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

10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Have faith in me, 'cause there are things that I've seen I don't believe - part 3

A Day To Remember - Have faith in me

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Mizuki and Levi reached the ground floor without arousing suspicion: along the stairs they passed several servants running in all directions, but no one paid much attention to them. As they descended the stairs, and to avoid further accidents, the girl buttoned the captain's jacket still resting on her shoulders, at the same time calling herself a fool for not taking that small precaution sooner, since it would have spared her the heart attack whose after-effects she still felt in her chest .

Tim had plummeted, crashing to the ground almost with grisly scenic precision, a few meters from the staircase that connected the hall to the garden where Levi and Mizuki had taken refuge during the evening. Around the body, guests and the Tennison family crowded; at a respectful distance along the stairs, servants not busy running from one side of the building to the other waited like silent sentinels for the master's dispositions.

"Oh, there they are!" exclaimed one of Jacqueline Tennison's ladies-in-waiting, agitated. "Good thing they're all right!"

Suddenly, and for a few seconds, the eyes of all those present rested on the newcomers, and the thought that crossed the minds of each of them -first and foremost, Jacqueline Tennison's - was so obvious and so difficult to dispute that even Levi seemed embarrassed by it. "It's not easy to get this one out of bed," he muttered in fact as an explanation.

Mizuki did not resent being used as a scapegoat and, to tell the truth, barely noticed. Her attention, in fact, was entirely absorbed by Tim's corpse, over which the snow that continued to fall had already woven a white sheet. With determined steps she surpassed the group, which was standing at some distance from Tim, with every intention of approaching the body.

David Tennison, however, immediately blocked her by grabbing her arm. "Stop!"

"Duke Tennison, Mizuki is a doctor. Perhaps she could give us some clues as to what happened..." With a gentle, though firm gesture, Erwin moved the landlord's hand away from his subordinate's arm, and motioned to her to wait. Mizuki lowered her head as if to submit to the order, and in doing so let her hair slide down in front of her face, so as to hide it from the rest of those present; then she stood like this, motionless, studying the body from a distance.

She looked and saw what she needed to see.

"Absolutely not! We sent for the gendarmes for this very reason. Until Nile arrives we will not touch anything!" The duke's tone of voice, now clearly panicked, rose an octave with each word.

"I didn't even understand the need to bother the gendarmerie with such a matter." Clayton let a yawn escape. "The affair is clear. Tim threw himself down, didn't he? It happens often, unfortunately, even in the best families. Every now and then they get caught up in these moments of madness for no reason, and they do some foolish things."

"Happens to whom?" Levi moved a threatening step in the boy's direction. "To those you exploit?"

Without flinching or losing his usual phlegm, Dot Pixis stood between the two men before the verbal confrontation escalated. "Even if the situation appears clear, there is still a dead body in your garden, dear Clayton. It's the law that requires the intervention of gendarmes, and we as public officials have no choice but to enforce it."

"Exactly!" Exclaimed an exasperated Tennison, pointing a plump finger at Commander Pixis. "It's like he says. The law, we will follow the law!"

At that point, Mizuki lifted her head again and her amber eyes met the commander's clear ones.

Killed.

Erwin nodded imperceptibly. His own conclusion, but he had preferred to wait for Mizuki to arrive and get a medical response before devising a plan. "I understand your position, Duke Tennison. You are right that it is better to wait for the gendarmes. In fact, if there is any evidence to be gathered, Levi and I certainly cannot take care of it."

Mizuki barely restrained a smirk. Finally, an order she liked. It had taken some time for it to arrive, since that distant November day!

"At this point, I think it is appropriate that we all go back inside, and prepare to wait for Nile and his gendarmes. It is useless to stay out here and catch a cold." Erwin nodded to David Tennison. "Maybe we can have a strong drink in the meantime?"

The landlord latched onto that suggestion like a godsend. "Right! You are all invited to my personal study! A drink will certainly calm the nerves shaken by this nasty business!" With an energy that seemed out of place in a man of his age and size, he took to pushing all the grouped people toward the stairs. "Up, up. Let's go! You heard Commander Erwin!"

Dot Pixis burst out laughing, hands planted on his hips. "Ah, now we're getting somewhere, Erwin! Now. that sounds like a very good idea." His eyes fixed on Mizuki, however, did not laugh. "Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to order the servants to do the same, and retire to the kitchen. You know, duke, to prevent them from snooping around the corpse."

"Right! Quite right! Have you heard Commander Pixis? Get out of here!"

Dot Pixis, however, was not the only one among those present to keep Mizuki under close watch: also Jacqueline Tennison did not divert her outraged attention from her for an instant throughout the entire interview, and during the collective retreat inside the building.

Mizuki, completely oblivious to the interest aroused, kept visualizing in her mind the scene of the crime she was leaving behind, feverishly reconstructing what must have happened.

First, they had tried to strangle him. The marks on his neck that could be glimpsed beneath his shirt left no doubt about that. The fight must have taken place in one of the third-floor rooms that, given the small number of guests, were unused at the time, as explained by Tennison when he said goodbye for the night. Tim, however, had resisted, and wounded his attacker, wrenching from him the scream that had aroused the entire house. Since they had just tried to choke him, Tim would never have had enough breath to emit such an excruciating and bombastic howl. Probably seizing the moment, he had launched himself in a desperate attempt to escape to the balcony, and the killer had hurled him into the void. Then he had looked out to contemplate his work, and in the act, a few drops of blood had plummeted from the open wound onto the ground a meter away from the body, where she had immediately spotted them.

Mizuki pretended to retreat to her room, where she stayed just long enough to slip on her uniform boots, the only piece that had not been confiscated from her by the old hag; then she slipped out again, not before making sure that the hallway was deserted.

Most of the guests had clustered in the library to discuss the event and have a drink, Erwin and Levi included. The captain, although he had not been a party to the brief but meaningful exchange of glances, knew enough about his own commander and, by now, the brat as well to realize that the two of them were up to something, and so he set himself up to wait; of course, he would have much preferred to do so in the solitude of his own room, but Erwin's implied order had been clear enough. They were to entertain those filthy pigs, and leave the brat free field to act. It was only to be hoped that she had finally made up her mind to seriously listen to his warnings, and not get into any trouble.

Mizuki descended the stairs with a plush stride, mentally thanking Pixis for the stunt of having the servants sent to the kitchen, a proposal surely meant to clear the field for any unofficial investigations - she had no doubt about that. She liked the man, and her instincts suggested that, at least at that particular juncture, they were lined up on the same side of the barricade.

She stealthily entered the living room bathed in darkness. The house had plummeted back into the stillness and silence that had reigned before the crashing and rambling fall in which Tim's life had ended; and soon even that ominous event would sink into oblivion with no return. Once the initial roar and astonishment was over, and the body had been removed by the gendarmes, the house and its inhabitants would return to their routines, forgetting about that lanky, floppy-eared boy, marked like a beast for the slaughter, murdered because he probably knew too much.

Mizuki did not want that to happen. She didn't know much about that world and its inhabitants; but if there was anything she thought she understood, it was what it meant to belong to the Survey Corps; a Corps whose soldiers fought so that the truth would come to the surface, and not remain buried under the snow that fell copiously, and under the piles of convenient lies dispensed by those in power.

She also knew that there could be more than one truth in the world, and that was without any of its versions being considered wrong. Everyone had his or her own story. The sad story of her family had taught her this: her uncle had guarded for years a truth unknown to his brother and the rest of the world, his truth, and because of this he had spent his last years singled out as the worst of traitors, and hated by his own flesh and blood. Yes, there were or could be as many versions of the same story as there were people breathing the air of the world. But Mizuki also believed - and reaching such a conclusion had taken the time of her entire short life - that in certain particular situations the truth could only be one: a sense of justice and freedom and Tim's eyes closed forever demanded it.

The truth she was seeking demanded the killer be tracked down and properly punished for his crime.

She advanced into the hall, as her only escort the rumble of her footsteps and...

She froze.

No, she was not mistaken.

Overpowered by the clatter of boot heels and confused by her thoughts about truth and justice, the pacing of a light, plush step could be heard.

"I knew you were up to something."

Mizuki, in the center of the hall, turned sharply toward the threshold she had crossed just moments before, and where now stood the sinuous, unmistakable figure of Jacqueline.

"Miss Tennison..."

Why was she there? Was she following her? Was she trying to prevent her from examining the body and gathering dangerous information?

Once again, Levi's words made their way into her mind, and her body stiffened.

You are too trusting. And what happened?

Behind her, lying in the snow, lay Tim; he, perhaps, had trusted someone too much, or perhaps he had not even been given the choice to do or not to do so.

If I tell you not to trust, that means you must not trust. Nobody.

"Where is he?" asked Jacqueline, advancing inexorably in her direction.

"He who?"

"Don't play dumb. The captain, of course."

"With your father and the commander."

"So he'll be joining you shortly."

"What? No." Was it all there, the reason why she had stalked her? Was it really just a trivial and completely unfounded matter of jealousy? Or was she bluffing to force her to admit the truth? Had he been there, the captain would certainly have called her a stupid brat, clucking his tongue, annoyed that she might have doubts about Jacqueline's real intentions; she could almost hear him, "Tsk. Lie and then get out of there as soon as possible. She's a noble, you can't believe her."

"Do you take me for a fool?"

Instinctively, Mizuki stepped back to keep some distance between her and Miss Tennison. She was going to listen to the captain; he was right, she could not trust those people. She really had been a fool to convince herself that any kind of understanding or communication could be established between the Tennison and the Survey Corps soldiers. "I think you're far from stupid, if you'll allow me."

"Then what are you doing here?" Jacqueline's eyes did not lose sight of her for an instant, following every movement of her hands or figure, as if she hoped to discern in them some clue as to the reason for Mizuki's presence in the hall.

Perhaps she was in league with the killer. Maybe everyone in that house was, and at that moment they were attacking the commander and the captain, just now that Levi had left her the jacket with his knife...

Yeah, the knife. Mizuki brought a hand to her chest, and caressed the bulge at the hidden inside pocket.

"Well?"

"I..."

The captain had told her not to trust him. But he had. Not only her, but many others: his first friends, Hanje, Erwin, his team. He trusted them to the point that the irrational need to keep a weapon for personal self-defense appeared to him to be a shameful and painful betrayal of them.

When had he started trusting them?

How about her? When had she begun to trust the captain?

Mizuki took a deep breath, and mentally asked for forgiveness from Levi, because even now that the situation, from whatever perspective one looked at it, suggested that she should get the hell out of there without looking back, she would not be able to follow his directives, which sounded more like an order than advice. But she, after all, was like that: optimistic to the core.

"The truth is that we believe Tim was killed, and the commander sent me to collect evidence. Even before that we were in the commander's room, all three of us, because we believe something strange is going on in this house. That is the reason why the captain and I came together. Between me and him, there is not the relationship you think," she rattled off all in one breath, squinting and raising a mental prayer to her mother.

Jacqueline's eyes widened in amazement, but she almost immediately regained control of herself. "Why are you telling me all these things? You're talking about my house as if it were a den of lunatics, do you realize that?"

