Chapter 1: An Introduction

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Okay so I started watching Attack on Titan again (I completely dropped off after season one since the second season took so long to come out) but I'm binging it and I realized how much I love Levi and Kagome! I feel like they have so much potential so I'm going to play with this in a short fic - five chapters max- and see if I can make them a thing. It'll be post-Naraku and it will follow the events of Attack on Titan anime.

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Also, I'm messing with people's ages. The 104th Cadet Corps will all be around 18-20 when they begin training and early twenties when they graduate. This is just to make more sense with Kagome's timeline. Levi will be in his late twenties as opposed to his early thirties (as a personal preference).

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Another graduation.

When Kagome had finished high school, she had honestly believed that would have been the one and only time she officially graduated from something. She had never planned on going to college or anything like that. From the age of fifteen, she had fully intended on living a life with Inuyasha in the Feudal Era. It had felt like the only option for her, the only way she could feel complete. Of course, there was no such thing as post-secondary education in the 1500's. So, she hadn't imagined taking part in another commencement ceremony of any kind.

And yet, here she was. Standing amidst the rows of proud cadets, all with heads held high and eyes gleaming with self-satisfaction as Commander Keith Shadis walked across the raised, wooden stage and began his spiel about what it meant to be soldier, commending their persistent efforts to make it to this point. The graduation of the 104th Cadet Corps. It wasn't exactly said in the most of heart-warming tones, but it was by far the nicest words any of them had heard spill from his mouth. Though, if the dark-haired woman was being honest, she wasn't fully listening to everything that was being said.

For it was always in moments like this, moments meant to reflect on the journey that brought them all here, that Kagome did some introspection of her own.

Three years, huh? It's been about three years since my life changed again. I had always believed that the Bone Eater's Well had only one mission for me, and that mission was to finally finish off the Shikon Jewel. She bit her lip pensively, And yet, after my highschool graduation, I was brought to this strange era. The girl thought back to how she had emerged from the well after its three year inactivity, expecting to be greeted by the silver-haired hanyou and the rest of her Feudal Era friends. Instead, what she saw was a village, it's architectural makeup reminding her of the Victorian Era, which she studied in school. Small children had been running around the stone streets, merchants had been selling their produce and other goods on every corner, and housewives had been busying themselves with laundry, hanging the clothes out to dry. It was clear that, wherever she was, there was no modern technology. And yet, something about the village had seemed much more modern than the Feudal Era.

She continued to ponder who own personal journey, Of course, I tried to jump through the well again and get back home, but nothing happened and I was left here all alone. With no answers and no one to help me make sense of my fate.

For a little while, all I faced was rejection from townsfolk who left me confused on the streets. It wasn't until I met Grisha Jaeger, a local doctor, that I finally received some answers. He thought I was suffering from some sort of psychosis initially, but told me about the world I was in. A district called Shiganshina, which resided in outer most wall out of three that humanity resided in to hide from man-eating giants called Titans. Though, I guess nothing could surprise me, anymore. Shadis went on about pride and the future of humanity, though Kagome almost caught bits and pieces between her thoughts.

Grisha took me under his wing, said I had a good capacity to care for others and hired me as an assistant and helped get my own small place nearby. He taught me so much, all in a matter of weeks. Not that it lasted long there, though... Visions of bloody bodies crushed beneath the debris of crushed houses, and people running past it all in an attempt to get away from invading Titans. The Colossal Titan kicked a whole through Wall Maria. And the result was absolute devastation. I'm surprised I made it out alive...

She had seen so many people get devoured, heard so many screams in her desperate attempt to escape. And she did. She got on a boat, all alone, and settled in Wall Rose, never finding out what happened to Grisha. And the well that she came from had become inaccessible to her. And even if it hadn't work for the few weeks she lived in Shiganshina, it still felt like she had lost something; perhaps it was a bit of her hope of ever going home. Maybe she had been holding onto the chance that the well would open up again.

She wondered if she would ever see it again.

After getting to Wall Rose, she was met with massive overcrowding, people starving and not enough food to go around. However, her experience under Grisha gave her opportunities to work under other medics to help the sick and injured, and saved her from homelessness, too. It had felt like she had finally found her purpose for being brought here. To help heal humanity's scars. She had been a priestess in the Feudal Era, after all. Healing was something that had come so naturally to her.

