Yra on AO3:
Hey there! A chapter so soon? (Almost) respecting my deadline? What? Crazy, right? BUT next chapter will take a little more time. It's gonna be hard to translate but I'll do my best to translate it as soon as possible :)
Once again, if you notice any mistakes please point them out. Other than that, enjoy!
Chapter 7
Two Beasts in the forest (part 1)
The atmosphere was weird at the Academy. As it always was when Erwin went there. Even when he didn't leave his office it felt to most as though he was watching them, monitoring and controlling everything that happened. Yeah, that's how Erwin was. Some damn kind of fucking god that could scare about anyone and anything. And it wasn't some weak guy from Sina district who said it. Nah, it was Kenny Ackerman. Kenny hated Erwin. The dude was just like some sort of twisted puppeteer who specialised in human puppets. He never did anything if it didn't serve him in his future plans, never said anything if he couldn't gain something from it and his eyes... Kenny had to suppress a shiver before he entered the office.
There. That stare. Two electric blue eyes. Almost phosphorescent. The kind of eyes that you only ever see on a porcelain doll. Dead and terrifying. Now, Kenny was used to disturbing eyes. Carla's brat had the weirdest eyes ever but he got used to them. Erwin's eyes? Nah, no one couldn't feel grossed out and wary when these eyes stared at you.
Erwin smiled kindly and motioned his hand to the chair in front of his massive desk. Kenny had learned early in life that a smile was the best way to sell shit to an idiotic man and make said idiotic man think that he actually bought ice cream. And Kenny wasn't idiotic. He stayed where he was, standing in front of the door, not even acknowledging Erwin's gesture. Erwin ignored the other's man reticences and, his face stuck in a fake welcoming expression, greeted the teacher.
"As usual, Kenny, you are true to yourself. Right on time!"
Kenny snorted.
"Death is always on time. Not a second too late nor too soon. She's always right on time. Always been and always will be."
Erwin pretended to be interested.
"Another one of you Ackerman sayings?
-Nah. Just the goddamned truth."
Erwin let his hand fall to his side, visibly convinced that his hospitality wouldn't be rewarded. Right after that, Kenny took place on the chair. He crossed his arms on his chest and crooked his head to the side slightly, defiance in his eyes and... and his overall attitude.
"What even do you want, Erwin? Huh? It's not enough that I'm teaching these disabled kids you call prodigy? It's almost sure that I'm not here 'cause one of them cowards came here to complain, right? Levi aside, none of those bugs have enough guts to bitch about my class. And since I leave him be to do whatever the f... hell he wants, there's no damn reason for him to say anything."
Erwin raised one of his majestic brows. Like, how could he even lift the fucker?
"Hum. I would have preferred if you didn't treat your nephew differently. It could be seen as favouritism.
-Ha. Favouritism? Levi started to learn how to use firearms when he was five and he used them at six! I'm pretty sure there's nothing else for him to learn, is there?
-..."
Erwin opened his mouth to say something but he closed it. Probably would have been useless. Instead, he asked:
"How is your family doing?"
Kenny bit his tongue and didn't reply that Erwin should take care of his own ass. It might have been hard to notice for most people but Kenny had learned a few things from the goody two shoe teachers. Apparently, neither ass nor fuck was appropriate in a proper conversation. Bitch too was prohibited. What a discovery! Not that he really was able to talk with proper language but he did try. For Carla, mostly, since he didn't give a fuck about the teens in his care nor about his colleagues. Instead of the lovely reply he had wanted to say a second ago, he said:
"Carla is as happy as happy can be. She loves to be exploited in the clinic you've found. Eren also made a little blonde friend who wears dresses and -no, he's not Eren's girlfriend- that little blonde friend isn't educated. What a safe district! As for Levi, I guess you see him often enough to know that he only cares about Carla's brat? Hell, he even refused to go to the arcade because he'd forgotten to make Eren's lunch the day before. No kidding. In a month or two, he's gonna be some kind of housewife, pink apron and all, with knitting needles in hand and he's gonna make Eren a scarf or some shit like that."
