Mikasa had seen quite a few Titan-slaying people. She had seen Eren, Annie, the mirror, and even Levi himself, all though not in action. Out of all the titan-killers, this boy was the strongest. He didn't even seem to be taking an effort. He would just disappear, and reappear behind the Titan's neck, severing it.
"What is that guy?" Jean said, a grudging respect sticking to his voice.
"He's like a Shinigami...I heard stories" said Sasha, watching in Awe as the rogue Titan and the orange-haired boy massacred the Titans.
"Shinigami huh?" Connie said. "Next, you're going to tell us unicorns fart rainbows"
"I'm not kidding! My grandmother told me once; she met this really old Shinigami in a black coat. He had this long white beard and a wooden cane"
"I'm still holding on to Uni-WHOA MIKASA DUCK!"
Mikasa wasn't an idiot to hesitate. She ducked and saw a hand loom over her head. She glared at the Titan. It punched her, or at least, where she had stood. She jumped up, ran along its arms, and leaped again. She got to its shoulder blades, and cut off its head.
"Thanks" She said, gearing over to Connie for his warning. He just stared in awe.
"Jesus Mikasa, you're a beast!"
She watched as the Rogue Titan fell. Wait...what was that? The boy had fallen as well. He didn't have the weapon he was slaughtering the titans with. He had...two blades. One smaller, one larger. That was when she noticed something coming out of the flesh of the rogue titan.
"Eren!" She screamed, and jumped down. There he was, his eyes closed and arising from the Titan. He seemed to be on the brink of consciousness. Mikasa threw her arms around him, letting her tears fall.
Annie however, was more interested in the Orange haired boy. He was conscious as well. He rubbed his head, and looked around him.
"Wh-where the hell am I?" He asked his voice faint.
"Wall Maria" Annie said coldly.
"Wall what? I need a date! What year?"
"What's that?" Jean asked, helping the orange haired boy up. His clothes had changed, and his eyes were a tawny black, not the blue he remembered seeing.
"You don't know what a year is?"
"Oh we know. It's just we don't have a name for all of this"
"When were you born?" the boy pried.
"January fifth. I don't see how this is helping you" Jean said, looking at Mikasa cry over Eren's body. Why was this jackass so important to her? And more importantly, how the hell was he in the Titan?
"January fifth...?" the boy pried.
"January fifth. What about it?"
"What damned year?!" he yelled now.
"We don't know!" Jean took him by the sleeves of his coat. "Listen up. I don't know, so stop asking me anything else"
He probably shouldn't have done that. The next thing he knew, he was face first on the ground. The boy glared at him.
"Don't pick off more than you can chew on!"
"You wanna go at it, Carrot-top?" Jean said through gritted teeth.
"Oh it's on, Brownie!" he said, and charged at Jean. Jean was ready for him. It would have been pretty brutal if Annie hadn't stepped in between both of them.
"We are still in hostile enemy territory. I would suggest fighting somewhere else" She said, with a rather amused look. One of the rare moments Annie should glimpses of emotion.
"I'm going to need explanations...about what I did in the past half-hour" The boy said, walking towards Annie.
"You can start by telling us your name" Sasha said, looking at him with the same look a scientist gave a lab-rat.
"My name is Ichigo Kurosaki" He said.
"Kurosaki..." Connie frowned, like he had heard of the word.
"We need to move, Eren. Quick, how much do you remember of the previous hour" Armin asked. Eren was still shaky, holding onto Mikasa's shoulder.
"I-I don't remember anything. Just..." He looked at his thumb.
"Just?" Armin enquired.
"It's-it's nothing" He shook away the question. "My gear is missing...I'm going to need someone's help"
"I'll do it" She said, and without a word, put her arms around his waist.
"Just great..." Eren sighed. As if he hadn't been embarrassed enough.
"Let's go everybody" Armin said, and launched his gear.
"Sir, Eren is not a threat!" Armin tried in vain. "And if he goes down...It is going to be a major blow to humanity!"
"Ready..." The sound of cannons altering their angle rumbled.
Boom.
Armin and Mikasa opened their eyes to see loose flesh. They were under the, they suspected carcass, of a titan. It was Eren. He sat on one of the rib-cages.
"FIRE!" Someone yelled.
Waves of blue energy appeared out of nowhere. The intensity of its attack caused all the cannons to...burst? The trio just gazed in awe as the dust settled and looked at the sky. There he was. Ichigo Kurosaki.
