「We are machines─designed for destruction.」
「We are machines─built to kill.」
「We are machines─obliged to suppress our emotions.」
「We are machines─not entitled to live our lives as humans do.」
The deafening sounds of explosions roared, followed by screams of terror. A soldier ran through the hellish battlefield. The retreat order has been issued, due to their enemy reinforcement's arrival. Shots were fired, killing many lives left and right. The soldier swiftly escaped the massacre, evading the bullets and explosives along his way. To his horror, he saw his comrades' bodies falling down, one by one.
"Sir! Requesting backup! Please!" He desperately yelled to his transceiver, clinging to the only hope left for him.
"Stand your ground, soldier," a voice replied to his distress call, "We have sent the Matsuno Units for your aid. Until then, please keep the enemies at bay."
The soldier's eyebrows wrinkled in fear. At that moment, he knew all of his hopes were lost. He was the only one who was still alive of his squad─the sole survivor. He couldn't hold back the enemy's attack all by himself any longer.
He let out an anguished scream, spraying bullets from the muzzle of his gun. Three enemies were taken down from his desperate attack, but more of the reinforcements were coming. The soldier was cornered in no time. However, he stood still among the corpses of his comrades. His grip tightened on his weapon. All of his fond memories flashed before him in an instant, dredging like a rush of waterfall within his head. Silently, he sighed and tears began to drop from his eyes.
I don't want to die. No, not yet.
He closed his eyes. A sound of thundering shot was heard from an enemy soldier. The soldier thought he was already dead, but a hot wind blew through his face instead. He gasped in awe at the moment he opened his eyes.
"What's this? Do you really think this brittle pebble can kill me?"
A young man dressed in black was standing in front of him, wielding a long sword. He sported a wide grin, while removing a bullet stuck on his chest with his bare hands. The black-clad man spoke to a microphone on his neck nonchalantly.
"Matsuno Unit No. 1─Matsuno Osomatsu, has just arrived," he smirked, "Commencing mission."
The young man's eyes flashed in deep red color. His mouth formed a devilish smile, as he hacked the enemy soldiers to pieces with his blade. Not long, two other black-clad men joined the fray. The other two's appearances were strikingly similar to the first man. It was almost like the three were copies of each other.
The second man had a pair of sunglasses on his eyes. He fired multiple shots from his gun calmly, contrasting the first man who charged swiftly to the enemy's ranks. The third man laughed heartily, while smashing the enemy to pieces with his large, unusually shaped weapon. He was swinging his club like a child would to his new baseball bat.
"Matsuno Unit No. 2─Matsuno Karamatsu, dispatched! Commencing retrieval mission!" the second man exclaimed.
"Matsuno Unit No. 5─Matsuno Jyushimatsu, dispatched! Also commencing mission!" the third man spoke in a quirky, joyful tone.
The soldier slumped down to the ground, his legs were wobbly. He trembled, watching the three young men slaughtered the enemy soldiers. They easily annihilated the opposing forces without breaking a sweat, with somewhat dissonant, calm expressions painted on their faces. Some of the bullets hit them, but to no effect at all.
"Alright, we did it!" The third man cheerfully swung his club like a cartoon caveman. He offered his hand to the dumbfounded soldier, grinning widely. "Are you okay? Can you stand?"
The soldier stood back up, feeling uncomfortable from the three men's creepily calm stares.
"Are you a part of 109th Squad?" The second man asked. "We were dispatched to pick you guys up. Where's the rest of your squad?"
"Ahh...uhmm...they didn't make it." The soldier bit his lip.
A stifled laughter was heard. The first man─Osomatsu─was chuckling in a disturbing manner.
"Heh...that's so lame," he faced the terrified soldier, "We were dispatched just to fight these super-lame enemies, and to pick up what's left of that useless 109th Squad? Seriously, what are our superiors' thinking..."
"Stop it, Osomatsu-nii-san. That's cruel, you know." Jyushimatsu chuckled, lightly tapping his brother's back to stop bullying said soldier. However, Osomatsu didn't listen.
"Your whole squad is useless!" Osomatsu laughed mockingly to the soldier. "Useless! Useless! Useless!"
"There's nothing we can do," the soldier snapped back at Osomatsu's harsh words, "We're just ordinary humans...unlike you─you murderous monsters!"
"Say that again, useless worm." Osomatsu grabbed the soldier's collar, glaring menacingly. "I can easily kill you right here, right now. Know your place, scum."
"Seriously, stop it, Aniki." Karamatsu put his sunglasses to his pocket, while sighing in discontent. "If you kill him, our mission will be for naught."
