“Ngh…! It feels like it’s been so long since we last did this,” mumbled En, leisurely stretching his arms over his head. He dropped them to the sides of his body with a satisfied sigh, using the chance to take his wallet and documents from his pants’ pocket. “Now, time to go back to look after my rides.”

“You just had a day off and you’re already looking forward to work again?” scoffed Sakinaka, sideways glancing at En with a half-mocking, half-disbelieving expression on her face. “Workaholics are unredeemable, as always.”

“You know how he is, Kanna-chan~” pointed out Mitsu, also taking her documents from her bag to show at the military base’s entrance gates. “He can’t stay away from airplanes for more than a few hours or he’ll die from loneliness.”

“Aren’t rabbits the ones who can die from loneliness?” inquired Tou, bitting into a gummy bear as he thought more closely about it. “You should baptise the next plane the base receives as ‘Bunny-chan’!”

“Then decorate the insides of the cockpit with bunny plushies and modify the communication devices to have rabbit ears in them,” added Sakinaka, her engineer brain going into full creator mode. “Yes, if you give me your pilot helmet, I can have them ready by tomorrow morning.”

“You’re all so funny but I’m not laughing,” grumbled En, his cheekbones slightly smeared in light pink. “And I only said it feels like it’s been a long time since we went out because there have been so many sudden changes to our base. A covert mission where all involved had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, illegals labs involved in human experimentation that created super soldiers, an audit, a Russian attack, military exercises featuring superhuman abilities… Shit, going back to our usual normalcy seems a bit weird.”

“Hm… When you put it like that, I guess so,” acknowledged Mitsu, a small smile present in her lips. “Being one of the people who brought about those sudden changes, there’s not much I can say for it, though. I’m just happy that things can go back to normal even with the addition of those changes. Or something…”

“What are you saying? The base is constantly receiving new recruits, isn’t it?” pointed out En, an eyebrow slightly arched at hearing those lacklustre words coming out of Mitsu’s usually cheerful and confident mouth. “They may be crazier than your regular recruits but at least they have far more experience and resourcefulness than them.”

“Creating appropriate apparel and weapons for them will be a challenge I’ll gladly take on,” declared Sakinaka, tightly closing one of her hands into a motivational fist.

“They also liven up the base, one way or another,” added Tou, a large grin present on his features. “A sudden audit that allowed the soldiers to prove their loyalty to the army. Interesting new characters sharing the same living space as them. Awesome fights that could only be previously seen in action scenes of movies and anime. They’ve gained a considerable fanbase after the last exercise of the physical exam, you know? I’ve never seen this base so lively before!”

“Yes, I guess so!” acknowledged Mitsu, her cheerfulness returning at full strength.

Ikusaki-kun, you said you couldn’t understand what a super soldier, an engineer and two pilots could have in common to talk about, remembered Mitsu in the back of her mind. The answer is this. This right here!

“Oh, do you think they’re already back?” asked Tou after he showed his documents and leave permit to the soldiers stationed at the base’s entrance. “I wanted to drop off some more candies at their place.”

“You really took a liking to those weirdoes, didn’t you?” snorted En, a knowing smirk on his lips as he glanced at the two large paper bags Tou was holding. “Is that why you dragged us all the way back to the candy store and bought an unusually large amount of candies and snacks?”

“Well… I just find myself to be a bit similar to them,” confessed Tou, also glancing down at the paper bags filled with several small plastic bags of candies, chocolates, gummies and savoury snacks. “I couldn’t help it.”

“Where are you similar?” inquired En, Sakinaka and Mitsu in a flabbergasted unison.

“I have somewhat mixed feelings about that reaction,” awkwardly laughed Tou. However, such was short-lived. His usual grin soon returned. “Well, things are fine like this too.”

Since none of them knows, I might as well keep it like that, acknowledged Tou in the back of his mind, chuckling as he heard En and Sakinaka dismissing his words as simply his usual nonsensical blabbering. I received Rei and Iru’s blessings so it’s fine if they never find out about past events. After all, F1 died that day for me to live as Tou Kurose.

Tou suddenly collapsed on the ground, the paper bags falling and ripping beside his unmoving body. The colourful bite-sized candies, gummies and chocolates drank the blood pooling around his body together with the cracks in the asphalt.

“Kurose!” screamed Sakinaka, her hand never reaching her fallen friend. En quickly stepped in and dragged both her and Mitsu closer to the safety provided by the entrance hut.

“Sound the alarm!” urgently instructed En to the soldiers stationed by the entrance. Still holding onto Sakinaka and Mitsu, he turned his head to Tou. All he could do was bite into the inside of his cheek as he bitterly observed from the distance blood flowing non-stop from the bullet hole in his friend’s head. “We’re under attack…”

Two seconds later, a loud, booming sound echoed through all the speakers inside of Tokyo’s military base.