The battlefield fell quiet as each party stood off against each other. Satsuki and Rei remaining perfectly still in their combat stances, Satsuki held her shorter blade towards herself beneath her longer blade which faced away from her. Rei holding both of her combat knives upside down her blades facing towards her back as she held her arms by her sides and her form partially crouched as if she was ready to pounce.

The Servants facing them trained their rifles on the pair, many of them readying their fingers to pull their triggers.

Meanwhile across the battlefield Ryūko and Nui stood side by side across from the Operator and the Reaper. Nui baring her usual blissful smile as she revealed both of her life fiber claws.

Ryūko however glared at her foes ferociously. She proceeded to pull a black rectangular shaped stick from her jacket, she then pulled the stick apart into two halves before pressing a button on each of the halves. The halves opened up and extended out a stack of three red blades which split apart to form her nudist beach dual wield life fiber severing knives.

Nui looked at Ryūko's weapons with impressed glee, "Oooooo that's pretty neat."

Ryūko gave her a swift comment to move on quickly, "Nudist beach R n' D department took a note from the scissor blades to make them more discreet than carrying a case around everywhere, now can we focus on the matter at hand?"

The Operator spoke out to the two in a casual tone however his animosity was obvious, "Well its a been a while hasn't it?"

Ryūko held one of her blades out in the direction of the Operator and the Reaper, "Sure has, you've come to your ass kicked again?"

Nui meanwhile attempted peered closely at both the Operator and the Reaper, "Wait a sec' Ryūko, something's different about their outfits..."

Ryūko replied derisively, "What? The different colour scheme?"

Nui continued staring at their two opponents, "Ryūko I'm being serious, its something else."

The Operator smiled beneath his gas mask, letting out a confident "Hmph."

Before Ryūko had a chance to respond to Nui, a sudden flurry of gunshots echoed from the direction Satsuki and Rei dodged to after the purple wave of energy split the ground apart.

Ryūko shouted a concern "Shit!" As she turned her head in the direction of the gunfire.

Suddenly the Reaper dashed forward before swiping his scythe horizontally sending a large horizontal wave of purple energy towards Nui and Ryūko.

Ryūko and Nui attempted to block the wave of energy with Nui's claws and Ryūko's blades, possibly surprisingly buckling under the pressure of the attack. The wave of energy dissipated causing the Reaper to respond by moving to point blank before slashing his scythe at Nui.

Nui caught the blades mid air while Ryūko went to attack the Reaper. But before her blades could connect She began being shot at by the Operator.

Ryūko quickly cut the bullets out of the air, while Nui pushed against the Reaper, who leapt backwards.

Nui and Ryūko after a second of recovery were about to move in to counter attack when suddenly, Ryūko was seemingly dragged into the air by an unseen force as she yelled out in confusion before being flung in an unknown direction.

Nui looked in the direction Ryūko went in the air with her own confusion, "R-Ryūko?!"

The Operator spoke quickly to the Reaper before moving in the same direction as where Ryūko flew, "You handle Nui, Ryūko's mine."

A purple light in the shape of a smile shone from the darkness within the Reaper's hood, "Right'o! Lets have some fun..."

Back with with Satsuki and Rei before the shots had been fired, they had continued to stare down with the servant soldiers.

Satsuki attempted to quietly mumble to Rei while continuing to train her eyes on their foes, "How many do you count?"

Rei replied the tension prevailing through her as well, "Sixteen."

Satsuki nodded slightly, "Me as well, I'll try to block as much as I can, you deploy the shield the nudists provided to us."

Rei responded with her own affirmation, "Understood."

Their exchange was interrupted by a stone falling from where a servant was standing upon the pile of rubble that towered above Rei and Satsuki, sending it's ricochets echoing throughout the battlefield.

Satsuki spoke out to the servants to break the tension, "So... I suppose you don't wish to negotiate?"

And with that, the Servants began to fire their hail of bullets upon them. Satsuki was forced to move quickly, her blades disappearing into a flurry of movement as she span, cutting each bullet out of the air.

