It was in the morning of the same day as the attack when Mikisugi was relaxing at his house.

He appeared to be taking a call as he responded to some declaration with some held back surprise "What a trip? to Akihabara?"

The voice on the other end of the call belonged to Ryūko who replied with a casual demeanour, "Yup, Satsuki wanted to figure out someway to celebrate the outcome of the race and well Mako has really wanted to visit Akihabara for a while."

Mikisugi scratched his head as he looked rather befuddled, "Do you really have to go today though? We haven't really got any security teams organised for such a trip..."

Ryūko had a shrug in her voice as she answered, "Heh yeah sorry about that, it was kinda a spontaneous thing... But hey! The elite four is coming with, even Nonon! I'm sure they can organise something."

Mikisugi held his chin as he contemplated for a moment, "Hmm... Wait is Nui coming with you?"

Ryūko appeared to become slightly irritated at the mention of Nui, "Er y-yeah I guess she can come why you asking?"

Mikisugi's face changed to a Satisfied smirk, "Perfect! I can assign the agents watching her to act as your security patrol."

Ryūko's voice became monotone unveiling her annoyance, "yeah yeah whatever..."

Mikisugi paused for a moment before responding, his voice now more emotionally sentimental, "You know... I'm proud of you Ryūko, you've really matured and learn to understand the emotions of people around you, I know its hard to spend to spend so much time around your father's killer but I'm sure he would be proud of how empathetic the brilliant young woman is that you have become."

Ryūko suddenly became flustered, her cheeks glowing a cherry red, "W-what the hell man?! why you getting all sappy for?!"

Mikisugi chuckled before a short moment of silence availed itself to the call.

As the tension cooled, Ryūko seemed to attempt to speak up, her voice sounding tentative with every word, "H-hey... to be honest I... I'm kinda well... worried"

Mikisugi began to show concern however it was tempered by the casual nature of the call, "Worried? about those servant guys?"

Ryūko hesitated, she seemed to audibly struggle to force herself to answer, however she seemed to grumble with frustration, "Ugh never mind, I'll see you guys later..."

Mikisugi appeared somewhat confused by nevertheless attempted to retain a positive tone, "oh alright, well remember if anything happens we got your back."

Ryūko mumbled a simple "Right..." Before hanging up the phone.

Mikisugi lowered his own phone from his face as he let out a sigh of concern. His thoughts trailed off into his worries however they were interrupted by the sudden ringing of his door bell.

"Yeah gimme a sec!" He called out as he casually pushed himself off from his sofa.

He moved through his mess filled apartment, walking between strewn clothing, various left about cans along with other bits and pieces. He stumbled for a moment after stepping on something presumably sharp.

The door bell rang out through out the apartment once again provoking an irritated, "Yeah yeah I'm coming!" From Mikisugi. He quickly opened the door as soon as he reached it, "Yeah?"

Beyond the door was Tsumugu, and before Mikisugi could question why he was here Tsumugu answered simply by raising his arm revealing him to be holding a six pack of beer.

Mikisugi let out an amused sigh as he turned his back to head back inside the apartment, "well damn I wasn't expecting you to show up."

Tsumugu followed him inside the apartment, his face baring an unusual casual demeanour, "Yeah well we're both off the clock so I thought might as well..."

The two made their way into the apartment, with Tsumugu crashing down on the leather sofa while Mikisugi seated himself in a separate adjacent matching leather chair. Tsumugu pulled out a bottle opener, sliding it onto the lid of the bottle before pulling it to let the lid come loose letting out a satisfying fizzling sound, he then passed the bottle opener to Mikisugi who then did the same.

Tsumugu took a little look a the apartment before turning back to Mikisugi, "Damn are you ever gonna clean this place?"

Mikisugi retorted back with a condescending smirk, "Oh please your place is just as bad, and besides, I know where everything is I need in here is."

Tsumugu smirked as well while he gestured by angling his beer bottle to be slightly pointing in Mikisugi's direction, "There you go again, pretending you got all your shit together, when you got no clue what you're doing."

Mikisugi continued smirking as he threw the shade back in Tsumugu's direction, "Well pot meet kettle, when said shit hits the fan, you're panicking just as much as me."

The two went silent. The room joining them in the quiet. Before suddenly they shared a collective chuckle, relieving the scene of any supposed tension.

Tsumugu took another swig of his beer, "you're really loud y'know?"

Mikisugi took a swig of his own before responding with a simple, "oh yeah?"

Tsumugu seemed to grumble his reply with irritation, "yeah, I could hear you talkin' from the halfway across the walkway, couldn't hear what you were saying though."

Mikisugi shrugged before taking another sip of his beer, "Oh it was just a call from Ryūko, apparently her, Satsuki, Mako, the elite four and even Hōōmaru are heading on a trip to Akihabara, some kinda celebration for a school race or something."

