Arc 1: A world to discover
Chapter 1: The world we used to know has gone away, monsters we created are all around. Too late to run away, we have to survive now - part 1
Onlap - Fight like the devil
The city that had remained uninhabited for three years, abandoned to the fury of the elements and the occasional passage of mammoth-sized creatures, awoke that day at dawn to the pattering produced by the passage of three different groups of people, each coming from a different direction and driven by different purposes.
An escape, and the desperate attempt to find refuge from hell.
A quest, and the vain hope of being able to make that cruel world a better place.
An obsession, and the presumption of holding the right to play with others' existences.
All too soon - when the sun was high enough to flood the valley with light - the light patter of the three groups of human beings would be joined by another, more like a low-magnitude earthquake.
The moment when that additional dystonic element was added to the symphony would mark the instant when the fates of those three groups of people would entangle.
OOO
"I'm going to take a look around. Amado, you will come with me, your technique has already proved useful against those monsters. Lavinia and Loki, you will stay here."
"With all due respect and as much as I can assure you that I'm sick of seeing your face too, the idea of splitting up doesn't excite me at all. Here, look: Lavinia is already crying."
"I don't like the prospect either, Loki. But I don't see many other alternatives: we have to look for other humans who have the slightest idea of how to take those things down, or we're doomed."
"But do you really believe that there are still traces of human life in this place? Said honestly, if I were to meet some guys who managed to survive these monsters, I'd scram."
"There have to be. There are walls, and this is the second abandoned city we encounter. Look at it, it's immense. They couldn't have exterminated all the people who lived in these places."
"That's what you like to believe."
"Loki!"
"I'm just saying that not everyone is as optimistic as you are."
"Well, I'm certainly not the one who took the wrong direction when the opportunity arose..."
"Listen, you moron..."
"Guys! Sniff… stop… stop..."
"Lav is right. Both of you, knock it off: arguing with each other will get us nowhere. It will be dawn soon, and those monsters will wake up."
"A great way to remind us that we are screwed, Amado, thank you very much."
"However, as far as my opinion counts, I find myself agreeing with Mizuki. And in any case, the decision-making power lies with her as captain, so it's up to her to decide."
"Thank you, Amado."
"All right, all right! But I still say I don't like this splitting up thing, even though I will follow the directives of someone who has never followed an order in her life because I am a good subordinate."
"Loki, we cannot afford to be ... be put in a chant all at the same time and place, you know that too. At least one of us has to go back."
"Well, again to continue on the theme let's remember we're screwed."
"Well, I say we go before I punch Loki. You two stay here: this is the tallest building around, and it's close enough to the walls in case of emergency. Look for more cans of food, if you can, and take anything that reminds you of medicine. We need supplies."
"Mizuki..."
"Don't worry, Lav. We'll be back before you get sick of Loki's bad jokes."
"Because yours, on the other hand, are funny..."
"Be careful… sniff… guys..."
"You too! Let's go, Amado!"
OOO
It was still too early for the giants to be "awake"; but it was a calm inevitably destined to end within a short period of time. Ten minutes at most. His instincts - experience gained in the field - were never wrong.
For that secret and unauthorized scouting, which would cost them, if discovered, in all likelihood expulsion from the army, if not worse, Levi and Erwin had agreed that the wisest choice was to move in a small group, consisting of no more than six people, all strictly capable of fending for themselves in a hostile land.
Petra and Oluo, who rode behind Levi's back, bickered as they usually did.
"The captain never made an expression like that, Oluo! Cut it out!"
"Look, if you want to have any chance with me, you have to start toning it down."
Beside them, Eld and Gunther partly laughed and partly tried to mediate between the two, fearing that their superiors - especially Levi, the constant object of Oluo's botched attempts at imitation and Petra's dispassionate defense - would overhear the argument.
Levi cast a glance at Erwin, who was riding beside him. He wondered what was really going on. It was highly difficult for him to believe that the commander would risk the lives of all of them and especially his role as head of the Survey Corps on a mere suspicion, and to save lives - no matter how precious - if it would harm the common cause. The involvement of that old drunkard Pixis, in this regard, appeared to be an incontrovertible indication that the stakes were far higher than the arrest of some lunatic.
But, as was often the case, Erwin had not revealed to him the whole plot of the affair, known to - and why not, woven by - he alone. Not yet, at least. In the end, though, that was fine: there were many reasons why it was Erwin who held the position of commander, and one of them was to be found in his unchallenged ability to foresee and strategize.
"We arrived." announced Erwin, interrupting the course of his thoughts.
The huge gateway of the now abandoned city towered before them. That was the final boundary of the lands still under human control.
Tiburtina.
On the other side, hell was opening.
"We will act as agreed. We will leave the horses here, and enter by scaling the wall with the ODM gear. We will make a quick patrol of the surroundings in pairs. Should we come across people or any traces that indicate the recent passage of humans, the priority is to get civilians to safety, collect evidence, and if possible, catch the culprits."
"Yes, commander!"
All this without getting eaten up, and without even knowing why we are risking our asses. Sounds like a pretty good fucking gamble to me. Well, like all our plans, for that matter.
Snapping his tongue, Levi operated the device and soared into the air.
OOO
They had dropped their preys in various parts of the city, taking advantage of the favor of darkness. Some on rooftops, others in the streets; this time, they had left beside them weapons of various kinds, manufactured in the special alloy from which army swords were made, the only one suitable for cleaving the giants' skin deep enough to inflict serious damage. This was a customer request - those sons of bitches aimed to make the show last longer by providing means of survival to their preys.
Well, that was all bullshit: no one would be able to wield their weapons in time when the time came, and even if they did, they still would not be able to react when faced with the sight of jaws wide open and ready to devour them. Human beings were not designed to be hunted: the survival instinct to fight even in the face of inevitable defeat did not constitute their innate endowment, but had to be acquired through experience. Faced with hell, the natural reaction was to surrender to it, subjugated by a primal, paralyzing terror.
But customers were always right, especially if they paid well: and so the weapons were put in place.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched beside him as the patrons chatted happily among themselves, binoculars positioned at face height, eagerly waiting for the curtain to rise on the scheduled event. Behind them, the other members of his mercenary group nervously fiddled with the handle for the use of the ODM gear: although this was not their first sortie to the edge of the world, and they were waiting in a safe place, they trembled with terror like sissies.
The wind lashed relentlessly at the top of the wall on which they stood. From there, they overlooked the bleak panorama of that vestige of civilization swallowed by hell. Their chosen location was strategic: they stood on the eastern wall, from which it was possible and easy to keep an eye on the two perpendicular walls where the gates to the city were located: the first, now destroyed, which opened onto the territory of the giants; the other, barred by countless supports and reinforced over the years, humanity's last bulwark against hell.
And from there...
Even without the use of binoculars, he spotted them immediately, long before the others.
There they were, the bastards of the Survey Corp, hovering in the air like birds and descending from the walls, from the side of the door that faced the human world. Well, no surprise there: it was obvious that sooner or later they would activate and try to get in their way.
