[Rui Matsui]

''Magic Bestie... You're something of a business man aren't you?'' Nothing truly got past Rui, not even the fact that Elias was indeed the owner of club Nirvana. The heroes could only tremble and fear knowing there was a villain with an intuition as sharp as hers. ''I was thinking of my own idea for a business. It's called 'Rui hurts you'! The idea is that I hurt people and also get paid. I'm letting you know early in case you want to invest in my business.'' She grinned proudly at having found the perfect economic loophole that would allow her to live her horrible lifestyle and still function in society.

As they were leaving Tokyo Bay having battled giant crustaceans, the villains probably thought they were home free. Maybe until they noticed that the crowd of people up ahead weren't people at all. Humanoid in shape, sure, but the walking shapes were covered in barnacles and other ocean life, staring at the villain pair with glassy dead eyes and sharp, drooling fangs. Inconveniently, these ocean zombies were blocking their quickest way out. Rui shrugged the horde off and waved her hand casually. ''It's fine bestie, I walked past a couple of these on my way here, they don't attack-'' Before Rui could finish her sentence, one of the barnacle zombies smacked her aside with surprising force, sending her flying into the side of a nearby dumpster, denting it. ''No fair! I walked past you earlier!'' She yelled back at the zombie, pointing an accusatory finger at it. More of the zombies were starting to take note of them now, with some shambling over towards Elias.

Elias

[Elias]

The Bird of Hermes is    my name                       Eat  My   WINGS   TO   KEEP   ME   TAME Rui Matsui

Unraveling the Mummy's mind was an impossibility beyond even Elias's wish-granting abilities. Asinine as her idea was, Rui viewed the world through the eyes of folklore's most devilish imp. To her, such a concept may breathe the promise of a bountiful harvest. Could it work? Unlikely, though, the Wish-Maker had seen enough never to write off a business idea. 

"I've been lauded as one of the youngest entrepreneurs of our generation, opening one of Tokyo's most successful nightclubs before I was of legal drinking age. Yes, I'd say I quality as a businessman," he started, speaking on the topic of himself first, of course. "Would it surprise you to know that there could very well be a market for that? Sadists and all. I'm not quite certain how well you would mesh with those crowds, nor do I believe it would qualify as a legal business, but if that's what tugs at your heartstrings, angel, I say go for it." 

But no, Elias would not be investing. Raunchy elegance might have been his seen, but such a venture would certainly draw in unvetted undesirables. Rui would be safe from the world's many creepers, courtesy of her quirk, but even if she succeeded, word would swiftly spread and draw the attention of the law, And he wanted no part in that.

"Now, if you're asking for advice, I'd say stick to-" 

More of these creatures? Rui's assurance did little to assuage Elias. Waterboarded beasts, clad in death and misery. Some were human- once. Others were monsters not unlike the crustaceans. All of them perfumed in decay. 

"Angel I don't think." 

With a boom thwack, the mummy soared. Elias's glacial stare locked ahead in disgust—more threats to a perfectly good suit. Oh no, they did not finish that last scuffle to see his attire ruined now. 

"Best mind your manners, beasts," Elias threatened, throwing his hands forward, threads unwinding from his gloves. He snatched up three of the creatures and lifted them into the air. "Didn't anyone teach you it's rude to hit a lady." He slammed the trio back down into the ground, just ahead of their watery compatriots, forcing a halt, if only for a moment.

OWL

[Rui Matsui]

''That's really smart.'' She mused as she thought about how Elias might have gotten his start. ''I realized something recently. Some people fight with their body, or their quirk, but some people fight with their brain too.'' She poked at her temple and looked up at Elias. ''Bestie, you use your brain quite a lot I'd bet!'' Maybe she could do that too, become one of those smart manga characters where everything always went according to their plan. ''Really? Sadists? That could work. Assassination counts too, I get paid money to hurt people there as well.''

It was so rude of the zombie to send her flying, and right when she was about to get business advice too. Thankfully the attack had barely hurt at all, and any stinging pain a normal person would be feeling after such a blow had long since healed, long before she even stood back up. ''I get it now, bestie!'' She grinned wildly as she grabbed a glass bottle and smashed the end of it on the dumpster to make an improvized knife for herself. ''They're customers! My first customers have arrived!'' She rushed up to one of them and immediately stabbed it in the neck to take it down. ''Business is booming already!'' The only problem was, since those giant crustaceans before had broken her knife, that meant she was stuck fighting with anything she could find around her, and she needed a weapon to hurt others. At worst, her and her bestie might have to run and fall back if they couldn't quell the numbers fast enough.

Elias

[Elias]

The Bird of Hermes is    my name                       Eat  My   WINGS   TO   KEEP   ME   TAME Rui Matsui

Was... was Rui talking about wetwork? Was this not already her vocation? Sure, the Mummy was a healer, but word hadn't crossed his underground castle, the Hibernacula, regarding her calm or soothing demeanor. Rui was a killer, and those who knew her, well, knew it. Was that not what she was already paid for? 

