A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next FIVE chapters are up on my Patreon for early access!

It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight…

-x-X-x-

With Bobby at his back now wielding a massive knife empowered by the Rainbow Honmoon, things actually settle into something of a rhythm for them. The poor HUNTR/X manager is still way in over his head of course, but he's providing just enough cover that Jinu is able to fight the waves of Water Demons to a standstill.

Unfortunately, that's about all they can do. They just keep coming, throwing themselves into the face of certain death like they're suicidal or something. Then again, Jelly had all but explained it back before he'd been one of the first Jinu had torn to shreds. Gwi-Ma himself was keeping these holes in the Honmoon open. That meant he was right there on the other side, directing this attack personally.

Ultimately, the Water Demons had one of two choices available to them. They could refuse Gwi-Ma's orders and be burnt to a crisp for their insubordination… or they could throw themselves at Jinu and Bobby in an unending reckless death charge, hoping that some of them would eventually succeed where the all of the others had failed.

The thing is, a thousand Water Demons was quite a sizable amount. And Jinu was pretty sure Gwi-Ma would be able to call up more forces before he could rip through the lot of them and seal the holes shut with the Rainbow Honmoon.

In the end, there was really only one thing that Jinu and Bobby could count on to turn the tide. Fortunately… they make good time.

"BOBBY!"

The girls arrive in the men's bathhouse in force, history semi-repeating itself as they rush in with their Honmoon Weapons already summoned and in their hands. There are some differences this go around though at least. For one, Jinu is on their side. For two, they're not wearing those ridiculous leather outfits they'd had on last time, they'd clearly been in too much of a rush getting here.

… And for three, there's no time for banter. The moment Rumi, Mira, and Zoey see the situation at hand and the number of demons invading the bathhouse, they don't hesitate to leap into the fray, Rumi leading the charge. From Jinu's back, Bobby lets out a victorious cry.

"Girls! Haha, oh you guys are so screwed now!"

Bobby's relieved laughter only makes the Water Demons angrier, but that just leads to them getting downright sloppy. With the hunters onsite, Jinu is able to focus on protecting Bobby even more, while allowing the stout, shorter man to get a stab in with his magically empowered knife here and there.

Honestly, Jinu still couldn't say what had compelled him to spare a shard of the Rainbow Honmoon to empower Bobby's 'bowie knife'. It was just this urge he'd suddenly had, as though the Honmoon itself was pushing him to give Bobby a way to fight back. But Jinu certainly wasn't complaining, even if most of Bobby's kills seemed to be more accident than purposeful.

"What's going on with the Honmoon?!"

"I've never seen this many tears before!"

"None of them are closing either…"

Turning his attention back to the girls, Jinu frowns as he listens in on their conversation. Their worry is evident so he calls out to them from across the bathhouse to explain.

"This is an attack by Gwi-Ma himself, ladies! He's on the other side of those tears and he's pouring a lot of his remaining power into this assault! If we can win here, then he'll be down for the count for a while after this!"

Hearing this, Jinu is gratified to see all three hunters perk up and grow all the more determined. It means they actually believe him and are seemingly taking his words at face value. Figuring he might as well offer, he clears his throat and goes for broke.

"If you girls can focus on the demons, I can start healing tears…"

But alas, he probably should have known better and just kept his dumb mouth shut. Rumi immediately levels a death glare in his direction, even as her sword stabs a Water Demon right in the face before it can even fully leave the demon realm.

"NO! You are not to add anymore of your… whatever it is to the Honmoon! YOU focus on the demons; WE will sing the tears closed!"

Jinu holds up his hands in the universal gesture of surrender. But to his mild surprise, Mira and Zoey don't seem to agree with Rumi's plan.

"But Rumi, what about your voice?"

"Maybe it would be best to just let him do it…"

"No! No, we can do this! I can do this! We'll sing Golden, it'll be fine!"

As though to preempt the other two from questioning her further, Rumi starts them off a second later even as she continues to cut down any enemies who come within range of her weapon.

I was a ghost, I was alone

어두워진 앞길 속에 (hah)

She swings her saingeom through another couple of Water Demons, face scrunched up in concentration.

Given the throne, I didn't know how to believe

I was the queen that I'm meant to be!

