Disclaimer: If I had owned Shingeki no Kyojin, I would have ran the plot in haphazard directions, until you guys would give up on the series entirely.
Hanji Zoe, a 103rd Trainees Squad graduate, has never had a death wish before.
Even when her parents were dead - no, they were not killed by Titans, luckily - she didn't feel the need to commit suicide or live like a walking zombie for the rest of her life.
But right now, with her 3DMG torn apart, the contents all strewn before her, the despair and utterly horrification of the situation compelled her to do something. Anything, to avoid getting killed.
By this 15-meter titan, leering at her as if she were fresh meat. Yeah, all humans were fresh meat anyways, when it came to a titan's favorite food and pastime.
She had no idea how her 3DMG came to be like this; all she knew was that it cushioned her impact when she collided with that thick, hard tree trunk. The tree barely shook; but maybe she dislodged a leaf or two. The 3DMG gave way under the impact of her weight. She landed on the grass with a hard thump, permanently bruising her backside. The titan had been staring at her long enough for Hanji to know that it was targeting her, and her only. Everyone else in the trainees' squad were long digested or maimed into unrecognizable chunks.
Hanji Zoe was at the prime of her youth: barely passing her sweet sixteen birthday - as if birthdays existed in humanity now; before the fall of Wall Maria, birthdays were still considered important, but for the scouts in the Scouting Legion, everybody's targets were the titans. Always the titans. Killing them, slicing the nape of their neck, bloodying the hilt of their steel swords and splattering their uniforms with slippery red gunk.
Now, the titan towered over her effortlessly. It had a relatively well-proportioned body, for an average class titan. Not that protruded and round of a belly. Humanoid features, with a tad longer stick of a nose. It looked like Pinocchio. The fleshy meat of its palm extended outwards, toward her, and she could feel the abnormally high heat engulfing her in a broken moment. Its grip was laxer than she expected, but perhaps the titan was merely biding its time. To devour her.
She had been a rookie then. Full of hate and contempt for the titans, of which had gobbled down never-ending human bodies, all too helpless to resist their impossible strength. As she looked up at the titan's wide red mouth in a hazy daze, she could smell the strong salty scent of her comrades' dried blood. It repulsed her, but she couldn't very well vomit now. She felt too weak to even disgorge.
Her life clock was about to stop ticking. She'll see her parents in heaven, if she were lucky.
Something hit her face. Wet and salty. She reopened her eyes. Blood on her face. Even on her mouth. She swiped it away with disgust.
Then she was falling. Much like falling down after she hit the tree trunk not too long ago. The wind rushed up in a hurry to welcome her. But the titan's hand, fingers still wrapped loosely around her waist and bottom, met the ground first, and she was saved from further abuse on her poor backside.
Her sticky eyes crossed with cold, distant grey ones, above her, blades at the ready in two hands. And the figure was gone in a shimmer.
Knife strokes began to appear in criss-crosses around the titan's arms. The figure was a mismatched blur, flying around with the stretchable grapple hooks. More blood landed on the grass, staining the fresh green color into a dark crimson.
The curtains of the figure's outstanding performance swung shut, when the titan's entire head got sliced, clear off its thick neck. It rolled around the grass for a few moments, before coming to a full stop before Hanji.
In reflex, she leant away from the head, breathing through her mouth to prevent the stench and evaporating steam from entering her nostrils.
Something else landed beside her. Her savior, crunching the grass under his booted feet.
"What's the name?" Her mind squeezed out the question she'd been thinking about when she first clashed with this titan.
Despite the fact that she absolutely loathed titans - all humans do - she was irrevocably fascinated in them. Their anatomy, their superior regenerative abilities and their lack of intelligence, it all summed up for a worthwhile research destined to take her life's time to be finished.