Tsumugu raised his eyebrows as he took his own sip, "Really now? What's their security detail?"

Mikisugi's body language seemed to shift awkwardly as he tried to get out an answer, "Er well I'm sorry I should of mentioned, Nui Harime is gonna be going with them too so I'm gonna assign the team watching her to act as their security detail."

As Tsumugu replied the disdain was audible in his voice, "Nui huh? You sure that's a good idea?"

Mikisugi shifted awkwardly feeling actual tension arise in the air, "W-well I just thought that it would make for a convenient solution to the security issue..."

Tsumugu placed his bottle on the coffee table in front of them before crossing his arms, "You're placing all your eggs in one basket, all it will take is one hit to knock 'em all down."

Mikisugi placed down his own beer with a sigh of exasperation, "I don't know if that analogy works here when two of said eggs are life fiber infused super humans while the rest are pretty strong in their own right."

Tsumugu gestured with his hand as he seemed to grow frustrated "Jesus Aikurō! they already demonstrated that they can take us on and you're acting so god damn casual about this shit, even with Nui who could be working with the enemy for all we know."

Mikisugi was taken aback for a moment. He knew Tsumugu had some issues with the current way operations were going but to suddenly fall into an outburst like this was beyond Mikisugi's expectations.

"We've already seen how they have tried to attack Nui, and You're still putting the blame on her?"

Tsumugu seemed to grow angrier as he seemed desperate to sway his friend, "You know damn well that it could have been a ploy to get us closer to trusting Nui and by the sounds of things it could have worked! Why the hell are you freaking comfortable having her around?!"

Mikisugi grew defensive in his response, "I see potential in her alright?! She can be more than what she is."

Tsumugu's voice was now akin to a growl, "Even after everything she's done?!"

Mikisugi became solemn as he looked Tsumugu dead in the eyes, "Yes."

Tsumugu sat back in his seat dumb founded, "So its true..."

Mikisugi shifted to confused frustration, "So what's true?!"

Tsumugu closed his eyes and lowered his head, "you've gone soft..."

"She's just a kid!" Mikisugi snapped back, "Raised her whole life to look down on humans, believing that what she was doing was right!"

"Even if that's true..." Tsumugu glared at Mikisugi, "She still killed Isshin."

Mikisugi grit his teeth, the pain bubbling up to the surface, "And I killed one of our friends too..."

Tsumugu was quick to retort, "You didn't have a choice!"

"Yes I did!" Mikisugi shouted before simmering down back to solemnness, "And even if I didn't... I still pulled that trigger."

Tsumugu held back his frustrated rage, unable to answer.

Mikisugi then looked back up at Tsumugu, holding his cold determination in his gaze, "He was my friend, and now... its Nui, so I can assure you, if I have to pull that trigger again, I will, but please... Just give me a chance."

A moment of silence invaded the room. The two allowing the mood to settle.

Tsumugu picked up his beer from the coffee table and took a sip, "Ugh, its flat."

The silence returned for a moment before the sounds of Mikisugi attempting to hold in his laughter started filling the scene. Tsumugu was surprised to see him suddenly on the verge of laughter but started to laugh himself. The two shared a chuckle together alleviating the room of all tension.

Mikisugi began to speak, sentimentality filled every one of his words, "you know, years ago I thought we would never be able to laugh again like that..."

Tsumugu threw out a simple "Yeah..." he himself delving into similar nostalgia.

"I realised, even when shit has gotten fucked up, you need to laugh like that or the world will get you down, you know?" Mikisugi seemed lost in thought as he looked downwards, each of his words seemed filled with a cocktail of emotions while his face showed a saddened smile.

Tsumugu grabbed two bottles from the six pack before undoing the lids. He passed one to Mikisugi and the two tapped their bottles together causing a Klink to ring out through the room.

The two men spent quite a bit of time relaxing in the room, recounting old stories and discussing various things such as hobbies and recent events regarding the people at work, the morning soon becoming afternoon.

"And about tha-" Mikisugi interrupted himself mid conversation as he suddenly noticed his phone ringing. He picked up his phone quickly after he noticed it was a work number, "Hey I'm sure this might be a pretty annoying problem but are you sure you can't sort it out yourself? Its my day off."

Mikisugi continued holding his phone against his ear as Tsumugu observed him curiously as he sat back in his seat.

Mikisugi's face slowly changed as the situation dawned upon him, "What?!"

Tsumugu's curiosity now shifted to concern, "What's going on?"

Mikisugi gave one last answer into the phone, "Alright we'll be right over." He then put down the phone before turning to Tsumugu, "There's been an attack on the American base, its the servants."

Tsumugu hurried to get out of his seat with an frustrated "Shit."

