You could be dealt the worst hand in a game of cards yet still come out winning, life has a funny way of showing us. Not the Ha-ha type of funny, but more the beat you senseless until others laugh type of funny. Sometimes even the most unlikely of people rise to the challenge while most take life one day at a time. The world can be a beautiful place once in a while, filled with friends, family, laughter and even love. But fate finds a way of tearing these away from us when we least expect it…
This is the story of one such individual and the hand he was dealt.
Cue Guren no Zahyou
*Year 847, Two years after the fall of wall Maria… 104th Cadet Corps training grounds*
Today finally arrived. The members of the 104th Cadet Corps lined up after putting on their uniforms for the very first time. Commandant Shadis came down the line picking up on the most minor of infractions that could, if he wanted to, be worthy of his divine judgement. Hidden amongst the troop, stood a boy, no more than 14. The short brown hair sat atop his head in an unkempt way, with patches sticking out all over the place, there was simply no time to style it this morning, he was too excited. His face had a soft expression to it yet a rough chin with the stubble he refused to shave making him look older than he was. His eyes were said to be his most alluring feature, two blue orbs staring straight ahead with a burning fire, that looked ready to escape. He stood tall at an impressive 6'0", yet slender with no defining muscles to speak of, tall and lean. Lanky if you will. His family were always on the short side; he had been the first to ever break the 6'0" barrier, although his younger brother was catching up. But even he paled in comparison to the boys stood next to him, one blond, the other dark. Most of the Cadets only remembered him for the dog tags he never took off, rumoured had it that he once fought off 2 members of the Garrison just to get them back, although no one understood why. Engraved on those tags were his name, Daniel Tadayoshi, and a single sentence…
"One day, you will remember who you are, for you are who you chose to be."
14 years had gone by, yet he still had no idea what it meant. Hopefully, someday it would make sense. He was too stubborn to let this go. Shadis strolled past Daniel, before abruptly stopping and taking a few steps back till he drew level with the boy again. His hard gaze bore down on his, the trepidation in the air was so high it was like water, the Cadets could barely breathe. Finally, after what seemed slower than the average anime filler episode, Shadis spoke up.
"So… Tadayoshi… you here to cause trouble again? Because if you are…" Shadis lower himself to meet Daniel eye to eye. "You might as well grab your shit and run now. How many officers did you put in the infirmary again? Two was it?" The other cadets started murmuring. Daniel felt all the conversations wash over him yet stayed stood to attention and kept his eyes firmly on Shadis, this would not be the man who breaks him, not today.
"So, the rumours are true."
"No way he could do that, look at him."
"Why would he do that? What sort of thing would possess a man to do something like that?"
"SILENCE" Shadis roared, the entire corps went silent instantly and returned to attention just as quickly.
He reached out to the silent cadet and lift the dog tags up in his hands. "All for these silly little things… Really boy. You still haven't answered my question cadet. Are you here to cause trouble?"
"No." Daniel finally spoke, his voice dripping in dullness. Honestly, of all the people he had to deal with on his first day, he didn't think Shadis would be one of them. They met briefly about 4 years ago…
*Year 843, Commander Pixis' Office, Trost District*
A knock at the door brought the Commander out of his report.
"Captain, get the door please." He stated, putting down his quill and clasped his hands together in front of his face. Kitz Woermann walked over to the door and opened it, keeping one arm behind his back at all times. A young boy was shoved into the office falling to the floor after taking a few steps. He quickly picked himself up and turned to stare at the aggressor. Commander Shadis stood at the door arms folded disinterestedly.
"Thank you, Commander, you may go now." Pixis dismissed with a wave of his hand. Shadis gave a half-hearted salute before turning on his heels and swiftly leaving. Kitz closed the door and returned to his original spot beside Pixis, glaring at the boy as he went. "So, my dear boy, would care to explain your actions today?" Pixis said in a pleasant voice addressing the young man standing in front of him. The boy was silent for a long time but eventually spoke up.
"Your brutes took my dog tags." He said bitterly.
"That's all?" Pixis sounded impressed, "You put two men in the infirmary for those?" he gestured at the tags around the boy's neck. "I must say I am truly surprised, outraged but surprised. Nevertheless, this cannot go unpunished, step forward please." He made a few notes, Kitz noticed that the boy hadn't moved.
"The Commander ordered you to step forward brat." He snarled stepping forward and grabbing him by the arm, yanking him forward a couple of steps. Before standing behind the boy glaring at him.
"Tut, tut, tut Captain." Pixis condescendingly waved his finger at him. "That's not setting a great example of the military to the boy, is it?"
