Disclaimer: I don't own Attack on Titan, Devil May Cry, or any of its characters…


That night, just when everyone was getting ready to rest until morning arrives, two cadets personally walked up to Eren and Armin since they became interested when the white-haired teen talked about the breach in Shiganshina yesterday. They introduced themselves as BERTHOLDT HOOVER and REINER BRAUN. They ventured out of the barracks and into the deep forest nearby, where they stopped at a wonderful scenery that showed the nearest lake and the mountains in the distance. The moonlight only made the already-beautiful scenery more than that, as they continued their little discussion there.

Reiner explained that they lived in a town deep into the mountains in the Southeast side of Shiganshina and unlike the towns that were near the river, they didn't get the news of the breach in the wall and saw the titans for themselves.

The four talked deep into the night about how they are the only ones to see the titans up and personal as well as what they wanted to do. Reiner talked about how he wanted to get back to his home, while Eren explained how he wanted to put a stop to the reign of terror that the titans brought to humanity. From this, a bond of friendship was born between them.


Year 850, Wall Rose, Forest near the 104th Training camp

Three years into the cadets' training, the sky was in a downpour and rain took over the atmosphere. In the forest was a troop of cadets had their ODM gears equipped as they traversed through the forest.

"Hurry! Keep your feet moving!" Keith yelled at them while he was on a horse before looking at Armin who was falling behind them significantly. "What's wrong, Arlert? You're falling behind." He said to the tired blonde. "This thing too heavy for you? Are you going to remove your gear during the real deal? At this rate, you'll be titan food!" He yelled before advancing forward.

"Damn it…" Armin muttered to himself, breathing heavily as he continued to run until he felt his load lighten completely.

"Give that to me." Reiner said, getting the backpack from Armin and putting it over his own. "Keep this up Armin, and you'll be joining the dropouts. Today's exercise is being graded too." he told Armin.

"But they'll dock points from you as well," Armin replied.

"Then let's try not to get caught. Hurry up, before I change my mind!" Reiner yelled as he pushed forward whilst having two loads on his back.

Keith meanwhile, was looking back at them as he watched the scene unfold. "Reiner Braun… he's as strong as an ox and more importantly, has the complete trust of his comrades." He thought as he watched the blonde man run forward.

"I won't be a burden if it kills me!" Armin said to himself before catching up to Reiner and grabbing his backpack again. Breathing heavily, Armin ran with all his might back to the formation as Shadis observed him.

"Armin Arlert… he lacks physical skill, but shows magnificent skills in the classroom. He might just be capable of creating any fool-proof strategy with that brain of his."

The following day, the cadets did another training exercise but this time, they were striking the napes of various titan dummies to test their skills in maneuvering and attacking while traversing with their gear through a forest.

The instructor was standing on the ground below, observing each of them closely. He first spotted the girl with short blonde hair and icy blue eyes that were cold enough to keep anyone away. "Annie Leonhart. The deep curves created by her attacks are on point and quick, but her personality makes it difficult to cooperate with others." He thought, assessing her skills and weaknesses.

Shadis hen turned to the tall man who was Bertholdt as he passed by Annie. "Bertholdt Hoover. He has mastered every skill taught to him, and that leads me to believe he has lots of potential… but he often leaves decisions and important actions to others."

Next was the brown-haired Jean as the teen smoothly traversed through the forest. "Jean Kirstein... his 3D maneuvering is top class, and he can assess a situation at a moment's glance… but his attitude is like a sword, it can create conflict."

"Damn it! I can't beat those two when it comes to attacks! So I'll just have to find a titan before they do!" He said aloud, before speeding up through the trees. "I'm the one who's going to join the Military Police!" he thought before smirking as he found an unmarked titan dummy.

"Thanks, Jean! I knew it was a good idea to follow you!" Connie yelled out of nowhere as he passed by Jean, ready to go for the titan's nape. However before he could slash it, Sasha had already blasted through all of a sudden and marked the titan, surprising both men.

"Yay! I did it!" she laughed as she bounced around with her gear.

"Sasha Braus… she unusually good intuition, but it also makes her ill in organized activities." Keith thought before grading her then turning towards Connie. "Connie Springer… surprisingly talented with the gear, but not the quickest thinker that leads to strategic failures."

