''Really? Were your parents part of the yakuza or something?'' She asked with genuine interest, trying to understand what his past might have looked like, but from the narrow cultural scope of her own lived experiences. ''I had a mother and then I was adopted. I killed my father and then I've kind of been doing crime ever since.'' What she didn't specify was that she killed her adoptive father who turned out to be not so great after all. Her biological father she had never even met.

''Woaaaah!'' She gasped, jumping up and down on the spot out of excitement. ''You can change your blood. It doesn't hurt you? But you're bleeding.'' She pointed at his hand as if to point out the flaw in his logic, but then again her quirk wasn't exactly logical either. ''You're tough, Silver Bestie! But if you ever need help just let me know and I'll fix you right up, with the bestie discount too! ~'' The people screaming around them was kind of starting to get on her nerves. Watching people suffer was fun, but sometimes it could also become too much, especially when they were this loud.

''In that case, let's get outta here!'' She winked back, running to a nearby alleyway. ''Stay right there.'' She unwrapped the bandage skin around her hand, then kept unraveling it until her whole forearm was exposed, revealing nothing but bones underneath. ''And a one and a two!'' She flung the bandages up towards nearby fire exit scaffolding, hoisting herself up with ease since she barely weighed anything to begin with. Once she got up she let her bandages dangle down over the ledge like a rope. Like the demonic Rapunzel, throwing her skin out of the window for the acid-riddled prince. ''Grab my skin!'' She braced herself on the railing to try and leverage it to pull him up. ''Don't worry, it won't hurt me, Silver Bestie! I take to the rooftops all the time, heroes never see it coming.'' They did occasionally, but for the most part that was only when they brought heroes with quirks that had effective vertical scaling abilities.

Once it seemed like they weren't going to be pursued anymore, Rui found herself returning to a question again and again as they walked along the rooftops. ''So, why Japan? Weren't you already doing well in the Pacific back in Canada? You said you fought heroes and stuff.'' She unraveled some bandage skin around her other arm and shook it a couple of times until a pack of raisins fell out. Picking it up with her hand she rattled it a couple of times before taking one out and eating it. ''Raisins?'' She asked Church, handing him the package.

Church Blackburn

Rui crawled onto the scene, goblin that she was. ''Magic Bestie said this would be a fun time, but I didn't expect him to put an amusement park down here!'' She marveled at all the different colors, taking it in like a kid that had walked through the gates of Disney Land. Sitting in the middle of the floor she made no attempt to hide herself, nor did she care about what was going on. Not at first, anyway. ''But where's the rollercoaster?'' She sprang up and ran over to one of the pools of acid and stared down into it. ''Maybe I go through this stuff!'' She was about to submerge herself in the pool when she heard the sounds of battle, which she decided was far more interesting than potentially maiming herself.

''That sound!'' She ran ahead, but stopped a good bit behind the chaos and watched the bleeders struggle like they always did. ''Isn't that... Jun Bestie?'' She grinned wickedly, reaching for her knife. ''Must be my lucky day. ~'' And she would have gone for the kill too, if she hadn't noticed that lightning bastard Raiden fighting alongside her. Cursing under her breath, she instead turned her attention to Church and decided to follow him. At some point she was going to get her opportunity. Stab Jun from behind, push Raiden into the lake, she was going to have her revenge on everyone that wronged her! For now they could fight their silly little battle and get nice and weak for her. Sometimes her impeccable intelligence frightened even herself!

''Hi Silver Bestie!!'' She called out to Church, waving her arm over her head and keeping her distance as he made a shower out of the candy-colored acid. ''Do you think it's edible, or drinkable? There's a low chance it could be candy!'' She pointed at the lake, suddenly running past Church when she noticed a huge rat Nomu. ''Pet rat, mine, he's mine!'' She ran up to hug it only to get blasted by rat acid, coated in a layer of the stuff as it burned into her skin. The acid muffled her screaming as she fell onto her back, and a few seconds after being hit she stopped moving.

