Chapter 15: Gamble


"... So I didn't get any new information out of this latest round of experiments," Hange eventually concluded while a couple of chirping birds twittered away outside the window. "In fact, everything I've told you is already taught to trainees. But you knew that, didn't you?" Hange asked, just as energetic as ever despite the dark circles under all of their eyes. "Well, thanks to Heidi, we now also know that they do have a uvula and a gag reflex!" No one had ever gotten close enough before, not even Hange. Sawney and Bean would snap their jaws whenever the squad leader tried to have a look personally.

"Yes... We knew all of that already," Eren and Heidi droned tiredly in response, barely conscious. Judging by the amount of light streaming in through the windows now, they had already transitioned from late night to early morning. After being subjected to such a tediously detailed and redundant explanation, they understood why the others had been so quick to run off the previous evening.

"Good. Then let me explain it to you again, this time including my own personal speculations," Hange said.

"Ehh!?" Heidi and Eren flinched in alarm.

"A-Ah, look at the time!" Heidi said with a nervous smile as she quickly stood up before Hange could get started again, trying to excuse herself politely despite her obvious readiness to flee the room. "I need to meet up with Captain Levi for training!" Eren shot her a look of betrayal for attempting to escape on her own.

"Oh, that's too bad!" Hange exclaimed, disappointed. "I was just about to explain a curious case of communication involving a soldier named Ilse Langnar—"

BAM!

"Is Squad Leader Hange here!?" one of the members of her squad shouted anxiously as the door to the dining hall suddenly slammed open, taking the three inside by surprise. "Our test subjects... both titans have been killed!!!" he exclaimed urgently.

—∞—

"AAAAAAAH!! Sawney! Bean!" Hange wailed in anguish upon seeing the damage when they arrived at the research site, mourning the loss of the two titans.

"No way... was it a soldier's doing?" someone in the crowd of military personnel that had gathered asked nervously.

"We haven't found the culprit yet... It looks like they were both killed at the same time, before dawn. By the time the guards noticed, whoever did it had already gotten away using 3DMG," another answered.

"A premeditated plan by two or more people, huh? Look at that... Squad leader Hange's going mental..."

"They were important test subjects. What kind of morons would..."

"If they weren't morons... then why'd they do it?"

'That's a good question...' Heidi thought, furrowing her brow as she watched the troubling scene with the rest of the Special Operations Squad.

"Let's go," Levi said calmly. "The rest is up to the Military Police."

"Y-Yes, sir..." Eren stuttered as they all turned to follow him, unnerved by Hange's frantic screaming.

"Eren..." Commander Erwin said, stopping him.

"Commander!" Eren said, surprised to see that he had come there in person. "What's going on?"

"What do you see?" Erwin asked quietly, placing his hands on the boy's shoulders as he leaned in close. "Who do you think the enemy is?" Levi stopped and watched them out the corner of his eye.

"Huh?" Eren said as a bead of nervous sweat slid down the side of his face, confused.

"..." Erwin closed his eyes briefly for a moment before releasing his grip on Eren and turning to leave. "Sorry, that was a strange question to ask." He paused for a moment as he passed Heidi. "And you?"

"... I don't know..." she answered honestly with a frown. "But if I did... I don't think this would be the place to talk about it..." she added cautiously, eyeing the crowd around them.

"I see..." Erwin said before continuing on his way. It would seem she at least suspected enough to realize the value of discretion in this case. Eren furrowed his brow slightly in confusion as they watched the commander walk away, puzzled by the cryptic exchange.

—∞—

"Which would you prefer? Being thrown off a cliff without your 3DMG, or being sunk to the bottom of a pond to drown?" Levi asked Heidi abruptly once they had returned to the old HQ.

'Well, neither sounds very appealing...' Heidi thought dubiously, not at all liking where this was going, but the two of them had already discussed this prior to the previous evening. Right now she couldn't go berserk on her own, so the plan was to stimulate her by throwing her into life or death situations until she managed to activate her berserker mode under controlled conditions. At least, that was the theory... "I suppose I'd have to go with drowning."

"Right. Cliff it is, then," Levi decided to her chagrin. "Strip," he ordered strictly with a straight face, referring to her gear. Heidi let out a heavy sigh but complied obediently without complaint.

