“We would have to use force to do it,” explained Murayama, coming to a halt at those words. “Either way it goes, you’re still going to be handcuffed and taken upstairs. Don’t you want to see your friends?”

“I can go see them even if you don’t escort me there,” pointed out M1 with a quick shrug of his shoulders.

“Unfortunately for you, that’s not how we work,” declared Murayama, shrugging his shoulders in the same way as the target. He kept M1 under his gaze for a few seconds and then lowered the hand holding the handcuffs. “Why don’t we do the following? I’ll let you stay free for a few more minutes while you answer a couple of questions. Agreed?”

Miue, Mizusaki and Ikusaki all arched their eyebrows slightly as they wondered what exactly Murayama was trying to do. However, once they heard the first question, they immediately understood what Murayama was aiming at with this unexpected change of plans.

“Since you remained silent, I’ll take it as a yes,” acknowledged Murayama, straightening his back while keeping the target under his gaze. “Do you know the code to the door on the floor -6?”

“Heh…” M1 simply snorted at the question, a mischievous smirk twisting the corners of his lips upwards.

“And the other question is: what type of bombs does that room have and can we deactivate them in the same way as yours?” proceeded Murayama, starting to get irked at the malicious expression on M1’s face.

“Hehehehe…” amusingly laughed M1, keeping his gaze on the soldier at all times. He softly tilted his head to the left. “What makes you think that I will answer those questions?”

“Maybe because you don’t want your friend to blow up after we enter his cell and accidentally activate the bombs?” mumbled Ikusaki under his breath. He was starting to get pissed off at the manipulative games that M1 was putting out one after the other. His body was suddenly thrown to one of the walls of the cell, however, a hand gripping tightly at his throat and painfully bending his trachea inwards – fully cutting his air supply.

“Excuse me?” threateningly hissed M1, his grey eyes abnormally glowing a red light as he glared at the choking soldier. “The only one who’s going to blow up in here will be you if you don’t start measuring your words. M0 will not blow up or get a single scratch on him. If he does, I’ll make the entire human race pay for it.”

“Let go of him!” ordered Murayama, pointing his rifle directly at M1’s head, only a few inches separating his head and the end of the barrel. He took a quick glance to his subordinate, whose face was starting to gain a light purple colouring, and furiously added. “Now!”

“Are you going to shoot me with that?” taunted M1, looking sideways to the soldier. He motioned his free hand in the rifle’s direction and took a hold of the barrel, tightly closing his fingers around the metal tube. With a quick and simple movement of his wrist, he bent the barrel downwards, just as if he was bending a rubber hose. “Will you be able to shoot me now?”

“We're still able of shooting you, yes,” warned Miue, both him and Mizusaki taking a step forward in the target’s direction to make their presence known.

“Unless you have M4’s precise aim, you have just as much of a probability of shooting me as shooting your two squad members, Miue Satoshi,” pointed out M1, looking over his shoulder to peer at the soldier.

“Wha—!? How does he—!?” incredulously yelped Miue at hearing the target saying his full name as if he knew him personally.

“Miue Satoshi, November 15th, 25 years old,” started reciting M1 as if he was reading everything out of a data sheet. He tightened slightly more his grip around Ikusaki’s throat as the soldier continued clawing at his arm. “In the army since 18 years old, acquired his current post as second-in-command on the 10th squad of the 4th platoon one and a half years ago when the squad was created.” M1 switched his gaze to the soldier next to Miue. “Mizusaki Shinobu, April 26th, 21 years old. Joined the army at 18, too. In his current position since the squad was created.”

“Ah…” incredulously gasped Mizusaki, his eyes open wide in surprise. “How…?”

“Murayama Yamase, August 30th, 29 years old,” continued reciting M1 as he switched his gaze to the soldier next to him. “Entered the army with 18, worked for 2 years in Japan and then was transferred to Germany for a few years. Returned to Japan to take leadership over his current squad, bringing with him from Germany two orphan rookies. One of them being…” M1 once again moved his gaze, this time looking to the soldier being strangled by him. “Ikusaki Shouichi, January 1st… Killed in action at 21 years old.”

“Shit…! Shoot him right now!” ordered Murayama, throwing his now useless rifle to the floor and taking from the holster on his hip one of his handguns, readily firing against the target.

Both Miue and Mizusaki also took aim at M1 and started firing, praying to the gods that none of the bullets would hit their squad members but rather saved Ikusaki’s life. However, none of the bullets hit anything except a wall. Ikusaki had been released and was alone on the floor gulping down the biggest amount of air that he could manage.

“Hehehe…” wickedly laughed M1, picking up one of the bombs on the floor as leisurely walked to the door. He stopped under the frame and looked to the four soldiers inside of the cell. “I wonder what would happen if I activated the bombs once again by pressing the button that you were so kind to show the location of and then let this bomb that I’m holding onto accidentally slip out of my hand. It would go kaboom! and the whole room would get a new makeover.”

“Try to do that and I will issue the execution of your friends on the first floor through radio communication,” threatened Murayama, glaring to the malicious target. “No matter how fast on your feet you are, you wouldn’t be able to reach the first floor on time to prevent that from happening.”

“…” The mischievous smirk on M1’s face was completely wiped out of there with those words. He kept the soldiers under his gaze for a few more seconds and then dropped the bomb back to the floor. M1 walked towards Murayama, who was aiming his handgun at him. He put his arms behind his back and slowly turned around so that he could be handcuffed by the soldier. “It’s not in my plans to get any of them killed before I can introduce myself.”