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

16. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Just lose control and let your body give in to the beat of our hearts as my hand touches your skin. Is this love or sexual desire? We're gonna start a fire!

Ryan Star - Start a fire

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January 850

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The sky above the Elmiha district, streaked with a thick, ragged layer of gray clouds, promised rain. The pale light typical of winter afternoons lit up the cobblestone street, blinding the few passersby who hurried towards their destination. Mizuki kept her eyes fixed on the sky; from time to time, she cupped her hands in front of her mouth and blew warm air into them, then lowered them and rubbed them vigorously together.

A tiny figure clung to her right leg. Mizuki lowered her gaze, and despite the tension, instinctively smiled at Theo. "Hey, little one," she whispered tenderly, running a hand through his blonde hair, which still had half the Corps believing he was Erwin Smith's illegitimate son. "Everything will be alright, you'll see. The captain will... I mean, the captain and the others will catch them, and then you'll finally be safe."

Theo's mouth, swollen and red from the cold, broke into a toothless smile, which spread to his hazel eyes. Levi had been right. He had changed since the months after Tiburtina; he had come back to life, as a seven-year-old child should.

And now, after restoring some semblance of normalcy to his life, there was only one task left: revenge against the tormentors who had labeled him as a "defective product," who had sold him like an animal, who had deprived him of a peaceful childhood.

Mizuki had no way of knowing if Theo understood the meaning of her words or, more broadly, the purpose of their trip to Elmiha, but swept up by his joyful expression and the thought that this ordeal would soon be over, she didn't care in the slightest.

The noose set by the Survey and Garrison Regiment was about to tighten around the neck of the mysterious organization. That cold January day, in the streets of one of the wealthiest districts within the inner walls, would mark the end of the story that had begun in Tiburtina.

Pixis' men had tracked down the members of the organization thanks to the files Mizuki had retrieved in Orvud and had kept them under surveillance for over a month, hoping to find their hideout. But they hadn't succeeded. Every time they seemed close to discovering it, the trail would go cold, with the targets slipping away using some trick, as if they suspected they were being followed or were simply overly cautious. They never found the hideout, but by tracking the movements of its members, they managed to narrow it down to an area south of Wall Sina and, with each pursuit, they became more certain it was in Elmiha.

That day, they would flush them out, force them to confess, and throw them in jail.

Theo and Tim would be avenged. The girl with the braids devoured by a Titan would be avenged.

Mizuki nodded almost imperceptibly.

However, she had been cut out of the operation. Her orders were clear: take care of Theo until, after capturing them, they could bring the criminals before the boy for identification and, in turn, extract from the prisoners the identity of the client to whom Theo had been sold.

"Do you understand? No bullshit." The captain's words - blunt, gruff, and now engraved in her memory - pounded in her ears. He had been the last of the undercover soldiers assigned to the operation to leave her and Theo. After giving her the usual warnings, he'd turned his back and taken a few steps away; then, as usual, he turned around again. That, too, was a familiar gesture, part of the unspoken language they shared - a language that conveyed entire conversations incomprehensible to the rest of the world - and which repeated itself at every scouting when the signal of the imminent opening of the gates of Tros sounded.

A stolen glance, full of premature and perhaps unfounded nostalgia.

A look cast at something precious, something one fears seeing for the last time.

The look the captain reserved only for her.

Mizuki returned his gaze with an intense look that, as always, brimmed with optimism and hope, the complete opposite of his. "I will survive," she mouthed, as she always promised him before every mission, even though this time the comment was completely out of place, given the strict order from Erwin to stay out of trouble.

Mizuki and Theo stood in the part of the city closest to the walls, leaning against the side of a house painted a faded blue, overlooking one of Elmiha's main streets. Not far away, the road was crowded with people gathered around a man who caught Mizuki's attention. He wore a long black robe made of fine fabric, with immaculate white cuffs; the heavy gold chain around his neck, from which hung three medallions bearing the symbols of the walls, left no doubt about his affiliation with the Cult of the Walls.

"Listen, foolish sinners! Even though we are wretched beings, we have been offered a chance at redemption!" he bellowed, waving his thick arms in a gesture of accusation and warning. "Even after I leave this sin-infested district and head to Stohess, do not stray from the righteous path! Continue to worship the divine Walls that protect us, and do not heed the temptations of those who would defile them!"

"Reverend Nick! Don't leave us!"

"We'll miss you, Reverend Nick!"

"Show us the path to salvation, Reverend!"

Mizuki - imagining Levi's disgusted expression and the snide muttering that would have accompanied this spectacle had the captain been there to witness the "pathetic scene of a bunch of idiots fawning over a filthy pig" - couldn't suppress a smile.

By chance, Reverend Nick's gaze, wandering over his congregation of devotees, landed on her and noticed her amusement. "Blasphemer!" he thundered, pointing a finger at her. "Blasphemer and liar! She dares to mock our faith and the sacred Walls!"

Mizuki would have liked to explain that, for once, she wasn't mocking anyone; the problem was that for the past few weeks, she couldn't think about Levi - which unfortunately happened with alarming frequency - without an idiotic smile creeping across her face; but she had no time to explain.

In less than a second, the adoring crowd turned as one toward Theo and Mizuki, their expressions suddenly menacing. Whistles, insults, and threats rose, and immediately after objects of various sizes and weights were hurled at them. Though she hadn't expected the assault, Mizuki was quick to grab Theo's hand and slip into the alley that branched off from the main street. Nonetheless, the most zealous of the faithful, spurred on by Reverend Nick's cries, pursued them, continuing to hurl curses and stones at their backs. Only after several minutes, countless feints, blind turns down narrow, foul-smelling alleys, and desperate encouragements to Theo, did Mizuki manage to lose them. Panting, she slumped against a wall blackened with grime.

"Unbelievable," she muttered, looking around in a futile attempt to pinpoint their current location, only to determine they'd ended up in the city's rougher area. "Unbelievable… And now, who's going to explain this to sunshine?" she added, shaking her head and absentmindedly reaching for Theo.

When her fingers touched the boy's soft hair, she realized he was trembling. Mizuki snapped to attention, suddenly alert.

Theo, his eyes wide and filled with painful terror, was staring at a group of three men crossing the square ahead of them. The men didn't turn their heads in their direction, nor did they notice the curious pair watching them, so absorbed were they in their heated conversation, but Mizuki recognized them in an instant.

In her mind, she saw the image of the documents carefully stored in the file she had taken from Orvud. These three were part of the mysterious organization. They were Longlegs, the Clown, and the Ferret.

Mizuki's impulsive side ordered her body to move long before her mind finished processing the information. Grabbing Theo's trembling hand once more, she slowly crossed the square, trying not to draw attention, and began casually strolling behind the group. As soon as the three men turned the corner, Mizuki closed the distance between them, slipped into a narrow alley barely touched by the winter sun, and almost collided with her targets. Luckily, the men didn't notice her and continued to argue near the back of a ramshackle carriage - a wooden body covered by a dirty canvas, the typical structure of the models used for cheap transport between districts. Their backs were to her, giving her the chance to crouch unnoticed behind a pile of abandoned trash. Theo, docile and shaken, curled up beside her, burying his face in the crook of her shoulder, passing his tremors onto her.

"Are you sure, Ferret?"

"I told you, yes, dammit! How many more times are you fucking going to ask me?"

"It's better to be sure…"

"My answer isn't going to change, even if you ask me a hundred times. Those bastards from the Survey Corps are near the inner wall."

"Alright, alright."

"And anyway, One-Eye is keeping them distracted, Longlegs."

"Exactly! Thanks, Clown. One-Eye will keep them busy until we've gotten everyone out of the den. Now that we've got the cart, we need to hurry."

Fuck. Mizuki narrowed her eyes. They were about to lose them again. How could they always be one step ahead?

"Let's hurry, then."

"I'm taking the reins!" "Well, you idiot, you'll have to squeeze in because we're taking them too. Inside that tarp, it smells like crap."

Mizuki's shoulders stiffened.

What to do? If she let them go, the risk of losing their trail - yet again, frustratingly - was incredibly high; and with those bastards having realized the authorities were on their heels, finding them again might prove very difficult, if not impossible.

After all the effort, all the plans, all the promises she'd made to Theo...

She lowered her eyes and contemplated the blond head of the child, who was clutching her convulsively, and she made a decision.

A decision that would force her to disobey orders even in the one instance where, by some miracle, she had actually intended to follow them.

Sorry, Captain. Me and my bullshit are back.

She slipped off Eld's scarf and, gently untangling herself from Theo's embrace, wrapped it around him with a gesture full of care and love. The child gazed up at her with wide, terrified eyes, reminding her of the first time they had met: him, slumped on a roof, moments away from being devoured; a child gripped by drugs and horror, watching in helpless vigilance as the end approached. Mizuki's hands, resting on his shoulders, tightened as a searing, dull anger resurfaced; she bent down and tenderly kissed his forehead.

"Theo," she whispered in his ear. "Listen carefully. Everything will be okay, as long as you do what I say. Stay hidden here until the carriage is gone, then run and find the captain. He'll know what to do..." She kissed him again and, pulling away from his desperate and fearful gaze, gave him a smile. "It'll be alright. Levi will know what to do."

Silent, salty tears streamed down Theo's face as - hidden just as she had instructed - he watched her slip between the two dirty tarps serving as the carriage's rear door, as it rumbled away.

As soon as the carriage disappeared from view, the boy stood up, ready to sprint off in a desperate run; but before he could, a stranger with a kind demeanor appeared beside him. The man bent down and smiled at him, encouragingly; though his face tried to project calm and reassurance, his darting eyes betrayed a hint of urgency. "Hey there, little guy. Are you lost? I saw your sister leave in a hurry."

Even though there was no trace of threat in the man's words or demeanor, Theo flattened himself against the wall.

"Yeah, I get it. She'd tell you not to trust someone you don't know. But then she'd probably go and do the opposite. I know her well. You think so too, don't you? That she'd act just like that." The man crouched down to bring his face level with Theo's. "I heard her tell you to go find Captain Levi. I know where he is. And I also know where she's going. You've been here before, right? Of course, you have. You were raised at the Elmiha hideout. I'm sure of it, I've checked the records. That's where the carriage is heading. I'll help you remember the way, and you can lead the captain to her, in my place. You'll do that, won't you? If you trust me, we can help her, and soon enough, she's really going to need it." He paused for a moment, a faint, sad smile playing on his lips, so brief it was like the dust stirred up by a sunbeam in a dusty room. "If you don't trust me, which is only right, at least believe me on this: I care about her too. I love her more than anything."

Cautiously, Theo pushed himself away from the wall, without taking his eyes off the man's outstretched hand, as if hypnotized. The boy couldn't say if it was the man's words or the nostalgia he saw on his face - the kind that bore the name of a certain girl Theo knew all too well - that won him over, but after a final moment of hesitation, the child reached out to take the hand and accept his offer of help.

Without losing a moment, the stranger pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to the boy.

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Mizuki's situation took a drastic turn as soon as - based on the conversation of the three men at the reins - they had passed through the city gates, heading toward the outer territories. Up until that moment, huddled in the dark between two empty crates on a layer of rotten, foul-smelling straw, she had hoped that the enemies would take her to their hideout without discovering her and that, thanks to the element of surprise, she might be able to overpower them despite their superior numbers.

But once they passed the walls, the carriage continued a little further before coming to a creaking halt.

"Hey! One-eye, we're here!"

"Hop on!"

Mizuki tensed, preparing to pounce on the brute who would likely draw back the rear curtain - the same one she had slipped through to get inside.

Much to her displeasure, however, the side curtain, next to which she was crouching, was the one that opened. Mizuki snapped her head around just in time to catch the equally shocked, dumbfounded expression of the man - whom, judging by the shriveled ball of flesh where his right eye should have been, must have been One eye - and to hear his exclamation, "Hey, there's someone here!" before four men were on her.

