There was every reason in the world to not join the Survey Corps. Venturing outside the walls, facing titans, probably dying... Any sane person would choose the Military Police or the Garrison, or just stay out of the military all together. That being said, it could be argued that a certain Levi Ackerman wasn't entirely sane, but he also wasn't given much of a choice when it came to his career. The scouts or prison. That's it.
It was his second mission outside the walls, and he was less than happy. Though he kept it to himself, the loss of his friends' deaths was still fresh for him. Now, the scouts had been driven into a forest a few miles away from Wall Maria by a sudden wave of titans, and their maneuver gear was mostly useless on flat ground. At least in the trees, they could fend them off and escape. It was up in the branches of those trees with his squad that Levi came face-to-face with the exact reason he didn't want to be in the Survey Corps in the first place. Hordes of ugly, filthy giants trying to eat you was bad enough.
Freaks of nature just made it worse.
Levi expected regular titans. He knew he had the skills to handle them well enough. But there was enough about titans that people didn't know to make him wonder what else wandered outside the walls, and lumbering past him was a monstrosity that proved his point flawlessly: A titan bigger than any that had ever been spotted before, at least eighteen metres high. If that wasn't bad enough, the bone plates and ribbing guarding its body ensured that any known technique wouldn't work on it at all. Any potential weak spot was covered.
"There's no way in hell we're taking that down," he grumbled to himself. As if it heard him, the towering creature froze. It turned its massive head up towards Levi, who couldn't help but be a bit alarmed. The creature couldn't have heard what he'd said, and even if it somehow did, titans lacked the intelligence to respond to being talked to. Didn't they? That's what all research so far suggested.
Maybe they were wrong. Levi locked eyes with the monster staring up at him and thought, There's something off about this one... All the others are so dumb and lifeless, but this one... No... HER... The titan turned more and faced him as squarely as was possible from below, showing its distinctly female physique. Could she be any more abnormal? As if in answer to his unspoken question, the titan's guarded, dark blue-green eyes glinted as if she was smirking, though the rest of the enormous face remained still. Then, she opened her wide, lipless, tooth-lined mouth and screamed.
The sound was unearthly and bone-chilling, and at first simply seemed to be aberrant behaviour. After a few seconds, though, Levi and his entire squad watched in awe and confusion as the titans at the bottom of the trees turned their attention towards the screaming titan. Once they started charging at her, she sprinted away, screaming and howling all the while. For a few minutes after, the titan's screams continued to echo through the forest and regular titans charged through the trees after her like rabid beasts. Eventually, though, all of it stopped.
Nobody was quite sure what to do or say at first, so they all just stood, frozen in the trees like shell-shocked birds until somebody finally spoke. "What the hell was that?!" It was the eccentric, Hanji. "Seriously, what did we just see? That was amazing!" Levi ignored the rest of her rambling. Titans were nothing to cheer over, no matter how peculiar they were. Still, he couldn't fight the curiosity building in the back of his mind.
A column of green smoke fired into the sky above the treetops: The signal to regroup.
"Hey..." Levi called to his squadmates.
"Did you see those bones?!" Hanji prattled on, drowning everything and everyone else out, "They were like armour! And it was so tall!"
"Hanji-" Levi tried again.
"I've never seen a titan that big before! I would've loved to capture it!"
Losing his patience, Levi barked, "Hanji, shut the hell up!" The entire group's attention turned to him. "The commander shot a green flare. It's time to get back in formation. Let's go, or perhaps you'd rather be left behind as titan fodder?" Without waiting for a reply, Levi whistled for his horse. Once the equine came into view, he used his maneuver gear to lower himself to the ground, get in the saddle and ride away in the direction the flare indicated. His squadmates caught up quickly. When they broke through the tree line, they could see many of the other squads spreading back into their positions, and, much to everyone's relief, there were no titans to be seen.
