Author's Note: From here on, things really do start to get a little more morbid! Also.. Guys! Please keep in mind that any reviews would be really helpful. Even if you say you want to see more a certain character than I'll do my best to include them more! (I sound a bit desperate, don't I? haha ;;; but really, I could use the feedback!)
Trigger Warnings: There will be many mentions of blood, violence, and some fairly gruesome details regarding corpses in this chapter!
The hallway lights flickered on and off rapidly with hardly a second in between. The sound of heavy breathing filled the air, and grew louder with every coming moment.
Hanji picked up speed, and turned the corner in a different hallway. It could be felt so clearly now; the presence of a spirit was growing stronger, and they weren't bothering to hide it anymore.
With a bang, the lights above suddenly disappeared. Running down the window-less hall, Hanji could hardly see the floor just ahead.
The medium was overflowing with nervous excitement. Of course, it was very possible that this spirit meant harm (infact, that's exactly what it meant) but on the brighter side of things, that also meant that getting to the root of the problem would become easier if Hanji played along correctly. That was because spirits, much like people, tend to speak their minds more freely when they've been angered. So as much of a threat as this was the medium, it was also a chance that couldn't be missed.
"Won't you show me your face? I promise I'm not here to hurt you! Please just let me catch a little glimpse of you!"
The sounds of breathing abruptly halted, and the flickering of the lights seized. The hallways had returned to their usual gloomy darkened state. It was almost as if the earth stood still for what felt like the longest moment ever.
Hanji had stopped running by then, and glanced around the empty hallway while catching a breath. Nothing out of the ordinary appeared, and no more presences could be sensed.
"Ah, and I really thought I was going to meet something interesting." The medium sighed with disappointment.
Without warning, Hanji was suddenly jerked from the shirt collar and swiftly pushed against the wall. The force had been so strong that it knocked the glasses straight off the mediums face. Additionally, the spirit was pushing with all of it's weight forward, making breathing difficult.
"What did you say to Armin?!" The voice was familiar, but much darker than it had been before.
Squinting heavily, Hanji tried with difficulty to see the face of the assailant. The shape was difficult to make out, but it wasn't hard for the medium to guess who it was.
"Eren... Right?" The aggressive one. The one who tries to prevent Armin from speaking to others. "Your grip is a little tight... Perhaps we could just discuss this over tea?"
Ignoring Hanji's words, Eren continued. "Why did you try to scare Armin? Why did you say those things to him?!"
"I didn't mean to scare Armin." Hanji spoke slowly and with caution. "I hope you can trust me when I say that I really did not intend to frighten him."
"You made him cry!" Eren continued to bellow.
"...St...op..." Another familiar voice cut in, this time it belonged to a female.
Hanji kept calm, and smiled politely. "Ah, Mikasa, is that you? I'd love to see your face but my glasses seem to have slipped off in the confusion."
"Shut up!" Eren interjected once more, his grip getting tighter around Hanji's collar.
Through Hanji's blurred vision, the blob that was Mikasa had placed a hand on Erens shoulder in an attempt to calm him.
"...Bro...ther..." Mikasa mumbled in a hushed tone.
Unexpectedly, footsteps could be heard less than a few feet away. Perhaps because of all of the excitement, nobody had heard them sooner, but somebody else suddenly spoke.
"What are you kids doing?" It was Levi, whose irritated tone was a surprise to nobody. "Whatever it is, knock it off. Now."
Eren's grip on Hanji loosened slightly, but his breath was still heavy and angered. "Don't ever... Don't ever scare Armin again."
"Did I stutter? Let go of four-eyes." Levi said.
Eren glared back at Hanji for a time, then let his grip go completely. Sunken in defeat, he walked past the two adults without another word. Mikasa followed suit, but not before glancing back at the two and staring a few last moments.
Hanji immediately got on hands and knees and ran a hand across the ground. Stretching reach a bit further, the medium successfully found the fallen pair of eyeglasses and put them back on.
Levi simply watched the show unveiling before him. "I see that you're really getting through to the children. They feel comfortable enough to bully you now."
