Chapter 17: Learning

"Alright, Elrics" said Levi handing them a drawing of a large contraptions with details of the inner mechanism, it looked to be made up of three slanted pillars with long wires attached to it that can be pulled up by a crank "Think you can make this?" asked Levi as he placed the wires on the ground.

"Yeah I can do it." Replied Ed, he, Alphonse, Levi and Eren were in an open space just outside the castle, Ed quickly studied the drawing and details, he clapped his hands together and placed them on the ground transmuting the large contraption as shown in the drawing before them.

"Huh… guess that saves us a trip to the training corps ground" remarked Levi, a little surprised that it worked "Alright Edward you're up first, attach the wires to the latches on your belt, the aim here is to stay upright in the air for at least ten seconds, if you boys master this than we move on to the second part of the training, if not then you're fucked and that means in extension we're fucked, so don't fuck this up, that's an order"

"Have a loose stance, but balanced" Eren advised "But also make sure your equipment isn't broken or you'll just lose balance and hit your head." He said rubbing his head as the painful memories of training camp returned to him.

"Alright… let's do this" said Ed, Levi then began to turn the wheel which pulled Ed into the air. Balance… it's all about balance… once he was lifted off the ground he began to wobble as he shifted his weight around, however he quickly managed to gain his composure; spreading his legs and arms to his side, he was intensely focused on every movement of the swing, counteracting any sharp movement in any direction, but neither Ed nor Alphonse were strangers to being suspended from the ground; the fighting style they were taught had incorporated punches and kicks in the mid air.

"Three…two…one…" counted Levi "Alright you passed" he then turned the wheel and lowered Ed to the ground

"Yeah!" proclaimed Ed, launching his fists into the air

"Way to go brother" congratulated Alphonse

"Alright, Ed!" cheered Eren

"Hey" interrupted Levi "Celebrate when you can work the ODM gear, Alphonse you're up next."

"Uh… what's the point of this again?" asked Alphonse as he stood on a stone platform with his ODM gear attached to him facing a large drop off the highest tower in the castle, his belt attached to a bungee cord which was very tightly tied to holes in the stone platform. At first he and Ed thought that it must have been time for them to try out the real thing, instead it looked as though there was more training to go through.

"Simple, ODM gear requires it's users to be able to keep calm under pressure while in the air, this is so you can get use to falling and being in the air at great heights, simulating what happens on a daily basis for ODM users" Explained Levi, standing behind Alphonse.

"Oh…ok…" said Alphonse as he looked down nervously "Just give me a secon-" he felt the hard shove on his back as Levi kicked him off the platform "Wooooahhhahhhhh!"

"Alright, pull him back up." Said Levi to Eld and Gunther, they then pulled at the wire, slowly dragging Alphonse up onto the platform, he grabbed the edge and pulled himself up, crawling onto platform on all fours, breathing frantically he then slowly go up to his feet to face Levi "Again" said Levi as he kicked Alphonse off the Platform a second time. After the fourth time, Alphonse then quickly got onto his feet on the platform and braced himself for being kicked off again. "You're done, Alphonse" said Levi.

"Really?" said Alphonse, pleased that it was over.

"No." responded Levi as he kicked Alphonse off the edge for a fifth time, only this time Alphonse was pretty much use to the feeling of falling, he didn't make a sound during his descent.

"Now you're done!" yelled Levi.

"Before I teach you how to operate the ODM gear you're gonna learn how to maintain your gear." said Levi holding up a piece of the ODM gear from the table in front of him it looked like a small metal wine barrel and had a small exhaust pipe "This is a vertical maneuvering device that is attached to the metal plates just above your asses and is connected to the belt with the hooks" He then picked up the handle "this is the operating device, you point them in the direction you want to fire the steel wire hooks, these get stored in the pockets just below your smelly armpits" He lowered the handle to the table and picked up the large metal rectangle container with the gas canister attached to it "this is your scarab with a gas canister on top, you hold your blades in here, you can hold four in each." He then lowered the scarab onto the table and picked up a one of the large blades "this is a flesh pairing sword; attach them to the operating device use them to slice the nape of the Titan." He then placed the blade down and picked up a book "And this is a manual on how to disassemble and reassemble your ODM gear along with instructions for maintenance, you are to learn your gear inside and out for the actual training in over a week's time, if you don't then you better hope an equipment failure is your cause of death because if I find out it going to be a lot more painful." Levi then left the room leaving Ed and Al alone to figure out the ODM gear for themselves.