"I know... I mean, I'm sorry. I know I'm very inappropriate, and probably unwelcome, but I want to trust you."

"Why? I "m a noble, am I not? And you soldiers hate us. I can see it in your eyes. You look down on us, strong in your moral values, and you feel entitled to judge us."

"That's true, but the same goes for you nobles. You treat people as objects, and you think you can dispose of others' lives as you please! But..."

"You are crazy! If that's what you think, why did you even say you could trust me?!"

"Because I want to believe that even though we are like two non-communicating boxes at the moment, change is possible! And because I believe that you are different! Tonight, you were the only one who did not treat me with false condescension. All the others have been far too kind, even though it is clear that they regard us as cannon fodder. But you... you don't give me that impression. You have treated me unkindly, bluntly and clearly, and certainly not because of my job. That's why I want to believe that there is much more than a noble in you, Jacqueline Tennison!" Mizuki had stopped backing down. She was gambling everything with that choice. If she had been wrong in trusting the woman advancing menacingly in her direction, the discovery of the truth about Tim and the sign were screwed; but if she had been right...

Nothing could be done, alone, against an entire system. Everyone needed an ally. The gendarmes had the nobles, and the nobles had the gendarmes; the Garrison Corps, on the other hand, enjoyed the support of the people. What about them? The Survey Corps had no allies. They were the last of the last, the fools, the eternal defeated, the walking dead. But if they really intended to combine anything other than killing giants and getting devoured, they had to rely on someone who was part of the system.

Jacqueline Tennison scrutinized her suspiciously; for a few moments, she seemed undecided whether or not to voice her own thoughts, but when her gaze fell on the piano, she resolved to throw off the mask for good. "Yeah, you've been a real drag. The captain has been after you all evening. I really would have liked to throw you in the snow, so count yourself lucky if I just threw a few caustic remarks at you. You stole my prey." The woman approached the piano with an elegant but firm step, stepping past Mizuki, and sat down at the stool, crossing her arms over her chest. "You must have thought I'm a stupid, spoiled duchess, huh? Used to getting everything she wants just by snapping her fingers and unable to accept defeat."

Mizuki cast a glance at the door. She didn't have all the time in the world to sit and dissect the underlying reasons for the one-sided antagonism between her and Tennison, and she knew it perfectly well; however, her instincts suggested that the right choice, in that context, was to bring Jacqueline to their side. "Spoiled? Yes, definitely. Stupid? no. As I told you, I think you're anything but stupid. You're a smart person acting stupid, but this is something quite different. Not to mention that when I left with the captain - although I can assure you there is nothing between him and me - you didn't stomp your feet on the ground, but rolled up your sleeves and found a way to get back on top. You may be spoiled, but you also know what to do to get what you want, don't you? In this, you remind me of someone I once knew."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes, one of my best friends."

Jacqueline allowed herself a few more moments to study Mizuki in silence. Then she sighed, and shook her head. "Just something strange?"

"What?"

"You said you people think there's something strange in this house. But that seems a bit reductive. Things have sucked here ever since I was born. It wasn't just Tim who was overwhelmed by the life that goes on within these walls." Although she had not for a moment discarded the proud demeanor of a lioness ready to fight, Jacqueline Tennison, with her head bowed and her platinum blond hair loose and falling back over her robe, exuded an aura of weary resignation. "We women aren't much better off, you know? Our job is to smile, wear nice clothes, and sing to cheer the spirits of our smarter mates and fathers. We are objects too."

Perhaps Tim had not been the first to find death there.

Just as she, in moments of anger, threw a few pieces of pottery against a wall to let off steam, probably the same fate was reserved for Jacqueline, for Tim, for everyone who had the bad luck to meet in their path someone who claimed the right to break them.

"Let the rest of the world believe what it is more comfortable for it to believe. The important thing is that you never forget that you are not an object, nor settle for playing at being a noble. That would be quite a waste."

Jacqueline's dark eyes lit up for an instant; an intermittent flash, similar to a signal given out to his accomplices by a fugitive hiding in a dark uncultivated bush. I am here, cried that light, find me. Then the woman covered her mouth with one hand to muffle the sound of a sarcastic chuckle. "You really are crazy, you. I really don't know how you've managed to survive in this world so far."

A smile also appeared on Mizuki's face, for once lacking its usual mocking tinge. "You're not the only one who wonders.'"

"You said you were a doctor, right?" Jacqueline invited her with a nod to leave through the French doors. "Do what you have to do, come on. I didn't see you, here, and I'll keep intruders away from Tim."

"I really thank you, Miss Tennison."

"'Don't bother. We are accomplices, aren't we? Call me Jacqueline. Actually, no. Better Jackie." The woman turned a sly smirk on her. Sitting disheveled, with a cheek abandoned on her hand and her elbow resting on the piano, she looked like a completely different person from the ethereal and delicate duchess who had graced them throughout the evening, but Mizuki liked that version of Jackie much better.

Mizuki was about to accept the invite and turn toward the French window when she heard a noise coming from the foyer. Footsteps. Two people approaching. Maybe the captain and commander...? No, Levi walked less noisily and much more elegantly. Maybe the servants. Maybe the gendarmes, for once incredibly snappy and dutiful.

But what if it was the culprits?

Better to hide. She had already risked a lot by confiding in Jacqueline, and she did not intend to repeat the experience.

Right, Jacqueline. What to do, of her new accomplice?

Miss Tennison, having failed to notice the approaching intruders, was sitting motionless, busy peeling off a peel with a bored look. She would remain there to act as a lookout, just as she had promised; but if the mysterious wanderers in the lobby turned out to be the killers, and she heard something she shouldn't, she would be in danger of being eliminated, just as had happened to Tim.

Mizuki had trusted her, but so had Jacqueline. She could not abandon her.

As quickly as she could, she walked over to the piano and grabbed the woman by the arm, pulling her to her feet and signaling with her free hand to remain silent. Then she hurriedly led her to the French door, opened it, trying not to make any noise, went outside, and squatted on the ground, close to the wall. To keep an eye on the situation inside, Mizuki kept as close to the unlatched window as she could push herself without running the risk of revealing her presence; Jacqueline, for her part, stared at her as if she had suddenly gone mad.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps became more distinct and crisp.

"Liam, I think I heard someone talking..."

"Knock it off, Kim. He's croaked, and ghosts don't exist."

Jacqueline and Mizuki exchanged a stunned and silent look. Ms. Tennison's first reaction was to rush down the stairs beside which she was crouching, and to get away from there, but Mizuki held her back by planting a hand on her shoulder. She tightened the grip slightly, trying to convey that she would never let anything bad happen to her, but now they had to remain still and eavesdrop.

"Yes, but do we really have to deal with this right now? Can't we wait until the morning?"

"You idiot! The gendarmes are coming, and the Survey Corps people suspect something! You saw how that asshole Smith tried to keep everyone together, as if he was trying to guard us. I can't find one of my twins anymore, it must have fallen during the scuffle when that filthy rat dared to hurt me."

The footsteps of one of the two men - presumably Kim - stopped; Liam Heather, once he realized his comrade's defection, did likewise. Mizuki calculated that they must be about halfway down the hall.

"What now?"

"Was it really necessary to kill him, Liam?"

"You're kidding, right? That scumbag wouldn't tell us who the fuck had entered the room."

Mizuki gasped. So they had seen her? But how, when?

"Maybe no one had really come in..."

"What? You said that when you joined us from the balcony it looked like Tim was pushing someone out the door."

"Yes, but I was drunk."

"You know what? It doesn't matter. Now that the guy's croaked, we'll be safer. Even if someone had really seen me and decided to spill the beans, with Tim in the afterlife there's no one who could corroborate the tale. And between the ragged beggars who have been our welcome guests tonight and me, we know full well who would prevail, before any court of law and public opinion. I know it, and they know it perfectly well too: that lousy drunk Pixis and that asshole Smith won't talk without having a shred of evidence in hand. And that's what matters, isn't it?"

Mizuki clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles whitened. She imposed calm on herself.

"You, too, by the way. Tonight of all nights, with all those strangers around, did it have to pop into your head to fuck Tim up the ass?"

What? What on earth were they talking about?

"What can I tell you, Kim? You know how I am when I get hard. And I would have loved to fuck that Survey Corps bitch; if only it wasn't for that midget getting in the way, I would have definitely done it. When I'm in that condition I have to vent somewhere, you know."

"Yes, but..."

"That's what I bought Tim for, isn't it?"

Bought?

"Since that whore Jacqueline enjoys fucking around with everyone except with her fiancé."

Mizuki turned her head sharply toward Jacqueline, who kept her eyes narrowed and one hand pressed against her mouth, trembling.

"'She's a whore for sure, just like her mother. Did you see how she was drooling after the dwarf?"

"Let her do as she pleases while she can. The important thing is that the wedding takes place, and that I get my hands on the dowry. Then her hubby will take care of straightening her character and closing her legs."

"All that fucking money... that really turns me on when I think about it, Liam."

"That's it, bravo. Think about the money. Now you realize how essential it was to take Tim out, yes? We couldn't let the old fat man be told about my, uh, hobby. He's got a bit of a backward mentality, my dear Uncle."

Jacqueline continued to tremble, leaning against the wall, and Mizuki could barely restrain herself from giving in to two very different yet equally powerful impulses: hugging her tightly and bursting into the room to kick Liam Heather in the nuts.

It wasn't just Tim who was overwhelmed by the life that goes on within these walls.

"Come on, let's get moving before that idiot Dok gets here. Heaven forbid he decides to do his job tonight and get serious about investigating."

Mizuki stiffened. They were coming. It was two against one, so she had to be ready to strike, and knock them out, taking advantage of the surprise effect.

"Yes, but you put that gun away, Liam."

"All right, all right. Don't wet your pants, Kim. Listen, you go take a look in the garden, and I'll stand guard by the door to make sure no one comes in."

Mizuki tensed every muscle, thanking heaven that they had decided like two fools to split up, when ... the sound of a muffled exclamation interrupted her preys' conversation.

On hearing Kim approaching the French doors, Jacqueline, crouching beside the stairs, had instinctively retracted her torso, and her foot had slipped over the edge. The woman slipped two steps, and emitted a choked groan.

"Hey, fuck, there's someone here!"

Mizuki's blood froze in her veins. There were two enemies, men, ready for anything and armed. She, on the other hand, had only one civilian in charge, a noble one to boot, whom she had dragged into danger; they were both dressed in clothing ill-suited for escape and combat, and the surprise effect had gone out the window.

Just the kind of disadvantageous situation the captain was talking about in his sermon just a week earlier. And why on earth was she thinking about Levi at that moment?

She had to act, not get lost in memories.

Mizuki bent her upper body and, grabbing Jacqueline by the arm, pushed her toward the base of the steps. "Go! Run!"

She was just in time to pull herself to her feet that Liam Heather, throwing open the window, catapulted onto the balcony. Mizuki was on him before he could raise the arm with which he held the gun. She landed a right hand on his face and, after bending over, struck him in the crotch with her elbow. Her opponent, caught off guard and in all evidence inexperienced in even the most rudimentary of fighting techniques, was unable to defend himself, and perhaps did not even fully understand what had just happened. With a groan of pain, he rolled onto himself, and Mizuki shoved him into his partner, who had just appeared with a thrust across the balcony threshold.