Levi followed his squad leader back to their own place at the edge of the right wing. Before the forest was out of sight, he couldn't help but glance back. He wasn't sure if he was imagining things or not, but within the shadows of the trees, he could swear he saw the bone-covered titan, staring right at him once again with that frozen face, but her expressive, guarded eyes glinting in what seemed to be a smile. Part of Levi desperately hoped he was daydreaming.
The next morning, after some deliberation among the commander, section chiefs, and respected veterans, it was decided that it was time to return to Wall Maria. They were in the third day of the mission, and they'd pushed their luck as far as they dared. A hefty number of soldiers died the day before in the forest when the titans attacked. If they went any further, it was likely that the Survey Corps would lose even more scouts, and enough people had died on this expedition already.
The regiment took off in the direction they'd come from, both disappointed and grateful to be going home. Still, everyone was well aware that though they'd been ordered to withdraw, the mission wasn't over yet. They still had to get back in one piece. Titans could be hiding anywhere, something the scouts were all painfully aware of as they passed the forest they'd lost so many of their comrades in just the day before. It was probably crawling with titans again. Knowing that, nobody wanted to go back in.
The right wing brushed right up against it, though. Levi and his group got quiet and tense as they came closer to the trees, keenly aware that they could be ambushed at any moment. Every few minutes, Levi found himself glancing into the forest, though he wasn't entirely sure why. Was he scanning for titans? Could be. More likely, he was looking for one in particular, the one his group came to call the "Bone Titan." But was he watching for her out of fear, curiosity, or something else entirely?
Out of the blue, a high, terrified shriek pierced the air like a spear. What the hell was that? Levi thought, Another scout? No, that came from the forest. None of the other squads went in. So who..? The Bone Titan flashed through his mind with her chilling scream, but the two voices were entirely different. The titan's howl had been a low, monstrous roar, but this shriek was one of fear. It was human.
"I'm going in," he decided out loud, "Whoever that was, I'm not leaving them to be eaten alive." An image of his friends' fate solidified his resolve. Even if he didn't know them, he couldn't bring himself to allow another person to be eaten by titans when he might be able to save them. He couldn't allow the titans such an easy victory.
"Wait! Levi!" He didn't listen to his leader's calls for him to stay back. Levi's mind was made up. He rode past the tree line in the direction of the scream he heard. Another one rang through the trees, guiding him to its source. Pretty soon, he found it. In a small clearing, a grinning 10-metre titan was attempting to eat a human girl, just as Levi had thought. He switched to maneuver gear and circled around his target to quickly get a grasp on the situation. The titan would be easy to kill, no sweat. The girl he was trying to eat wasn't giving up without a fight, either. It took strength and guts to fight against titans, and she was able to resist it just by pushing against its teeth. In the back of his mind, Levi admired the fire she possessed. Dismissing the thought, he positioned himself behind the titan, took aim, latched on, and hacked off the back of its neck in a fraction of a second. Just as he thought, it was an easy kill. However, he'd forgotten to account for where the monster would fall.
The titan went limp and the girl in its hand screamed again as she fell to the ground, and the titan on top of her. "Shit!" Levi cursed under his breath. He dropped to the ground and ran to where the girl fell. He'd meant to save her. If she got crushed because of his carelessness, he'd hate himself. He spotted her arm sticking out from under the titan's neck. He slashed at the area, trying to cut off enough flesh to free her. Once enough skin and muscle had been shorn away, Levi pulled the girl out from her entrapment. She wasn't moving, but to his relief, she was breathing and her pulse was strong.
When he'd surveyed the target, he hadn't noticed how small she was. She was actually a bit shorter than he was, and fairly skinny to boot, and that worked in her favour when the titan fell, allowing her to fit under the curve of the titan's neck without being completely crushed. Despite being so small and dainty, she still looked like she could kick the crap out of just about anybody in the Survey Corps, judging by the defined muscles in her arms and legs. This girl knew how to take care of herself.
