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

4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: This is the part of me that you're never gonna ever take away from me, no.

Katy Perry - Part of me

Timidly, the Levi Squad members began asking questions about their place of origin to the newcomers, who responded cheerfully. They intended to use the opportunity to find out as much as they could about them as long as they had the chance-that is, until they returned to HQ, where conversations about the four ninjas would pose a risk and, as such, would be strictly forbidden except in safe contexts. Except for Hanje and Moblit, who had been made aware of the affair because of their proximity and loyalty to the commander, Erwin decided that the other soldiers would be left in the dark about the real - at least, supposed -identity of the newcomers.

As the twenty minutes allotted to the soldiers for breakfast approached, Levi cleared his throat to impart the various tasks. "My team will train today in the use of the device, and we will take this opportunity to begin your training. You two," and here he winked at Loki and Lavinia, "will go with them now. The other two, wash the dishes, and then..."

At that point Mizuki stood up.

"I'm not done talking yet, brat."

She grimaced; then, with obvious effort, forced herself to pronounce, "Captain."

"The look on your face right now is worth the interruption."

"I'm glad it takes so little to make you feel fulfilled, but I'm not talking to you." Mizuki - letting slip a fleeting but undoubtedly smug smirk - was staring at Hanje. "Has anyone visited the child?"

"Um, not to my knowledge." then, noticing Mizuki's expression, she hastened to add, "He was unharmed, he was just sleeping when he arrived!"

The girl clicked her tongue, then turned in the direction of the door, meanwhile bringing her hands through her hair to gather it into a tail with a black string that she pulled out of her pants pockets.

"'Ohi, where do you think you're going?" with a lightning-fast movement, Levi stood between her and the exit.

"To do something that should have been done last night," Mizuki replied, stopping a few steps away from him. "I'm a doctor, I told you that last night, too," she added.

"You may be the queen herself, but my order is that you wash the dishes, and ..."

"Look, let's do it like this. Amado, leave the dishes there, I'll wash them later - I'll make them shine - so the captain will be happy. But now there's not a moment to lose. That child should have been examined right away, last night, to see if he was given any substances; if that is what happened, as I fear, action must be taken as soon as possible to curb the risks to his health and above all to preserve his memory. The longer certain drugs remain in his system, without being adequately counteracted, the more risk there is of his memories being contaminated. You are also interested in knowing what happened to him, aren't you?"

Levi studied her for a few moments, considering whether to kick her off immediately to a cell or to teach her some old-fashioned discipline. The second alternative sounded pretty tempting to him, but the brat would surely fight back, and a mess would ensue; so perhaps, better to send her off to freshen up her mind...

Hanje, however, intervened to her rescue. "She has a point, actually..."

Levi shot her an annoyed look. "And you say that now?"

"I haven't even seen that child! And in any case, I deal with giants, I'm not interested in humans."

"Well, I guess that's settled." Mizuki took advantage of the exchange to pass the captain and gain the door.

"OHI! Stop right there!"

But she was already on the stairs.

Loki shook his head. "Captain, I'll give you some advice if you don't want to go crazy. Forget the idea of disciplining her, it's a lost cause. She just do what she wants."

Levi gave him a fiery look, before launching himself in pursuit of Mizuki. "Move your asses!"

The brat was moving faster than the previous day, debilitated from her confrontations with the giants and with him. Not that he needed further confirmation - the previous night's conversation had been enough - but Levi made a mental note to keep a closer eye on her, since she was moving as nimbly as a grass snake.

"Relax, sunshine. I'm not going to slit his throat in his sleep to eliminate the only witness to my crimes."

He did not reply, focused on reaching her as soon as possible. He had definitely opted for a joint application of the two punishment options: first discipline, given the old-fashioned way, then the cell. First, however, he would have to reach her, but Mizuki had already gained the second floor and from there the door to the room where the child was.

When Levi entered the room, he leaned against the wall, arms folded, and stood watching Mizuki bustle around the child; with sure and precise gestures she went over his body from head to toe: his irises, his head, his neck; then she undressed him to resume the examination of his chest and legs; she did not even neglect to check between his toes. Then she gently moved on to the last check: when she had completed it, she breathed a sigh of relief. No signs of sexual assault. That, at least, he had been spared.

She stood still for a few moments, watching him; then she ran a hand over his forehead, tenderly.

"Hey, are you done?"

She jerked, "Oh, were you still here, captain?"

He did not reply to that statement, an expression on his face that seemed to tell her: there is no way I'm leaving you alone even for a moment. "So?"

Mizuki stood up to face him. "He was drugged; I still can't say for sure what substance was used, but it must have been something strong if the catatonic state continues even now. Do you see that he did not react while I was examining him? It's strange that he didn't even become agitated, isn't it? From this I infer that he was drugged, and even the pupils seem to indicate this. Administered by mouth, he has no syringe marks on his arm. Otherwise, his vitals are stable; indeed, I would venture to say that this child, before arriving there, was well fed and cared for. To assess the real damage - from the drug and especially from the experience -I have to wake him up. Also because he has a full bladder, and if we wait any longer, he will wet his pants. That wouldn't be nice, and anyway I have to collect a sample to study it."

Levi did not respond, continuing to stare at her.

"Well, what's that look? Yes, I guess you were convinced it was an excuse to disobey you, but - surprise surprise - I really am a doctor. Now." Mizuki turned back to the child. "I don't know how he'll react, so if you have a weak stomach, you'd better go back to issuing orders downstairs."

"..."

"I understand, I understand. I can forget about that. Well, just as well, I might need a hand."

Mizuki bent down beside the bed, and began gently shaking the boy. It took her a good two minutes, soft words and a few pats on the cheeks to get some sign of life. More minutes, before his eyes widened and moved around, veiled in a patina of absence. Mizuki gently grabbed his shoulders, and helped him pull himself to his seat, holding an arm behind his back to support him.

"Hey, good morning! My name is Mizuki. I'm a friend, you're safe now. What is your name? How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

She kept repeating those questions to him over and over, yet getting no response.

Levi observed the child's apathy, wondering if it was just the side effects of the drug the brat was babbling about, or something deeper, related to the experience he had. "Cut him some slack," he intervened at one point, not putting up with the scene any longer. "I wouldn't answer, either, if you tarred me like that."

"I have to. It's protocol for cases of apathy and disconnection from post traumatic reality, you need to reconnect the patient with..."

"I tell you to leave him alone."

"And I tell you..."

Mizuki froze. The child had grabbed the wrist of the hand resting on his right leg; he was trembling. His eyes, previously veiled, contracted, flooded with indescribable terror: although he kept them wide open, they were out of phase, fixed on an indefinite point, a scene other than the real one, which neither the captain nor Mizuki could see. His breathing shortened, and became labored.

"Oh no." Mizuki laid the little body on the bed. "Hand me the pit there in the corner, and then go retrieve my bag from the seized items."

He looked at her glacially. "What did you say?"

"Please."

"Look, I hope..."

"Do it!" Mizuki turned her head sharply as the convulsions that shook the child in her arms intensified. "He's going to have a panic attack!"

Before he could finish the sentence, the child began screaming like a demon and flailing wildly. Mizuki pinned him down by pushing him against the mattress with her own body and trying to keep him still, with little result despite the weight difference. "Quick! He's starting to urinate!"

Finally, Levi retrieved the object and approached the bed.

"Captain, pick up some pee!" Mizuki was still struggling with the child's wild and uncontrollable fury.

He stared at her without understanding. On the contrary, no. He had understood just fine.

"Can you hear me? It's not difficult! I mean, you kill giants and you can't do such a thing?! Quick, before it's over!"

It was almost the worst experience of Levi's life. As soon as he approached the source of the hot liquid, and as he tried to pick it up so as not to touch it, a jet of pee hit him exactly in the center of his chest. He could not remember ever feeling such disgust in his entire life, but after what she had told him he would not back down for anything in the world. When he had completed his task, he turned to Mizuki, now busy holding back the child's skinny arms desperately trying to reach his face; one of them escaped her, and he began to hit himself convulsively before she could regain control.

Mizuki turned away in exasperation. "My bag!"

Barely holding back his disgust, he rushed out of the room. Mizuki focused only on holding the child still, murmuring words of comfort to him that he could not hear. The boy's fingernails sank into her right arm, and blood began to flow to him and Mizuki.

The captain returned and, following Mizuki's instructions, pulled out a small bag containing dusty marbles, which he then administered to the child.

The screaming and convulsing continued for a few minutes, during which Mizuki kept repeating like a mantra some words of comfort. Then, vanishing like the smell of rain after a summer storm, the uncontainable fury and tremors that had shaken the child's body ceased. Both Mizuki and Levi breathed a sigh of relief. Quietly, without a word, they moved the child to the bed opposite, dressed him, Levi muttered that he would send someone to clean up, then - having retrieved the pythal filled with the hot liquid that had cost the captain so much - they left the room. As soon as they closed the door, they both leaned against the wall. After a few moments of silence, they cast a sidelong glance at each other.

"..."

"..."

"I told you to leave him the fuck alone."

" You say a lot of things."

"And you don't listen to a single one."

"It will be better, next time."

"Do you really think I'll let you near him again? You drugged him again."

"That's not drugs. It's a natural calming agent with purifying effects. It's supposed to inhibit the residue of whatever junk is still circulating in his body." Mizuki closed her eyes, and ran her hands over them. "I wonder what he saw in his delirium. I wonder who could do that to a child."

Levi did not respond. For once, he agreed with her.

Then Mizuki opened her eyes, turned her head slightly, a mocking smile still on her lips. She squared him from head to toe. "Anyway, you're covered in piss."

Levi clicked his tongue, and squared her in turn. "And you with snot slime."

Mizuki threw back her head and burst out laughing, holding her stomach.

The captain clucked his tongue. It was unbelievable - absolutely and outrageously unbelievable - how any remark that elicited the brat's hilarity was at the same time apt to irritate him beyond measure.

"Oh, that was just the ticket!" she finally exclaimed in satisfaction. "Well? Now what?"

"Do you care now?"

"Sure. You are the captain, so you give the orders and I follow."

That damn insolent brat. Now she had turned in his direction, detaching herself from the wall, and was holding her hands clasped behind her back, looking holier-than-thou. As if her glittering look of mischief and bad intentions was not enough of a clue that her little head had already formulated the next plan of action and was prepared to highly disregard whatever came out of his mouth.

