Nui was sitting underneath her kokatsu table, sighing as the rain poured against the window, the light of the hotel room breaking out into the night outside. She sighed as she placed both her hands on her favourite handle-less tea cup while the TV in the top left corner of the room displayed various over the top advertisements. Nudist beach had accepted her request to retrieve her items from her old apartment.

Clone Nui took a sip of her green tea, "You know its quite strange not having to go to work each day after school, its leaving me with an abundance of free time..."

True Nui appeared laying down, floating in the air as she slowly drifted around the room, "well at least you don't have to be left alone with your own thoughts huh?"

Clone Nui placed her elbow on the table as she held up her head with her hand on her chin looking incredibly bored, "yeah you would think that wouldn't you..."

True Nui was now laying on her stomach, kicking her feet up and down casually, "You're still thinking about what happened today right?"

Clone Nui calmly nodded, "Mhm... Ryūko seemed like the quiet angry when she walked away, I wonder if she's more mad at me than before..."

True Nui shrugged casually, "eh who knows? Ryūko is always angry, its hard to tell the degree of anger, its like it's her perma' time of the month."

This remark caused clone Nui to look at True Nui awkwardly, "I... I don't think that's true..."

True Nui looked in pretend confusion in return, "really? That's how she always seemed to me..."

Clone Nui almost laughed before remarking sarcastically, "Oh I wonder why..." Causing true Nui to continue pretending to be confused.

Down in the hotel lobby there were a combination of different individuals around the room, from a female well dressed receptionist, a man sitting at he seating area on the right side of the hotel door way flicking through pages of a news paper. A mother stood on the left side in front of a pram, two men was walking out of the lobby with a carriage holding a great many suit cases, they were all Nudist beach agents. Suddenly seven men and women entered the lobby, they wore unremarkable black business suits and each of them carried brief cases.

The seven individuals approached the reception desk, with the man at the front turning to the receptionist directly, "hello, I would like to book a room."

The receptionist stayed professional but it was obvious she was hiding her concern as she tapped on her keyboard into the reception computer, "o-of course, so is it gonna be rooms for all seven?"

"No just the one." The man answered, when suddenly the receptionist heard the click of a gun as she looked up to see the man wearing leather gloves and holding a pistol with a black silencer attached to the end "Whichever room Nui Harime is staying."

The other six individuals had seemingly put on black gas masks and were holding matching pistols against the head of every other agent in the lobby with the man at the reception placing his own mask against his head with his other hand as he held the gun, the straps seem to snap themselves into place with the buckles automatically clicking together implying they are some sort of mechanical device.

The receptionist attempted to subtly press the alarm underneath her desk only for the the man to interrupt knowing she was about to sound the alarm, "Hands on the keyboard, and let me see the screen."

The tension climbed higher as the receptionist continued pressing the keys to her computer, as the man stood there impatiently.

Eventually the receptionist spoke up, "Its room 117."

The man replied coldly, "Thank you for your cooperation."

Then before the receptionist could react the man pulled the trigger, executing her coldly. In sequence all the other six did so as well, killing each of the agents in the room. Three of the gas mask wearing individuals searched the agent's pockets discovering their ID cards. Strangely crimson threads seemed to emanate out of the wounds of the dead agents before floating up and disappearing. The others pressed a button on each of the handles of their brief cases causing the cases to fall apart revealing the handles to be attached to assault rifles on which they each attached a silencer. Outside the building across the street, a nudist beach agent, was watching through a sniper scope into Nui's room only for another individual wearing a gas mask to appear behind them firing a bullet into their head. Back in the Hotel the individuals made their way through floor to floor, tracking the numbers of the rooms as they went, each time they ran into any individual be it guest or staff, they shot them dead no questions asked.

It wasn't too much longer before Clone Nui heard a knock on her door, "Hm?"

True Nui seemed very relaxed throwing out a bemused remark "Room service perhaps?"

Clone Nui ignored the remark as she approached the door peering into the peep hole. Her sight was met with a close up view of a Nudist beach ID proudly displaying the nudist beach insignia, "Oh its one of the nudist beach agents."

True Nui seemed irritated, "ugh what do those fools want?"