But everyday that she had dealt with broken bones and open wounds, her mind had found a way to wander back to the Titans that destroyed all of those lives. They were out there. And as long as that was true, everyone was in danger. At any point, they could all be eradicated.

So, only a couple months after the well spit her out here, she had decided to join the military. And became a member of the 104th Cadet Corps. She trained. She grew stronger. And she decided that, even if she didn't have any real answers, she would make herself useful and fight for humanity as best as she could.

Fight the way Inuyasha showed her how.

Though Kagome Higurashi could never deny the emptiness embedded in her heart. The loneliness that etched itself on her bones where no one else would see.

"Number 7! Jean Kirstein!" Kagome snapped back into the present, realizing that the Top 10 cadets were being announced.

"Yes... I finally did it." Jean, her peer in the training regiment, stood in the row in front of her, and she could already imagine the smirk that laid upon his long face. He had been quite open in his desire to join the Military Police, a regiment in the military that resided safely in the inner most wall to serve the king. And the option for that was only reserved for those who ranked in the top ten, which had made him a rather competitive and determined cadet.

"Number 6! Eren Jaeger!" The next man to be called was the polar opposite of the one before him. A passionate soldier with the ultimate desire to kill all Titans. And none other than Grisha Jaeger's son. Kagome had grown to admire his rather reckless dedication to the cause, though she never did ask about his father's whereabouts. Never even mentioned that she knew him. Something in her heart told her that Grisha had died sometime in the aftermath of the Titan attack.

The ranks continued to be called out. Kagome peered around as Annie Leonhart, Bertolt Hoover, and Reiner Braun all followed Eren to earn the fifth, fourth and third spots respectively. And there was a certain anxiety that built up, as she wondered if had worked hard enough to earn herself a spot on the list. She knew Mikasa would surely be at the top, but the former priestess still hoped that her name would be called, too. She had spent so long running around and fighting demons that she felt compelled to prove to herself that her survival in the Feudal Era wasn't a fluke and that the Bone Eater's Well brought her here for a good reason. She bit her lip tentatively, her brows furrowed together.

"Number 2! Kagome Higurashi!" At the sound of her name, the girl felt like her body was just going to drop to the floor, like all the air had been snatched from her lungs. Without her real home or her former life to commit to, becoming a soldier was the only thing she had. And now, she had some proof that maybe she was meant to be here.

Mikasa took the top spot, an unsurprising turn of events that ended the graduation. After speeches from each regiment commander, everyone left for the barracks, satisfied with their own accomplishments. They all had much to think about as well. Many still were unsure of which regiment they'd choose. For those who didn't make it into the Top 10, their decisions were confined to just two options: either the Garrison Regiment or the Scout Regiment. The Garrison regiment specialized in wall maintenance and protection, while the scouts were the group of soldiers who ventured outside the wall and hoped to discover more about Titans and how to defeat them. It was the most dangerous regiment, with successful missions a rarity and the bloodshed of soldiers often seen as pointless. Still, the Scout regiment was the only regiment that worked to fight the enemy.

"Hey! Higurashi!" Kagome turned to see Eren walking towards her, Mikasa following not too far behind.

"Oh! Hey, guys!" The former priestess smiled.

"Nice job getting that number two spot. Have you decided which regiment you're gonna join?" The man held a smirk on his face, one that gleamed with purpose and pride. Kagome knew it came from a place of determination, the kind that coursed through one's veins when they found passion in a goal. She knew it well and could spot it anywhere.

"Yeah, I think I'm sticking with the scouts." She replied, placing a hand on her hip, "The Military Police just doesn't seem like a place I'd belong in."

"Ha! I knew it! I always pegged you for a scout as soon as I saw you in the cadet corps." Eren chuckled enthusiastically, "You got that look in your eye like you wanna fight for something important."

Before Kagome could respond, Mikasa joined in, "She has a reason to fight, Eren. She was there, remember?"

It was clear she was referring to the fall of the Shiganshina district. Just the thought of it made Kagome's blood boil and her eyes glaze over with sorrow at the same time. It was a storm of melancholy and rage.