The figure emerged in her line of vision. It indeed WAS a guy. Quite a short specimen. He was shorter than her about 10 cm, if she knew any better. But the reproach and chilliness in his gaze made up for his short stature. Hanji found herself shrinking away from his hostile gaze. She would proudly say that she was quite easy to be around people, but this guy was of a completely different circumstance from anyone ordinary.
"Levi." Even though he was short, his voice was unusually deep and gravelly, somewhat carrying an abrasive quality. The coldness in his gaze seemed to increase tenfold, as if he felt affronted by her sudden inquiry.
"Levi?" Hanji ransacked her brain for this name. This name didn't even sound like a titan classification name at all. "That's not what I meant. What is the name of this titan class type?" She carefully rephrased her question. She didn't want the guy's eyes - Levi, he said. Maybe it was his name - to grow nastier than it already was. Instinct warned her to tread slowly in this conversation, although she couldn't tell why. It wasn't like this human male would kill her without any reason.
He was... surprised. There was no other adjective to describe it. "I think this bastard is a Deviant-Class type." He gave a contemptuous glance to the fallen titan, his features clouding with agitation.
"I see. I can't believe you could-" She began to disengage herself from the titan's fingers, forcing her reluctant body to the titan's head. It suddenly seemed so far away, and her legs began to ache. The scratches on her uncovered arms - her uniform was long severed - under the hiss of the wind, opened up and the flaky skin started bleeding again. A low wince, and she crippled to the ground in an undignified heap. In the presence of someone. She would have rather the earth open up and swallow her in, than betraying her weakness before someone more powerful and apparently, skilful in massacring titans.
"You're injured." He was blunt and unconventionally good at embarrassing other people.
"I know, right? I feel so much in pain right now!" Hanji lightened up the situation, and hopefully also covered up her shame, by plastering a fake smile on her face. The guy, no, Levi lifted an eyebrow sardonically.
He let the seconds leak by, until the forest grew so quiet, that Hanji could hear her breathing echo around the space, filtering between the leaves, ruffling the grass, and sounding like a white noise in the background.
His own exhale of breath escaped from between the cracks of his even teeth. He was pissed at having to deal with a female casualty, that she could be sure of. Looking up past his eyes, concentrating on his shortly cropped black hair forlornly, she waited for his verdict.
He got to his knees behind her, the grass rustling and flattening beneath him, and placed his hands under her arms. She jerked a little at the sudden contact; not that she wasn't a really touchy-feely person. With unexpected ease, he lifted her up, placing her less injured arm over his shoulder gingerly, as one might handle a patient with hesitant care. Again, looks did deceive, since he bore her weight without much difficulty, and his shoulders were sturdy to be leant against.
"Everybody's already retreated, and I was the one assigned to 'finish up business', as they call it," His gaze turned steelier. "So you're considered lucky." He said as he took out the piston from the sheath and aimed at another tree trunk. But he paused.
"Where's your gear?"
Hanji blinked unceremoniously, for the question to cut through her fogged-up brain. It usually took a few minutes for her to reset the current situation, that she was still alive and able to keep fighting after this day.
"It got... crushed." She answered lamely.
Levi did not comment. The hooks shot out from the piston, and ingrained themselves deep within the tree trunk. Hanji thought she heard some mumbling coming from the shorty, somewhere along the lines of, "I hope it can sustain an extra burden..." The last word was uttered more quietly, but she would be an idiot if she didn't sense the annoyance riding underneath waves of concern for his precious 3DMG.
She flushed, her chagrin digging deeper into unexcavated territory.
The gas mechanism was activated, and Levi's arm tightened around her waist. He turned her around the side, and brought his other free arm under her knees. He crouched a little, adjusting his position, and kicked off, sending a cloud of dirt whirring in the silent air.
Good thing the reel didn't snap under the extra baggage (Hanji). The protesting screech was music to her ears, which were rapidly burning due to the alien sensation of a person's hands on untouched areas of her body. Levi didn't notice, thankfully. His gaze was concentrated ahead, not bothering to even check her condition. Hanji didn't know whether to be pissed, or grateful for him not seeing her reddening face.
