James was frozen to the spot; His eyes now firmly on the Colossal Titan that had emerged from literally nowhere in a crash of thunder, the memories of watching it smash a hole in the Wall and bringing more horror into the remainders of the city. "You…I'm not gonna run away this time…Eren! You with me?!" He called out as he unsheathed his blades and rushed for the edge of the wall.
Eren nodded; "Damn right, I'm gonna make that bastard pay, Right here and now!" He yelled out as both boys vaulted over the edge and used the momentum of the ODM gear to zip past the swinging arms of the Colossal Titan and around towards his back alongside James. "Been a while, huh? I still need to hurt you for what you did all those years ago! JAMES, NOW!" He yelled out as he fired the connecting points into the Titan's shoulder and James did the same on the other side.
"Now or Never!" James yelled out as both of them rushed forward at full throttle to approach the Colossal Titan's neck and with all their might, they made for the swing.
However the Titan was not wholly defenseless as it let off a powerful blast of steam off of it's back towards James and Eren like a smokescreen while they were in mid swing, by the time that they could see what was going on; The Titan was already gone again.
"It's…" Eren was shocked to see that the Colossal Titan had practically vanished into thin air.
"Gone?" Jame finished as he launched another set of anchors to attach to the wall's exterior; "How the hell does something that big vanish like that?!"
"I don't see a body…" Eren growled as he gripped his blades tighter; "Damn it! We had it right there!" He then followed back up to the top of the wall so they could regroup.
"What happened? One moment we were all talking and then suddenly that giant Titan comes back?!" Connie asked both James and Eren since they were the first to attack.
"And then it vanished after wiping out the cannon defenses…" James muttered as he felt useless about the whole thing. "I still don't understand how something like that could disappear."
—Later—
"Cadets! You should all be aware that Titans are now flooding into the city and we need all hands available to prevent what happened with the Wall five years ago!" The head of the Garrison forces stood ready to explain their orders. "I know you are fresh out of training but you are also our first and last line of defense so that the citizens and non-combatants can be evacuated…Prepare your gear, replenish whatever stock you need and be ready to deploy!"
The air was heavy with dread as soldiers panicked, accepted their fate or just plain shut down as they realised that they were staring down the hungry jaws of the Titans in their own backyard. One such individual was Jean Kirstein; His entire plan to get into the inner city wall as an MP were shot thanks to Eren and James but now he couldn't even secure his supposedly cushy place in the Garrison with the Titans now invading. "I can't even catch a break on the middle wall…The Titans couldn't have waited until I go-" Jean was then nudged by Eren as he, James and Mikasa walked past to go find Armin. "You two….I'll bet that this is exactly what you wanted!"
"The hell are you talking about, Jean? The only thing I really want is to stop the Titans from making things worse!" Eren grimaced as he had to glare at Jean and another round of his complaining.
"Besides, at least now we can get a chance to test our ability to kill Titans up close." James added as he raised an eyebrow; He was hardly any happier at seeing Jean than he was at seeing him.
"Some of us would rather get AWAY from the Titans rather then running head first into their mouths, I'm not like you two suicidal idiots that take any chance to ruin my own shot at an easy life…." Jean remarked with a look of absolute contempt towards the two boys as Mikasa tried to guide them back.
"He's not worth it, save the anger for the Titans…" Mikasa tried to talk them out of another fight with Jean.
"That's right, run along with Mikasa! You two couldn't even do much without her around…It was probably because she couldn't stand going off alone that she helped you cheat me out of a spot with the MPs!" Jean yelled at the two with James being the one to stop after hearing that.
"You think we're the source of all your problems? You're the one who tried getting out of Combat Training while we practiced until we couldn't walk!" James snarled as he walked right up to Jean; "You talked a big game about being smarter and better than us yet Armin kicked you into the dirt academically!"
"I AM better than you two, not all of us can have friends that are as smart as Arlert or strong as Ackerman…I just know what fights to pick and avoid, I am smarter than you purely because I am ahead of the curve when it comes to you two cheaters."
