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Nei's hair is going to be a total mess after this.
Sighing, she allows herself a moment to mourn as she combs her fingers through it. It's thick and clumpy with rainwater, hanging heavily in its loose ponytail down to her waist. She's practically soaked through—she hadn't planned for the sky opening up when she'd started this mission, and now she's paying for it.
Pride bubbling in her gut, Nei feels a smile rise to her cheeks despite the rain. At least the Calamity is dealt with. Tao's gonna be so impressed when Nei gets back, she can practically taste it.
Still, though, an umbrella would have been nice. For a moment, Nei considers dropping by a corner store to get one of those plastic ones, but quickly dismisses the idea. The rain is petering off, anyways, and it's not like Nei can somehow get wetter. She's only ten or fifteen minutes from the Snake Pit, now, where she's sure Yuki will be waiting with his arms outstretched and a towel over his shoulder. A hug from Yuki and she'll be dry in a heartbeat. Just a few more minutes out in the cold and she'll be home free.
Nei bites back a shiver. The rain is still coming down in scattered sheets, pelting her for a few moments before slowing down considerably. It certainly didn't feel this cold when she took off the morning with the tip, but, in all honesty, the Calamity had been more difficult to deal with than Nei thought.
Of course, this doesn't bother Nei at all. The more difficult the Calamity, the more praise she earns once she's dealt with it.
But, she considers, kicking a stone out of her path as she treks miserably down the abandoned street, maybe it had taken a bit more out of her than she had thought. She's not usually this cold, nor this worn down, when she's coming back from a hunt. She missed lunch, which definitely isn't helping matters. At the reminder, her stomach growls, and Nei winces before chancing a glance around her to see if anyone has noticed anything.
They haven't. Actually, now that Nei thinks about it, it's kind of weird how empty the streets are. Usually the rain only wards off the least determined of travelers, and Gokuraku is filled to the brim with agendas. There should still be a hustle and bustle, especially considering she's on what is normally a busy enough street.
Nei pauses, the slosh of her wet shoes coming to a halt.
Something isn't right.
With renewed vigor, she takes a look around. The street shops are all closed—the laundromat, the pawn shop, the clock-and-spring repair—which is weird, because as dark as the gloom of the clouds above her is it's only just past noon. Most shops on this corner stay open till sunset. And that's not even considering the restaurants, which typically close only for zombie apocalypses but now seem as deserted as their less-desperate comrades. Now that she thinks about it, the streets have been this empty for blocks. She had assumed it was something to do with the rain, but ...
This is not normal rain behavior. Something isn't right.
If only she had her phone, Nei could call someone, but a quick ransacking of her pocket reveals its absence. Maybe it's for the better—the rain could have just as easily destroyed it, and then she would be both completely alone and without hope. The only thing she can do now is go to the Snake Pit and hope for the best.
The rain starts coming down hard again. The wind is so strong she almost stumbles when it hits her, and then she does actually stumble, having to brace herself against a nearby wall to keep from blowing over entirely.
The wall moves. Nei stumbles again and automatically tries to catch herself on it before the fact registers that it moved, and suddenly more panicked than she's been even in the last few minutes, she looks up.
Skin so pale it's a shade shy of white. Eyes the purple of a cold-weather sunrise. Platinum hair tucked into a braid, which the wind has blown asunder in its vigorous strength.
A large bosom. In which Nei's face is practically buried.
"Tao-san!" she says, unable to quite bring herself to jerk back. Tao's expression is as impassive as always, but Nei can tell by the subtle stretch of her brow that she's scrutinizing her. Cheeks heating, Nei lets go of Tao's wrist—she had grabbed it to hold herself steady—and steps back. For the first time, she notices that Tao had an umbrella held above them both and is wearing a dark raincoat. She's miles more prepared for the storm than Nei had been.
The thought embarrasses her slightly, though she isn't quite sure why.
"Tao-san," she says again, once it's clear that Tao won't continue the conversion without prompting. "What are you—I mean—"
"The more important question is, what are you still doing out here? Yuki has been trying to reach you for hours now."
"Oh, he was—? I left my phone at home by accident. I was just making my way back to the Pit!"
