Afternoon (post-training workout)

"Like hell your abs are bigger than mine!"

"Oh yeah? Just take a good look at them."

"Yeah, I can barely see them underneath all that baby fat, you midget. So mine might be smaller in width, but just look how deep the grooves are between mine."

"If you're so blind, then I guess we'll have to do a side-by-side comparison. You can't deny it if our abs are right next to each other!"

"Fine! Then you can really see how invisible your abs are compared to my six pack!"

"Argh! You're too tall; your crotch is hiding the lower half of my abs! Bend your legs a little!"

And this is how Krista stumbles across the hilarious scene of Eren and Jean, all hot and sweaty from working out, pressing their lower torsos together in an effort to compare their abdominals. She doesn't scream, "GAY!" and run though (she figures she can talk due to she and Ymir… well, you know), because it would ruin her nice girl image.

Even more importantly, though, Krista's late to her own workout with Misaka.

She's usually not late, but Ymir… well, you know. It all started with the Big O Face, and now she won't stop. Not that Krista's complaining, and she's working on reducing her volume… but still, it's really, really embarrassing in public.

Speaking of embarrassing… "Jean: that better be a breadstick in your pocket."

"I'll have you know that it is indeed the hardest, longest loaf of bread I could find."

"That's not bread! That's a rock!"

"And I intend to beat Connie around the head with it."

"You'll seriously hurt him if you do that!"

"And then we'll all see just how well he can blow on this! I'll bet he can't even get 5 cm of this into his midget mouth!"

Anyways, Krista successfully manages to slip past Eren and Jean's disturbing conversation and into the exercise room. There are few trainees here, because it's literally been ten minutes since they were released from their afternoon training, and most people are too tired or lazy. Mina and Annie are lifting weights in one corner and spotting each other and Mikasa is standing alone next to a pull-up bar. Thomas is in the first aid station right next to the exercise room, wrapping bandages around what strangely look like bloody bite marks on his upper torso, arms, and neck.

Krista doesn't have time to wonder how Thomas got teeth marks around his nipples (she and Ymir never got that crazy) because the moment Mikasa spots her, she begins the normal stretches, emphasizing lower body stretches. Krista mirrors her immediately, mentally preparing herself to extremely sore legs, glutes, and abdominals tonight.

The workout is mostly silent, which makes Mikasa's single words of encouragement that much more powerful. Krista and Mikasa lie on their backs and cycle their legs in the air, then lay their legs straight down on the ground and sit all the way up until they can touch their toes. They lie on their stomachs and do backward crunches. Mikasa forces her down into the splits and she gains maybe another centimeter before she feels like she might pull a groin muscle. She hangs from a bar and pulls her legs up to a 90 degree angle with her torso, then does mini crunches suspended there in air; Mikasa stands right next to her, clapping out a steady rhythm the entire time, and Krista does the same for her when they switch places.

At the end, Krista marvels at the definition of her abs. A tiny vindictive part of her wishes that she could still march outside and get in on Erejean's abs competition, though her obsessive need to be pure and nice quickly squashes it. Besides, it's not likely that Eren and Jean have been pushing their crotches against each other for the past hour, is it?

Well, she can still compare with Mina. Maybe. Her brain starts calculating nice and innocent ways of approaching the topic with Mina and Annie. Or she could ask about Thomas' welfare and compare with him, though at this point, the boy has so many white bandages on his body that she can't really see his abs. Or skin.

Eren's distress leaks through the walls of the exercise room as he cries, "Mikasa! I need your help!"

Needless to say, Mikasa freezes immediately, ready to rush over to Eren's side no matter where he is. This isn't necessary, though, because Eren and Jean enter the location seconds later, the front of their shirts pulled up and over their heads, revealing their muscular torsos.

"I need you to be our judge…" Eren begins, before slowly trailing off as Mikasa straightens up and adjusts her black sports bra. Though she wears it so that she can let her skin breathe and most certainly doesn't mean to show off her midriff, the definition of all her muscles (and not just her eight-pack) is displayed for everyone to see.

Behind Eren, Jean begins to slink away, a look of absolute despair on his face. "I… I'll just be in my room… crying manly tears of shame."

"Why are you wearing your shirt like this?" Mikasa questions Eren urgently. "Exposing your chest like this when the sun's almost about to set—you're going to catch a cold if you don't bundle up." She grabs his shirt and attempts to pull it back over his head.

"Stop—stop it, Mikasa! Stop! Me and Jean, we were comparing…" Eren's voice dies away as he gets a good look at her abdominals again. "Never mind. I'm just going to leave now." He brushes MIkasa off and turns around, just as Connie shows up, dragging a gigantic rucksack behind him.

"Eat it!" Connie yells, plunging his hand into his bag and pulling out at least seven lumps of bread. With practiced motion, he begins rapid-fire pelting Eren with a barrage of bread.

"Ow! Connie! Not you too! Ouch! Seriously, stop!"

In response, Connie throws one straight into Eren's face so hard that it momentarily smashes his face in, knocking him back a meter. Misaka's nostrils flare, conveying indignant rage even though her face remains as expressive as a block of stone. She takes a step forward, ready to pound justice into Connie's head…

…but Jean gets there first, raising an oblong loaf of bread so burnt and hardened that it resembles a rock more than anything above Connie's head. "Die!"

"STOP!"

They all freeze in place at Krista's yell—even Mina, Annie, and Thomas in the background—except for Connie, who scampers off like a naughty Santa with his bag of naughty toys. Oh well; at least that's one problem gone, Krista supposes. Now, to wrap the other loose ends…

At least, that's what she would have done, had not Sasha sprinted up to them, panting, "Do you hear that?"

Krista's one of the few people who knows Sasha's full story—of her past life living in an isolated mountain village, maintaining humankind's superiority above the wolves and bears. Her hunter's lifestyle has given her an extreme perceptiveness of the environment around her. Knowing this, Krista has been able to see Sasha's actions within the training grounds with a deeper understanding: she often has hunches, an unexplained sixth sense, that directs her towards the best path of action.

If Sasha's onto something, Krista will definitely pay attention.

Thomas lets out a girly scream of terror and hides behind Mina, where he still lets out the occasional whimper of fear. When Krista puts a finger to her lips silently though, Thomas clams up completely.

There it is: a tiny whine, steadily growing louder and clearer. It's actually a lot more like a scream. Like the scream of a beast while unexpectedly flying through the air…

A gigantic mass explodes through the cloud layer overhead, burning bright orange with air friction as it screams towards the ground. Krista has never seen such a beautiful yet frightening sight in her life, such a gigantic glowing sphere of fire falling from the sky, coming straight down on top of them.

And if she looks even closer, she gets the shivers… because the big falling rock looks like the screaming skull of a Titan.

-o-o-o-o-

Next time: Bertolt …

"You think I'll just offer myself to any bloke who squeezes my manly moobs?"