The group made their out of the maid café having enjoyed various treats to the point many of the group struggled to keep their food down, Mako not included of course. Upon leaving the café their sight was met with Rei checking her watch. She turned to face the group as soon as she noticed them.

Satsuki's eyes were immediately drawn to a large metal case set standing up on the ground next to Rei, "That's..."

Satsuki's voice trailed off causing Rei to break into an explanation, "Your weapons? Yes, I decided to retrieve them from the limo. I apologise, I realise that you left behind so you all wouldn't feel on edge, however I felt uncomfortable not having them given the current state of affairs."

Satsuki smiled softly, "Its alright I understand, it must of been a hassle though to trek all the way back to the limo."

Rei gave her own smile in return, "You don't have to worry about that lady Satsuki, just worry about you and your friends enjoying yourselves."

Clone Nui stared at Rei in awe, in all of the memories she saw from the original Nui she never once saw Rei smile as genuinely as this. True Nui however turned her face away, her teeth clenched and her mind full of a mix of frustration and disgust.

Nonon stepped forward looking towards Rei, "Does that have our gear as well?"

Rei responded quickly, returning to her cool and professional self, "If you are referring to yours and the rest of the elite four's then yes, would you prefer to keep them on you?"

Nonon replied with a sigh as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "yeah would be smart given we could get separated at any point..."

Uzu walked up to Nonon's side to pat her head with a smugly amused smile, "Well well look at you using that head of yours for once."

Nonon smacked away his hand as she shouted back, "Like you're one to talk monkey brains!"

The back and forth continued as Inumuta spectated next to Gamagōri with an amused expression, "Hm looks like the children are fighting once again."

Gamagōri rubbed his forehead in frustration, "Ugh trying to stop them is a waste of time lets just retrieve our weapons before they draw attention to us."

Inumuta and Gamagōri moved in on Rei who opened up the case allowing them to take their weapons with Uzu and Nonon eventually joining them.

Meanwhile Satsuki turned to Ryūko, "We should take our gear as well, just to be careful."

"Yeah I guess so..." Ryūko looked solemn for a moment as she looked towards the case.

This provoked a reaction from Satsuki as she began to grow concern for her sister, "Are you feeling ok Ryūko? I know you wanted this trip to feel well... normal."

Ryūko's eyes widened with a realisation for a second before she looked back at Satsuki with a renewed expression, "Nah I'm alright, It sucks a bit I guess but there's only so far you can go before you gotta get your ass ready for a fight right?"

The concern however refused to fade from Satsuki's face, "I see..."

With a warm smile Ryūko placed her arms around her sister, wrapping Satsuki in a warm embrace, "Trust me sis', its alright even if we gotta fight, as long as I have you guys with me, I'll be ok and so will you."

Satsuki wordlessly returned Ryūko's hug, her face quickly turning from worry to hopeful joy. The two then moved over to grab their weapons from the case.

Clone Nui had watched the exchange cautiously, trying not to draw attention to herself. However she didn't notice Mako off to the side observing Nui curiously.

Mako finally spoke up as Ryūko and Satsuki began moving towards the case, "Hey Nui!"

Nui jumped in her skin of course, "O-oh! hello Mako..."

Mako was giddy with curiosity as she continued, "Does the other Nui need to retrieve her weapons?"

Nui replied with a calm smile and a shake of her head, "Nope, you see technically her weapons are built into her body, also for the other stuff she needs she keeps them in her pocket dimension."

Mako's eyes shone with intrigue, "Oooooooooooooo that's amazing! Do you think you could store other stuff in there? Like food!?"

Clone Nui looked upwards placing her hand on her chin as she thought out loud, "Hm I didn't think of that... But now that you mention it that might explain why things keep disappearing from my room..."

"Whoops! Caught me red handed." True Nui appeared playfully sticking her tongue out.

"Nui..." Clone Nui grumbled then pressed on with the topic curiously, "Never mind that for now, how does this storing of objects work? What kind of stuff can you store?"

True Nui thought for a moment before responding, "Hmmm I would say smaller inanimate objects, anything bigger than a person would take too much energy to store and get chewed up trying to, and anything biological would take up too much energy as well due to being too complex."

