Souls

_•_

His eyes flew open, cold sweat pouring down his body, forcing him to rise. Sitting up, breathing did not want to come back to normal for a long time, still spinning in her head the dream she had just had. It was a nightmare where the girl was completely consumed by the signs and she obeyed Gi-Ma. This could not be allowed to happen, for it was a great danger to the world, and especially to Mira and Zoey. She turned her head to the mirror that stood not far from the bed. She had been looking at it a lot lately in the middle of the night, trying to see herself as a human instead of a demon. Rumi noticed as the marks on her body began to fade, from bright pink they turned pale and purple. In the darkness of the night, they resembled dark chains that bound the man tightly and securely, binding him. In fact, it was like that, the girl was constantly hiding, afraid that her huntress friends would bare their tools on her, betraying her. And it was also very difficult to relax, as they were brought up with the rule: “Huntresses must not show weaknesses and fears, otherwise…”. And this “otherwise”, does it matter anymore? Nothing mattered anymore, except that the signs wouldn’t go away, increasingly consuming her. The huntress stood up and walked over to the mirror, gazing into her face. These thoughts brought back memories of her recent first encounter with Jinu. He was human too, had fallen for the tempting offer and… had been consumed by the signs, turning into a demon. Wouldn’t she be consumed by the signs in the same way? They were, with each high note, growing larger and larger, spreading through her body, even reaching her throat already. Her throat, where her treasure is her voice. Each time it becomes more and more difficult to sing and, in part, to speak. And this is already a disaster. Rumi had always believed that if she had a voice, she had a voice; but if the voice was gone, so was the girl. There was a sound of magic and a small blue glow appeared in the room. Her facial expression changed to indifference and, turning toward the balcony, she saw Derpy and Sassy. It wasn’t the first night they had come, tonight they were to be expected as well. Walking over and opening the balcony door, she closed the tiger’s mouth with a swift movement, as if to deny Jin a night out tonight. And closed the door, retreating to the bed. However, no sounds of magic appeared, which meant they were still standing there. Panic has been in her head for days now and the girl has no time to face the demon. During the day, you can distract yourself by running all over the city and killing all the demons on the way, try to finish the song “Crash” and come, participate in the nomination “hit #1 of the week”, where, as of late, not always got the first place. At night, however, there was time to think about what to do next. It was useless to ask Celine for advice: she would only remind her to hide the signs better and that she wasn’t human. That hurt more than a knife. Should she tell her best friends about her affliction? Though, no, they wouldn’t understand her and might even start hunting her, and that would be very unfortunate. Huntresses have only one rule: kill all demons that have entered the world, no matter what they look like or what category they are. If a huntress, who has been specially chosen and prepared for her essence, does not fulfill her duties, she will bring chaos and death to the world, and that cannot be allowed to happen. A huntress will cease to be one if she allows this to happen, it has been this way for generations. But is Rumi still considered a huntress…? The sounds of magic came again, and the tiger took two steps forward through the door and turned back to the girl and sat down, looking at her intently. The thought of killing Jinu, killing the entire group of Sajo Boys and then possibly healing Rumi flashed through her mind. That thought caught on and seemed to be the best among the others. They weren’t human, so they had to be destroyed anyway. Suddenly a plan of action came to mind: she would gain the young men’s trust and then kill them from behind. Yes, maybe that would be mean, but what other options were there? Maybe her friends wouldn’t understand her, they’d ask questions, but then they’d thank her and those nasty devil scars would disappear. Everything will be okay. Lighting up, she quickly turned to the tiger and reached out her hand as she approached. Derpy, clearly not expecting this, at first just stared at the hand, but then waggled his head and rubbed against it. Smiling, the girl squatted down and pointed her finger at his mouth, hinting at what she wanted. The tiger realized and opened his mouth with a card on his tongue, which immediately ended up in Rumi’s hands. He smiled slightly and began to disappear, slowly making his way downstairs.

…

This was their third time seeing each other separately from the others. And everything seemed to be going according to plan. Jinu was becoming more and more trusting, and Rumi was learning more about demons and sometimes finding inconsistencies that made her a little uneasy, but she didn’t let on. For example: Jinu told her that many strong demons lived in hell, but the huntress, based on her experience, couldn’t find a single memory where a demon could resist a deadly trio of girls for a long time and wouldn’t die in one swing of a sword. The demon also said that it was impossible to escape Hell, Gi-ma always found a way to bring the demon back. However, as he told me later, some demons found artifacts or loopholes, thanks to which they escaped and went on to lead a carefree life. Also, that living in hell — torment, endless suffering without hope for something better. But demons often go out into the human world and often find hobbies, again, from the stories of Jinu, and by doing errands Gi-Ma, find the meaning of life. The first dawns were already appearing, Rumi took a long look at them. Tomorrow she and Mira and Zoe would have to sign autographs for the fans. Had to leave to get ready. Saying a quick goodbye to Jinu, even a little hug at his initiative, the girl ran off to a cozy apartment in a tall skyscraper. Slipping quietly across the balcony, Rumi did the necessary chores and went to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a hard day.

