II

Chance Encounters

She slept for at least eighteen hours.

It wasn't until Tuesday evening when she was finally able to sleep. Unfortunately that would be her only time off for the rest of her week.

Time came and went soundlessly. Ninety eight percent day into night. Night into morning.

She was exhausted to say the least.

Is this what we were born to do? Pay to live everyday in a society and then die? In a way, everything of interest is disposable. It was a thought she had everyday going into work. She felt as if she needed more in her life to happen.

She filled her life and surroundings with knowledge of many kinds. Books of interest, topics, and fiction. And papers of real life events that could affect some stranger. Some of these pages were digital as it would further clutter corners of her home. Silence words constantly surrounded her.

You could consider her to be very successful despite her life challenges and struggles. She had a well-paying job as a career, and earlier had graduated top of her class in highschool with a summa cum laude in university for her bachelors.

"Hange. You need to leave the office not just to give yourself a break, but to see that there is, in fact, a world outside closed doors."

"You know how this goes, Mike." Hange removed her large frame glasses and she removed her eyes from the silent words on paper to look at her subordinate. "I work myself to exhaustion, things happen, and work gets done all the same."

Mike sighed, bowing his head. His dirty blonde hair falling forward to cover his eyes. "Well. you barely keep the lights on in here, so I think it would be good to get outside some instead of losing your natural sense of time."

"Heh. Well I can't do anything outside, so why would I go?"

"Jesus christ you make this so hard. Let's just go get some coffee. Take a walk. There, you're doing something."

"Fine, fine!" Hange got up from her office desk. "After this you leave me alone for a week!"

"Good!"


A warehouse often filled with burly, sweaty muscle-men sorting boxes and carts during the day was now still and unoccupied. The air felt slimy and the taste of salt lingered in one's mouth for moments too long.

As an island nation these ports were important to the country's trade and tourism. Having them closed for investigation was an inconvenience for the government to say the least. Of course, there were other ports to be used. A little backup on procedure isn't that big of a deal in the short term.

"Off duty and still sniffing around trying to work huh, Jean? You sound like Commander Hange."

"Marco, hey. What are you doing here?"

"I was about to start my patrol here with Thomas and some others in the unit. Connie was supposed to join us as a new recruit, but he said he had things going on."

"That's allowed now?" Jean was surprised upon hearing that.

"Commander Erwin said it was okay." Marco shrugged his shoulders. Not very broad, but they were full of confidence. "He's only a trainee, right now. Besides, someone else said they wanted to get field experience."

"I see."

Marco patted his friend on the back and smiled up at him. Their difference in height wasn't huge, but it was still enough for him to look up at Jean. "Well, looks like I gotta go. The Upper Commander is here."

"Yeah. See ya, Marco." He returned the gesture. "Hey, Connie was saying how our friend Sasha wanted us to get all of her and our friend's together tomorrow night so we can all be friends or whatever. Text me or Connie after you get off or tomorrow morning if you can make it."

"Okay."

Jean started walking back to town. He had moved to Maria a few years ago to join the new police force. He wanted to help give it a better reputation, or rather, to have a name in its growth. It was in his determination that he barely knew the city around him.

He knew of a major sports university and a few department stores and beaches, but where they were or what went on in them was a complete mystery to him.

He had few friends, most of them in the force. He met Connie a year ago just as he graduated from the cadet force and he was entering.

He should be graduating here pretty soon.

If it wasn't for Connie being so outgoing, Jean would have probably never made friends with Marco or their friend Sasha. It never occurred to him in the time he had been friends with Connie that Marco had never met Sasha. He had to invite him to this.

But for now Jean had one task: figure out how to actually navigate this city as a citizen and not a cop. First on his agenda was to find a hangout spot where people his age hung out. He's not a college student nor does he work an everyday retail or customer service job like most people.

He was at a complete loss without Marco, Connie, or Sasha.

Coffee shop. Nope.

Department store buffet. Eh. too… eh.

Stroll in the park? Then I'll look like some weird pervert or something.

"...king about taking a pottery cl.." a voice came and faded past his ear as he walked down through waves of people.

"That's it!" I'll take a class!...but where..

Back to square one.

