Butting heads with Jean Kirchstein in-between training sessions became a rather common occurrence for Eren. His impression of the other teenager as an obnoxious bastard stuck and he kept finding new aspects of the boy he disliked. His rivalry with the Horse-Face (as he was now commonly referred to in Eren's mind) had, however, opened him to other trainees. There were actually a good number of them who shared his opinion of Jean. He had therefore become acquainted with most other trainees.
He had of course met Annie Leonhardt, who was as antisocial as she looked and with who he hadn't interacted since their first meeting. Sasha Braus, he had noticed quickly as well, as the girl had had the guts to eat a potato during the debriefing on the first day. She had been sentenced to run until death. Well, not really but until she fell alright, which had ended up being surprisingly late. Christa Lenz was a petite blonde girl with wide blue eyes and was practically a saint. Marco Bodt, the dark haired boy who had sat next to Jean on the first evening, was her male counterpart in that respect. Then there was Ymir who stuck to Christa like glue. Connie Springer, a monkey of a boy who had a great sense of humour, Bertholdt and Reiner who were nice enough if a little mysterious.
Training was going well. They had covered basic training and were now moving on to learning how to use 3DGM. There had been that annoying episode where Eren hadn't been able to stay upright with th exercise device which held them ump in the air thanks to cables. It was meant to simulate the basic posture while using 3DGM and it was the one thing which would tell whether or not you were suited to be a soldier. It had been extremely frustrating for Eren to find himself unable to stay upright when he knew he could do it. Levi had often told him that the position was really easy to achieve since it felt so natural. Yet he had to gather all his abdominal strength in order to get there. When Armin who was built like a fucking daffodil got it right the first time, he became suspicious. He asked Shadis if he could exchange his belt with someone else's and try that way.
He had been agreeably surprised when the stern instructor had nodded without argument. Reiner had lent him his belt and he had gone up. And just like that he was in the air. Boy did it feel great, especially since he had the satisfaction to know that he didn't in fact suck. He had met Shadis' look and the man had nodded muttering that he was a natural before moving on to tell everyone that Eren's belt was defective and that an equipment check would be carried out.
That had already been a while ago though. They had moved on to actually flying and practicing killing Titans. They had had a theory course on the right method before they moved to field practice. Titans were way trickier than Eren could have imagined. They regenerated very quickly and the only way to kill was to cut at the back of their neck.
From what they had learnt, Titans had appeared because of the pollution. At least that was what they thought. They actually had no idea what Titans were or where they had come from, only that they populated polluted areas. The reason why their existence had been kept from the public this long was because the King wanted to avoid panic.
Because that had so worked well. Right.
Anyway, Eren was pleased to note that he was damn good at slicing the Titan-shaped targets. When he completed his exercises quickly and had extra time he would try out moves he had seen Levi perform all those years ago. It didn't always work out, but he felt a little closer to the boy he had known this way. He was growing more and more restless with each days passing. He simply couldn't wait anymore. He wanted to see Levi.
And finally, a year after they had started training, the day came for them to choose their orientation. Garrison, Survey Corp or Military Police. Eren's choice was obvious.
But before the wondrous moment of choice came, they had to guard Roze's outer wall. They had been dispatched in teams and Eren was in charge of his own group which had Sasha, Connie, a guy called Thomas, and another named Franz, as well as Thomas' girlfriend, a nice girl called Hannah.
The assignment wasn't exactly hard. At least it shouldn't have been. The tough aspect of the business was that you had to stand by doing next to nothing next to a wall. And that was it. Pretty boring. Sometimes there was some good in boring things. But Eren only realized that later.
After all went to Hell a second time.
Eren recognized the tremors right away. He had been there five years before when they had first been felt and so he knew instantly what was going to happen.
"GET AWAY FROM WALL!" he bellowed to his comrades, losing no time in racing away from it himself.
He was soon followed by the others and they were just in time as the next moment the place they had been standing in was covered by gigantic pieces of wall.
"Put your masks on." ordered Eren once again taking the lead.
He then waited for the Titan to break the rest of the wall and as soon as they were in the open, he took flight. In a matter of seconds he was behind the Colossal Titan, twin swords raised. But just as his blades were about to cut the creatures' skin Eren was caught in a cloud of hot steam. He shut his eyes for a second and when he opened them again, there was no Titan to be seen.
"What. The. Fuck."