Cutting off your own leg was a whole lot more difficult than it seems.
Years of losing limbs in skirmishes against the titans and the invading Warriors must have made him forgetful of how sturdy the human body really could be, even without titanic regeneration abilities. It did seem like he and his fellow titan shifters formed a habit of losing limbs, either to the ravenous Pure Titans or in combat with their contemporaries within the Nine.
Still, even with his own superhuman pain tolerance, it hurt like a bitch. It probably didn't help that it was done with a half-rusted trench knife.
He had intended on being honourably injured on the battlefield while fighting on behalf of Marley in the so-called "War of Middle Eastern Aggression." After months of warring in the trenches on the Marleyan frontier, it should've been easy enough to get himself injured by a stray bullet or artillery barrage. However, even as the glorious battle ended in victory, Eren Yeager was, unfortunately, unscathed.
The same could not be said of his comrades in the 8th Eldian Redemptionist Infantry regiment. Their Marleyan officers had ordered for human wave tactics to be deployed in a mass assault against the Middle Eastern lines. Of course, the lives of mere Eldian devils meant nothing to the top brass, and as such, the rising casualties were ignored.
He and his fellow infantrymen were pulverized by artillery fire as they went over the top of the Marleyan trenches, only to be met by walls of barbed wire that shredded their limbs and tore their flesh down to the bone. Once someone was wrapped up in the wire, they were easy pickings for the enemy machine gun nests where hundreds of Eldians would fall to a single salvo.
But, in his opinion, it was better to try your luck with the barbed wire than attempt to brave the minefields. One wrong step and one of the cruel contraptions would trigger, exploding and almost certainly killing any non-shifter in the process.
Although some survived, they were the real unlucky ones. Mangled and crippled beyond repair (although Marley wouldn't dare waste valuable medical equipment on lost causes), they were now left alone, defenseless and bleeding out in the barren no man's land between the trench lines. The officer corps wouldn't dare to waste their time by authorizing a rescue operation for the dying Eldian devils and the Middle Easterners had a strict policy of taking no Eldian prisoners. To them, who hated Eldians with a fervor that made Marley appear as benevolent overlords, the only good Eldian was a dead one.
Of course, none of this really mattered, since after a few hours of assaults, the Marleyans ordered a general retreat to allow their artillery and Warrior corps to finish off the enemy. His fellow soldiers in the regiments only purpose was to soften the enemy up until victory could be achieved.
Their lives were worthless.
It almost reminded Eren of the Survey Corps, fighting unwinnable battles for a future that seemed nigh impossible to achieve. He thought of this to give him strength to carry on his impromptu amputation.
It certainly did its job. The self-inflicted injuries alongside his stellar performance in the battlefield granted him the luxury of medical treatment. Eren would soon himself on one of the first trains back to the Eldian ghetto in Liberio. It was there that the Marley would lay preparations for their next and final war.
They would declare war on the kingdom of Paradis, and they would find their doom in that war. Before that, however, he would need to recover from his wounds in a local field hospital.
His luxurious treatment was courtesy of Zeke, of course. Most Eldians would still be in the trenches to treat their own wounds with the meager assistance of their understaffed field medic corps. Others, of course, were simply left on the battlefield to die.
Perhaps he went a little too far in some places. Eren doubted that gouging out one of his eyes alongside amputating one of his legs was necessary to appear as a crippled veteran.
It was too late for regrets however, and he had far more deep and troubling regrets than his newfound lack of depth perception. Lying alone on a hospital bed in the middle of night, missing an eye and leg tended to leave one with nothing but their past failures to mull over.
Don't think about her, Eren. Just forget about her. There's no more room for doubt anymore.
Turning on his good side, he tried to force himself to sleep and clear his mind. It didn't work. The quiet of the hospital broken only by the soft humming of the cicadas, the night sky outside the window illuminated by a billion stars and the distant sounds of revelry from the victorious soldiers all reminded him of that night in the refugee camp so many months ago.
Looks like the future doesn't change.
I was so disappointed…
You're family.
Eren was forced from the chaos that was his inner thoughts by the sound of footsteps approaching, easily recognized thanks to his trained senses. From the corner of his eye, Eren could make out the distinct amber light of a night lamp approaching his area of the ward.
That was odd. The nurses should have all finished their rounds that night. His paranoid mind immediately jumped to the possibility of an assassin that somehow learnt of his location and was sent for the purpose of getting rid of the Founding Titan once and for all.
Maybe it was Zeke, off to visit his dear little brother. He did have a strange look on his face directly after the battle. It was ridiculously smug, even by his standards. He had run off to his debriefing after the battle and was still probably speaking to the Marleyan High Command, but still made sure to meet up with him that afternoon to have a short chat and later left, simply telling Eren to "enjoy himself."
Whatever the hell that meant.
As the lamp grew ever closer, he turned his head to give the impression that he was fast asleep andreached underneath the pillow for his trench knife, expertly smuggled into the hospital just in case.
Mere moments later, Eren's anxiety was put to rest as the shadowy figure crossed the curtains that separated his bed from the other patients admitted to the ward. He made out the figure of a woman wearing a plain grey dress and pure white apron, marked with a telltale red cross above the insignia of the Eldian star.
Just a nurse assigned to the Eldians. Nothing to worry about.
But Eren was far from relieved. No nurses should be walking the wards this time, and there was something about this one in particular that seemed especially suspicious, even beyond her absurd sense of time. She walked slowly and with a sense of uncertainty and anxiety as though she hadn't been treating wounded soldiers for months on end in a brutal foreign war.
Her outfit doesn't suggest she's a novice or trainee at all.
More so, the mysterious figure was clutching her lamp with both hands as if it were a lifeline, hands trembling. And clearly, she wasn't ready to reveal herself as she made sure to hide her face, ensuring it remained shrouded by darkness as well as on the same side as his missing eye.
Now he really regretting gouging it out and leaving himself a cyclops.
Still, Eren doubted the mystery woman actually means him any harm, considering judging solely from her body language alone she looked more spooked of him than he was of her. The nurse was simply staring at him while clutching her dim lantern with a trembling hand.
Unwilling to tolerate another second of this odd stalemate, Eren quickly pulled himself upwards, resting his back on his rather hard pillow and craning his neck so he could finally get a good look at the face of his secret admirer.
He really wished he did so slower. She was no nurse at all, and definitely not Marleyan. He knew that face anywhere. A sharply angled, exotic face with raven black hair and onyx eyes to boot. She was the reason for his sleepless night in the first place.
"Eren."
And of course, that stoic, quiet and unmistakeable voice. The voice of someone who definitely should not be here. He wouldn't, couldn't show his surprise.
Gathering his composure, he responded in kind.
"Hello, Mikasa."