***

After the sudden arrival of the Saja Boys and the autograph signing, there was a question for Rumi from the rest of the Huntrix team. - Why were you yelling their leader’s name in the middle of the event? Rumi managed to guffaw and remove herself. At night, as she was editing and ear-checking the song “Takedown”, Derpy came to her unexpectedly, with Sassy on his head, and lay down nearby. As she looked at him, she realized that she had once again lost the flow of her, already rare, thoughts about this song. Rumi really disliked her, but it was hard for her to justify why. Her soul just didn’t lie with her. It wasn’t the kind of song that would stick, running through her head over and over again like the same “Soda pop”. It was a hodgepodge of notes from different songs, but it sounded pretty good. It even had lyrics: ~She’s got a smile that’ll knock the media dead. Everyone around her wants to know her secret. … ......... ...... ......... ...... ...... ...... you could hide the ugly truth…~. This felt much better than “Takedown”, even reminiscent of the song “Golden”, but the tempo was faster and surprisingly more joyful. It was like joyful expectation in all its glory, waiting for the arrival of the triumph. It was a melody that I wanted to listen to again and again, and my heart became peaceful. Her hand turned the page and began to write down the approximate notes. Looking at Derpy again, he was playing carelessly with the bird. The tiger was lying on his back and stretching up his front paws, then bending one paw at the wrist, then once again unbending and swinging it, he did so with his paws one at a time and not very fast, which looked like he was climbing or crawling somewhere. While he was lazily trying to “catch” the bird, it was hopping from one of his paws to the other with a satisfied face. Sassy knew the blue one wasn’t going to hurt him. It looked very amusing, it was a pity it didn’t last much longer. The owner of the two of them would be arriving soon, for they had been meeting often in her room as of late, and Rumi had set herself a goal for today: by all means, get Jina to start introducing her to the rest of the team, and maybe even start contacting them on a regular basis. That would be perfect.

***

Yeah, maybe it took a while to talk him into it. Yes, there were a few more meetings before going to all the Saja Boys. Yes, maybe the communication didn’t work at first, but Rumi didn’t give up. And yes, maybe they didn’t start opening up to her and trusting her until a couple more meetings after the night of revealing her signs. But she seemed to have gotten her way. Tomorrow was already supposed to be the Cup of the Year. It was the right moment to kill everyone quietly without Jinu noticing. Just taking one of the guys aside now would be a little weird, and even weirder if the one who left with the girl didn’t show up. Gina would definitely get suspicious. And maybe even caught in the act of murder, and she didn’t want that. It took an hours to think it through. Now, for Rumi, the Cup was completely unimportant, she still couldn’t sing properly, and she spoke more often with stuttering. It was her motivation, she truly believed that by killing them, her voice would be freed, restored, that the signs would disappear…. It wasn’t long before the idea came to her that perhaps the boys would celebrate their victory and go to a bar. There, they’d get drunk, especially Jina, wasted, of course, not without the help of the huntress, and slowly everyone would take their last breaths one by one. Is that a good idea? It’s a great idea! She couldn’t wait to do it. And so, bewildered, the girl again began to tuck the thermometer under layers of clothes to measure the temperature, lying in bed. For the last few days she had been “sick”. In fact, the singer was perfectly healthy, she just didn’t feel like practicing for the event, much less singing. As she started chatting with the Saja Boys, she realized that Hongmoon couldn’t change anything with her voice and that the signs would stay that way. Each of the boys had previously been human and were not the first generation of the huntress to protect the world and strengthen Hongmun, but the young men had turned to demons anyway. And the same fate likely awaited Rumi. Derpy appeared just in time, rising up from the portal. He was the one helping her with the thermometer. The tiger came a little closer and jumped onto her bed, snuggling up next to her. The girl stroked the animal and took the thermometer out of her armpit and, wiping it on the bedspread, carefully put it in the animal’s mouth. Surprisingly, it turned out that the tiger had a slightly higher body temperature due to the constant heat of hell and in his mouth was even hotter. That’s what the singer had been using all along. Jinu was supposed to come today and stay for a while and then go to the boys to get ready for the Year Cup tomorrow. The Huntrixes all wanted to get the girl out even for a few minutes to rehearse, so that she, even though she was sick, could perform. But, Rumi didn’t like the song and flatly refused to sing it. Plus, her “bad” health deteriorated her effectiveness in the project, so they finally decided to leave her alone. The singer was planning to escape to Saja’s place at night, along with Jinu. It didn’t matter whether they were looking for her or not. The girl was not going to stay here anyway. Rumi slept peacefully in the living room of the boys' apartment, covered in a fluffy blanket. They were already getting ready, because the Year’s Cup was at lunchtime and they had to get there early, get ready, rehearse their performance and so on. The sofa, where they put the new friend to sleep, was pushed to the far wall and the sounds of gathering did not reach it. It’s convenient, you can get ready without disturbing anyone, it’s just fine. It was still necessary to get up soon to watch the whole event, and especially Saja and Huntrix’s performances. She wondered what the girls would come up with, replace the singer with someone new? And for how long? Or will Mira and Zoey be performing together? Then they’d have to work really hard to win.

