Chapter 17: Playground Soldiers
As he looked out across the training grounds in the direction of his fellow cadets; whom were supposed to be practising their hand-to-hand combat skills, Eren didn't even try to hide his anger and contempt for those who were so obviously 'larking about' and weren't taking seriously the job that they were being trained for.
At present all the instructors - the sole exception being Commandant Shadis - weren't even bothering to try and stop this obvious lack of discipline; and were instead gathered around a round table covered with maps. And tying to hide the fact that they were playing cards.
Immediately his mind took him right back to home and his own quasi-annoyance, fondness and respect for Mister Hannes, as well as the others. A small smile formed on his face as he remembered the drunk on duty-goofing off guards, and the blasé chagrin reactions of former local residents.
Yet, as quickly as the fond memory came it was replaced by the horrific moments of the 'that' day. shuddering where he stood and unconsciously wringing his hands, Eren moved towards the well and the adjacent water table and began to splash water over his face.
"Dammit..." he grumbled softly. "Why now? I don't want to remember..."
"Hey Eren!" His current training partner called over to him. "We really should act like we're doing as instructed".
Another scowl, momentarily, graced his face as he looked back over to where his fellow cadet and training partner; Mina Carolina, stood sheepishly.
"Fine", he replied grumpily. "I guess had to hand fighting is somewhat beneficial". As he returned to training he caught sight of Historia dodging, and landing a few quick punches at, Bertolt.
Talking up the pretend wooden dagger, that was the object of this disarmament lesson, he recalled how Hannes had always kept his body loose - maintaining some semblance of agility and dexterity - whilst at the same time being flat out drunk.
Relaxing his body and keeping his centre of gravity low to the ground, Eren managed to dodge Mina's first, second and third attempts to disarm him.
"He over there..." someone cried out, distracting Eren and allowing Mina to swipe his arms apart and head-but him in the stomach and allow her to wrench the dagger from his hand.
"There's a carriage approaching. And it's from the Capital!"
Officially, the government exclusively desired and promoted educational advancement amongst the cadets trading program, as well as the continued motivational development for full soldiers, to ensure that the army was routinely engaged in active service.
Moreover, in order to obtain the most efficient, effective and capable soldiers, the government had - without the military's knowledge - established a series of reclusive regional militias all under the command of Finance Secretary, Lord Saul Reinhardt.
This meant that the government relaxed slightly, knowing that they were secure in the knowledge of their continued control of and surveillance within the territories of Sina and Rose. And the abandoned Maria beyond.
It also meant that as one of 'them' was involved the rest of them could now turn their attention back towards the military and root out, and 'disappear' those whom threatened their power or possessed too much drive for societal change.
Furthermore, the royal government increased the total number of hours for manual labour - required of all cadets - to undertake from 5hrs a day to 9hrs , and installed a far stricter more rigorous structure of training intended to purposely weed out the inept and incompetent and foster respect and admiration for the institutions that kept them safe.
However, in practice, as the majority of all the cadet training grounds were couched within Wall Rose, close to the inner perimeter of Wall Maria, the military cadet training grounds were far away from central to oversee, and so they assumed that the government wouldn't bother to travel outside of the capital territory to actually check on cadet progress.
Reading this, the government tasked its Royal Aides, the Commissioners, to inspect these standards and ensure by any means that they didn't deteriorate or were contravened by lax officers. And if anyone was deemed to be lax or non-compliant, then the commissioners endowed with the power to take punitive measures, issue fines or seize property and assets and strip people any their rank they held.
Still, believing that the elites in Mitras would never follow through on their laws, let alone willingly venture out of safety of the capital and into dangers of active Titan lands, the less hardline instructors - whom tended to make up the majority of all training officials - simply continued on with their normal lives as if the government had never even issued any notices against any drop in military standards.
Deferring their duty into their own staff, whom in turn didn't know how to handle the demands of military training or how to deal with personnel programs - which lead to a less than acceptable level of professionalism and discipline.
There were only four instructors, whom were considered hardline and proper. Keith Shadis was primarily based in the outskirts of Karanes district, whilst the other three were in Krolva and Yarckel in the west, and Utopia to the North.