But where did she come from? They were two days away from Wall Maria if you were on horseback, and much longer on foot, so how did she get all that far out? Did she actually even come from the walls? Levi wondered. Logic told him she had to be, but everything she had contradicted that. Her clothes were pretty minimal, and extremely basic in construction. They were essentially just large scraps of rough brown fabric tied shut with braided leather cords into a short top and a barely-decent skirt. She had something on her feet, but they weren't shoes by any means. They looked more like boar tusks tied to the underside of her feet. On top of her peculiar attire, she was only armed with a pair of sharp stone daggers strapped to her thighs. Put it all together, she looked pretty uncivilised, tribal, bordering on primal. There was no sign that she'd ever been anywhere near a civilised town in her life. So just where could she have come from?
The more he looked at her, the more questions arose in his mind. Pushing them away, Levi whistled for his horse. He couldn't bring himself to leaving her there, knowing she'd probably get eaten in her unconscious state. He hoisted her up into the saddle and quickly followed suit, sitting behind her. It was a bit uncomfortable, but it didn't bother him too much. Levi spurred his horse forward, in the direction he knew would take him to his squad. He wanted to get out of the titan-ridden forest before another of the monstrous creatures found them. When he escaped the forest, he was glad to see that they weren't too far ahead. They were only about 50 metres away from where he'd come out. He sped up his horse and caught up quickly.
Hanji was at the back of the group, and was the first to realise that he was back. "Levi! You're okay!" she greeted him excitedly, then frowned in confusion when she noticed his unconscious passenger. "Wait... Who's that?"
"How would I know? Does it matter?" Levi did want to know who she was, of course, but introductions could wait. For now, he just wanted to finish the expedition. He kept his head over her shoulder, looking ahead past the mystery girl's long, shiny black hair. I really hope no no titans show up, he thought, Or at least no abnormals. We can at least avoid the normal ones, but I can't fight with this girl on my horse!
Luck was on the scouts' side that day, for once. When they set up camp in one of the ruined fortresses that dotted the landscape, they'd actually avoided losing a single soldier. The whole regiment breathed a unanimous sigh of relief. However, when Levi got there with his damsel-in-distress, everyone got a bit antsy and nervous, and reasonably so, with some unknown individual in their midst. Still, what harm could an unconscious girl do to them? Frankly, Levi was more concerned with what harm some of the other male soldiers might do to her, if given the chance.Well, he reasoned, I'll just make sure they don't have that chance.
As soon as they'd arrived, Levi carried in the girl, holding her close to his chest like she'd be stolen away. He claimed a spot as far away from the other scout as possible and gently laid her down on the stone floor. "A girl like her shouldn't be on the bare floor like this," he muttered to himself, "It's filthy." Ex-criminal though he was, he still had a code of honour, and he stuck to it adamantly. After all, it was one of the only things separating humanity and animals, and where he came from, even that kind of morality was scarce.
Levi removed his cloak and jacket, wrapping the green fabric around the girl and folding the jacket into a makeshift pillow for her. He hoped she was reasonably comfortable, with what little he had to offer. While he fussed with her, he heard Commander Erwin's footsteps approaching. "What's this I hear about a guest, Levi?" Whether he was angry, amused, or something else, he hid it well.
"You've got eyes. See for your damned self," Levi snapped. He wasn't in the mood to chit-chat with anyone. Then again, when was he ever?
"So, where'd you find her? She doesn't exactly look like she's from our neighbourhood."
"You think I hadn't noticed?"
"I think you didn't answer the question, Levi."
"She was in the forest," he grumbled, "She was being attacked by a titan, so I stepped in." Finding nothing left to fix with the cloak of jacket, Levi moved to tidying her hair to keep himself busy and not lashing out at Erwin.
"And this was on the way back, I take it?"
