Wednesday, July 14th
"Let's make this clear, you want me to be part of your band?"
"Exactly! You can do it, right Nana?!" Hange acclaimed with excitement and thrill reflected on their eyes. There they were, sitting on a table in the middle of the psychology cafeteria that was crowded by other students. Why did an electrical engineering student like them travel all the way there was still a mystery.
"Absolutely not."
"Huh?! What do you mean?!" they slammed their fists onto the table and almost shattered the plates. People started staring at their table as Nanaba leaned closer to them.
"Listen, my schedule's packed for this week. There's no chance that I can join your little band. Couldn't you ask someone else?" she clarified in a low voice. "Moblit, maybe?"
"He already joined another band!"
"Nifa?"
"She went along with Moblit."
"Huh…" Nanaba sighed at the thought. Hange never had a lot of friends, since the majority of people think that they're crazy and a weirdo, which—despite being not far off from reality—was a bit harsh. If they weren't seatmates with her back at middle school, they wouldn't have anyone to call their 'best friend'. "Why are you trying to form a band, again?"
"To join the Battle of the Bands of course! And you're the only theater kid I know!"
"Hange, that was six years ago." Nanaba furrowed her eyebrows as her blue eyes narrowed. "And what does that have to do with joining a band?"
"Well, you were in that musical…" they replied bluntly. They weren't even looking at their best friend's face and instead gazed at their half-eaten sandwich. They tapped their vans against the dirty floor as they continued. "And… you were in that other musical…"
"Uh-huh?"
"Alright! You know you're my only friend, Nana! Don't make me say it again!" Hange loudly confessed as they smacked the palm of their hands onto the table once more. They could feel the dozens of glares shot at the two of them when they slowly slumped down onto the chair. "Huhh, sorry 'bout that. It's just—"
"Fine, you win."
"Eh?! Really?!" Hange jolted out from the plastic chair and stared right at Nanaba's blue eyes. She silently nodded in approval as a lopsided grin grew upon Hange's face. They rapidly crossed the table and clinged on to the blonde, much to her dismay. "Awww, you're the best, Nana!"
"H-Hange—get off of me! Too tight!"
"Oh, that's right. Sorry," Hange blurted out as they loosened their grip so that Nanaba could catch a breath.
"Don't be. It's the fourth time you've apologized to me today." she brushed off before letting out a sigh. "But I'm still taken for the week, so I'm not fit to be one of the musicians."
"So? What's your proposal?"
"You have a manager?" Nanaba offered as she munched on her lunch.
"What? I don't need one." Hange curled their eyebrows. They then set their fist as high as their heart and pointed themselves with their thumb, with a cheeky grin plastered on their face. "If anyone's gonna boss me around, it's gonna be me, Hange!"
"I thought that meme's dead." Nanaba grimaced, she felt like she had never cringed that much before. She got on her feet and lifted up her tray before stepping away from the table. "But if that's what you want, I'll gladly piss off."
"Oh? How could you underestimate the power of the immortal DIO—WAIT WHAT?!" it was pretty clear that Hange was backtracked by Nanaba's comment, since they took their sweet time to praise the gay vampire. But they quickly caught on and once again almost strangled their best friend to death while trying to stop her from moving any further. "Nanaba, wait!"
"So is that a yes?"
"I guess."
[MANAGER - RECRUITED]
Thursday, July 15th
"So have you recruited anyone before me?"
"Nope." Hange remarked as they sipped their iced Thai tea. It was the day after they begged Nanaba to join their crew, and they hadn't accomplished anything for the time being. All they've been doing was procrastinating over Discord and ended up spending the night ranting about their lectures. So they impulsively decided to meet up at the local coffee shop—or at this point, should be a boba shop—called Reeves'.
"How about the name of the band?" Nanaba inquired while flipping over pages upon pages of her notebook.
"No name, so far."
"And how do you expect we're going to form a solid band in two weeks?" the blonde's pessimistic nature doubted. She clicked her pen and started charting down the date.
