Yusnaan

She heard the familiar street music of Yusnaan, the babble of crowds, and immediately backed into a closed doorway. Of all places, why did she have to pick here?

Of the two proper cities remaining in this world, Yusnaan was by far the busiest. The other was bigger, but it was more reserved, much quieter; Yusnaan meanwhile responded to the end of the world by throwing a party.

It was one of the few sources of hope in this ruined world, a place where people came to feel happy again. Any other time, and Lightning might have been glad of that fact, but not when she was trapped in a glorified set of a bra and panties.

She pressed herself back, using the shallow arch of the doorway as the best kind of cover she had.

She heard voices as a small group of people walked past her. At least, at this early hour, people were more likely to be heading home from the night-time revels. She hadn't landed in the middle of a party, not that that was much of a plus.

Flushing, Lightning squirmed as though she could sink into a wall. At least her... undressed garb wasn't the rarest sight in a place like Yusnaan, but that didn't make her any less exposed, didn't make her any less self-conscious as the passerbies glanced at her bikini-clad form.

This was not the kind of thing she'd ever normally wear.

"Hope?" Lightning said after a moment, as the peopke moved on. She cleared her throat nervously. "Hope?"

"Still here," he said.

"What is there to do here?" she said. Her mind had gone blank when she'd realised she was stuck in the bikini.

"At this hour, there are just a few people and souls to check up on, nothing major," he said. "You could always wait at the inn; everything gets going at night. There's the rumours of a soul fragment up for grabs at the Slaughterhouse, or our plan to get into Snow's palace-"

"Are you serious?" Lightning said, trying to sound flat rather than nervous.

The Slaughterhouse was just a battle arena, for those that preferred more violent pleasures. For her part, that would involve going in and fighting against some monster or other; that part was easy for someone with her power.

Less easy would be the fact that it was always packed full of spectators with front-row seats to her whirling around in a bikini.

Beyond that, their plan to get into Snow's Palace involved a stage play, and the less said about that the better. She flushed.

"Do you have anything that doesn't involve me exposing myself in this... ridiculous outfit?" Lightning said, cheeks hot.