And yet, without any formal notification from central command, or from prior orders and instructions from Garrison Commander, Dott Pixis, a carriage bearing the emblem of the Commander-in-Chief came into sight. Startling Shadis and terrifying the other slacking off instructors.
As he pushed his way to the front of the crowd of people all trying to get a look at whomever this newcomer - all the way from the capital - was, he suddenly picked up the telltale voices of the 'stupid twins', and consequently rolled his eyes.
With an indignant expression on his face he turned away from his earlier curiosity of the arriving carriage and began to make his way back in the direction of whatever commotion Connie and Sasha had induced.
Upon finding his quarry, he immediately slapped a hand over his mouth and stifled a laugh as he saw that they were currently acting out some sort of joke about Jean and his sudden goofily 'unexplained' behaviour whenever he was around to taking to Mikasa.
Usually such a display of hilarity and humiliation, of Jean, would have been enough to have the whole class enraptured and howling with laughter; which would only have provided Sasha and Connie with more ammunition to embarrass Jean with.
However, out of the hundred and fifty or so cadets, only himself, Armin, Mikasa, the Ymir-girl , Historia, Reiner and Bertolt were paying attention to Sasha and Connie. And it appeared that Armin and Reiner were attempting to hold Jean back. Mikasa simply stood beside Bertolt staring at the ground and biting her lower lip.
Coincidentally, these were also the only people, plus Annie, whom seemed to be taking their military training seriously.
Resisting the urge to shout angrily at the buffoonery of his friends, and yet not wanting anyone to see that he was also amused by Jean's humiliation, he contented himself with merely faux-grumbling under his breath.
Picking up a fallen training dummy and reattaching it to its appropriate stake, he re-schooled hi/s expression or be as neutral as possible before approaching his friends.
Unfortunately, his actions and words about facing the Titans, and exploring the outside world, during the months of training so far hadn't exactly enamoured him to the majority of his fellow cadets. 'Suicidal bastard', was what Jean called him; and it was shared by most cadets, and slowly the people at the balcony of the crowd began to point at him and make remarks he had heard before.
Ignoring the growing number of eyes that slowly followed him he began to feel both uncomfortable and annoyed. So making a quick detour to another training dummy he struck a punch to the 'gut' of the dummy before increasing his punches frequency and intensity until his hand's began to ache and bleed.
"Hey…" a rather tired yet curious voice spoke, interrupting his brooding resentment. "You're Yeager aren't cha?"
Turning is head so that he could glare at whomever was talking to him, he instantly found his mood change from its discomfort to wariness. For standing in front of him was the only person whom everyone had agreed was an equally matched opponent against Mikasa.
"Annie…?" He stammered nervously, trying to keep his wariness and fright in check. "What are you…" immediately he ceased his words upon seeing a sly grin break across the blonde girl's face. Immediately, she raised her fists and took a boxer's stance and nodded at him; prompting him to do the same.
"You seem rather more interested than any of the others to actually learn something", Annie spoke tersely and plainly. "And your technique... whilst sloppy, at least has shows some elements of proper skill".
Frowning at the rather backhanded compliment, Eren was about to angrily retort that his determination easily outranked anyone else's, when suddenly Annie charged forwards, slammed her fists into his ribs resulting in him being bent double.
Then before he could react anymore Eren was thrown backwards as Annie, this time, tackled him to the ground. Standing over him with the wooded dagger, the target for opponents to capture, Annie scowled at the boy's confused and pained expression.
"Rule number one…" Annie murmured drearily. "Never let your opponent gain the upper hand, or any advantage".
"Being lacklustre with your observational skills will always cost you in battle... Always assume that those around you will at some point become your enemies", she continued lazily. "So ensure that your skills never dull and you can adapt to beat any enemy you face".
Narrowing his eyes as he felt his temper rising, Eren managed to yank free his right arm from Annie's grasp and then shove that hand into her face; temporarily blinding her.
Hearing his opponent groan with annoyance at being seemingly outmanoeuvred; or unable to read him, the boy couldn't help but grin as he followed up his escape from Annie's tackle by rolling them both over.
"You were saying…" he replied, cockily raising an eyebrow.
However, just as those words left his mouth another voice - loud, cheerful and full of enthusiastic teasing - caused both him and Annie to suddenly become aware of how their bodies were aligned.
