“Ah~ The wind sure feels nice~” sighed M5, his eyes closed as he let the wind quickly blow against his features and body while sitting on the roof of the airplane, his other five companions right next to him. “I wonder why they're all crumpled up inside of the cockpit when it’s this nice outside? I bet Senpai would quite enjoy the view~”

“Miue would die if he came here,” pointed out M3, stretching his arms above his head and then dropping them back to the metal plaques, a leisure and relaxed expression on his face. “And all of them would have died from decompression if they stayed in that place, with the door missing and whatnot.”

“So weak...” mumbled M2, biting on the tip of his thumb since the plastic wrap he had been chewing on had been blown away by the strong wind.

“Let’s forget about that for now and simply discuss the things we have to discuss,” interrupted M1, M0 comfortably snuggled in between his legs and hugged from behind by his arms and torso. “Rei, can you tell us your current findings?”

“There’s another super soldier aboard this airplane,” shortly announced M0, his eyes flickering their crimson red light for a fraction of a second. “He’s not of the same serial type as us and he’s broken. I don’t even understand how he’s still alive, considering the rules. But it’s unmistakable that he is a super soldier, a few pieces missing or not. My take on it is that he’s an earlier model from before they started creating the cell M. Maybe cell F or FA or maybe an even earlier one.”

“Another super soldier?” repeated M4, a frown appearing on his brows as he adjusted his glasses. “Are you referring to one of the soldiers that took us out of the lab?”

“No, one of the pilots,” answered M0, shaking his head just the slightest in denial. “Though some of the soldiers that took us out of there are... weird. I have my theories on what they are but I need some confirmation on it before I tell you anything further about it.”

“For as disgusting as humans may be, they're a quite entertaining bunch~” taunted M5, a leisure expression on his face even though his eyes were filled with rage. “I will definitely never be able to trust any of them, though, no matter who they may be or what they may tell me or teach me.”

“I would like to say that I agree with you, Atsumu-kun, but I’m unable to,” said M0, snuggling closer against M1’s chest and stomach area. “I find some of the soldiers in the group below us quite pleasing to have around. I'm sure that you'll regret having said that in the near future.”

“Rei-chan, I really respect you and the things that you do, but that’s impossible,” snorted M5, quickly shrugging his shoulders. “I hate humans even more than Iru and that’s saying a lot since he killed any of them whenever he got the chance to do it. For all I care, they could go extinct and free this planet from their nasty ways.”

“Are you also including Miue-san in that extinction or do you already see him as something different from a human?” asked M0, his head slightly tilted to the left as he intently observed M5.

“It’s obvious that Miue-senpai is also inclu—“

“Liar,” cut off M0 as soon as he saw M5’s current facial expression. “That’s a lie and you know it, Atsumu-kun. I know it and the others know it too. The way you act when he’s around is not the same as when you’re around humans.”

“I like you, Rei-chan, I really do. I owe everything that I have to you and you went as far as giving me a name instead of that guy,” said M5, his head falling back as he stared away into the distance from below. “But I dislike this part of you... The way you can read other people is scary as hell! ...When did you figure out?”

“When we were inside of the humvees,” shortly answered M0, a completely expressionless demeanour on his features that highly contrasted with the completely flabbergasted one on M5’s face. “You didn’t kill Miue-san the instant he pointed his gun at you.”

“Ah, shit~ I didn’t, did I?” groaned M5, fully letting his body fall back on top of the metal roof. “I wonder why I didn’t...”

“Do you regret that you didn’t?” asked M0, a soft smile on his lips at the silent answer that he was obtaining out of M5. “Then I don’t think there’s anything that we or you should worry about. Hmm?”

Feeling the arms around his upper body suddenly squeezing him more tightly, M0 turned his head around and looked over to M1, a sulking expression – as he had learnt in the airport – once again on his face.

“You’re paying too much attention to Atsumu’s business,” mumbled M1, leaning his chin on top of one of M0’s shoulders. “I’m getting jealous here.”

“Fufufu~ Maybe Rei-chan loves me more than he loves y—“ started saying M5 with a quite leisure and teasing tone to his voice, but a deep crimson red light forced him to hastily cut off his words, his body shuddering like bamboo leaves during a storm.

“There’s no one I love more than Rei/Iru-kun,” announced M1 and M0 in unison, their features completely void of expression as they intently locked their glowing orbs in M5. “We are two but at the same time one. There’s no way we would love anyone else except one another.”

