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

19. Chapter 16

Arc 2: A changing world

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Chapter 16: No one would ever change this animal I have become, help me believe it's not the real me, somebody help me tame this animal…

Animal I Have Become - Three Days Grace

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May 850

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Day of the Attack on Trost

Hell has descended upon the city.

Victory and defeat taste the same.

The metallic tang of blood.

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The moment Levi sets foot on the walls of Trost, he's already in action.

Killing Titans is what he does best.

What makes him feel alive. What gives his life meaning.

There are two of them at the base of the walls, near the breached gate.

He takes them down one after the other, without thinking, without hesitation, without doubt.

He lands on a carcass.

Something feels off.

The gate has been smashed, but in its place stands a gigantic boulder.

The cloak on his shoulders snaps in the wind, the wings are quivering.

The Wings of Freedom.

Levi turns.

Three pairs of wild, wide eyes meet him.

"Oi, brats. What the hell is going on here?"

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"Squad Hange! Handle the Titans on the city's right side!"

Mizuki activates the ODM gear.

She soars over the city, but no longer feels the familiar sense of freedom she knows so well by now.

Beneath her are dismembered bodies.

White smoke rises from the corpses of slain Titans and the ruins of shattered buildings.

And blood. Above all, blood.

Blood, blood, blood, blood.

Mizuki can't help but wonder whose it is.

Most of all, she wonders if it spilled from Jacqueline's and Theo's veins.

Their faces haunt her every moment.

She wants only one thing: to close her eyes and hide herself.

To not see.

To pretend this is all just a nightmare from which she'll soon wake.

But she can't.

Humanity needs the soldiers of the Survey Corps.

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Two days after the Attack on Trost

Dancing flames lick the dark sky.

They look like human bodies writhing in agony.

The smell of smoke. The smell of burning fat. The smell of death.

The night wind lifts clouds of dust and ash.

The bones of the fallen glow faintly in the moonlight.

Around a bonfire, a few recruits huddle close together.

They're still alive, yet they seem more lifeless than the corpses burning before them.

A boy holds a fragment of someone's bone between his fingers.

"What… should I… do now?"

But he already knows the answer.

He knows there's only one path forward.

The boy clenches his fist and makes a decision that will forever alter the course of his existence.

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Three days after the Attack on Trost

A dungeon cannot contain the destructive force of a monster, but it gives the illusion of being able to do so.

And that's what humanity needs now.

Reassurances, even false ones.

Answers, even if they're hard to accept.

Actions, even if they're reckless.

Levi stares at the brat chained inside the cell.

Is he humanity's hope?

Is he the reassurance, the answer, the action they're looking for?

"Oi, hurry up and answer the man, scum. What is it that you want to do?"

"I just want to… enter the Survey Corps and kill Titans."

His soul is a concentration of hatred and anger slowly eating away at him.

"Huh… Not bad…"

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Five days after the Attack on Trost

The air inside the courtroom is stifling.

It reeks of mold, sweat, and fear.

It reeks of soldiers packed together to make a decision; it reeks of the monster whose fate is being decided.

And yet no words echo within the four walls.

Not anymore.

The sound that captivates the crowd now is that of a body being kicked.

Levi lands the final blow, grinding humanity's hope under his boot.

Then he searches the room with his eyes.

He finds her.

Golden eyes he could pick out anywhere.

Mizuki doesn't look away.

As the fate of the world is being decided around them, Levi and Mizuki communicate silently with a glance.

They don't need words to understand each other.

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Seven days after the Attack on Trost

Hange screams in anguish, pulls at her hair, falls to her knees.

The corpses of the two Titans still smolder.

Lavinia lets her gaze wander over the gathered soldiers.

They all appear distraught and outraged, yet the culprit hides among them.

A light touch rests on her shoulder.

Erwin leans in close to her ear.

Before he can speak, however, Lavinia cuts him off.

"Commander, who do you think the real enemy is?"

Erwin presses his lips together slightly.

He nods and steps away. He knows Lavinia had understood.

A traitor hides among them.

And Erwin Smith is determined to uncover them.

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The recruits stand in formation at the base of the platform.

The speech of the commander of the Survey Corps has left them stunned.

Eren Jaeger.