Clone Nui nodded with understanding, "I see... we should try to remember you can do that, since that sounds like it could be pretty useful some time down the line..." As clone Nui finished speaking she turned her head away with true Nui fading out from sight.

When clone Nui turned her head she was met with the close gaze of Mako who observed Nui with intense curiosity.

Nui was of course startled once again, "Oh Mako! I'm sorry I was just talking to the other Nui."

Mako was surprised by Nui's reaction, "Oh its ok! I was just imagining what you two were talking about." Mako pointed her finger up joyfully, "You know it kinda reminds of when Ryūko and..." Mako's sentence trailed off, her face becoming filled melancholy.

Clone Nui looked at Mako with concern, "Are you ok Mako?"

True Nui appeared behind clone Nui, sighing with bemused frustration, "You truly are clueless aren't you..."

Clone Nui shot back a confused "Huh?!" back at true Nui.

However Mako interrupted consolingly, "I'm ok Nui, I'm sorry to have worried you..." Mako then gestured over towards the case, "I think the others are finishing up, lets join them."

"Oh alright..." Nui mumbled, surprised by Mako's sudden uncharacteristic solemnness.

The group gathered around Rei who spoke openly to them all, "So are you all ready? because if so we should get moving, we don't want to waste the rest of the day."

Ryūko turned to Satsuki avidly, "Well where do you wanna head next?"

Satsuki thought for a second before responding, "How about we go to that convention?"

Nonon replied next, scoffing in bemusement, "Hm, then I guess getting our weapons was a good idea, you seen some of those guys at those conventions?" However Nonon didn't get the reaction she expected as the rest of the group merely stared at her awkwardly, "What?! It was a joke!"

While the group continued to converse, a male Nudist beach agent stood behind the corner of a building in a large alley way close to the group. He was dressed in civilian white shirt and jeans, attempting to look inconspicuous as he watched over the proceedings.

A woman's voice chimed in through his ear piece, "Come in agent Ren, this is overseer, how we looking? Over"

The agent spoke quietly into a radio mic situated at his shirt's neckline, "Agent Ren reporting in, seems like they're finishing up getting their gear and are gonna start moving again. Over"

The voice returned replying coolly and professionally, "Copy that, I guess it wasn't the worst idea for them to retrieve their stuff in public, makes it easier to watch over them and if they're being followed moving to a private corner would probably make it easier to corner them..." The voice picked up again, however they seemed to be addressing someone else on the same channel, "Come in Agent Akira, this is overseer what's your status? Over."

The tension climbed as all that could be heard was static, Agent Ren's face turning to urgent concern.

The voice returned again speaking more frantically than before, "I said come in Agent Akira, what is your status? Over." Again no response, "Shit! Come in Agent Kou, give me a sitrep immediately. Over." However once more all that replied was radio static. "Damn it! Agent Ren get back here! Now-" Suddenly intense feed back screamed over the radio drowning out the voice of Overseer.

"Overseer? Come in Overseer!" Agent Ren spoke desperately into his mic receiving no reply.

The Agent began to panic as he got ready to move. However suddenly an arm stretched out from behind the agent and plunged a combat knife into the agent's throat. The agent struggled as another arm wrapped around their head and pulling them back from the corner revealing the arms had belonged to a Servant of the threads.

The Agent thrashed within the Servant's grasp, letting out gurgling, choking sounds before his body eventually went limp. The Servant dragged the body down the alley before throwing it Into a large dumpster.

The Servant then spoke into his own radio, "This is Charlie three reporting in, I've taken out the last tailing agent, We're clear to move in on the rest, over."

"Roger that Charlie Three, report back in with the rest of the squad. Over." A commanding cold voice responded accordingly.

"Understood, Charlie three out." The Servant proceeded to remove his gasmask as he made his way out of the alley way and blend in with the public.

Meanwhile, in a hotel suite high rise overlooking the city, there were four agents dressed in nudist beach uniforms manically typing into laptops and desperately attempting to operate radios and phones.

A fifth female agent with a long black pony tail stood at the window, a tense expression on her face, "Anything yet?" The agent's voice matching the tension in her face as she continued to look out the window. This group of agents making up the unit Agent Akira referred to as "Overseer."