Hearing that was the last straw as James quickly and wordlessly grabbed Jean around the collar and shoved him against a wall; "You're scared, I get it…You don't wanna fight Titans? Then the rest of us will fight them! But you cannot blame me and Eren for you not getting into the Military Police when YOU were the one who messed with Eren's ODM harness and YOU deliberately wore down my training blades on assessment day!" James yelled at him; "You caused your own problems, so how about you shut up and listen for once!"
Jean struggled to pull away but James had him gripped like a vice and the look on his face somehow looked just intimidating if not more than Shadis's own. "Y-You better let me go! Because I-"
"I talk. You listen!" James shushed Jean as he held him there; "Nobody in this base gives a shit about what YOU want or what you deserve! All we want to do is make it through today, ALIVE!" He kept yelling in Jean's face, even though this was his first time in combat; the expression on James's face was like someone who had seen his fair share of battles. "So you have a choice; You can either fight back and hold on tight to your life so you can live long enough to go suck your own dick in the inner wall…Or you can just give up now! Sit in that corner over there and pray to whatever is up there that the Titan who eats you makes it quick….SO WHAT'LL IT BE, KIRSTEIN?!"
Jean felt like James towered over him at this point even though they were roughly the same height. The odd part was that instead of arguing back; Jean decided to try unconvincingly to shrug it off as he uneasily walked away, those words from James rang in his head like a bell.
"Hey, don't you think that was a little too harsh?" Krista asked as she walked over when she saw the fighting stopped; "I know we can't just sit around but he has a point about not everyone wanting to fight the Titans."
James felt some of his anger melt away when he heard her voice and turned to see Krista with a worried look and Ymir looking oddly approving. "Normally I would agree with that, but with everything happening around us; We don't really have a choice with this since they're literally pushing further in." James explained as he exhaled; "Still, I have no clue where the hell THAT came from…."
"Never thought I'd actually say this but that was a pretty damn good dressing down you gave that horse faced jackass." Ymir said with that trademark smirk of her's. "Still, what side of who's bed did you wake up on to get that one going?"
"I honestly don't know…I mean, today of all days was probably the perfect time to point this out but there are some times that we can either make a change and fight back with what we know…Or we just…Do what they do." James said before glancing at a very defeated looking cadet; "I want all of us to survive this…But if we don't go into this without all our efforts then that can affect how we go."
"All Squads form up! We are moving out soon so make sure you're all ready!" One of the Squad leaders announced as James was cut off from talking; "McConnelly, You'll be stationed with me as one of the guard."
"Wait, what about Eren? Mikasa and Armin, can't I go with any of them?" James asked as he noticed that Eren and Armin had been placed together in that same squad. "What would you need me to do, sir?" He asked as he stood to attention.
"Since you hold the highest ranking as a marksman in your class, I suggest you take the rear guard; That way you can utilise both your blades to protect yourself and use your live rounds to pick off the Titans if they place anyone in danger."
"The Titans are immune to most forms of damage though, sir! I can blind them with some well aimed shots but the only way that you can permanently put one down is attacking the neck." James pointed out as he reached into a satchel that he kept strapped to his back; "But thankfully I made a trip to the commissary for a custom job that they worked on for me."
"Commissary? Explain about this custom job." The Squad leader explained as he raised his eyebrow at the prospect of this cadet coming up with a plan.
"I got the idea from the cannons so I asked some of the weapon crafters if they can make smaller rounds that can fit gunpowder inside the bullets so they explode on impact rather than just being pure metal." James explained as he then pulled out a handful of shiny yet fragile looking orbs that were around the size of marbles. "I also had these made; They are coated in thin plastic but they use a combination of gunpowder mixed in with flammable tar."
"So they'll catch alight if you shoot those orbs at the Titans? It sounds like a creative idea but something that small would just splatter against the Titan's skin, it'll be too hot to pierce and the plastic will melt before it does damage…All you'll do is coat the Titan's in that tar, which might help to slow it down until it melts away."