Hanji Zoe, right at the time they finally reached Wall Sina, all tired and woozy, collapsed in a heap before a Stationary Guard. The lens of her spectacles splintered.
Lucid dreaming had never posed a threat in her getting enough sleep; but after this particular incident, her brain woefully refused to shut down in its peaceful state, and commenced tormenting her by conjuring up disturbing scenes, part of which were selected from the short timeframe of her childhood.
In the 100 years of eminent peace, she lived with her aunt in a dilapidated shack, far at the edge of Wall Maria. Food was scarce, meat a luxurious item they couldn't afford; but at least peace reigned over her sheltered life. Peace was what exactly grasped at her sanity, long after she was enlisted in the Scouting Legion. Well, the hope of stealing back peace from titans. And also the recovery of Wall Maria. These were her primitive driving forces. What kept her sane, while witnessing the brutal deaths of her fellow trainees.
After making The Decision, she moved to the dorms, meeting new people and gaining new knowledge of titans. Life was so much better there, compared to the dull scenery of her village.
Her aunt went berserk when she announced her enlisting into the Scouting Legion.
Chaos ensued from there, and it didn't end. Only when her aunt died during the fall of Wall Maria, Hanji began regretting secretly. She was too busy to preoccupy herself with the memories of her dead aunt, though she frequently shed a tear or two, if nobody's watching. The scouts, as a rule, never lost their composure and will to fight titans.
Enlisting in the Scouting Legion wasn't really a tricky step; it was the part where you nearly get eaten by a titan that's downright terrifying. Other trainees couldn't bear to enter this military division, so they stuck to the choice of being a Stationary Guard. Hanji Zoe had determination to put her through the intense training programs, so she graduated with a solid report, and was shaking hands with the Commander before she knew it. The near brush of deaths with titans had all but strengthen her resolve, and she had to thank luck for sparing her life on countless occasions.
Her aunt was asking her something. In the dream.
Why do you choose to enter the Scouting Legion?
Do you not care enough for me to stay by my side?
You didn't want to take over the farm?
You were ashamed of me?
It was an unbelievably surreal experience; aware of her existence in dreamland, and yet, feeling the hard mattress pressing against her back. Her soul was halved. At any given time, somebody could roll her over, pinch her, poke her, kick her, nudge her... and the delicate connection would be cut off. She'll be awake in the bed-hair, drool and homey scent of clean but worn bed sheets.
That was precisely what happened to her. She was slapped on the side of her face. Not hard, but the action was repeated over and over, probably to be continued until she awoken.
A gasp escaped her, and she stared up at a whitewashed ceiling. A clean one. No cobwebs, no dust.
The "good morning" from the person seemed forced. Familiar, too, and her mind replayed the events in the night before. Her fellow trainee Levi, rescuing her from the stomach of a Deviant-class titan. Gore and titan head rolling. Eyes closing.
And she was up. She reached behind to scratch at an itchy spot on her waist. The yawn couldn't be suppressed. "What time is it?" A walking whale talking, compiled with the fatigue hovering on her shoulders and eyelids.
"You're going to be late, if you keep dallying about. Our breakfast hour is at nine, and it's eight thirty now." The unhappy, clipped voice rang in her ears, and grew distant. Levi left the room, leaving the door ajar. The proud emblem of the Scouting Legion's crest flapped in Hanji's face, showing off the blue and white feathers, symbolizing freedom. Her eyes focused into its muddy vision, what with the absence of her spectacles. She fumbled for them on the bedside table, and jammed them on the bridge of her nose.
Before she could make sense of how Levi was up in this ungodly hour, she remembered his words, and scrambled out of the room in a panic.
This wasn't her room.