In another part of the forest, a couple of volunteer instructors were raising a dummy titan. "He's coming." He told his partner in a whisper, before they raised another one.

In a split second, a blue flash passed by them as the napes of both titans raised were slashed through deep enough that it revealed the wood underneath. Looking up, Shadis spotted Eren as he continued maneuvering around the forest. "Eren Yeager… he has a complete understanding of every subject and his grades are top-notch. His cockiness may be a distraction at times, but his drive to achieve his dream is far greater than anyone else's." He thought as he marked Eren's scores.

Behind Eren, a black-haired girl slashed through another pair of titans before moving to another part of the forest and Keith recognized her as Mikasa. "Mikasa Ackerman… her skills in every subject are remarkable like Eren's, but her personality makes it hard for her to connect with others. However, she is slowly learning to grow past that."

A short blonde girl with a low hanging ponytail then came from the direction where Eren flew past through earlier. She slashed at the two titans that Eren hit, not leaving a mark as deep as his, but accurate all the same. "Urgh, still not as deep as his and not as fast." she muttered to herself, before following behind Eren. Behind her, a girl with tanned skin and brown hair struck the targets deeper but still not reaching Eren's level. She frowned before shrugging it off as she continued.

"Krista Lenz… despite not possessing any outstanding abilities, her desire and drive to learn from Eren is amazing." Shadis thought, observing the blonde before turning his attention to the other one. "Ymir… she possesses great talent in using her ODM gear, but seems to have no desire to improve herself and only seeks to protect Krista."


The next day, the trainees were practicing their skills in close combat with other humans as they got into pairs and fought. Eren had just slammed Reiner to the ground before holding out a hand for him.

"That hurt," Reiner muttered as he took Eren's hand and stood up.

"Sorry, I can't gauge my own strength sometimes." Eren said in a slightly embarrassed tone. Yeah, even though he had trained with Dante for more than a year and with his added military training, Eren still had problems in holding back his real strength, which was one of the reasons why he never got into any fights ever since. He would rather stick to a war of words.

"Tch, freaking monster. Maybe next time, you'll be one of the bad guys." He said, before handing Eren a wooden knife as he noticed a certain blonde girl looking like she didn't give a damn about what everyone else was doing. This girl was ANNIE LEONHART. "Hey Eren, look."

"Annie, huh? She's hiding from the instructors and slacking off again." Eren said, looking at the blonde girl in the distance.

"Okay, Eren. Let's teach that slacker a lesson. Let's show her what it means to be a true soldier!" Reiner said, pulling Eren as they walked towards Annie.

"What?" Eren muttered as he got pulled away.

A few seconds later, Annie was stopped from walking around when Reiner approached her. "Do you want a headbutt from the instructor? If you don't want to get any shorter than you are already, then remember why you're here and start taking it seriously." Reiner said, looking down at the girl with a smirk.

"Hey, that's no way to talk to a girl." Eren came in between them before he saw her glaring at Reiner. "She's pissed… I mean, she always looks mad but… this doesn't compare to all those other times." He thought before Reiner grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Come on, show her how it's done Eren!" He said before pushing him towards Annie.

"Hey, why me?!" Eren said, shocked.

Reiner just winked at him before Eren groaned, knowing there was no way out of this even if he tried. A few moments later, he was holding a knife as he settled into a stance of his own and looked at Annie who also settled into a stance with her hands held up high and her left leg behind her right one.

"Hey look, Eren and Annie are about to go at it!" Connie said with excitement to see two of the top trainees spar. Some of the other cadets also turned their attention to the pair.

"Just so you know, I normally don't pick on pretty girls, but I'm gonna make this an exception." Eren said with a small smirk as he got ready to attack. Annie didn't say anything as Eren closed his eyes to take a few deep breaths. Once he opened them, he gained a calm look and that caused the blonde girl to tense and be prepared for what he had in mind.

Eren narrowed his eyes before charging at her with the knife behind his back. Annie aimed a low kick at him and, to everyone's shock, he tripped over it and making him fall to the ground face-first. He didn't move for the next few moments, which already signified Annie's victory. Connie and some of the other cadets had jaw-dropped as a result. Was the top cadet of their ranks really beaten by a girl in one move?