"If you shoot them in different spots, it will…But if I time my shots right and move quickly enough, I can layer the nape of a Titan's neck and then use the exploding round…" James decided to elaborate further and then he saw the Leader start to get it.
"Then the shot blows up and the tar makes it more potent….How did you not score higher on your academic ranking?" The Leader asked in confusion as this was rather elaborate for a cadet.
"Just because I'm not an academic genius doesn't mean that I'm not good at thinking outside the box…" James mentioned as he then pocketed his rounds at the sound of everyone moving out and went to join Eren and Armin.
"So this is it…We're finally going to try fighting back." Armin mumbled as he saw the Titans roaming around the city and felt that deep seated weight of nerves grow.
"We have to….If we don't then we'll never get our momentum…or get help for the people still stuck in here." James mentioned as Eren pat Armin's back.
"Think about it Armin, once we start making the steps to fight back…We get to see the outside world! Like in the books you showed us." Eren added as he strapped on his ODM alongside the others. "You got this too, James? Scouting legion together, remember?"
"Of course…But first things first, we're showing those Titans that Humanity can bite back, we will fight them and we will live!" James yelled out to the Squad as they managed to get fired up by Eren's and James's energy and began their charge into the city.
As the many hisses and whips from the ODMs could be heard, the squad could see that more of the Titans had roamed into the city than they initially thought. "LOOK OUT!" Armin quickly yelled out as everyone zipped to either sides of the street to avoid a Abnormal Titan leaping towards the group in an attempt to grab them in it's mouth.
"Everyone o…kay?" James asked after getting caught by surprise and quickly changed to horror when he saw Thomas with his upper half sticking out of the Titan's mouth and his lower being chewed on. "Thomas!"
"You bastard!" Eren quickly zipped off after the Titan to either get his comrade free or to kill the Titan that ate him.
"Eren, hold on! Don't just…Shit…Everyone move on to the destination and split off into smaller groups!" James yelled as he realised that Eren had vanished too fast to plan. "Armin, we need to catch up with him so he doesn't hurt himself!"
"I'll go on after him!" Armin agreed as he sped after Eren while James followed the other cadets as the rear guard to go help with the others.
"Alright, all we need is just to fight our way through, clear a path for the civilians an-" A sudden scream of panic made their situation obvious as Titans started to target THEM, the source of the scream was Mina after she had one of the cables from her ODM gear accidentally pulled by another Titan in mid-movement and dragged to ground level.
Mina scrambled to get into an alleyway so she could avoid being immediately seen and started hyperventilating. "Please….Pleasepleaseplease someone come he-" She begged to herself but felt a slab of ice in her stomach as a hand that wasn't her's pulled down the hood of her cowl.
Peering down at her was a large eyed Titan that was watching her ever since she ran and then quickly grabbed her in both hands since it was a 3 Meter tall Titan. In it's eyes; Mina was the perfect snack for it to claim and no others were around for it to compete with.
Mina struggled and thrashed in order to try whatever she could to escape from it's tight grip as the Titan's head grew closer, she realised this was it and braced for the inevitable.
SPATCH! SPA-SPA-SPATCH!
Mina then looked up to see the Titan looking confused as it's right shoulder, temple, the neck and it's jaw now all had black splotches on them. Though that confused her more than anything, a voice she knew yelled out to her as the wide eyed Titan turned around to face it's annoyance.
"MINA! SHUT YOUR EYES AND COVER YOUR EARS!" James yelled out for her to hear as he loaded a round into the barrel of his rifle; With a moment to aim and a measured exhale of breath, he pointed the muzzle of the rifle and aimed for the head.
With a resounding BANG! The Titan's new coating erupted in an explosion as it then collapsed to the ground with the tar splotched parts of it now blown away and leaving it unable to move. James pushed off of his position and m used his ODM after changing to his blades before swinging them across to cut the Titan at the nape of the neck, putting it down for good. "Okay…First test is a good one…" James thought but then remembered what happened and ran over to Mina; "Mina! Thank god you're okay, I thought I got there too la-GAH!" He checked her over for injuries and thanked his luck that he was able to pull it off but barely had a chance to check in with Mina as she practically tackled him.