…

Well, as you might expect, she was replaced by some girl. This girl’s voice was not as strong and appealing as Rumi’s and the fans were “a little” shocked and upset that the leader of their favorite band never showed up. It seems even a few fans left for good to fan other K-popers. Honestly, the singer wasn’t surprised at all when she saw the left, the first one picked up off the street, girl in her seat. She felt that it was going to come to this and that she wasn’t allowed to become a huntress initially. But still, it hurt a little, because they had come a long way together and now they were going their separate ways… The gulf of secrets and hiding had grown too far; it hung in the air, energizing it, and it was getting deeper and deeper, pulling Rumi away from the others like a broken ice flake. The Saja Boys shone, their performance was great and it was already clear who would be the winner of the festival. All we have to do is wait for them to come back and give them a gentle hint to celebrate their imminent victory.

***

It didn’t even take much convincing to go out to celebrate. Demons liked to drink, so as soon as they heard about the bar, they began to run to change and get ready. Now, being in the nearest, but not cheap enough in appearance, the bar, almost all the young men were already drunk. Their human disguises were barely hanging on, the second wave of signs that appeared could be seen more and more often. The possibility that he would suddenly appear somewhere and catch the girl in the act was not a good thing, so it was necessary to find where he was. That was unexpected. The singer had searched everywhere, and he was on the dance floor with the very girl who had replaced her in her own band. The anger was strong, wanting to go over and figure out what was going on there, but Rumi just turned back to the separately designated room for Saja. She needed to focus on the other guys and finish the job while there was still time, because Jinu was clearly not going to leave the girl alone in there anytime soon. In fact, finding an approach to the demons wasn’t hard at all. Mystery Saja was surprisingly fond of dolls, and it was easy to approach him, telling him that there was a new line of Brats-type dolls. He immediately lit up and wanted to look at them, so it wasn’t hard to get him away. Well, and then the door to the dark room, the first demon goes in, he first sees nothing, and then, when the door closes, he notices the blue and purple glow behind him and does not have time to do anything, as in his chest is already a shining sword. By the way, Rumi has always wondered where the bodies of demons go after they die. Do they disintegrate? Or are they reborn in hell with the same body? Though the latter is unlikely, because the huntress has never seen the same demon killed several times before. Then demons would be invincible, which they are not. The same Honmun proves it. While the girl was thinking about where to put the body, about 10 minutes passed and the demon’s body began to dissolve into particles and disappear. Moreover, the particles were slightly glowing with a bluish color. Soon a blue soul with streaks of black and red flew out of the body. Rumi walked over to it and touched it lightly with her finger. The soul swirled in the air, and then began to circle around the girl and disappeared. The singer was still in a stupor, she didn’t expect it to be like that, her gaze was still directed at the place where the soul had just disappeared. And with its disappearance, there was some energy added to the girl, a liveliness, but now there was also a quiet voice in her head that wasn’t noticed at first. Abby obviously liked protein and all the vitamins that promoted growth, muscle enlargement, so under the same pretext he was lured in as well. After waiting a while, just like that, his soul appeared. It was identical to Mystery’s soul and when the soul was touched to see how it would react, it circled around Rumi in the same way and later disappeared. Again a burst of energy, again unnoticed, a quiet, already second voice appeared. It was decided to follow the exact same pattern to lure the others into the same room. The romantic Saja liked to draw, watch fashion magazines, and watch doramas. In one such dorama, he had fallen in love with an actress and had watched, even re-watched, all the shows with her in them, so when he heard that she was in this room, he glowed, just as then his soul glowed blue. It wondered what would happen if he didn’t touch her, but her feet walked to her on their own, as if the soul was pulling at her. She touched the soul again and it also flew and disappeared. Once again a burst of energy, … Baby Saja was interested in clothes and raps, so the news that the famous rapper had arrived had left him stunned and delighted. But on the way to the room, he began to suspect that there was something wrong, because he was less drunk, as well as Jinu, than the others, and began to pelt the huntress with questions. She answered them all vaguely, and he did not like it much. Walking into the room he was angry, seeing nothing and no one, but the sword was already in his back, straight towards his heart. His soul appeared and only now did Rumi notice that each devil soul, along with the streaks of red and black, had another color, each different and almost imperceptible. Abby had orange merging with the red, Mystery had purple, Romantic had blue, and Baby was now barely burning, visible green. It obviously meant something, but what it meant was yet to be known. Jinu was nowhere to be found. Running around the rooms again, this time he was nowhere to be seen. It was as if he had recognized that it was his turn and, as if it was bad luck, he disappeared. And that girl did not go anywhere, continuing to dance, but already with another gentleman. Going out into the street, where it was pouring rain, and looking around, there was no one on the street. In principle, logical. But also even on the rooftops, Jinu’s favorite places, there were no silhouettes. And that was already strange. Where could he have disappeared to so suddenly? With these thoughts in mind, she cautiously wandered over to Saja’s apartment. It was empty there, too. So, the only thing to do was to wait for him to show up. But it was dangerous to stay here. What if he found out what had happened to his comrades? There was only one safe place for Rumi: an apartment at the end of the city, in a tall skyscraper with a view of the whole city, where she was expected. Yes, that’s Huntrix’s apartment.

