The shock refused to subside from Nui's sudden declaration.

"W-what?" Ryuko's confusion brimmed while Satsuki stood in stunned silence.

"The hell you mean join?!" The silence was fully broken now, by Tsumugu who had quickly approached from Nui's right and was now point his weapon at her, his face unveiling his aggression.

Nui cheerfully greeted Tsumugu in her usual playful demeanour, "Oh its Mohawk man!"

Tsumugu responded with his same malicious intent, "That's not my name bitch."

Nui recoiled in pretend offence "Alright Mohawk ape then, jeez."

Tsumugu ignored this bringing them back on topic. "Never mind that, answer the damn question."

He stared at Nui intensely, his finger on the trigger, while a Nui clone appeared to show up at his side attempting to poke him on the cheek, before he pulled up his other hand wielding another gun, shooting the clone.

Nui continued to be cheerful as she responded, "Isn't it obvious? I want to join your cute little organisation!"

Tsumugu closed his eyes in frustration, "No I got that part, but tell me why the hell you would want to do that? We represent everything your kind stands against!"

Satsuki chimed in before Nui answered, "He's right Nui, these whims of yours make less and less sense."

Nui looked troubled for a moment, twiddling a few strands of hair between her fingers. "Alright... this isn't easy to admit but... I'm kinda... exiled."

A collective "huh?" resounded from all those present in response to this, with Satsuki following the confusion with "Nui, explain."

Nui looked further troubled again, now scratching her head as everyone looked at her expectantly. Clone Nui appeared floating to true Nui's side as she continued to scratch her head in frustration, none of the others could see or hear Clone Nui, confirming to her she wasn't physically there, or noticeable to anyone but true Nui.

"Nui just tell them, its way too late to play dumb." Clone Nui crossed her arms looking annoyed at true Nui.

True Nui let out a long sigh "Ugh... Fine! I'll tell them." she finished scratching replying to the floating clone Nui, confusing her onlookers who saw her speak to the empty space beside her. "so... I was tasked with creating Shinra Kōketsu, it would act as the last effort for the conquering of this planet, but when that failed... I was blamed for it, the life fibers saw me as a failure..."

This answer filled Ryūko with further confusion, "But wait, at that point you were dead."

Nui replied to meet Ryūko's confusion, "well my physical body was gone, but my mind existed in the collective life fiber mind, essentially all life fibers have connections to one another, the larger the amount of life fibers the greater this connection! It was in these connections that my mind was preserved." Ryūko seemed to struggle with this idea while Satsuki seemed to simply nod in understanding.

Tsumugu intervened with another question, "Even if we were to believe all this bullshit, why the hell would we let you join after everything you've done?"

Nui's answer became increasingly aggressive as she spoke, "Well... after having killed myself, only to come back to life to see that you creatures killed the one person in this world I cared about and crushed all my HOPES AND DREAMS." She then returned to her casual demeanour as she finished "I would say we're about even."

Tsumugu replied calmly, although his words carried the same level of malevolence as before, "your hopes and dreams were to destroy humanity."

Nui retorted quickly in this back and forth. "Oh like you're any different, you would gladly genocide my species wouldn't you?"

This response caused Tsumugu to turn his head in frustration as Ryuko replied in his stead, "How the hell are we supposed to trust you to leave you alive?"

Suddenly the pest control van drove down the side of the crater pulling up in-front of the group. The door slid open to reveal Mikisugi standing at the entrance, who responded to Ryūko, "I can take care of that."

Everyone turned to Mikisugi who stepped out of the van.

Tsumugu closed in on Mikisugi, his words akin to a growl, "this is insane Aikuro!"

Mikisugi shrugged this off, moving past Tsumugu, "Relax, I know what I'm doing."

Tsumugu responded placing his hand on Mikisugi's shoulder, "do you?"

But Mikisugi merely patted Tsumugu's shoulder then walked away. He moved towards Nui, and in the quickest of motions, he placed what appeared to be a choker and Nui's neck. As soon as it touched her neck, it snapped into place closing around her.

Nui immediately went to fiddle with the choker, only for Mikisugi to interrupt, "Doooon't do that."

Nui pulled away her hands from the choker, as Mikisugi continued, "Its a kill switch, you fiddle with it, try to take it off, or its triggered remotely, then life fiber severing blades close into the middle and well... off with your head."

Nui seemed amused by this, "well, I hope it doesn't get itchy"

Ryūko questioned Mikisugi with suspicion, "wait, why do you have something like that?"

This question caused Mikisugi to nervously scratch his chin, "well... w-we had this in case well you... you went berserk... you know? Just a counter measure."

Ryūko looked angry for a moment, before nodding with understanding, "eh, I get it." Ryūko snapped back at Mikisugi "wait but how can this allow us to trust her? Just because she's at the threat of death doesn't mean she won't try to lash out."

Mikisugi threw his arm around Nui's shoulders, leaning on her, "This bad boy is designed, so she won't even get the chance to lash out." Nui flicked his hand off from her shoulder, causing Mikisugi to back off.

Satsuki raised her voice to take control of the scene, "All this is well and good, but we cannot go on without addressing what she has done."

The scene fell quiet. Nui stood with a somber smile on her face.

Satsuki stepped towards Nui, her voice bellowed across the scene, "The murder of Isshin Matoi and countless others... working to destroy humanity under the command of Ragyo Kiryūin, these crimes are heavy upon you Nui, you claim that you have been through enough, but your very existence is an affront to our eyes... as I said before, I'll have your head."

The silence returned. Satsuki approached Nui, blades in hand.

True Nui merely stood there smiling, clone Nui appeared floating by her side, but true Nui merely waved her away with "Its alright..." true Nui then spoke directly to Satsuki, "Me and the well... other Nui, made a deal, that deal being that I'm gonna join her in living a normal life."

Satsuki threw out a malicious yet interested "Hm?"

Nui continued, "Despite all of this... I agreed, I even told her it would be better for her to just let me die, but she refused, I'm stuck with her it seems... now you can try to cut me down... But I will fight back, even if I will lose my head."

She finished with a twisted smile revealing her teeth.

Satsuki's gaze was filled with knives, however she looked away, sheathing her blades. "I see... very well."

Ryūko looked towards her sister, calling to her in confusion, "Satsuki?"

But her call was to no avail as Satsuki continued in response to Nui, "If that is your choice Nui, then for once... You have my respect."

Surprise filled the gazes of all the onlookers, even Nui, as Satsuki walked away. Suddenly a nudist beach helicopter lowered beside the group, blowing air through the scene, all of the group's clothing fluttered in the wind.

"We're taking you to nudist beach HQ Nui." Mikisugi raised his voice over the whirring of the helicopter blades.

Tsumugu looked on with disdain with his arms crossed, but he kept silent. Nui looked into Ryūko's eyes one last time, before stepping through the sliding door of the helicopter which lifted from the crater and disappeared into the night.