"But… Sir…" Kitz began before Pixis hardened his stare causing the Captain to backtrack a few. "Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir." He sighed defeatedly. Pixis returned to look at the young boy, almost as if he was sizing him up.
"What's your name, young man?" Pixis finally asked.
"Daniel Tadayoshi," he said reluctantly. He kept pulling at his dog tags in a rather odd way, he looked very uncomfortable. Pixis' blood went cold.
"Did you say Tadayoshi?" he asked shocked.
"Yes."
"Now, that's a name I haven't heard in a long time," Pixis whispered quietly only so he could hear himself. After some careful thinking, he decided on a suitable outcome. "Captain. Leave us." Pixis ordered. Kitz was taken aback.
"Sir, I must protest…"
"Captain, I believe I gave you an order." Pixis hated to re-enforce his command but it looked as if he had no choice in the matter. Kitz reluctantly saluted and marched out of the room closing the door with a fairly audible slam. Pixis waited a few minutes before speaking again. "Now then, Daniel, I am willing to cut you a deal. I will see to it that you aren't punished, and your record will be wiped clean of any past transgressions…"
"What's the catch?" Daniel asked almost bored out his own mind.
"I was just getting to that, you should learn to speak only when people have finished. But what I was going to say was, when you are old enough, you join the Military." Pixis finished. His expression had hardened, the smile he had at the beginning had gone as if it was never there, to begin with. Daniel gave this a lot of thought, but in the end, he agreed. "Thank you, Daniel, you may now leave. I don't expect to see you again for a while. Until we meet again."
*Year 847, 104th Cadet Corps training grounds*
"No, what?!" Shadis asked again, he raised his right hand and brought it down. Hard. He had delivered a back blow to the side of Daniel's face, it sounded like a melon had been dropped onto concrete. Daniel did not flinch and simply took the blow, turning his head in order to endure the punishment. There were audible gasps from the surrounding cadets, but one took Daniel's notice instantly, he hadn't noticed her until now. She had leaned forward ever so slightly, appearing from beside the taller blond boy to Daniel's right. Blonde hair hung from her head, with strands drooped in front of her eyes. The eyes. That's what caught the boy's attention the most, her eyes were the most piercing set of blue he had ever seen, even more than his own. Unfortunately, he couldn't take in every feature as Shadis had decided he deserved another slap. This one Daniel wasn't prepared for and instead the hit managed to knock him down.
"NO, WHAT?!" Shadis shouted for the third time. Daniel didn't even look at him instead of keeping both his hands and his eyes on the dirt of which he was now in.
"No, Sir." He delivered in a deadpan voice. However, that wasn't enough for Shadis as he pulled the boy up by his collar, lifting him clean off of the ground.
"I couldn't hear you, cadet, speak up!" he shouted in Daniel's face, saliva flying from his mouth like a wave breaking on the beach.
"NO, SIR!" Daniel shouted back, Shadis dropped the boy back onto his feet and moved onto his next victim of abuse. The murmurs had died down the moment Daniel had landed back on his feet, nobody else wanted to incur the wrath of Shadis. The side of his face was hurting like crazy, but he didn't dare move his hand in order to rub it, instead, he went back to just to the salute in hopes that Shadis didn't come back to him. Luckily that was the last he saw of Shadis for the rest of the day as he turned his wrath on a few other cadets. Most notably a boy named Connie Springer, who Shadis lifted a few feet off of the ground by his head alone, due to a minor fault in the boys' salute; and Sasha Blouse who had the gall to eat a potato during Shadis inspection, but what was even more shocking is when she spilt the potato in half and offered it to the Commandant. He took the extremely small half of the potato without saying a word. Although, he made run around the entire training camp until the sun went down and to add insult to injury took away her food rations for the entire week as what he called a light punishment. The blond boy stood next to Daniel whispered something to Daniel that he never would have expected from him. Compassion, he had obliviously read the boy completely wrong, he expected a thug but got almost the opposite.
"You alright man? Shadis hit you pretty hard." The blond boy didn't break formation when he said this, possibly down to not wanting to attract the attention of Shadis' ire.
"I'll be fine," Daniel replied. He'd been through a lot worse, even showing the scars for it. They stayed firmly under his long shirt. Although he never told or showed them to anyone other than his younger brother, he was the only family member who gave a damn and showed any sympathy. His grandfather had been the only other, but he disappeared a long time ago, nobody knows why; one day he was sat at home, the next he was gone. Officially, his disappearance was ruled down to being relieved from duty by the Scouts and that he was being redeployed to the Garrison. Unofficially it was said he left the safety of the walls, although Daniel had always theorised for an ulterior motive, as the Garrison reported they had never heard of his grandfather's name until the boy asked.