"What do you mean? We already have a solid name, and a manager." Hange backhanded.
"But you said 'no name'!"
"Yeah! 'Cause that's the name of the band!" Hange pointed out after drinking their tea. "No Name! Ain't it ominous?!"
"For a six year old, yeah!" Nanaba hissed before massaging the bridge of her nose. She sighed as she scribbled over the handwriting on her notes. "Hans, how long did it take you to come up with that name?"
"A good two days!" Hange pouted as they leaned to the back of their chair and crossed their arms. "And there's no way I'm letting you change it!"
"You're really making this rough for me, huh?"
"Oh, come on! All we have to do is find two more members, then we can rehearse!" the bespectacled brunet advocated after almost choking on their drink.
"And where are we going to find those two people?"
"Uhh," Hange frantically scanned the shop when the doorbell rang as a familiar person entered the room. They jumped out of their seat and caught the man in front of the wooden door, making him slightly taken aback. "Mike, don't move a muscle!"
"Hange? What are you doing? What do you want?" Mike questioned as he overlooked the figure clinging onto his torso.
"Do you play any instruments?"
"Why so sudden?" he ignored Hange's question and advanced with his own.
"Nana's gonna kill me if I don't find two people to join the group by the end of the week!" Hange responded, their arms still clasping around the taller man's stomach.
"Nanaba, huh? She's been quite hard on you lately. But, yes. I do know how to play the drums." the blond reassured after looking around the room, trying to find Hange's friend.
"Really?!"
"Yep,"
"Then, Mike!" Hange looked up straight into his covered eyes. "Join my band!"
"Eh? A band? I mean, I'm pretty free for the week, but—"
"Nonsense! Of course you can do it!" the brunet let go of their grip and playfully punched Mike's side. "You're the great Mike Zacharias! I'm sure you're more than enough!"
"Alright, alright," Mike gave in as he patted Hange's unruly brown hair a couple of times. "I'll join your band."
"Yahoo! Another point for Hange!" they cheered in glee before running back to their table, with Mike following them not long after. "Nanaba! I found a drummer!"
"Yeah, I could see." Nanaba replied as she wrote down Mike's name under Hange's. "Mike Zacharias… drummer…"
Hange bent over to get a better glance of the paper when they noticed something fishy. "Hey, why am I the lead singer?"
"Hange, don't tell me you plan to form a band, but you're not the vocalist?"
"You know how bad I am at singing!" Hange whined as they slammed the table.
"That's because you never actually try." Mike said as he pulled a chair from an unoccupied table beside them and placed it in the middle of Hange and Nanaba's before silently taking a seat.
"But still! I'm not gonna be the main vocalist!"
"Then what will you play?" Nanaba asked as she furrowed her eyebrows.
"Well, I can play the electric guitar." they shrugged before sitting down.
"And who's going to be the lead singer?"
"I don't know…" Hange pondered as they rested their chin onto their folded arms. "Is Gelgar free?"
"Nope, the man's tone deaf." Mike opposed. "Lynne's great at it, though."
"Yeah, but she's out for the next few weeks." Nanaba crossed her arms when Hange groaned. "What about your juniors? Keiji?"
"He refuses to have anything to do with me after I almost set the campus on fire." Hange pouted.
"Abel?"
"He's a pretty good guy, but he said he needs to study for his exams." they sighed. "Is no one really up for the job?"
"Well, that means we've run out of options for today," Mike broke the silence. He got on his feet and turned to the counter where a line was queued. "And I still haven't got my coffee."
"Better luck next time." Nanaba chirped, a disappointed look plastered on her face. She packed her notes and stationeries into her laptop bag as Mike before resting the cord on her shoulder. The blonde got up and headed towards the door with her hand raised wide open. "See you tomorrow."