She dashed into a narrow hallway, and the chilly air ambushed her. Totally oblivious of the fact that she was clad in only her cotton undershirt and flimsy white breeches, she wrapped her arms around her chest, shivering.
"Where am I? Your place?!" The last word tilted upwards an octave. Shrill, like a rusty whistle. This place radiated hostility, much like the host himself. She had no decent attire to dress into, not to mention that her toiletries were to be found only in her own dorm! Her own stupid fault for collapsing at the gate of Wall Sina.
"Don't shout in my residence. Just get dressed. Your uniform is by the bedside table, and you'll deal with your own washing up later, not over here." Levi poked his black head out from another room, the picture of impatience. His hair was combed neatly, lying flat on his head, and he was fully clothed for another bracing day of a second excursion in the dense forest of Wall Maria. Heck, the neckcloth he wore was also impeccably tucked into his undershirt, showing no creases. The 3DMG was in his arms. He was ready to be saddled up in his gear, until she interrupted him. She murmured an apology, and darted off to the room.
Her uniform felt soft and smelled of lemons. He'd washed it for her.
"Pompous clean freak with a stick shoved up his ass." Hanji Zoe muttered, but not after checking her surroundings for a pair of prying ears. She shrugged into her attire, an onslaught of gratitude washing over her.
He'd saved her, brought her to his residence and washed her clothes. He'd make a hell of an attentive parent, for all she knew.
If he wasn't explicitly rude in that standoffish way, she would have forgave him easily for the hole in her scarf. It might have been caused when the hook got caught in the woolen material, when Levi wanted to retract the grapple hook back into the piston.
…
Needless to say, both of them did not get out of Levi's residence together. Hanji ran out first, since she felt pressured to even be in his presence. Levi took his sweet time striding out towards the field, where they were to meet in ten minutes' time. Envy coiled her abdomen and knitted her eyebrows. He clearly had special treatment. He needn't eat at the dining hall - where a meatball dropping on your white shirt was of the norm - and could afford to cook in his own dorm. He had to be an outstanding trainee, for the higher-ups to notice him and offer him a bigger, furnished dorm. Keith was a big fan of favoritism, Hanji now noted with bemusement.
The hall was nearly empty. She hastily scarfed down a stale lump of bread, drowning herself in scalding coffee, and jog to the field.
The bread was hard to swallow, and the coffee was bitter.
Her eyes grew moist. She blinked them away fiercely; crying was the ultimate taboo of a Scouting Legion soldier. You couldn't very well shed tears for a dying comrade with a still-hungry titan looming over you, right?
It's just that... she was so, so lonely.
Biting her tongue to distract herself, Hanji joined the military line. Everyone else were immersed with the unforeseen appearance of the Commander, the Almighty, the Deity of the Scouting Legion. He was about to make a speech. Daily announcements were made at every morning meeting, but never had the Commander went out of his way to announce anything. Today was an exceptional day. Blue sky, white clouds and blinding sunlight. The scenery would escape her mind later on, as she would be dealing with titans later; so Hanji let herself relax for the moment, absorbing the fresh air and breathing slowly.
"You guys might be wondering at my sudden arrival." The Commander chuckled. The trainees shifted nervously on their heels. Deity never cracked jokes. "Nevertheless, I would like to make a special announcement," He stopped here, surveying their expressions. He must be pleased, because a smile was stretched across his face.
"For those of you who can kill at least 25 titans during today's mission outside eastern Wall Maria, you'll be awarded with something... say, extraordinary." The Commander's booming smile was amplified in every corner of the field. His thick lips moved up and down provocatively, and Hanji imagined she could see his tongue swirling appreciatively at the mention of a reward.
