“And then, that woman’s and man’s mouth just suddenly crashed against one another and I was like, ‘What the heck are they doing!?’ When I asked the disgusting torturers about it, they simply ignored me and told me to keep my eyes on the box thingy with images inside,” continued to babble M5 – an incessant one-sided conversation that had begun as soon as the humvee’s engine had been started. They had departed from the fallen lab one and half hours ago. “The only one who actually gave me an answer was the big boobies lady!”

“…”

“She said that what that man and woman had done was called ‘kissing’ and that it was a representation of an emotion called ‘love’,” continued M5, an excited expression on his face. “I still don’t really get any of the two, but I told them to the other Ms through the letters and both M0 and M1 enjoyed knowing about it quite a lot~”

“They must have since I was told that they kissed as soon as they met…” mumbled Mizusaki, even him getting tired of the never-ending speech coming from M5’s mouth. He cleared his throat and tried to change the topic of the conversation, in hopes that it would make M5 shut up for a couple of minutes. “You guys have mentioned this ‘big boobies lady’ a few times now. Who is she?”

“Oh, she’s— Ouch!” started saying M5 but M4 suddenly pinched the skin of the back of his hand, making his body flinch just the slightest. “What was that for, M4~?”

“Don’t yell and stop talking already,” admonished M4, a sour expression on his face as he adjusted his glasses. “I know you can’t usually talk about whatever crosses your head but you’re going overboard with the things you’re saying. M1 won’t like it if you say too much ahead of time.”

“I know that... But…” grumbled M5, a dissatisfied expression on his face as he pouted. “M1 has been talking with Murayama Yamase and even M3 has been giving away some information regarding M1 and M0 to the soldiers boarding the same car as him. I also want to share my knowledge with them~”

“Nothing that you have said has been new information for us,” groaned Miue, his finger impatiently tapping at the steering wheel as he felt his annoyance towards M5 escalating more and more with each word that exited his mouth. “And when I say ‘nothing’, I mean really nothing.”

“It’s not like he’s the smartest out of all of us, so you can’t really expect much out of M5,” pointed out M4, looking over to the outside scenery through the window and observing the sun continuing to rise high in the sky.

“You’re also not the smartest of us,” countered M5, sticking his tongue out at the other super soldier. “How many times have you lost in your almost childish competitions against M1? Oh wait, it would be easier to ask you how many times you’ve won since the answer is zero.”

“Tsk… The next time I get a gun in my hands, I’m going to put a bullet in you and blow up with an arm or a leg,” grudgingly mumbled M4, feeling a strong hinge of irritation at those words.

“Be my guest,” accepted M5 with a shrug of his shoulders and a nonchalant expression on his features. “It’s not like I would feel any pain even if you did something like that~”

“Then why did you go ‘ouch!’ on me when I pinched your hand just now?” asked M4, looking over to M5 with a sideways glance.

“It’s what humans do when they get pinched somewhere in their body!” explained M5 in the form of a yelp. “I was told that I needed to perfectly mimic everything that humans do. That’s my function as an M – copying humans – and that’s why they allowed me to get access to the box thingy every time I was outside of my cell.”

“Wait… You have functions as super soldiers?” repeated Miue, an eyebrow getting slightly arched as he took a peek to the blonde through the rear mirror.

“…!” M5 immediately slapped his mouth shut with the palms of his hands, M4 simply releasing an exasperated sigh while rolling his eyes around. “Ah… Um…”

“Is it in the same way as we soldiers have functions in each squad or there’s another meaning to it?” asked further Mizusaki, turning his body around on the front passenger seat so he could look over to the two targets on the seats behind him.

“Um… I can’t really… Ah…” tried to say M5, shaking his head in denial, but his discourse came out broken and in the shape of an even messier babble. His eyes switched around between the two soldiers that closely observed him and, not knowing what to do in this sort of situations, he released a sigh. “M1, c-can I tell them about it?”

