Archive of Our Own ^beta

Waking up was a surprising experience. Jinu never expected to be alive after all that happened. In fact, he'd wished for death to wrap its final and warm embrace around his wretched soul. He'd happily saved Rumi, a way of thanking the Hunter for making him see that his past, regrets and shame shouldn't be the drivers of his future. His final act was - unfortunately - seen to be an act of repentance in the eyes of whatever gods were out there and he'd been reincarnated into another world entirely.

One could only imagine how utterly freaked out he was when he woke up in the body of another person in a hospital. The body was that of a man in his 20s that had been in a coma for three months. The doctors had ruled him to be a lost course as he'd gone into a vegetative state. Now, he was awake and healthy - as if he hadn't been a mere vegetable hours prior. The hospital staff that were aware of him whispered about how he was a medical miracle. They'd to run some tests on him before he could be discharged. 

To Jinu's luck - or was it a curse in this case - turned out that the body he took over was the body of an influential figure - and he meant this in a negative way. The body belonged to a third rate pop star who was on his way to becoming a castaway in the music industry. Jinu nearly cracked his skull against a wall when he investigated and realized how pathetic the owner of the body had been. Well, he did try to bash his head against a wall but it just cracked. So, safe to say he retained his super strength. Lucky him.

Jinu took his time to investigate what type of world he was in and let's just say that it was on the same scale of madness like his previous world. 

Monsters? A giant man (??) in spandex fighting giant monsters? What the fuck?

"I'm fucking cursed. This is my punishment." Jinu had muttered under his breath after a quick watch of who Ultraman was. He was pinching the bridge of his nose as his brain tried to process the information that things like Kaijus existed here. Fuck his life.

"Well, I can't necessarily complain. I'm finally human." He threw his head back and looked up at the ceiling with a tired look. "I wonder if Rumi is okay." He then chuckled. "Who am I kidding? She and her girls definitely killed that asshole."

Jinu didn't waste much time in getting himself into a comfortable life. Like the over-achiever he was, he decided to turn his life for the better and he did so by becoming an idol. Crazy, huh? One would think after all that happened he'd forget about the whole music stuff. But how could he? Rumi had made him fall in love with it. At first, singing had been a way to get the Demon Hunters to crash and burn, but Rumi had been a supernova that had turned Jinu's world into something he hadn't even dreamt of for centuries.

Thankfully, the body he'd taken over still had some connections and Jinu hadn't hesitated to use them to his advantage. It was quite weird seeing the face he'd used during his act as a boy band but it was also comforting. Within two years, with enough perseverance and sheer skill, Jinu became a top solo idol. He'd legally changed his name to Jinu, wanting to keep something of his past world tight.

Life in his new world was quite strange yet amusing. Seeing a giant man in a spandex decking it out with monsters was entertaining. But you know what was even more entertaining - baseball! It was a nice sport, if Jinu was being honest. What even made it more entertaining was Kenji Sato. 

Not gonna lie, Jinu kind of saw himself in him - well, except the arrogant part. Kenji Sato was extremely arrogant, so unlike Jinu (in the back of his mind, a voice like Rumi's gave an amused hum). 

However, Jinu began to notice a change in Kenji Sato after the disappearance of the tiny - and so fucking cute, might he add - pink monster. He became, dare Jinu say, calm and not that arrogant. It was suspicious but then again humans - and demons in his case - were prone to change, like all things in the universe. 

Fate, Jinu had learned so far, was an entity that drew satisfaction in turning Jinu's life over unceremoniously. Never in his life did he expect to meet the man in question after the attack of a monster. And because of a cat no less. 

Life became even more strange after that. What a wonderful coincidence that they met each other twice after that - the first being that they'd ran into the same diner whilst trying to run away from rabid fans and sitting on the same table, and the other during one of Kenji Sato's games. Jinu just looked up at the sky and internally gave up. Whatever was about to happen by the divine will of the gods, then let it be so.

It didn't take much for the two to become friends. They found things to bond over - for example their love for cute things. Jinu managed to turn Kenji Sato - please call me Ken, Jinu - into a cat lover in a span of a week. Another week later they adopted a cat and had shared custody over her. Jinu was given the honours of naming her and he named her Rumi for she was as feisty as her namesake.

Their fandoms exploded in chaos when it was discovered that the two were close friends after eight months of meeting and becoming friends. They were both surprised that it took so long, seeing as their fans were... hmm. 

Jinu and Ken's fans learning that they were friends blew their minds but what nearly killed them was them finding out that they had adopted a cat together... in which they share custody of. Let's just say that fangirls were the gods greatest soldiers.

Jinu was honestly kind of happy to find a genuine friend in this world. But when was Fate ever satisfied with the calmness of things? It was a year and a half later that what little demonic powers he weld was exposed to Ken during a Kaiju attack. 