Erwin smile got larger and somehow looked sincere.
"Really? I'm glad to hear that."
Kenny's jaw almost fell to the ground but Levi didn't learn to look stern from a stranger so the black-haired man kept his bored expression.
"I give you a massive destruction weapon on a silver plate and you're happy about the fact that you're turning him into a butter knife?"
Erwin lost his smile and leant against his armchair. His eyes became piercing and he coughed lightly. 'Shit, what the fuck's going on right now?'
"To be completely honest, Kenny, the reason I asked to meet with you is to talk about your family... all of your family."
Kenny kept, again, his stern expression and stayed silent. Erwin opened the top left drawer of his desk and took a kraft envelope. He put it in front of the ex-assassin. It brought back memories to the man. His jobs were once handed to him this way. An envelope in which a picture and a name were written. A few important details were also written. Usually, how much the person was worth... and how they had to be killed.
Knowing really well that Erwin was too much of a righteous man to ask him to do that, Kenny took the kraft envelope and opened it. He retrieved all the documents in it. The first paper, a picture, made Kenny's heart stop for a few seconds. His breathing hitched too and when he finally convinced his lungs to let air in them, it was shaky.
"Mana..."
Erwin nodded his head once. serious.
"We've found Levi's mother's twin. She survived, never had cancer and she now has a little family."
Kenny was still staring at the picture. Mana and Gena were his older sisters. Twins. Mana ran away from home before their father had completed her assassin training. Kenny was only five at the time. Gena had always been too weak physically for their father to take an interest in her. At least when it came to teaching her how to kill. Since she couldn't meet her father's expectations, she became a little more than an older sister to Kenny. She became the only person he had any trust in, almost became a mother to him. However, once Mana left, Kenny had to become a real Ackerman and he did what Ackermans did best except for killing: he left her behind.
He still couldn't forget that everything was Mana's fault. She should have become an assassin. He wasn't supposed too. If Mana had done what had been expected of her, Kenny could've taken care of Gena and she wouldn't have died alone in a shabby and stinky one room apartment. She wouldn't have left behind the most pitiful five years old known to mankind.
Kenny put the documents back on the desk and pushed them away. He didn't look at anything aside from the picture.
"I don't give a fuck. Good for her, now I don't ever wanna hear about her again."
Erwin sighed.
"There's only one problem, though. Your sister is very important. She's even of the uttermost importance to us.
-Wait, what?
-Have you ever heard of the Atlas?
-Who hasn't heard of them aside from your consanguine aristocrats living in Sina that marry between cousins since so long that they basically all share the same DNA?"
The Atlas weren't a gang per see. It was a sect. A goddamned sect. Kenny had always avoided their territories like the plague. Those crazy bastards believed in some kind of weird-ass Prophet that promised them a demonic army that would clean the planet and that would only let the true believers survive. Only the children of Atlas, the ones who held in them the genes of the divine light. As far as Kenny knew, they were, every single one of them including the babies, a bunch of kamikazes. He thought they all lacked a little something in their brains.
Erwin explained.
"We believe that the Atlas are just a cover up and that the Titans are actually behind it."
Kenny's face suddenly shifted from bored out of his mind to almost surprised. Yeah, okay, his face looked surprised. Not just almost.
"WHAT? You think those retards are related to the most violent gang in history? I fail to see how faith can lead even the most moronic person ever to think that reselling a human liver on the black market is a sacred thing...
-I cannot explain in details how we discovered this but I can tell you that your sister is related to it all.
-Hah? How's that? What's it she got to do with all that?
-She and her family are the only ones who ever managed to escape a village controlled by the Atlas. She might have some crucial information for our investigation..."
Kenny sniggered.
"Well, awesome! Go ahead and knock yourself out. Kidnap her and have your fun. She barely began her Ackerman training so if you burn one or two of her phalanxes she'll probably spit it all out. If you were waiting for my approbation to torture her or something, well you got it!"
Erwin stopped Kenny's rambling with a hand gesture.
