“Atsumu, pass me the Glock 17M and the SP 2022,” requested Mitaru, finishing loading a Grand Power MK handgun and swiftly putting it inside of the holster strapped to one of the sides of his waist right on time to catch the other two handguns that had been thrown over in his direction from the other side of the room. He and the other Ms were no longer dressed in the frail white t-shirts and shorts but fully dressed as if a soldier of that base.

“You’re gonna go for those three only, Mitaru?” asked Atsumu, also occupied with fiddling with an FN FNC assault rifle so that both the mechanized weapon and the bayonet in the front side were fully operational and according to his own taste. “You’re going to run out of bullets midway through it~”

“That should be the least of those fuckers’ concerns,” snorted Mitaru, giving a quick shrug with his shoulders. “Even if I do run out of bullets, they’re still going to die in the end.”

“You should know by now that it’s not any lack of weaponry that would put a stop to Mitaru, Atsumu,” pointed out Azuma, carefully adjusting the telescopic sight in the top side of the M24 sniper rifle, a bulky strengthened plastic carrier bag filled with the SWS system components by his feet. “But I won’t deny that taking a bullet or two in the head could maybe make him a little bit smarter and teach him to be less rushed.”

“Been there, done that…” said Tsugi, leisurely munching on a chocolate chips cereal bar as he remained sitting down on the floor, his back caging a Heckler & Koch G3A3 against the wall behind him. “It won’t make much difference…”

“You were just called an idiot, Mitaru~” taunted Atsumu, softly snickering behind his hand as he sideways glanced at Mitaru.

“Shut up,” barked Mitaru, furiously glaring at Atsumu while roughly putting the handguns in their respective holsters and then going for the massive hunting knife in the table in front of him. “Do you know what we all call you behind your back? If you want to know, then shut up for 24 hours straight!”

“Eh!? You talk about me on your letters!?” yelped Atsumu, his mouth open in utter shock. “What does Re— Um, M0 have so say about me!?”

Instead of answering, all that Mitaru did was mischievously smirk at Atsumu, who started to loudly screech and squeal as if he was in agony, his body rolling around in the ground as if a child throwing a tantrum.

“I have to confess something…” sighed Ikusaki, softly massaging his neck as his eyes remained stuck on the super soldiers getting ready to face the arrival of the enemies. “Seeing them acting all leisure and fooling around like idiots makes me tenser than if they were all quiet and trying to focus in utter silence…”

“I feel you there,” acknowledged Mizusaki with a small nod of his head, both Miue and Eki doing the same in silence. “It’s so… unnatural to see them acting as if they aren’t getting ready to put their necks on a deadly fight against enemies. One that’s kill or be killed…”

“For us, it’s unnatural but for them, it’s just another day of their lives,” pointed out Murayama, his arms crossed over his chest as he remained with his back leaned against the wall. “Some of us can still recall the days from before this whole world war started but even at that time, they were already being prepared and ‘manufactured’ to fight in it. The war didn’t start 18 years ago but it had already been decided at that time that they would be one of the key ‘weapons’ in it.”

“Yeah, that’s true and we all know it,” acknowledged Miue, an angry frown still present in his features. “However, they’re smart enough to notice these little differences between our upbringing and theirs. And they’re fucking smart enough to use those differences to fool around and bring about shitty manipulative plans like this one.”

“Speaking of manipulative plans, where are Iru and M0?” suddenly asked Eki, his gaze quickly crossing the whole division to try to find the exact location of the two mentioned super soldiers. He didn’t know if it was his sixth sense ringing on his head or if there had been any sort of previous spark that made him feel such, but he disliked it when M0 was going around on his own while unsupervised by anyone that wasn’t a super soldier.

“Last time I checked, they were talking outside in the corridor,” said Mizusaki, pointing with his thumb towards the half-open door that led to outside of that room. “Should we go check on them, Murayama-san?”

“I guess we should,” sighed Murayama, taking one of his arms from their crossed position over his chest and lightly scratching the back of his head. “Could you, Mizusaki? I feel like my life is shortened by a few days every time I go check on them while they’re alone…”

“Oh, I know what you’re talking about so damn well…” acknowledged Ikusaki, a shudder crawling up his spine as his body shook around in an extremely noteworthy way.

“You two are fucking wussies…” sighed Miue while rolling his eyes around and shaking his head in disapproval. “Mizusaki, let’s go.”

“Yes~” cheerfully acknowledged Mizusaki, offering a quick salute to Miue’s orders before he started following after him. “Miue-san, you’re not scared of them? Not just Iru and M0, but the other four… well, five?”

“I think right now I’m so pissed off at them that all fear has been erased from my body,” announced Miue, his eyebrow twitching just the slightest in utter anger and annoyance at the subject of the conversation – especially at a certain tricky blondie. “All I want is for this whole thing to be solved so I can teach them a lesson or two from my end.”

“Ahahaha! As expected of you, Miue-san,” laughed Mizusaki, giving a quick slap with his hand on the soldier’s back.

“L-Let’s just hurry it up, okay?” awkwardly instructed Miue, his cheekbones slightly rosy as he motioned his hand forward to push the door open. His movement came to an unexpected halt, however, when their ears easily caught the sound of two familiar voices.

“—do what I’m telling you to, okay?” said Iru, his voice sounding commanding and authoritative for the first time when addressing M0.

“I have always hated this side of yours, Iru-kun,” answered back M0, his soft voice as sharp as a razor.