The girl hurled herself down the stairs, trying to move as fast as her damned nightgown would allow. To her disappointment, at the base of the staircase, she came upon Jacqueline on the ground, slipped due to a slab of ice, and mechanically bent to get her back on her feet, when something grabbed her by the hair and pulled her backwards.

Mizuki groaned and turned to free herself from the grasp of a quite furious Kim, who by all evidence must have managed to extricate himself from his partner much faster than expected; he, however, held her firmly by the hair, so Mizuki gave up her escape and tried to hit him with an elbow to the stomach. With a yank, Kim pushed her away from him, and the blow went wide; the sudden movement and the ice, however, caused her to lose her balance, and Mizuki collapsed to the ground, slamming her back hard against the tile floor surrounding the base of the staircase.

She gasped for air as the icy snow slipped under her robe, and tried to get back up, but a fist landed on her head. For a moment everything went blank, and she lost track of herself, of what was happening and of where she was. Then consciousness returned, along with a stabbing pain in her temple and right eye, where Kim had struck. Still confused, she saw him raise his contracted hand to lunge again, and behind him Jacqueline, who...

Mizuki tightened her eyes and brought a hand to her face an instant before the woman knocked down a glass bottle at the attacker's head with all her might. Shards of glass rushed at her like a rain at once sharp and saving, and Mizuki felt Kim's weight become less oppressive. She pulled herself to her seat, trying not to injure herself with the glass surrounding her, and finally shook off the enemy knocked out by Jacqueline's attack.

Mizuki contemplated the scene for a moment, and her head still groggy from the blow she had received registered with amazement that Jackie - who was watching her panting and with a terrified look - had found the empty glass bottle abandoned by Mizuki and the captain at the foot of the steps.

Her relief, however, was short-lived. At the top of the staircase, Liam was struggling to get back on his feet. And he was the one with the gun.

Mizuki let out an imprecation, and hastily got to her feet. Her right eye was swelling from the punch she had received, she was seeing badly, she was soaking wet and cold, her head was throbbing from the pain, and one of the splinters from the bottle must have cut her forehead, because a trickle of blood had begun to run down her face, but even in that state she could assess that they had to get out of there as soon as possible. If Liam started shooting, they were screwed. She grabbed Jacqueline's hand and, struggling against the packed snow that covered the garden ground, dragged her toward the rows of vines that stretched silently and indifferently a few yards from the steps. "Quick! We have to look for cover, he has a weapon!"

As if to emphasize her last words, gunshots began to whistle around the two fugitives. Just as they ducked to pass under the first row of intertwined plants, a bullet whizzed within a millimeter of Mizuki's arm.

That guy is serious. He's randomly shooting at both Miss Tennison and me; he wants to kill us both.

They passed several rows without looking back; then Mizuki decided to stop and make a point, and they crouched on the ground, panting, now wet from head to toe and shivering uncontrollably.

Mizuki tore off a flap of her night robe, already torn from the fight and falls, and took to dabbing at the wound on her forehead. Perhaps she was overestimating their opponent - it appeared unlikely that Liam would go after the drops of blood in the snow - but she did not intend to risk her neck due to lack of caution. If that had happened, the captain would never have forgiven her. Why on earth her mind kept going in circles and coming back one way or another to Levi, she just couldn't explain. "I have to thank you, Ms. Tennison. If it hadn't been for your intervention just now, I don't know how it would have ended."

"I told you to call me Jacqueline, I think. And anyway, it's always been my dream, to smash a bottle over someone's head. Even better if it was Kim. I never liked that one." Jacqueline's pale lips, despite the tremor that shook them, stretched into a smile, and in her eyes, however dilated with terror, not even the shadow of a tear hovered.

"Not to mention that I should be the one to thank you. You elbowed that idiot of my former fiancé into the family jewels."

Mizuki let a smile slip out. "Actually, yes, I had the pleasure of doing that."

In some unspecified part of the night, their pursuer was loudly invoking Jacqueline's name, begging her to come out, that it was all a misunderstanding, that he meant her no harm at all, she had got it all wrong, that it was all the fault of that filthy little bastard of a brat. Liam had not yet penetrated inside the vineyard, whose perimeter he was continuing to patrol in the hope that his prey would be stupid enough to come out into the open.

What an idiot. He doesn't even realize that with all this mess he's revealing his exact location.

"What do we do now?"

"Liam has lost it. He started shooting wildly, and that will soon draw the whole house into the garden. They will soon find us; it's only a matter of time. We have to hold out until then."

Jacqueline, in particular. She needed her almost as much as Levi or Erwin's intervention in order to survive. Without Jackie, it would be her word against Liam's: Mizuki had no trouble imagining who the gendarmes and Tennison would believe, especially given that there was a Kim with a cracked head in the garden. It would have taken nothing, for Liam, to accuse her of everything: of Tim's murder, of going down to the garden to dispose of evidence, and of attacking them while he and Kim were trying to stop her.

No, Jacqueline had to survive, or Mizuki might as well get riddled with bullets, and become compost for Tennison's vineyard.

"Now we will split up. You will move to the right, I will move to the left: I will lure Liam in that direction, and then force him into the vineyard. When that happens, I will give you a signal, and then you will have to run as fast as you can toward the house. Never stop, and don't trust anyone but the captain and the two commanders. Do you understand?"

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine. I'm a soldier, and I get into fights quite often with the captain."

"You really are an odd couple, you two..."

"That's because we're not a couple."

"We'll talk about it when this is over."

Jacqueline and Mizuki exchanged one last glance, filled with complicity and sealing the unspoken promise that an "after" would exist for both of them. Then they turned their backs to each other, and each took to crawling on the frozen snow.

Mizuki crawled to the left, and simultaneously toward the edge of the vineyard that faced the house. Liam prowled there like a caged beast, she could hear distinctly the creaking soles of his boots sinking into the snow, and the invocations that became gradually more aggressive. He was obviously getting nervous, fearing the coming of some intruder before he could eliminate the only real threat to his position and to his version of the affair, namely Jacqueline. Before long, in a panic, he would wander into the vineyard at random, and she had to prevent it at any cost.

Liam was hardly an adversary who shone with skill, but he had a gun and was desperate, so she had to be ready for anything, too.

What was it that the captain had said? That she never fought with a plan in mind?

He was right, and at the same time he was not. Of plans she formulated and implemented far too many, and with unquestionable success as well, since she usually always managed to achieve the desired result. All her strategies, however, presented the problem of not contemplating, and indeed disregarding altogether, what would happen at their end. A mistake that could have cost her her life, true; but surely that was not the time and place to start revising her reckless approach to missions, dangers, and life more generally.

The result to aim for, now, was only one: to get Jacqueline to safety; and the way to do it, also only one: to draw the enemy's attention to herself.

Mizuki ventured to approach Liam until only two rows stood out to separate them. So she crouched down behind the thickest log, slipped off the captain's jacket - which, no doubt about it, he would never have asked her back considering the disgusting state it was in - not before retrieving the knife hidden in the inside pocket, and tucked its collar into a medium-length stick abandoned in the snow. She then stretched out her arm so as to get as far away from herself as possible the end of the little wood from which the garment hung.

She took a deep breath.

Her arm thundered with a jerk upward, until the jacket hanging from the stick popped up above the rows of vines, and then stretched out to the right, so as to give the impression, to an inattentive observer, that the dark figure that had appeared among the plants was moving.

A moment of silence, and stillness.

Please make him fall for it, please.

A shower of bullets hit the improvised dummy, and Mizuki jerkily lowered her arm, trying to simulate the fall of a bullet-riddled body slumping to the ground.

"I got you, bitch!"

She heard the sound of the gun being reloaded, and then footsteps on the snow. He was getting closer. Her heart hammered in her head. She clutched the handle of the knife, the captain's knife. Now came the crucial moment. She had only one chance. She had to disarm him in one fell swoop; she could not take the risk of getting into a close encounter with a gunman; if a bullet hit her, it would be the end.

Liam emerged bent over from under a row of rows, not even three feet away from her, and as soon as he spotted the dark figure of the jacket, whom he believed to be a mortally wounded woman, he pointed his gun and resumed firing wildly. His attack lasted for a few seconds, just long enough for Mizuki to come closer, crawling through the icy snow, and plunge the dagger into his arm, in one single, lethal and precise gesture.

"NOW MISS TENNISON!"

The blade penetrated flesh, Liam screamed, and immediately dropped the gun to the ground. Mizuki kicked it away from there, and it was precisely because she had one foot raised in the air that he managed to throw her off balance: with a yank he withdrew the wounded arm to which she was still desperately and fiercely attached despite her fingers numbed by the cold, and Mizuki was thrown backward. She fell to the ground, slamming her back, and for the second time that day she had a man larger than she was and quite angry at her on top of her. In a fury, Liam lifted Mizuki's torso by the shoulders a few inches, then slammed it back down.

"Bitch!" he shouted, flooding her face with saliva. "You're a whore! I'll kill you!"

Her hands wrapped around Mizuki's neck, and tightened their grip.

.

As soon as they had rushed outside the hall and down the staircase made slippery by snow, they stumbled upon one of those half-unconscious idiot nobles, moaning and surrounded by a myriad of glass shards. As Erwin and Pixis bent beside the man and stormed him with questions, Levi cast a cautious glance at the place where he and the brat had abandoned the bottle, and found it empty. Of her, however, no trace.

We shouldn't have let her go alone, damn it. I knew it. That one always gets into trouble. Now where the fuck...?

"Captain!"

Jacqueline Tennison ran like a madwoman in their direction.

"They're in the vineyard, to the left! He has a gun!"

Levi did not order his body to move; by the time he realized he had launched himself forward, he had already reached the edge of the vineyard.

"You whore! You're a whore! I'll kill you!"

The sound of the dog's cries guided him to them, until he was confronted with a scene that for an instant pinned him to the ground.

"I'm going to kill you! You're nothing but a filthy whore!"

Then again his body went into action of its own accord, following the instinct that suggested to him, inexorable and deadly as ever, the necessary actions to neutralize the enemy. He grabbed that filthy dog scum and, as if lifting a teaspoon, flung him to the side, away from her. Mizuki hastily pulled herself to her seat and, coughing and inhaling heavily in alternating stages, massaged her neck on which the purplish marks left by Liam's grasp were prominent.

He looked at her.

Mizuki tried to say something to him, but from her cyanotic lips came nothing but a guttural groan and a new access of coughing.

The brat offered a truly horrifying sight to the eye at that moment: one eye swollen and bruised, her face smeared with blood, wet and trembling as if she had just been thrown into one of Stohess's canals, and practically naked despite the white robe, dirty and torn like a rag.

He would have liked to ask her if she was all right and what he had done to her, to help her pull herself to her feet, and to assure her that the filthy dog would be treated ten times worse than she had been.

Bitch! I'm going to kill you! You are nothing but a filthy whore!

Suddenly, like a flutter of wings, the scenery around Levi changed, and Levi changed with it. He was no longer, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a snow-covered vineyard, but in a dark place, even though it was broad daylight.

