Dean...! So that was why he seemed so familiar to her. She'd met him a few times at the market, and he'd been nice enough to walk her home when their lively conversations carried on a bit too long to avoid nightfall. But she certainly hadn't expected him to come to her rescue like this, and against a demon? One that was after her soul?!
...Was that even possible?
Clearly it was, considering how angry the demon looked when Dean called it out. Orihime was quick to free her hands, but slow to run away. She regarded Dean uncertainly, looking from him to the snarling demon with the sizzling face. Leaving him to fight a demon alone just seemed cowardly, but...on the other hand, he was kind of doing awesome, and Orihime had nothing but her bare hands and a mean headbutt at her disposal. If she was going to help, she'd need a weapon, and there were definitely weapons at town hall.
"I'll be back!" she promised, whirling away to leap off of the platform and push through the startled crowd. At least, she meant to be. Once she reached the doors, she could see that Dean was following. So never mind that part, then. She held the door for him, watching the demon as it roared in pain and fury. It sure wasn't going to be happy with either of them if they escaped.
Dean darted through the door, and took Orihime's hand, pulling her towards one of the back rooms. "In here." The demon followed, gaining until he pulled her into the room. The demon stopped suddenly as if hitting an invisible wall about a foot into the room.
Knowing they were safe for a short while, or a minute or two, at least, he turned to Orihime. "Are you okay?" And yes, he was also very aware that he would have to explain.
Orihime was more steadfast than a lot of people realized. She could hear how close the demon was getting, and she didn't need to turn her head to see that it was just a moment away from catching her. If her hair had been left long, it might have done just that. Considering the few options she had, she thought it would be better to rush it with a sudden stop and spin than to let it drag her down. But just as she dug in with her feet and whirled around, she saw that it had already ceased its pursuit.
...Huh. Why?
She looked at Dean, baffled, then at the demon again, all the while fighting to catch her breath. "I'm okay," she confirmed, reaching up to wipe at her brow. The demon's human face was contorted in a way that gave her the creeps. No person should wear that kind of expression.
Her attention turned back to Dean, and she gave him a cursory sweep with her eyes to check for signs of blood or injury. He didn't seem to have either one. "What about you? You're all right?"
"I'm fine. It's not like this was hard." He confirmed, and held up at a hand at the demon, which had just opened it's mouth to speak. "We really haven't got time for the "you won't be after I rip your spine through whichever hole you'll theatn me with this time" thing, so just shut the hell up."
It laughed maliciously, which he can't lie - it did sound a little shiver up his spine. "Still so cocky, Winchester. I'm going to enjoy beating that out of you."
And... Dean just chuckles in response. "I'm not the one ina trap." He winked at it, irritating it yet further, and leave it to growl threats as he ignored it, and spoke to Orihime. "You can head out the back. They won't find you.The next bit isn't going to be pretty." But this time it was a choice. she didn't have to leave, but he's saying it's probably the best option. Seeing a demon exorcised the first time can sure as hell be damned freaky.
It would have been nice to say that it was a tough decision, but it really wasn't. Dean had put a lot on the line to save her, and she wasn't going to leave him unless she was going to be a burden and put him at further risk. She didn't take so much as a half-step back, quietly shaking her head as she watched the demon.
She'd already determined that she wouldn't allow it to hurt Dean. Even if he seemed to be handling the situation with surprising finesse, which...yeah, she probably wouldn't be of much use, but JUST IN CASE. She would stand beside him.
"I'm fine. Besides," she added, glancing up at him. "We'll have to deal with some pretty mad townspeople after this. So it's best to stay together, ne?" The smile that flickered was brief, but far more genuine than the one she'd offered up on the public platform.
He grins cheekily. "Yeah, but we can just shoot them." Pause then the grin drops. He'd better just... "Joke. That was a joke." Even if he was pretty damned pissed with them.
He turned back to the demon and started a stream of latin, the only thing that showed that he wasn't almost indifferent to the demon screaming in pain as it writhed and was torn from it's host was the gleam in his eye. The was always satisfaction in this job.
Fifty words of Latin later, the host's head tipped back, and oily smoke poured out of it's mouth, disappearing down through the floor. Again he turned back to Orihime. "you good?" definitely concerned this time.
Orihime watched in silence, her hand over her mouth. So that was a demon. She had a nagging feeling that it was actually much worse than black smoke, but that her mind wasn't able to comprehend the true horror of its form. Nonetheless, she was shocked to find out that the body was something it had been wearing, and not actually part of its form.
