Morning light flooded into the room, peeking through the sheer curtains that served as a thin, flimsy layer of protection against the sun. The light flitted across soft eyelids, prompting long eyelashes to flutter open.
It was a beautiful morning; birds chirping outside while a soft breeze swayed the curtains through a window that had apparently been left open from the night before. By most standards, anyone would be pleased to wake up in such a way, however, the owner of previously mentioned long eyelashes instead prompted to close her eyes once more, and hide herself under the safety of her warm blanket.
Soon, she relaxed, happy to be surrounded by the warmth and darkness her blanket provided. Just as she was ready to slip back into a peaceful slumber, however, she was jolted awake by a crash through her door.
Her eyes shot open, a gasp being pulled from her lips as she sat up in bed, hair disheveled and eyes wide in panic. As her brain overworked itself, a defensive measure to sooner wake from her sleep induced haze, her wild eyes turned into a deep glare at the offender. Her face was set into a deep scowl, as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
"Out of bed, Dante!" Instructor Keith Shadis commanded, voice loud and booming as he stood at the entrance of her door. "You're late! You were supposed to meet the cadets hours ago! Days ago! Get your lazy ass out of bed, now!"
"I get it, I get it!" The woman referred to as Dante whined, lazily slugging out of the comfort of her bed and reluctantly throwing open her closet. "Just get out so I can get changed, pervert." She muttered offhandedly, earning a scowl from the man before he turned on his heel and walked away.
"You could've at least shut the door!" Was the last thing the Instructor heard, followed by the slam of a door, as he exited the hall.
Back within the room, the once peaceful space was filled with resentful grumbles and complaints about a day that hadn't even started. The sun had barely creeped up from beyond the mountaintops just moments before her disturbing wake up call, yet she was already being bothered with her duties.
In all fairness, the task she was assigned (that task being the charge of the new cadets combat training) was one she was supposed to have started days prior, but kept putting it off with the excuse of she "just didn't feel like it." That decision was starting to bite her in the butt as now she has no choice. She had put off the assignment to the point when any later and she'd be sending the poor suckers to their deathbeds without any proper preparation.
She'd rather not have that hanging over her.
Huffing out her frustrations, she stared at the contents of her closet. She was met only with the sight of three separate uniforms, each bearing different emblems. Without missing a beat, she grabbed one of them and easily slipped it on, back now bearing the crest of the trainee squadron.
"What a pain in the ass…" Letting out a sigh, Dante stepped out from the security of her room. Long legs strode down seemingly endless hallways, face set in a disinterested expression, until she reached a quaint, little door. Upon entering, after the door was shut quietly, her body naturally fell into a salute; left arm folded behind her back while her right fist curved upward, pressed against her heart.
"Dante," the voice belonged to Instructor Shadis. "Your assignment is to train the 104th cadet squad in combat-"
"I know-"
Instructor Shadis looked up from the papers in his hands at the interruption. "Could've fooled me. You were given this assignment weeks ago, and you haven't even started."
Dante puffed her cheeks, looking away to a corner of the room. Her salute fell as her arms instead opted to fold in front of her chest. Despite her childish antics, she remained silent otherwise.
"Here's the list of your new trainees," he sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Now get the hell out of my office."
"Sir!" She smiled, happy to be done with the formalities.
Quickly, she snatched the papers from his desk and made a mad dash out of the room. Each page listed each of the 104th cadets' personal information. Her nose was buried in the papers, carefully reading about each of the cadets, an amused smile spreading across the features of her face. She hoped they were truly as interesting as the reports made them out to be.
…
The heavy, confident steps of Erwin Smith sounded down the hall, the heel of his boots clicking against the wood of the floorboards while the toe caused them to creak. His features were set in their usual stony expression, gaze shifting ever so only when someone passed him by; only once. It was a woman; waist slim, slightly wider hips with a top to match. The woman's eyes met his for only a moment, but she looked away, seemingly disinterested. As they passed each other however, their fingers brushed and within that moment he felt the crisp touch of paper slip into his palm. It all happened in the short span of a moment, so fast not even the sharpest soldier would've noticed.
He clenched his fists, eyes staring ahead of him as the woman's footsteps soon faded away. Continuing down the hall, he soon found himself in front of a small meeting room. Wasting no time, he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Before him were three others, each commanders, with the exception of one: Dot Pixis, Commander of the Garrison, Nile Dok, Commander of the Military Police, and finally, Keith Shadis, former Commander of the Survey Corps, current Instructor of the 104th Trainees Squad.
They did a quick salute to each other; simple formalities, before taking a seat at a small, round table. There were papers scattered across the surface and upon looking down, Erwin saw the many faces of each 104th trainee cadet within the wall.
"Let's cut to the chase." Started Shadis, handing a few papers to each of the commanders. "These are the cadets that seem to be most applicable for your divisions."
"I'm assuming each of these cadets are among the top 10 in their region?" Nile Dok said, voice low and disinterested.
Erwin said nothing, but found himself empathizing with his fellow commander. This meeting was a simple formality, a way to know ahead of time who may or may not be soon joining their division. It didn't matter to him, if they wanted to join the Survey Corps then they would, if they didn't then so be it.
"Yes," Shadis stated, pausing for a moment before continuing, "those are the top 10 cadets in both the North and South regions of the wall. However, there's an interesting development within the South cadets."
All of the commanders lifted their gaze from the papers before them to regard the Instructor with interest.
"Normally, any cadet would scramble at the opportunity to be within the Military Police, but that's not the case within the cadets from the South."
"Why's that?" Pixis, who had been quiet until then, finally spoke.
Shadis paused once again, taking the time to pull one of the Cadet files from Dok's hand before sliding it in front of Erwin.
"Eren Jaeger," he said after he pulled his hand back; "currently ranked number 7, but with his stubborn nature, I suspect he'll rise in the ranks."
"What about him?" Dok grunted.
"He's from Shiganshina, and he's set on joining the Recon Corps. As I said before, he's stubborn and he's got a deep hatred for the titans."
Don't we all. Erwin kept that thought to himself as he picked up the file. The others regarded him in silence as he read over the file before ultimately setting it back on the smooth surface of the table.
"He's the type of soldier that gets himself killed off quickly." Erwin spoke finally, meeting the deep set eyes of Instructor Shadis.
"That's not all." Shadis soon removed one file from Dok's hands and one from Pixis, sliding them before Erwin. "Mikasa Ackerman, currently ranked number 1 and I don't foresee that changing. She's a born fighter, displaying a kind of aptitude I've never seen before. Lastly, Armin Arlert, not ranked within the top 10, but might as well be a genius. Both are from Shiganshina with Eren Jaeger. It's likely that if Jaeger joins the Scouts, so will they. Together….they may make a lethal combination."
"They may?" Pixis hummed with interest, taking a swig of his wine.
"I haven't conducted any drills with them together. I don't even think their potential can be realized unless they're in a life or death situation."
The room got quiet once more, curious eyes finding their way back to Erwin Smith, trying to catch a glimpse at his thoughts but ultimately failing. This certainly was an interesting development, but Erwin had seen his fair share of reckless cadets who ended up as nothing more than snacks for the titans.
After a brief pause, the meeting continued, ending soon after with each commander having something different on their minds.
