“I’m M0, 18 years old in human age,” said M0, motioning his hand forward in Murayama’s direction.

“I’m Murayama Yamase, 29 years old. Obviously in human age,” introduced himself Murayama too, motioning his hand forward and giving a firm handshake to Mo.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Murayama-san,” acknowledged M0, giving a quick tug to the corner of his lips to form a brief smile. He released the soldier’s hand and took a step back, giving his position to M1.

“...” M1 kept an intense glare on his grey eyes as he took a step forward and unwillingly motioned his hand forward, an expression that almost resembled disgust if it wasn’t for his completely pissed off semblance. “I’m M1, 18 years old in human age... Pleasure to meet you, Yamase...”

“First name base already, are we?” pointed out Murayama with a teasing voice, a mischievous smirk on his lips as he also gave a handshake to M1. He almost felt his bones being turned into dust when M1 strongly squeezed his hand. “Ow...!”

“It was your idea, Yamase, to have us address to you in the same way as we address one another,” said M1, his eyes flickering red for a fraction of a second when a certain other soldier entered once again his field of view. “I call M0 and the others by their name and I will do the same with all of you. You should start getting used to that idea, even if you are to be considered my elder.”

“D-Did you just indirectly call me an old man...?” asked Murayama, a slightly flabbergasted expression on his face.

“You are 11 years our senior,” pointed out M1, giving a quick shrug with his shoulders. “Think of my words as you please because it won’t change that fact. It’s not like you can get any younger now, only older.”

A vein immediately popped out on Murayama’s forehead as he observed M1 turn around on his heels and pull M0 along with him.

“Hello there~ I’m M5! I’m 18 years old in human age and my sign is... Well, I have absolutely no idea which it is but it doesn’t matter!” cheerfully announced M5, throwing a wink to the soldiers. He motioned his hands slightly up and pointed with them to Miue, who was observing the exchange of words with a bored expression. “And this is Miue-senpai~ We are both pleased to make your acquaint— Ouch!!”

“They already know who I am, you fucking idiot!” roared Miue, giving a quick smack to the back of M5’s head. “And stop pretending it hurts! We already know very well that you don’t feel any pain!”

“Teehee~” laughed M5 in a cutesy way, his tongue slightly sticking out from in between his lips.

“’Teehee~’ my ass! Act like the age you have, not like a freaking brat!” admonished Miue, giving a quick kick to the blonde’s shin, who had absolutely no reaction compared to what had previously happened.

“W-What the heck is going on around between those two?” asked Mizusaki, a surprised expression on him as he observed the duo.

“I think Miue has gotten himself an admirer of some sort,” answered Kuwabayashi, an eyebrow slightly perked up as he continued to observe the passive and the aggressive conversation. “And for that matter... Hey, M5!”

“Hmm?” hummed M5, his gaze immediately looking at the source of the voice calling him. “What is it, Kuwabayashi?”

“You’re a being designed to kill humans,” started Kuwabayashi with an eloquent voice, clutching at the front of his soldier uniform with one of his hands in a dramatic motion. “I am a being that was designed to love humans. How come you managed to sweep that cute little kitten off of her feet in a short couple of minutes?”

“Ah... Um... I used the lines of a movie I was shown in the lab?” hesitantly answered M5, his head tilting just the slightest when he saw Kuwabayashi take a small notebook and a pencil out of his pocket and start writing on it while nodding his head.

“Which movie?” inquired Kuwabayashi, lifting his eyes from the notebook to take a peek at M5. “If you could give me the name of all the movies you have seen up until now, I’ll repay you with something of equal value.”

“Oh~ And what would that be?” asked M5, a mischievous glint of his eyes as he took a few steps closer to the soldier, his body moving in an almost predatory way with the prospect of getting something out of this unusual request.

“I’ll be your wingman when you go hunt down for chicks!” readily announced Kuwabayashi, a hopeful glint in his eyes. If he had M5 with him, he was sure that women would flock around them and he could use that chance to put forward his excellent – though without any results up until now – seduction skills.

“You kill women and want me to go with you the next time you do it?” asked M5, a slight frown on his face as he took a closer look to Kuwabayashi.

“What? No! I meant getting a girlfriend!” yelped Kuwabayashi, trying to correct that huge misunderstanding. “You know, it’s that thing you said you saw! The kiss scene that you informed the other Ms about! I want to get myself a girlfriend, someone who I can love and laugh and kiss and do all the other things that are included in the package when you date someone. You understand what I mean, right? Even if you are mass murder machines, you must be aware of the concept of love.”

“...!” M5’s features immediately brightened up at hearing those words, his eyes sparkling in happiness as he furiously nodded his head. “Of course! I really, reaaaaaaaaaaally love Re—“

Out of nowhere, M5’s whole body was thrown against the floor with enough strength to make the whole building tremble and a huge crater appeared around his fallen body. Both Miue and Kuwabayashi got thrown out of balance due to the impact.

“Be careful of what you say at hearing shot, M5,” warned M3, putting his foot back on the floor after performing a spinning back heel kick on M5. “M1 is already in a pretty shitty mood. Don’t make it worse with your babbling.”

“You’re right!” yelped M5, lifting his body up from the floor almost as if he hadn’t just been thrown down to the floor with a kick with strength enough to break ten tonnes of cement in smithereens. “M1 is scary as hell when angry!”

“No more than M0,” scoffed M3, giving one last glance at M5 before walking towards a small group of soldiers. He stopped in front of Ikusaki and motioned his hand forward. “I’m M3, 18 years old in human age.”