Only less than a second occurred of Satsuki blocking the bullets, while Rei placed a disk on the ground which bared the nudist beach insignia. She then tapped the centre causing the disk to seemingly dig beneath the ground. Suddenly a half sphere sprouted out around the two from beneath the concrete, the servant's bullets dinging off the sphere's metal surface.

One of the Servants pulled a pin from a grenade, counted a few seconds while their allies continued to fire, before throwing the grenade at the half sphere. The grenade bounced briefly before exploding in the air.

The half sphere was engulfed in smoke from the explosion while the servants continued to fire a few seconds longer before one of the servants began shouting "Cease your fire!" to the others.

Just like that the firing ceased with many of the servants using the opportunity to reload while the others attempted to observe the half sphere through the cloud of dust.

Eventually the dust settled, and those observing the half sphere noticed two holes seemingly carved out of the steel of the half sphere to the north and south areas.

The realisation hit the servants too late. As Satsuki showed herself among the north side of the group of servants. The soldiers attempted to react, however Satsuki dashed through them cutting off their clothes and destroying their weaponry before knocking each one out in the blink of an eye.

At the south, on the other side of this arena, the Servants attempted to train their aim on the constantly moving Satsuki. However their attempts to fire upon her was interrupted as Rei appeared on the south side, carrying her own assault on the witless servants, slashing their clothes as well as firearms apart and leaving them unconscious with a swift blow to the head with the hilt of her life fiber severing combat knives.

A single thought filled Rei's mind as she methodically took down one servant after the next, "Death before I let you hurt her..."

Going to the other side of the barrier, The elite four stood guard, Uzu and Nonon keeping watch over the buildings behind them as they spread out over each side of the crowd of civilians. Inumuta sat cross legged on the ground as he typed at furious rates into his laptop, his expression growing ever more frustrated. Gamagōri stood tall, his arms crossed and his sentinel presence keeping the surrounding civilians calm who murmured amongst each other with worried expressions. Mako stood close to Gamagōri, gripping tightly on his clothing as her fear and concern were made obvious on her face.

Suddenly the explosion from within the barrier rang out. Despite the barrier seemingly sound proof the sound of the explosion managed to pierce through said barrier. The sound sent increasing panic through the crowd of civilian's who's concerned voices grew louder and even the elite four's faces unveiled a tinge of worry.

Gamagōri called out to the crowd of civilians commandingly, "Stay calm everyone! Stay calm!"

The cacophony of the civilian's voices wouldn't die down however, causing Nonon to raise her voice in an attempt to call out to Gamagōri, "Ira it might not be safe here! We should get them to evacuate!"

Gamagōri turned his head towards Nonon to nod silently before turning back to once again call out to the civilians, "Alright everyone! Please evacuate in calm and orderly manner as far as you can from- H-hey!" Gamagōri's command was interrupted however as the civilians wasn't waiting around to hear the rest as they hurriedly rushed away from the area in the opposite direction of the barrier.

Uzu and Nonon gathered around Gamagōri with Inumuta as well looking up at Gamagōri from his laptop and Mako wrapping her arms around Gamagōri as tight as she could.

Gamagōri sighed with concern, "I hope they will be alright... We should try to find other civilians still remaining within the vicinity of the barrier."

Nonon replied with frustration audible in her voice, "What about Lady Satsuki and the others?"

Gamagōri responded reflecting Nonon's level of frustration, "There's not much we can do for them right now... we should try to keep the civilians safe and get in contact with-"

"Guys?" Gamagōri was suddenly interrupted by Uzu who was looking around their surroundings with a worried expression.

Gamagōri, Nonon and Inumuta joined Uzu in looking around them. They saw several men and women in business suits holding brief cases.

The realisation quickly hit the elite four as the people in the business suits put on their gas masks before pointing their rifles towards the elite four, who's faces turned to tension filled determination.

Back with Nui, she faced against the reaper who bared their scythe threateningly, holding the handle with a single hand while pointing the end towards Nui.

Nui pondered curiously at her foe, "Well I know who mister soldier boy is but who on earth are you?"