"No, I had her in my pocket at the last place, I just felt like taking her out once we got here!" he replied with his sharp sarcasm, quickly tiring of this interrogation. "Just cut to the chase."
"Alright. Just who is this girl, and what do you intend to do with her?" Erwin asked bluntly.
Levi hesitated. He hadn't thought about it. What was he going to do with her? Keep her as a pet back at HQ? Yeah, right. "I don't know yet," he admitted, "She hasn't woken up, so I still don't know a damn thing about her."
Erwin raised an eyebrow. "What exactly happened to her?"
"I killed the titan that had her, but it dropped her then fell on her. It's some kind of miracle she survived at all."
"Interesting... Another thing." Erwin lowered his voice almost to a whisper, "I hate speaking ill of members of my own regiment, but... I admit, the looks some of them are giving your damsel over here... I don't like it. Keep an eye on her, Levi. I may not know her, but I'd hate for her her to get hurt. Maybe find someone you trust to help you guard her. Otherwise, you won't be able to sleep until we get back to Wall Maria tomorrow." Erwin turned around, likely to return to his own sleeping quarters or to consult with the squad leaders. "Rest well, Levi. And good night to you too, Mystery Girl."
Once Erwin pointed it out, Levi knew his suspicions had been justified. Not all of them, but enough of the male scouts had their eyes on the pretty little thing he'd found, and it wasn't a mystery why. Levi hadn't paid it much mind earlier, but she was certainly a beauty. Yes, she was small, but she had a fantastic body, lovely ivory skin, and her clothes left very little to the imagination. And now that he had the time, Levi really got a good look at her. Wow, he thought, I've seen pretty girls before, but... Holy shit! In the forest and on horseback, he hadn't paid much attention to her features, but now he was captivated. He found his eyes tracing her high cheekbones and the soft curve of her cheek, the rounded point of her chin, the line of her jaw. She had thick, black, curved lashes around her closed eyes, slender, nearly straight black brows, and a straight-bridged, slightly aristocratic nose. Her delicate mouth was framed with pretty, slightly pink lips. Again, wow. The way her silky black hair framed her face and slender neck in her sleep -even with its uneven cut- brought about a look of innocence and beauty verging on angelic, in his opinion. Whoever you are, he thought as if she could hear him, You may just be the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen. Honestly, you must be some kind of angel, sent straight out of heaven, to be this pretty.
Suddenly, she stirred, and made a small groaning sound as she began to wake up. Before long, she opened her eyes. She looked around for a moment, seeming dazed and a bit confused, until she spotted Levi, hardly two feet from her. He locked eyes with her, finding the exact colour to be quite extraordinary. He'd seen it once before, but he found himself blanking on exactly where he'd seen the shade of dark, sparkling blue-green, but it didn't really matter. Right now, he needed to figure out what to say. He didn't want to seem too much like an ass to her. "Umm... How are you feeling?" She just continued watching him, looking confused, but also somewhat pleased. "Hey, do you understand me? I said 'how are you feeling?'"
The girl didn't reply. Instead, she sat up slowly, probably a bit stiff from being on the cold stone floor for so long. Once she was up, she smiled gently at Levi and placed her hand on top of his, startling him. "Danchagh," she said, surprising Levi immensely.
Dan-what? What's that supposed to mean?! "What did you say?"
"Danchagh," she said again. She squeezed his hand lightly, adding to Levi's bafflement. Nobody ever acted like this towards him, especially right when meeting him for the first time. Cultural differences, perhaps? He looked down at her hand, trying to figure out what the proper reaction was, but got distracted by something else.
He hadn't seen it before, but she had an odd black mark on her arm. It looked like it was burned into her skin, like a brand. With his free hand, he ran his fingers over the mark. "What's this?" he asked her, not sure what she'd say in response.
"Ura!" she chirped, pointing at the mark then the centre of her chest and repeating, "Ura!"