"Ok… so this goes here…" said Ed as he tried to both read his manual and put the pieces of his ODM gear together, Alphonse was busy reading the book before he started to put the pieces together, quietly mumbling to himself as he read the instructions

Ed sighed "If only Winry was here…" he whispered to himself "she would have put this together with her eyes closed."

"Looks like you two are having some trouble" said Petra as she walked into the room with her usual soft simile "Don't worry I remember When I did this before, it wasn't easy to understand for me at first, but once you get the hang of it it's a bit like having another lim-" she stopped herself, quickly remembering that Ed had a metal left leg "You know what, I'll help you guys."

"Thank you, Petra" said Alphonse as he put down the manual

"Yeah, we really appreciate it." Replied Ed smiling as put the pieces down on the table.

"Take this and sit down" Levi ordered as he handed them both a brown folder and pointed them towards a desk. As both Edward and Alphonse sat down at the table, they watched as Hange enthusiastically directed Moblit who was busy sketching an image onto the large black board in front of them. Levi moved off to the side and observed as he sat down onto a wooden crate nearby.

"Perfect Moblit" Hange complemented as she gave her assistant a thumbs up, she turned around to face Edward and Alphonse with a beaming smile. "Hello Elrics." She greeted them. "I know you're probably wondering why you aren't doing more ODM gear training but I've discussed with Levi and we both agreed to give you a proper lesson on the titans, specifically the colossal and the armoured titans."

Both Hange and Moblit moved away from the centre of the board to revel a masterfully drawn image of a two titans and their scale; one towering over the other… but what disturbed both Ed and Alphonse was that the image looked like a human without any skin. The other beside it was about the same height as other titans, fifteen meters, but drawn more bulky like someone wearing padded armour.

"We've heard of those two." Ed commented "That twitchy officer who almost killed us mentioned about how the armoured titan might attack."

"The colossal titan is the reason the gate to Shiganshina district was breached and in the chaos of the evacuation the armoured titan must have entered through and rammed himself through the gates of Wall Maria." Hange explained. "Two large gates which no regular titan could hope to pass through."

"It's been theorised that should the colossal titan appear then the armoured titan will be nearby." Moblit added "It's entirely like a coordinated attack."

"But wouldn't that mean if we capture any of the enemy shifters spies then they'll be others nearby to assist?" Alphonse inquired.

"That might be the case and is why we're preparing you." Levi added as he sat off the side watching "The road to taking back Shiganshina will mean having to go through them and taking those ugly bastards on like other titans won't be an option."

"Exactly, their intelligence and unique traits will prove to be difficult to conquer." Hange stated "Firstly the armoured titan; witness testimony states that the armour is indestructible as cannon fire failure to breakthrough and that will mean certainly mean our blades will be useless against it and whether Eren's titan will be enough to take on the armoured titan and win is yet to be tested."

"And on the colossal titan, its estimated to be around sixty meters in height, that four times larger than the tallest titan and ten meters taller than the walls itself." Moblit explained. "According to a report by Eren Yeager, another feature is its ability to emit torrents of steam which kept him at bay from landing a fatal blow against the titan."

Alphonse listened anxiously, an uncomfortable feeling troubling him, to the information. Ed grimaced slightly as began to imagine the haunting image of a skinless faced giant lifting its head over those walls and looking down on everyone.

"Hey, you two" called out Levi "think you can make something like this?" showing him a drawing of what looked to be a the layout of a gymnastic obstacle course which consisted of a few slanted side steps, some river rocks steps, a single barrier, a few hurdles and a balance beam at the end.

"Sure thing" replied Alphonse, standing on an open field about a mile away from the castle with himself, Ed, Levi and Oluo.

