With a mug filled to the brim with coffee, no sugar or cream added to it, Murayama once again took a seat in the large conference table. He sighed just the slightest at the big hurdle they had in front of them - in the most literate of senses.

As he took a small gulp to his hot beverage, he scanned his eyes across the room. Both Mizusaki and Ikusaki were receiving some more detailed explanations from Mitsu, Ikusaki distracting himself from his incomprehension on what was being said by snacking on some chips. In a more calm and silent area of the conference table, Eki was closely reading the initial pages of what looked like some general medical guidelines for the super soldier ‘species’. Miue hadn’t pulled any punches and had grudgingly dived in the folder that spelt ‘M5’ in the front cover, a deep frown creasing his brows.

I have the feeling there’s going to be a bloodbath the next time Miue sees Atsumu…, inwardly sighed Murayama as he gently put the mug on top of the table. He doubted his second-in-command had managed to have a satisfactory conversation with the super soldier throughout the Russian attack. Hence, he was most likely trying to find some countermeasures against Atsumu’s particularly strong hatred towards humankind. Either way it goes, I can’t exactly afford to pay them as much attention as I probably should.

Unlike the rest of his squad, Murayama had received the unexpected warning that both he and the other four soldiers were no longer entirely human. Obviously, after the constant manipulative stunts that were pulled left and right by all of the Ms, Murayama felt somewhat adamant into believing in M0’s words. The super soldier had not offered any proofs or arguments that supported his theory so it may as well be an attempt to once again divert his attention to other matters and purposely make him miss a very important and fundamental point, like Mizusaki had warned him about.

Of course, Murayama’s main priority will be the same as his other squad members - to learn more about the Ms and super soldiers in general and use that knowledge to introduce them to human society in a safe and controlled environment. But he also couldn’t afford to just drop M0’s words without first investigating the matter a little bit further.

Because… if he and his squad were no longer 100% humans but a more basic version of super soldiers… then how did it happen? Who was the perpetrator of their ‘genetical modifications’? Had it been ‘The Union’? The Japanese military itself, which was the only common thing they had in their life circumstances? And if it was the Japanese military… then wouldn’t they have known about the existence of super soldiers from the very start? Wouldn’t the whole ‘lab rescue’ and audit have been nothing more than a farce to acquire full-fledged super soldiers?

Let’s stop thinking and just see where all of this information will take us, said Murayama in the back of his head, forcibly putting the spiralling questions on a hiatus. So that a problem can be solved, the beginning should always be the first step, right?

With his mug safely left on the table’s surface, Murayama got up from his seat after skirting his eyes through the countless piles of papers, documents and folders. He took a hold of the thick folders that spelt ‘M0’ and ‘M1’ in the front covers, as well as one of the small notebooks stacked in the table. It truly was regretful that, even as a theorised basic version of super soldiers, he still possessed the memory capacity of a regular human.

Back in his seat, Murayama placed the two bulky folders in front of him and took one more gulp of his coffee. He was surely in for a very sore back if he were to withstand those intense reading choices in a single go.

“No use complaining about it already…” softly mumbled Murayama as he opened M0’s folder in the first page, placed the notebook right next to it and took the cap from his ballpen. Just seeing all the scientific jargon bundled up in that single page nearly made him groan. However, it also made him arch an eyebrow in surprise.

Super Soldier Test Subject Number 01675
Mass Murder Machine Serial Prototype
Age: 18 years, 5 months
Status: Ongoing
Progress: Ongoing
Result Estimate: Unknown

“...” Murayama let his eyes remain in the second and third lines for a few seconds. That had been the same age M0 had provided them in their makeshift introduction to the Japanese soldiers. However, what was written on the upper line was even more disconcerting and, in a roundabout way, a piece that had been missing from the puzzle from the very start.

The reason why M0 didn’t possess a natural number for his codename, but a neutral one, was because he was nothing more than a prototype to create the ultimate human weaponry. He wasn’t part of the Mass Murder Machines serial, he was simply the initial lab rat that ended up originating it. However, as he detained the status of a prototype, nothing was expected out of him. Prototypes were never sold, no matter if it was a new dish in a restaurant or the next cell phone model. Only the complete and perfected versions that were originated from the initial prototype would ever be released in the market.

M0 never went outside of the lab. M0 didn’t know anything about the outside world that wasn’t required for his function as a super soldier, as a mass murder human weapon - to kill humans. And, if the Japanese military hadn’t issued the lab rescue, such a status would have been maintained until the day M0 died. It went without saying that the scientists never bothered with teaching him any of it; it was a type of knowledge that was completely redundant for him to possess as he was bound to forever live in that underground facility.

