Something Wicked - 6
He nearly stopped himself from sighing at the latest performance in front of him. Levi was actually starting to get tired of doing it, but such a simple action would fill the latest recruit with a sensation of disappointment in themselves and then perhaps they would try harder next time. He still had yet to yell at any of them for slip-ups, mainly because the 'incident' game of theirs was beginning to irritate him.
Especially after Krista was no longer avoiding him due to his apology. Though she hadn't given her answer to him yet concerning the status of their relationship. Which was also irritating him now. It wasn't because of the lack of an answer to such an important question, but the amount of time it was taking her to even decide. Or the fact that she could have decided already, but couldn't tell him yet because she couldn't find a time to tell him.
With the castle more-or-less livable now he was either in meetings or with the recruits or his own soldiers for various reasons. It didn't allow for many openings when he was alone and she would be able to talk to him about it.
Levi let out a deeper sigh as he looked past the recruits in front of him. He should have kept her there in the room so he wasn't currently thinking about it. Just had her decide right then and there like he had planned at the beginning. But no, he just had to let her go to think about it.
He had seen the look in her eyes before leaving. She had figured out his plan - a part anyway - and it must have spooked her. That's why she wasn't giving him an answer yet; why he hadn't seen her.
Even if she had said no when he asked he could have easily swayed her. At the time before she left - before she noticed the bolt on the door - Krista had looked like she would have agreed to anything if only he had demanded it rather than asked. He shouldn't have given her that choice.
If someone else were to approach her now while he couldn't keep an eye on her he might very well lose her, and that wasn't acceptable. Her smaller stature, mid-length golden hair that flowed just over her shoulders, blue eyes that glittered like a jewel; all of it made her perfect. Those little noises she had made when he touched her before, sub-combing so easily to his touch. She was made for him.
No one else.
"Sir, are you alright?" His gaze focused on what was in front of him; one of the recruits with blonde hair that was already making his mind wander back to Krista. "You look distracted."
Levi scowled at this, his mind racing back to the present so he could better recognize the recruit. Armin, a rather observant recruit and currently poking his nose where it didn't belong. "Armin, was it?" he asked, as if he couldn't bother to remember the name when Erwin had pointed out that this recruit had potential for a position in leadership. At the nod of Armin's head he continued, "You either focus on your given task or you do a hundred laps around the perimeter."
Armin blinked, but seemed to get the message as he backed up a step shortly after. "Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to intrude."
He was tempted to pinch the bridge of his nose when Armin didn't go right back to the training as expected, but Erwin had said to let him do these things after the Military Police had come in to do their investigation. Apparently the man thought this recruit would see something they didn't. Levi just hadn't expected that he would be a part of these observations; or maybe he should've expected it. He had taken Krista from the investigation - with a legitimate alibi - and that must have drawn the kid's attention. If Armin was going to continue standing there he might as well ask for his thoughts on the issue. "Whatever," he waved off the recruits' earlier comment. "What do you think of the investigation the Military Police is conducting?"
Armin was silent for a couple of seconds before speaking, "From the rumors it's just like what everyone else is thinking. That they're not getting anywhere and this whole investigation is pointless because of it."
"Is that right?" his words came out sarcastic. Of course it was. Whoever actually thought the Military Police were getting anywhere didn't have half a brain.
"Yes, and..."
With Armin's long pause it seemed he was going to have to drag out one of those thoughts he had asked for. "What is it?"
"I don't believe Krista did it. Though I can't speak directly for everyone else I don't think they believe the Military Police's assumption either."
He had to stop another sigh from coming out: from the mention of Krista and that the Military Police was still going with their first conclusion jump for all the wrong reasons. He was beginning to think he shouldn't have pulled her from the investigation. "Is that what they think?"
"Well, her gear checked out, but they didn't get to talk to her themselves. Plus they're convinced the lookout that confirmed her story along with yours is lying about when she got back."
Great. "So they're more ignorant than a maggot?"
Armin didn't reply to that question, not that he expected him to. The recruit just bit on his lip as if trying to suppress a laugh, but his gaze was no longer on Levi.