…

She was greeted warmly and very happily. The girls missed her and could not tear themselves away from her, it seemed that now they would crush her in their arms. They asked her where she had been, what had happened, and so on. Rumi said that she had been to Dr. Khan’s office to get new medications, because the old ones weren’t helping much. Or rather, they didn’t help at all, because when was it juice that could repair such serious cases? Girls on this even more worried and began to offer to lie down in the hospital. But the singer refused, saying that a new mexture would come soon. Uh-huh, sure enough. Mira and Zoey prescribed her even more strict bed rest and fluttered over her like a baby, blowing dust.

***

Three days passed in this way. The next morning, after the evening arrival of the third member of the group, it was announced that the Saja Boys had broken up for unknown reasons and would not be featured in any future installments. This and the fact that the Saja fans were back Mira and Zoey squealed and jumped with happiness. Redhead kept saying that she sensed their imminent departure and that they wouldn’t last long anyway. That was partly true. By the way, their happiness also increased the guardianship of Rumi, so now it was hyper-parenting. All these other two days the girls did not leave the “sick” one step at all. On the fourth day, Zoey had read somewhere about throat massage and relaxing the throat muscles, because sometimes that was the reason for the loss of voice. The girls tried to persuade the singer to try it, but she was critical and refused. On the fifth day, when Rumi was still asleep, two of her friends joined together and carefully crept up to her and, since she always slept on her back, just slightly pulled back the blanket, unzipped the zipper of the zip-up jacket and were horrified. There was no way they could have expected that their best friend was a demon, that it was with her that they sang, danced, killed demons, and became huntresses. At their loud surprised exhalations and sharp steps backward, the singer woke up. She was no less horrified when she realized what they were looking at. The girl stood up abruptly, thus startling her friends that they jumped back and Mira pulled out her scythe, pointing it at Rumi, protecting herself and Zoey. The singer tried to explain, but they wouldn’t listen, and the quarrel grew more and more intense, so that the latter only had to raise her voice. It got to the point that Rumi, taking too high a tone, switched to shouting, causing a terrible purple wave, which increasingly destroyed and made cracks in Honmun. It was clear then, the girl hadn’t practiced her voice for a long time and didn’t speak in strong high tones, so her voice was successfully thwarted. Rumi put a hand to her throat and let out a couple haggard wheezes from her lips. She fell to her knees and tears began to come to her eyes. The two friends looked at each other and turned to the door, giving her one last pitying look. Zoey went out first and Mira lingered, she looked at the demon hunter again and said: — You have a day to get out of this apartment and forget your way here. Time’s up, — Mira walked out, slamming the door loudly.