Clone Nui to shrug casually, "only one way to find out."

Immediately after clone Nui opened the door, several tranquilliser darts shot out implanting themselves into clone Nui causing her to fall immediately onto the floor.

True Nui watched in casual surprise throwing out a curious "oh?"

Three of the gas mask wearing individuals made their way into the room as clone Nui's consciousness faded, true Nui threw out another remark, as the individuals gathered around Nui, "you don't look like nudist beach agents..."

One of the individuals spoke up commanding to the others, "quickly strain out the threads before she transforms."

The three pulled out knitting needles before implanting them into Nui's skin, they then pulled them out crimson fibers out of her body as blood poured out from the wounds.

One of the individuals who stayed out of the room spoke in saying "hurry up reinforcements could be here at any moment."

The three individuals tied the crimson threads around Clone Nui, as soon as they did this, True Nui disappeared and they picked up clone Nui and carried her out.

Clone Nui awakened in what appeared to a white chamber with a glass front, behind the glass was a dark void. Nui was completely nude and appeared to be strung up by crimson threads, the threads seemed to protrude out of her body and tied around her, with many wrapping her chest, legs and feet. The threads were planted into the walls of the chamber and suspended Nui in the air. Nui's sight was hazy constantly shifting in and out of conscious and unconscious. Suddenly a spot light cut through the darkness, showing a man.

The man wore a business suit with a formal military jacket over it, he also appeared to wear a combat vest, a cap matching the jacket and of course, a gas mask, "My apologies, we had to bump up the tranquilliser dosage to ensure the adrenaline spike from the injuries wouldn't allow you or the other Nui to react."

Nui finally managed to wake up fully realising the situation, "what the hell!? Where am I?! Why am I naked?! And who the hell are you perv!?"

Nui tried to tug against the threads causing the man to speak up once again "don't struggle. you will only hurt yourself."

Nui unveiled her anger, "Screw you! You pervert! The other Nui is gonna kick your ass!"

A smug smile could be heard in the man's voice, "I'm afraid the other Nui isn't here right now."

Nui's anger turned to confusion, "Huh?!"

The man replied again with the same air of arrogance, "She hasn't been speaking right?"

Nui looked around mixing her confusion with worry, "Nui? Nui?!"

The man continued as Nui's gaze wandered in her fear, "And I have no interest in such vulgar things, you are only nude so we could carry out a full life fiber bind, your connection to the life fibers in your body has been temporarily severed."

Nui's fear fully set in as she realised the danger she was in, "Are... are you going to kill me?"

The man was cold in his response, "Well that depends on the choice."

Nui's worries and pain flowed into her voice as every word the man said filled her with anxiety, "C-choice?"

The man walked to his left for a moment continuing to face Nui in the chamber, a mechanical panel situated on that side propped up by a metal pole en-wrapped by dozens of wires, "In my organisation I am known as "the operator" and like the name implies I carry out operations in the field, mostly to obtain high priority targets, such as yourself. However I have more than one target. Luckily I'm quite the opportunist and your life makes for quite the fine opportunity-"

Nui's frustration grew as the operator prattled on, "Can you get to the point?!"

The operator continued immediately after Nui's interruption, "The point Nui Harime, is that there's going to be a choice, the choice being is either the tools built into that chamber is activated severing the life fibers that contain true Nui, or a guillotine is dropped and kills both of you."

Nui wasted no time deciding how to reply, "HUH?! What kind of choice is that?! There's no way I'm choosing either of those!"

Another smug smile could be heard in the man's voice, "well its a good thing that it won't be you making that choice."

Nui was lost in shock only uttering, " who hell are you guys..."

The operator's figure gleams with pride as he announces with a sinister tone, "We are... The servants of the thread."

The door to the apartment swung open as Mikisugi made his way inside sighing heavily seemingly in reprieve. "Ah! finally I'm home, that was one hell of a flight, how the hell on all these years did I not know that Tsumugu was such a loud snorer..."

Mikisugi Made his way into the kitchen grabbing a a can from the fridge of what appeared to be beer.