The Reaper pulled his scythe close to him as he appeared to giggle to himself as if he had waited for this moment, "Hehehe... Me you ask?" The Reaper suddenly posed extravagantly arms open wide, "I am the bringer of death! The witness of calamity! The head of the four horsemen! I am THE REAPER!"

Nui yawned derisively, unimpressed, "Hm, and the owner of an annoying imagination it seems..."

The Reaper pointed at her childishly as he shouted with angry irritation, "Hey screw you miss "grand couturier!"

Nui appeared disinterested as she flicked the claw on her thumb and index finger together sending sparks flying off into the air, looking at it casually, "I actually was the couturier for the world's leading company in the clothing industry, you're just a poop head with a trash taste in fashion and a dumb looking scythe."

"Alright that's it!" The Reaper shouted angrily as he suddenly dashed towards Nui holding his scythe down by his side with one hand, the blade pointing towards the ground.

Upon reaching Nui's range he went for a powerful horizontal slice, grabbing the handle of the scythe with his other hand as he swung. Nui deflected the attack with her own swipe from the opposite direction, matching the power the Reaper put into his attack. The attacks collided sending shockwaves around the two, strong enough to rupture the surface of the ground within their vicinity.

Both Nui's claw and the Reaper's scythe strained under the pressure from the other, however the Reaper held strong to match Nui's unwavering composure.

This show of strength left Nui seemingly intrigued, "Oooo, seems you have better taste in life fibers than in fashion, I wonder how your body can withstand all that..."

The Reaper sneered confidently, "You haven't seen anything yet!"

The two broke out into a series of trading furiously fast attacks, each one deflecting the other. Nui going for vertical swipes of her claws, the Reaper deflecting these with his own vertical attacks and vice versa for horizontal and diagonal attacks.

After a number of attacks were traded and deflected, Nui plunged her hand flat like a spear head towards the dark gap within the Reaper's hood. The Reaper span his scythe in a vortex-like fan in front of him. Nui's arm was thrown to the side, sparks being thrown off from the clash.

Nui bared a rabid sinister smile as she lunged back towards the Reaper with her other claw. This time She managed to grab the pole of the scythe out of the air disrupting the spin with the Reaper attempting to pull the scythe from Nui's grip.

The Reaper threw out a round house kick towards Nui's chest, with the blow connecting forcing Nui to let go of the scythe and causing her to leap backwards flipping in the air before landing seemingly gracefully and dusting herself off casually.

The Reaper span his scythe playfully before holding the pole on his shoulders behind his head with his arms holding it down, "You know this is exactly as fun as I was hoping it would be!"

Nui however pondered at the Reaper, on the outset appearing casual, however internally she thought to herself with a battle hardened manner, "hm what's this guy's deal? He has to know he can't hurt me with a single life fiber severing blade right? I mean you would think so with all the life fiber tools these boys have... There has to be something more to this..."

Nui's train of thought was broken however as the ground beneath the Reaper as his feet pressed into the ground. He suddenly sprang forth, leaping from the ground towards Nui.

The two traded another flurry of attacks, the Reaper changing his hand's position on the scythe with every direction he swung, Nui blocking the blade with carefully placed strikes however appearing casually joyful as she did so, even twirling every few strikes.

The Reaper then grabbed the end of his scythe with his other hand. He then committed to a powerful overhead strike plunging the blade of the scythe into the ground in front of him. Nui dodged backwards by leaping into a graceful backflip.

The Reaper moved forward pulling the handle of the scythe and twisting the blade in the ground leaving it behind him. The blade of the scythe then began sparking with a bright purple energy, while the Reaper pulled on the scythe and dragged it across the ground, the energy from the scythe bursting across the ground sending up rubble an dust at the still mid air Nui.

Nui hit the rubble flying at her out of the air before making a landing. The Reaper suddenly appeared in front of her, Nui's vision having been obscured by the dust. The Reaper did another horizontal slice, this time the edge of the inner part of the blade catching Nui on the side. However Nui caught the blade with her claw before the scythe could pierce any deeper into her flesh.