Fetid, putrid, dirty.

Those words of contempt and humiliation the captain had heard countless times before, in the cursed place forgotten by the world that for long years he had called "home." Accompanying them, invariably, were the cries of pain of the designated victim of the attack, who was mocked, hit, humiliated, raped, amid general indifference.

Isabel, even after joining him and Furlan, had suffered the same treatment several times.

The thought made him nauseous, now as then.

And now as then he would not allow a parasite like that to crawl alive out of his sight.

An icy, blind fury - the same fury that occasionally seized him outside the walls, and led him to rage against the giants as if his own life depended on it - a fury conveyed by the memories of the past and the overlapping present, took over him.

He threw himself at the enemy - at that enemy who had dared to lay hands on her - still on the ground, and began to kick him mercilessly, with a lucid cruelty, without giving him a break. He heard a choked cry behind his back, but Levi knew that down there, in those streets where the only law in force was that of the strongest, no one would ever rush to the worm's rescue, no one would stop him, no one would care if that scum exhaled his last breath.

He grabbed him by the neck with one hand and, lifting him off the ground by weight, began to squeeze. The filthy man's face began to whiten before his eyes, while his mouth opened wide in a grotesque and inhuman grimace.

"Captain, you'll kill him like that!"

Someone grabbed him by the arm, but Levi with a yank freed himself, sending the intruder sprawling.

The worm's desperate movements became less and less decisive, more and more feeble. He was slowly losing consciousness, and soon the world would be a better place.

"Levi!"

He sensed again someone clinging with all the strength she had to the arm he held abandoned along his side. A fresh, pleasant, delicate smell, overpowering him, wiped away the stench of death and despair typical of the Underground City.

And then his name, four simple letters, uttered by someone who had never, before, uttered it.

Levi let go and Liam Heather sagged to the ground at his feet, curling up and immediately beginning to whimper like a baby.

He turned toward the source of that scent.

Mizuki partly coughed and partly gasped, and only when she was sure that the captain had come to his senses, and after shooting a disgusted glance at the man slumped at their feet, did she decide to release him.

She seemed shocked. And who wouldn't be, in front of such a scene?

Levi inhaled noisily through his nostrils. He felt drained, as if a mole had dug a hole inside him, and at the same time he felt like bursting, because the blind fury that had animated him was still boiling in his veins. That filthy dog still there, a few steps away from him, whimpering in an unworthy way. If only...

" Your jacket..." murmured Mizuki wide-eyed, as she tried to hold up the top flap of the tattered nightgown with one hand. "Your jacket is in a pitiful condition, and is probably full of holes. Sorry."

Levi finally turned his gaze toward her. The brat was shivering from head to toe, her wet clothes clinging to her thin limbs, like a chick caught in a downpour, and she was in an obvious state of confusion.

Suddenly, all fighting vim abandoned him. He had run into the snow to save her, and she was freezing in front of his eyes babbling something absolutely nonsensical. And even worse...

She was upset, yes; but not from fear of what she had just witnessed.

But not of you. I could never be afraid of you.

"Are you stupid, by any chance?"

"I used it to distract Liam, and he shot at it..."

"You're stupid," he repeated, this time removing any intonation of question from his voice. Levi scanned the ground with his eyes, and spotted a shapeless shell. After retrieving his jacket with a grunt, he placed it for the third time in the course of that shitty evening on his subordinate's shoulders. "Do you think I give a damn about a jacket? Stupid."

The captain ruffled her watery soft hair, and before retracting his hand, he brushed the tip of his thumb across her neck at the reddish swollen marks left by the dog's grip.

Mizuki was run through by a shiver at that barely noticeable contact. She lowered her head and shyly, almost as if to make sure that his presence was real, and that the one standing before her was the captain she knew and not the unleashed beast who had apparently taken his place, reached out a hand and placed it on his arm. Her fingers lingered there for a few moments, barely clutching the sleeve of Levi's shirt, and that gesture seemed to soothe her completely: her face stiffened into a pained expression stretched out, and the muscles in her shoulders relaxed.

Then both he and she withdrew their hands, and interrupted the contact to which they had both surrendered, entrusting it with words that could not be expressed verbally.

With trembling fingers, Mizuki adjusted the jacket better on her shoulders and fastened the buttons. Levi waited patiently for her to complete the task, then grabbed by the collar of his shirt the dog that was still whimpering curled up and, with his back to her, walked toward the mansion. "Let's go."

Before he got too far away, however, he made sure to hear Mizuki's muffled footsteps behind him. She caught up with him in a moment.

"Oh, and by the way. It is and remains Captain Levi for you, brat."

Those words drew a chuckle from her, a sound as unreal as ever, yet authentic and restful. "It wasn't me, in fact. It was Liam."

"Fuck you, brat. I'll let you off this time, but don't let it happen again."

"It won't. I much prefer sunshine. I think it reflects your personality better."

"They should have beaten you just a bit more."

"You intervened too soon, then."

The captain did not reply, because the comment brought back to his mind that he had just shown her, in all his brilliance, the side of himself he wished she would never meet.

.

When they finally reached the mansion and climbed the stairs, Commander Nile Dok had just made his triumphant entrance into the hall and was trying unsuccessfully to silence David and Jacqueline Tennison - both of whom were launched into an agitated, unintelligible, and confusing monologue - and to get from the only two people still lucid, namely Erwin and Pixis, an account of what the heck had happened in that house.

Upon their entrance, the shocked gazes of everyone present turned on Mizuki, and she realized that she most likely looked horrible.

"What the heck happened here?" Nile looked bewildered first at Erwin, then at Mizuki, and finally at the two men lying on the floor, namely an unconscious Kim with his head covered in shrapnel, and Liam still in hysterics.

The girl clutched her shoulders. "Just a simple disagreement."

"Mizuki! Thank goodness you're safe!" Pushing Nile Dok aside, Jacqueline Tennison rushed to Mizuki and hugged her fiercely. "Did you find what you needed?" she whispered in her ear as she held her close.

The girl, pleasantly surprised, shook her head.

"I can get you a quarter of an hour alone with him." Jacqueline pulled away from her and winked. "Just watch how this spoiled duchess whore gets what she wants."

After muttering those words, Jacqueline stepped back, stretched her back upward and her arms downward to their full length, and let out a squeal that was very reminiscent of Theo's when they had tried to make him sleep without Mizuki. The latter, taken aback, jerked backward, and the captain, beside her and already wrecked with a headache, squeezed his eyes into two narrow slits.

"COMMANDER DOK!" Jacqueline hastily reached Nile Dok. It was unclear whether she was crying, simulating a hysterical attack, or simply giving vent to her anger; the only indisputable fact was that, whatever emotional manifestation it was, she was making one hell of a racket. "You'd better do something about it! Those two tried to kill me, do you realize what it means?!"

"Miss Tennison..."

"Miss Tennison my ass! They killed Tim, and then they tried to do the same with me just because I overheard them! If it hadn't been for Mizuki I would be dead by now! What are you going to do about it, huh?" Jacqueline planted her index finger in his chest and, as she machine-gunned him with a seamless barrage of insults, she took to rhythmically tapping her finger on the man's sternum with all the force she could muster in the gesture. "And stop looking at me like I'm crazy! Say, you don't believe me?! Me?! Do you know who am I?!"

"Of course, Miss...'"

"I'm telling the truth, you piece of imbecile! If you don't believe me, question me!"

"But..."

"NOW! Let's go upstairs and I'll tell you everything straight." Nile Dok, finally grasping the bitter truth that his rank, in the face of a fury like that, counted for less than his goatee and that he was now in a corner, ordered the two gendarmes in his retinue to take Liam and Kim into custody; on hearing such heresy, Jacqueline lavished another dizzying scream. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? You people are incompetent! I do not trust you! Where were you when Liam was trying to kill me, huh? It was that girl who saved me! I want the men of the Survey Corps to guard these two murderers, at least until you are convinced that I am not lying! You other imbeciles would surely scare them away! Otherwise I'll have you fired, Dok, I swear it on my father's vines!"

The threat had its effect on both David Tennison - touched in his true weakness - and Dok. The latter, albeit reluctantly, assented to cooperate with Erwin, and asked him through gritted teeth if he and his soldiers could kindly take care of Mr. Heather and Yale while he heard - or rather, tried to soothe - Miss Tennison and her father.

Dot Pixis studied the scene amusedly, taking large sips from a silver flask. "I really don't want to miss this one," they heard him declare immediately before walking off in the wake of the two Tennisons and Dok.

"What the hell is going on here?" growled Levi as soon as the commander had approached him and Mizuki.

"What's going on is that Jacqueline Tennison is on our side, and she just gave us the opportunity to question our man in a separate location." Mizuki cast a disgusted look at Liam.

"Mizuki, maybe you'd better go and clean yourself up," Erwin told her, squaring her from head to toe, and lingering his attention especially on the blazing marks that camped on her neck. After that he took off his rust-colored jacket and handed it to the girl.

"No way," Mizuki declared without the slightest hesitation, despite the fact that she could not stop chattering her teeth and shivering at every moment. Then, realizing the unseemly rudeness of the response and the fact that, circumstances aside, Erwin remained her superior officer, she hastened to correct her statement. "I mean, excuse me, commander. I don't want to disobey your order, but..."

Erwin sighed, and then gently clapped one of his huge hands on her back. "Don't worry, knowing you, I already knew that this was a proposal destined for a dry rejection. So what do you say? Shall we take our man to a quieter place?"

Levi pulled himself to his feet, having finished binding the arms and legs of both suspects with the ropes handed to him by the gendarmes, and assented. The men - conveniently turning their eyes to the walls - waited for Mizuki to take off the captain's jacket and put on Erwin's, which fit so loose that it covered her all the way down to her knees, like some kind of strange, shapeless dress.

The three soldiers reached in less than a minute the serving kitchens, which were completely deserted because the servants, who should have been there on Dot Pixis's advice, at the sound of gunfire had partly fled believing the house to be under siege by a gang of bandits, and partly rushed to witness whatever tragedy was unfolding in the garden. As they made their way there, Mizuki gave a quick account of what had happened: the alliance with Jacqueline, the eavesdropped conversation between Kim and Liam, the real reason behind Tim's death, an extreme choice dictated by the desire to impose silence on him not about the origin of the mark but about his own master's sexual preferences so as to safeguard the advantageous union with Jacqueline, and then the frantic escape that ended with the intervention of the captain.

Meanwhile, Liam Heather continued to moan, launching inarticulate groans. "My arm! It's bleeding, can't you see, you pieces of idiot! And my ribs... that asshole cracked them! Breathing is a torture...I'm dying, I'm definitely dying! Do something!"

Levi - who was dragging the two accused to the floor holding them by the collars of their respective shirts - abandoned Kim by the door of the room, and flung Liam into the center of it. "Did you hear that, you jerk? We don't give a shit about who you fuck. We want to know about the mark on Tim's back."

