Between two worlds

by Angie296

Mizuki ends up inside the walls without remembering where she came from. All she knows is that she does not belong to that world, and that she wants to return home. To do so, she has no choice but to rely on the Survey Corps, and on her golden eyes capable of tinging the color of blood, inherited from her father, the last descendant of the Uchiha clan. Levi X OC

3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: 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 2

Onlap - Fight like the devil

They had been riding for several hours caressed by a warm late-summer breeze.

Although she had tried to keep herself awake - partly to keep watch over the moves of their captors, partly to admire that spectacle of pristine wilderness that surrounded them - the monotonous rolling of the horse caused Mizuki to sink into a deep sleep - more like a fainting spell than anything else - composed of darkness and emptiness. She was too exhausted even to dream, and the warm weather had always comforted her sleep. By now she had not slept for three days, and for just as long she had eaten only the scant meat of the birds they had managed to hunt in the woods; not to mention the immense amount of physical and mental energy that the multiple encounters with those monsters - and with that little demon of a guy- had sucked out of her.

At the thought of the little man pouncing on her, she jolted awake.

"What's up, miss?" asked the man behind her gently.

With disappointment, Mizuki noticed that she was leaning on his arm with her head and torso; she straightened up, not without some difficulty, given her current state of prostration and the dizziness caused by the horse's rhythmic movement. "No miss, thank you. Although I'm glad someone noticed."

The commander laughed lightly. "I apologize for the misunderstanding."

"How is the child?"

"He hasn't woken up yet. If it weren't for you, he would be dead by now."

She was unable to reply. The image of the little braided head disappearing into the giant's mouth did not decide to erase itself from her mind.

"Are we really safe here?"

"In what sense?"

Mizuki could not find the right words to answer, but Erwin seemed to read her mind.

"Don't worry, they can't get here."

"We... we mean no harm" she murmured after a few moments of silence. "Don't send us back out there."

"I suspected that. And in any case, we would never have thrown you outside the walls. No one would deserve such a fate."

"If I was aggressive, it's only because that little guy put his hands on Lav." As she uttered those words, suddenly mindful of her self-assigned task, Mizuki leaned over the commander's arm to monitor the situation. Lavinia slept placidly with her head bent forward. Levi, on the other hand, stared straight ahead, and pretended not to notice the awakening of that walking source of annoyance.

"More than on your friend, he put his hands on you," observed Erwin in amusement, following the direction of her gaze.

"Oh, yeah?" replied his captive quite disinterestedly, continuing to peer with furrowed brows at the captain.

"I don't know how much that counts, but Levi is a reliable man".

"Really?"

Erwin wondered if she was teasing him, but in her voice he perceived no trace of sarcasm or malice. "Yes, he would never do anything bad to a prisoner."

"Yeah, except eyeing them as if he wanted to kill them."

With a jolt of surprise, Erwin realized that she - despite the situation - was joking. A pair of golden eyes devoid of the slightest trace of hesitation and shame rose toward the commander's face; they scrutinized him inquisitively, as if searching for clues that would allow her to solve a mystery she had stumbled upon and, at the same time, filled with a warm light that seemed to want to communicate to him that, in spite of everything, she trusted his words.

"What about you?"

"About me?"

"Yes. No offense, you know, but sometimes when you look at people you seem a little crazy."

This time, Mizuki was not joking, and she quietly waited for an answer to the inappropriate question she had just asked him, as if instead of asking him about his obvious inner demons she had addressed him about the time. Erwin had to admit to himself that he had been taken aback; and it was an event of rare occurrence. He guessed that something within him - a burning dream that he knew all too well, and that had been consuming him for too long - had begun to burn in that abandoned city, but at the same time he believed - perhaps sinning in pride - that the long years devoted to refining his deceptive skills and constructing a mask that would allow him to impersonate the model commander would come to his aid even at that juncture. Instead, that explosive feeling had inexorably gained access to the outside world, and had not escaped those golden hounds intent on a careful and not at all disguised study of his person.

"I didn't mean to scare you..."

"You didn't scare me, in fact. I'm just naturally curious."

"You're the first person to make such a remark to me, though, so I really don't know how to respond."

"It was not my intention to put you on the spot." Mizuki finally lowered her head, freeing the commander from that innocent but, at the same time vaguely threatening grip with which she had pinned him during the conversation. She sounded sincere. "You don't have to answer me now. I can wait as long as necessary."

"I thank you." Erwin broke out into a smile at the grace granted him, although something in the prisoner's attitude suggested to him that sooner or later she would come to beat the drum. "Not all answers, however, are pleasant to hear."

"Yeah. But from what little I've seen of life, though, I've convinced myself that the truth is always better than a good lie."

"You think so? Even if it's hard to accept?"

A brief shrug, and a soft chuckle. "I will decide that once you have answered me."

After allowing himself a moment's contemplation of her hat-covered head bobbing left and right from the horse's motion, the commander raised his head again. "Petra!"

The female soldier, hearing her own name, sharply cut short the ongoing squabble with Oluo and galloped up to Erwin's horse. "You called for me, commander?"

"Precede us to the castle. The order is that all stationed soldiers leave before we arrive, except Hanje and Moblit. Entrust the child to their care."

" Yessir!"

Mizuki contemplated the girl called Petra moving away from them, raising a fuss as she passed, then squinted her eyes. Although she had been swaggering with the commander, an absolute confusion reigned in her head: the more she tried to bring order to the events that had occurred, the less she seemed to be able to ring them up logically and comprehensibly, one after the other.

The mission, sensei's last order, the monsters, the escape. Her father trying to hold her back. The fire, the lightning. An arm pressing on her throat, stealing the air in her lungs. Blades cutting the air, accompanied by the elegant movement of a body that seemed to disregard gravity. Glassy eyes, and huge hands stretched out in her direction. Blue eyes veined with a blade of madness. Steel eyes, devoid of any emotion, that nailed her to the ground.

Everything overlapped in her mind, in a chaos of blood and dust.

And then her father, peering at her from the doorway, backlighted. Two shadows the color of blood shone in the semi-darkness, and she trembled because she knew what was about to happen.

.

"Mizuki, do you really think I'm going to let you go?"

"You can't stop me! I am a ninja, and I was given a mission!"

"You are still a child, and I am your father."

"Yes, a father who left me a very good legacy!"

She immediately regretted those words.

The look on her father's face hurt her more than if he had slapped her.

"I … I just want to restore our name, and ..."

He shook his head.

"You really don't care?"

"I won't lose you too after your mum, Mizuki. I won't let that happen. You are my light."

And then...

.

Mizuki came to her senses. Thinking back to that moment caused her to feel nauseous.

She had not realized that she had dozed off again until she was aroused by a ringing, enthusiastic voice.

"OH! You're finally back!"

An imposing castle loomed over the group, located in the center of a vast verdant clearing into which the soldiers - spitting from the evergreen forest that surrounded it - had just penetrated. The white stone, fashioned into solid, square slabs, glistened under the influence of the searing rays of late August. Though devoid of tinsel and other architectural frivolities, the structure stood proudly to the sky in all its glory, resembling a young lady on her way to a trip to the lake, wrapped in an unpretentious white gown but resplendent in its simple elegance.

A human figurine flapped a few steps from what must have been the front door. She was tall and thin, quite lanky, and with dark hair pulled back into a tail. Instead of eyes, Mizuki glimpsed only two glittering little discs that - she realized as they approached the castle - turned out to be a pair of square glasses that she adjusted on her nose as she waved to make herself more visible to them. "You can't imagine what Albert did this morning!"

"Shut up, four-eyes." Levi dismounted from his horse with a growl. Then he helped Lavinia down, gruffly but - no doubt about it - paying attention not to hurt her. Mizuki spied him out of the corner of her eye and, in that gesture, found confirmation of the blond man's words. She breathed a sigh of relief, and relaxed her shoulders as the commander gently took her by the hip to help her do the same. Finding herself standing with her feet on solid ground, after hours of riding and days of running, was not a pleasant change of scenery: she staggered slightly, and had to give all her energy not to go along with the spontaneous motion of her body, which was suggesting that she drop her pride, collapse to the ground, and let one of the soldiers carry her.

"Ah, Levi, Levi! Always in such a bad mood when you get your uniform dirty. Oh, what happened to your nose? It's all purple! Did you get into a fight with a giant?"

"Doesn't it look good on him, as a color? I thought so right away, it would go well with the killer look." Mizuki, still focused on keeping herself upright in a dignified manner, raised her head to study the newcomer, who reciprocated with an intelligent and intrigued look. Then the soldier burst out laughing, approaching Mizuki and landing a blow on her back with open hand, threatening to knock her to the ground for good.

"Oh! And who are these, the bad guys you were looking for? That sucks, I already liked you. Why does it always have to be this way, that the bad guys are the funniest?" The chick apostrophized as four-eyed shook her head as if to shoo away an annoying gnat and then changed the victim of her attention as Levi - after casting a condescending glance at both of them - entered the building without a word, not before tapping his dusty boots several times. "Erwin! You listen to what I have to say about Albert! This morning..."

"Later, Hanje. Now we have more urgent matters to deal with. Let's go inside. Gunther, we entrust the horses to you."