"Wait a minute. We would rather not have to do this, to be quite honest.
-So what? You'll ask her gently to tell you everything you asked about? A little bird is telling me that it ain't gonna be that easy. Who knows how long she's been in that goddamned sect? She might be way more brainwashed than you'd think.
-Well, of course, she will not talk to us. But to you? She will."
Kenny's whole body stopped moving for a while before he burst out laughing.
"Me? She got away when I was five! She knew Gena was too weak! She knew that if she left I'd have to take her place as the heir of the Ackerman knowledge. She never thought one second to bring us with her to save us from all that shit. And you, you think that, more than thirty years later, she'll listen to whatever the fuck I have to say? You really think that? She doesn't give a damn! Not a single one! And why would she, huh?"
Erwin frowned. No, really, did Erwin train his face muscles to be able to move his goddamned eyebrows?
"I think that because of your... peculiar education you Ackermans have some difficulties to understand yourselves...
-...
-One way or another, your sister and her husband escaped after we managed to take this picture. We have not been able to find them again in six years. She might not have completed her assassin's formation but she certainly knows how to not be found if she doesn't want to be found. However, Kenny, you are a professional...
-Ex-professional. You're the one who helped me to stop all this. Definitely.
-Yes, of course. About that, I am not asking you to kill anyone. I only want you to find Mana and to convince her to come to us to share the information she has about the Atlas. Believe me, if we have managed to find her, they will too. Sooner or later. They do have more reasons to see her dead than we have..."
The light in Erwin's eyes didn't allow for a no. It might have been said as though the principal had been asking for a favour but it was more an order than anything else. Survey Corps Academy needed the information that Mana held. Kenny was the only adequate tool to get said information. Nothing more. Nothing less. As he had already said, Kenny wasn't an idiot. He understood things without them being explained to him. He knew he had to do it and he knew things could and would certainly get ugly for him and his family if he didn't obey like a good little puppy.
Since he had too, Kenny would organise the most epic and grandiose family reunion ever seen... well, everything is relative.
A few months passed and just as Erwin had predicted (much to Kenny's dismay) the ex-assassin had found his very dear big sister.
It hadn't been easy, but it hadn't been anywhere near impossible either. All that was left for him to do was to approach her without her noticing and running away.
"Kenta Ackerman? You listening?"
Oh fuck. Carla had just used both his real first name AND his last name. Shit would get real soon...
"Aish, Carla, don't be a bitch. If you've got to ask, you know I'm not." Both of her eyebrows raised in surprise and Eren chuckled. Carla looked at him with a look in her eyes that meant 'you better stop laughing right now, you traitor'. She quickly brought her attention back to Kenny and pointed him with her finger.
"I swear that if I find out that you've left Eren alone all the damn weekend...
-Huh? What? Alone? But..."
He turned his head towards Levi. He was sitting on the couch with a book in hands but he wasn't reading it. Instead, he was looking at his uncle with a condescending face. Kenny felt a sudden urge to call his a dick. However, he already was the victim of Carla's anger. He'd better not make his predicament worse. Carla hated when the boys were vulgar. She felt like they had to talk correctly around her son... not that Eren didn't know about every single damn swear word there was. The boy was already able to spit really impressive insults when he wanted to.
Kenny thought about something and said it aloud.
"What about Levi? Can't he take care of Eren?
-Camping in the mountain-side. The whole weekend. It's supposed military training in a pseudo-real environment. You're a teacher at the Academy and you don't even know that, uncle Kenny?"
Kenny didn't know how he had done that, but Levi had just managed to make his name sound exactly like you asshole. It was a gift that he envied him a lot at the moment.
"Shit, I completely forgot that. What about the old geezer?
-Oh, you mean Armin's grandpa? You know, Armin, Eren's best friend, the one who currently is inside Sina's walls to undergo a heart surgery?"