"James! James!" Mina wailed as she gripped onto him tight as she was still running the adrenaline of nearly getting eaten and it messed with her head; "I thought that I was gonna die!"
James sighed a little and lightly pat her head; "It's okay, you know that I'd never leave anyone behind…" He assured her and smiled as he helped her to her feet; "Rear guard, remember?"
"Yeah…" She agreed with a small smile but found herself blushing a little and relaxed a little in his embrace but then remembered where she was and then pulled away to give him space. "S-Sorry! I didn't mean to cling on like that!"
James himself was a little embarrassed but that was more because he hadn't expected for Mina to latch to him like an octopus. "It's fine, I'm just glad you're not hurt…How's your ODM?"
Mina examined it over a few times since the Titan did squeeze her tightly. "Oh…Looks like that Titan wrecked one side of it when it pulled me to the ground." She mentioned as when she tried to trigger it, the whole thing sputtered.
James leaned down to examine it and saw the problem; "Yeah…It looks like that Titan managed to crush one of your gas tanks so we're gonna have to get you resupplied." He managed to assess; "Thankfully there's a storehouse nearby that we can head to…but mine's gonna have to take for two." He elaborated as he scooped Mina up in his arms to the sound of her shy squeak and then gripped on tight.
"H-He's surprisingly strong…" Mina thought to herself as she tried to stifle down the burning red on her face as James took off and carried her up onto the rooftops where the others were.
"Glad to see that you could join us…" Jean remarked sarcastically as he saw James showing up and then took notice of Mina's flustered expression; "Though I do hope that we didn't distract you from anything TOO busy!"
"Will you clam it, Jean!" Connie groaned; "At least we know both of them are okay now…So what exactly happened?" He asked the pair and they listened as James explained why he got separated from the group.
"What about Eren and Armin? Have they gotten back yet?" James asked as he looked around but then saw Armin slumped against a chimney and headed over; "Armin! Man, I'm glad to see you…Did you catch up with Eren?"
Armin weakly looked up at James with a thousand yard stare; When the group split off, Eren had his leg bitten off and then got the rest taken when trying to pull out Armin when he nearly got eaten by a Titan. It ended up as a worse feeling of anticipation when he saw Mikasa showing up and asking the same, without much choice or desire to hold on to it anymore; The blonde ultimately detailed the name of each person who died including Eren's.
With the compounded grief at not just losing most of their friends but also the person who hyped them up the most, someone had to come up with something…Anything to try pushing on. "We need to go…If we stop here then we'll make those who died upset for giving up!" James did his best to pull himself together; His own expression was one of steel focus but it also had one of someone who was barely holding together. "We're not just gonna sit here and let the rest of us die…There's a storehouse ahead that we can use to get our gas and blades restocked, let's make their efforts worth it by fighting through this!"
This seemed to knock people out of their funk; It wasn't enough to get them cheering or as riled as Eren's speeches would but it got them to their feet. Mikasa on the other hand rushed off ahead to clear the path to make it easier but it also made it obvious that losing Eren hit her harder than it did for James and Armin.
"Let's move on ahead! James is right, we can't just sit on our hands now! If we did then everyone who came out with us will have died for nothing." Krista spoke up as she then looked to Mikasa who was quickly cutting down Titans left and right.
With her added input; Everyone began to shape up and headed off towards the storehouse while Armin tried to catch up with James.
They had to watch as Mikasa came the closest that she did at the hands of a Titan when another 15m Titan came around to flank her, at this moment; James had a flashback to Carla getting eaten by the Smiling Titan and that was enough for him to split off and move at ramming speed to help her.
"JAMES!"
James positioned himself on a corner to aim his rifle but the whole street shook as the Titan behind Mikasa dashed forward and punched the other Titan to the ground, roaring and stomping down like it had Mankind's anger burning through it; "What the…An Abnormal that attacks other Titans?" James thought to himself as he kept his eye on the standing Titan, breathing a sigh of relief as Armin came down to help get Mikasa away from there before he zipped down to back them up.
