The moment the first humvee stopped, all the other vehicles behind, including the motorcycle, also came to a halt, a cloud of dust rising in the air – they had abandoned the rough and unleveled road an hour ago but the entirety of the vehicles was covered in layer after layer of mud and particles of dirt after twelve hours of travel in such dusty territory.

Now the soldiers and their assigned targets were back to human civilization and the large mass of buildings that constituted the airport was on sight, right in front of them.

“It was about fucking time!” groaned M3, kicking the backseat door open and ripping it off of its hinges, in a similar but more violent fashion of what had already happened to the opposite one.

“Hey, M3! I’ve told you to stop kicking doors open, didn’t I?” admonished Kinjou as he got outside of the vehicle, Hisaka doing the same from the front passenger seat and Ikusaki from the other backseat non-existent door.

“Yeah, yeah…” half-heartedly acknowledged M3, releasing a huge yawn that he didn’t even try to hide while stretching his body, arms raised high up in the air. He cracked his neck with a sickening snapping sound and then dropped his arms back to the sides of his body, starting to walk to the first humvee when the three soldiers stopped near him, their hands almost unconsciously hovering above their handguns.

“I’m going to ask this for the last time, now that we are in a place where other lives may be at stake,” said Kinjou as he stopped right in front of M3, also forcing the target to a halt. “The contract we made is to be followed until the very end. Correct?”

“Geez, you guys sure are suspicious ones, aren’t you?” scoffed M3, putting one of his hands on his hips and arching one of his eyebrows in surprise. “If M0 is okay with the contract, and wants it to be done correctly, then who am I to do anything that may put that contract in risk of being breached?”

“Then you guys just obediently do whatever M0 tells you to?” mumbled Ikusaki, dropping that question to no one in particular. “Quite the mini-boss you have there…”

“You’re mistaken about that,” said another male voice. When the three soldiers looked over in its direction, they saw both Mizusaki and Miue (who looked extremely pissed off) walking closer, together with M4 and M5. M4 adjusted his glasses and added, “I wouldn’t ask you to hold your breath in me obeying anything that M0 may tell me to do.”

“Well, talk for yourself, M4,” cheerfully said M5, a happy-go-lucky expression on his face as he skipped while walking. “I would do anything~ that M0 would ask me to do. We’re best friends, after all <3”

“I don’t remember having become your best friend, M5,” said another male voice, an extremely soft and expressionless one that made the words seem even crueller than they already were. All of the soldiers looked in its direction, once again, and saw Murayama and Umiko approaching them while accompanied by M1 and M0, who were yet again holding hands.

“Eh~ Don’t be mean, M0~” complained M5, an exaggerated pouting expression on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest in a sulking motion. “I thought that after all these years, we had grown to become best friends.”

“Do you consider me or M4 your ‘best friends’ too?” asked another voice, M2 this time around, accompanied by Eki and James.

“Hm… No, not really?” said M5 in the form of a question, his head slightly tilted as he closely thought about the answer to that question. “I quite enjoy talking with you, M2, but M4 is definitely a pain in the ass to talk with.”

“Hmph! It’s good to know that we hold the same opinion of one another,” acknowledged M4, turning his head away from the blonde in what could be considered a slightly sulking motion.

I guess some of them get along by not getting along, mumbled Murayama in the back of his head as he released a soft sigh while observing the arguing that continued between the four targets. Still better than seeing M1 and M0 going at—

As if his eyes were following according to his thoughts, Murayama glanced over to M1 and M0… or, to be more precise, to the place where they were supposed to be. His head immediately whipping back and forward through their surroundings, Murayama hurriedly tried to pinpoint the two targets’ current location. All on their own accord, the two of them walked towards the door that gave access to the inside of one of the buildings that made up the large airport.

“…!” Putting completely on the sidelines the other four bickering targets, Murayama quickly darted in their direction, his hand landing on top of his holster, just in case he would need it. “M1! M0! Stop right there!”

