It really was such a worthless life…, sighed F1 in the back of his mind. He could hear the crackling of fire in the faraway distance, some occasional explosions erupting when the fire hit a new area of the industrial factory. From his current distance, the orange light of the flames couldn’t be seen. His surroundings were dyed in the darkness of the night, no moon or stars visible due to the thick smoke covering the sky. The smoke made him cough a couple of times, blood flying out of his slightly scorched throat and lips. No meaning, no nothing…

F1 attempted to lift his body from the ground but all his burnt arms could do was muster enough strength to roll him against the dirt and sharp small pieces of rock. He had probably lost consciousness halfway through his escape from the failed mission, for he did not remember the fire to be that intense when he departed the factory.

“Ahahaha… They totally left me… haa… here to die… haa… didn’t they…?” bitterly laughed F1. With trembling motions, he slowly lifted his head the bare enough to be able to see his body. Despite the lack of pain, one of his legs had completely disappeared below his knee. “Broken as I am… I wouldn’t be… haa… much fodder for your… haa… favourite... pe… t…”

He blacked out a second time. When F1 regained consciousness once again, it was due to the loud sound of the firefighter’s sirenes. Large vehicles were constantly passing by the road probably stationed a couple of metres away from him. Not that he could see a lot amid all the smoke and blood loss.

F1 couldn’t help but think that it was all a waste of time. The factory had already burnt down by its entirety at this point. Those who had been inside had been killed by him, by the raging flames or by the massive explosions the mixture of chemicals and fire had caused. All the humans would find there was a massive furnace that would dub as a casket to bury The Union’s secret illegalities in that region. All the newspapers would write about in the next few days was an accidental leakage of chemicals that originated a large fire, causing several hundreds of mortal victims. No survivors. No culprits. Just an accident.

Even so, cars continued to pass by him. Was it to contain the fire and stop it from spreading even further? Was it to find possible wounded and survivors? Was it out of curiosity? F1 couldn’t tell. He couldn’t understand.

What’s the point of so many humans coming here… when they will never notice that the culprit is right here, dying next to where they are rushing through?

F1 took a deep breath but it only originated more coughing. The air was saturated with smoke and small particles of ashes. There was barely any breathable air around him. The stump of his cut off lower leg was bleeding non-stop. His healing speed wasn’t as good as to guarantee him a constant supply of new blood or speedy coagulation to open wounds.

He was going to die. He was going to die alone, in the middle of nowhere. His corpse would rot and his bones would eventually be buried in the dirt.

Strangely enough, that thought came off as soothing.

He held no ill intentions towards The Union and he had always complied with their orders and instructions without any complaints. He was F1, a False Flag, a super soldier. What else other than obeying The Union could he ever fathom to do?

But if he had ever had his own wants, his personal wishes, it was not to be executed in the same way the other failures around him had. He didn’t want to be killed by the experimental super soldier the scientists raved about so much. He didn’t want his life to be reduced to simply fuel a growing monster, safely kept locked out from the outside world in an underground facility.

F1 didn’t mind dying - he just didn’t want The Union’s Shinigami to be his killer.

How joyous it is… to be able to die… like you have always hoped… you… could…

“...! ...y! ...ar me!?”

Slowly, F1 opened one of his sleepy, heavy eyelids. A wobbly, vague shadowy human shape remained next to his laid down body. His wounded leg was being squeezed tight around his knee but there was no pain attached to it.

“My colleague is requesting an emergency chopper to take you out of here,” said the man hovering around him, quickly patching up what he could with his limited resources and skills. “So don’t make us waste gasoline and hang in there until we get you to the hospital, got it?”

Silly, silly humans… What are you trying to do to an abandoned, broken failure…?

“Are you a worker from the burning factory?” inquired the man, the lights of the vehicle nearby them enabling F1 to notice the military uniform he featured. “Sorry to break the news to you right now but you’re unemployed as of today. The bright side is that you’re gonna receive one hell of a compensation. Any place you want to take a prolonged holiday at?”

Holiday…? What’s a ‘holiday’...?