Mizuki fought with everything she had, like a fury: she kicked, punched, bit, thrashed, and elbowed; to her great satisfaction, several blows landed. Long-Legs crumpled to the ground, clutching his crotch and howling like a beaten dog; a gush of blood spurted from Ferret's nose; One-eye's hand ended up under her boot, turning an alarming shade of purple; but Mizuki also took hits from the enemies: in that cramped space, she couldn't use the blades from her device, and every time she took one of them down, there were always at least two more ready to jump her from behind. Their numerical and physical superiority eventually overwhelmed her fighting spirit: a strike to her back with a club sent her crashing to the floor, and while one pinned her down, another jabbed a needle into her arm. Cold liquid pierced through the thin layer of her skin, coursing into her pulsating veins.

"Got it! I gave her the sedative!"

"Hold down this little bitch!"

A shadow ripped the gray cloak off her, revealing her military jacket and the emblem of the fierce Wings of Freedom.

"She's from the Survey Corps! Damn it! They're already on our tail?!"

"What do we do?!"

"For now, take her to the hideout. The Wizard and the Giant will decide what to do with this whore."

The last comment was accompanied by a kick to her ribs, though Mizuki barely noticed it. The substance they had injected her with was beginning to take effect: her head lolled forward, heavy and useless; sounds and voices reached her muffled, like she was trapped inside a soap bubble; her extremities had already gone numb, as if they had been immobile for a long time. With a last flash of clarity, she thought that her only hope was that they had given her the same drug they'd used on Theo; she and Hanje had analyzed it, and over the past year and a half with the Survey Corps, Mizuki had synthesized a sort of antidote against it. Being the perfectionist she was, she considered the results of her research far from flawless; naturally so, as she hadn't been able to test it due to a lack of drug samples. Still, she trusted - prayed - that the antidote would be enough to counteract its worst effects. Before splitting up to reach the positions assigned to them by Erwin and Lavinia, Mizuki had given each soldier two capsules containing the antidote, to keep in their mouths and crush between their teeth in case of need.

Which is what she herself had done as soon as she felt the tip of the needle pierce her skin.

As her vision blurred, Mizuki desperately hoped the pill would take effect and that Theo would find the captain as soon as possible.

The captain...

She smiled. Despite everything, she smiled.

Whenever she thought of him, she couldn't help it.

As her numbing brain conjured the image of Levi's annoyed expression upon hearing of her latest bullshit, accompanied by that sweet vision, Mizuki plunged into darkness.

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"Hey! Isn't that Theo?!"

It was Hanje who noticed the child walking along the street.

And it was she who noticed the main problem that Theo, with his presence in that place, posed."Mizuki's not with him...?"

Levi snapped his head around. Here we go again.

By now, he didn't even get angry or surprised. If there was trouble brewing, the brat never failed to dive headfirst into it at the most opportune - meaning, most dangerous - moment, without a second thought.

After rescuing her, he was going to pull her ears so hard her earlobes would stretch down to the floor.

Furiously pumping his little legs, Theo had almost reached them,,eyes red and glossy, snot running from his nose, lips quivering as he fought to keep another flood of tears from spilling down his cheeks.

"That's my scarf," Eld said confidently. "The one I gave Mizuki last winter."

"Theo," Petra murmured gently, bending down to look him in the face. "What happened?"

But Theo ignored them: Petra's outstretched arm, Eld studying the scarf, Hanje shaking her head in wonder, Oluo clicking his tongue, Gunther scratching his head in confusion. He ignored all of them and marched straight toward Levi.

The child and the soldier stared at each other in silence for a long moment.

Theo didn't speak - he couldn't - but Levi understood all the same.

He knew how to recognize the traces of gut-wrenching anxiety, and by now, he'd developed a fairly clear idea of the brat's tendency to land herself in trouble.

"Can you tell me where?" he asked, and Theo handed him a crumpled piece of paper, on which was scrawled "entrance gate—south side" in a hurried and nearly illegible hand.

Theo knew how to read and write; Mizuki and Moblit had taught him over the past year, during their free hours between training sessions. Levi didn't need anything more.

"Four-Eyes. I'm almost certain those bastards have discovered them, or the brat had found them and is now tailing them."

Hanje's eyes widened in surprise. "How...?"

"It doesn't matter how I know. Go to Erwin and report. My squad and I are heading out to retrieve that idiot."

Adapting to the sudden change in plan with the mental flexibility that only a long stint in the Survey Corps could grant, and sensing the urgency in the captain's tone, Hanje nodded. But before activating her vertical maneuvering gear, she sought Levi's eyes one last time. "Should I take Theo with me?"

Levi was about to say yes, when five tiny fingers gripped his thigh. Upon hearing Hanje's question, Theo had clung to the captain's leg with all his strength, looking up at him with the determined expression of someone who wouldn't let go even if both his arms were broken.

"No," Levi said, awkwardly ruffling the boy's hair. "Looks like he wants to come with us to fetch the other brat."

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Well-protected in his hiding spot on the leafy branch of a tree, the Deputy Commander of the Marley Warriors - better known locally by the ironic nickname "Giant" due to his height - watched the bustling hideout: people were moving in all directions, inside and out, then back in again; angry shouts, curses, mocking laughter filled the air. The mercenary group members - stolid criminals, low-grade human beings devoid of intelligence or even a faint glimmer of thought, whom he had been forced to endure for the success of the mission to recover the Coordinate - were clearing out the refuge with precision and method, carrying out the plan devised by the Giant and the Wizard to handle emergencies.

The Giant had seen. He didn't know why or how she had ended up in their hands, but it didn't matter. They had captured her and dragged her inside the building, likely dumping her, drugged, in the first room where she would be out of the way.

She was there, abandoned to herself. Helpless. Alone. No one would come to save her this time. Or if they did, it would be too late.

A crooked grin stretched across the lips of the Deputy Commander of the Marley Warriors as he cautiously approached the wooden building, taking care not to be seen by those he had never considered his comrades. He activated the ODM gear and gracefully landed on the roof, anchoring himself with the chakra.

Many of the boards were rotten, swollen with moisture; it seemed they were just waiting for someone to destroy them.

As his grin widened, the Giant dropped a lit match at the base of the building.

He would eliminate her once and for all, using an impeccable method to remove inconveniences, one he had favored since his troubled teenage years.

Fire.

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Levi's squad and little Theo raced across the city of Elmiha using their ODM gear. Under normal conditions, operating the gear inside Wall Sina's inner territories was strictly forbidden - ban punished by severe penalties: imprisonment, expulsion from the military, and a hefty fine - but officers of Levi's rank could authorize its use by their subordinates in cases of necessity.

And in this case, necessity abounded.

On paper, and in front of any other human being - especially Erwin - Levi would justify his decision by claiming they couldn't afford to let even one of the scumbags they were hunting escape, no matter the cost.

But before his conscience, bathed in the thought of a pair of amber eyes, the lie did not hold up, it collapsed like a sand castle reached by the wave of the river.

They rushed through the southern gate of the city. The soldiers of the Garrison Corps, in charge of the gate, tensed up at the sight of the frenzied members of the Survey Corps but didn't ask questions. When people accustomed to fighting Titans looked tense and agitated, it was never a good sign.

Once outside the city, however, Levi's squad had to stop, as this was where Theo's vague lead ended.

"Search the area," Levi ordered his subordinates with a nod. He himself was about to follow them, but before he turned toward the child to see if any further help might come from him.

Theo, as soon as they passed through the gate, had begun looking around, bewildered. His sharp, intelligent eyes, brimming with thoughts his lips could never express, scanned the surrounding countryside, the houses, the trees, the stones, desperately seeking some point of reference.

The unknown man who had taken his hand and given him the crumpled piece of paper had explained the path he was supposed to show Levi in great detail while flying him through the sky using the soldiers' gear. However, Theo could remember little of what the man had said, his mind clouded by agitation and the wind whipping in his ears.

Theo had been born mute. This was the only flaw in the diagnosis of Mizuki, who had suggested his infirmity was temporary and caused by the trauma he had suffered at Tiburtina. He had never seen his condition as a limitation, something that made him inferior, nor had he ever suffered from the inability to communicate with others; after all, he'd never had anything to say or anyone who would listen to him. Yet, because of this lack of a fundamental human trait, he had been labeled as a defective product by the organization and sold to the highest bidder to get rid of him.

Theo had no memory of his parents, his place of origin, friendly faces, hugs, or affectionate gestures, nor of emotions other than fear and horror. His earliest memory, at the age of three, was of a large, airy, impersonal room filled with beds and other children, lonely as he was, but who, unlike him, could speak.

Even in that place of unwitting vanquished and defeated, the law of the strongest prevailed. Theo, the different one, the odd one, the defective product, was crushed at the bottom of the social chain, the lowest of the outcasts, until the day he was sold.

Theo's story - who at the time had no name, only a number, 302, recorded in the group's registry - should have ended that distant day in August 848: a sad, bitter tragedy of a child never recognized as a human being, unaware of any feeling other than loneliness.

And yet, on the day that was supposed to be his last, Theo experienced love for the first time. A warm, reassuring, bright knot in his stomach, sparked by the figure of a girl who spat fire and moved in defiance of all laws of gravity and physics.

On the day of his death, Theo was truly born.

Theo was just a child, moreover mute, but endowed with an intelligence far beyond his age; he understood that from that moment - since the moment his path had crossed that of a being filled with light and strength - his life would change. He had discovered love, affection, a sense of belonging, the warmth of a family, all in her arms; and in the place she led him to, he was welcomed with joy.

Now Theo had something to say and someone who would listen, but he lacked the means to communicate. She did not let him suffer because of this: she invented a sign language that, at first, only the two of them understood, and it was only after much insistence from Gelgar that she shared it with the other soldiers, but she kept the meaning of some gestures secret, known only to Theo and herself; she taught him to read and write; she learned to decipher his moods and thoughts from a mere blink or a crease on his forehead.

Theo was just seven years old but was already accustomed to the extreme fragility and volatility of human life and happiness. He knew that his world, and especially the person around whom it revolved, the person who had given him life were in danger.

When humans are pushed to their limits, a curious phenomenon occurs: no matter how fragile or close to ruin they may be, a normally latent and dormant strength and ardour are awakened.

It was the same for Theo: his too-intelligent eyes fell on a tree whose trunk had been split in half by lightning, and he remembered.

He had been there before, before his true birth, before Tiburtina, before Mizuki.

He remembered the road that led into the city through the countryside; he remembered that half-shattered tree; he remembered the building where he had lived like a dead person.

Without taking his eyes off the tree, Theo reached out a hand, grabbed the edge of Levi's pants, and began tugging, not hard, but with determination. When he had the man's attention, he shot him a meaningful look.

"I understand." Levi didn't hesitate in trusting him. Raising his voice slightly, he called his squad and gave a few simple orders. "Petra, you stay here and wait for the others. Eld, Oluo, Gunther, we're following the kid. We're really close this time, and we won't let them get away. Get ready to fight."

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One-Eye and the Ferret met at the bottom of the staircase on the ground floor, in the smoke-filled atrium, squinting their irritated eyes and holding a damp cloth over their mouths.

"Nobody upstairs?" the first coughed.

"No one," the second confirmed. "Except for the Clown in the office, finishing up the client documentation."

Without further conversation, the One-Eye and the Ferret headed toward the exit.

In the last half-hour, the situation had become quite confusing. They still didn't understand who, how, when, or why had started the fire, and by the time they noticed, the wooden building was already engulfed in flames.

In the end, though, the disaster was just a minor setback, resulting only in speeding up the evacuation, already in progress due to the bastards from the Survey Corps on their heels.

