Chapter Text
-Concert 1: Soda Pop Shock-
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage: THE SAJA BOYS!”
Smoke, explosions and cheers followed close behind as the fans at Seoul Stadium went ballistic! Here, right in front of them, was the infamous Saja Boys! A hit K-Pop boy band sensation that was sweeping the nation! Their sold out show was going to be their biggest hit yet, and the lucky odd-thousands of fans who were there could not wait for the music to start!
So when the beat dropped and the dancers started moving, the response was euphoric.
The beat thumped and pumped the catchy turn across the stadium. Fans screamed in excitement, glowsticks thrashing through the air as cheers filled every corner of the stadium.
“My little soda pop!” The dancers sang in harmony on stage.
“Cool me down, you're so hot,
Pour me up, I won't stop,
You're my soda pop, my little soda pop~!”
Jinu, the band leader, even gave a wink at the audience that made them swoon, falling deeper and deeper into the adoration of the boy band. All of which went according to their plan.
A dark mist swirled around the stage, touching the hearts of every captive member in the audience. It began to draw out their essence, their love and adoration being sucked out of them like boba through a straw! It was a criminal plot that the dastardly handsome Saja Boys had plotted their entire career: to drain the fans dry of their essence, in order to destroy the Honmoon.
What? Did you expect the most famous boy band in the nation NOT to be secretly a group of devious demons in disguise whose sole goals were to weaken the barrier protecting the human world so their brethren can attack and conquer the land? It’s 2026, that’s totally in fashion right now, and that’s exactly who the Saja Boys were!
They were a “change in tactics”, after constantly having their brethren getting beaten in battle just to scratch the human world, they collectively decided that if they cannot attack and defeat the humans in a frontal attack, why not just infiltrate their ranks and steal their source of power? In South Korea, idol culture has merged with the profession of Demon Hunting, and the Demon Hunters draw their strength from the populace that they protect, as does the barrier that protects South Korea from the demons, the Honmoon. So Jinu of the Saja Boys had a genius plan. Drain the fans of their essence, and not only shall the demons become the most powerful force of forces, but the Hunters will be powerless to stop them all once they are done! It was a diabolically evil plot that only the most hideous of fiends could conjure up, too horrifying to be true!
Not to mention it was all working beautifully! The fans clapped and cheered, their adoration flowing into the demons, their souls being sucked dry! With the venue sealed off by mankind’s own super protective security force as well, no foolish Demon Hunter would ever be capable of foiling their plot!
At least… none without a ten ton motorbike and an axe to grind.
Bursting through the ceiling like a straw into a new cup of milk tea, a man with silver hair and a deep red jacket flew straight for the Saja Boy’s stage.
“Woooo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoooo!” The man cackled as his bike cracked the polished floor, and scattered the Saja boys about. Their song interrupted, the essence of the people they were draining returned to their owners, just in the nick of time before they were lost for good.
“What whe-?”
“What is that?”
Murmurs and whispers replaced the cheers, eyes locked onto the murky dust cloud that lightly hugged the dance stage.
However, the biggest question asked was, “Where are the Saja Boys!? Are the Saja Boys okay?!”
Slight panic and worry followed after, like a chorus to a song, some even pushing against guard rails to see if their lovable boys were in a-ok condition. Luckily for them the smoke cleared easily, and six figures could be seen. One by one, each member of the 5 person boyband stood up, coughing and waving away some dust. There was a flash of some dark tattoo marks on their arms, the signature sign of a demon. Jinu quickly focused to hide his and directed the others as well as their eyes flew to the source of the crash.
“Wooo! Sorry to crash the party, but that song was a crime against nature!”
The man in a red coat stepped forward, the bike, well… the bike was gone. Poof. Like a rabbit in a magician’s hat. The whole crowd and the performers were staring with a glance that asked a million questions at once. The man in red cast his own over the Saja Boys, eyes darting up and down, and said one single line.
“The preschool’s on the other side of the city, kids, I’d think they’d like your performance better.”
“Security!” Jinu replied, his face displaying a rare shade of anger. The demon could and would blast this man off the stage, but rather wanted to contain his image over starting a fight. So two burly men in black shirts that said “security” appeared in a flash, practically in a cloud of smoke. The man in red took a few steps back as Jinu pointed and said, “Get him off our stage!”
The two men rushed forward and the man in red also charged! Charged away from the bodyguards and towards the side of the stage. Jinu watched with a sneer, but was satisfied for now, like a fan after finishing a refreshing beverage. Questions floated around Jinu’s head about the man, but continuing the show was far more important! With a look and a signal, the Saja Boys got back in position, and resumed their song. Their fans instantly forgot about the uninvited guest and went back to cheering their favorite group.
“My little soda pop!” They echoed.
“You're all I can think of,
Every drop I drink up,
You're my soda pop, my little soda pop!”
The fans resumed their cheering, even with the torn up stage, their adoration was more than enough to ignore it. As the dark whispers reformed again and stretched for the fans, the Saja Boys danced and sang like never before!
Right before a loud roar of a chord cut through the crowd. The entire stadium looked for the source of the distortion, and their eyes noticed an out of place element, like a blotch of darkness among an ocean of light.
…What? I’m not gonna use the boba tea metaphor all the time. Anyways….
A bright red coat, and the man with silver hair, and a very edgy looking electric guitar was in his hands.
“You guys call that music? Where’s the heart? Where’s the soul?” The man asked, “And I don’t mean the ones belonging to very fine ladies and gents in the audience. And what's with the hair? You guys take a wrong turn through the crayon factory or something?”
