CHAPTER NINE
Half an hour later, they sat in one of Grisha's limousines and were driven into the city of London. Although it was freezing cold outside, the sun shined high above the clouds and dipped the passing wide green into a beautiful bright light. Armin and Eren talked about the game they would play as soon as they got back home, and Mikasa busied herself keeping an eye on the shorter man sitting opposite her. Eren wondered what made Mikasa so suspicious of him. Sure, she had always been the type who mistrusted others, but in his case she was extending it to a new level. Eren hadn't seen them interacting at all, so what had Levi done to her?
It took them about two hours to arrive, and the car stopped in front of one of the city's largest bookstores. Armin jumped out and forced Eren to follow him close up by a strong hold on his wrist. When it came to books, Armin sure was unstoppable. Mikasa and Levi followed behind them, and all four entered the store. While Armin and Eren ran into the textbook department and Mikasa headed towards the CD boards, Levi looked for a nice place from where he could keep an eye on them. He found a rather comfortable looking armchair at the reading area, and took in his surroundings. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath.
Although there weren't too many people around since it was barely afternoon and the masses were still at work, Levi's nose caught all kinds different scents. Fact was that one emotion could smell very differently based on the individual, but at the base they were identical. It was like wearing a perfume. The liquid itself is the same, but worn by different people and influenced by their own scent and body heat, a perfume developed infinite possible variations of itself. All Levi had to do was "look" out for negative smelling ones.
If it were someone like him, a professional, who was about to kill someone, there would hardly be any negative emotions to detect since usually they wouldn't have a personal relationship with their victims. But in case of the particular man Levi was looking for, Erwin was one hundred percent sure that he would come for them himself. And he went to the trouble of writing ridiculous threatening letters, so Levi was certain that he must not be very smart to begin with, but also he would have those dark emotions when approaching Mikasa or one of her friends.
He noticed Eren walking towards and taking a seat next to him, but Levi didn't care to open his eyes. "You already done?" Of course, he wasn't. Levi smelled his nervousness. The brat wanted to talk.
"N-No, but there's something I want to ask you." As Levi didn't respond, Eren continued: "I'd like you to teach me how to defend myself. I think my dad would be less worried about me if he'd know that I'm capable of taking care of myself."
Levi now did look at the boy in front of him, and his face turned into an unconvinced frown. "Is your brain that lacking? If this would be the reason your father's pissing his pants about your whereabouts, then why would he still worry about your sister? As far as I can see she's built like a warrior and kills her time training like crazy. If you're looking for a way to let him relax the reins, good luck, but keep looking."
Eren dropped his eyes, and a blue expression settled on the boy's face. "Sure. Ahm, I – I'm going back to look for the book I came here for." He got up and left.
Levi didn't want to give him any ideas of trying to get near to him. Although he had to admit that it nagged him seeing those beautiful eyes clouded with sadness. It made them look smudgy, blurred and greyish. But, it was those eyes he had to be beware of. The way they made him feel when he looked into them concerned him.
He saw Eren leaving the store, his blond friend walking right next to him. Levi stood up to follow them when out of nowhere he caught the smell of anger and inner turmoil coming from their direction. He rushed to the door to see what had happened, and saw them standing in the shadows of another store with a bunch of guys in their mid-twenties.
It didn't take him long to figure what was going on. He saw Armin next to an intimidated-looking young woman with her arms crossed protectively above her upper body while the blond boy tried to sooth her, and Eren standing tall in front of the men who had their backs to Levi. He saw that Eren's eyes were wide open with furiousness in them as he tried to snatch a handbag held by one of the guys behind his back. He was a good head taller than Eren, but that didn't stop the boy from trying. Their dispute heated up fast. Eren demanded him to give back the bag, but the older guy just laughed, and then Levi saw him reaching out to strike the first blow.
Levi didn't interfere. He knew he'd have to give an explanation when Eren came home with a black eye, but to be perfectly honest, he was curious about what the brat was capable of.
He seemed ready for the blow, his hands raised, his weight resting on his thighs. He ducked his head, lunged forward, wrapped himself around his opponent's waist and rammed his back into the wall next to them. The other two men kept standing in their places, one of them holding Armin back with ease, who desperately tried to get to Eren to help. Not in the least disconcerted, Eren's opponent countered with a knee kick against his head, which certainly almost broke Eren's jaw. The boy stumbled backwards, but caught himself again, grabbed the guy's throat and pressed both thumbs with strength down from his chin. He then gave the guy a head butt on the nose, whereupon blood gushed like a geyser.
