“Ouch, that must have hurt…” groaned Mizusaki, his body flinching just the slightest as he saw Mitaru punching Atsumu straight on the face and almost causing him to fall back-first on the ground. “Or not, since he can’t feel pain.”

“They’re aware that this is just some friendly fight and not a match to the death, right?” asked Eki, part of him worried that the super soldiers would begin another killing spree - first between themselves but later expanding to the rest of the base’s residents.

“Iru stopped when Tsugi’s back hit the floor so I guess so,” pointed out Murayama, also closely observing the one-on-one fistfight between Mitaru and Atsumu.

“Man, I still don’t get why Azuma turned into an ‘it’ all on his own,” mumbled Ikusaki, his brain going round and round as he tried to come up to an explanation to that unexpected act. “Since he has that rival thing going on with Iru, I thought he would take him head-on.”

“There are some battles you need to lose so you can win the war~,” said Mizusaki with a sing-song voice. “It’s all a matter of strategy. Azuma probably has some sort of plan that can only be started with him as an ‘it’.”

“There’s no rule saying that ‘its’ can’t kill other ‘its’ so he might be thinking about the game from that viewpoint,” suggested Miue, doing his best to follow Mitaru and Atsumu’s fight now that they had sped things up to super soldier-level pace. “Now all that’s left to be decided is if Atsumu wins or not. If he does, there’s less one ‘it’ and still two blanks. But if he loses, then M0 will become the only blank.”

“Atsumu’s getting the beating of his life, there’s no way he’s going to win,” scoffed Ikusaki, the sound of another punch hitting its intended target reaching their ears. “Okay, yeah, he’s keeping up with Mitaru but he’s gotten punched and kicked more times than Mitaru has. Brawls do fit Mitaru’s personality. Oh, and speaking of which, where the heck did M0 go?”

“I don’t think Atsumu-kun will be able to win against Mitaru-kun under these circumstances,” said a voice right from behind the soldier squad.

“Shit, when did you get there!?” yelped Ikusaki, all of them flinching at hearing M0’s voice seemingly coming from nowhere. They turned around almost at the same time and saw the small super soldier leisurely sat down on the short fence behind them.

“I’ve been here for a while now,” deadpanned M0, tilting his head to the left. “And to answer your other question, Ikusaki-kun, it seems I’ve been set up by both Iru-kun and Azuma-kun.”

“Because of your bet with Iru?” asked Murayama, an eyebrow slightly arched on his brows.

“I guess so,” acknowledged M0, straightening his head once again. “But bet or not, Azuma-kun would most likely still attempt something along these lines. The bet just gave Iru-kun a reason to not retaliate against it. Just like Mizusaki-kun and Miue-san said.”

“Huh? Me too?” asked Miue, not expecting his interpretation of the current fight to also be correct.

“Okay, okay, I yield~!!” screeched Atsumu out of the blue. When the soldiers returned their focus to the training grounds, they found Atsumu on the floor, Mitaru laughing his ass off while poking and stomping on him with his foot.

“It seems you’re the only blank left, M0,” said Mizusaki, a knowing smirk on his lips as he pointed his thumb towards the training grounds. “What will you do now?”

“...” M0 silently jumped from the short fence but the soldiers only saw his feet touch the ground when he popped out in front of them, rather than in front of the fence. He leisurely started walking towards the other Ms as they spread around the training grounds to search for the remaining blank. “Kill them all.”

“Uh… When you put it like that, it makes it sounds like you’re really going to kill them…” cringed Mizusaki, facepalming himself as he observed M0 once again vanish from near them and pop out in the middle of the training grounds. Precisely in between Iru and Atsumu. “You won’t, right? M0?”

“Ohh, there you are, M0!” cheerfully said Atsumu, the previous beating-slash-miserable-loss already far away from his thoughts. When he also saw Iru behind M0, however, a sour expression creased his features. “Geh! Iru’s here too… Then I already know what’s about to happen…”

M0 glanced at Atsumu and then turned his head in the opposite direction, to also take a peek at Iru’s position. Contrary to everyone’s expectations, however, M0 started to run towards Atsumu rather than Iru.

“Atsumu-kun…” softly called M0, his arms stretch out in front of his body as he continued his fast descend to the super soldier’s encounter.

“Eh?” gasped Atsumu, his body rooted in place as M0 grew closer and closer to him. He was so taken aback by having been chosen before Iru that he didn’t even avoid M0’s blow to the left side of his torso.

The blow hadn’t been enough to throw him out of balance, however. Atsumu quickly retained his defensive stance and readied himself to counter against M0’s following attack. The probability of it coming from behind was almost 100% so he turned his body slightly sideways. As expected a kick came from behind, but its intended target had been the back of his knees rather than an area of his body that could suffer severe damage.

Atsumu’s balance and defensive stance were broken this time. The kick caused his body to topple down on the ground on his knees. M0’s next move finished the short-lived one-on-one match. In the blink of an eye, he struck the front of Atsumu’s neck with the sole of his foot, making him crash against the ground on his back with enough strength to sink his body down on a hole with several inches.

“Oh shit!” cursed Miue, both him and Murayama readily running towards him to check his condition - it truly was a matter of finding Atsumu still alive or with his throat turned into a bloody pulp.

They had unconsciously underestimated Atsumu, however.

“Hehe… Hehehe~” giggled Atsumu, a huge grin on his face as he leisurely remained laid down on his back inside of the hole. “M0~ You chose me again~ Hehehehe<3 Again~ Do it again, M0!<3”

“He should have killed you instead,” grumbled Miue, his features creased with an expression of utter disgust as he gave a kick to the back of Atsumu’s head. “Not that death would cure an unredeemable pervert like you… Get up, Atsumu! Out! Out of the training grounds! Hurry up, before I finish M0’s work!”