And the body wasn't moving. Was he...dead...?
She glanced at Dean, then back at the still form, and inclined her head soberly. "Yes," she responded. Were it not for the sad aftermath for the demon's host, she would have been squealing with praise, but it didn't seem appropriate just now.
Quietly she set one foot in front of her, then the other. She knelt down on the floor, reaching out her hand as though to jog the shoulder of the limp body. Instead, her palm rested in the air above him, and her other hand came to join. Most people wouldn't have been able to see the two small, bright figures breaking away from her hairpins, or the gold dome that covered the man on the ground. But Dean had seen and fought a lot of things out of the ordinary, and he surely had to have been touched by those things at some point. As a result, Orihime's spirit and her powers were easy to see, and maybe even feel if he'd been affected enough by his dealings in the past.
"Just a second. I want to do this before we go. ...Please."
"What...?" Okay, he hadn't seen anything like that before. The surprise of what he was seeing right then stopped much more of of a coherent question of that.
"Orihime... We shouldn't be wasting time. We need to go." As if summoned by his words, there was a loud bang from the room that they were joined onto, obviously from the main doors being thrown open angrily.
"Search the rooms!" could be heard angrily from through the door. He debated leaving her here to do whatever it was she was doing, but he knew she'd be caught. Well, deabted is probably the wrong word - it was a brief thought, and immediately dismissed.
"Come on, we should be going." but he couldn't pull his eyes ayaw from what she was doing, regardless.
She didn't want to stop until the man was fully healed, and if it were just Orihime here, she might have done exactly that. But she didn't want to put Dean at further risk, or any of the villagers either.
The man began to cough, and the vigor indicated that he would at least be healthy enough to live. Orihime was sorry she couldn't finish, but those villagers sounded furious and unreasonable.
Quickly she lurched to her feet, dashing toward Dean and the exit. Then she skidded to a halt, struck with an idea. "Wait! What if you pretended to be the demon? They can change bodies, right? We could walk right out and no one would get hurt at all!"
It was a good idea in theory. but: "It's not going to work. Unless you got a magic trick up yopur sleeve that can turn someone's eyes black." Okay, he can't help it, the little bit of sly venom that went into 'magic trick' was automatic.
He liked Orihime as a person, he did, but she'd not told him about this,but it wasn't like he'd shared the fact he was a hunter, and nor had he ever seen anything like it. So far, life experience had told him thus: If it's Supernatural and you've never seen it before? It's either going to kill you or be a dick and try to make it your bitch.
His own mind tryed arguing for her, and talked itself back down. She healed that guy and responding to himself Yeah a demon host. Yeah he was probably overreacting, buthe still eyed her warily, poised to turn and run. Which is what he should do, but he couldn't seem to make his legs work at the minute.
Orihime wilted. "No..." Her powers had definitely never caused any effects like that. She couldn't help feeling a twinge of disappointment at his inflection, as well. He'd always seemed so warm and friendly to her. He seemed like the type who would understand her powers, but it seemed she was mistaken.
At least, she assumed it was due to her powers. He hadn't started treating her differently until she'd tried to heal the man still lying on the demon's trap.
"Okay. Let's go," she bobbed her head faintly, indicating she was willing to follow him wherever he wanted to go.
He was in the middle of moving a table in front of a door to prevent it being opened to give them some time, when that is exactly what happened. The door banged open, and a yell was given of "They're here!" when they spotted the now human again host on the floor.
There was a quick exchange that went along the lines of 'Master' replied to with 'who the hell are you?' with a few more attempts at dialogue and the guy sounding sick and tired as... well... hell. The woman who had found them glared accusingly up at them, before standing at her full height. Which, at 5 foot something, really wasn't intimidat8ing at all, Dean thought to himslef. He wasn't amused enough or stupid enough to let that make him drop his guard though. She was dangerous, and... well, for now? He'd have to treat Orihime as safe, but always with a possibility of the chance to be otherwise.
A sound made him turn, and the exit door's lock was clicked shut.
Frigging great.
He muttered to Orihime quietly "You get a prize if you can guess how many different ways of saying 'we're screwed' I'm thinking of right now." And at a rough estimation, he's thinking that number is in the low hundreds. Possibly.
"We're going to have to fight our way out. And no stopping to heal the nice people trying to KILL US this time." Sorry, he couldn't resist. If she argued, she either didn't understand the gravity of the situation, or she was in and this whole thing had been a set-up. Which he wasn't dicounting the possibilty of right now. Either way, he'd have to leave her ass here. Which, despite his suspicions and everything else, was something he was finding himself loathe to do.
