“Okay, guys! Listen very closely to what I’m going to say!” started Murayama, his arms crossed over his chest as he remained in front of the airport’s main door. His eyes sternly observed both his fellow soldiers and the six Ms. “You are all soldiers… some of some sort, I guess… so you should be used to the normal procedures of the military world. We, the Japanese soldiers, need to have our briefings now and you, the Ms, need to be feed!”

“It was about time…” grumbled M2, chewing at the tip of his thumb while looking at Murayama with disinterested eyes.

“We’ll be divided into two groups, one for the briefing and the other to keep an eye on you guys while you eat,” explained Murayama, his eyes surveying the group in front of him in search for any questions or complaints. “Ikusaki, Eki, Mizusaki, Umiko and Kuwabayashi, you guys will take charge of the Ms until the first part of the briefing is concluded. You will then exchange positions with Miue, Kinjou, Hisaka and James so that you can also be up to date with the things discussed in the briefing.”

“Yes, sir!”

“The first briefing group can come with me now, to a location… far away from prying ears,” instructed Murayama, his eyes this time solemnly focused on the Ms. He could have sworn that all of them were aware that they were the mentioned ‘prying ears’, the way a smirk appeared in M1’s lips and M3 loudly snorted. “Are there any questions?”

Murayama once again scanned the group with his eyes to check if everything had been clear for everyone, nodding his head afterwards as he noted that there was none, once again

“Good! Then let’s get go—“

“Um…”

“WOAH!” yelped Murayama, taking a few steps back when M0 appeared in front of him all of a sudden. His heart thundering in his chest, Murayama swallowed hard and straightened his body once again, clearing his throat loudly to fully regain his stance. “What is it, M0?”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘feed’?” asked M0, his head slightly tilted to the right while he intently stared at the soldier with unblinking grey eyes.

“…Huh?”

-.-

“This is beyond pitiful…” sighed Kinjou, looking outside of the mirrored-window down to the large area two floors below the room where the briefing was occurring. His eyes were slightly narrowed as he observed the Ms sat down in a table, apparently happily talking with each other while getting their first taste of ‘human food’. “I don’t mean to sound forgiving of the violent actions they took against the lab workers, but they had a fucking good reason to slaughter them all. How can an 18 years old boy not know what ‘food’ is…?”

“M1 told me that M0 is pretty much a blank slate when it comes to anything that isn’t directly related to his function as a super soldier. I guess ‘food’ isn’t something that he had to concern himself with, in term of being an M,” pointed out Murayama, a deep frown on his face as he remained with his lower back leaned on a large table. “He seems to run more over instinct than rationality, at least in a basic survival level, so he probably has a different concept of food from our own. No, he probably has a different concept of everything around him.”

“I don’t think it’s only M0 that sees the world in a different way,” interrupted Miue, a deep frown on his features too. “All of them went through the same shitty childhood. None of them can be expected to act like a proper human being this late in the game. They are basically adults, being 18 years old. It’ll be impossible to fully rehabilitate them in terms of acting like proper members of society now. Heh… They probably don’t even want to be a part of the human society, the way they fucking look down on us!”

“They do indeed look a little… you know, cuckoo in the head?” said James, his finger making circular motions near his head to exemplify what he meant. “Can’t blame them, like you said. Being turned from a normal human being into a mass murder machine must mess with anybody’s head to a completely irreversible level. We aren’t even aware of the methods used to make them become what they are. It could have been some sort of medicine or drug, nano-technology, genetic modifications to the human genome… I can only make wild guesses right now, not having any clear scientific information about any of them.”

“I guess that’s why we’re having this briefing right now,” sighed Murayama, his arms crossing over his chest as he spoke. “We should fully expose everything that we have heard inside of our respective humvees. Anything related to the conversations exchanged between the Ms or between them and ourselves. We should go by order of the vehicles so I’ll start. From what M1 has told me, their bodies are the same as ours, in a physical sense. Only enhanced immensely to enable them a better performance in pretty much anything that we can do. That means they are stronger, faster, smarter, with an augmented sense of hearing and perfect memorization.”

“Yes, M4 also mentioned that they have perfect memorization at some point,” confirmed Miue with a short nod of his head.