"Well, I guess high school is the same no matter where you go, huh?" Hanji attempted to joke, while standing.
"You've never dealt with something like this, have you?"
"Bullying? No, I was often an easy target for school yard bullies."
"Idiot, I mean these kinds of spirits."
Hanji turned. "What makes you think so?"
"Well, I'm clearly no medium," Levi said. "But even I know that you're not supposed to remind them that they're dead."
"It's a unique case, after all." Hanji reminded him. "Something like this doesn't just get better overnight. If anything, it will get a lot worse before we get to the real roots."
"That's reassuring." Levi stated.
Hanji gave an understanding nod. "I can tell that you're fond of these children, I can sense that much, but please have a little more faith in my work."
Levi didn't reply.
The two spent the remainder of the walk to Erwin's office in complete silence. Finally arriving, Hanji raised a hand to knock on the door, but had that same hand shoved away by Levi, who simply let himself into the room. Hanji followed behind.
"Levi, Hanji-" Erwin cut himself off. "Oh my, did something happen? You look terrible."
Hanji smiled sheepishly, and attempted to joke an answer, "I thought I looked half decent, but I guess anyone looks terrible next to you, huh?"
Erwin's eyebrows furrowed. "Hanji, I'm being serious. Did someone hurt you?"
"Please don't worry about me." Hanji replied. "There was a bit of a disagreement, but everything worked itself out."
Erwin turned his head to face Levi, who gave a casual shoulder shrug in response.
"Well, anyway. There's somebody here that I wanted you to meet." Erwin continued, turning his attention back to Hanji. "This is Moblit Berner."
All attention was turned towards a man standing in the middle of the room. His plain appearance left very little of an impression, hence why nobody had noticed him until he was pointed out. His ash-blond hair was short, and brushed neatly against his head.
"He was the man who sketched the crime scene photos seventeen years ago, after all of the actual photos continually vanished." Erwin explained. "He was able to visit the crime scene only once, and then return to his home where he drew amazingly accurate sketches of the crime scene and weapons used."
Moblit nodded his head as Erwin spoke. He looked slightly nervous- as if returning to the school after all these years made him feel uneasy.
"It was many years ago, but my memory is still very vivid." Moblit spoke up. "I remember the details so clearly. Even after seeing the classroom all these years later, all I can remember is that horrific scene."
Hanji's eyes immediately lit up. "You saw it? With your own eyes? How wonderful!"
A visible bead of sweat ran down Moblit's forehead. "...Excuse me..?"
"Ah... That came out the wrong way." Hanji gave an apologetic look. "What I meant to say is that I'd like to hold your hands."
Moblit's shifted his confused glance to every person in the room before finally returning his gaze to Hanji. "I...I'm sorry, what?"
"It might seem odd, but mediums work in strange ways. Right, Hanji?" Erwin stated, in an attempt to be helpful.
"Of course!" Hanji chimed in. "Let's sit, get comfortable, and then we can hold hands."
Levi cut in sharply. "You're not here to romance him. Just hurry up and do whatever you're going to do."
"I am doing what I need to." Hanji countered. "It's necessary that Moblit here feels relaxed and has trust in me. Now please, everyone be quiet. Close your eyes, and clear your mind."
With hesitance, Moblit elevated his hands and held them infront of Hanji. He inhaled, exhaled, and closed his eyes as he'd been instructed to do.
The room was completely silent. For Moblit, it felt as if time had stopped completely. He waited with nervous energy for something to happen.
Hanji's hands met with Moblit's, and their fingers became interlocked. "Now, let your breathing match mine. Inhale. One, two, three. Exhale. One, two, three. Keep doing this in absolute silence."
Moblit complied with the commands of the medium. After a moment of this practice, the breathing pattern of the two was the exact same.
Feeling as if in a half-conscious state, a dream-like vision appeared before Hanji's eyes. 3-B's classroom appeared, but in a state unseen to the medium's eyes until that moment.