Oh. Yeah. Right. It already had been a year and a half since they'd met the mushroom dwarf (Levi had found the nickname. It might not have been the greatest nickname ever but it clearly was one hell of an improvement from tranny). Apparently, the blonde had found courage from his friendship with Eren and he'd decided to undergo the very fucking dangerous operation (it was that or dying, like, really soon) that could save him and offer him a normal life. Yes, now that he thought about it, he had heard them talk about it, a little while ago.
The Ackerman tried to open his mouth but Carla stopped him.
"Oh, nah-han. No stupid excuses! You won't get out of this. I have to take this class if I want to be taken seriously at work. You know how much I want that job as the head nurse! And you promised you'd do your part. Eren cannot stay here alone worrying himself sick about his best friend for the whole weekend! He's too young to stay alone for this long anyways."
Eren pouted.
"I'm not a baby anymore! I'm seven and a half now!"
Levi looked at him with amusement in his eyes.
"As you were saying, Carla. He's still only just a young little boy. Still counting the half after his age..."
Eren crossed his arms over his lithe torso and stared viciously at his brother. Kenny wanted to say that it really wasn't such a good idea to bring him along to go and see his new crazy adopted aunt... but he couldn't. It was against the rules to talk about your mission in your living room just to win a goddamn argument. So Kenny did the only thing he could do. He sighed and bowed to Carla's fury. He'd bring the shitty kid with him if that was it took. It wouldn't put him in any danger anyways. Well, with a little bit of luck...
Who was Kenny kidding? Things would definetely go wrong.
Not because of any kind of danger. Well, define danger. If you think about a fucked up bitch who abandoned her sibbling, nah. No problems. But an ex-assassin who can't stand his wife's kid for more than an hour or so? Yeah, that's the kind of danger
Well, let's define danger. If you think about a fucked up bitch who abandoned her sibbling, nah. No problems. But an ex-assassin who can't stand his wife's kid for more than an hour or so? Yeah.
Kenny was about to skin Eren alive. They had left not long after the sun had risen and they had at least half a day of driving ahead of them. The thing was that Eren, no matter how mature he was sometimes, was nothing more than a kid. He needed to pee every thirty minutes. He sang along each. And. Every. Single. Fucking. Song. On. The. Fucking. Radio. He was just like some kind of jukebox. A really strident and out of pitch jukebox. And he basically jumped on his seat like some kind of drunk grasshopper on steroids. The movement brought Kenny's eyes everywhere exept on the damn road...
It took them about two hours more than predicted to reach the mountain.
Once he'd parked his relatively discret car far enough in the woods that it wouldn't be seen from the road, Kenny draged Eren behind him and they began thair hike. The weird thing about Eren (not only weird, disturbing too, if Kenny was being honest with himself) was that he never asked questions. The kid followed Kenny, played with sticks, ran around a bit, looked at flowers as if it wasn't weird that they'd driven for hours to go on a hike on a mountain lost in the literal middle of fucking nowhere. Now that he could see how the kid really acted, he wholeheartedly believed Levi when he said that the kid was an alien of some sort. You didn't need to be the brightest person on heart to notice that something was wrong with the kid's brain. He was too damn happy and full of energy. His damn eyes were another clue that something wasn't quite right with him.
All of a sudden, the kid stopped moving and locked his greenish-blueish eyes in Kenny's. Kenny's spine shook from a vicious shiver. He felt as though Eren had just read his mind...
"Are we still far away, uncle Kenny?"
The man almost told him that they'd probably already be there if he hadn't been whinning about his weak bladder all the way but he bit his tongue. Damn the brat's eyes... Instead he took his map and compas.
"Still a hour to go."
Eren frowned and, Kenny had to admit it, the kid looked simply adorable as he did.
"I'll be hungry, though. I hope that there's food, where we're going!"
Kenny couldn't find it in himself to tell the kid that the chances for them to stay over for dinner were more than thin...
It was a day like any other day.
It had already been a month since Mikasa had gone through the marking ceremony. Her mother had explained to her that it was an ancient tradition that every member of their clan had gone through. The Ackermans were part of a really ancient Antyan family that moved to Paradiz a long, long time ago. They were Japanese in the old world. Even though Mikasa couldn't really understand what it meant exactly, she had kind of understood that it was... really damn cool. To be more honest, what she thought was cool was the mark, the tattoo, that was now adorning her skin. What's more, her mother had congratulated her for not screaming even once during the ritual...
