The afternoon sun bore down on Alphonse as he held his salute in front of the cadets of the 104th. Beside him, the instructor, Keith Shadis was introducing him to the trainees. Which was less an introduction and more of him making sure he was the most hated person within the 104th.
"All of you listen up! Today, you will be joined by Alphonse! He's the latest titan food that has the misfortune to be in your disgusting presence. Unlike you maggots however, Alphonse is something special aren't you?"
He kept his bearing and responded loudly for everyone to hear. "Yes sir!"
"That's right! Unlike you worthless bags of meat, Alphonse here may be the greatest soldier you may ever see! Because he is the only person in the history of the training corps to be sponsored by one of the three branches of the military. Care to tell these failures who exactly that is?"
"Sir, the Survey Corps, sir!" Despite how Shadis was doing his best to make sure he felt intimidated, he found the whole experience thus far something to be enjoyed. He had never gone through boot camp after all. So it didn't matter to him how these trainees thought of him, he was just happy to get a taste of training like a "proper" soldier, even if it was in another world.
He also did his best to ignore the way the young trainees broke bearing as they began to whisper amongst themselves. 'I know they're early in their training but these guys have no discipline.'
"Shut up!" Shadis roared. "Talk some more and I'll have all of you run laps around the compound!"
Everyone quickly regained their bearing, fearing for the very real punishment they would receive should they continue.
"The Survey Corps has seen something in Alphonse here and gave their blessing for him to die outside the walls! What that is, I don't know but I fully intend to find out!"
Out the corner of his eyes he saw the taller man lean down and put his face inches away from his ear. "For the 2 weeks you train here I will ensure you will get as little sleep as possible, eat as little as possible and hate yourself as much as possible! I will ensure you are the most miserable person walking upright, do you fucking understand, Cadet Alphonse?!"
"Yes sir!"
Shadis stared at him for a little before he turned to one of the contraptions set off to the side. He suddenly shoved him forward and pointed at the wooden and metal contraption.
"Go, you'll start right now."
He stumbled forward but otherwise said nothing as he quickly went through the formation. Once he got there, he took a moment to see what exactly it was. A tripod of logs held up two wires that hung down with a series of pulleys. His confirmation came when Shadis threw him a belt.
"Put it on, it's time you learn the basics of using ODM gear." Shadis looked back at the entirety of the 104th, as he expected, they all broke bearing to stare at the newcomer. "All of you, school circle around me! Consider this a teaching moment for all of you."
They all rushed at the order, the first couple rows of trainees knelt down, the rows behind them bent over slightly and the tallest stood farther back but was still able to see over their fellow cadets.
He looked away at their gazes and focused on putting on his belt. With a click, the belt was secured and without being told he walked over to where the wires hang.
"Jaeger! Leonhart! Get over here!"
He watched as a blond haired girl and a black haired boy ran over by his side, each flanking beside him. He watched as Shadis gave the duo a nod and felt them connecting the wires to his belt. Taking the chance, he looked straight up and examined the pulley that the two wires led to. He noticed a crank off to the side. 'So that's how this thing works. Pretty clever bit of machinery.'
"Lift him, Jaeger."
He heard the crank groan as he watched as the line got tighter and tighter. After a moment he felt himself get suspended in the air. He wobbled in the air and threw his hands out in front of him and behind him. It worked until he lost his balance due to the line suddenly stopping. The slightest bit of wobble in the line threw him off as he was flown backwards and upside down.
"Um sir….shouldn't he have gotten a demonstration at least?" From his position upside down he watched as the black haired kid, Jaeger, asked the instructor a rather innocent question.
Shadis didn't say a word to the kid, instead he looked directly into his eyes. "You have 5 minutes to figure it out, or else you get sent off into the fields."
He nodded and looked over at the blond haired girl beside one of the posts. "Got any pointers?"
She gave him a cold stare and said nothing.
"When I said figure it out, I didn't mean ask for answers, maggot."
He turned back to the instructor and gave him a cheeky smirk. "Understood, sir." He made a point to ignore the feeling of everyone's stares and hushed whispers to focus on the task at hand. He crossed his arms over his chest and crossed his legs over one another. He would've found it comical to be hung upside down with such a posture any other time but right now, he shoved the feeling down.
It was a relatively simple concept, find your center and maintain a hang. He almost got it on the first try too, until the line suddenly jerked from stopping. The real problem now was getting himself upright without swinging forward from his momentum, so he would have to be as smooth as possible. He slowly opened his eyes and drew several deep breaths. He flexed his abs and with a grunt began forcing himself up.
For the initial pull he imagined himself hanging upside down from a pullup bar, doing a vertical sit up. It worked and it was easier than he initially expected, the only difference was that his point of balance at this point were the two points where he hung by. He heard several gasps as he took a moment to hang parallel to the ground. He held it for a few more seconds, playing with his center of balance in the position, feeling the way his body reacted to certain movements while suspended in mid air.
The sensation was entirely different than anything else he had done before.
But not an unpleasant one.
He exhaled slowly and took in a final deep breath and pulled himself completely upright, all the while feeling a slight tingling from his abs from being worked. He slowly uncrossed his limbs and allowed himself to hang in the air.
He looked down at the ground before turning to the impassive face of his instructor. "Figured it out sir." The only response he got from the man was a resigned look in his eye. Surprising to say the least, he had expected more yelling.
"Not bad, get him down, Jaeger." Shadis turned to the cadets. "Consider this a lesson to you all, now get ready for hand to hand combat, break off into your groups."
"Yes sir!"