Zoey and Mira share a complicated look but ultimately join in with their own lines a moment later.

I lived two lives, tried to play both sides

But I couldn't find my own place…

Called a problem child 'cause I got too wild

But now that's how I'm getting paid. 끝없이 on stage!

Jinu sighs and moves to back them all up. In the end, Rumi was right that either of them could handle either issue. They could close the Honmoon while he could take care of the majority of the demons, so that's what he would do…

I'm done hidin', now I'm shinin' like I'm born to b-ack!

Or at least, that's what Jinu intends to do right up until Rumi's voice cracks and she lets out a telltale cough, her vocals failing her rather quickly in spite of her impassioned declaration she could do this.

Her hand goes to her throat and she looks horrified for a moment… a moment that almost costs her as Water Demons try to capitalize on her weakness. Of course, both Mira and Zoey are there in an instant, protecting their leader and bandmate, having Rumi's back and keeping her safe.

But at the same time… Mira is who she is.

"You can't handle this right now, Rumi! You need to rest your voice!"

And Zoey, in her own way, backs Mira up.

"We need to let Jinu close the tears or the demons are just going to keep coming!"

Rumi looks lost and alone for a moment, a whimpered 'no' leaving her lips. But… she also makes no further attempt to try and command her team, and they're all still on an active battlefield. Finally, after only a handful of seconds that feel like an eternity, Mira looks over at Jinu.

"Do it! Close them! We'll hold the demons off!"

And Rumi… doesn't try to countermand that order, instead pushing herself to her feet with her head hanging low as her hands curl around the pommel of her blade. A moment later and she and her girls are back in the fray, destroying demons left and right… and leaving the rips in the Honmoon to him.

With a sigh, Jinu turns his attention to the holes Gwi-Ma is holding open… and smiles crookedly. It felt a little wrong to use any part this song without permission… but at the same time, it felt a little right too. Even if he can't ask for her approval… he likes to think the other Rumi would have approved.

"Nothing but the truth now…"

The power of the Rainbow Honmoon flows through him and out into the space like never before.

"Nothing but the proof of what I am…"

The effect is immediate, Honmoon tears closing left and right. There are dozens in the bathhouse, but Jinu is working through them rather quickly. He's also never felt more powerful. It seems calling upon the very song that created the Rainbow Honmoon in the first place is having quite the effect on what he brought back into the past with him.

"The worst of what I came from, patterns I'm ashamed of…"

Of course, a part of him also resonates with the opening lyrics. In a big way. Even as the Water Demons start to focus more on him than on HUNTR/X upon realizing he's closing off their reinforcements, Jinu finds it all too easy to dance among them, dodging them with a certain sort of flair that brings a grin to his face.

"Things that even I don't understand…"

And of course, Rumi or one of her girls is always there to kill the demons that he's dodging, slaughtering them from behind the more and more that they focus on him.

Finally, the last of the holes in the Honmoon is sealed… with iridescent energy. The original Honmoon all over the bathhouse is covered in patches of Rainbow Honmoon now, and those patches are growing slowly, just like his other patch. As the last of the Water Demons are killed and the fighting finally comes to an end, Jinu can't help but feel a little proud and very pleased.

To be fair, that's at least partially because he's still riding the high from the memories that the Rainbow Honmoon showed him and the realization that his past mistakes weren't entirely HIS past mistakes. But also… there's a certain sensation in being so free and open. Those opening lines of What It Sounds Like are really something else…

Though, Jinu does have to wonder why all three hunters are staring at him with wide eyes and red faces now that the fighting is over. And why are their eyes dipping so far down… oh no.

Quickly, Jinu checks to make sure he hasn't lost his towel… but thankfully, he hasn't. To be fair, he'd had the presence of mind to anchor it to himself with a bit of magic when the fighting had started, just to make sure an accident like that wouldn't happen in the first place. Fighting naked was not his idea of a good time.

… But then why were the girls all staring so hard? It was just his chest… ah. Right. He had forgotten what they could be like. Zoey is starting to visibly drool by this point, Mira looks like she's etching every line of his torso and more specifically his abs into her memory, and Rumi… Rumi is starting to pant just a bit as her face gets redder and redder.