"Mikasa, what do you wanna eat for dinner?"
The girl, happy to be abe to choose, didn't even think for more than a second.
"Rabbit! I wanna eat rabbit!"
Both Mikasa and her mother exclaimed at the same time. The girl and woman looked at each other with amusement and laughed. Mikasa's father shook his head and kept on washing the vegetables that they had just harvested.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want. I don't even know why I even bothered asking. That's all you girls ever wanna eat!"
Mana clicked her tongue with a smirk.
"We're gonna need a few herbs to season the best rabbit in the world...
-Mummy makes the best rabbit in the world! And I know what herbs it takes!"
Mikasa's mother pretended to act surprised when she saw how excited her daughter was about the rabbit.
"Oh yeah? Is that true? Do you mean that you're old enough already to choose the herbs all by yourself?"
Mikasa nodded her head with energy and pulled on the collar of her dress to expose her tattooed shoulder. Her skin was still a little pink around it, not quite healed yet but almost.
"I passed the ritual like a big girl! I sure can go pick a few herbs!"
Mana clapped her hands.
"Oh, yes, of course! Alright then, Mikasa Ackerman, if you accept it, here is your mission: bring me the herbs that it'll take to make the best rabbit in the world, but don't forget..."
Mikasa had already jumped from her chair and she grabbed her coat. She hurriedly put it on and she ran towards the front door. Her mum stopped her dead in her track with her voice.
"... and absolutely do not forget to dress warmly!"
Her hand on the handle, Mikasa turned around. Her father kneeled in front of her, buttoned her coat and put a wool hat one her head. With a small laugh, the girl replaced the hat on her head so that it didn't cover her eyes anymore. Her dad patted her head with affection. As for Mana, she huffed with a happy look on her face.
"What an overprotective daddy you make!"
Mikasa leant her head against her father's hand and looked at him with love filling her eyes.
"Don't worry, daddy, I won't go away! I'll always be here, with you and mummy!
-Hey, Mikasa, do you think that this rabbit is gonna cook itself? Come on, go accomplish your mission, young Ackerman!"
Her parents watched her leave the house and run towards the greenhouse with sadness in their eyes.
It had snowed all week. The whole forest was covered in a thick layer of white snow.
The cold air was biting her fingers and the tip of her nose but Mikasa loved winter. Everything felt like it was purified. The air was crisp, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue and the trees looked like they were protected by the snow and ice instead of their leaves. The naked trunks made funny shapes at night when the moon was out. Her father and she told themselves frightening stories close to the fire. Mikasa loved it because she could spend a lot of time cuddling with her parents, next to the fire, when she pretended to be too afraid to go to sleep alone in her bed.
She reached the greenhouse very fast. She grabbed the gardening tools and started to take the herbs she needed as well and taking care of a few plants. She quickly was done and she took the herbs in her hand.
She jogged towards her home. She wanted to heat up her hands in front of the fire. When he got closer to the front door, she stopped and stared at it. It was open. She frowned. She was sure that she had clossed it. Even if she hadn't, her dad would have. She hopped that the house wouldnèt be too cold...
And then she noticed.
Footsteps in the snow.
Her heart skipped a beat.
No one ever came to the mountain. No one ever isited them. From times to time, her dad leaved the house to go to the village. He sold a few vegetables and bought a few necesary products but that was the only contact that the small family had with other people.
Her heart now beating really fast in her chest, she walked closer to the door and pushed it slowly.
She never could have imagined who was behind it.
Yra : (may 14)
Hey guys! I'm alive (barely)! I currently have pneumonia so right now my life is just sleep, caugh, take medication, try to go to school, cry a little bit, sleep, wake up coughing, sleep, and rinse repeat and as anticipated, this chapter is hell to translate but I am alive. Thanks for your patience :)
