The Curse of a Concept | Open

[calmed_demon]

CHARACTERS: Kouma Kishima & Open
DATE: May 15th, 2011
WHERE: The Forests of Ithir, bordering Muir
SUMMARY: Kouma feels a little of his Inversion becoming a problem and decides to snuff it out.
WARNING(S): V for violence in the intro. It could go either way.

Comments

[unifying]

Unlike animals, man had a self-destructive tendency to ignore that little voice in their mind that was meant to warn. All those little moments that, upon reflection, could be summed up in a simple I should have known better could easily be attributed to the call of something greater in man, something far more tempting. Desperation. Desire

[calmed_demon]

Orihime would have been overcome with the shaking trees and the whirlwind that kicked up the moment that Kouma decided to move. He had long since crushed the neck of the deer--the creature's head becoming 'nothing' as a result of the power of his hand and the flames that exploded forth from it. Moreover, the problem that he was faced with was something beyond the deer. Kouma exerted a great deal of force in his approach, leaving some of the forest still burning

[unifying]

Orihime cried out at the sudden explosion of fire, nearly dropping her possessions in her shock. Panic seized her suddenly, the fear that someone might have been in there, in danger, overpowering her senses. The lamp and picture frame fell to the earth with dull, muted sounds, and soon she was rushing through those very trees that made her wary. She couldn't heal, but she could still protect, and if there was someone in there that needed her...

"H-Hello?!" she called out once more, eyes on the flickering flames between trees. "Is anybody there?!"

[calmed_demon]

The air rushed in all directions. Kouma's 'flames' were more destructive for very subtle reasons. Suddenly burning 'air' at a rapid pace left pockets of open space, which sucked air in every direction possible and all at once. The air thinned gradually and made breathing difficult--simply from one of his mantra of 'Dokkaku'. Though he had calmed down completely given his intentional release of anger, he found that there was a new thing to worry about--the voice that suddenly broke through the silence that followed his flames.

"Who's asking?" Finding it more trouble than he wanted--Kouma approached the voice--the last of his flames snuffed out by the fall of his feet. "You shouldn't be out here."

[unifying]

Orihime hesitated, lips parting on words she had to rethink. She wanted to say he shouldn't be out there either. It was dangerous out there... but she had to wonder if he had any part in that.

She licked her lips, her legs feeling weak, steady enough to only keep her upright, but unable to turn and run even if she wanted to. "M-My name is Orihime," she said, though speaking was difficult, the air around them still stifling, thin. Her eyes flickered between the man's face, mostly obscured by the darkening sky, and the carcass he'd hauled over his shoulder. She wondered about her next question, unsure if it was all that appropriate...

"Are you okay...?"

[calmed_demon]

What he saw left him confused. He'd seen this woman before. Dropping his eyes just a bit, Kouma set his eyes on the ground below Orihime's feet. She was close enough to be affected by the change in the environment, but she wasn't touched by his assault. She had come over to investigate the scene. Kouma had no other expression to give. He stared at her, his eyes livid still from the brief inversion he put himself through.

Concern for him, the dangerous stranger.

"That doesn't matter," He raised his voice, breath slowing drastically. "You shouldn't be out here."

[unifying]

Those eyes...

Orihime shuddered under their gaze, but she didn't back down. She couldn't. It wasn't the first time she'd seen a - a monster, after all. She knew better than to think that that's all there was there.

"Neither should you," she said, with a firmness to her tone that hid the uncertainty she felt. Her eyes moved from his face to the rest of his body, taking into account its state. "Are you hurt anywhere..?"

[calmed_demon]

"Ridiculous."

Kouma didn't move even an inch. Orihime looked him over with concern. The one word he uttered in response covered everything he felt about the situation. This woman approached a monster capable of turning everything around him to ash and openly worried about him. The thought was impossible. Those he crushed, those that feared him by name alone and those he had authority over--none of them once voiced concern for him.

He was supposed to be a creature that no one in the world would grieve over if harmed. Kouma kept his gaze on Orihime, completely confused by her mindset. It must have been, he wondered, a response forced onto her by good rearing. It was possible for a person to be bred so well that they would be polite even to monsters. It would only be confusing if she legitimately cared.

"Is it courtesy on your part? You would ask anyone that question, wouldn't you--even something dangerous?"

[unifying]

"C-Courtesy?" Orihime blinked at the word, thrown off by it. She stared at him, half-expecting him to suddenly laugh and proclaim it was all just a joke. Surely.. surely he'd been exposed to such genuine concern before?

She shook her head, the worry in her eyes only increasing. "I would, yes," she admitted, hand coming up to clasp her chest, right over the steady beat of her heart. "But does that make my worry mean any less?" She didn't think it did, and she found herself resolved to prove to this man that it wasn't.

[calmed_demon]

There was no longer any doubt in his mind that Orihime was of questionable sanity. There were other people in the world that made the hairs on his neck stand up, but this woman was proposing concern towards a man who obliterated life and the earth without hesitation. Kouma turned, beginning to walk away with the deer he killed tightly gripped.

"You're insane, then." Kouma spoke solemnly, his gaze set on the scorched earth as he moved. "To worry for a demon is insanity I cannot begin to perceive."