You could call Jean a plain man. He was a police officer to protect the people from danger. He worked day and night and lacked any hobbies besides shooting guns and watching foreign dramas. He knew this much about himself even if he never says it aloud.

Anything that can make him a more interesting individual would work for him.

ding

"Sasha has a friend that does martial arts or something." Thanks, Connie.

Ding

"Oh! What about crossfit? Or 180 and do knitting" I'm not sure about knitting...

Jean stopped to grab a cup of coffee from a small shop down a quiet street and texted a couple of his police force buddies for ideas. So far… he wasn't sure if he wasn even interested in doing any of those.

"Jeanny-boy! What a coincidence to see you here! Are you working hard, too?"

"Commander Hange! Commander Mike!"

"Aw, now how did you know it was me so quickly?" Hange said with an animated pout.

How could nobody know it to be you, commander…

Mike sat down beside Jean in a cushioned seat, neatly polished. "Enjoying your day off? You seem a bit lost."

"Uh, well. Kinda."

"Hmmm.. well what's on your mind, kid?" Hange took a seat directly across from Jean in a small booth that was lengthwise across the wall.


Mornings were easy. The crowd was quiet and steady. People either came and went, or they came and stayed for an hour or two doing work or reading the paper or a book. Make sure the water is hot and the atmosphere is up to standard. Anyone that isn't appropriately dressed or can't uphold that standard is sent home.

It's nothing personal. Just business.

That's what he firmly believed.

However when it's a customer he can't do anything but let them go at their own pace. It would be bad etiquette otherwise. He hates to say it, but you can only control your employees, not your customers.

If there was a day he wishes he could make the customers abide by a set of strict rules, this would be the day.

The atmosphere in Levi's shop was abruptly disturbed by a loud voice he's heard once before about a week ago.

But louder this time. And with more definition and volume than he'd care to hear.

"Excuse me, sir. I've got my hands full with another order, could you take those people that just walked in for me?"

Levi reluctantly agreed to help his employee out. He didn't mind taking orders or working. It was his business, after all. But the pang Levi felt in his temple upon the disturbance in the atmosphere.

"Hello. You can order whenever you're ready. If you need any suggestions let me know."

Be his business as it may. Levi lacked easy social skills from his rather... Angry disposition. He wasn't unfriendly, but his energy and monotone voice screamed 'stay away' and it - thankfully - kept most people away.

"Ooo you new here? Never seen you before. I'll just have a regular black coffee if that's alright."

"Okay."

It was annoying. He was looking up at both of them while they disturbed his peace. The loud woman's counterpart sounded calm and composed and a bit smooth. Levi often wondered in these moments that if he grew taller when he was younger he'd be less angry or more patient.

"Uh.. I guess I'll have a café latté… hey! You're the owner guy I spoke to last week! How's it going?"

Jesus christ.

"It's going well. Total is $7.27. Can I have a name for the order?"

Just get through it. They're almost out of your way.

"Aw, come on. The owner? Don't be so cut and dry, man. I've been coming here since this place opened. This's a great place!" The taller male felt a bit of offense at Levi's curt response. He quickly brushed it off, though. "Name's Mike."

"Thank you. Please wait for your name to be called."

Protocol. Damn.

"Oh, and here's a coupon for your next visit since this is your first time here." Levi gave the loud woman a beautiful coupon for her next visit.

"Oh, thank you very much!" The loud woman beamed.

"It's no problem."


"Well maybe he's just like that, Mike. Not everybody responds the same way to you. I sure as hell don't." Hange sat back down in her seat across from Jean with her beverage.

"Yeah, yeah. First person I've met like that, though."

"Hey, Commander Hange, Commander Mike. What do you guys do outside of work? Like, hobby wise."

"Please, Jeanny-boy. Be casual with us outside of the office." Hange reassured her younger subordinate. "Plus we're out in public have some fun!"

"Why do you ask, kid?" Mike was genuinely curious about his question. Who the hell wants to know?

"Well.. how do I put it? I don't have friends outside of the force. And I don't know what I should do to make new ones."

"Well… my research in forensics keeps me with networking. So I guess I have many nerd friends." Hange threw out.