Levi had to admit that Eren did pretty well for someone who wasn't used to fighting. He had a natural comprehension of the body's weak spots. But the other guy obviously was more experienced; he smiled through the red streams around the corners of his mouth and landed a deep right hook that for sure squeezed Eren's liver up to his lungs. Eren grabbed the guy by the hair and the two spun around as the other guy pressed his palms together and both of them pounded Eren's temples. The force of the blow threw the boy backwards tiptoeing, but he regained his balance before he fell. Unfortunately, his reflexes weren't fast enough to prevent the following thundering chin-hook. It must have felt like being hit by a baseball bat, and Levi saw that the guy was putting on an old-fashioned brass knuckle while one of his comrades sneaked behind Eren and put him in a headlock. A black eye was one thing, but broken facial bones another.
Levi rushed forwards, too fast for anyone to notice his approach until it was too late for them. He grabbed the knuckleduster-punk's wrist and twisted it, causing it to break loose from its joint. The man bucked in pain and stumbled a few steps back. But Levi wasn't done with him yet. He flew back at the guy, grabbed the back of his neck and rammed his knee in the man's face who fell over like a massive bag of concrete. Levi took him by his collar, and dragged him to the ground near the wall whose shadow covered the scene. Next was the guy behind Eren who still hadn't let loose of the kid's arms or even grasped what was going on. In a single lithe move Levi jumped off the ground and landed on top of the guy's back, latching on with his left arm and both of his legs as he put his right fist to the man's temple, shutting him down. The last man, the one that previously had a hold on Armin and had enough time by now to get what was going on, let go of the blonde, and started sprinting in the opposite direction from the black shadow that had knocked out his two comrades in a mere three seconds.
Levi was about to throw himself at him as well when out of nowhere a blazing pain lit off from his left lung, the violent burning sluicing through his body, ricocheting around inside of his skin until he was alive with agony. He gasped for breath, and crouched on the ground, a hand tightly pressed to his side. There was a hole. He was bleeding.
Levi took a quick stock of the injury. Nothing too serious. Some skin and muscle stripped from his rips. Bone was intact. He could still fight.
What the fuck, where did that come from?
Levi turned his head and looked up at the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, knowing by the way the bullet penetrated his flesh that it was fired off from a bevelled angle. It was out of question that this was associated with the purse snatchers he just dealt with, so either someone was set up to kill him or the actual reason for his current job had finally staged.
Was it possible that he assumed wrong? That the guy they chased was a professional after all who was capable of switching off his emotions while killing someone?
In the flash of an eye, Levi recognized the reflection of a lens on the building to his left. Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard Eren screaming his name, but Levi had already entered the zone. He ran towards the building's wall, jumped against it and used his speed's force to reach the small canopy where his hands found the its edges, and he pulled himself up. From there it was only another jump-and-pull until he reached the rooftop. His side begun to sting in a bad manner, but Levi didn't had time to care about it. The moment he hitched up on the roof, he saw his would-be assassin. The man in front of him was in shock as his calculation obviously hadn't factored his target's speed. Levi dived forwards, pushing the man in the ground underneath them. He knew his eyes started to shine, but he didn't care. This man had no chance of living through this, so there was no risk in showing him.
"Name your business, sucker. Who are you and why are you after Mr. Yeager's daughter?"
The man underneath him was calm and silent. Just another one out of a cast of hundreds of your typical bottom-feeding, drug-dealing, shifty-eyed motherfuckers. The kid's history of child abuse was written in the old circular scar on his face - perfectly round and the size of a burning end of a cigarette - and his hard life on the street was in his smart, twitchy eyes. A cocky smile started to show on his lips as he replied to Levi. "Don't know what you're talking about, man. The one I am after, is you."
That explained why Levi hadn't smelled anything. This man was a professional. He narrowed his eyes. "Who are you working for?"
"Two months ago, you murdered my brother, bastard. He was assigned to switch your lights off, and you hanged him with his own intestines."
Aah , Levi remembered that. He had met this piece of shit a few times before and he knew that he was, besides being a hitman himself, a rather unpleasant guy. Had his hands in selling poor children from Third World countries to rich bastards who were holding them as slaves, fighting dogs or sex toys. So, Levi found it appropriate to leave a message. Although he was sort of impressed that the man underneath him managed to keep his emotion under control even though this was a personal matter to him.