“M1 has also said that they don’t exactly sleep, at least in the same sense that we do,” continued Murayama, a slightly confused look on his face at his own words. “I don’t get what he meant by not doing it in the same way as us. What did you see inside of M3’s cell, Kinjou, James?”

“I have no idea,” shortly answered Kinjou, shrugging his shoulders as he exchanged a quick glance with James. “M3 took ages to reply to us and when he did, he was in a really bad mood. We didn’t open the cell before we got an answer back from him, just to play safe and all that, so I have no idea how he was when supposedly ‘sleeping’.”

“Well, I guess that is something that we should keep an eye on, then,” announced Murayama, giving a nod in acknowledgement at Kinjou. “In terms of characterization, as far as it concerns both M1 and M0. They truly seem to be in some sort of romantic relationship with each other. I could have very well gone without seeing them shamelessly flirting with each other in the backseat… I have no idea how they ended up like that, though, taking into consideration that they have personally met for the first time last night. M0 is completely ignorant of the world, in a pretty pitiful way, but he seems somewhat more… I don’t know, sane than the others? It’s hard to describe it with words but he seems to be slightly different from the other Ms. M1 clearly seems to have taken the leadership position when it comes to all of the Ms. It’s also more common to see him touching M0 than the other way around and he seems to be murderously possessive and protective of him, though he actually listens to what he has to say and follows his words instead of ordering him around constantly, so I’m not very sure of how their relationship’s power balance actually works. He seems to have a good awareness of the world, though still a very basic one. And, in terms of danger levels, I would say that he’s the most likely to act aggressively towards other people. Especially if it would involve M0 in some sort of way.”

“I think I understand what you mean when you call M0 different from the other five,” acknowledged Kinjou, switching gaze momentarily to the mirrored-window, taking a quick glimpse of M0 downstairs, and then returning his eyes to Murayama. “From what I can interpret of M3’s words, M0 wasn’t given birth to and he doesn’t possess a mother or a father.”

“What does that even mean, not being given birth to and not having parents?” asked James, a completely lost expression on his face as he curiously looked at his squad’s captain.

“I have no idea,” answered Kinjou with a quick shrug of his shoulders. “M3 said that neither M0 nor M1 would like him to touch that subject so he didn’t. But he did say something extremely curious about the two of them. He said that they are two but one at the same time.”

“Huh?” interject Murayama, Miue and James at the same time, pretty much mimicking the reaction that had gone around inside of the humvee when M3 had dropped those words on Kinjou, Hisaka and Ikusaki.

“He said that it was basic math, that one plus zero could only ever be one and that even they couldn’t change that,” continued Kinjou, even him starting to get confused at his own words. “Argh! I don’t know! M3 said to ask M1 for permission to know more about M0! In terms of characterization, M3 lacks quite a lot of coherence. He seems extremely lazy but at the same time, he gets unexpectedly heated up and protective when it comes to M0. He said that their relationship could be described with the human term ‘best friends’.”

“Ah…” hesitantly acknowledged Murayama, an eyebrow slightly perked up. Maybe it wasn’t only M1 they had to keep an eye on when it concerned M0. “Going back to the subject of not having being given birth to… Is that why M1 called M0 the oldest of them all, in one of their ages? Is it somehow related to his zero numbered code name?”

“As I said, I have no idea what he meant by that,” sighed Kinjou, quickly adjusting his glasses. “I guess our best solution would be approaching M0 directly and ask him about it. Or maybe it would be safer to go to M1 to get the answers. Just to play safe.”

“…” A deep silence was installed inside of the conference room. After a couple of minutes, Murayama lifted his eyes from the floor and looked over to his second-in-command. “What do you have for us, Miue?”

“Well, apart for M5’s non-stop yapping, I guess the most important conversation was about the functions that every single one of them possesses as a super soldier,” said Miue, a vein popping up on his forehead at simply recalling the deprecating words about the human race that were spewed by M5.

“They have functions? As if a normal squad made of soldiers?” inquired Murayama, starting to get deeply interested in that piece of information.