By the time that the others got into the storehouse through the windows; The Supply squad was either petrified at leaving their comrades outside, too traumatised to prep and the one squad member who just decided to take the easy way out. "What do we do?!" James could hear Connie freaking out as they literally had Titans outside them and below them.
"Look, we just need to resupply then we can plan our way out…Armin, what have you got?" James prompted to try getting his friend focused.
"Well…All the storage for gas is located on the ground floor, we can grab the canisters and run…But the issue is that we can't just get there safely since smaller Titans are inside too…"
"Great, so we're screwed inside AND out…what else is new?" Jean grumbled unhelpfully as he then peered outside; "Why don't we just lead the downstairs Titans into the streets? It'll free up the storage room and minimise the risk."
"Because Titans are outside too! Not to mention that while we stay on the ground; We'll be sitting ducks for anything that grabs us…Or tries to." Sasha mentioned as she then heard that Abnormal roar again.
"There's that Abnormal Titan out there too, they didn't seem interested in us at all but they can attack the others that come close if we can lure it." Armin mentioned as he looked up, seeing said Titan in the distance was currently kicking smaller Titan's like a football.
"I wouldn't trust it fully…It might attack the other Titans for now but it might just turn on us when there's no more." James pointed out as he then figured something out, "I think I have an idea but you're going to need to hear me out…All of you…."
The others got suspicious at that but Armin gave him a nod; "Okay…Tell us what you have in mind…"
James exhaled; "Alright, so alongside fuelling the ODMs for patrols, the canteen stays right nearby so soldiers can eat up and then get ready." He started and everyone nodded along as they listened; "So here's my idea; If we take Armin's plan of lowering us in and use those guns to blind them, that earns us a window to get past them and to the storeroom for the gas tanks since they keep the blades there."
"Okay, that part I get…But Titan's regenerate unless it's a cut to the back of the neck so they won't stay blinded for long." Mina mentioned as she remembered what they learned in class; "We could probably get a few minutes at the most before they can get our location."
"That's where I come in…I'll head into the canteen and grab as many bags of flour as I can to act alongside you all." James elaborated; "Then once you have those large sacks full of gas tanks or at least enough to transport you all safely….Give me the signal and I'll go ahead to get the Titan's attention."
"You're going to be bait?!" Armin was shaken as he heard that and then looked crestfallen; "James, Eren sacrificed himself to save me…I don't want to end up losing another friend…"
"He's right…James, losing Eren hurt me more than anything that training or the Titans could ever do but please don't throw yourself away too…" Mikasa added as she was determined to ensure as many people could get out as they could.
"That's where these come in…" Jame grinned as he held up what looked like a pair of hunting knives; They looked similar to the blade used with the ODM gear but they looked more similar to skinning knives than swords; "Because I broke the records in the Marksmanship trials, Shadis said I could make one request as a reward so I opted for these by requesting the Commissary and the Smiths…They're as capable as the standard issue blades but since I came from a hunting village…These feel more…right, I guess."
Jean however wasn't eager on letting this carry on; "So what you're saying is, you want us to carry out the grunt work and lug around the gas tanks while you kill the Titans and hog the glory?!"
"At least I actually have a plan in mind, Jean…I'm not just shooting down ideas left and right just because Titans ruined your cozy work in the Garrison…" James retorted with a less than amicable tone since now wasn't the time for complaining.
"Excuse me?! You and Eren ruined my chances to get into the Military Police to begin with and you had the gall to get me in trouble!" Jean snapped at him with a dirty leer, giving the only surviving thorn in his side a look that threatened a punch in the face.
"
You. ruined that. all by yourself!" James snapped back as he glared at Jean; "Or did you forget that fact when you tried to screw US over so you could jump the line?!"
