Chapter Four

Training for the 105th division went smoothly for the three years of training, everyone in the division were no longer strangers everyone knew each other, they were at least friends if not family to one another. All except the infamous Annia Beauregard who remained cold and distant from everyone. The only person among the trainees who seemed to understand her and seemed unfazed by her coldness was Richard. Which everyone could understand, Richard was the friendliest trainee there was, the majority of them even admitted to worshipping him like a god. He seemed to understand Annia, in fact he was the only one brave enough to approach her about group assignments or group work. And Richard seemed the only person she would hold a conversation with, even if he did most of the talking and her input was only a few words long. But no one was quite sure if it was because it was Richard and she liked him or the fact that Richard was simply unfazed by Annia's personality and they were simply too afraid of her.

No one could understand why Annia was so antisocial and unapproachable. Everyone had tried at one time or another to socialize with her, in fact bets were made on whether or not someone could get her to speak or get her to be nice. She however did treat everyone with manners, did not yell or fight and seemed overall polite; it was just the fact that she was unapproachable. There were rumours going around she had a sweet spot, but no one was quite sure and people found it difficult to believe she was nice. Gregory, a Military Police Brigade hopeful and currently ranked in sixth place once had Annia help him maintain his maneuver gear when it started to jam, when he tried to thank her she shrugged and walked away. Eunice a blonde haired trainee currently ranked sixteenth who wanted to join the garrison and was known as the division klutz once had Annia catch her when she tripped during class time and pick up all her books and leave without a word. There was also a second time when she dropped her books and all of her pencils which went every which way while sitting next to Annia and Annia silently bent down and retrieved all the fallen materials and returned them to Eunice and took her seat. Eunice was the one with the strongest belief Annia had a sweet and nice side to her, but she was too shy to say anything about it.

Richard meanwhile had proven himself to be a natural leader as everyone had expected of him, the other trainees were drawn to him like moths to a flame. He easily inspired them and caught their attention and loyalty. He was undoubtedly the most popular male trainee and the second most popular trainee in the division. He was also the number one ranked trainee, he was certainly deserving of the title with his abilities with strategy, teamwork, leadership and combat skills. He was second after Annia to achieve a titan kill while in simulation, managing to make a neat clean slice at the base of the training dummy's neck. And had the top marks in teamwork and leadership assessment.

However, everyone undoubtedly knew there was one and only one student who could possible pose as a challenge to Richard, and could easily outshine him-Annia. From the first moment the maneuver gear was strapped onto her she had proven to be skilled and talented, she was the first to make a titan kill in training simulations and then she managed to find new maneuvers and techniques for the gear. She was a genius when it came to battle strategy and combat, the only problem was that she never applied herself and had weak social skills. During unassessed training and classes she pushed herself to the limit striking awe into the other trainees how effortless she made everything seem. Yet the second that they were assessed she switched gears and suddenly made painfully obvious purposeful mistakes and errors all in order to not place in the top ten. It was obvious her goal was to not place in the top ten because her score was always maintained to stay exactly in the eleventh place never moving.

After Richard and Annia, the next most powerful student was Clarisse Jung, though there was a gulf between her skill and Richard's, and an impossible to cross chasm between her skill and Annia, yet Clairsse had proven herself to be superior to the other trainees. Her social and teamwork skills by far outshining everyone else's, even Richard's. Clarisse made a weaker leader, but she was an excellent second following through with orders and helping team mates. Her strongest point was her strategizing abilities and aim with cannons. She had in fact beaten Annia on two separate occasions during unassessed training on cannon training.

She was the most popular and adored trainee in their division, in fact most of them called her the sweet heart of the 105th division. There was an ongoing joke among the trainees that Clarisse and Richard should begin dating, though none of them would say it around the said trainees. And all of Clarisse's friends knew full well she had a crush on Richard. In fact most of the 105th division knew, but somehow Richard was seemingly oblivious to the fact. During training however, Clarisse had come to loathe Annia, she despised Annia because of how cold she acted and because Annia purposefully failed assessments. She hated that girl to her very core and had no respect for her whatsoever.

None of these observations escaped the always observing eyes of Shadis who saw potential in these three exemplary students. Richard's charisma, leadership and capabilities reminded him in the slightest of Commander Erwin. It was Annia whoever who had drawn his attention considerably, he was not oblivious to the fact that she was faking incompetence. Especially because she was bad at faking it, and because she was so competent when assessment was not being made. On two separate occasions he had called Annia into his office to discuss her behaviour, the second time he had even punished her for her behaviour but she remained silent as to why she was doing it-at least to him. He investigated through the other students, Annia had no interest in the Military Brigade her goal was the survey corps, and Shadis had the suspicion it was for similar reasons like those of Eren Jeager, the boy from the 104th training division and another survivor of Shiganshina who had joined the military. And because of her lack of interest in the Military Brigade she did not even attempt to get into the top ten.

But what drew his attention even more was the similarity to a certain Lance Corporal he knew, her face was similar but her personality was even more similar. Shadis had made notes on her behaviour, highly introverted and unapproachable, blunt when speaking and unaware of how what she says affects others. On the side there was also a funny interest in black tea, with her pay Annia had purchased and stored black tea in her foot locker only to be caught with the contraband goods and to be punished. But the most important similarity was the skill this young recruit displayed, everything had come to her so easily and even with no battle experience she would have put most soldiers to shame with her ability if she was put on the field. Shadis ensured to contact Erwin on this candidate, and Erwin displayed much interest in her upon hearing her potential.

Shaids leaned back in his chair and smiled, the past two training divisions had proven to contain several promising trainees. The tide in the war between titans and humans was finally changing.


Disclaimer: I don't own Attack on Titan or any of it's characters