Nui sent a kick towards his head, the blow sending the Reaper flying backwards a few paces away as he tumbled onto the ground, his hand holding firm on the handle of the scythe.

True Nui looked down at her wound before touching it slightly, seeing her blood on her hand, "Nui?" She spoke, turning her head to the side to see the spectral clone Nui floating in the air, "Get to healing."

Clone Nui nodded with a hurried "Roger that!" Before her image disappeared.

While this occurred The Reaper picked himself off from the ground brushing himself off. He then uttered a simple two ominous words looking towards true Nui, "It begins..."

True Nui took a single stepped forward, however as soon as she did, she froze with her pupil shrinking and her eye widening.

Clone Nui looked true Nui from behind with a concerned panic, "N-Nui? Are you..." Her voice trailed off as she floated forward to look at the front of True Nui.

Suddenly true Nui threw up a large amount of blood with an audible continuous "Bleh" sound.

Clone Nui recoiled with a disturbed "Eek!" Before she managed to compose herself, "Nui what's wrong!?"

True Nui wiped the excess blood from her mouth before she responded, "I knew something was off, although the method did take me off guard, do me a favour and take a look at the injuries inside my body instead of just the surface."

Clone Nui nervously questioned as she looked around worriedly, "H-how do I do that?!"

True Nui snapped back a bit irritated, "Just focus on the image of my body and think about what you wanna do, you should be able to connect your thoughts with my subconscious life fibers."

Clone Nui's face began to gleam with the hint of determination as she focused her vision on true Nui's torso, "Alright I'll try." Just like that clone Nui began to see True Nui's image as a featureless dark red void which began to contain snapped bright crimson red threads which grew in quantity, "I... I see it!"

True Nui nodded with comprehension, "mhm, based on that and the continued tingling feeling in my insides, I would say that scythe put life fibers inside me when it cut me which is chewing me up from the inside."

Clone Nui Gasped with shock before looking over at the Reaper we continued to stand casually as he watched true Nui, "He isn't approaching..."

True Nui Commented after spitting out another mouthful of blood, "He's probably waiting for those life fibers to weaken me, makes it easier for him to kill me, not really much I can do..."

The dread began to fill clone Nui's expression, Her eye transfixed on the Reaper, "And he's capable of that?!"

True Nui bared a weary smile trying to hide the defeat in her eye, "Unfortunately so, I'm sorry Nui, I can... already feel my body becoming... heavier..."

Clone Nui looked back at true Nui, the tears welling in her eye as the despair set in, "From just a single cut..." She then disappeared, trying to accept her fate.

The Reaper did one last twirl of his scythe before holding it by his side speaking to himself to ponder on his next move, "Well I think I've waited long enough, she should be barely able to move now, and the Operator would probably like a hand with Matoi, well if he's not busy cleaning up her body that is..." He began extending his body readying to break into a sprint, "I told ya Harime..." He suddenly began dashing towards Nui aiming his scythe at Nui's neck, "I'm the bringer of death!"

The blade reached close to Nui's throat when suddenly... Rei came in from the right, slicing quickly at the Reaper with both of her life fiber severing combat knives.

"Woah there." The Reaper dodged each of the slices, the first with a quick duck and the other with a back step, narrowly avoiding each of the blades.

Rei went for a round house kick on the Reaper's left side, the Reaper opted to block the blow, pressing on his arm to reinforce his shoulder. Rei in turn jumped up to do a mid air kick which connected with the Reaper's chest. The Reaper was blown back but still managing to stay on his feet, this however gave Rei time to land and recover to go in for another attack with her knives. The Reaper reacted to this by allowing himself to fall backwards and break into a back flip to avoid Rei's attack and move back his position.

The Reaper recomposed himself before spinning his scythe once again playfully before posing in amused consideration, "Well well well! isn't it Rei Hōōmaru! I would say I didn't expect you to show up so soon but then again I don't know why I expected anything out of those dumbass grunts. Ah well you know what they say..." A smile appeared within the void of the Reaper's hood, "You want something done... you do it yourself!"