The two men quickly made their way out of the apartment and onto their separate vehicles and made their way off to The Nudist beach HQ.

As soon as they reached the HQ they made their way towards the main elevator, Nudist beach agents were lined up into a corridor-like formation, saluting as Tsumugu and Mikisugi walked past. The elevator was empty, Mikisugi stepping inside first before turning to the control panel, while Tsumugu was close behind. Mikisugi selected the option for "Crisis centre." Causing the elevator doors to close and the elevator itself to begin rumbling, with the movement suggesting it was moving upwards. The elevator dinged as it arrived revealing a large corridor with several doors situated by concrete pillars. Many nudist beach agents moving from door to door as they completed a chatted hurriedly to each other causing the room to be filled with a chaotic bombardment of noise, however each of the agents would salute to Mikisugi and Tsumugu as they passed through the room. The two approached a Large double steel door at the end the room, Mikisugi unlocking it with hand scan on a left side panel. The doors slid open to reveal a room with a similar design to the control room within the American nudist beach base. Multiple rows of desks melded together holding monitors with an agent sitting in front of every one of the monitors, all working frantically to solve the current situation. Of course at the back of the room was a large screen displaying a multitude of images, some being long distance feeds of the base while the largest one was a feed moving closer to the base at a moderate speed.

An agent immediately saluted to Mikisugi and Tsumugu as they entered with Mikisugi walking past the agent as he stared at the screen, "Mikisugi sir!" The agent declared in a respectful tone.

"What's the full situation?" Mikisugi questioned coldly and professionally.

The agent gestured calmly to the screen, "We received a distress message from the American base that an unknown helicopter breached the restricted air space and proceeded to eliminate the base's anti air defences with some unknown projectile weaponry. The assaulting force then proceeded to drop 5 troops and one abnormal individual from the helicopter into the facility, its noted that they bare the appearance of the troops belonging to the servants of the thread."

Mikisugi placed his hand to his chin, "An abnormal individual?"

The agent nodded, "Yes sir, The description we received was that of an exceedingly large male looking individual wearing a suit and a strange helmet along with matching strange gauntlets. The last message we received was that they were going to intercept the opposing force and a request for reinforcements before they went radio silent."

The agent gestured to the main feed at the back causing the largest image to grow, filling the entirety of the large screen, "This feed is from the reinforcements currently in a helicopter en-route to the facility."

"Damn this is bad..." Mikisugi grumbled before grinding his teeth with frustration.

Tsumugu stepped forward, turning to the agent, "Do we have any intel on this projectile weapon of theirs?"

The agent looked troubled at the mention of this question, no sir, well at least not information we're sure off..."

Tsumugu met this question with confusion, "Hm? what do you mean?"

The agent nervously attempted to explain, "Well we're not sure how accurate this is but in the distress message they eluded to something along the lines of giant scissors..."

Tsumugu's confusion deepened, "Giant scissors?"

"Mikisugi sir!" Suddenly one of the agents in front of the lines of desks shouted out.

Mikisugi quickly replied firmly, "What is it?"

The agent continued with a professional tone, "We're detecting an out going video broadcast originating from within the facility!"

Mikisugi paused for a moment letting the surprise settle into the room before replying with a stern order, "Alright put it up!"

The video of the helicopter feed was then replaced with a different feed, this being a video which's image replaced the surprise in the room with intimidation. It was the crimson helmet of the large man with the servants of the thread filling a majority of the screen.

A deep voice emanated from within the dark space of the crimson helmet, "Attention Nudist beach, this is a message from those you know to be the servants of the thread. You may call me the Executioner." The voice continued, it's tone was grim and malicious, "We are messaging you to notify you of our taking over of this facility, you see we have observed your foolish acts to rid the world of it's true nature and so no matter how many lives we take from your ridiculous organisation, it can never atone for the crimes you have committed."

Tsumugu's resentment grew within his furious gaze, while Mikisugi continued staring onward within his cold professionalism.

The Executioner continued, musing with a smug brevity in his voice, "I also have a message for the traitorous Nui Harime, do not attempt to seek allies within us, we know of your failures and your exiled position from the life fiber collective, and we would rather live in the disgusting excuse for human society than accept you into our ranks."

Tsumugu scoffed with irritation, "Tch like hell I'm gonna believe that."

Suddenly another agent in the room shouted out to Mikisugi, "Sir! the reinforcements are touching down within the facility!"

Mikisugi answered the agent with another calm, calculated order, "Understood, tell them to be careful and make their way to the control room."

The agent quickly responded with "Yes sir!" As the helicopter opened up to allow the armed agents to make their way into the facility's inner sanctum.

As all of the commotion continued, The doctor, Xavier Natrium still resided within the American facility's panic room.