"He's flying..." Murmurs went through the crowds of soldiers stationed there.
"HALT!" General Pixis yelled. He looked up, and pointed towards the hovering boy. "What are you?!"
"My name is Ichigo Kurosaki...And that" He pointed towards Eren. "Is not an enemy!"
"He can transform into a Titan. At any time he could turn on us!"
"I saw what he did! It-it's still hazy, but I know what I saw! He fought the Titans along with me"
"You?" Pixis glared. "You attacked us. What makes you think we should believe you?!"
"Because him, and I are the only chances you've got at fighting whatever those things were!"
"You speak as if you do not know what they are!" Pixis spat.
"I don't! I don't even know what I'm doing here! All I know is that we're on the same side!" he got down in the front of the rebellious trio. "Oh, and did I mention the fact that I'm a Shinigami? Imagine if word of me got out"
"What makes you think we would react in a bad way?" Pixis challenged.
"The way you're freaking out about him being a Titan! Why not use this as an advantage!"
"Yes!" Armin rejoined the argument. "Plenty of strategies can be formulated because of Eren's ability!"
Pixis frowned. "Fine!"
Now Armin frowned and started to say something along the lines of that's it? He just accepted it without arguing further? But was silenced by Ichigo ruffling his hair rather harder than needed.
"Th-thanks" Eren said, as the carcass disappeared.
"No problem" Ichigo said, pressing his right hand to his head.
"What's wrong?" Armin asked.
"My head's been killing me since I got here..." He shook it off. "I need to get used to the happenings around here...you mind explaining things to me?"
"Not so fast!" Pixis yelled as the posse moved. He gestured for them to walk towards them. He was accompanied by two others. Armin inhaled sharply. It was Erwin and Levi! Man-kinds strongest!
"Erwin has decided to enlist you in the survey corps!" He pointed at Eren.
"WH-what?" He said.
"You are going to be the sole hope of an operation outside the walls! We're going to need you to go to the forest of giant trees. And last time I checked, you already wanted to be a part of the survey corps" Erwin said, poker-faced.
"No!" Mikasa said. "Eren still needs to recover. He doesn't even remember how to transform properly yet!"
Eren looked at his thumb with a sudden interest. "It's true...I don't remember much"
"I'm sure Hanji will come up with a way" Levi said with the same bored expression Annie wore. "You changed now didn't you? I'm guessing that means your power is instinctive"
"If Eren joins the survey corps, so will we!" Armin said.
"If I recall, you are already a part of the survey corps..." Erwin said.
"N-no. We were in training! We still haven't graduated"
"Consider this your first mission then" Erwin said, and began to walk away. "The mission starts next month...be prepared"
"Hold it!"
Levi and Erwin turned around to see the Orange-haired boy glaring at them. "He doesn't even remember how to trigger the effect! How'd you think he's going to know it on your mission?"
"He transformed now, didn't he? Or tried to transform, by the looks of that carcass a couple of minutes ago"
"That's bullshit! It was instinct!" Ichigo talked as if he knew everything about instinct.
"Fine then" It was Levi who glared now. "You meet me at the training grounds. We'll have a battle. Whoever wins gets to decide what to do with Eren!"
"Deal!" Ichigo growled.
"You don't understand Ichigo" Armin said. "That's humanity's strongest soldier!"
"I'm going to kick his ass" Ichigo growled as he watched the short soldier disappear. He turned to Armin. "I didn't quite catch your names"
"Armin Arlert" He extended his hand. "Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackerman. We thank you for your service!"
"No need to be so formal" Ichigo said, a frown on his face. "I'm your friend, not your superior officer"
Armin nodded. "So, do you mind me asking, how did you get here?"
"That" He said. "Is a long story"
"Shinigami! I knew it!" Sasha said in triumph at the barracks of the survey corps. Everyone but Annie, Reiner and Berthold had decided to join it. Ichigo sat in the middle of the barracks, his black swords mounted on sheathes in his back.
"You really expect us to believe you're a Shinigami?" Connie asked.
"Truthfully, no. I didn't believe it myself" He said.
"Then what makes you think I'd believe you?"
"The fact that I flew" he looked at the training dummy in the middle of the barracks. "And this" he took out his smaller sword and made a cutting action. A blue wave of energy sliced the dummy in half.
"That's so cool! DO IT AGAIN!" Sasha said. Ichigo did the same action. Nothing happened.
