A Demon's Kiss [InuYasha Fan-Fic]

          I stumbled back, landing on my heels struggling to maintain my balance. I gripped the hilt of my sword and put my hand on the wall for support, bright red liquid trickling down the corners of my mouth and the crowd surrounding me increased by generous amounts of curious passer by's.

            "Heh, your futile attempts at victory are quite amusing. It's been a while since a battle has been this entertaining for me." I wiped the remainders of the liquid onto the sleeve of my kimono top. "Prepare to be defeated, Naraku!" whoops, wrong name. I drunkenly thought to myself. I lifted the glass to my lips and let the bitter drink splash to the back of my throat. Ugh, that makes it 34. Six more and victory is all mine. The prize? I walk away with most my pride held high and my head intact, plus the title of Shing Kots isn't too bad a trophy. Or was it King Shots...?

            Without another moments hesitation I tossed aside the now empty glass and snatched up two more, slurping them both up. 

            "You've got to be kidding me! No one drinks this much! Let alone a woman!" some exclaimed. Others preferred to participate in the screaming match between the betters who were suffering from a terrible loss. To think four more glasses would pay off all my debt! You can do this, Kozune! Excitement now taking over my mind, I scooped up the glasses and, with one swig, downed all four. Unsatisfied with how tasteless the last four drinks were I grabbed the bottle from the counter and pushed it to my mouth. 

            "To Higurashi!" I toasted to the equally drunk host. Cheers erupted and glasses crashed together happily. 

            "To the new year!" people began shouting anything for a reason to drink. This festivity lasted until dawn then people began collapsing all around, either too tired or intoxicated to move. I looked around at the hopeless, pathetic humans enveloped around me. Everywhere there seemed to be a pile of regurgitated food processed the night before. 

            "Looks like it's just you and me darlin'." I smirked as I looked at the groggy host. His shirt hung by his elbows revealing a very flat stomach, his hair was let out allowing the dark strings to brush his shoulders and on his forehead was a sutra warding off evil spirits. 

            "Well, you do know how to party Higurashi. I'm amazed you pulled it off." I stated looking at the heavy duty clean up we had ahead of us.

            "I'm surprised you showed up. I doubted your appearance considering the recent night terrors."

            "As did I, yet strangely enough, it was them that pushed forward my decision to attend. Superb acting by the way, your performance was very convincing." I said truthfully. Who'd have thunk he could pull it off? Pretending to be drunk was tough, but, to go the whole night doing so without so much as one shot and managing to round up all the demons at once? Impossible for me, simplicity for Higurashi. After all, how could I decline an offer of nearly ¥3,000,000 just for drinking 40 glasses of water? The morons couldn't distinguish the difference at the time and I wasn't one to pass up such a rare opportunity. 

            "You called out to him again. Do you suppose it could be memories from your childhood resurfacing due to an extreme amount of stress put on you lately?" 

            "Did you study psychology?" he scratched his head attempting to make sense of my sudden question.

            "No, why?"

            "I just assumed since you decided to become my therapist you studied it sometime." I shrugged.

            "Sarcasm, I now see to be the language of the devil." he countered dryly. I hissed revealing a mix of poison and flowers. It was somewhat pleasant in an unusual way. 

            "I can't recall a time when I had a full night's rest or even a peaceful one. It seems like a distant fantasy for me and I know who is at fault. I have a name and face but no sign of his existence." 

            "Well, why don't we see if we can do something about this mess and continue this discussion over a hot cup of tea?" I nodded in agreement.

            "Yeah, you can scrape all the puke off the floor and I'll go, uh, heat up the water." he nodded thoughtfully before fully comprehending my intentions. Too bad I was out of earshot to hear his explicit threats.