(Once again, spoilers for Attack on Titan Seasons 1-3, and mauve the manga. :p)On a particularly rainy day in the year 850, the Cadets were out in the forest, carrying bags full of stuff.
"You're too slow! Run, you laggards!"
Armin, lacking the physical strength, struggled with carrying the bags, "What's wrong, Alert? You're falling behind!"
Armin suddenly felt the weight off his shoulders, it was Reiner taking off his bag and setting it on top of his own, "At this rate, we'll all fail out!"
"If you do that, you'll lose points."
"Just don't let them find out!"
Armin felt bad for Reiner, so he grabbed the bag back and sped ahead.
The next day was target practice, titan dummies were set up around the forest, complete with fake napes to attack.
Using the ODM gear, they circled around the dummies before slashing the fake napes.
Jean had found a dummy, all to himself. Or so he thought, Rajin swooped in and slashed the fake nape with ease, "Damnit, Rajin! That was mine!"
"Too bad, I slashed it first." Rajin chuckled.
Later that day, the Cadets were now focusing on hand-to-hand combat. Reiner charged at Eren with a fake knife, Eren grabbed Reiner's arm and threw him to the ground.
"Ow." Reiner groaned, Eren offered his hand to the taller man, "Sorry about that." Reiner accepted the offer and grabbed Eren's hand, who pulled him up, "No problem. Let's see how you do as the Rouge." Reiner offered the fake knife, "This training doesn't make sense, we're not exactly picking fights with someone our size, hence those two." Eren pointed to Rajin and Connie.
Rajin, being older and bigger, was able to thwart all of Connie's movements and pin him to the ground with ease.
"A guy would be stupid to use this." Eren thought back to his younger days, where he first met Mikasa, who was being attacked by guys with a knife.
"What if there isn't an option?" Reiner asked, "The fight doesn't give us a say. If it wants to get ugly, it gets ugly. We just have to be prepared."
"Don't believe me? Look." Reiner pointed to Annie Leonhart, "Yeah? What about her? The only thing she's ready to do is slack off."
"You think so? Maybe someone ought to give her a talking to, give her a little hard knocks lesson in preparedness."
"Huh?"
Annie then walked up to Reiner, "Commandant not beaten you down enough? You'll be flat as the dirt you're standing on, I suggest you think back to why you enlisted in the first place." Reiner said to the shorter girl.
Reiner then put his hands on Eren's shoulders and pushed him towards Annie, "Now go get her!"
"W-What?"
Annie then got into her fighting pose, one leg behind the other with her arms bend a bit.
"Right, I hope you don't expect me to hold back."
Eren charged at the girl, who simply kicked his leg.
"Damnit! That was a dirty movie."
"Are we done here?" A bored Annie asked, "You know the drill, take the dagger."
"No, this isn't how..." Eren was cut off by Annie kicking him again.
Eren landed on his back while Annie simply walked away, dagger in hand.
"O-Ow."
"Man, that girl's got some skills, I'm impressed." Rajin chuckled.
"Would you like to try?" Annie asked the man, "Actually yes, I would."
Annie tossed the dagger to Rajin, who got in a pose to charge while Annie got in we pose.
"This'll be easy." Rajin thought to himself before charging at Annie, dagger in hand. Faster than Rajin could see, Annie jumped behind him and put him in a chokehold before they both fell to the ground.
"Nice, very nice."
Rajin got on his feet and handed the dagger to Annie, "Let's see how you do on the offensive side."
Swiftly, Annie charged at her opponent, who swiftly dodged her advance and kicked her in the back of her leg and tackled her to the ground, pinning her arms and legs with his.
"Hm, apparently we're both pretty damn good."
"Eh," Annie shrugged, "It was okay."
Taken aback by this, Rajin frowned, " 'Okay'? That was leagues better than normal."
"So your normally worse than this?"
Rajin growled at the shorter girl, who simply walked away.
"Don't let her get under your skin, Raj."
"Mm," Rajin huffed, "I guess you're right, Eren."
Later that night, Eren was pondering about what Annie had said to him. "I've been so fixated on building myself up, I couldn't see it. She's right. They're not honing their skills to fight, they're honing their skills to run."
"...before Wall Maria was compromised, ODM experts were rare, only Scouts ever risked proximity to Titans. Their regiment wasn't large to begin..." Armin was talking about how the regiments were small at first, but Eren wasn't paying attention, he had his eyes on Jean.
"That's how you conserve fuel, let your momentum do the work for you. It's called having a sixth sense for the finer points if your gear."
"You gotta do the strut if you wanna make the cut, Jean." Said Rajin, "The MP's only gonna recruit the best."
"I know that. I'm just saying."
"Interior," Eren started, "Five years ago this was apart of it." He said before taking a swig of water, Jean looked over to him, "You gotta point to make, friend? I'm all ears."
"Poor Jean, so misguided, and besides, I don't think your head would fit into the Interior anyway."