Levi noisily inspired a deep breath of air. "You have to find out what they gave him."

"I can try."

"I don't think I explained myself well. Mine was not a request. I literally covered myself in shit to collect that stuff, so you have to get something useful out of it. I don't care how or why, but you will if you don't want to end up in the dungeon."

Mizuki kicked out a whistle. "Aye aye, captain."

"What do you need?"

"I need to get my bag back, and then see your workshop-I imagine there is one, otherwise I don't think someone like Hanje would stay here so willingly. First, though, I ask permission to go and get cleaned up."

He gave her a condescending look. "I hope you did not seriously think that I would allow you to go around looking like that."

He then turned without adding a single word and headed for the stairs.

OOO

They were to meet on the ground floor within three-quarters of an hour. Mizuki took the opportunity to take a shower and rinse her bloodstained T-shirt under the water; she wouldn't mind changing, but currently that was the only garment she owned. After that she took care to disinfect the wounds that the child's nails had left on her forearms, although she tried to take as little time as possible. At least for the moment, she judged that she had pulled too hard with the captain and that he was on the verge of exploding; therefore, better to go down early and be found waiting and on alert.

Something, however, went wrong with her perfect plan, as it always did on the rare occasions when she decided to conform to the will of her superiors.

"Good morning! You're looking more active than usual today!"

It was Hanje's voice coming from the courtyard. Who the heck was she talking to, in such a cheerful manner? She didn't know her much, but from what little she had gotten to see, the only time she had heard her speak so enthusiastically had been...

Mizuki looked out the dormitory window. "!"

She catapulted precipitously down the stairs, and from there to the kitchen, where she opened drawers until she found a meat knife that had apparently never been used; then, with her heart in her throat, she hurried to the garden. She hoped she had made it in time, and that the woman had not been devoured...

But the woman in question was still alive and well: she found her happily prancing in front of a giant roughly four meters tall. A myriad of steel stakes were driven into the flesh of the titan's limbs and head, and from their ends unraveled steel cables that terminated in as many stakes driven into the ground. Mizuki stopped panting a few meters from that scene.

"Oh, Mizuki, you're back! How nice to see that you survived Levi, I really feared for you! How did it go with the child?"

Hanje, visibly overexcited, could not sit still for a moment: she shifted her weight convulsively from one foot to the other, and wrung her hands, just before stretching her arms as if to embrace the monster.

"Hanje..." stammered Mizuki, her eyes fixed on the giant, but she could not finish the sentence because she did not know what she wanted to ask either.

"Him?" Hanje's face clearly hinted that she was waiting for nothing more than the propitious moment to foist an explanation on her, whether or not it was requested. "This is Albert!"

"This... this would be Albert?"

"Of course!" Hanje turned in her direction, thrilled. "This is my baby! The fruit of one of the last scouting trips! He's cute, huh?"

"A real sweetheart." Turn me over to the Gendarmerie Corps, please.

"Do you want to shake his hand?"

"No...I think it's okay."

"Come on, don't be shy." Hanje approached Albert and began to caress him lovingly on the foot. "Albert likes to make new acquaintances. Right, Albert?"

Mizuki contemplated the drool dripping from the giant's mouth. It was not hard for her to imagine what kind of acquaintance Albert wanted to make with her. "Captain, I mean ... Hanje but why ..." didn't you kill him? "...Albert is here?"

"This is the first giant we have managed to capture alive since Erwin has been in command. It has been entrusted to me as a major scholar of giants!"

"Are there other people, studying them?"

Hanje was silent for a moment. "Actually, I'm the only one who does. For now. The others just kill them."

What a surprise.

"Well, then?"

"What?"

"You want to know what I'm going to do with this little guy today, don't you?"

"Um, actually..."

But Hanje did not wait for an answer and launched into a detailed explanation of how she would shortly start peeling Albert like a tangerine to analyze in great detail what lay beneath the leathery skin covering him. At first Mizuki was overwhelmed and stunned by the amount of information, theories, and enthusiasm from Hanje, and she began to really hope that Albert would open his jaws to swallow one or the other. After a while, however, and as she went into more detail regarding the information they possessed about the giants, and the experiments that had been carried out previously, her scientific curiosity took over, and she began to ask specific questions about the anatomy of those monsters, which only contributed to Hanje's excitement.

Mizuki listened to her stunned. She could not tell whether what impressed her more was the sheer volume of data that the woman next to her was rattling off seamlessly or her insane, burning passion for all things titan-related.

At one point, Hanje seemed to notice the bewilderment on Mizuki's face because, after a brief yet unexpected pause, she asked, "You must be thinking I'm crazy, huh? I understand," she added before the other could respond. "In the beginning, I, too, fought guided only by hatred. The giants had killed so many of my comrades... However, one day, I happened to kick the head of one of them. You won't believe it: it was very light. And the same goes for the limbs, and other parts of the body. Each of those components should weigh quintals, and instead - against all logic or laws of physics - they are as light as a feather. That's when I realized that a change of course was imperative. We had always looked at giants with hatred, and without caring about the secrets their bodies held. I decided to take a different approach from my companions. I intend to look at giants from a different point of view, and find out as much as I can about them."

Mizuki was interjected for a moment, then turned a smile to Hanje. "Well, what can I say? Did I find you strange? Damn, you can say that again. You're crazy, you. But let me tell you something: while we were out there, at the mercy of those monsters, I would have killed to know how to take them down. We knew nothing, about them, and that's why we were exterminated. And I think that shows how correct your approach is. Human beings are not even as big as a giant's finger, and it will certainly not be brute force that will ensure our victory."

Hanje stared at her with her mouth wide open. Her eyes became glazed over, and she put her hands together in front of her chest in gratitude. "Oh, Mizuki..."

"...so do your best, with Albert!"

"I said it, that I liked you! So, would you like to help me with...?"

"Ah, no, no. I'm sorry. I think there's been a misunderstanding." Mizuki took a step away, without losing her smile, and raised her open hands in front of her chest in apology. "I approve of your spirit, and I rely on you for the development of knowledge about giants, but I'm staying out of it. I'm not too patient, and it could end badly for Albert."

"But... but you said..." Hanje's voice cut off abruptly.

Mizuki, while feeling slightly guilty, had no intention of befriending a giant. "I'm sorry, Hanje..."

"Run away..." murmured the other through her lips.

But before Mizuki could sniff out the danger, someone grabbed her by the ear and pulled with all the strength he had in his body, which was definitely quite a lot. Mizuki cried out in pain. Captain Levi, without letting go, gave her a murderous look.

"Do you have any idea how long you made me wait?"

"Ah, no...ouch...wait, there's a misunderstanding..."

"A misunderstanding? I thought you had slipped away. Instead, I find you with the four-eye?"

Something in the tone of the captain's voice, as he uttered that last threatening sentence, made her realize that the greatest affront she had addressed to him so far - and there had been quite a few impertinences - was just that. Then he let go of her with a snap, and immediately grabbed the collar of her shirt and started dragging her toward the building without adding anything else. That silence was worse than any threat.

"Mizukiiiii," Hanje shouted after her, waving her hand in greeting. "Take care, don't die! Albert and I are waiting for you!"

Mizuki groaned. That was going to be a long day.

OOO

And it really was.

By way of punishment "for your mere existence" , Levi forced her to arrange the kitchen from top to bottom, without letting her out of his sight for a single moment, and to wash the piled-up pots and dishes three times before he was satisfied. After that he dragged her into the camp where the others were. The team members were showing Amado, Loki and Lavinia the inner workings of the three-dimensional movement mechanism. When the captain and an aching Mizuki caught up with them, they moved to the woods they had crossed the previous day on horseback.

There the captain announced, "Since your entry into the Corps will be unconventional, and we certainly cannot send you into the camp for the canonical three years of training, you will have to learn how to use three-dimensional movement on the field. I have seen the brat here climb a wall and jump from rooftop to rooftop as if she was taking a stroll. If this is your balance, I don't think you will have any particular problems."

At which, Mizuki sighed and nodded to her companions. All four then each positioned themselves in front of a different tree and began walking up the trunk, climbing it without any apparent difficulty, and then each perched on a branch at a different height. Loki even allowed himself to slip and hung upside down on the trunk like a bat.

"This is what we can do," announced Mizuki.

"That's so cool!" exclaimed Petra, her eyes shining.

"Tsk, that's gross. Just like lizards."

Once they dismounted, the roles were reversed, and it was the four ninjas who watched in fascination as the team members, in pairs, showed them impossible acrobatics by hovering through the trees like birds. Even for them, accustomed as they were to "moving like lizards," reproducing such motions proved impossible.

Mizuki, in particular, scrutinized every single movement of the soldiers. "This is much cooler than what we do," she murmured. When he noticed the vermilion color of her eyes, Levi growled at her, but she justified herself with a shrug, "Oh, come on. There's no one there. And that's how I learn."

He clicked his tongue, but left her to it and used the circumstance to study what she had called "innate technique"; but he was soon disappointed to note that the girl remained perfectly still, doing nothing except watching intently.

In the afternoon, Mizuki was allowed to use Hanje's laboratory and, under the guidance of the woman and her assistant Moblit - who earned her esteem and sympathy for his mere role - she collected the available reagents - "we're not very well stocked, here, you know how it is: it's been a year since we moved to another HQ" - that she needed to carry out the analysis on the child's urine. Hanje tried to bring her before Albert again, but Mizuki found a way to deflect with an excuse.

As for the child, meanwhile, he had not yet awakened from his second round of sleep.

He did not wake up until around dinnertime, and Petra - who had been left to watch over him - immediately went down to the common room to tell the captain. She did not notice that the little one, with a confused but alert expression, followed her on shaky legs to the dining hall, where the people whom Erwin had not ordered to return to HQ were gathered. When they saw him enter, they all leapt to their feet and a ruckus ensued, with those trying to talk to the child, those hurling exclamations, and those simply, like Hanje, making a racket by nature.

Through it all, the little one remained calm and silent, not uttering a single word. He looked around, studying the faces of the adults around him and the room as if in search of something. The desperation and terror of the morning attack seemed gone.

Perhaps the brat, with that morning's little scene, had not merely ruined his mood, Levi noted.