"Name's Reiner, by the way." The blond spoke up again. "Reiner Braun. I'd shake your hand, but you know, Shadis." He finished with a roll of the eyes.
"Daniel Tadayoshi." He replied bluntly. "Although you and the entire troop probably already worked that out from how it was shouted across the world. I bet even the Titans know." Reiner chuckled at the dryness that oozed from Daniel's voice.
"You like to tell it as it is," he laughed, "I can see me and you going far together."
"Must I repeat myself?" Shadis managed to shout from the other end of the formation. Reiner rectified his stance to showcase his intense salute further.
"No, Sir!" he yelled back. Shadis simply glared at the boys before he finally finished his chastisement of the troop, he had managed to break some already. Daniel could see them walking away with their rucksacks looking utterly shaken.
"If they thought this was bad, the rest of us are in for a bigger shock." He thought aloud. Shadis finally dismissed the remaining troops, allowing them so free time in order to get settled in before dinner. Well, everyone except poor Sasha. Reiner grabbed hold of Daniel's shoulder and spun the boy around, so they were face to face. Reiner then took a step back and held his right arm out for a proper handshake. Daniel accepted, gripping tightly, as his grandfather had taught him, anything less would be disrespectful to friendships and fellow brothers-in-arms.
"I owed you that handshake. Hell, that's quite a grip you've got there. Anyway, like I said I'm Reiner and allow me to introduce you to my best friend," suddenly the taller dark-haired boy appear just to his right. "Daniel, this is-"
"Bertolt Hoover, right?" Daniel finished for him, Reiner was at a loss for words.
"How'd you know that?!" Reiner asked in amazement.
"I don't know," Daniel replied. "Somehow I've always been good at guessing like I can see things before they happen, but not always, it's almost as if it's selective." Reiner and Bertolt simply looked at each other in amazement before they simply shrugged it off.
"Anyway, it's nice to meet you, Daniel, I can call you that right? Do you have a preference?" Bertolt smiled towards him. Extending his hand for a shake which Daniel gladly took. For someone so imposing he was incredibly polite.
"Likewise, and no I don't have a preference, you two seem like decent guys, so just call me whatever's easier." Daniel let go of Bertolt's hand, Bertolt briefly looked at his hand curiously almost as if he could see something on it, although he quickly brushed it off. "Anyway, I'll catch you guys at dinner, I gotta go unpack." He bid the boys bye, for now, turning on his heels and left. After they were sure Daniel was out of earshot, Reiner turned to Bertolt.
"He's one to keep an eye on. Kid's got talent, we need to watch out for him." Reiner stated matter of factly.
Daniel walked straight to the bunkhouse in order to at least get settled before he could even think about going for one of his usual sunset walks after dinner. As he came to the door of his room, he collided into someone on their way out, knocking them both over in the process. Daniel quickly picked himself up and dusted off his trousers.
"Oh, Christ. I'm sorry abou-" He cut himself off when on the ground in front of him was the blonde-haired girl from earlier. Blue eyes still as intense as ever. Daniel finally managed to take a good look at her, she was a whole foot shorter than him, so he was very unlikely not to bump into her at some point. Daniel very quickly drank in her features and shook his head to bring himself back to reality. She was giving him a colder stare to the more inquisitive one he had early. There was a pregnant pause in the air before he quickly decided to introduce himself to try and calm to the situation. He offered her his hand before adding, "Sorry, my name's Daniel Tadayoshi. Are you alright miss...?" He left the miss hanging in order for her to finish it for him, she instead, however, gripped his hand and hauled herself up, almost crushing the boy's hand in the process.
"Leonhart, Annie Leonhart. Yes, I know who you are mister Tadayoshi. The Commandant shouted it across the field today. Now, if you don't plan on flatting me again today, why are you here?" Her voice carried a certain gravitas to it that made a chill rush up the boy's spine.
"I've been assigned to this room, and by my amazing powers of deduction, one can only assume we're bunkmates…" He felt extremely uncomfortable just saying the words, but he didn't plan on showing it. "So, have you already chosen which bunk you want?" he asked, desperately, in order to elevate this incredibly awkward situation.
"Yeah. I took the top." Annie deadpanned. "I'll catch you later, I'm going for dinner." She left too fast for Daniel to even say anything back, so simply shrugged his shoulders and entered the room.