Levi laid the knife he always kept hidden in his waistband right against the vital, beating pulse at the side of the guy's white neck. "So? Shit happens in this business. You should thank me for clearing the world from bastards like your beloved brother," he said, pressing the point of his knife in. As the penetration was achieved, blood welled up in a bubble and stayed put for a split second, like it was trying to decide whether to flow down the shiny metal or the smooth column of skin. It picked the blade, meandering forth in a ruby red stream. He pressed in harder, watching the blood run, momentarily captivated by reality. Without giving the other man another warning, he pushed the weapon through the flesh, all the way in, and watched him cease to exist, like a breath of air disappearing into the humid day.
Standing up, Levi pulled out his phone and sent Erwin a quick message with the coordinates of the place that needed to be cleaned and that he should sent his crazy bitch of doctor to the Yeager's mansion. He felt air coming through the hole on his side and gathering around his lung, causing it to start collapsing. He had so act fast now. He went to the edge of the roof, and looked down.
A pair of dark green orbs that stared up to him in simple despair met his gaze.
Seemed like he gave the boy the shock of a lifetime.
When jumping down on the canopy Levi almost was sure, he would merely fall into those deep and stormy waters those eyes were and drown in them. What would be a bearable way to die, Levi thought absently.
He jumped down on the ground and it became more and more difficult to keep air inside his lungs. He collapsed and fell down to one knee, while Eren rushed towards him. He overdid it again. The scent of his despair drifted around, and the smell of dead soil and polluted water stung in Levi's nose.
"Shit, Levi! Are you okay?!" The poor boy was on the edge of crying. "You were shot, we need to get you into a hospital. Fuck! Armin, go get Mikasa!" He looped his arm under Levi's, and helped him getting up. The blonde ran for his life to get the girl out of the bookstore. When Levi was back on his feet, still steadied by the younger man, he recognized the other's high body heat.
Shit, is this brat always so hot or is it because he's panicking?
"No, not the hospital," he said with a rough voice. "Get me in the car and back to your house. I ordered a doctor to come there." Levi saw the confusion in Eren's eyes. "I'm fine, it's just a damn bullet, get your head out of your -."
Levi coughed blood into his hand, unable to end his insult. Eren's scent intensified, and the boy started to yell at him.
"The fuck, you're fine! We don't have time for your bullshit, we'll drive you to a hospital. Right. Now!"
Fucking. God.
Levi wanted to pinch his nose to get rid of the growing headache behind his eyes. He knew he had little authority with all the bloody mud dripping from his chin, but he tried his best to cover that up in a pure threatening manner.
"Listen, you piece of shit . You get me back to your mansion or else-." Fuck, this isn't working.
As Levi was coughing more and more blood till his entire vest was soaked, he recognized that his behaviour wasn't getting him anywhere. When worst came to worst, and he would be passing out, they really would go into a hospital and it would be a pain in the ass for both Erwin and him to get rid of the records.
Calming his nerves, he looked back up to Eren, trying to smooth the angry expression on his face. He felt like he failed. "Listen, kid. I can't go into a hospital. They will ask questions. Furthermore is the doctor I sent to your house the only medic I trust. So please. Take me to her."
He saw Eren weighing the options at hand, and when the brat sighed out audibly, he knew he had won. "All right, let's hurry."
The blonde was coming back with the girl next to him, and was asking way too many questions at once. But the brat ignored her, heaved Levi to their car and inside it and took the seat next to him. Pedestrians were starting to take note of what happened, so there was another reason to hurry up. Mikasa and Armin took their seats, and Eren practically screamed at the driver to get them back as fast as possible. He pedaled.
"Turn me on my left side," Levi said, his voice barely more than a wheeze anymore. "That way gravity will keep the lung open." He tried to press his hands against the hole keep the air from getting in any further, but he felt his strength vanishing little by little. The boy seemed to notice, and placed his hands above Levi's to help.
Levi didn't like it when people touch him, but under given circumstances, he would like it even less to bleed to death. Moreover, Eren's hands were so warm and careful that his touch was almost pleasant. Although he used as much force as he could without hurting him.
As he began to daze away from blood loss and lack of oxygen, he looked up at Eren. He was talking to someone. Levi couldn't hear what he was saying, but he didn't care either. All he wanted to know was why the boy's scent was so unendingly overloaded with sadness and anxiety. It didn't suit him. He wanted the boy's normal scent, the one which smelled like rushing off a rocky cliff and right into an ocean.