"Ura..." he repeated after her, like a child learning to say a new word. She nodded happily, seemingly satisfied with his ability to parrot. Then, he realised what she was trying to say. "That's your name! 'Ura' is your name, right?"
She seemed to understand a bit of what he said. "Jya, mei namh izhct Ura!" The language sounded alien to Levi, but with context, he could catch some small similarities like "name" and "namh," which he assumed meant the same thing. Either that, or they were each having entirely different conversations with each other. I don't think she understands a damn word I'm saying! What the hell am I gonna do with her?! Ura poked his chest, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Stop that." She kept poking him, completely unafraid of him. "Stop poking me, dammit!" Levi grabbed her dainty wrist to stop the blasted poking. "If you want my attention, you've got it," he hissed, "Now just say what you want!"
Unfazed, Ura kept smiling and replied, "Namh." She quickly jabbed him again in the forehead with her free hand and giggled, "Namh."
"Oh," he suddenly felt like a jerk for getting irritated at her, something he'd never actually had an issue with. Then again, circumstances were very, very different.
"I'm... My name is Levi." He enunciated each word as clearly as he could, hoping she might start picking up the language.
"Imanaymizhlevi?" Ura blinked in confusion. "Namh ulsha..."
"No, no, that's not it." Levi pointed at his chest, like Ura had when she introduced herself. "Levi." He decided to try her language, "May namh ishd- no... ict- izh-"
"Izhct," she laughed, amused at his struggle with her words. "Mei..." Ura made a 'your turn' motion at Levi.
"Um... Mei?" he repeated.
Ura nodded happily. "Namh..."
"Namh."
"Izhct..."
"Izhct." Ura poked him yet again, and now he understood what it meant. "Levi. Mei namh izhct Levi." He couldn't help but feel a mild sense of accomplishment from her happy grin, but he retained is typical stoic expression. How can she be so happy? Levi asked himself, The world she lives in is so screwed up. I mean, she almost died today, yet she's sitting there smiling and laughing. Nobody does that! Once you face a titan, you just can't anymore. But this girl... Ura... How can she smile?
"Levi," Ura's voice sounded much mellower than earlier, speaking softer and a bit lower, making her seem slightly older, "Hazshen." She laid her head on her hands like a pillow like a visual translation. "Hazshen." Once she told him to sleep, Levi realised how tired he was. His entire body ached and his eyelids were as heavy as lead.
"Yeah, maybe I should." Before he committed himself to sleep, Levi remembered the predatory glances the other scouts had given Ura earlier, and was once again hesitant to submit to it. He checked over his shoulder only to find jealous glares stabbing his way and wolfish stares at Ura. Knowing exactly what most of them were thinking, he didn't want to leave Ura alone, even if he wasn't actually going anywhere. If he was asleep, he wouldn't be able to do anything to help her if something happened.
Ura followed his gaze, seeing the same thing he did. Instead of seeming worried or guarded, she turned his head back towards her and smiled, unfazed by the soldiers' lingering threat. "Hazshen," she repeated once again, her eyes saying even more. I'll be fine, they seemed to say, Don't worry about anything.
"Alright," he agreed, finding himself losing the will to argue. "But you, don't go anywhere!" He knew she probably had no clue what he was saying to her, but he may as well try.
Ura just kept her calm, happy smile on her face, like there was nothing wrong in the world. Then, she gently touched his forehead and started chanting softly, like a prayer, "Urav, Nachdov, Moghliv, Todev, Hav, Breiv, Ghriv, Auv, ghizhen alles szheol Levi echt hazshen..."
The soft, rhythmic sound of her voice pulled him into a trance, and before he knew what happened, Levi was fast asleep, unfettered by stress, fear, anger or worry. For once in his difficult life, he was actually at peace.
Author's Note: Thank you very much for reading Arm of the Sun! If you like the story or have comments, critiques, or suggestions, please write them in the comment box. I enjoy hearing what my readers have to say, so any constructive comments are appreciated!