Too bad. Now even Mizuki was curious about what this Albert had done, although perhaps the expressions tending toward distress mixed with irritation and exasperation of the soldiers around her should have warned her. But, she thought, whatever the oddity was, it would most likely prove more pleasant than the chatter that loomed on the horizon.

The soldiers led the four prisoners inside to what appeared to be a communal mess hall; Levi was already there, leaning with crossed arms against the wall in Petra's company. After occupying the large space, taking care to position themselves some distance from each other, the people present scrutinized each other. Most of them were covered with dust and mud from head to toe, and Mizuki with a substance that had solidified on her that was much more disgusting. Erwin - one of the few wearing a still perfectly neat uniform - sat down on a bench and contemplated the scene; everybody's eyes were on him, awaiting the instructions he had hitherto given with a confidence from which everyone, some more, some less, had taken comfort. Now, however, he suddenly appeared at a loss for words and initiative, and seemed immersed in contemplation of the four newcomers and, in particular, Mizuki. She returned his attention with a neutral, impenetrable expression.

"Look" the woman called Hanje interjected at one point. "I really don't understand how this could be more interesting than what Albert did this morning. Can anyone explain to me what's going on?"

"Hey, Erwin, if you've got to take a shit and you don't know how to tell us, it's okay with me, but get your shit together. This room is filling up with the stench of the dead." Captain Levi cast an accusatory look at the four strangers.

Mizuki stared at him with the same placid curiosity with which she would have contemplated an unknown animal.

"What the fuck do you want?"

"Nothing. I'm observing you."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Then don't ask unnecessary questions."

The comment was uttered without the slightest trace of insult or challenge. But the atmosphere in the room froze.

Levi assumed an outraged expression - shared by his subordinates - as if she had just slapped him. Mizuki, on the other hand, appeared supremely calm and gratified by the reaction elicited, as evidenced by her lips stretching into a mischievous smirk.

Loki ran a hand over his face. "You have to excuse her. She's not mean, just an idiot. That's just her way of having fun."

The possibility of another tussle between those two - an event that looked as the natural continuation of a conversation inaugurated on those tones - seemed to make the commander make up his mind. With a sigh, he rose to his feet. "I think Levi is right. As a first step, those in urgent need should get clean. Upstairs we have a room with communal showers still running. Split into pairs, and go. Some of our people will accompany you." Then with a gentle nod he turned to Mizuki who - after the trip inside the oral cavity of a giant - exuded a nice rotten stench. "You might want to start."

She nodded.

Levi rose from the wall and walked toward the door with a bored look. "I'll take him to wash up. It's safer. And I'll take the opportunity to give myself a shower, too. This one has soaked me from head to toe."

Silence fell over the room. Hanje opened her mouth wide at the audacity of the proposal, and this time who took an outraged attitude were Loki, Amado and - most of all - Lavinia.

"What is it?" asked Levi, already on the doorstep and feeling everyone's gaze on him.

"Well, no problem to me, but ... I'm not the one to whom you have to ask permission, this time." metiated Erwin. He had to be honest: even he, at first glance, had not noticed it at all. But when he had lifted Mizuki up to place her on the horse, and wrapped his arms around her to take the reins and steer the horse, the true biological sex of what he had hitherto branded as a tiny boy had revealed itself to him in all its evidence.

"So? You got a problem, brat?"

What Mizuki had suspected for a while now found confirmation. She knew that she had a fairly skinny physique and virtually no curves, as well as that her features were probably hidden by a thick layer of dust and congealed blood. The matter did not touch her much at the moment, really. That did not mean, however, that she would agree to lovingly share a shower with the little guy and have her back washed by him. Somewhat limping, she reached the threshold and faced Levi, who was drumming nervously on the handle of the wide-open door.

"I am truly honored by the proposal, sunshine. Unfortunately, however, you are not my type, and I also think you are a little too old for me." After uttering those words, Mizuki crossed the threshold, not without giving him one last irreverent glance.

Without waiting for any order, Hanje - all too amused by the situation - rushed into the hallway at Mizuki's heels. "I'll take care of it!"

Levi stood staring somewhere between annoyed and amazed at Hanje who was walking away. "Sunshine?" Then he turned back to Erwin. "What the fuck happened?"

"Um, sir..." sketched Amado shyly, who recoiled his head in the shoulders as soon as Levi turned in his direction.

"Yes?"

"Here ... I, I don't want to make any wild assumption, but I think the problem ... here, yes ..."

"You gonna say it, yes or no?"

"Well, it's just that Mizuki is … she's a girl!"

"That's it?"

Outside the door, and as if she had heard the last comment just uttered, a final sneer aimed at the captain resounded once again. "Pervert!"

OOO

"Oh, how I laughed!" Hanje held her stomach, sitting discomposedly at the table. "Oh, how many names she gave you in the bathroom! It was really instructive!"

Apparently, no one else in the room - that is, the four soldiers from Levi's squads, Mizuki's teammates, and Moblit - seemed to find the little misunderstanding that had occurred about half an hour earlier particularly amusing. Mizuki and Levi had been seated at both ends of the table placed in the center of the room dedicated to strategy meetings as a precautionary measure. The others sat between them, fearing that the distance imposed between the two would not be enough to quell the tension electrifying the atmosphere. The captain, with his arms crossed over his chest, voluntarily avoided laying his gaze on Mizuki who, on the contrary, peered around her with curiosity and without the slightest trace of concern.

"It is astonishing you're making all this fuss over a stupid thing like this. We all risked to be devoured by giants this afternoon," replied Levi, annoyed.

True, there was a girl right there. Now that he observed the brat well, there was no doubt that she was. She was wearing a clean change of clothes provided by Hanje that, unlike the previous clothes that fell softly over her body, accompanied the - few - curves she had a little better. Moreover, now the cleaned-up face revealed delicate, somewhat childlike features - a straight, thin nose, a small but fleshy mouth, and long eyelashes. A frame of curly ash-colored hair, untamed and still damp, fell around her face and over her shoulders to her mid-back.

She was a female, but when she had fought him that morning, he would never have imagined it: Levi believed him to be simply a puny brat, a little shorter than he was, endowed with little attacking power compensated for by a slippery, deadly agility.

"I'm sorry I didn't have time to watch you carefully and declaim your grace while making sure you weren't being mauled."

"Or while you were choking me." A pair of golden eyes filled with irony settled on the man.

"As if I could care less about seeing a dirty, smelly brat naked, anyway."

A mocking smile lit up Mizuki's face. "Sure, sure. I will carry your indecent offer from before always and forever in my heart and memory, sunshine. I promise."

"Good, you two." The commander interposed himself in the squabble that promised to go on for a long time in the absence of restraint and soon degenerate into something worse. Hanje, on the other hand, continued to laugh softly, earning a dirty look from the captain. "It's evening now, and we'll have to stay up a few more hours to ... try to clarify our respective positions. We'd better get started."

Still, and as much as Erwin's words were more than agreed upon, neither of them knew where to start, at first. The easy part of the talk - namely, spelling out one's name to those who did not know it - they had done while waiting for the cleanup to be completed. The guests had also drawn down their food supplies to offer the newcomers a loaf of bread each as an advance on dinner; the idea came from Petra, who had heard during the ride a sinister rumbling coming from Loki's belly.

A long moment of silence passed, in which they stared at each other surreptitiously, with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. In the expectation-laden atmosphere hovered a multitude of information that had to be exchanged, questions that gripped the minds of each of them, and answers that could change even drastically the situation of each of them, all mixed together in a chaos so inextricable that it took one's breath away. In particular, that potential danger inherent in the silence that lingered undisturbed was felt by the strangers who did not own a military jacket adorned with an insignia depicting two crossed wings, although none of their interlocutors - apart from the commander - was wearing it at that moment.

"Well, if you're all shy, I'll start."

"Figures." Levi rolled his eyes. Who knows why but he was going to bet his favorite duster on it, that the one to break the ice would be the problematic brat.

Mizuki ignored the comment, cleared her throat and put her hands together, resting them on the tabletop. "I have a big question that has been occupying my mind for some time now."

When they realized where Mizuki was going with this, the guests' eyes filled with barely suppressed panic, and in their heads a single, anguished thought formed: oh, no.

"Those beasts...what the heck are they?"

As soon as she had finished her sentence, the bespectacled woman who had accompanied her to the bathroom, rolling with laughter at her every new outing on Levi, sprang to her feet. "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT EVER SINCE THEY TOLD ME WHO YOU ARE!"

"Huh?"

"You have no idea of the calamity you have just unleashed, brat," commented the captain in a dry voice.

"So, so, those are the giants! Fascinating creatures, aren't they? I am their chief researcher."

"Um, yeah..." stammered Lavinia with squinted eyes, convincing herself - like her companions - that she had just happened upon a place far more dangerous than the abandoned city. "That they were ... giants I think is a circumstance that cannot really be questioned."

"No, no! It's not just their size. It's their race!" continued to explain the other enraged.