"The sergeants will arrange you fresh meat-" He laughed a little at his own joke. It would have earned boos from the listening crowd, had he not been the Commander of the Scouting Legion. The trainees looked as if they were trying to not wince. "-into equal teams of seven people. The total amount of kills would have to reach 25 or above, in order to receive your award. I can say it's quite a straightforward system, really, in the Scouting Legion. I'll leave you guys to think about the reward, and whether if you deserve it." Drumming his fingers against the wood panel of the podium, the Commander gave a slight bow, and exited the stage. He was quickly joined by several other older soldiers, most of whom ushered him away, expressions full of distaste and disinterest.
The trainees, excluding Hanji, stood ramrod straight, wondering if they should applaud for the Commander's 'innovative and supremely motivating' speech.
Hanji blanched, at the thought of being assigned into groups, with strangers. Most of her friends from the graduate classes had either entered the Military Police or the Stationary Guard. Either... or, not or... or. She couldn't understand how and why they could be scared of titans, when they've been training for three years non-stop, learning to kill titans with a single incision deep at the nape of their necks. She bit her thumb thoughtfully, drawing blood.
"Oi. You there." A sergeant materialized before her. Hanji hid her thumb away. "Take this number, and find someone else who has the same number." He handed her a slip of paper, with a curvy '8' scribbled on the yellowed parchment. The sergeant hurried off to prey on the next trainee.
Millions of questions lingered on the tip of her tongue, but as the sergeant brushed past her, she was unable to speak. She gulped, and craned her neck, overlooking the field of greenery, seeing handfuls of trainees milling about. The blood of her thumb stained the paper, until the '8' became nearly unrecognisable, dotted with red splotches.
She urged her feet to go forward. In about five minutes, all the teams were to be ready on their horses, and wait at the gate of Wall Sina. Although the total number of trainees didn't extend beyond fifty, confronting other strange characters was quite a bit daunting.
What's more daunting is finding the remnants of your body stuck between the gaps of a titan's teeth, so suck it up and go find someone! Her mind screamed in frustration. Her feet shuffled forwards unwillingly. There was no use. She might as well have cut class and return back to the safe alcove of her village. She wasn't cut out for socializing and cooperating with others, after all-
"Disgusting." The metal rings in his knee-length boots clicked together curtly. "What a twisted countenance you've got there. Are you so offended by the idea of teaming up with me?"
She felt like dropping on her bottom, and release a loud shriek. Nevertheless, she squeezed out a sour smile. "Number eight?"
He nodded, peeved. "What else?"
"You only found me? Only the two of us?" She took back the thought of finding a titan's mouth/belly daunting. Working with Levi was a frightening task that she wasn't confident enough to carry out.
He snorted, and his defensive posture - arms firmly fastened around his midriff - became completely guarded, like his real emotions were sealed off without a trace of leakage. "I think they'll find us eventually." His eyes deserted hers, and he tipped his head back to appraise the sky. Hanji pondered about the depth of his constant irritation directed towards her. It seemed as though he couldn't even look in her eye properly, without scowling. His face would have taken a better turn, if he behaved more openly, Hanji observed. The only flaw of his looks was only his height; Hanji Zoe was a female, and so was acquainted with the oddball tastes of girls who sought for love interests. The cynical glint in his eyes surreptitiously hid the intelligence and vigilance that promised a good rank within the Scouting Legion; finely arched eyebrows, a smooth forehead, and a ski-jump-hill of a nose. His skin was not dark in the least; the shade wavered between a rosy and a pallid complexion. Ebony hair was decidedly rare for humans now; if you had ebony hair, people could mistake you for an Asian, a rapidly dying-out race of humans. His features and skin color depicted nothing of that sort, though. Grey went well with black, anyway. As for his physique, Hanji had not yet found anything out of the ordinary.
But hey, she was actually taller than him. Extreme height differences were a huge minus, in her case.
"Ah, I think I see them now." Thanks to her five feet six stature, she could peer over the heads of trainees, and anticipate a herd of unfriendly teens bustling towards them at ten o'clock.
Levi followed her gaze, and his frown lit up his entire face.
A/N: Oh, please drop a review or two. I like feedback. No flamers, please.