He turned to look behind him and see the Military Police that had come for the investigation walking across the courtyard to them. They weren't particularly close, but Armin must have thought there was a chance they had heard the last bit of the conversation and didn't want to chance being caught laughing at their failure or anything that insinuated it. Levi didn't plan to just let them get away with an insinuation after what he had just heard though. "Did you manage to do that favor I asked of you?"
The officer was immediately scowling. "We didn't find the perpetrator because we weren't allowed to question one of your recruits."
"Really?" Levi glanced to the lookouts on top of the wall. "Do I need to get the lookout to come and tell you everything he saw with me looking after him to make sure he feels threatened into telling you the truth this time?" His gaze landed back on the officer. "Or do you think he would dare to lie even in my presence?"
When the officer didn't respond within the next second Levi turned to look at one of the recruits, ready to tell them to go and get the appropriate lookout from that night. Before he could say anything however the officer managed to speak up, "That won't be necessary. We already heard his side of the story and you said yourself that she was with you on patrol, which we confirmed."
Levi turned back to face the officer. "So you're leaving without a single person to answer for the deaths of those titans? Do you not understand the importance of their lives to our efforts or do you just not care enough to try harder?"
He could see the muscles along the officer's face twitching at being questioned like this before his subordinates, but he couldn't say he was sorry for it. Levi was actually enjoying himself. "All the equipment checked out, which leaves no suspects since they obviously used their gear to kill the titans. I find myself more concerned with the lack of structure to the Survey Corps though. You dish out punishments often enough yourself, but so far I haven't heard a thing about that girl being punished for speaking out of turn and not following my orders when I was put in command over the recruits for the duration of the investigation. Lucky for me it doesn't officially end until we leave so I can do that right now before we leave." As the officer spoke he motioned to one of the other members of the Military Police and they handed him a cane. One of the more brutal punishments and made for those that were far more severe than what Krista had done. His teeth practically gritted at the sight of it. "So, where is she? Hiding in that room again?"
Levi had to stop himself from scowling at the officer. Just because he had been put in charge of the investigation didn't give him the right to beat the members of the Corps. But they had left the investigation entirely in their hands and they were probably given free reign on how to go about doing it. The officer would just say this was necessary in his report to get whatever information they needed for the investigation.
Beyond that he hadn't actually thought to punish Krista himself at the time or after because there was no reason for her to be investigated in the first place. That and he had needed her to run errands while most of the Corps had been under the Military Police's scrutiny. He couldn't exactly be seen showing favor to any of the recruits though either. Especially Krista, who didn't even deserve a caning. He couldn't allow this officer to hurt her, not like that.
"Is that true?" He turned his gaze to Armin. Levi hadn't actually seen any of this himself, beyond Krista not being in formation when he got to the investigation; he had just heard bits and pieces of what had happened before he got there and people tended to exaggerate.
Armin took a breath, swallowing hard, eyes on that cane the officer was branding. "Yes, sir. Krista refused to join us in the investigation and repeatedly questioned the officer and talked back to him when he gave her an order to move her stuff back to the barracks."
At least the boy had enough sense to tell the truth and nothing more. "I see." Levi met the officers' gaze then. "It's my fault for not looking into the issue from before. I'll take care of her punishment for how she acted during the investigation."
The officer looked taken aback by this comment. "You will?"
"The recruits are under my responsibility at the moment."
"Then you'll need this-"
"No," Levi snapped the moment the officer tried to hand the cane over to him. "I'll take care of it." The only thing he needed was her since the officer was clearly waiting to see what he would do to Krista for her offense. All of the recruits should technically be close by. He knew only a few weren't supposed to be training with him right now as they were assigned different duties. So getting her here shouldn't be very difficult or take much time. "Krista!"
At his shout he heard a distinct clomp of a hoof on the dirt coming from the stables as one of the horses got startled, along with Krista.
He should have guessed she would be assigned to the stables for the day. He would have even gone and looked if he wasn't busy and his movements weren't currently being tracked by nearly all the recruits. They must have thought he didn't notice that they had slowly stopped their training to listen into his conversation with Armin shortly after the Military Police were mentioned and now they were only focused on watching this interaction between him and them.