"Erwin..." Levi brought the cup of tea to his lips, holding it in the peculiar manner to which his fellow soldiers had by now become accustomed - just as, in one way or another, they had become accustomed to the remaining and consistent roster of his oddities - with his hand open above the rim and his five fingers adhering perfectly to it. "Put an end to the disaster caused by the brat, or we'll never get out of this."

The commander sighed. "Hanje, you'll have a chance to explain the details to them later."

"Maybe..." muttered Levi, still keeping his gaze pinned on his nemesis. Mizuki, now, had taken on a serious and focused expression - and at the same time a little stunned at the fervor Hanje had shown in talking about those monsters - but when she noticed the man's gaze she did not fail to wink at him.

"Now we need to focus on the essential points. Also because I think the most interesting story to tell here is not ours" Erwin continued. "If you don't mind, I'll take the honor."

Although he had phrased the last sentence in a gentle, calm tone of voice, there was still in his words the unmistakable note of one who did not admit of repartee. "At your orders..." assented Hanje then, lowering the arms she had raised high above her head out of excitement.

And so the story began, entrusted primarily to the commander's consequential and almost didactic speech, interspersed with the sporadic comments of those present - especially Hanje - outside of Levi, who watched absorbedly as the dusky sky darkened outside the window, one arm abandoned behind the back of the chair and the other resting languidly on the table, next to the cup. The guests occasionally asked a few questions; but basically, the extraordinariness of the story they were listening to overwhelmed them to the point of making any request for clarification ridiculous.

The hundred years of peace. The walls. The giants. Hanje being silenced. The army. The three Corps. The expeditions. Hanje and her plan to capture giants. The fact that the rest of humanity had become extinct. Hanje pushed to the ground without an ounce of caution by the little guy at her side after yet another unsolicited comment about giants. The disastrous fall of the Outer Wall a couple of years earlier and the hell that had broken loose in the Shiganshina district.

"So, you were on an expedition, in that abandoned city?" asked Lavinia.

"Not really." Erwin intertwined his hands in front of him, and seemed to reflect for a few moments on whether he should continue the conversation. "In theory, we were not supposed to be in that place. As a rule, all expeditions must be planned and authorized following a set of official procedures."

"Now that's interesting. So you were doing something forbidden. Finally speaking my language." Mizuki leaned forward slightly with an eager air.

Loki ran a hand over his face. "To think that you have become our captain really gives me hives."

Erwin reported to the guests that a reliable source - for the time being, he preferred to omit explanation of who Commander Pixis was and their cautious relationship - had reported to him the disturbing rumors circulating among the lower echelons of the capital and larger districts. Rumors that could be summed up in a single, lapidary piece of information: a group of unidentified individuals enjoyed leading untrained civilians into the outer territories to be devoured by giants. In the absence of any tangible evidence, the Military Police Brigade - which was already trying to reduce its workload by taking care of only the unavoidable tasks - had felt it could wash its hands of it, dismissing those murmurs as mere urban legends. Their source and Erwin himself, however, thought otherwise, and they decided to go and check for themselves; and so they had done, as soon as a reliable tip had made them aware of the probable departure of a group of civilians for that day. The secrecy had been imposed by the fact that to set out to investigate, even in the face of the gendarmerie's disinterest, would have meant an encroachment on their expertise and, indirectly, the opening of a feud with a powerful division of the army and already at stake with the Survey Corps.

"Well, if they are such incompetents, it is only fair that they are cornered."

Levi found himself agreeing with one of the brat's comments for the first time since he had met her.

Erwin smiled. "You're not the only one who thinks that. In any case, as you also know, unfortunately this is not a legend out of thin air. There really is someone who is taking people - children included - into the giants' territory."

"Who is the fool who would do such a thing?" Mizuki shuddered, as the image of that little head being swallowed by the giant flooded back into her mind.

"That is a very good question, which I hope can be answered by the little boy you saved from certain death. In any case, this is the basic information you need to be aware of in order to understand ... this world."

Mizuki felt her head was exploding. In the last phase of the speech, she brought a hand to her temples and started massaging them. She had the impression that something was knocking, in there, trying to get her attention; as if to remind her of its existence so that she could communicate it to the people sitting at the table. She tried with all her might to focus that vague and hazy presentiment but, try as she might, it failed her.

Silence fell. The attention of the people at the table was on her, unfamiliar and familiar glances pinned her to her chair, recognizing her as the leader of that small group of strangers around whom hovered an unmistakable aroma of suspicion. Even Loki - the companion least likely to accept her investiture - stared at her expectantly.

She would have liked to flee; she did not feel ready, adequate, or interested in taking on such a responsibility. By nature, Mizuki tended not to take anything seriously, especially if it meant taking on decisions that were likely to have deleterious repercussions for her comrades. That was not her role; it never had been. She was the madwoman of the group, the loose cannon, the irreverent underling who enjoyed making fun of everything and everyone for her own personal amusement. Not a captain.

The rare times she made dangerous decisions, she made them exclusively for herself.

Why did sensei choose her?

What did he tell her just before he died?

Your sense of duty and the value your comrades have for you are immeasurable gifts.

Just like your mother.

But she was not her mother, although few seemed to have really realized that. As much as she might resemble her in physical appearance, no two people could have been more different than she and mother. Unlike her sisters, Mizuki had not taken even an ounce of her grace, gentleness and discretion, as well as the ability to cooperate as a team and the dependability that exuded from every gesture.

Mizuki was mad, and reckless, and irrational, and passionate.

Who did the teacher really leave the leadership to? To her, or to the ghost of her mother?

And now it was up to her - she, who resembled her mother in nothing - to convince the people sitting in front of her that they posed no threat.

Mizuki pointed her own amber eyes into those of the commander, glimpsing in them the usual wild glimmer that had intrigued and somewhat unsettled her during their first conversation and that she had asked about during the ride. "My name is Mizuki Onizuka, and I am the captain of Team 7 of the Hidden Leaf Village. We are not soldiers, but we are ninjas.."

"NINJA?!"

"Shut up, four-eyes."

"...and we were given a mission. We...had to come to this place, and we came. It was our mission, we were supposed to figure out what was going on here but..."

Mizuki contracted her hands, resting them on her knees.

"... But I don't remember."

Levi rolled his eyes. How convenient.

"I don't remember what it means here."

Erwin scrutinized her intently, his eyes twinkling in the crackling light of the fire in the fireplace he had ordered to be lit because, despite the fact that it was late August, the temperature dropped dramatically in the evenings. "Explain yourself better."

"Right now I know few things. I know that my companions and I do not belong here. I know that before a few days ago I had never seen those monsters..."

"The giants! Ouch, Levi, stop hitting me!"

"Yes, the giants. I know that until today I had not shot down any of them. And I know that I come from a place called the Hidden Leaf Village. I remember my whole life, my family, what I did the day before I left. I remember the missions I did for the other Villages, I remember the teacher's punishments, I remember the nights in the hospital and the teachings of my mentor. I remember everything." Even what I wouldn't want to. "Until I stepped outside the boundaries of the territory under the Village's control. I remember turning back to look one last time at the river marking the border. Then nothing more. It's all a blur, and the first memory I get is of a forest. Still, we talked about it. I am sure that when the teacher and I stayed behind to stop that giant, in the forest, it was so that the others could go back. They had to reach something that would allow them to leave this place."

"I'm sure of that too," Amado interjected. "We had to go back. What that meant, then, I don't know either."

"Mah." Loki shrugged his shoulders. "You say we went in the wrong direction, Mizuki. But are you really sure? Are you sure this isn't backwards?"

"This is not the Village," she replied stingily. Earlier, as they waited for the commander to wash up as well, the four ninjas had been chatting in the corner of the room and, to their horror, had noticed that none of them retained any memory of how they had come to that nightmarish place or when they had forgotten such a crucial piece of information. "And I know I came from there. As do you, Amado and Lavinia."

"Well, there's no town here named after the place you claim to be from," Oluo interjected, bringing a hand behind the backrest in an obvious botched parody of Levi, which Mizuki would have greatly appreciated, if only she had not been engaged in such a conversation.

"Nor do we get to do what you do," Petra inserted herself, not after turning a disgruntled glance at her companion's pose. "Whatever this is about."

"If you're talking about what Mizuki and I did, it's what we call 'techniques.' By using the chakra - that is, the energy in our bodies, we are able to create reality-altering phenomena, turning that energy into substance and imprinting it with a certain form depending on our fields of control."

"What what?" squealed Hanje excitedly. "That's interesting and relevant to the story!" she added, turning a pleading glance at Erwin to understand whether the question would pass censorship, but the topic seemed to interest him as well.

"How to explain it...? "Amado bent his head to the side and nervously wrinkled his hands. "For example, Mizuki controls two fields, those afferent to thunder and fire; it is very rare for the same person to be able to do this, but her family has quite ancient origins, so she can transform her own bodily energy into techniques involving these two elements. As for me, I control the earth field. Loki and Lavinia, on the other hand, do not possess a chakra oriented toward a peculiar field, and in fact are unable to produce techniques that involve the transformation of chakra into other substances."

"Ahhh, the usual nerd!" exclaimed Loki irritated. "Always the teacher's pet at the Academy."

"AH-AH!" Mizuki exclaimed, pointing a finger in his direction. "See you admit it too, that we attended the Academy!"