The basement and the secrets it holds.

The promise of death for those who would enlist under his command.

Lavinia, standing behind the man, scans the soldiers for any revealing sign.

But all she sees on those young faces is despair.

Erwin Smith has cast his bait, but it will take time for the enemy to bite.

Time, patience, sacrifice.

This doesn't trouble her in the least.

The soldiers of the Survey Corps are used to it.

They know how to wait. They know how to be patient. They know how to sacrifice.

They live alongside death; they've built everything they have by offering their hearts.

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OOO

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Fifteen Days After the Attack on Trost

In the meeting room of the former Survey Corps Headquarters, Levi sipped his late-afternoon tea with half-closed eyes. It was the only moment of peace in his day, one he tried to savor as much as their current situation allowed him. Hange was pacing nervously next to the table, hands clasped behind her back, significantly disrupting Levi's nerve-soothing ritual.

As they reviewed the current state of affairs before Hange departed to return to Trost, Levi studied the deep dark circles visible beneath her thick glasses with mounting concern.

Since the attack on Trost, life within the walls had become chaotic for all branches of the military; officers were exhausted, cautious, on edge, and seemingly always a hair's breadth away from a nervous breakdown. Levi had been busy negotiating with the higher-ups to determine the conditions of Jaeger's custody, but even his workload paled in comparison to Hange's.

No sooner had the disposal of corpses been completed than the squad leader threw herself, body and soul, into experiments on the captured Titans, christened Sonny and Bean; reducing herself to a shadow of her former self. She barely slept more than an hour per night, forgot to eat and drink, and constantly snuck into the tents where the Titans were kept, more than once narrowly escaping decapitation by their jaws. Her body was starting to buckle under the strain, and only her immense - and frankly incomprehensible - affection for those revolting creatures kept her from collapsing. After Sonny and Bean had kicked the bucket - a trauma Hange had struggled to overcome - she redirected her insatiable thirst for knowledge towards poor Eren, channeling into her experiments with the boy the same fervor she'd shown for her previous lab rats.

Levi, in any case, could do little beyond worrying and offering whatever support he could. No onecould take her place, not even him: out of everyone within the walls, only Hange was capable of handling both Eren and the Titans.

"We're not doing well, Levi," Hange muttered, her gaze vacant and lifeless. "I'm not making any progress with Eren. No matter how many theories I come up with with his help, we can't get him to transform. At this rate…"

"Hange," Levi cut her off brusquely, setting his cup back on its saucer. "It's only been ten days since they handed him over to us."

He wanted to add that they had time, to urge her not to worry needlessly, but he couldn't. Lying had never been his strong suit, and Hange wouldn't have been fooled by such a pathetic falsehood anyway.

They both knew the truth: they had many things, but time wasn't one of them. In less than a month, they would leave the walls again. A short scouting, only one day long, but it had to go off without a hitch and, more importantly, yield convincing results. During Eren Jaeger's trial, Erwin had promised the military leadership concrete evidence of the boy's value to humanity. Levi himself was impatient; but he had forced that feeling deep down, clumsily attempting to calm Hange.

"You know we don't have time! The expedition is in a month," Hange retorted, as though reading his mind. "I'm not a child; I don't need you to treat me gently. And the problem isn't just that we haven't achieved anything yet. It's Eren himself: he's growing more depressed by the day. His motivation is faltering, and he's becoming even more insecure than he already was."

Levi couldn't bring himself to blame the boy, and not just because less than ten days ago he had beaten him senseless in front of a crowd of soldiers baying for his blood.

"He's just a kid, Levi," Hange murmured, voicing the captain's own unspoken thoughts, as she adjusted the glasses that had slipped down her nose. "Just a kid who's been saddled with a responsibility far greater than he can bear, and I have no idea how to help him."

A brat, Hange had called him, and she wasn't wrong. A brat brimming with bitter, uncontrollable rage. Levi had sensed it the moment their eyes had met in the Military Police's prison, and the impression had solidified into certainty during the ten days they'd spent living side by side.

"We can't help him," Levi said quietly, tapping a finger against his teacup. "Our duties and responsibilities towards him are different, and he knows that. He senses it. Even if we wanted to, we can't play babysitter for him."