He sat down on the sofa with a relaxed demeanour, in sequence with the refreshing sound of the can's clip clicking and the air being released from the can. "Ain't too late for a beer right? well as long as it doesn't worsen the jet lag..." He continued to talk to himself, "...And now I can just sit back and reeeeelax-" Just as he was going to take a sip of the beer, his phone started ringing disappointing the tired out Mikisugi.

He sighed as he pulled up his phone selecting the button to answer, "Hello? Mikisugi speaking."

A Nudist beach agent's voice emanated from the phone, "Sir we have a situation."
Mikisugi answered casually, his voice bereft of energy, "I'm sure you may be having a lot of trouble without your fearless leader, but can't this wait? I just got home."

The agent got straight to the point to waste no time at all, "No sir it cannot, someone has attacked the hotel."

Mikisugi's face changed from causal inconvenience to surprised worry, "wait what?!"

The agent continued reflecting Mikisugi's worry, "Indeed, and Nui is gone, we really need your consultation on this."

Mikisugi unveiled his urgency as he stood up from the sofa, "Alright, I'm on my way."

Mikisugi made his way quickly out of the apartment, getting in his car; The naked shooting star, and sped down the streets driving towards the hotel. Mikisugi pulled up at the front, greeted by a Nudist beach agent who was waiting outside.

The agent saluted as Mikisugi exited his car, "Mikisugi Sir!"

Mikisugi nodded as he walked towards the hotel entrance.

As he walked, Tsumugu on his motorcycle arrived, parking by his Mikisugi's car, "Told you we should of killed her."

Mikisugi seemed dismissive about the sentiment, "We don't know if she ran away or-"

Tsumugu quickly interrupted him "Doesn't matter, its because we let her live that we were attacked."

Mikisugi was silent in return as him, the agent and Tsumugu walked into the hotel. Their sight was instantly met with a crime scene of blood patches sprayed against the wall and floor. Agents went around the scene wearing gloves and using several investigatory tools to gather evidence. The agent described the situation as Mikisugi started looking around the scene and Tsumugu stood by the door leaning against the wall, "we've counted thirty eight of our agents dead so far, those that we found were taken back to base for autopsy, we've got several agents investigating all areas of the building, they even took out our sniper situated across the street."

Mikisugi's seriousness came through on every movement he made, as he looked painfully at each of the blood splatters, "Can I assume that the bullets have been taken out and sent to ballistics?"

The agent seemed to panic for a moment before responding, "About that sir... we can't seem to find the bullets, not in their bodies or in the scene. And the bodies show no signs of further intrusion so we're not sure how they got out the bullets from their bodies."

Mikisugi was solemn in his response merely uttering a simple "I see"

The agent then spoke up gesturing to the door to the rooms, "Sir would you like to take a look at Nui Harime's room?"

Mikisugi answered with a simple nod as the three left the lobby.

Tsumugu was discussing angrily with Mikisugi who stoically made their way through the hotel as they were about to reach Nui's room, "How do we know it wasn't Nui who killed those guards?"

Mikisugi replied calmly, "guns aren't her usual choice of weapons."

Tsumugu's frustrations came through his argument, "we don't know what she can do, and we don't know she has any allies either!"

Mikisugi stopped in the middle of the hallway looking at Tsumugu, fed up, "come on Tsumugu we both know you're grasping at straws."

Tsumugu seemed to vent his frustrations, "Bullshit, you're the one desperate to keep this bitch alive for whatever reason. I'm the one out of the two of us that has their straws fully stocked."

They reached the room, taking a step inside instantly seeing a large patch of blood on the floor. Mikisugi immediately crouched by the patch, observing it closely before turning his head to the agent, "You got analysis of this?"

The agent nodded, "Yes sir, came in just before I contacted you, it matches our sample of Clone Nui's blood."

Mikisugi looked back at the patch of blood, "hm... I see..."

Suddenly Mikisugi's phone started ringing. "Hello?"

He said and was answered by a rough strong female voice, "Yo, Mikisugi."

Mikisugi responded in surprise, "oh Ryūko!"

On the end of the phone call Ryūko was standing uncomfortably in her room as Mako looked worriedly from behind her, "is Nui still in her hotel room?"

Mikisugi was suddenly alarmed by the question, "wait why? what happened?"