"Is that not already your chosen profession?" Elias would have asked had the sea creatures not shown up. He probably would have strung along some concoction of characters that illustrated and emphasized just how amazing his mind was too. But, alas, he was wearing a suit that cost hundreds of thousands of yen, and he didn't intend to see it ruined. 

"I think they require further demonstration of your skills, dearie," he chuffed.  

With one hand, Elias ensnared one of the more humanoid creatures and lobbed it onto another of its allies, a crustacean. Both collapsed. The Wish-Maker didn't have the firepower to take so many enemies down in quick succession. One-on-one, he could use threaded coffin to rip an opponent to pieces, but in numbers, he was best at delay tactics.

The Wish-Maker, ever the magician maybe. He always had a talent for sleight of hand. From his other gloved palm, more threads unwound and latched onto Rui again waist again. "Up you go, angel," he said, cuing her in on the plan, a repeat from earlier. Rui was light, very light, but gravity pulling some few dozen pounds, especially focused on even something so simple as a piece of glass, was going to tear at least one target apart. 

Elias threw her up above the small swarm, then dropped her on their enemies. She was immortal, so no need to worry about her own health. And, if she was caught in a sticky situation, he could probably fish her out with his threads. 

OWL

[Rui Matsui]

''That's right!'' She pulled the broken bottle out of her next victim and shouted at the others in front of her. ''You better leave five star reviews, or I'll burn your house down!!'' It was a threat she fully intended to follow up on, once she knew where all these monsters lived of course.

Even though they had only done this combination attack once before, being lifted by his strings already felt strangely familiar to her. ''Thank you, bestie!!'' She exclaimed, readying herself to soar through the and drop on another one of the monsters. This time she hit the mark more accurately than her first time flying through the air, but her landing was as rough as ever. She was never concerned about her own health. Her quirk's healing factor was so powerful that she had grown numb to it. She couldn't feel pain the same way others could, and in a way, since her quirk had been always active since her childhood, it had robbed her of some of her humanity. Taking one of the monsters' heads clean off she landed on her non-dominant arm and immediately broke it in the fall, alongside with her bottle weapon. Surrounded on all sides, Rui found herself in her favorite place to be on the battlefield. Being the center of attention. ''How's that?!'' She taunted the creatures to no response, then turned to her bestie, beaming at Elias. ''Did you see that? I went flying!'' Just as she wanted to celebrate the achievement one of the monsters grabbed her broken arm and tore it clean off. It wasn't hard given how fragile she was at the end of the day. Rui had broken limbs, or even lost them several times before already. She screamed out in agony, but it lasted a fraction of a second before her bandage skin snatched the arm back and reattached it to her body. There was no blood, nothing grotesque that you would expect from such a gruesome scene. Her arm was simply ripped off and back on her body that quickly. ''Bestie!! Can you find me a weapon?'' She called out, hoping Elias could throw her something, anything while she tried to climb up over the zombies before she got surrounded completely.

Elias

[Elias]

The Bird of Hermes is    my name                       Eat  My   WINGS   TO   KEEP   ME   TAME Rui Matsui

It was the oddest sensation. Like an old friend walking through the door only to shove you aground. You want to greet them, catch up and all, but the bum just socked you, and you couldn't let that pass. The return of an emotional response. Dare he say, empathy. 

Was it empathy? Remorse? Pity? Concern for another? Yikes, he hadn't felt anything close to actual kinship in quite some time, but when Rui shouted anguish, however brief, the slightest string tugged at the Wish-Maker's mind, telling him to pull her out of the mayhem. 

He didn't. Elias didn't have kin. He had pieces, pieces on the board to be played. Right now, he needed that piece to knock down the many enemy pieces. And he knew how to make that happen.

One of the creatures, a cross between a humanoid and a crustacean, charged him. The main body was humanoid but with chitinous armor. One of its arms ended in a massive claw like that of a typical crab, while the other was more humanish, albeit larger and with razor nails in the place of fingers. 

It swung once, but Elias sidestepped the attack. When the monster drew its clenched claw up though, it clubbed the Wish-Maker back a few steps. The air was knocked from his lungs, but he had it. Hundreds of threads wrapped around the larger, humanoid arm, ensnaring it entirely. 

"Threaded coffin," he repeated the attack from earlier. 

The threads spun around the appendage. Pieces of chitin armor chipped away. Then, the entire limb was dislodged. The beast fell, but the threads kept tearing away at the arm. Something crunched within the bundle, and then the threads stopped. 

"Catch!" He shouted, the threads whipping forward and throwing Rui her desired weapon. 