To complete the morning's punishment - and highly bumping her protests that she had already served her time for the disobedience that had occurred - Levi assigned her the task of sprucing up the kitchen that evening as well. After finishing cleaning the countertop in a manner she considered more than acceptable, Mizuki called the captain to judge of her work, but he only expressed himself with a disgusted look from the door and an annoyed order to start over. Hence, when the child made his entrance into the canteen, she was still scrubbing and soaping pans and dishes in the kitchen, muttering improperly to herself.

"'Ohi, call the brat...'"

But Mizuki did not need to be summoned; drawn by the commotion that had risen in the room adjoining the kitchen, she appeared in the doorway wiping her hands on a dishtowel, glad to have an excuse to abandon cleaning. "What's happening that's so interesting...?"

She could not finish the sentence. As soon as he heard her voice, the child's pupils dilated and he launched himself at her.

"Huh?"

After that, his thin arms wrapped around Mizuki's legs at knee level, causing her to stagger. The child rested his cheek on her thighs, closed his eyes and sighed.

Still amazed, Mizuki placed a hand on his head to caress him. "Hey. Hello to you, too. What's your name?"

But she got no answer to either that question or the next ones they asked him as he refused to pull away from Mizuki.

The child did not speak.

OOO

Later that evening, Levi took a shower in the private bathroom of his room, and after he emerged, he found that, despite all that had happened, sleep did not seem willing to grant him any relief that night either, so he retrieved the papers he had to work on from his desk and went down the stairs, heading for the kitchen.

Since in fact the castle had been in disuse for at least a year and the Research Corps was not sailing in gold, Erwin had given precise instructions in order to limit expenses during their stay, in particular by arranging that the only rooms in which a fire could be lit were the kitchen and the canteen, and the meeting rooms if and when used; wood reserves, therefore, were located in those strategic places. Although it was the end of August, the temperature, at night, dropped dramatically.

Since he would in all likelihood be working for a few more hours, he considered allowing himself the luxury of warming up in the kitchen, and enjoying - finally in peace - a cup of tea.

When he entered the room, however, he noticed that there was already another person seated at the table, intent on writing, who had used the wood stacked by the door to rekindle the fire pit still alive from the dinner hour.

His dreams of peace and silence were shattered in an instant.

Mizuki, upon his entrance, raised her head.

"Ah, good evening, Captain!" she exclaimed, then went back to working on her papers as if nothing had happened.

"..."

He was sure he had told her that curfew struck at ten o'clock, and all this just a couple of hours earlier. A ticking clock stood out in plain sight on the wall, and the black iron hands marked half past eleven. Undisciplined as that brat was, she could not so blatantly transgress orders.

Perhaps...

So far they had actually assumed that the language and literacy level of the four foreigners matched their own, but maybe that might not be the case.

"'Ohi, brat."

"Yes?"

"Do you know what the word curfew means?"

"Of course I do. It means that at a certain time you need to be under the covers and not snooping around. It's not like I'm illiterate."

Levi could not find adequate words to answer. He merely stared at her with a scary look on his face.

Then Mizuki, who had been peering at him surreptitiously until then, brought her hands to her mouth and burst out laughing. "Fantastic! What a wonderful expression! You're really a hilarious one!"

The little scumbag.

Levi reached out and grabbed her by the ear, lifting her out of her chair.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch. No, I ... I'm sorry, I won't do it again. I won't do it again!"

"I'm a stupid brat."

"What?"

"Say it."

"I'm ... ouch ... I'm a stupid brat."

He let go of the hold out of the blue; then, after clucking his tongue and laying the papers on the table, he headed for the kitchen counter to heat some water. "Now move your ass and get to bed before I take care of the other side too."

"But I can't, I'm working!" muttered Mizuki, massaging her sore ear with the typical expression of someone who thought it was worth it.

Levi - after filling the steel teapot, taking care not to get the shelf wet, and hooking it on the iron bar that surmounted the fire pit - gave her a murderous look.

"Oh, would you care to know what this is all about?"

Mizuki tapped her pen on the stack of white leaves in front of her.

"Who gave you those papers?"

"... No one."

"It was the four-eyes."

" You're completely off the mark."

"I know it couldn't have been anyone other than her who indulged you in bullshit anyway."

"What are you talking about! This is not bullshit! It's my last memoir!"

"Last memoir?"

"At least try to hide it, the hopeful tone. It hurts me. And anyway, yes, this is what I'm writing: if you and I have to live under the same roof from now on, I'm afraid my life will be in constant, daily danger."

Levi, who had been leaning against the kitchen countertop until then, pulled himself up and headed menacingly in her direction.

Mizuki hurriedly raised his hands. "Just kidding, just kidding. Sort of. On the part of her killer instinct toward me, I don't think I'm wrong ... but now I'm being serious." She sighed and then rested her cheek on her hand, turning the face toward the window. A moment of silence - a true miracle, considering the human catastrophe that sat before him, Levi assessed as he observed the girl's profile. A flash of indefinite emotion had crossed her eyes, and he had just made it in time to catch a glimpse of it before she - probably to prevent him from catching a glimpse of more than he had already had a chance to see - turned her head away. "I'm afraid," she said finally. "It hasn't happened yet, and maybe it never will, but ... what would happen if I lost my memory entirely?"

Levi remained silent.

"What is already lost, is lost now. And I don't think it was anything too important, given how easily memories slipped away. Or maybe that's what I like to believe. Perhaps, I don't realize it because I don't remember. What I do know, though, is that the really important memories, the ones that make me the person I am, are all still in here." And in uttering these words, she tapped her finger on the forehead. "My family is out there. It's alive, somewhere beyond those walls. It has to be. No matter what I have to endure, but one day I will return to them. This part of me... this part of me, I don't want to lose it for any reason in the world. But I can't be sure that the amnesia won't get worse. At the same time, though, I can't accept it so easily either."

Mizuki's hand, resting on the tabletop, trembled slightly. She contracted it, clenching it into a fist to stop the imperceptible tremor, but the gesture did not escape the captain.

"I have no way to stop the process, since I don't even know why and how I lost my memory. Hanje is absolutely right about this: you cannot fight an enemy you do not know. However, I cannot give up either. So I have decided that I will write the story of my life - the most important events, at least. I will write about my family, and the people waiting for me over there. Even if I should lose my memory, I will only need to reread these words to remember who I am, where I came from, and where I want to go back to." Mizuki turned her face in his direction again. Now, all traces of hesitation and fragility were gone. "I don't want to be in the way of the daily training sessions, because they are crucial to our integration into this new world where you have decided to welcome us. So until I am finished, please allow me to disregard the curfew."

Without a word, Levi sighed and turned his back to her. The water in the saucepan boiled and he, with a gesture consumed by years of experience, lifted it from the fire and then steeped tea leaves -better yet, the shit that was being trimmed to the Corps as tea -into a steel net.

Mizuki added no more. Levi felt the weight of those amber eyes on his back. Long minutes of silence passed, saturated with palpable expectation.

"I promise you that if you have to stay up and work, I will not disturb you. I will remain silent, I will pretend that you don't exist," she added after a while. "I won't breathe a word even if it's a matter of life or death."

Sure, right.

Levi turned and, holding up two cups of tea in his hand, walked back toward the table. With a sharp gesture he set one of the two bowls down beside Mizuki's papers. " Do I have moron written all over my face?"

The girl's lips stretched into a smile. Suddenly, it was as if a ray of sunshine had penetrated the room; the same feeling that had seized him when that the night before Mizuki, in the middle of the conversation, had burst out laughing.

"Captain, you're the best! And thank you for... whatever this drink is!"

Levi sat down, already regretting the concession.

"Ah, I just remembered something!" exclaimed Mizuki, leaping to her feet. "Wait here, I'll be right back!" And having said that, she darted out of the room, without noticing the irritated expression on Levi's face that seemed to suggest that her return was not something that was really necessary.

But Mizuki soon reappeared and, triumphantly, placed a glass pot in front of him. "I have something for you, too! I forgot at dinner. That is, I had changed my mind about giving it to you, since you made me clean the kitchen four times."

Levi stared suspiciously at the object that contained a thick, white cream.

"Come on, get that disgusted look off your face!

It's a soothing compound I prepared this afternoon, it's to speed up the process of reabsorption of hematomas. You know, for your nose. Purple looks good on you, but I thought it must be painful."

"I don't need it." He resolved to say, looking away from the jar laid in front of him. He hated having someone meddle in his affairs like that - he barely tolerated Erwin's meddling, and only when strictly necessary - and, even worse, claiming to take care of him. He needed no one; he had never needed anyone. And things certainly weren't going to change with an irritating brat who came from who knows where and who he did not trust in the least.

That answer should have been enough to put a damper on whatever plan that little fucking brat had put into her head with such enthusiasm. But Mizuki, far from showing concern at the icy reaction of the man in front of her, retorted by raising her thumb. "Well, I don't need it either. So take it, then you can do what you want with it." After that she returned to her seat. "Well, and now to work! And in silence!"

The silence promised and extolled by Mizuki, however, did not even last two minutes.

After sipping the drink in the cup, in fact, a grimace of disgust was painted on her face. "Yuck, that's gross. It's tea."

Levi gave her an irritated look, barely looking up from the papers he had been working on. "So what?"

"Yeah, exactly. It's just dirty water. Like I said, gross. Don't you have any coffee?"

"Do we look like a fucking restaurant? That's rich people's stuff, even the Gendarmerie Corps can't dream of affording it."

" Whaaat?! Does that mean I won't be able to drink coffee anymore? And that the only substitute ... is this crap?"

"See that you drink that tea and don't be a pain in the ass."

Her face contracted in a terrified grimace, Mizuki picked up her pen: she had just added to the list of mementos to jot down in her memoirs a most precious detail that she hoped not to forget for anything in the world.

The taste and aroma of freshly brewed coffee.

OOO

Twelve days passed.

The days were marked by the tight, precise rhythms of military life and Captain Levi's meticulous planning.

Mornings and afternoons were devoted to the first approaches to three-dimensional motion. The four members of the Levi team would show the newcomers how the device worked and the tricks for using it, while the captain - with great relief to Mizuki's ears - stayed in the castle drafting documents and making sure Hanje did not get eaten up. For the first few times, these were merely theoretical lessons, and then came the time to put on the device for the first time. Erwin had sent through Nifa, a female soldier he trusted, four devices for the future members of the Corps.