He calculated that the giants would keep them busy enough for the customers to enjoy the show for which they had paid, and then unhurriedly disappear. Yes, they would have done so...
His attention was caught by an infinitesimal movement in the wall area on the opposite side of the cities. The giants …?
No. Two figurines were moving around jumping on rooftops.
And those two, where on earth were they coming from?
A ragged cry ripped through the air.
"Oh! At last the show is starting!"
As if it were a baleful confirmation to the joyous and excited exclamation just uttered, another shout echoed through the city streets.
OOO
The atmosphere was soon filled with heartbreaking screams, reverberating through the deserted streets of the city, giving them a new and sinister life, and contrasting the sepulchral silence previously reigning over the ruins.
Mizuki and Amado interrupted their patrol by stopping on a rooftop, confused.
"What the heck is going on?!"
"The earth...is shaking...it's those monsters!"
"Shit! How many of them are there?!"
"Amado, the screams...there are other people here!"
The two ninjas stared at each other for a moment: in their eyes hovered the despair of those who, until the very last, had hoped to end the patrol and return safely to the walls without running into that hell again.
Mizuki recoiled first, and with a snap resumed advancing. "Let's go! We have to help them!"
Amado did not even attempt to argue, and not so much because of her role as captain, but because he had known her too long to be sure that no monster would ever keep her from doing her duty.
They did not have to advance far - jumping from building to building - to locate what they were looking for. Just two streets ahead of where they had been caught by the concert of wailing, Mizuki suddenly froze and, pointing with one finger, exclaimed: "Amado, look!"
Two tiny figurines were lying on the flat roof of a house, motionless. In front of them stood one of the monsters that by now - with terror and resignation - they realized they had learned to recognize and accept as a normal reality inherent in that world, the huge hands raised to its face. What remained of the lower part of a body protruded from its jaws, intent on a slow and unmistakable rhythmic movement, up and down, up and down...
Mizuki's torso stretched forward, muscles tensing, ready to jerk, when...
The earthquake shook not only the earth, but every particle of their bodies, as if that sudden tremor had penetrated the innermost depths of their souls.
Mizuki and Amado turned toward the source of that roaring disaster that nearly overturned them.
A monster some fifteen meters tall was running down the road in a rambunctious manner: in advancing, in fact, it waved its mammoth arms around itself without a secluded purpose, destroying the row of houses along the side on which Mizuki and Amado stood. With each impact, they felt the structure beneath their feet being shaken by uncontrollable spasms, and sinister creaks rose from it.
Now what the heck was that? One of the few certainties acquired about the monsters that hunted them consisted in the fact that, fundamentally, they lacked any intelligence and that their attacks were based on a kind of primal, animalistic instinct, as if in those disproportionate bodies resided a fierce hatred of human beings, a lust that demised, for its own satisfaction, their extermination.
The approaching beast, however, behaved strangely. It did not seem attracted to them, like its fellow beings, nor driven by the purpose of devouring them. Could it be that those arm movements were aimed at smashing them, and that was all?
Well, actually, it mattered little. Whatever its intent - assuming that any form of intent could be discerned, in the gestures of those monsters - if it reached their building they would die.
"Amado!"
"Yes!"
Amado joined his hands in front of his own chest.
A long moment passed, and the tremor that shook the earth increased further.
OOO
On the roof of a building a few streets away, in a straight line in front of them, there must have been some of the hostages; although the motionless giant, that was giving them its back, obstructed their view, they could not be mistaken. From that spot, moments earlier, chilling cries had been raised.
Levi quickly studied the situation. Unfortunately, no building stood tall enough around the enemy to act as a foothold for the grappling hooks and allow him to approach the giant in one movement, which meant he would have to reach him by hooking onto the various buildings that stood between their current position and that of the enemy.
"Petra, I'm going to..."
Levi's voice muffled. Another movement, to their right, caught his attention. Two people on a rooftop, two parallel streets further on.
Before he could react to that new information, the ground began to shake.
"Captain! An abnormal is coming!"
The titan in question was two streets away, proceeding straight ahead in its destructive fury in the direction of the two figures Levi had just glimpsed.
Then suddenly something happened.
In the course of his twenty-nine years of life and because of the kind of life he led and had led, Levi had witnessed several bizarre events. But none of them bordered anywhere near the extraordinary nature of what occurred before his eyes that day.
Two huge branches - as thick as the leg of a fifty-foot-tall giant - sprouted from the ground and wrapped themselves around the body of the bizarrely behaving titan. Despite their thickness, the trunks slithered over the naked skin, darting and swift as a snake snapped at the attack of its prey and, in less than a second, enveloped the enemy's limbs entirely, blocking his movements.
"Captain.. what the heck is going on?" muttered Petra.
Damn him if he could answer her.
Then one of the two figurines sprang forward, while the other remained motionless in a strange position, hands intertwined in front of his chest, his body tensed and trembling as if engaged in a struggle against an invisible opponent.
The giant's body pinned down by the trunks trembled as the rambling movement that had stirred him so far tried to release itself and break free from the grip that seized it.
With a remarkable effort of will, Levi roused himself from his astonishment and, bringing his attention back to the other moving figurine, he tightened his grip on the swords handle, trying to find a solution to the question that had seized him.
Which, between the giant and those two figures should he take down first?
OOO
Amado was panting by her side. Standing motionless in the position imposed by his technique, he kept his gaze fixed on his prey, and the only clue that he had not turned into a marble statue could be found in the rapid lowering and raising of his chest. In spite of the firm grip of the branches, the monster's body trembled in the effort to free itself from the grip.
Mizuki considered with a shudder how close they had come to a direct confrontation with one of those huge arms.
The moment of relief lasted only an instant. Immediately her attention returned to the other remaining threat still at large.
Her heart skipped a beat.
Of the two figures earlier slumped on the roof, only one remained. The other dangled helplessly from the monster's hands. And its size...
A child.
Without a moment's thought, Mizuki threw herself in that direction, resuming the movement that the advent of that walking earthquake had interrupted.
"Amado, hold it!"
"Mizuki, hurry up! I don't know ... how much longer ... I will be able to ..."
Her companion's words were lost in the sound of the wind whistling in her ears.
Faster, she urged herself, gritting her teeth until it almost hurt, faster. If you speed up a little, you can make it...
She wasn't fast enough.
OOO
"Petra, take that giant down before it breaks free!"
"'Yessir'!"
Levi threw himself in turn in the direction of the hostages, without losing sight of the moving figurine, who had an advantage of a few fractions of a second over him.
The figure ran across the sloping roof as if it were a flat road, and his perfect jumps between buildings covered distances unthinkable for a human being - excluding himself, of course. Impossible as it seemed to him, the evidence of the facts forced him to come to the conclusion that the guy was moving without using the ODM gear: in fact, no matter how much he peered, he could not make out either the gas container attached to the mysterious individual's back or the grappling hooks anticipating his movements, and Levi had a perfect view.
