True Nui had collapsed onto clone Nui's bed after she chucked the various bags of items all over the place.

"Well that wasn't nearly as fun as I had hoped it would be..." True Nui sighed staring up the ceiling.

Clone Nui appeared by her side, "Would you... no never mind..."

True Nui turned to her inquisitively, "what?"

Clone Nui looked down as she appeared troubled, "would you... have killed that man if I didn't tell you to stop?"

True Nui seemed to think about it for a moment averting her gaze back up to the ceiling, "Eh Nah."

Clone Nui was somewhat surprised at this answer, "wait really?"

True Nui nodded with her usual joyful smile, "Yup! Weaklings like that aren't worth the blood staining my dress."

Clone Nui looked confused as she contemplated this, her mind seemingly lost in memories as she uttered to herself. "But wait that's..."

Before clone Nui had the chance to finish her train of thought, red threads surrounded true Nui and the two swapped places, marking the end of the "dimension fatigue" period.

"Yes! finally, it seems you were right Nui." Clone Nui cheered in relief

True Nui casually floated beside her, "Seems so, I wonder when the next dimension fatigue will come, I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of the fun I can have."

Clone Nui looked awkwardly in her direction, "hopefully not for a while..."

A moment of peace passed before three loud knocks broke out from the hotel room door.

"hm?" Clone Nui looked curiously in it's direction. "Hey Nui you know the procedure right?"

True Nui switched places with her "Of course I do!" she then walked through the room.

True Nui approached the door unveiling one of her life fiber claws.

"wai-" Clone Nui tried to speak out however she was interrupted by true Nui quickly opening the door and preparing to attack those that stood at the entrance.

They were met with the sound of Mako yelling fearfully as she cowered before the door.

True Nui sighed with disappointment at the sight of the frightened Mako, "ugh why the heck is the bobble head here...?"

She quickly switched to clone Nui who instead of disappointment showed surprise confusion, "M-Mako?!"

Mako took a few deep breaths before replying with a struggled smile, "h-hey Nui..."

Nui calmly took Mako's hand as she responded leading her tentatively inside the hotel room, her face and tone expressing her guilt at the unfortunate scenario, "I'm sorry Mako... I tried to tell her to look through the peep hole before answering..."

Mako waved her hand dismissively, "oh its alright! I should of expected you guys to be on high alert."

Nui lead Mako to sit down on a nearby sofa as she sat next to her while responding, "By the way Mako, how did you find this place? I didn't tell Satsuki or Ryūko where I was staying."

Mako started looking rather proud as she replied, "Oh I have my ways..."

Mikisugi was relaxing in his apartment, he appeared to be on the phone, "Things alright over in America? Government ain't giving them too much trouble?"

He pauses for a moment for the other end to give their response, "cool cool."

Suddenly a few knocks interrupted his relaxed posture as he spoke back into his phone, "Alright you guys take care, drinks are on me tomorrow, yeah see ya."

He had hung up the phone as he made his way towards the door.

After opening it up he was immediately barraged by Mako and her sudden questions, "Can you tell me where Nui is staying!?"

Mikisugi computed the situation for a moment before replying with a brisk "no."

However Mako was persistent, "please?"

Mikisugi again saying "no."

Mako of course replying with, "pleeeeeaaasee?"

Mikisugi returns again with "no."

Mako continues pleading, "pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaasssseee?"

Mikisugi defiant again simply saying, "no."

Mako refused to relent, "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaasssssssseeeeeee?"

Mikisugi this time replying with, "Maybe."

The change of reply surprising Mako, "Really?!"

However Mikisugi's answer goes back to "no."

Mako begins puffing her cheeks and loudly humming in frustration at Mikisugi's continued refusal.

Mikisugi let at an exasperated sigh, before responding with, "Alright... fine..."

Mako back in the hotel room exclaims happily, "And that's how I found it!" as she had just finished recounting her efforts to locate Nui's residence.

"I... I see." Nui responded looking at Mako awkwardly, as she sympathised with the difficulties of Mikisugi.
She goes back on topic however continuing to question the joyful Mako, "Also Mako... Why did you even come here in the first place?"

Mako's smile turned to a hesitant frown, "Well I just thought that if you were stuck within the other Nui all day you could of been pretty lonely... also we didn't get to talk much during the sleep over..."

Nui looked troubled as she tentatively replied, "I... I didn't talk to you much on purpose..."

Mako's head turned to Nui as she seemed hurt by this, "o-oh I see... Its one of those times huh... I get it... I always have been trying too much to have friends..."

Nui's face changed to a mix of worry and guilt, "No no! Its not like that! The reason I didn't talk to you much is because of Ryūko..."

Mako's eyes perked up with relief but seemingly also confusion, "Ryūko?"

Nui nodded solemnly, "Yes, I'm the one that killed her father, I doubt she would want me to become close to her best friend let alone Satsuki, her sister..."

The scene went silent as Nui stared at the floor, her decisions was ruled by her guilt. However her head was raised as she began hearing Mako. She was crying, her tears falling like a tidal wave threatening to fill the hotel room turning it into an ocean floor.

"M-Mako? Are you alright?" Nui asked with concern causing Mako to wipe her face with her arms and snivel loudly and she appeared breath inwards with her nose while it was running heavily.

