“Okonomiyaki.”

“Ice cream~”

“Macaroni and Cheese. I wanna eat that… Can Eki-sama cook it?”

“Escargots.”

“Eww, no, I don’t think I’d ever want to eat that… Hm… Spaghetti with meatballs.”

“Laaaame…”

“Hey, Mitaru, that’s not a food and it doesn’t begin with an S!” admonished Atsumu, pointing accusingly at the cranky super soldier. “You lose!”

“Who cares? This game is stupid and I don’t wanna be a part of it,” grumbled Mitaru, his frown growing more creased and ferocious - if such was really possible, as it had become a perpetual feature of his face since they departed from central Osaka and the various restaurants in it and began the final stretch that would connect them to Osaka’s military base. “I’d rather walk to the base than have to tag along with your stupid ass, lame human games!”

“I think you could learn a lot through this game,” pointed out Mizusaki as an attempt to cut off another incoming arguing session before it took deeper roots. “It would increase your vocabulary. Then you wouldn’t need to parrot ‘stupid’ and ‘lame’ all the time!”

“Fuck off…!” growled Mitaru. A terrifying glare was added to the already pretty monstrous frown.

“You were asking for that one,” sighed Miue, probably the calmest one within the whole truck - not counting the sleeping Rei, of course.

It seemed a large group of super soldiers and long road trips were not a good combination. Three hours after the journey towards Osaka began, most of them were impatiently squirming around in the truck area, any words said becoming an excuse to argue and bicker. Iru and Atsumu were constantly arguing over who was to safe-keep (cute) resting period Rei, with Mitsu only making those arguments even more intense with her interventions, Azuma made question of raising complaints about every small bump in the highway, Mitaru would give a kick or two to the metal plates on the floor every few minutes as a stress reliever and Tsugi went full ‘food psycho’ on them, to the point he started biting and nibbling anything he could get his hands on.

A trip straight from Hell - that was the only way to describe those intense travelling hours until their first full stop at central Osaka.

The soldiers had initially thought that the one-hour break would reset their resistance to road trips and had let them run free through the numerous restaurants and food stalls. Nothing better than allowing them to binge-eat to their hearts’ content to shut them up for the remainder of the trip, they had concluded.

They were wrong. So very wrong.

The small hour of fresh city air, complete freedom of movement and delicious food to partake at choice had made returning to the insides of the truck a nightmare. All the Ms wanted was to continue walking around and explore one more human realm, if the other option was more car travel, car travel and car travel.

Once they finally managed to convince them to board the military truck again, Miue and Mizusaki attempted to distract the super soldier through the remaining half-hour of travelling through some friendly competition in the shape of several games. It had worked for a while but it seemed their tolerance to boredom and lack of activity was stretching thin yet again.

“Oh!” With arguing as BGM, Miue noticed a familiar road sign, followed by the distant sighting of curly barbed wire over wire fencing. The nightmare could now finally end. “Guys, I have some good news. We’ve finally arrived at Osaka’s military base. So time to shut the fuck up and get down to business. Got it, brats?”

“Any signs of Rei waking up?” asked Mizusaki, taking his seatbelt off so he could more easily turn around on the passenger seat and peek inside of the truck area.

“I assume he’ll be awake in a matter of minutes,” said Iru, closely observing the motionless super soldier half laid down on top of his lap.

“Got it,” acknowledged Mizusaki, sitting back straight on his seat. The parade of military vehicles came to a stop at that time so he assumed that both Murayama and Kinjou were at the entrance gate going through the paperwork with the soldiers on duty there. Once the bureaucratic crap - as Kinjou liked to put it - had been settled, they could announce the road trip as over.

“Now that I think about it, this is like beginner-level spy work,” mussed Atsumu, slowly inching closer to Iru so he could witness Rei’s wakening at the second-best spot. “All we need to do is pretend to be humans. No personality roles, no new persona, just ourselves in human format. Isn’t that super… easy...”