He sharpened his eyesight in an attempt to pick up some other clue helpful in understanding the stranger's identity. He had a petite body, wrapped in a pair of pants and a long-sleeved black shirt, and - he noticed not without some pleasure - he must be shorter than him by at least a couple of inches.
Last, he focused on the face contracted from exertion, partially covered by a hat pulled down over his head, and the acerbic, delicate, and vaguely feminine features left no doubt: this was a brat, a brat with a desperate expression in his gaze, and his body stretched toward a single goal.
Which one?
To save the hostages or to make sure they were all devoured, from first to last?
"NO!" he heard him shout, almost as if he had sensed the doubt gripping Levi and wanted to provide him the solution.
OOO
When she was still a building away, she saw the little dark head of the little girl with pigtails being swallowed by the monster's mouth. It devoured her in one bite, so small was she. The sole remaining survivor, a chick-blond child, contemplated that gruesome spectacle in terror and helplessness. Mizuki, though still several meters away, could make out the lucid, agonized terror that veined his green eyes.
"NO!"
With one last leap, she landed in front of the child. They stared at each other for a long moment, and she clearly witnessed the moment when something inside him snapped, and the survival instinct abandoned his limbs. All that remained in that trembling little body was resignation to a fate that, by now, appeared to be the inevitable continuation of the scene that had just unfolded before him.
Mizuki knew that feeling. She had experienced it herself, only hours earlier, in realizing that nothing could ever halt the advance of those giant predators.
The fact that such a small and vulnerable child was being forced to experience the feeling of already being dead, when life was still flowing through his veins, seemed unacceptable to her.
The abnormal being did not stop even for a moment. It swallowed the child and immediately afterwards, as if nothing had happened, moved slightly closer to the building, sticking its head out in the direction of its next prey.
With burning anger flooding her chest, Mizuki began to place her hands.
OOO
For a long time, Levi thought back to the unbelievable events that occurred in his presence on that chaotic day, going so far as to question whether what he saw was, after all, the result of his own mind's yielding to the inviting sirens of madness.
The brat, with one last perfect leap, positioned himself in front of the child huddled on the roof, interposing himself between him and the giant, already ready to charge again.
What the fuck was he doing? Did he perhaps want to die? That the giants' weak point was the scruff and that it was impossible to tear their flesh to the depth necessary to take them down without a weapon constructed from a special material everyone knew, even the civilians.
Levi by now was about to reach the ideal point to move his own attack on the giant, a few more moments and he would have succeeded in bringing him down, but for that brat there was nothing more he could do, he was too close to the enemy. He was doomed.
The giant had already reached out to grab him, its face stretched out in his direction and its jaws wide open.
What was he up to, that brat? He held one hand in front of his mouth, and...
Then the second extraordinary event of the day occurred.
Fire.
OOO
A large jet of fire struck the titan, enveloping it in an embrace of flame and heat.
The beast retracted its hand and backed away a few steps. Mizuki kept the jet steady until she was sure the thing had moved far enough away from the building. Her attention, as the flames faded languidly into the atmosphere in front of her, was drawn to a sparkle at her feet.
A sword lay abandoned on the ground near the edge.
She sensed a movement behind her. Amado had just landed on the roof.
"And the other...?"
"It's gone! Some chick attacked him, and..."
"Did you see how she did it?"
"No!"
"Fuck! Never mind, now get the kid and take him to safety!"
"What about you?"
Mizuki adjusted the black hat that compressed her long hair, shielding it from any accidents during the missions, and bent down to retrieve the sword, then turned and faced the monster again, who continued to hold its rotting face with the only healthy limb left. She raised the sword in front of her, holding it with both hands.
"I have your back! Go!"
She heard Amado cursing and then the sound of his footsteps moving away.
The monster in front of her was still staggering, but soon, all too soon - as it had already happened - it would be ready to attack again. Amado, however, had been clear. The other beast had been attacked and knocked down, and from that premise came a single, logical conclusion: that no matter how big and tough they were, they could be killed.
She tightened the handle until her knuckles whitened. She was going to cut it down, even if it meant slicing it up in pieces. And this time she would not wait to be hunted, playing in defense.
Her eyes - without her noticing it - had taken on a reddish tint.
As soon as the beast's arm had stretched out far enough for her to reach it, Mizuki took a leap and landed on its back; then, without even a moment's hesitation, she used the impetus of the movement to whirl upon herself: the sword shot through the air like an arrow and sliced cleanly through four of the monster's five fingers. At the end of her bloody pirouette, Mizuki began to run, climbing up the huge arm that stretched out in front of her and to which she attached herself via chakra. In less than an instant, she reached the giant's shoulder and then, pouring into that gesture all the anger and hatred she harbored for that abject being, she plunged her sword into its tympanic cavity. After that first blow, she drew her weapon and continued to deliver slashes at the same spot, charging each stab with the full weight of her body. Under the fury of that attack, the skin inside the ear tore, and streams of hot blood ran over her. The air around soon became saturated with white smoke that was annoying to the eyes.
She did not care.
If she couldn't kill it from the outside, she would patiently dig inside that monster, paving her way, until she would be able to destroy all its vital organs one by one. The first one she was aiming at was the brain.
"Why the heck don't you die?" she cried with each jab, trembling with rage. "Will you make up your mind and die?!"
Suddenly, she sensed a flash pass with a whistle above her own head: fearing the intrusion of another foe, she froze, leaving her sword planted in the beast's skull, ready to dodge one of the sudden but lethal attacks of which those beings proved capable.
All she saw, however, was a human being pirouetting through the air, rather than a disproportionately large hand trying to grasp her: it was a mere fleeting apparition, so rapid was the movement imprinted on that body, but she would never forget it for the rest of her days.
A man danced in the air, weaving a melody of death.
Two blades whirled through the air, following a harmonious movement known only to him, and struck with lethal precision at the back of the giant's head. Blood spattered in all directions, but the man had already vanished in a swirl of movement.
Had she only dreamed it, or had it really happened?
The monster stopped moving, its muscles contracted, and it staggered dangerously.
Sensing the danger, Mizuki hurried to turn around and retrace the arm, which-she noted with amazement-seemed to start to dissolve beneath her; as soon as she was at a safe distance, she jumped and gained the solid ground of the building.
The monster's body began to tilt.
Because of the fatigue and the precariousness of the foothold, her landing was anything but soft: she rolled on the ground, slamming her back, but did not give it a second thought.
A thud, and the ground shook.
As soon as her head stopped turning, she crawled to the edge of the roof and looked below. An unbelievable sight offered itself to her eyes: a thick white cloud exhaled from the mammoth body slumped in the street and... was it just her impression, or were the limbs of that being gradually becoming less solid and concrete?
"I don't believe it..." was all she could mutter.
She heard a footstep behind her.
Mizuki turned sharply.