“Apparently,” acknowledged Miue with a small shrug of his shoulders. “M5 said that they all possess the same basic characteristics that make them super soldiers but some are more developed than others, depending on their function. M5’s function is infiltration. He can do spy work… and doesn’t feel any pain in his body, since he mentioned that the scientists were ‘kind’ enough to erase the sensation of pain from his body through multiple torture sessions. M4’s function is sniping and he’s well versed in any kind of mechanized weapon. M3’s is assault. He’s pretty much even more of a killing machine than the others and, quoting M5’s words, he would probably be able to make a weapon out of a plush toy.”

“Uhh…” groaned James, feeling a shudder run down his spine at those insanely bloody words. The other soldiers felt the same.

“M2’s function is defence and he’s pretty much the same as M3 in terms of training, but more aimed towards protecting rather than killing,” continued Miue, a new frown appearing on his features as he prepared himself for his next words. “M1’s function is, just like you said, Murayama, the position of commander. M5 called him the ‘control tower’. He was only instructed in the arts of strategic thinking and leadership because he was fucking born to be a mass murder machine, the way M5 said he killed one of the scientists as a freaking three years old brat.”

“Is it really okay for us to bring them to our base?” asked James with an extremely exhausted voice. “They said they have a third mission to accomplish. What if that mission is eliminating our entire base and then move to the next one and then the next one, wiping out the entire Japanese army?”

“No, I don’t think that’s their objective with this ‘third mission’,” readily denied Murayama, straightening his body against the table and taking a peek at M0 through the mirrored-window. “I don’t think killing anyone is involved in it. That’s what M0 told us in an indirect way when he agreed to sign the contract with us and suggested that we could kill them if they breached it in any way. Which leads me to ask, what is his function?”

“No fucking clue,” said Miue, angrily kicking a chair nearby him as he once again reached the peak of his foul mood. “Apparently we ‘stupid humans’ aren’t ‘worthy’ of knowing anything about M0!”

“Okay, I get it, I get it! Just… calm down, Miue,” tried Murayama, crossing his arms over his chest once again as he closely observed his second-in-command. “What the heck happened inside the humvee, for you to be this pissed off?”

“I’m just itching to kick a certain babbling blondie to a fucking pulp, that’s all,” said Miue, clicking his tongue afterwards as he was once again remembered that he couldn’t do it because of the contract he had signed. “I won’t, though. For now, at the very least…”

“I hope so,” warned Murayama, starting to worry about their imminent deaths now – his second-in-command was probably the quickest of them all at using his fists to solve anything that deeply annoyed him. It seemed that M5 was now the first entry in the long list of things that angered Miue. “James, what about you?”

“M2 told us a little bit about their serial numbers,” started James, his hand motioning to behind his back as he pointed at it with his thumb. “You know, those tattoos they have on their lower backs.”

“Oh yeah, now that you mentioned it, I did see something like that while they were getting dressed,” acknowledged Kinjou, motioning his hand up to his chin in a thinking motion.

“It’s their serial numbers or code names,” explained James. “It proves they have earned their title as a full-fledged super soldier by the lab that created them. The place where it’s located and type is different depending on what kind of super soldier they are, or so said M2. Which comes to prove that they aren’t the only super soldiers that ‘The Union’ has created up until now.”

“…”

“M5’s code name isn’t tattooed in the same place as the others because he wasn’t supposed to have taken that place. I don’t know why he ended up there, but it seems he ‘stole’ it from another test subject?” continued James, his head slightly tilted as he thought about M2’s explanation. “M0’s serial number is in the back of his neck. M2 said M0 was appointed as M0 as soon as he was born and the tattoo had to be placed in a portion of his skin that wouldn’t stretch and grow as much as the other parts of his body. I think… both M0 and M1 were born inside of the lab, while the other four were brought there.”

“That explains how M1 could kill one of the scientists at the age of three,” pointed out Kinjou, a deep frown on his face.

“But if M0 wasn’t given birth to, doesn’t have parents, is the oldest of them all and was born inside of the lab…” added Miue, having calmed down considerably after taking a short break. “Then just what the fuck is M0 supposed to be?”

“That’s… a very good question…” mumbled Murayama, his eyes once again switching to the mirrored-window, more precisely to M0 down below.