“Ikusaki Shouichi, 21 years old,” introduced himself Ikusaki, grabbing M3’s hand and giving him a quick but strong handshake. “Nice to meet ya.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” dismissed M3 as he rolled his eyes around just the slightest. Once his hand was released, he let it momentarily go back to the side of his body but it soon enough started to make another ascension, his fingers lightly scratching the back of his head as he averted looking directly to the soldier. “And thanks, Ikusaki.”

“For what?” suspiciously asked Ikusaki almost right away.

“For making M0 smile,” said M3, he himself happily grinning – even if it was all but for a second and a sly smirk replaced it afterwards. “It was also pretty interesting to hear a grown-up cry like a little baby.”

“S-Shut up!” roared Ikusaki, a light shade of pink dusting his cheeks as he averted the mischievous glint in M3’s eyes. “I only did what was correct. Any person in my place and circumstances would have done the same if they had really given it a thought!”

“You’re wrong. They wouldn’t,” corrected M3, shaking his head in denial. His gaze switched to the soldier that was standing right beside Ikusaki and motioned his hand forward in his direction, a serious demeanour on his face. “Yo, Eki. I can inform you right away that M0 is definitely not the nastiest out of all of us... if we are to include you soldiers in the equation.”

“Is that so? That’s reassuring to hear,” acknowledged Eki, a soft smile on his face. He also motioned his hand forward and clasped M3’s. He was about to formally introduce himself to M3 when a sudden pull on his arm made his body crash against the target’s, a shudder immediately running down his spine.

“I may not be able to pull it off, but the way you hide your true thoughts and feelings behind that expression always in your face won’t pass unnoticed by M0,” whispered M3, a deep glare on his eyes as he sideways looked at Eki. “He’s just kind enough to not point them out loud for everybody to hear.”

“I’ll also keep that in mind,” answered Eki in a hushed tone, giving a quick stretch to his smile as he took a few steps back and moved away from near M3. And it was exactly because he moved out of M3’s reach that he ended up bumping into an even bigger body.

“I don’t really mind what you keep hidden from others for as long as you continue giving me food,” sluggishly said M2, chewing once again at a candy wrap. “I’m M2, 18 years old in human age. Is there more food?”

“...Once we reach our base,” answered Eki, intently observing M2 with a certain suspicion. He motioned his hand forward nevertheless. “I’m Eki Yasuhisa, 22 years old.”

M2 gave a quick shrug with his shoulders and took hold of Eki’s hand, giving it a quick and awkward handshake.

“Geez, these guys are all so... weird,” mumbled Mizusaki, a slight frown on his brows as he continued to observe the interactions from afar all by himself after Kuwabayashi went off to pester M5 about pick up lines and seduction tricks. It was then that he noticed that M1 and M0 weren’t the only ones that had moved further away from the bustling conversations. Mizusaki walked over to near one of the pillars of the large area of the airport, where M4 was awkwardly standing while staring to the floor. “Hey~ I’m Mizusaki Shinobu, 21 years old. Nice to meet ya!”

M4’s reaction when Mizusaki motioned his hand forward to handshake him like all the others were doing almost came as a blow – M4 was looking at his limb as if he was offering him a bag full of dog shit, to be the nicest possible. However, even though he was twisting his nose as if he was going to get contaminated by some foul substance, even though his arm was being stretched forward at the pace of a snail, M4 still lightly wrapped his hand around Mizusaki’s and gave it a quick and very soft squeeze, withdrawing his hand right away to wipe it on his clothes.

“I’m M4, 18 years old in human age...” mumbled M4 as he continued to wipe his hand on his clothes while adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose, his eyes not directly looking at the soldier. “Nice to meet you...”

“You know, if you say that line while wiping your hands on your clothes as if your life depends on it...” started Mizusaki, putting his hands on his hips as he pushed his upper body forward so as to take a peek at M4’s face. “It won’t give a very good first impression. Well, none of you gave us a good first impression so I guess it’s sort of useless to try to change that now.”

“I can’t help it, okay?” grumbled M4, taking a step back so he could put distance between himself and Mizusaki. “The sin of disobedience is eating at me at the moment and having to interact with you is only making it worse!”

“...Huh?” interjected Mizusaki, not understanding a single word of what M4 was saying. From the reports he had gotten through the communication devices, he had already a certain awareness that M4 had a certain fixation on religious terms. But he couldn’t quite understand what the problem was when he was just randomly spouting sentences without any context. “Um… What exactly is it that you’re disobeying?”

“Isn’t that more than obvious?” groaned M4, once again averting looking at Mizusaki. “I’m a Mass Murder Machine. All humans I interacted with outside of the lab were killed the moment I laid my eyes on them. The fact that all of you are alive right now is a sin on itself.”

“Oh my... You’re actually a nice guy,” said Mizusaki, his voice a little bit more teasing than what he had intended it to be. He was honestly very surprised at hearing those words and see him doing his best to avoid looking at any of the soldiers. Up until then, he had viewed M4 as the coldest out of all of the targets – but in reality, he seemed to be pretty caring.

“Huh? And then you call us ‘weird’...” grumbled M4, his eyes switching once again to Mizusaki as he arched one of his eyebrows. “We killed the scientists and workers of the lab right in front of you. There’s no way the word ‘nice guy’ applies to any of us. Do me the favour and continue thinking of me as a machine designed to kill, and I’ll continue thinking of you as a lowly human.”

“Pfffft! I was complimenting you there!” started laughing Mizusaki, clutching at the sides of his torso. “Just how big of a tsundere are you? Ahahaha!”

“Just tell me what is a ‘tsundere’, Mizusaki!” yelled M4 as he lightly kicked the floor. It seemed that his words only made the situation even worse because Mizusaki burst out laughing even harder. “Mizusaki! Tell me right this moment what it is!”

“Ahahahahahaha!!!”