—Assessment Day for the Squads—
Today was the day that everyone was being tested for their aptitude and their final chance to earn a score high enough to get into the Military Police; For some it was a way to show how skilled you were but for others, it was like earning your way to an easy life and Jean Kirstein was the latter.
He wasn't an idiot; Jean knew that his constant fighting with both Eren and James was deducting him from his point score since teamwork and cooperation was a big part of trying for the Soldiers in the Walls, if he himself wanted to earn himself a spot on the MPs than he was going to have to get "creative" with his efforts.
The first challenge for cadets was the ODM obstacle course; The task being was to use your skills to avoid obstacles in midair and then cut down the dummy Titan at the very end, the more precise your moves and the less time taken are then that meant a higher score.
Jean managed to evade the obstacles effortlessly and cut the Titan without issue but his time was less than ideal so that put him in the above average category, substantially enough that he earned his place in the Top Ten, which left both James and Eren as the last two to try.
"Alright, Buttercups! NEXT UP IS Cadet McConnelly! Start your engines, you little ass because this is your last test!" Shadis barked out as James took to the front launch point.
"Yes Sir!" James acknowledged as he sprang off of the ledge and zipped forward on his lines; Using his training to both twist and dart from left to right and even springing off of a tree branch to maintain momentum shaved down his time but something felt off as he moved, with the more speed that he picked up ended up making his ODM gear creak and jolt until he reached the end with the Dummy in sight. As James reared himself back to swing with the Gear's pull, he brought his blade down to the right spot on the Nape target and was ready to earn his rank.
SNAP!
Both his right tow line and the blades in his hands snapped cleanly as they missed the target and broke against the solid wood, sending James crashing into the ground at the Dummy's feet with two blades that were jaggedly cracked apart along with one snapped tow line. "What the…I wasn't moving that harshly…And I checked my blades before I-"
A whistle pierced the air as Shadis pointed to the now allotted timer. "McCONNELLY! You've now both flubbed your performance and failed to complete this in time! NO PASS!"
James was dangling by the one intact cable from the dummy and released it with an unceremonious sound, he headed for the back of the line with the burning feeling of failure and embarrassment at failing his test in front of everyone.
"Last up! Cadet Jaeger! Make sure you've done your checks because now is too late, now go!" Shadis ordered as he blew the whistle to let Eren start.
"James, what happened? I thought you did well in the lessons…" Mina whispered to him with concern, she had seen him using ODM with no trouble in the past and he always managed to ensure he took real good care.
"I don't know…One minute I was trying to cut at the Dummy's neck and the next I just dropped to the ground…" James whispered back as he kept an eye on Eren's performance.
Eren seemed to be moving quickly but carefully; Making sure that he didn't fall down the same pitfall that James seemed to have. He was actually moving at a decent pace to make it for the top ten but then something snapped as both of Eren's tow lines stopped part way and it did nothing to help when he hit one of the trees unaided.
"For the love of-JAEGER! DO YOU AND CADET MCCONNELLY HAVE YOUR HEADS UP EACH OTHERS ASSES?! GET IT TOGETHER AND READY THE NEXT TEST BECAUSE YOU'RE BOTH FAILING!" Shadis was borderline roaring at them with a fury found only with lost potential.
Jean had to contain himself so that he wouldn't burst out laughing in the middle of the group, he wasn't so stupid as to laugh at Eren's failure when Mikasa was in smacking distance. "Good, this is exactly what you two deserve…Have fun envying my place in the Capital…"
"Instructor Shadis! Can I please ask you to give us another chance?" James called out from the line and stepped forward, he knew that asking something like this was barely able to get a result but he knew that if he didn't fight for another chance between the two of them, Eren wouldn't able to try again while Mikasa inevitably graduates.
"McConnelly? Everyone gets their one chance in their tests, I don't allow second go arounds because you two feel like sore losers! Accept your failures with dignity and try again for the next time!" Shadis reprimanded as he wasn't eager to try arguing with what he thought was a tantrum.
"Yeah, well I want to try it with equipment that wasn't broken by someone else." James pointed out as Eren joined up with his fellow cadet when he saw the other boy arguing.