“Huh?” interjected both Miue and Mizusaki at the same time, not understanding why M5 was directing a question to M1 when they were in different vehicles.

“Okay, got it,” suddenly acknowledged M5 with a nod of his head. “M1 said I can tell you about it for as long as I don’t mention anything about M0.”

“Right…” also acknowledged Miue, taking a sideways glance to his fellow squad member with a completely lost expression on his face. Mizusaki harboured a similar expression too.

“All of us were created to be super soldiers, yes, but we were made with the intention of working as something similar to a squad, just like you do,” started explaining M5, a serious demeanour on his features as he settled his body in a comfortable position on the backseat. “We can very easily fend off by ourselves without needing the others, but we supposedly are at our best when working as a team. Well, not that I would know since we only got all together for the first time a couple of hours ago.”

“…”

“The six of us possess the same basic characteristics but we were trained to have some specializations,” continued M5. “My function is infiltration. I was being taught how to act like a human in order to infiltrate any type of organization, civilization, country, you name it, without being caught. Apparently, since I would be in contact with humans more frequently than the others, I was forced to undergo several types of training so I could withstand any sort of torture. In the end, those disgusting torturers decided to completely erase the sensation of pain from my body with not-all-that-pain-free methods.”

“If I was to put a name on my function, it would be the sniper,” explained M4 this time, once again adjusting his glasses. “I was being instructed on how to operate with any type of mechanized weapon, from construction to maintenance. They obviously included training sessions with weapons and several ‘field trips’ where I needed to put my ‘lessons’ forward in a real-life situation. I now can use any type of rifle, handgun, shotgun, machine gun, you name it.”

“M3’s function is assault,” continued M5, a small frown appearing on his brows. “He’s versed in any type of weapon that can be used in the battlefield and he has been trained to the bone in the most diverse of hand to hand combat techniques, martial arts and all that can be associated with them. He has quite the creativity when it comes to killing people so he would probably be able to make a weapon out of a plush toy.”

That’s not a very nice image to have in my head..., inwardly mumbled both Miue and Mizusaki at the same time, a shudder running down their spines.

“M2 has been trained with the function of defence,” added M5. “Most likely because his body ended up being the biggest out of all of us and would be the best shield if it came into need. He has pretty much undergone the same training as M3 but with a more defensive approach rather than straight out slaughtering humans.”

“What about M1?” asked Miue, gulping down hard the thick knot that appeared in his throat at the thought alone of what could possibly be the function of the craziest of them all, as far as he was aware.

“M1 has the function of the control tower,” answered M5, giving a quick shrug with his shoulders. “He sets the orders and develops the strategies for our missions, we put them forward to the best of our abilities. He’s what you'd call ‘commander’.”

“Then he was only instructed in strategic functions?” asked Mizusaki, part of him surprised that it had been M1 the one who had undergone the simplest training out of all of them.

“Yes,” acknowledged M5, though the mischievous smirk that appeared on his lips told the two soldiers that there was more to it than he was letting on right now. “M1 has the innate talent of being able to kill humans without having been taught about it. He didn’t require any lessons on how to wield a gun or which bone he needs to break to make the victim suffer the most. Our friendly torturers got quite a surprise when he suddenly killed one of them at the age of three~”

“…”

“So all they needed to do was educate him in strategic thinking and have him learn how to be a leader,” added M5, a pouting expression once again popping out on his features. “I wouldn’t really want to go through the same training sessions as him, but I do feel jealous of the fact that he has gone outside of the lab the most out of all of us…”

“If you can tell us about the functions of all five of you, why doesn’t M1 allow you to tell us about M0’s function?” suddenly asked Mizusaki, even though he knew he would most likely regret having done so – M0 seemed to be a very sensitive topic when it concerned all of the Ms.

