"Fucking disgusting..."

Levi's boots slid across the slick mud. He scrambled for traction and found none, leaving a long gouge in the ground.

Humanity's strongest, almost beaten by some rain...

He tugged on the reins that slipped and slid through the fingers of his right hand. After a brief moment of resistance, his horse followed him morosely from the shelter of the stables and into the rain, ears flattened against the weather.

"I'm not thrilled, either," Levi said plainly, folding the reins against the horse's neck with his left hand and grabbing the stirrup iron with his right. As he swung into the saddle, finding a few choice words for the world and everything in it, movement across the stable yard caught his eye and what he saw made his dreary day grow immeasurably worse.

Premier Darius Zackly was riding towards him astride a kindly-looking black gelding, Commander Erwin following a few feet behind him on a tall, refined mare. The premier examined Levi with an expression akin to someone examining a slightly concerning rash.

"You're late."

Levi did not respond.

"This is some weather," Erwin said, filling the silence gracelessly. He wiped rainwater from his forehead. "Levi, the premier has expressed interest in watching your new squad train today—I invited him out for the morning. The government was reasonably generous in their budget for this venture, hence the interest from the higher-ups...and I would be lying through my teeth if I said that I wasn't just a bit curious as well." He shot a furtive glance at the premier, who was looking in the opposite direction across the yard, and added in a low voice, "Levi, please behave."

"I will if he does," Levi responded darkly.

Erwin opened his mouth and then seemed to think better of it.

x

"What are we going to see from your new squad today, Captain?"

They had ridden their horses steadily eastward at a rambling trot; they had been moving into the wind for the duration of their brief journey and were all thoroughly wet. Erwin kept wringing out his cloak like a washcloth.

The men halted in a clearing familiar to them; Levi squinted up into the pouring rain, gazing through the shadows of the trees and gathering mist. The dark outlines of the padded Titan targets were visible through the gloom—despite the knowledge that they were carved from wood, their silhouettes made the hairs on his arms and neck stand on end.

"I'm also interested in seeing what they look like, if that's what you're asking," Levi responded flatly, swallowing his instinct. The combination of the rain saturating every inch of his person and the unexpected company had left him in a poor temper before they had even left the stable yard; the primal fear that reared its ugly head at sight of the cutouts had him running on a particularly short fuse.

The premier, however, appeared to remain blissfully unaware of Levi's irritation. "Surely you can tell me something about them—and there are several in the capitol who are just as interested as I am. What separates them from other squads? How well-coordinated are they as a unit? Which of them shows the most potential to be your second-in-command in the f—?"

"As of now, I don't have the faintest clue," Levi interrupted, scrubbing his thumb over a spot of rubbery grime on his right rein.

"Don't have th—?"

"I'll share my thoughts once I see them in flight."

The premier pushed his rimless glass back up his nose. "Do you mean to tell—" He took a deep breath and started over, remembering himself. "Are you telling me, Captain, that you have never seen these people train before today?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you," Levi responded coolly.

The premier looked from Levi to Erwin and then back again as though his two subordinates were partaking in a particularly engaging tennis rally. Levi studied Erwin's face carefully, but if Erwin was surprised or disappointed, he wasn't betraying the fact.

"Did you authorize this, Commander Erwin?" asked the premier. His voice was very tight.

"I turned him loose," replied Erwin, and his tone betrayed no more than his expression. "This is his squad. We all have to live with the residue of Captain Levi's choices—him more than any of us. I allowed him to utilize his own judgment."

"...and you trust Captain Levi's judgment."

It wasn't a question, but Erwin answered . "...implicitly."

Through the even patter of falling rain, Levi could hear it: the unmistakable mechanical whir of ODM gear rushed up behind them. Before he could voice this observation, something erupted into the open from the branches overhead, showering him and his colleagues with leaves and twigs.

The premier cast wary eyes towards the sky as he peeled a leaf from his glasses. "Who is this?"

"That's Oluo Bozado," said Levi, running a hand through his horse's mane to shake loose the fallen foliage. He didn't have to look twice to know—Oluo was, for all of his talents, was clumsy in the air and even more so on the ground.

"I know of him, of course: I've heard that he is exceptional, if something of a handful...birds of a feather," the premier remarked with another darkly appraising look at Levi.

Two more blurry figures emerged overhead with trained elegance. They closely followed the path that Bozado was blazing, moving steadily towards the outlines of the targets in the distance.

"Whoever has the worse hair of the two is Eld Shin. The other one is Gunther Shultz," Levi said preemptively, anticipating the question. He wasn't an eager person by nature, but he could drum up some enthusiasm for anything that got him out of the rain and away from ignorant scrutiny. "Shin is mature and tactical. Schultz is unrelenting. Both them and Bozado have extensive combat experience." He pointed through the mist towards the cutout Titans. "If you ride that way, I'm sure that you will be able to see that all three of them will be making clean cuts of each and every one—likely before you get there."

The premier and Erwin collected their reins, intending to follow the trio. Before they were able to advance further into the forest, however, the low buzz of ODM gear reached their ears once more and they dropped their hands, looking behind them into the dark line of trees. Levi let out a breath that he didn't realize that he'd been holding—he had been wondering whether his wild card would be able to keep up with the men and her lack of an appearance until now had not been reassuring.

She appeared in a shower of water droplets and twigs like Oluo had but, despite the break in the treeline, did not falter in her pursuit. She cartwheeled through the air with the athleticism of a gymnast—she wasn't as fast as Bozado or as strong as any of the three men, Levi noticed, but she was graceful and...'aerodynamic' was the best word for it. Her build lent her a natural grace as she cut smooth arcs between the trees, her cloak thrashing in the weather.

"That one—" the premier said, pointing.

"...what about her?"

"I've heard plenty of Bozado before, for better or worse. Shin and Schultz ring a bell...likely because of their achievements in the field. I have no idea who that was, though. She looks far too young to be here."

"She's quite a bit younger that someone that I'd normally have considered," Levi allowed grudgingly. "Petra Ral...field reports indicate that Ral has an exceptional record concerning her number of Titan kills in team efforts, proving that she can be group-oriented—which is something that was sorely needed on a team of brash, bull-headed men. At my request, Section Commander Hange Zoe also located complementing reports detailing exceptional combat skills."

The premier frowned, but his eyes were thoughtful. "How many kill assists are we talking about here?"

"Over thirty, if the field reports don't lie."

"Are they lying, though?" the premier responded. "It seems so unlikely; she looks as though a strong wind might knock her over." His expression was hard to read behind the water shining off of the lenses of his glasses, but the suspicion in his voice left so little doubt as to what weighed on his mind that his next question was quite unnecessary. "Are you sure that you did not pick her just because she is a very pretty girl?"

Erwin, who had been quiet for a long time, sensed danger. "You know," he said a bit too loudly, looking fixedly at the spot where the girl had disappeared into the trees. "Her record aside, I can see why she would be a reasonable choice. I just saw her for about five seconds and I found those five seconds very impressive...though she just needs someone to remind her that she is in the military instead of a talent show, flipping through the forest like that. I can't think of a better person for that particular job," he added, throwing Levi a shadow of a smile. "She's blatantly capable. If I'm honest..." His voice dropped suddenly. "She reminds me of Isabel Magnolia."

For someone who had spent the last several years running damage control on Levi's moods, this was not the right thing to say at all. Levi's horse gave a scrambling jump as its rider dug both heels into its ribs and set off at a rapid trot towards the target area, its back hollow in distaste. Though the path was overgrown, the trees were thinner overhead and Levi pulled up the hood of his cloak against the barrage of wind, rain, and the voices growing more faint behind him.