"Yeah, well..." She shrugged off the intense emotions like swallowing a dry pill, "It wasn't my first time seeing innocent bloodshed and I'm sure it won't be the last." The wind blew by as she spoke, sending chills down everyone's back as if to compliment the current dark ambiance of the conversation. Mikasa and Eren both gave her a look of understanding, though Eren eyes twinkled with curiosity.

"You said you came to Shiganshina when you turned eighteen, but you never talk about your life before that. Like how you grew up and all that. You're pretty secretive now that I think about it." He maintained eye contact, as if he was trying to read the woman in front of him, look for any secrets swirling around in her eyes.

But none did, not that he could see anyways. "That doesn't matter now. Let's just say I've battled a lot of demons in my past."

"You can shoot an arrow better than Sasha..." Mikasa joined in, her attention clearly pulled to the conversation, "Did you perhaps live out in the mountains as a hunter before coming to Shiganshina?"

"I lived in a small village surrounded by forests." Kagome answered coolly, thinking about Kaede's village and the Forest of Inuyasha. "And yeah, I was trained to hunt." Hunt down the fragments of the jewel...

"What happened to the village?" The dark haired man continued to prod.

But Kagome stood there a moment, unsure of what to say. I don't know what happened to it, to my friends... And there's a chance that I may never know. And they'll never know what happened to me.

"Eren, I think we've interrogated her enough. You should get some sleep, anyways." Mikasa swooped in, almost as though she sensed the sorrow that built up in the other woman's heart, like a snowball rolling down a white mountain.

"Oi, I don't need someone to give me a bedtime, Mikasa!" Eren shot back, frowning at his adoptive sister's motherly tendencies towards him, "Hey, Kagome. There's no hard feelings if you don't wanna talk about it." He looked back at the former priestess with a warm smile, flashing his teeth as he rubbed the back of his head nervously. Despite getting defensive with Mikasa, it was clear he realized he might have been a little pushy. He scanned the woman in front of him carefully, but Kagome just nodded her head.

"Maybe I'll tell you both more at another time. For now, my only focus is being a useful soldier." Kagome smirked. "And maybe see this world when it's no longer plagued by Titans."

"I'd like that, too!" Shuffling into the scene was the ever childlike Armin Arlert, another survivor of Shiganshina and childhood friend to Eren and Mikasa. "Maybe we'll all get to travel the world one day, and even get to the sea. You know I've read that it contains so much salt, no merchant could ever deplete it in even if they spent their whole lives trying.

It is quite amazing when you think about it. I hope they get to see it one day.

The four of them spent a little while longer under the moonlight, planning out what they would eventually do once all Titans were gone. Like kids imagining their future with an innocent wonderment. Feeling as if, despite the walls they were caged in right now, the world may still be there's to take. To explore. To discover.

It's so strange. How I'm so haunted by loneliness, yet so warmed by their dreams.

Because she was still suspended in the air. Not sure where she should be. Tugged on by her past. And it was a part of her identity she would never show. But existed at all times. During the tragedy, and during the camaraderie.

But she was Kagome Higurashi. Even when it was heavy, her heart never turned dark. She never let herself be all consumed by her own sorrows and despair. And, even though she felt like a glass case separated her from truly connecting with the world she was navigating through, she held a hope that maybe she would find somewhere that she belonged.

Alright. I know no one reads a romance fic just for one half of the pair to not be mentioned in the first chapter!

But, to be fair, since Kagome isn't from AOT, I had to provide some background on how her character got there. It's an introduction chapter that covers a lot of background information.
Hence all the inner monologues.

The whole fic won't be like this, though. And our fav boi Levi willll be coming!
Also, sorry for any mistakes!

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So, just to be clear, Kagome fell down the Bone Eater's Well and to the Feudal era on her 15th birthday. She met Inuyasha and the gang and, eventually, she successfully rid the world of the Shikon jewel. Afterwards, the well closed and she was stuck in the modern era until her graduation from high school. Then, the well re-opened and she said goodbye to her family, thinking she would be brought back to the Feudal era. However, she crawled out of a well in Shiganshina a mere weeks before the events of AOT's first episode. There, she attempted to work as a healer until eventually joining the military and becoming a member of the 104th Cadet Corps and ranking second below Mikasa.

Now, with her new comrades, she plans on joining the scouts.

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Let me know what you think so far!