“Now that we’ve gotten rid of the annoyance, what should our group do?” inquired Mizusaki, his arms crossed over his chest as he thought of some sort of activity that could get his group through the afternoon without causing big ripples around the shopping centre.

Murayama, Miue and Eki, together with Tsugi, Atsumu and Mitaru, had gone to the appliance store located in the building next door to the shopping centre. The culprits behind the partially burnt down kitchen were going to take responsibility for their actions and, instead of shopping for their own things, they would be shopping for the appliances they had damaged. Despite Atsumu’s constant complaints that he wanted to continue in the same group as Rei, Miue managed to persuade him after some behind-the-scenes rough handling.

Mitsu and her gang had also left to do their things. They had long booked that day as a day off and the only reason they had met with them had been out of Mitsu’s request to spend some time with Mitaru and wipe out all doubts they had with the locating devices. Though, in the end, Mitsu got to goof around with Mitaru only. There had been no need to reassure the super soldiers of the devices’ safety.

Now Mizusaki and Ikusaki had been left taking care of Rei, Iru and Azuma and entertain them with things they might be interested in buying for themselves.

“So, is there anything you guys want to buy or see?” asked Ikusaki, scratching the back of his head as he wondered what exactly they were supposed to do for the next two hours.

“If the question was what we don’t want to see, I’d answer more humans,” grumbled Azuma under his breath, his semblance having steadily darkened throughout the day. “We should have left them in charge of resupplying the broken appliances while we returned to the base ahead of schedule.”

“Sulk all you want but this schedule is to be met,” dismissed Mizusaki after rolling his eyes around. “What about you two, Iru, Rei?”

“Is there anything you want to see, Rei?” inquired Iru, completely ignoring Mizusaki’s earlier question. “Before the testing period started, you said there were a lot of places you wanted to visit with me.”

“The sea,” suggested Rei, throwing a glance at the two soldiers to seek their approval.

“We’re not exactly close by to the sea here,” explained Mizusaki, cringing slightly at Rei’s first choice. “Any other thing?”

“The aquarium and the zoo,” answered Rei right away, inching a little bit closer to Mizusaki. He was sure this time he would get their approval.

“There’s no aquarium or zoo in the shopping centre…” sighed Mizusaki, his cringing increasing exponentially. The fact that Ikusaki released a tired groan next to him only made Rei’s wrong answers even more noteworthy. “Could you… restrict yourself to what’s inside the shopping centre?”

“But you asked about what I wanted to see?” pointed out Rei in the form of a question, his head tilting to the left as he tried to understand where did he go wrong with his interpretation of that earlier question. “I said what I want to see?”

“Then why don’t we go shopping for stuff you want only instead?” suggested Ikusaki, quickly looking around their surroundings to try to spot something the super soldiers might be interested in. “Oh! What about that? The bookstore! It has more books than you can read in a week.”

“If you’re sneaky and quiet about it, you can read some of the books in the bookstore without buying them,” said Mizusaki with a more hushed voice. “Not all of them, though. Unfortunately, manga is always wrapped in plastic so you can’t read them on the spot. The only exception is some second-hand booksellers.”

“I want to go,” acknowledged Rei, taking a glance at Iru to also seek his approval. When Iru nodded his head in acknowledged, together with a gentle smile, it also erupted a small smile in Rei’s features.

“With two hours, we should be able to read a substantial amount of what is provided in the shelves,” said Iru. “Rei, if there’s any word you don’t understand, feel free to ask me. Ask Shinobu if you need a human explanation.”

“What if we want to take some with us?” asked Azuma, finally raising his head enough to be able to see the soldiers’ faces. “Murayama didn’t give us more money to spend.”

“It’ll be the same thing as with the clothes, so don’t worry,” reassured Mizusaki, dismissively waving his hand. “We pay for them with our money. Then when we return to the base, we deliver the receipts to Nakatani-san and he refunds those expenses in our next salary. We went for a different approach during lunch because we wanted you to experience paying for your things and get some interaction with humans other than soldiers.”

“I’d rather you hadn’t,” scoffed Azuma, a small frown creasing his brows.

“Humans receive money in exchange for joining the army,” remarked Rei, once again tilting his head to the left.

“Hm? Yes, we do,” acknowledged Mizusaki, not having expected Rei to pick up on that small pointer he had just said. “It also has other benefits, especially health-wise. At the end of the day, being a soldier is just another job people can apply for.”

“Do you apply for the army because you want to make money through fighting?” inquired Rei, his unblinking grey eyes stuck to the two human soldiers.

“Hmm…” After exchanging a quick glance in between themselves, both Mizusaki and Ikusaki thought more closely about that question. With a quick shrug, Mizusaki said, “I think it depends on the individual? Some people might have joined because they wanted to fight and kill enemy soldiers, yes. But that’s not the only reason that leads people into becoming a soldier.”

“Why did you join the army, Mizusaki-kun, Ikusaki-kun?” asked Rei afterwards, suddenly straightening his head at that curious answer.

“Because I didn’t have anywhere else to go~” answered Mizusaki with a sing-song voice, a huge grin curling up the corner of his lips.

“Because I didn’t want to die,” scoffed Ikusaki, an eyebrow lightly arching on his brows as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“I see,” acknowledged Rei, nodding his head softly. “I also don’t have anywhere else to go and don't want to die.”

“See? Human soldiers and super soldiers have more things in common than you think,” pointed out Mizusaki, placing his arm around Rei’s neck to pull him closer. With his other hand, he strongly ruffled his hair.

“Shinobu, who told you can touch my Rei?” threateningly hissed Iru, his eyes glowing red as he pulled Rei away from Mizusaki’s arms. He hugged him close to his body, protectively hiding his head and face with one of his hands. “Do not repeat this offence ever again.”

Mizusaki couldn’t help but burst out laughing out loud.

Time really flew by when around super soldiers.