“There’s no more food coming?” inquired Tsugi, his head slightly tilted as he observed the dining area steadily grow emptier and emptier by departing soldiers. His shoulders slumped down when he came to his own conclusion. “This sucks… I’m going to starve to death at this rate…”

“You should be happy they even let you eat dinner with them and didn’t feed you whatever would remain of it,” scoffed Miue, a frown creasing his brows. “Now shut it and listen to what we’re saying.”

Tsugi still mumbled an ‘I’d be happy with that too’ but nevertheless shifted his attention back to the conversation revolving around the two human squads and his fellow super soldiers. Their voices were hushed and careful but further plans and individual instructions were still being issued amidst ‘enemy territory’.

“This might sound weird as heck but I think I have the perfect mission for the two of you, Mitaru, Atsumu,” said Kinjou, his eyes switching from the former to the latter as he exposed his plan to everyone. “I want you to become friends with the soldiers of this ba- Ah, wait, listen to the end before yelling at me, Mitaru! Atsumu, you’re the in-service spy and master of disguise of the super soldier team, right? Worming your way into their ranks should be a piece of cake to you.”

“Hmm… I think I could do something along those lines, yeah,” acknowledged Atsumu after briefly thinking about those instructions. “But why are you involving Mitaru in this too?”

“Because Mitaru hates everyone and would be 100% honest if he started complaining about us and Tokyo’s military base,” explained Kinjou, his eyes pinpointing the super soldier that was readying his mouth to hurl some complaints and insults his way. “That’s something he has in common to our ‘friendly’ Osaka soldiers and a good way to break the ice between them and you two.”

“I never thought Mi-chan’s mood swings could be used like this…” mumbled Mitsu, inwardly jotting down this strategy in the endless archives of her brain.

“I’d so like to fuck up your plan on the spot but I’d kill myself faster than say good shit about any of you stupid humans,” Mitaru resigned himself - not before throwing a dirty look at Mitsu and flipping the bird at Kinjou, though. “I just have to complain about you, right? Okay. I’ll do it. Atsumu can do the rest.”

“Is that really a good idea?” asked Miue, a suspicious glint in his eyes. So many things could go wrong with those two working together that the risks were bigger than the merits. “Soldiers are supposed to be loyal to their bases, at least to a certain degree. Neither of the two has that.”

“Keep an eye on them, then,” suggested Murayama. “Someone with a higher rank complaining about the base will give double the credibility to whatever they’re saying. You’re used to looking after Atsumu so you’re quicker than any of us at doing damage control over their actions. If they push it too far, just slug them on the spot.”

“I should learn to keep my mouth shut…” grumbled Miue, his frown with double the size as he leaned back on his seat.

“Moving on then. James, Umiko, I want you two to keep track of what happens around the base,” resumed Kinjou now that side of the plan had been settled. “Take Mitsu and Ikusaki with you too whenever it’s possible. We might have to disable some of the base’s security cameras while we’re making our moves. Ikusaki will be the perfect bodyguard if some problem arouses and his idiotic excuses will come in handy to set off any suspicions of an attack of some sort from our side.”

“Hey!” barked Ikusaki, a scandalised expression on his face. “Is that all I’m good for? A handy pair of fists and stupid excuses!?”

“You certainly can’t disable security cameras like we can,” pointed out James with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Or hack into the server and put a video recording on loop without anyone noticing it’s a recording, not a live show~” added Mitsu with a confident sing-song voice.

“Ikusaki Shouichi has been defeated… again!” snickered Mizusaki, his attempt to cover his mischievous smirk only making it even more playful and grating.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself so far because I know you’re also going to love your role, Mizusaki,” intervened Murayama before the usual bickering between Mizusaki and Ikusaki could start. “I want you to stick so close to General Sakazaki, you’ll be breathing in the same air. Have him temporarily surrender some weapons to aid us during the destruction of the lab. If that fails, just steal his key to the base’s armoury.”

“Welp, time to desert the army~” sighed Mizusaki with a sing-song voice, his words accompanied by the motions of getting up from his seat and readying himself to get the hell out of there. “It was nice to work with you, ladies and gentlemen, but Mizusaki Shinobu is out~!”