"Wasn't broken? McConnelly, I seem to recall that I told you among other cadets that this test will be conducted with the equipment you start with and maintain." Shadis reiterated and pointed to the broken blade in James's hand along with Eren's damaged ODM harness. "And blaming your damaged equipment on someone else is far from a dignified thing."
"But my gear has been maintained to the point that it functions like new…Just like Eren's should be…So neither of us should have had it break in the test." James pointed out as Eren nodded along.
"Believe me, sir…James is a real stickler for maintenance…" Eren agreed; "If I didn't do it right then he'd tell me to do it again."
"That's because stuff like this can happen, Eren…If we take good care of our equipment then it takes care of us." James repeated himself as he looked to Shadis. "I know it's probably worthless to ask, sir…But can you give us another chance if we can show you that we aren't lying?"
Shadis rubbed his bald head; If there was one thing that he learned while overseeing this squad, it was that both James and Eren were some of the most stubborn people around. Under any other circumstance, he would have doubled down and ordered them back in line. The fact that James was adamant that his equipment was properly maintained and the fact that he knew McConnelly did take exceptional care in his gear gave him pause for thought.
"Alright, I'll give you an hour to provide me with proof that someone has tampered with both of your gear…But I want it to be some DAMN good evidence and not just you going with your gut…If you two can prove it then I'll let you try again but if not…" Shadis then grabbed both of them by the tops of their heads and pulled them close so they were face to face. "I will boot you both back to the bottom of the class and you'll start this over from day 1, are we clear on that?" The instructor granted their conditions with a voice so calm, it was hard to tell if he was angry or just that focused.
It took a lot of double checking and a moment of understanding but it wasn't as difficult to find out who it was.
"Why would I ever want to undermine you two by acting in such a manner?!" Jean yelled at the two as the three of them were in Shadis's office for privacy.
"Because that's exactly what you'd do, because you're that narrow minded and idiotic that you would stoop that low…" James started off listing as Jean got annoyed by that comment.
"That's untrue."
"So when you decided that insulting us, calling our decisions to join the Scout legion a braindead cause and on top of that you got upset that Mikasa didn't like you…You lashed out like a little kid." Eren added with an angry look.
"You…I still wouldn't do that for that reason!"
"So instead of trying to work harder or better like a sane person, you decided to play dirty and somehow you scraped the bottom of the barrel with some schoolyard scheme to break our gear for the test day!" James finished with a glowering look while Shadis stayed quiet.
"That is absolut-"
"Just accept it, you really couldn't just accept that we could do better so you just played dumb and dirty!" Eren quickly interrupted with a glare on his face at Jean who looked like he was about to blow.
"NO! Because I'm not some backwater, braindead hick like you two! I didn't go for the obvious methods that any idiot would try to act on!" Jean snapped and finally started yelling back, looking at James first. "Because your ODM was kept like new, I had to resort to a dirty, disgusting method of using day old slop to clog up your Gear motor so it hardened enough to not notice and then sawed at the cable enough to ruin the blade and make it fragile enough to break under pressure!" He ranted and then got in Eren's face, "And as for you! All I had to do was get Marco to shovel dirt into the motor to make it burn out faster, I bet you two never thought of that?!"
The entire room was silent as Jean inadvertently confessed to everything while in his flustered state and his expression never changing. Needless to say that Eren was unimaginably angry at the taller boy; Thought it was James who got in first and swung a powerful right hook into Jean's cheek with a look of unbridled yet tranquil fury, knocking him into one of Shadis's chairs and sent him crashing out of it into the floor.
"You backstabbing, underhanded, self centred son of a-" Eren himself was ready to start throwing hands as he stomped over towards Jean for a turn before kicking him in the side.
"That's enough, the both of you!" Shadis snapped them to attention while Jean nursed a bleeding mouth. "Considering the circumstances…I will overlook that swing at your fellow Cadet...But hit him again and I'll have you both on punishment detail." He stated plainly, his voice more calm and collected than anyone ever heard him.