…

After a couple of hours of packing, she was already on the bus, going to the other side of the city, where she had already looked at a nice apartment for a fairly small price on her phone. So far everything was calm, which was good. When she arrived at the place and barely agreed on the payment, because the girl spoke very badly because of the disrupted voice, as well as warned that she was here, most likely, not for long, Rumi moved into the apartment. The apartment was nice, but there was dust on the tables and shelves. It wasn’t in the pictures she’d looked at, and when she and the tenant had discussed things and stood on the doorstep of the apartment, it wasn’t noticeable either. But as the girl entered deeper into it and began to arrange her bags, it was clear that the place could use some cleaning first. After cleaning and a small arrangement of basic things: toothpaste, toothbrush, food for the first time, phone charger; because there was not enough energy for more, the girl thought to take a nap. In principle, and on the clock was already late evening, it was possible to go to bed. As soon as she started to approach the bedroom with thoughts of a soft bed and sweet dreams, Derpy appeared next to her, on the side and literally a meter away. Usually when he came, it was a sign that either Jinu was somewhere not far away or Jinu wanted to meet. However, neither option was to her liking right now. The girl continued to the bedroom and the tiger followed her with a playful gait. When she opened the door there, in the middle of the dark room, in the light of the moon at the window stood a black silhouette. A painfully familiar silhouette that the girl had seen more than once before. Jinu. She wonder what he needed this time? Why had he suddenly disappeared that day at the bar? Why didn’t he even try to contact Rumi in any way while she was being tortured by the treatment? Many thoughts swirled in her head, giving her no peace. Silhouette was the first to turn around to the singer. A conversation ensued, where mostly the girl got answers to her questions. But after that followed his question: - Did you kill my team? Suddenly there was a lump in her throat, and the words in a flash all flew away somewhere. She wanted to tell him everything, that it was necessary for the sake of her healing, but it didn’t seem like Jinu would appreciate it. And if he lied, it would look stupid, since only Huntresses could kill demons, and most of the Huntrixes had been away from that bar that day. — … And why are you here? What about your girlfriends? — He seemed to understand and moved closer to her. — They kicked me out when they found out about my signs. — . Expected, actually. What are you gonna do now? - I don’t know. - What happened to your voice? Did you rip it off and that’s why you have the signs on your face? That question stumped the singer. How could there be marks on face? Isn’t that had them appeared then? Wasn’t that the reason why everyone on the bus looked at her askew and shunned her? And the tenant didn’t want to be around her for long, so at the first opportunity he’d slipped away as quickly as possible, even giving her a discount on her rent? Rumi rushed to the nearest mirror, her eyes accustomed to the darkness, so she could see her face. Indeed, her formerly snow-white face was covered in creepy tentacles of sigils that sought to completely engulf her face. And there were a lot of signs on her face, it was hard to hide it, she wanted to cry. — Ah, so you didn’t notice. So, how do you like your new look? — Jinu grinned and took a couple steps toward the singer. Rumi was angry and lunged at the guy with her fists, but he dodged with the grace of a cat. A fight ensued, during which the girl’s sword appeared and the demon’s magic vanished in red smoke. He was not in a hurry to fight back, because he realized that it was very confident and risky, and also the huntresses could reflect or block any blow. But the young man noticed how the singer sometimes hit objects with her sword, smashing them or leaving significant dents, and it was a warning sign. Usually, Huntrix did not have the strength to smash something so hard, and here almost every blow with such a powerful force, there was clearly something happened. Suddenly, the guy almost ran into a spike that literally came out of nowhere and was aimed at him, but quickly reacting, he dodged it. After that, more similar spikes and objects of incomprehensible shape followed, which flew directly at him too. The puzzle in his head came together. Her strength in strikes is Abby’s soul power, her ability to make objects out of thin air is Romantic’s soul power. And if she had the other two souls, she had more possibilities, which she didn’t know about them yet, and he had to start saving himself. — So you killed them and took their souls. That’s clever. Just you don’t know how to control their powers. Abruptly, everything stopped. All the newly appeared objects disappeared, and Rumi froze with her sword pointed at Jinu, who stood two meters away from her. — W-what? But… Wait, they have powers? — Yes, every soul has its own powers and abilities, each one is different. But you huntresses have the same souls, enlightened, bringing light. Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? Souls with an almost imperceptible glow of gold. — . And your devil ones? — Why don’t I tell you all about it when we’re calm down? You’re out of breath. — And you, as I see it, you’re just doing nothing but chilling, — Swinging the sword at the guy again, again smoke in its place, again turning in the opposite direction, so as not to let the demon’s face out of my sight for a second. — Basically, you’re depriving yourself of important information that not everyone knows. But do as you wish, I’ll probably tell you some other time, — Jinu raised his hand to snap his fingers and disappear when the huntress called out to him.

***

As it turned out, Jinu really knew a lot about souls. A soul, besides blue, the primary color, could have several other colors. And different manifestations of those colors. Red is the color of demons, and every demon’s soul has it. It is manifested on the soul itself in the form of stripes, veins, branches. But a strong demon, when showing his soul, can hide this feature for a while. Orange is the color of power, an individual ability of the creature. Usually creatures with this ability are immediately visible: they love sports. It is manifested by a second wave on the soul once in a while or overflows from some other color, for example: red, black, white, gold. Yellow — it is also the golden color. It is the color of enlightened souls. The souls of hunters, orthodox people. Appears once in a while a second wave. Green is the color of rapid regeneration, an individual being’s ability. It is manifested by a second wave, but can also be a transition from any color. Blue is the primary color of all souls. Navy blue is the color of creating physical objects out of nowhere, out of thin air, an individual ability of the creature. It is manifested by a second wave, but can also be a transition from some color. Purple is the color of illusions, an individual ability of the creature. Illusions are intangible, so demons with this ability usually use it to cloud the victim’s mind. It manifests as a second wave, but can also be a transition from one color to another. Pink is the color of the ability to make anyone fall in love with themselves/any person/people. Very rare ability and difficult to develop. Appears in a second wave, but can also be a transition from some color. Black is the color of dark magic. Only beings who have used it have this color in their souls. Basically, only all strong demons have this color. It manifests on the soul itself in the form of stripes, veins, branches. But there were cases that with very frequent use of it, the souls became completely black, resembling black holes. White is the color of light magic. Now there are no one who would have this color in the soul. But there are legends, earlier this color was at all who sacredly believed in God and prayed to him, “God’s servants”, and also at Old Testament and New Testament servants. It appears on the soul itself in the form of stripes, veins, and offshoots. And the most interesting thing is that each soul had its own ability. It’s just that not everyone could develop it. It’s hard for people to develop it alone, because some don’t believe in souls at all, they only believe in the mind and the work of the body, but often people don’t even know how to see souls, you need to learn this and find someone who can teach you — one in a billion. But if you take someone else’s soul, it will always remain with the one who took it. It will follow him everywhere, even to the other end of the world. Therefore, in essence, the one who took it becomes the bearer of that soul. And the soul obeys him, giving him its abilities, thereby making him stronger. And if a creature takes several souls with abilities, it will become invincible. However, even if someone takes its soul later, the new bearer will only receive the soul of the bearer, without all the souls that it had. But along with the abilities, the voices of the souls also come to the bearer. They can scream, they can say something, give advice, talk to themselves or even to you, but more often than not they scream. Souls don’t like being taken from their bodies, so they scream, thinking that this will set them free. And souls that have been freed by the will of the carrier or have become free by capturing the soul of the carrier become wandering souls. This category also includes souls that no one wanted to take. Within a few minutes after death or the splitting of the body, the soul can be taken, but if this does not happen, the soul becomes wandering. Strictly speaking, these souls are ghosts. Neither demons nor humans can see them, but they exist and simply wander the world. — Tell me, why are you helping me? — You’re not like everyone else, I heard a legend that one day an unusual girl will come to our world and save us. Well, not us, demons, but people. I believe that it’s you. — How? If I don’t even have a proper voice. I’m talking to you now in wheezing, growling and whispering. — That’s true, but Gi-ma can fix everything. You can come to him, ask for what you want, fulfill his request in return and get a voice. — But then he’ll take my soul. — He doesn’t always do that, he may not take a soul for a specific request. Although, lately he’s been very cunning and doesn’t keep his promises, so it’s better to be careful. But you want to get your voice back, right? — Yes. But isn’t this the only way? — Hm, before, when there were souls with gold and white colors, you could ask them for a voice. But now, as I told you earlier, there are none left :) — Then I’ll just have to go to Gi-ma.