M1 turned his head slightly backwards, a mocking smirk on his lips as he shrugged his shoulders and then resumed his walking towards the door.

“Shit…!” cursed Murayama, accelerating his running pace even further. They were under a contract, which was valid because M0 so wished, but M1 was an expert in twisting words – if he set his mind to it, he could very easily find a crack in the basic contract created by Kinjou and breach it in the way that beneficiated the Ms the most. When the two of them stopped in front of the door, Murayama clicked his tongue and gave one last burst of speed, shortening their distance the quickest it was possible for an ordinary human soldier. “I told you to sto—“

“So you just need to rotate the metal piece to the right or left if it’s round and pull it down if it’s a straight bar?” asked M0, closely observing the doorknob that the door of the building featured.

“…!” Murayama came to a hurried halt on his running when he heard M0’s soft voice and noticed that they were simply… having a lecture about how doors worked?

“If it’s a door like this one, yes, that’s the only thing you need to do,” acknowledged M1, a soft smile on his face as he ruffled M0’s hair. “But there are other types of doors. For example, for cars, the handle is embedded in the door itself and it’s only a little bar that you need to pull towards yourself. There are also sliding doors, where you just need to slide the door to the left or to the right if you are inside or outside of the room. I’ve also heard that there’s a type of door that opens automatically once a person gets close to them through the means of a motion sensor.”

“They use motion sensors to make doors open?” asked M0, a slightly surprised expression on his face. “Why? If they do that, anyone would be able to enter the room, even if they aren’t allowed there.”

“That’s a good question. Would you mind explaining that to us, Murayama Yamase?” requested, almost in the form of an order, M1, looking sideways to the soldier that was looking over at them with a dumbstruck expression on his face.

“Eh? Ah… Um…” babbled Murayama, part of his brain still taken aback by the type of conversation going around. If he hadn’t seen them mass murdering the whole group of scientist a few hours previously, he would have pegged them to be the most innocent human beings in the world. “A-Automatic doors are usually found in places where the whole public has permission to access, like hospitals, shopping centres, convenience stores and the like.”

“…?” M0 tilted his head and switched his gaze from the soldier back to M1, an eyebrow slightly perked up.

“Hospitals are the place where the sick and hurt are attended to and healed,” explained M1, his soft smile once again present on his lips as he looked at M0 with eyes full of love. “Shopping centres are big buildings where people have access to a large variety of goods for their daily lives. Convenience stores are places where people can also have access to daily goods, but more simple and basic ones. Most of them are known for being open the whole day and night, during the whole year, opposite to the shopping centres, which are only open during a limited amount of hours during day time.”

“So if I wanted to get a knife or a Walther P99AS, I would only need to go to a ‘shopping centre’ or a ‘convenience store’?” asked further M0, straightening his head all of a sudden as those words exited his mouth.

“No, of course not! You can only find already made food and snacks, magazines and hygienic products in convenience stores,” readily corrected Murayama, feeling that M0’s innocence had once again been lost with the mention of weapons. “You obviously can’t find them in shopping centres either. It’s pretty much only clothes and accessories stores, bookstores, cafés, restaurants, electronic stores and shops that provide some sort of service to the citizens, like banks, cell phone services and, sometimes, post offices.”

“…?” M0 once again tilted his head and his gaze switched from Murayama back to M1 a second time, his grey eyes filled with incomprehension. “…??”

“You are not the best of teachers, are you?” taunted M1, a condescending smirk plastered on his lips as he sideways glanced to the soldier. “You are confusing M0 more than actually teaching him anything useful.”

“It’s not like I’m aware of what he knows and what he doesn’t know,” pointed out Murayama, a frown on his face due to being looked down on.

“Nothing,” shortly answered M1, wrapping his hand around M0’s pale one and leading him closer to himself, later on nestling his head against the side of his neck as he hugged him from behind. “Other than his own function as a super soldier, M0 knows nothing.”