Church Blackburn, Nobu, junsuina, Jinx

She blinked her eyes at Church. ''No way, really?! Are you not from here, where are you from?'' Church was already interesting, but the fact that he had traveled suddenly made him all the more mysterious to her. ''They're plenty strong. You should pick a fight with those guys at Maxima, they're tough.'' She grinned, referring to the Maxima Hero Agency. ''If you don't believe me, ask my bomb bestie, she fights heroes all the time. I'll give you a way to contact her.'' She felt like such a responsible villain for once, making besties and letting those besties meet each other!

''Do you like horns? My dad used to like horns.'' She remarked, looking at his arm while he touched her horn. Then at his face. He really wasn't scared at all, not even a little bit. ''Yeah, well,'' she couldn't help but smile big when he called them beautiful and winked. ''they're just like, horns.'' She barred her sharp teeth in her smile. Then next thing she knew, she was showing him her quirk like it was a magic trick. Of course she only showed the visual side of things, he had yet to see it in action for real, for real!

When he took a mock-bow she burst out laughing. ''You're so formal!'' She mimicked the mock-bow, although much more clumsily. ''Then, I'll call you Silver Bestie! You're in the villain business too? I can show you around! I don't sell illegal information, but I've been a villain here for years so I know all the ins and outs!'' She was going to graciously skip over the part where she had been arrested more times than anyone bothered to count.

When he stood up and agreed to showing her how he fought she was practically jumping for joy. ''Yes, yes! Show me what you can do!'' If she did have a devil's tail it would be wagging as she followed him. ''How do you do it? Do you go all quiet and sneaky, or do you just run in and start attacking people?''

Church Blackburn

''You're really not scared for a bleeder.'' Rui giggled with amusement as Olivia just cut her way through the door and marched on ahead. Most of the time when Rui got hired to help other criminals or villains it was so she could be a bullet sponge, soak up damage from the enemies while the bleeders hid behind her like little cowards. Not Olivia though, nor Retsu. It was something she really liked about both of them. They weren't just reckless, they were fun. Violence was a special thing, and how people enacted it on other was deeply personal and all the more fascinating for it.

''Anyone important?'' She looked at Retsu, then looked around as they stepped in. ''I guess anyone that looks smart or something. Ask who's in charge we just capture them.'' She fidgeted with her knife as she walked, letting the other two go to town while she just took it all in. Memories from her childhood were flooding back, but they were all so distant and vague. ''No way!'' She exclaimed, running up to a blank, white room that stood unlocked. The room was completely devoid of decor, safe for one full body window that linked it up with another room. ''They used to put me in here all the time!'' She said it like she was musing about getting to go on the rollercoaster as a kid. ''This is where I met the other kids. I sat right here.'' She sat down, just like in the old days. ''Then I tapped on the glass and there was this boy- in there.'' She pointed to the other room. ''He just sat there.'' She slowly stopped her tapping, excitement draining from her body. ''He never said anything...'' After a brief moment she jumped back up to her feet and smiled widely. ''We had the best conversations! Did you know he was my first bestie?''

''Project Eir!'' One of the guards called out as footsteps and armed men started approaching their position. ''She's accompanied by two other villains, get a stunner for Rui Matsui now, it's a priority 10!'' Rui still wasn't phased by any of what was going on, as all she could think about was when she would start killing more people, and what Retsu had said earlier. She was kind of like, the brains of this operation since she knew the place, so she was supposed to call out anyone important. Nodding towards the response team as they took their position, Rui pointed one of them out to Retsu. ''Bones.'' She said, referring to a face that would look very familiar to Retsu specifically. ''It's Araki.'' The young man corrected Rui while keeping a handgun pointed at the trio.

''Yeah, but like, you're bones, right? I'm simple, not stupid, I know how your type of quirk works.''

''You're... Bakuretsu?'' He said, perplexed as he pointed the gun at Retsu.