Nui looked at Rei with a genuinely shocked expression, "Hōōmaru?!"

Rei looked back at Nui who was almost collapsing onto the ground, "Satsuki sent me to assist you and Ryūko while she deals with the rest of the soldiers, where is Ryūko?"

Nui spoke with a now battle hardened attitude, "Not sure, she was pulled away, I think it was something done by the operator, you need to go find her."

Rei raised her voice somewhat surprisingly, "I can't just leave you here like this!"

Nui snapped back with irritation, "If you don't that poop head will come after both of us! You don't stand a chance against him!"

Rei's voice simmered down into a cool focused statement, "I can't leave you here in a state like this, I promised Satsuki that I would protect you, I trust in Ryūko's capabilities and..." Rei's cool exterior seemed to crack for a moment, "Your life... it has value to me."

Nui's irritation turned to shock and confusion, "What the hell do you mean by that?"

Rei flipped a knife staring back at the Reaper with calm determination, "We survive this and you can find out."

The Reaper stood across from them appearing casual, yet within his mind he thought to himself to weigh up his options, "Damn, things are getting complicated now that there's two of them, dunno when Nuis gonna recover and that Rei bitch ain't no joke..." The Reaper noticed a slight movement by Nui, "Hm?"

Nui suddenly summoned a dozen of doppelgangers which appeared in puffs of white smoke partially obscuring the Reaper's vision. The Reaper sighed with irritation, "Well I guess I should of expected that sooner or later..."

Nui quickly spoke to Rei, "Won't keep him distracted for long, tactical retreat, pick me up though I can barely move."

Rei nodded in rushed affirmation, "Understood." Before picking up Nui by her waist and carrying Nui over her shoulder with Nui's torso towards Rei's back and her butt in front.

Nui shouted out out to Rei as the two Ran in the opposite direction from the Reaper who fought Nui's clones, "Hey! Give a lady some modesty!"

Back to when Ryūko and Nui were separated. Ryūko was pulled into the air, with Ryūko feeling the pulling force latched on her leg.

She landed on a flat surface of the remains of a collapsed building, her collision with a ground sending up a plume of dust from the force of the impact.

Ryūko coughed a bit from the dust before looking around to observe her surroundings, "Where the hell...? What was that?"

Her contemplation was interrupted however as suddenly there was another impact from behind her.

It was the Operator standing at the centre of the impact point, holding his two pistols together as he held the mag belonging to one of these pistols seemingly checking his ammunition. He placed the magazine back into one of the pistols before throwing the pistol back into his other hand, he then slid the bottom of the already loaded pistol against the top of the newly loaded one to cock it.

He spoke to himself in quiet focused contemplation, "Hm not quite tight enough to sever... possibly due to inaccuracy, Ill need to correct my aim to compensate."

Ryūko began sprinting towards the Operator, her blades in hands and a furious look on her face. The Operator responded by pointing his pistols towards Ryūko, firing three shots. Ryūko cut the bullets out of the air as she continued to sprint. The Operator retaliated by throwing his arms to the side.

Suddenly Ryūko was pulled away from her sprint in the direction the Operator gestured to. Ryūko crashed into a large pile of rubble with an incredible force, the rubble above her falling down on top of her.

With a single kick the rubble on top of Ryūko burst out in an explosion like blast allowing Ryūko to pick herself off the ground. As she was doing so, she noticed by her foot a bullet belonging to the Operator, but more importantly what appeared to be an emerald coloured thread dragging the bullet along before it and the bullet seemed to dissolve into the air.

This was enough for Ryūko to be hit with the realisation of how the Operator was attacking her. He was seemingly attaching life fiber threads to his bullets then puppet-ting the threads into acting as his weapons, wrapping them around her body parts to pull her in his desired direction.

Ryūko smiled with confidence upon receiving the realisation and hearing the Operator's footsteps from behind her, "That's a neat party trick you got going, but it's gonna take more than a few bullets and threads to take me down."