***

Everything did not go smoothly, Gi-ma could return the voice without taking the soul, but then it was necessary to kill all the hunters and Celine including, and Rumi could not do this. Therefore, the second option was given — the girl gives the soul and gets the voice when she holds several concerts in the human world. The question was: How? To which Gi-ma only shrugged, or rather laughed and said nothing more. Having consulted with Jinu and realizing that no more offers should be expected from Gi-ma, and the soul will soon become devilish anyway due to the signs absorbing it, therefore, at least with the given soul, it will be possible to get the voice back. But how to perform without a voice? But since Gi-ma did not say how exactly to perform, Jinu began to offer options: dancing, acrobatics, gymnastics, tricks, and the same instrumental music. And if before this Rumi looked at the guy as a complete idiot, then at the last one she even caught fire. No, well, so what? She could learn to play something and perform. And that’s a good idea. The rest is easy: choose an instrument and learn to play, that’s easy, right? Well, it was necessary to go to Gi-ma again, to agree on the second offer.

***

After choosing and arguing about the instrument for a long time, they finally came to the general opinion that Rumi would play the flute. Several weeks had already passed, so the process of mastering the flute was ongoing. And, having agreed with Gi-ma, it turned out that the point was not just to give concerts to people, but to steal their souls as much as possible. People listening to the flute melody would be imbued with it, and then, when it completely filled their minds, it would steal their soul, transferring it straight to hell. In principle, this was to be expected from the head of the demons. The first trial concert on the street was recently held. People were delighted and some even considered the songs ideal, and in the end they clapped incessantly. Of course, it couldn’t be done without magic, the girl learned to use the purple soul and used auditory illusions to hide her rare shortcomings and make the song more melodic, colorful and ringing. Naturally, the girl herself was already playing well, but a wow effect was needed, which is easy to achieve with illusions. Hantrix, when they learned about Rumi’s appearance, were shocked. And they were even more shocked by her playing the flute. And the girl’s fans were not a little surprised by this, but they already fell in love with the new, silent Rumi, who now beautifully presents music only with an instrument. And during this time, a reshuffle had taken place in Hantrix. Now the leader of the group was Mira, and in Rumi’s place was the girl who replaced her at the Cup. It seems that her role was approved and she will now always be in this place. Well, that’s neither hot nor cold. Also, the other day Mira and Zoey wrote her an email asking for a meeting, but the singer, having read it briefly, never responded. And she was not going to respond. After they abandoned her, betrayed her, she no longer wanted to have anything to do with them. They could have just explained everything, discussed it, and not literally abandoned it on the street. It is clear that Hongmun is very important to the girls, but couldn’t they have continued to protect it together, regardless of her true face? Could they just take and forget everything that the hunters went through together? A few more concerts passed just as unnoticed. Souls flew one after another straight to the satisfied Gi-ma. Only the girl was not sure whether it was good that the number of missing people was growing in such streams, devastating entire cities. It shouldn’t be like this, too many souls had already left, it couldn’t go on like this. But while the singer couldn’t do anything, she only needed to come up with a plan to prevent this and practice her flute skills. And the latter took much more time.

***

Two more concerts passed. More and more venues started inviting her to go on big stages, her music captivated everyone and seemed to penetrate deep inside. Rumi had a favorite melody that she played every time at the end of her performances, it sank right into her heart. It was that half-song with different notes, which came to her mind when the singer once again repeated the song “Takedown”, distracted by Derpy. The fans liked her too, they always waited for her appearance at the end, to fall in love with this melody again and joyfully greet her with shouts. In two and a half days there was supposed to be the next concert. She was invited by the same venue that usually always invited Huntrix. She didn’t want to meet the hunters there. But what difference does it make if they still won’t communicate, at most exchange glances.

