An air of shock filled the laboratory from the sudden entrance of the red haired man, Mikisugi being the first to call out, "Doctor Xavier?!"

Xavier hunched over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath, "Y-yes, sorry to keep you waiting..." He then regained his posture, straightening out his black tie beneath his suit and lab coat before walking towards Tsumugu, Mikisugi and Iori stopping two paces away.

Tsumugu replied in a matter of fact tone, "Hard to wait for a guy we thought was dead."

Xavier smiled with exasperation, "Well its nice to hear your concern Tsumugu, oh and I really got to compliment your bunker designs, I only felt a bit of shaking and a loss in communications despite the size of the crater left behind."

Mikisugi uttered inquisitively, "Well I am glad to see you are alright, but what are you doing here? Surely your government would like some assistance regarding the clean up and investigation."

Xavier responded with warm professionality, "Actually I expressly got permission to come to Japan by the American government, they even let me take one of their private jets, plus I knew where I was needed as soon as I heard what was going on over here."

Tsumugu sighed with irritation, "A simple phone call to know that you were coming would have been nice..."

Xavier explained defensively, "I was on a plane most of the time! And I wanted a bit of shut eye from an absolutely exhausting experience. Besides I wasn't sure if your people were too busy to take time for my call."

Iori uttered curiously, his voice suggesting of the verge of a realisation, "Doctor Xavier..." His voice raised as the realisation hit, "Doctor Xavier Natrium?"

Xavier raised his eyebrows in response to his name being mentioned, "hm yes?"

Iori took a few steps forward offering a hand for Xavier to shake, "My name is Shirō Iori, you probably haven't heard of me."

Xavier was hit with his own realisation as he returned the handshake, "Oh Shirō Iori! Its a pleasure to meet such a flourishing young mind."

Mikisugi and Tsumugu peered at the two with suspicion, Mikisugi being the one to comment on the two, "Uh... you two know each other?"

Iori explained first as him and Xavier looked towards Tsumugu and Mikisugi with calm giddy smiles, "I read his thesis on life fiber communications." Iori turned his head back to Xavier, "Inspiring work by the way, the section about the difference in wave forms between human communications and life fiber signals was truly enlightening."

Xavier turned his head back as well, "Thank you. I read about your work as well from the Honnōji reports, those Goku uniforms were truly incredible, really does show versatile life fibers can be as weapons. Although I do find some of your methods for experimentation a little... Inhumane."

Iori sighed, his face becoming somewhat forlorn, "I agree... We did use some extreme measures for results, the justification was for the sake of saving humanity but... It did trouble me, even in my personal life..."

Xavier replied, his voice suggesting an attempt at comfort, "We all come close to that line when attempting to understand this universe of ours, it becomes easy to cross that line when important justifications bring the mentality of for the greater good..."

Tsumugu cut in attempting to pull the conversation back on track, "Well that's real nice for you two, but you mind getting back to business? You can have your life fiber groupie meet up later."

Xavier answered with bemused frustration, "Oh Tsumugu, how I do appreciate your... unique tactlessness." His tone then shifted to a relaxed professionality, "Well while I had the time, I've thought of what I think could be a way for a counter attack against the servants of the thread."

Tsumugu shifted his position to a more relaxed posture, "Hm well now that's more like it."

Mikisugi questioned curiously, "Really? Well now that would be quite something, but we can't discuss it here..."

The majority of the group looked around them at the many Nudist beach agents in the room, while Xavier looked at the others of the group in confusion.

Iori spoke up, breaking what tension there was, "Hm, how about a conference room? Will be fairly private and won't be difficult to sweep."

Mikisugi nodded, "Yeah that makes sense, I think there's one I know is empty right now."

The group got ready to leave while Xavier continued looking confused, "Could you explain why we can't talk about it here?"

Iori turned to Xavier while Mikisugi and Tsumugu began walking towards the doors, "We'll explain why later, doctor."

The four made their way down the elevator, along a few more corridors, left the underground beach area and arrived at a series of elevators on two sides a lobby like area where agents continually walked in an out filling the area with their steps and chattering. They located one of the elevators, selecting one of the buttons on the control panel to the left. After a few moments of waiting the elevator dinged before opening allowing the group to step inside to join a group agents waiting patiently. With a press of another button, this time inside the elevator, and a few more moments of waiting while the elevator opened and closed at a series of floors, they finally arrived at their floor. The elevator opening up on a smaller lobby like area with elevators on both sides. the back end of this lobby lead to a large hall with a smooth reflective black stone wall and floor, the walls held a number of plaques featuring writing whilst other parts of the walls held large framed photographs of various agents depicted with medals, rifles and standing amongst large groups of other agents posing for the picture. There was also a number of other furnishings along the hall, such as velvet coated benches, water coolers and vending machines, potted plants and what appeared to be propped up control panel screens on metal pedestals. Nudist agents walked up and down the hall casually, some carrying tacks of papers or cups filled with either water, steaming coffee or tea.