Alphonse watched as they all ran off, leaving him with the two cadets and Shadis. As his feet touched the ground he turned to the boy. "Jaeger right? Thanks." Before the black haired cadet could respond, he found himself grabbed by the collar by Shadis.
"You're gonna run around the compound until I'm tired, understand cadet?"
"Yes sir!" He grunted as he was let go. He turned and jogged off. He wasn't sure how long he had to run for but he welcomed the exercise. The past few days before coming here were spent in a cell answering a bunch of questions and talking to either Hange or Ilse, or both.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Shadis talking with one of the other instructors before walking off. The two other cadets ran off as well, presumably to rejoin the others.
He winced as he looked down at his new uniform. Running was surprisingly more difficult with it on, the boots definitely needed to get broken in and what better way than running his ass off for an unspecified amount of time? 'Hopefully the blisters won't be too bad.' But knowing from past experiences, he knew it was going to be annoying at the best of times to downright painful at the worst.
But….he certainly didn't mind it in the least. As he ran through the compound, he retreated into his own thoughts as he enjoyed the relative peace around him.
The cadets were training, he was running and Shadis was riding towards him on a horse.
He blinked and looked behind him again. 'He's running at me on a horse…the hell does he want?' His eyes widened as he realized the man was coming directly at him and leaped out of the way to avoid being trampled.
"Run faster, maggot! You won't get any dinner unless you keep up!" Shadis yelled as he took off ahead of him.
With a grin he put his head down and sprinted after the man, but as soon as he did, Shadis snapped the reins on his horse and sped up. He smiled at the challenge and matched his speed every step of the way until the horse was out on a full on sprint, with him trailing right behind.
"He can't be human, look at that!" Connie exclaimed he watched the new guy literally keep up with a galloping horse while on foot. "He's gotta be some freak, some government experiment!"
"Yeah and he's got a bald head like you, definitely a government experiment." Ymir teased as she watched the debacle, much like everyone else was. She watched in silence as their head instructor and the new trainee disappeared into the treeline. 'I wonder where they're going?' She looked over at Mikasa with a smirk. "You might have some competition Mikasa."
Mikasa ignored Ymir and walked up to Eren. She softly tugged on his sleeve, worried about how easy the new guy, Alphonse or whatever, got the first part of learning the ODM gear down. But what she found wasn't the anger or frustration he typically showed whenever she outdid him, it was…something else entirely.
"Mikasa, did you see him?! No wonder he's sponsored by the Scouts! I've gotta catch him later and ask him how he did it."
She let go of his sleeve. "Eren…" She quietly mumbled.
"I wonder if he knows Commander Erwin or Captain Levi?! And how did he even get sponsored in the first place?" Eren babbled on as he stared excitedly at the spot where the duo had disappeared off to.
"Eren!" Armin grabbed his friend's arm, yanking him out of his stupor. "Let's focus on our training ok? It's the only way we'll get stronger."
Eren blinked a couple times before looking at Armin. "Yeah…yeah you're right Armin, I need to get stronger…so I can kill all the titans."
Mikasa walked over in front of Eren and quickly fell into the motions as everyone else sluggishly went about their hand to hand training with little supervision from the instructors. With this part of training not counting in their final grades, very few cadets actually took it seriously.
As she settled in her fighting stance, Eren took his own across from her.
Of course Eren was one of those few so she of course had tried her best too. She wanted him to succeed more than anyone and yet, as she knocked him down, she only saw frustration in his eyes. When she offered her her hand, he slapped it away.
For a while she settled in a rhythm of her own as she switched roles and opponents but nobody was even good enough worth remembering. It was so monotonous that she managed to keep an eye on Eren while she did so. Off to the side, she saw Annie doing her best to avoid training all together like she always did but from what she had seen, the blonde haired trainee didn't need it in the first place.
It must've been about an hour when she heard the sounds of a galloping horse. She looked towards the sound to find an irate looking Shadis storming towards them with the new guy trailing behind him. As if on cue, everyone suddenly got their motivation to put some effort into training, or else they risked incurring the wrath of the head instructor.
Her eyes narrowed as she saw something new attached to the new guys belt. Her eyes widened slightly as she realized he had ODM gear equipped. 'Is he training on how to use the ODM gear already?' She pondered as they sped past the training 104th. They themselves had only just gotten to the point of training with the ODM gear.
And he was already doing it within the first day.
Of course he was sponsored by the Survey Corps and it didn't surprise her that he was getting some special treatment but it surprised her that he was only going to be here for two weeks. It just didn't make sense to have such an absurd demand of condensing three years of training into two weeks. If it really was that easy then everyone would be able to do it.
"I wonder why he's only training for a couple weeks when we're here for three years?" Armin mumbled beside her, getting her attention. "It doesn't make sense, no one should be able to get that proficient within such a short time period…but if he's sponsored by the Scouts does that mean after his two weeks here, he's going to join them? If so, then why the time crunch? A mission maybe?"
She let her friend mumble to himself as she shrugged the thoughts off. Whatever the case was, it didn't affect Eren so it didn't affect her in her mind. She walked up to Eren again and attempted to help him, to no avail as she got the same response she always got. Idly, she wondered when they would see the new guy again, she was positive Eren was going to jump him when they did.
As it turned out, it wasn't until dinner that they saw him again.
She discreetly placed a slice of bread on Erens plate when he was occupied with arguing with Jean. Armin gave her a knowing smile before returning to his soup. She jumped slightly however when the door slammed open.
The room quieted down as everyone snapped their attention to the newcomer.
She looked up and saw Alphonse walk into the mess hall without a care in the world. He was drenched in sweat but there was a big smile on his face. And unlike her and the rest of the trainees, he was still in uniform, and in gear.