The room was coated in dry rustic-coloured blood. Papers and desks were scattered through the entire room, creating a scene of chaos. The bodies of the students filled the room from one side to the other, each with a different mysterious air surrounding them.
The first body to be seen in the room was that of Annie Leonhardt's. Even at the end of the hallway, the girls feet could be seen poking out of the doorway. Her corpse appeared to have fallen forward, her face remaining unseen as it rested in a puddle of her own blood.
At the front of the room, the bodies of Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover lay perched against the far wall. Bertholdt's bodies had curled into itself, and Reiner's body rested so closely beside that they touched. A sea of red surrounded them, making it hard to determine the source of the bleeding.
The body of Mikasa Ackerman was seated in a desk on the far left of the room, in the front row. Her upper body slumped over the desk, with her right arm rested under her head. If it hadn't been for the pool of blood painting the desk a deep red, she would have simply resembled a student who had fallen asleep during a particularly boring lesson.
The point of view suddenly shifted to the center of the room, which appeared to have the most activity. The bodies of Armin Arlert, Marco Bott, Eren Jaeger, Krista Lenz, and another girl, whom Hanji hadn't yet met, laid in a cluster.
Krista's body looked as if it had fallen backwards on a chair. Her back curled over it, making her head slump downwards towards the opposite wall of the room. Her long hair flowed down to the ground, and rested in a pool of her own blood.
At her feet, on the ground, the bodies of Armin, and Marco were close together. Armin laid face first on the ground, the back of his head bleeding profusely. His arms extended forward, and his fingers curled in a clawing position.
Against the small boy's back, Marco's head was rested on it's side. His long legs bent upwards towards his chest. His hands were clenched into tight fists near his face, unmistakably covered in blood. Resting beside him was a large, yellow baseball bat. Judging by it's chipped paint and worn-out grip, it was rather aged.
Closely beside the two, the bodies of Eren, and the unfamiliar girl were only centimeters apart from each other. Eren's body rested on it's back. His cold, lifeless eyes stared blankly at the classroom roof. Injuries resembling stabbing wounds coated his chest and stomach, staining his white uniform shirt in a rustic red. Above his head, a pocket knife sat idly by.
The unfamiliar girl's body rested beside Eren's. Her dark brown hair was a complete ratted mess, chunks of brain matter and blood tangled into her locks. Her body writhed into an unusual position with her arms clutched onto her stomach tightly, and her left leg tucked upwards, lifting her body slightly above the ground. In the small space between her body and the floor, a small spray bottle rested.
The point of view shifted quickly between these bodies for a moment until finally, the gaze landed upon a different body towards the back of the room. This one belonged to a boy that Hanji had yet to meet. His body was slumped backwards over a desk, his face turned towards the classroom door. His hair was two shades of brown, a light tone ontop, and a darker shade by his sideburns and the nape of his neck. Though this fact seemed so irrelevant, as his face had been mutilated beyond recognition. Where his mouth should have been was instead a large, gaping hole, with few of his top teeth still intact. Thick, dark blood oozed from the wound and gushed down the top of his face, creating a large pool on the ground. In his fist, he clutched onto a long piece of white string which was wrapped tightly around his palm. The ends of the string ran onto the ground and dipped into the blood puddle.
The vision quickly shifted from the body, and gaze fell upon the final two corpses. Sasha Blouse, and Connie Springer. They could be found on the furthest back corner of the room, right beside the tall cabinet. It was notable that the cabinet was left slightly open, and didn't appear to have a lock at the time.
The side of Connie's face had looked sunken in, as if it had been crushed. He rested on his side, his arms rested limply in front of him. His large eyes were still open, and stared lifelessly at the fallen desk beside him, which was likely the last thing he saw before dying.
On the contrary, Sasha, who lay beside him, had her eyes shut tightly. A small bit of blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. A large, gaping hole ripped it's way through the chest of her white buttoned blouse. As expected, a large amount of blood had poured from the wound, soaking her entire side in her own bodily fluids. Beside these two bodies, two identical revolvers were thrown down.