All of the Ms would eventually be shipped out of the lab and then sold, whether as separate ‘merchandise’, whether as a full-fledged 5 member military squad. But M0 would remain there, forgotten in the depts of the very last level of the illegal lab. Or, even worse, disposed of after the actual products had gotten the seal of approval and the prototype had no more reason for being.

Were the scientists panicking at the prospect of M0’s release not because they feared the Ms getting all together… but because M0 holds the key to the Mass Murder Machine serial’s creation?, inwardly wondered Murayama as he lightly sipped his coffee. Or is there some sort of characteristic found in the prototype that was eliminated in the subsequent full-fledged Ms, maybe due to a certain defect or risky variant?

The latter probably held as much value as the former, ended up concluding Murayama. Prototypes were called as such for a reason. Nor were they perfect or risk-free, nor were they the byproduct of something else.

After having written some notes and pointers for further investigation on the notebook, Murayama flipped the folder’s page and dived into the next scientific mumbo jumbo-filled section. It was a summarised initial medical report, most likely written by Mitsu to suit their general knowledge because it didn’t immediately cause his brain to spin around and crash against his cranium.

“M0 was born inside of lab no. 04, formerly used to carry out investigations in the field of natural-born super soldiers and currently used for the creation of the Mass Murder Machines serial. Both male and female progenitors were biologically altered humans, an extremely basic version of super soldiers that still hadn’t lost the functionality of their reproductory systems. The life expectancy of the reproductory system once the biological and cellular alterations begin is of 1 year, hence each female test subject is impregnated through zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT) - a fertile egg is removed from the ovaries, fertilised in the laboratory with the sperm from the male equivalent of the same test subjects, and then placed in the female’s fallopian tubes if the fertilization is successful. Average success percentage is 10.8%. The percentage of successful development and birth for the fertilised egg plummets 1% every gestation month, resulting in an overall success rate of 1.8% for a birth to occur.”

Geez, they truly always have all odds against them, don’t they? Even before the worldwide war started, inwardly sighed Murayama, suddenly recalling the words that M0 had directed at the soldiers upon the announcement of the Russian attack.

“On the 10th day after the successful fertilization of the egg/8th day after placement in the fallopian tube, there was the recording of separation within the zygote, resulting in two separate embryos. Throughout the second trimester, the smallest embryo (M0), was surgically removed from the monochorionic-monoamniotic placenta and transferred to an incubator, where he was then artificially raised inside of throughout the next six months. Biological and cellular-level experimentation began upon stabilization of the fetus at 16 weeks of the successful egg fertilization. M0 became the first artificially-born super soldier. For the results of the older twin, the first natural-born super soldier, please consult M1’s folder.”

“Pffffffffffft!” At reading the last sentence, Murayama spilt the coffee he had been leisurely sipping at, a violent coughing attack soon following as he accidentally let the warm beverage go down the wrong pipe.

“Murayama, are you okay?” asked Miue, an eyebrow slightly arched as he closely observed his commander trying to not die from choking on coffee.

“Y-Yeah,” answered Murayama amid some light coughing. He quickly wiped the small droplets of coffee from his chin with his sleeve and then looked over to Mitsu, who was also curiously looking over in his direction in tandem with the other soldiers. “Mitsu, what’s written in here is…”

“Which one?” asked Mitsu with a leisure voice. She got up from her seat next to Mizusaki and Ikusaki and walked over to Murayama, her eyes not even remaining on the open folder for one second before she recognised it. “Oh, that. What is it about the whole process that you don’t understand, Murayama-san?”

“They’re twins!?” readily asked Murayama, his voice slightly rough due to all of the previous coughing and wheezing.

“Yeah,” nonchalantly acknowledged Mitsu with a small nod of her head.

“Ughhhh…” loudly groaned Murayama as he dropped his head backwards at the same time as he facepalmed himself with both hands and let his body slide down the chair just the slightest. “Do they know about it?”

“Obviously,” answered Mitsu, tilting her head just the slightest as she continued to observe the uncharacteristic behaviour and loud groaning coming from Murayama.

“What? What happened~?” asked Mizusaki with a cheerful voice, quickly walking closer to Murayama and Mitsu to check what was causing such a big commotion out of their commander. The other three soldiers soon joined.

“Murayama-san was reading about M0’s birth process,” started explaining Mitsu, her head tilting to the right even further. “I guess he was a bit surprised about discovering that M0 and M1 are twins?”

“..................WHAT!?”