A few steps away from her stood the man who had just taken down that beast. The first detail she noticed about him was that he was not particularly tall, at most a couple of inches taller than her. The second, the bizarre attire he wore: over what appeared to be a soldier's uniform, a strange device made up of black bands was wrapped around his legs and chest, and two bulky metal cylinders hung from his hips. The third detail that caught her attention, the eyes: sharp as blades, impassive and implacable, and the same color as steel, nailed on her.
They penetrated her with such intensity that she shuddered, and certainly not with pleasure.
"Hey, than..."
If she survived, it was only because of her eyes.
The man moved at the same speed with which he had attacked the monster. Mizuki was just in time to jerk to the side that a blow landed where she stood just a moment before. He was on her again in a flash: this time she was ready and parried the blow directed at her face with her forearm, and for a moment she feared that the bone in her arm had been cracked: the power of the impact cut off her breath, and forced her back a few steps. With her free hand, Mizuki drew one of the last remaining kunai at her disposal and aimed at the man's face, but he ducked just in time to dodge the slash. Mizuki attempted to deliver a knee strike to the man, which, however, was parried without difficulty.
The scuffle continued along those lines for about half a minute more. The man's attacks followed each other so quickly that she was unable to position her hands for a technique, and every time she tried to gain distance to buy time he pressed her with even greater ferocity.
Mizuki opted for the strategy of trying to avoid the little guy's mighty blows as much as possible, and take advantage of the rare occasions when he left a spot uncovered to deliver blows with the kunai.
Shit, I won't last much longer. This guy is worse than that monster.
She had to play smarter. The only way to neutralize him-even if temporarily, she had no illusions about permanently knocking him out in her weakened condition-was to seize one of the moments when he let his guard down slightly. And this happened every time she retreated under his ferocity, and he thought he had the situation under control.
If that was the case...
Mizuki pretended to put her foot down, and to slightly loose her balance.
It was only an instant, but as she expected her opponent did not let it slip away and, grabbing her by the shoulders, pushed her to the ground. He jumped on her, and she was crushed unceremoniously to the ground. The little guy pinned her neck with his arm; the pressure was not excessive, but Mizuki felt that she lacked air.
Through it all, the man's eyes remained icy and expressionless: not even as he was slowly depriving her of oxygen, with the obvious intent of causing her to faint, did the slightest emotion peep on his face.
Well, it just seemed as if she had to be the one to give him a jolt.
The hand she kept concealed under her own body shot toward the jugular of her enemy. Before she was pushed to the ground, Mizuki had retrieved the last of the kunai in her saddlebag. The blow came very close to being scored, but he blocked her wrist with his free hand. After that he grabbed the handle to force her to let go.
All as planned.
An electrical discharge propagated from the kunai to the man's fingers, and from there to the rest of his arm: the blade was enveloped in a bluish flash that enveloped it, taking advantage of its extension to propagate. Unable as she was to use the full technique, that was a low-powered attack: but all the same, a pure electric shock constituted quite a nuisance to anyone subjected to it.
The little guy, in fact, drew his torso back slightly, his grip on Mizuki's neck and wrist became less firm, and finally a grimace of pain contracted his impassive statue-like face. She did not lose the moment: grabbing his enemy's jacket with her free hand, she pushed him to the side, flinging him away from her. He did not resist, still in shock from the electric blast.
As soon as free from that embrace, Mizuki began taking deep breaths interspersed with coughing fits, her burning lungs demanding that she inhale as much air as possible to make up for the previous deficiency. Despite the blurred vision, she forced herself to crawl in the opposite direction from where the man, who had pulled himself to a sitting position, was lying. Meanwhile, her hands were moving, preparing her technique, albeit with some difficulty; rather than a conscious movement, it was the body's memory responding to the dull call of survival instinct, ordering its extremities to reproduce the gestures that had already represented salvation for her so many times before.
They stood staring at each other for a few moments in silence, both crouched and alert, ready to snap at the slightest movement of the other.
Mizuki read in his eyes that he was about to strike again; he looked pretty pissed off about being electrified. But this time she was ready to greet him in a way that would be appropriate for such a gifted foe.
Their fight, however, was interrupted by the arrival on the roof of an intruder, who glided in from the neighboring building, landing exactly halfway between the two contenders: a blond, muscular man in his forties, as massive as a closet; in almost grotesque contrast to his physical prowess, his lips were stretched into a reassuring, paternal smile.
"Stay back, it's dangerous," hissed the little guy, without taking his eyes off Mizuki. "This little scumbag is preparing a few surprises."
The closet, despite the invitation just addressed to him, advanced a few steps anyway, its attention entirely on Mizuki. "How do you do, I'm Erwin Smith, the commander of the Survey Corps."
She stared at him with rancor, then turned her attention back to the little guy. Her technique was ready: if one of them got too close, she would introduce him to the pains of hell.
"Erwin, knock that shit off."
"Well, then, just to be clear and to make my captain happy: if you try to launch yourself into any rash action, it is my duty to inform you that your companion may have a bad time." The newcomer's face turned slightly to the side. "There she is."
A girl with bob hair landed on the roof, carrying Amado, whose arms were tightly bound behind her back with a rope. Beside her, a moment later, a man with a wrinkled face joined the group, holding the unconscious child in his arms.
"Mizuki!" cried Amado as soon as he saw her. "No matter what they tell you, you knock 'em dead and run!"
The blond guy - Erwin - drew his sword and pointed it at Amado's neck, all without losing the gentle smile that lit up his face. "The one just described is definitely a viable option; assuming you succeed, that is. The other is to stay here and chat with us."
Mizuki peered at him for a few seconds with the deepest rancor. She wished she could have wiped off the face of the earth the condescending, good-natured expression with which the man addressed her while threatening Amado. Perhaps, if she had moved fast enough, she could have hit him with her technique, and then knocked the girl down and escaped before the little guy had a chance to react...
No, the blade was too close to Amado's neck, and the little guy in question too quick.
With a slow, measured gesture Mizuki lifted her hands high above her head, and the chakra that had been concentrated in her chest, ready to explode against her enemies, redistributed itself throughout the rest of her body.
"Mizuki, no!"
" Shut up." She obviously had no intention of surrendering. At that particular moment, the situation was unfolding against them, but they still had a card to play to their advantage, unknown to their opponents. Lavinia and Loki, when they did not see them return, would surely come after them. And then, the ones to be taken by surprise would be those absurdly dressed nutty assholes. Lavinia had no equal in devising ambushes; they were her specialty.
The little guy pounced on her again in an instant: without much care, he grabbed her wrists and pulled backward, pinning them against her back and forcing her to kneel with her torso bent forward.
The man named Erwin advanced until he stopped in front of Mizuki, who continued to stare at him with a murderous gaze.
"Hey, take it easy. Don't hurt him."
"I don't see why you show so much indulgence in dealing with this scum."
"Because I don't think these are the people we are looking for. Just now, although from a distance, I saw the whole scene: this boy jumped in front of the child to save him and confronted the giant, risking his own life. And you saw it too. Why did you attack him?"
