Izan looked at Mikasa with a curious face; Izan recalled to Mikasa "I had my suspicions about your emotions toward me, example when I stopped you from attacking…" Mikasa yelled to Izan to cut him off "Izan stop, that's not up for discussion" she looked embarrassed. The woman said "oh but tell me more, I love gossip" Mikasa looked to Izan with pleading eyes. Izan spoke "no, I don't want to torture her. I may have grown up outside these walls, but I'm not a cruel person", the woman looked to Izan and said "by the way, I'm Ymir, come back If you want to chat some time".
Izan walked away from the two girls and tried to be ignored by all the soldiers, that was until he felt like training for a bit. Izan walked through a pathway and entered the training grounds; he noticed that there were a few people on the training grounds. But Izan didn't care he just walked to a corner and began to practice hand to hand combat. Izan started himself with a series of punches, then he added an uppercut every ten punches and every twenty he added a swipe-kick. Word got around fast that he was training, people slowly gathered around to see what he was practising, they seemed amazed how well-coordinated he was to his moves.
Mikasa and Eren joined the group around Izan. He then finished his hand to hand practices with six speed-jabs and a powerful jump-kick. He looked at someone in the front rank of the circle. Izan spoke to the man "you get over here… I need you hook those bricks to my back", Izan pointed at the bricks behind him. Izan unhooked his sword off his back and waited for the man to strap the fifty-four kilogram bag of bricks to his back. The man he told did it immediately and Izan prepared to do push-ups, Izan started to count as he did the push-ups "one… two… three". Izan didn't stop for a second until he reached thirty push-ups; Then Izan unhooked the bag of bricks and did forty sit-ups. When he lifted himself back up, the people who surrounded him were staring at him. Izan picked up his sword and walked out of the circle.
That's when he noticed Eren and Mikasa, who followed him out of the circle when he returned to bunk house, Izan returned to room nine. Izan sat on his bed but only Mikasa followed him to the room Izan asked her "where's Eren", Mikasa responded "He said he had to go see Armin about something". Izan didn't understand what she meant "so that means…" Mikasa answered "we're alone for an hour". Mikasa sat beside Izan and she took him by the hand. Izan stood up and said "No…no, no, no… I can't get attached to anybody, because if I do, I wouldn't live with myself if they got killed. I just wouldn't be able to live…" Izan was silenced by Mikasa. Who said "Izan… you can't go on living like you don't care eventually we will die… sooner or later". Izan didn't want to accept that, he looked down to the floor and Mikasa stood up to comfort him. Mikasa stood in front of him and lifted his gaze from the floor to her black eyes. Mikasa gazed deep into his light green eyes and spoke again "you do care for your friends, even me… even though you try to hide it, lock it away even. You'll never stop caring, its human nature to care, and you can't change that". It was like Mikasa was trying to pull something out of Izan, she seemed to be reaching for his soul but he didn't want to share his feelings with the world… he was a walking corpse. Izan looked away from Mikasa and said "if you were like me you'd understand", Mikasa was angered by his ignorance and said "I am like you… my parents were killed by traffickers and then my adoptive parents were killed by titans, I know exactly how you feel. It rips at you on the inside and you don't want to lose the people you care for because you don't want to be alone in the world". Izan tried to think of a reasonable excuse but nothing came to mind so he admitted the truth "that is what it's like, it's nice to know I'm not alone out there. Since after all we've been through…" Mikasa and Izan both said the same thing at the same time "we'll now always have each other". Izan looked back into Mikasa's eyes; Mikasa saw something flicker in his eye. A ray of hope hit Mikasa, and she briefly smiled. Izan thought to himself "she said the same thing; it was like she knew what I was going to say before I said it". Izan saw that she was leaning in; he was aware that she was doing so, but Izan didn't move. She wrapped her arms around him, and hoped he would do the same. Izan didn't know what he was doing until his arms encircled her. He was tall enough to rest his head in top of hers. Izan did that also, he heard two familiar voices from outside the room… it was Eren and Armin.
Izan tried to get Mikasa to let go of him, but nothing worked "Mikasa… are you going to let go of me. you know that Eren and Armin are going to be in the room any minute now". Mikasa just held onto him tighter, like she was frightened of something. Then Eren and Armin entered the room and saw that Mikasa was hugging Izan, they knew by Izan's physical expression that he was trying to make her let go of him. Mikasa stood there and didn't move away from Izan not even when Eren tried to remove Mikasa from Izan. The only thing that she would do is squeeze tighter against his armor to keep him from escaping. Eventually someone else entered the room; it was a red-haired woman. She was looking at Mikasa who was resisting Eren's pulling, and then she left the room and walked some place else. Izan sounded irritated when he said "Okay Mikasa you can let go of me any time now". Mikasa let go of Izan and let him breathe for a second before clinging to Izan again. Izan thought to himself "How much longer would this continue".
Someone else entered and said that they were having roll call. Mikasa let Izan go walked to the door and said "come on, we have to get to the ranks". Izan looked more annoyed "now you let go of me", Izan followed Mikasa down the stairs and out the door again they saw that there were four ranks formed but there was only one spot left in the second rank, Izan pointed to the second rank and whispered to Mikasa to get in the last spot. Mikasa secretly snuck into position, she looked back at Izan who picked up a piece of hard grass and put it in his mouth; the top of the grass was sticking out of his mouth. Izan leaned up against the front bunk house wall and started to chew on the grass. The drill sergeant walked through the ranks and saw that there was something in the corner of his eye that was reflecting the light of the sun. The drill sergeant looked at Izan not knowing who he was, the drill sergeant approached Izan and said "now just what are you doing out of your uniform, wearing that trash". Izan looked to the side spit out the chewed up grass and said "I don't need a uniform; this 'trash' is my uniform" the drill sergeant was angry because Izan wasn't calling him sir.
The drill sergeant lifted his fist and Izan spoke "if you're going to punch me, punch hard and fast, because if I catch it or don't get knocked out… you'll regret it". The drill sergeant looked angrier and took it as the threat it was. He tried to punch Izan but Izan reached up and grabbed the drill sergeant's hand before it reached Izan's face. Izan looked up at him and said "good punch, just not… fast… enough. First things first your posture is off; you'll have to stand with one foot in front of the other. like this and when you punch lean in and use your full body that way you'll move faster… and also twist your fist when you punch. It will increase your punch power. Watch me"
Izan did as he described. He punched forward once, and then did an uppercut. The drill sergeant looked displeased because he's being taught how to fight properly by someone he didn't know. The drill sergeant asked "who are you", Izan responded "I'm Izan Bronze" the drill sergeant recalled what Commander Erwin told him and asked "you're… Izan Bronze, Commander Erwin told me about you, I thought you were being disrespectful, but you aren't from here so you weren't trained to call your superiors 'sir' right". Izan said "yes" and leaned back against the wall. The drill sergeant returned to his duties and managed the ranks with physical training while Izan sat back, picked another piece of grass and chewed on it.