Along the walls of the hall were a series of large oak double doors with a fair amount of space between each of the doors, each one having a plaque close by. The four walked along the hall till they located one of the double doors with a plaque reading "B2" Mikisugi leading the way before opening them up.

Behind the door was a decently sized rectangular conference room. A large table ran through the centre of the room, while some cabinets and a water cooler was situated at points against the right and left navy blue walls. At the back wall was a large screen, with the head of the table was just in front of the screen.

As soon as the group entered the room, Tsumugu got to work. He checked along the beneath of chairs along the table, the bottom of the table itself, the insides of the cabinets, along the bottom of the cabinets and removed the screen from the back checking behind it, along it's edges and unscrewing the back to check the inside. All of these checks being for possible bugs placed in the room by moles. Once he had finished he returned to the rest of the group who stood to the left of the table, he then nodded at Mikisugi affirming their security.

Mikisugi turned to Xavier, "Alright we're clear, so what's this idea you got?"

Xavier tried to recollect his thoughts, somewhat taken aback by the sudden secretive measures, "O-oh right well, I was looking at the feed of the communications we picked up back in the desert, which I now believe is being sent by the servants of the thread. Comparing it once again to the true life fiber signal, it seems fairly well hidden of a signal with the low but far reaching frequency, however if they intended to make it seem like a true life fiber signal then there was a lot of flaws in it's design..."

Mikisugi theorised inquisitively, "Hm, do you think that it was intentional?"

Xavier's face was hit with turmoil as he attempted to think through that possibility, "Maybe... Although I struggle as to guess why... But it did get me thinking, what if we created a signal as closed to being a real life fiber signal? Perhaps then... we could fool these servants of the thread into believing a location carries real life fibers, but they will just have a nude party waiting for them instead."

Mikisugi nodded with a sly smile, "Nice... I like it, how long do you think it would take to create this signal?"

Xavier pondered to himself, his thoughts lost in calculations, "Hmm... I would say... two months, maybe more."

Tsumugu scoffed angrily, "Tch why don't ya build a laboratory from ground up while you're at it?"

Xavier sighed with exasperation, "I'm not baking a pastry my dear Tsumugu, it would be attempting to create something that hasn't even been attempted let alone perfected like this, I should earn a Nobel prize if I pull this off! Well... Maybe."

Mikisugi cut off the discussion calmly, "Its alright, we'll need time to prepare anyway, such as more counter measures for their weaponry." He then turned to Iori and Xavier, "Alright here's the plan; Xavier, I need you to select what agents you want to work with on this signal, don't tell them what the project his during the selection process, then you hand a list of those people to Iori and he will put them on the priority for screening. Once they are screened, we'll get you Xavier and your new team a private lab to work on this, in the mean time, none of this leaves this room the servants cannot be allowed the slightest possibility of getting this information."

Tsumugu added on, asking with a plain cold demeanour, "What about Matoi? She's kinda out for the count and that little trooper of yours; Harime isn't gonna be enough, even if I join her in trying to kick their asses."

Mikisugi responded meeting Tsumugu's brooding coldness with relaxed enthusiasm, "Well we got plenty of time to get Ryūko's groove back."

Iori decided to cut in inquisitively, "By the way... Since you mentioned Nui Harime would it be possible for me meet her some time? For purely scientific reasons."

Xavier added on, "Oh I would like to meet her as well! A life fiber hybrid that came back from the dead, split into two personalities AND was the grand couturier for REVOCS? What self respecting life fiber researcher would give up the opportunity?"

Tsumugu muttered to himself with irritation, "Like to see if you would say that when she's trying to kill you..."

Mikisugi considered the motion for a sec before ruling his judgement, "Hm shouldn't be too much of a problem, but probably not a good idea at the moment with the security concerns and everything going on." Iori and Xavier nodded, accepting his ruling, Mikisugi then continued to finish the conversation, "Alright boys, meeting is adjourned, and remember; until you can be sure the agents you are with are clear, not a word about our plans and not a word even if they have been cleared unless they are involved in the plan's preparation."

The other three nodded before proceeding to leave the conference room.

The sun had fully set as Clone Nui sat in her hotel room on her sofa, watching a news report on the events in Akihabara. She had tried to fall asleep several times, however she was left tossing and turning, unable to suppress the thoughts flooding her mind.