Loki insisted on being the first to take on the challenge since, as Sensei had often pointed out, among the team members he was the one who boasted the most balance. When, however, the grappling hooks that Loki had just actuated thundered into the sky, missing their targe t -the two tree trunks in front of him - and plummeted sadly to the ground, Mizuki jumped to the ground and began to roll over in laughter. She laughed less, however, when it was her turn: thanks to her eyes and a certain tendency to approach any novelty without a trace of fear or prejudice she succeeded in fact in hooking the grappling hooks to the tree trunks she had set her mind to; later, however, she regretted having done so, for when the cables recoiled the power and rapidity of the movement caused her to stamp herself against one of them; it was Loki's turn to throw himself to the ground to roll over with laughter.

When the falls and blows became excessive, the group took a break by devoting themselves to their first approaches with the horses; which, for the four ninjas, was far worse than crashing into a tree. Gunther exposed to them the essentiality of using animals in expeditions outside the walls, both for human travel and as tows for chariots. He argued that it was necessary to establish a relationship of trust with one's horse - each soldier was assigned a personal one - because in times of need one needed to be certain that it would not bolt and abandon its master.

Through it all, a small silent observer studied the scene at a respectful distance. Or, rather: his attention was on just one of the people present, the most frantic and energetic of them all, whose face was invariably contracted into laughter or a concentrated expression.

The child followed Mizuki wherever she went, from the first moment she opened her eyes to the moment she closed them, snuggled in her arms. The girl was not particularly weighed down by the new role she had been assigned, and she lent herself to it with the enthusiasm with which she met each new challenge. Joking about the obvious imprinting the little one had undergone on herself, at first she had dubbed him "my ugly duckling." She pampered him, and as soon as she had a spare minute she took him in her arms, filling him with kisses and caresses; she talked to him, although she had not yet received an answer, and from time to time tried to ask him a few questions about his origins.

"Mizuki, you're really good with children! But how old are you?"

"Seventeen-almost eighteen, actually. And before you ask, Hanje: I didn't get pregnant at an early age, and I don't have any children of my own. I do have a younger sister, though, who should be about his age and to whom I am very close."

When she realized that the child's muteness was not hinting at resolving itself, Mizuki made a decision, which was made apparent to the others at one of the dinners eaten in the canteen.

"Theo, be careful not to get dirty!" she reprimanded him, reaching out in his direction to retrieve a piece of stewed potato that was slipping from the child's mouth.

Levi arched an eyebrow, watching in disgust as Mizuki shoved the piece of food into Theo's mouth "Now you even gave him a name?"

"Well, sure. We'll have to call him something! The other option was brat, but unfortunately that's a pretty overused nickname around here."

And so, the child acquired a new identity, to which he seemed to adapt with incredible submissiveness. When called upon, Theo always turned and listened to his interlocutor with his expressive, silent little eyes; but the only one he really listened to was Mizuki, whom he followed everywhere with an adoring, possessive gaze.

Thanks to the books kept in the laboratory and Hanje, Mizuki was able to identify the substance in Theo's urine, thus sparing herself the threatened trip to the castle dungeon. It was a compound derived from the flower of a plant that grew at high altitudes in the interior territories. The product, however, had been processed and refined through its combination with other synthetic substances that enhanced its otherwise laughable drugging efficacy.

"No coderoin. Good thing." commented Hanje.

"What is that stuff?"

"Ah, an illegal junk that comes from the Underground City and has lately taken hold in Stohess. It creates in its users a great addiction. In any case, it's people who know their stuff. This composition is very fine indeed."

"I agree. They must have put a lot of work into it, and that's not for everyone."

"'Ohi, you two. Do you even want to make a statue, to these pieces of shit?" inserted himself into the conversation Levi, who until then had been listening to Mizuki and Hanje in a vaguely irritated but silent way.

Both ignored him. The lab was perceived by both of them as a territory where the authority of the perpetually sullen and controlling little guy gave way to Hanje's genius. Not that he complained about it much anymore. The less he set foot in that filthy, messy place, the more his mood benefited.

"This allows us to draw two conclusions," Mizuki commented, addressing only Hanje. "First, we have an idea of where they retrieve the raw material. Which will allow us to keep an eye on the movement of people in that area and, in case of suspicion, investigate further. To produce a significant amount of product from this plant requires several inflorescences; sooner or later they will have to move and collect more if they intend to continue with their little game. You said that circulation between districts within the walls is tightly controlled, right?"

"Yes, but the Garrison Corps soldiers are mainly in charge of the incoming flows into the cities. Those going out and the circulation outside are somewhat neglected."

Mizuki furrowed her brow. "Well, in any case, that's already a starting point. As a second conclusion, however, I feel I can rule out that the cause of Theo's aphasia is attributable to brain damage resulting from taking this drug. It may have side effects, of course, but as far as I know the loss of expressive ability is not one of them."

"That's correct," Hanje nodded. "Then you think he was dumb even before that?"

Mizuki moistened her lips, lost in the memory of her first encounter with Theo, and the primal, annihilating terror she had glimpsed in his eyes. "No. I'm afraid that his state originates - understandably - from his experience. I don't know who the two people devoured before him were, but Theo saw them. And he knew he would be next. That's enough to traumatize an adult for life, let alone a six-year-old child."

"So his testimony goes to hell?" asked the captain pragmatically.

"Not necessarily. If it is a trauma, it can be overcome, with a proper course and the necessary time..."

"Except we don't have time, brat."

Mizuki rolled her eyes. "Well, you'll find it. And before you get any strange ideas, forcing him to sweep the cafeteria like you tried to do this morning won't help. Try to be more understanding."

"I didn't force the brat, I ordered you to do it, and with disastrous results. He's the one who's sticking to your ass."

"Details."

"Resign, Mizuki. There is no escaping the dwarf's cleaning plans."

Mizuki burst out laughing along with Hanje, which only got her yet another ear-pulling from the captain.

"Ah, before I forget!" Still rubbing her ear, Mizuki retrieved from the bag she always carried with her and containing the medicines she was synthesizing in her spare moments, a packet of papers, which she submitted to her superiors' attention. Both of them - even Hanje, who made oddities her bread and butter - were puzzled: it was a series of drawings made by a childish hand, presumably Theo's, and filled with stylized animals, houses, other humans and barely recognizable natural elements. "Does this sign by any chance mean anything to you? "Mizuki tapped a finger in the upper right corner of the paper Hanje held in front of her face, to point to a strange roundish symbol: Theo's hand had traced a wobbly line that twisted in on itself, creating a kind of labyrinthine spiral.

"...No, I don't think so."

"You, captain?"

"All I see are houses and what look like fucking cows here."

"I think they're sheep, but that's not the point."

"What is it then?"

Mizuki sighed and shrugged. "I told you I have a younger sister, right? In the past, when she was about three years old... well, it's a long story. Let's say she stopped talking, and we didn't know why, nor could she communicate it to us. So, I had come up with the idea of providing her with other communication tools: a paper and a pencil, and she started drawing. It worked with her: she gave us a few more details about what had happened. I thought it might be the same with Theo. In the early days, he only drew cows or sheep whatever; but today I noticed that he had added that strange symbol. It seems to me far too precise and different from the others to be the figment of a child's imagination. It is something he has seen, and it has stuck with him for some reason."

Levi peered at it in silence for a few moments. He had not missed the vagueness with which Mizuki had described her sister's situation, nor the fact that for once she was not staring persistently into his eyes, but kept her gaze on the edge of the paper she was fiddling with. In fact, he was not interested in knowing the underlying story of the experiment itself, but he needed to understand whether the brat was chasing a chimera, risking running them off the road and wasting their time, or was acting knowledgeably.

After a long hesitation, he sighed. "When I see Erwin, I will ask him if this sign tells him anything."

Mizuki looked up and a spontaneous, bright smile broke out on her face.

The only moments of respite in the rigid scanning of the day arranged by Levi were represented by meals, and the two hours of freedom granted after lunch and dinner, before training resumed and the curfew rolled around. During those hours, the total strangers exchanged information and news about themselves and the reality inside the walls, and, most importantly, the four ninjas listened to stories of scouting in the outside world from which they themselves came. Thus it was that they were made aware of the fairly laughable life expectancy of the soldiers of the Survey Corps, of the ridicule to which they were subjected by the other corps, and of the fact that the grumpy captain appointed as their janitor was universally recognized as the strongest soldier of humanity.

"My compliments, Mizuki," Loki gave her a scowl as she was drinking tea during one of the afternoon breaks with a grimace of disappointment painted on her face. "You antagonized the strongest person in the entire population within the walls after not even a week of being here. Only you could have succeeded."

She leaned over and elbowed him, coughing bitterly from the liquid that had gone down her throat. "But no! We are not enemies! The captain adores me."

"Oh yes, I saw how much he adored you this morning. He almost threw you down a tree."

"You really could use a pair of glasses, Loki. That was just a somewhat heated exchange."

When the conversation languished because the hot August sun invited more sleep than it should have, Mizuki and Amado would break away from the group perched on the canteen benches to join Hanje wherever she was - in the lab or, tendentially, in the garden having one-way conversations with Albert. Mizuki felt a strong fascination - not so much for the giant -as for the woman who tormented it. The attraction descended mostly from a character affinity - she had by now accepted the fact that she liked crazy people, and that she was herself a bit touchy-feely -scientific and medical, which made her an interesting interlocutor, at least as long as the conversation did not go beyond two hours on the last expression Hanje thought she had caught on Albert's face.

Amado, on the other hand, had a sincere interest, more than in Hanje herself, in her research. He was usually the culprit who would engage one of the chaotic and interminable monologues about giants and their thousand secrets. And he was usually always the one who would ring them up with questions and observations. At least his presence dispensed Mizuki from actively participating to the conversation, since she managed to hold those speeches for half an hour and then sneak away. If she had made a habit of remaining in their company on those occasions, it was not due to any supervening enlightenment about the hidden charms of giants - as Hanje claimed - but because of Moblit. In fact, it had not taken her long to notice Hanje's assistant's obvious jealousy of Amado, and this proved to be enough to make her hold back, with the purpose of stimulating rivalry and having a laugh or two.

