"I'm back" Christa called as she walked into her door, arms full of groceries. She kicked the door shut with her foot, before kicking off her heels and trying to straighten the shoes as much as she could with her arms full of bags.
Ymir stepped out from the small kitchenette holding a plate in one hand, while the other worked a pink rag on the plate in methodical circles, "Welcome back – do you need help with those?"
Christa only shook her head; "Nope I got it" she responded as she pushed her way past the bigger girl and set the bags on the tiny island before immediately rummaging through them and going about putting the groceries away.
"Hey you didn't check the mail earlier did you? Because when I chec-" her question was cut off when Ymir was suddenly shoving a stack of envelopes in her face. She blinked owlishly before taking the pile with both hands, "Oh, thank you".
"Yup," was Ymir's gruff response as she turned back to her task of drying the freshly washed dishes, "More love letters I presume?"
Christa laughed, still flipping through the letters when a plain white one with her name written in bold on the cover caught her eye, "Weird."
"What's weird?"
Christa 'hmm'd in thought, before setting the other letters down and turning the plain envelope about in her hand, "Well this one has no address in it, so I wonder how it was delivered to the P.O box?"
"Let me see that," Ymir practically growled, reaching for the letter to snatch it from Christa's grasp, who only giggled lightly and jumped back on light feet.
"Nu uh – didn't anyone ever teach you not to read other people's mail?" she taunted before tearing the envelope open and taking the letter out to read it, "Hello His… toria."
And Ymir could only watch as the color drained from Christa's face.
"This is a copy of the letter sent to our victims P.O box," Commander Keith Shadis handed the stack of papers to Mikasa who took one for herself before passing it to Eren who took his own as well before handing the last one to Armin.
"It's pretty straight forward," the raven haired girl mused once she finished scanning over the letter.
"The letter was sent in an address-less envelope with the name 'Christa Reiss' printed on the front-"
"That's a different name from the one in the letter," Eren grumbled, eyes frantically looking for any kind of hidden meaning in the letter, though that was more of Armin's specialty rather than his.
Shadis' eye twitched at being cut off before continuing, "That is correct. Historia is our vic's legal name though she goes by 'Christa' and has been doing so for years. She and her family claim that the only people who could possibly know her actual name are those from her childhood or anyone that has access to her records."
"I am more concerned about how this came to her possession. You said she had a P.O. box right? How was this delivered if there wasn't even a send to address?" Armin questioned.
"Perhaps P.O. box isn't the correct term. This was placed in the outbox of Miss Reiss's college. The local authorities already checked it out and the man on staff at the current time claimed to have just went ahead and put it in her mail slot – said anyone who uses the outbox in the school's mail office is a student on campus and since it didn't actually have to be mailed anywhere he assumed it would be okay."
Mikasa 'tsk'ed in annoyance, she hated when people didn't do their jobs right.
"So there's like no security footage of the guy dropping it off?" Eren questioned.
"The mail office closes at six on the dot and after the place is locked up the cameras are shut off."
"How convenient," Mikasa mumbled softly and Armin nodded in agreement.
"The letter was in the mail out box the next morning, meaning whoever left it either had access to the area or is good at picking locks. Only partial prints were found on the letter and so the authorities are unable to get a perp."
Armin stared at the letter in his hands, re-reading the words again for the seemingly hundredth time in the past five minutes, 'Hello Historia. I bet you haven't heard that name in a while. Am I right or am I right? Now, I'm sure you are wondering who I am, but don't you worry your pretty little head over it – we'll be seeing each other soon enough.'
Armin cleared his throat, "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, how exactly is this in our jurisdiction? It sounds like your typical stalker case to me."
"That is what I thought at first too, but as I mentioned earlier, Miss Reiss has been living under an assumed name for years. She is the illegitimate child of a well off family and any threat made to her is seen as a direct threat to her family. I'm not going to lie, with all the money they are throwing around, they are pulling the strings here and after the incident they've been using their influence to get their way."