"Sir," he heard Krista as she ran over from the stables. Instead of acknowledging her though Levi waited for her to get just a tad closer before his arm struck out like a snake; his fingers curling into her hair as he tugged her head back in the opposite direction her body was moving before loosening his grip and striking her across the back of her head, effectively shoving her forward with one hand so that she landed on her hands and knees in front of him.
Before she could move to get back up he rested his left foot on her back. Partly in case the officer got it in his head to try and hit her with the cane while she was in such a vulnerable position. If he tried he would likely hit Levi in the process though and he was sure the officer wouldn't chance that.
"I had another question regarding your investigation if you don't mind staying for a minute or two longer."
The officer blinked before giving a nod of his head. "Sure."
Levi had to fight to suppress a grin. Now he could really rip into this so-called 'officer'. He launched himelf over Krista, making the officer stumble back before Levi sat down on his newly formed bench. He could hear Krista give a little gasp from the sudden weight on her back and raised his right leg so it was lying across his left leg, the knees nearly parallel with each-other. With him now supporting even less of his own weight he could feel Krista's arms and legs trembling, but it was necessary if she was going to get out of this without being hit with the cane.
The officer's gaze had moved down to Krista, but he needed the man's attention on him now, not her. The officer wouldn't fully understand the punishment if he was looking at her instead of him and then he might suggest it wasn't enough and Levi wasn't going to allow that. "Who did you investigate exactly?"
It took an extra second of silence but the officer did turn his gaze to him. "The recruits and soldiers of the Survey Corps. Besides a select group that Erwin had cleared, not including the recruit you took away from the investigation."
He was still mentioning that? Damn it. Stop mentioning Krista. She's not suppose to be here right now. She's not even human at the moment. "Help me understand something then. Beyond this select group that Erwin knew couldn't possibly be responsible for the deaths of those titans you didn't find anyone who's gear had been used without authorization?"
"No." The officer was looking at her again, evidently not comprehending what Levi was doing. It seemed he would need to make it more obvious than it already was for the officer to understand.
Levi raised a hand and snapped fingers in front of the officer's face. "What are you looking at?"
The officer jerked his head back in response. "The girl-"
"What girl?"
It only took a moment but the officer's face quickly twisted into one of disgust, having finally realized what Levi had meant when he said he would punish Krista and just how he was doing so. "I was looking at the chair."
"Shouldn't you be looking at me since I'm the one having a conversation with you? Or did you think that chairs could speak?" The officer remained silent though, handing off the cane to the subordinate behind him. At least the man didn't see a reason to have it in his possession anymore. Now all he needed was for him to leave. "If you couldn't find anyone in the Survey Corps with faulty equipment did you even think to look at your own people that have visited here before? I'm sure I saw a few of them the day before the titans were-"
"No one in the Military Police killed your precious titans!" The outrage of the officer was obvious, but he just needed to poke a bit further. Besides, Hange and him had just been discussing the possibility this morning after another day passed with no results.
"How would you know? You just said you only investigated the Survey Corps. Perhaps you should be investigating your own members that were here the day before they died. They are leaving with you today, aren't they? Why don't you question them right now where everybody can hear?"
The officer's face had actually began to turn a pale shade of red that would likely get dark quickly but it was then that the man turned away. "We're leaving!" With that the officer practically stormed off to the gates were the Military Police's horses waited. It only took a minute with the way the man was barking orders at them until they were out of the gates.
Levi waited for an extra minute though before he got up from Krista. "Get up." As Krista began to stand up he turned his attention to the rest of the recruits. "Everyone get back to your training."
He listened as they started practicing the move he had shown them before all of this had happened, still trying to perfect it. His gaze was back on the gate, until he heard footsteps besides Krista's going in the direction of the stables.
"Are you okay, Krista?"
Levi glanced out of the corner of his eye at the man that was following Krista. "Reiner, a hundred laps around the perimeter, now."