A single red line. A single thread in an endless void. The void began to fill with stars. The stars began galaxies, endlessly spiralling into the infinite. The thread approached the galaxies, light bending as it stretched across the universe. As it entered the galaxies, Stars and planets passed it by, with every incandescent orb it approached, another crimson thread sprung from them before joining the line who journeyed through the stars. More and more threads joined it as it pushed on more and more. The thread exploded forming countless radiant crimson and yellow eyes they eyes stretched out forming two larger red eyes and teeth.
The teeth began to open as a voice echoed out, "I breathe with the breath of a thousand worlds... And I WANT MORE."

Clone Nui woke up in the futon across the room from the bed Satsuki, Mako and Ryūko were on. Nui rubbed her eyes before looking over to see Ryūko rise as well from the bed to a sitting position.

"O-oh Ryūko!" Nui exclaimed.

Ryūko raised her finger to her mouth to shush her.

"Oh right, sorry... wait shouldn't we wake them? its almost time for school" Nui quickly lowered her voice to an awkward whisper.

Ryūko answered seemingly half asleep, "It's fine Mikisugi told me before he left that we shouldn't go to school today..."

Nui accepts this worriedly looking down while she messed with her fingers, "Oh ok... I hope this doesn't affect my grades too much..." she then looked back at Ryūko who looked somewhat troubled sparking Nui's attention causing her to question Ryūko tentatively, "A-are you ok?"

Ryūko pinched the space between her eyes as she answered, "Yeah I... just had a weird dream..."

Nui looked surprised for a moment, "wait what kind of dream?"

Ryūko responded in the same out-of-it demeanour, "Er some red line going through space or something..."

Nui replies with a sudden realisation, "...And a face right? talking about a thousand worlds..."

Ryūko then reflected Nui's surprise now looking directly at her, "y-yeah, how did you know that?"

Nui's face was lost in contemplation as she struggled to comprehend what was happening, "I had that dream too..."

Ryūko showed quiet surprise, "For real? That's... weird..."

The two became silent in their confusion.

"Its because of the life fibers!" True Nui suddenly appeared exclaiming in her blood form, surprising Ryūko while Clone Nui shook from the sudden rush of blood leaving her body too heavily to respond.

"N-N-Nu..." Clone Nui tried to speak but stuttered through the first word.

The blood true Nui retracted into clone Nui's body causing her to cease shaking releasing a sigh of release.

"Damn it Nui I told you to warn me before doing that." Clone Nui chastised true Nui who merely responded by sticking her tongue out.

"Wait what did she mean by it being to do with the life fibers?" Ryūko questioned clone Nui worriedly.

Clone Nui was quickly surrounded by crimson threads before the threads disappeared revealing true Nui, "I mean it was a message sent through the life fibers, a strong one at that..."

Ryūko pressed onward, clone Nui paying close attention floating by True Nui's side "A message? From who?"

True Nui replied with an joyful smile, "From the mother thread of course!"

Mako tossed and turned in her sleep, as Ryūko and clone Nui expected the volume of true Nui's announcement to disturb her's and Satsuki's sleep.

"Maybe we should do this somewhere else..." Ryūko uttered causing the the two to walk down stairs, Nui walking in front of Ryūko.

Nui looked around curiously as she walked, casually tilting each painting she came across while Ryūko wordlessly un-tilted each of the paintings. They made their way into the dining room and sat down at both sides of the dining table.

Soon after, Soroi entered the room, "Oh Ryūko and... miss Harime?" He seemed confused to see Nui in the form of the grand couturier, "Ryūko are you sure its alright for her to...?"

Ryūko nodded calmly to ease Soroi's worries, "yeah its alright."

Soroi calmly replied "I see... I'll make you two some tea."
He then made his way out of the room.

"Oh that's nice, I was always curious about why Satsuki like that tea so much, now I get to find out."

Ryūko went back to business as she replied, "Alright explain what you meant, what's the mother thread?"

Nui seemed to stare at Ryūko lovingly, "you know Ryūko you have just the most beautiful of eyes..."

Nui's compliment only served to irritate Ryūko who crossed her arms in her anger, "Nui..."

Nui relented throwing her arms up, "alright alright! I'll tell you, jeeze..." Nui continued in a more straight forward explanation, "All I know is what Ragyō told me, the mother thread is the original life fiber of all life fibers, and that sometimes it sends thoughts through the other life fibers and that's what the dreams are."

Ryūko voices an observation, "So you've had the dreams too?"

True Nui nodded casually, "Oh I've had plenty of these "dreams" none of them like this one though... To be honest I didn't think we were in the mother thread's reach anymore now that the primordial life fiber is gone..."

Soroi gently placed cups in front of them before pouring in tea, "Thanks Soroi." Ryūko spoke softly to Soroi after he filled her cup.

The butler then moved to Nui's cup who replied to Soroi's actions with her usual smug smiling demeanour, "Thank you Soroi"

Ryūko took a sip before she continued questioning, "so... What do the dreams mean?"