''Did you think your makeup is fooling us? Hey Violence Bestie.'' She looked over at Yingshe, before pointing back to Araki. ''That guy's pretty tough, he won't die so you can go all-out killing the rest of 'em.'' Besides, if they accidentally went too far she could just bring him back. ''Project Eir, you will cease this attack, right this instant!'' Araki shouted, pointing his gun at Olivia this time.

''No. Is Junoichi home?''

''He's not.. wait- I don't have to tell you anything!'' Signaling their attack, Araki took the first shot, firing a couple of bullets at Yingshe, but before they could connect Rui got in the way, soaking up the damage with a big grin.

Bakiri Retsu, Olivia Liang

''One of their former heroes, huh? Rose, could it be that you have a bit of a criminal background yourself?'' Malachite grinned, before letting out a hearty chuckle. ''Whatever! Deal. I'll do it, so long as you perform your job and do it well. No one under my command gets away with failure.'' Rose's charm was enchanting, something which Malachite wasn't perceptive enough to catch onto, and Rui didn't think to even look for in the first place. ''You can mention my name, it'll cause me no trouble.''

As Rose began singing Rui tapped her foot and bopped her head to the music, the perfect cover and distraction as they broke into the building. Some guards were too busy looking out at the street performance so they were taken out within the first seconds, while most of them were ready to fight. ''Intruder!'' One of the rival gang members called out, aiming a gun at Rui, but before he could fire one of her villain allies jumped in and used his quirk to slam the gang member into a wall. ''Don't worry about 'em, Mummy! We'll keep you save so long as you keep healing us.'' The villain reassured her. ''Are you? That's so nice, bestie!'' She smiled warmly, walking up next to him before stabbing him in the throat. The villain collapsed, gurgling, looking at her in horror as she held her index finger over her lips. ''Sshh. Rose Bestie is singing. You're ruining the vibe.''

Rui continued skipping through the building, systematically taking down both the enemy and her own allies as she came across them, getting rid of a bunch of Malachite's strongest henchmen all at once. ''Mummy! Why?'' Exclaimed another villain as she was bleeding out. ''Whyy?'' She tapped her chin with her finger. ''I realized, I've gotten pretty strong lately, but no one knows that.'' She squatted down next to the villain and patted her head. ''So, what if I pulled off something crazy and got my name out there? How about it? Do you think I'll be famous like Bakuretsu?'' She blinked her eyes as she retracted her hand. ''Oh, you died...''

As she skipped through the corridors she hummed along to the beat of Rose's song, until she finally got to the big bossman's room, breaking through the door to make a dramatic entrance, her knife in one hand and revolver in the other. She still hadn't fired that single round after all.

''Assassins! Bring-... There's only one of you?''

''Yah, the others sorta died.''

''So, you're amateurs then? How did you get this far?! Did Malachite send you?''

Rui took aim at him and fired her revolver.

Click.

Huh, the odds were fifty to fifty and this guy still didn't eat the bullet she had been playing roulette with.

''Is this some kind of joke? Let me finish speaking!'' He roared before charging at her.

---

An audience had steadily gathered outside to watch Rose perform, her voice was quite recognizable after all. A young woman, dressed like she had just come off a long day working at the office walked up to give Rose a tip, bowing her head politely as she did so. More of the front door guards had also gathered with the rest of the crowd, observing Rose as they tried to deduce whether she was up to anything. Sound-based quirks weren't unheard of, and it could be that she was charging some kind of attack.

Suddenly, the shattering of glass sounded from up above as the enemy boss had been tossed out of the window, his lifeless body hitting the streets below just behind the crowd with a heavy thud. He had several stab wounds in his body, a trademark of Mummy's. However, just in case there was any doubt, Rui poked her head out of the broken window and flashed Rose a thumbs up.

Mission completed! Once her performance was over they could rendezvous at the meet-up point.

''What the hell are they doing?!'' Malachite muttered to himself from the safety of their meeting location. ''I told them to use discretion! What kind of discretion is throwing people out of a window!'' He stomped the ground, leaving behind a small crater.

rhea

[attr="class","likedo"]