"Begin."

Eren threw himself forward with the practice knife in his hand. He was aiming right at his opponent's heart, but just when he thought he was going to succeed, Marcel suddenly sidestepped him.

"Ouch!" Eren cried out as he was thrown on the ground.

"I'm sorry" said Marcel with a smile. He reached out to Eren and helped him up.

"That was some really powerful throw" said Eren dusting himself off "where did you learn that?"

"I had my fair share of fights within the urban areas" replied Marcel "I may not be as strong as Reiner, but I'm definitely a better fighter."

The hand-to-hand combat training was taking place on a large open field. Left and right, you could see either cadets slacking off, or just venting out. Most of them only pretended to be doing something when the instructor was watching.

"How can that be?" Eren asked "I thought strength was most important in fighting."

"Well, it really depends on your fighting style" explained Marcel "I'm not that strong, so I use my opponent's strength instead."

"You gotta teach me those moves, sometime…" Eren said looking at the other boy.

Marcel was glancing around, deep in thought.

"Don't you think it's strange?" he asked Eren.

"What do you mean?"

"This one-to-one combat doesn't count for any points" said Marcel "look at how the passionate applicants for the interior duty treat it."

Eren looked at the cadets. Jean seemed to be taking it easy along with other people who expressed interest in joining the military police. Sasha and Connie were having a lot of fun, acting like idiots. Only Marco seemed interested in the actual training.

Eren looked back at Marcel, who continued with his tirade.

"Vertical maneuvering skills are worth a lot of points, so that's all they really care about."

"Okay, I understand" Eren said "where are you going with this?"

Marcel took the wooden knife and jabbed at Eren. The latter was taken by surprise but blocked the blade to the best of his abilities.

"Why is it that in this world the people with the best ability to oppose the titans get the privilege of staying far away from them?"

"I don't know…" said Eren struggling to hold his ground against Marcel.

"What kind of system is this" asked the attacking boy "where the best soldiers get away from the fight, and the weakest die on the field?"

"It may be flawed…" replied Eren. Marcel threw him to the ground again and pointed the knife against his throat.

"Flawed does not describe it" said Marcel breathing heavily from the exercise "invalid idealists like you often get exploited by this system."

Marcel stood up from the ground and offered Eren a hand.

"Don't let yourself be exploited Eren" said the standing boy "just join the military police if you ever have the occasion."

Eren took his hand and stood up.

"I appreciate your concerns" he said, "I guess I'll just have to get stronger than everyone else if I want to survive my next meeting with titans."

Eren smiled towards Marcel. The latter looked at him with pity.

"You'll never change, will you?"

Eren gave him a confident look but on the inside, he was pondering on his words.

Later when they were sitting in the canteen, he heard Jean bragging.

"…at times like that you should rev it up, just for a second. That way you use the inertia and don't consume as much fuel."

Eren felt the rage building up inside of him. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. Eren looked to the side and saw Dina. She whispered, "leave it", and Eren felt most of his anger settling down. He closed his eyes and said:

"I know what I'm doing."

He looked towards Jean.

"Hey Jean, don't you think it's crazy?"

Jean stopped bragging and turned to face Eren.

"What, Eren?"

"This plan to improve titan-killing techniques by promising a life far away from the titans…"

Jean snorted.

"Well, I'm all on board with it. And you're probably just jealous because you have zero talent."

Eren stood up from his seat.

"Please tell me how to beat the titans, when everyone with any potential shuts themselves up in the interior."

Jean looked flustered. He looked towards Mikasa. Then back to Eren.

"YOU KNOW, I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU!" he cried out as he lunged towards Eren.

Eren was hoping he would do that, and he sidestepped Jean the way Marcel did it against him. Using Jeans strength, he threw him to the ground.

"Ow!" Jean cried from the ground "Jackass! What the hell was that?!"

"That" Eren said calmly "was a move I learned the hard way while you were lying around."

"You say reality is living an easy life and giving in to your feelings?" Eren asked Jean

"How can you call yourself a soldier?"

Jean stood up with visible anger on his face.

"What did you say about being a soldier…"

Suddenly the door to the canteen opened.

"I just heard a loud noise here…" Keith Shadis said standing menacingly at the doorway "can anyone give me an explanation...?"

Everyone seemed nervous about answering.

Suddenly Mikasa raised a hand.

"It was Sasha letting out a huge fart."

"HUH?" said girl turned towards Mikasa with a horrified look.

Instructor was flustered.

"Learn some self-control…" He said as he left the canteen.

"That was close Jean" Eren said "you almost lost your chance to become an MP."

"This isn't over" Jean replied.

"I have an idea" said Eren "Why don't we do it in the open. I'll wait until you're ready."

Later in training he could see Jean trying harder than ever before.

"That was some nice throw you did" Eren heard Marcel say, "you really taught him a lesson."

"The first step in fixing the system is changing the mentality" replied Eren.

Marcel sighed.

"You still want to join the scouts, don't you?"

"I guess I can see everything in a broader perspective now" Eren said "thank you for that."

Marcel shrugged.

"I guess the best ideas come to your head when you get thrown around" Marcel said taking a fighting stance "Maybe you will come up with some ingenious plan to retake wall Maria once I throw you to the ground again."

Eren smiled pulling up the wooden knife.

"Next time it will be you who's laying on the ground."