As soon as Murayama reached the room where his squad members were being kept and made to wait to talk with their general, he simply opened the door and gave a quick jerk with his chin towards the corridor. “Let’s go back, guys. Our job here is done for the day.”

“What do you mean it’s ‘done for the day’?” readily inquired Miue with a frown on his features, sat down on a chair with his arms crossed over his chest. “I thought he wanted to talk with all of us, not just with you.”

“He still does, just not right now,” shortly explained Murayama, a frown also appearing on his features as he recalled the meeting’s contents. “You five will be summoned early tomorrow morning to talk with Nakatani-san before the audit starts.”

“Audit? What audit?” inquired Mizusaki this time, a suspicious glint in his eyes as he intently observed their commander.

“Shit...! I’ll explain everything on our way back to area 51 but let’s just move out of here for now, okay?” ordered Murayama, perhaps a little bit more aggressively than he would have wanted his voice to sound. But he couldn’t help it.

He was still under the process of sorting out everything that was suddenly dropped on him by M0. All of the people in that room weren’t humans but weren’t super soldiers either – they were a mixture of both. He still couldn’t fully believe in M0’s words, mainly because he never did anything out of the capacities of a human being and he surely had no recollection of being used in any medical or scientific experimentation that could have led him to become something more than a human... but what choice did he have other than to, at least, acknowledge those words until the moment he could fully prove them right or wrong?

If M0 would keep his promise on the matter and request the other Ms to keep it a secret for the time being, then that would give him enough time to have a second conversation with M0 about it and maybe follow forward with the blood analysis that he had spoken of. If it had been their bodies that were changed in some sort of way to become similar to that of a super soldier's, then M0 had been absolutely right on saying that it would be the easiest way to verify his statements.

“Fuck...” softly cursed Murayama, one of his hands unconsciously climbing up in the air and covering the small scar on his bottom lip. To be honest, he had the feeling that the fact he may not be fully human wasn’t the top of his concerns and that the reason why he wanted to hurry up and get the hell out of that building was the possibility of a certain possessive and easily jealous brat being on his way there to finish him off. Probably in the shape of the most painful death witnessed in human history.

“What happened to your lip, Murayama-san?” asked Eki, an eyebrow slightly arched as he observed his commander’s burst lip.

“...I just got myself in a quite sticky situation on my way back here, that’s all...” mumbled Murayama, averting looking over to his subordinate due to the shame he felt over the reaction his body had had towards one of their targets. He wasn’t a pervert or a masochist, he wasn’t even gay or with a preference towards younger romantic interests, so why the fuck did he get an erection over being pinned down to the floor and have a violent lock of lips with M0? Softly clearing his throat to take his mind out of the gutter, Murayama released the doorknob and turned around on his heels so that they could start walking back to area 51. “A-Anyway, let’s get going already.”

After having exchanged a glance between themselves, the squad members started following their commander, figuring that it would be best to make further questions regarding Murayama’s unusual behaviour at a later time.

The group of soldiers soon reached the front desk of the private building, taking a new hold of their personal belongings after having being forced to go through a quick body search – as a safety measure, they were told as their bodies were groped and patted everywhere for hidden objects that could turn out to be lethal. The only one who had been an exception to that rule was Murayama, for he held a position above the rest of the members of his squad and it would be unbefitting of his position in the military world to be stripped of his weapons.

“Uwah~ So expected of the brat squad~,” said Mizusaki with a sing-song voice when he got his cell phone back and opened the first message he had received. “James requested us to bring more food with us on our way back to area 51.”

“I think M2 will eventually wipe out our food supplies, the way he’s eating...” grumbled Ikusaki, feeling that he had somehow gained a rival in terms of food. He was the soldier best known in the entire base for having a huge appetite, after all.

“Don’t worry, Shouichi,” chuckled Eki, giving a soft slap to Ikusaki’s back after having put his handgun back on its holster. “They won’t stay here for very long anyway, so you’ll get back the title of number 1 glutton very soon.”

“Stop reading my mind like that!” roared Ikusaki, a soft pink blush smearing his cheekbones as he awkwardly put his belongings back in place.

“G-Guys...” hesitantly called Mizusaki, his eyes unmoving from his cell phone’s screen as he went through the second and last message he had received from Kinjou’s squad. His features were unusually pale and with a dark semblance, contrary to his perpetual chipper self. “Ah... I don’t mean to ruin the mood or anything but... We’ve got a situation on our hands. A possibly deadly situation.”

“What happened?” readily asked Miue, his body stiffening and getting slightly more hypersensitive to his surrounding at those foreshadowing words.

“M0 secretly stole the key from Kinjou-san and escaped from area 51,” explained Mizusaki, gulping down hard as he lifted his eyes from the electronic device and peered over to his squadmates. “Shortly after they noticed his not being there, some ‘soft’ threatening words were exchanged between the Ms and them, only to have M1 running off from that area soon after.”