It took Ed and Al a few minutes to set up the entire obstacle course, it quickly became apparent to Levi that Alchemy could used to cut corners and save hours of time and resources; so he was going to make the most of their abilities to his advantage. Despite his now gradually diminishing suspicions of the two he was curious to see more of its use, especially how it would help save lives similar to the battle in Trost.

Once the obstacle course was completed, Levi then began to explain the next part of ODM gear training "Alright, this next part is about the ability to be agile in your movements with the ODM gear attached to you," said Levi "Now reports say that the two are pretty agile yourselves so the good news is that we won't have to go through any tests of speed or strength and get straight onto the course itself, Oluo here is going to demonstrate it first." He then turned to look at Oluo.

"With pleasure" remarked Oluo "I'll show you two how it's done." With the ODM gear attached to his waist he took his place at the start of the course

"Ok" said Levi "In three…two…one…"

Oluo sprinted towards the first obstacle; he was breezing through it at first, trying to show off his years of experience "Pay close attention kiddos, you're watching a master at wor-" he then bit his tongue as he leapt over the third hurdle, the sudden pain and shock sent him crashing into the fourth hurdle

Levi sighed to himself and pinched the bridge of his nose in disappointment "Tch, Idiot…" he muttered under his breath "Alphonse tend to Oluo, Ed you're up first." Ed attached his ODM gear onto himself while trying to hold back laughter he felt eat away at him as Alphonse dragged Oluo off the course while covering Oluo mouth with a piece of cloth as not to let the blood stain his uniform.

"Alright, try not to make the same mistake he did, we'll keep going through this until you two feel comfortable carrying the gear. " remarked Levi as Ed took up his place at the start of the obstacle course "in three…two…one…"

"Hey Hange" said Ed as he walked into the room, Hange was laying out a bed for Ed to lay on for the examination of his Automail leg, she had told Ed that they'd do three examinations per week after bugging Levi enough times to get him to agree to a timetable, it was the second one this week and the eighth examination in total.

"Hello again Ed" said Hange "you know the drill, roll up your trouser leg and lie down, today we're going to have a look at the different wiring."

"Moblit not here today?" asked Ed as he lay down on the bed.

"No, not today sadly" replied Hange as she was getting out her tools, note pad and pencil "He's extremely hung-over after yesterday, don't know why he's always constantly drinking..."

"Oh, so did you get a hold of the chunk of wall yet?" asked Ed, almost every time he came to these examinations he asked Hange about it, the mystery of what those walls were made of still puzzled him.

"No but I did find out where those fragments are being held." Hange replied "I had some people ask around and found out those fragments are being held by the Wall cultists, turns out they're moving crates of the stuff to the capital." Hange removed the metal plating at the front of the leg and began to gently poke and examine the different wires of the automail. "What kind of metal is in the inside of this wiring?"

"I think its copper." Ed replied.

"Excellent, anyway I went up to their church in Hermina where they're currently being held and asked the Minister if I can examine them." said Hange as she began take note of the wire structure within the Automail "Needless to say I got an earful from him," a devious smile then formed on her face "I was however able to snag a small piece when they weren't looking; they were just there in a box in the middle of the church, just out in the open what was I suppose to do?"

"Have you found out anything about it" asked Ed

"Placing it under that special microscope I'd say the texture and composition of it is quite unique, I've hardly ever seen anything like it before, it's definitely not bricks and cement that's for sure, and it's more similar to a crystal if anything."

"A crystal?" questioned Ed

"To be more specific its atomic structure is similar to a diamond, the strongest material on earth but its atoms are far more condensed making it much harder than a diamond, it would explain why the Colossal Titan only ever attacks the gate; this material must be close to impenetrable." Observed Hange

Ed thought on this, it would make sense, walls like these would be almost impossible to maintain and it would have been only a matter of time before the walls began to break down, but being made out of a crystal with similar properties to diamonds would make the wall not only impenetrable but also long lasting for perhaps millions of years. This raised the question; where the hell did they get this kind of material and in such large quantities to build thousands of miles of walls around themselves, it was just impossible but then again after everything they've seen they couldn't discount anything; it felt as though he was only scratching the surface of this mystery, they'd need to go to the wall itself.