It was a large, white and orange dagger forged from the monster's interior, humanoid bones, and its armored outer layers. Elias's threads had torn away the weaker, fleshy bits, then compressed the bone and chitin into a shape Rui would be familiar with. Now, his piece on the board was armed again. 

OWL

[Rui Matsui]

She reached out desperately, hoping that Elias could throw her something, anything. Another bottle, even a rock, anything would do. When she saw the improvized dagger her eyes lit up. ''Thanks bestie!!'' She grinned, grabbing ahold of the weapon and immediately driving it into the neck of the nearest creature, before commencing turning her surroundings into a Rui-powered zombie blender. It was a gross and violent display, but in the heat of the battle she was having the time of her life, laughing over all the noise the monsters made.

Eventually she found herself out of breath, standing over the pile of corpses turned corpses again as she caught her breath, having reduced the horde to nothing but more casualties on this horrible day. The dagger Elias had fashioned for her was all but gone too, worn down to its base as she tossed it aside. ''That was a workout!'' She smiled, stretching her arms. ''How are your shoes, bestie?'' She turned to face Elias, happily skipping back over to his side. If those monsters had dirtied his shoes after they had been through so much she just might get a lighter and burn them all up then and there.

Elias

[Elias]

The Bird of Hermes is    my name                       Eat  My   WINGS   TO   KEEP   ME   TAME Rui Matsui

Rui was a ballerina. Her ballet--one of death. She left the street littered with blood, corpses, and the foulest stench. The aquatic malformations, whatever they were, stunk to high heaven. Their innards--even more so.

A shark in roughly humanoid shape detached from the rest of his cadre, though, eyeing Elias. A predator scenting out more feeble prey. Human. Shark. Instinct was a culprit not easily arrested. It was, however, easily exposed. 

The shark lunged. A living torpedo that had Elias in its sights. Okay, maybe he was overestimating himself a bit too. There was no escape. Not entirely. 

"Threaded aegis," Elias muttered. 

Hundreds of threads swept up around Elias. One cord layered atop another, which layer atop another. Clawed digits reached and were met by a red cocoon. The outermost layers gave way. They were strong, but the beast's claws were sharp. When one didn't do it, the shark-man slashed again and repeated the process until, finally, one claw cut through and cut into Elias's chest. 

The Wish-Maker grit his teeth. Blood seeped into his suit. The wound wasn't deep, but Elias wasn't accustomed to such lacerations or wounds of any kind. Heat blossomed in his chest, and anger bubbled in his heart. 

"How dare you," he threatened. 

The cocoon came undone. Each and every thread unwound, then encircled one another, wrapping together again, this time in the shape of a massive spike. The threaded blade blasted forward into the shark's chest, cleaving it open and skewering him into a building across the street. 

A gloved hand covered his chest. That hurt like hell. But the fighting was done for now. A point made clear by Rui, who sauntered away from the mound of corpses and over to him. A piece on the board, he reminded himself, but a piece he was glad came out alive--though it didn't appear the Mummy would ever die, so why worry? 

"Shoes are fine," he smirked, "but I wouldn't mind some of that mummy magic, angel." He eyed the slash on his chest. His quirk could heal such a wound easily, but it required one to make a wish. Rui's didn't. That had its advantages. "Then back to Nirvana."  

OWL

[Rui Matsui]

Although it probably didn't show as obviously as someone taking on actual injuries, her quirk was slowing down significantly from having to regenerate back the damage she took and keep her going without breaks until all the zombies were taken down. It was the perfect time to go back to Nirvana and crash, maybe try and get Elias drunk so he would spill some of his mysterious secrets. She also needed to figure out where to get her next weapon from. As convenient and available as kitchen knives were they just weren't cutting it anymore at this level. She needed something sharper, something more reliable.

''And STAY dead!!'' She yelled after the severed shark monster as it flew into a building across the street. ''They just don't stop attacking, it almost feels like the heroes are sending them after us.'' They would too, or at least in her deluded mind it wasn't too farfetched. ''Mummy magic?'' She grinned excitedly, putting a little bounce into her step as she unwrapped the skin around both of her hands, revealing the bones underneath. ''On it, bestie!'' If he let her, she would gently wrap the bandages around the wound, pretty much immediately transferring her healing properties over to him. Her quirk was almost exhausted for the time being, but healing a little wound here and there was no big deal for her. It would have been much worse if the shark had taken his arm or something like that. ''When we get back to Nirvana, you'll have to tell me all about what that's like.'' She said with a morbid fascination, clarifying on what she meant once they were on the move again. ''Bleeding and stuff!''

Elias

[Jinx]

☆ MISSION SUCCESS ☆

Mummy > zombie /thread
Great thread you two!

+ 75 Tokens!!

Rui: 350 // 425
Elias: 250 // 325

tag: Rui Matsui,Elias