"Shut up, you pain in the ass."

Erwin cleared his throat. "This is all very interesting, and there will be ways to elaborate, but ..."

"Sorry, bucket, but you'll have to postpone the lesson," sneered Loki at the turn of Amado, who, after blushing, lowered his head.

"There's more to it than the fact that we don't remember anything that happened after we left the Village." Mizuki cast a glance at Lavinia, and nodded her head in invitation.

"I, um, haven't always lived in the Hidden Leaf Village. I moved there when I was about nine years old..." The other three team members silently assented. "But I have absolutely no recollection at the moment of where I came from and where I lived previously, or what happened during that period of time."

"And we don't remember either, but surely Lavinia must have told us when she moved out. If not to me and Amado, at least to Mizuki: you saw them, they are like one entity." Loki crossed his arms over his chest.

"And it's not just about Lav's place of origin. It's about everything. How can I explain?" Amado resumed wringing his hands, searching for the best words to express himself. "It's as if any memory of places or events not related to or occurring in our homeland never existed. It's a huge black hole."

"I see." Erwin nodded, thoughtful. "Mizuki, you said just now that you people came here on a mission..."

"Yes. We ninjas are some... sort of warriors in service to their home Village."

"If they are ninjas with morals, otherwise they sell themselves to the highest bidder," Loki pointed out. "Which, however, is not the case with us."

"It is not, indeed. Since the war is over and thus they are no longer used for war purposes, ninjas remain at the disposal of the Village Authorities, and they are assigned missions. These can be any kind of operation, graded according to difficulty of completion and risk, so they can be distributed intelligently among the various Squads. Ah, yes: we operate in teams of three, which are joined by a more experienced Ninja as a guide as long as it is appropriate. Our sensei..." Mizuki contracted the hands resting on her knees. "...This should have been our last mission together."

Lavinia leaned in her friend's direction to place one hand on the other's tightly clenched fists.

"And what did this mission consist of, then?" inserted Levi, scrutinizing them one by one. "'You keep circling around it, but we don't have all night.'"

"Good question." replied Loki, shrugging his shoulders.

"I believe it was an exploration mission. Yes, we were supposed to come here and find out what is in this place." Mizuki fiddled with Lavinia's fingers wrapped tightly around her own.

"You believe, brat?"

She sighed. "I told you. I don't remember."

"A very convenient little story, that."

"Levi..." Erwin admonished him, before the war between the two of them began again. After that, he turned back to Mizuki. "Earlier, though, you told me that you had no bad intentions ..."

"And we don't!" she exclaimed, resting her open hands on the table and leaning her torso forward. "Of that I am certain!"

Levi stared at her with an implacable gaze. "And how can you be so sure, if you don't remember?"

Mizuki had not the slightest hesitation in answering. There was only one person in the room she was addressing: Commander Erwin. Her instincts advised her that the man harbored a morbid and uncontrollable interest in her and her comrades, that the interes - as disturbing as it was - was at the root of the crazy look that flashed occasionally in his eyes, and that she should therefore focus on convincing him of their bona fides. "Because I remember and know our Hokage..."

"Who?!"

"He's our leader." explained Lavinia to an excited Hanje.

"Oh, you use a lot of funny names!"

"I know our Hokage, and the Village. And I know my comrades. None of us would ever accept a mission that involved an unjustified attack on another nation."

"And who says it's unjustified, brat?"

Mizuki turned her attention back to Levi. "Because if your story is true, and you really have been locked up in these walls for a hundred years, there is no way you could have come to make trouble for the Village, or we would know. If not us, at least Amado."

Loki nodded, "Trust him, he was a geek in History too."

"And I would really be offended if you thought I was over a hundred years old, especially since you keep calling me a brat. In any case, you have to believe it. I ... we ... don't want to harm you and your people."

Levi clicked his tongue, but said nothing further. Instead, Erwin asked the guests to tell about the memories they still held of the days before their arrival in the abandoned city.

It was not a story excessively long .

Their memories became sharp only three days back. Without knowing how, or why, they had found themselves in a forest, near a stormy-flowing river, and in heavy rain. Mizuki claimed that the rivere was where they had come from: even without evidence to support her thesis, she asserted that they had been forced to reach dry land by the storm, and that they were fording the stream behind them first, but the other three could neither confirm nor deny such a conjecture.

At that time, they were all still alive and well; albeit soaking wet: four teams, each consisting of three members, excluding their own, and the correspondent sensei, for a total of seventeen people. None of them felt disoriented at that moment, and it was clear to all of them what had to be done: advance, advance and discover. From this, they had deduced in thinking back to that moment with a cool mind, the belief that they all knew then where they were and why they had come there.

It had been in that place that their first contact with a giant had occurred. Suddenly, the earth began to shake, and before they could realize what was happening, Jin, back at the river, was overtaken by a huge figure emerging from the darkness before their dismayed eyes, and then...

Lavinia sobbed.

"It was the beginning of hell."

The first giant was soon joined by others.

The four ninjas did not give many details about what happened, nor did the soldiers sitting at the table demand to hear them. It was unnecessary. An encounter with a troop of titans, in a forest of trees of ordinary height, and without any clue to the enemy's weak point, could only end one way.

They advanced for about two hours, accompanied by the agonizing screams of their comrades being caught up and mauled and the terror that they would be next. They fell one after another, and their ranks grew thinner and thinner. But Team 7 continued to advance, until - by a strange twist of fate - only its members remained alive, and Hashina.

Hashina fell.

And then came sensei's turn.

Mizuki recounted in a dry, impersonal tone what took place. The pincer formation. The shrapnel. The handover. The sudden stillness of the giant as soon as darkness had fallen.

"Giants move only in the course of the day because - we believe - they draw strength from sunlight." intervened Hanje, assuming a didactic tone of voice to mask the obvious excitement in her voice. "In its absence, they slowly discharge and stop moving. Your good fortune was that a few days ago there was a series of cloudy and rainy days, which prevented them from fully recharging. So as soon as evening fell, that giant that had been chasing you went out. They are fascinating, aren't they? Think about it, they don't have a digestive system and... ouch, Levi, don't kick me!"

From that point in the story, it was Amado who narrated. They found Mizuki unconscious and hugging sensei's corpse, and after noting that she was still breathing, they loaded her on their shoulders and got away from there as quickly as possible. The order continued to be to turn back, but at the moment they were too confused and tired to have any real grasp of the direction in which they were moving, and their only concern was to find shelter that would really keep them safe from further attacks.

Before daylight, they reached the walls. Amazed and disbelieving, they contemplated the high walls of pale stone that stretched skyward for meters and meters, towering over them and the plain below like an implacable judge.

"It ... looked like something that was the result of divine intervention," Amado shook his head, still stunned at the memory.

"Tsk, I know some piece of idiot you should talk to," Levi commented, sipping his third cup of tea since the conversation had begun.

They climbed the walls and there, at last, drew a breath of relief. Up there those monsters - mastodontic as they were - could not reach them. Dawn caught them exhausted and still in shock at the top of the wall, eagerly awaiting Mizuki's awakening to decide on a plan of action. But she would not decide to recover.

"And I don't regret it. Lookin back, I would have preferred to never wake up again."

Meanwhile, a beautiful sunny day offered them a captivating view of the scenery behind and in front of them: nature unspoiled by man and wild, growing lushly and dominating every patch of land in sight. The nightmare that had haunted them the previous day appeared almost like a faded memory and a figment of an overactive imagination: in the face of such a sight, of the peace and tranquility that exuded from the lush trees and verdant grass under the sunlight, it was impossible to think and be convinced that such a paradise was haunted by horrid creatures like giants.

Soon, however, the calm was shattered by the sound of heavy footsteps.

The giants made their appearance in the valley. They moved lazily and slowly, wandering around with no apparent goal. Loki, Lavinia and Amado had watched them for about an hour doing absolutely nothing.

"It was at that moment that we realized two things," Loki concluded. "First, those monsters like to lounge around at night. Second, the only spring that can arouse their attention is the prospect of a succulent feast of human flesh."

Hanje leapt to his feet. "Oh, about that..." she began, before Levi grabbed her by the belt of her uniform and forcibly sat her back down, all without taking his attention away from Loki for a second.

Mizuki finally woke up and, after informing them that she had been pinned down as the new team captain, they decided by mutual agreement to stay on the walls and continue the exploration of the territory by moving to its summit. So they had done, and around afternoon they reached the first town. The sight of it at first filled them with hope and, as they got closer, with deep despair.

The state of the buildings left no doubt that it was a place long uninhabited by humans. Moreover, the breachs in the gates placed on the outer and inner sides of the wall, as well as the destruction raging in the streets, left even less doubt as to what had happened there.

"What was it called, the district attacked by the giants three years ago?" asked Lavinia.

"Shiganshina." Commander Erwin pronounced that one word in an atonal tone, but just hearing the sound of those words echoing in the room seemed to weigh down the atmosphere.