“My name’s En Shirose,” said the soldier as he sat down next to the wounded man. With a large grin on his face, he asked, “What’s your name, fellow?”

Name? I don’t… remember my name anymore…

“...Then… Tou Kurose…” mumbled F1, his voice dry and rough due to his scorched throat.

“What do you mean, then?” snorted En, rolling his eyes around at those half-delirious words. “Don’t you die on me, okay? Your name is a perfect match for my own. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if you died before I could help you.”

What are you saying...? I just picked that name… on a... whim…

F1 blacked out once again.

When Tou woke up, it was in a hospital bed.

-.-

“The Union has registered F1 as a failed experiment taken down during a mission,” pointed out Iru, a deep frown on his brows as he menacingly glared at Tou from the toilet’s entrance. “Are you telling us that their registries are incorrect?”

“No, as far as The Union is concerned, F1 died that night, during that mission 8 years ago,” said Tou, slowly shaking his head in denial. “If they had sent one of their agents to confirm my death, they would have easily found out the solemn survivor of that fire had been me. They probably should pay their failures a little bit more attention.”

“The Japanese army found you and you decided to stay with them?” inquired Rei, tilting his head to the left as he closely observed Tou.

“Yes, that would be the abridged version of the story,” acknowledged Tou, a large grin popping out in his lips. “They came off as a friendly bunch and, as a super soldier, the only thing I know is war. Rather than try to blend in with humans, I figured that joining the army would be the most beneficial action for me and for those who had rescued me.”

“A pet super soldier by choice, then,” scoffed Iru, a disgusted expression on his features as he averted his gaze from Tou. One thing was to be bought by someone and become their personal killing weapon - another was to choose to be used by humans just because they felt obligated to do it. “No wonder The Union deemed you a failure.”

“You sure know where to strike, Iru,” awkwardly laughed Tou, his previous large grin becoming reduced to a strained thin smile. He once again returned his gaze to the smaller super soldier. “So, what will you do, Rei? Are you going to fulfil your duty as The Union’s Shinigami and kill this failed, broken super soldier? Are you going to give me the same ending you gave to PS5?”

“I have no interest in super soldiers The Union has registered as eliminated,” said Rei, suddenly straightening his head without ever parting his eyes from Tou. “If I were to do so, it would be an impossible number to deal with.”

“And you, Iru?” asked Tou next, his smile regaining a little bit more of brightness to it once again.

“If my ‘Beatrice’ has no interest in you, then neither do I,” answered Iru, taking a sideways step and glueing the side of his body to Rei’s. “Much like he said, if we were to check all the super soldiers registered as eliminated by The Union, it would increase our workload. We might as well trust the veracity of their database and think of you as the solemn exception.”

“I see,” acknowledged Tou, inwardly releasing a sigh of relief. “I’ve changed my opinion about you, Rei. You are nothing like what the scientists said you are. You’re no Grim Reaper or Shinigami.”

“I don’t think I ever was anything the scientists said I was,” confessed Rei, leaning the side of his head on Iru’s shoulder. “I am me. Just that.”

“Ahahaha! I guess the same can be applied to me,” said Tou after a short laugh. He walked towards the toilet’s entrance and stopped next to the other two super soldiers. “Shall we get going? The others might start thinking it’s suspicious you two spending so much time inside of the toilet.”

“Iru-kun, can we go eat some more ice creams?” inquired Rei, craning his head slightly to peek at his face. “We still have some of our ‘lunch allowances’.”

“Oh, I recommend you get some snacks and candies with that money,” suggested Tou before Iru had the opportunity to answer. “There’s a store that sells them by weight. You can fill entire bags with your favourite candy or mix them around any way you want. You can also easily carry them around with you. Like this.”

Having said that, Tou stuffed his hand inside his jacket’s pocket and magically took two candies from there. As Rei was about to grab the small offering, Iru pulled him away from Tou at the same time as he pushed Tou’s hand away.

“Yamase said we shouldn’t accept candy from strangers,” said Iru, once again glaring daggers at Tou.

“Eh? But… I’m not a stranger… right?”