"Incident?" Eren spoke up.
"Hey hey, I don't know why you look so down," Christa set her drink down so she could lean across the table and pat her companion on the head who kept frowning.
"You know why I look like this,"
The two girls were currently in a small club located a little ways off campus. Even though she was of the legal drinking age, Christa was tentatively sipping on a virgin strawberry daiquiri while Ymir was downing her third beer. It had been a whole week after the whole 'mysterious letter' fiasco and Christa was refusing to let it bother her, but Ymir was a different story - constantly keeping an eye on anyone who so much as looked at her blonde friend. Christa had thought going out for a drink would help calm her friend's nerves, but it seemed to have the opposite effect as Ymir was glaring at anyone and everyone in their vicinity.
"Well I'm not having any fun," Christa pouted and Ymir's hard gaze softened a bit.
"Sorry."
Christa smiled before leaning back into her seat and stretching her arms over her head, "See? This is so much more fun if you would just relax a little bit."
"I guess" Ymir grumbled into her bottle, before downing the rest of her drink.
"Would you like me to get you another one?" Christa smiled, gesturing to the now empty drink.
"I can get it myself."
Christa only waved her off, "Nonsense. I have to use the restroom anyway – I'll just get it for you on my way back."
She was already standing up when Ymir lurched across the table to grab her wrist, "I'll go with you."
The blonde scowled, "We're not in grade school anymore – I'm a big girl. I can handle a trip to the restroom without you."
"But-"
"No buts! Now just sit here and wait, I'll be back in a flash!" and then she was skipping towards the ladies washroom, Ymir carefully eyeballing her the entire way.
It was only after five or so minutes that Ymir began to get worried. She had given her friend the benefit of the doubt, assuming the reason she was taking so long was because she was fixing her hair or adjusting her makeup. But then she started to grow more and more worried, the what ifs plaguing her mind. It's not like she could see the door the entire time, crowds of people were constantly blocking her view and Christa was so short – what if some creep put his hands on her?
That was enough reasoning for Ymir, and she quickly stood up, practically running to the girl's restroom. It was empty save for a drunk girl sitting on the floor, presumably trying not to throw up. Just as she had thought – Christa was gone and Ymir hadn't seen her when she passed the bar.
"You – did you see a small blonde girl in here?"
The drunk girl looked up at Ymir in surprise, before she started laughing, "There was one – she had the cutest shoes, said she'd hold my 'air for me. So sweet o' her,"
That sounded like Christa alright, but this girl obviously wasn't going to be of any help and so Ymir wasted no time booking it out of there. She scanned the crowds, looking for a head of blonde hair but not seeing any that could be Christa's.
"Damn it!" she cursed, prepared to rip this place apart in search for the girl when she caught the sight of a swinging door out of the corner of her eye. It was in a small, easily overlooked alcove, partially obscured by a black curtain – it was the back door of the club, no doubt.
She immediately ran towards it, practically ripping the metal door off its hinges with the force she used to barrel through the door. The sight she saw in the secluded alley had her blood boiling – there was a tall man, probably about 8 or so inches taller than Ymir herself, and she was pretty damn tall – dressed in all black and carrying an unconscious Christa on his shoulder.
With a scream of rage, she lunged at the man, who had stopped to look at her when she screamed. The three fell to the ground, Christa's body rolling away from the impact as Ymir immediately swung her fists down, knocking the guy in the side of the face. The man quickly raised his arms to defend himself, and Ymir almost laughed at how pathetic the masked man was. This guy was trying to kidnap Christa and yet he didn't have the balls to try and overpower her – pathetic. She raised her fist again, intending to sock him once more when suddenly he arched his back, one of his hands grabbing her forearm and effectively tossing her off him.
The man got up before she did, but she easily rectified this by kicking her leg out and sweeping his feet out from under him and he landed on his back with a grunt, the force of his fall effectively winding him.
