Chapter 12: Redacted History
Morning
They didn't have much time to theorize about what happened last night. Jazz had her suspicions after a bit of surface level research, but it was best to know more before jumping to conclusions. What troubled her was that she couldn't find any mythology online in particular about a sole demon king ruling his own realm and stealing souls with his minions.
Granted historical records didn't always line up with reality. The Fright Knight was one that was more or less accurately preserved. Pandora and the Box she guarded was much different than the classical Greek mythos. Additionally, both her and Danny suspected that Clockwork was the root of the many time deities across different cultures.
The elevator opened into the lobby, and Danny held the door for Jazz. She walked through, and he fell into step beside her. The revolving door pushed them out into the morning air.
As expected Seoul was already up and about with delivery scooters and shopping lines forming down the block.
Danny stood on the step for a second and took it in. Then, the duo walked over to the pickup lanes and saw the familiar SUV was already at the curb.
The windows were down. Mira had her elbow resting on the door frame and sunglasses pushed up into her hair. Rumi was in the driver's seat like before. In the back, Zoey was watching them come down the steps. She raised a hand in a small wave. Danny lifted his chin and waved back.
Rumi reached back and popped the rear door open. "Morning."
"Morning," Jazz said. She climbed in first. Danny followed, pulling the door shut behind him.
The interior smelled faintly like coffee. Someone had grabbed drinks on the way. A carrier of cups sat wedged in the center console, and Mira half-turned and offered. "Coffee or tea?"
"Coffee," Danny said.
"Tea," Jazz said.
They took their cups. Rumi pulled away from the curb.
#
Both of Zoey and Danny had the same overlapping thoughts. 'Oh, the irony. I was hiding the existence of ghosts/demons in Amity Park/Korea . Now there's possibly demons/ghosts in Korea/Amity Park.'
Danny has been running the conversation in his head since he woke up. Zoey had grown up hearing her grandmother's folklore. She'd mentioned it back in high school, offhandedly. Stories about heroes who used music to fight demons. At the time, Danny had filed it away as an intense story her grandmother used to tell her. Now that he met what he assumed to be the actual hunters from those stories, chances are the other stuff her grandmother used to say was also real. 'If those stories came from somewhere real, she might know more than she realizes. The question is how to bring it up without explaining why I'm asking.'
'Just ask him. It's not complicated.' Zoey used to shrug at the theories that Danny's parents used to say about ghosts being real and there being a ghost dimension. After learning about demons and the demon realm during her training, she assumed that Jack and Maddie were trying to make a portal to the demon realm. Danny never said anything about their portal working so, it never came up in conversation.
After meeting what seemed to be an actual ghost and finding news reports from Amity about ghost attacks, it's clear that he was lying to her all this time about things being 'okay' and 'usual' outside of Danny's own personal developments, activities, and goals.
The articles were too detailed and spanned too many years for it to be nothing. Ghost attacks. Evacuations. A town pulled into another dimension. His parents' names in the bylines. And Danny had never said a word.
As much as she wanted to get upset about him lying about it. 'He had to have a reason.' She kept coming back to that. Danny wasn't careless with people he cared about. If he hadn't told her, it was intentional.
If she had a guess, it was probably the same reason she was lying to Danny. It would also be hypocritical since she was basically doing the same about demons. It was the duty of the hunters to take care of demons, and she didn't want more innocent people getting caught up in the mess. Granted, demons aren't public knowledge in Seoul.
'Maybe I should ask for an update on his parents and the ghost portal. See what he offers.' It wasn't a great plan, but it was a start. Worse comes to worse, she'll show him the news reports online. 'Hey Danny, I saw some news about Amity Park last night. It looked pretty wild. Anything you want to share?'
"Okay so," Zoey said, "I know Ikseon-dong is mostly cafes but there's this one place that does this rice cake thing that looks like it should not taste as good as it does, and I need a second opinion because Mira claims she doesn't like it but she has also eaten four of them."
"I said I didn't like the texture," Mira said. "I still ate them."
"That's not a distinction."