"So it is the servants..." He had been listening to the Executioner broadcasting his message through the feed from the bugs the professor planted.

"Sir! The Nudist beach reinforcements have arrived!" Suddenly one of the servant soldiers yelled out.

The Executioner nodded to the servant before turning back to the camera feed, "I hope you come to regret ever defying the natural order of the universe. We'll be seeing you again real soon, naked apes."

The same servant as before shouted out again, "Ok we're off the air."

The Executioner proceeded to pull up a radio, "Alright its almost time, are we ready with the beacons? Over."

"Beacons?" The doctor's face was filled with confusion for a second till the realisation arrived.

He quickly changed the feed on his phone over to the bug placed in the life fiber entity's containment room.

"Yes sir, we're going to lure it into the gateway now." One of the three servants replied into their own radio. It seems the servants has planted four needles about the size of batons into the floor of the chamber.

Another one of the servants stood in front of the glass barrier between him and the entity. The creature roused as it seemed to to detect the individual making the servant visibly nervous. Suddenly the professor's eyes began to widen with shock as he started to witness the purpose for those needles. A large red thread appeared in the air above one of the needles situated in the center. The thread then began to separate into many threads, the threads forming a window in the air reaching towards the ground. The window wasn't square shaped by was quite miss sharpened with about six sides, some longer than others, however what drew the doctor's attention the most, was that on the other side of the window was a room that was not the containment chamber. It was a portal. One of the servants off to the side threw up a thumbs up as the glass barrier proceeded to open up into two sliding doors. The servant standing in the center managed to gain the entity's attention, causing the creature to rise up from it's resting position to crawl and attack them. The servant began running into the portal and the entity followed them close behind. As soon as the entity entered the portal, the threads of the window closed together and disappeared. Two more smaller portals opened up above the other needles as the two remaining servants casually approached them.

One of the servants picked up the central needle out of the floor while the other one spoke into his radio, "Alright, we've acquired the target, currently evacuating."

The doctor's fear began to rise as he realised what was happening.

Xavier Hurriedly switched the feed off from his phone and selected the call option before locating Mikisugi's number.

"Come on... come on..." He uttered to himself in his panic. A voice notification informing him of the charges for international calls came from the phone, the doctor replying back in his frustration, "I'll pay the damn fee just get me through right now!"

Back in the Japanese HQ after the Executioner's last line, his broadcast shut off and now Mikisugi and Tsumugu along with the other agents were watching through camera feeds on the body's of the reinforcement agents who were making their way through the facility. The agents were approaching the control room of the American facility. They went inside, weapons raised as they were getting ready for a full fire fight. However... All of the squad of agents were confused as they found the control room completely empty. This same confusion resounding through the room of the Japanese HQ leaving it almost deafeningly silent. The silence was pierced however, as Mikisugi's phone began to ring.

A sweat was visible on Mikisugi's forehead as he hesitantly pulled up his phone, "H... Hello?"

"Its me Xavier, I'm in the panic room of the American facility, get your men out of there right now!" The professor spoke with a frenzied pace and the fear was audible in his voice.

Xavier's tone further confused Mikisugi however, "What?"

Xavier raised his voice, "LISTEN the servants are capable of teleporting! I think your men are in danger!"

Mikisugi's eyes widened as he suddenly shouted to one of the agents at the desks, "Tell them to get out of there now!"

As this was going on The reinforcement agents in the American HQ were exploring the control room, and as Mikisugi was shouting for them to get out of there, one of the agents found something beneath one of the desks. It appeared to be a device of sorts with a subtle camera at the front. The realisation hit the agent as terror filled his face when...
Every one of the agent's feeds went out at once, reports coming in from agents observing the facility from a distance stating that a large explosion decimated the building.
The room was once again silent, but instead of confusion, pure terror now filled the control center. Tsumugu's face was filled with cold fury while Mikisugi immediately pulled up his phone.

"Xavier?! Are you there?! Professor!" However there was no reply.

Mikisugi found a seat before sitting down, holding his chin with a hunched over position, his desperation coming through his body language.

Suddenly Mikisugi stood up with another realisation, as he proceeded to dial in a new number into his phone, "Come on... come on..." He uttered with frustration as he held his phone against his ear.

Tsumugu looked at him with concern, "What is it?"

However Mikisugi didn't answer him as he pulled his phone away from his ear, "Dammit Ryūko!" He went to dial another number into his phone and once again holding it against his ear. He then shouted to the entirety of the room, "Get every available agent to Akihabara now!"

Tsumugu began to understand as he started to reflect Mikisugi's worry, "Shit..." He moved to Mikisugi's side, "I'll head there too." before running out of the room.

Mikisugi gave Tsumugu a quick nod, "Come on, Pick up... pick up..." his worry turning to panic.