"See ya,"
[DRUMMER - RECRUITED]
[GUITARIST - RECRUITED]
Friday, July 16th
The next day, Hange woke up with adrenaline rushing through their veins. Their alarm hadn't even gone off but there they were, singing to themselves as they cheerfully glided through every corner of their room. It wasn't particularly an eventful day, since nothing really happens in July. Although they couldn't perfectly point their finger as to what may have caused the sudden shock of excitement, they could safely assume it had something to do with the dreams they've been having for the last week or so. The nature of their dreams felt like fantasy, yet so familiar. It was like their normal life. They looked exactly the same, they had the same friends, and they even had the same taste for fashion. The only difference is that—in this alternate universe—they were soldiers fighting for a hope for humanity. Battling against man-eating monsters and marking their territory. All of it felt so familiar, as if they had gone through all of it; as if it was their past life.
The true reason they felt incredibly ecstatic that day was because of the dream they had last night. The image of a young-man with slick raven hair and sharp gray eyes sitting on a sack of grain in the corner of the barracks, accompanied by two of his friends. They were sure that this must have occurred months or maybe even years before their other dreams took place, since they noted that the blond named Erwin still had both of his arms. Although they had no idea why they traveled back into the past, they went along with it, and approached the three people chatting.
"Hey, you got a second?"
The blond man beside him shot up his head as his eyes began to widen.
"I was watching you." they started off, a mischievous grin painted on their face. The second after they said it, they felt like someone took control of their body. As if a lost soul had possessed their body and started spouting words they never meant to speak. "At the crucial moment!"
"Crucial moment?" the raven-haired guy inquired as he slowly reached his hand behind the grain sack and narrowed his eyes. The redheaded girl to his left gulped when the blond began to sweat profusely. "What do you mean…?"
"What do I mean?" they repeated his question when their grin widened. They rested their hands onto their knees and stared into the man's eyes. "When you defeated that Titan, of course!"
"It was incredible!"
"Oh… thanks," he said, eyebrows twitching.
"I'm Hange Zoë. You're Levi, aren't you?" they smiled before pointing to the redhead sitting cross-legged beside them. "...That girl's Isabel, and you're…?"
"...I'm Furlan." the man with dirty-blond hair sighed.
"Right, Right, Furlan! Nice to meet ya!" Hange cackled. They patted down Furlan's shoulder as they sat down in between him and Isabel. "Levi, you didn't go through the Training Corps, did you? How come you're so good with the ODM gear?"
"Tch, I practiced… a lot."
"Woah, you're self-taught?!" their eyes widened. "Amazing. What else are you good at?"
"Levi-bro is really good at singing! The best in our town!" Isabel exclaimed to Levi's annoyance.
"Oi, Isabel! Don't tell 'em—"
"Really?! Can you sing something?!" Hange cut Levi's word short. He stopped his attempt at keeping Isabel's mouth shut and glared at them in disgust.
"Why would I?"
"Ack, so mean…"
Ah, if only their body didn't decide to wake up at that very moment, they could've heard the voice of his singing. As unfortunate as it sounds, Hange wasn't too upset about it. Since they've been pondering for a while, 'if Nanaba, Mike, Moblit and the others were in that alternate universe, wouldn't that mean Levi, Furlan and Isabel are real people too? And if they are, they have a high chance of going to Maria University, like all the others. If so, wouldn't it be easy for them to find the three of them? And maybe ask Levi to be the lead vocalist for their band?'. And it was because of that though that Hange was seen scurrying around the halls of their campus in the early morning.
The odds of Levi being from the same year—let alone attending the same major—as them were low, but never zero. So they attempted to scan every single classroom in the building, in the hopes of spotting the short man. If you said that this was complete and utterly useless, that was what they thought. Until…
When they sped past the last room on the top layer of the campus, a glimpse of raven hair was seen. They immediately halted dead on their tracks when they heard a familiar voice echoing through the halls.
"The world is a cruel place, but I still love you…" the voice softly sang. "Even if I sacrifice everything, I will protect you…"
They took a couple steps back and entered the classroom. There he was, sitting in the corner of the room, head resting on the palm of his hand.
"...Levi? Is it… really you?"