"He's not yelling….We slugged Jean in the face and he's not yelling…This is seriously not good…" James thought to himself with that bout of anxiety. As an instructor; Shadis's default expression was loud and angry, if someone like Sasha ticked him off then he'd be sporting a stern look but quiet tone…This however was Shadis in a completely calm, blank expression and his tone was barely breaking a whisper: Which meant that this was a 9.0 on the Shadis Anger Scale.
"Sir! These two deliberately attacked me! Surely that's grounds for them to be punished!" Jean snivelled to Shadis, clearly not registering that his outburst outed him.
"You of all people in this room should not be so quick to talk about punishment, Kirstein…" Shadis warned in a chilling tone; "Throughout my entire career as a soldier and an instructor, I have never seen such a contemptuous, underhanded and weaselly act of spite from a cadet towards his fellow trainees…I had given you the benefit of the doubt since the two showed animosity but since you practically spelled out what you did, I hardly think this decision will be difficult." He explained and stood up from his desk. "Cadet Jean Kirstein, I am forcibly taking you and Cadet Marco Bott out of your original positions in the Top Ten and you will get your choice: Garrison or Scout…But needless to say, regardless of where you go to; No one is going to find either of you sympathetic enough to let you take it easy once I let them know why. Am I clear on the matter, Kirstein?"
"Wait…I planned it all so why does Marco have to go too?" Jean stammered as he felt like the rug got pulled out from under him.
"Nice of you to demonstrate empathy, Kirstein but Cadet Bott still willingly went along with your actions so I cannot allow someone who lacks the common sense of a soldier to stop someone from making a bad decision…You both lose your positions and you will be put under strict, STRICT punishment detail whenever you decide on a Squad to join…Is. That. Clear?"
"C-Crystal…Sir…." Jean whimpered, he had no real desire to keep arguing at this point but it only made his hate for James and Eren to grow more self-assured.
"Good, Now get out before I throw you out." Shadis stated with a barely contained rasp of anger in his voice.
—Back in Present Time—
The plan was in place and James was currently sneaking into the canteen to grab flour though it didn't explain why as the other cadets started pocketing gas tanks in a large sack.
"Once we have enough, we can take that wine cellar out into the streets." Armin whispered to the others as he then leaned to point his head at the distracting cadet; "JAMES!" He called out and gave him the signal.
"Time to make your escape, guys…" James thought as he used his knife to rip open the flour sacks and quickly filled the room like a smokescreen. "GET OUT! GET OUT NOW! MOVE INTO THE CELLAR!" James yelled to both warn the others to move it and to draw the Titans over to him.
With the vacant stares of the Titans now on him as they lumbered over, only to get knifed and jabbed by James as he went for their weak spots like the eyes or the backs of the neck.
"COME ON! YOU ALL WANNA EAT ME RIGHT?! SO GO AHEAD, YOU EMPTY HEADED, BRAIN DEAD FUCKS!" James yelled as he stabbed another but then ended up getting grabbed by a larger 4m Titan and started to squeeze; even though he felt like his organs were getting squished, he couldn't stop trying to squirm free even when his head was close to getting bitten. With a last ditch effort to fight back, James gripped a match in his hand and started using his thumb to ignite it like a lighter. "If…If I have to die surrounded by you monsters….Then I'm gonna ride down to Hell with you all!" He mentally yelled at them since the Titan's grip crushed his windpipe as he made one last flick of his thumb and the match lit up in a spark.
It barely took all of 3 seconds for the interior of the Storehouse's ground floor to light up in a flash and the resulting explosive force of the flour igniting blew out all of the windows and sent a smaller Titan flying out into a burning heap. Inside looked like the inside of a furnace; The wood had warped and charred into a blackened colour and most of the Titans had been either blown apart or burning up, the only thing that separated Titan from the Human that stood his ground and fought them…Was a human sized body that had it's upper torso burned away into an almost shining skeleton.
And after a few seconds for the flames to linger….
The flesh began to regrow over the skeleton, starting with the head.