I soon found the next 'titan' and of course, the arms were nowhere to be seen. I smiled and stood comfortably on the branch I was on, stabbing my blades into the wood and placed my hands on my hips.
"Cat's out of the bag. Which arm is going to attack me first?"
There was silence until a boot crunched on the bark behind me. I grabbed the handles of my two blades and hoisted myself up, performing a handstand on the top of them. As I reached the peak, I looked down and faced a surprised Linda as she slid through the hole I had created.
"Found youuuu." I grinned.
I let her slide through before regaining balance on my own two feet and yanking out my blades. Not one to waste time, I took off after her, primarily aiming for the brown rope attached to her waist. You'd think that it would be easy but with the right techniques, the rope could swing away from me every time I got too close.
Unfortunately, Linda was extremely good at that. I gritted my teeth once I missed for the fifth time and decided to change tactics, instead going straight for the cut. However, as I passed the shoulder, a hand shot out and attempted to grab my ankle. I gasped and twisted abruptly before landing on the back of the wooden head.
"Barely missed." I commented, raising an eyebrow as Brian stepped out of his hiding spot.
"We're not going to make this easy for you. You may have been second only to the Captain, but that may have changed over these past few weeks."
I sighed at his tone and sheathed one of my blades. Linda and Brian both made a sound of surprise and I waved my free hand at them.
"All right, if you have any grudges or questions against me, shoot. I may have left but I still consider you my friends and having all this tension between us is driving me nuts."
"Brian, stop it, Rina left to save us."
My eyes widened at the statement and they whirled to Linda, who had smacked Brian on the back of the head.
"There's no way we spent 2 years with a fake Rina and then she suddenly decided to leave, only to come back later. She came back for titan's sake. Can't you see she did it because of us?" her arms waved around wildly, forcing Brian to grimace and dodge the silver blades.
Linda stopped in her rant and glanced at me. My mouth had fallen open.
"You and Hanji really do scare me sometimes…"
"So it's true?"
My gaze switched to Brian and I gave him a subtle nod.
"I can't tell you what is was yet but Linda's pretty spot on. I understand that I can't just barge right back in and re-take my position in this elite team and I will work my way back up. However, if you all won't acknowledge my efforts then I won't bother."
With that, I unsheathed my blade again and fell back into a defensive stance. Brian's hand twitched and he also fell back into a posture.
"Then show me some effort."
Linda stood nervously on the back of the fake titan, completely rejecting the idea of facing me head on. With that, Brian offered to change the rules.
No weapons and the game would basically be one of tag. Linda and Brian would become the chasers and I would be 'it'. They won the game and I would leave their titan alone if one of them managed to get to me. However, I would win if I managed to reach the jelly flesh without getting tagged. I nodded in agreement and returned the swords to my sides.
"How's that?" Brian looked down at Linda, sheathing his blades. "No one gets hurt, we're still doing our job and it can be fun."
Linda hesitated. "I still think Rina-"
I waved a hand, cutting her off. "Linda, it'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I'll still beat you two in the end."
That pulled a smile out of her and she also sheathed her blades. "You were always the confident one, weren't you?"
I shrugged and took off towards a nearby branch. "I like to think of it as being positive."
The two special ops personnel followed me and we all took our places in an irregular triangle. Linda raised her hand.
"Whenever you're ready, Rina."
Hearing that, I dove off my branch, heading directly for the titan. Linda took off after me and unfortunately, her smaller body meant that she would catch up in no time. Brian soared to my left, arching wide, probably in an attempt to tackle me off course. Mentally mapping out their two courses, I swung my body around and gassed myself to the right, forcing both of them to also change their directions. Brian made a sound of surprise but Linda smoothly changed with me, gaining fast from the closer distance. However, I reached the closest tree first and ran directly up the trunk, losing Linda temporarily through the leaves. Judging from the sounds, she made an abrupt turn on the outside of the branches and headed straight up, presumably to catch me once I got to the top.
I smirked. Just like I wanted.
Instead of stopping, which she would hear, I slowed down and noted when she passed me. My eyes widened, adrenaline now pumping. Go!
Quickly finding a footing, I vaulted off the branch and back out into the forest. As expected, Linda was now high above me, looking down from her position with a shocked face. I grinned and turned my gaze back to the titan. But instead of seeing the titan, Brian popped into my line of vision. I gasped and twisted sharply, his outstretched hand whistling past me. I made a face. The titan would have to wait, there was no way I was able to get there with these two on my tail. My eyes shot around the area as I attempted to find a way to get rid of them.
No weapons. No help. No restrictions.
Wait-
I flipped mid-air and briefly faced the two Ops officers, zeroing in on the brown rope between them. I didn't have any restrictions but they had that rope tied to their waists. With a plan quickly forming in my head, I refocused on the present just to see Linda zooming towards me. My fingers twitched on my 3DMG buttons and I dropped once again. Spinning, I shot a new line towards Brian and it embedded itself on the branch he had just jumped off. Narrowing my eyes in concentration, I braced myself and gassed myself forward, rocketing towards the male officer. He grinned and held his arms out wide, as if for a friendly hug. Tilting my head in acknowledgement, I changed directions, widely arcing to his left. He raised an eyebrow as I passed him, winking.
Turning his attention back to his front, I let out a laugh as my plan began to take effect. With Linda following close behind me, her rope had grown taut and now stretched across in front of Brian. A shocked yelp ripped out of him as the rope collided with his stomach and forced him to fly backwards back to the branch. Continuing with my plan and determined to keep Linda's mind off her rope, I led her into the branches.
"Come on Linda! I know you can do better!" I teased. We weaved up and down through the branches, twisting and turning abruptly.
"Linda, wait!" yelled out Brian.
There was a loud snap and when I emerged from the leaves, it was with a victorious grin on my face. Looking down for confirmation, I spotted Brian pinned against the tree trunk, Linda's rope wrapped around his torso and his own rope dangling uselessly from his waist. Acting as an arm, the rope was only so long and Linda's misdirection had caught Brian and pulled him away from his titan shoulder, severing the connection when he got forced away too far. A rustle then caught my attention and I glanced back to see Linda burst from the branches.
"Linda! Your line!" warned Brian.
The female officer realised too late and suddenly her rope went taut, yanking her back into the greenery. I sighed in relief and without those two in the way, made my way to the wooden titan. Landing gracefully onto the jelly slab, I unsheathed a sword and paused, gazing at the two Ops members.
"Any other objections?"
Brian shook his head, chuckling. "You sure made fools out of both of us."
"It was your idea, Brian." Scolded Linda, as she crawled her way out of the tree, twigs poking out of her hair.
Smiling, I raised the blade and slashed into the slab smoothly, a chunk of jelly flying to the ground.
"I'll take that as a no then."