"That's right. You're ruining our reputation, Osomatsu-nii-san." Jyushimatsu followed Karamatsu's protest, keeping the unchanging wide grin on his face.
The eldest man huffed. "Tch. Whatever. You're lucky our mission is to save your ass. But, remember this: I'll definitely kill you the next time we meet again."
Two helicopters arrived at the scene. Ignoring the noise of the helicopters' blades, Karamatsu calmly spoke through his microphone.
"Mission accomplished. No. 1, No. 2, and No. 5 reporting. We're returning to the base shortly."
"Hey, I heard that the Matsuno Units are being dispatched to Area 120."
"Really? Looks like the 109th Squad is in a really big trouble. Maybe, they're all already dead by now."
"What are these 'Matsuno Units' you guys talking about?"
"You don't know? Are you kidding me?"
"Matsuno Units are a series of androids created as our military government's ultimate weapon. There are six of them─No.1 Osomatsu, No.2 Karamatsu, No. 3 Choromatsu, No. 4 Ichimatsu, No. 5 Jyushimatsu, and No. 6 Todomatsu. They're like, our trump cards. The higher ups must be that desperate to dispatch them."
"Oh? So, are they battle-droids?"
"Yeah, but with deadlier efficiency. Also, their appearances are based on humans and they were able to develop emotions and free will, making them much more unpredictable than usual robots. That's why, I don't want to cross paths with any one of those."
"Why is that so?"
"Last month, a member of 87th Squad was critically injured by one of the Matsuno Units. He was provoking the droid, so he reap what he sow. When he was admitted to the hospital, his guts were spilling out."
"Wow. Who did it? Was it Unit No. 4, Matsuno Ichimatsu?"
"Yeah. You don't want to mess around with that scoundrel. Oh, I think Unit No. 1─Matsuno Osomatsu─is the most vile of those bastards."
"How so?"
"He's the leader of the Matsuno Units, the number one strongest of all those droids. It's just a rumor, but I heard that he is the most ruthless among them."
"Oh, gosh. Now I understand why are you so twitchy when we're talking about them."
"Yowai-san, I have the material you requested."
A brown-haired young woman nodded and smiled to her acquaintance. She received a disk from said person, inside a plastic case labeled with bright red paper. After a few words exchanged and a sweet thanks being said, she bowed to her friend and continued to walk along the hallway. The sounds of her high heels knocking against the floor echoed through the empty air.
The woman took a card hanging on her chest, swiping it across a terminal, and the door to her office slid open to welcome her in. She took off her white, long coat from her shoulders and threw it to a chair. A tired sigh came out of her dry, sore throat.
She took a glance at her ID card on the table. Her name─Yowai Totoko─was printed beside her photograph and ID number. The disk was dimly shining within its case, inviting her to grab it and ravaged its contents immediately.
Words were written on the red label:
「Confidential Information: Matsuno Units」.
Gently, she opened the case and closed her eyes─unwanted memories were streaming chaotically within her head. No matter how hard she tried to forget them, they will always haunt her...even when she's not dreaming.
"To think of it...who uses this kind of ancient floppy disk in this day and age?" Totoko chuckled, downing an entire can of beer in two or three gulps. "That really shows...how old this information is..."
A large screen in front of her flashed bright among the darkness of the room. Totoko felt like finding herself inside a cinema she used to visit to watch movies when she was a child. Her eyes cautiously followed the movement of the cursor in the monitor screen. A single file was found residing in the disk. She could feel her hands went cold and sweaty.
The file─the confidential file containing information about the country's most dangerous weapon─was hidden in a deep, and long slumber for years...is about to be awaken.
Totoko's hands were shaking in fear and anxiety. She closed her eyes once again, trying to calm herself down. Her grip on the mouse was getting tighter and tighter.
"I have to do this. I'm sorry...Uncle...Auntie...I..."
With a slow, but steady movement, she clicked on the file with the cursor. The monitor turned black, as Totoko's own heart was racing like crazy with anticipation. It was more or less the same as the excitement of waiting for the movie to start in the cinema. She was actually feeling the same as her 10-year-old self watching her favorite horror movie years ago. However, she wasn't a child anymore, and it wasn't a thrilling movie to watch.
It was a Pandora Box, meant not to be open at all costs.
It all began around 14 years ago, when the sextuplets of the Matsuno Family died.
Year 20XX, six children of the Matsuno couple were involved in a traffic accident. The school bus carrying them in their school trip to Hakata was crashed. 45 lives were lost─43 children (6 of them were the Matsunos), 1 teacher, and 1 driver─were all died in the accident.
The Matsuno sextuplets' childhood friend, Yowai Totoko, was the sole survivor of the accident. She was too traumatized to talk, and somehow managed to survive the crash with only broken leg and punctured ribs.
