Year 844, August 19th,
Ayamu's PoV
Hi readers! Thanks a lot for reading up to this point. There's going to be a lot about the black market reveled in this chapter. Please leave any comments or a like. Chapter 6:
Hurrying down the dark street, Ayamu looked around for a symbol of a Blazing Dragon on the bottom left corner of a window. She had previously bought info on the black market of the outside world, the dealer had told her to look for a Blazing Dragon on the bottom left corner of a window. It was 2:00 ,making the search a tad difficult. precautions had to be made to ensure nobody would find out about her night treks.
"I've been all over this area and there's nothing." Ayamu muttered.
Ayamu worked as she walked, carving a new ring for herself. She couldn't use her old name in the underground because it was possible that people knew that Ayamu Yoshikuni was the Shadow Fox. Everyone knew on July 31st that four people were taken to the Survey Corps. On the same day, the Shadow Fox disappeared. Ayamu used weapons you could only get in the black market in order to stall the Survey Corps. While the others might have had weapons for the black market, two of them had died. Now the only two people that could possibly be the Shadow Fox were Levi and her. Everyone in the black market had known Levi had failed to obtain a document from Erwin. If Levi had been the Shadow fox, not only would he have not needed Isabel and Farlan, but he would have succeeded. It was clear that she was the Shadow Fox. One of the things about being a info broker is that you can't let anyone know your identity. Hoping that no one would recognize her, she had put on fake glasses and dyed her hair dark brown.
Just as Ayamu thought that she had wasted a bunch of money on invalid info, she passed a shop selling random trinkets with a dragon carved in the left corner of the window. Ayamu slipped on her new ring and entered the shop. When she stepped inside her first impression of it was that the shop was probably as old as the walls but made out of a much weaker material. The roof looked like it would collapse any moment and everything was coated in dust, including the old man that was sitting behind the counter.
"Hey," Ayamu said to the old man. She waved her hand with her new ring on it. Seeing the ring the man looked at her with new found curiosity.
"You're new," The old man remarked, "What's your name?" God, that's the oldest trick in the book.
"The Crystal Phoenix." Ayamu replied. The old man looked slightly disappointed that she had not told him her real name. Only newbies would fall for that. Sighing, the old man got up. The dust around him collected around his feet. He led her to the back room, Ayamu covered her nose because of the overpowering smell of alcohol. Pushing aside the box, it revealed a trapdoor about a meter wide. The old man grasped a barely noticeable handle, painted the same color and pattern of the trap door, and lifted it up, revealing a ladder leading down to the black market. Climbing down, Ayamu expected to hear a market that was quiet and loud at the same time. Instead, the market was a room that was probably no larger than 15 by 15 meters. There were 5 people arguing over some price for 3DMG in the right corner. Covering a board on the wall parallel to Ayamu, were hundreds of posters, many overlapping each other. Ayamu moved closer to the board. Each poster listed the item, service, person they were selling (sometimes actioning) the starting price, and a date and time. Ayamu realized that black market in the above ground was done differently, instead of people setting up stalls and selling items on spot, the seller had a meeting time that they sold what they were selling.
"That's smart." Ayamu said to no one in particular. That way the chances of them getting busted is minimized. Ayamu fished her pockets for a piece of paper and a pencil, she found an old scouting report, flipped it over and wrote:
Contact in the Survey Corps. Going for 7 silver per report. August 26th, 11:49 pm.
Satisfied with what she wrote, she pinned the piece of paper on the board with a blunt dart. Ayamu turned around and headed to the ladder, climbing up she wondered if anyone would actually take her seriously. Taking one last look at the piece of paper, she wondered why she was still clinging on the slim hope, a hope that she was still alive. Ayamu turned back at the ladder, and continued to the surface.
Ayamu was able to get the the Survey Corps' dorm by 2:45. Climbing through the window, she was able to at least able to get in without anyone noticing, unless somebody had a habit of watching windows. Which Ayamu found highly unlikely.
Ayamu went to her bunk without making as much as a creak on the wooden floor boards. Floorboards always had a side that creaked, and one that didn't. She had a mental map in her mind where was safe and where was not that she edited and improved on in the morning, when nobody would pay attention to how she crossed the room. 10 years of practice had at least taught her that much.