“When did you receive that last message?” inquired Murayama, a deep frown on his brows as he tried to conceal the shudder that went down his spine at the knowledge that M1 was also running around free through the military complex. He was already expecting such but it still scared him shitless that he could just pop up out of nowhere right in front of him and turn him into minced meat with not-so-painless methods.

“A couple of minutes ago,” answered Mizusaki, after having checked the time the message had been received. “What should we do about this, Murayama-san?”

“...” An even deeper frown appearing on his features, Murayama closely thought about how he should approach this matter in particular. He was already aware that M0 was running around free through the military base, but if he told his squad such, he would be forced to disclose the conversation that the two of them had. He would be forced to confess that all of them were no longer human but something else.

But if he likewise shrugged the matter off leisurely, they would automatically suspect even more his current behaviour.

“For the time being, let’s regroup with the other squad and have a nice and long conversation with the targets currently there,” instructed Murayama, his hands falling on his hips and remaining there as he quickly ran his eyes over all of his squad members, later switching them to one of them in specific. “Mizusaki, except for M0 and M1, the other Ms are all inside of area 51, right?”

“According to this text, they are,” acknowledged Mizusaki with a short nod of his head.

“Then let’s go back to area 51,” said Murayama, giving an affirmative nod with his head too. “I’m pretty sure that the Ms know the current location of both M0 and M1. Actually, I would bet my entire savings that they’re together right now. Once we get their location, we’ll readily collect them.”

“And finally ground the shit out of them!” added Miue, cracking his knuckles as he started motioning towards the open door of the building. “Those brats are definitely in need to learn a thing or two!”

“And I bet you want to thoroughly elucidate them on those things, right, Miue-san~?” teasingly pointed out Mizusaki, walking right behind his superior with a huge grin on his face.

“You can bet your ass that I will!” acknowledged Miue, turning his head around to look at his subordinate as the group walked through the main street of Tokyo’s military base. “As their elder, it’s my duty to put them back in line, even if they aren’t to stay here on the base for much longer. Right, Murayama? ...Murayama?”

“...!” Quickly whipping his face towards Miue after having been seemingly looking away to the distance, Murayama quickly cleared his throat and resumed with the walking that he had unconsciously halted as he peered over to a more secluded back alley in between two nearby buildings. “Y-Yeah, that’s right.”

“Are you sure you’re okay, Murayama-san?” asked Ikusaki, one of his eyebrows arched as he closely observed his commander. “You’re not behaving like your usual self. What exactly happened while you were talking with the ‘big boss’?”

“We’ll discuss that later on,” casually said Murayama, quickening his pace so that he could take the leadership position beside Miue, as it was supposed of him. However, before he reached said position, a hand suddenly took a hold of his wrist and made him slow down his pace, forcing him to accompany the walking rhythm of the soldier who had grabbed onto him.

“Did you perhaps have a quick meeting with the yandere and the kuudere, Murayama-san?” asked Mizusaki, his voice nothing more than a whisper as he grew closer to his squad leader. A knowing smirk was on his lips as he pointed with his thumb in a masked way towards the same back alley that Murayama had been looking at just a couple of seconds ago. “I don’t think any other person inside of our base would dare to hurt you in any way. Did you bump into them during their making out session~?”

“...I didn’t,” answered Murayama after having spent a couple of seconds deeply analyzing Mizusaki’s grinning expression. “I wasn’t aware that the two of them were out of area 51 until you read that message from James.”

“Which one did you know was out of there, then?” inquired further Mizusaki, releasing his commander’s wrist and putting his two hands behind his back as he leisurely walked beside him. “The psycho one? Or the expressionless cutie?”

“...!”

“My initial impression would lead me into thinking that it was M1 since you’re hurt and such, but...” started Mizusaki, intently sideways glancing at Murayama as he closely observed his current demeanour and body language. “What kind of conversation did you have with M0 that got you a burst lip, I wonder?”

“That’s...” mumbled Murayama, massaging the back of his neck as he averted Mizusaki’s gaze, a pinkish shade lightly dusting his cheekbones. “Don’t mention anything about it to the others. Just keep it to yourself for the time being until I sort some things out.”

“Alone or with M0’s help?” further inquired Mizusaki, tilting his head just the slightest as he continued to intently look over in Murayama’s direction. When he saw the extremely accentuated frown that immediately appeared on his face at that question, he dropped his hands back to the side of his body and quickened his pace to continue to match with his other squad members. “Don’t get yourself involved in things that don’t concern you just because you’re starting to have a particularly strong soft spot towards M0, Murayama-san. It’s not like they’ll stay here with us in the base for the rest of their lives. They probably won’t even live long enough to see the rising sun at the end of this week.”

“...”

“I think I’ll sound just like M5 here, but attachments are an extremely foolish action that human beings fall victim to,” continued Mizusaki, his gaze downcast as a pained expression popped up on his features and his fingers curled up into tight fists. “Every soldier should know that better than anyone.”