"True. Not us, but maybe…" Hange trailed off, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, and her eyes lit up. "I might have an idea to help Eren! Trust me and let me handle this! I just need to discuss it with Erwin first, but I'm certain he'll approve."

Levi shook his head. In truth, she didn't need to ask for his trust; he had unshakable faith in Hange and her plans - at least, the ones that didn't involve capturing Titans. "I'm counting on you," he reassured her nonetheless. Relieved, she took her leave, ready to set her plan in motion.

Levi was left alone. After taking the last sip of his tea, he moved towards the window overlooking the garden; a sharp pain, triggered by the movement, stabbed through his head. From there, he could make out the long wooden tables where Eren, his squad, Amado and Moblit - waiting for their superior - were seated. They seemed distant, indistinct, as if they belonged to a separate, disconnected dimension. The headache always gave him a feeling of dissociation, transitory but intense while it lasted, and it had been tormenting him for several days now.

Levi pressed his forehead against the cold glass, sighing, hoping for some relief.

Yes, the days following both humanity's defeat and its first victory over the Titans, events that had occurred back-to-back in Trost, had been frantic and challenging.

The desperate retreat within the walls. The chaos in the city, teeming with Titans, and the story of a boy with the ability to transform into one of them. The meetings with Erwin and the other captains to determine the course of action. The trial. The transfer of Eren to the former Headquarters.

The stakes were high, and the risks countless.

They hadn't had a moment to breathe, nor could they afford the slightest mistake. They needed to stay focused on the ultimate goal, moving forward at a steady pace, unwavering: securing custody of Eren at all costs, then keeping him under surveillance and ensuring he didn't lose control or attempt to escape.

Despite the whirlwind of responsibilities, in the stolen moments snatched from duty, when he stopped, exhausted, for five minutes before diving back into work, his thoughts drifted to her.

Of course, the intention to confront her and discuss their relationship had been postponed indefinitely: this was hardly the right time to broach such a topic and complicate the already chaotic situation between them.

Not that he'd had the opportunity, even if he'd wanted to. Since the attack, he'd seen her only once, at the trial. Levi had remained constantly by Erwin's side, attending one meeting after another, while she had been entirely absorbed in her duties as a doctor.

After the emergency in Trost had been partially contained - that is, once the Survey Corps had wiped out the remaining Titans in the city - Mizuki's true ordeal had begun: caring for the massacre's victims. The Garrison Corps had seized a hotel to turn it into an improvised hospital, as the real one had been destroyed by an Abnormal Titan who crashed into it. The wounded flooded in, and the available doctors, far too few to meet the overwhelming demand, were forced into grueling shifts. For seven days, Mizuki hadn't slept for more than brief half-hour intervals, only easing her pace when reinforcements - more doctor sent from the inner territories - were sent to handle the situation. Or so Hange had told him.

She had remained confined to the hospital the entire time, leaving it only to attend Eren Jaeger's trial. With a potential confrontation with Nile Dok and his gendarmes looming on the horizon, Erwin had requested the presence of all prominent members of the Survey Corps, which included her.

That was the last time Levi had seen her before leaving Trost with his squad and Eren.

He had scanned the crowd of soldiers with his eyes, searching for a mop of curly hair while keeping one foot planted on a bleeding Eren's back. When he spotted her, he realized she, too, was searching intently for his gaze. She had fixed her eyes on him without betraying a hint of emotion, calm and composed, offering him the reassurance he had craved: she didn't despise him or judge him for the savage and ruthless beating of the boy. In the days that followed, Levi clung to that memory, like a child clutching his mother's skirt as she prepared to leave home.

She was pale and gaunt, somehow even thinner than before. Overall, though, she seemed well. But her amber eyes had lost the luster Levi so revered, and looked dulled like the tarnished silverware of a fallen aristocracy, no longer polished and gleaming.

Those eyes silently told the story of the horror they had witnessed, helpless.

In his heart, Levi had always prayed that the events of Shiganshina would never repeat themselves. And he found it especially unbearable that she had been forced to endure such an unspeakable tragedy. He abhorred even the idea of it, which sent sharp, stabbing pains through his head. He consoled himself with the thought that her work in the hospital had spared her the task of clearing the streets of corpses, saving her from the sight of the mangled remains vomited up by the Titans.