While ignoring the looks on everyone's faces, Annie turned to Eren with a dangerous expression. "You did that on purpose, Yeager." she said in a displeased tone. Of all the things that Eren could do against her, he decides to let himself lose? That hurt her pride more than losing to him, since it felt like Eren didn't consider her to be worth fighting.

Eren didn't answer back for a few seconds, before finally turning his head to the side and glancing back at Annie. "Well, I did say that I don't pick on beautiful girls, didn't I?" he said in a teasing voice.

Annie's expression didn't change, although if you look closely, there was a faint blush on her face. "Is that your way of flirting with me? Because you need to learn more in that department, it's horrible." she told him.

"Who says I'm flirting?" Eren turned over so that he was lying on his back, while still keeping a teasing smirk on his face.

The blonde girl glanced to the side to avoid his gaze. "I don't know if I should be honored that you consider me a 'pretty girl' or be mad that you don't have the balls to take on a weak, frail girl like me."

"That's up to you to decide, although I would definitely choose the first one. Heck, I declined being Mikasa's partner just so I couldn't hurt her." Eren raised the knife in his hand and Annie walked over to take it from him, before she threw it at Reiner with a pissed look.

"What—?" He said, grabbing the knife reluctantly while looking at a pissed Annie. He was still taken aback that Eren lost to her, sure there was nothing wrong about that, but it was only after one move!

"It's your turn, Reiner. You wanted to teach her the responsibility of being a soldier, right? Now's your chance." Eren asked, never losing the smirk on his face.

Reiner closed his eyes before he sweated a bit. "Yeah… there are times when a soldier can't back down. Right now is that time!" He yelled, opening his eyes as he charged at Annie.

*DONNNNNG!*

Five seconds later, Reiner was already on the ground with his ass high in the air. Eren got up from the ground immediately and walked up to Annie. "That technique of yours is amazing. Who taught you?" he asked her.

"My dad." she said, brushing her hair back.

"It's your dad's technique?"

"Yeah." She then turned to Eren. "What about you? I saw you fighting against Reiner earlier, so I know you're stronger than what you showed me earlier."

"Oh well, I…" Eren didn't know how to answer that. Of course, he couldn't say that a projection of his long-dead uncle who happened to be a son of Sparda told him the right way in training even though he was just in his mind. "I may have trained myself for a year and a few months before joining the military."

"I see, an early bird then. Anyway, it doesn't matter since this training is pointless. Martial arts against other people doesn't earn you high points." she told him. "I usually ignore it like earlier. The only ones who earn the right to join the Military Police and go to the interior are the top ten scorers in the end. Vertical gear maneuvering is worth a lot of points, and that's the only thing I have my attention on. The only ones taking this training seriously are people like you while others are…" they then saw Connie get reprimanded by Keith for playing around. "...plain idiots."

She then rushed towards Eren with the knife in her hand but he was fast enough to grab her wrist to stop her from reaching him. "Oooh, you're fast. I like that." he teased and Annie just scoffed at him for another lame attempt in flirting.

"For some reason, the stronger you are, the further you're placed from the titans. Why do you think this happens? Why is it that the people with the best abilities get the privilege of staying away from the titans?" she asked him.

He leaned closer to her face that Annie's cheeks actually turned redder as she widened her eyes slightly. "Who knows? I wonder why? Maybe the King in the interior is just afraid of the titans and that's why he needs the best of the best to protect him." he asked her in return.

Annie regained her emotionless look before sweeping him off his feet, making Eren fall to the ground. The white-haired teen looked up at her, just as she dropped the knife on his chest. "I wonder… if it's just the true nature of people." Much to his surprise, Annie offered him her hand and he accepted it before standing up.

He smiled before stretching out his limbs. "Thanks for that, I thought you hated me for a second because that leg sweep was rougher than any other sweep done to me."

The blonde girl broke her icy expression for a moment, just to give Eren a small smirk. "You just need to improve your skills in flirting with girls, because you suck." Eren was surprised for a few seconds before she returned to her emotionless look. "Anyway, I'm not dumb enough to play soldier in this pathetic world." she told him before walking away.

"Seems to me you're just not cut out to be a soldier," Reiner mused as he slowly got up.