Mike chimed in quickly after. "I'm into bikes and hang out at the bar a lot. I meet a good bunch of people that also like their motors there,"

"Eh." Jean wasn't so convinced by either of them.

Jean had much respect for both of his superiors. Both of their reputations perceived them. They were the commanders of the forensics department for a reason. It was also a department he had no knowledge in. In fact the only real reason he got to know Mike and Hange was because they had to stand in and teach some of his final classes. To Jean that was pretty cool.

"Well, I mean, I'm really into my work. I want to keep climbing the ranks, but I also want to be a normal person outside of work."

A lightbulb went off above Mike's head. "Hey, Hange. Aren't you going to be working on your doctorate soon?"

"Uh… yeah. This fall, actually."

"Why don't you take Jean down to the athletics center on your campus? Have him check out the vibes?"

"Waitwaitwaitwoahwoahwoahwoah." Jean was shocked. "Comm- Hange! You're going to be doing schoolwork on top of your police work on top of having to do your court stuff?" Jean said it a little louder than he wanted to and the shop went silent and stared directly at the three of them. "...oops."

Hange gave a hearty laugh, "It's fine. I've already spoken to Erwin and Pixis. And Mike says he wants to take more responsibility. We've worked together long enough for me to trust him."

"Oh…" Jean relaxed a bit. Jesus fuck does she ever sleep?

"It's like, 2:30 now. If you guys take public transport now you could get him into one of the evening classes or on a list for something." Mike suggested.

"Yeah! Let's go, Jeanny!"

"Wait a minute!"

Hange didn't hear any protests. Or rather - anything around her. She had a single thought and that was getting her subordinate a social life outside of work. She practically dragged Jean out of the small shop and to the bus stop scheduled straight for Paradise University.

"Think of it like this, Jeanny-boy! If you sign up for a martial arts or gymnastics class that could benefit you for your field work. A gun can't always protect you and one isn't always accessible to you."

She grabbed him by the shoulders. Hard. "But you have to actually talk to them!"


"Oh, Connie I blew it! How can I ever recover from this?"

More often than not the human experience has its fair share of embarrassment. Most of the time it's one sided, but through our first person experience we don't see it that way.

Eccentric in style and attuned to the sounds of nature, a young Sasha Braus finds herself in an unfavorable position with herself. What was a simple response turned into secondhand embarrassment at a place she must report to in the mornings of Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Right now she joins her friend Connie whom she met in their senior year of highschool. Unfortunately, Connie doesn't understand why Sasha is panicked the way she is. Though Sasha is explaining the situation the best way she can, the only thing coming out of her mouth is gibberish. No comprehensive word is leaving her mouth and Connie can only sit and watch as his best friend is slowly losing sanity.

Connie's eyes search side to side to help settle his confusion while also seeing confused bystanders. "Uh.. so ya done?"

"UGH! Why am I like this?" She buried her head in her arms on an outdoor metal table.

"A wreck? I could name a few reasons…"

"I'm serious, Connie!" Her southern Marleyan accent poked through the more emotional or excited she got.

"Well relax a bit, you're gonna start talking in a language I can't understand." he took a chip from a basket between the two of them. With a full mouth, "Let's start from the beginning. Flashback time."

Sasha sighed heavily, trying to calm her racing mind. "Okay. so…"


Wednesday morning and Sasha is ready to start her day as chef's assistant at the five-star restaurant Marley an Maria - a fusion restaurant between Marleyan and Paradisian cuisine. It was the highest rated restaurant on the island and definitely not easy to get a recommendation for. In order to be qualified you had to at least be top five in any select cooking school between Paradis and Marley.

Sasha was the undisputed number one in her class. She was truly gifted in the culinary arts.

It was when she arrived at the restaurant she was met with another chef's assistant, Niccolo. She didn't know his last name. All she knew was that he was top of a Marleyan culinary school on the mainland.

As per her usual custom, Sasha tries to be friendly with the people around her. Generally she's a very well received person who gets more flack for her accent than her fashion sense. It was an unfortunate turn of events when she tried to extend her friendship to new coworker Niccolo that he turned her down rudely.

Shocking, to say the least. She hadn't even said ten words to him.

That wasn't the worst part, though.

