CHAPTER 12

I arrived the next morning, at the adress I had been giving, stepping out of my car to fully inspect the building that I was about to walk into. I had expected a wide and tall, probably grey walls and black window frames kind of building. Something plain, like every other police station that had ever existed. Instead I was standing in front of an apartment complex, with red bricks and white window frames. It was too tall, and seemingly old. The whole neighbourhood smelled like your shit after you've ate too much eggs, and some places it even looked like someone's been using the objects to wipe themselves clean with. My nose wrinkled as I pulled my cravat over my nose to stop myself from inhaling the worst of it.

"Crap," I mumbled, as I grabbed the cell phone from my pocket and dialing the number that I was giving yesterday.

"Hello?"

"This is Levi Ackerman," I quickly informed, so no confusion would occur. "I think you gave me the wrong adress,"

"Oh? And where might you be?"

I told him the adress, and as a response he just chuckled.

"Oh my, it seems that my assistant gave you the adress of where the suspect is living, instead of where we will be discussing thus said suspect,"

I was in no mood for his little games, so I just silenced my annoyed grunt.

"Aha. Then how about you send me the right adress, before I'll get compromised before I even get started on this fucking job?"

As I waited for him to find it, I looked around to check if anybody else was walking down the street. There was a guy coming towards me, but he was far enough away for me not to be spotted.

"Ah, here it is,"

I turned around, almost anxious to get the right adress so I could get the hell out of this stinking hole.

"Are you alright, mister?" A voice come from behind me, and I turned around, surprised. How had the stranger from afar gotten here so fast? I was lucky to have such restraint on my emotions, so instead I just nodded and backed away.

"Yes, everything is fine. I'll be on my way now,"

He was smiling at me, and then just nodding as an answer. He had black hair, and was probably the tallest young man I had ever seen. His nose was the first thing I notices, as it just seemed too big for its own good. He looked kind though, wearing a pink scarf and trying to hold up two filled grocery bags in his arms.

"Bye then!" He yelled after me, as I turned around to get into my car.

I drove away as fast as I could.

Sitting in Pixis' office made me wonder if he had sent me to the other place on purpose. Sometimes, you learn quicker by experiencing things first hand, instead of reading about it in a file, but just how cunning was Pixis really? I didn't ask though, and after the introductions to the other members of the case was over and Pixis started telling me about the case, I didn't think further about it.

"Reiner Braun is tall, strong and dangerous. He lives in the bad part of the city, where all the criminals keep themselves too. Though, he originally came from a good family, and raised on the countryside. The usual thing happened, though. Young boy comes to the city, gets corrupted and ends up like this," Pixis stopped to take a sip of his mug, before continuing. We where sitting inside his office in the police building that had looked exactly what I had imagined. "We are going to appeal to him, since we believe we'll have a bigger success rate with him. The other people that are in the gang does not have such colourful background story as him, as they were all born into this type of lifestyle,"

I nodded. Until now, I understood their way of thinking and their way of handling this case. It all made sense to me, so I felt no need to say anything.

"Taking him into custody and interrogating him here will only be done as a last resort. Is that clear?"

I nodded again, and so did the others around me.

"Good. Now, listen up. The objective is to lure the information out of him, since he's only small fry. There's no need to get him more involved with this, as he is not whom we are after. Levi and Ouro will be posing as guys who wants to join the gang, so you'll have to get through this guy first," Pixis took out a piece of paper and turned it around so we all could see it. It was a picture of the kid Reiner Braun, standing with another guy in front of the ocean. The guy was tall and dark-haired, and I let out a small gasp when I recognised him.

"The boy on the left is Bertholdt Hoover. He lives with Reiner, and they are seemingly close. He is the first you will encounter,"

I leaned forward a few inches, looking at the picture to be completely sure.

"I've already met the guy," I said, before turning my attention to Pixis again. "I met him when you gave me the wrong adress this morning. He tried to start a conversation with me before I drove away,"

Pixis leaned back, taking in this new information. I was sure a 100% sure that he would kick me off the case, when a smirk suddenly appeared on his face.

"Perfect,"

"I look fucking ridiculous," I cursed, as I got out of the car. "No one will ever believe that I would actually wear this shit,"

"Well, at least you're not wearing this," Ouro pulled out the golden chain from his neck, and I couldn't help but smile when I saw it, which was rare. It was so long that it almost went to his belly button, where it ended with big letters that spelled 'Bling King'.

"At the very least," I nodded. Sure, that was a horrible jewelry, but at least the rest of his clothes was seemingly normal. Mine wasn't.

My pants had been replaced by way too tight jeans, to the point where I wasn't able to bend over without showing my ass. Though, if that would ever happen I was wearing a way too big jersey. Since I could easily fit a Small, this would be at least XXLarge. To top it off, it had 'Thug Life' spelled on the back. Under it, I was wearing something that was supposed to resemble a shirt, though it was more like a fishnet. It clung to my body where it could, though the holes in it were so big that I looked more naked than was seemed normal.

