Dean turned to Cass. "Well, you just ruined all future chances with her!"

"What do you mean? I'm not sure I understand." Cass looked from Dean to Sam and back.

"What Dean means is that you royally pissed her off by denying her last night. She's been going through a lot of shit lately, and I think you're prudery was the last straw so she's taking out her frustration on you." Sam stood and drained his coffee before patting Cass on the shoulder. "Good luck getting back in her good graces." Sam smiled tightly and left the kitchen.

"Yeah, good luck man." Dean smirked before draining the rest of his coffee and heading outside. As he descended the porch stairs, he heard the porch door swing closed behind him. Grinning, he turned to Castiel. "Finally, Vivian hates someone more than me!" He chuckled and made his way to the Impala.

"Why does Vivian hate you?"

"Honestly?" Dean scowled as he opened the trunk. "I have no idea. She just sort of hated me from the get-go."

"That is unfortunate."

"You're telling me…" Dean restocked his supply of rock salt while Castiel looked on silently. "She really asked you to kiss her?!"

"Yes… I was most confused. I did nothing to provoke her actions so I don't see why she would ask in the first place."

Dean gave Cass a face that screamed, 'really?' "She obviously has the hots for you."

"I-"

"It means she's attracted to you."

"Oh…" Cass looked at the ground, his face twisted into its trademark look of general confusion. Dean sighed.

"I just don't get it. She's only seen you, what? Four times? So how is she so attracted to you?"

"The true form of an angel is beautiful beyond human description, but I haven't shown my true form because that would kill her."

"So, what? Some of your angel mojo is leaking through to make you Sexiest Man Alive?" Dean closed the trunk and walked around to the other end. He tossed his coat onto the rear of a junk car and popped the hood of the Impala. "Whatever the case is, I'm sure she'll still hate you tomorrow, hot or not."

Cass settled onto the junk car near Dean's coat. "I suppose that would make any human male disappointed, but as I'm not a –"

"Yeah, you're anything but a normal human male." Dean fiddled with the gas-line of the Impala. "But in any case, this is new to me also! So we're in this together…"

"Does Vivian have any adverse feelings towards Sam?"

Dean wiped at his nose with a sniff. "I honestly have no idea. She seems to be ok with him. She's even flirted a couple of times, so I'd hate to think that she's attracted to him." Dean leaned over inside the hood.

"Why would you hate to think that?"

"It's just an expression Cass." Dean wiped his hands on a red, oil-stained rag and closed the hood. "Well, I'm going to see if Bobby has any cases lined up." He grabbed his jacket and trudged back to the house, Cass disappearing from the space behind him.

"Bobby! Got anything for us?" Dean dropped his coat onto the couch and stepped through the open doors to the study. Bobby hung up the phone and stood, walking to the shelf with a sticky note in his hand.

"Yea, a nasty one." Bobby pulled down a heavy leather-bound tome and tossed it onto the desk in a shower of dust. "Jikininki. Japanese. An eater of corpses, only this one has been killing before eating its prey." Bobby lifted his hat and ran a hand over his hair.

"How do we kill it?"

Bobby sat back behind the desk and opened the book, flipping through the pages till he found something. "Don't know yet. The myth says that a priest was looking for shelter on a journey across the country but was refused lodgings by a hermit in the mountains. The hermit instead directed him to a village in the valley and there he was warmly welcomed." Bobby turned the page. "It says here that though he was accepted into the village, the villagers told him that one of the heads of house had died just that day, and that they were all going to leave the village for the night because weird things happen after someone kicks the bucket."

"So abandoning the town isn't weird?" Dean leaned over the desk to peer at the book.

"It gets weirder. The priest offers to stay and perform the necessary rites of passage to the nether world for the deceased. He performs the ceremony and when he begins his meditations, a creature with sharp claws and glowing eyes comes through the window and devours the corpse."

"Gross."