"Oooh what have we 'ere? Hey guys looky here Eren and Annie are cuddling!"
Instantly recognising the usual intonation of Connie's voice as he informed everyone in the immediate vicinity of the the present two's embarrassing situation, Annie abruptly thrust her knee upwards directly into Eren's groin and then threw the boy off into the direction of the the now raucously laughing Connie.
"Aww they're so cute?" Sasha interjected. "In a hilariously murderous kinda way".
Glowering furiously at their two fellow cadets, as a small crowd began to form around them, Annie clenched her fists and stomped towards Connie and grabbed him by his collar.
"We were not doing anything of the sort!" The blonde girl retorted bitterly.
"But it sure looked like you two were having fun…" Sasha added seriously, "before the whole rolling about on the floor, I mean. For the first time it actually looked as if you were trying to take part in training?"
Feeling her face further redden as simultaneous bursts of anger and embarrassment flooded through her, Annie dropped Connie on the harsh dirt ground before spinning around on the balls of her feet and making her way over towards the still smirking, yet slightly confused looking 'potato girl'.
"You had better watch you mouth!" Annie growled jabbing her finger into Sasha's chest. "You don't know me. And you don't know what I'll do to you if you continue to annoy me!"
"Annie!"
Again recognising the voice of her fellow warrior Reiner Braun, or 'phoney Marcel' as she called him now, the girl grit her teeth and began stomping away from the training grounds and back to the female barracks. With her mind already focusing on purging this moment from her conscious; by the use of the a hot shower, Annie didn't even notice Armin staring at her.
"You're a real bitch you know that", she heard Mikasa whisper as she walked past on her ways to assist Eren. "I do hope that you have no relatives around depending on you".
Instantly feeling her blood boil with increased rage at being looked down upon by her main opponent to returning home, Annie about faced and narrowed her eyes directly at 'Eren's shadow'. Re-clenching her fists, Annie brought up her arms and swung at the other girl.
"Who are you to judge me!" She retorted angrily. "You're just a slave-shield. But you don't know any of that do you..."
With angry fire coursing through her veins, as well as a renewed feeling of resentment towards her father's brutal training, Annie growled in furious rage as she smashed her left fist into Mikasa's shoulder before laying her right fist at the other girl's face.
Unfortunately, exactly as Marley had educated its warriors on the mysterious family of 'royal shields' that was the Ackerman Clan, the girl in front of her took the shoulder punch as if she had been hit with nothing but a wet fish and then deftly avoided the second follow up punch before landing a punch of her own to Annie's stomach.
Gritting her teeth in annoyance of her still seeming inability to reach and attain the skill level where she could finally best an Ackerman - and thereby protect her father - Annie swivelled on her feet around Mikasa and jabbed a series of fast punches before attempting a round house kick.
Taken slightly by surprised, Mikasa narrowed her eyes as she began to reevaluate her perception of Annie'a skills. But the way she had attacked Eren had provoked something in her, not the jealous curiosity that Krista elicited whenever she was with Eren, but a more visceral reaction born of hatred.
Mikasa had so far managed to successfully control her jealous curiosity towards Krista, even if she didn't know why they seemed so close - it wasn't as if they were true blood siblings or adopted siblings or even partners - but there was something about Annie Leonhart that simply pissed her off.
It wasn't haughtiness by her appearance or even by her superiority with her fighting skillset but there was an unspoken disdain that wielded both subtly and overtly for those around her whom seemed to take advantage of or lean into their sheltered upbringings, so they could refuse to acknowledge the situations of lower class people.
"Pfft…" Mikasa snorted derisively as she ducked another punch from Annie, "is that all you've got? I expected a lot more from someone like you".
Locking eyes, the feeling of intense dislike and shared irritation towards one another manifested in instant realisation between the two girls. Annie lashed out with another hammer like blow of her own fist to Mikasa's abdomen.
"Not bad…" the dark haired girl spoke blandly. "I see you do indeed have some actually skill too", she stated mocking Annie for her exact same way words she'd spoken to Eren just moments ago.
Keeping her expression plain, almost bored, Mikasa swung her leg outwards and caught Annie - momentarily off guard - in the shin.