"It absolutely is."
Danny looked over at Zoey.
She was watching him with a careful expression. Not pushing. Just giving him an opening.
"What kind of rice cake?" he asked.
"The kind with the brown sugar situation on top. You'll understand when you see it."
"Brown sugar situation," Rumi repeated flatly from the front.
"You know what I mean."
"I really don't."
Jazz set her tea in the cupholder and turned toward Mira. "Is the neighborhood walkable?"
"Very," Mira said. "Narrow streets, lots of hanoks, good light in the morning. You'll want to take photos."
"I already have a list."
Mira's mouth curved. "Of course you do."
Zoey bit back a smile. "What's on the list?"
Jazz scrolled. "After Ikseon-dong, I was thinking Hangang Park. Then Bukchon Hanok Village in the afternoon. I read it's best in the late morning light, but-"
"We're a little past that window," Mira said, glancing at the time on the dash. "Still worth it though. Bukchon's good any time."
"After that," Jazz continued, "Seoul Forest. Then Mangwon Market in the evening. And if we have energy left, Naksan Park for the view at night."
Mira leaned over to look at the phone. "Seoul Forest and Mangwon in the same day is ambitious."
Jazz glanced up from her phone. "Can I ask something?"
"Shoot," Mira said.
"The subway map," Jazz said. "We tried to study it on the plane, but it's genuinely complex. Like, more than New York."
Rumi exhaled through her nose, which was the closest she usually got to a laugh. "It is."
"The color coding helps," Rumi said. "Once you get a feel for the major lines, it clicks. Line 2 is your friend. Green. Runs a loop through most of the places you'll want to be."
"I wrote that down," Jazz said, already making a note.
"You can also just use Naver Maps," Mira said. "Better than Google for Seoul. It'll tell you which car to board so you exit closest to the stairs."
"That's incredible," Jazz said.
"America could never," Danny muttered.
Zoey held his gaze then let it go. "Right."
'After breakfast,' she reminded herself. 'There's a whole day ahead of you.'
Danny watched another block pass outside the window.
'Ask about her grandmother's stories after Ikseon-dong. She'll be relaxed. It'll come up naturally. Just keep it casual.'
Jazz watched both of them from the corner of her eye and said nothing, which Danny appreciated.
Ikseon-dong
The wider road narrowed into something close and uneven, the pavement older underfoot. The storefronts dropped in height. The buildings one and two stories, with curved terracotta rooflines and stone walls running between them. A string of paper lanterns crossed the gap between two roofs.
The streets were narrow made of stone, wood, and tile. A few shopkeepers were outside, sweeping steps or setting out display items. No one was in a hurry.
Rumi found parking a few blocks out and they walked the rest of the way in.
"Okay," Danny said. "I get why you picked this one."
"Right?" Zoey said, falling into step beside him.
Mira and Jazz took the lead, already in conversation. Rumi walked slightly apart from everyone, hands in her jacket pockets.
Danny and Zoey followed at a slower pace.
"It's smaller than I expected," he said.
"That's kind of the point." Zoey glanced up at one of the rooflines. "I used to come here a lot during training. When I needed somewhere quiet."
Danny looked around. The street was calm. A cat sat on a low wall and watched them pass.
#
They found the café halfway down a side street. Inside, the walls were exposed brick. Thankfully for the two, the chalkboard menu was in Korean with small English notes penciled beneath each item. It smelled like barley tea and something frying.
They pushed two small tables together near the back.
Zoey and Mira handled the ordering, talking it through between themselves before rattling off a list. When Jazz asked what they'd ordered, Mira held up a finger. "Wait for it."
It didn't take long for the food to come.
A ceramic plate of tteok, glazed with brown sugar and sesame. Soft-boiled eggs in a shallow bowl, already salted, alongside gyeran-mari cut into neat rounds, flecked with green onion and carrot.
Toast came with small dishes of butter and dark bean paste.
A clay teapot of barley tea, a pot of doenjang-guk, a dish of sliced fruit.
