“Ooh~ It’s the box thingy with images inside!” cheerfully yelped M5, happily dancing around through the living room of the building they were locked inside of. “Is this the same thing that they had in the lab?”

“Probably, but I don’t think we give it the same use as the scientists,” acknowledged Miue, a sour look on his features at having to look after the happy-go-lucky blonde. “And it’s not called ‘box thingy with images inside’, it’s called television. Or TV for short.”

“So what kind of use do you humans usually give to the box thingy with images inside?” asked M5, his head slightly tilted as he closely observed the device and tried to disclose any differences with the one he was so well acquainted with.

“...” A vein immediately popping up in his forehead, Miue took a deep breath to control the incoming explosive rage attack. “We use televisions as a source of entertainment and to pass time. Also for educational purposes or to keep updated about things going on around our country or even the whole world. It’s the easiest method to spread a message to the general population, too, since everyone has access to one at this time and age.”

“Hmm~” hummed M5 in acknowledgement, straightening his head once again and coldly glaring to the electronic device. “Then there’s not that much of a difference, after all. They used the box thingy with images inside to teach me about human society and to provide me with information for my missions.”

Cautiously glancing over to M5’s glaring form, Miue carefully approached him and passed extremely close behind him, using the chance to get a hold of his clothes. He then tow hauled M5 to the sofa.

“Ah... Um... Miue-sen—“

“Sit,” ordered Miue, releasing M5’s clothes and pointing with his index finger to the sofa. There was a sort of prideful feeling deep inside of his chest when M5 immediately followed his words and sat down on the sofa, his eyes attentively peering over in his direction as he waited for further instructions. It almost seemed as if he was dealing with an overgrown and human-ish version of a Golden Retriever puppy.

Miue turned around on his heels, took a hold of the remote control placed beside the TV screen and heavily dropped his body on the sofa too. A considerable safe distance still separated his body from M5’s, who had been intently following him around with his eyes.

“I still think that what you watched on the TV while inside of the lab is different from what runs on a normal television,” said Miue, pressing a button on the remote control and turning on the TV – the evening news had already started and was nearing its end. “What kind of things did they make you watch?”

“Well... In the beginning, they showed me things called ‘dramas’ so that I would learn how to behave in a human-like way. They would tell me to focus on a character and then copy everything they were doing and apply it in the missions,” explained M5, his eyes now locked on the screen. “Then they started showing me ‘documentaries’ about discoveries performed by human beings, such as medicine, science, military strategies, historical events, the list goes on. After that, the cycle began once again. The difference was that it was done in other languages.”

“You know languages other than Japanese?” inquired Miue, an eyebrow slightly perked up at that unexpected discovery.

“Japanese, Chinese, Korean, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, Greek, Armenian, Romanian, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Soma—“

“Okay, I get it!” interrupted Miue, M5’s never-ending enumeration starting to confuse him deeply. He sighed and returned his eyes to the TV screen, putting his elbow on the armrest of the sofa and leaning the side of his face on his hand. “Why would they teach you that? Do the others also know how to speak in different languages?”

“I could ask you the same thing, Miue-senpai,” said M5, his eyes still unmoving from the screen as he analysed the news being announced on the electronic device. “I might not have known what a ‘boner’ is, but I do understand very well what an ‘audit’ is.”

“...”

“So why are you asking all of these questions?” continued M5, finally ripping his eyes from the screen and looking over to the soldier. “If death is approaching, then what’s the use of learning more about us? Blood will be spilt in less than 24 hours so it’s a waste of time to get to know what we can or cannot do.”

“Just because there’ll be an audit, it doesn’t mean you guys will die because of it,” pointed out Miue, also turning his head slightly around to speak face to face with M5. A shudder immediate crawled up his spine when he saw his eyes shining their characteristic crimson red glow and illuminating the living room even further.

“I never said that we would be the ones dying, did I?” pointed out M5, coldly and expressionlessly staring at Miue. “If we were to put it in terms of battle output, numbers and equipment, you soldiers have the upper hand. But would that be an efficient choice when facing super soldiers?”

“What are you trying to say, M5?” asked Miue, a deep frown on his features as his hand slowly motioned towards the handgun strapped around his waist, luckily on the side that was leaned over the armrest of the sofa.