“Me thinks things just got a bit more complicated,” said Mitaru, his frown completely gone from his face and replaced by an excited smirk. Despite the soft rocking of the again moving truck, he squatted a couple of times while stretching his arms over his head. “I’m ready for it, though.”

“Ready for what?” asked Miue, driving the truck through the open entrance gate and parking it right behind the humvee that had been travelling in front of them throughout the whole course. The moment he turned off the truck’s engine, something lightly knocked on the side window. It was the muzzle of a semi-automatic shotgun.

“Everyone get out of the truck, hands empty and above your head,” ordered a soldier, his instructions backed up by the appearance of several other soldiers, all of them holding firearms. “You move anything except your legs, you lose that anything. Now hurry up!!”

“This,” snorted Mitaru, his excitement growing exponentially as more armed soldiers appeared from the rear of the vehicle and aimed their weapons inside of the truck area. “Shall we get to work, Iru?”

“Let’s remain on the low for the time being,” instructed Iru with a whispering voice. He gently removed Rei from his lap and laid him down on the floor. “Once we make this whole situation clear, then we can get to work.”

“Tsk!” Mitaru furiously clicked his tongue and sluggishly lifted his hands over his head together with the other super soldiers. He grumbled under his breath, “This is so freaking lame…”

One by one, they jumped out of the truck and were guided at gunpoint to a more open area, away from the protection and cover of vehicles and buildings alike. For as long as the soldiers didn’t search the truck, Iru deemed that Rei would be safe and sound until the end of his resting period.

“Is this all of them?” asked a rough-looking soldier, his facial expression severe and strict as he observed their prisoners one by one. The lack of a semi-automatic shotgun or any other heavy weaponry on his hands appointed him as a high-ranking soldier. The commander leading the arrest, perhaps. After a few seconds of deep silence, he added. “Go through their vehicles. They might be hiding something.”

“Yes, Sir!” A couple of soldiers saluted their acknowledgement and readily dashed back to the parking area.

Though his features remained collected and passive, Iru inwardly clicked his tongue in frustration. Of course, they had to search the vehicles. Not all humans were devoid of logic and strategy, unfortunately.

The result of the search was the expected.

“We found one more sleeping inside the truck!” barked a soldier as he leisurely walked back to the group. His face had a large, thick scar that went from the right side of his forehead down to the left side of his bearded chin. A portion of his nose had also fallen victim to the scarring tissue and was gone from sight. Once he reached the group, he threw Rei to the ground as if a sack of potatoes and triumphantly placed one of his boots on top of his back. “This sucker sure has a heavy sleep, if I do say so myself!”

Whatever it is that’s going on, I can no longer guarantee that guy’s safety, inwardly concluded Murayama, a sideways glance more than enough to tell that all six super soldiers, Mitsu included, were aching to spill some blood. Nevertheless, he continued to focus on the commander candidate. “What’s the meaning of all of this? The purpose of our visit is purely educational, not to attack or be attacked.”

“Don’t go thinking that your purpose is in alignment with our purpose just because we answer to the same minister,” said the commander candidate, his stone-like gaze hardening even further. “As someone from Tokyo, all of you should have known better than to leisurely waltz in where you don’t belong.”

“I knew these sons of a bitch would plot something…” grumbled Hisaka under his breath, earning himself a strong blow on the back of his head with the recoil pad of a nearby semi-automatic shotgun. “Ngh…!”

“What do you intend to do with us?” asked Murayama, a deep frown installing itself on his features after seeing that blatant act of aggression.

“Isn’t it obvious?” said the newest addition to the attacker side. This one all soldiers knew, be it by name, be it by position. After a long drag of his cigarette, Sakazaki Kouji leisurely released the smoke as if he had all the time in the world. With a knowing smirk on his wrinkled lips, the general of Osaka’s military base said, “We’re going to kill every single one of you.”