"Hanje, why don't you have Amado help you remove a piece of Albert's flesh? I think he's literally dying for it," she commented one day fanning herself with a folded sheet of paper.

"Really?!" The woman turned to him, her eyes twinkling as Amado's face broke into a smile. "Moblit, hand him the knife. Let's show the newcomers how interesting our work is."

Mizuki enjoyed the look of rancor Moblit shot Amado. "Captain, this is no joke. You must have someone trustworthy and capable by your side, or you risk getting yourself killed..."

"But..."

"Do it as a group, then." suggested Mizuki, who, as much as she was toying with bringing discord, did not wish to really create feuds in the seemingly mismatched but at the same time thoroughly functional pair of Hanje and Moblit.

At the stroke of curfew each night, Mizuki would lie down together with Theo, and remain lying down until the child fell asleep. Once, she made to leave the room before he had sunk into sleep, and he burst into inconsolable crying intermingled with inhuman shrieks. The darkness terrified him, and the only way he could bear it was if Mizuki hugged him tightly.

This prevented her from leaving the room until she gained confidence that he was asleep. After that, she would quietly slip out of the covers and retreat to the kitchen. Sometimes Levi was already there, sometimes he would show up after a short time; on a couple of occasions, he did not show up. Not that the circumstance had any relevance to her.

After the first evening, Mizuki really made an effort to hold her tongue more in those shared moments. Her memoir was progressing well, and the last thing she wanted was to irritate the captain and lose those brief moments of solitude so valuable to her work. So, apart from a few remarks - which she just couldn't spare - about how much she hated tea - which he made for her anyway - and about the weather, she would close herself off in silence, hunched over her papers. She would write for hours, in her precise, tiny handwriting, filling pages and pages with anecdotes about her childhood, adolescence, and family. On the other side of the table, Levi worked with equal concentration on stacks of documents that seemed to never run out.

With some satisfaction, Mizuki noticed that the hematoma on his nose was rapidly reabsorbing. He had said nothing to her, but as a doctor she knew that the healing process was progressing too rapidly. Indeed, she suspected that the cup of tea he placed in front of her, unfailingly and in spite of her caustic comments, every evening, constituted precisely the way in which this grumpy but tender-hearted man intended to thank her; that or, alternatively, the intention to make up for the cold in the room, which the fireplace could not quite overcome.

She would never know, but the first hunch turned out to be the right one. Although at first glance Levi vowed not to use the ointment, he was a man who hated waste and, so, after a long hesitation, he applied it to his nose every morning. And, he hated to admit it, but the results were not long in coming.

Mizuki lingered in the room until one o'clock then - too exhausted to hold her pen any longer - retired, after wishing the captain a good night. He mumbled a reply, without looking up from the papers he was consulting.

Before closing the door behind her back, Mizuki could not contain herself, and cast him a long look. Each night she left later and later, and each night - invariably - the captain remained in the room working, without hinting that he would interrupt himself.

She wondered how long he had been suffering from insomnia, and what was the cause of it: some event unrelated to life as a soldier, or the horrors he was forced to face with every scouting trip?

After that brief moment of reflection, she shook her head and approached the door.

Only then would Levi raise his head, run a hand through his hair and stand staring at the closed doorway, wondering in turn why she always stopped to peer at him before leaving the room.

Then he would shake his head in turn, and return to lower it to resume his work.

OOO

One evening before dinner, Lavinia and Mizuki were about to go to the communal bathroom on the second floor to take a shower when they were met Petra, who asked to join them. When the other girl joined in, Lavinia made a strange grimace and then, making up an excuse that was not very credible and that she did not even mean to be such, she defected, leaving them alone.

"Did I by any chance say something wrong...?" asked Petra, furrowing her brow as they undressed.

Mizuki balled up the T-shirt she had just taken off and with a perfect toss threw it into the sink. "No, it's okay. It's just that Lav doesn't like undressing in front of people she doesn't know. She has a bad scar on her right foot and calf."

"Oh, I didn't mean to pry."

"No problem. It's not a secret, but she doesn't like to show it around anyway."

The conversation veered to other topics and, toward the end, centered on Hanje. Although invited to join them, the woman had stated that she did not need to wash up - the same answer given in the previous five days, which had elicited a frown from Mizuki and a look of disgust from the captain, sitting in the dining hall a short distance away.

"Hanje... She is a fine woman, but cleanliness is not really her strong point," explained Petra, already dressed, as she was vigorously rubbing her hair.

"I would say definitely not," agreed Mizuki. "I wonder how it is that the captain hasn't kicked her out into the garden with Albert yet, though."

"Ah, that usually happens around the sixth or seventh day, when the smell starts to become excessive."

Mizuki burst out laughing as she slipped on her pants. She then assumed a sly expression and elbowed Petra. "On the other hand, though, there is someone else with whom the captain gets along very well."

The other blushed, and tried to play dumb. "Oh, yeah? Well, you can actually talk to him pretty smoothly, Mizuki."

"I wouldn't really call it talking, what we do... I'd say more like he tolerates my presence for the time being. In any case, it's okay if you like him, even if I don't understand it."

"But aren't you the one who has been declaiming that matters of love do not interest you, nor do you understand anything about it?"

"In fact, I don't understand anything about it. It was Lavinia who thought that..."

"Well, she thought wrong," Petra cut short, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks with the towel she was rubbing her hair with."

"Oh yeah? Too bad, because we think he likes you."

That was not exactly entirely true - not yet, at least - but Mizuki did not think it essential to specify. When they broached the subject, Lavinia categorically argued that this was a classic example of one-sided love; when Mizuki pointed out that Levi seemed to enjoy Petra and her company, the other shrugged. "Finding someone pleasant, becoming attached to them, and working well together are quite different things from love." That was understood even by someone like her, who on certain topics - as Petra herself had pointed out - did not understand much. However, from her perspective, she saw no obstacle to the captain falling in love with Petra someday - the girl was smart, helpful, gifted with pronounced housekeeping skills, mature and kind to everyone; just as she considered it her duty, by way of thanks for the diligence shown by Petra in making the newcomers feel at home and welcomed, to provide all the support she could to the interested party to speed up the process. As if she had read her mind, Lavinia shook her head, and said, "It's not that simple. And in any case, it's good not to get involved in these matters." Mizuki blew her friend a kiss on the cheek, assuring her that she would keep out of it, but that gesture made it glaringly obvious to the other, who knew her too well, that this would not be the case.

Petra forgot any kind of qualms: with a dry gesture she lifted her head sharply, as her cheeks turned even redder. "Like me? Me?! What are you talking about, Mizuki! I don't have all these expectations!"

"Well, what kind of reasoning is that?"

"The captain is not the type to feel...sympathies of this nature."

"Did he tell you that?"

"No, but as far as I know in all the years he has been a soldier he has never... that is, there have never been any rumors about..."

"Even if one could doubt it, until proven otherwise he is also a human being."

Petra did not respond, biting her lip and going back to drying her hair.

"In any case, it's true that he treats you more kindly than the others, isn't it?"

"I don't know."

"Well, for one thing, if you ask him to pass you salt at dinner, he does," Mizuki insisted, straightening his clothes.

"He's been my superior for a while now... That's probably why."

"But he also harasses the boys...I mean, he's known them long enough, hasn't he? Pardon me, but you don't have to be a doctor to understand that between you and the others there is at least one big reason to differentiate, there between your legs," Mizuki continued mischievously. Then, with a sudden jerk, she walked the distance that separated her from Petra and tapped with the index finger of each hand on the other's abundant breasts, which the large shirt hid from view. " As a matter of fact, he has at least two more."

"Mizuki!" exclaimed Petra, pushing her away. "The captain is not that kind of man."

"Come on, let's be objective here! It seems almost obvious to me why he is kind to you and not to Oluo!"

"Even if that were the case, I don't see what could come of it." Petra kept her arms crossed over her chest as if to protect herself from further attacks, a confused expression on her face. "I mean, I... I don't demand anything. It's enough for me to be near him, and to be able to devote my life to him."

"What if another one comes along and takes him from you?"

"That is impossible, Mizuki. We are soldiers, we have sworn to offer our hearts for the cause..."

"I know, I know. It's not like I'm telling you to get married. But you're both human, aren't you? And feelings cannot be ruled!"

"But... but, still, it's not that simple."

"It isn't?"

"I mean, the captain is not an easy man to approach."

Mizuki laughed, finding nothing to say to that concise but effective analysis of Levi's personality, and then trotted to the door. "Well, that's certainly true."

"And among female soldiers he's pretty popular. So it's not like I've had many opportunities to discuss with other girls how to ... to ..."

"To seduce him?" suggested the other, at which Petra gasped. "But for that there's me! And of course Lavinia, who knows more about these things than I do."

Petra's wrinkled face stretched out and an embarrassed smile that gave her a bewildered and fragile air - and that is how she would have appeared to anyone who had not had the opportunity to witness a display of her soldierly skills. "Really...?"

"Of course!" Mizuki rested her hand on the doorknob. "Count us in."

Noticing the other's enthusiasm, Petra hurried to join her by the door, planted both hands on her shoulders and stared her straight in the eyes. "'Make sure, though. This must not be known around! Relationships between subordinates and superiors are forbidden!"

Mizuki furrowed her brow. "Really?"

"Of course! Relationships between soldiers in the same Corps are frowned upon, but they are tolerated if they do not create problems at work. On the other hand, any kind of relationship - sentimental or even just physical - between soldiers of different ranks is strictly forbidden. You know, to prevent superiors from abusing their position, or for soldiers to use it to improperly advance their careers."

Mizuki shrugged his shoulders, and pushed the door wide open. "Mah, you and all these rules! What nonsense!"

"Mizuki, I'm serious... especially Hanje mustn't know. She loves to stick her nose into other people's business and can't keep her mouth shut."

"I get it, I get it. I'll be a tomb." the girl walked out giving her back to the hallway to continue talking to Petra staring her in the face. "In any case, that makes it more fun, doesn't it? Rules exist to be broken, the important thing is not to get caught!"

"A very interesting observation, brat."

Mizuki jerked. After that, she slowly turned to her own right. The captain watched her with obvious irritation a few steps away.