The worst part was when the head chef at the restaurant gave them their first task: work together.

Not hard, right? Pretty simple in the grand scheme of things.

Only not.

From the get-go it was hell. Niccolo was the most stubborn person Sasha had ever met in her life and it kept her from working how she normally does.

Calm, focused, and flawless were what made Sasha the gifted and talented chef that she was. Today she was erratic and distracted, and truthfully it got the better of both of them.

"Well this was the worst day of my entire culinary career no thanks to you." Niccolo scoffed at Sasha as they were let go for the day earlier than they expected.

Sasha, distraught, couldn't bring herself to look at Niccolo in the face as she stayed facing forward and said, "Der nackte Mann fürchtet keinen Taschendieb."


"Der… what now?" Connie was confused.

"In Paradisian it means 'the naked man fears no pickpocket."

"Is...is that why you're so embarrassed?"

"Uh.. yeah." she admitted sheepishly.

Connie busted out laughing. "Bro! I can't believe you get sent home with your now arch-nemesis and the first thing you say to the guy is that! Oh my god. I can't breathe."

"Connie…!"

"What did you even mean by that? Did it have anything to do with what happened?"

"Kinda sorta. Not directly, but yes."

"Jesus christ, Sasha. You dumbass. Now you've cursed you and that poor guy."

"What do you mean!?"

"You're gonna fall in love and then it's all over!"

"HUH?"

"Oh come on! Two people meet in a place of interest, hate each other, does something stupid, and then falls in love! It's a timeless formula that you're now in the equation of!"

"Okay, but that doesn't mean we're gonna be lovers! The guy is a douche!"

"Yeah, yeah. Okay, now he is. But he might open up! I can't wait to tell Jean about this!"

"Oh, please don't tell Jean. this is already embarrassing enough that I have to confide in you!"

"What? We're best friends! I have only the best interest for you! Plus Jean cares, too! When I tell him what you said to the guy it's gonna be a running meme for us! Also it's gonna make a great conversation starter for tomorrow night when we meet everybody!"

"UGH!" Sasha buried her face again, this time not as deep.

There were a few moments that passed between the two of them.

"Hey, Sasha."

"Yeah?"

"Besides me and Jean, who else did you invite?"

"My old friend Mikasa. I haven't seen her since we were in that one nature exhibition group a couple years back. But she agreed to come, so I hope it's not too awkward. She's bringing a couple of people, too."

"Hm. cool."

"Yeah. I'm excited."


Levi did his inventory numbers and left his work early after taking care of the loud woman and her tall friend Mike.

From last week's encounter he had a feeling he would see her again, but there was no way to fully prepare. Besides her voice what threw him off was the badges on both her and Mike's waists. It was the Maria city police crest.

The most eccentric people he's ever met, and they were a part of the police force.

What a goddamn fucking twist.

He went home to shower and to finish his spreadsheets. The usual business.

A good book and nice hot cup of tea was all that was left to finish his evening out.

"Marleyan boxer Annie Leonhart moves her home gym to Paradis Island in hopes to gather inspiration in her skyrocketing career. What do you think about this, Mark?"

"I think it's fine for athletes to move their home arenas. Personally speaking, traveling or moving to a new area helps inspire me to be my better self. Others could say the opposite, though."

"You're right, Mark. Many people are saying she's running from her home competition because she hasn't been on top of her game recently. Some Marleyans are even going as far and calling her a traitor for coming to Paradis Island. But I think she's having a turn around."

"Well that's just unfortunate for Ms. Leonhart I would say, Phil. It's not uncommon for athletes to travel and train, but I do hope this small controversy with her home competition does come to pass."

"Well said, Mark. Now, Sofonda Cox with the weather."

"Hah?" Levi pulled his nose out of his book to look up at the TV he forgot was on.

"Sofonda… Cox? Oh. They let her on with that name."

This pulled Levi from his hyperfocus on the book he was reading. He checked his phone to see several missed calls and the time to be very late o'clock.

"Unknown number. Okay. No voicemail. Fucking weirdo."

I'm going to bed. Fuck this.


"Jesus, they really let the weather women go on screen with nipples that fucking hard? Her name's Sofonda Cox! Are they forreal?"