Rumi poured barley tea into small cups and slid them down the table. Mira split a soft-boiled egg onto a small plate for Jazz.
The conversation moved easily. Jazz asked about the neighborhood's history and Mira filled in details.
Zoey explained that the owner's family had run it since the nineties. Her grandmother used to bring her to Ikseon-dong a lot in between visits between her parents.
Danny latched onto that. "After all these years, I really need to meet her one day."
"She knew a lot about everything," Zoey said, with a small smile.
"She has any more interesting stories."
"Oh." Zoey turned her cup on the table. "Yeah, mostly old folklore and children's stories." She paused. "Nothing too exciting."
Danny nodded. 'I recall thinking that demon hunters were pretty cool. Knowing that they are real is another surprise.'
A beat passed.
Zoey set her cup down. "Random question. How are your parents doing? Still working on that ghost portal thing?"
Danny's expression didn't shift. "You know them. Always got a new project going."
"So the portal never really went anywhere?"
"It… uh… It powers on? Sorry. It's complicated," he said. "You know how they are."
"Yeah," Zoey said. "Sure." 'Dammit Danny?! All you had to do was say yes. Have these ghosts ever hurt you while I was gone?!'
Yes. Yes they did. On numerous occasions. Both physically and emotionally.
Danny gave her a soft smile to try and dissuade further questions.
She picked up her coffee. He reached for a piece of toast. Neither of them pushed further.
Rumi corrected one of Mira's dates without looking up from her tea. Mira told her she was wrong. Rumi was right.
Danny ordered a second coffee. Jazz said nothing.
Mira refilled her cup. "So, Jazz. What's the actual conference schedule like?"
"There's quite a range," Jazz said, settling back. "Keynotes, panel discussions, workshop sessions. The topics vary depending on the track."
"What are the tracks?" Rumi asked.
"Three main ones. Clinical practice, research methodology, and cultural frameworks in therapy. That last one is where I'm presenting."
"Busy week," Mira said.
"Very," Jazz agreed, and smiled.
"What's your presentation on?" Mira asked.
"Cultural frameworks in therapy," Jazz said. "The short version is that people respond better to treatment when it doesn't conflict with what they already fundamentally believe about the world."
"Can you give an example?" Mira asked.
"Sure. In Japan, certain approaches to grief or anxiety that would be considered unconventional in a Western clinical setting map very naturally onto Shinto or Buddhist practice. If a patient's understanding of themselves is shaped by those traditions, working within that framework tends to be more effective than asking them to set it aside." She wrapped her hands around her cup.
This time Danny spoke up.
"Mythology, folklore, ancestral belief. It's not about whether the therapist believes it. It's about meeting the patient where they actually are."
Rumi set her cup down. "That's a thoughtful approach."
"I think so," Jazz said. "It's a niche area, but the applications are broader than people expect." She paused. "Honestly, part of why I wanted to come to Seoul specifically was the Korean perspective. Not everyone is shaped by the history and mythology of where they're from, but it's a subdomain worth exploring properly. I didn't want to write about it without actually being here."
"Smart," Mira said, in a tone that gave nothing away.
Danny pulled a piece of sesame off the edge of a rice cake. "She's been working on this for two years. The pushback is from one specific professor."
They stepped back into the neighborhood, a bit busier now.
Mira had Danny pose by a lantern-lined wall and snapped a photo before he was ready. He said he looked confused; she agreed.
Jazz wandered off to photograph clay pots while Rumi watched the street. Zoey paused by a café sign, checking if anyone needed anything. No one did. Mira briefly examined some ceramic dishes, then moved on.
Rumi stopped outside a small temple gateway set into the side of one of the older buildings. A string of cloth prayer tags moved in the breeze.
"What's that?" Danny asked.
"Small neighborhood shrine," Rumi said. "There are a few scattered through Ikseon-dong. Nothing big."
"Are there larger temples nearby?"
"A few. Jogyesa is the main one. Not far from here."
"We were thinking about visiting a temple while we're here," Jazz said. "I'd love to get a better sense of the mythology. Do you have recommendations?"