"I don't know why, but every time you open your mouth you are able to irritate me."

"There is an explanation, for what I just said."

"Mizuki!" hissed Petra alarmed, advancing to the threshold of the bathroom.

The girl slightly squinted her eyelids, clearly torn between choosing to save her own skin and staying true to the secret confided to her. Finally she cursed through her lips, and sighed resignedly. "... only now I can't provide it."

"Tsk. No harm done, you'll have a chance to come up with a plausible excuse while you polish up the kitchen."

"Ugh."

The captain moved on, throwing her one last jab with his eyes. Mizuki brought her hands to her face, grunting; after which, when she was certain she heard his footsteps coming down the ladder, she lowered them and cast an accusing glance at Petra. "There, from what just happened you can be certain of my most absolute and unconditional loyalty. And don't ever question it again!"

OOO

On the evening of the tenth day, Levi entered the kitchen at just past eleven and there he found, as always, the brat, bent over the table and intent on spewing streams of words onto the paper laid before her.

For a brat only seventeen years old - almost eighteen, as Mizuki was careful to point out whenever the age discourse was broached - she definitely had a lot of experiences to tell.

As he did every evening, the captain prepared tea and then served it to Mizuki, who responded with a slight nod, without even looking up. She seemed particularly focused, and the last thing he wanted was to distract her from the trance-like state that made her so quiet and meek. He sat on her side of the table and, sipping the piss passed off as tea that was being trimmed to the Survey Corps, immersed himself in his work.

His attention, however, was soon attracted by an imperceptible gesture from the brat. Mizuki had stopped writing, and had straightened her back. In that position, she stood motionless staring at the newly opened paper, almost as if she wished it would catch fire in front of her. He had already noticed the same gesture on at least two other occasions in the process of writing her last memoir; and in both cases...

Mizuki behaved in exactly the same way as on those two occasions.

She left a blank space between the last sentence she had just written, and then added another one at the foot of the page.

Then she let go of the pen, smiled contentedly, and threw her arms to the sky, recovering with a single exclamation all the confusion she had not produced so far. "Doneeee!"

Levi did not reply, believing that such a statement did not concern him at all, nor did she expect any kind of response from him. In fact, Mizuki was intent on stretching her back, arching her chest forward and stretching her arms high above herself, her eyes unfocused and a certain feline air, seemingly oblivious to the man who sat in front of her.

He decided that that was none of his business, except to the extent that the end of the drafting of the "last memoirs" would mark, at the same time, the end of the curfew waiver, and that the kitchen in the night hours would once again belong to him alone.

It was none of his business. And yet.

Levi's gaze lifted against his will from the report he was reading, and he contemplated that white space that camped on the last page of the manuscript penned by the brat with such eagerness and ardor.

It was none of his business, of course, and in all likelihood the answer to the question about the nature of that gap would be in line with the irritating originality that exuded from Mizuki.

Yet he could not contain himself.

"Are you already forgetting?"

She lowered her arms slowly. She did not open her eyelids again, but she did not need to see where the captain's eyes were aimed to understand the meaning of the question. "No. So far, I think I haven't forgotten anything."

"..."

"..."

The brat sighed, and her hand mechanically searched for a strand of hair, which she began to coil around one finger.

The captain slowly placed the paper he held in his hands on the stacked envelope in front of him, making sure the edges matched perfectly.

"Just before I left for this mission, my father tried to stop me by force. It was not at all pleasant, and if I managed to escape it was only because Lavinia and the others came to retrieve me. He's not a soft-hearted man, my father."

Mizuki lifted her eyelids. An indecipherable expression - the same one she had assumed during their first meeting in the kitchen - painted itself on her face.

"Have you ever wanted to forget certain events in your life?"

It was then that Levi understood the meaning of those blank spaces.

They were not pieces of life already lost; but memories that she hoped would be swallowed up by the inexorable oblivion that had already eaten a part of her mind.

Mizuki remained motionless, waiting for an answer.

A room bathed in darkness and impregnated with the smell of death. A rain-drenched plain littered with the remains of countless dismembered bodies. Similar images in which the context and atmospheric conditions changed, and only the bloodstains and corpses of heroically fallen soldiers remained identical.

After a lapse of time that continued for a few more moments, Levi slowly scanned: "There are things I wish had not happened. But they did happen. And that could not be changed even if I forget."

Mizuki gasped.

Without another word, Levi went back to focusing on the report.

In the room, for a few minutes, the only noises were those of the fire crackling and the cup resting at regular intervals on the porcelain saucer.

"Captain, may I have another cup of tea?"

Levi looked up. Mizuki clutched the pen in her hands, and stared at the white space in front of her with the air of wanting to set it on fire. He relaxed the muscles in his shoulders. He did not know the source of that feeling, but he felt that that was the appropriate reaction for her, whatever the content of those fragments of memory.

"Say, do I look like a fucking waitress to you?"

"No, as a matter of fact, you're too unsociable to be one."

He clicked his tongue. Nevertheless, he stood up and headed for the stove top.

"I thought I was exaggerating, but you really are the embodiment of the saying tough bark, soft interior, eh?"

"Shut the fuck up, brat."

Mizuki plunged back into her work after letting out her usual insolent laugh.

She remained bent over writing another four hours, filling in the blanks with the tale of those moments she wished she could not remember. True, these were painful experiences, experiences that - in a way - had changed a part of her forever. True, she would have paid any price to erase them; she would have given anything so that they would not have happened. But forgetting was not the solution. Reality would not change, and the people she had lost would never be returned to her again. Those experiences were ingrained in her, and they made her the person she was. She could not change the past, but through the knowledge she gained because of those mistakes, perhaps she could save someone she cared about in the present.

Probably the captain, with his answer, did not intend to convey this to her, but only to remark on the stupidity of such a stance. However, she liked to think that this was not the case, and this belief, the presence of him on the other side of the table, helped her keep under control the tremor that shook her hand.

When she looked up, at half past three in the morning, she almost had a stroke.

Levi sat in the chair across from her with his arms crossed, his head dangling forward.

She feared he'd had a stroke, and she hadn't even noticed it so caught up in her work.

Soon after, however, she relaxed. He was just sleeping. She stood staring at him in curiosity for a few moments, somewhere between amused and judgmental. How on earth could he sleep in that position? In fact, according to what Petra had told her, the captain slept so little and of such a light sleep that he considered it unnecessary and even unsafe to use the bed. What a bad habit.

How on earth can this one be an adult?, she wondered, shaking her head, with a barely-there smile on her lips. And such a seemingly reliable adult.

She considered for a moment whether to wake him up, then resolved not to. Although the insomnia he seemed to be suffering from was probably caused by a condition of psychological distress, at least in that moment he seemed to be resting so peacefully that it would have been a shame to disturb him.

Nevertheless, she decided to give herself a little satisfaction before retiring.

Levi trusted almost no one, much less had any expectations about the loyalty and honesty of the strangers who had come beyond the walls; yet, he felt particularly tired in those days, and in watching the ravenous eagerness with which the brat had thrown herself over the papers, he had felt the few remaining energies still remaining being sucked up by that slender arm that was verbing words to imprint a story, her story; in all likelihood, the most painful part of it. So, going against his own instincts and all logic, he closed his eyes and relaxed the muscles in his shoulders. Just for a moment, he told himself.

Even if he wanted to attribute that sudden bout of sleep to prostration, what he could never explain was what happened next.

Mizuki was a ninja, and as such trained to move without producing noise; however, Levi had also been trained by life and by Kenny to always sleep with one ear alert to catch the slightest rustle or shift of air revealing the approach of other humans. He should have noticed her approaching at a leisurely pace behind him. He should have sensed something being rested on his shoulders. He should have heard the giggle that she tried desperately to suppress without success. Yet it did not happen.

By the time Levi woke up, at five o'clock in the morning, the fire had long since gone out. Yet, strangely, he did not feel cold. The reason presented itself to him in all its evidence as soon as he got up from his chair.

For a few moments he stood motionless staring at the blanket that had slipped on the floor, dumbfounded. Then, with a measured gesture, he picked it up, folded it carefully and placed it on the table before leaving the room.

OOO

On the morning of the eleventh day, two events occurred that broke the monotonous routine of the group.

The first of them manifested itself in the form of a missive from Commander Erwin, who informed them that he had negotiated with the upper echelons of the army and obtained permission to place them within the Survey Corps without going through official channels, as had been the case in the past for other "exceptional individuals" - at those words, declaimed by Hanje over breakfast, Mizuki noticed that a sly smirk had been painted on the woman's lips apparently directed at Captain Levi, who continued to sip his tea, ignoring as usual her intemperance.

Theo would also go with them: until they found out where he had come from, or the identity of the people who had kidnapped him, the commander thought it appropriate to keep him under close watch, for fear that he would be permanently silenced.

The commander had devised a cover story, the details of which he would provide to them the next day. Departure for the new Survey Corps Headquarters was set for the next morning. By then, the new arrivals were to be briefed on every relevant detail of the world within the walls in order to avoid attracting the suspicions of the Gendarmerie; after leaving the castle, it was strictly forbidden to ask dangerous questions or remarks apt to reveal their origin.

The news cheered the entire group. The members of Levi Squad were indeed missing their fellow soldiers, while for the newcomers the letter represented the erasure of the last bit of uncertainty as to their future.

The second event, meanwhile, took place mid-morning. All the inhabitants of the castle were gathered in the canteen: until the moment of departure, in fact, Levi decided to interrupt training in order to devote himself to perfecting the education of the four ninjas, and so he was instructing them - once again - on the salient facts of the last years of history experienced by humanity within the walls.

"One of the main consequences of the fall of the Wall Rose was the reduction of fields dedicated to the cultivation of coffee and other products not necessary for survival: coffee, like tobacco, have become commodities that only the rich can afford. So, may you not get the bright idea to start asking around if you can have a cup. Do you hear me, you brat?"

"Yes, yes. I got it..."

It was then that an inhuman scream from the garden ripped through the air. To everyone present, the blood froze in their veins. In that direction stood Hanje and Moblit intent on carrying out the umpteenth experiment on Albert.

The first to react was Levi. Without a word, he sprang to his feet, drawing his blades, and then rushed toward the door that faced the garden, throwing it open with a kick that ripped it off its hinges. It took the others a few moments longer to get active, and follow him at a run.