"Well.. you might be the only straight dude complaining there, Armin." Eren laughed a bit. "And since when do you swear? Aren't you supposed to be the good kid in class?"

Armin sat down at his small corner desk. "I don't know. I've been watching a lot of different content lately. Maybe I'm so used to you talking that I'm a bit desensitized when I watch influencers."

"Sure, I guess. Mikasa should be here soon. She's bringing us her mother's homemade dumplings and some katsudon! Whatever that is!" Eren's mouth started to water as soon as he mentioned food.

"Is that why you told me not to eat dinner? Thank God we have Mikasa."

Knock knock

"That's gotta be her!" Eren ran up to his dorm door and opened it to see Mikasa standing there with a large hotbag for food.

"Mikasa! Hey!" Eren beamed.

"Hello. Fully moved in, I see." She moved to the tiny kitchen counter and started unpacking the food.

Armin walked over, his nose leading the charge. "Wow! This still smells great! I really need to thank you mother in person one day! She does so much for us!"

"It's no problem. You guys are like family to us." Mikasa gave a shy smile.

"Mikasa! See? Still good!" Eren pulled down the collar of his shirt to show his clavicle fracture is, in fact, not in any more disrepair than when he went to the doctors.

"It's not going to look better after a week in recovery. Not a broken bone like that, anyway. Show me in a month."

"Ugh."

"You know if you show me now and I say something positive you're just gonna go off and break something else."

"Damn. she's got you, Eren," Armin chimed in.

"So when do classes start?" Mikasa changed the subject pretty quickly.

"Next week. Gonna suuuck." Eren popped a dumpling into his mouth.

"You know, for teaching a recreational class on the athletics campus you've never really cared to know the school's schedule besides holidays."

Armin stood next to Mikasa, looking at the food her mom cooked. It was also then he noticed how much smaller his body size was compared to hers. Armin knew he was small next to Eren and Mikasa, but he never knew how small until he stood next to Mikasa. She was always working out, but she never got bulky. Always clean cut whereas Armin was just… small. He didn't have a lot of muscle or fat or anything, just small.

"I only concern myself with teaching and making sure the people who come in get as much information as they can. Especially if they don't plan on coming in for another class. Names and schedules are irrelevant if I can only control what's in front of me."

"Oh!" Mikasa started again, "do you guys know that Marleyan boxer that's training here on Paradis?"

"Annie Leonhart?" Eren said. "They just did a piece on her on the news."

"Yeah, she's training with me now. So I've had to change my hours."

Eren almost choked, "What?! No way! Get outta here!"

"Mikasa!" Armin exclaimed, "You're gonna be a world famous trainer one day!"

"I guess, but I thought she would go to like, you know, an actual gym focused on boxing?"

"It's not uncommon for athletes to do other things to prepare for something, though. You know that. It'slike figure skaters doing ballet. Plus you teach MMA. Which is sorta kinda close to boxing, but maybe has more rules?" Eren explained.

Mikasa shrugged.

"Hey, Mikasa. You know that thing you said your friend wanted you to invite us to? What if you invited Annie? That sounds like a longshot, but that would be pretty cool!" Armin spoke through bites of pork.

"That would be pretty funny. She would have to hide from her manager, though. She's our age, but I don't think she has much of an actual social life with all of the training and publicity she goes through."

"So it would be easy to convince her, but not her manager is what you're saying." Eren said.

"Maybe. I have an appointment with her tomorrow morning, so I'll ask while her manager is away."

Armin nodded, "Sick. I've never done a meetup like this so I'm pretty excited."


"Hey, Thomas." Marco said very softly.

"Hm?"

"I know we're about to change guards in a few minutes, but something keeps itching at me. Like we're being watched or followed or something."

"What do you mean?"

"This whole investigation is taking way longer than it should. Even if it is a big deal. Our forensics team is really good, and they've seen and been a part of a lot of cases. This doesn't sit right to me."

"You think there's a mole in the force?"

"Maybe… I'm not too sure. I don't want to think so, though."

"Yeah. That's not a pleasant thought to think about."


A/N:

Here we go again.

Chapter Two, edited and not in code.