The soldiers observed with an eyebrow slightly arched as M0 craned his head backwards and started whispering in M1’s ear, his lips not even half an inch away from touching his skin. Their eyebrows got even more arched when M1’s eyes suddenly opened wide in surprise and then started glancing sideways in their direction.

“Ehh... Really, now?” said M1, a smirk on his lips as he straightened his head and adjusted his hugging position with M0’s body. “M2, M3, M4, M5! Change of plans.”

“...!” Hearing M1’s words, all of the soldiers instinctively lunged their hands towards their weapons, their bodies ready to fight for their lives until the very bitter end - which would come soon nevertheless. They were dealing with super soldiers designed to mass murder – it was more than obvious who would be the winner in case the Ms broke loose and started another killing spree.

“The fourth mission is now to be joined with the current one,” announced M1, turning his head around just a little bit so he could look at his friends, who stood right behind him and M0. “Until the grand finale of the third mission is successfully accomplished, just proceed in the same way as you have up until now.”

The Ms nodded their heads in acknowledgement and silently continued to stare in the soldiers’ direction. M3’s expression twisted with an evil smirk as he softly mumbled to himself again and again, ‘This is finally getting interesting’.

“So,” continued M1, switching his gaze back to the soldiers and bringing back their attention to him with it. “When exactly will the departure to your military base occur?”

“As soon as the two pilots rest for a little bit...” answered Murayama with a certain suspicion, a deep frown on his features as he tried to think about the best course of action towards both the six Ms and their return to the military base. He had no idea what exactly had made M1 suddenly decide to change their plans but the little that he knew of him and of his personality was enough to make an alarm ring loudly inside of his brain, warning him of every little imminent danger that was now possible to come their way.

Well, Murayama was at least aware that it had been M0’s words bringing about said sudden change, but their contents had been lost in the midst of his whispers to M1’s ear.

“Okay, guys! After a 30 minutes break for En and Tou to rest, we’re getting the hell out of here and finally return to our base,” announced Murayama, raising his voice so that everyone could clearly hear his words – he didn’t want to follow the same sneaky acts of the targets and would now publicly announce every single order and exchange of words between the soldiers to everyone. He was about to continue speaking when a voice interrupted his words.

“No, there’s no need for a break,” said Tou, a soft bright smile on his lips as he took a step forward. “I can be the pilot now and Shirose the co-pilot. We aren’t allowed to fly in a very speedy way right now because of the attack that happened a while ago in Russian territory so it’s actually better if we lift off as soon as possible to reach the base around the appointed time. They have reported to us that most of their preparations are complete so there’s no problem at all if we depart ahead of schedule.”

“Are you sure about that, Tou?” inquired Miue, a small frown creasing his brows at the part ‘most of their preparations are complete’. “Piloting isn’t that easy of a feat and can be quite energy-draining, especially if done under so much pressure.”

“I don’t see any problems with pulling that off. And I’m sure Shirose feels the same,” answered Tou, his smile stretching just the slightest. He gave a soft nudge with his elbow at En’s arm, who simply scoffed in agreement. “See? Shall we go the—“

The whole area was yet again illuminated by a crimson red light, M0’s eyes glowing intensely as he stared at Tou.

“M0, enough with the creepy light show,” admonished Murayama, a shudder running down his spine as he tried to soothe down his yet again thundering heart – these sudden scares that M0 apparently could pull off without any warning or rhythm to them surely weren’t good for his health. “If you keep on doing it, I’ll put a blindfold on yo—“

“You will what now, Murayama Yamase?” interrupted M1, his eyes now the ones illuminating the large area with crimson light. A deep expression of hatred was painted all over his face, his arms and body protectively surrounding M0’s. “Get three meters close to M0 and I’ll choke you to death by using your own hands.”

“...!” Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to say out loud any possible punishment towards M0 or any of the other Ms, as the chill going down Murayama’s spine, and, for that matter, all the other soldier’s, could prove. Or maybe the mention of blindfolds had awakened some sort of traumatic memory in M1 since he was using one when Murayama’s squad opened his cell.

Either way it goes, I won’t risk mentioning anything of the sort ever again, inwardly mumbled Murayama, quickly averting M1’s piercing gaze as he felt that it was slowly sucking all life out of his body – similar to what a grim reaper would most likely be able to do. And without a doubt, all six of them were grim reapers, humans-turned-weapons that wouldn’t bat an eye at seeing any of them killing all the people inside of the airport and close vicinity. They wouldn’t even try to stop them and would gladly join in the massacre.

“I’ll try to control myself,” said M0, one of his hands grabbing onto M1’s arm and doing soothing motions against his skin with his thumb. He gave a quick bow with his head and added, “I apologize, Murayama Yamase. To you too, Miue Satoshi. I hope that M5 didn’t hurt you in any way with that remark about your past.”

“I think I probably hurt him more than he did to me. Well, if he felt any pain himself, that is,” scoffed Miue, giving a quick shrug with his shoulders. “And about that... It shouldn’t be you apologizing, M0. It’s M5’s actions so he should be the one assuming the consequences.”

“You give me even more reasons to apologize then,” continued M0, his face becoming even more expressionless and detached (or maybe it was simply the soldiers’ imagination because it was impossible to overmatch the already creepy perpetual lack of emotions that apparently only M0 displayed). “I was the one who informed M5 of your past. He used that information in the wrong way, apparently, so I’m apologizing for providing it to him in the first place.”

“From where did you hear... that about?” inquired Miue, a deep frown mixed with anger twisting his features.