Mako replied the tears could be heard in her voice, "y-yeah its just... Its so sad! You did a bad thing but you want to be forgiven but don't believe you deserve to be forgiven..."

Nui clenched her fists as she replied through her pain, "I don't deserve to be forgiven Mako..."

Suddenly Mako slapped her hands onto Nui's shoulders, "That's not true! You did something really bad... But you were told it was alright right?! You were even told to do it and you thought it was ok! Like when Dad told me to steal from the cookie jar! If you realise what you did was wrong and say you're really really sorry then you definitely deserve to be forgiven!"

Nui was doubtful as she continued to try to refute Mako, "But its not just this Me Mako, its the other me too."

Mako continued without skipping a beat, "She can be forgiven too! She just needs more time!"

True Nui appeared by clone Nui's side commenting on Mako's statement in derision, "Ha, yeah right."

But clone Nui simply began to smile warmly, "Thank you Mako, I appreciate that..."

Mako revealed her own smile as she embraced Nui who blushed slightly before hugging her back.

Nui made Mako a cup of tea placing it on the kotatsu table situated in front of the sofa, before speaking up to ask her a question while she placed the cup, "So Mako would you like to stay for a while?"

Mako joyfully replied in her usual oblivious nature, "Sure! I guess? I mean I already told my parents I could be staying out all night."

Nui looked rather surprised at this, "wait what?"

Mako nodded not seeing the reason for Nui's surprise, "yup!"

Nui began to blush hard as she stuttered through another question, "W-well... would you... like to have another sleep over?"

Mako fell silent as she was comprehending the response, "HUUUUUUUUUH!? REALLY?!"
Nui merely nodded, as Mako spoke up, too ecstatic to let Nui articulate a full response, "But I didn't bring any PJs!"

Nui calmly responded with a soft smile, "you can use a spare pair of mine."

Mako began hyperventilating as she responded loudly, "I... I would love too!"

Nui had gotten dressed into her pyjamas, as Mako was wearing a matching pair.

"Its... awfully tight..." Mako struggled to fit into the pyjamas, which seemed to extenuate her curves, Nui blushing and watching with envy.

The two girls sat beneath the kotatsu table for a few moments, the awkwardness setting in.

Nui spoke up asking in desperation, "So er... what did you want to do?"

Mako seemed lost in thought, "Hmmmm... charades?"

Nui replied cheerfully, "Sure that sounds fun!"

The two girls went on to play charades with Mako starting out by making peculiar shapes with her body, such as large circles, and "Egyptian walk" while at other moments making motions such as rowing or cheering, much to the confusion of Nui. They sat back underneath the kotatsu, remarkably unfulfilled by their game of charades.

"Maybe this was a bad idea..." Nui uttered self consciously.

Mako raised her voice slightly trying to cheer Nui up, "Don't be like that! I'm sure there's
something fun we could do!"

Nui considered possibilities for a moment. Suddenly she seemed to have an epiphany before heading over to the bed pulling out a text book from the bedside table.

"Huh? whats that?" Mako asked, her curiosity beginning to pique.

"Oh its my "stuff I want to do" book." Nui answered as she flicked through the pages of the text book.

"You have a "stuff you want to do" book?" Mako continued to ask inquisitively.

Nui nodded, "yeah, I found myself lost with not much memory of doing well... anything, so I started drawing up a list of what I wanted to do..."

Mako's eyes brightened up, "That's so cute! And so er what kinda stuff you got in there?"

Nui blushed slightly as she began reading through the pages, "Er well... go cloud watching, drink smoothies, see a horror movie, struggle to go to sleep after seeing said horror movie... ooo here's one! Touch a frog."

Mako seemed somewhat confused but supportive, "Touch a frog? sounds... interesting? although I'm not sure if we can do that tonight, BUT we could watch a horror movie!"

Clone Nui seemed to jump fearfully at the very notion. "A-a horror movie? W-what were you thinking?"

True Nui appeared floating by her side shouting, "How about night of the living thread! A classic made by REVOCS' film division!"

Clone Nui looking at her stunned at the suggestion, "Does that actually exist?"

However their musings was interrupted By Mako, "How about this?"

She was holding up a DVD case that Nui read out the title in response, "the awakening?"

Mako happily nodded in response, "Mhm!"

Nui was sceptical at the DVD's sudden arrival, "Wait why do you have that on you?"

However Mako merely answered with "No reason! So do you want to watch it? or do you want to watch it!?"

Nui shrugged her shoulders, "I guess that would be alright..."

Clone Nui would spend the next two hours cowering in fear and shuddering at the twists and turns of this "The awakening" with every jump scare she hugged Mako who seemed to enjoy the film casually as she munched on popcorn. True Nui watched as well although she seemed incredibly bored.

The two girls went to sleep, within the same bed, as per Mako's request. Nui deciding to lie the opposite direction of Mako. She rustled in her bed as she struggled to sleep, "Hey Mako... do you really think I could be forgiven...?" Nui turned to Mako who was deep asleep snoring cutely with her mouth wide open. "When you smile... it becomes so bright... your smile seems to burn all the sadness away..." Clone Nui smiled softly, "I wish I could of met you earlier in my life Mako..."

True Nui watched the exchange quietly, "what a foolish girl..."