The garden was bathed in a curtain of white smoke, through which two human figures could be seen. Hanje was prostrate on the ground, making inhuman noises. Mizuki threw herself to her side. "Hanje! Are you hurt?"

But the woman could not utter any meaningful sentence in response. All the girl could discern through the wails was Albert's name, invoked as that of a god or a beloved pet.

Just as he had been the first to react to the scream, Levi was the first to grasp the situation, not least because of his long years in service side by side with Hanje. Snapping his tongue, he approached the woman lying on the ground and then kicked her on the thigh. "Stupid four-eyes. I thought that beast took your arm off."

The situation was soon clear to the others as well.

Albert - the beloved and mourned Albert - had met his own end at the hand of Hanje.

"I am a monsteeeeer" howled the murderer, her hands in her hair. "How could I do this to you, Albert? How?!"

"Team leader...please calm down!" Moblit had knelt beside her, and held her firmly by the shoulders, fearing perhaps some extreme gesture.

"I'm a murderess!"

"It was an accident!"

And so, amid Hanje's tears and self-accusations, and frequent interruptions by Moblit to console his own captain, they managed to wrest from the latter a reconstruction of what had happened. The experiments had reached the most delicate and important phase of the entire research project, that is the one in which Hanje and Moblit would attempt to figure out what lay beneath the scruff of giants' necks, located at their only weak point. Unfortunately, in the course of the cutting operation Albert had moved unconsciously, and this had caused the blade wielded by Hanje to plunge deep into the back of his head causing his - at least for Hanje - premature demise.

"Albeeeeeert," whimpered Hanje, her face sunk into Mizuki's lap.

"But did you really think we would keep him alive by raising him as a garden pet once we were done with the experiments?"

"How can you talk like that about a dead, Levi!"

The wailing continued throughout the day; and already after an hour, everyone began to regret that it was Albert who was the victim of the accident, and not Hanje.

"See that you do something," apostrophized Mizuki the captain in mid-afternoon. "'You're the leader, aren't you? It's your responsibility to calm her down or silence her completely. This can't go on."

Levi gave her an annoyed look but did not reply because he knew she was right. So he decided to implement the one idea that had popped into his mind to do one of two things he was expected to do: calm Hanje down or knock her out until Erwin arrived. After dinner, he ordered Oluo and Eld to go to the castle cellar, still used as a storehouse for the Corps' longer-lasting food supplies, and bring up a case of the bad wine stored there.

"Ah, it is interesting that the adults' way of solving problems here also involves the use of alcohol," Amado observed with a note of disapproval in his voice.

"Oh, shut up, Amado! Let us enjoy ourselves!" rebutted Loki, wringing his hands.

"Just don't throw up like last time, Loki," Mizuki teased him amusedly, crouching on the floor at the foot of the sofa, before inviting Petra with a wink to sit in the chair next to Levi's. The gesture, of course, did not escape the captain, who feared he understood its meaning all too well and clucked his tongue, irritated.

That evening, they lit a fire in one of the castle lounges, and there they gathered to drink, and more importantly, to make Hanje drink. The woman gobbled down glass after glass, then stretched out on the carpet with her arms wide open, giggling and crying in places. Although it was unclear whether the captain's plan had succeeded or not, everyone breathed a sigh of relief because at least she had stopped howling. Soon, however, alcohol warmed the veins and spirits of those present, and laughter and animated conversation flooded the room. Although up to that point the two groups had related to each other in friendly and courteous terms, there had always been a perceived willingness on the part of both to maintain a certain distance toward the strangers on the other side of the barricade who smiled aloofly. That evening, however, any superfluous suspicion fell away, carried away by that joyful atmosphere and the fumes of the circulating wine.

The men unbuttoned their sleeves and shirt collars, and the girls gathered up their hair, chattering and poking each other. Even Moblit, usually composed like a statue, let his hair down a bit, probably because of the long day spent trying to console his boss.

Theo watched the scene in Mizuki's arms, unexpectedly at ease.

"...And that's how Oluo and Petra chickened out during their first scouting trip," Eld concluded. "I rode alongside them on the way back, and there was a very pleasant little smell..."

Everyone profused in fat laughter as those directly involved turned red as peppers.

"Damn you, Eld!"

"..." Petra failed to utter a word, all too aware of the presence of the captain who was squaring them with a bored expression.

"I guess in the equipment they should also provide diapers," Loki commented with a snicker.

"Shame on you," Lavinia scolded him. "You wet your pants, too, when we were on the warehouse."

"How dare you make such insinuations, woman?"

"They are not insinuations, you stated it yourself," Mizuki corrected him. "And the captain can confirm, since he was there too. Right?"

Levi's impatient face well expressed his intention not to be dragged into certain ridiculous feuds, but Mizuki seemed not to care - just as she also did not care to annoy him with a thousand more of her daily outbursts.

"There, you see? That's a look of pity for you. You won't dare contradict it, I hope."

"But shut up, it's you he'd like to permanently silence."

"Noooo, Mizuki, I don't want to. I've already lost Albert, don't youuuu die too."

"Thank you, Hanje, I am very honored to be placed on the same level as a giant, in your heart."

"What are you talking about? I loved Albert…"

"Yes, indeed I was sincere!" Laughing, Mizuki leaned toward the woman lying beside her and pinched her cheek.

"Ah, yes, Mizuki gets very physical when she is relaxed." Amado agreed, following Moblit's gaze. "Well, she's also a little tipsy now..."

"I'm not tipsy!"

"...But you may have noticed, too, that she has a tendency to put her hands on people."

"Yeah," commented Petra, instinctively bringing her hands to her chest and remembering the quality ordeal suffered by her breasts.

"Amado, it sounds awful the way you said it. What can I do about it? I'm a doctor! Besides, in my family I don't think an hour goes by when there is no physical contact."

"Actually you've said that a few times before: you Mizuki have several sisters, right?" Moblit bent down from the couch to adjust Hanje's shirt , which had lifted up due to her rolling around on the floor.

"Yes, there are six of us in the family."

"Oh, but there are so many of you!"

Mizuki let slip a bitter smile. "My father wanted a large family. In any case, I have three older sisters, a younger brother and a six-year-old sister."

Oluo rolled his eyes. "I sympathize with the brother..."

Levi, who normally never butted in on those group conversations, for the first time intruded into the conversation with a slightly hallucinated tone. "You mean there are others, like you?"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear the desperate tone in your voice because I'm too tired and honest to take offense, Captain."

"However, the answer is no." Loki brought the glass to his lips. "Her sisters are normal people; in fact, they are all beautiful girls, very sweet and, as it happens, happily accompanied. We got the only one out of her mind."

Mizuki threw a crumpled napkin at him. "I almost forgot that at the age of fourteen you were drooling after Sae, and you came out and received a predictable no!"

"Couldn't you forget that!"

Loki launched himself at Mizuki and threw her to the floor, pinning both her arms with his legs; she laughed and wiggled, trying to free herself. Then he planted his hands in her hips and began tickling her. "Since you like it so much, laugh a little."

"No, please pity me, stop...stop..."

Levi clicked his tongue, disgusted. The brat was drooling on the floor from laughing too hard.

"Oh, you really have a good relationship with each other," Gunther commented instead. "The rest of us used to beat the crap out of each other during our recruiting years."

Amado snorted. "A good relationship? I wouldn't say so. When these two start, they never stop. Loki likes to have the last word; Mizuki doesn't mind at all, but she loves to piss people off, and with a jerk like that it's easy. Tonight they're in good mood, but they've often been at each other's throats."

So she was really doing it on purpose, the little scumbag.

"You've known each other a long time, right? Mizuki told me that with you people, teams are formed when you are twelve years old." Petra let herself slide across the floor to get on the same level as them, carefully holding up her glass with her hand.

A strange instant of silence fell over the four ninjas. Lavinia quickly looked away, and Amado gasped, not knowing what to say. In the end, it was Mizuki who answered the question; taking advantage of the moment of distraction, she had unseated Loki with a swipe of her kidneys, and stood astride him on his stomach, blocking his arms in turn. "No, I joined their team later, when I was fifteen. But we've known each other since the Academy: I've been putting up with this fool ever since"; having said that, she in turn began tickling his neck.

The tone in which Mizuki had spoken those words - even though she had done so in her usual cheerful, lighthearted voice - hinted at a hidden, albeit indecipherable, meaning.

Loki began to gasp; nevertheless he forced himself to mutter, "Who is putting up with whom?"

" The one listening to the painful confidences of the idiot who falls in love with her sister!"

With a shout, Loki turned the tables and was on top of her again, sending her sprawling; but Mizuki was laughing like hell, so hard that tears were streaming from her eyes.

Amado rolled his eyes. "What did I tell you? He's an idiot, she's a huge bitch."

"Hey! Get a room!" exclaimed Oluo laughing. "If it went bad with one sister, just move on to the next."

"And why should he choose, then? He could have all four!" interjected Hanje, suddenly invigorated by the prospect of a good gossip story. Her twinkling eyes aimed at the two young people entwined hinted well in what direction her brain was moving.

Mizuki was about to respond, but before she could do so, Loki was lifted off her body by weight, and she herself, an instant later, received the same treatment. For a few moments, she lacked air in her lungs, but that lasted until, after putting them back on their seats, Levi badly let go of their respective collars.

"See that you cut it out. You're making too much noise. That's what happens when you get brats drinking. And you're worse than they are, four-eyes," dictated this, Levi also kicked Hanje's arm, who was rolling on the ground with laughter.

"Oh, captain, praise be. I'm really beginning to appreciate your presence," Amado sighed.

Levi clucked his tongue, and sat back down. He would have liked to send the brats to bed, judging that he had allowed them far too much freedom for that evening. But the prospect that Hanje had had too little to drink yet to say she was truly settled, and the smiling, heated faces of those present forced him to wait a little longer.

Massaging her neck, Mizuki sighed. "Ah, all this talk about my family has put some nostalgia on me. I wonder how my sweet, happily-accompanied sisters are doing."

The four members of Levi Squad exchanged a silent glance. None of them had asked any questions of the four, but they had discussed it among themselves and, on reflection, had come to the same conclusion as Mizuki, Levi and the commander: in the current state of affairs, it was impossible for them to return home, wherever it was. Between that point and the walls, unfortunately, loomed for an unknown and incalculable number of kilometers the silent threat of giants.