The ODM gear clanked as he walked by their table to grab his food.
After a moment, the usual chatter resumed but Mikasa took the moment to turn her attention to Eren. He looked awestruck at the mere sight of the man. She frowned at him as he moved to stand up.
Thankfully Armin caught him before he could do anything. "Eren, you should let him eat. I'm sure he's been with Shadis this whole time and could use the rest."
Eren looked at his blonde friend before looking at Alphonse before letting out a resigned sigh. "Fine, I guess I can talk to him later."
She gave Armin a thankful nod as Eren sat back down.
"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?"
Mikasa blinked in surprise as she watched Alphonse stand in front of Annie with his tray. Like always, she was all by herself and no one dared to sit by her.
Until now.
The edges of her mouth curled up slightly at the confused but annoyed glare Annie gave to Alphonse. The intensity of the glare seemed to double as Alphonse set his tray down and plopped himself down without waiting for a response.
Annie's blue eyes turned ice cold in the presence of another person but she otherwise said nothing and returned to eating her food.
She looked away from the duo to the door. Her eyes narrowed as she heard heavy footsteps from the other side. She stiffened as she saw Shadis quietly open the door and step inside with a tired but stoic expression.
"Cadet Alphonse!" He called out sharply.
Immediately Alphonse stood up and saluted him, not seeming at all surprised at the instructor's sudden appearance. He made an effort to swallow the food in his mouth before responding. "Sir!"
"You have five minutes to finish eating before your night training begins. I'll see you at the field, cadet." The instructor didn't wait for a response before walking out in his typical steady manner.
She looked back over and saw Alphonse practically inhaling the food. A part of her wondered how he was able to shove everything down without choking but in no time flat, he had cleared his plate. She saw him say something to Annie before taking his tray and putting it away.
Then he quickly walked out the building without saying another word to anyone.
Putting the past few minutes out of her mind she turned to Eren. "Eren, we have to finish eating."
"Huh…oh yeah." He lamely replied.
After eating, she bid Eren and Armin a good night before walking off with the other females to their sleeping quarters. She looked over at the other cadets, noticing the routines everyone fell into. Ymir and Krista were together as they always were and Sasha was sneakily trying to hide a boiled potato in her locker.
She felt someone tap her shoulder, when she turned around she found Mina looking at her with a nervous expression.
"Ummm Mikasa, you and Annie are first watch tonight…is that okay?" The black haired girl looked uncertain asking the question.
She nodded. "It's no problem. I'll go get ready."
"Thank you." Mina sighed in relief. "Now I have to let Annie know." She winced as she slowly lumbered over to the blonde cadet.
She opened her locker and put on her uniform before heading out to one of the watchtowers. She climbed up the ladder and leaned against one of the posts. It was going to be a boring couple hours before her watch would be over. After a couple minutes, she heard Annie climb up the ladder before putting herself up with a soft grunt.
The blonde cadet placed herself on the opposite end of the tower without saying a word.
She watched as a couple of the boys ran over to their posts. 'I wonder if Eren is on watch tonight?' It was hard to tell who it was at this distance especially in the dark. She couldn't even make out the hair color.
A few moments later, she saw the lights go out in the cabins as everyone went to sleep. The minutes seemed to crawl by as she and Annie stood in complete silence. When she glanced over, the woman had her typical bored expression on her face but in the raw silence between them, it looked even more pronounced.
She looked away into the darkness that surrounded them. "Hey Annie."
"Yeah?"
She closed her eyes briefly as she recalled the memory of Alphonse saying something to Annie back at dinner. "What did the new guy say to you before he left?"
Annie let out a soft sigh, barely audible even in the dead silence. "He apologized for stuffing his face in front of me."
"That's it?"
"Yeah."
Their small talk fizzled out as she ran out of things to talk about. It wasn't like they were friends anyway, this was probably the best it was going to be between them and she was fine with that. Annie seemed content being by herself and it wasn't her place to try and change that.
She leaned her head against the wooden post and had to refrain a deep sigh from escaping.
'God this is so boring.' In the mind numbing boredom she was almost tempted to continue the conversation about the mysterious new cadet with Annie.
Almost.
The first couple days in training were pretty interesting to say the least. Not only did he have the undivided attention of the head instructor the whole entire time, he didn't get a chance to even talk to any of the cadets. Either they were asleep or he was getting dragged around by Shadis. The man was dead set on making his life as miserable as possible by making good on his promise of little time for sleep or even to eat but it still didn't diminish the excitement he had. At a certain point, Shadis was going to burn himself out and it was going to happen sooner than later.
And he was sure Shadis knew it too.
So it didn't surprise him any when after the third day he started spending more time with the cadets. He knew at this point he was starting to get the handle of the ODM gear down and was already ahead of the cadets who had only just started to dabble in freely using it. So maybe, he could help the others along. He wasn't exactly perfect at using it but he still had a good grasp on the usage of the ODM gear.
Plus with his decade of experience he was sure there were other aspects he could teach these cadets before his time was up here.
One such aspect was the importance of hand to hand combat. Even in his world, for the vast majority of the conventional military, hand to hand combat was seen as a last resort and many of the techniques that were taught were mainly focused on regaining control of one's weapon or using whatever they have on hand to kill the enemy. The art of destroying a human body was only really taught to those in the Project and that was only due their "special" circumstances.
So he could understand why no one took this seriously considering their main opponents weren't human but giant humanoid monsters.
He narrowed his eyes at everyones slow and lazy movements. No one spared an ounce more of their energy than was needed. Even Jaeger, who seemed to be the most "enthusiastic" during training, was taking it easy.
