“And that’s how ‘good neighbours’ act towards each other,” said Miue as finishing words to an almost twenty minutes lecture. “Do you get it?”

“Yup~” acknowledged Atsumu with a cheerful nod of his head, leisurely waltzing beside the soldier as they motioned by foot towards the area that had been assigned to him by Iru.

“Were you really listening to what I just said or are you just saying ‘yup’ so I shut up?” asked Miue, a vein popping out on his forehead at how relaxed Atsumu looked under those circumstances – not only were they under attack by an unknown number of enemy soldiers from Russia, he was also being heavily admonished for all of the scheming actions he and the other super soldiers directed towards the Japanese military.

“’Listen, Atsumu, a fuckton of things that you did yesterday were just a bunch of crap that could get you and all of your smartass buddies killed more quickly than—‘” started repeating Atsumu, voicing out exactly the same words that Miue had used when he had begun his long and boring lecture. However, his words were cut short when he was kicked in the back of his knee and fell face-first on the floor. “Hey! What was that for, Miue-senpai!?”

“You really enjoy pissing me off, don’t you?” breathed Miue, a deep frown on his features as he looked down at the blonde from his standing position, his arms crossed over his chest as he remained motionless by Atsumu’s fallen body. “Since it seems you’re not very good at reading the mood even though you have a ‘degree’ in ‘humanology’, and since I did tell you that I would teach you one or two things about humans, I guess it will have to come to this from here onwards.”

“…?” Still sat down on the harsh outside ground, Atsumu tilted his head to the left just the slightest as he looked over at Miue with a certain curiosity.

“Every single time you piss me off or do something bad, I’m going to smack you until you understand that you did something wrong and apologise or until I’m no longer pissed off,” said Miue, an evil smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. “Deal?”

“I don’t feel any pain so what’s the use of trying to teach me something with physical punishments?” pointed out Atsumu, an eyebrow slightly arched as he continued to curiously observe the soldier lowering his body and crouching down beside him.

“That’s exactly why, you idiot,” sighed Miue, slamming the open palm of his hand on Atsumu’s forehead and then giving a strong push to his head after he messily ruffled his golden locks. “I’ve told you already. Not every human is like what you’re used to seeing from the lab or wherever it was that you were before you were put inside of the lab. I wouldn’t beat the shit out of you if that would hurt and cause you pain. Um… Well, I probably would end up smacking you at least once a day but if you don’t feel any pain then beating you is pretty much the same as yelling or admonishing you, right? And you six don’t seem to understand our words all that well so maybe some physical contact will do the deed instead.”

“Ahh…” acknowledged Atsumu, not understanding all that much what exactly the soldier was trying to say or wanted to get at with this ‘deal’ he wanted to settle with him. “Hm… By ‘physical contact’, do you mean the same things that Iru and M0 do?”

“L-L-L-Like hell it is!!!!” roared Miue, his face getting beet red as all of his blood rushed to his head to form a crimson blush. Instinctively, he pushed his elbow backwards and strongly punched Atsumu straight in the middle of his face with his closed fist. “I-I’ll fucking kill you if you say something like that again, even if just joking! You really enjoy making me pissed off, don’t you, you fucking idiot!? I don’t think I can get satisfied with punching you once. Get back up and let me punch you a few more times or just stay laid down there so I can step on you until you get mixed with the ground!”

“From what I know, I don’t possess the ability to fuse with the ground,” announced Atsumu, sitting back straight on the floor at the same time as he wiped the blood slowly dripping out of his nostrils with his sleeve. “It’s not like you punching and stepping on me makes much difference, but are you sure you want to do that right now, Miue-senpai? Five meters behind the building on our right, three unknown men. Fifteen in the northeast, six more in the opposite direction. And…”

As quick as if he was moving one of his own limbs, Atsumu got a hold of the assault rifle loosely hanging on his back. A single shot echoed in the desert street when his index finger connecting with the trigger.

“Один готов. Да начнётся охота!” playfully announced Atsumu, a mischievous smirk slowly appearing on his lips as he motioned his body upwards and strongly kicked his heels against the dirt. His smirk suddenly disappeared and the usual leisure expression returned to his features when he switched his gaze to Miue. “Oh, I forgot you were here. I can’t exactly run off on my own, right? Hm… What should I do? I’m not used to having others around me while I’m killing.”

“Huh? Don’t you fucking underestimate the Japanese army, brat,” spat Miue, a deep frown on his brows as he cracked his knuckles while also getting up from his crouched down position. “You’re one hundred years too early to think of me as a weight pulling you down.”

“Eh~ Then I guess you’ll be able to keep up with my pace, right, Miue-senpai~?” teasingly remarked Atsumu, getting the assault rifle ready for attack once again as he started walking towards the closest enemy soldiers. “I’ll give you a hand and put a handicap on myself. I will use the slow walking that you humans call ‘running’.”

“Hmph! I told you to not underestimate the Japanese army, Atsumu!” roared Miue at the same time as both he and Atsumu started running with the exact same pace towards the building. “I may not have permission to take any attack against those fuckers, but it doesn’t mean I need to be protected like a freaking princess!”