Nui shrugged casually, "No idea, I even asked Ragyō, but she just told me not to ever question the mother thread, but I think she didn't know either."

Ryūko seemed to grow intensely anxious, "And... what can this mother thread do to us...?" However her question was interrupted as it seemed that Satsuki was at the dining room door.

Both Ryūko and Nui were taken off guard, Ryūko more so with a conventional surprised reaction, however Nui appeared simply playfully bemused.

"Oh er hey Satsuki!" Ryūko replied to Satsuki's sudden appearance.

Satsuki simply looked at true Nui with a cold demeanour, "Why is true Nui here and not clone Nui?"

The panic was noticeable on Ryūko's face however Nui seemed casual and joyful, "well we-"

Suddenly she was interrupted by Ryūko, "Er she really wanted to try Soroi's tea!"

Satsuki raised an eyebrow as Nui looked towards Ryūko in confusion before turning back to Satsuki going along with it. "Y-yeah! I always wanted to know why you liked his tea so much, and yeah its not bad."

Satsuki seemed to accept this, "I see... However, Clone Nui should be here not you, go back."

True Nui sighed, "alright alright, I can see when I'm not wanted."

Ryūko looked awkwardly confused in response "That doesn't fit your character at all..."

True Nui then stood up before life fibers surrounded her for a moment, before disappearing revealing clone Nui now sitting where true Nui was, "I'm sorry about that Satsuki..."

Satsuki's demeanour seemed to change to a much more calm and warm outset, "Its alright Nui, but do consider that we are under constant surveillance by Nudist beach and letting Her out to do as she pleases may cause them to grow antsy."

Nui seemed troubled but she returned Satsuki's warmth with understanding, "yeah you're right..."

All of a sudden Mako arrived in the room as joyous as ever, "good moooorning everyone!" Her arrival bringing smiles all round.

"Hey Mako how did you sleep?" Ryūko asked.

Mako replied with a flourish, "Like a baby! the pillows were so soft!"

Satsuki nodded warmly, "My bed does have nice pillows."

Mako was quick to reply, "oh right, the bed had pillows too."

A moment of silence followed before Nui broke it, "well... its about time I should get going..."

Her declaration causing Mako to moan in disappointment, "huh!? But I just got up..."

Satsuki chiming in calmly, "Are you sure you don't want to stay for a while?"

Nui waved her hand in refutation, "No its alright, you three deserve this day... and besides its best for me to head back and get ready for school tomorrow."

Satsuki, Mako and Ryūko watched as Nui quietly made her way from the table and up stairs, as she put on her clothes and walked out of the house, Mako cheerfully waving to her as she left.

Nui wandered her way from Satsuki's house, stepping through sun-soaked streets, taking moments to stare at the sun peeking it's way through a tree's leaves. She stepped into another street when she was suddenly surrounded from front to back by Nudist beach agents.

Mikisugi stepping out in front of one of the groups of surrounding agents, "Good morning."

Nui was surprised at the sudden ambushed, "Oh I-"

Mikisugi waved his hand to put out any worries, "Don't worry you're not in trouble."
Nui appeared to grow calm after hearing this as Mikisugi continued, "We would just like to ask you a few questions, think of it as a debriefing."

Nui took a noticeable gulp. As she began to follow the agents out of the street. It wasn't long before Nui found herself sitting on a seat in front of a blackboard.

Mikisugi stood in front wearing a lab coat over his Nudist beach gear holding a stick, "Don't think you could you could get out of school that easy."

Nui tried to speak up with "actually I-"

However she was interrupted by Mikisugi who now pointed the stick at Nui, "Wasn't talking to you, can true Nui come out please!?"

Life fibers surrounded clone Nui disappearing for true Nui to take her place, "heeeeere~" Nui comically raised her hand as she called out playfully.

Mikisugi seemed to play along with a bemused expression, "Excellent attendance!"

Tsumugu was just outside the room, listening in by the door disgruntled, "Christ this is dumb..."

Mikisugi continued with a showman like flair, "So... you must be wondering what kind of questions I could have for you after such a heavy event."

Nui raised her hand again playfully, "Oh me! me! I know this one! You wanna learn more about the mother thread right!?"

Mikisugi looked confused for a moment, "Mother thread?"

Nui was quick to reply in her usual casual demeanour, "Don't play dumb with me Mikisugi, we both know you got both me and well... other me bugged up the wazoo. Although I am interested to know where the ones on clone Nui are stashed..."

Clone Nui appeared floating by her side watching in extreme discomfort.

Mikisugi shrugged with a defeated smile, "Alright alright you got me, but no this isn't about the mother thread, but since while we're on the topic, this mother thread of yours, how dangerous is it?"

Nui leaned back on her chair, "Well given it has the capacity to assimilate entire planets just by touching down on said planet's surface, I would say extremely."

Mikisugi face seemed lost in awkward worry, "I-I see... well the reason you're here is actually..."