But that didn't mean he would agree with it.
He walked up to a familiar mop of black hair. "Jaeger!" He called out as he walked up to him and two others.
"Oh! Hey! Uh I've been meaning to-"
He shut the cadet up by throwing a wooden knife at him. "Come on lets train, show me what you have, Jaeger."
The black haired cadet stared at the wooden knife for a moment with hesitation before getting a determined expression. "Fine, let's do this. By the way, my first name is Eren. I'd rather you call me that instead."
He nodded at Eren and backed up a couple steps. He saw Eren's eyes widen as he leisurely placed his hands behind his back. "Don't worry about me Eren, come at me as if you intend to kill me."
The determined expression quickly fell apart as anger overtook it.
'He's got a temper.' He noted as Eren gritted his teeth and charged at him with reckless abandon. He sidestepped a thrust and quickly moved behind Eren. It took the cadet a moment before he realized where he was. "Too slow Eren, and you're too hotheaded, calm down."
He didn't mean to anger him ever more, intending to help him instead but it had the opposite effect.
It pissed the cadet off even more. With a small yell he charged in again, the exact same way no less.
The wooden knife was coming towards his chest as Eren charged in again but this time he chose to not move from the hit. Instead he caught it between his elbow and knee, cracking the flimsy knife at the point of impact. He felt the impact threaten to knock him over as he stood on a single leg but he held his balance easily.
Eren looked at the knife in shock. "Wha-"
He didn't let him finish as he firmly grasped Erens outstretched arm. He pulled the arm over him and lowered his body and pulled Eren over his body.
Eren landed on the ground with a loud grunt and dropped the knife as the wind got knocked out of him.
He looked impassively at the downed cadet. "Come on, get up Eren." He blinked as someone came in between him and Eren. "And you are?"
"Mikasa! I don't need-" Eren broke out into a wheeze as he struggled to get up. "I don't need you to babysit me." He finally managed out as he stood up.
He looked at the black haired woman, she looked angry for whatever reason. "Is there a problem?"
She didn't say a word, only tensing as she stood her ground.
He sighed. "You realize this is training for a reason right? How is anyone supposed to learn when their hand is being held?" He grew slightly annoyed when she refused to move, even as Eren tried to push her away.
"Cadet Alphonse! Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Shadis yelled as he walked over. "Explain, cadet."
He didn't bother facing the instructor, opting to stare at Mikasa. "I was sparring with Eren when she stepped in, she seemed to not like how I was handling Eren."
Mikasa narrowed her eyes at him. "You were unnecessarily rough for a training exercise that doesn't even count. What would happen if Eren got injured?"
The statement almost made him laugh. Too rough? That was too rough for her liking? How stupid. Surely the instructor would disagree with the girl.
"She has a point, Cadet Alphonse."
His head snapped to the taller instructor.
"Hand to hand training doesn't count towards the final scores. If there was a chance to hold back in training, this would be it. It would be foolish to get injured on something like this, which can hinder performance elsewhere." Shadis looked him dead in the eyes. "We are fighting titans after all, not humans."
He looked around and saw the other cadets nodding along with the statement. He felt his anger boil within him but he took a deep breath to calm himself. Lashing out wouldn't make things better. "And who decided that?"
Shadis looked surprised at the question, his eyes widening ever so slightly. "What?"
"Who decided titans were the only enemy? Who decided that you would never have to take a human life? Who said you would never have to protect yourself or your comrades from another human being?" He stared into the dark eyes of the oriental looking girl, making sure she understood every word. Her eyes widened ever so slightly, maybe he struck a nerve. "The answer is, no one. No one knows what will happen in the future and what you'll have to fight to survive. Some day, some of you may be in a position to take a life in order to preserve a life. To that end I believe neglecting such an important part of military training is borderline unethical for a soldier."
"Unethical as a soldier….I see…you do have a point, Alphonse. In fact, I may very well agree with you. That being said, how do you intend to prove your point?" Shadis asked. "What you see here is the standard we have come to expect from the cadets."
"And I am saying that standard is far too low." He turned to Mikasa. "What will you do when there comes a time you have to kill someone to save Eren but you fail? Eren dies because you aren't strong enough, because you decided to neglect this part of training."
"And when will anybody be strong enough?" Shadis answered for Mikasa, his voice turning solemn. "Will it ever be enough, Alphonse?"
He pondered the question for a moment and looked down at his hands, painful memories swelling up at the question. All the people he could never save, people who sacrificed their life for his own and the people he discarded to the side all those years ago in the fire, all of them, he remembered it all. "No….I don't think it will ever be enough." He steeled his features and looked around. Everyone was paying rapt attention to him but who knew if they truly cared. "But I know it's still worth trying my best."
"You'll be the only one."
"Maybe….maybe not…" He smiled softly at the instructor. "But it doesn't matter because no matter if I am alone or with comrades, I will fulfill my duty to the very end."
Annie watched from her spot next to the window of her cabin as Alphonse walked off into the woods alone. He was nearing his 2 weeks here and it had been an interesting time for her. For the first time since she came here, she found herself actually interested in someone else. She wanted to figure out the enigmatic man, what made him so special that the Survey Corps would sponsor him?
The first time that they had interacted was when he reeked of sweat as he scarfed down food like it was his last meal. Since then she hadn't talked to him at all, she was content with standing back and just watching the drama unfold as Shadis did his level best to make his life miserable. He failed to wipe the smile off of Alphonse's face as he seemingly breezed through all of their training and then whatever extra he got from the other instructors.
There was never a point where he wasn't doing something, unlike them where they occasionally had some down time. Alphonse was the first up in the mornings and the last to go to sleep and the past few days he had been sneaking off when they were supposed to be asleep.