Mizuki felt an icy, sharp blade pass over her right shoulder and rest anything but gently on her neck. "Because this one can do some strange things."
"And that's definitely true." Erwin continued to study Mizuki from above, and she caught a glimpse of a sinister sparkle flickering in the back of those eyes that had the same color of the sky. That detail made her skin crawl. "Well, I have to say that his gaze doesn't leave much to the imagination what he would like to do to me. This really takes me back a few years..." At this point the man cast an eloquent glance at what he had called "my captain."
"Tsk."
Tired of those useless roundabouts, Mizuki raised her head slightly to better face the man silhouetted in front of her. As soon as he felt that movement, the little man behind her increased the pressure of the sword on her neck, and a rivulet of blood dripped onto her black clothes. "Who are you?"
"Who are we? Are you mocking us, scum? We are the ones who want to know who the fuck you are."
Mizuki did not respond to the provocation. She and Erwin continued to stare at each other for a few moments in silence. Then the latter cleared his throat. "The correct question is not who they are, but where they come from."
"What a stupid question. It's obvious, is it not?" Mizuki continued to challenge him with her gaze. "From beyond the walls."
On the brat's last outburst, and as much as he hated to find himself agreeing with him, Levi found nothing to reply. Did Erwin really have time to get into such stupid questions while they were in the middle of hostile territory?
The commander, however, did not flinch. "Yes, but on which side?"
"What do you mean, which side? Can't you tell, that we're not locals?" interjected Amado with a grin.
The captain's heart lost a beat. It couldn't be… "Hey, scum, answer the question!" with a yank, Levi pulled back the wrists he held firmly pressed against the brat's back to force him to lift his head and, in doing so, moved the blade away from his neck.
Repressing a groan of annoyance and pain, Mizuki tilted his head slightly to indicate the direction from which they had come. "From there."
The four soldiers petrified on the spot. The first to recover was the one who had introduced himself and was posing as a commander: a smile with crazy features appeared on his face, while his eyes lit up with a vein of ill-concealed enthusiasm.
Who is this nutcase?
At that moment, two more soldiers landed on the building. "Commander!"
"Eld, Gunther. How is the situation?"
"We took down four giants, in the area in front of the breach, then we retreated because there were too many of them and there was nothing left for the hostages to do. If we were able to escape so comfortably, it was because at some point they started moving in mass towards the warehouse for supplies, and..."
Like a flash, the engraving on the nameplate in the building elected as their meeting place passed in front of Mizuki's eyes. Her heart stopped in her chest. She met Amado's gaze, in which she read the same flash of awareness.
No...
Then he nodded. She didn't need more than that, and the fact that the little guy behind her still had not brought the blade close to her neck again.
With a snap, she pulled herself to her feet and struck with the back of her head the face of the man who was holding her. He was taken by surprise, and in fact let her go as a trickle of blood sprayed out of his nose. "!"
Mizuki rushed toward the walls, heedless of the screams that had risen around her. Before she could reach the top of the building and jump, however, she felt something pounce on her back, and she collapsed painfully to the ground, barely making time to shield her face with her hands, which were filled with grazes from the violent impact. The little guy had grabbed her by force, and held her crushed to the ground positioned astride her. Yet despite this, with the force of desperation she still managed to lift her torso slightly, before being pushed back to the ground again.
"Hey, asshole, stay still if you don't want me to break your arms!"
"Let go of me! Let go of me! There… there are my comrades." Mizuki returned to rise a few inches off the ground. She met the gaze of the commander who had moved so as to face her again. "Please...please. Let me go. They don't know-they don't know how to kill them. I have to go find them, otherwise..."
"Do you really think we are that stupid?! And what the fuck, can't you stay still?!"
"I promise to do whatever you want, I will come back, I swear, but let me go!"
Erwin remained silent for a moment longer, contemplating her. After that he turned to the man crushing her to the ground. "Leave him."
Levi looked in bewilderment at his own commander; however, he did not discuss the order and rose, leaving the prisoner free to pull himself to his seat; however, he kept a firm grip on one of his wrists, so as to block any reckless gesture.
"Do I have your word that you will return?"
"Yes!" Mizuki's pupils were dilated with terror. "Yes, yes, yes, I swear. Now let me go."
Erwin ordered with a nod that Levi let loose his hold on the prisoner. As soon as free, the latter pulled himself to his feet and resumed his own run to the top of the building. "Levi, go with him. Bring him back alive. We will wait for you by the horses."
Tsk, what a nuisance. However, again the captain did not protest and quickly caught up with the brat, who had already jumped to the nearest rooftop. But how the fuck does he do that? Annoyed, he triggered the ODM gear and with a quick and skillful movement of the ropes, he brought himself to the prisoner's side.
As soon as the prisoner saw him, his expression hardened.
"Hey, brat! This way!" shouted Levi, veering slightly to the right. "The warehouse is this way."
The other, albeit with evident doubtfulness, followed him. Despite the speed with which Levi moved with the ODM gear, the prisoner managed to keep up with him without the slightest difficulty. He thought back to the answer the brat there had given when questioned about where he came from: beyond the walls, he had said; those outside, his nod had completed the concept. Part of him, and not even too insignificant a part was it, firmly believed that those brats were bullshitting them all: surviving in the giants' territory was out of the question for ordinary human beings. Then again, Then again, he would have called them anything but "ordinary" people: the memory of the branches wrapping around the titan's body, and the jet of fire shooting out of the mouth of the brat next to him were still vivid in his memory.
" Listen, how do you kill those monsters?"
Levi peered out of the corner of his eye at the brat moving sinuously at his side, trying to understand whether the question he had just posed constituted yet another tease or not. The other peered at him with a pair of huge eyes with vaguely golden reflections; eyes that did not avert in meeting his own; eyes in which one could only read a barely suppressed despair for the unknown fate of their companions.
"You saw how I did it before, didn't you?"
"Yes, you hit the scruff of the neck. Right?"
"That's their only weak point. A portion about a meter long and half a meter wide at the back of the neck."
"Got it."
As soon as that conversation was over, the imposing mass of the former warehouse stood out before their eyes; the brat came to a panting halt on a sloping roof, and Levi landed beside him. The structure of the building was divided into two parallel and compact wings, rectangular in shape, joined by two perpendicular arms on the back and front, in the middle of which was a square courtyard.
The situation was not the best, but neither was it as tragic as Levi had at first feared: along the side of the building farthest from them could be discerned four fifteen-meter-class giants crawling up the wall in an attempt to gain a hold on the roof; on the other, two titans of the same size were doing likewise. On the short side visible to them, however, he discerned only small giants, at most seven or six meters tall, whose size, however, did not make them a threat, at least as long as they kept themselves in an elevated position. Although they were indistinct figures, he also noticed two people on the roof of the wing of the building closest to them, near the rectangular hole in the inner cohort.
The prisoner's companions.
He heard a groan.