“Hah! Do you really think that you stupid humans deserve to know anything about M0?” snorted M5, a mocking smirk on his lips as he glanced over to the two soldiers. “Because of you, M0 never had anything in all 18 years of his life. Closed off inside of his cell all the time, under the threat of blowing up if he, or any of us, disobeyed those disgusting torturers’ words, and being released of the bottom floor only to be forced to— No, you definitely aren’t worthy of learning anything about him.”

“You do realize that it was us who took you out from your cells, right?” pointed out Mizusaki, a deep frown on his face as he intently stared at M5. “We are nothing like the scientists and workers from that lab. Or any similar lab that may be hidden out there.”

“Sure, right~” scoffed M5, rolling his eyes at the silly words that the soldier was throwing at him. “In the end, all of you humans are the same. You use one another to obtain the results that you want to get if it benefits you in terms of social standing, money or any type of physical needs. Once you are done with accomplishing your objectives, you throw those pieces away as if they’re nothing more than trash. Your underdeveloped brains only enable you to take it that far since ancient times. It’s because you think of yourselves as superior beings and the eternal emperors of the food chain that you are so easily manipulated into betraying, killing, massacring one another, using the words ‘justice’, ‘loyalty’ and ‘beliefs’ as excuses to simply do whatever pleases you the most. Deep down, all the wars occurring around the world are of your collective responsibility, even of those that aren’t directly linked to the army or the rebel groups spread around the globe. It’s your fault that we were turned into nothing more than mass murder machi—“

All of a sudden, the Humvees’ brakes were hastily pressed and a violent yank made their bodies motion forward with the brain shaking momentum. With quick and trained movements, Miue took his handgun from its holster and turned around on the driver seat, the barrel of his weapon readily being tightly pressed against M5’s forehead.

“I don’t care if I’m going to be killed by your friends but I will put a fucking bullet in your stupid skull if you don’t stop treating us humans like we are a piece of shit to be flushed down the toilet,” threateningly warned Miue while glaring daggers at M5. “You say that your function is to copy humans but you don’t understand a single thing about those that are really considered humans, only about the motherfuckers who are just as disgusting as you make us sound. No, you don’t even care enough to try to understand us because your stupid brain is filled with fucking thoughts of how all of you are the victims and we the perpetrators of your messed up childhoods. If I hear you putting us humans down one more time, I swear I will beat the living lights out of you and leave you in a ditch to be eaten by dogs, hopefully ones with the same freaking age as you!”

“…”

“Are we clear?” asked Miue, pressing the barrel of his handgun even closer against the target’s forehead.

“…Yes…” acknowledged M5, his eyes wide open as he intently looked over to Miue, not minding at all the gun being pointed at him and focusing solemnly on the words being forcibly thrown his way.

“Good,” also acknowledged Miue with a nod of his head, letting the gun drop a little bit first before fully withdrawing it from near M5’s head.

The moment Miue turned his body around on his seat to once again face the steering wheel, the communication device in the control panel of the humvee started to beep and blink.

“Ah, I-I’ll take this,” said Mizusaki, breaking out of his flabbergasted self at the risky actions that his superior had just taken towards one of their targets – he had threatened him at gunpoint and, if taken forward with a certain interpretation, Miue had just broken the contract made between the soldiers and the six Ms. He grabbed the communication device and pressed the speaking button. “Mizusaki speaking.”

“Is everything okay inside of humvee number 3?” asked Murayama, slight worry passing through the terrible noise that the channel was currently featuring. “You stopped your vehicle all of a sudden. Do you want me to send Kuwabayashi over to you?”

“No, it’s not needed. We just had a little disagreement between one of the passengers and the driver,” answered Mizusaki as he took a glance at Miue and saw him preparing the vehicle to depart once again. “We're resuming with following behind humvee number 2 as we speak.”

Hearing the words being said by the soldier occupying the front passenger seat, M5’s eyes remained stuck to the soldier sitting in front of him, who had once again started driving the car. He let his body slid down just a fraction against the backseat and silently motioned one of his hands up, softly biting into the nail of his thumb as if intending on keeping the smirk on his lips only to himself.