Levi wouldn't have been able to bear it.

She was made to save lives and offer hope, not to passively dispose of the remnants of poor souls who had been denied even a decent death.

In the garden, Eld rose from the table, quickly followed by the other soldiers and Eren, who sprang to his feet like a coiled spring.

Tea time was over, and with it, Levi's only moment of peace for the day. And that peace - he could admit it now without hesitation - didn't come from retreating to the solitude of his room to drink a cup of his favorite drink. It came from the chance it gave him to immerse himself in memories, to lose himself in her without restraint.

With a click of his tongue and a weary sigh, Levi pushed himself away from the window and prepared to once again take on the role of the brat's babysitter.

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Mizuki was gazing out the third-floor window of a hotel hastily repurposed into a makeshift hospital. Since the buildings in front of it had been completely razed to the ground, from that elevated vantage point she had an excellent view of the remnants of the destroyed city.

Trost. Her Trost.

Mizuki had a tendency to grow attached to places, forging emotional connections with them that reflected the everyday moments spent there, the emotions she had felt, the people she had loved or despised.

And Trost...

Trost, city at first alien and hostile, had later become a safe harbor that had accepted her, becoming the stage for all her adventures, her mistakes, her suffering, and her joys. She hadn't realized how deep her bond with that city had grown until she saw it brought to its knees.

For every building that had been toppled, which had once housed the shops and taverns frequented by soldiers; for every tree uprooted, beneath whose shade she had stopped to rest; for every devastated road she had walked, Mizuki's heart bled and cried.

And then there were the people. The people. The bodies that arrived at the hospital, mangled, and that she had frantically tried to put back together.

Trost. Trost destroyed, Trost brought to its knees.

Would it ever rise again, regain the splendor it once had? Mizuki desperately tried to convince herself it would, but whenever she rushed past the shattered gate, sealed with a massive boulder, reality showed itself in all its cruelty. If she strained her ears, she could hear the sound of hands - enormous, monstrous, greedy hands - scraping against the stone, and as long as that grating noise continued to torment humanity's nerves, Trost would never rise again.

It was as if the the attack on Trost had marked a definitive dividing line, a day after which everything had changed. Mizuki had started to catalog events according to their placement in time relative to the disaster: there were the things that had happened before, and those that had happened after, which inevitably were stained by calamity and despair.

"Mizuki!" A voice suddenly called from behind her. "I'm done! Thanks for waiting for me, now we can go."

Jackie came up beside her, brushing Mizuki's arm with her hand. Mizuki gave her a strained but genuinely happy smile.

During the endless hours of uncertainty while the disaster had unfolded, Mizuki had been consumed by the wild fear that she had lost both Jackie and Theo in the worst possible way. Only after a full day of utter chaos did she receive Jackie's message, letting her know that she and the child had managed to board the boats heading towards the inner territories, and were now waiting in Elmiha until the corpse-clearing operations in the city were complete, so they could return.

During the attack on Trost, Jacqueline had been incredible. As soon as she realized what was happening, without losing her composure, she had taken Theo by the hand and, gently instructing him to keep his eyes down and not to look up for any reason, began running towards safety. Along the way, she refused to join groups of fleeing people, preferring to move alone, mindful of Mizuki's frequent warnings about how gatherings attracted the Titans. Thus, by taking narrow side streets and avoiding following the other citizens, she led Theo to the boats, and they both survived. When they reunited and Jacqueline recounted the story, Mizuki had felt a swell of pride for her quick thinking.

Once back in Trost, Jacqueline was recruited as a nurse at the makeshift hospital where Mizuki also worked. Though she lacked any prior experience in the field, the staff were so desperate for help that, when she volunteered for the job, the head doctor nearly broke down in tears.

Mizuki and Jacqueline spent their days at the hospital, entering at dawn and leaving only late at night. When their shifts were over, they would meet to walk together towards the building near the city walls that had been temporarily designated as the headquarters for the Survey Corps. Considering the unrest and the danger of another Titan incursion, Erwin Smith had deemed it safer to station his soldiers in the heart of the city rather than in the countryside, where their actual headquarters were located. As for Jacqueline, since her apartment had been destroyed during the attack, she had taken up residence with the soldiers, without asking anyone's permission or worrying about military regulations or appearances.