Evacuating the "merchandise" had taken priority over everything else: the money invested in raising them was too substantial to sacrifice even one of their profitable products; any loss would have caused significant financial damage to the group's budget. This was part of the emergency plan devised by the Giant and the Wizard, and that's what they had followed. Once the evacuation was complete, One-Eye and the Ferret were tasked with ensuring no one had been left behind, hidden or passed out somewhere.

"This shack's about to come down. Was it really necessary for the Clown to waste time gathering those papers?"

"They're not just any papers, you know that. They're our insurance policy."

Yes, even though he wasn't particularly bright, One-Eye at least understood that much. They couldn't afford to lose either the merchandise or the records containing the real names of their clients and the details of each transaction. In the unfortunate and unlikely event they were caught, they could negotiate with the authorities using that material, which was worth its weight in gold. They needed it, the Ferret was right.

"And the bitch from the Survey Corps…?" One-Eye asked, suddenly remembering their prisoner.

"The Clown said to leave her here. The fire will do the dirty work for us. That'll teach her to stick her nose where it doesn't belong."

One-Eye nodded and said nothing more. When the Giant and the Wizard weren't around, the orders came from whoever had the most brains after those two, in this case, the Clown, and the golden rule for surviving in that group was to never contradict whoever was in charge. T

One-Eye and the Ferret anxiously reached the door leading to the garden.

"We made it!" exclaimed One-Eye , quickening his pace toward safety.

THUD.

A sharp sound, like a body hitting the ground.

One-Eye didn't immediately register that something was wrong. He had already stepped onto the lawn and inhaled a deep breath of fresh, clean January air when he realized he'd been speaking to no one.

"Ferret?" he called, frowning. Had he passed out from the smoke?

One-Eye hesitated for just a moment between the promise of freedom and clear air, and the flaming hallway behind him, but then reentered the building. He wasn't a man particularly prone to sentimentality, nor was he especially attached to his companions, but the Ferret had always been a reliable partner in their line of work and a memorable drinking buddy. If he had saved him, without much risk to himself, the Ferret would owe him one, which could always come in handy.

So, One-Eye reentered the corridor, squinting through the smoke to search for his missing companion. He scanned every corner, except the one he should have, that is above him; not without reason, because in One-Eye and the Ferret's world, no one could hang from the ceiling, suspended like a spider.

But Mizuki didn't belong to One-Eye and the Ferret's world, and, in fact, was waiting for her reckless prey, hanging upside down with her feet anchored to the ceiling using chakra.

As soon as she saw him, just as she had done with the Ferret and all the others before him, she dropped down on him.

The struggle was brief, a little more intense than the others, but in the end, she managed to press the chloroform-soaked cloth over his mouth. Her captors, made careless by the fact that they had drugged her, hadn't bothered to search her and confiscate her belongings, including the bottle of chloroform hidden in an inner pocket of her uniform.

Using the last bit of energy she had left, Mizuki dragged the two unconscious bodies, one by one, outside the building; she placed them next to their comrades, lined up on the lawn, under the cover of a cart packed with boys and girls who stared at her with wide, confused eyes. She would free them, of course, but only once she was able to calmly - and most importantly, convincingly - explain the situation to them.

After taking a deep breath, Mizuki headed back toward the burning building. There was still one enemy unaccounted for, the most important one: the one who held the documentation.

When she had awakened from the drug-induced coma, she had found herself in a poorly lit room that reeked of smoke. The enemies must have altered the drug's formula, as the antidote hadn't been able to completely counteract its effects, but it had still done its job. Unlike Theo, Mizuki could - though with considerable effort - think somewhat clearly and move, but even the slightest distraction or overly demanding movement could cause her body to fail. She would have to make do with this fragile semblance of control, hard-earned as it was; she had no other choice. So, she launched her attack, taking advantage of the element of surprise - those dim-witted brutes thought she was unconscious in a room on the first floor - and especially the abilities no one in this world suspected she possessed.

Unfortunately for her, though, something in her otherwise brilliant plan had gone wrong.

While she was dragging One-Eye outside, the Clown, descending the stairs with two heavy bags, had seen her, and now he was waiting for her in a hallway alcove to ambush her.

When Mizuki passed by, the Clown jumped on her, and this time, it was she who was taken by surprise.

The ensuing fight was chaotic. Even after regaining her clarity, Mizuki could never fully recall what had happened. She took a lot of hits; more than remembering that, there were the bruises and injuries scattered across her body that told her so.

Mizuki would never remember, but it was her ninja instincts that saved her, the same ones her parents had, willingly or unwillingly, passed on to her at birth. While her clouded mind wandered through a maze of smoke and arms, her body moved autonomously, forged by the grueling training with Levi, and executed what the captain had taught her.

In the end, Mizuki - or rather, Mizuki's body, for its master - triumphed over the enemy. Straddling his chest, her knees pinning his arms, she pressed the chloroform cloth over his mouth and waited for him to stop struggling. When the Clown's limbs twitched one last time and then went limp, Mizuki, now utterly exhausted and choking on smoke, collapsed onto him.

As she looked at the Clown, a disjointed thought crossed her mind: if he had been there, the captain would have praised her for fighting so well, for following every lesson and every bit of advice, while also scolding her for a week straight, reproaching her for getting herself into such a terrible situation.

Mizuki smiled.

She couldn't help it, not even now, as she was about to lose consciousness amidst the flames, because just the thought of Levi made her happy.

.

Two arms.

Two arms beneath her, holding her tight, as if she were the most precious thing in the world.

Those arms were familiar. She knew them. Wrapped in that embrace, she felt safe. Home.

"Captain…" she whispered, her lips dry and cracked, then coughed violently.

No response, but the two arms tightened their grip, almost painfully so.

.

OOO

.

Mizuki sat up suddenly, disoriented. She opened her eyes wide, but the yellowish light flooding the room forced her to close them again immediately. Her head throbbed monstrously, and her body felt heavy, pierced by sharp pain with every careless movement; her memory, a blank like a black hole, regurgitated a foul miasma that reeked of danger, sickness, and heat.

Forcing herself to remain calm, she tried to adjust gradually to her new condition.

She felt the soft, inviting surface she was lying on with her hands. She appreciated the place: cool, quiet, dark. She cautiously cracked her eyelids open. What had initially seemed like blinding light was merely the faint glow of a wall-mounted lamp.

She regained control over her body and sensations.

Then, slowly, she began to collect her thoughts: Elmhia. The carriage. The kidnapping. The Clown. The fire.

What the hell…? Where…?

Am I dead?

"Ohi."

Mizuki's head snapped toward that all-too-familiar voice. Not far from the bed where she lay, Levi was sitting at a table - legs crossed, one arm dangling behind the chair, body elegantly stretched out - with a pile of documents scattered in front of him. She could glimpse him through the thick iron bars that divided the room. The captain put his pen down, stood up, and approached her, performing each action with slow, measured movements.

"Where are we?"

"In a basement cell."

"How long have I been out?"

"About twelve hours."

Levi stopped a step away from the bars, staying outside the torch's light behind Mizuki. She tried to stand up and reach him. Bad idea: her vision blurred, and her head began to spin wildly, forcing her to collapse back onto the bed.

"What happened?"

Levi ignored the question. "How do you feel?"

"Besides the heavy head and the numb body, I'm just peachy."

A barely audible click of his tongue, his way of showing disbelief and displeasure at her attempt to downplay her battered condition with sarcasm. "Can you breathe?"

"Of course I can. If I couldn't, that would be a bit of a problem. Now can I know what happened?"

"After we found you, the Garrison's doctor checked you out."

"No, I meant…"

"You were in a catatonic state, like Theo, except you, unlike him, kept coughing like crazy. Hanje guessed they drugged you; she checked your mouth, noticed a missing pill, and concluded you'd taken the antidote. The doctor gave you something, probably similar to what you gave the kid." Levi delivered this string of information with precision, in a practical, detached tone, one after the other, as if he were listing the products to buy at the market. Mizuki listened, uneasy, fiddling with the edge of the blanket. She didn't care about the details of her rescue. She was alive, a bit banged up, but that was enough. What gnawed at her was anxiety over the fate of the people locked in the carriages and, more importantly, their captors. Had they caught them?

Taking advantage of a brief pause in the captain's monologue and infusing as much delicacy and tact as possible into her voice, Mizuki said, "Captain, when I asked what happened, I…"

"I know what you meant, and I don't give a fuck."

His reply, cutting and harsh, would have sounded like a dismissive refusal to anyone else.

But not to her.

Mizuki sensed instead the attempt to inform her that, for him, there were far more pressing matters to discuss; that he didn't give a damn about anything else.

An awkward attempt, with a rather questionable result, for sure; but made in the only way of expressing feelings he knew.

"The doctor checked your lungs when you were coughing and said you likely inhaled some smoke," Levi continued. "Nothing serious, but he ordered to let you rest, and if there were any breathing issues, to call him immediately. The rest of us took turns to watch over you."

Mizuki lowered her head, overwhelmed by the kindness, by the emotions she couldn't see on his shadowed face, that he didn't know how to convey, but that vibrated in every terse word, every gruff sigh, in his disdainful hiding from view. "I understand. Thank you."

"If you understand, stop trying to get up and stay seated."

"Alright." Mizuki agreed, giving him a faint smile to reassure him and promise obedience. "Now…"

"We got them," Levi cut her off. Finally, he took the last step toward the bars, and the yellow light of the lamp illuminated his small figure. The usual pale, expressionless face, marked by deep dark circles, appeared in Mizuki's field of vision. The captain was wearing civilian clothes: black trousers and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. "When we arrived at the hideout…"

"How did you find us?" Mizuki interrupted immediately, voicing one of her first doubts upon regaining consciousness.

"It was the kid. As soon as we left the city, it was like he had a revelation; he guided us straight there without missing a turn. Apparently, he recognized the route he used to take when entering and leaving Elmiha during the time he was with those bastards."

Mizuki nodded, impressed and proud of her protégé's role. "I've always said Theo is incredibly smart."

"When we arrived, all we had to do was shackle the bastards you had lined up unconscious on the lawn, free the people locked in the carriages, assist them, and call the dogcatcher."

Mizuki burst into a hearty laughter, which didn't diminish even as a shot of pain pierced her brain. 'Dogcatcher' was the code name she and Levi had started using to refer to Nile Dok after the evening at Tennison Mansion. "And…? Did he bark?"

A flicker of amusement lit Levi's eyes. "Definitely, though I don't know the details. Erwin and the old drunk took care of the tricky part."

"Did he open up about the file I got in Orvud?" Mizuki asked impatiently, leaning toward the bars, though careful not to lift her bottom off the bed even a centimeter to avoid annoying the captain. "Were the Gendarmes investigating the mysterious organization too?"

Levi clicked his tongue at her eagerness, but didn't reprimand her. "He didn't know anything. Not that they asked him directly. If he'd found out that one of Erwin's rabid dogs had stolen documents from the Military Police archive, he'd have kicked your ass."

"Yeah," Mizuki conceded, "he'd have put a nice muzzle on me."

"Both Erwin and Pixis say he has nothing to do with the file. It must have been put together by a group of loose dogs during an unofficial investigation. Just like ours." Levi crossed his arms over his chest and leaned his side against one of the bars.

"How did they explain our involvement?"

"I think they fed him some story about a last-minute anonymous tip."

"Did he buy it?"

"No, but the value of the documents you managed to recover overshadowed everything else."

Mizuki became alert. So the fire hadn't destroyed the documents the Clown was gathering in the office? Honestly, she didn't remember saving them, or even finding them in the first place. But something must have gone right if they ended up intact in Erwin and Pixis's hands. "What's in those documents?"