"You caught me off guard once – it won't happen again," Ymir quickly jumped to her feet before swinging her leg back and putting all her force into kicking him in the side.
"This. Is. What. Happens. When. You. Mess. With. My. Christa!" each word was punctuated by another swift kick to the side and Ymir watched with glee as he curled up on himself.
Suddenly there was a loud bang, and Ymir quickly turned to the source of the sound where the metal door she had come through earlier was smacking against the concrete wall of the outside of the bar. A blonde girl stood in the doorway, calmly looking around before she spotted Ymir standing over the guy who was slowly getting to his feet.
"What the hell do you want?" Ymir called and the girl scowled, slowly making her way over.
"I heard a commotion and came to investigate," her eyes flickered to the side where Christa lay, "Is that your friend?"
Ymir's eyes widened, before she was running towards Christa, momentarily forgetting about the masked man as she went about examining the unconscious girl; there was a small trickle of blood dripping from her forehead and judging by the small stain of blood against the concrete, the head injury had probably happened when she knocked the small girl away from the man.
The man! Ymir gasped, swirling to her feet to look behind her – he was gone.
"Looks like he got away," the blonde girl from earlier spoke up and Ymir swiveled her head to look at her, glaring fiercely.
"You just watched him go?!"
The girl raised her hands in defense, "I wasn't about to risk my life attacking some guy, besides… Shouldn't you be more worried about your friend? Head injuries can be a bitch."
Ymir cursed before scooping Christa up, but not before casting one last glare to the darkness Christa's assaulter had disappeared into.
Eren whistled lowly, "Sounds like some friend. But are we sure that guy wasn't some rapist? He could be unrelated to the letter for all we know."
"We can't be sure, but her family is paying a large sum of money to get this issue resolved – company can't afford to turn them down."
Armin frowned, "Alright. So what's our mission?"
Shadis smirked before handing a thick file to the blond who took it and immediately opened it, where Christa's, or rather Historia's picture and file lie nestled inside.
Both Armin and Mikasa received their own folders as well.
"The three of you will be going undercover at Miss Reiss's college. Your goal will be to blend in and look for any suspicious persons on campus as well as gathering intel amongst both the students and faculty."
"Why do I have to be a student?!" Eren whined as he looked at the contents of his folder which held a picture of himself and his new "student id". There was some false background information about his new self that he would need to memorize along with a printed schedule amongst other things. He leaned towards Mikasa who was looking awfully smug about herself, and a glance at her file showed her to be a new part-time teacher on staff.
Armin watched the exchange with wide eyes, before looking back at his folder where the picture of Christa Reiss was still smiling at him, "Sir… Why do I have the victim's file?"
Eren whipped around towards Armin, taking one look at the contents of the folder before sniggering into his hand; Mikasa's lips upturned into a smile too.
"You have a special job Arlert. You'll be taking Miss Reiss's place. Her family does not want to risk her getting hurt again and I have to agree. It is in our best interests to have a man on the inside in the event that the perp tries to abduct her once more. It isn't the first time we have had someone pretend to be the victim – you shouldn't be so surprised."
Armin hesitated, "Sir… I'm a boy. Surely there is another officer more fit for the job!"
Shadis only shook his head, "That's a negative. Of all out members on staff you are closest in stature and appearance to Miss Reiss."
Armin frantically read the girl's file, looking for a way out, "She's nearly five inches shorter than me – people will notice!"
"It isn't uncommon for someone's height to suddenly shoot up and Miss Reiss wears heels constantly. You're the best man for this job, or are you going to risk putting an innocent girl in danger?"
Armin bit his lip, trying to think of something to say. But the commander was right. What kind of soldier was he if he let something like this obstruct his sense of duty? Eren placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and Armin smiled up at him hesitantly.
"Alright sir, I accept the mission."
"Good. In a week's time, all of you will begin your mission. Please thoroughly read your files and wait for you next order."
The three friends saluted, "Yes sir!"