~ Mikasa Ackerman ~

There's no way that Instructor Shadis can supervise all of them during the morning 10 kilometer run, so trainees often cheat by taking long rests in the forest and taking shortcuts through the abandoned factory later. Perhaps it's because they see endurance training as having no direct impact on their scores, and that's why they don't even try. And all those cowards are trying to be Military Police so they can retreat within Wall Sina and never fight again.

Mikasa occasionally attempts to rectify this lax behavior by duelling with the coward. It's for their own benefit, she assures herself; she's reinforcing their training. Samuel especially has become much more proficient in running and dodging while keeping screaming down to a minimum, and Millius manages to land a couple hits on her (but only because she purposely left herself open).

Still, it isn't long before she punches their lights out.

Dazz is the latest addition to a long line of bruised and bloody weaklings littering the abandoned factory. He squeals and runs when he spots her, but two steps and she has his leg in her death grip, dragging him back along the ground. His fingernails leave gouges in the concrete flooring and his face leaves a slime trail of tears and snot.

"Spar with me," she says calmly.

"No! Get away from me! Please!"

"Just show me that defensive stance we practiced yesterday. If you do it right, I won't be able to knock out your front teeth."

"I don't wanna die!"

"Save that phrase for a Titan encounter."

"Then at least spare the family jewels—eeeeeee!"

Dazz is the last straw; as soon as she's finished with him, Mikasa calls it quits and completes the short run from the abandoned factory back to the training grounds to check in with Instructor Shadis. She finishes with an hour and a half left to spare till lunch, so in the meanwhile, she decides that she'll take a quick shower, just to rinse off the sweat, tears, and blood (none of which are hers) off her body.

Fight. Fight and win.

But there's more to that. What she was doing in the abandoned factory—that was more like kicking ass. There wasn't any sort of training in that situation. She needs to spar with somebody who actually knows what they're doing.

(Maybe I'll slip in a quick spar with Reiner before lunch. Less ass kicking, more actual fighting.)

She's pulling showering materials out of her trunk of possessions when Eren opens the door and shouts, "Armin?"

There are other girls lounging around in the cabin, but nobody screams, "Kyah! Pervert!" because they all think that Eren's more interested in killing Titans than finding out what puberty actually is. (Which is probably true, though Mikasa's heart refuses to believe it.) Some fangirls giggle until Mikasa looks at them expressionlessly, which they probably interpret as the Glare of Death and shut up appropriately.

"Eren," she says calmly, slinging her towel over one shoulder and giving him her full attention instead of diving deeper in her trunk to look for clean underpants. Although she washes her clothes on a regular basis and always makes sure that she has at least two clean sets of clothes, Mikasa could swear that her number of panties is shrinking. Maybe another girl is mistakenly taking her clothes.

Eren thankfully adheres to the rules of not entering the dormitory of the opposite gender, and he remains in the doorway as he questions, "Have you seen Armin?"

"I didn't see him during the run."

"The run's over now," Eren says, "The problem is, I don't think he even started. I mean, I saw him when I woke up, but I lost him some time in between going to the bathroom and trading insults with Jean."

A couple fangirls twitter until Mikasa glances in their direction again.

Eren huffs, "Never mind, I'll find him."

"I'll help," Mikasa says, placing her towel on her bed and standing up.

"What? No!" protests Eren. "Have you seen yourself? You're covered in dirt and blood and sweat!" He rolls his eyes. "And I'm pretty sure none of it is even yours."

"Correct. The green slime is mostly from Dazz's nose."

Eren grimaces before turning his back on her and leaving the cabin. "Yeah. Go clean yourself up before you catch the ugly."

Mikasa sighs heavily before continuing her search for clean underwear; eventually, however, she must abandon her search for fear of smearing the grime on her hands all over her clean clothes. She'll just walk over in her dirty clothes, shower, and walk back wrapped in just her towel (and if any boy leers at her, she'll make sure to punch him in the face later.) Thus, with the large towel slung over one shoulder and a bar of soap held in her hand, she sets off for the girls' bathrooms.

Perhaps she should be worrying about Armin more, but she cannot imagine that he would be in any harm. Armin is nothing like Eren, who would eagerly throw himself into fist fights even if he had no chance of winning. Despite the weakness of his body, Armin possesses a strong mind and thus would know how to not put himself into danger. She trusts Armin to stay smart and protect himself by not doing stupid things, like trying to walk between Krista and Mama-Bear Ymir, or stealing Sasha's food. Heaven knows that girl becomes a rabid animal when deprived of sustenance, and that she can't be blamed for any damage she may cause in her blind rage.

The bathrooms are completely empty when Mikasa enters, so she doesn't bother shielding herself as she begins to shed her soiled clothes.

"Were you the one who beat up all those soldiers?"

The voice comes from directly behind her. Mikasa curses to herself silently, because she hadn't even heard the girl approach. Also, without looking, Mikasa knows who it is. It's the blonde girl who maliciously enjoys inflicting as much pain as she can onto Eren, all in the name of training—and even worse, Eren looks forward to it, and was furious the first few times Mikasa tried to save him. Mikasa's enemy #1: Annie Leonhart.

She doesn't turn around, instead shedding her blood-splattered shirt. "Who told you?"

"Reiner called me and Mina over to a hidden storage room in the abandoned factory. The few conscious survivors all had matching stories of a 'terrifying goddess with raven hair who effortlessly punched them in their unworthy faces'." Annie repeats these over-the-top words in a complete flat tone of sarcasm.

Mikasa finally turns around, but the words die on the tip of her tongue at Annie's complete lack of clothing, save for a rolled up towel hanging around her neck.

This should be normal. Annie has no sense of shame and openly strips in front of the entire cabin before slipping into bed. But Naked Annie has always been halfway across the sleeping quarters, so far away that she's barely taller than a few centimeters in Mikasa's vision. Now, Annie is literally standing fifty centimeters away, so close that Mikasa can just almost feel the puff of the blonde's breathing against her own skin.

For a second or two, she can do nothing but blink in shock.

That action might as well have been a sign of weakness, because a corner of Annie's mouth curls upwards ever so slightly. She settles into her unique fighting stance, fists held up close and in front of her face. "Spar with me."

It takes much more will than Mikasa expected to pull her eyes off the shock of Annie's body (is her chest really that small?) and pull herself together. "Not now," she says as calmly as she can manage, shedding her white trousers.

Annie's position doesn't change. "Now or never."

If you do not fight, you die.

Turns out she won't have to kick Reiner's ass after all. She can kill two birds with one stone by teaching Eren's abuser to never mess with her family. She hurriedly sheds the rest of her clothing; no sense in giving Annie something to grab onto.

Unfortunately, the monster doesn't let her get that far.

Next week: Up until this moment, Mikasa hadn't known that she was missing a piece of her heart. (It's not Annie.)

"That… was just… Round 1. Trust me... I can keep going."

"Mikasa, what were you two—"

"NOTHING. Nothing happened."