Orihime considered for a moment, frozen in place. Her mind was racing, but it seemed their options were extremely limited. There was probably more than just the woman to contend with, judging by the sounds echoing through the hall, and if someone had locked the door behind them, then they were probably being surrounded.
"I can fight," she finally declared, still looking straight ahead. "And I think I can raise a big enough ruckus for you to escape."
She glanced at Dean, a faint twitch of a smile turning the corners of her lips, before she looked forward again. "You saved my soul. This is the absolute least I can do for you."
"Not 'me to escape', 'us to escape'." This is because it's much easier to keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't pull any stunts that get him caught by the town's people. the possibility of a set-up might be slightly less in his mind, but there's still a very real possibility of it.
Orihime hesitated...then smiled, grateful, and inclined her head. "Thank you. I owe you big time! I mean...for everything." She took a breath, and balled her hands into fists. She wasn't crazy about the idea of fighting people of her own town to escape, but it was necessary, and she did know a couple of special moves her best friend had taught her before.
She moved one foot forward, leaned in...and darted forward. She was counting on the element of surprise to help her out, since Orihime vastly doubted that any invading villagers would expect a flying headbutt tackle from their previously-docile tribute.
As soon as they came through the doors, he punched the frst one this was in range. Orihime's movement distracted him, and he paused, amused by the flying headbutt tackle. It was pretty stupid of him for letting that distract him, and a blow to the back of the head was a reward for letting his concentration slip to watch the red-head. He had tyo admit: she moved well.
But he focused again, dealing blows as well as recieving them, watching her in his peropheral vision as best as he could. When their numbers had thinned a little, he moved away from the fighting as best as he could, kicking the door, throwing his weight behind it, the lock giving way and snapping. The door banged open.
...Was that even possible?
Clearly it was, considering how angry the demon looked when Dean called it out. Orihime was quick to free her hands, but slow to run away. She regarded Dean uncertainly, looking from him to the snarling demon with the sizzling face. Leaving him to fight a demon alone just seemed cowardly, but...on the other hand, he was kind of doing awesome, and Orihime had nothing but her bare hands and a mean headbutt at her disposal. If she was going to help, she'd need a weapon, and there were definitely weapons at town hall.
"I'll be back!" she promised, whirling away to leap off of the platform and push through the startled crowd. At least, she meant to be. Once she reached the doors, she could see that Dean was following. So never mind that part, then. She held the door for him, watching the demon as it roared in pain and fury. It sure wasn't going to be happy with either of them if they escaped.
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Knowing they were safe for a short while, or a minute or two, at least, he turned to Orihime. "Are you okay?" And yes, he was also very aware that he would have to explain.
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...Huh. Why?
She looked at Dean, baffled, then at the demon again, all the while fighting to catch her breath. "I'm okay," she confirmed, reaching up to wipe at her brow. The demon's human face was contorted in a way that gave her the creeps. No person should wear that kind of expression.
Her attention turned back to Dean, and she gave him a cursory sweep with her eyes to check for signs of blood or injury. He didn't seem to have either one. "What about you? You're all right?"
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It laughed maliciously, which he can't lie - it did sound a little shiver up his spine. "Still so cocky, Winchester. I'm going to enjoy beating that out of you."
And... Dean just chuckles in response. "I'm not the one ina trap." He winked at it, irritating it yet further, and leave it to growl threats as he ignored it, and spoke to Orihime. "You can head out the back. They won't find you.The next bit isn't going to be pretty." But this time it was a choice. she didn't have to leave, but he's saying it's probably the best option. Seeing a demon exorcised the first time can sure as hell be damned freaky.
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She'd already determined that she wouldn't allow it to hurt Dean. Even if he seemed to be handling the situation with surprising finesse, which...yeah, she probably wouldn't be of much use, but JUST IN CASE. She would stand beside him.
"I'm fine. Besides," she added, glancing up at him. "We'll have to deal with some pretty mad townspeople after this. So it's best to stay together, ne?" The smile that flickered was brief, but far more genuine than the one she'd offered up on the public platform.
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He turned back to the demon and started a stream of latin, the only thing that showed that he wasn't almost indifferent to the demon screaming in pain as it writhed and was torn from it's host was the gleam in his eye. The was always satisfaction in this job.
Fifty words of Latin later, the host's head tipped back, and oily smoke poured out of it's mouth, disappearing down through the floor. Again he turned back to Orihime. "you good?" definitely concerned this time.
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And the body wasn't moving. Was he...dead...?