It was hard to tell exactly where he stood in his abilities though. He was exceptional at close quarters combat from what she saw and was on par if not better than Mikasa and herself. It would be interesting to see who was better at using the ODM gear, her, Mikasa or him. Maybe even Jean too, he was weirdly talented at using the ODM gear.
Other than that, she could tell easily he was a well mannered man. He spoke of his mind clearly, respected everyone even if their views didn't align and took his training and the prospect of being a soldier seriously.
Seeing him train, behave and speak with such focus reminded her of Eren. It was as if Eren finally took a step back from his obsession with killing titans and hunkered down and learned how to control himself.
His high level of maturity among the sea of sometimes immature cadets, was refreshing to say the least.
She lost sight of him as he walked deeper into the woods. After a quick moment of internal debate, she made a conscious decision to follow him.
'Where are you off to again?' She mused as she followed his footprints.
She trekked through the dense woods for what must have been almost half an hour, still following the footprints, until she came to a small break in the trees. The clearing dropped off into a gentle slope before it disappeared into another treeline. The space was just big enough for her to see it overlook one of the small lakes that dotted the landscape. The moon reflected off the calm surface of the clear water and the air was complete with the sounds of nature.
The peaceful scenery was enough to make her place a hand against a tree to digest the view.
And she also found the subject of her attention sitting at the crest of the clearing, just calmly staring out into the view.
"Hey." He called out as he continued to stare out in front of him.
She stiffed as she realized she was caught, and from so far away too. She had made sure to keep her footsteps quiet but somehow he managed to hear her from over 20 meters away.
He turned to face her, his deep hazel eyes seemed to look through her. "Did you need something?"
"No, not really." She replied out of reflex, before looking away. She hated how unconvincing she sounded.
He shrugged and turned back around. "Followed me an awful long way for nothing then." He mused to himself but just loud enough for her to hear. He patted the ground beside him. "Annie…right?"
She looked at him cautiously before taking the invitation. "Yeah." She walked up next to him and sat down with a few feet between them.
The silence dragged on for a couple minutes as she mimicked him in basking in the peaceful atmosphere. She discreetly took a chance to glance over at him. He had folded his knee up and propped an elbow on it. He rested his chin on his hand and had a blank stare. She noticed the silver metal looking bracelet he always had on him on his wrist. She flicked her eyes away quickly as she saw him glance back at her.
"Hey Annie, can I ask a question?"
"You just did." She replied as she avoided his gaze. There was something unsettling about the way his eyes seemed to just pierce into her. It felt as if he knew but there was no way he could know. No one but her own little circle knew. But that's how it felt when she stared deep into those hazel eyes.
He chuckled in a pleasant manner. "Fair enough….I guess my question is, why are you here? You seem so disinterested in it all."
She bit the bottom of her lip. "I just want to get away from the titans, that's all."
"The Military Police? Is that it?"
She nodded.
"The top 10 trainees are the only ones offered the chance to join the Military Police, away from the fighting." He mumbled out loud, mainly to himself. "Do you ever think about the hypocrisy of that?"
Her eyes widened ever so slightly and she turned to look at him. Gone was the blank expression he had earlier, now….it was something else. What that was, she couldn't put her finger on it. "...Yeah I do, the best people are the only ones given the chance to get away from the things they trained to kill."
He hummed at her response. "Hmmm it is interesting for sure." He sighed. "You know, someone once told me something interesting long ago. Want to know what it is?"
"Sure."
"He said, 'I don't need a million bodies, I just need a few good men.' And I think we need a few good people right now more than ever."
She looked at him in mild annoyance. "I'm not suicidal enough to join the Scouts. Not all of us have a death wish like you and Eren."
He shrugged his shoulders. "Very true. I can respect that….but that doesn't mean I can agree with it. After all, what good is all that strength when you don't have the desire to use it to save people?" He breathed out through his nose as he stared back at her blue eyes. "I won't ever try to pressure you into doing something that you don't want to, I don't believe in that. But I have my own duty, and I intend to do it even if it means I have to do it alone."
She perked up a bit, interested at the last bit. She had heard him say it some week or so ago to the head instructor. "Your duty….you mentioned it before. What is it?"
A duty to fight for his country.
A duty to his loved ones.
A duty to the Scouts.
And many more, she wondered what it could be.
"To save as many as I can. To right the wrongs in my life. That's my duty." He said with simplicity.
She looked at him carefully, checking for any lies. Finding none she sighed. "You can't save everyone you know."
"I know…I know…but I can try my best. That's all I can really do right? And maybe one day, I can be free."
The words he spoke hit her harder than she expected.
To right his wrongs. Her own sins.
His duty. Her mission.
To be free. The was shared between them.
An uncomfortable feeling settled in her gut. Were they just more similar than she could have imagined? Or did he really see through her somehow? She really didn't know which was worse, what it meant for him to right his wrongs or that he seemingly knew of her secret somehow.
She needed to leave. She took a deep breath and stood up.
"Leaving?"
"It's late." She simply responded as she began walking away.
"True."
His voice carried over to her as she reached the treeline, prompting her to stop. "My last day is a couple days from now, after that I'm off to the Survey Corps….they have an expedition two weeks from now that I'm taking part in."
She took a chance to look back. Why was he telling her this? Was he scared? All she could see was the back of his head. "You'll die." She simply said.
He shrugged. "If it's my time then it's my time."
There was an acceptance in his voice that his own days were numbered. Much like a shifter….much like her. She opened her mouth but found no words.
So she got away as fast as she could without running.