"Eh!?" Eren said, confused and horrified on her behalf. "What are you..."

"Eren, since Hange will be busy dealing with the aftermath of this morning's incident, you're going to clean the yard while I train Vomit Girl," Levi ordered.

"Training...?" Eren asked, furrowing his brow. It just sounded like he was trying to kill her...!

"Yes. According to that old geezer's book, entering a controlled berserker state would normally take years to master... But that's inconvenient, so you're going to do it in thirty days," Levi stated, aiming the last part at Heidi, setting the date for the expedition outside the wall as her deadline.

'So one-sided...' Heidi thought, feeling a little putout, though she understood where he was coming from. This was necessary if she wanted to be able to participate. "In that case, we really should start with drowning, sir," she said grimly. "I'm an expert when it comes to scaling cliffs and rock climbing, but I've never been a very good swimmer, so water is my weak point."

"I see..." Levi said, glad to see that Vomit Girl was taking this seriously. He had purposefully decided to do the opposite of whatever she had chosen in order to make it harder for her, but apparently she had already thought ahead and done that herself. It would seem he had underestimated her resolve and willingness to put her life on the line. "In that case... Let's get started," he said as he shoved a bulging sack into her arms before turning on his heel and walking away, heading for the pond on the castle grounds.

"Yes, sir," Heidi said dutifully, grunting slightly, as she hefted the heavy sack over her shoulder and followed in his footsteps.

"... Is she going to be all right?" Eren asked the remaining squad members worriedly as they watched them walk away.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Captain will intervene if she needs saving," Petra reassured him.

"... Probably," Gunther agreed a little less certainly.

'That kid's a goner...' Oruo thought. "Ow! What was that for!?" he asked incredulously when Petra elbowed him in the ribs.

"Just now... you were doubting the captain, weren't you?" she said sternly, narrowing her eyes at him. She could see it on his face.

"I wasn't doubting him, but accidents happen, you know?" he retorted defensively. After all, that brat had thrown up on the captain, so he didn't think he'd be in too much of a hurry to save her...

"So you are doubting him!" Petra snapped angrily, raising her fist to hit him again.

"Well, whatever may have passed between them before, she's our comrade now," Erd said calmly, interrupting before the fight got too serious. "Captain Levi would never abandon someone under his command."

—∞—

"..." Levi glanced at the stopwatch in his hand when the air from Heidi's lungs stopped bubbling to the surface. One minute had already passed. Now that Vomit Girl was out of breath, she should be getting desperate. If this method worked, she should start going berserk any second now. If she didn't break free within thirty seconds, she would drown.

Beneath the placid surface of the pond, Heidi was beginning to instinctively struggle against her bonds. To make sure she didn't simply float back to the surface, Captain Levi had bound her hands and tied the weights in the sack to her ankles to keep her anchored under the water before throwing her in. Her lungs were screaming at her for air, and her vision was starting to blur. This was bad... at this rate, she would drown before she could go berserk!

"Shit!" Levi cursed after thirty-seven more seconds had passed without any sign of progress, throwing down the stopwatch. He quickly ripped off his green cloak, preparing to dive in and haul her back out.

SPLASH!

"PWAH!!" Heidi sputtered, gasping desperately for air as her head broke through the surface. "Th... That was close..." She breathed heavily while floating on her back.

"Not close enough, apparently..." Levi deadpanned upon noticing that even though her feet were free, her hands were still bound. She had obviously somehow managed to untie the ropes around her ankles without going berserk, or she would have simply ripped apart the ones on her wrists too.

"Sorry, Captain Levi..." she apologized, laying on her back as she kicked, aiming for land. "When I was about to pass out, my reflexes kicked in... and I ended up untying the knots with my teeth..." she explained sheepishly with an awkward laugh as she reached the edge of the pond just in front of him. Levi's expression darkened as he abruptly placed the sole of his boot on top of her head and pushed her back under before she had a chance to react. What kind of 'reflex' was that? She had to be doing this shit on purpose. For a few seconds, she splashed frantically as she fought against him, but she quickly realized how useless that was and let herself sink to the bottom so she could push herself back up and away from him to escape, gasping for air as she resurfaced. "What the—!?" she exclaimed incredulously, freezing when she saw the scary expression on his face. "I-It wasn't on purpose, I swear! My grandpa made me practice how to escape from all sorts of knots and stuff until it became second nature!" she explained defensively, correctly guessing the reason why he looked so pissed, while she treaded the water, careful to stay out of his reach.