"You'll go inside, I'll stay here," I ordered, and he followed it mindlessly. When he had disappeared into the building in front of us, I leaned against the car, and then proceeded to take out a cigarette and lighting it. I had quit a long time ago, but since I felt on edge and they had come with the outfit, I didn't see a problem in just taking one. Who knew how long I would be standing here? Plus, apparently it made me more 'gangster'-looking, whatever that meant.

I only had to wait 10 minutes, before he showed up. It was no coincidence, as I had been told that he took regularly trips to the store every other day. As he got closer, I just took another drag of my cigarette, acting like I hadn't seen him at all.

I could feel him looking at me from afar, and when he finally stood in front of his apartment building, instead of going in, he turned around to face me.

"You're here again?" He said hesistantly, not sure how I would answer. Probably because I had been so rude when we had meet the first time. Or maybe it was because I was dressed so differently, that he wasn't sure if it was me or not.

"That happens when you switch apartments, you know. Or is it not custom to hang out at the place you live anymore?" I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. He blushed, looking at his feet for a few seconds.

"S-Sorry, I didn't know you lived here, so … " As his voice died out, he looked up again to face me. I studied him for a moment, my brows furrowing worriedly. We hadn't been told his personality, but I would never had guessed him being so … Soft. He was like a kid, blushing and stammering like that. Maybe I should take it easier on him, since he was clearly not someone to play hardball with. He would probably just break in two pieces.

"I just moved in," I said, sending him a smile in the process which seemed to ease him a bit. He returned it, showing his white teeth.

"Oh, really? I guess we'll be neighbours then,"

I nodded, looking around.

"This place is a dump, though," I mumbled, just loud enough to hear it. He didn't answer though, so I looked at him once more. He seemed like a good kid, which made me wonder how the hell he had ended up here.

"All this moving has made me really fucking tired," I hinted, taking a step towards him. "I could really use a break,"

At this, his face light up, and I instantly knew that I was in. It was almost too easy. We both went inside the building, talking on the way there. As we reached his apartment, I discovered that we were the only one here at the moment.

"Hey, is it cool if my roomie joins us?" I asked, already pulling my phone out to text Ouro.

"Yeah sure," Bertholdt said, as he took off his shoes and then put down the grocery bag on the kitchen counter.

"So, do you live alone?" I asked, making myself sound like I was only asking out of boredom. I walked around the living room, trying my best to snoop around discretly.

"No, I live with my friend," Bertholdt just answered, sitting down in an armchair. "He's not home though,"

"When will he be back?" I asked, turning around to look at him.

"At dinnertime," He answered before yawning. Was I boring him?

I pulled the sleeves over my hands and then letting the jersey glide off my shoulders and onto the couch behind me, before sitting down as well. I could feel him staring at me, or rather, my upper body. My biceps and abs were showing through the fishnet shirt after all.

Boys and their damn hormones.

"So what do you and your friend do for a living?" I asked casually, though I could feel my body tense a little, wanting to get as much information out of the boy as I could.

"Um, I'm a … Delivery man," Bertholdt said, and after after a moment of silence he broke into laughter. I understood why he thought it was funny, so I just forced myself to crack a little smile.

"And what do you deliver?" I asked further on, and this time I noticed how he paused. I was getting closer, and I knew that he was considering if he could trust me or not.

"You know," He just said, and then mimicked someone taking a long drag.

I forced myself to laugh this time.

"Wow man, that's pretty cool,"

I leaned forward, intertwining my fingers with each other.

"Hey, now that we're on the subject, we could actually … "

"Oh no," He interrupted me, shaking his head. "I just deliver. You gotta talk to my roomie, if you want him to hook you up,"

I leaned back, folding my hands over my stomach.

"Then I guess I'll just wait then,"

I had waited for 3 hours, forcing myself to keep a conversation going with the guy. Ouro had helped though, so there wasn't really much to do. When Reiner finally came home, I discovered that he was much more paranoid than Bertholdt. He took a dislike to us immediately, even though Bertholdt put in a good word for us. I hadn't even been talking to the guy for 5 minutes, before realising that we wouldn't get anywhere with the guy.

We kept trying though, but the second Reiner noticed the gun sticking out behind Ouro's jersey, we were done playing dress up. Reiner had pulled his own gun, giving us more than enough reason to arrest him, and that was how we ended up at the police station after all.

Pixis had been more than disappointed with us, and I had to agree with him. I couldn't be blamed though, and he knew that. Sending me out there had been a risky move, no matter how much experience I had once had.

"So Levi," Ouro started off, as he sat down beside me. We were sitting outside the interrogation room where Reiner had been placed, waiting for Pixis to finish him off. I was still dressed in the ridiculous outfit, were Ouro had already changed. He was a real police officer with a closet filled with an extra set of clothes, after all. I didn't even know the location of my original clothes anymore.

"Yes?"