He closed his eyes as he focused on her loud footsteps retreating into the woods. "Almost got caught." He breathed out quietly as he glanced down at his wrist. She had almost walked in on him giving his first report.
Trying to explain why he was talking into his bracelet was something he wanted to avoid.
He let himself fall onto his back and stared at the clear nighttime sky above him and replaced the last few minutes back in his head. From what he had seen, Annie was the type to keep to herself and was aloof at the best of times and downright cold at the worst of times.
Out of everyone to try and sneak up on him, she was the last he would've imagined. She almost got him too, her footsteps were unnaturally light. Thankfully she didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.
Shaking his head, he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. When he finally did fall asleep, all he saw in his dreams was the same city engulfed in fire and death. He could feel it all, the heat, the pain, the desperation and the feeling just wanting to just die. His nightmare ended as it always did, he was saved by that man.
The man who smiled down at him with such happiness. The man who seemingly found salvation in him and like 10 years ago when he saved him, he saved him from his nightmares once again.
He slowly opened his eyes, already wide awake, to find the sun peeking over the horizon. It was still dark out and he was positive no one would be awake yet. With a tired sigh at another restless night, he stretched his stiff limbs out before getting up. He dusted himself off of any dirt and leaves and quickly began walking back.
The cool morning air felt refreshing on his skin as he trekked through the woods again. It wouldn't be long before the scorching sun would beat down on him, so he enjoyed what he could.
When he got back to the compound, he gave a wave to a surprised Jean and Connie who were in the watchtower and made a beeline for his bed and locker. He quietly entered the sleeping quarters to not wake the unconscious recruits and quickly slipped on his uniform. As he stepped out, he found Jean leaning down from his tower.
"Where have you been?" He asked in a hushed tone.
"Out and about." He cryptically replied as he walked to the open ground in front of him and began going through more stretches. It didn't take too much longer before the other cadets slowly began filing out of their quarters.
Everyone got into formation at the designated spots as they waited for the day to begin with a healthy dose of the head instructors yelling.
Maybe half of the cadets made it out before Shadis showed up early. He already looked pissed off.
"Still missing some huh? That's fine maggots, I'll get what I'm due soon enough." He ominously threatened, much to the present cadets fear.
He could see from the corner of his eyes as everyone rushed to get to formation, something they should've been doing from the get go.
"Cadet Alphonse."
"Sir!"
Shadis looked at him in annoyance. "Today is your last day here, congrats. Your next step is the belly of a titan."
He took no offense to the grim statement. "I thought tomorrow is my last day, sir."
"I thought I made it clear to you cadet, today will be your last full day. Tomorrow, you leave for the Survey Corps."
'Guess I misheard.' He stared ahead and responded smartly. "Yes sir!"
"Incidentally, you will have some visitors today."
He raised his eyebrow but said nothing. Who could be coming? Someone from the Survey Corps? Most likely had to be someone from the Scouts he surmised as he began going through the motions with the rest of the recruits.
It was just like any other day, they began with the typical calisthenics to warm themselves up before they began their physical training. All this was a breeze for him so he allowed himself to shut his brain off and go with the flow with everyone else. After a couple hours of relatively easy workouts, they ate breakfast before they sat down and went over the basics and some more advanced concepts of the ODM gear.
All of it required little attention from him at this point. By the time lunch rolled around they were finally getting ready to undergo practicing with their ODM gear in the forest.
It was exactly at this time he confirmed his suspicions of who his visitors were. Of course Hange and Petra were the ones to come.
Had to be Hange of all people.
"Oi! Al! It's your favorite person in the Scouts, Hange!"
He looked at her tiredly, already exasperated at her antics, as he leisurely held the reigns of his horse. "Damn loud ass woman." He cursed as the memories of her badgering him for hours on end surfaced again. 'Between her and Ilse I'm gonna lose my mind.' He sourly thought as he waved back.
He made a point to ignore the stares she was getting, and the ones pointed at him. "Unfortunately for you, my favorite so far has been Squad Leader Ilse." He smirked at her pout and turned to Petra and nodded at her. "Good to see you again."
Petra smiled at him. "Same here, how's training so far?" She asked as she and Hange strode up to him.
"As well as it could be." He looked behind him, sensing Shadis storming up behind him with an impassive expression. "I've still got a lot to learn."
Hange nodded before greeting their new arrival. "Hey Keith! How ya been? How's our little Al doing?"
"I've been good." Shadis reached down and gripped his head tightly. "As for his performance….it's satisfactory."
He raised his eyebrow in surprise at the compliment. 'That's the first positive thing he's said about me.' He mused as he didn't react to the hand on his head.
"Hmmm well I guess we'll see if Al can at least do the minimum." Hange nodded to herself and turned to the staring recruits. "Good afternoon everyone! I am Hange Zoe! Currently Section Commander in the Survey Corps! Petra and I are here mainly for Alphonse but we didn't forget about the rest of you!" She gave them all a thumbs up. "We'll be watching all of you carefully so do your best!"
Quiet murmurs broke out amongst the recruits as they digested her words.
He didn't pay the woman any more of his attention and got on his horse.
"Listen up recruits!" Shadis barked as he mounted his horse. "There will be a change of plans for today's exercise! You maggots will continue training in the forest to get acclimated with doing complex maneuvers with your ODM gear but there will be an addition to the exercise! Mock titans will be used for Alphonse to practice on his own and you all will follow behind him and watch how he moves! Consider it a preview of what is expected out of you meat bags!"
He cracked his neck in anticipation. While he wasn't the type to show off, he enjoyed the opportunity to show his rapid progress with the ODM gear to everyone.