"Everything," Levi replied, gripping one of the bars as if to physically represent the importance and enormity of the information they now had. "The real names of clients, collaborators, and the people sold, as well as the details of the transactions. What wasn't there was revealed by the guys you knocked out. It didn't take much, a threat of life imprisonment and a few barks from the dogcatcher were enough to make them sing. Thanks to them, the Gendarmes are arresting the other members of the gang and searching the hideouts scattered across the inner territories of Wall Sina."

"How many are there?"

"The group's made up of about fifty people; there are around ten hideouts, the ones in Orvud and Elmiha were just two of many. The bastards rotated their base of operations every so often, moving between their ten dens to avoid attracting the authorities' suspicion."

"Ten? That's a lot!" Mizuki's mouth fell open. The group of criminals had built a far more organized and widespread operation than they had imagined.

"Yeah."

Mizuki licked her lips. She was about to ask him the most important question, because only the right answer would give meaning to the suffering of Theo, Tim, and all the countless, voiceless shadows that had been degraded by those scum. "What happens now?"

Levi didn't answer right away. Mizuki, knowing him well, sensed his irritation by the simple tightening of his slender fingers around the bar. "The arrested members will be put on trial; the people who were sold will be freed and given legal status. The capital's offices will issue them identification documents, and they'll be registered."

The girl nodded, but she hadn't missed that the captain had carefully avoided talking about the third element of the trade network they had just helped dismantle. "And the buyers?"

Levi gripped the bar so tightly Mizuki thought it might bend at any moment. "Most of them are disgustingly wealthy nobles. They won't be prosecuted. The only crime they committed, according to our fucking society, is spending their wealth without paying taxes. They'll be forced to give what's owed, and the whole affair will end for them there."

"That's outrageous!" Despite the captain's command disguised as a warning, Mizuki jumped to her feet; she stumbled to the bars and grabbed them with both hands, despite the nausea. "They bought human beings, and they won't be punished? It can't end like this!"

"This is the system. It sucks. That's not news." Levi spoke in a calm, measured tone, one that a stranger might mistake for resigned indifference. she, who had seen him lose control and commit terrible acts to fight injustice, knew that, inside himself, the captain was foaming with rage. His hand, white from the tension, continued to convulsively grip the bar as if it were the neck of one of the nobles who had escaped justice; Mizuki had to force herself not to place her hand over his, not to loosen that deadly grip, not to bring Levi's fingers to her lips and kiss them tenderly.

"And anyway, it's not over yet."

That comment pulled Mizuki out of her focus on the captain's inner turmoil. "What?"

"There are four people whose real identities aren't listed in the documents. One is a buyer, a certain Romero Milanov, a merchant born in Orvud, who doesn't actually exist. There's no record of him in the capital's archives." As he explained, Levi's grip on the bar relaxed, a sign that he was slowly regaining control of himself. "But the bastards we captured remembered him well. He paid them a lot of money. From the description they gave us, it's certain he's Arthur Wilinski."

Mizuki's mouth was dry, her temples throbbed, and her fingers twitched with uncontrollable tension. "What…?" She then bit her tongue and corrected herself. "Who?"

"He made several transactions during the organization's years of operation, the last of which was in August 848. Wilinski bought a range of services from the group: not just ownership rights over people, but also the obligation to escort him and selected guests to Tiburtina."

Levi didn't add more. There was no need. Both of them had been to Tiburtina. Both had seen what happened in its ruined streets. Mizuki had gone pale. Clinging to the iron bars, she trembled visibly, her head bowed, and her gaze fixed on the horrific scenes of the past, scenes she had buried deep in her consciousness, forgotten to keep from going mad; yet the mere mention of Tiburtina was enough to bring them back from the grave, to make them real again. As if those horrors were still happening; as if they had never truly ended. As if, no matter how hard Mizuki had fought, she had never truly left Tiburtina.

Once again, Lavinia had been right. Whatever Arthur Wilinski's twisted goal was, the count with whom Mizuki had conversed pleasantly and more or less understandably in a library in Stohess had been buying human beings to throw them to the Titans. That man was searching for something, and his sick, twisted mind had convinced him that orchestrating such madness was the only way to find it.

Levi was seething with indignation just like her, but he forced himself to put aside the overwhelming feeling of disgust that had dominated him since Erwin, a couple of hours earlier, had told him the results of the first investigations. He took that anger and relegated it to a drawer, to offer her an anchor, a support that, even if it wouldn't have helped her come to terms with the cruelty of that discovery, would prevent her from feeling alone, in the land dominated by contempt and hatred into which she was sinking. Because she, unlike Levi, still had hope in humanity; she strenuously believed in the existence of forms of goodness and justice capable of transcending the disgusting social system in which they lived, and he wanted to protect that extraordinary ability at all costs.

Levi's hand passed through the bars and gently rested on Mizuki's head. He ruffled her hair slowly, softly, savoring the feel of her ash-streaked, messy curls, trying to absorb the anger that made her shake.

"Do we know where to find him?"

The captain had been expecting that question, of course. "No more than before. Wilinski kept his identity hidden from the members of the organization. Even the guests he invited to his little shows don't seem to have any personal connection with him. It's as if he had picked them at random to keep the organization he was working with from discovering his real motives."

"At least they…" Mizuki murmured, her head hanging low, her gaze fixed on the floor. Her trembling hands moved until they clutched the collar of Levi's shirt. It wasn't an aggressive gesture or a sign of anger toward him; Mizuki was just seeking something to hold onto, something more solid than the iron bars, to steady herself in the face of the crushing weight that had just fallen on her. "At least they'll pay for it, right? They witnessed murders and did nothing! They went to Tiburtina on purpose! They…" Her voice faltered, trailing off into a squeak, but she didn't give up and pushed through to the end. "They enjoyed watching children being eaten by Titans!"

"Pixis is working on it," Levi replied. That unsatisfying answer was the only one he could give her for now; perhaps the only one he would ever be able to give. They would try; they would use every weapon, every card they had to seek justice, but Levi wasn't under any illusions that they would succeed.

His fingers paused in their caress and disentangled themselves from her curls, but they didn't pull away. They lingered on her warm nape, slid over her smooth forehead marred by a small, red cut, brushed against her thick eyebrows, and finally rested on her tense cheek.

Mizuki remained silent for a long time. Under the captain's touch, her body gradually stopped trembling, her breathing steadied, and her grip on his shirt loosened.

Levi's fingers, pressing lightly against her cheek, waited patiently for her to regain control. Finally, Mizuki unraveled the tangle of fingers and fabric she had created and stretched her hands, placing them flat against Levi's chest.

"The other three?" she asked, her voice measured, head bowed.

"The other three are members of the organization; the leaders, and the only ones we haven't been able to locate. The role of the Wizard and the Giant was to manage the organization on the field: they made the most important decisions, met with clients, recruited staff for the custody and training of their products, and handled emergencies. The file on Orvud contains no details about them; nothing: age, appearance, place of birth, distinguishing marks. The bastards we captured, on the other hand, provided us with a physical description; but given the incompetence of the gendarmes, disguising themselves and evading detection will be all too easy for those two. And no one has been able to provide personal information about them: where they came from, if they had family or romantic ties; nothing. As if…"

"As if they had appeared out of nowhere," Mizuki murmured, deep in thought. She absentmindedly brushed a speck of invisible dust from the captain's shirt with her right index finger.

"The last of the four unknowns is the leader. The one who founded the organization and funded it in its early days, in 846, who established its fundamental structure, and who collected most of the profits. Almost nothing is known about this individual either: only that he is a filthy, powerful, and quite cunning aristocratic pig. The contacts with him were maintained by the Giant and the Wizard, the only ones who knew his identity, so we're screwed. The arrested only know the code name used to refer to him, which is 'la Romanée'."

"It doesn't matter." Mizuki detached herself from him and finally lifted her gaze: clear, determined eyes, still bright. The cruelty and injustice that permeated their world had not yet bent her; Mizuki still believed that reality could change for the better, despite the incessant evidence to the contrary that the nobles, the people, and life continued to offer her. "We will take them anyway. And at least they will pay."

Just as it had happened the only time he had seen her in a cell, defeated and dejected, Levi thought: she's small. She's so small.

And yet, she was also strong. So strong. Much stronger than him, who looked at life with pessimism. Much stronger than anyone he had ever met.

That truth, which had previously been nothing more than a vague premonition, overwhelmed him.

She hadn't changed a bit since that distant November day. She did not bend before anything. She allowed nothing to shake her deepest convictions. She never lowered her gaze, never closed her eyes, never pretended not to see, never lied to herself, never apologized for being the way she was. She looked straight ahead, straight into the rot, straight into the darkness, and rolled up her sleeves to remedy her mistakes.

Perhaps - no, definitely - she did not need him, his support, his protection.

And yet, she was accepting the comfort she hadn't asked for naturally, without argument. She accepted Levi's desire to share her burden, even though she could handle it perfectly well on her own. She welcomed him with the embrace of her bright gaze, promising him that they would face that battle together, and together they would win.

She was pressing her right hand against his chest, right over the heart that beat for her.

She was smiling at him because she couldn't help it.

And he wanted to protect that smile. He would put it before anything, any mission, any duty, any order from Erwin.

Always. Forever.

There would never be anything he cared more about than that smile.

"They will pay dearly."

Levi nodded; there was no need to add anything more on the subject. They sealed that promise of revenge as they usually did, looking at each other, entrusting to silence what words could not express.

The captain's fingers - the index and middle - lingered for a moment on her cheek before, reluctantly, they withdrew. "You did a good job. If it hadn't been for you, those pieces of shit would have gotten away."

At first, Mizuki beamed; but soon she furrowed her brow, casting a puzzled glance around her, as if registering for the first time since her awakening that she was in a cell. "If everything went well, why am I locked up in here?"

Levi clicked his tongue; now every trace of sweetness and understanding had vanished from his face. "Because I remember giving you a very specific order, and you didn't give a damn. As usual."

"I can't believe it…" Mizuki gasped.

"Given the good outcome of your bullshit, I asked Erwin to give you only two days of confinement, but next time I won't be so lenient."

"Are you serious? You and your damned orders!" Mizuki rested her forehead against the bars, dejected. "I promised to follow them only outside the walls, not inside! And anyway, what fault do I have for unforeseen events that mess up plans?" she moaned, in a last-ditch attempt at defense, seemingly unaware that her confession would worsen her position.

Infact, Levi huffed through his nostrils and kicked her lightly between the bars. "The problem isn't that you think for yourself and decide to disobey orders. Haven't you figured it out yet?"

"No, I don't understand anything except that you're a demon, a real demon." Mizuki shook her head, astonished.

"And you are a walking source of problems."

"Alright, alright. I'll take the blame for myself…but her?" Intent on dropping the subject to avoid yet another lecture, Mizuki gestured toward the adjacent cell, where Lavinia was curled up asleep on the bed.

If possible, Levi's irritation increased. "After they examined you and I brought you down here to put you in a cell, she turned against me, so she got a day of punishment too. She stopped causing trouble only when she realized she would be thrown into the cell next to yours."

Mizuki nodded, easily picturing the scene. "And what about him?" she asked, this time nodding to her own back. From a bed next to the one where Mizuki had just been lying, came the soft snoring of Theo, immersed in a deep, serene sleep.

"We tried to keep him out, but it was no use," Levi explained; and had it been anyone else speaking, Mizuki would have sworn she had detected a note of apology in his tone. "In the end, even though you are in confinement, we let him stay. If it hadn't been for him, we would have never found you."

Mizuki's heart, as she smiled at the tiny child who had shown extraordinary courage and readiness, was filled with poignant tenderness.

Levi abruptly brought her back to reality with a click of his tongue. "Anyway. The problem isn't that you disobey orders; the problem is that you always get yourself into trouble. I really must compliment you on your ability to always and in any case devise plans of exemplary temerity - not to say stupidity".

