Light of the Dragon's Eye

Chapter Thirty-Three

ICHIRO'S POV

"Alright, little girl. Let's see what you can do." Soron sets six shots of extremely strong sake in front of Kasumi. I groan. "A drinking contest? Now?"

"Hey, we might be able to save the whole damn world or get ourselves blown to pieces in a day or two. May as well have fun while we can. Eat, drink, be merry, all that crap." He takes a shot in each hand for himself and downs them one after the other.

Kasumi hesitantly picks up a shot and drinks it down. She sets it down, and goes through four more. "I think I'm starting to feel something." We all stare at her in disbelief.

Kai tromps back down the stairs and flops into the chair next to me. "Crisis averted?" I ask as he picks up Kasumi's last drink and downs it. "Yup. She should be okay in the morning."

"Just so you guys are aware, I still don't know how exactly we're going to save the world. Mind cluing me in?" Soron asks as he edges his chair closer to Kasumi. She edges away from him and closer to me, and I just stand up and walk away. "Kai? Any updates?"

"Well, I've been speaking with Sunshine here," he gestures to his head, and the gold dragon on his arm twinkles slightly. "There's a shrine we have to go to. Once we're there, Akira and I need to go inside and-"

"-have makeup sex?" Kasumi asks as a pink flush fills her cheeks after her sixth shot.

Soron pouts. "Why can't I have makeup sex with the hot girl?"

Makoto chimes in. "I'm all for saving the world, but I have a girlfriend so no makeup sex for me, thanks."

"The next person to say 'makeup sex' gets a chair leg to the eyes," I growl. Kai strokes his chin thoughtfully. "I don't know...think she'd be up for it?"

He deftly avoids the chair I throw at him. "Hey, that was an entire chair."

"I only said that you'd get a chair leg to the eyes, not that I wouldn't throw a whole chair."

"We're getting off topic. What did Summer Sun say to you?" Makoto turns back to my brother. "Well, Akira and I need to enter the shrine, and read from this old book that should be on the altar."

Kasumi looks up blearily. "So...you're saying no makeup sex?"

"Sadly, no. Just reading."

"Tch. That's a lot less fun," Soron says, shaking his head. "I disagree," Makoto pipes up. "That's what a guy who never had sex would say."

"Oh, and you expect me to believe the narcissistic asshat who can't stop making out with his own reflection has had good sex even once in his life?"

Kasumi winks at Kai mischievously. "I bet with all her training, Akira's gotten reeeeeaaaallly flexible."

"She's also been nearly to death and back and had to be calmed down from a blood-filled hallucination a couple minutes ago." I say exasperatedly.

Kasumi waves this off. "Details, details." She turns to Makoto and Soron who are still yelling at each other. "Is it just me, or has this gotten really homoerotic?"

"It's probably just you." A voice sounds out from the staircase, and we all turn to see Akira on the stairs, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She smiles weakly at us. "This is what you guys talk about when I'm not around?"

"Oh honey, you don't even know." Kasumi gestures to Kai. "You should've heard this guy at night, when he thought no one was around. Moaning your name into his blanket, one hand wrapped around his-"

"I never did that!" Kai protests indignantly, a rare flush in his cheeks.

"Come to think of it, he did that a lot at the palace too-"