Especially to the two scouts.
The head instructor didn't spare them another glance before he headed the group to their training area. The other instructors followed before they took off in pursuit. He quickly pushed his horse to the front of the group, along with Hange and Petra.
No one said much as they rode deeper into the woods. At a certain point the tree cover was thick enough to blot out the sun, giving them cool shade to work with.
"Alright!" Shadis's loud voice grabbed his attention. "Dismount!"
He smirked and stood on top of his saddle. He jumped high and did a backflip off the horse before launching his hooks into the tree branch overhead. He heard the echoing sounds of the rest of the trainees zipping up behind him.
He ran along the thick branch at high speed before leaping off and launching his hooks at the tree ahead of him. He attached the blades to his handles and readied himself as he prepared himself for the fake titans to come into view.
His eyes narrowed in concentration as the first wooden targets came into view.
Both wooden targets were slowly being moved across his vision with a few dozen meters between them. No doubt he needed to make two passes. He spotted a branch that ran parallel to the direction his targets were moving. 'That'll do.' He aimed for the trailing titan and carefully set up his approach angle.
He swung slightly lower than the target nape and used his gas to propel him forward as he latched onto the shoulder area with his hooks. He slashed through the target with a deep cut and detached the hooks as he allowed his momentum to carry him to the branch. He clicked his tongue as he realized he would be just slightly short of landing on top of it, at this rate he'd just hit the side of the branch and fall down. He twisted his body quickly and aimed his right hook farther ahead on the tree branch and let the hook fly. As soon as it dug into the wood, he used his gas to pull him forward. He had to use a fair bit of gas and the abrupt change in direction but it worked out as he used the regained momentum to run along the side of the branch before leaping off as he got close to his second target.
Letting momentum carry him he dug both blades into the foam nape and slashed through it with impunity. He hooked another branch and swung around, briefly catching Hange and Petra's surprised expression.
The reaction egged him to push himself just a little bit more.
He came across a lone target, little over 15 meters and directly in his path. No coarse adjustment would be needed as he had a perfect side view of the nape. He hooked the shoulder again and zipped forward. Both blades dug in but halfway through his cut he found the blades lodged in the foam. His eyes widened in shock and pain as his shoulders were nearly dislocated from the abrupt halt.
Acting on instinct, he detached the blades and quickly jumped off the wooden titan and latched himself on the side of a tree. Reattaching a new set he dove back in, this time from the opposite end. This time he twisted his body hard around, spinning around and forcing his way through the obstacle. When he glanced back he saw his depth was pretty much on par with everything else so far, which meant he hadn't hit the wood underneath but he did see a chunk of a random log running through the length of the nape.
Shadis nearly caused him to tear off his arms by putting a log at such a shallow depth.
But no matter, he pushed the pain to the back of his head and pushed forward. It made him wonder just what else the instructor had put in the damn things.
He was in the middle of jumping off a tree when he spotted another single target on the ground again. A tiny 4 meter target standing still. Now, more weary than before he launched down at the nape but his cut was much, much shallower than he expected.
In his paranoia he gave the thing a swallow cut. He detached the hooks as his feet touched the ground on the other side of the titan.
Suddenly he heard a loud thunk from beside him. He turned to see a hidden titan being released at him, his eyes widened in surprise yet again. If he stood still, the "mouth" of the titan would smash into him, not only injuring him but essentially failing him from the exercise.
Another thunk sounded off from in front of him.
He didn't even look at the second one, he didn't have the time.
He gritted his teeth and dug his heels into the ground, his knees almost buckled at the sudden stop but he remained firm. He jumped as high as he could and rolled over onto his back, letting the titan sail underneath him. Turning back around he used his core to generate enough strength to slice through as he spun around in mid air.
As soon as his feet touched the thin wooden back, he leaped forward into a front flip and positioned himself in line with the second titans nape. He twisted his body in mid air again and hooked onto the nape and used his gas to propel himself forward.
He put any hesitation to the back of his mind as he cleanly cut through the target before pulling over and landing on a branch. He took a quick moment to catch his breath. 'Damn it, he never did anything like this before. Bastard is trying to fail me.' He cursed internally before leaping off again. Now, he was ready for whatever was thrown at him but surprisingly he found no more titans as he zipped through the tall trees.
Typically there would be a half dozen more or so for him to hit before it ended, unless he missed them somehow. Growing weary at the lack of targets, he slowed down in an effort to survey his surroundings easier and to conserve his gas, he had used a lot on just a few targets.
No doubt that, and his blunder earlier would be counted against him.
He effectively led the group towards the end as the thick foliage began to open up. Through the obstructions he saw a couple glimpses of two final targets. A 10 meter and a 15 meter titan were set up past the trees in an open field. As he got closer and got a better look, he saw Shadis already waiting for them with their horses.
These were the final two targets and they were out in the open field with nothing around them to latch onto to get closer.
It was drilled into him that engaging titans in an open field negated much of his advantages with the ODM gear. The ideal battlefield were among the tightly packed houses within the walls or a forest.
In such an event of engaging a titan in an open field they would tag team it with their squads. Even then the risk of casualties was incredibly high for all parties involved.
The challenge didn't faze him and his mind worked quickly to put together an approach angle. Thankfully, he had the line of trees ahead of him to work with.
There was one more thing he had going for him however, that was the fact that Shadis was kind enough to line both targets up so he could theoretically get both in one clean run. He swung to his right and flew along the edges of the woods for several dozen meters before he found a group of smaller trees.