Grimacing as pain raced up her leg, the blonde girl threw herself forwards with such ferocious intensity that she couldn't help but grin as an extremely subtle frown grace Mikasa's face.
"So you're not an emotionless doll then?" Annie chuckled. "I guess you're not a threat after all. You're too far removed from your family…"
'Smack'.
Before she'd even properly registered what she'd just said a hand struck her hard enough across the face that she was knocked off her feet and tumbled backwards into a muddy puddle.
Glowering as she felt blood tricking down her nose, she instantly quieted her mind so that her inadvertent bleeding, combined with her anger, wouldn't expose her as a Titan Shifter.
Glancing upwards she suddenly felt an aura of pure malevolent rage oozing from Mikasa - whom was being physically restrained by Armin, Jean and Reiner. And for the first time in her life Annie felt truly uneasy about an opponent.
'Ackermans…' she thought disparagingly. 'Not afraid of anything but too idealistic to be useful'.
"You!" Mikasa snapped furiously. "Mention my family again… and that will be the last thing you ever do!"
Spinning around whilst simultaneously and effortlessly shaking off the boys trying to restrain her, Mikasa angrily shoved her way past the gawking spectators and back in the direction of the mess hall.
Staring, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Eren being helped back to his feet by Connie as well as that other blonde haired girl - Krista.
Biting her lower lip, thus repressing the urge to storm over and jealously keep Eren close to her, Mikasa simply grit her teeth and buried her feelings deep down within.
However, as she too left the training grounds, she scowled at the tall and slightly gangly looking Bertolt Hoover - who attempted to glared at her - as he hurried past her and over towards Annie.
Unfortunately, for him, the withering fury in the girl's eyes overpowered the anger that he was holding onto, and had been trying to impart to her.
Huffing indignantly, Mikasa looked back out of the mess hall window towards the other cadets - still stunned by her presence against Annie.
"You know…" a droll voice spoke as a finger tapped her on the shoulder. "Keeping Yeager away from Krista is gonna be harder than you think".
Spinning around with a prepared retort at the top of her tongue, Mikasa glared dangerously at the dark haired freckled girl stood before her. "And you know", she replied curtly, "if you keep following me around you're gonna end up at the bottom of the well".
"~Oooh scary~", Ymir chuckled raising her hands in both faux outrage and surrender. "Seriously though…" she deadpanned. "I've tried to talk with Krista but she just ignores me, and I'm the first person she met when she joined this cadet camp. All she says to me is that Jaeger means the world to her".
Paying the look of indifference on the other girls face no mind, Ymir simply continued her straight talking. "All she says time after time, is that she and Yeager are friends, and that I should just accept it".
Scowling bitterly, Ymir turned her attention back towards Mikasa and spoke directly. "So this is what you're gonna do…" the freckled girl spoke tersely. "On our next outside training assignment around the nearby village, you're gonna team up with Krista and I'm gonna team with Yeager…"
"Not happening..." Mikasa growled shoving her way past the other girl. "I don't care what your deal is exactly, and why you seem to be such a stalker for Krista. And quite frankly I don't want to know, but you stay away from Eren!"
Shoving the other girl's hand off her shoulder Mikasa glared daggers at Ymir; whom subtly flinched at the silent intensity burning deep in to her from Mikasa's hazel brown eyes.
"If you're so concerned about them", Mikasa grinned as she walked away, "then why don't you partner up with Krista and keep her from spending time with Eren".
"What do you think I've been doing!" Ymir growled, angrily storming after the other girl. "I've been partnered with Krista for the past four months… but she's stubborn and strong willed. Every time I think that I have severed whatever connection that exists between them, I then catch them smiling and laughing together!"
"And now today…" Ymir gritted out bitterly. "Yeager and Leonheart's little moment had all of the camps eyes on them! Plus your so called intervention did little to dissuade Krista from furthering the friendship that exists with your crush".
The reaction that Ymir had been expecting; one of annoyance and disappointment never manifested on Mikasa's face.
However, the look she saw instead was one of complete disdain and resentment as the dark haired girl spun around, bolted forwards and grabbed her by the wrist and jerked her down to the ground so hard that the impact shattered Ymir's wrist.
"Say that again! I dare you", Mikasa spoke flatly. "And one last thing…" she added bitterly, "stay away from Eren".