"That's not right" Again, nothing happened. He realised why. "There's no Reishi"
"Reishi?" Eren asked.
"Reishi is the spiritual energy residing in a person. In a research, we found out that Shinigami's Reishi is borrowed from the surroundings...I must have used all the Reishi here in Bankai. But that's impossible! There has to be Reishi here somewhere!" he closed his eyes, concentrating. He couldn't feel a thing.
"Damn it! I-I don't feel any Reishi at all!" his swords were evaporating. He tried desperately to cling onto them, but they continued turning to Reishi until Ichigo was empty handed.
"How about you train with our swords?" Jean threw a wooden sword towards Ichigo. He caught it easily.
"If you can beat all of us, you can beat Corporal Levi" Armin said. Ichigo nodded.
So, they sparred. Ichigo was down to the last two, Eren and Mikasa. Eren walked to him.
Ichigo took up his pose. He looked into Eren's eyes.
Eyes are vital, Ichigo. You can tell a person's character just by looking into their eyes...their character in turn, will tell you about their battle strategy, Urahara's words always reverberated in him when he entered a fight. He stared into Eren's sapphire green eyes. Determination seemed etched onto his eyes.
Some loss in his past maybe? The broken people were usually the first to attack. They would get cocky if taunted. Cockiness would in turn, lead to mistakes. Eren lashed out at Ichigo with his sword. Ichigo blocked it with ease, and jumped back. He circled Eren with a smirk. Eren lashed at him again, swiping at him, baseball style. Ichigo ducked, rolled behind Eren and slashed. Eren blocked it, moving with astonishing speed.
"Ugh" Ichigo said and jumped back again. It was Eren's turn to smirk. "Guess Shinigami's aren't all that powerful"
It was over in three seconds. That had been the opening Ichigo had been waiting. Ichigo kneed Eren in the gut, and his sword was millimetres away from Eren's throat.
"Guess we aren't" Ichigo grinned at Eren's frustration and offered him his hand. He pulled Eren to his feet. "You're strong, but you're easily distracted" to everyone's surprise, Eren didn't retort. He nodded with grudging respect.
It was Mikasa's turn. She picked up Eren's fallen wooden sword. They circled each other. Ichigo frowned as he looked into her black eyes. He felt...nothing. Not a single emotion was conveyed through her eyes. Everyone else he had fought, there had been something. No matter how faint, it had been there. With her...there was nothing. Absolutely nothing...
Ichigo lunged at Mikasa, swinging with all his might. She bent low, the sword missing her by a hair's breadth. Ichigo did a spin and continued his relentless assault. Mikasa simply dodged most, and blocked the others. Her strength was surprising.
Ichigo swung his sword above his head in a circular manner, and tried to stab Mikasa in the hip. She anticipated it and brought her sword down on Ichigo's.
Not good... Ichigo changed his fighting style to completely defensive. He would wait for her to attack. Come on...
She did, but it was completely unorthodox. She would just give a few weak attacks, and withdraw. It was torturous. Ichigo, submitting to frustration, swung his sword with all his might at Mikasa. She blocked it with her own. There was a sickening Crunch, as both the swords broke.
Ichigo took this as an opportunity, dropped his sword quickly, and lunged at her with his fist.
Ichigo groaned as he found himself on the ground five seconds later. Mikasa it seems, was stronger at hand-to-hand than she was at sword fighting. She had anticipated Ichigo's attack, and crushed his fist. She had then proceeded to bringing her foot down on his knee, crippling Ichigo. Once crippled, she kneed him at the hip. Her knee placed on his chest, her gaze still blank.
"Looks like you don't do so well fighting humans" She said with a metallic voice and got off Ichigo. He got up and stared as she walked back. Why had she not shown even the slightest hint that she had emotions. His orange hair fell over his eyes from the sweat.
"Turn off the deal, Ichigo" Armin said as everyone dispersed. "You're strong, but Corporal Levi is something else...just try not to get on his bad side" and with that Armin showed him to his room. It had a bunker bed, a wooden desk and chair. But besides that, it was blank. He lay down, wondering how he would ever get back to his home.
"Let the expedition, begin!" Erwin yelled, as the countless survey-corps leaders left for the world beyond the walls. Each one of them on horses, riding towards god knows where. Ichigo had become accustomed to the gear, and had a fair amount of knowledge about the titans. He rode the horse alongside Armin, who seemed to be engrossed in thought.