"Who knows when I'll be able to see them again... assuming I survive to do so," she muttered in conclusion.

"Well, what's that shitty expression?" Loki poked her, running a hand over his neck.

"Do you want to fight?"

"Weren't you the one who promised to take us home, whatever it took?"

She did not answer.

"Are you telling me I've been following a charlatan so far?"

At that point Mizuki landed a punch on his arm.

"Ouch, what a bitch! That's a low blow, I didn't expect that!"

"That's for calling me a moron, on the walls."

"Delayed burst?!"

"And by the way, for your information, I really believe what I said." Mizuki rested her open hand on the knee of her bent leg against her own chest and clenched her fist. Her eyes emitted fiery sparks, and Theo, who stared at her adoringly from below, sank his face into her chest, holding her tightly with his slender arms as if to keep her from leaving. "I will take you all back home, and we will recover our memory. We will exterminate the giants, and we will find the bastards who abandoned Theo in that city. We will make everyone pay, from first to last."

Levi looked away. Confidence in one's own abilities and in one's comrades, and hope in the future... two characteristics typical of many of the recruits in the Survey Corps, and invariably destined to fade with the passage of time and expeditions. As soon as they set foot outside the walls, vibrant with pride and dreams, and unknowingly crossed the threshold of hell, Levi looked away from their trembling faces: he knew they would soon disappear never to return, either because the recruit died a miserable and painful death, or because he survived and hell entered within him, thus extinguishing the flame that had animated those young breasts.

But she had been out there before. She had met the giants, and helplessly witnessed the spectacle of her comrades being devoured. Still, she continued to burn with indignation and hope, with such a force that it ignited even the souls of those around her, with the same power with which her laughter had invested the captain a few days earlier.

He wondered if she was just a fool, or was there really something stronger than despair, brooding in that tiny body.

Loki sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Ah, I always said you were an optimistic moron."

Lavinia, however, approached her companion and laid down her head on her shoulder before being enveloped in a warm embrace. "Then what were you referring to earlier?"

"Well, it won't be enough to go home without getting devoured. After that, the hard part begins. We'll have to survive my father."

Those words fell on the other ninjas like a bucket of ice water. An expression of pure terror appeared on their faces.

"Shit...I forgot about that."

"This is a big problem..."

"I don't think he will forgive us."

"I don't think so either," agreed Mizuki. "Certainly not me, at least. He will be furious."

"What have you guys been up to?" asked Gunther curiously.

"Ah, nothing. Her father had locked her up so she wouldn't go on this mission, and we went to free her and then ran away." Amado downed the last remaining sip of wine and grimaced at the disgusting taste. "Maybe we should consider staying here..."

Oluo snorted, "What an exaggeration!"

"You people have no idea what you are talking about," Loki shook his head. "Mizuki's father is scary. Far more than the captain."

"Ohi..."

"Is that why you're not afraid of him, Mizuki?" chuckled Hanje, pulling her by the sleeve.

"My father is much worse," she confirmed, with a laugh. "I guess we'll have to find asylum somewhere, at least for the first few nights. Loki, your house is big. You could take us all in."

"Don't try. After this mission, I want to be away from you and your ugly face for at least a year."

"Eh, yes. I guess next time I'll let you face alone the giants. Maybe if you piss in their faces you might stun them."

"You damn..."

Hanje snapped up in a sitting position, her eyes shining. "But this is a brilliant idea! Moblit, how come we never tried this!"

"Team leader, please...come back down..."

At that point Levi decided to stand up and dryly announce that the party was over, and he intimated that they should scramble to bed before he had to force them by kicking their asses. His words had the effect of sobering everyone up but Hanje, who was nevertheless put back on her feet and taken to bed by Moblit. The others, and despite the fact that the four ninjas continued to claim that in comparison to Mizuki's father the captain was a sugar daddy, took the glassware to the kitchen and then retreated to their respective rooms.

Once left alone and certain that he would not be able to get to sleep anytime soon, Levi devoted himself to tidying up the kitchen, enjoying the silence and solitude. It was not that he did not appreciate moments of sharing such as the one he had just experienced: he did, especially if these were an opportunity to see a few smiles on the faces of his subordinates, and as long as his participation was limited to supervising the situation and did not require him to take an active part in the conversation. Even so, however, he could only handle the commotion for a limited period of time before he got nervous; and drunk people, as a rule, produced a lot of noise, and said a lot of nonsense.

I'll take you all back home.

There, exactly like that. Well, perhaps that statement had not been the result of alcohol, but of something deeper rooted in those amber eyes.

He wondered how long it would take that shitty world to rip from her chest the strength that lit up her eyes and was the source of her unstoppable laughter.

"Captain?"

Levi jerked. The brat stood on the threshold, one hand resting on the doorframe, looking at him with an indecisive expression on her face. The man's brow wrinkled immediately, and he stared at her in annoyance.

"What ridiculous excuse do you have this time to disregard the order to get into bed? Do you have to write a will?"

"Actually, I was wondering if you didn't need a help..."

Levi clicked his tongue. "What, did you start liking tidying up the kitchen?"

Mizuki chuckled and, reassured by not having had her ears pulled yet, walked over to the counter he was working on. "It wouldn't hurt, since this is your favorite punishment."

He ignored the last statement. "I don't need it, anyway. Get lost."

"Mmm, all right," Mizuki leaned against the kitchen counter with her left hip, a safe distance from him, her arms crossed over her chest. "Then I'll go back to bed, but first ... I'd like to ask a favor."

Levi squinted his eyes, sighing. Then again, he had ended up getting used to the recruits' excuses to approach him. He hated it, but he was used to it, and by now he knew that one murderous glance was usually enough to avert a second attempt. However, that brat did not seem to him the type to indulge in such nonsense; nor, indeed, to invent a justification for tormenting him, since she had always done as she pleased since she had arrived. Nevertheless, he still tried to scare her by directing a grim glance at her, and failing miserably; all he got was a calm answering glance, which seemed to tell him "it's no use, my father is ten times scarier than you anyway."

Mizuki, in any case, did not expect an answer. With an unsure gesture, she brought one of her hands behind her back and slipped a large yellowed envelope from her belt, sealed with a red wax seal that Levi recognized as the one used in the past by Research Corps officers to seal their missives.

"They are my memoirs. I... I was wondering if you couldn't keep them. I wouldn't have any problem, keeping them with me, but Petra told me that at HQ I will share the room with someone and we won't have the key. I wouldn't want them to be found and read by mistake, since we have to keep it secret. You officers, however, have a room to yourselves, and I am sure you have locked drawers to keep the most important documents. So ... I thought maybe it would be better for one of you to keep them. You, to be precise. In case you notice that I start losing pieces along the way, you could just order me to read it."

So saying and continuing to observe him without letting out any emotion, Mizuki stretched the wrapper in Levi's direction.

"...Why me?"

"Ah..."

Mizuki bent her head slightly to the side, and looked away from her interlocutor's face to focus on an undefined spot outside the window overlooking the kitchen sink.

Yeah, why? She could have asked Hanje or, to be even more relaxed, the commander, who certainly kept a large number of documents containing sensitive data. So, why him? She had not wondered explicitly; simply, in the moment of decision, the idea of entrusting them to him had seemed natural to her.

Without a doubt, Hanje was out of the question. Petra had made it clear how little discretion she had; not to mention that they might have been lost or destroyed in the course of one of the experiments she used to conduct.

As for Erwin... it was not that she disliked the man. In fact, quite the opposite. In his presence, she felt a strong sense of security, and the certainty that she could finally relax because he would be able to solve any problem. Perhaps it was precisely the fact that he aroused such a feeling that alerted her. Or perhaps the reason lay in the vaguely hallucinated look that he occasionally gave her, and to her comrades, and to explain which he still had not given her the promised answer.

All that remained was the grumpy captain. On the other hand, he - willingly or unwillingly - had witnessed their gestation, and had played a key role in it.

"Hurry up and answer."

Mizuki lightly contracted the hand abandoned at her side. Scraps of phrases spoken in the course of the nightly conversations between them resurfaced in her mind, and the weight of a steely gaze enveloped her, crushing her to the point of taking her breath away and making it difficult for her to move. The man's presence at her side was heavy, pregnant; yet, he did not frighten her, and this was not only because of her father. She looked up, and a spontaneous smile spread across her lips.

"Well, if I have to be honest, it's because I figured no one would ever come rummaging through the possessions of a scary man like you."

Levi clucked his tongue, but even so, after a moment's thought, he wiped his hand on the kitchen cloth laid on the counter and reached for the wrapper. "Now get out of my sight."

The smile widened on Mizuki's face, reaching to her amber eyes that, under its influence, seemed to spread golden reflections in the semi-darkness of the room. "'Yessir! Thank you, captain!" After that, she turned and, almost prancing, headed for the door. Levi watched that petite figure trot and become an indistinct shadow as the darkness triumphant over the dying brazier in the fireplace enveloped her.

"'Ohi, brat."

The shadow stopped in the doorway and turned three-quarters in his direction.

" Be aware that I will make sure you lose your insolence when you are officially a subordinate of mine."

Out of the darkness sprang a crystalline laughter, which swept over him, and two golden flashes illuminated the darkness for an instant.

"Oh, yeah? Good to know, I can't wait to see you at work!"

OOO

The next day, the group left the castle for the Headquarters located in the Trost district, which they reached in the early evening. Waiting for them, they found Commander Erwin and a strange, very tall man who sniffed them all, from first to last, before indulging in an amused and silent giggle, as well as a brand-new uniform for each, on which two intertwined wings proudly stood out.

From that day in September 848, the ranks of the Survey Corps grew by four new members, plus a child who did not speak.

OOO

OOO

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in updating...unfortunately I am a bit slow because I write in Italian and have to translate the text afterwards.

I hope you guys like the story... Let me know what you think about it! Especially about Mizuki, if you find her annoying or like her, and Levi, is he true to the original?

I warn you that in the course of the story there will be sparks between the two of them, but it will take a while (it's a slowburn) given Levi's personality and the particular conditions of both of them; but there will also be many mysteries and adventures! I hope not to bore you.

Kisses and see you soon!