"Hange is it possible for Al and I to borrow that fragment for our own research; learning about the crystal and its composition and structure would give us an understanding of it and allow us to perform Alchemy on the material which could come in handy for the future." Explained Ed "Also I'd-" he was then cut off my Hange

"Say no more Ed" she replied "You're not the only one suspecting that there's something strange going on, if you boys can learn anything about this fragment then maybe we can use your Alchemy on the wall; it could help in this investigation and I better inform Levi and Commander Erwin of this; in case we get into trouble and need someone to bail us out and I'm sure Commander Erwin would like to get to the bottom of this too, you two are in the inner circle now." she said smiling "now can you please move your toes." Ed complied and began to move his toes in his Automail leg "So these wires must act as substitute nerves, which must mean their connected to the actual nerves in your body" she observed scribbling it down onto a notebook."

Today was the day. The day they'd actually get to use the ODM gear for real: they were going to try using it first to traverse through the forest nearby the castle, Eren wanted to be there with them to watch and show off his own skill, but Hange was carrying out an experiment on him, something about putting him in a well nearby…

"Alright you two, today's the day" said Levi "How you do will decide how fucked you are on the expedition in a month's time; succeed then you're only slightly fucked, fail and you're really fucked." He then took out the handles of his own ODM gear "Now follow my lead" he then fired the steel wire hooks onto nearby trees and pulled himself upwards onto the branches. Ed and Al looked at each other; Ed shrugged his shoulders and fired the cables from his gear onto other nearby trees, he lost his composure for a second while being pulled forward by the cables and accelerated forward by the gas, the air quickly blowing past his face, but he was able to stick the landing on the nearby branch, Alphonse quickly followed suit, he was a bit wobbly in the air but was able to able to land on the other branch successful.

"Not bad for your first time" remarked Levi slightly impressed, he then pointed towards a large tree with a wooden balcony around its truck with Eld standing there to evaluate their performance with Levi "Alright that's the objective, try to reach that tree and not crash your big heads onto any of the branches, alright now one at a time; I'll go first." He then fired the cables and reeled himself forward, propelling himself forward into the air every now and then until he reached the platform, sticking a graceful landing.

"You first brother" said Alphonse

Ed pressed the pulled the triggers on his handles, this time he braced himself for the moment he was pulled forward by the steel wires, similar to performing Alchemy, ODM gear required him to stay focused one hundred percent of the time and concentrate on doing ten things at once; firing the steel wires, using the gas to accelerate yourself, detaching the hooks and reeling them back, soar through the air for a few seconds using the momentum and then repeat the process, at some point they'd also have to incorporate killing Titans into this. Ed mainly fired the steel wires and reeled himself forward until the final stretch when he propelled himself though the air and landed on the wooden balcony, his boot skidding across the surface as he landed.

"Not bad…" said Levi

"A little shaky during the parts when you were in mid-air, but overall a good performance for your first time." Added Eld

"Thanks" replied Ed

"Alphonse!" shouted Levi "You're up next!"

Alphonse fired the steel cables from his gear on the nearby trees, using the forward momentum he soared though the air for longer than Ed before firing his cables again and repeating the process, he reeled himself forward to the large tree and landed steadily onto the balcony.

"Pretty good" remarked Levi

"Good at keeping for composure while in the air and using the momentum to carry you forward, but when reeling yourself forward your posture could do with some work." Added Eld

"So boys, overall I'd say you did well" said Levi "Obviously there's room for improvement but you should be proud of yourselves, usually people don't get the hang of this on the first time, they usually end up splattered onto a tree, I'll write the progress report to Erwin and tell hi-" he was then interrupted by the sound of a lighting strike, catching everyone's attention

"That must be Eren" said Alphonse

"Probably nothing to worr-" said Levi, out of the corner of his eye he picked up what looked to be red flare passed the branches and leaves "Something's happened, we have to go, now" he ordered, leaping off the wooden platform, Eld, Ed and Alphonse following him.