…

While preparing for the next concert, an idea came to Rumi, so inopportunely: what if we cross enlightened souls, creating a more enlightened soul that will protect the world from demons? Today, just before the concert, Jinu told her that in theory it is possible to unite souls. This could be a way out and restore Hongmun again, since the new Huntrix still cannot restore it. This idea returned even after the concert and settled deep in her head, attracting all attention in a free minute. It screamed about itself, not allowing her to think about anything else. And so it went on for hours. Hours flowed into days and thus 2 days passed. As if in a fog, but only with this one thought, which was like a bright star in the black sky. And since this is how it happened, then why not try to implement it. There was also an idea to cross several enlightened souls at once. In theory, it was possible, but in practice no one had ever tried it. It was a good opportunity to be the first in this experiment and find out the result. True, it was not yet clear what would happen, maybe the souls would not unite at all. But if everything worked out as planned, then a soul like an angel would be created. An angel that would protect this world from the clutches of Gi-ma and bring light. It sounds too fabulous, but hope for the best dies last. Rumi got out of bed and went to the window, where a bright full moon was shining.

“There can’t be an angel without a name, we should come up with one. And, if I understand correctly, he will be without a body? How to create a vessel for souls? Jinu probably knows, but he will ask why all this. I’m afraid he will consider the idea with an angel a joke or nonsense. I won’t tell him. Oh, by the way… there was one book in Jinu’s room…”

The singer turned around and went out into the corridor, then turned, finding herself at the guy’s door. He was probably asleep, so he might not have noticed anything. But he would still discover the book was missing in the morning. Then he would need a phone to take a photo of the necessary information. If it even exists. Rumi returned to the same door with her phone. Reassuring herself that she was doing this for the common good and did not allow herself to think that demons never sleep, but if this was really the case, then the failure was already approaching. Quietly entering and walking to his bookcase, the girl breathed a sigh of relief — he really was sleeping. Quickly turning on the flashlight and starting to quietly rummage through the pages of the books, after about 30 minutes she found what she was looking for. It was a book with a dark leather cover, in some places, disassembled and, from the yellow stains, a slight roughness of the pages, it became clear that it was very old. Having leafed through unnecessary spells for now, she finally came across something useful, but it was still not it, because it told how to find or make a vessel already being a soul. Although it was fascinating to read. Further. After skipping almost all the pages, she found the necessary spell somewhere at the end. It only worked at night, because you needed a dark room and, preferably, for the spell to work accurately, an exit to the sky. You can also perform the ritual outside. You needed a bowl of blood, a circle of salt to protect yourself if the soul of a demon entered the vessel, and the spell itself, which is written below. Nothing complicated, but the age of the new body depended on the volume of blood. If the bowl is small, with approximately 100 to 499 ml of blood, then it will be a baby, if from 500 to 1199 ml, it will be a child from two to nine years old, it depends on the specific amount of blood in the bowl. From 1,200 to 1,799 — a teenager from nine to fifteen years old, from 1,800 to 2,299 — an adult young man. It is also desirable that the blood be fresh and without clots. Next came the explanation itself of how to perform the ritual. Rumi didn’t read it, there was still time, and after taking a photo of it all, she ran off to her room with a wide smile on her face, not forgetting to put the book back the way it was.

***

The constant concerts were exhausting, but thinking about her future angel gave her energy and strength. Only, the angel still didn’t have a name, that was the only thing that was upsetting. Well, there was still time to come up with one. Now she was riding the last bus to the village where Celine lived. To the place where she became a huntress. Next to a mighty, tall oak tree, which was not so far from Celine’s house, there were burials of past huntresses. That was where Rumi was heading. In the same book where she had photographed the ritual of creating a vessel for the soul, she had found another ritual, but only for removing the soul from an old, dead body. It was even easier than the ritual of creating a vessel, all you had to do was come to the burial of a person under the cover of night and with the moon open from the clouds, make the soul appear, show itself and touch it. It was not difficult for a huntress to do this, she had been taught this a long time ago and in this same village.

…

Rumi thought there would be five souls here, but there were many more. And now, she looked at all these seemingly countless souls, and carefully walked towards certain ones, touching them. The girl chose those that had the brightest golden wave and those that had a translucent golden outline around the soul. She chose only five souls, three with outlines and two of the brightest of all. The singer crossed them right there, simply curling the souls to carefully fly into each other and unite into one whole. The result was a soul with a clear golden outline and a frequent large golden wave that blinded with its brightness every time. Rumi was delighted.