“I don’t remember the exact number of missions that I have participated in, but most of them were infiltration ones, followed by the total wipeout of the infiltrated area,” started M5, his eyes returning to normal and switching to stare away into the distance. “In all of those missions, I had a success rate of 100%. The mission was completed and there were no survivors to speak of it afterwards. I did those missions on solo.”

“...” Gulping down hard, Miue strongly gripped the handle of the handgun and let his hand remain in that position, his whole body tense with the expectation that anything could happen at any time.

“The others were the same, except for M0,” continued M5, a certain fondness in his eyes at the mention of one of his own. “They always had to go on their solo missions and always returned as the victorious side. M0 went through a different procedure but the result was, in a roundabout way, the same as ours. So... If we obtained those results while apart from each other, what sort of guarantees do you have in you to back up your nonsensical notion that we will be the ones to die in less than 24 hours, Miue-senpai? More so when we are now all together.”

“’Nonsensical notion’? Yes, maybe you’re right on that one,” acknowledged Miue, his frown deepening even further. “Maybe it really is wishful thinking on our side that we’ll come out of all this crap with all of our body parts intact.”

“Then why—“

“But it’s still something that we must do,” interrupted Miue, knowing very well which was going to be M5’s next question. “As a human being... As a soldier... This is my duty. It’s my and all the other members of my squad’s duty to correct the fucking mistakes of other human beings and their egotistical actions, even if we get killed because of it!”

“...!” At those unexpected words, M5 let his jaw slacken and his lips parted, his eyes surprisingly staring at the soldier while his brain seemed to have turned into a mash of disorganized thoughts. He wondered what exactly was happening inside of him because never once in his whole life had he felt so lost, so confused and with such a noteworthy lack of knowledge about a situation in particular. “Aha... Ahahahahaha!”

“W-What are you laughing at...?” grudgingly mumbled Miue, releasing the grip to his handgun and crossing his arms over his chest, sulking slightly at the fact that he was once again being used as laughing material to the Ms.

“As I thought, you really are the best, Miue-senpai,” said M5, an amused smile still present on his lips as he cleaned the tears that had gathered in the corner of his eyes due to the sudden laughing outburst. He let his body fully slump down on the sofa and leaned the back of his head on the backrest, his eyes peering sideways at Miue. “What do you usually watch on the TV?”

“...!” Now being his turn to get surprised at the sudden change in M5, Miue once again whipped his head around to stare at him, an eyebrow slightly perked as he observed the taunting amusement in M5’s face. Though it wasn’t simply that, but something far more human accompanying it. “Ah... Usually this channel, I guess?”

With a couple of finger movements, Miue changed the channel from the news report to one that featured music exclusively. When he looked over to M5, he saw in his face a quite inquisitive expression.

“What... is this?” asked M5, his head slightly tilted at the images he was watching on the screen and the completely unknown sounds that were exiting the speakers of the television.

“Music,” shortly explained Miue, a knowing smirk on his lips as he gave a quick shrug with his shoulders. “I told you that there’s plenty in ‘human television’ that you didn’t get to experience while in the lab.”

“Music? What kind of purpose does it serve?” inquired M5, switching his gaze between the soldier and the TV screen.

“Purpose?” snorted Miue, shaking his head just the slightest. “Music doesn’t have a purpose. We create music to entertain ourselves. We listen to music as a hobby or to relax. Music doesn’t have a reason for existence either. It’s simply there when we want it to be.”

“That doesn’t make much sense...” pointed out M5, an eyebrow arched on his brows as he suspiciously looked over to Miue.

“The existence of super soldiers doesn’t make much sense for humans either and yet I have one sitting right next to me right now,” pointed out Miue, once again shrugging his shoulders. “It doesn’t make sense to you because you’re not familiar with it. Once you get to know and understand it, it’ll start clicking on your head.”

“Does that also apply to us?” asked M5, returning his attention once again to the screen.

“It could apply,” acknowledged Miue, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “But you can only find out if it applies or not if we’re still alive, right?”