The sextuplets' parents─Matsuno Matsuzo and Matsuno Matsuyo─were horribly despaired by their children's death. They weren't able to accept the sextuplets' death, and they began to devise a plan.
The plan was no other than the 「Matsuroid」.
Little did they knew, that their plan will change this country's future.
The Matsuno couple built a series of androids capable of speech, think, feeling emotions, and they possesses an ability to act on their own. They even perfected and installed an artificial intelligence based on their late children's original personalities. Not just that, they also created and designed the androids' body to be able to digest organic food and not to rely on mechanical needs.
The droids were created as the replacement of the deceased Matsuno sextuplets, an effort attempted by the Matsuno couple to bring their children back from the dead. Needless to say, their work was astonishingly splendid. They even shook the world as the pair of scientists capable of creating 22nd-Century's "Pinocchio". The couple found a new joy and happiness with their 'reborn' children afterwards.
However, the happiness didn't last long. The Matsuno couple passed away three years later. Some investigations led to a suspicion that they were murdered. However, the culprit was never found and the case was closed abruptly. This fact leads to another theory that they were murdered by the government, all to seize their precious creation─the Matsuroids.
Soon after the couple died, the droids were taken by the government. It was horrible─they were screaming and crying as they were dragged to leave their home and forced to go into a car. They had 10-year-old minds and bodies, not to mention.
The military was highly interested in these droids, and the Matsuroids were sold to them in a price equals to six nuclear missiles. The droids were handled by the military's most excellent technicians, and undergone heavy remodels. Their appearance, for example, was altered from children's body to young adult-like. They were reshaped to a form more fitting for combats. However, they couldn't remove the personality aspect from the Matsuroids' AI. The systems will be forced to shut down when the personality is tempered, so they have no choice but to keep them installed within their AI.
The military found that their childlike personality aspect is a hindrance to develop full potentials of their combat ability. They need to suppress the droids' emotions to maximize their fighting capacity. Instead of completely removing the personality, the technicians hacked into their AI to disable their 'empathy'. They also altered the droids' original personalities to something...far more despicable.
In these last 11 years of upgrades, remodels, and reprograms, the Matsuroids have become this country's ultimate weapon. They were renamed the「Matsuno Units」.
Matsuno Unit No. 1─Osomatsu─is a short-range type combat unit specialized in close quarter combats and sword fighting. It is the strongest among the Units in terms of raw power, but it has the worst personality of all. It has the most destructive quality of all Units.
Matsuno Unit No. 2─Karamatsu─is a long-range type combat unit specialized in handling guns and rifles. It is the most efficient Unit in terms of firearms usage. However, it is quite reserved in terms of attacking, so it has to be reprogrammed to be more aggressive in combat.
Matsuno Unit No. 3─Choromatsu─is a support unit designed specially for hacking and serves as the 'administrator' among the Units. It is not designed specifically for combat, but it has an automatic battle system recently installed within its AI and unit core...although it's not as effective as the other combat units. It possesses a responsible personality and is proven to be the smartest, so it was given the authority to 'administrate' the other Units.
Matsuno Unit No. 4─Ichimatsu─is a long-range type combat unit, although it is possible to switch his battle mode systems into short-range type combat unit. It is the most versatile among the combat units and the second strongest Unit after Unit No. 1. It has the most dangerous, unstable personality. At times, it is quiet and obedient. However, it will easily enter the 'berserk mode' in any slight provocation, even to allies. It must be kept in check and under full supervision from the Administrator Unit and the military. Discipline is highly required to be upgraded within its system.
Matsuno Unit No. 5─Jyushimatsu─is a short-range type combat unit. It is the third strongest combat unit and the most effective one in terms of crowd-controlling. It possesses the most childlike personality and high numbers of unpredictability. Despite its random nature, it doesn't pose any threat to allies, unlike Unit No. 4.
Matsuno Unit No. 6─Todomatsu─is a support unit specialized in sniping abilities and espionage missions. It is a unit with a unique ability to alter its voice and appearance, making it suitable to spy on the enemy. However, it possesses poor short-range combat ability, perhaps even the worst among all Units. It has dual-layered, complex personality, and the most difficult to deal with in tampering or reprogramming the system.
It is truly pitiful of us to reshape six innocent children brought back from their death by a pair of loving parents who raised them as normal humans, into a series of weapons designed to destroy. The fact doesn't change that we...with our hands, changed them into killing machines. Rumors have been spread among my coworkers, that the Matsuno Units carrying the curse from the Matsuno spouses─
I'm utterly terrified of the idea that they, the droids...
─will someday turn against us, humanity─