"How could I notice it just now? This training that we're doing… was it all just a way to enable desperate people to get away from the titans?" He thought, watching Annie leave.

Sasha then interrupted his musing when she walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. Eren was surprised for a moment before realizing it was only the potato girl. "Oh, Sasha. Is there something you need help with?" he asked her.

"I was wondering, Eren…" she said in a whisper, looking around to see if anyone was listening. When she noticed that no one was nearby, she leaned close towards Eren's ear. "Maybe we could sneak into the kitchen later and grab something to eat after lunch at the hall?" she suggested with a small wink.

After the ODM assessment years ago, Sasha walked up to Eren personally and thanked him for the other day, especially for the food he brought because she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to eat at all. After that, a special bond had formed between them because of food, when Eren went on to explain what kind of explosive wonders a person can do with a simple potato and more. Of course, he had Dante to thank for telling him more about the wonders of the outside world, which included the various delicacies out there (especially pizza, he still needed to find a way to make one for himself). Sasha was always intrigued to hear more of it from Eren, and her mouth ends up watering almost every time.

"Now that's a good idea, I'm totally feeling up for that right now." he answered back with a smirk. He needed something to calm himself after what he realized just earlier when he talked with Annie. "How about I finally show you how to cook those 'fries' I told you about? It's really simple and the instructor will never see it coming."

"Yes, yes, YES! YES, I WANT TO KNOW!" she cheered while jumping up and down, having sparkles in her eyes and Eren had to calm her down before anyone else notices what they were talking about.

"Hey keep it down, alright? You'll blow it!" Eren told her, and Sasha eventually calmed down. Luckily, nobody noticed her because everyone else was busy sparring with their respective partners. Even Reiner had found a new sparring partner in Bertholdt, so he didn't hear anything. "Okay, meet me outside the mess hall after lunch and we'll do it. For now, just keep on training so the instructor won't suspect anything. Sounds good?"

Sasha nodded with a huge smile before running off, waving her hand towards Eren before he did the same. The white-haired teen smirked to himself. Nothing like a simple Air Trick to get the potatoes that they needed from the kitchen later on. Maybe he could share them with Mikasa and Armin too.


Later that night, Sasha joined their table and sat beside Mikasa, hiding the plate of fries that her and Eren cooked this afternoon from everyone else. At first, she wanted to keep the fries for herself and Eren because they were the ones who made it, but the white-haired teen convinced her that it would be good if they shared it with Mikasa and Armin.

While Sasha kept on munching down fry after fry due to how much she was loving it, Mikasa ate slowly while handing Armin some of it under the table and was able to eat too.

"This is… really good." Mikasa muttered, liking the taste of the potatoes while salted. Because of this, she started to eat a bit faster, as the more she tasted it, the more she wanted to eat.

"Yeah… I think it tastes a lot better than a simple steamed potato," Armin ate a few for himself, liking the salty taste too. He then turned to Eren, who was eating the normal paste they had as their daily meal. "Hey, Eren. Where did you learn how to make this? Did someone teach you?"

Eren didn't answer for a few seconds, before finally turning toward Armin. "No, I just thought of it after dipping a potato into some salt. I figured it would taste a lot better if it's cut up into small strips and cooked so it can hold in that flavour." He lied, since he can't tell where exactly he got the idea of it.

"I never pegged you for being an expert in food, Armin laughed.

"Then you should know that I'm always full of surprises." Eren said, chuckling as well.

"Well, why don't you take some of it and eat? You came up with it, right?" Armin even offered some of the fries on his hand towards Eren, but he shook his head.

"I'm fine. I can always cook up another plate anytime." He respectfully declined as he went back to eating his paste. "Besides, it seems that Sasha and Mikasa are enjoying it too much, I don't want to rain on their parade."

"Well, that's if the instructor doesn't catch you stealing potatoes from the kitchen." Armin smirked as he went back to eating his fries. "Maybe you just got lucky this time."

Eren chuckled, but that wasn't the real reason why he didn't want to eat with them. He was deeply thinking about what Annie told him this morning, realizing how true her words were. To add to that, Jean was loudly bragging about his skills in maneuvering before he boasted once again about his intention to join the Military Police. To be honest, it's always been this way for the past years, he just opted to ignore all the time. But right now, he wasn't really in the mood to hear the horseface's remarks.

