexistent personalities… were actually never real to begin with.

They were constructs created by Jinu to specifically make his dream possible. Gwi-Ma had ultimately taken control of them in that final battle, ripping them away from Jinu's command and using them to hold back Mira and Zoey for his attack on Rumi. But Jinu had the suspicion that in this timeline, that wouldn't be possible. After all he hadn't crafted them yet here.

If he did again, they would have a shard of the Rainbow Honmoon in them, wouldn't they?

Fuck… Rumi was still hiding at this point. She was still pretending everything was fine even though nothing was fine. How was he supposed to handle that? He was a demon. She would hate him and want to kill him on sight. Mira and Zoey too. And it wasn't like he could just show them the Rainbow Honmoon either, because they didn't fucking know what that was yet.

Groaning, Jinu leans his head back against the wall and stares up at the sky.

"You shouldn't have sent me back. Anyone else would have been better than me. I'm just going to fuck this up."

-second chance-

-you earned this-

-don't waste it-

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first two times…"

After another moment of wallowing in his own pity party, Jinu forces himself back to his feet with a grunt. And then he vanishes in the blink of an eye and some iridescent smoke.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Please give feedback, preferably in the form of a Comment but any other form of a 'thumbs up' (Likes, Kudos, etc) would also be appreciated. I will be gauging interest in this fic across all websites to see if I should consider continuing it.

KPDH is the new hotness and I know I love it enough to want to write this story, but I dunno if my audience necessarily wants it.