“There’s no need for that, Shinobu,” said Iru, a knowing smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. The very same smirk that systematically popped out on his features whenever he was planning the doom of humankind. “That matter has already been taken care of.”

“I didn’t know keys could be rectangular and made of plastic,” added Rei in cue to Iru’s words. In his left hand was being held an electronic key card, seemingly the one that could open the armoury’s bullet-proof door.

“When did you…?” babbled Murayama, his mouth (and countless others) left hanging wide open in surprise.

“Securing weaponry for the lab’s destruction is of utmost importance and undeniably mandatory for the success of our mission so I had Rei go to the general’s office and take hold of the armoury’s key,” explained Iru, placing one of his hands on top of Rei’s head and gently ruffling his black strands. “When did we do it? Let’s see. Mitsu could have easily hacked into their server and unlocked the door whenever needed, but if I had Rei sneak inside of the general’s office while everyone was having dinner, steal his key and then use it to remove weaponry from the armoury, wouldn’t that mean that General Sakazaki has been smuggling Japanese weaponry for who knows which purpose and whose benefit?”

I will never make an enemy out of Iru…, unanimously swore the two soldier squads in the back of their minds, goosebumps appearing in the skin of their arms. They also unanimously felt they had yet to witness the pinnacle of Iru’s behind-the-stage manipulations and schemes, though.

“However, the general seems to be a cautious man,” added Iru with a small sigh. “I’m certain he routinely checks his belongings, especially those related to the base’s security. If the key remains missing for too long, he may notice it. The plan will lose all of its meaning if he reports the key as missing and the blame for smuggled weaponry befalls on someone else. Actually, we’d become the most probable suspects. We need to make a copy of it as fast as we can.”

“I was going to ask Eki to run some errands on Osaka tonight so that comes in handy, actually,” acknowledged Murayama, his head bobbing forward with shorts nods. “We need supplies for everyday life and Mitsu has also written down a list of materials she needs to be able to hack into the lab’s servers. Do you think you’re able to find some store that is willing to copy an electronic key card in the middle of the night?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” said Eki with an affirmative nod. “But I need to go now. If I show up in the stores too late, it’ll be more suspicious than it needs to be. There’s also the matter with the base’s curfew.”

“That’s true. And speaking of which, Kuwabayashi, Hisaka,” called Kinjou after giving his acknowledgement to Eki’s confirmation. “I want you two to go out too. We need to start surveying the lab’s surroundings. We’ve checked the satellite images but it’s difficult to accurately grasp the terrain with only the above perspective.”

“We won’t be able to make it back by curfew time,” warned Hisaka right away. “The base and the lab are too far away from one another. Adding the surveying time to the back and forth travel, we’d only be able to return by daybreak.”

“For as long you’re back by breakfast time, Murayama and I will be able to come up with some sort of excuse for your absence during the night,” reassured Kinjou. “As squad leaders, we have our movements extremely restricted. But that also means we have plenty of time to come up with excuses to all of your covert missions. And you, Iru, are in the same position as us so try to stay in your best behaviour for the time being.”

“With Rei around, there’s plenty I can do while in my best behaviour,” said Iru with a shrug of his shoulders. “Azuma and Tsugi too, obviously.”

“Since everything has been arranged and everyone has a task to accomplish, then let’s get down to it,” announced Murayama before the disbanding of the small scale reunion was issued. “Don’t forget that all of us are involved in the joint practice with Osaka’s military base so we need to double-task both duties. Is there anything else anyone wants to mention? No? Perfect.”

With the verbal conclusion, all of them started scattering around to take the most suitable actions for the tasks they had been left in charge of.

“Can I have that electronic key card, Rei?” asked Eki, motioning one of his hands forward to urge the super soldier into giving him the stolen key. “I need to leave right now or I won’t be able to make a copy tonight.”

“I want to go too,” said Rei, pulling the plastic card closer to his body and locking it between his hands and chest. “I want to see Osaka too. Can I?”

He sure doesn’t give up on that, inwardly sighed Murayama, rolling his eyes around at the request and the grey puppy eyes that were being directed to both him and Eki. When Eki also turned to the commander in hopes of an acknowledgement or denial, Murayama raised the white flag for the second time that evening. “For as long as you limit yourself to the places that Eki needs to go, then sure, you can go with him.”