The two had been wearing disguises during their usual outing - their cat loved the outdoors, so who were they to deny her that - it all happened. Kaiju attack, pandemonium, flying debris and boulders, and Jinu acting fast in grabbing it and preventing it from hurting a child. He'd thrown it away with a loud yell before he grabbed the trembling child away from the scene. Said child's mother was running over to them, horror on her face at seeing her child almost dying. Jinu was honestly thankful that he had on a mask and wig that very moment. Because what was he going to explain to the world about how he possessed super human strength. And let's not forget about the purplish markings on his body as he tapped into his Demon attributes. 

He watched as mother and child ran away, the mother clutching her son like a lifeline. Jinu then remembered about Ken and his heart dropped. With a cuss leaving his lips, he slowly turned around with dread churning in his stomach. He was met with Ken's baffled look. A loud snort escaped from him and he bit his bottom lip so as not to laugh at the hilarious expression on Ken's face. Instead of a horrified look, Ken's mouth was hanging open and his eyes were wide in shock, his shades hanging low on his nose, almost falling off. All in all, he looked stupid.

"...what the fuck was that?" Ken managed out.

"Well..." Jinu started, rubbing the back of his head. "...this is awkward."

The two were drawn out of their conversation by the roar of the Kaiju currently wreaking the place.

"Hold that thought." Ken stated, holding up his index fingers. He moved to run into the direction of the Kaiju but paused. "Also, try not to freak out."

Jinu's cocked a brow in confusion for a moment, then his brows furrowed when Ken began to run towards the direction of the Kaiju. Jinu was about to call out to him to not be stupid or brave but his words were promptly killed by the scene of Ken turning into Ultraman. His jaw unhinged in shock behind his mask and he choked on air, his eyes going wide. 

No way. No fucking way was Kenji Sato Ultraman.

Jinu watched as his friend battled against the Kaiju shell shocked. It took some minutes for him to process the reality of things and when his brain had successfully rebooted, he threw his head back and laughed. Gods above, his life was simply something else.

Hours later saw Ken holding an ice pack against his head whilst Jinu was wrapping a bandage around his abdomen and chest - the two of them in Ken's hideout.

"So... Ultraman, huh?" Jinu began, tying the ends of the bandages. He looked up from his knelt position and he had a look of utter amusement.

"Yep." Ken popped the P. 

"How did that happen?" Jinu asked, sitting on the couch. 

"Family business. And you?"

"A long ass story." 

Ken cocked a brow. "Well, thank God I got time then."

Jinu gave him an amused huff. "It's quite boring, honestly."

"I doubt."

Jinu huffed again. Truly, this human was stubborn. But then again this was Ultraman he was talking about. Anyone who fought Kaijus in his free time was the definition of stubbornness. "Then you tell me yours as well."

"Deal."

It was a long night filled with recollection down memory lane. Finding out that Jinu was from a dimension that had demons nearly blew Ken's mind away. He was firing so many questions at Jinu that the idol had to clasp his hand over Ken's mouth. In the end, it was nice to finally be seen. Jinu hadn't known that he'd been carrying an invisible weight on his shoulders until he'd left his history to spill from his lips. And what made him at peace was the fact that Ken had not shown any signs of disgust or distrust. Ken was simply curious and Jinu did his best in answering his questions. 

"I wonder if Emi would've loved you, seeing as you're a species of monster and all." Ken muttered, a look of contemplation on his face.

Jinu blinked. "Emi?"

"Oh! She's my daughter!"

Jinu blinked again. "Your daughter is right there." He pointed at Rumi, who was sleeping on a soft pillow Ken's flying robot had provided.

"What Kenji is talking about is his Kaiju daughter, Emi." Said robot floated over to them and displayed an image of Emi.

Jinu was hit with a cuteness beam like no other and he fought his inner demons so as not to let out a loud "aw" at the image of Emi. He turned over to Ken with an intense look, causing the baseball player to raise his hands up in defence - an automatic response because he'd been dealt with said look for a year and half now and he'd come to respect how powerful it was.

"Spill."

And Ken did as told. Safe to say, after Ken's story and then the story of how he'd met Emi, Jinu felt a somewhat kinship in terms of their pain. Sure, Ken's situation was different from his but they have both carried regrets that they managed to get rid off after a tough trial. It was... refreshing.

Now that the two knew each other's secrets, Ken took that as an invitation to introduce Jinu to his father. One would think that they were dating, Jinu thought with a silent chuckle as he dined with father and son. 

As he spared a glance at Ken, who was grinning from ear to ear as he conversed with his equally smiling father, Jinu realized that that wasn't a bad idea after all.

"Say, Ken, what do you think of going out on a proper date tomorrow?"

Ken Sato nearly joined his ancestors via choking on food.