Mizuki huffed, rolled her eyes, and stuck her tongue out at Levi, not before prudently taking a step back to get out of his reach. "It's really a pleasure working for you, Captain. Have I ever told you that?"

The captain's eyes narrowed to slits, sharp blades that weighed Mizuki's cheeky expression for a few seconds. "What I'm trying to say, little fool, is that you should take better care of yourself." He pronounced slowly, staring at her intently. "If something were to happen to you, those two would go crazy and create a lot of problems."

Levi expressed himself that way, with a sharp reprimand and a complaint that concealed a hidden message. Yes, because if something happened to her, there would be a third person who would suffer; he wouldn't go mad or cause trouble, but Mizuki knew by now.

"By the way, Captain. I haven't thanked you yet."

"For what?" Levi asked, appearing genuinely puzzled.

Mizuki cleared her throat to overcome her embarrassment and, with burning cheeks, replied, "For saving me. You know, when I fainted in the building. If it hadn't been for you, I think I would have died suffocated or crushed under the rubble."

There was a long silence on the other side. "I better tell the doctor to give you another look," Levi decreed, scrutinizing her with a furrowed brow. Then, before Mizuki's taken-aback expression, he added, "When we arrived, you weren't inside the building, but outside. On the lawn, curled up next to one of those bastards and the two bags full of documents."

"Ah…" Instinctively, Mizuki took a step back, but Levi, who had turned his back to her to approach the desk and gather the documents, didn't notice.

"Not even the idiots we captured know who set the fire. It happened while they were clearing out their hideout; they believe it was an accident. It didn't happen that way, though, at least according to the gendarmes who inspected the building after putting out the flames. I wouldn't trust them, but Mike and Hanje checked as well. The fire was deliberate. Whoever it was knew what they were doing: at least five points of ignition were identified around the base of the building. Perhaps the culprit was one of their rivals, perhaps one of the products who decided to rebel, perhaps someone passing by. Certainly, from your expression, it wasn't you. The gendarmes are still investigating, but given how idiotic they are, I doubt they'll discover anything." With a dry sound, Levi slid the stack of papers against the desk to align its edges. "Maybe it's normal for you to have confused memories since you inhaled some smoke. I'll send the doctor down anyway, and then, when you've fully recovered, you'll have to report to Erwin."

Mizuki nodded mechanically. She didn't trust her voice, fearing it might betray her.

At least five points of ignition for the flames.

Just like what happened at the Williams house, a distant day five years ago.

The ninjas from the Village tasked with investigating the matter hadn't discovered anything about the identity of the fierce arsonist; but Mizuki memorized their conclusions, indelibly imprinted inside her like a scar: whoever it was, it's someone who has fire in their blood.

And what if the target of the mysterious arsonist wasn't the organization, but her? Her, who theoretically at that moment was passed out and drugged inside the building?

Two ninjas were wandering around the walls.

One of them was trying to kill her.

As her mind churned out hypotheses and possibilities in an unstoppable whirlwind of thoughts, Mizuki watched Levi ungracefully bang against the bars of Lavinia's cell to wake her up. "Hey, get up. Your partner has resurrected."

The other was trying to help her and, this time, he had saved her from a certain and terrible death.

Even though she had suffered from smoke inhalation, Mizuki knew perfectly well what had happened and what had not happened.

This had not happened: that she had exited the building alone, carrying the Clown and the two bags.

Instead, this had happened: she had fainted among the flames, and someone had carried her out.

Two arms had held her tenderly, as if nothing in the world was more precious than her.

"Mizuki! Are you okay?!"

Mizuki swallowed hard.

Standing a few steps away from her, Lavinia was crying with relief, extending an arm between the bars in her direction, as if with the sheer force of desperation she could stretch it like a rubber band to touch her. Levi was watching Mizuki out of the corner of his eye, as if he had sensed that something was bothering her and was trying to guess the source of her unease.

Mizuki swallowed again, and with her saliva pushed into the deepest recesses of her mind the doubts that plagued her; then she straightened her back and prepared to stage the most successful of her performances: an innocent and carefree smile, eyes that concealed no mystery, an open and relaxed face, just as if nothing had happened.

.

OOO

.

March 850

.

"In my opinion, she's already hit twenty-nine."

"You're so naive, Loki. Everyone knows she's been here longer than Sunshine. She can't be younger than him!"

"Just because she's been around longer doesn't necessarily mean she's older than him. Captain Levi didn't join the military in the usual way."

"The opposite wouldn't make any sense either."

"Kitty's right, Loki. At most, they're probably the same age."

"Gelgar, shut up. Your opinion doesn't count. Everyone knows you always side with her."

"If I'm right, what else can he do but agree with me?"

"Alright, so how old do you think she is, then?"

"I'd say thirty-four."

"Mizuki?"

"Thirty-three. The Captain is thirty-one, and Commander Erwin is thirty-five. It makes sense to put her somewhere in the middle."

"Great, now all we have to do is find out her age and see who was the closest. Losers buy the drinks."

"Deal."

"Get ready to go bankrupt."

As they sealed yet another bet with a drink at stake - the prize of all their challenges ended up being, rather monotonously and unimaginatively, that - Mizuki, Gelgar, and Loki reached their destination: a cart parked at the edge of the village, and with grunts and sighs, they loaded the supply crates they were carrying onto it.

The 49th expedition outside the walls was nearing its end. At that moment, they were on the last scheduled break before heading home, after two long days in Titan territory. However, Mizuki, Gelgar, and Loki, being experienced soldiers, weren't allowed to rest, and were tasked instead with reorganizing the supplies on the carts to improve balance and performance.

After unloading her cargo, Mizuki leaned her back against the side of the cart and closed her eyes. She wasn't feeling well at all, and she feared she knew why: chills, a burning forehead, a heavy head, weakness, aching bones, dizziness, all symptoms of the illness that had swept through the civilian population over the winter and had recently started spreading among the soldiers as well. It was an especially aggressive and contagious flu that had bedridden its victims for weeks, weakening both body and mind. Throughout February, Mizuki had almost completely neglected training and exercises to help care for the sick. She'd been careful to avoid getting infected, of course, wearing masks and thoroughly washing her hands after every contact with a patient, and everything had gone smoothly until the day before the expedition.

That morning, she had woken up with a terrible headache but decided to ignore it; she certainly wouldn't miss an opportunity to go outside the walls with her comrades or to offer her services as a doctor just because of a little headache. The symptom, however, far from easing, had worsened, and at the time of her nightly meeting with the Captain - skipping their regular appointment wasn't even an option - Mizuki had shown up looking like a ghost. Levi had noticed immediately and asked if she had caught the flu, but she had firmly denied it.

Now, she bitterly regretted her arrogance: after two days of scouting, every inch of her body ached as if a Titan had just stepped on her, and she feared she might faint at any moment.

"Hey, guys! What's all this talk about numbers?" asked Nifa, popping out from behind a cart.

"We're trying to guess Hanje's age. The stakes are a round of drinks," Gelgar explained, giving one last shove to the crates.

"Drinks? Strange, you never bet on that. Anyway, I know how old Hanje is!" Nifa revealed with a smug smile. "Come on, make your guess, and we'll see who's closest. Not Loki, I can bet on that without even hearing his guess."

Loki huffed loudly and pinched Nifa on the arm. "Here's another one who always sides with Mizuki no matter what."

"If everyone sides with me and not you, there's got to be a reason…"

"Yeah, that they're all filthy corrupts…"

"Oh, poor little Loki feels discriminated…"

"Nifa, I swear I'll…"

Loki's threat, however, was cut short by a sudden exclamation. The hands of all four soldiers darted instinctively to the blades at their sides. When you heard yelling outside the walls, there was a high chance that Titans were nearby, and having a weapon ready could mean the difference between life and death.

Only after preparing for the worst did they bother to find out what was actually going on.

"What's happening?! Are we under attack?!" blurted Gelgar, frantically looking around.

"No," Mizuki replied, standing on her toes to peek behind the cart and motioning for the others to do the same. "It's just my boss losing it over the Titans, and… is strangling Oluo?"

"What?!"

"I have to see this!"

The group leaned forward to get a better view. Behind the cart, just outside Commander Smith's tent - where she had probably just finished yet another failed discussion - Hanje was ranting loudly, eyes wild with frustration, and had both hands tightly gripping the collar of Oluo's shirt, whose face had turned an alarming shade of gray.

"What's going on? I mean, I know Oluo can be exasperating sometimes, but murder seems a bit extreme…"

"Who knows… maybe he said something bad about Titans, and Hanje snapped."

"She's been a bit on edge lately," Mizuki said, exchanging a knowing glance with Nifa. Hanje's squad wasn't exactly going through a smooth patch: their squad leader had become fixated on the urgent need to capture a Titan, and every refusal from Commander Erwin only made her more restless. What had once been an obsession for Hange had turned into a sickness, consuming both her and her subordinates: Moblit was at his breaking point, and even he was struggling to keep her under control; Amado, Mizuki, and Nifa feared that at any moment something would happen that would make the cup overflow and Hanje would recklessly throw herself into some kind of madness.

Two days earlier, as soon as the gates of Trost had swung open before the Survey Corps, Hanje herself had confirmed their suspicions: she had in fact recklessly galloped ahead, even overtaking Commander Erwin, and turning to the plain that stretched out at their feet she had shouted:"Yahooo, I'm coming for you, Titans!"

"… Imagine if Levi threatened to kill you… Honestly, what would you do?! Could you fight and win?!" Hanje was now yelling, shaking poor Oluo mercilessly.

"What? Why would Captain Levi kill Oluo?"

"Obviously, it's a metaphor, Loki. Are you really that dense?"

"Are you really that insufferable, Nifa?"

"Would you mind telling me how you plan to win? You need to study him!" Hange's glasses gleamed in the sunlight, giving her an even more crazed look. Behind her, Moblit raised his arms as if to grab her and force her to let go, but he immediately gave up, remembering that no one could make Hange let go of anything. Not Oluo's collar, and certainly not her obsession with capturing a Titan.

"Oh no, here we go again," sighed Gelgar, running a hand over his forehead. "Look at that wretched Moblit, he looks like he's about to have a stroke. All we really need is Hanje killing someone."

"Everything, from his daily routine to the kind of food he dislikes, his taste in women, even how many times he goes to the bathroom…"

"Oh," Gelgar let out a whistle. "I'd love to know that too. I'm really curious about Captain Levi's type."

"As are all the recruits and most of the female soldiers, so get in line," Nifa teased, elbowing him.

Trying to make it look natural, Mizuki turned her back to the group to hide the blush creeping across her cheeks, which the afternoon sunlight would likely highlight, and which Nifa certainly wouldn't miss noticing.

"You need to know every single detail about him," Hanje continued, seemingly completely indifferent to Oluo's face turning more and more blue. "By doing so, you'll take advantage of his weaknesses."

"But are we sure Captain Levi has weaknesses? That doesn't seem like a very fitting comparison,"Loki commented, frowning.

"Are you saying Captain Levi is worse than the Titans?" Nifa rolled her eyes. "There's nothing to be done, you're just so dense".

"If you don't act like this, you'll surely… get killed," Hanje concluded, lifting Oluo another centimeter off the ground.

"Hanje!" Petra shouted, having witnessed the entire scene while refueling her gas.

At that shout, Moblit snapped out of it too. "Squad Leader! You're going too far!"

"Poor Moblit… now he's gotta make sure his leader doesn't kill someone. You Hanje Squad folks are completely nuts." Loki pinched Nifa's arm again, but this time she reacted and punched him.

Mizuki had distanced herself from the discussion. When she had turned around, her gaze had caught the outline of the imposing figure of Mike, on watch atop one of the village houses, and her attention focused on him. Mike calmly scanned the horizon, munching on the crackers that were their carbohydrate source during expeditions. Suddenly, though, he wrinkled his nose and sharply lifted his chin, then moved a few steps to get a better view of the forest to the southeast.