“I... We have our sources,” shortly answered M0, the corner of his lips turning almost a fraction of a millimetre upwards to form a knowing smirk that no one seemed to notice. With the exception of M1, that is, the way he softly chuckled against his neck.

“Isn’t that unfair as hell?” pointed out Ikusaki, scrunching his nose around at the underhanded methods that the Ms used to play around with their heads. “You know everything about us, even our pasts. And yet we know nothing about you! Even if you're going to give us all that information once we get back to the military base, you've known about us and started making your plans and nasty schemes basing yourselves in that knowledge.”

“I’m missing the point of what you want to say, Ikusaki Shouichi,” said M0, his head slightly tilted to the right as he curiously observed the soldier.

“I’m trying to say that we can’t really move around you six without risking to have ‘choked to death by their own hands’ in our chart in the morgue!” yelled Ikusaki, a vein popping out in his forehead. “If we don’t talk to you, we won’t get to know you. But since we don’t know you, we have no fucking idea of what will make you go berserk once again and turn us into minced meat!”

“M5 was tortured 3,207 times since the day he was born. M4 has shot 95,341,949 accurate bullets against human targets out of 95,341,953. M3 has broken 7,033 human bones. M2 took 1,002 bullets on his body. M1 managed to deactivate the bombs on his cell all by himself 166 times, all of them being altered afterwards. I killed all of the super soldiers created by ‘The Union’ that were deemed as failures,” started M0, a serious glint in his eyes as he did his enumeration of information about him and the other five Ms. “Is that enough for now, Ikusaki Shouichi?”

“Yes... That’s enough...” managed to croak Ikusaki, not being able to look any of the targets in the eye after M0’s confession came to an end. He turned around on his heels and furiously started to walk away from that area.

“S-Shouichi?” called Eki, his head quickly whipping around his surroundings so that his eyes could follow after the soldier withdrawing from his position. He gave a short run towards him and tried to match his hasty footsteps as they grew further and further away. “Where are you going?”

“...”

“Shouichi, you’re not thinking about abandoning our mission, right?” worriedly asked Eki, trying to take a glimpse of his childhood friend’s face as he continued to try to catch up with his quickened stride. “You’re going to have to face the court-martial if you walk away and abandon the mission. Hey, Shouichi! Are you listening to—“

Crash! The sound of glass shattering and falling on the ground echoed through the long, empty corridor.

“...cking disgusting...” mumbled Ikusaki, one of his hands closed in a tight fist and piercing a hole in the window they had been passing by at that moment. “That sparkling blondie had pain forcibly inflicted to his body over 3,000 times... M4 and M3 were forced to attack who knows how many thousands of people to reach those insane numbers... The cookie monster’s body was shot again and again and he still walks and breathes, looking all happy while eating junk food and snacks... The psycho bastard had those bombs around him for years to no end and he still continued to find methods to deactivate them, probably thinking that he would find a safe way of getting the shorty out of his cell... And M0... he was fucking forced to kill those that had to go through the same shitty life as them simply because they were called ‘failures’! Just how fucking disgusting are we, humans!?!?”

“Shouichi...” softly called Eki, his eyes wide open as he observed the tears flowing down Ikusaki’s blazing-with-anger eyes.

“Fuck! Shit!!” cursed Ikusaki, lunging his other hand upwards and furiously cleaning his tears. He let his body drop on the floor and hit the back of his head against the wall, not minding at all the broken shards of glass underneath him. “This is just... so fucking wrong. They’re not the ones who are messed up, it’s this damn world that is! Shit...! Why... Why do this sort of things to children? They’re not that younger than me and I’ve only met them a couple of hours ago but holy fuck if I don’t feel like killing every single member of ‘The Union’ right now!”

“Shouichi, take a deep breath and calm down,” sighed Eki, lowering his body and crouching down in front of Ikusaki. “M0 probably said those things to continue to mess around with our heads. I think he’s the nastiest out of all of them, even though his appearance is that of an innocent angel.”

“No, you’re wrong, Yasuhisa,” said Ikusaki, shaking his head just the slightest while he lifted his eyes from the floor and looked over to Eki. “I can see it now. M0 said that he was the one who informed M5 of Miue-san’s past. That means he should also know my and your past. The other guys too. He said those things not to make us feel pity towards them or to manipulate us any further... He was trying to put himself on the same level as us by telling us about a small bit of the fucking childhoods they all had while being tested in the lab. He was trying to make himself an equal of ours! Even though he could kill us all whenever he wants, even though he sucks at it, he’s trying to make himself act like a human! They are all making an effort to do it! They just... don’t know how. That’s why they mess up big time and make us think that they are playing around with our heads.”

“Shoui—“

All of a sudden, Ikusaki bolted back up on his own feet, immediately running back to the large central area. He ran as fast as he could, leaving Eki behind, who was calling him with a voice full of clear worry, and surprising his fellow soldiers with his abrupt return.

“M0,” said Ikusaki, his breathing rhythm slightly elaborated as he stopped right in front of M0 (and subsequently M1, since they were still glued to one another). “Call my name.”

“...?” M0 immediately tilted his head to the right, not understanding the request that the soldier was making to him. “Ikusaki Shouichi?”

“Not like that,” explained Ikusaki, shaking his head around just the slightest as his gaze remained stuck on M0. “Call my name in the same way as you call the other five.”

All of the soldiers in the room gaped their mouths wide open. Not because of the unusual and uncharacteristic words that Ikusaki was saying. But because of the beautiful and full of emotion smile that immediately appeared in M0’s face.

“Ikusaki-kun.”