Another chapter! Please enjoy and let me know what you think!


The Strategist

What makes a great team is one that has an excellent strategist, and Armin Arlert was that strategist. A smart and patient worker, Armin always knew what the best course of action was; and that skill would be needed for this current situation.

"Like I said, someone has been stealing from us," said Mikasa as she continued, "I've checked the shelves and the warehouse, and some of the items weren't accounted for."

In the office of Erwin Smith were Hanji, Levi, Mikasa, and Armin.

"Hmm, do you think maybe the cashiers might not have scanned the items?" said Hanji taking possession of Erwin's chair

Levi spoke from the side, "Highly unlikely, the cashiers have never messed up. It's why I picked them."

Mikasa doubted Levi's comment, "People make mistakes, sir."

"I suppose you're right, then I guess that means you might have made a mistake when checking the inventory. Am I wrong?"

"Yes, in fact, you are wrong." Levi and Mikasa glared at each other, the two have rarely cooperated.

"Relax you two, I don't want blood being shed while Erwin is still in his comatose. Armin, what do you think?" Hanji was confident in what Armin had to say; after all, along with herself, she always thought that Armin was the most brilliant person in the market.

"Well, I know Mikasa isn't wrong. Ever since I've known her, she has always had a keen sense of her surroundings; so if she says there is someone stealing from us, then we have to be very concerned." Levi rolled his eyes as Mikasa nodded towards Armin.

Hanji shifted her lenses as she gave her input, "I see, well then we have to do something about this. I don't want Erwin coming back to an empty market."

"I'll think of something, give me an hour," Armin said as he and Mikasa walked out of the office.

"Looks like we'll be alright, I'm sure Armin will solve this problem," said Hanji leaning back on the chair with a wide grin.

"You have high confidence in him, huh?" said Levi.

"Yep, by the way, were you seriously trying to argue with a girl who is like way younger than you," teased Hanji.

"She's not a girl, she's a monster."

"Yeah, Yeah."

"Shut up."

An hour later…

Armin's plan was already in motion; all the employees were finishing up their assignments. They weren't sure if the thief would appear today, tomorrow, or never again; but by the pattern of objects that were stolen, Armin was sure that he or she would return.

Thomas approached Armin, who was waiting next to Levi and Mikasa in the frozen food aisle. "Armin, the detectors at the entrance are up."

"Thanks, get to your position, and just carry on like any other day." Thomas nodded as Armin gave the signal to everyone.

"I can't wait till we catch this guy," said Eren tightening his fist, "when we do, I'm going to hit him square in the face."

Jean nudged Eren, "Hey, shut up, the person might be close. And I'm hitting the thief first." Eren rolled his eyes as he and Jean waited near the entrance of the store.

Thirty minutes passed, still nothing. There was an eerie feeling throughout the store, the workers in every corner of the market were waiting for that moment. Another hour passed, no cries heard just yet; but they can feel it, its almost time.

A man in a dark sweater walked in, his eyes drifting across the store left to right as if he was writing mental notes. He noticed detectors at the entrance, but didn't give it too much thought. He walked towards the back aisle where the frozen foods were, not noticing that Eren and Jean were watching him suspiciously. When he reached his destination, the man was surprised to see that nearly all the products in front of him were given a tag. He pieced together that the tags were used for the detectors at the front of the store. Sweat was starting to form on his forehead as he was looking anxiously for a product that wasn't tagged. Luckily he did; he bent down to pick up a pack of cheese, breathing a sigh of relief that the product he wanted wasn't tagged. But as he turned around, he was met with the presence of the raven-haired warehouse girl and the short sales manager.

"Would you come with us for a second, sir, this won't take long," said Levi as Mikasa stood next to him with an impassive expression.

The man started panicking as he desperately searched for an exit strategy. As Levi approached him, the man seemed like he was going to submit; but in attempt to escape he threw the block of cheese in the direction of Levi, and avoided being grabbed by Mikasa by pushing her down. He sprinted down the aisle, but noticed that Jean and Eren were waiting for him.

Jean motioned his hands up and down, indicating the man to slow down, "Alright, buddy you got nowhere to go. You're making this harder than it has to—Hey! Slow down!"

The man, not slowing down, grabbed some products from the shelf and began throwing stuff at the two of them. Jean moved to the side covering his head, while Eren stood strong not planning to let the thief get through. Unfortunately, Eren didn't account for the man to start throwing knives, eventually drawing blood from Eren. He drifted to the side holding his shoulder as the man breezed past him.

"Eren!" yelled Mikasa as she accelerated towards Eren.

"Are you okay?" She desperately searched for any sign that he was all right.

"I'm fine Mikasa it's just a scratch. The guy is getting away!" said Eren.

The man smiled as he saw the exit, feeling a sense of accomplishment. But this feeling was short lived as a giant force of muscle tackled him from the side, causing him to crash into a stack of baskets.

"Almost," said Mike as he walked towards the injured thief and proceeded to pick him up by the back of his collar. Customers on the side stood and watched, as some of the employees arrived. One of them was Levi, as he grabbed his shirt bringing his face closer to his, "If you think we are just gonna call the cops, you're mistaken. We, and by we I mean I, will make you suffer by stuffing all this cheese down your throat."

"And after he does that, I'm going to chop you up into pieces," said Mikasa glaring at the man.

In horror, the thief desperately asked, "H-How did you know…that it was me?"

Hanji walked up front and patted on Armin's back, "I think our friend here can answer that."

"A coworker of ours told us that someone was stealing from us."

The thief interjected, "But I-I stole things that you guys wouldn't notice."

"Well, she has cat-like senses."

"Told you she's not human," interrupted Levi as Hanji shushed him.

Armin continued, "You stole bread, then ham; so I figured you'd probably steal cheese next…you know, to make a sandwich, since you were stealing them one at a time."

Connie felt like he needed to chime in his thoughts, "I don't like cheese in my sand which." "Yeah, me neither," said another employee.

"Wait, what?" said Armin looking astonished.

"Yeah, and I'm lactose intolerant," said Marco.

Hanji laughed, "Looks like you took a gamble, huh Armin. At least you were right."

The thief changed the subject, "B-But anyone could have taken the cheese and could have been accused."

Armin responded, "That's why we tagged all of them, but one. I knew that once the thief saw the detectors in the front of the store, he would piece together the fact that the products could be scanned for theft." The thief was stunned as he listened to the blonde, "It really was a gamble, but once you picked that up, we had to take that chance. Oh and by the way, those detectors are fake."

"Yep, we found them in a dump and cleaned them up," said Connie smiling.

As everyone gave Armin their appreciation, they noticed that the thief's eyes started to well up. "I-I'm just so hungry. Please don't torture me…I-I-I'm sorry."

The cries from the thief brought upon sympathy to most of the employees. Mike released him as he landed on his knees. Levi walked up to him and kneeled down, "Here take this and go." He handed him the block of cheese, as the thief wiped his tears. Levi stood up and said, "You got a problem with that Hanji?"

"Nope, in fact, Erwin would have probably done the same thing," she said smiling.

The man stood up, held the cheese tightly, and walked away.

"Tch, you should have at least called the cops," said Mikasa toward Levi. He waved her off as he approached Armin, "Good job, kid."

Armin nodded in appreciation.


Dang Armin you are too smart lol. Thanks for reading! :D