She sighed as the news reporter spoke about the left over damage from the battle including a large square shape gash. The hole reaching down into the sewer, disrupting the sewer water current for the period of time during the barrier's appearance. Then when the barrier disappeared, a large sewer tidal wave was caused, bursting out from drainages and sending sewage out onto many of Akihabara's streets.

True Nui appeared floating by clone Nui's side, she was lying down on her stomach, cupping her head in her arms and casually kicking her legs in the air, "Oooo those naughty servants made a real mess."

Clone Nui uttered quietly, a solemn frown on her face, "Those poor people..."

True Nui checked her nails with a bored expression, "A bit of sewage on the streets is pretty gross but its not the end of the world."

Clone Nui bounced in her seat to turn to true Nui, "Its not just that! All those destroyed buildings... It probably ruined some people's lives! that is if they weren't in the buildings during the explosions..."

True Nui continued looking bored as she seemed to manifest a translucent pink nail file, presumably from the pocket dimension room she was in, before dragging it across the tips of her nails, "We can't really help them so there's no point worrying about them."

Clone Nui sharpened her gaze, "You could help them."

True Nui replied, sighing with irritation, "Oh please Nui I can create a bunch of doppelgangers, not magic up a bunch of people's livelihoods out of thin air. And besides Mikisugi gave you express orders to stay put remember? Or are you gonna finally give up that good girl façade?"

Clone Nui grumbled, turning back towards the TV, "Its not a façade..."

True Nui observed clone Nui's grumbling, she then perked up and slithered like a snake in the air before pretending to rest her floating head on clone Nui's shoulder, "Oh cheer up! I know someone we could help~"

Clone Nui was hit with intrigue at the very possibility of true Nui wanting to help someone else, "Really? Who is that?"

True Nui leapt up into the air floating somewhat away from the sofa, her arms spread and her face radiating a giddy joy, "Ryūko!~"

Clone Nui responded, overwhelmed by confusion, "R-Ryūko?"

True Nui nodded, "Mhm!" She then crawled back to the sofa, looking like she was swimming in an invisible liquid, "I was the one that got her out of a serious funk back in our original days remember?"

Clone Nui glared at true Nui with irritation, "So you could trick her into fighting you."

True Nui corrected clone Nui arrogantly, "Less of a fight more of an execution really... But that's besides the point! I still managed to get Ryūko up and moving again, didn't I?"

Clone Nui's glare returned to a troubled weary frown, "I guess... But I'm not sure if we're able to help this time and Mikisugi would agree."

True Nui huffed in frustration, "Jeez that Mikisugi doesn't know what he's talking about! And don't you want to at least try to help?"

Clone Nui whined helplessly, "I guess... But I don't know if apologising will be enough..."

True Nui presented herself proudly, "Then let me take over!"

"What?!" Clone Nui suddenly exclaimed in surprise.

True Nui continued unbothered, "Yeah! Trust me I know exactly how to push Ryūko's buttons."

Clone Nui shouted back angrily, "That's exactly what I'm worried about! And besides what about what Mikisugi said?! if they see that you're heading to Satsuki's house they might think you're trying to attack Ryūko while she's vulnerable and trigger the kill switch!"

True Nui began baring a smug smile, "Oh relax other me, they aren't foolish enough to kill one of their best assets after just being attacked by a terrorist group."

Clone Nui breathed deeply trying to build up her confidence, "Ok ok… IF we do this... What will you say to Ryūko?"

True Nui smiled mischievously, "Only what I've always said... The truth!"

The world outside began to be bathed with morning light as the sun crawled its way above the horizon. Mikisugi was lying down in the bed within his apartment, he was nude of course, rustling beneath his bed sheets, moving about in his sleep. Suddenly the room began filling with a ring tone emanating from his phone situated on his bedside table. Mikisugi's closed eyes twitched as he slowly dragged himself from sleep, reaching over to his phone with a slow and sluggish grab.

He picked up his phone selecting the answer call option and placing his phone against his ear before answering with a half asleep groan, "Mikisugi speaking... Who is it?"

An agent responded from the other end of the phone, "Hello sir, sorry to wake you so early in the morning."

Mikisugi wiped each of his eyes with his hand, "Is this important? or can this wait till later?"

The agent spoke with a remorseful tone, "Its rather important I'm afraid sir, we got a ping from true Nui's collar, it seems that she's left the hotel."

Mikisugi breathed out an exhausted sigh, "Of course she did... Any idea where she's heading?"

The agent replied informatively, maintaining a professional tone, "Yes sir, while we don't have much audio from true Nui's collar, we did get some from one side of a conversation through clone Nui's bug suggesting they are going to try to help Ryūko."