Mikisugi was tapping the keys on a laptop from a nearby desk as he talked only to stop his own sentence as he noticed Nui passing a note to one of her doppelgangers, only to snap back to looking at Mikisugi once she realised he noticed.

He cleared his throat and continued, "Like I was saying... The reason is for this."

The blackboard seemed to change into an electronic screen which appeared to display an image of the life fiber entity in America.

Nui audibly "ooooo'd" as she leaned forward in her chair almost causing herself to fall, only to grasp the seat of the chair some how flipping both it and her into the air before landing back on the chair's feet.

"You can stand up you know?" Mikisugi looked at her in awkward confusion as she got up from the seat and approached the screen, "This is the specimen we recovered two days ago during our mission in America its being held by our newly established branch in America along with the American government, I figured you could provide us some insight on it."

Nui looked amazed at the image, "Oh my... this is incredible! I've never seen anything like it!"

Mikisugi questioned calmly, "So you don't know anything about this?"

Nui placed her hand to her chin in contemplation, "I might be able to tell you something if I could see it in person."

Mikisugi tapped a few more keys on the laptop before replying, "well I can't make that happen but I can do this..."
A few more images appeared on the screen. The images revealed the entity in several states of dissection, It's body cut open the threads in several states of disarray.
Mikisugi looked at the images a stern mature expression now on his face, "As you can see after we captured the entity we carried out an autopsy, we didn't fully sever the threads so we're leaving it to regenerate a newly built facility in America."

"Hold on... No way... It can't be!" Suddenly Nui exclaimed as she saw one of the images.
The image depicted the chest of the entity cut open revealing an orb in it's center partially formed.

Mikisugi explained as he outlined the area that he thought Nui was looking at, "The highest energy signature was detected in that orb, we thought it might be some kind of Banshi."

Nui's face was filled with wonder as she stared into the image, "This... this isn't just a Banshi, this is a Banshi tie, a thread core!"

Mikisugi was rather confused looking at the image, "A thread what?"

Nui continued, "Well think back to the primordial fiber, it had a orb like Banshi you needed to cut to destroy it right? Its like that!"

Mikisugi's eyes widen as he began to understand, "wait... you mean..."

Nui nodded, "Yup! some way, some how, Life fibers are trying to form a new life fiber cocoon! they are gathering in a desperate attempt to survive on a planet with no primordial fiber!"

Mikisugi raised his voice in return, "How is that possible!?"

Nui shrugged, "Not sure, some sort of outlying factor perhaps? or maybe an evolutionary change that circulated for a few thousand years."

Mikisugi's confusion returns as he continued to question, "few thousand years? that's not enough time for something to evolve we would be talking millions at least."

Nui shook her head in derision, "Oh you silly humans, you act like experts but you still know barely anything about life fibers. You would be correct if we were talking about a normal creature, but the life fibers are fundamentally different, the energy we use to evolve other species is merely a fraction of our own energy, while they evolve, we evolve too at an accelerated rate. The energy we use to evolve is taken from countless species across the universe and spread through fibers via the collective consciousness. That is why we continuously devour species after species, so we can change and evolve at an accelerated rate. Millions of years for you, thousands of years for us."

Mikisugi contemplated this extravagant amount of information, "I see... But if you cultivate the evolution of other species so you can leech off them, wouldn't it take you as long as them to evolve?"

Nui again went on to explain, "Well that would be the case if we only cultivated one species at a time, but the life fibers are constantly cultivating many planets across the stars, accelerating the evolution of other species so they can make those species' genetic data form their own changes before devouring them, taking their evolutionary energy and using it to expand our own, accelerating the evolutionary process."

Mikisugi replied seemingly somewhat overwhelmed, "I see... so to put it simply, they are using other's change, to change faster."

Nui nodded joyfully, "Yup!"

Mikisugi then became lost in thought, "Could this specific change of forming thread cores also be connected to the Servants of the thread?"

Nui once again shrugged playfully, "Who knows? you can work that one out, any further questions can't top the ones you already asked, so it would be pretty boring."

Nui began waltzing her way out of the room when Mikisugi turned around to speak to her before she left, "Nui" just at the door, Nui turned to Mikisugi who simply said, "Thank you."

Nui turned back to the door, "your gratitude is wasted on me naked ape, I'm merely doing this because I just don't care anymore."

Mikisugi spoke out again, "That's not what I see... not at all."

However Nui leaves without answering, followed by guards as she walked down the corridor, Tsumugu looking at her in disdain. After true Nui had left the HQ clone Nui took back control, mainly to calm the worries of the agents that followed them.

She made it part way down a street before speaking up to true Nui, "Do you really not care? Because the life fibers look down on you?"

True Nui was reluctant to speak leading to clone Nui's question being unanswered. True Nui lied back on her bed within the pocket reality.

A sharp frown on her face as someone else's words echoed through her mind, "Nui... You disappointed Ragyō and you disappoint your true mother..."

Nui quietly uttered to herself, the pain audible in her voice, "I know... I know..."