Mizuki studied the captain's profile with her one good eye. On the way back to the mansion, after the brief initial exchange, he had locked himself in muteness, letting Liam Heather's heartbreaking screams fill the silence between them. Try as she might, Mizuki could not guess what was going through his mind, as she had discovered she was able to do, wading through the invisible torrent that meandered through their minds. She swam, swam, searching for a glimpse of emotion, a fragment of a sentence in the gray eyes that carefully avoided settling on her; but it was all in vain. Levi's face had once again taken on the physiognomy of a marble statue, imperturbable and standoffish, preventing her from any access, somewhat as if the owner of the house across the street had decided to close the shutters of the windows until then wide kept open to the gaze of the world.

Seized by a foreboding of unknown origin and vaguely irrational flavor, Mizuki felt that the captain was not well, and that the cause of his discomfort lay in that place, in those people. They had awakened something in him...

A part of himself that he loathed and could not accept.

She wanted to get him out of there as soon as possible.

She wanted it now, in that room, and she had wanted it there, in the vineyard. For a split second - after being pushed to the ground a first time by an out-of-control Levi - she had cared nothing about Tim, about Liam, about the Tennisons, about Theo. Liam could croak, as far as she was concerned, and Tim remain the victim of a faceless killer. She didn't care about anything except Levi... that he, in the middle of a snow-buried vineyard, would not become guilty of an act that would invariably feed the nightmares he suffered from, permanent and unwelcome guests of all his nights.

For the captain was not a bad man, however much he seemed convinced otherwise.

That was why she had stopped him. That was why she had called his name.

Even as she desperately tried to pull him away from his prey, he had turned his face in her direction, but he had not seen her. In the place and time where Levi was, there was no such thing - not yet, at least - as a Mizuki, a disrespectful brat who enjoyed tormenting him.

Where were you? Where were you back? Where were you lost?

She wanted to ask him so badly. But she couldn't; the captain had made his position quite clear on the matter. It was none of her business. If she had wanted to understand him, or at least attempt to do so, she would always have had to settle for information from third parties, because Levi - as was, after all, his full right to do - would never reveal anything to her, nor did he seem willing to tolerate further intrusions.

She felt like a fool because, even under similar circumstances, she could not stop thinking about it. And the more she thought about it, without finding a solution, the more nervous she became. The more nervous she became, the less she was able to lucidly assess the situation, and to find the answer to that question - why she cared so much about him and his past - that Levi had asked her and that would not stop tormenting her.

Why?

To him she had answered "why not", but what clever turn of phrase could she have played on herself?

Liam, while still curling in on himself, had at least stopped whining like a freshly beaten animal. "Go fuck yourselves! I will never cooperate with filthy scumbags like you! These two midget assholes tried to kill me, first one and then the other!"

"Hey!" Mizuki snapped , and tried to address him with an annoyed expression, but she realized that in that moment even the most insignificant movement of her facial muscles was giving her excruciating twinges of pain.

Erwin took a seat on one of the chairs around the work table positioned in the center of the room, facing the prisoner. "Liam, listen. I'm going to try to be honest with you. Your position is not a good one. No less than two witnesses - one of whom is none other than Ms. Tennison - claim that they heard the confession of your involvement in Tim's death, and the same two witnesses claim that you tried to kill them because of it."

"One of the two witnesses still bears the marks on her, by the way," Mizuki emphasized, hinting at her own pitiful state.

"The Tennisons are a powerful family, you know that very well. If it's Jacqueline Tennison who's accusing you, you can't hope to get off cheaply; the Hather's don't enjoy an established and elevated enough social position to counter them." Erwin intertwined his hands and rested both elbows on his knees, leaning his torso forward. "But if you cooperate with us now, I'll see if I can put in a good word for you. Nile and I are longtime friends."

The captain clucked his tongue, clearly annoyed at the prospect of the lousy dog receiving a indulgent treatment he did not deserve, but he did not breathe a word.

"Do you really think I need people like you? Go fuck yourselves! I'll have you all hanged for daring to lay hands on me! You and that traitorous bitch!"

Erwin and Levi exchanged a quick glance, which, however lightning-fast, did not escape Mizuki's notice; after all, she was keeping tabs on the captain and not the prisoner precisely because she expected that such an unspoken order would be given, and certainly not to her.

Liam Hather was never going to cooperate willingly. And time - the precious quarter of an hour that Jacqueline had given them by putting her acting skills to good use - was running inexorably.

They had no time. And Mizuki was tired. So tired. Tired of Liam and the Tennisons and Stohess.

She longed for few things at that moment. A hot bath, to take off that damned robe, to get out of there, and, more than anything else, that the captain would not be forced to make things that went against his nature.

Not again.

Of course, he would carry out the silent but unequivocal command he had just been given. He would always do what he had to, even if he hated the content of the order, because he was a real soldier, and besides, he trusted Erwin's judgment.

Then again, it only mattered that Liam sang before time ran out, certainly not that it was the captain who wrested a confession from him.

I am the daughter of Sasuke Uchiha. What my father does, I can do very well myself.

Especially since she already had her eye on what she needed to implement her plan. With someone like Liam Heather, furthermore, and with a good chance, there would be no need to resort to who knows what extreme measures; just scare him a little, and he would reveal everything they wanted to know.

Mizuki anticipated the captain in time. With a determined pace, she approached their prisoner still on the ground.

Liam looked up at her, and a grin filled with hatred and malice was painted on his lips. "What do you want, beautiful? Have you made up your mind to let me fuck you…?"

Mizuki went around the prisoner, getting behind him, and retrieved from the shelf recessed in the wall the object she needed; then, without changing expression, she grabbed Liam by the hair, planting her knees on his legs so as to hold him down with her own weight, and pulled his head back.

"What the fuck..."

"'What do you say, Liam? You thirsty? No problem. I want to be nice with you," said the girl, in a light, innocent tone. Mizuki shoved the neck of the bottle she was holding into his mouth, pushing it as far as she could, and the liquid began to pour into the prisoner's oral cavity. Liam's eyes widened and he struggled convulsively, but her grip on the back of his head tightened and her knees pressed into his legs kept him pinned to the floor.

Levi and Erwin stared at her motionless and dumbfounded.

Mizuki emptied the entire contents of the bottle, then let loose her hostage just long enough to reach out an arm and retrieve another full bottle, and Liam fell forward, vomiting water, saliva and mucus. She, however, leaving him only that brief and fleeting moment to recover, quickly grabbed him back by the hair, and pulled his head back again. "Did you see how nice I was? And this although you have tried to kill me, and are wasting a lot of our time," she whispered softly in his ear.

"You're crazy!" Liam managed to articulate between coughs.

Levi and Erwin, as if hypnotized, could not take their eyes off the woman who, although looking remarkably like their subordinate, was engaged in an activity that Mizuki would have abhorred and condemned with all her might, both uncertain whether the scene before their eyes was really taking place or was the result of a hallucination.

"No, I'm nice. I'm quenching your thirst so it will be easier for you to answer our questions. I know how difficult it is to talk with a dry throat." Mizuki raised the bottle retrieved from the shelf so that it entered Liam's field of vision, and terror invaded his face.

"It's the mark of the orphanage!" he shouted, continuing to cough occasionally. "They gave it to him there! It wasn't me!"

Mizuki remained still: she did not stick the neck of the bottle into his mouth, but neither did she lower it, so as to remind the prisoner that the threat of a second act of kindness was still hanging over his head. Then she looked at Erwin, as if to pass to him the baton of what had turned from a simple interrogation into torture just like that. Not particularly truculent, no doubt; but torture nonetheless.

The commander, in a vain attempt to regain his usual attitude, cleared his throat. "The orphanage you're talking about is the one you got Tim from? The one near Orvud?"

"Yes! Yes! They do everything... a friend took me there, I had nothing to do with it!"

"Why do they mark people like animals?" growled Levi, shooting a disgusted look at Liam, who had resumed whining again.

"The mark ascertains where the product comes from, so buyers can be sure it's quality stuff. You know, recently quite a few scammers have started offering on the market..."

"Product? Buyers? Market?" Mizuki let go of Liam, visibly disgusted. "We're talking about human beings here."

"I... I didn't do anything... I took Tim just to try, because it was fashionable, I had nothing to do with it..." Liam's face, a mask of tears and mucus, contracted, yet none of the three soldiers felt the slightest pity for him.

"Liam." Erwin's voice rang out calm, yet icy and implacable, and it overpowered the man's pathetic justifications like a rumble. "What is going on in that orphanage?"

"They... breed people..."

"They raise people."

"... They raise people. They feed them, educate them, prepare them to serve impeccably; and at the end of the training they mark them. Then they sell them to interested parties at sky-high prices, and the owners ... they are free to do whatever they want with them."

"You said the marking is done at the end of the training course. Has it ever happened that ... they let people out of the orphanage without the mark?" asked Mizuki, heart in her throat.

"Ah, those ... yes, I've heard of them. Those are the flawed products. It happens even in the most prestigious and efficient industries that some parts come out with a few tares, right? If the products have too many problems, they certainly don't waste time bringing them up bearing the related expenses, and they sell them to the highest bidder at the best price they can come up with."

"Flawed products..." repeated the girl, retracting her bust as if he had just pinched her.

She thought of Theo, whose skin had not been disfigured by such a disgusting mark, and whom that mark merely drew, usually when she asked him if he retained any memory of his life before the tragedy.

"How is it possible, though, that no missing person report was filed?" asked Erwin.

Liam let out a shrill laugh. "How naive you people are! The competitive advantage of this group is that, formally, the people who come out of that orphanage do not exist. They are not registered anywhere; they have no relatives, no friends; they have no rights, no claims, no dreams, no ambitions; they have nothing. It's a perfect system, isn't it? The orphanage is located near Orvud, but no one who is not part of the organization can set foot in it. I myself have no idea where it is."

"People who don't exist..." murmured Mizuki, pulling herself to her feet. She staggered for a moment, but quickly regained her balance. "So even if they disappeared, no one would report it. No one would notice. No one would care..."

Was this, Theo's fate, the flawed product? To die swallowed up by a giant or at the hands of some bored nobleman like Liam? Was this what he had been born for?

"Why put on all this orphanage nonsense and spend so much, when you can just fish your victims in the Underground City? You've always done that, haven't you? Those are also people who don't exist." The captain had spoken in a flat, atonal voice, as if the speech did not concern him at all. Mizuki could not resist and looked up at Levi's impassive, relaxed face, but immediately averted her gaze. None-of-your-business.

"Those are filthy rats. They carry a lot of disease, they're meager and undernourished, and they don't last long." Mizuki turned her attention back to the prisoner: she could not decide whether she admired or felt revulsion at Liam's ability to phrase thoughts that made her skin crawl as if they were talking about the weather. "Some people are okay with that, too, but the target clientele of this orphanage is a little different: those who can afford it want only the best.

They want them healthy. They want them well fed. They want them alive. What is the fun in breaking something that is already broken?

She, Erwin, Levi and the nobles all had a different story behind them. Their respective paths, their respective lives had been very different from each other, and no one could make an accurate claim as to how they would become, what would happen, if they found themselves on opposite sides.

She could understand or try to understand Jacqueline, alone in an immense, barren, deserted mansion. She could understand or try to understand even David Tennison, in love solely with his vineyard.

But not that.