Loki, Lavinia, and Amado lost hope of finding other life forms outside those monstrous beings. Mizuki, on the other hand, did not feel the same way: it was true, the giants had broken through that first barrier of resistance and, from there, spilled over the walls on which they stood. But, she had observed, it was not necessarily the case that that was the only garrison that the builders of that exceptional work had made. Rather, the fact that there were two walls - one encircling the city, and the other separating it from the inner territories - indicated that there was probably something equally valuable to be protected beyond them.

At that moment the first real quarrel took place between Loki and Mizuki, who - had they not been exhausted from the escape and the lack of food and sleep - would have fought it out. In the shared impossibility of fighting, they had shouted at each other improper words of the worst kind.

Loki flatly refused to come down from the only truly safe place they had found. "I will not become monster fodder!" "And I will not end up like a sardine baked in the sun on these walls"; "What sort of metaphor is that?"

"I've known this fool all my life: she's always been obtusely optimistic, and in my judgment she was acting like one even then."

"Too bad you didn't call me an optimist, you called me a moron."

"Details."

In the end, however, Mizuki asserted her authority, and so they waited out the night, attempting in the meantime to rest for a few hours, in shifts, and to hunt the birds that passed flying over their heads. As a precaution, they waited two hours after sunset before venturing onto the plain beyond the walls. From there, they resumed running forward, their path illuminated by moonlight alone, and the surrounding atmosphere laden with sighs and unidentified noises that seemed to foretell sudden attacks, which - by dumb luck, or the protection of sensei guiding them from heaven - never occurred. Their journey took them through a forest. The plan was to proceed in a straight line, but it had to undergo an abrupt change when, along the way, they glimpsed monstrous figures dangling lazily among the trunks. The not at all welcome prospect of that close encounter forced them to veer diagonally, eastward.

"Of course..." Gunther nodded. "That's why you didn't make it to Trost. Itis the city as the crow flies that corresponds to Shiganshina, at the level of the second wall."

Over the forest's edge, another short plain followed, and then a forest of giant trees. From the far end of it, which they reached just before dawn, before the group's eyes again it was offered the disarming spectacle of a wall of mammoth size - a feature, this, that seemed to be the hallmark of that world.

At one point, they had even feared that they had gone around in circles and were back where they started.

"As soon as we were reached the wall, however, and glimpsed the city below, we realized that - however uninhabited and destroyed by the passage of those monsters - it was not the one we had left behind."

"Tiburtina is a bit of a peculiar place. It was a small town located in the middle between two districts of Wall Rose" Commander Erwin sighed. "Its gateway was destroyed by a human-caused accident - a fire that occurred a year before the Shiganshina disaster. Members of the Wall cult..."

"The Wall cult?" asked Mizuki, furrowing her brow.

"A bunch of idiots," dismissed the captain, not after clucking his tongue.

"I was saying ... the members opposed its reconstruction; so when Wall Maria fell, Tiburtina was evacuated and became giants' territory. We figured that was a perfect place for the little game those lunatics intended to conduct."

"We wandered into the city while it was still night to look for something to get our teeth into, and we decided to establish our base in the former warehouse. And then we split up: Mizuki and I went on patrol and ... well, you know the rest." concluded Amado with a sigh.

Mizuki cast an eloquent glance at Loki. "So what?"

"So what?"

"So who was right, Loki?"

"Shut up."

"That optimistic moron. I want to hear you say it."

But Loki said something much less nice to her, and then silence fell over the table.

Night had fallen outside, and a creeping chill had penetrated the interior of the room, badly warmed by the fading fire. Mizuki felt her eyelids heavy: the horror of the two days just summarized had forced her to face her own physical and especially mental prostration. The thought of how close they had come to death - a horrible, humiliating, and disgusting death - made her want to go to bed, and wake up only to find her father informing her to rest easy because it had only been a bad dream.

"Now I must ask you the most important question."

Mizuki returned the commander's gaze, resting on her, and felt a chill run through her.

"You said you came from a village..."

"Yes, the Hidden Leaf Village ."

"And then?"

"Then what?"

"Beyond … beyond the borders of your Village, is there anything else?" Mizuki felt herself pierced by the man's relentless gaze. "Are there other people?"

"Are you asking if the fact that humanity is completely extinct beyond the walls is false?"

Erwin did not answer, and merely nodded. His pupils had shrunk to the size of a pin, and Mizuki found herself facing two glimpses of the sky that seemed about to swallow her. She had the feeling that, beyond those seemingly clear mirrors, a bottomless chasm opened up. "I can't answer that. I don't remember exactly what is on the border."

"So..." Hanje could not finish the sentence.

"Are you telling us that you, too, may have been living locked inside fucking walls until now? And that between our walls and yours could extend seamlessly into a territory inhabited by giants?"

Mizuki returned Levi's frowning gaze. "I can't rule it out," but in the tone in which she uttered those words he understood perfectly well that, fundamentally, that was exactly how she felt about it.

Again a moment of silence. Then Loki let a sigh escape. "Well, about that, we'll let you know as soon as we return home."

Amado ran a hand over his face. "Yeah. I can't wait to see my mother again."

"Amado, that's why women don't like you," laughed Lavinia, patting his arm.

Levi clicked his tongue.

Mizuki said nothing. He merely kept her eyes fixed on the table, an indecipherable expression on her face. She, at least, seemed to understand how things really were. Levi shifted his attention from the brat to Erwin, who was already staring at him; by now he knew him well enough to know that the gears in his head were working at a rapid pace. The commander imperceptibly shook his head, intimating him to restrain himself from abruptly shattering those brats' expectations.

After that, Erwin cleared his throat. "Good. I'm satisfied for the moment."

Amado, Loki and Lavinia breathed a sigh of relief. Mizuki, on the other hand, maintained her forcibly posed attitude. "So? What happens now?"

"Now I have to think things over. First, however, we will give you a chance to refresh and rest. You are exhausted."

"I am grateful, but first I would like to have a chance to confer with my comrades separately. There are some matters ... that I think are best dealt with among ourselves " Mizuki exchanged a look of understanding with the commander, and he immediately guessed what matters she was referring to.

Without adding a word, Erwin gave his consent by bowing his head slightly.

OOO

The night was torn apart by an inhuman scream, reminiscent of the cry of a wild beast cornered. Mizuki jerked her eyes open. It took her a few moments to orient herself. She imprecated. Even though she had sworn not to sleep, it was only sufficient for her to rest her head on the pillow to collapse.

The cries continued to resound incredibly close.

Lavinia.

Mizuki hurriedly slipped out of the bed and into the one next to hers. Her friend screamed wildly in her sleep, body writhing in dry spasms and face streaked with tears.

"What's going on?!" Loki pulled himself up from the bed on the other side of the room where he and Amado had lain. "Make less noise!"

An insomniac Hanje - formally elected to guard the four, but in fact more interested in catching up on the hours of sleep she was chronically in debt - also raised an inarticulate protest. At her side, Moblit made sure the blanket was tightly wrapped around his superior's shoulders.

Mizuki shook Lavinia until she woke up, but even after she regained consciousness, the girl continued to shake and cry convulsively. Clicking her tongue, she forced her to get up and then dragged her into the dark, icy corridor. The touch of Mizuki's hand and the sound of her voice had a beneficial effect on Lavinia, who, while still moaning, leaned on her friend and let herself be gently led.

They entered one of the rooms that overlooked the hallway. After closing the door behind them and studying the arrangement of furniture, Mizuki spotted a sofa and led her friend to it; when they sat down, a puff of dust rose from the cushions.

"I'm sorry, Mizuki." Lavinia pulled up with her nose. She sat curled up with her legs gathered beneath her. "I woke you up."

"Don't worry, I was more or less awake. And I was trying not to sleep anyway." Gently, Mizuki used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe the other's face, still damp from mucus and tears.

"Mizuki...what you told us earlier, did you really mean it?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Do you think we will have to stay here much longer?"

Mizuki did not immediately reply.

The dialogue with her comrades after the meeting with the soldiers unfolded far worse than her blackest predictions, and Mizuki learned on her own skin that the saying "ambassador carries no punishment" lacked a solid foundation to justify it. Even Loki began to cry, and insulted her more viciously than usual, although - to be fair - the girl considered it an achievement that he had not beaten her to vent his anger.

"Are you fucking with us, you jerk?!" shouted Loki at her, grabbing her by the lapels of her shirt. "Stay here?"

With a firm, though anger-free gesture, Mizuki grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away from her. "I don't see many other alternatives."

"Have you gone senile like that woman with the glasses? Do you want to stay here and study the shit out of those monsters!"

"What about you, what would you like to do? Get outside the walls? Become fodder for giants?"

Loki, biting his lip in frustration, could not reply anything sensible.

"You heard them, didn't you? They've been living shut up in these walls for a hundred fucking years, and I understand why. You've seen it, too, what's out there." Mizuki squinted her eyes, and then uttered the last word articulating it in an ominous hiss. "Hell."

"But we... we know it's not! That there is more! Out there ... there is our Village!"

"And where, exactly?!" In answering Amado, Mizuki was unable to look him in the face. "At what distance is it located? Are there giants there too?"

"Don't be stupid. We would remember it if that were the case!"

"Are you really sure, Loki? What if they simply haven't gotten there yet, but are getting closer? We succeeded, in getting there, who's to say that the opposite couldn't happen?"

