Ikusaki dropped another couple of travel bags inside of one of the parked humvees with a strained groan, wiping the sweat on his brow right after as he observed his masterpiece. With a nod of acknowledgement at his own work, he switched his gaze to Murayama and yelled, “Everything’s packed! Do we still have enough time for me to have a smoke?”

Murayama only gave him a thumbs up and readily scratched off one of the items in the list he had jotted down on a piece of paper.

“Luggage’s done, we just need to bag everyone inside of the military car parade,” sighed Miue, lightly stretching his body. He had a long drive ahead of him, one which would be accompanied by the most annoying creatures humans had ever dared to create, so getting his body in shape beforehand was mandatory. Certainly, no one would be welcoming of him stopping midway through the highway to throw a punch or two like the previous time.

“I would have prefered to bag some cuties rather than this…” groaned Kuwabayashi, a bored, lifeless expression on his face as he sluggishly chewed on a protein bar.

“Is my Umiko not enough of a cutie for you?” inquired James, an eyebrow arched in surprise.

“Umiko doesn’t count, she’s almost like everyone’s sister around these two groups...” sighed Kuwabayashi, his disappointment even more noteworthy. “Good for you… You bagged her before she also became something like a sister to you…”

“I know, right?” said James, a smug glint on his eyes as he nodded his head a couple of times. “Though having your wife as a squadmate is not all sunshine and rainbows all the time. You’re better off finding a bride that could potentially cheat on you during your service years rather than one around you 24/7 that could get potentially killed one-third of that time.”

“Hm… Right…” acknowledged Kuwabayashi after a tired sigh. He chewed on the last bit of the protein bar and then stood up from the floor. “‘Guess you’re the one who could better understand Iru, then.”

James only ruefully grinned at those words. He highly doubted any human could ever get to fully understand any of the super soldiers but that was something no one needed to verbalise. They all knew it already.

“Everything’s packed so it’s time to get going, guys,” announced Kinjou, already on his way to hop inside of the front passenger seat of the vanguard humvee. “Is anyone running late?”

“Only Iru and Rei missing,” noted Murayama, the two super soldiers being the only ones who hadn’t taken presence on his ‘soldier list’. “They weren’t around for breakfast either. Where did those two go this time…?”

“They were at the rooftop while we were eating,” said Atsumu with a shrug of his shoulders. “But we’re talking about Rei-chan and Iru here. They’ll show up right on the nick of time, I’m sure~”

“They better hurry up then because we have a schedule to meet,” sighed Murayama, inwardly rolling his eyes around at the free-spirited ways the super soldiers had. “You guys start hopping in on the truck for the time being.”

Grumbles and a long ‘yeeeees’ were the only complaints that reached Murayama’s ears as he observed the incomplete super soldier group walking towards the military truck. Due to Tsugi’s large frame, it would be counterproductive to assign him to a regular humvee. Hence, Murayama and Kinjou had made arrangements to have a Toyota Type 73 medium truck booked for the Osaka/Tokushima mission. Two soldiers on the driver-front passenger seat and a squad of misbehaving super soldiers on the roomy back area could easily be transported in it, regardless of height.

“Seriously, where did those two brats go this time…?” grumbled Miue, checking his wristwatch for the hundredth time as he waited outside of the truck next to Murayama. His left foot was already impatiently tapping on the asphalt. “Can’t follow our schedules for once in their lives, can they?”

“We can follow your schedules, for as inconvenient as they can be,” argued back Iru, suddenly landing on the other side of the road. “I just didn’t see the need for us to show up in the departure site before the appointed hour.”

“What happened to Rei?” readily inquired Murayama, a frown on his brows as he saw Iru closely carrying Rei on his arms rather than the so characteristic hand-in-hand strolling stances.

“He’s on his resting period,” shortly said Iru, nonchalantly passing by the two soldiers and readily jumping to the back of the truck without breaking a sweat.

“What!?” yelped Miue and Murayama in unison, their eyes almost popping out of their sockets. After exchanging a quick panicky glance, they dashed after Iru, who was already cosying up with the sleeping Rei at one of the truck’s inner corners. Miue also jumped inside and went to check on Rei’s condition, a barrage of curses following right after. “Fuck… This is a shit-load of freaking inconveniences! Murayama, we might need to make some changes to our plans.”

“Ohh~ Resting period Rei-chan is sho kyute~” squealed Atsumu and Mitsu in unison too, the former attempting to creep in closer to the super soldier in question without being fulminated by Iru’s glowing glare and the latter wiggling her body in excitement.

“There’s no need to make any changes to our plans,” corrected Iru, pushing Atsumu away with one of his hands after throwing him a warning glare. “Rei can go into his resting period any time he wants. He’ll be awake once again by the time we arrive at Osaka’s military base.”

“I thought you guys went into that resting period of yours for a couple of days every few months?” pointed out Mizusaki, turning his body around on the front passenger seat so he could join in on the conversation.

“Yes, because they eliminated that trait starting from me onwards,” explained Iru, gently adjusting Rei’s laid down position on top of his lap. “It was inconvenient for The Union.”

“Inconvenient how?” asked Murayama, still standing by the truck’s back entrance. “I think being completely out for a couple of days at a regular interval is more inconvenient than going to sleep whenever the time allows it.”

“Maybe that is so for you,” snorted Iru, a condescending smirk on his lips as he lifted his gaze from the sleeping Rei and looked at the soldiers. “But it would become even more inconvenient if we were to systematically go into our resting period on purpose every time we were appointed a new mission, now wouldn’t it? The more periodic and scheduled our resting periods turned out to be, the easier it would be for The Union to programme our training and subsequent missions.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” sighed Murayama, lightly massaging the back of his neck as he kept observing Rei and his completely still body - as expected, not even his ribcage was inflating and deflating at visible levels. “If he’s going to wake up around the time we arrive at Osaka, then perfect. But let us know if there’s any change to his condition, Iru. It’s better to make some changes to our schedules before arriving at the base rather than while you’re supposed to be regular soldiers.”

“I meant to do that from the start,” scoffed Iru, turning his now affectionate gaze back to the sleeping super soldier. He gently caressed Rei’s hair, his fingers now and then entwining with the black locks. “Now, shall we get going or will you continue to stall our departure even further?”

“This drive is going to be a fucking pain in the ass…” grumbled Miue under his breath as he stomped out of the truck and went for the driver seat.

Though with a few minutes of delay, the three human and super soldier squads successfully departed from Tokyo’s military base.

There was a gap of over 500 kilometres between them and their next full stop.