“Close the doors!” instructed Nakatani as he took a seat on the middle chair of the large rectangular table in the front area of the auditorium. “As of now, this is a closed room. However, you still have time to take your leave from this military base and the Japanese army on the whole if you do not find yourself able to become a witness to this audit. Everything that will be said inside of this auditorium, everything that will happen inside of this auditorium, will be considered as a state secret and discretion and confidentiality is to be expected out of every single one of you. If you cannot abide by that, you should take your leave right this moment. You have five minutes to take your leave, starting now.”

“Can we take our leave then~?” tauntingly asked M5, lifting his hand high in the air as if trying to catch the attention of the old man speaking from a couple of metres away from him. When he was ignored, he only crossed his arms over his chest and clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Five minutes went by – the sound of metallic locks and hatches clicked and echoed inside of the tense auditorium. None of the soldiers inside had moved from their spots to forfeit their position inside of the military base and the Japanese army.

“The audit regarding the six targets collected from inside of an illegal lab, denominated as ‘Mass Murder Machines’ and designated as ‘super soldiers’ will now begin,” announced Nakatani, intertwining his fingers at the same time as he put his elbows on top of the large table. “Do you want to nominate a speaker to go through this audit from in between yourselves, or will you answer one by one, in turn, depending on which version of your life is more convenient?”

“I don’t mind doing you the favour of letting you know about my version of things, Nakatani Shuukyuu,” said M1, a knowing smirk on his lips as he leaned his chin on top of M0’s shoulder.

“Stand up then,” instructed Nakatani, gesturing his intertwining hands forward as if urging the younger male to do as he was being told.

“I believe we can have a conversation with both of us sitting down,” readily cut off M1, nestling himself closer to M0 to make his stance even clearer. “It would be extremely rude of you to force one of your guests of honour to remain standing while you are so comfortably sat down, wouldn’t it? Unless your age has taken the best out of your bones and you can no longer stand on equal grounds with those of newest ages.”

“Pfft…!” Starting to laugh, Mizusaki immediately sealed his mouth with his two hands, his shoulders shaking around just the slightest as he did his very best to not laugh on the general’s face or during the beginning stages of an important audit.

“Mizusaki, behave yourself,” admonished Murayama, even though he was also one of the many that would have liked to laugh at the size of M1’s balls while straightforwardly battling the general through the means of words. At least Ikusaki had also managed to control himself, even better than Mizusaki himself was doing.

“Your words have quite the bite to them,” said Nakatani, his demeanour completely unfazed at M1’s words. “Can I at least know with who I am talking to, seeing as you seem to know who I am?”

“M1,” shortly said the super soldier.

“And your companions are?” continued Nakatani, still in the warm-up exercises of an extremely unorthodox audit, from the looks of it.

“If you’re hearing my version of things, I don’t think you need to know that, right?” pointed out M1, giving a quick shrug with his shoulders as his knowing smirk slowly started gaining more wicked undertones.

“…” Having once again been cut off, Nakatani remained for some brief seconds in total silence, softly clearing his throat before he began his extremely one-sided interrogatory to one of the targets. “Can you tell us what you are?”

“As you said four minutes and thirty-one seconds ago, we are super soldiers,” simply said M1, leisurely circling M0’s waist with his arms and pulling his back closer against his chest. “Mass Murder Machines, to be more exact.”

“And what exactly consists of being a super soldier or, in this case, a Mass Murder Machine?” inquired Nakatani more specifically in this initial topic.

“To put it in simple terms, it’s being able to do what you humans cannot do,” answered M1, his voice hinting that it was more of a statement of his own beliefs than that of another retort against the general. “In all senses, not just regarding the arts of killing.”

“So you’re no longer humans?” inquired Nakatani, freeing his fingers from their tangled positions and then leaning his back on his seat’s backrest.

“Correct,” acknowledged M1 with a soft nod of his head.

“Were you previously human, then?” asked Nakatani further, the corner of his lips curling upwards just the slightest.

“I believe that such a question is unnecessary to be made,” readily said M1, a small frown showing on his features. “What we were or weren’t in the past is completely irrelevant in the present, seeing as nothing can be undone about it.”

“It seems that we’re in disagreement regarding the need or lack of this question in particular,” announced Nakatani, offering a soft smile at the younger male. “Knowing the origins of a massive problem is the best way to avoid having it repeat itself once again, isn’t it?”

“Then allow me to put it in another way,” continued M1, his facial expression returning to what it previously was before the small frown popped out. “Would it be necessary to teach someone of something if such knowledge would be forgotten in a sea of blood in the near future?”

“Is that a threat?” asked back Nakatani, now a deep frown appearing on his features as he closely studied M1.

“I believe that the correct term is ‘rhetorical question’,” smartly rebuked M1. “Take it on the same level as what you said at the beginning of this audit to your soldiers. Discretion and confidentiality, if you may. Or you can call it privacy, too, if it makes it sound more human-like.”

“Machines don’t require privacy, they simply do what they’re told to do and nothing else,” pointed out Nakatani.

“I once was shown a movie about an alternative universe where humankind started being wiped out by the machines they had created,” interrupted M5 out of the blue, leisurely sat down on the floor with his hands leaned over the floor behind his back, his eyes stuck to the ceiling as if he was trying to pass the time by looking at imaginary clouds in the sky. “Were those machines ordered to do that?”