Levi had the promptness to grab the brat by his waist, for that he was already about to snap at the building's vault.
"Oi, do you want to die by any chance? Sorry, but I was given a very different order."
"Let go of me!"
He had to use both arms to restrain him, otherwise he would have slipped out of them and thrown himself toward a tragic as well as certain end.
"Don't worry, we'll jump into the butch now, but let's do it with some head. I'll take the more problematic side, you take the side where there are only two giants. Forget about the small ones In front of us, they are not a problem. To kill them, as I told you, you have to hit the back of the head; however, you have to sink deep into their weak point. Do you think you can do it even without a weapon by putting up one of the tricks from before?"
Mizuki looked at her own hands, confusedly, wondering how at such a moment the matter could have the slightest relevance. First, one acted, and only then one thought: that was how she had always fought.
Chaos reigned in her brain, but she tried to focus on the question at hand.
"So what! Look I'll break your legs and leave you here if you don't give me a satisfactory answer..."
She still had the chakra for two techniques of medium power, and for one of wider range. For example...
She raised her head abruptly. The wall towered over them, and only a building stood between it and the warehouse. Perhaps...
Mizuki clenched her fists. No, not perhaps.
"Yes," she finally replied, planting her amber eyes in those of the man beside her. "I have enough energy to take those two down."
Levi studied the brat for a moment, trying to consider whether or not to trust his words. Finally, he sighed and let him off the hook. "Great. Then let's go. No bullshit, or I'll be forced to..."
Mizuki did not let him finish: halfway through the sentence she was already on her way to the wall.
Levi suppressed the instinct to run after the prisoner: no, it was impossible that he was running away. The despair he had felt spreading from the brat's body as he forcibly restrained him, he knew very well, and something suggested to him that he was not faking it: he would not abandon his comrades until death caught him. Outcome, however, not acceptable, given Erwin's incontrovertible orders.
With a final cluck of his tongue, the captain turned and threw himself into the fray.
OOO
Not far from there, at the top of the wall, the commander kept his eyes fixed on a specific spot in the city. Earlier, he had ordered the remaining soldiers to reach the horses, while he had climbed the wall at a point closer to the warehouse to monitor the situation. Not so much because he feared for Levi's safety-his captain could take care of himself just fine. No: he wanted to see that strange boy at work once again.
And now, here he was satisfied.
Erwin swallowed as he watched in rapt fascination the spectacle of a figurine climbing vertically up the wall, moving against all physical laws and rules of logic, running as if he were entertaining himself on a jaunt through a flat green meadow. He was scaling the wall following a straight line, at the lower end of which were two of the giants besieging the building. He saw him pause for a few moments, and then turn around, his hands entwined in front of his chest, study the situation, and begin to walk back with the same eagerness.
Erwin squinted, mesmerized.
He did not want to be mistaken, but around him ... yes, it really seemed to him that bluish flashes danced, whose number and range grew as the figurine gained speed. Then the boy leapt onto the roof of the building below the walls, continuing to run with his arm well outstretched at his side. At the end of the building, he took another leap and with surgical precision aimed for the scruff of the nearest giant. He stretched his arm out in front of him, and the lightning seemed to focus on the end of it, on the bare hand outstretched toward the enemy. Then there was impact, and the concentrate of light penetrated the enemy's flesh, causing a small explosion.
The figurine took advantage of the recoil to move away, landing on the flat roof of the warehouse next to the body of the newly downed enemy-which was beginning to dissolve in a dense fog-and a short distance from its neighbor. The concentrated energy still hovered in front of the outstretched arm, but its size seemed to have shrunk. The still-living giant turned its head and extended an arm toward its prey, but he was faster.
He had not stopped for a moment, had touched the ground of the terrace and then started again in his exhausting run toward the new enemy, first on the building and then jumping on the outstretched arm. One leap... and the ball of light cut across the scruff of the giant's neck. The boy hung there for a few moments as his body lurched backward and then, with an even smaller ball of light in front of him, jumped back onto the terrace.
Then his head snapped to the side, and he saw it, what the commander had been glimpsing for a few moments already.
The body of a giant appearing from the central courtyard, on the side closest to the edge where the other two people on the roof had taken refuge. It was probably a giant of small size that had managed to penetrate inside the building and had taken advantage of some construction in the courtyard, leaning against the walls, to climb up to it.
A cry went up and he was able to hear it from there, "NO!"
A long moment passed, filled with hesitation. Then the little boy launched himself into a run along the side of the terrace on which he had landed; when he had reached the inner corner of the courtyard, he took a leap, crossing diagonally across the gap in the cohort below him and aiming for the beast's neck.
Would he make it? Would he be able to nick it with a ... ball, whatever it was, that small?
"NO, you idiot!" Levi had shouted, too, after realizing what was about to happen.
Then the flying figurine crumpled in on itself, bringing the hand on which the flashes were focused in front of it, its arm well outstretched. Taking on a strange shape, almost like...
The commander realized an instant before impact.
Almost like that of a battering ram.
The ball of light and lightning entered on a collision course with the scruff of the giant, flaking and weakening it, and the thrust of the balled-up body did the rest. The figurine penetrated the giant's oral cavity, breaking through the back of his neck.
OOO
As had happened to her on countless other occasions throughout her life, her body reacted before her brain could fully register what was happening. She responded to her instincts, which were shouting a single, imperious command to her: protect them.
Her technique no longer possessed sufficient strength to scratch to sufficient depth the weak point of that beast. On her own, at least... But that would not stop her.
Enlightenment came to her as she took a determined leap toward her prey. She curled up, and focused all her remaining energy on the outstretched hand in front of her.
The flashes invigorated, if only slightly, as if they sensed the desperate determination of their tamer.
I won't let you do this, she shouted inwardly, die, asshole!
Soon after, the impact occurred, and darkness engulfed her.
OOO
... Then, with an explosion of flesh and blood, the giant's head also exploded at the front, at the level of its mouth, and that lightning bullet that had penetrated it from behind thundered out and hit the ground of the roof, rolling a few feet.
Shit, that hurt. Every limb in her body ached, she didn't know anymore either whether from the exertion of the fight or the impact with the ground. Her mind, however, dismissed the problem of her own condition in less than a second: albeit with immense effort and with her head whirling, she sat. Out of the corner of her eye, she made sure that the enemy behind her had been successfully knocked down, a fact of which she was already almost certain because of the white smoke that the wind had blown in her direction. The beast disappeared in silence: just as moments before its huge presence had towered over them ominously, now its absence filled the atmosphere with gloomy foreboding, and a heavy blanket of fog.
After that she turned forward. Where are you? she thought convulsively.
Two dark figures began to stand out among the vapors.
"Mizuki!" shrieked a voice.
She was glad she was already sitting on the ground, for she was sure her legs would not hold her up. She sensed relief permeating her limbs, making them soft.
Lavinia was on her in an instant. Weeping, she threw herself around her neck and sank her face on her chest, heedless of the blood and shreds of flesh that covered her companion. Mizuki raised a trembling arm and wrapped it around the other's body. She was warm, she was fine. She was alive.