"Jogyesa," Zoey said, without hesitating. "It's in Insadong. Easy to get to."
Mira walked next to Jazz. “It’s the main headquarters of the Jogye Order, the biggest Buddhist group in Korea. There isn’t just one story about how it started. It’s more about all the history that’s built up over time. The idea is that enlightenment has been passed down from teacher to teacher without ever stopping, and it’s still being shared today.
"The trees help with that feeling," Rumi said, tucking a paperback under her arm. "There are two in the courtyard. A white pine and a sophora. Both are over five hundred years old. They were standing before the current buildings existed."
"Local belief holds that they're spirit-inhabited," Mira continued. "That they absorb misfortune from visitors and pass on something quieter in return. People still tie prayer tags to the branches."
"And the lanterns?" Jazz asked, already typing into her phone.
"The big displays during Buddha's Birthday are the famous ones," Zoey said. "But the lanterns inside are different. Lighting one is believed to generate merit, guide a wandering spirit, help it find its way." She paused. "It's Buddhist on the surface, but the instinct underneath it is older. Ancestral. The idea that the dead need help navigating."
Danny looked at the prayer tags moving in the breeze above the shrine entrance.
Seeing an opening, Jazz took it. "I'm familiar with how other cultures interpret the soul and the afterlife, but what about here?" Did they know stories about these demons?
Zoey glanced at Mira. HUNTR/X knows that they can't tell Jazz the truth that they know, so they decided to stick with the script that was passed down for hundreds of years to the common man.
Mira picked it up. "Korean mythology treats the afterlife as a structured system. After death, the soul is guided by spirit messengers called Jeoseung Saja to a place called Jeoseung, the underworld. From there it goes through a series of judgments." In truth, the Jeoseung Saja were just more pawns in Gwi-Ma's army.
"Ten Kings," Rumi said. "Each one evaluates a different aspect of how you lived. What you did, how you treated people, what obligations you kept or broke."
"Based on that," Mira continued, "the soul is assigned a path. Punishment, peace, or rebirth."
In truth, not even the Hunters really knew what happened to untainted human souls after they died. Rumi liked to believe her mother had found peace somewhere. As for her demon father, he was a mystery. Celine had told her that her parents loved each other very much, but that was all she had. She had never met him, and she had no memories to hold onto. Was he dead-dead, taken by Gwi-Ma, or still alive and hiding from him? And if he was dead, what happened to him after? Was he being punished for serving Gwi-Ma, with her mom, or given another chance at life? Rumi had carried these questions for years, but no matter how much she thought about them, she never found an answer.
Jazz had stopped walking. "That's much more organized than most Western traditions."
Zoey nodded. "It's shaped by native shamanism, and later by Buddhism and Confucianism. Each layer added something without replacing what was already there."
In addition to their K-pop and physical Hunter training, HUNTR/X also had to study history and spiritual teachings. They learned about the Hunters who came before them, the battles they fought, and the traditions they passed down. These lessons explained where their powers came from and why their role was important. A good number of hunter-shaman practices originated from Buddhism and Confucianism. They had their personal theories that China had its own supernatural issues, but they've never toured those countries to confirm or deny their suspicions.
"Shamans still play a role," Mira added. "Guiding spirits, maintaining balance between the living and the dead. The underlying idea is that death isn't a clean separation. The relationship between both worlds continues." Hunters were actually former Shamans who took a more proactive role in making sure the dead stayed dead.
"Hence the ancestral rites," Zoey confirmed. "Part of the soul is believed to stay connected to the physical world. The rites are how the living honor and sustain that connection."
Danny had been quiet for a stretch. "These Jeoseung Saja. The messengers. What are they like?" He apparently looked like a demon last night, right?
"Described differently depending on the source," Mira said. "Dark robes. They carry official documents, records of the soul they've come to collect. They're not malevolent." She felt the word come out as poison. These trash turned their back on humanity. They deserve to die by our blade.
At this point, Danny and Jazz were tempted to straight up ask if demons fit into any of that. If not, perhaps they would have to seek answers elsewhere.