The image of a little head topped by two braids being swallowed by the jaws of a giant again loomed in her mind. The desperate screams of Theo caught in a panic attack, and his nails sinking into her flesh. Tim's face, pale and desperate as he pushed her out the door, and then pale and motionless under the falling snow.

Mizuki shivered, and this time not from the cold.

"Brat."

Levi was staring at her out of the corner of his eye. He appeared calm, as if he had vented all his anger in the vineyard.

"Let it go. It's not worth it."

She lowered her head. She wanted to get him out of there. She wanted to leave herself, and as quickly as possible.

"What else do you know about the orphanage? Who runs it, how many are there, where?" Erwin, without losing his usual composure, continued to press the prisoner.

"I told you. I don't know anything, I'm just a customer." Liam let out a slight chuckle. As the conversation went on and he became aware of how his every word stirred up motions of horror and revulsion in his interlocutors, he seemed to regain the confidence that Mizuki, with her kindness, had wrung from him. "Do you think you can stop them? These are people out of your league. They are cautious, keeping the identity of members and the locations of their hiding places secret. These people also do not exist and cannot be found. Unless they want to be. Not even the gendarmes are mixed up in this business."

A small grimace was drawn on Erwin's face at that last sentence, and a flash of understanding lit up his gaze.

"What do we do, Erwin? Do we believe him, or do we rinse his mouth some more?"

The commander, before answering, peered at Liam for a few more moments. Then he sighed. "No. I think he's telling the truth. He doesn't know anything."

Liam burst into laughter, definitely rejoicing. "So you jerks understand something, after all!"

Mizuki bent down to his height again, and that was enough to make him let out a choked groan and crawl in an attempt to get away from her. "You want to know what else we understood? That when we find these sons of of a bitch - and it will happen, I can assure you - and when they ask us who is the idiot who revealed their existence to us, we're going to say your name right before throwing them in the same cell you're rotting in for Tim's murder."

Liam blanched, and tried to articulate a few threatening words, but his voice could not hold up.

At that moment, the kitchen door swung open and a rather annoyed Nile Dok made his entrance. "What the heck is going on here?" he exclaimed with an accusing look at Mizuki, as soon as he noticed the pitiful state Liam was in, the puddle of water, vomit and mucus on the floor, and the empty glass bottle lying on the floor.

"He was thirsty, so I was helping him drink," explained the girls, pulling herself to her feet. Once again, Levi and Erwin exchanged a glance, both struck by the shamelessness of her attitude, a feature ridiculously extraneous and out of place in Mizuki's usual personality. "Commander Erwin, if you don't mind, I really would like to take a bath now. I'm freezing."

"Sure, go ahead. Take care of those wounds too."

"Yes, sir."

"Hey!" Nile Dok stood in front of the wide-open door so as to block her passage. "No way, now I must interrogate you and..."

"Nile." Once again, Erwin spoke in his usual gentle and accommodating tone, yet one that admitted no retort. "You will now listen to me and Levi, Mizuki needs to get her act together. Then you can take her deposition."

"Hear that? Or is there something wrong with your ears, Nile?" Levi took a step forward, flanking Mizuki to face the Gendarmerie Corps commander, who was watching them foaming with anger; for a moment, Nile Dok seemed on the verge of saying something and holding his ground, but the threat of Levi's certainly not pleasant intervention turned out to be enough to convince him to give way.

With a final nod to the captain and Erwin, Mizuki walked out of the room, suddenly aware of how much the wet and icy clothes weighed on her numb and aching limbs, and hurried her pace. As she walked away, however, she was able to hear Nile Dok's final testy reprimand, "Erwin, you'd better keep your rabid dogs at bay, or I swear I'll have them locked up!"

.

An hour and a half later, Levi was looking out the window of the brat's room. The snow had stopped falling, and the darkness of night still enveloped the world despite the fact that it was almost five in the morning.

He felt no particular feeling, despite all the events of the night. Nothing except the feeling of disgust that had assailed him as soon as he set foot in that house.

For the umpteenth time, he cast a sidelong glance at the brat, abandoned on the velvet sofa under a pile of blankets.

After Mizuki had "given her deposition," Erwin insisted that - while he and Jacqueline were being listened to again by Nile to clarify the final details of the reconstruction of the affair - Mizuki was not left alone, so Levi had joined her in her room.

Thanks to the kind intercession of Jacqueline Tennison, the "old hag" uniform hijacker returned Mizuki's clothes, which were indeed clean and perfumed, and Mizuki put them on, finally reentering garments of her size; but the change and the bath proved insufficient to restore to her body the warmth taken away by the struggle in the snow, so as soon as the cleaning and wound care operations were finished, she curled up like a cat under all the blankets she could gather in the room. Over her swollen eye she kept pressed a cloth bag containing ice that Levi himself, on her instructions, had gone down to the garden to get.

Levi contemplated that formless pile of blankets for a few moments.

Perhaps she was asleep. The eye not hidden by the cloth bag was closed, and it was strange for her to remain silent and still for so long.

She had not looked at him too much since they had returned to the mansion. If he thought that earlier in the evening he had found her intrusive and excessive, with her disinterested curiosity and, in her own way - she did everything her own way, the brat, by now he had grown accustomed to that - respectful of roles...

She did not look at him, and the absence of that weight on him prevented him from standing still in one place.

He pulled away from the window, and walked over to settle on the portion of the sofa left free of the mountain of shapeless blankets, from whose meanders the brat's face floated out.

"Hey, Erwin's rabid dog," she murmured, without opening her eyes, barely turning her head in the captain's direction on sensing the pillow sagging under the man's weight.

"Hey, Erwin's other rabid dog."

She smiled faintly. "I like it, no one had ever called me that."

"Nor me. But Nile Dok is a dick."

"Ah, I see you've already taken your daily dose of brainwashing..."

"A dick, I told you."

He expected her to laugh, at that comment, but she didn't: her still pale lips stretched imperceptibly, but otherwise the brat's figure remained motionless and silent.

Why did he care so much? Why did it seem so ... wrong, that silence he had so longed for?

Levi took a deep breath. "Before..."

Before, what?

And before when, especially? In the vineyard or in the kitchen?

She still did not look at him. She did not ask him the usual silent questions, enclosed in that golden sea that always wandered unstoppable over the surrounding reality.

Yet, there was so much to say.

He did not want to answer, and at the same time he wanted her to know. Her to understood. And he wanted to understand.

"You know, captain, my father tortures people for a living."

She began, as always.

"As I told you, my father is still a ... well, you know; the essence is that he continues to go on missions and serve the Village, however, he holds a somewhat peculiar position in the military hierarchy. To make a long story short, he has a bit of a stormy past, and a few misdeeds to make up for ... that is, more than a few misdeeds, let's say he's been a criminal in the past..."

"Your father was a criminal?"

"Yeah, and a pretty dangerous one too. He targeted powerful men, even killed some of them, and so for a while he had a death sentence hanging over his head."

"Some kind of political criminal?"

"Oh, no. Nothing like that. He did not act in pursuit of high ideals, but out of revenge. He's quite a selfish man my father, you know. In any case, he managed to be forgiven, but ended up doing the work no one wants to do. Of course, I never attended his sessions, nor did he ever take his work home. As a child, I spent my days in my mother's store for a reason." Mizuki adjusted the ice pack better over her eye, and let a small giggle escape. "Word gets around, though, and I'm curious. So I set to work. You know, you'd be amazed at the amount and type of information you can gather in a library."

Yeah, that she was damned curious he knew all too well.

He could picture her very well, at work: a snot-nosed brat who, on sunny days, instead of playing outside with her peers, locked herself hungry for knowledge in a dark, dusty room, immersing herself in books bigger than she was.

"Of course, I was only able to gather general and theoretical notions, but I still learned something; although I never thought the day would come when I would put them into practice." With a sigh, Mizuki changed the hand holding the cloth bag of ice. "I'm sorry if I've upset you."

"Don't apologize. Although it wasn't your place to take care of the problem."

"Yeah, the commander was ordering you to deal with it. But I didn't feel like... I mean, you had already taken on the dirty work in the vineyard. I hope that doesn't count as disobedience."

She said this in a light tone, as if it was nothing serious. But then again, she never took what concerned her seriously.

She had tortured a man because she did not want him to do it.

Levi should have been angry. He certainly didn't need a brat who had come from nowhere and whom he had known for barely six months to stand up for him because she pitied him. Perhaps, under other circumstance, he would have gotten pissed off and walked out of the room.

"Brat..."

"I didn't want you to go back there, all right? Let's just get this over with. I'm tired."

She didn't look at him. She didn't look at him, and she didn't ask anything.

Perhaps, under other conditions, they would have argued. He would have notified her, in his usual aseptic, impassive tone, that she should not dare to pity him.

But that evening, Levi was tired. As tired as and perhaps more than she was. And as irrational as that desire was, he realized that he wanted - no, needed - those golden eyes to rest on him again, and to hear her voice call his name again.

"With that knife you pointed at me, I killed a lot of men."

He added no more. Not right away. For a moment, everything around and inside him froze. His lungs burned, and he realized he had been holding his breath.

He inhaled deeply.

Those words he would never have dreamed of saying out loud, especially in the presence of a stranger, now hovered heavy in the air, marking a definitive point of no return.

"In that shitty little book of yours you must have read about how things work down there for women and children. I've never borne to witness such scenes. I... I could never control myself. But no matter how many sons of bitch I eliminated, there were always ten more ready to..." The man of steel, devoid of hesitation, for the first time had a hesitation as his mind raced back to that distant day when Isabel returned to the shelter in tears, with her hair cut off, after being unquestionably beaten up, if not worse. And he, then... "I kept killing, but it never helped."

A single large golden eye, and another narrowed in a slit, rested on him. Mizuki had pulled herself to her seat, and listened to him in silence. But he had run out of words, or of the strength to say them.

If you were really the least bit listening to me, you should get up and run for your life, brat, as fast as you can.

But she contemplated that chasm of darkness with her one good eye, quiet. He had always thought of her as a terrible liar, but after the scene in the kitchen he realized that he was probably wrong: the brat was lying and dissimulating better than he thought, and she was doing it even then. Someone like her, who had just called her father selfish for spreading death, could never stay so placid and serene next to someone like him, unless her calm demeanor was a sham, a gesture of kindness probably induced by a sense of pity.

Run away, Mizuki. And this is an order.

He would never hurt her, about that she was perfectly right. But he could not bear the spectacle of her always laughing and cheerful face, always open and filled with admiration, slowly and inexorably deforming, as the lie faded, into a horrified mask.

But Mizuki, for a change, was not giving a damn about what he wanted, and did not run away. On the contrary, after untangling an arm from the muddled pile of blankets, she stretched it out in Levi's direction. The slender fingers dipped into his dark hair slowly, almost shyly, and transmitted warmth to him despite the fact that the tips had not yet won over the coldness engendered in them by the snow.

That was indeed a "touching": through that contact, it was as if she had just pulled him towards her, finally forcing him to cross the threshold over which he had been tergiversising all those years.

As if he had been holding his breath since the day he had climbed to the surface until that moment, waiting for some unspecified catastrophe, Levi inhaled deeply, and for the first time he felt that he had really left the Underground City and its horrors behind him.