“That’s true. If you die, I’ll never find out, will I?” acknowledged M5, a mischievous smirk also popping up on his features. His body slowly started sliding sideways on the sofa, coming to a stop when his upper body softly fell on top of Miue’s lap.

“W-What are you do—!?”

“Hey, Miue-senpai,” interrupted M5, a bright smile on his lips as he stared deeply into Miue’s eyes. “Won’t you tell me more about this music of yours?”

“...” At a complete loss of what to do and with his arms still held high above his head due to M5’s sudden position on the sofa (and on top of him!!), Miue opened his mouth to speak but no sound found its way out. With a blush threatening to creep into his features in full bloom, he started pushing M5’s face towards the screen of the television, maybe a little bit more forcefully than it was advised to use on someone that could kill him in the span of a fraction of a second.

Being this intently observed, possibly studied too, by M5... was causing his brain to go completely astray, making it work in a far more leisure and almost sluggish way.

“T-There are different types of music,” started Miue, making sure to keep M5’s face well turned in the screen’s direction by tightly pressing his hand on his warm features, a ticklish sensation coursing through his wrist due to the rustling of his blonde locks of hair against his skin. “There’s classical, rock, pop—“

-.-

Halfway through the educative and extremely detailed music lesson, M5 had noticed that the soldier was steadily growing more and more tired. He probably hadn’t got a single wink of sleep since before they had arrived at the lab to begin their so-called ‘rescue mission’. And he knew very well how much humans needed to sleep to keep working properly. M5 wondered how it felt to fall asleep, as he no longer had memories of the time when he was still able to do such. Not to mention, the fact that human beings could so easily lower their guards to full defenceless levels appalled him, mostly because he knew how dangerous the world was.

“Why don’t you show me examples of everything you’ve been trying to explain to me?” suggested M5 the moment he noted that Miue’s tiredness had reached its peak. Since then, they silently listened and watched countless music video clips one after another.

Two hours later, the soldier fell in a deep slumber, one of his hands still softly pressed against M5’s head, fingers lightly entwined in his hair.

Really, how stupid can humans be...?, inwardly scoffed M5, a smirk on his lips as he slowly turned his body around, only stopping when he was facing the sleeping soldier’s stomach.

“Shall we get things started then~?” softly whispered M5, his fingers leisurely crawling into Miue’s pocket and removing from there the electronic device that he recognized as a ‘cell phone’. He opened the contact list and used the pads of his fingers to carefully thread through all the entries in it, swiftly memorizing every single one of them while searching for a name in particular. “Ooh~ It’s just like Rei-chan said~ She’s really in here!”

M5 selected the number and opened the messaging app, quickly typing a text there and readily sending it. A couple of seconds later, a momentary ringtone resounded in the midst of the music coming from the TV’s speakers, which fully masked the sound.

After reading the message, M5 couldn’t help but smirk. He erased both messages – the one he had sent and the one he received – and locked the cell phone’s screen once again, gently putting it back in Miue’s pocket.

He returned his body to its original position and allowed his eyes and ears to continue to study what was being featured there – now a fully satisfied grin present on his lips.

“I bet Rei-chan will praise me for easily accomplishing my mission~” softly whispered M5 with a sing-song voice. “Ahh~ I can’t wait for tomorrow~ I wonder how everything will end up going... Will it be Iru’s win... or will it be Rei-chan’s victory? I would like Rei-chan to win but... I like Iru’s plan much better~ Since there’s nothing that I hate more in this world than humans.”

And so the night proceeded and then came to an end. M5 leisurely explored the music world while impatiently waiting for daybreak and the amusing half-human, half-super soldier peacefully slept while being used as a pillow by M5, fully unsuspicious of what was to come in a couple of hours.

[Miue Satoshi: Hiya, Mitsurin~ Rei-chan and Iru asked me to tell you this~ “The first citadel has successfully fallen, the Suspended Gardens will be the main target next. Bring the Index tomorrow and let the water be dirtied by blood.” Mitaru also asked me to deliver you a message! He said: “The next time I see you, you’re dead.” See ya tomorrow~]

[Hanamaki Mitsu: Got it, A-chan! Give my a-okay to Rei-kun and tell Mi-chan he can try if he thinks he’s really able to do it ;3]