“In my eyes, all humans are princesses that need others to protect and sacrifice themselves for them!” said Atsumu, his feet sliding down against the floor as he popped his body out of the corner of the building without any warning, immediately firing the assault rifle against two of the enemy soldiers loitering around that area. With just a handful of accurate shots, the soldiers fell dead on the ground, the remaining one yielding his own rifle in front of his face as he took aim at Atsumu. He didn’t even have enough time to get his index finger stuck to the trigger when the super soldier’s bayonet pierced his chest and ripped both flesh and bone until the sharp blade could exit through his back. With a single motion, Atsumu withdrew the bayonet from the dead soldier’s body and let the assault rifle hang down on his hand, thick, red blood dripping out of the cutting and slender edge. “See? These ‘princesses’ here have died because no one was there to protect them. Well… Even if there was, it would just mean that more corpses would get piled up here.”

“What… exactly happened to you guys…?” softly breathed Miue, cautiously observing Atsumu from near the corner of the building. Even if it was being done against enemy soldiers, Atsumu hadn’t even blinked when he opened fire directly against the two Russians and, despite having a huge ass weapon pointed almost right at his face, he hadn’t hesitated a single fraction of a second before he directly attacked him with the bayonet attached to his assault rifle. That’s not the reaction that soldiers have when fighting off enemies. This is not how humans look when they kill each other…

“What happened to us?” repeated Atsumu, pointing his weapon’s muzzle in the sky’s direction and firing a couple of aimless shots at it. A smile remained on his features as he looked straight into Miue’s eyes. “Don’t you know the answer to that question already? You, humans, made us into this. If you want to blame someone for your deaths and destruction… then blame your own greediness and thirst for power! Well… At this point, I only have one thing that I can whole-heartedly tell every single one of you.”

“And that is…?” suspiciously asked Miue, fully walking across the corner of the building as he noticed the arrival of another set of Russian soldiers, by the unknown military uniforms they were wearing.

“Thank you,” said Atsumu, his smile widening even further – it was a smile as glistering and bright as that of a large star in the sky. “If it weren’t for you, I would still be a disgusting and filthy human. Now my solemn purpose is to wipe out every single pest that is tainting his world. If I’m killed in the process, oh well~ But at least I will die as a free being. Until that day, I’ll make sure to kill and kill and kill until there aren’t even one of your species within my sight. M0 doesn’t want you guys killed, though. So you can afford to keep on living for a while longer. I think you owe a ‘thank you’ to him too. It would be such an amusing sight~ You humans bowing down to M0 to ask to keep on living. If it were any other of us responsible for making that decision, you would have been long dead by now.”

“…”

“Oopsy~ I wasn’t supposed to let this one out~” playfully said Atsumu, sticking his tongue out as he lightly knocked his closed fist on his head. “But you said earlier that our schemes and lies were problematic, right? Then I guess it can’t be helped. We were planning on wiping out the entire Japanese army if you were to decline Iru’s proposal. After that, we would take down the government. After that, every single citizen of the whole country would be sent six feet underground. Congratulations, Miue-senpai, you accomplished your duty and protected the country, as it is expected of you as soldiers.”

“…!” A shudder went down Miue’s spine as he heard Atsumu revealed their plan B in regards to the outcome of the audit. In their eyes, the entire Japanese population held the exact same value as that small piece of land within the military base. If they couldn’t get what they wanted, they would have killed everyone in the country just so they could obtain it. “You guys are crazy…”

“But right now, it’s us, the crazy ones, that are doing your dirty job and killing all of your enemies for you,” whispered Atsumu right in Miue’s ear when he suddenly popped up next to him. “You’re welcome, Miue-senpai~”

Disappearing once again from near Miue, Atsumu reappeared in front of the large group of enemy soldiers that were running towards that area, summoned by the earlier gunshots.

“Дерьмо! Что...? Arrrgh!!” cursed one of the Russian soldiers when an unknown blonde popped up in front of him out of the blue. He motioned his handgun towards him immediately – his reaction was too slow, however, and his hand was chopped off of his arm with one swift motion of the blonde's bayonet, which was afterwards carved deep in the middle of his throat, blood gushing out in high speed when ripped open.

What happened afterwards was almost surreal to Miue. One minute… One minute had been the necessary time for Atsumu to completely annihilate more than a dozen armed soldiers all by himself. Everything had been done so quickly and swiftly that Miue’s eyes could barely keep up with the fighting and it almost seemed as if the enemy soldiers had suddenly gone insane and were killing themselves – all that could truly be captured was blood splattering everywhere, bodies dropping dead on the ground and the repeated echoing of the guns firing.

“Кто ты...?” gasped the only remaining Russian soldier, his features bloodstained from his comrades’ blood and one of his arms hanging loosely by the side of his battered body, obviously broken in more than one place.

“Хех... Худший кошмар для человека” answered Atsumu in the soldier’s mother tongue before he swung his closed fist forward and finished the soldier with a single blow on his face.

As Miue continued to observe Atsumu in the midst of the sea of enemy corpses, he felt a pained pang inside of his chest. Atsumu didn’t seem happy at all for the massacre that occurred by his hands, as it was expected to happen if a killing machine had successfully finished its job smoothly and without any setbacks. Instead, it was as if he had just stepped on an ant while walking somewhere – there had been no emotion behind it, just the pure act of taking a life without any attachment or reason behind it. It was simply the course of nature making the world run round and round.

And that, for some reason, heavily hurt Miue’s heart. They were sly, playful and extremely childish, but had already been deprived of emotional attachment to anything that wasn’t like them.

“Unfair…” softly whispered Miue as he constantly kept his eyes on Atsumu, his cheerful and leisure self back as he waltzed in his direction. His assault rifle remained dangling around as he swung his arms back and forth in the midst of his walking motions. “We’re so unfair…”