She glanced at Dean, then back at the still form, and inclined her head soberly. "Yes," she responded. Were it not for the sad aftermath for the demon's host, she would have been squealing with praise, but it didn't seem appropriate just now.
Quietly she set one foot in front of her, then the other. She knelt down on the floor, reaching out her hand as though to jog the shoulder of the limp body. Instead, her palm rested in the air above him, and her other hand came to join. Most people wouldn't have been able to see the two small, bright figures breaking away from her hairpins, or the gold dome that covered the man on the ground. But Dean had seen and fought a lot of things out of the ordinary, and he surely had to have been touched by those things at some point. As a result, Orihime's spirit and her powers were easy to see, and maybe even feel if he'd been affected enough by his dealings in the past.
"Just a second. I want to do this before we go. ...Please."
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"Orihime... We shouldn't be wasting time. We need to go." As if summoned by his words, there was a loud bang from the room that they were joined onto, obviously from the main doors being thrown open angrily.
"Search the rooms!" could be heard angrily from through the door. He debated leaving her here to do whatever it was she was doing, but he knew she'd be caught. Well, deabted is probably the wrong word - it was a brief thought, and immediately dismissed.
"Come on, we should be going." but he couldn't pull his eyes ayaw from what she was doing, regardless.
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She didn't want to stop until the man was fully healed, and if it were just Orihime here, she might have done exactly that. But she didn't want to put Dean at further risk, or any of the villagers either.
The man began to cough, and the vigor indicated that he would at least be healthy enough to live. Orihime was sorry she couldn't finish, but those villagers sounded furious and unreasonable.
Quickly she lurched to her feet, dashing toward Dean and the exit. Then she skidded to a halt, struck with an idea. "Wait! What if you pretended to be the demon? They can change bodies, right? We could walk right out and no one would get hurt at all!"
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He liked Orihime as a person, he did, but she'd not told him about this,but it wasn't like he'd shared the fact he was a hunter, and nor had he ever seen anything like it. So far, life experience had told him thus: If it's Supernatural and you've never seen it before? It's either going to kill you or be a dick and try to make it your bitch.
His own mind tryed arguing for her, and talked itself back down. She healed that guy and responding to himself Yeah a demon host. Yeah he was probably overreacting, buthe still eyed her warily, poised to turn and run. Which is what he should do, but he couldn't seem to make his legs work at the minute.
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At least, she assumed it was due to her powers. He hadn't started treating her differently until she'd tried to heal the man still lying on the demon's trap.
"Okay. Let's go," she bobbed her head faintly, indicating she was willing to follow him wherever he wanted to go.
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There was a quick exchange that went along the lines of 'Master' replied to with 'who the hell are you?' with a few more attempts at dialogue and the guy sounding sick and tired as... well... hell. The woman who had found them glared accusingly up at them, before standing at her full height. Which, at 5 foot something, really wasn't intimidat8ing at all, Dean thought to himslef. He wasn't amused enough or stupid enough to let that make him drop his guard though. She was dangerous, and... well, for now? He'd have to treat Orihime as safe, but always with a possibility of the chance to be otherwise.
A sound made him turn, and the exit door's lock was clicked shut.
Frigging great.
He muttered to Orihime quietly "You get a prize if you can guess how many different ways of saying 'we're screwed' I'm thinking of right now." And at a rough estimation, he's thinking that number is in the low hundreds. Possibly.
"We're going to have to fight our way out. And no stopping to heal the nice people trying to KILL US this time." Sorry, he couldn't resist. If she argued, she either didn't understand the gravity of the situation, or she was in and this whole thing had been a set-up. Which he wasn't dicounting the possibilty of right now. Either way, he'd have to leave her ass here. Which, despite his suspicions and everything else, was something he was finding himself loathe to do.
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"I can fight," she finally declared, still looking straight ahead. "And I think I can raise a big enough ruckus for you to escape."
She glanced at Dean, a faint twitch of a smile turning the corners of her lips, before she looked forward again. "You saved my soul. This is the absolute least I can do for you."
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She moved one foot forward, leaned in...and darted forward. She was counting on the element of surprise to help her out, since Orihime vastly doubted that any invading villagers would expect a flying headbutt tackle from their previously-docile tribute.
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But he focused again, dealing blows as well as recieving them, watching her in his peropheral vision as best as he could. When their numbers had thinned a little, he moved away from the fighting as best as he could, kicking the door, throwing his weight behind it, the lock giving way and snapping. The door banged open.
"Orihime, this way!"
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