Easing herself down to the bunk, she lied down and closed her eyes. She could barely feel the excitement of a plan that she had came up with 5 years ago finally come into play. It was a rough start, but more and more things were falling in place.
That night she fell asleep with a grin on her face.
Continuation of dream.
Ayamu's hopes disappeared as soon as Michiyo disappeared down the hallway. She didn't struggle, she had given up a long time ago. Knowing she would probably never see her sister again, her only connection to this cruel world, she crumpled down to the floor of her cell.
Then, she felt something she thought she would never feel again.
"No, not now." Ayamu nearly cried. The feeling of danger. The feeling something big and life-changing was going to happen. She thought she would never feel it again since the last request.
It came suddenly, first a calm before the storm. Then all at once the world she knew fell into havoc.
She didn't have time to register the growing cracks webbing across the wall, not even the time to hear the crash beyond the walls.
Just deafening noise one moment. The ceiling collapsed. She was smashed to the floor. Bits of rock and debris rained on top of her. A heavy weight crashed on her right leg.
Then it was over.
Feeling a mix of relief and horror, she looked up, barely daring herself to do so.
A Titan, towering 15 meters tall, was smiling down at her.
She would never see her beloved little sister again.
Ayamu stared up at the top her bunk. It was kind of funny really, she had that dream right after she had tried to reach out to her little sister. Not like she hadn't had the same dream for most of her life.
Today would be her first day of training as someone that wasn't an outcast in a squad. Since Levi was the leader of the squad, and Levi came from the same place as her, the others would be ignoring her as usual. Which Ayamu had still not decided whether that was a good thing or not.
Ayamu rolled over to pick up the notebook that she used as notes to remember on her black market duties. It had been almost three weeks since she had last taken a job. While it was stupid to leave her notes where anyone could pick it up and immediately figure out all her ambitions, then again, it was well known that she studied human anatomy so she could become skilled at combat. Ayamu designed the notebook in a way that at first glance, it would appear as her notes that she studied, but all the black market information was hidden in footnotes, labels, stuff that a normal person would overlook. So if anyone picked it up and was nosy enough to flip through it, they would just see normal notes and put it down. Quite literally, all of her secrets were hidden in plain sight. She opened the notebook and jot down:
Success at the perfect time where fantasies roar.
Ayamu looked at the sentence and was confident that no one would be able to figure out what she had wrote. She didn't think people would figure out 11:49 was the perfect time, or that 'Fantasies roar' was a Blazing Dragon. Getting up, Ayamu got dressed and figured that Levi would be out in the training fields since they would be meeting there in few minutes at 6. She slipped on a bracelet, made out of some animal's teeth, as a good luck charm.
Heading out to the training fields, Ayamu saw Levi leaning against a tree, staring at her as she walked to him. She could feel his eyes narrowing at her.
"So have you decided on a second in command yet?" Ayamu said in her most boring normal voice. Looking at his half sour half confused expression, Ayamu could barely choke back a laugh down her throat.
"*sigh* and why would a brat like you care?" Levi said in his usual monotone.
"Because I want to know the chances of the both of you dying on the next expedition."
Levi narrowed his eyes at her.
Right at the time, the clock struck 6. The squad gathered, and Ayamu merged in with the crowd.
"Okay," Levi said as boring as ever, "all of you are here then."
He studied the six of them. His eyes locked on a girl with golden brown hair tossed back in a braid.
"Kelsi, you'll be my second in command." Kelsi looked a bit shocked, but straightened up immediately.
"Hi." The girl next to Ayamu whispered in her ear. "I'm Rina." Looking down on Rina, she couldn't have been much taller than Levi. Maybe 5 foot 4. "Nice to meet you!" she continued, again in an hurried whisper.
"Today we'll be practicing hand-to-hand combat, Ayamu will not be using any sort of explosive, gun, or whatever other thing she got from the black market." Ayamu wanted to punch Levi for knowing her that well.
At that time, Hanji ran into the training fields.
"Everybody!" Hanji shouted. "Erwin's gone missing! They left a ransom note signed from some called the 'Royals'!"
Ayamu perked up, finally, something had caught her attention. She could tell this was going to be interesting.