"I'm sorry, Captain, but there's no way I'm leaving. And anyway, you are so wrong: you are not like my father, surly attitude aside. In fact, you two are exactly the opposite of each other." Mizuki lingered for a few more moments, running her fingers through her dark hair and guessing at the turmoil stirring beneath them, then withdrew her hand with a small sigh and studied him, seemingly uncertain whether to continue speaking.

The captain returned her gaze without wavering. You won, you pain in the ass. You know you've won by now, too, and you can ask me whatever you want, so let's get it over with and cut to the chase.

Mizuki let a small smile slip out. She must have read his mind again. "With that knife, by any chance, did you also kill Lovoffo?"

"Lovof," Levi said slowly. "That dog, unfortunately, croaked of a heart attack after being arrested thanks to the documents Wilinski handed over to Erwin."

"What if he didn't die of a heart attack?"

That was not a casual question. They both knew it.

Levi sighed dryly, and bent his torso slightly in the direction of the brat. Perceiving her scent, perhaps, would make it easier to accomplish the task at hand.

He began to narrate.

Unlike her, who in narrating her story lost herself in comments and opened unsolicited parentheses, the captain's style was dry and reduced to the essentials; nevertheless, he did not omit any details. The only aspect he glossed over was explaining to her about Isabel and Furlan: he named them as if they were common acquaintances, guided by the suspicion - more like a certainty - that a certain bespectacled woman had already adequately introduced and sketched the personalities of his lost friends to her.

Mizuki listened. At one point of the story, she leaned her head and back against the couch backrest, completely buried by the blankets, abandoning the bag containing the now melted ice on the pillow.

Levi narrated.

When he was done, they sat in silence for a while. He, drained and laid bare. She, busy metabolizing the cruel and painful story of his entry into the army.

"Captain," she said after a few minutes, lifting her bust to look at him again. "Do you hate the commander?"

"No," Levi said, and he meant it. "He didn't kill them."

"Then who is it that can't forgive?"

The brat's golden eye caressed the captain's contracted fists, an instinctive gesture he hadn't been aware of either.

She asked, but she already knew the answer. They both knew it.

Levi lifted the sharp blades he had for eyes from his own contracted hands to her battered face. "What about you? Who is it that you can't forgive?"

He asked, but he already knew the answer. They both knew it.

Mizuki turned her head, it seemed she didn't like the fact that someone had understood her that way; Levi knew that uncomfortable feeling because, moments earlier, he had felt it himself. It frightened them, to share the same secret, the same soul-destroying guilt.

She still had not revealed to him the sin she could not forgive herself for; what exactly had happened on the occasion when, following an order, something terrible had happened as a result and had changed her forever.

No doubt, however, that it could not be a worse sin than his own.

In the brat did not harbor - could not harbor - the darkness that devoured him. For she was different...

"My mother has always been a very wise woman, Captain. Except, of course, for choosing to marry a criminal; but that's another story. I've always followed her teachings, and she often told me that there are frightening things inside each of us." Mizuki turned back to him, smiled again, and the gloomy atmosphere around them suddenly became less dense, less unbearable, less catastrophic. "But one must not be fooled. For there are also many wonderful things. What matters is the part we decide to listen to."

Levi would never cease to marvel at the extraordinary ability she had for peering into his thoughts. "And here's another one of your bullshit moralizing maxims. The worst part, also, is that you actually believe them."

Mizuki shrugged her shoulders, and again abandoned her head on the backrest. "What should I tell you? This is who I am."

Yeah. A real endless source of mischief and trouble, her personality.

Still, he did not mind that hopeful look in her eyes, that way she always spoke in future time.

"I have to admit, though, that you were right."

Levi observed Mizuki's regular profile. "Which of the many times?"

"About me having to trust less," she grunted reluctantly. "I thought that ... I thought that in these people, no matter how different from us and far from our values, there was still something good. But Liam Heather..." She paused, and then shook her head imperceptibly. "You were right, the world is full of bastards, and I should get my act together. You can go ahead and gloat if you feel like it."

" To prove right over a brat is not an event to celebrate." Levi leaned his back against the coach too, and stretched an arm across the backrest, peering sidelong at his own fingers brushing against an unruly lock of curly hair. "You were right, too."

Mizuki immediately straightened up, taking on the most stricken expression her aching face allowed. "What did you just say?"

"You heard right. You trusted that woman, and now - unbelievable as it may sound - she's helping us. Don't misunderstand, though: I still think you have a serious problem, and that you should get your act together. In throwing yourself into the arms of a noble, you've taken quite the risk, and it's only because you are blessed with dumb luck that this time things have turned out well for you."

"Captain, are you trying to console me or not?"

"I'm trying to make you understand that you are a lost case."

" I already knew that I'm a lousy underling, thank you very much!"

"Yeah, that's right."

"So..."

"When I talk to you I do so to vent the irritation you give me, certainly not because I expect you to listen. In this regard, I haven't held out any hope for a long time: it's been since the first day I met you that I realized you just do whatever the fuck you want. It's exhausting, keeping up with you, I mean it. But then again, that's the way you are, isn't it? Stupid and naive to the bone." Levi reached out and patted her head. "For that reason, from now on you will train with me in hand-to-hand once a week. You really suck, lemme say it. You're no good to us if you survive the giants, but you croak in a fight with the first jerk who walks by."

Mizuki raised her head sharply. "Are you being serious?"

"Don't make me regret it..."

The light in the room increased as the brat threw up the blankets that enveloped her with a victory cry. "Captain! You're the best!"

She was so surprisingly predictable and at the same time absurd, that one. It only took half a word to provoke such a reaction.

Stupidity or strenght.

Still after so many months, Levi could not decide which one animated her. But perhaps it didn't even matter. What mattered was the ability of that laughter to draw people in, to erase the events of that night by making them appear as nothing more than stories lived and told by someone else.

"I see you're having a good time here, though I don't know with what strength."

Mizuki was so absorbed in the celebration of the victory achieved, and Levi so immersed in the contemplation of that exaggerated joy, that neither of them noticed Erwin's entrance.

"Commander! Listen to what the captain just promised me..."

Mizuki, however, froze mid-sentence in noticing Jacqueline Tennison popping up behind Erwin, a sly smirk on her lips. "Yes? What did the captain promise you?"

The commander informed his subordinates that Nile Dok had been forced to acknowledge Mizuki's and Jacqueline's joint accusations against Liam and Kim, supported by the traces of blood and the twins found next to Tim's corpse; and, albeit reluctantly, he had finally decided to release the Survey Corps soldiers - "for the time being," he added muttering - and bring the two culprits to Gendarmerie Headquarters.

"If you two agree, I would leave," the commander then said with a weary sigh.

None of his subordinates, of course, objected to the proposal.

Erwin took charge to go and take leave on behalf of the entire group from David Tennison and Dot Pixis, while Levi went to his own room and the commander's room to retrieve their respective luggage.

Mizuki and Jacqueline were left alone.

"Mizuki, look, I think we need to talk for a minute, you and I."

"Talk? If you don't mind chatting while I finish packing my stuff, Miss Tennison, I don't see..."

"How many times do I have to tell you that my name is Jacqueline? Besides, why should it bother me?" The woman huffed with annoyance, and abandoned herself on the small sofa, assuming an awkward pose.

"So, what should we talk about?" asked Mizuki, a bit overwhelmed by such vehemence and by the distinct and unpleasant impression that with someone like the real Jacqueline Tennison even she would not be able to tick her off.

"It seems obvious, doesn't it? Of our common prey."

"Common prey?"

"Don't play dumb, Mizuki. It won't work on me. I warned you in the vineyard that we were going to address this issue."

"You mean the captain?"

"Who else?" Jacqueline, stretched out on the sofa and with her slender legs resting on the coffee table, yawned.

As she carefully stowed "Notes from the Underground" in her backpack, Mizuki racked her brains to formulate some pertinent comment on the subject. "I'm happy for you. Now that you are no longer engaged, you can live your feelings for the captain without any more fear..."

"Live my feelings?" muttered Jacqueline, immediately before giving in to a hearty laugh. "I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding here. It's not like I want to marry your Captain Levi, ya know?"

Stricken and sunk by the fact that she was, for once, the object of others' mockery, Mizuki interrupted her attempt to fasten the laces of her backpack bulging with volumes borrowed from the gendarmerie library. "No...?"

"'Don't mess around. Who wants someone with a temper like that? I just got rid of an idiot, and I have to get a neurotic? No, thank you. Not to mention that he's too poor. I may not be a completely conventional noble, but I like money too much to give it up."

"But...but..." Mizuki raised her hands as if the gesture would be of any use in finding the right words to express her astonishment. "So..."

"All I wanted was just to take a little ride on him."

"Take a little ride?"

Jacqueline sighed melodramatically, and pulled herself back to her seat. "You've seen them, the men walking around here. If they don't act like wimps like my brother, they suck and are disgusting. I don't like them that way. To feel fully satisfied I need someone much more manly, you know what I mean?

"Take a little ride?" repeated Mizuki, as if in a trance, seemingly unable to attach any full meaning to those four simple words.

"So when he rescued me two years ago, I told myself that he, yes, could meet my standards. He seemed like a man of integrity, with a firm hand..."

"Oh, he has a firm hand, as much as you need..." murmured Mizuki, shaking her head in disbelief and with her cheeks flushed because she had finally grasped the meaning of the expression "taking a little ride" on someone.

"Anyway, that's not what I wanted to tell you, just that I'm quitting the game."

Jacqueline Tennison continued talking, lazily running a hand through her platinum blond hair, not noticing that she had now lost her interlocutor along the way, more or less when she had used the colorful expression "taking a little ride" that was still echoing in the four walls of the mind of an astonished Mizuki.

"I'd like to make it clear that I'm not doing it for you, even though I like you. I would still have quite the urge to have a good time with him and especially with his muscles, but I am too proud to embark on a losing battle right off the bat. And that it is lost, I could put my hand on it. Anyone who saw how he ran to the vineyard when he knew you were in danger would think so."

Finally recovering from her shock, beginning to understand where Miss Tennison was going with this, and especially the implicit premise of her reasoning, Mizuki took a step towards her, and raised her hands as if to invite her to calm down. "As I mentioned to you in the hall, there is a big misunderstanding. Between me and the captain..."

Jacqueline rolled her eyes. "Yes, whatever. You're not a couple, fine. But you like him, don't you?"

"Of course I like him! I like him a lot! Not in that way, though!"

"Oh, come on..." Jacqueline wrinkled her smooth forehead, caught by a sudden insight.

"It really takes a load off my mind, though, if you tell me you intend to give him up. I like you a lot, Ms. Tennison, but I'm already supporting a friend who is hopelessly in love with the captain, and it would be a bit complicated if..."

"A friend?"

"Yes, a comrade-in-arms of mine."

"Oh, come on..." repeated Jacqueline, bringing a finger to her lips. "Oh, that's the way it is, then."

At that moment, the unknowing object of their conversation peeped through the door of the room. "Brat, are you ready? I want to get out of here."

Before Mizuki could answer, however, an audible, sarcastic laugh arose from Ms. Tennison. "You poor thing," she then said, addressing the captain, who returned the appellation with an annoyed look.