"How many years has it been since you were in the force?"

I couldn't be bothered to count the exact the amount of years it had been, so I just shrugged it off.

"Probably 5-6 years ago,"

"Really?" Ouro raised an eyebrow, thinking about my answer.

"How many years were you a cop then?"

"5 years,"

"Then how come you stopped? Were you shot, fired or did you quit yourself?"

"I was offered a better job," I just said, not wanting to get into detail about it. It would take too much time to explain it properly anyway.

"But taking such a big career change … Something must have happened to make you change so suddenly," He kept on, and I could feel myself getting annoyed by him prying.

"I killed 8 guys and they didn't think I was mentally stable after that, so I was moved to a desk job,"

That should shut him up, I thought to myself, and looked over at him to see his reaction.

"Oh … " He rubbed his hands together nervously, his eyes flickering. Satisfied, I leaned back, crossing my arms over my chest.

It wasn't true, of course, but I knew that he wouldn't stop pestering me about it, so I just gave him what he was expecting. Okay, maybe he hadn't been expecting something that radical, but I was allowed to have a little fun as well, wasn't I?

I counted to 10, but after already after 6 seconds, he stood up, excusing himself to go to the bathroom.

"Knock yourself out," I answered with a bored look on my face, but when he had left the room, I couldn't hold in the laughter any longer.

"Idiot," I mumbled to myself, before standing up and turning around. In front me was the usual glass plate, which allowed me to look what was happening behind it, even though they couldn't see me. Pixis was still inside, trying to force information out of Reiner, but it didn't seem to be working. I turned the sound on just to hear what was happening, but it seemed that their conversation was over in that exact moment. Pixis walked out of there, which gave me full visibility over Reiner. He was looking at the papers on the table in front of him, and I followed his gaze with my own. The pictures contained several dead bodies, lying in pools of blood. I was guessing Pixis had done the standard speech about how Reiner was contributing in the killing of these innocent people, even though he wasn't the one pulling the trigger.

I heard how the door opened behind me, and I turned around again in time to see Pixis walking towards me.

"He's a tougher nut to crack than I would have thought,"

I nodded, understanding what he meant.

"Have you tried the other kid? He's much more submissive than this brat,"

"We have, but he doesn't know anything. He was telling you the truth, when he said that he was just the delivery man,"

I just nodded as an answer, and then we just stood there in silence.

"Wouldn't it just be so much easier if we could read his mind?" Pixis said, probably in an attempt at a joke, but I didn't find it funny.

No, I definitely didn't find it funny at all, though it did create an idea.

"What is it?" He asked, after noticing how I had tensed up beside him.

"Nothing … " I mumbled, shaking my head. That idea was too crazy, there was no way that I could actually make it happen. There was no way that I wanted to make it happen.

"No, you seem to have thought of something. Tell me,"

I sighed, scratching my forehead. There was simply no way. I couldn't tell him about it, there was no way that he would believe me. No way that any could – it was simply just … Too crazy. He would think I was crazy.

"Really, Chief, it's nothing," I said, holding my hand up as a sign that he should stop. "It's no – "

"It's an order," He interrupted, clearly not intend on actually listening to my refusals.

"Well … " I started out, but quickly found myself not able to continue. "I may know someone who … Um,"

This wasn't a good idea. Did I even have the right to tell Pixis about him? The only thing I was sure of, was that I didn't want to mix him into this … But I also knew that we wouldn't be able to get through Reiner in any other way.

"I know a … Gifted person. He has a way of … Knowing people's secrets," I tried taking a breath, but it felt like a big lump in my throat was stopping that from happening properly. This wasn't the truth, but not a lie either.

"Like a mentalist?" Pixis asked, raising an eyebrow. I quickly shook my head.

"No no! Not at all. More like he's able to read your body language, or something like that. I don't know, really. It doesn't even matter anyway," I sighed, trying to back out of the conversation.

"Get me his phone number then,"

"But sir!" I protested. "He's just some random college student. He's not cut out for this kind of – "

"Now," He interrupted again, before turning around and leaving the room. Once again I was left by myself, but this time I wasn't relieved. More like the complete opposite.

I followed him involuntarily, and as we walked back to the office, I found the number on my phone, surprising even myself that I still had it there.

Why hadn't I deleted it?

"I can't be the one calling him," I said hesistantly, when we got into his office. "He won't come, if he knows that I'm here,"

"Oh?" Pixis said, though it seemed like nothing really surprised the man anymore. He grabbed the phone on the table in front of him, and started typing in the phone number from my own phone.

"And he can't know that you need him because of his … Um, abilities. You need to be vague," I quickly added, before he had pressed the last number.

Pixis just nodded, and then we just stood in silence while waiting for him to pick up. I could hear the low click when the other end had picked up, and a muffled voice saying hello. I could feel how my heart started beating faster, even though I wasn't able to explain why that was.

"Hi there, am I speaking to Eren Jaeger?"