The vision quickly began to blur, and few steps were taken back from the gruesome scene. The view suddenly shifted, and the hallway could be seen once again. It was clear that the viewer had reached his limit- that the crime scene had been too much for him to look at. Although he had only looked at each body briefly, it was still long enough to piece together bits of the story.
Moblit's hands were suddenly released. Unsure of whether the practice was over or not, he continued to keep his eyes closed.
"I've seen everything I need to. You can open your eyes now."
Moblit sighed in relief. But his hands began to shake visibly as he lowered them. "So what... What did you see, exactly?"
Hanji displayed a grin. "I saw everything that you saw, Moblit. The morning of November 7th, 1997. The very image that has haunted you all of these years since."
Moblit gulped, then said in a quiet voice, "You saw them... The children's corpses at the scene?"
All eyes in the room went wide in surprise, with the exception Hanji, who wore the same casual smile.
"Is that really what you saw, Hanji? That's incredible." Erwin placed a hand on the medium's shoulder, as he grinned in surprise.
However, not everybody was willing to believe in the abilities of the medium that quickly. Doubt had welled up inside of Levi, who was quick to voice his objections. "How can we be so sure that that's what you saw?"
Hanji looked in Levi's direction and thoughtfully said, "Well, if there's anything I could say to prove myself then I'm confident that I could."
"Then, we just need to ask Hanji a question only somebody who has seen the scene would know the answer to." The words tumbled quickly out of Erwin's mouth. "Tell us, Hanji, which child held string in their hands?"
Hanji's face suddenly fell. "Well.. um.."
"You don't know, do you?" Levi tilted his head slightly.
"Well, it's not that I don't know." Hanji stiffened. "It's just that I haven't actually met that child, but it was definitely a boy... One with two-toned hair."
After a pause, Levi said, "That doesn't really answer anything."
"It's not entirely inaccurate information, though." Erwin objected.
"Sure," Levi said. "But when has this medium actually done anything useful? We've been holed up here for over twenty-four hours, and all this kid has done is told us things we already know."
"Levi," The ever-so quiet Mike protested. "I don't think that we should be arguing at a time like this. We should have faith in Hanji, because we really don't have many choices left."
"I'm not a man who's interested in wasting my time anymore." Levi stated, as he turned to face the door, preparing to leave.
Softly, Hanji began to speak. "That's fine with me. I wouldn't want to trouble anybody that I don't need to. But there is one thing I have to say."
Levi half-turned his body, his glare striking Hanji. "What?"
"You're hiding something. It took me some time to sense it -I'll be the first to admit that I work a little slower than I should- but it suddenly hit me full force. The item you've been hiding from us is currently in your back pocket, isn't it?" Hanji seemed confident in this fact.
Levis brows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"I had this strange feeling when I entered the classroom. Some sort of unusual aura was revealing itself from the cabinet in the back of the room." Hanji explained, receiving many confused glances from the others.
Regardless, the brunette continued, "I know I might seem a little crazy for asking this, but you have the key to the silver lock, don't you? The same strange aura from that cabinet is emitting strongly from you."
The room stood in silence.
"The truth is that I didn't want to say anything at first. I was just going to approach you about this when the others weren't around. I don't really like to call people out in front of a group like this but," Hanji's tone lightened up a bit. "You've made me a little bit angry, so now's as good a time as ever to just come clean."
In a critical tone, Levi began to object, "You're mistake-" but Erwin was faster to speak, "Levi, empty your pockets."
Levi slid his hand into the back pocket of his pants, but stopped for a moment. He glanced up at Erwin, then back at Hanji. Reluctantly, he removed an object, and held it in his closed hand.
He fiddled with the object for a second, held it forward, then said, "Here. Take it."
Levi released the object into Hanji's extended hands. It was about the size of the human palm. It was silver in colour, smooth in texture, and had a rounded top and jagged bottom. But no matter how you looked at it, the item was undoubtedly a key.
Erwin's eyebrows raised as soon as he laid eyes on the key. He looked briefly between Levi and the item, a mixed look of surprise and disappointment on his face.