Mikisugi sighed once again, like a father dealing with a troublesome child, "Damn it, true Nui really is a bad influence huh..."

The agent questioned, returning to the point of the call, "What should we do?"

Mikisugi answered, acting as the leader required of him, "Keep a watch on them for now, there may be a bit of confrontation but only have agents step in if things get out of hand since doing it early would probably make things worse, also keep a log of what the both of them are saying."

The agent replied with an affirmative tone, "Understood."

Mikisugi responded just having remembered something, "Oh by the way did you and the others monitoring Ryūko and Nui report to Iori for screening?"

The agent answered hesitantly somewhat taken aback by the implications of the question, "Uh y-yes sir."

Mikisugi replied lost in thought, "Good... Last thing we need is moles using this opportunity to their advantage, or worse triggering Nui's collar."

The agent responded continuing to seem troubled from the exchange, "yes sir... I'll keep you posted in case anything happens." The phone then hung up from the agent's end.

A look of concern displayed on Mikisugi's face as he put down his phone, his thoughts seemingly eating away at him, "Damn threads... How many more friends are you gonna turn on me...?"

Meanwhile true Nui arrived at Satsuki's house, floating down gently at the front. However she quickly leapt up again when she spotted Soroi walking past a window. Soroi looked out the window for a moment believing he noticed something, but quickly shooed the thought away.

Nui floated once more before landing at the back of the house, quickly seeing Ryūko sitting by one of the up stairs windows. Nui leapt up, grabbing into the brick with her nails and hooking onto the wall, waiting carefully for her opportunity.

Ryūko was sat on a bed directly in front of the window, her knees in front of her as she held onto them with her arms. Her eyes were surrounded with rings from lack of sleep while she bore an empty solemn stare.

Suddenly there was a small knock at the door, it was Mako who seemed to have opted to stay with Ryūko at Satsuki's.

Satsuki stood next to Mako quietly who looked on in concern while Mako frowned eking out a tentative tone, "Morning Ryūko... Did you get any sleep?"

Ryūko uttered a simple "No..." Her voice frayed and wrought with melancholy.

Mako continued, her face lost in worry, "Oh ok... Could I come inside?"

Again Ryūko uttered, "No..."

Mako spoke again, hopelessness audible in her quiet voice, "Oh alright... Well We're here if you need us OK?"

Ryūko wouldn't reply to this however, leaving Satsuki and Mako to walk away, Satsuki trying to comfort Mako, "Lets try again later OK?"

Ryūko sat in silence as the tears began to well in her eyes.

"Oh don't cry Ryūko!" Suddenly Mako appeared at her window wearing a white eyepatch on her right eye.

Ryūko turned to the window in shock, "M-Mako?! How did you- Wait what's with that eye patch?"

Mako began to panic a little to think of a reason, "Oh err I managed to get a real bad case of pink eye." Meanwhile Ryūko slowly grabbed the eye patch.

Ryūko grit her teeth angrily as soon as she saw Nui's purple insignia on Mako beneath the white eyepatch, she then shot a fast punch. Mako now revealed to be Nui took the punch head on collapsing from the window, falling casually to the ground bellow, spinning in the air as she fell. Strips of fabric appeared to pull off true Nui, each strip baring the colours of her Mako disguise, revealing Nui in her true form.

Ryūko shouted down bellow at Nui from the window, "Stay the hell away from me Nui! You're the last person I wanna see right now! And don't disguise as Mako ever again or I'll kill you!"

True Nui sat up on the ground, dusting off her dress, while clone Nui appeared floating beside her in a translucent form looking at true Nui judgementally, "You didn't think that one through too much now did you?"

True Nui snapped back at her with irritation, "Look I'm a bit rusty at this alright?"

She then appeared once again by Ryūko's window, speaking to her with a sly tone, "But that is what I'm looking for... The Ryūko that I remember."

Ryūko crossed her arms as she looked at Nui with a berserk stare, "You don't know how to take a hint do ya?"

True Nui answered, a look of bravado in the face of Ryūko's mad glare, "Oh I do, I just don't really care, and besides I need some answers."

Ryūko snapped back angrily, "And why should I give you 'em?"

Nui sighed with frustration, "Come on Ryūko, humour me just a bit. Like for example... Why are you doing this? I thought you already had this song and dance and could move forward regardless."

Ryūko turned her head around to look back at the wall, refusing to answer.

Nui's frustration grew as she asked again, "Come on tell me! You're supposed to be strong! So why are you reverting back to some scared little girl? Was it the physical pain? Because I know a bit about that and I'm fairly sure ripping your skin off to tear away at a uniform that's sewn into your flesh would be a bit more painful than losing your legs."