…

Rumi decided not to delay long with the creation of the vessel and to make it the very next night. Jinu had just left for a few days for a project where he wanted to try himself as an actor. A knife in her hand, a wound on the ring finger and blood flows, soon the same appears on the middle finger. There is still not enough blood, you need to collect at least 500 or more. There is a huge wound on the palm, blood is gushing out of it, but still not enough. Here are more and more wounds, blood is flowing. There is time to think about a name. Recently, Rumi asked Jinu what name he would give his child, to which he was initially embarrassed, asked questions to understand what it was about and still answered that he likes Japanese names, they are very beautiful. Rumi thought about this for a long time and went online to look at Japanese names. However, only a few caught her eye: Takayuki, Hikari, Ai. The girl wanted to give her creation an expressive name, because this is still a future angel, even by his soul it was obvious. Or her soul. Most likely, hers, because the souls of the hunters were taken. And if it was a girl, then the name Takayuki was not suitable, since it is male. Hikari meant radiance, and Ai — love. And it was unclear which one was more suitable. Finally, there was about 550 ml in the bowl. We could begin. Since Rumi was filling the bowl by the panoramic window of her room, there was no need to go anywhere, the girl just sat back a little. Having made the golden soul appear in front of her above the bowl, she turned on the phone and began to read the spell, simultaneously observing the reaction of the soul and blood. At first, nothing happened, but then the blood flew in drops up to the soul, uniting at its golden outline and over time completely absorbing it. As she continued reading and repeating some phrases, the silhouette of a small child with short hair began to emerge. At first, the silhouette was very blurry and dark red, but then it began to lighten and the hair acquired a purple tint. As expected, it was a girl. A very beautiful girl from birth. It became difficult to read and it became dark in my eyes, fatigue spread more and more throughout my body. But she had to finish reading, even absolutely had to. It is imperative that this angel exist fully, be healthy and happy. The last words blurred, so when she brought the phone closer and finished reading, my eyes closed, my head went blank.

…

It seemed like a couple of hours had passed since she had passed out. Rumi woke up with a huge heaviness and fatigue in her body. She wanted to lie around further, but the wounds on her arms needed to be treated and the baby needed to be fed. Sitting up, a snow-white child appeared next to her. She had beautiful purple hair, just like Rumi. The fatigue immediately faded into the background, Rumi stood up and quickly began to look for something to wrap the baby in. She found her big soft T-shirt and carefully wrapped her in it. It seemed that this was not a living person, but a gorgeous porcelain doll that could only be played with carefully.

***

The wind walks around the room, fluttering hair and swaying pages nearby. A flute plays, the melody seems very joyful, cheerful. It gradually becomes slower, then speeds up and picks up speed. Rustling is heard. The music suddenly stops. Steps. - Oh, who is this that woke up here? — Rumi, who had grown a little thinner, picked up the child and gently ran her emaciated finger along her cheek. The girl’s voice was fading more and more, and she could only speak hesitantly. The baby opened her eyes slightly. She looked around while her “mother” took a couple of steps towards the weak moonlight. The girl squinted slightly, looking at the sky and the moon. - Did you like the music I played? The little doll looked at Rumi and put her hand to her nose, squeezing it slightly. Her palm was so tiny compared to the girl’s palm. The singer smiled, and the little palm continued to explore her face, running along her sharp cheekbones. Her little fingers ran along the edges of her smile, and the girl herself began to smile. The huntress approached the bed and, having sat the doll down, went to the closet. The curious violet eyes looked at her without looking away. Rumi took out a notebook and a small pink dress from there. — Look what I b-bought this day while you were sleeping. Do you like it? — the girl shook it slightly in front of the little girl and baby grabbed the multi-layered skirt of the dress. — Let’s try it on, — the singer took off the girl’s previous loose bluish dress and put on a new one. The little girl looked at her clothes, and Rumi only smiled and, taking the flute, stood by the window again and played her favorite song, looking into the distance. The little doll heard the melody, turned her head to the girl, smiled and laughed. Her ringing laughter caused a golden wave of strengthening of Honmun and the singer saw how sparks flashed in her violet eyes, similar to stars, and they lit up like two bright lights. Although, perhaps, these sparks never disappeared, but only shone brighter, turning into fire. The first feelings that covered the huntress were: surprise, delight, happiness. But then came others: a sharp pain in the heart area, darkening in the eyes, terrible fatigue out of nowhere…

…

— After all, for everyone you are the most p-perfect angel. Not a single star will be born, That would eclipse you with its radiance. — Rumi coughed. There was blood in her palm. The baby sat next to her and continued to smile, thinking that now there would be a continuation. But the singer got up and went to the toilet. The baby has grown a lot and got bigger in the last 5 days. It is obvious that she will be a very healthy child. But the girl, on the contrary, has only lost weight, her hair has begun to fall out, her skin has become dull, and her condition has been getting worse with each passing day. It has become difficult to walk. Rumi went into the gallery on my phone and scrolled through many photos with a little star, as the huntress often called her, and came across that photo with the ritual. “Also, it is desirable that the blood be fresh and without clots. The one whose blood is used in the ritual will die within a few days.” — the line from the page of the book read, however, it was again left unnoticed.

…

Rumi lay next to the baby and attached a hairpin with a rabbit to her head. Baby was about to take it in her hands, but the huntress did not let her do this and put a flute in her hand. — M-my little girl, my little angel… I think your mom is feeling bad, smile for your mom, okay? Smile more often, m-my little star… m-my little Ai-i… Rumi began to crumble into particles and disappear. The particles were highlighted in blue…