“M5, be quiet,” commanded M1, sideways glaring at the blonde. Once he saw M5 twist his nose at his words, he once again returned his gaze to the general. “I think you’re very well aware by now that we do not work in such ways. This is my first time talking with you, what makes you think that any of us will do what you tell us to? We’re soldiers, but we do not belong to this military base or the Japanese military. Though I will concede and go as far as to call ourselves Japanese, we’re not humans, so we don’t even need to comply with any of your laws, restrictions and… ah, I believe it goes by the name of ‘common sense’. All of this to conclude… you don’t control us, you never will control us and we will not let ourselves be controlled. Not by you, not by any other human. Simple enough for everyone inside this room to understand?”

“Unfortunately for you, M1, that's not how the world works and, for as long as you live in this world, you'll have to comply with one or two human laws, restrictions and common sense,” said Nakatani, softly shaking his head in disapproval at what M1 had just said. “If you don’t, you may find yourself in trouble at one point or another.”

“The sort of trouble you’re implying is of no matter to us,” rebuked M1, a mischievous smirk on his lips as his grey eyes flickered red for a fraction of a second. “It would be the same as having a small, puny ant trying to take down a lion. That’s not a very good combination for the ant population. I can already foreshadow mass extinction if these little creatures even start to fool themselves of such tremendous capacity in terms of fighting output. Even numbers wouldn’t guarantee their victory.”

“A metaphor this time?” scoffed Nakatani, a disbelieving expression on his features as he looked straight at M1.

“No, I simply didn’t want to needlessly scare everyone inside of this room by saying the naked truth,” corrected M1, his eyes once again flickering red. “You’re welcome.”

“M1,” called M0 while nestled against M1’s body. He slowly took the headphones from his head and carefully lowered them to the floor, placing them right next to the spot where they were sitting down. “Isn’t it enough of that? I think we have far more pressing matters than having you keep on frightening the humans inside of this room. Please entertain yourself with more productive things.”

“Yes, yes,” acknowledged M1, giving a quick peck to M0’s cheek as an apology. He then returned his gaze to the general, nestling himself against M0 even more closely. “Where were we again? Oh, right. I’ll put it in even simpler terms. We’re not humans but just because we’re categorized by humans as ‘machines’, it doesn’t mean we don’t have our own will and the ability to make decisions by ourselves. Actually, you should be aware of that already. Or are you perhaps blind?”

“…What exactly do you mean by ‘blind’?” repeated Nakatani, a dissatisfied frown appearing in his expression as he severely eyed M1.

“They didn’t know of our existence until we were taken out of the lab, of course they didn’t notice them here,” sighed M0, leaning the back of his head on M1’s collar bone. “Besides, she had the same training as M5 in regards to humans. It goes without saying that they wouldn’t notice her here. She’s smart after all.”

“That's mean~” yelped M5, dramatically thrashing his body around in indignation over M0’s words.

“Shall we give them what they want and set off then?” asked M1, craning his head forward a little bit so as he could peek at M0’s face.

“You should have done that quite a while ago,” argued back M0, a completely expressionless demeanour on his features as he peered up over to M1’s eyes.

“My apologies, my ‘Beatrice’,” conceded M1, once again giving a soft peck in M0’s features, this time around on his forehead.

“If you could explain what exactly you’re all chatting about, we would be thankful,” interrupted Nakatani, loudly clearing his throat to bring back the attention of the two super soldiers (or whatever they truly were, in the end) back to himself.

“Did any of those five mention a certain conversation we had with them in regards to the solemn surviving ‘worker’ of the lab?” asked M1, the same depreciating smirk popping up on his lips one more time.

“…They did mention it, yes…” acknowledged Nakatani with a certain hesitation, his eyes carefully studying M1 for the hundredth time since they first started to stand in front of each other in the audit.

“The truth is… she’s not a worker of that lab or any other that ‘The Union’ has created,” revealed M1, neatly positioning his chin back on M0’s shoulder. “She’s one of us. She’s been infiltrated inside of this base for a few years, providing us with some information during her monthly visits to the lab. And she’s inside of this room right this moment. Isn’t that right, M3?”

“’Isn’t that right, M3?’, my ass!” furiously grumbled M3, angrily crossing his arms over his chest as he turned his head away from M1’s direction. “Just get down here already, you old hag!! We need to have a long conversation, the two of us. Don’t go thinking that I’ll leave things as they are, you boob monster!”

“Is that really how you want to speak with me, M3?” said a female voice from in between the majorly male soldier population closed inside of the auditorium.

“You must be fucking kidding me…” cursed Murayama, his mouth wide open as his eyes saw an extremely familiar female soldier get up from her seat in the middle of the auditorium, her long hair fluttering behind her back as she motioned down the stairs and walked over to the place where the six super soldiers were sat down at. The rest of the soldiers were going through the same flabbergasted shock as him – his squad included.

“Hanamaki… Mitsu?” mumbled Nakatani, his eyes wide open in utter shock at this unexpected development – mainly because Hanamaki Mitsu was their main operational in terms of computers and weaponry development.

“I wish I could do much more than threaten you with words, actually…” grumbled M3, loudly clicking his tongue in annoyance at the approaching of the female soldier.

“I missed you too, Onii-chan~” cheerfully said Mitsu, sticking her tongue out at M3, her hands on her hips as she casually stopped right behind the man in question.

“Get out of my sight, you nasty vixen of a younger sister!” barked back M3, quickly turning around while sat down on the floor and glaring daggers at Mitsu. “That or fucking apologise to me!!”

“Eh~ For what?” asked Mitsu, tilting her head to the left just the slightest as she teasingly thought about M3’s words. “Last time I saw you, it was when the bombs were being placed inside of your cell.”

“THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT YOU SHOULD APOLOGISE FOR, MITSU!!!!!!!!”