"But..."

"Who's to say that our memories are accurate?" continued Mizuki, pressing them ever more fiercely. "Who's to say ... that we didn't actually have to go off exploring because something strange had happened back home? Maybe something related to this fucking place - whatever that means. We don't know why we came here or what has happened since we left the Village. How much time has passed? What has happened in the meantime? What if our memories are inaccurate? They have already been manipulated in some way. What if... what if there are pieces of the story that we are missing?"

Loki finally regained his speech. After swallowing loudly, he leaned in Mizuki's direction. "What... what do you mean by that?"

The girl squinted her eyes, unable to hold up beyond that conversation. She hated being forced to take on responsibilities that concerned others, she hated shattering the hopes of her comrades, she hated that situation, she hated the giants, she hated herself for her inability to find the right words to communicate such uncomfortable truths, and, at that particular moment, she especially hated sensei for dumping her in that shit.

To her, who was nothing like her mother.

But she was in the dance now, so it was her turn to dance.

"Exactly what you all thought right now."

What if there really is no one left out there but us?

"And... what about our mission?" Amado clenched his fists spasmodically, searching for any hope to cling to.

"The mission has gone to hell. We don't even remember what we were supposed to do, damn it! The only thing we can do now is try to survive. And the best way to do that is to stay here, and listen to these people."

Lavinia sank her face into her hands. Loki's eyes flooded with tears. Amado, on the other hand, stared at a spot on the floor with an atoned gaze devoid of any vitality.

Mizuki felt her heart, torn apart, beating so hard that it gave her a sharp pain in her chest. It was she who had reduced them to that state, crushing the vain hopes they had harbored up to that moment. She decided to take on the uncomfortable role of ambassador, and not leave it to Levi and Erwin, because their dying sensei's pinned her down as captain. It was her job to carry that punishment, whether she liked it or not.

She squeezed her hands nches until her nails dug into the palms.

"I am your captain. The captain of Team 7, and my job now is to lead you home safely. Assuming there is still a place we can call home."

Her three comrades could not find an adequate response, to those words.

"I want to have hope, and I want to believe that the Village awaits us, beyond these walls. I am an optimist by nature, you said so yourself, Loki. But I am not a fool. If we tried to go back, in our present state, we would all end up devoured. To begin with, there are only four of us left; there were seventeen before, and there is no need to analyze again how it turned out. Secondly, we don't even know what the right direction to take is, nor what distance separates us and the Village. The only viable option at the moment is to wait. To wait and survive until we can return home safely." Mizuki closed her eyes, unable to bear beyond the sight of her comrades reduced to a shadow of their former selves. "We must have faith in these people, and fight alongside them. You heard them, didn't you? They are going out there to exterminate the giants and to discover... discover something useful for human beings. Relying on them is the wisest - if not the only - choice we can make right now."

Well, assuming those people had decided to trust them. She guessed the issue the commander needed to think about was that, and - as lightly as she had acted during the interview - she was fully aware of the precariousness of their situation..

"Mizuki?"

Lavinia's voice roused her from her thoughts, bringing her back to reality.

"What?"

"Do you think we'll have to stay here much longer?"

"I hope not, but I honestly can't tell you. Not that we have many other options, on the other hand."

"I ... want to go home."

"So do I. And we will. I swear to you. If it's the last thing I do, I'll take you home. But I don't want to go through that hell again. Not without being certain that I can get you to the other side safely."

"You threw yourself at those monsters twice, Mizuki. First, when you stayed behind with sensei, and then on that rooftop..."

"It wasn't quite like that..."

"I... thought I would go crazy just thinking about it ... that you might end up devoured. I wouldn't survive ... if you died I wouldn't survive." Tears returned to stream down Lavinia's cheeks copiously. Even with her face swollen from weeping and her eyes reddened, she still remained beautiful, a delicate porcelain doll with a slightly cracked heart, and Mizuki - as usual, as every moment since that not-too-distant day four years earlier - felt the overwhelming need to protect her.

They exchanged a long look, in silence, for they had long since been able to communicate with each other even without speaking. A long-standing promise hovered on each other's lips.

"Hey..." Mizuki opened her arms, and Lavinia catapulted into them, sinking the head into her lap.

"I dreamed it was happening, Mizuki. I ... I dreamed that you never emerged from that mouth again. And that ... that monster was starting to chew ... and you ..."

Mizuki wrapped her up in her arms, holding her tightly, as tightly as she could, as if with that gesture she could erase - even if briefly - the stark reality of that unfamiliar world they had fallen into. "'Sorry... sorry, Lav."

"Don't ever do that again. Please..."

Mizuki did not respond. With one hand she took to caressing the nape of her friend's neck, as she remembered Mother used to do when she rushed to the rescue of one of her daughters, awakened in the middle of the night from a nightmare.

"Mizuki?"

"I can't promise you that, Lav."

"Sniff..."

"If you were to find yourself in danger again, I would do it again, and again. Even I couldn't bear to lose you. You are my light. You know that."

Lavinia increased the grip of her embrace, but added nothing. She didn't need to. Everything had long since been said between them, and no matter how overwhelming Lavinia's affection for her might sometimes be, Mizuki knew she needed it.

"I will bring you back. I swear," she murmured in a hushed voice, and continued for a few more minutes to cradle and gently caress her friend's head. That gesture seemed to calm her: her breathing became more regular, and her grip on Mizuki's body - previously firm - gradually loosened.

Mizuki waited a few more seconds. Then she tried to call out to her, softly; but the other remained silent.

"I can't believe it...she fell asleep."

Mizuki peered around the couch, looking for whatever object vaguely resembled a flap of cloth she could use to cover her companion, but the darkness made it impossible to make out shapes; after that, she touched around, in the vain hope of greater success. She did not want to move Lavinia, who had finally fallen asleep again, but neither could she leave her like that for the rest of the night.

"A blanket..."

Suddenly, he heard a rustling coming from the armchairs arranged in the opposite corner of the room, facing the large windows that overlooked the valley. A dark figure emerged from the darkness, and Mizuki's muscles contracted, ready to react should the need arise, heart pounding in her temples, marking the seconds and the figure's steps in her direction...and there it was, stretching out a shapeless limb, topped by a mass of frayed, mushy flesh...

The figure moved the last step and entered the pool of moonlight in front of the sofa.

Mizuki watched as Captain Levi stood in front of her and held what had all the appearance of being a blanket. She frowned. She had expected anything but such a melodramatic appearance from the man.

He, however, seemed disinclined to wait for Mizuki to come to terms with his presence there. "Do you think it will take you much longer to decide whether to take it or not? It's not a complicated choice."

Mizuki recoiled, and picked up the blanket. "Sorry, I was waiting to see if a poisonous snake would pop up from it."

He did not reply. With the same light and elegant step with which he had advanced from the darkness in her direction, he walked over to the nearest chair among those arranged around the table in the center of the room, turned it so that it was facing her, and settled on it. Mizuki watched the scene surreptitiously, intrigued, as she wrapped her companion's body with the blanket.

A long moment of silence passed. Although she could not be certain because of the prevailing darkness in the room, Mizuki sensed the man's steely eyes nailing her to the sofa. She did not believe that he was trying to make her feel uncomfortable, but rather that that was his manner; unfortunately for him, whatever the reason, it took more than that to awe or intimidate someone who had grown up with a father like hers.

"Are you still looking at me, brat?"

"Well, you stood in front of me as if to show off. I thought that's what you wanted."

"What I want is to keep an eye on you and your obvious ability to cause a mess."

"Then it's you watching me. I'm really flattered."

Levi let a brief moment pass before responding, inhaling air through his nostrils with a soft hiss, as if he was forcing himself, without much success, to keep calm. "I'm regretting that I didn't let you get mauled today."

Mizuki chuckled, trying to make as little noise as possible to not disturb Lavinia.

"What the fuck is your problem?"

"Oh, maybe we'd sooner list what my problems are not, currently."

"You're out of your mind, brat, I mean it."

"You've got quite a temper as well, I assure you."

They peered at each other for a few more moments, he an expressionless mask behind which simmered a barely suppressed irritation, and the other with an amused smirk on her lips. Levi - feeling the nagging sensation that he himself was the cause of her hilarity - turned his head slightly, offering her a view of his elegant profile, intertwined his hands and, leaning his torso forward, rested his elbows on his knees.

"What were you doing here in the middle of the night anyway?"

"None of your damn business."

" Are you so perpetually irritable because you have bowel problems?"

The captain's nostrils flared again as new air was pumped into his lungs and attempts to impose calmness put in place.

"I ask because I might have some medicine in my arsenal that might help... ah, don't look at me like that. I'm a doctor."

"Do you think I give a damn?"

"No?" Mizuki bent her head to the side, carefully studying his expression.

"..."

"Look, I think you and I got off on the wrong foot."

"Just got off on the wrong foot? I don't see things getting any better now with that crappy personality of yours."

"This is because you have taken on the attitude of a constipated person who has just been given an enema. This way we can never cooperate..."

"Why should I cooperate with you? If Erwin decides to be lenient and keep you here, I will follow orders, but that is all that I will ever do."