He grinned as he jumped down towards the ground, he was about 15 meters off the ground when he latched onto the bark with slack in his lines. He reeled himself in while thrusting hard with his gas. The line tightened immediately and he swung around the base of the tree in a circular fashion, gaining rapid speed. He detached his hooks and shot forward before he repeated the process with another tree and then another before he rocketed out of the treeline some distance away from the titans.
His stomach churned at the high speed as he practically skimmed on top of the ground. He flexed his stomach and kept his body ramrod straight as he felt the grass tickle his sides. He pushed his gear until he emptied the gas tanks entirely before he got close enough to latch onto the titans.
Unfortunately for him, he had miscalculated the distance between his release point and the titans so he fell a bit short before he was in perfect position to make one clean hit. As opposed to being at their shoulder, he was still in front of them and to the side, nearly at a 45 degree angle. His eyes narrowed as he slowed down. It wasn't much but with how close he was to the ground he knew he was going to either pull himself up now and adjust his course as he flew or roll along the ground while somehow maintaining his hook.
Easiest and safest option would be the first one but he had used up all of his gas so he really didn't have any other choice. He slid along the ground hard like a baseball player sliding into base and grit his teeth at the unpleasant way his gear dug into his sides.
He depressed the trigger on his hooks as soon as he got into position and made his run. He pulled the trigger earlier than originally intended due to his momentum and swung fast in a long winding upward arc.
With ease he cut through the smaller titan before twisting around again. Anchoring himself to the taller titan he swung for the final kill.
The familiar feeling of the swords digging into the fake nape quickly got replaced by a feeling of nothingness followed by the sounds of shattering metal and the pain that he received as metal shrapnel embedded into his exposed hands and through his clothes. His eyes shut on reflex as he felt more sharp steel dig into his face and covered his eyes with his arm.
He landed hard on the ground shoulder first with a loud and sickening thud. Hot pain shot up his arm as he rolled to a stop on his back. He stared up at the clear blue sky as he processed what just happened.
"Alphonse!" He heard Hange and Petra call his name as they rushed over.
They were nearly 10 seconds behind though. He really had been booking it compared to everyone else. 'I wonder if this means I failed?'
Strangely, he felt little disappointment at the thought. He had tried his best but at the most crucial point in the exercise, his equipment had failed him in the most spectacular way.
If anything his left shoulder that was out of place is what pissed him off the most.
It wasn't even Shadis trying to fail him. He honestly was surprised the instructor waited until the final test to make such a balantant move. He grunted and slowly sat up, taking note of his destroyed gear and the bladeless handles that were still in his hands. He promptly dropped the handles and sighed as he saw everyone rush to his aid.
Everyone except Shadis, he looked as calm as ever.
Coincidentally he was the first to reach him.
"I seemed to have messed up sir." He commented offhandedly as he gingerly held his limp arm with his working hand.
Shadis nodded in agreement at his assessment. "That you did and in the most spectacular way." He waved over a handful of instructors. "We'll take you to an infirmary to get treated for those wounds."
Hange ran past the instructor and slid to his side. "Damn it, you ok Al?" She and Petra looked at his limp arm with worry. "Is it dislocated?"
He nodded.
"Don't worry, we'll get it reset soon and get the shrapnel taken care of."
He took a deep breath and slowly raised his limp arm with his hand so that his arm was at shoulder height. He needed to pull the arm forward to get the joint set.
"What are you-"
With a grunt he pulled hard on the limb and felt it slide back into place. He rolled the shoulder carefully before he gave the researcher a thumbs up. "No big deal, not my first time doing this." He reached up and yanked out a small piece of metal stuck on his cheek. Thankfully none of the metal pieces were in deep. "Help me yank this shit out, please." He didn't expect Petra to grab him and toss him on the back of her horse.
"Absolutely not, we're headed to the doctor. Now." She swung herself over before quickly speeding off with him. "Hold on tight."
He sat himself up on the back of the saddle and gripped the scout tightly as they sped along. To the side he saw Hange catch up to them with her own horse. "You know." He called out over the sounds of the galloping horse. "I can heal from these injuries easily enough."
Petra scoffed. "And how are we supposed to explain that to the cadets? Just sit tight and let us take care of it."
"Oh…guess you have a point." He grumbled as they rode back to the compound. A sudden thought occurred to him. "Wait but how are we going to explain this to the doctor?"
"He already knows."
He blinked. "Oh." They arrived at the infirmary in record time and he sat patiently as the doctor patched him up. Even going so far as to wrap his face and body up with bandages to not raise suspicion. He blinked as Hange knelt down in front of him with a bundle of clothes. "What's this?"
She smiled at him. "Why don't you find out for yourself?" She thrust the bundle into his arms.
He unfolded the bundle only to see the proud Wings of Freedom on a replacement jacket along with a green poncho that wore the same insignia.
"Welcome to our little club, Alphonse."
"Welcome to our gun club, kid."
A wave of nostalgia hit him before the moment passed. "Thank you." He graciously put on the jacket for the two Scouts.
Some time ago:
Annie stared at the small crater Alphonse left behind in his crash with cold eyes. She replayed what she saw again in her mind as Alphonse was dragged off by the Scouts.
There wasn't the telltale steam emitted but she knew what she had seen when Alphonse pulled out that piece of metal.
The injury was healing itself.
She turned and saw Reiner and Bertolt, who had the same expression as she did, albeit with more shock. She gritted her teeth in anger as they quickly came to an unspoken agreement. They needed to figure out what exactly was Alphonse.
Was Alphonse the titan that ate Marcel? If so, how the hell did the Scouts manage to get their hands on him?
Her eyes narrowed as the trio quickly disappeared on their horses. 'I'm going to figure you out, whatever you are.'