Rei changed her major every semester, hitting everything from professional basket-weaving to mechanical engineering to anthropology to snowboarding. Eventually she gave up and dropped out of college with more credits than any one student had ever earned, just not enough of any one major to actually qualify her for a degree. (Although somehow she was only one credit away from a communications degree which was strange as she had never taken any communications courses.)
Abandoning college life at last, she found herself right back where she started: the hospital she was born in. This time around though it was because of alcohol poisoning. She had fallen into a deep depression as a result of winding up a priestess once more and her love of booze which she had discovered in college had burgeoned into a full-on obsessive romance as she attempted to replace her blood with vodka.
She swore after that horrible experience that she would sober up but this promise lasted about as long as most New Year's Resolutions do, aka, approximately four and a half days and so by Wednesday she was back to downing as much liquor as she could without coming up for air.
She couldn't very well find a job under the circumstances and so eventually ended up at her grandfather's temple again, which he had left to her after his untimely death as a result of a motorcycle accident. (In a fit of three-quarter life crisis, he had decided to buy himself a motorcycle but did not in fact even know how to get on one. After several failed attempts to mount "the damn thing" he had decided to jump off of the top of the temple onto it and sadly missed.)
So Rei took over the family business as it were and the temple unsurprisingly fell into disrepair as she could not be bothered to give a crow's tail about it. The only redeeming factor to being stuck with the temple, Rei noted, was that it had a large supply of ceremonial sake and wines. Those of course did not last more than about a week with her and she took to trying to make her own. When that failed, she returned to her usual cheap corner store booze.
One night, while drunk as usual, she decided that she needed to inform the world that it was a horrible and unfair place so she climbed to the top of the very building that her grandfather had leapt from in his attempt to fulfill his dream of looking cool on a motorcycle and began shouting profanities into the wind.
This was not the first time the police had been called due to a disturbance of the peace over at her temple, but they all always dreaded having to deal with Rei so whenever someone phoned her in again, they either drew straws to see who would be saddled with the crazy priestess, or they convinced a newbie to go handle it. This particular night, they were fortunate that there was indeed a new girl at the station and she was more than willing to jump on the assignment.
Mina had thought that the location of the disturbance had sounded familiar but she had never thought that it would lead to both her past and her future. She recognized the temple the moment she set foot on the grounds and immediately felt a headache begin to form.
"Rei?" She called out wearily. "Rei, did you set another fire here somewhere?"
Rei had grown tired of shouting out profanities and returned to drinking on the rooftop some thirty minutes before Mina arrived and was now passed out on the roof so did not respond. It took wandering over the entire grounds before it occurred to Mina to look up and sure enough, there she was.
She somehow managed to get Rei off the roof and into a cold shower before plopping her in bed. Exhausted and about to get off duty anyway, she called the station to let them know that the disturbance had been addressed and after a quick debate, took the liberty of a brief shower and crawled into bed with Rei as they had done so many times during sleepovers back in their innocent schoolgirl days. Beneath the overwhelming smell of booze, there was still a scent that was reassuringly all Rei's own and Mina smiled, burying her face in her old friend's hair and drifting into a peaceful sleep.
The next morning, before Rei could recover enough from her massive hangover to protest, Mina signed her up for a recovery group. She would subsequently come by each day after work in order to make sure that Rei indeed attended the meetings and did not slip back into her alcoholic tendencies. It was during this time that the two rekindled their friendship and after a few months, picked up where they had left off during college with their fledgling romance that had so abruptly ended.
After a few more months of flirting and "experimenting" the two confessed their undying love for one another, moved in and declared themselves officially partners. They adopted two small children and fostered a beautiful little family that none of the other former scouts ever heard about. When Rei at last passed away at the ripe old age of 91, Mina shortly followed and their son and daughter had them buried side by side with a bottle of sake and a police badge in between.