From the thinning fog, the other figure also staggered toward them. Loki appeared aged at least a hundred years. "I have always thought so, Mizuki, but you really are crazy."
She raised her head toward him, her eyes dazed. He was unharmed. She felt tears invade her eyes.
"I really don't know how you did it. All I managed to do finding those things in front of me was pee on myself." Loki, with a laugh, pointed to the darker patch that had formed at the crotch of his pants. His voice trembled slightly, and his face appeared distraught, but he otherwise made an effort to maintain his usual listless tone. "And you literally catapulted yourself into the head of one of them instead. Crazy stuff."
Mizuki did not respond. She merely raised a hand, which Loki grasped firmly between his own.
Levi had been silently watching the scene from the roof of the building across the street. He could only agree with the last statement he had just heard: throwing yourself into the body of a giant to kill him was one of the most stupid and absurd strategies he had ever seen implemented in his entire life. Yet ... in his eyes were still etched the dark shadows of the lightning bolts that had swirled around the figure of that moron of a brat as he ran vertically along the wall.
Who the fuck is that brat?
Using the ODM gear, he moved to the roof where the other three were standing. The two rescued guys jerked at his coming, but quickly recovered; even the sniveling brat, while still sobbing, moved into a fighting stance.
The suicidal brat slowly stood up to face him. He really must have been at the end of his strength, though he did not want to show it. His movements were slowed, and he staggered slightly; nevertheless, he took a step in front of his own comrades. His gaze had lost none of the wariness with which he had looked at him since they had started fighting, not even ten minutes earlier. Levi reciprocated the other's obvious dislike with no less intensity.
"And who is this?"
"Brats, let's be clear. If any of you make a strange move, I'll cut your throats."
The suicidal boy cleared his throat. "Amado has been captured. There are others with him. At least five."
"But then it's perfect. It's three against one, we knock him out and get Amado back."
"No." Mizuki felt nauseous, and her head was spinning. She felt she was going to collapse soon, but she would rather be devoured than have it happen in front of that little guy. "Stop."
Loki and Lavinia, who had already slipped their hands into their respective pouches, ready to snap, frowned at her.
The man also scrutinized her with stony, unrelenting eyes. Mizuki knew he was assessing every slightest movement, especially hers, so as to respond promptly when needed.
"If he gets serious, he will cut you to ribbons." If the little guy was feeling emotions-an assumption of which she was not at all sure-the flash of mockery that lighted up his eyes was the closest thing to them she had seen so far on his face. "Also..." and here Mizuki advanced little by little, raising her arms in front of her and joining her wrists, until she stopped a few steps away from him. The man did not flinch, but wrinkled his nose. "...I promised I would not run away."
Behind him he heard Loki cursing. "Are you crazy?!"
"Loki, Lavinia. Put down your weapons. That is an order."
After a moment of silence, she sensed her own comrades raising their hands in the air in surrender. Mizuki and the man continued to look at each other in a clearly hostile manner, despite the fact that she had just ordered surrender. The man threw a rope, which he already held in his hands, behind her back, and then ordered in an atonal voice. "You, bind the hands of your comrades. As tightly as you can. And no tricks, if you don't want your little boyfriend here to get a big hole in his neck." So saying, the man pointed the blade at Mizuki's neck.
Little boyfriend?, she thought indignantly.
Sobbing, Lavinia began to pass the ropes around Loki's hands. The latter, however, glared at the man and then at Mizuki. "You leave me speechless every time, Mizuki, really. You promised?"
She did not answer. She felt her head was too empty to formulate meaningful words, and what little energy she had left she intended to use to stay on her feet and continue to keep an eye on the man. She hated to admit it, but hadn't it been for him Loki and Lavinia would be dead. In fact, she would be dead too, because she would have mindlessly thrown herself into the orgy of monsters that surrounded the warehouse in order to save them. The little guy had taken care of the most troublesome side of the building - the one where about five or four beasts had gathered - but, nevertheless, he looked as fresh as a rose.
"I feel like I'm dreaming."
"Well, I'm glad you have decided to follow at least one of my orders, given how it went last time," she finally replied, not able to contain herself.
"Mizuki..." stammered Lavinia, as she staggered from Loki to her companion to tighten the ropes on her wrists. "We've already explained it to you. We didn't do it on purpose to go the wrong way."
Yeah, the wrong way. They had discussed it so much, after she had awakened. But at that very moment, she just couldn't remember why and how they had agreed, without any doubt or discussion whatsoever, about the mistake their comrades had made.
"Not to mention that you didn't even give us, an order! When we found you, in the forest, you were unconscious."
Mizuki frowned. Yet in each of them harbored the conviction that something had gone wrong along the escape. But what? Why, no matter how hard she tried, could she not reconstruct where her companions should have gone so as not to make a mistake?
"You were supposed to wake me up and ascertain what to do."
She felt confused, as if the fog exhaled from the enemies' corpse a few steps away from them had penetrated her brain and prevented her from seeing a tiny but crucial interlocking of the whole affair.
"There was that motionless thing a few steps away from you! You looked dead, barely breathing. All we wanted to do was get away from there as quickly as possible."
Where were they supposed to go?
"And then the teacher...the teacher was..." Lavinia sniffed up.
Mizuki replied no further, and banished from her mind the concern about her own confused state, most likely related to fatigue. There were far more pressing matters at the moment. She would have liked to caress the trembling girl who was clutching the rope to her wrists, but she felt the weight of the man's gaze on her. She thought he would silence them, but instead he stood there listening to them with a bored air, but not missing a single one of their exchanges.
"'She promised it ... crazy shit. She have barely followed two orders from superiors in her entire life, yet she has to keep her promise to someone she just met! An enemy!" continued Loki mumbling indignantly.
Lavinia took a step away from her companion. At that point the man pushed the blade away from Mizuki's neck and, with one last glacial glance, retrieved another rope from his own bag to tie Lavinia "Back away slowly. No tricks. Although you don't look like in the condition to do too much damage."
He noticed, damn it.
After Lavinia was also tied up like a salami, the man raised his voice to address all three. "Can you also move and walk on the walls like lizards like this one does?"
Loki and Lavinia, under that steely gaze that scrutinized them, nodded.
"Good. Then follow me, and try not to fall behind. No tricks, or your friend here is screwed." After that, he turned to Mizuki, who had remained watching him in the background. "As for you, do you think you can keep up?"
"...I will follow you on foot." she mumbled, irritated that she was forced to admit her own weakness.
"Hey, you stupid lousy brat. Do you really think we'll have that much time before more of them come? Do you really want them to catch up with you while you're taking a fucking stroll through the streets of the city?" snapped the man, approaching menacingly.
All she heard of that tirade was the first part of the speech. "Stupid lousy brat?"
"I call you stupid because you are. And you're filthy too, covered in that crap." The captain's face contracted into a grimace of disgust as his eyes traveled over Mizuki's body, covered in drool and shreds of blood from head to toe.