Barely a moment passed before he drew his pistol, and a red flare streaked across the sky.

"It's in the forest! Let's move!" Mike thundered in his deep voice.

Quickly, as they had practiced during drills, the soldiers scattered around the four corners of the abandoned village stopped everything they were doing and, swarming like well-trained ants, rushed to their horses. Mounted, they waited tensely for Commander Erwin, at the front, to analyze the situation, though - truth be told - most were certain he would order them to resume their march toward the walls.

However, the soldiers' and Erwin's speculations were thrown off course by Hanje. What Amado, Nifa, and Mizuki had feared might happen came true: the final drop had been spilled - whether it was Erwin's latest refusal or Oluo's caustic remarks that had caused the damage was irrelevant - and the cup had overflowed. Letting out a wild, excited yell, Hanje flung herself into one of the craziest ventures she had ever undertaken. "Erwin! I'm going!" she declared, leaping onto the first horse she found in her path, while Moblit and Amado chased after her desperately. "WOOOOOOAAAAA! Wait for me, little Titan!" she exclaimed, eyes gleaming behind her dirty goggle lenses, and she charged toward the forest at a gallop.

"Hanje, no!", "Squad Leader, stop!" Mizuki, Amado, and Moblit shouted in unison.

"Hanje!" Erwin called out, but it was in vain. He immediately raised his arm to order Hanje's squad to stay put. "Hold your ground," he commanded, then added, "Levi!"

"Tsk". Looking irritated like someone who had been rudely awakened from a nap, Levi sped off after Hanje, followed instantly by the Special Operations Squad.

"We wait," Erwin announced to the soldiers behind him, who quickly passed the message along to the more distant squads.

Mizuki, Moblit, Amado, and Nifa exchanged anxious looks and, as one, steered their horses to the edge of the village, not losing sight of Levi and his squad, who were shooting across the plains like wild marbles, until they vanished into the forest.

"It'll be fine,"Amado said in a trembling voice.

"Of course it'll be fine,'"Mizuki retorted, patting Ronnie with a sweaty hand. Her worry for Hanje had overwhelmed her so much that she had forgotten about her headache and dizziness.

After what felt like an eternity, a green flare shot high into the sky above the forest where Hanje and Levi's squad had disappeared, signaling that the operation had been successful, and Hanje's subordinates breathed a sigh of relief.

"Men, prepare to move out!" Erwin ordered; the directive quickly passed from one soldier to another, and the captains hurried to gather their troops with shouts and curses. "Hanje Squad,'"Erwin said, approaching on horseback. "Moblit will take command until Hanje returns. Get to your positions… all except Mizuki."

Mizuki started, caught off guard, and waited until her comrades had moved away to ask, her throat tight, "What's going on, Commander? Is something wrong?"

"Relax, no catastrophe looming, for now." Erwin tried to sound relaxed, but Mizuki detected an unmistakable note of tension in his calm voice. "Have you noticed the clouds?"

Mizuki tilted her head slightly. Just moments earlier, the sky had been clear, with only a few wispy clouds; now, however, dark, stormy clouds had gathered overhead, driven by the violent, relentless wind. This meant the end of their ability to communicate via flares. "Captain Neiss warned us this might happen."

"Mike smelled the air. He says a storm's coming; from the east, on the other hand, it's coming a host of Titans. The formation has to veer west to avoid them. I need you to go after Levi and the others and deliver this message," Erwin explained, speaking slowly and locking his gaze intensely on hers. "Can you do it? I'm sending you because…"

But the commander paused, at the flash of realization that lit up Mizuki's face. She might be a little dazed and, in all likelihood, suffering from a fairly high fever, but her brain was still functioning perfectly. Erwin was sending her to deliver the message because, after a year and a half, it was now obvious to even the most inexperienced of captains that Mizuki had entered the ranks of the elite soldiers of the Survey Corps. She would most likely be able to complete the mission alone and without getting killed; choosing someone else would mean for Erwin assigning at least three men to the task, and therefore exposing three of his soldiers to the risk of death.

For her part, after a year and a half of serving under Erwin's command, Mizuki had more or less grasped the key points of his thinking. The commander's primary job was to make delicate calculations: for every decision, Erwin Smith weighed the relative advantages and disadvantages and carefully considered which option was most beneficial in terms of human lives. And in this particular case, Erwin believed sending her to meet up with Levi and the others was the least risky choice with the highest chance of success.

"Of course I can do it," she said. "And I know why you're sending me. For practicality's sake."

"Not just for practicality. Levi always gets nervous during storms." With those two cryptic phrases, seemingly unrelated to each other, the commander dug his heels into the horse's side. "I'm counting on you, then!"

Though he had already turned his back, Mizuki nodded firmly, then urged Ronnie into a gallop, heading for the forest.

.

When Mizuki reached Levi squad and Hanje - thank God, apparently undamaged - the sky had already begun to cry. Drops of freezing water, thin as needles, fell to the ground, hitting trees, horses, and men; the rain gear protected Mizuki, preventing the water from seeping under her clothes, but she still began to shiver from the cold due to the wind whipping her face and the fever.

She immediately sensed that something was wrong. Hanje looked dazed and lost in nebulous thoughts, Levi's face was dark - the rain irritated him greatly, Mizuki completely agreed with the commander on this point - and his subordinates welcomed her with a dazed expression that alarmed her. No one explained to her what the hell had happened in the forest to reduce them in that state; after receiving Mizuki's message, they continued to gallop in silence, slightly changing their course to the west.

As they advanced, the guts of rain intensified, the wind struck them with greater force and fury, visibility decreased, and the horses struggled to keep pace. Mizuki studied Levi from the corner of her eye, watching his hands clutch the reins convulsively, as if he were hurting himself to maintain a semblance of control.

Suddenly, a pair of riders emerged from the curtain of rain to their left. They were two soldiers from the rear teams, delivering the message that the formation needed to turn again, this time to the east, to properly orient their course toward the walls. After passing on the message, the two broke away from the group and disappeared back into the storm to return to their position.

It was now their task to relay the communication to the rear team on the right side. All the subordinates patiently waited for their superiors - namely Levi, since Hanje had yet to emerge from her dazed state - to give further instructions.

The captain's face was contorted in a grimace; his elegant features expressed deep inner turmoil, as if Levi were torn by the duty to make a choice that would determine the course of his existence.

"We will go in two!" he announced in a flat voice. "I and…" Then his steel blades crossed the golden pools of Mizuki, who was still looking at him, and suddenly every doubt vanished from his face. "Brat, you're coming with me! You all turn and keep going straight. Eld, I entrust you with the command of the group."

Mizuki's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but Levi was already directing his horse to the right; avoiding turning her face toward Petra, she had no choice but to follow him with her head down.

They advanced in silence. It seemed as though they were plunging deeper into the heart of the storm, which raged around them with furious cracks, impetuous whirlwinds and buckets of icy water, which fell on them diagonally and, overcoming the protection offered by their rain gear, insinuated themselves under their uniforms. If their horses hadn't been so close, the heavy rain and the vaporous mist rising from the ground might have concealed Levi's small figure from Mizuki's view.

Just when she thought they couldn't go on any longer, and that the unstoppable force of nature would bring their steeds down, Levi and Mizuki realized, as if in a dream, that they had reached a cluster of houses.

"We're stopping!" the captain shouted, struggling to be heard over the roar of the storm.

With considerable difficulty, they tied the horses to a post and rushed into the nearest house, barricading the door behind them after fighting against the biting gusts of wind.

The interior of the room, which must have once served as a dining room and kitchen, was immersed in darkness and smelled of mold and mildew; the walls creaked ominously with every gust of wind that swept across the plain, and large drops of water pounded rhythmically against the opaque glass. Mizuki expected the captain to wrinkle his nose at the dust and dirt, but Levi appeared to be preoccupied with thoughts far more pressing than the grime infesting the place. For the umpteenth time, she wondered what had happened in the forest before she reached them and whether the cause of his bad mood was related to that incident or to the pouring rain that was battering the already weary soldiers of the Survey Corps.

Her fingertips had lost sensitivity due to the cold, they were so stiff that she could barely flex them. Her head throbbed painfully, as if wrapped in a circle of searing metal that inexorably ate away at her skin, skull bones, and brain, erasing all sense of danger and exhausting the little strength that still held her up. Afraid that her legs would give out, Mizuki leaned against a wall and squinted her eyes.

Levi walked to the center of the room and stopped there, directly in her line of sight.

Through her lowered eyelashes, Mizuki caught sight of his figure turned toward her; her numbed skin pleasantly tingled, responding to the silent pull of his presence.

"How much gas do you have?" Levi suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

Mizuki cleared her throat. "The cylinders are full," she replied in a slightly slurred voice.

"Good."

She felt the urge to say something. There was something strange about the tranquility that lingered in the room. Something surreal, perhaps connected to the place they were in, a remote village outside the walls, where the rules of human society did not apply, and where Mizuki was just a simple, talkative girl, and Levi a man with little patience; a place where they were not required to hide the unconfessable secret they both harbored in their chests, where no one would judge them for feeling unnameable, yet so human and all-consuming feelings. A place where, despite the giants and the constant danger of an imminent and horrible death, they were free.

"Isn't it strange, Captain? This is the first time we've been regularly together outside the walls," Mizuki babbled, just to say something, reverting to a topic she deemed non-controversial. "I saw you fight on the first day we met, and then never again. Well, it's not like I'll ever forget it. Seeing you twirling in the sky with the device and taking down giants with the elegance of a ballerina is one of those spectacles that remain etched in your memory forever." A somewhat banal comment, perhaps, but a new pang of pain had just stabbed her head like a nail, preventing her from formulating anything wittier.

Levi crossed his arms over his chest. "We've always had different positions in the formation," he observed, without going into detail. He certainly couldn't reveal to her the real reason for their situation, namely Erwin's desire to keep them separated at all costs outside the walls.

Only then did he realize the extraordinary nature of their current condition.

Together. Outside the walls. Regularly.

"Ohi, brat."

"Mmm?"

"Who sent you to bring us the message, earlier?"

"Who else but Commander Erwin? He must have thought that, for once, I could manage without making a mess and without getting myself killed."

The captain clicked his tongue. "Of course he thinks that, and it's not new. He's known your potential for a long time. That's why he planned to put you in the special operations team, but I refused."

Mizuki's eyes widened in surprise. "The commander asked you…?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

"After your first scouting."

"… I didn't know that."

"We've never talked about it."

"Why did you refuse?"

"Because you would have ended up doing something stupid to protect one of us, and you'd have kicked the bucket."

"But now I follow orders!"

"You only follow them when it suits you," Levi corrected her with an accusatory tone. "Anyway, this happened before you made that ridiculous pact with Erwin."

"Would you change your mind now?"

"… What a stupid question."

"Just answer."

Levi sighed and turned his head to the side, hiding his expression from her. "… No."

"I see. You must really think poorly of me as a soldier. Well, not without reason." Mizuki, leaning against the wooden wall, lowered her head; she ran the tips of her fingers over her bruised and swollen eyes, searching for some relief. Then she murmured, so quietly that Levi could barely hear her: "I think I wouldn't give a damn about orders if…," but she didn't continue.

"If?"

She moved again mechanically, lifting her chin with a snap, as if she couldn't believe she had just spoken that last sentence aloud, and even more so, that he hadn't let the conversation drop.

A conversation whose conclusion they both knew very well, as they knew how inappropriate it was to articulate it. A conversation that, within the walls, they would both leave hanging, unfinished right at the most problematic and implication-laden point.

"If…" Mizuki said again, but she couldn't complete the sentence.