“Uh-oh~ You made Rei angry again, Atsumu,” snickered M3, peering sideways to M5 while he inched his body further away from the two of them in a masked way. “Is that accidental or are you actually what humans call as ‘masochist’, even though you can’t feel pain?”

“I would never make Rei-chan angry at me on purpose, Mitaru!” yelped M5, his body still trembling just the slightest as the red light started to diminish in intensity. “Having Iru angry at me is bothersome and a nightmare, yes, but having Rei-chan angry is pretty much begging to have an early death! He’s worse than a demon!”

“I don’t like the way you’re putting it, Atsumu-kun,” mumbled M0, a soft pouting expression on his face as he wrapped his arms around M1’s and their fingers enlaced around one another. “And I don’t remember having ever done anything to you that made me be called a demon.”

“Y-You didn’t... but...” hesitantly acknowledged M5, scrunching his nose softly as he tried to keep his current thoughts unreadable to M0. “A-Anyway, why is this discussion revolving around me and not about what we wanted to talk about in the first place!?”

“Yes, we’re getting way off topic about something completely worthless for our missions,” pointed out M4, a sour look on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Let’s finish this quickly and return to the inside of the airplane. It’s sort of complicated to keep my glasses on my face with all of this wind around us. And you know very well that I can’t exactly take them off and simply hold them in my hand.”

“Azuma is right. We should focus on what we need to and leave this type of conversation to a later date,” acknowledged M1, throwing one more sideways glare to M5. “As you know, Rei categorizes five of the soldiers as ‘weird’. Have you noticed anything about it yourselves?”

The silence and quick exchange of glances between the four males sitting in front of him was more than answer enough for his question.

“I’m the same,” sighed M1, lifting his chin from M0’s shoulder so that he could look over at him more closely. “Even with what you told me, I still don’t understand what exactly about those five soldiers makes you feel so... unanswered, Rei.”

“I told you that I don’t fully understand it myself, Iru-kun,” answered M0, releasing a soft sigh as his brain started turning its engines for some sort of conclusion to his inner questions and musings towards those five soldiers. “However, I'm 100% sure that they aren’t simple humans. I had that feeling the moment I saw Ikusaki-kun while still in my cell. When the super soldier that is inside of the Japanese army appeared, it only made my suspicions even clearer.”

“Do you mean... that?” asked M3, an eyebrow slightly perked up as he intently looked to M0.

“Yes. They're related to our fourth mission,” acknowledged M0, his grey eyes flickering alight once again. “They are mostly human... then again, not human entirely.”

-.-

“Ahahahaha!” started laughing Tou all of a sudden, his foot tapping on the floor as he tried to keep the airplane as stable as possible with all the unusual flying conditions going around.

“Gosh, Kurose! You’re starting to creep us out,” said En, a frown on his face as he carefully eyed Tou, the other soldiers looking over to the pilot in a similar fashion at the unusual behaviour he was displaying. “Why the heck are you laughing like that out of the blue?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it,” said Tou, still chuckling softly as he shifted his attention back to his current mission – bringing all of them back to Tokyo Military Base alive, without letting the airplane fall somewhere along the way. “I just thought that our targets are a funny bunch.”

“Where’s that coming from, all of a sudden?” inquired En, rolling his eyes around as he returned his gaze to the front window of the airplane, his fingers knowledgeably pressing the necessary buttons in the control panel without sparing them a single glance.

“Well, I have my reasons,” answered Tou, a bright smile on his face. “But more importantly, we need to bring this battered old tin the quickest possible to the base. I don’t think it will last enough for us to fly according to the current regulations, but it will also be a gamble to speed up. What do you want to do, Murayama?”

“Get us back on the base the quickest you can, Tou,” instructed Murayama, a deep frown on his face as his fingers impatiently tapped over his folded arms. “If there’s any problem because of it, I’ll take full responsibility for it. But get us all there, preferably alive, ASAP!”

“Roger that~” acknowledged Tou, giving a quick thumbs up to the commander. “Let’s go back home, Shirose!”

“Where else would we even go, you idiot?” sighed En, rolling his eyes around a second time as he gave a soft punch to Tou’s shoulder.

“True! Ow...” softly winced Tou, one of his hands moving from the steering wheel to fall on top of his knee, the pads of his fingers lightly rubbing his upper leg. He quickly commanded the electronic circuits of his prosthetic lower leg to move around a little bit, shifting his leg until he found a new position, more comfortable than the previous one. He sighed and then mumbled, “I guess I need to ask Kanna for another maintenance check...”