The Operator replied scoffing with condescension, "Hmph you're quite the observant one, however you lack in intelligence to wield it properly."

Ryūko's smile turned to a spiteful scowl as she held one of her blades up towards the Operator, "We'll see who's the one without intelligence asshole!"

The exchange broke off as Ryūko began running towards the Operator, who of course fired multiple shots, Ryūko deflecting the bullets. But as the Operator attached threads to the mid air fired bullets, Ryūko cut the threads with her blades. The Operator retaliated by firing two shots upwards into the sky, an action that would initially confuse Ryūko however she saw the Operator send threads in the same direction. He then manoeuvred the threads with his hands causing the bullets to curve from their direction in the sky to fall upon Ryūko. She blocked these as well, but before she could cut the threads attached to these bullets, they suddenly shifted and wrapped around Ryūko's arm and strangling the blade out of that hand. Ryūko was going to use the blade in her other hand to cut these threads. However the Operator shot more bullets with one pistol as he reloaded the other gun which he held in the same hand which held the threads tied around Ryūko's arm, dropping the mag onto the ground before green life fibers shot out from his clothing and formed a new mag which slotted into the gun on it's own.

Ryūko was forced to abandon her attempt to cut the threads on her arm to instead use her remaining blade to block the Operator's bullets. The Operator then let go of the threads holding Ryūko's arm and attached threads to the newly fired bullets. These new threads would encircle Ryūko before she could react, tying her arms to her side and forcing her to let go of the other blade. The Operator let go of these threads which seemed to cause them to latch into the ground instead, the Operator using this opportunity to fire another bullet at Ryūko's head. Surprisingly even to the Operator, Ryūko managed to catch this bullet with her teeth before spitting the bullet out.

The Operator however quickly recovered from his surprise as he smiled slightly beneath his gas mask. He attached a thread the bullet Ryūko spat out, which appeared to wrap around Ryūko's throat. He slotted his guns back into his holsters as he began holding this thread with both hands, attempting to put his full force into pulling this thread.

Ryūko reacted quickly as she managed to pull her arms apart bursting out from the threads that enclosed her before grabbing onto the thread and pulling beginning a tug of war between the two.

Ryūko spoke through clenched teeth and strained grunts, "What the hell are you tryin' to do?!"

However the Operator wouldn't need to respond for her to get her answer. She noticed blood was leaking from the spot where she was holding onto the thread. She hadn't considered how sharp the threads were, with their nature as life fibers giving them the possible property of being able to cut other life fibers, and given a noose like tie of these threads was around her neck, it became obvious that the Operator was going to use this to sever her life fibers from all sides.

Upon realising this, Ryūko put all her might into her pull, yelling out in a strained battle cry. Doing this she managed to gain enough leverage to let loose one of her hands, which she used to grab one of her blades from the ground beside her, using this to cut the thread.

Both her and the Operator fell backwards from the release of the thread. Ryūko grabbed her blades then quickly pushed off the ground with the Operator doing the same. Ryūko reformed her battle stance with one blade in front with the other held to her right on it's side hovering above as the wounds on her hands closed up and the bleeding ceasing. While the operator squinted as he held both his pistols towards Ryūko and the fight returned to a stand off.

The Operator used this moment, seemingly speaking with a curious tone, "Tell me Ryūko because I don't quite understand; Why are you defending Nui Harime? You were ready to turn yourself in just to save this "clone Nui," while I considered that a possibility of my ultimatum, I saw the possibility of you letting her die more likely. She may have become anew with a different personality... But she's still the one who killed your father, same face, same single eye, same name and same past."

Ryūko channelled her stoicism into her reply, however she couldn't hide the essence of her malice, "I don't have to explain myself to you."

The Operator seemed uncaring yet somewhat disappointed by this reply, "Well I suppose that's true, its a shame though, gonna be hard to get an answer from you once I've cut you into pieces."

Ryūko smiled spitefully, her eyes filled with fury, "Oh don't worry we're gonna have plenty of time to talk once I've stripped you nude and chucked you in a holding cell, now lets do this!"