The two men standing off to the sides, Mike and Moblit, reacted quietly to themselves. Mike was better at suppressing his emotions, whereas Moblit sweat visibly.
"I see." Hanji nodded, looking just as surprised as the others, despite having predicted this outcome. "The feeling is the same."
"The feeling might be the same," Erwin repeated, "But we need to test it before we can be sure of anything."
Hanji's head nodded enthusiastically. "Lets do it now. I'm eager to see what's hidden inside."
Erwin was quick to usher everybody out of his office, with new addition Moblit included, but he stopped for a moment to look at Levi. "You come with us, too."
Levi knit his brows. "For the record, I don't know what's in the cabinet or if that's even the real key to it. I just happened to have it."
"I trust you." Erwin replied. His tone was quiet. "But we still need to check it out. If it really is the key then we might be able to figure something out."
"Lets go, then."
The sun was setting just outside the classroom window, bathing the room with it's soft, orange light. Hanji stood directly in front of the cabinet, key in hand, with Erwin, Levi, Mike, and Moblit standing closely behind.
"Well, here goes." Hanji gulped, plunging the key into the lock.
Silence encompassed the room, and then, a soft clicking noise. Immediately after, the cabinet lock fell into Hanji's hands.
Nobody spoke a word, but it was evident that everybody was thinking the same thing.
It's a clear match.
"Now to see what sort of a mystery awaits us." Hanji's lips curled into a nervous smile.
Hanji's fingers contorted around the cabinet handles, openly the doors slowly. The piece of furniture was extremely old, and creaked loudly with each movement. On top of that, they'd been shut for so many years that the tops of the doors were rusted tightly to the cabinet roof. The mediums grip grew stronger, and eventually, the doors were forced open.
A strong surge of dust gusted from the cabinet and enveloped the group, causing quite a few coughing fits.
Hanji waved a hand in an attempt to break through the dust cloud. Despite this movement, it still took a moment for the air to clear enough for visibility to return.
Through the faintly clouded air, few cabinet shelves could be seen. As expected, they were filthy and in poor condition. Thick cobwebs spread from side-to-side, over-taking entire shelves, except for two that looked practically untouched.
Everyone stood still, save for Erwin who reached forward and retrieved an item from one of the cleaner shelves. It was a photo, but the image itself was clouded with dust. Erwin ran a sleeve across it in an attempt to clean it up.
Hanji stood tip-toed and peered over Erwins shoulders. "What is it?"
"A photo." Erwin said, shaking his head. "It's... one of the students."
Erwin lowered his hand, and offered the photo to Hanji.
At first glance, it was just a photo of Mikasa Ackerman's dead face. Her dark eyes stared lifelessly into the camera. Her usually soft-looking, pink lips were pale and cracked. Blood trickled from her slightly opened mouth, though the largest pool of blood streamed from her neck.
Hanji took hold of the photo, and stared intently at it. It was exactly the same as what the medium had seen through Moblit's mind, though it was a different angle.
All at once, sounds filled Hanji's mind.
"-And this is why!" a harsh voice roars.
The sound of something cutting deeply into flesh, followed by the noise of something dripping.
A coughing fit follows, presumably Mikasa, choking on her own blood.
"Mikasa! Mikasa!" A voice cries so hard that it cracks.
The sound of someone desperately gasping for air.
Liquid violently splashes against the ground.
"You son of a-"
Finally, the sound of something thunking against hard wood.
And then silence.
It took Hanji a moment to return to reality. When the sounds stopped, Hanji realized that the men all around were holding different weapons with white, sickly looks on their face.
"Hanji, were you listening?" Moblit asked, his voice whispered nervously.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"The photos... the weapons... they're all here..."
Without a doubt, the two revolvers, the knife, the bottle, the string, and the baseball bat were all present. Though extremely dusty and dirty in their old age, some still had traces of dried blood on them.
Author's Note: Okay so I had planned to introduce Ymir and Jean in this chapter, but things ended up running longer than expected. So instead, they'll be appearing near the beginning of the next chapter! I hope you're all having fun!