This time, despite the darkness and his declamations of disinterest, Mizuki harbored no doubt that the man's steely gaze, as icy as the flakes swirling in the sky during a snowstorm, was turning her inside out.

She watched him in turn, leaning against the back of the chair, his face in profile and looking out over the valley that lay at the foot of the castle. The portrait of a man like him staring absorbedly out the window could be interpreted in many different ways, and to Mizuki, that night, two mainly came to mind: a hunter, intent on studying his prey, waiting for the propitious moment to bite down on it - whether it was her or the giants, was of no relevance - and a man carefully scanning the traces of his own life, searching for a meaning to the events that had punctuated it.

What is he looking at?, she wondered, What do those eyes see?

What could they have seen, the eyes of a person belonging to a world whose edges had always been bounded by high walls, representing both salvation and eternal condemnation?

She realized that she wanted to know. That she wanted to understand, regardless of what the commander would decide.

She wanted to know the story of the grumpy man who twirled through the sky, elegantly felling monsters dozens of meters high, and went around at night offering blankets to people who were looking for them.

Lavinia stirred in her sleep.

Mizuki took to slowly wrapping a strand of hair around a finger.

""You're right. That's how it is in the present state. It's a problem, but you know what they say, don't you? Problems are of two kinds, those that can be solved, and those that cannot be solved. I think ours falls into the first category, so maybe we can do something about it. We can try to understand each other."

Levi did not turn in her direction, but she did not doubt that he was listening to her.

"That's why, I look at you. And it is for the same reason that you look at me, right?"

The captain did not immediately reply, a trait that symbolized - she noted - his attempt to keep calm or find the - few - right words to express himself. She held her breath, waiting for him to convey his choice to her, unable to predict which path the man seated in front of her would decide to take.

A moment more of silence, and an imperceptible twinkle crossed those gray eyes, before he returned to wearing his impassive mask.

"Are you always so damn annoying, you?"

Mizuki felt the hard lump of anxiety and expectation that oppressed her chest melt away in an instant at the sound of those words. Without attempting to control herself, she threw back her head and laughed with all the strength left in her body.

OOO

The laughter resounded in the room like the ringing of bells on a Sunday morning in early winter, when the city is still immersed in sleep, darkness and stillness, and the sound lit it up as the first ray of sun, sprung up beyond the highest city wall, floods the valley behind it, awakening the people and the sleeping nature.

The brat's laugh was a bit like this. It broke the still silence that floated between them, and brightened the darkness that raged in the room.

She threw back her head, and a genuine and most powerful laughter that washed over him spilled out of her chest. This was no pretense, nor was it an affected or studied gesture - as might have been expected in such a situation. She had just arrived in an unfamiliar world, populated by monsters, where more than half of her companions had been mauled; she herself had risked her life, at the hands first of giants and then at his, after a virtually sleepless night.

Yet she laughed, a sound rising from her chest and spreading through the air.

Levi disliked people who were stupidly cheerful and boisterous - people who thought life was a game, and took everything lightly - and that brat possessed both of those annoying traits, and in abundance. He did not believe, however, that the reasons for such an attitude lay in her light-heartedness; she was cheerful and boisterous, and seemingly always busy talking bullshit, but he had seen her trembling with relief at having saved her comrades, and had heard the words of comfort she had murmured.

There was more beneath that laughter.

Levi never laughed. But a part of his soul, an infinitesimal particle of him, buried under time-thickened layers of suspicion and less-than-pleasant experiences, reacted to that vital sound.

"No, I'm usually worse! Just ask Loki. But since this is the first encounter where neither of us is trying to kill the other, I have restrained myself. I'm trying, at least."

"That will help the coexistence process." The captain leaned his back against the chair and ran a hand over his temples. That night his headache was plaguing him more than normal, and his chronic insomnia promised not to leave him even the relief of the scant two hours of sleep he usually managed to conquer, albeit with difficulty.

"For this evening I will grace you, don't worry. As proof of my good faith, I also apologize for what happened to your nose. I didn't mean to hurt you, I really mean it... although it must be said that you started it. In fact, let's be honest: you kind of deserved it, after all."

Levi studied the girl's figure. She sat curled up on the sofa, with the whiny brat's head on her legs and one hand placed on her head as if to protect her from nightmares; with the other, she was fiddling with a lock of her long curly hair.

"And you call that an apology?"

"They are. I said I'm sorry."

"..."

"So?"

"So what?"

"Now it's your turn to apologize, isn't it?"

"Apologize?" Levi leaned in the direction of his interlocutor, thinking he had misheard. But no. The brat was serious, damn serious and fucking brazen in addressing such a request to him.

"Don't take that outrageous attitude. You attacked a defenseless girl, it seems to me the least that you should apologize."

"I only did what I had to do."

"Now that's a lousy apology. We have a lot to work on so we can get to living together decently."

Levi clucked his tongue. He was beginning to regret having indulged in that antics. What had made him resolve in a positive sense was one of what Erwin called his "gut intuitions," by which he meant his almost animalistic ability to understand the innermost nature and desires of a person he had just met.

Of the brat in front of him, in reality, there was probably little mystery to eviscerate: apart from the fact that every thought or emotion surfaced in her face, to the point that her expression could change in the space of a minute several times, she did not even have a problem - in case any doubts remained, as to her intentions - to externalize them in words, looking her interlocutor straight in the eyes. Without hesitation, without fear, without a trace of falsehood. The brat was offering him a view of herself, of what was simmering inside her as easily as she had, moments earlier, indulged in an uncontrolled, liberating laugh.

"And anyway, I would define you as anything but helpless," he said.

"And even less would call me a girl, huh?"

He decided he had had enough of passively enduring that brat's irreverence without fighting back. If he had to stay in her company to keep an eye on her until morning or until one of them collapsed, he might as well make the most of the opportunity to gain some useful information.

"You were able to keep up with my movements. Not everyone is capable of that. It was your eyes, wasn't it?"

The comment clearly caught her off guard. As if she had just been slapped in the face, she recoiled her back and turned her head away. She seemed genuinely unaware of how much every gesture of her body - and not even in a thinly veiled way - communicated to others what was on her mind. Now the finger curling the tormented the hair's lock was moving more rapidly, with a rhythmic cadence that made her mistress' nervousness obvious.

She was so utterly clueless that it was almost amusing.

"Is this another one of your techniques?"

After a long moment, in which the curling speed increased tenfold, Mizuki sighed and turned her gaze in his direction again, with the expression of someone forced to swallow a disgusting medicine. "It is an innate ocular ability, which has been passed down within my father's family for generations."

"And what exactly does it consist of?"

This time she assumed the determined and triumphant expression of someone who expected the question, and bent her head slightly to the side. "To access this information you must rise to the next level of confidence, sunshine."

Levi inspired slowly from his nostrils.

"Listen, brat. I have a name. See that you learn to use it quickly if you want to live with me without incident."

"I have one, too. Why don't you start by calling me properly?"

"How old did you say you are?"

"I didn't say that. Anyway, I'm seventeen - almost eighteen, to be precise."

"Then brat is just fine."

"Why don't you give me a smile?"

"..."

"Should I take that murderous grimace as a rejection?"

"..."

"Great, then sunshine is just fine."

"Go fuck yourself."

He imagined the sound of her laughter echoing through the walls of the room even before it flowed from her parted lips. With no small surprise, he found that he had already grown accustomed to that crystal clear sound that seemed to brighten the atmosphere. It was so natural, so appropriate, in a way, to her and - incredibly - to the environment she had created between them.

He looked at her. He had now brought her unplaced hand on Lavinia's head to the mouth, in a vain attempt to suppress that irrepressible noise. She too was watching him, with a raised eyebrow and apparently amused by his surly attitude.

"I don't think we can ever live together decently."

"How not! Seems to me, on the other hand, we'll get along just fine."

Of course, if her ideal of cohabitation consisted of taking the piss out of him like that, no doubt that for her that represented a perfect situation. "Tsk."

Levi decided to drop the point. In order to entertain himself for those brief minutes he had had to drain all his energy, which, that particular evening, was already stretched thin. And, in fact, given his low propensity for social reactions, it was almost unbelievable to him that he had carried on such a pointless and irritating conversation for so long; but the brat seemed to be endowed with the incredible ability - partly innate, and partly clearly acquired through years of training - to drive people to exasperation, and push them to communicate with her just to insult or wrong her. Mizuki continued to chuckle to herself but - just as she had promised - she seemed to be willing to grace him, and respected his silence. Soon, her head began to dangle forward and, at times, she fell more abruptly forward, whereupon she jerked her back up.

She broke the silence only once, when by this time Levi had convinced himself that - finally - she was off.

"Captain," she murmured in a hushed voice, her head bent forward and her eyes closed.

"Ah, I'm a captain now?"

"If you prefer sunsh..."

"'Don't bust my balls. What do you want?"

"I haven't thanked you yet."

"For what?" Levi wrinkled his eyebrows. With each exit she shot off, the brat confirmed his belief that she was a bit out of mind. Since their meeting that morning, he could not remember doing anything to get a thank you.

"For the blanket," she replied weakly, with enough presence of mind to caress the body of her companion who was sleeping placidly on her. "Lav would have been cold otherwise. You truly are..."

