Two years after the final battle, peace was finally restored. Gwi-Ma and all his demons were gone from the human realm for eternity along with the Honmoon. Huntr/x’s seven year contract had just ended, and they were enjoying their luxurious lives. They were no longer KPop idols, but they were still best friends and saw each other often.
Chilling in Rumi’s apartment, the former Huntr/x stars were eating food and watching 700 2-second videos about turtles.
“OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Zoey squealed as a turtle scooted its way across the road. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! IT'S SOOOOOO CUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!”
Rumi and Mira stared at Zoey incredulously. “Zoey, quiet down a bit–”
“BUT THE TURTLE IS SO ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Zoey screamed. “LOOOOOOOKKKKK!!! IT’S SCOOTING BACKWARDS NOW!!! AWWW!”
Rumi and Mira plugged their ears, praying the video would switch to a different turtle clip sometime soon. “I thought these clips were supposed to be two seconds,” Mira muttered under her breath.
Finally, after what seemed like eternity, they made it through all 700 clips, with Zoey screaming her head off each time a turtle popped up, each one more intense than the one before. “Zoeyyyyy, you permanently damaged my eardrums,” Rumi complained.
“Sorry, but the turtles were just so cute! I wish I could have one as a pet…hey! Maybe I should have one as a pet!” Then, Zoey went on her phone and searched up ‘Pet stores near me’.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea…” Rumi and Mira exchanged glances and nodded. Mira snatched Zoey’s phone away from her. Zoey tried to snatch it back, but then Mira accidentally pressed something and bought a turtle online.
“OMG! WE GET TO PICK IT UP TOMORROW!!” Zoey screamed and started bouncing up and down. “THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE! Wait, no, the best day of my life was when we finally killed Gwi-Ma. BUT STILL!!!”
“ARRGGHHHH!!!” Mira was still raging over the turtle purchase. “What have we DONE?!”
Rumi, meanwhile, felt something strange inside her as Zoey mentioned Gwi-Ma’s name. She prayed that she was wrong, but she was half demon, after all. She felt something like this before the Saja Boys, before when Gwi-Ma got all powerful. But this time, it felt much stronger. Like…something bigger was coming? No. She had to be wrong. But maybe…?
“Girls, I’m gonna go and get some more food.” She stood up and walked out of the living room, but she didn’t go to the kitchen. Rumi went straight into her room and closed the door. As she pulled up the sleeves of her cozy sweater, she saw that her patterns were glowing pink…. again. Just like last time.
“Rumi, have you got the food yet? I’m hungry!” She heard Zoey call from the living room. Then it occurred to her… should she tell Mira and Zoey? After all, it was no good keeping things from them. She learned that the hard way a couple of years ago.
“Um, girls?” she said as she walked back to the living room, where Zoey was now making a list of turtle names. “I need to tell you something.”
“Where is the food?” Mira demanded.
“Can you guys please listen for once? It’s something really important.” Rumi sighed as she snatched Zoey’s list.
“Hey! Give me my list back! It’s for my turtle!” Zoey attempted to take back the list, but failed.
“Calm down, Zoey. Let’s listen to what she has to say.” Mira crossed her arms. “It better be worth it, because I was really excited about the food.”
“Well…it’s about Gwi-Ma,” Rumi said nervously.
Mira was horrified. “Wait, he’s not making a comeback, is he?”
“I mean, I don’t think so, but–”
“Wait, is something else coming? Like, someone more powerful than Gwi-Ma?” Mira suggested.
“Yes, exactly! I have this feeling that Gwi-Ma wasn’t the end…maybe he was merely an experiment,” Rumi said thoughtfully.
Zoey was very confused. “An experiment? By who? Why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe to see how powerful us humans would be,” Rumi suggested.
“Like, I don’t know, a pre-test, maybe?” Mira guessed.
“But how do we get rid of it? We can’t make music anymore because our contract ended, and the only way is to recruit new Hunters, but we quit the whole Hunter-demon thing years ago because we thought we wouldn’t need it, so no one else has that ability but us, and–”
“Zoey, calm down. We just need to hold an audition and pass down our abilities to the next generation,” Rumi said.
Mira was not happy about that. “WHAT?! Rumi, are you crazy? Our lives will depend on them… the world will depend on them. How can we trust them to not mess up?”
“We will have to. It’s the only way.”
The three girls exchanged looks, and it was a mutual agreement; they were gonna need a new generation of Hunters.
To be continued in Issue 2…