"...but just because I'm really good at maneuvering, doesn't mean I want word to get around! Competition will come sooner or later."

Eren sighed and decided to put a stop to this before he blows a fuse. "Hey, Jean." he called out and luckily, the horseface quickly noticed him.

"What, Eren?" Jean asked with the same cocky look he had ever since he started bragging earlier.

Eren flashed a smirk of his own. "Don't you think it's hypocritical? All of this improvement in titan-killing by promising a life away from the monsters instead?"

"Well, you may have a point Eren…" Jean leaned his face on his hand as his elbow was planted on the table. "But that's just how reality is. All I can do is go with the flow. After all… they keep this stupid tactic around for people like me." Jean said, his smirk widening.

"You mean to say, you're stupid as well?" Eren snickered as he ate his paste. "Oh that's right, I did say back then that you looked like a horse, so that fits you." Nearly everyone in the mess hall laughed at Eren's remark and instead of blowing up like what happened long ago, Jean simply narrowed his eyes.

"You better take that back, because I'm not in the mood for a fight." He told Eren.

"Alright but first, tell me…" Eren stood up from his table and looked at Jean. "Tell me how can we fight against the titans, when all of those with the greatest abilities are living in the interior, away from danger."

"Tch… well, don't complain about that to me… I mean —" From the corner of his eye, Jean noticed that Mikasa was looking at Eren with worry in her eyes.

Eren was suddenly surprised when Jean stormed over to him and grabbed him by his shirt. "I've had it with you!" Jean shouted, looking at Eren with rage.

"Huh?! What the hell, let go of my shirt before it rips, asshole!" Eren shouted back to him, trying to pry Jean's grip off of his clothes while the other cadets sighed at the two.

"Oh, boy…"

"Here they go again…"

"Why can't Eren just shut him up for good?"

"Who cares about your shirt?! I'm so jealous!" Eren threw him a confused look, before he sighed and closed his eyes. Then much to the confusion of Jean and the other males in the room, Eren began to take off his shirt.

"What are you doing?" Jean asked as he let go of Eren, before he managed to catch the discarded shirt that the white-haired teen just threw at him.

While Reiner and the other male cadets were indeed confused with why Eren just did that, the same couldn't be said for the girls. Some of them already lit up madly, while some were struggling not to ogle at Eren's appealing features. Yeah, it didn't help that they were still teenagers whose hormonal urges need to be put aside for the sake of humanity. It also didn't help it was the best student in their ranks who had taken his shirt off.

Mikasa's face burned red with steam coming out of her ears, struggling not to faint out of embarrassment. Sasha couldn't stop herself from drooling as she stared at Eren's impressive abs. Oh dear, what would it taste like if she had the chance… but once she was aware of it, she turned away with a massive blush on her cheeks, trying her best to focus back in eating her fries.

Krista already covered her red face to stop herself from staring any longer than she already did, while Ymir comforted the poor girl. She made a mental note to kick Yeager's ass for embarrassing Krisra like this.

Even Annie, who had her chin resting on her hand, had chills up her spine with a warm feeling on her face as she tried to pry her look away, but was unable to. Truth be told, she really had an interest in knowing more about Eren even after his horrible attempt in flirting with her, now… this was an… odd way of knowing more about it.

"Since you want my shirt so much, you can have it. I already told you that I don't swing that way, so just have my shirt." Eren smirked, before Jean threw his shirt back at him.

"I don't want your stupid shirt and I'm not gay, you bastard!" Jean yelled at him, just as Eren put his shirt back on, ending the embarrassment for the females in the hall. But did they really want him to put his shirt back on?

"Then answer me, you horseface." Eren for once, didn't have his usual smirk and had a serious look. "If you think reality is living an easy life and living away from danger, then how can you call yourself a soldier?"

Jean got into his face with an equally serious look. "What'd you say about being a soldier?" Eren didn't answer, which was all that Jean needed as a response. He moved away and scowled. "So that's it… just so you know, this isn't over between us. But I can't afford to take this little scuffle here…" he said, looking towards the door in fear that at any moment, Shadis will come in and see what they were up to.