"Excuse me?"

But Jacqueline Tennison showed no sign of having heard Levi's icy voice. After greeting an even more perplexed Mizuki with a kiss on the cheek - not after intimating again to call her by her first name - the woman slipped towards the door and, passing the captain, leaned in his direction to whisper in his ear: "I almost feel sorry for you, given the mess you've gotten yourself into. But since you dumped me, I think I will enjoy the show for a while." Having said that, without adding anything other than a further smug chuckle, Jacqueline went on her way.

Mizuki quickly reached the threshold of the room, inspired at the foot of her lungs, and then, with all the strength that normally supported her powerful bursts of laughter, exclaimed, "Jacqueline! See you soon!"

Miss Tennison, without turning around so as not to spoil the hypnotizing effect consciously imprinted on her own exit, raised a hand in greeting. "You can count on it!"

"Who the heck was that?" asked Levi, as they both watched the sinuous figure of the woman walk away down the corridor.

"That one?" replied Mizuki, her one wide eye twinkling with excitement and her cheeks puckered with the thrill of finally being able to call her name. "That, I believe, was the real Jacqueline Tennison. The young lady we had the pleasure of meeting at the reception is probably a mask she was forced to invent to survive here. But this Jacqueline Tennison is nice, isn't she?"

A deep sigh escaped Levi. "You really worry me."

Commenting on the revelation of Jacqueline's true personality, Levi and Mizuki descended the stairs, crossed the large entrance hall, where the few servants present peered at them with a mixture of suspicion and admiration, and finally emerged onto the driveway leading to the entrance of the estate. At the sight of the vineyard that was the scene of the flight and fierce confrontation with Liam, Mizuki let slip an exclamation.

"Ah, captain!"

"What do you want, you plague?"

"Your knife! I used it to attack Liam, and then it fell somewhere in the vineyard. It must still be there. I'll go retrieve it..."

"Ohi, stop right there."

Mizuki, who had already moved a few steps away in the snow, froze with a somewhat questioning and somewhat annoyed expression painted on her face.

I've always followed her teachings, and she often told me that there are frightening things inside each of us.

"What is it? Do I have to ask permission even to do such a thing, Mr. Captain?"

Levi clicked his tongue, and then shook his head imperceptibly.

But one must not be fooled.

"So?"

For there are also many wonderful things.

"No."

"But..."

What matters is the part we decide to listen to.

"I don't need it. Let's leave it to that pig as a souvenir."

Levi realized he really meant it. For the first time since he had set foot outside that filthy hole, the fact that he was not carrying a knife on him did not bother him at all, nor did it make him feel naked, defenseless and at the mercy of chance.

Silence for a few moments on the other side, towards which he carefully avoided looking.

As long as he could.

Mizuki had opened wide her one good eye, and was trying to do the same with the other. She did not need to smile to brighten the space around her; and of course she could not - nor was she trying to, to tell the truth - contain the mixture of astonishment and joy that a simple sentence from him had aroused.

Who knows what meaning she thought she could draw from those words. He didn't know what they meant, either.

"Don't worry, captain! In case someone attacks you, I'll take care of defending you!"

Stupid, stupid brat.

So impulsive, so unaware, so stupidly optimistic.

So bright.

"And you say it with that beat-up face?" Levi reached out a hand and gently tugged at her ear. "We'll talk about it when I kick the shit out of you. Again."

A loud, uncontrollable, irresistible laugh enveloped him, and Levi squinted his eyes.

Stupidity or strength.

It didn't really matter, after all.

What matters is the part we decide to listen to.

The Underground had never been further away from him than in that moment.

.

A few days later, Erwin found himself again on the balcony of his office, elbows propped against the railing and one hand holding his cheek, observing with amusement a scene he had already seen: Mizuki - with one eye comically black, but no longer swollen like the first few days since their return to Stohess - and Levi fighting in a relentless series of feints, traps, lunges. The first of their hand-to-hand lessons.

When the captain had informed him that he was going to take care also of that aspect of the training of the brat, as he persisted in calling her, the commander was a bit astonished, but decided not to investigate directly what was going on between those two. Much better to gather information by the sideways route, that is, by spying on them when they did not expect to be observed.

Mizuki was doing better, compared to the last time, but Levi still soon threw her to the ground.

A moment of silence and stillness passed, in which both of them - Mizuki as well as Levi - appeared to be anxiously waiting for something, to find out how events would develop from there on. Erwin, too, waited, intrigued by the electric atmosphere between the two, wondering if Levi would sit back down on his subordinate and take, as if nothing had happened, to wrap Mizuki's curls around one finger.

Then the captain made up his mind to act before his opponent found the strength to rise up, lifted a foot and planted it on Mizuki's back, pushing her to the ground and ripping a groan of protest from her.

"This is humiliating." That's what she said, but Erwin did not miss the vaguely relieved expression that was painted on her face.

"This is what you deserve for getting screwed over like that." He said so, Levi, but in a way he too appeared relieved.

"And to say that I thought I did better, compared to last time..."

"Indeed you did."

"Then why has my status gotten worse? From chair to footstool!"

The doubt had already occurred to Erwin, but now that scene - better, the sight of the expressions of relief mixed with a very slight veil of disappointment surfaced in both of their eyes - removed all doubt from his mind: something had happened between those two, in Stohess, or perhaps more than just one thing.

"Because you still suck a lot. And you're dirtier than usual."

"Oh, yeah?" With a roar, Mizuki spun around on her stomach, only to grasp with both arms the leg that was propelling her to the ground and push upward. "We'll see it!"

Levi looked down at her from above, standing perfectly balanced on one leg, and clearly annoyed.

"Why don't you fall down?"

"I warn you: if you don't spontaneously let go of me, you'll earn a kick."

Mizuki contemplated the options available for a few moments: apparently, it was survival instinct that prevailed in her, for with a grunt she let go, brought her hands behind her back and placed them on the ground, throwing her head back, eyes closed. "Cooooomon!"

"On your feet. Let's start again." In pronouncing that imperious order, however, Levi studied the line of Mizuki's neck, who that day was wearing a white T-shirt tight enough to highlight her small but firm breasts, with the expression of someone who - in reality - hoped that the situation would not change at all. "Look, I don't have all day to wait for you to make up your mind. Have you given up already?"

""You'd like that. Mizuki let out a sarcastic chuckle, and pulled herself to her feet. "I said I'll watch your back, and that's what I plan to do, so I'll show you that you can trust me."

A moment of silence, on the other side; then Levi blurted out, "Again with this story?! Do you expect a public announcement?!"

"A public announcement in which you praise me? And why not? I would appreciate it very much! If I can get you down at least once you'll have to do it tonight at dinner, in front of the whole corps!"

Levi snapped his tongue so loudly that Erwin distinctly heard the sound all the way from his position, even though, in truth, the captain did not give the impression of being particularly annoyed by the situation. After that, without further warning, he launched himself at her, but Mizuki seemed to expect it because she dodged the first blow without any difficulty.

The commander watched them for a few more seconds, overthinking.

Something had definitely happened between the two of them; apart from the little scene that had just taken place in the garden, Erwin had already had an inkling of it because of the behavior of both of them after Stohess.

As for Mizuki, doubt had arisen in the commander two nights after their return, when she, pink with curiosity, showed up in his office to ask him a certain question: "When you invited me to Stohess, do you remember saying you wanted to show me something there?"

"Of course I remember," Erwin answered distractedly, resuming his consultation of a file from the capital that Mizuki's coming had interrupted.

"So? What was it about? Wilinski's or the Tennison's?"

"If I'm honest, neither. As much as I enjoy speculating from time to time, I certainly couldn't foresee Wilinski's boarding in the library, nor the mess that happened at the Tennison's."

"So what…?"

"Actually, I meant to show you the life and people in the innermost districts. You must have noticed, too, that the atmosphere there is a little different than in Trost, right?"

"Yes..." murmured Mizuki, looking disappointed.

"I would like to know if where you're from there is also a class division of society and an ideological difference between the various classes as marked as here."

"I wouldn't know. I don't think I'm the best person to answer that, apparently I'm too naive and I'm not interested in politics." At that point of the talk, a flash of harshness crossed Mizuki's golden eyes. "What I can tell you is that there are bad people who exploit or manipulate others even in the Hidden Leaf Village."

Erwin did not miss the choice of words that Mizuki most likely made without realizing it and, more importantly, without the intention of sending him some subliminal message. After that brief interlude, his subordinate - back to her usual cheerful and carefree self - took her leave as if nothing had happened, not after stealing a book from his shelf.

It had not taken him long to carry out the appropriate assessments and connect the dots. Mizuki never got angry for herself, as evidenced by her all-too-sportsmanlike attitude after the bad trick played on her on the last scouting. So, if she harbored resentment toward him, the reason was to be found in the snub suffered by someone else. Levi...?

The talk about Wilinski had uncovered the grave where Lovof's memory rotted. What if the captain had told her about his entry into the Corps? However unlikely, given Levi's secrecy, this would have justified the subtle streak of hostility he perceived in Mizuki's attitude.

If her behavior had seemed vaguely suspicious to him, the captain's could be regarded as a full-blown confession.

Once they had returned, Erwin had attempted to confront him about what had happened at the Tennison's and, in particular, to dispel the obvious misunderstanding the captain had stumbled into; but Levi had made it clear that he had no intention whatsoever of discussing the subject.

Sure, when Mizuki had shown up in the room covered only by a transparent veil, the commander had indeed assumed an awkward attitude and attempted to rest his gaze on a non-compromising area, but certainly not because of a sudden as improbable attraction to the pile of bones glimpsed under the nightgown.

Mizuki - as much as he liked her, as a person, and enjoyed their literary conversations - was not his type, physically or especially temperamentally - and actually he believed she was not Levi's either, but he certainly did not intend to be judgmental about other people's tastes. Too loud, pure and optimistic - and he kept thinking this even after the unexpected triangle between her, Heatehr and a bottle. Lavinia, on the other hand, with her curves and fine face, elegant movements, quietness, reserve, complexity, and the shadows she carried within, attracted him much more; but she, unfortunately, seemed uninterested in anyone but Mizuki.

No, if he had tried to avoid inappropriate gestures that night, it had been because of the expression Levi had assumed when she had appeared through the window.

Not that he feared any physical reprisal, on his part; but neither did he mean to indispose him, if that was how things stood between a certain surly captain and the subordinate whom that same surly captain never called by his name.

And that they stood that way, he now deemed it an established fact. The commander's inferences, in the face of the suspicious expressions of relief from both of them at that missed physical contact, had finally turned into a seemingly irrefutable conclusion: perhaps nothing concrete had yet happened, but unstoppable forces were stirring between those two, and sooner or later they would explode.

He knew that Levi was no saint, but he had always maintained an upstanding behavior with his subordinates so as not to compromise his own position, and especially out of respect for them. There was a first time for everyone, however; and as long as that something hovering between them did not interfere with the work and duties of the two concerned, Erwin would indulge in the game of which he had now become an expert: closing his eyes, turning his head the other way and pretending not to notice the evidence.

With a sigh, Erwin pulled away from the balustrade and prepared to plunge back into work.