A male agent sitting down responded, the worry audible in his voice, "Negative sir, we can't get in contact with any reinforcements nor the elite four or anyone else from their group. No matter what frequency we switch to or any other form of communications we try."

The female agent grit her teeth in frustration, "Damn it... They're way too many steps ahead of us..." She then turned around from the window to call out to everyone in the room, "Alright! Get ready to move! We're-"

However, her words suddenly cut off as she realised, crimson threads were appearing at the back of the hotel room and were quickly opening up to reveal gaps in the walls leading to an unknown room. Before anyone could react suppressed shots rang out from the gaps, shooting down each of the sitting agents.

The female agent went to pull her needle pistol from her holster attached to the hip of her uniform. However as her hand touched the pistol's grip, another suppressed shot rang out from behind her and she fell to the ground.

Stepping forth from where the last shot originated was a Servant of the threads. Upon moving forward into the room, they surveyed the interior as their comrades entered through their own portals to move the bodies of the Nudist beach agents and taking control of the Nudist beach surveillance equipment.

The Servant surveying the room took a radio transceiver out from their jacket and held it up to their face, "Come in command this is Charlie One, we've taken out "Sentinel eye" I repeat, "Sentinel eye" is down, over."

The voice of the Operator replied back through the radio, "Copy that Charlie One, secure the area and await further orders, over."

The servant replied cold and professionally, "Roger that, Charlie squad over and out."

Back with the group, who were unknowingly under the watchful eyes of the servants, were now moving up the street. Ryūko, Satsuki, clone Nui and Rei were out in front, while Mako and the Elite four trailed behind closely. Mako walked with Gamagōri giving him a slight blush.

The Operator and the Reaper were now in a room watching the group through screens which was being fed the surveillance footage from the nudist beach agent's equipment. They were surrounded by a Servants of the thread group of soldiers who appeared the be prepping their equipment and weapons.

The group was walking past an incredibly large main road with many cars driving by at high speeds. They then approached an intersection with one of the exists across the road led to a large open plaza. Satsuki realised that they would need to cross the road as was following directions on her phone, after Inumuta had checked to make sure they had the right address.

The Operator seeing this through the screen saw his opportunity as he pulled up his radio, "Alright prep the barrier and wait for my signal."

The traffic lights turned red signifying the groups chance with the first to cross the road being Ryūko, Satsuki, Nui and Rei, believing that the others; the elite four and Mako were following close behind. However a large group of civilians cut between the two groups. By the time the first group noticed they had already crossed the road, with the elite four and Mako remaining on the other side as the traffic began to move with Mako using Gamagōri like a battering ram to push their way to the front of the civilian crowd.

A moment of waiting went by as the cars rushed past before the traffic light went red signifying their opportunity to cross.

Mako strode out at the front with the elite four tailing close behind and the rest of the crowd following suit.

The crowd of civilians made it a quarter the way across of the road, when the Operator called out through his radio, "Alright do it now."

The seconds ticked by as a subtle red aura began to appear in the sky, going largely unnoticed by the group and the civilians. However this was noticed by True Nui in her ghostly form who realised what was about to happen.

Suddenly true Nui sprung into action, taking her physical form by replacing clone Nui surprising Ryūko, Satsuki and Rei. But before they had a chance to react to Nui, she rushed forward into the road.

She deployed a multitude of clones who began to stand atop one another holding each of their legs in their hands. The real Nui then grabbed the legs of the bottom doppelganger and swung the tower of clones like a flail.

The clones flew into the crowd, including the elite 4 and Mako, sending them flying back to the side of the road they were crossing from.

The real Nui then did a backwards leap twirling in the air before landing with her usual playful gracefulness back on her side of the road.

Ryūko would be the one to shout at Nui in her confusion, "What the hell are you doing Nui?!"

However Nui didn't respond as she simply stood by in smug anticipation, "Aaaaaaaaaand... Now"

Almost on queue, the subtle red aura intensified becoming visible in the air before solidifying into a massive block shaped Red barrier along the road. the barrier enclosing a large section of the city, which just so happens to be the part Satsuki, Ryūko, Rei and Nui had just crossed into.