Tao's impeccable brow does not lower at the explanation. If anything, her gaze hardens. "You're not going to the Snake Pit."
Nei frowns. "What? But my apartment is just past it, and I should check in on Yuki and Dara and let them know that I—"
"No, you're not. If the landline is still up, you can call them from ours. We can figure something else out if not. Come."
Without another word, Tao turns away, seemingly unaffected by the rain blowing into her back. Nei scrambles to follow after her.
"What? Where are we going?"
"Back to my place. It's not safe to be out in a storm like this. The News was saying that it might be a monsoon blowing in."
"A monsoon?"
"The meteorologists are as confused as you are." Tao stops in front of a restaurant. Nei can't see what the sign says from down here, but it's closed just like every other shop on the block. Nei waits for Tao to knock or something, but she remains totally passive, staring at the door like she's interrogating it.
"Um. Tao-san? Are you going to—"
Interrupting Nei, the door swings open. "Tao-san!" a voice says, and Nei has to stifle a groan. Alma blinks back at her. "Oh. And Nei. You got her. I thought maybe the person I saw was some random stranger with a similar fashion sense."
"That's Nei-san to you," Nei grumbles. If it weren't so cold, she might be a bit more passionate in her discontent, but as it stands it's more of a cursory rebuttal. "Nei-sama or Senpai if we're really being honest."
Tao holds out her arm, and without further prompting Alma hands her a towel. "Shoes, please," he chimes, and Nei is suddenly holding the umbrella as Tao delicately steps inside, one foot pushing on the other foot's heel and then vice-versa.
Alma turns his bright gaze to her. "Wow, you're soaked!"
"It was on purpose," Nei lies, mostly without really meaning to.
"O… kay. Do you want a towel?"
Nei mulls over her options. The umbrella almost blows out of her hands. "Yes," she says quietly, then a second time more loudly when the cacophony of the storm drowns her out.
Alma hands a second towel over. She accepts wordlessly and steps inside, toeing her shoes off. Alma lets the door fall shut behind her.
Just as the outside had appeared, it's a restaurant, decked out in full Chinese decor. The lights are off and the windows are drawn shut, but Nei can still see due to the thirty-odd candles strewn about, each at various stages of melting.
"Alma's been hard at work," Tao tells her, something wry coloring her tone.
"The power's been out for an hour, and I'm not a big fan of the dark," Alma explains. "Anyways, this is Auntie and Yaya's place—or, well, er, their restaurant—and Tao-san's and I's office is upstairs."
"Your office? What for?"
"Well, we don't only do stuff for the Snake Pit! Tao-san and I are troubleshooters. We deal with any problem that shows up."
"If we're paid," Tao adds.
"If we're paid. With money or with food, either is fine with me, but Tao-san prefers the 'with money' one. Anyways! Yaya and Auntie already left to go home, but we stayed here in case we saw you on your way back. Also, it's safer not to move about, I think."
Nei hopes her surprise isn't showing. It's embarrassing, but she never considered that Tao and Alma don't work for Yoki all the time. It makes sense, she supposes, but it's still weird to think. Fighting Calamities day in and day out has been her reality for a long time, disregarding school. There's nothing else she'd rather be doing at any given moment, and nothing else she should be doing, if you ask her. It's what she's best at, after all.
"Hm," she says after a moment. "Well, if that's all—" She goes to remove the towel from her shoulders, but a hand on her wrist stops her.
"Stay," Tao says. "Didn't you hear me before? It's not safe to be out in this weather."
Alma scrutinizes Nei, nose scrunching up. "Also, you look like a drenched chihuahua. C'mon, stick around for a while! It could be fun. I found a deck of cards in the back, too!"
They both eye her—Tao with a blank expression, Alma with an expectant one—and Nei feels her resolve crumble. Dang it. They didn't even have to try that hard.
"If… if you insist," Nei says, and tries not to smile at the way they both seem to brighten (albeit Tao's may just be wishful thinking). "But if I win whatever we play, you have to address me as -sama!"
She does her best to gently detangle her rubber band from her hair before wrapping the drenched locks with her towel.
"... I may need another towel, though," she admits.
If Nei didn't know any better, she'd almost say Tao was laughing at her.