"I am not..."
Mizuki could not finish the sentence. Without adding another word, the man bent down and loaded her onto one shoulder as if she were a sack of potatoes. "Hey! Put me down!"
"Tsk, this is disgusting. Smells like shit. Let's go!"
"Who gave you permission?!"
"Stop yelling in my ear. What are you, a fucking pigeon?"
Those were the last words she heard. Then the whole world began to swirl around her-Mizuki was used to twirling in the sky, she had been doing it since she was eight years old and had started undergoing training at the Academy, but what she found herself immersed in was an unpredictable movement over which she had no control; making matters worse was the thought that the psychopathic guy who had grabbed her with so little regard was directing the dances. Now she really felt like a pigeon. She closed her eyes to try not to vomit what little food she had managed to put in her stomach.
Then, as it had begun, it all ended. Mizuki took a few moments before opening her eyes again. The world was still spinning, but she managed to focus on the figures silhouetted in front of her. They were the four soldiers who had earlier detained Amado, Amado himself, the child, and then the blond giant standing beside his horse.
" Guys!" shouted Amado.
Before she could respond, the man dropped Mizuki at his own feet without the slightest warning. "EHI!"
"Remarkable as always. The orders were to take down the giants without letting the prisoner die, and you even bring back two more." The blonde giant's eyes sparkled with pure joy. "Good job. Saddle up now. I'll take care of our rowdiest guest." And so saying, he approached Mizuki, who sat hastily, more with an effort of will than out of real energy. She paused panting for a few moments as the world swirled around her and returned with inexorable slowness to some degree of stability.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the little guy's hand dart toward the blade handle and pull it out slightly, ready to react in case of a threat. "I'd better take care of that one. He's the most dangerous of them all." he then spat between his teeth, with obvious effort and a disgusted expression.
"No problem." Erwin smiled condescendingly at Mizuki. "He doesn't seem to me to be in the condition to cause trouble, and in any case it must have already been quite a sacrifice for you to transport him in this state. Take care of the girl." And so saying, he pointed with a nod to the state of Mizuki's clothes, soaked with the giant's bodily fluids. The little guy seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Then the commander turned to Mizuki. "Do you need help getting up?"
Without a word, she slowly brought herself to her feet. Two of the soldiers - Eld and Gunther, she seemed to remember - grabbed Amado and Loki and accompanied them to their respective horses; the only woman among them, meanwhile, held the unconscious child in her arms, and approached her own steed, which grazed alongside those of Erwin and the little one - the juxtaposition of two people of such different physiques produced an almost comical effect. Had she not been tied up and forced into helplessness, Mizuki would have burst out laughing with all the little strength she had left in her body.
The little guy kept looking at her.
"Captain Levi." The female soldier turned to him in a heartfelt tone. "Are you wounded?"
Captain Levi. So that was how the little guy was called. What a stupid name, she decided. Mizuki began to move toward Erwin's horse, who was waiting for her, holding the reins in his hands. Levi reassured his own subordinate about his own state of health, and then unceremoniously grabbed Lavinia.
Mizuki's already low desire to cooperate was blown away by that vision.
He could do what he pleased to her: punch her, try to choke her, and load her onto his shoulders without permission. But he was not to allow to touch Lavinia.
No one could dare touch Lavinia in her presence.
"Hey, you! See that you treat her properly," Mizuki advanced menacingly toward the little guy. He did not look surprised; he seemed to expect that she would try to attack him. "I'm going to make you a special concession, since you helped me save my comrades. I decided to call you an ass-fuck from now on, but I'll try to be nice and see if I can come up with something else to my taste."
Silence fell over the group. Everyone looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
"However, that doesn't take away from the fact that I don't like you. Not at all. So rest assured that if you put your hands on her one more time it will be my care to make you eat this fine mess I have on me." she added, betting that she had interpreted the signals correctly and that the captain's revulsion for dirt proved to be as strong as it had seemed to her.
His subordinates thought he was really going to kill her this time, and he seemed to think so, too, judging by the expression painted on his face; and the same thought Erwin, for before either of them could add anything else or - worse, before Levi had recovered enough from his surprise and swung into action - he grabbed Mizuki and unceremoniously loaded her onto the horse.
She and the captain continued to cast fiery glances at each other from atop their respective mounts.
Loki rolled his eyes, and sighed. He knew it was going to happen. As scripted: he knew her well enough to be sure that the role of the model prisoner did not suit her at all. "Mizuki, but didn't you promise?"
OOO
As they drove away from the city, Levi cast a doubtful glance over his shoulder to study the top of the walls. He did not know why, but he felt a distinct sense of being spied on.
Could it be the scum who had brought the child there, abandoning him?
He shook his head. He was getting caught up in the suggestion, probably because of the intensity of the events that had just occurred and because he was tired.
Or perhaps it was because there was indeed someone who had been staring at him persistently ever since they had set out.
He could not help scrutinizing the petite figure peeking out beyond the mighty figure of the commander, who rode at the head of the group a short distance from him. There he was, that brat, turned in his direction with a watchful gaze, studying even the most imperceptible of Levi's gestures to ensure that his fiancée was treated with velvet gloves.
The captain clucked his tongue, guessing vaguely - and without being able to imagine how true the hunch would prove to be - that the one over there was going to be a damned headache to deal with.
OOO
The customers - except for one distinguished elderly man - and the other members of the expedition had wet their pants as soon as they caught a glimpse of the Survey Corps soldiers splitting up around town and, despite his calls for calm and reassurances about the low likelihood of detection, had hurried away.
He, however, had decided to stay and observe the situation. He was not so much interested in those imbeciles from the Survey Corps - he knew them ad nauseam by now - but rather in the two figurines that had suddenly appeared in the area of the outer wall.
From his own position, he had contemplated from beginning to end the unfolding of the tragedy.
Even the old man of distinguished manners remained at his side until almost the end of the spectacle -the two out-of-context figurines had just been captured by the Survey Corps soldiers - when the mercenary in charge of carrying the old man down from the walls, unnerved, had urged him to leave his post because soon the soldiers would become aware of their presence.
Thus, he remained alone on the top of the wall enjoying the spectacle of lightning dancing in the air and spilling over the giants.
When even the last of his doubts as to what was happening had been dispelled, he did what he had to do. He brought a hand to his heart, and there he left it for a few moments. He fulfilled his duty so that those unexpected but not unwelcome intruders would not remember. The time was not yet right, for he had not yet completed his mission in that world.
A smile hovered on his lips, and for a few more moments he enjoyed that sense of elation and triumph at the unexpected development of events. Then he decided to go back in.
Now that he was no longer surrounded, he could move around freely, without being forced to use that ridiculous stringed thing that those idiot people were so proud of.
As if taking a stroll along the seashore, he began to descend the walls vertically, his hands tucked in his trouser pocket and his parted lips whistling a cheerful tune, much like a triumphal march.