The barrier appeared to dig into the ground with a massive crash, sending up dust and debris around the bottom of where it appeared causing a moment of recovery to take place for everyone to realise what had just happened.

While the civilians and and of course Mako stared at the barrier in confusion, The Elite four along with Rei and Satsuki from their side, stared up at the barrier with shocked familiarity. Ryūko looking at it in shock as well but also stowing herself for the fight ahead.

"This is..." Satsuki spoke hesitantly, her voice trailing off.

Rei picked up where Satsuki left off, speaking with absolute certainty, "It's a high velocity life fiber jammer... It seems the servants have decided to make their entrance."

On the other side of the crimson barrier, curious civilians fearfully approached it.

Gamagōri suddenly raised his voice to command the confused crowd as he held up a badge bearing the nudist beach insignia, "STOP! This is Nudist beach agent Gamagōri! No body touch the barrier! If you do it will cut your body to ribbons."

Just like that, any civilian in earshot of Gamagōri's command quickly and nervously backed away from the jammer.

"Yo." Uzu quickly turned to Inumuta who was now sat cross legged tapping keys furiously into his laptop, "Have you managed to get through to HQ?"

Inumuta continued to stare into his laptop screen with determination, however his voice was filled with disappointment, "I'm afraid not, none of the non-encrypted or even encrypted channels are getting through, I can't even send an email."

Nonon peered at Inumuta with her usual sassy condescension, "Can't you just call them?"

Inumuta scoffed with irritation, "Come on you really think I didn't try that? They must be tracking each line of communication we attempt and then jamming them accordingly."

Meanwhile Mako cupped her hands around her mouth attempting to shout through the barrier, "Hey Ryūkooooo?!"

However her efforts were in vain as none of her shouts were audible on the other side.

True Nui casually wiped her forehead with her usual joyful bravado, "Phew, any second sooner and they would be paste on the ground, see aren't I nice?"

Ryūko prodded in her continued lack of patience with Nui's sudden and unexpected antics, "Would of been nicer if you pulled the elite four over here, now we're stuck on this side with no back up."

Nui simply shrugged her shoulders, "eh would of taken too long, or do you prefer those beloved friends of yours as a fine red mist?"

Ryūko gritted her teeth in frustration unable to think of a way to respond.

Nui's and Ryūko's argument was then interrupted, as Satsuki and Rei began to once again theorise on the existence of the barrier, "How on earth do they have the life fibers to carry this out? Let alone the technology for it..." Satsuki scowled as she struggled to consider the different possibilities.

Rei bared a similar look on her face, however her voice was filled with cold determination, "Whoever the servants of the thread are, their plans have coincided with the return of the life fibers, and with it seeming that they have an abundance of them I don't think that's any coincidence. They must have an Ace up their sleeve and a brilliant mind directing it. From here on out we must assume that no usage of the life fibers is beyond their reach."

Ryūko weighed in on to Rei's and Satsuki's discussion, "Well what the hell do we do? Wait around here and see how long they keep this up?"

Rei turned to Ryūko, replying in her cold analytical manner, "I doubt they will allow us to do that."

Satsuki added on, nodding in agreement with Rei, "Indeed, this barrier is being used as a corner for them to back us into. They are most likely organising a trap deep within this cage however if we don't walk into it they will come to us, and fighting against a wall that will rip us to shreds if we touch it is not a very strategic position."

Ryūko turned towards the path leading into the inner city square, "So the only option is... to head inside..."

Nui smiled brightly breaking through the tension with her usual playful demeanour, "Oooooo a private team up fight with Ryūko, Satsuki and lil' Hōōmaru? I don't know whether to kiss these servants of the threads or rip their faces off!"

Rei stepped forward pulling a pair of combat knives out of her jacket, "The latter option would be the more efficient strategy."

Nui responded by joyfully unveiling one of her life fiber claws, "Oki doki!"

Ryūko stepped forward as well looking onward stalwartly, "Those assholes have probably taken the civilians from the city square captive, probably just to get 'em outta the way though, doubt they would think they could use them as hostages given before they've targeted people we know and not strangers in the past."