I think I wouldn't give a damn about orders if you were in danger.

Levi waited silently, patiently, studying her from the corner of his eye. There was something strange about his demeanor, a hint of exasperated defiance and recklessness that didn't belong to him, perhaps awakened by the storm thundering powerfully around them.

When they were alone, it was as if they were constantly walking on the edge of a precipice, each on one side of the gorge, with the tips of their toes jutting out into the void; and the abyss opening beneath them seemed to invite them, alluring and hypnotic, to take a step forward, to leap into the adventure, to close their eyes and forget stupid and petty hindrances like military or moral duties towards a friend. Between the two edges of the gorge stretched a rope bridge, which both of them, in turn, enjoyed taking, taking up the exhortation; they advanced only slightly, their eyes fixed on the person on the other side of the cliff, then stopping at a safe distance and backing away. It was an unwritten pact that this bridge could not be crossed entirely: the two of them must not meet on the same bank, or a forbidden desire would take over. And yet, that day, Levi had proven more intrepid than usual: he had already covered almost half the distance separating them, and was throwing her handholds and ropes to hold onto and come to him.

But the ground began to tremble imperceptibly beneath their feet, interrupting the dangerous game they were entertaining themselves with. A couple of normal people, in that situation, wouldn't have even noticed; but Levi and Mizuki were two trained soldiers, and they had identified too many approaching giants.

Without batting an eye, both of them pulled up their hoods, tightened their rain gear, and headed for the door.

"Ohi, stay inside. I can handle this."

"Forget it."

"And you would be the one following orders?"

On the threshold, Mizuki huffed. "Don't lecture me. This time, incredibly enough, I'm the one who wants to follow the rules. You know well that the regulations state that you must not engage in battle alone if you are in a group."

"Tsk. Cheeky as usual".

"Yeah, yeah. How do we organize ourselves? Give the instructions like a good superior."

Levi clicked his tongue again and studied the muddy road between the two rows of houses. "I'll take the left side, you take the right."

"Roger that."

"No bullshit, brat."

Mizuki shot him her best cheeky smile, the one that drove him crazy, then plunged into the wall of rain.

From the blanket of fog and water, a colossal figure suddenly appeared in front of Levi. He squinted until his eyes were mere slits and activated the device. The giant didn't even have time to take a step before he brought it down, quick and lethal like the sting of a scorpion.

He had not yet regained the ground, that he was already anxiously scanning for Mizuki.

The girl had won the unlucky side of the street: he spotted her on the roof of a house, alert, facing off against a pair of ten- and twelve-meter class giants. She activated the device and, with perfect movement, maneuvered around the titan chasing her and landed on its back, securing the grappling hooks to its shoulders.

Then Levi's worst nightmare became reality.

The cruel past that had followed him like a curse, awakened by the storm that had suddenly erupted, merged with the present before his eyes.

Mizuki's foot slipped on the giant's wet back.

In that moment, in Levi's mind, Isabel also slipped on the wet back of the giant to which she was hanging.

For him, that nightmare had never ended. It was a time frame that repeated incessantly; a puddle of darkness into which he plunged every rainy day.

He remembered with almost ridiculous accuracy what had happened next.

Isabel dangling helplessly.

The second giant charging at her.

Her terrified face, lips forming a choked and useless plea for help.

The sense of helplessness.

The frustration.

Having an immense, inhuman strength but being unable to save her anyway, damn it; not having time to do so, not even by sacrificing an arm, a leg, his eyes, his hands, even his life.

The severed head lying in the blood-soaked grass.

The horror revived inside and outside him.

But Mizuki wasn't Isabel. Mizuki had much more experience than her as a soldier and, above all, she was a ninja, equipped with abilities that normal girls lacked.

With chakra, she anchored one foot to the giant's back before losing her footing completely and managed to stay upright. Her head snapped to the side; she noticed the second giant charging at her and activated the device to avoid it. The titan's arm crashed into the back of the other giant, which dangerously lurched forward while Mizuki spun out of reach, slicing through the rain; then, with perfect timing - worthy of a student of Levi - she plunged the blades into the back of the enemy's neck.

She was already soaring back into the air to take down the remaining giant when a flash crossed her field of vision; the next instant, the last titan collapsed to the ground with a thud.

"Hey!" Mizuki protested toward the captain, who had landed on the muddy street. "That was my prey! I had everything perfectly under control! It's true I just finished saying I hadn't seen you fight since Tiburtina, but you should have stayed out of it!"

Continuing to grumble, Mizuki slipped back into their shelter; with practiced movements, she undid the straps of her rain gear and removed it to hang, dripping, on a hook. Only then, realizing that Levi had followed her without a word, did she turn with her hands on her hips and a frown, a bit resentful that her complaints, for once valid and justified, were falling on deaf ears and ready to push the point further.

However, the words died on her lips.

She automatically stepped back, as if struck by one of the gusts of wind that made the house creak.

Levi stood still, staring at her.

He took a step and then another. Mizuki wanted to move away further, to flee far from there and from him; she ordered her body to do so, but found, with dismay, that, overcome by the captain's penetrating gaze, it no longer obeyed her commands.

She watched him approach in the real world, slow and inexorable; in the ethereal dimension where their minds communicated without words, she saw him cross the suspended bridge over the gorge, burning every precaution, ignoring every danger signal, not giving a damn about problems and obstacles.

Finally, the captain stopped. Between them was only the space of a breath, the final leap with which Levi would finally reach Mizuki's side, and then turning back would be impossible: the wooden bridge would burn behind him, and everything between them would change forever.

The forbidden desire would be fulfilled.

Did it scare her? Yes, very much.

Did she want to run away? Yes, as far away as possible.

Would she stay? Of course she would; she was like paralyzed.

Did she want him? Yes, damn it. She wanted him so much that her chest hurt, that every distance made her heart bleed.

She wanted him. She wanted the captain, desperately, inexorably, in a total and terrifying way.

Perhaps it was the fever that spoke and thought for her, but the force of the attraction to him overwhelmed her like never before.

In the captain's light gray eyes, for the first time, Mizuki glimpsed in a crystal clear way the same hopeless desire, the same will, the same need that inflamed her. He, always so measured and self-controlled, inflexible with himself before with the rest of the world, had lost control, and had approached her with the intention of living to the full that attraction that tied them up in a tangled and indissoluble bond.

Without stopping.

They were just a step apart, motionless, panting, waiting.

Mizuki, with feverish gestures, unclipped the captain's cloak, never breaking her gaze from his.

The garment, proudly displaying the bold, untamed, and suffocating Wings of Freedom, slid to the ground, resting at their feet with a rustle full of omens.

In the distance, and between them, only the sound of rain.

Without that cloak, he was no longer humanity's strongest soldier, the proud captain of the Survey Corps

He was just a man facing the girl who had stolen his heart.

At that moment, she too was neither a ninja nor a stranger in the torn and hostile world within the walls.

She was just a girl facing the man who had stolen her heart.

A step, a head bending forward, whose it was unclear, and perhaps it didn't even matter.

Their lips finally met.

In the distance, and between them, only the sound of rain.

It wasn't the first time Mizuki had kissed someone. Even someone like her had already lived that fundamental experience for a human being.

With Rei, the first kiss at fourteen, wet and awkward, leaving a sensation of alienation and dissatisfaction on her lips. She had then repeated it with some brave classmates from the medical training course, while they walked her home in the evening after shifts, always following the same script: the interested party would stop in front of Mizuki, bathed in moonlight, staring intensely at her, leaning forward with his torso and head to make his intentions clear, asking for silent permission that she could easily deny by stepping back. Mizuki, however, had never done so; she had remained standing still, hands behind her back, returning the intense and somewhat disturbing gaze of the boy in question, and had waited to be kissed, not out of some sudden emotional surge, but out of pure curiosity.

She believed those brief and - unilaterally - passionate kisses, snatched in sweltering summer nights or icy winter evenings, would constitute enough of an experience to guarantee her some confidence when the time finally came for her to take an interest in romantic matters.

She was wrong. In the few occasions when she and Levi had come close to actually doing it, she was struck by a thousand doubts - the captain was a grown up, quite popular with the fairer sex, while she was a girl almost completely inexperienced in feelings and sexual experiences - which had certainly not stopped her but had left her thoughtful in the following days.

What would have happened if, during the first kiss, she had ruined everything with her clumsiness? Would the captain ever kiss her a second time? Should she perhaps practice a bit before getting down to it? And with whom? If she had asked for help from Loki and Gelgar, whom she trusted, would they laugh in her face?

Instead, to her immense surprise, she discovered she had worried for nothing.

When their lips met, Mizuki understood that with the captain she couldn't make mistakes. With Levi, there were no wrong or right. There was only him, her, their mouths pressed together, and the hunger for each other's body devouring them.

Likewise, it didn't matter how, where, and when they had arrived at that longed-for kiss. Over the past year, she had often paused to dream about how it might happen, and every time, reality had contradicted the scenes birthed from her imagination: they had almost kissed in a dark storeroom under a stair, in a forest deep in enemy territory, in the common room of an inn; and now they were finally really kissing, soaked with rain, after having taken down three giants, in an abandoned and dusty house.

Yet it didn't matter: it was perfect, and no other place or moment could have been more so.

She was kissing that man, and she felt that nothing else in the world - the world inside the walls, the world outside; any existing world on the face of the earth - mattered beyond him.

Their mouths, eager for one another, met, nothing more than a slight pressure, akin to the caress of gentle and warm winds blowing from the south in spring.

So cold and cracked, hers; so warm and soft, his.

It was initially a timid meeting.

Levi and Mizuki, with their eyes wide open, filled with urgency and desire, did nothing but press their mouths against each other and eagerly breathe in the air escaping from their lips.

Under Mizuki's open hands, fanned out, the captain's chest rose and fell gently, the tip of her pinky vibrating with the echoes of his heart. It was beating tumultuously, with such force that if he had been a patient, Mizuki would have been quite worried for his health. However, her heart was in a much worse condition than the captain's: it pressed painfully against her ribcage, pumping blood at an astonishing rate, as if it were about to burst at any moment.

She sensed that this - a craving manifested in the dull thumping of the chest, the trembling of the legs, the irregular breathing - was the normal state for people who finally tasted each other for the first time after a forced and nerve-wracking abstinence.

Their bodies celebrated the long-awaited victory over rationality and anguish, pushing them to the limits of what was physically sustainable.

"Repressed captain…" Mizuki murmured against his lips.

"Impudent brat…" Levi murmured against hers.

Then Levi sighed ruefully and opened his mouth; Mizuki imitated him, and the slight pressure between their lips turned into a delicate and cautious embrace.

The captain's hands rested on her hips, with the usual delicacy he used the rare times he touched her outside of training, as if he feared he could break her simply by brushing her.

I must have completely lost my mind.

This was what Mizuki and Levi thought as they clung to each other. They were kissing for the first time, after longing for it, dreaming of it through endless lonely nights, deep in enemy territory, immersed in danger, under a pouring rain.

And yet, that kiss erased everything.

Levi led that wild dance, dictating the movement of their lips and the rhythm with which they crashed against one another. He was cautious, holding back; it was unclear whether to avoid losing control entirely or to not upset her.

Why should she be upset, then?

For those bites each stole from the other? For those brief and almost imperceptible sighs that escaped them? For that burning sensation teasing her lower belly?

Mizuki decided to raise the stakes.

She was tired of holding back, of waiting, of beating around the bush.

She wanted to take all of him right away, and she wanted him to do the same.

Her hands slid up to meet his rain-drenched hair, intertwining behind his neck. The swollen mouth, worn from that all-encompassing kiss, left the captain's for just a moment to move down a millimeter; Mizuki gently bit his lower lip, just as she had dreamed of doing for months.

Levi sighed again, this time louder, and the two sharp blades on his face shimmered with a predator's gleam.