A sigh, a heavier breath, and then she fell silent for good.

This time she was really gone.

Levi peered at her for a few moments, then stood up. He no longer felt it necessary to stay and guard her.

Even though she was now sleeping placidly, and even after he left the room, Levi still felt the weight of those golden eyes on him for a long time, peering at him through the darkness and the space between them.

OOO

The next morning, Mizuki awoke after the first light of dawn. The sun's rays were already lazily illuminating the valley, flooding the branches of the trees surrounding the clearing with golden light, and making the bright green grass of the meadow sparkle. The wind lazily caressed that scenery, giving it an undulating, soothing dynamism.

"Oh, good morning!"

Mizuki gasped. She had not immediately realized that she was not alone in the room as, still reeling from the last vestiges of sleep, she raptly contemplated the spectacle of pristine nature offering itself to her eyes beyond the window. Hanje sat at the table on the opposite side from the sofa, a book in her hand and a smile on her face.

Lavinia slept snuggled against her, her face sunk in her lap and curled up under the blanket Mizuki had wrapped around her over the course of the night, and she had not moved an inch from when she had fallen in her arms as if dead.

"I didn't expect to find anyone sleeping in here! Good thing you didn't decide to cut the rope tonight, or the midget would kill me".

"What time is it?" Mizuki slightly straightened her back, numb from the position she maintained during the night. Then she became aware of a detail she had not noticed before.

"Almost eight o'clock. I think we'll be called for breakfast downstairs soon."

"Excuse me, captain..."

"Oh, call me Hanje!"

"Um, Hanje..."

"Yes?"

"Was it you who put this blanket on me?"

"What? No, no. When I came in, you already had it on you. Why?"

Mizuki did not reply, but she could not help but bring her hands to the blanket resting on her shoulders. "Nothing..."

The door to the room swung open, and Levi's face, already annoyed at that hour, appeared.

"Oh, good morning, Levi!"

"Hey, you brats, see that you move your asses, in fifteen minutes there's a meeting downstairs."

"But come on, always the same! Treat our guests with more kindness! They are exhausted!"

Levi and Mizuki's gazes crossed.

"What the fuck are you still looking at, brat?"

"I get it now."

"What are you talking about?"

"'You.'" Mizuki, crinkling her eyes, gave him a knowing look. "You're the hard bark, soft interior type."

Levi contemplated her for a few moments in the same way he would have stared at a cockroach in the kitchen. "In fifteen minutes. Every minute of delay will convert into a kick in the ass." Then he left the room, pursued by Hanje's boisterous laughter and Mizuki's, which had already begun to haunt him, and which - though at that moment he still could not imagine such a bleak future - he would never be able to get rid of again.

OOO

Twenty minutes later, all the inhabitants of the house gathered in the canteen around the table set for breakfast. However, none of those present had yet touched food, and the group's attention was entirely on the commander, seated at the head of the table.

"Well, I would have liked to explain my position to you over breakfast, but I realize that no one is going to eat until the matter is clarified, so I will get straight to the point: I will trust you. You are welcome to join us. You may stay as long as you wish, and until we can guarantee you a safe route back to your Village."

Mizuki felt the weight weighing on her chest dissolve. They were safe. Immediately, however, she wrinkled her brow: how soon would that moment come? According to the previous evening's reports, the fight with those monsters had been going on for at least a hundred years, and with little positive outcome in favor of the human front.

"If your decision had been different, would you really have sent us back out of the wall to those monsters?" asked Loki, with a grimace.

"Of course not!" Hanje hastened to say. "We are not barbarians."

"We would only have handed you over to the Military Police Brigade, and to the whims of those filthy pigs who fatten in the capital. They would have found your story interesting, and they would certainly have been willing to delve into it, whatever it takes." commented Levi.

"But that's not what we're going to do," Erwin intertwined his hands and leaned his elbows on the table. "However, for the time being I do not think it is safe to reveal your real identity. Without tangible evidence to back up your story, the risk is to create panic among the citizens, and draw unwanted attention to you and us. The idea is to bring you into the ranks of the Survey Corps, so as to legitimize your presence on our side."

Amado and Loki nodded.

"For this reason, I think it is appropriate and necessary to observe two expedients. The first is quite simple: although reluctantly, I must ask you the kindness not to use, from now on, what you call techniques. As far as I know, unfortunately, none of the people inside the walls have ever breathed fire from their mouths or created lightning out of thin air."

Loki rolled his eyes, with a hiss. "You put on a show, eh, Mizuki?"

"Shut up, Loki, or next time I'll let the giant devour you."

"But...but..." intervened Lavinia. "If we can't use our techniques, how will we protect ourselves from those monsters in case..." she swallowed, unable to finish her sentence.

"Regarding this, you need not worry. As I anticipated, your cover-up story - on the details of which I reserve the right to work in the coming days - will consist of enlisting you within the ranks of our corps. To this end, we will also subject you to intensive training in giant-killing techniques and the 'use of ODM gear, and..."

"About what?" asked Amado, interrupting the commander.

"The ODM gear!" exclaimed Hanje, leaping to her feet and pointing to the harness that wrapped around her body. "This is the device we use to move through the air and fight the giants."

"Ah yes, I see." Amado leaned forward to get a better look. "In fact, I have seen them in action, and I think it is an extremely ingenious tool. Brilliant, I would say. How does it work?"

The commander intervened before Hanje could launch into one of her rambling explanations that, one way or another, she would divert to her main passion . "This, too, we will explain in due course. Forgive me for trying to cut this short, but I'll have to hit the road shortly to return to the city. Can I count on you, then?"

Amado, Loki and Lavinia did not reply, and simply turned to face Mizuki, who was staring at Erwin with her cheek resting on her hand. He returned the gaze, feeling himself bubbling up inside: the mere thought that this girl was coming from outside the walls, from a larger world unknown to them, made him lose his wits.

"That's fine with me," Mizuki finally decreed, after a long pause. "This is your home, so it is only fair that we follow your rules, especially if they are dictated in view of a collective interest. And also, I would like to point out that I don't normally go around walking on walls and breathing fire because I enjoy it," and here she cast a sidelong glance at her own comrade. "I would like to be very clear on one point, though. I'm okay with pretending to be a normal person, and learning how to use this MOD thing..."

"ODM," Hanje corrected her.

"Whatever. If there is to be a fight, even against a giant, I will do it imitating your style, but on one condition. If the life of one of my comrades should ever be in danger, and I have no other way to come to their rescue, well, then I guess those monsters must prepare to be roasted."

Erwin's smile did not waver for a moment. "That sounds like a more than reasonable condition to me. If such a scenario ever arises and your cover is blown, we will think about what to do."

"And the second expedient?" asked Loki.

"The second expedient is related to what I just said. This is not our headquarters, but a base away from population centers that we are using to carry out Hanje's experiments while waiting for preparations for the next expedition to be completed. Until I have finalized your cover story and obtained permission from higher-ups to insert you into the Corps without going through the canonical three years of training, I believe it is wiser for you to remain here, under the custody of Captain Levi."

Mizuki nodded with conviction. "This is wonderful news."

Levi squinted his eyes, and inspired deeply by barely flaring his nostrils. "The idea of the Military Police is still not completely ruled out. Know this, brat."

"Ahhh." Loki let out a laugh. "Are you really sure about the decision, commander? I think Mizuki will end up blowing her cover before you've even gone a kilometer away from here."

"I realize the implications," Erwin assured him with a laugh, and casting an amused glance first at Mizuki and then at Levi. "Therefore, I ask the kindness of you to cooperate and follow the orders you will be given."

"Ah, that makes it even worse," sighed Loki. "Putting the words order and Mizuki in the same sentence is never a good idea."

"Well, and now that these details have been settled, help yourselves," Erwin nodded in invitation to those present, then stood up. "I, unfortunately, cannot stay any longer; I am already behind schedule. In any case, I will see you again very soon."

"Commander, wait!"

Erwin turned around: everyone else in the room had pounced on the food, except Mizuki, who had just called him back, and Levi, who didn't take his eyes off her for a moment, having taken his own supervisory duties far too seriously.

"The child?"

"Mizuki, what are you babbling about?" mumbled Amado, his mouth full of bread dipped in sauce.

"The one we rescued yesterday. He ... saw me using what can no longer be named."

"Yes, good question. For now, he will stay here, then we will decide on what to do. And in any case, we need to question him to find out who brought him to Tiburtina."

Mizuki nodded, thoughtful. At that point, the commander finally took his leave, and let them devote themselves to the meal - the first breakfast of a long series in the new world whose arms, depending on one's point of view, had just lovingly welcomed them, or engulfed them.

A new world, cruel, populated by monsters as tall as a palace and at the same time, in the mystery that enveloped it, fascinating.

With an involuntary gesture - which she realized she had made only when it was already too late - Mizuki looked up at Levi. He was already looking at her and, for once, did not seem to want to complain about being the object of her attention.

They would never admit it, either of them, but both of them - for some inexplicable reason - certainly shared, for an instant, the exact same thought.

A cruel and fascinating new world.

A world where they had just met.