Satsuki joined her also stepping onward, "Nevertheless they need to be freed and these servants; the disgusting pigs in human clothing need to be put in their place."

The group began to walk into the city square away from the view of the elite four on the other side of the barrier. However Satsuki lagged behind to gain the attention of Mako and the elite four. Once their attention was on Satsuki, she took out her two blades from the back of her shirt then raised Bakuzan Kōryū into the air before turning away to join the others in her group.

Mako watched Satsuki's actions with confused curiosity, "What was that?"

Gamagōri would be the first to answer, "Its a message."

Uzu adding on to this with, "Means prepare for the fight to come."

Gamagōri immediately began to command the group, "Nonon, Uzu move to each side of this crowd and try to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity, I'll continue to keep the civilians calm and in check, Inumuta continue to try getting in contact with the rest of nudist beach."

Each of the other members of the elite four nodded silently before moving to each of their objectives.

Mako looked up at Gamagōri teary eyed, the worry beginning to set in, "Are the others gonna be okay?"

Gamagōri knelt down so his face was closer to Mako's height before speaking softly to comfort her, "You know how strong they are, they will be ok, trust me."

Mako wiped the tears from her eyes before nodding, causing Gamagōri to smile warmly before giving her a short head pat.

Gamagōri stood back up to shout out to the crowd of civilians, "Alright everybody remain calm! support from both the police and the rest of nudist beach are on their way!"

Gamagōri's command to the civilians was met with concerned murmuring, however the crowd remained largely calm and orderly.

Gamagōri stared back out at the other side of the barrier, "Please, remain safe lady Satsuki..."

Back in the inside of the jammer, the other group were approaching the large open space of the city square, Ryūko strode slightly at the front, while Satsuki and Rei lagged slightly behind to her left and Nui to her right.

They proceeded along a zebra crossing through the eerily quiet empty square surrounded by sky scrapers, many of which holding screens featuring various advertisements while others were flickering and featuring nothing but static, a likely result of the massive crash of the jammer's activation, another result being plenty of shattered windows having spread broken glass along the pavement.

Rei tried to close any gap of space between her and Satsuki, "Stay close to me lady Satsuki, we don't know when they will attack or how..."

The silence prevailed once again even with the sound of the group's footsteps. The group constantly looking around counting every second.

Still nothing...

A few seconds more passed.

Still nothing...

The group approached the centre of the square.

Still nothing...

Still nothing, still nothing, still nothing, still nothing...

But then...

"Its time... Lets go reaper."

Click

Suddenly the scene was filled with a cacophony of noise as explosives detonated around the bottom of multiple of the sky scrapers. The large buildings then began to fall filling the square with dust and debris.

The group ran back to avoid the skyscrapers falling to their left and right, Nui skipping casually hoping through the air.

The debris settled and the group found themselves surrounded by the rubble of the fallen buildings.

Ryūko having caught a piece of the building about to have fallen on them before throwing it away, "You good? Guys?"

Satsuki, Rei and even Nui were coughing from being caught in a cloud of dust.

Satsuki did her best to reply through choking breaths, "Y-yes we're alright..."

Once the group had recovered they stepped up onto a pile of rubble to gain a vantage point. A top the pile they surveyed the remains of the square, which was now akin to a battlefield, filled with nooks and crannies created by the pieces of the buildings laying about the large space.

Suddenly a vertical wave of purple energy raced across the ground like a shark fin. It head straight towards the centre of the group. With little time to react, Nui and Ryūko were forced to dodge to their right while Satsuki and Rei had to dodge to their left separating the two halves of the group.

When Satsuki and Rei had recovered from their rushed dodge, they were surrounded by a spread out group of servants of the threads soldiers amongst the rubble, pointing their rifles at them.

When Nui and Ryūko had recovered, they faced the Reaper and the Operator standing side by side. The Reaper casually spun a scythe made up of a black pole and a dark purple blade which glowed with a lighter purple energy. While the operator bared two emerald green pistols that he wielded akimbo style.

The Operator spoke unable to hide the excitement in his voice, "Yup its definitely time... to get down to business."