"GIRLS! His eyes are a bit higher up then that!"

Bobby's voice, raised a few octaves as he finally realizes that the girls are straight up ogling Jinu, is what finally gets through to them. Squeaking, yelping, and squawking, the three young women all sputter and stammer out excuses as they quickly avert their gazes and try to calm their reddened faces.

Jinu just stares at them all for a moment because… had they really been that thirsty last time around? Sure, he remembers the effect that the other Saja Boys had on Rumi's bandmates. Especially Abby and Mystery. But Jinu wasn't… well, he supposed he WAS the only eye candy at this point in time, wasn't he? Seeing as the rest of the Saja Boys didn't exist this go around…

Still, with them finally tearing their eyes off of him, it means they actually start to notice other things. In Zoey and Mira's case, that means…

"Bobby. Why do you have a bowie knife?"

"And why is it glowing like that?"

Bobby holds up his weapon and lets out a sheepish laugh.

"A-Aha… well, it's like I told Jinu here. I wanted to be able to defend myself and you girls know how hard it is to get access to a gun here in South Korea. So I had this imported in yesterday! Only, as you probably already know, normal weapons don't work on demons… so Jinu had to help me out with a bit of his magic mojo!"

Both Zoey and Mira give him appreciative looks at that, and to their credit they even keep their eyes above his shoulders this time. Meanwhile, Bobby walks back over to where he'd left the sheath to his new weapon and goes about tucking it away. Rumi on the other hand stomps forward.

"Was this your plan from the start? Get us to trust you, get Gwi-Ma to spend all of his power ripping all those holes in the Honmoon, just so you could 'fix' them and spread your infection through the Honmoon even more?!"

Bobby spins around as Jinu raises an eyebrow and Mira and Zoey exchange a glance.

"Whoa! Rumi, what's with the third degree! I'm the one who dragged Jinu here, as you should know! And the demons were definitely trying to get him, they even called him 'the traitor'! He's on our side!"

Rumi grits her teeth, crossing her arms over her chest.

"He's on his own side, Bobby. You can't see it like we can, but he's… infected the Honmoon with more of his power. He's turned more of our barrier into his own personal plaything than ever before. And we STILL don't know what exactly his goals are."

Jinu sighs and shakes his head, feeling a little tired. But not for his own sake… at this point, he feels tired on Rumi's behalf. Being this paranoid and distrustful has to be downright exhausting.

"Yes you do, Rumi. I've said it again and again. The Honmoon put me here to show you all that there's a better way forward than the Golden Honmoon. Something still just as strong, but a bit more flexible. And today we proved it by working together. We killed nearly a thousand Water Demons, made Gwi-Ma spend all that power for nothing, and have made the Honmoon stronger than ever before. All you have to do… is be willing to believe."

Rumi opens her mouth to offer some scathing response, but before she can she's cut off… by Zoey.

"I-I believe."

The purple-haired singer whips around at that, looking at Zoey with betrayed eyes. But things only get worse when Mira speaks up a second later.

"… Yeah. So do I."

Wait, what.

This was not what Jinu was expecting. Nor was it what he wanted because as Rumi looks between Mira and Zoey, he can see what's going to happen before it does. He can see it in the tensing of her shoulders and legs… before she suddenly bolts for the exit of the bathhouse.

""RUMI!""

To their credit, Zoey and Mira don't just let her go. They race after their leader as fast as possible. Jinu almost wants to go to… but he's a little lost at this point. He'd been trying his best to bring Rumi around to his way of thinking… but, somewhere along the way, he'd gotten her bandmates on board instead.

How the hell had THAT happened?!

Stepping up alongside him, Bobby lets out a groan and rubs at his face with his free hand.

"… Don't let this put you off of bathhouses Jinu. They're usually a LOT more relaxing than this."

-x-X-x-

A/N: RUN, RUMI, RUN! Wait no, wrong movie. Stop, Rumi, stop!

Feedback is GREATLY appreciated, every comment helps me shape a story like this one!

-x-X-x-

If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry.com and QuestionableQuesting.com where I have over a thousand stories!

If you'd like to contribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on Patreon.com/Cambrian

Thanks for reading!