A week had passed after the rites of initiation to the Cadets, and Eren was feeling the strain.
Not from the physical exertion, like many of the other hopefuls- he'd experienced far, far worse of course.
No, what was straining Eren Jaeger was the struggle every spy and every method actor goes through- maintaining the charade of being someone else.
Age had most definitely changed him, and when you spend every moment of every day surrounded by other people all of which were constantly observing you, an overnight change like that is incredibly difficult to conceal.
Especially because most fifteen year olds don't wake up in the middle of the night sweating in a terrified panic, literally shaking with fear and moments from screaming.
Eren's changes are noticed most by his closest friends. Armin chooses to say nothing, chalking it up to stress. Mikasa, however cannot let something like that slip, and corners Eren walking back to his dorm after a meal.
She noticed, and she would not rest until she knew what was wrong with her only remaining family member.
For a moment, he considers telling her.
For a moment, he thinks about what will happen if he confessed, if she would only believe him.
Unfortunately, he knows the world better than that.
And in that moment, with Mikasa desperately searching his eyes for a clue, for some sort reason for his suspicious actions and strange behavior, the realization hits him: It will never be the same.
Even with his mind-bending talent to rewind the universal clock, he was different, and things would never be the same as they were when he was, in fact, fifteen.
He smiles sadly, and reaches out. Gently cupping her cheek with his hand, he whispers to her "Please, just trust me. Trust me in this, Mikasa. Please."
She doesn't understand, but with such a heartfelt request she refuses to argue, even if her heart is dissatisfied .
He leaves her there, and stalks back to the barracks, where he sleeps heavily without a word to any of the others.
Eventually they finished the most basic part of basic- the conditioning.
Literal days of running, hours of weightlifting and all terrain conditioning melted into omni-directional gear training, basic weapon handling, and informational sessions on military life and duties as well as Titan physiology and ecology.
Eren had come to a decision that he would perform as absolutely perfect as he was capable of, putting him considerable far ahead of the rest of the group.
Excelling in every category he held a borderline legendary status among the rest of the Cadets, and even held sway with some of the instructors.
He managed to wriggle his way out of every conversation about his talents, and always had a distraction ready for those armed with questions.
Things progressed relatively normally, until they began the hand-to-hand combat lessons.
Shardis ordered the Cadets to pair up to practice the knife combat routine they had spent the early morning learning about (after a healthy run, of
course). Eren interjected with a request: "Sir! Permission to spar against three opponents, Sir!" Shardis was floored. In the history of the academy, he could not think of one time that someone had demanded to fight against more than one person at a time.
It was unheard of.
Blinking, Shardis inquired in a low tone, "Which three opponents?". Unable to hide a slight smirk, Eren responded "Annie Leonhardt, Reiner Braun, and Bertholdt Hoover!"
There was a moment of stunned silence as those three shared an alarmed glance. Shardis's brow wrinkled slightly "Why those three, Recruit?"
"Because Sir, they complement each other, sir!" Eren replied immediately. Shardis glanced around, seeing the blank faces of the Cadets waiting for his
orders.
"Very well, recruit." Shardis begrudgingly grunted, before stalking off to organize the rest of the Cadets.
There was a moment of silence as the recruits faced off before the din of shouts, grunts, and meaty thuds filled the air.
Eren surveyed the trio with a smirk. Bertholdt was nervously glancing around, incredibly anxious. Reiner seemed uncharacteristically serious, with a furrowed brow and fighting stance. Annie was all fangs, with a murderous glare.
Eren couldn't help but jab at them "Well now friends, let's not make Shardis angry by slacking off!" he sneered.
Annie snarled, but Reiner spoke up first "Why us?" his deep voice cut across Annie's. Eren's sneer widened into a wolfish grin barely masking his contempt "Because I wanted to prove a point" he growled.
"And what point is that?" Annie snapped out frostily. Eren's face contorted into a hideous mask of violent glee, anticipating the fight soon to blood lust was rising, his titan blood ached for a long awaited release.
Not yet. Not here. Not now. For now his fists would suffice.
"I want to prove that you aren't half as untouchable as you think you are." Eren snarled "So now, let's fight. Come at me with your combined strength!"
And they did.
Reiner's fists were like stones, swinging with unmatched force.
Annie's kicks were lightning fast, her jabs two times faster, her body was a blur of movement.
Bertholdt was like a medium between the two, not quite as strong as Reiner nor as fast as Annie, but he made up for it with intelligence, his strikes were perfectly timed with impeccable placement.
Eren devoured the three of them in a fury of blows, using every part of his body as a weapon to inflict damage, ducking and dodging, weaving around blows and in other places absorbing them like they were nothing.
In moments he had disarmed and flipped Annie, hurling her into Bertholdt, who hesitated and stumbled to catch her. In a series of rapid-fire blows Eren smashed through Reiners guard, matching brute force for brute force, he wrested the fake blade from Reiner before turning on Bertholdt who jerkily attacked him with the last wooden knife.
Eren gave two steps of ground to recover and raise his guard before spinning into a brutal roundhouse kick directly to Bertholdt's skull, knocking the tall boy off balance and sending him teetering to the ground.
All three knives successfully removed from the clutches of their owners, there was a shocked moment of silence.
Eren's blood, human and otherwise, sings through his veins howling in pleasure at the carnage and demanding more more MORE.
Truth to be told, he had been long awaiting this moment, his hatred for the titan shifters reaching a boiling point simply from thinking of the chaos they caused.
That whole damn town was responsible for so much carnage, and damn if it didn't feel good to hand some back to them.
Straightening up he scooped a single knife off the ground where it had fallen.
"Now it's your turn to disarm me" Eren called out to the other three, who were nursing bruises from the unexpected ferocity of Eren's previous assault.