"What're you thinking about?" Ichigo said. Armin noticed Ichigo, and shook his head.
"Everything about this mission. They haven't given us a lot of information about the mission. From the map, the only place where we can use our 3-D manoeuvre gear is the forest of giant trees. But why would we go there? That's a Titan hotspot! Sending Eren there is suicide. Why would we threaten humanity's only hope?"
"I smell bullshit as well" Ichigo said, reining his horse as they reached the forest.
"It's just it doesn't make much sense!" Armin said, activating his gear. Ichigo followed suit, watching as the soldiers posted at the trees mounted the horses and went back. Ichigo, Mikasa and Armin landed on the same tree.
"And then there was the female titan?"
"Female titan?" Mikasa asked, looking at Armin. He nodded.
"I-I saw an abnormal titan. It...It's like Eren, there's someone inside there. I know it sounds crazy, but it killed my squad and picked me up. Then, it just let me down!"
"That's why you were the only one who appeared late...you and Jean" Ichigo said, observing Jean's grimace.
"Yes...it was like it knew how our gear worked. Plus it was fast. It...changed course and went back for some reason..."
"It's back" Mikasa said, getting out her swords. Everyone followed suit.
"Wait!" someone yelled. "Our orders were to keep the Titan's busy. If that one is heading for the forest, it's an abnormal. We can't do anything!"
"This is jeopardising the mission! People could die!" Ichigo said. "And in case you didn't notice, there are no titans here!"
A guy with shaggy, greying hair appeared next to Ichigo. "Listen here hotshot, orders are orders. I'm Captain Kurt Strip, and I surpass you in rank and skill! And I got these orders from Captain Erwin himself!"
The ground thundered as the Titan sped past them. Ichigo only had a glance of it. It had blonde hair, and was, to his estimate, 12 metres in length.
"We have to stop it!" Jean yelled.
"Leave it! As for you" Kurt pointed towards a gathering of dust far off. "The titans are here. I'm not letting some asshole who joined the Survey corps through false means tell me what to do!" the Titans were at the foot of the trees, clawing at it like they did the walls.
"Are you going to stop me from fighting them as well?" Ichigo growled.
"Yes! Our objective is to keep them busy. They don't seem to be going anywhere, so I suggest you cool your hot ass and shut up! That's an order!"
"What did you say?!" Ichigo said, glaring at the Captain.
"Let me put this in simpler terms. SHUT-THE-FUCK-UP!" with those words, Kurt glided to the tree he was posted at.
"It's okay Ichigo. He has a point" Armin said as the captain glared at Ichigo. "Us fighting them could lead to loss of lives...I find it better if we continue doing what we are now"
"It's frustrating!" Ichigo sighed in dismay, sitting down next to Mikasa. He looked in her eyes. There it was. The same blank eyes. What had happened to her? He recognised those eyes though. He had worn them for quite some time after his mother died. He had gotten over her death looking at what was important. His family, his friends. The most he knew about Mikasa was that she had lived with Eren for a while. Her parents had died, but that was it. It must have been bad to traumatise her this badly.
His eyes grew tired, and eventually, the darkness beckoned.
"What do you make out of this Zangetsu?" Ichigo asked, now in his inner realm. "Why can't you lend me your powers?"
"That's funny. I remember helping your lazy ass as well!" his hollow snarled with that sick grin. His yellow eyes full of glee.
"I do not know. It is...curious. There is absolutely NO Reishi in this area...thus nullifying my ability of helping you"
"Why?"
"If I knew, I would tell"
"What do you make out of all of this? You too" Ichigo said, gesturing towards his hollow.
"This is all as shitty to me as it is to you, Ichigo. There's no fun in knowin' what's out there!"
"Yeah...easy for you to say. These people don't know what a year is...what do you say about that?"
"The past civilisation theory. You learnt it at school. I'm sure this is it. Something must have happened and released Reishi..."
That was when the ground shook. It caused the glass buildings of Karakura town to shatter, and an ear-piercing scream rang in Ichigo's ears.
"You better get to that, king. You wouldn't want to die now, would you?"
AUTHOR NOTES: Hey guys! Now, I'm still new to Fanfiction, so I'm still getting around how to do what...and I plan on changing the story-line of the animes a little...Okay, maybe a lot! But, that's it! Hope you guys liked the chapter! Reviews are welcome :D Correct me if I've got a few of the terms in Shingeki no Kyojin wrong...
-TDR