Ryūko uttered back, her voice quiet and her expression softening, "It's not that..."

Nui pressed on, unwavering in her prodding, "Then tell me what it is!"

Ryūko's pent up frustration released into a sigh as she began to explain, "Look, a while back I was... lonely, I would pick fights with kids at my schools, often getting myself kicked out, looking back on it I did it because I was frustrated that I felt rejected by my dad. So when you killed him and truly left me alone I at least had some sorta direction to move. So I went onward with my new reason for moving. But it took me a while to figure out that this way to go was just gonna screw me over, and that's when I realised that the people around me that cared about me were more important than some idea of revenge. So I fought for them, so I wouldn't lose them, and even still I had to lose someone I loved. But I felt... Ok this time, them telling me I could be who I wanted to be even without them, and... I felt free, to live my life surrounded by the people that cared about me, and made me feel... Safe."

Clone Nui floated beside true Nui, watching Ryūko talk, "Ryūko..." She uttered remorsefully.

Ryūko continued, the pain audible in her voice, "But then you showed up, and those servant assholes attacked, and everything I fought for feels like its slipping out of my fingers, and... it terrifies me... I just... don't want to wake up scared every day that I'm gonna lose everything I care about... But I don't expect you of all people to understand that..."

True Nui thought back to the fateful night atop the Honnōji academy tower, the memory filling Ryūko's words with an overwhelming feeling of familiarity, a truth Nui can't admit to herself "Hm you're right I don't understand, why on earth would someone sit around hiding away from what they want to protect? If you want to live a certain way, you fight for that life! Get annoyed! Get pissed off! Jeez even the other Nui knows better than that... We all must struggle to exist, let alone live a life we're proud of, no matter many times we fall and let important things slip away. La vie est drôle after all."

Ryūko growled angrily, "What are you? My therapist? I already fought like hell to get this! Why should this fight never end huh?!" She then turned her head to face Nui, "And besides, what the hell would YOU know about any of that?!"

However Ryūko froze immediately upon turning, as her sight was met by an up close Nui staring at her with a piercing cold glare. Ryūko feeling like Nui was staring into her soul.

Nui spoke with a monotone voice, however coupled with her icy stare and frown, her voice left the impression of an indescribable turmoil behind every word, "Because it's what I told myself ever since I learned how to speak, because I wished nothing more than to prove that my existence was worthy of the purpose I was given. I would of burned the world down just to see Maman smile, and I almost did. I was elated when she told me to shed my physical body as it meant I finally lived up to what she expected from me. So when I woke up on that roof top, ran away like a coward then forced to live by you disgusting creatures, I knew it was my punishment, I would rather see my arms cut off and stepped on a thousand times than continue to live with this shame on my shoulders, to lash out at those I would had sided with in a desperate attempt to understand why my own kind has rejected me... Lady Ragyō is gone, all that ever mattered to me is gone, and I'm supposed to live despite that..."

Ryūko was taken aback, almost intimidated by the sudden outburst, "N-Nui?"

Nui blinked causing her look to return to her normal playful casualness, almost like she snapped out of a trance, "Oops sorry about that, a bit of a crack in my lady-like manners, see what not much beauty sleep does to me? Tehe~"

Ryūko took a moment to take what just happened in before responding, her face a cocktail of confusion and melancholy, "Why are you doing this exactly? What do you gain from me returning to the fight?"

"Why you say? Well..." Nui pondered for a moment before continuing with a strangely genuine smile, "To be honest I found this whole emotional display of yours a bit... insulting."

Ryūko raised her eyebrows, blurting out a confused, almost offended, "Huh?"

Nui carried on, her voice layered with an underlying intention that Ryūko couldn't make out, "Well it wasn't the most unexpected thing in the world given how you acted a while back. But you are supposed to be Ryūko Matoi, the one and only that faced me head on in combat, butchered and humiliated me, then went on to defeat lady Ragyō! All while taking the dreams me and her worked so hard for and smashing them to pieces. To see you act like this after all that? Well that just makes me and lady Ragyō seem like we were weak, and I can't accept that."

Ryūko answered back wearily, the anger almost entirely dispelled from her voice, "Nui... You know I didn't do any of those things by myself right?"

Nui nodded, "Well that's true I suppose..." She then looked at Ryūko with a sharp look and a smug smile, "But tell me Ryūko dear, Are you by yourself?"

Ryūko looked down at the bed as her face began to fill with clarity, realising what Nui was saying, "No I... I guess I'm not, and you know you're right about one thing..." She looked up at Nui, a renewed determination in her eyes and smile, "I am pissed off!"