That was what she wanted. She wanted him to completely overwhelm her, to dominate her, to deprive her of any way out. She wanted to lose herself in him and feel nothing else outside of him.

She wanted something absolute, all-consuming, that erased every superfluous element; and everything that was not Levi was superfluous: Levi's soft lips, Levi's hands on her hips, Levi's thumbs absently caressing her stomach.

She wanted to be his.

And he wanted to make her so.

Suddenly, the captain's demeanor changed, and he became once again the unknown, seductive man Mizuki had randomly encountered at Tennison Mansion, that impetuous and cruel man he sometimes transformed into while bringing down giants; and before she realized it, Mizuki had already fallen into his power.

His hands resting on her hips moved: one traveled up to the nape of her neck. With a decisive but not invasive gesture, the captain gently tilted her neck to a position that pleased him; then, he began to skillfully undo the bun that adorned her head, as if he had been toying with the secrets of women's hairstyles since birth.

Only then did he deepen the kiss: Levi's tongue penetrated Mizuki's mouth like water cascading from a waterfall, rushing, irresistible, overwhelming, and filled her with himself.

The other hand caressed her back with the tips of his fingers, a touch that recalled the sensation of blades of grass that, moved by the wind, delicately tickle a body stretched out in the meadow; and then, without warning, it slid down to her bottom and roughly grabbed her buttock.

Mizuki moaned, and Levi sighed again, murmuring a half-word she couldn't quite catch.

As he performed these magical acts with his hands, the captain had pushed her back so naturally that she didn't even notice; docile under his commands, she obeyed him and found herself pressed against the wall. With a knee, he spread her legs apart and continued to kiss her while pressing his body against hers. She arched her back in response, surrendering to this new entanglement engulfed in a blazing fire.

A torrent of emotions and unknown sensations overwhelmed Mizuki, trapped between the solid wall and the captain.

It was as if every nerve ending had activated, sending her impulses in a rapid rhythm, making her aware of every contact with his body, filling her with a forbidden pleasure never experienced even in the shy, awkward moments when, hidden under the covers, she had touched herself while thinking of him.

Her hair suddenly fell around her face and over her shoulders, dripping; the captain's fingers threaded through the damp locks, running them over and over from tip to root.

Levi's tongue had quickly tamed Mizuki's, intertwining with it, wrapping it up, pushing it down and up, and then abandoning it to explore every corner of her mouth, from the palate to the teeth, as if trying to leave the mark of his passage on her. Her tongue had no choice but to follow his, uncertain and trembling, needy and weak, waiting desperately to engage in a new erotic battle.

Levi's hand continued to grip her ass almost painfully; at times, he caressed it, then moved slightly farther, changing his hold and squeezing as if his life depended on it, never tiring of savoring her.

Every gesture of the captain revealed his experience, Mizuki noticed it immediately. The way he had untied her hair, how he kissed her, the confidence with which he had taken absolute control over her. All evoked past situations where Levi's hands had touched and pleasured other female bodies, his mouth had kissed other lips, his fingers had caressed other hair; she was aware of it, and the mere thought irritated her.

She wished to erase from his memory every trace of that disturbing past from which she was excluded. She desired him to feel and see only her body, to think of her and no one else, to touch only her in that desperate way.

Their bodies began to know each other in that embrace, and, thirsty and imperious, they craved for more, even more of that contact they had both desperately longed for for months.

They were lost, completely lost.

More, more, even more.

Levi interrupted the silent war with Mizuki's mouth and, brushing her cheeks and jaw with the tip of his nose, lowered his head to kiss and suck on her neck; at the same time, he unraveled his hand from her curls and slipped it under her shirt, cupping her breasts. The captain's skilled fingers sought out the already hardened nipple, playing with it; she threw her head back, emitting indecent moans.

Due to the change in position, something hard at the crotch of Levi's pants brushed against her lower abdomen.

The captain stiffened, hesitated for a moment, then began to move.

Mizuki held her breath.

For the first time in her life, she savored the feeling of an erection pressed against her body. Levi was rubbing against her with firm, decisive thrusts of his hips; Mizuki's pelvis, pushed by his hand still buried in the soft flesh of her ass, moved in perfect sync with him. With each thrust, the bulge in the captain's pants swelled, and he moved with more urgency; with each thrust, Mizuki became wetter in that one part of her where the rain had not penetrated, and her dissatisfaction multiplied.

Yes, that voluptuous embrace felt halfway through irritated her.

The clothes, the clothes. Those damned useless clothes that made such a moment painful and unsatisfying, preventing her from truly sensing the captain's desire, forcing her to settle for the raging fire in her lower abdomen, which seemed to command her body, her legs, to open up, to welcome him. But no matter how much she tried to facilitate the contact between their bodies, no matter how much she pressed against his erection, no matter how much she tried to open up to him, those damned clothes were in the way.

Was it warm down there? And how warm? As warm as she felt on fire? Was it soft, at least a little? Or hard as steel, hard as his eyes? What would it feel like to touch it? Would she feel the need to open up even more?

She wanted to find out.

So, she did what her feverish mind suggested as a brilliant idea.

She began to undress him.

One of Mizuki's hands, which had until then remained clasped behind Levi's neck, moved of its own accord to loosen his belt, with the skillful motions of a doctor accustomed to undressing unconscious or reluctant patients. In the process, she brushed against the bulge pressing against the front of his pants; the captain visibly jolted, and again muttered incomprehensible words against Mizuki's neck.

Levi's unexpected reaction forced her to stop; her slender fingers hung suspended in the air for a moment, trembling. Only then did Mizuki realize the immense power she had over him, how a mere accidental caress was enough to make him stiffen, and that perhaps erasing the traces of his past loves wouldn't be as difficult as she had feared.

Her feminine instinct took over and showed her the way: Mizuki unbuttoned his pants and let her hand slip into the opening that was created.

Her fingers sank and gently wrapped around the captain's throbbing dick; it was hard and pleasantly warm to the touch, just as she had imagined. It almost seemed as if their ends fit together perfectly, as if they had been made for each other.

"Fuck. If you keep doing that…" he gasped, his lips pressed against her neck, speaking to her for the first time since they had jumped on each other.

"If I keep doing what?" she teased, feeling bold because - oh - how much she loved teasing him. She wouldn't give up that pleasure for anything in the world.

The erection in her hand pulsed wildly in response to her provocation.

"Take off your pants," Levi ordered, pressing his cheek against hers, and began to fiddle with the fastening of the girl's pants, but he failed in his intent. His fingers, once so skilled and infallible, had turned into clumsy and inexperienced helpers, as if the captain had truly forgotten every lesson learned through years of practice and love.

Mizuki gloated to herself over the success of the plan. "Leave it, I'll do it…"

"HEY! Is someone out there?"

They both froze: Levi, with his hand on her ass and his lips pressed against her neck; Mizuki, with one hand's fingers wrapped around his penis and the other's on the button of her pants.

Outside, it kept raining, though the drops fell upon the world with less violence.

In less than an instant, the excitement that had pervaded them vanished abruptly. Levi, regaining his composure, pulled away abruptly and took two steps back.

"Fuck," Mizuki murmured, covering her mouth with a hand - the same hand that had just moments before been softly cradling Levi's dick.

"I should be the one saying that."

Her golden eyes flashed as something in the center of her chest cracked, causing a piercing pain. "Excuse me?"

Levi avoided meeting Mizuki's outraged gaze. He fastened his pants, retrieved the cloak that had fallen to the ground and the backpack leaning against the wall, and with two long strides reached the door, just as Hanje appeared at the threshold.

"Oh, here you are; I thought someone was here! Hi, Levi. Hi, Mizuki. I came because I was worried that with this rain… But what…?" Hanje furrowed her brow, following Levi's retreat toward the horses, then turned to Mizuki. "Wow, what a killer look! I'm sorry if he was rougher than usual, Mizuki. It's my fault; I really messed up earlier in the forest, and he got pretty mad. But, you know, you have no idea of the discovery we made! It's really… Mizuki, are you okay? You look pale as a rag!"

While Hanje was babbling, Mizuki had reached the door with small, uncertain steps. She felt - and must look - like a rag: after the abrupt interruption of her passionate embrace with the captain, the fatigue and weakness caused by the fever had hit her like a bucket of cold water, and alongside the physical debilitation came the discomfort of the thorn piercing her heart.

"I'm fine, Hanje," she found the strength to say, forcing her lips to stretch in a reassuring manner, a parody of a smile that would fool no one, not even the inattentive and indifferent Klaus.

"Oh, great." The squad leader, however, had her mind elsewhere, off chasing wild and implausible theories.

"I'm fine," Mizuki repeated in a whisper, her chest aching, while she watched in dismay as the captain mounted his horse, turning his back to her, and thought that nothing was okay.

What have I done?

.

The formation returned to the walls without further incident.

As usual, Mizuki jumped from one wagon to another to help the more seriously injured, clinging with her nails and teeth to the last scraps of strength and clarity she had left. However close to fainting she was, she couldn't help but notice that Levi was openly ignoring her.

As soon as they passed through the gates of Trost, Mizuki asked Amado to summon Dr. Michaelson to Headquarters, and she continued to assist her comrades until he appeared at the clinic's threshold. The moment she saw him, the girl announced she had a high fever; then, she reached the nearest service bed, lay down still dressed, and fell into a deep sleep.

The flu kept Mizuki in bed for two weeks; and there was no night, when the fever rose and she fell prey to delirium, in which she didn't dream of the captain and the taste of his kisses.

.

.

.

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Hello everyone, ladies and gentlemen.
Finally, let me say that we are here. The first dam has been broken. They jumped on each other, and I couldn't wait to write the scene or to have you read it. I hope it went well, and gave you a few shivers. But let's go in order.
First, the arc of the mysterious organization. Thanks to Mizuki's usual bullshit, most of the enemies have been tracked down and put in prison, although four remain at large. Wilinski, the founder of the organization, and the two leaders, the Wizard and the Giant, all figures that we will meet again and learn more about in the second arc.
But not in this one. For now, the twists are over, and in the final part and in the next chapter we will only focus on shoujo manga feelings and erotic dreams (*rubs hands*).
Yes, let's get to the main course (which takes place in the context of the 49th expedition, the one in which Isle's notebook is found; I recommend you watch the OVA, if you haven't already, because it's very cute and longer than the short chapter of the manga; that's where I got the scene of Hanje strangling Oluo). Anyway.
They finally made it. Not alone, of course, what pushed them into each other's arms were the rain (or rather, the nervousness it causes Levi) and the flu, but what do you want: one is more stubborn and emotionally blocked than the other, so please be patient with them.
The atmosphere I wanted to create was precisely that of a dam breaking. Of an explosion. It couldn't be a normal kiss, it had to be a kiss that said it all, theirs, after a year and a half of drooling over each other. I hope I've at least partially succeeded in my intent.
And then, I wanted to convey the different levels of experience in love and sex of our two lovebirds. Levi is obviously more experienced, he is a man, and honestly (even if he is never shown in intimate poses in the original work), I can't imagine him as someone who holds back. As a respectful man, attentive to what his partner wants, yes, but not a shy person who lets himself be intimidated. He is the one who controls the dance, at least at the beginning.
On the other hand, Mizuki. is overwhelmed at the beginning, I would have found the opposite quite unnatural; it is in fact her first experience, she loves Levi like crazy, she doesn't know what to do. However, she is always the same: she is curious, she is cheeky (sometimes I almost feel like scolding her for what she makes me write), she is impudent. She quickly gains ground, and soon reverses the roles, she is the one who dictates the law. If they had continued, I don't know in the end who would have commanded who.
Anyway, I think I've tormented you enough already.
Thanks again to those who have read this far, and saved/left kudos to the story.
A kiss!