"I have an idea." Eren said, his smirk returning and causing Jean to look back at him. "We have time to scuffle out in the open, don't we? I'll wait until you're ready."

Jean smirked back in response as they went back to their tables and continued on with what they were doing before they had that argument. However, it wasn't a normal night for the female cadets anymore, because the image of Eren without his shirt would forever be left in their minds.

Just when he was about to return to eating his paste, Eren felt the gazes of all the girls in the mess hall descend upon him, which included Mikasa and Sasha. "What the hell are the girls staring at me for?" He frowned in confusion and whispered to himself.

Armin sighed and patted Eren on the shoulder. "You should start to expect their stares from now on…" he muttered.


The following day, it was another exercise in hand-to-hand combat as Eren walked up to Annie, who once again didn't have anyone to partner with. "Hey, Annie." He called out, and when the blonde girl looked at him, she blushed for a moment and looked away which caused Eren to smirk. "I'm thinking you enjoyed the show last night? Armin told me about it." He teased.

Annie turned back to him and gave him a punch on the shoulder, although Eren could see a small smile on her face as she did so. They then noticed Jean trying his best to fight against a fellow cadet, but it looked like it wasn't enough.

"Hey, do you think Jean is slacking off?" he asked her as they observed Jean from a distance.

"No, not really…" she answered, getting over her state embarrassment. "But it's not like he's working hard to be a soldier. He's doing it so he can pay you back."

"Oh, I'm aware of that." Eren grinned at her. "But… he is serious about learning the moves."

As Annie heard Eren say those words, her mind drifted to a memory wherein she was being trained by her father in fighting. She was then snapped out of it when Eren caught her attention again.

"Hey, Annie! What do you think of this?" The white-haired teen then performed the same low kick that Annie did to him yesterday, before looking back at the girl with a smirk. "I was just imitating what you did, but it worked perfectly!"

"Hmph." she said, before smirking at him. "It sucked. Not even close."

"Seriously?" Eren raised a brow. "What was wrong with it? I thought I did it properly."

"If you like it that much…" she then smiled at him. "I wouldn't mind teaching it to you."

Eren widened his eyes in surprise. "Really?"

"Yeah," her smirk then returned. "Consider yourself lucky that a 'pretty girl' is gonna teach you, even though you suck at flirting with girls."

Eren answered back with a smirk of his own. "Fine by me! Come on! Teach me how to —!"

*WHACK!*

No more than a few seconds later, Eren was back to the ground again after getting swept off his feet easily.


A few weeks later, the cadets of the 104th Training Corps that made it to graduation stood in front of Keith and the other instructors with their salutes as the oldest instructor spoke to all of them.

"Now that you have completed your training… you have three choices. The GARRISON, which reinforces the walls, thereby protecting all of the towns… the SURVEY CORPS, prepared to sacrifice their lives outside the walls by defying the titans in their own domain… and the MILITARY POLICE BRIGADE, which exercises control over the King's subjects and maintains order…"

He then looked at the ten cadets who were lined up in front of the others. "Of course, out of you raw recruits, the only ones who can join the Military Police Brigade… are the ten cadets with the highest scores."

Lined up from first to tenth were Eren Yeager, Reiner Braun, Mikasa Ackerman, Bertholdt Hoover, Annie Leonhart, Jean Kirstein, Connie Springer, Sasha Braus, Armin Arlert, and Krista Lenz.

"Soon, I'll be asking you which branch you want to be assigned to. But as of right now, the 104th Training Corps is officially disbanded! Dismissed!"

"Yes, sir!" All of the cadets shouted.


And that ends it! The 104th have graduated, and we have our top ten! Next chapter we'll be having the events that will lead to the first major arc of the story, which is the Trost arc! Oh god, what will happen there?! Tune in next chap to find out!

I hope you like the little cute moments I put in here, like Sasha coming up to Eren to invite him to steal from the kitchen and Annie training with Eren. Sasha learning about fries? I wonder what would happen if Eren introduces pizza! XD. Eren taking off his shirt was a LOL moment I came up with while in the moment, I hope you don't mind it and the girls' reactions.

Goodbye… and good night! BANG! *too sweet gesture*

-Lance