Jinu wrinkled his face as he heard those words. No mere human could be so blatant, or even know what they were doing, let alone be unaffected. He only knew of one kind of being that could resist their powers.
A Demon Hunter.
Jinu looked for the security guards, and the man in red replied, “Don’t worry. They’re taking a nap in the break room. Babysitting 5 pastel crayon kids is a tough job. Thought they could use a rest. So…” the man in red said as he strummed a chord, “Why don’t you kids take a seat and feast your ears on a real platinum single!”
With the declaration, the man in red busted out into a full blown guitar solo, complemented with sparks dancing off his fingers and shocking resonance.
“You think you can silence us?” Jinu nearly growled, “Then you’re about to learn a hard lesson!”
Jinu spun his head around to his band mates, the five nodded and broke into a choreographed routine, changing their song to something new and unseen. The fans watching became split, half cheering regardless for the Saja Boys, and the other half watching with a bated breath at the turn of events. Before their eyes, dark mist swirled around the Saja Boys, and flew across the stage towards the man in red. The man smiled, and backflipped out of the way.
“Whoo! Now you’re singing my song, kid!”
More dark mist tendrils appeared and went right for the silver haired man, who smoothly ducked or dodged his way around them. It was like someone asked for a live action version of knitting sweaters with how the man in red wove in between the tendrils. It was way too smooth a move for the audience to believe!
“Woah, the special effects are sick! Is this choreographed?!”
What other way could explain all the sky high jumps and acrobatic backflips? That it was a great clash between superhuman forces in a representation of a fight between good and evil? They’d need a stadium way bigger than Seoul’s for that!
The dark tendrils tore up stage right as the Saja Boys kept singing and dancing, but an extra tinge of frustration was added to their pop, fury slowly bubbling with how flippant the man in red was being. So more tendrils formed to try and trap the man, maneuvering and cornering him until he was surrounded by nothing but shadows and the concert’s back wall. The tendrils eyed the man, as if they were alive and whetting their appetite, before diving in like hawks towards their prey
With a grin, the man in red tightly gripped the edgy guitar. He struck a strong chord, and out came a dazzling light show of electricity. Sparks and sound waves struck coursed through the tendrils, making them dissolve like salt in soup.
“Neat trick,” the man in red said as he eyed the wide eyes of the Saja Boys, “Here’s mine.”
With a dramatic flare, the man in red strummed his guitar lightly, then launched into a jump and with a wider strum, landing as sparks shot out the stage.
The strange thing was, the Saja Boys never installed pyrotechnics for this performance.
“Welcome you!!!” The man in red screamed as he pointed a finger at the Saja Boys, before launching into an epic guitar solo. With practiced twists and turns, he played the guitar like a magician, sparks flew from his fingers that eclipsed whatever power the Saja Boys had.
“The flinch in your eye calls your bluff,
Feel free to die when you've had enough!
Useless cause is breaking your back,
Your life will end, when you attack!”
Jinu had a sudden case of a twitching eye that he caught from the man in red’s lyrics. With a finger snap, he directed his boys to turn up their power and launch back into their choreography. Demon tattoos reappeared on their arm, but at this moment, taking down the man in red was far more important than hiding the tattoos. Purple and black mist swirled around the Saja Boys, and flew to consume the man in red. He smiled.
“Should’ve paid more attention to the lyrics, boys.”
With a stroke of his fingers, purple electricity crackled forward, meeting the clouds of darker colors on the color palette. The lightning tore into the clouds, dispersing them one by one, halting the attack.
“All five of us, and he repels them so easily?!” Baby Saja said.
Jinu looked at his brethren.
“Do not let up.”
Casting faster and faster, they fought the man in red note to note, but the lightning was a defense that their power could not bypass.
“Keep going!” Jinu said between lines of K-Pop.
Yet, their strength could not blow past the lightning. So they put all their strength into one last attempt. A dark cloud formed into fangs, with yellow eyes. The boy band pushed their hands forward, and it flew towards the man in red.
“Glad you’re getting serious. But too little, too late.” Without missing a note, he strummed a rapid series of notes, and ending with a single, slow slide down one of the strings. Every inch coated his fingers with more and more electricity, and when he finally lifted his hand from the instrument, a massive bolt of lightning flew out. It struck the cloud beast dead on, electrifying it into mist. The current surged and jumped hitting Baby Saja with a jolt! The youngest member sparked in the air, taking the full brunt of the bolt, before crumpling to the floor in a twitching heap.
“No!” Jinu yelled as he tore his attention back to the man in red. “This is not over!”
In a cloud of purple smoke, the boy band vanished, taking their wounded member with them.
The man in red strummed his guitar a few more times, sending arching lighting to chase after them. The bolts dissipated the smoke yet the Saja Boys were nowhere to be found.
The man in red gave an out of fashion sigh and then turned to the audience.
“Sorry about the abrupt ending! No encore tonight! Please leave the venue in an orderly fashion, and I bid you all, adieu!”
The man gave a dramatic bow, the man promptly vanished in a red linear blur, leaving behind no trace.
These only spurred on questions as posts about this concert flooded social media. Two stood out the most:
“Who was this Guitarist in Red?”
And
“When would be his next appearance?”
-End Concert 1-
-Next chapter preview-
“It is quite odd that your music has no soul, despite being in the capital of South Korea.” The man in blue tsked. “Listen to me, my brother's ramblings are beginning to rub off on me.”