Realising the danger and severity of the new situation she found herself in, and that her choice of words had driven the asian girl into speaking in such an emotionally devoid tone, Ymir widened her eyes and began to quickly hurry away, not realising that her broken wrist was slowly beginning to steam as the bone healed.
However, Mikasa grabbed her retreating form and roughly kicking the downed female hard in the stomach. "Don't test me again", she spoke through gritted teeth. "I won't be merciful again", and it was then that she noticed the steam rising off Ymir's wrist.
Yet as angry as she was Mikasa refused to give anymore of her time to pointless distraction, and so returning (fists still clenched) to inside the girl's sleeping cabins, she slammed the door shut behind her.
Frowning, as she stood up, Ymir rubbed her stomach and walked back towards the training grounds - where she could see Yeager sitting against the wall of a nearby cabin getting bruise and cut treatment from Krista and Jean, whilst Connie sulked nearby being simultaneously laughed at and comforted by Sasha and Armin.
Biting her lower lip as she vowed to keep 'those two' apart, she snapped her head to the side as she caught the tail end of a conversation between Annie, Reiner and Bertolt.
"You could have been seriously hurt…" Bertolt murmured softly as to not let anyone over heard them.
"Besides we…" he gestured to himself and the other two, "know what the Ackermans really are and why they were feared. If she had actually connected to her abilities then you'd be in serious trouble…"
"Shut up…" Annie replied in an indifferent yet aggravated tone. "Don't tell me what I already know! Besides I had no intention of actually harming Yeager. I was merely showing him the truth behind everyone's presence here, as well as giving him some corrections to his style. If Ackerman got jealous that's her damn problem not mine!"
Quaffing some water from the bucket passed to her by a recently departed Mina, whom had collected it from the on-site well, and was currently making its third round through the rabble of hot, sweaty and exhausted cadets, Annie scowled as she laid eyes upon the chucking and smiling faces of Jean Kirstein, Marco Bott and Floch Forster.
'Phoneys…' she internalised, recalling what she'd said to Eren about the majority of the cadets being here to simply tow the line before finding a cushy living within - what remained of - the interior of the walls.
'Pathetic… they have skill but they don't use it. There's no one in this world I hate more than wasted potential'.
Drawn out of her musings by the aggravating tone of Reiner's questioning tone, Annie sighed as she splashed water over her face.
"By the way…" Reiner added curiously. "Why the sudden interest in Eren? You haven't gone native have you?"
A furious glare overcame Annie visage as she registered his words. Then before either he or Bertolt could react she grabbed the taller blonde boy by his jacket lapels and sharply threw him over her shoulder; body slamming him into the ground.
"Don't be disgusting…" Annie wretched; concealing a blush with the water bucket as she wiped the water droplets from her face, irritated beyond belief. "He's just the most normal reacting person I've seen so far. That's all. Plus his hand to hand skills are not totally lacking".
"But you taught him some of your fighting skills… you improved his fighting", Bertolt piped up. "You've never done that to anyone before not even when Porco begged you to…"
"That Marley worshipping laggard was never worth my time!" She retorted flatly. "He's as shortsighted as he petty. A failure whom will never amount to anything! He'll always remain a worthless shit when compared to his foolhardy brother".
Taking a deep breath, she narrowed her eyes at the shock on the faces of Reiner and Bertolt as they took in the reveal of her derision and disdain towards both Marcel and Porco.
Not holding back her hatred for those whom she found irritating, Annie scowled as she inadvertently thought back to the day before they had left Liberio.
"He's a narrow-minded fool whom too easily takes Marley's side and in awe of them to actually see the state of the world", Annie glowered bitterly.
Waving off her two fellow warriors with a dismissive hand, Annie then swerved her head back to face Reiner and jabbed a finger out directly into the broad chested you man making her final point.
"Honestly whenever the prat would ask me for training advice I was always torn by wether to break either his back or his legs". Not even batting an eyelid at the mention of her open disdain towards Marco's younger brother, Annie simply ignored the uneasy expression from her fellow warriors.
"He's pathetic…" she continued pointedly. "Watching him was just so tedious. If Porco somehow does manage to inherit a Titan, he'll be dead within two years".
N.B. Mental Breakdowns will do as much damage as cancer.