“Oh-oh~ It seems like someone is having some troubles already during the honeymoon period,” softly whispered Mizusaki as both he and Miue slowly leaned closer to the door and peeked into the corridor, in the direction where the voices were coming from.

“I know you do,” acknowledged Iru, taking a step forward and shortening the distance between him and M0, stuck in between him and the wall. “However, it’s not by you hating it that it will change. You don’t have a choice here. Or you do it as I’m telling you to or I will force you to stay put by cutting off your hands and feet.”

“This is exactly what I hate about you,” sighed M0 with an extremely exasperated voice. “Just when will you understand that I’m the same as all of you? Please stop treating me as if I’m made of glass and that I'll break at the smallest of touches. If you can do it, I don’t understand why I can’t do it too.”

“Killing humans is not the same as killing super soldiers,” said Iru, a small frown appearing on his brows as he looked straight into M0’s eyes. “I’ve told you that quite a few times already, haven’t I?”

“If you dare to mention that name right now, I will get angry,” warned M0, his grey eyes flickering a strong crimson red light for all but a fraction of a second.

“What would you do if you got angry at me?” chuckled Iru, delivering a soft and long peck to the corner of M0’s pouting lips. “Will you stop talking to me for half a year like you did to Atsumu seven years ago?”

“I-I wouldn’t do that to you…” mumbled M0, shyly looking away from Iru’s amused gaze. A small mischievous smirk lightly tugged at the corner of his lips shortly after, though. “But I may tell on you to Shuuai-kun. He was the one who found the easiest method to teach Atsumu-kun how to behave. I’m sure he could do the same to you.”

“Hm… This is how it should be,” acknowledged Iru with a soft nod of his head, gently bumping his forehead against M0’s. “Your hate towards my ‘overprotectiveness’, as you called it, and my love over how adorable you get when you sulk at me.”

“You’re the only one who takes enjoyment in getting me angry,” deadpanned M0, lifting his hand in his air and softly bumping his closed fist in Iru’s head. “Others usually avoid doing it. Intentionally, at least.”

“I’m just practising your beliefs in honesty,” chuckled Iru, motioning his two hands forward and gently pinching M0’s cheeks with his fingers, stretching and pulling at his smooth skin. “I want to be the one to bring forward more expressions out of your face. All of them, no matter what type.”

“Ale u ahn idiud, Iuu-gun…?” deadpanned M0 once again, his voice muffled and slurring due to the soft tugs being done to his cheeks.

“I love you too,” chuckled Iru, not stopping his hands as he lovingly stared at M0, a pout definitely wanting to settle on his features if it weren’t for the stretching of his cheeks.

“Dads nut wa I shait…” said M0 yet again with a deformed and broken speech pattern, giving a quick kick to Iru’s shin afterwards.

“Are they having a lover’s spat or just flirting in a passive-aggressive way?” whispered Mizusaki, a small thinking frown showing on his features as he continued to observe the lovey-dovey couple while half-hidden behind the half-open door. “I can no longer tell which is it…”

“And who the heck is ‘Shuuai-kun’ in the first place?” also whispered Miue, taking a peek at the younger squad member as if he would have the answer on him. “None of them introduced themselves with that name and I doubt M0 has the habit of speaking about himself in the 3rd person.”

“I don’t,” answered M0, popping out of the nowhere right next to the half-open door, accompanied by Iru.

“Uwah!” screamed Miue, pushing his body further away from the door and knocking Mizusaki down together with him. “Grr… I’ve told you a million times already to stop fucking appearing in front of us out of nowhere!!!”

“Eavesdropping is considered ruder, though,” pointed out Iru, giving a quick shrug with his shoulders as he walked back inside of the room while holding hands with M0, his grey eyes sideways glancing at the two soldiers sprawled on the floor. “The next time you do it, I’ll cut off your ears.”

“Why is this goddamned brat always so fucking pissy at us…?” softly grumbled Miue, getting up from the floor at the same time as his squadmate and walking back together to near the rest of the squad. “’Don’t know how to respect their elders, do they…?”

“Told you so,” said Murayama as he observed the two soldiers returning to near them. He couldn’t help but snort when his second-in-command ‘kindly’ threw him with the middle finger almost straight on the face. “What happened to respecting your elders, Miue?”

“I’m done with those two,” grumbled Miue, crossing his arms over his chest. “The fun threats and manipulative words are yours to behold, Murayama.”

“Murayama-san may not be the smartest choice, though,” pointed out Mizusaki, a knowing small smirk on his lips as he looked over to his commander. “Iru would swish cut it to bits~ Or maybe even M0 himself would, depending on the situation~”

“That’s not funny, Mizusaki,” groaned Murayama, rolling his eyes around while inwardly cringing yet again. He really couldn’t get any rest, now could he? Whether from the super soldiers or his own subordinates…

“I wasn’t joking, actually,” said Mizusaki, now a dead serious demeanour on his features as he pointed towards the super soldier’s direction.

Iru was smoothly sliding a long sword back inside of the scabbard already strapped around his waist, motioning his hands forward in the table’s direction to grab a Vityaz-SN submachine gun that was put behind his back. On the other hand, M0 had pretty much grabbed onto the entire collection of knives and blades inside of that division and was leisurely fitting them in his military outfit.

“You win, Mizusaki,” sighed Murayama, his shoulders slumping down just the slightest. “But what the heck is with that weaponry choice? They know that the Russians are known for their mass destruction weaponry, right?”

“Unless you want to have a threat hovering over your ears, don’t even ask,” cringed Miue, starting to feel a nagging headache form inside of his skull.