Insulted, Jean stood up, looked around to see Connie, Reiner, and Rajin snickering, "Very funny."
"Seems a little backward to me, fine-tuning your skills so the brass'll station you somewhere where you'll never see a Titan."
"You'd rather I was good at getting killed? Thanks, but I'll pass." Jean huffed. "Better to play the system then get gnawed on."
Clearly angered and likely offended, Eren stood up, "You son of a bitch!"
"Bring it on, you little bastard!"
Noticing this, Mikasa stood up, "Gentlemen, please." Mikasa gently grabbed ren's arm and pulled it away from Jean's shirt. Suddenly, Jean grabbed Eren's shirt and pinned him against the wall, "YOU THINK YOU CAN JUDGE ME, HUH?!"
"YOU RIP MY SHIRT, AND YOU'RE DEAD!" Eren shot back, "I don't give a fuck about your damn shirt! You piss me off!" Eren looked back at the others, mainly Reiner and Annie, "Oh, I get it. He has something to prove, sounds familiar." Eren thought back to his younger self, he grabbed Jean's hand while using his other hand to push him away before kicking him, making Jean fall and surprising Annie a little.
"Damnit! What the hell was that move!?"
"Something I picked up this afternoon while you were busy with a thumb up your ass." Eren replied, "Damn! Tell 'em, Eren!" Shouted Rajin.
"You honestly believe the Military Police is your ticket to the good life? You're not a soldier, you're a joke."
Soon after Eren had said that the door opened to reveal Keith, "Would someone care to explain the ruckus I just heard?"
For a few moments, everyone was silent, "Sasha passed some gas, commandant." Mikasa said, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?" Sash cried, "Why am I not surpised?" Keith said holding his nose, everyone else snickered.
"For the love of God, learn some self-control," Keith said as he walked out.
Out of all the cadets, 218 graduated, some with honor.
"Do you have a heart?
"Sir!"
"As of this moment, you have three options open to you, choose wisely."
There were three available regiments, The Garrison Regiment, whose job is to reinforce the walls, The Scout Regiment, who goes out into Titan territory take back land, and the Military Police Regiment, maintaining law and order inside the walls.
Only 11 members could choose the MP, those were Rajin, Eren, Mikasa, Christa, Connie, Annie, Reiner, Bertolt, Jean, Sahsa, and Marco."
Rajin and Mikasa were thought of to be the best at the ODM gear and killing titans.
Later...
Back inside, everyone was having a"party", celebrating their graduation. "MP, here I come!" Said Jean, who took a swig from his cup. "Three square meals a day for life! But how the hell did I rank under Eren?"
"You're really gonna turn your back on the MP for the Scouts?" Thomas asked Eren."The Scouts have always been my goal. I don't want an easy life, not with all the work I put in. I trained to fight Titans."
"Are you insane? How many people have died? We're talking a fifth of the population! We can't beat them."
"Yeah? So what? Do we buckle? Take it all lying down? Things have changed, maybe not a hell of a lot but enough. They aren't the mystery there were five years ago."
"There's still a long way to go but we've made progress. Every battle we lost taught us a lesson, gave us the tiniest in the road toward something like hope."
"You telling me it's better to cut our losses? Let death and destruction be meaningless? To just ball up and accept? Not on your life!"
"Humanity's future lies outside the walls, and I'm gonna clear the way! I'll take back what's ours, I'll drive them out."
For a while, everyone remained silent, realizing this, Eren dashed out, Armin and Mikasa following.
The next day, The Scout Regiment had returned from another expedition, "Look! It's Captain Levi!" One of the graduates shouted.
The man known as Levi had pure black hair, a somewhat short stature, and visible bags under his eyes, clearly indicating he doesn't get much sleep.
"Spare me, please." Levi scoffed.
Up on top of the wall, cannons were being placed, "What do you mean you're joining the Scouts? What happened to the MP? That was your whole thing!" Eren exclaimed.
"Don't worry about it! A guy's allowed to change his mind." Connie replied.
Soon after, Sasha walked in, carrying something under her jacket, "Can you guys keep a secret? Cause I totally helped myself to the Officer's pantry." She said as she pulled out a stack of meat.
"Sasha!" Eren started, "They can throw your ass into the clink for that!"
"It'll be fine, I'm willing to share. Just imagine the sandwiches?" Sasha's saliva dripped from her mouth.
"Put it back, do you know how rare meat is nowadays?" Thomas asked, "A little bit. Just look at it this way, pretty soon, we'll take back all the room for livestock." Sasha stored the stolen meat in a container.
"I-I'd like a slice, please!" Said Thomas.
"Hey! If he gets one, I get one, too!"
"Guys, we'll get in trouble if they catch us standing around." Thomas sighed as he went back to what he was doing.
Soon after, everyone went back what they were doing, Eren snickered.
He then looked to down to the city, "We will win." He thought to himself.
Suddenly, a bright flash with a loud boom, shook the ground the graduate was standing on. He looked back to see it.