"..." Levi eyed her skeptically for a few more minutes before deciding she was telling the truth. "Tch! Come here," he ordered, squatting down and holding out a hand to her.

"..." Heidi eyed his extended hand warily, approaching with extreme caution. She slowly reached out and grabbed his hand, bracing herself for another drowning attempt, but it didn't come. Instead, Levi tightened his grip and pulled her up out of the water, hauling her back onto dry land.

"If that's the case... then I guess I can stop holding back," he stated ominously, getting serious.

"Eh?" Heidi said, staring up at him with wide eyes as a bead of nervous sweat rolled down the side of her wet face. She really didn't like the sound of that...

—∞—

"It's getting late..." Eren remarked as the sun started to set, concerned. Captain Levi and Heidi had been gone for the whole day. They didn't even return for lunch.

"Hmph. That brat has some nerve!" Oruo huffed. "Making the captain go through so much trouble..."

"Ah, it's them!" Petra said, straightening up as two familiar figures came into view. Sure enough, it was Levi and Heidi... but something clearly wasn't right. Their leader had a really dark and foreboding expression on his face as he marched towards them. Poor Heidi was dragging behind, looking ready to drop. They were both oozing intense auras of frustration. "I guess activating her special ability isn't so easy..." Petra said, a little disappointed. Eren winced sympathetically when he saw how beat up Heidi was. There was still a little dried blood around her nose and the corner of her mouth, and her jaw was bruised. Captain Levi had obviously kicked the shit out of her. "How was it, Captain?" Petra asked.

"Completely useless," the captain retorted harshly, shooting her such a sharp glare for asking that made them all flinch. "Whether it was drowning, being thrown off a cliff, dropping her in mid air, beating the crap out of her, or anything else... nothing worked on this idiotic Vomit Girl!" he muttered darkly, feeling extremely pissed off and frustrated by their total lack of progress. It had been long time since he met someone this hard to kill.

"Captain, can you please stop calling me that? I've been holding it in because I felt bad about that incident, but it's seriously starting to piss me off," Heidi growled with a scowl.

"!!?" Eren gasped as he and the others stared at her as if she had just lost her mind. But Heidi didn't give a rat's ass. She had zero patience left for that shit. On top of being equally frustrated with her own failure, the accumulated stress of having to suffer through so many back-to-back near death experiences in a row was really starting to pile up, not to mention the hunger that was gnawing away at her!

"Oh? You've got a lot of guts talking back to me after all of that..." Levi said, narrowing his eyes dangerously at her. "You want me to kick your ass again, Vomit Girl?" he asked, causing a vein to throb on her forehead. "If you have that much energy left, then run some laps. If you stop before I tell you to—for whatever reason—I'll keep calling you 'Vomit Girl' till the day you die, and then I'll have it engraved on your damn tombstone," he stated harshly, solemn as the grave.

"!!" Heidi grimaced at the thought, but held her ground. "Fine! In exchange, if I can manage to go berserk before tomorrow, then you have to stop calling me that and use my proper name from now on," she said determinedly.

"Hmph, sure. If you really can, that is..." Levi agreed with a wicked smirk as they stared each other down with enough friction to cause sparks. "Get going, Vomit Girl!"

"It's Heidi, goddammit!!" she yelled with a vein throbbing on her temple as she abruptly turned on her heel and took off like a shot.

"Tch! That brat..." Levi muttered, furrowing his brow in annoyance, as a vein throbbed on his head too. "Is dinner ready yet?" he asked as he turned away and headed inside. "I'm starving."

"Ah, um, Erd and Gunther are in the kitchen making it now..." Petra answered with a nervous smile as she and Oruo followed him in, maintaining a safe distance.

'Tch! Stupid brat... She just had to piss him off!' Oruo thought, furrowing his brow. Vomit Girl must have a death wish.

"..." Eren stayed where he was, staring in the direction Heidi had taken off running, sweat-dropping as he watched. She was so pissed, she had forgotten all about pacing herself. He had never seen her like that before. She must really hate the captain's nickname for her, not that he could blame her...