"I'm not done yet." Just then Sam walked in, three beers in hand.

"What'd I miss?"

"Japanese corpse eater." Dean took the beer that Sam offered him and popped off the top.

"Ew."

"I know right?"

"What's the lore?"

"Dean can update you on the rest later, but after the Jikininki ate the dead guy, it disappeared. The priest lived but when he told the townspeople about the hermit, they said that no one had lived in the mountains for hundreds of years. So when the priest revisited the hermit, the hermit said that he used to be a priest but when he died the greed that he had in life for food and rich clothes in life carried with him to the afterlife and turned him into the monster."

"So these things can look like anyone during daylight hours?" Sam reached over the desk for the book.

"Appears so, and the only way to kill it is to put it to rest."

"How do we do that?" Dean finished his beer and set the bottle onto the desk.

"A ritual called a Segaki service."

"A what?"

"It's a Japanese Buddhist service to stop the suffering of insatiably hungry ghosts or demons. Participants usually gather at a temple, but as we don't have one, we'll have to make do. Then they leave offerings of rice and water on an altar, out of sight of any statues or images of Buddah."

"Out of sight? What are they afraid of being watched by the gods?" Dean smirked, but his smile fell when Sam and Bobby both gave him looks of disappointment. "Right."

"What next?"

"People approach the altar in pairs, one burning incense and the other sprinkling water with a pine branch."

"They have pine trees in Japan?"

"Apparently." Sam flipped through the book until he found a depiction of the beast. "Gross." He showed Dean and Bobby. It was almost like a Wendigo, but it had a few locks of long dark hair and a more human-like appearance.

"Almost looks like a zombie… but creepier." Dean shuddered and grabbed his empty bottle and went into the kitchen.

Sam cleared his throat and flipped back a page. "Bobby, what's the rest of the ritual?"

Bobby pulled down another book. "The participants then call upon the spirit to consume the offerings and then light a fire and burn pieces of paper in which the sins of the spirit are written. Then prayers are said and they chant Dharani, read scriptures or say the names of the Buddahs and Bodhisattvas."

"Is that it? No poof of smoke or burning up?" Sam set the book back onto the desk.

"Nope, it's just supposed to disappear." Bobby tossed the other smaller book next to the first. "I'll get you the address of the motel nearby and you can be on your way."

"Have you told Vivian yet?"

"I was hoping one of you boys would ask her. She hasn't been downstairs since she yelled at Cass two hours ago." Sam sighed.

"I'll go tell her."

Sam walked up the stairs, praying that Vivian had calmed down after her little… show, earlier. Sighing, he knocked on the door and waited for a reply.

"Who is it?"

"It's Sam."

"Come in."

Sam opened the door slowly, only to find Vivian dressed and newly dolled up. Her hair was up in a high ponytail and she was wearing a cropped tank-top, skinny jeans and shoes that weren't work-boots but not fashion-boots either. She was sipping on a bottle of Captain Morgan, leaning on the sill of her window. "Hey."

Vivian turned to look at him, her eyes lacking the fire he'd grown used to seeing. "What's up? Got a case?"

"Yeah. Japanese flesh eating ghost."

"Gross."

"Did you want to come with?"

Vivian stopped with the bottle halfway to her mouth. "Do yah really want me tah come with, or are yah just asking tah be nice?"

Sam smirked, shuffling his feet. "I really want you to come with. I want to see you in action. Bobby has nothing but high praise for you."

Vivian snorted. "I almost took care of that wraith by myself. He'd better not have anything but high praise." She capped the bottle in her hand and tossed it onto the bed before turning and smiling at Sam. "Alright, I'll tag along, but if either of you even thinks of leaving me behind in the motel, I'm crackin' skulls."

Sam grinned. "I'll tell Dean. We'll probably be leaving within the next two hours or so."

Vivian winked. "I'll be ready." Sam smiled again and left, closing the door quietly behind him.