Ryūko continued her discomfort displaying through her voice, "well i got a weird ass call, I thought it was a prank call from true Nui at first but there wasn't any punchline."

Mikisugi shifted into his professionality, "What exactly did this caller say, word for word."

Ryūko worries and fear channelled into her voice as she recounted what the caller said, "they said: Ryūko Matoi, I replied with who is this? and they carried on with: you won't know who we are, we have Nui Harime and you have a decision to make. Come to warehouse two four one on the thirty first avenue, come alone and unarmed or clone Nui dies. You have one hour." Ryūko paused for a moment to let it all sink in, "That's all they said."

Mikisugi turned to Tsumugu, "Someone's threatening to kill Nui."

Without skipping a beat Tsumugu replied, "good, let them."

Mikisugi showed frustration in his response, "It ain't your choice to make."

He spoke back into the phone, "Are you gonna go Ryūko?"

She was silent for a moment before answering, "...yeah I am, even though saving her ass is getting a bit irritating, clone Nui's a wuss, so she's got an ass that needs saving."

Mikisugi smiled confidently, "alright I'm coming with."

However Ryūko quickly responded, "No, I'm going alone like they requested."

This caused Mikisugi to snap back, "Are you insane!?"

Ryūko rebuked him with the obvious, "If I don't then they'll kill her, were you even listening?"

Mikisugi persisted with a "but..."

However he was shut down by Ryūko who returned with, "Don't worry, you know I can handle myself."

Mikisugi relented, "Alright, but we will have back up close by."

Ryūko was outside getting on her bike when she replied "Ok, but not too close, don't wanna let them spot you guys." Before she turned the key and sped off to confront the servants.

True Nui sat alone within the room that made up the space of her pocket dimension, incredibly bored.

She wasn't able to see what was going on in the outside world ever they pulled out the threads from clone Nui's body, "A life fiber bind huh... it was pretty basic but it seemed sufficient, to think it would work on me..."

She was lying on the bed staring up at the ceiling till she suddenly sat up stretching her arms, "Alright! Enough relaxing, lets see if I can get any of these life fiber connections working..."
All of a sudden a great many red threads came down from the ceiling and attaching to the floor. Nui began sifting through each of the threads, each time saying "nope." casually then moving to the next thread.

Eventually she found a thread she seemed happy with, "Oh that one works."
She wrapped the thread around her finger which seemed to send a spark of energy up the thread.

"Alright we got visuals..." the room partially faded to reveal The scene clone Nui was trapped in, "oh looks like the poop head brigade is in town and they got the other me up in a much more gnarly bind."

She continued sifting through the threads once again finding another that seemed to work, wrapping it around her finger, "And we got audio!"

After true Nui said this words echoed through the room; "the point Nui Harime is that there's going to be a choice, the choice being is either the tools built into that chamber is activated severing the life fibers that contain true Nui, or a guillotine is dropped and kills both of you." in a voice unfamiliar to her.

Another voice replying with of course; "HUH?! What kind of choice is that?! Theres no way I'm choosing either of those!"

True Nui realised the situation as the conversation continued revealing them to be called "the servants of the thread."
Nui contemplated this casually, "Hm so that how it is... well I guess its lights out for me, oh well!" True Nui sat back on the bed casually, as she accepted her fate.

Back with Clone Nui she realised what the operator's plan was, "you said you were after another target... The one that fits this situation the most would be... Ryūko!"

The operator slow clapped casually, "you're right on the money."

Nui continued in her realisation, "And you're using me to get to her, she's gonna be the one to make the choice..."

The operator nodded calmly, "yes, your life is in her hands."

Nui was dismissive about the idea, "you won't get Ryūko. She's not gonna come for me so you might as well kill me right now."

The operator hand waved such notions away, "I wouldn't be so sure, this isn't gonna be the first time she stood up for your life after all."

Just as he said this one of the servants spoke up, "Sir the second target has approached the area."

The operator turned their way, he was smug in his remark, "Right on Que"

Nui was shocked to hear this, "Ryūko came for me?"

Meanwhile Ryūko had pulled up out side the warehouse area on her bike before kicking down the stand and getting off preparing for one hell of a fight.