The two women descended the stairs of the former hotel and made their way to the entrance. On the street, they found Gelgar waiting for them, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets. "Kitty, Jackie," he greeted them lazily with a nod.

"Gelgar!" Mizuki threw herself into his arms. Ever since the attack, she had developed the habit of hugging her comrades constantly, regardless of the context or whether they had given her any reason to warrant such a display of affection. Whether they were chatting or walking side by side, without warning, she would wrap them in a tight, long embrace, as if they were about to part forever. "You didn't have to come get me," she said with a sigh, looking up at him with her face buried in the folds of his shirt.

Gelgar placed a hand on her head and stroked it gently. Mizuki noticed his eyes were red and unfocused, and his breath smelled faintly of peppermint liquor; since after the attack, he had rarely stayed sober for more than a few hours. "You know, plenty of girls would fight for the honor of being escorted by yours truly. Consider yourself lucky."

"Oh, I was really hoping you were here for me," Jacqueline chimed in with a laugh. Since she had moved in with the Survey Corps soldiers, she and Gelgar had hit it off immediately, and Mizuki wouldn't have been surprised to find out they had spent a few fiery nights together. After the disaster, the higher-ups had been overwhelmed with more pressing concerns than their subordinates fucking around, and controls on the soldiers' nocturnal activities had loosened considerably.

The three of them set off at a brisk pace along the deserted street.

Once the initial confusion had subsided and Mizuki had resumed spending her nights with her comrades, two gendarmerie officers approached her while she was returning to the barracks alone from the hospital. Apparently, the Gendarmerie had begun working with surprising zeal to gather information about Eren Jaeger before the trial. Mizuki had been spotted chatting a little too casually with him on the day of the disaster, just before the departure of the expedition, and had therefore come under their radar. After pushing her against a wall, the two officers demanded that she reveal everything she knew about the "monster," threatening her with trouble if she didn't comply.

Without flinching, Mizuki took a deep breath, tilting her head as if recalling the requested information. "It's not much, but I'll try to help. Eren Jaeger has two ears, one mouth, and a nose, two green eyes... hmm, I'd say the shade is like the fresh grass that sprouts in April," and at that point, she flashed an innocent smile. "Well, I think that's everything I know."

Naturally, the two poor fellows - "although they attacked her, one must feel sorry for them, considering that their victim was her," Loki had commented later - did not take kindly to her response. The bigger of the two grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and lifted her off the ground. "Are you mocking us, you little bitch?!"

"Absolutely not!"

That day, Mizuki came dangerously close to receiving a serious beating, which she avoided just because Captain Mike happened to pass by and intervened in her aid, reminding the two gendarmes that if Nile Dok wanted to question a member of the Survey Corps, he needed to first get authorization from Commander Erwin Smith. The veterans organized to pick her up in turn at the hospital and escort her to the dorms, continuing even after Eren Jaeger's trial had concluded.

Mizuki attended the trial like all the other Survey Corps members, despite the ongoing emergency at the hospital. The goal, of course, was to show solidarity before the Supreme Commander and the Gendarmerie. Lavinia had confidentially shared with her the plan to secure custody of Jaeger, devised by Erwin Smith after his chat with the boy in the dungeons, so she was prepared for what was to come.

The first blow.

The second.

The third.

"This is just my opinion, but when it comes to teaching somebody discipline, I think pain is the most effective way".

What on earth had happened to him during the years in the Underground City to make him believe that? Had he experienced that theory firsthand?

The fourth.

The fifth.

Soon, Mizuki stopped counting.

For long minutes, the captain beat Eren, bound and defenseless, without any mercy.

Resisting the urge to turn her head away, Mizuki forced herself to keep watching.

When the flurry of kicks finally stopped and Erwin was presenting his proposal to the council, Levi's eyes scanned the crowd until they met hers. He was asking her to confirm, to promise that she would not despise him despite the lynching she had just witnessed, and Mizuki was ready to offer it. She didn't look away, kept her expression neutral and calm, opened her heart, which, as always when it came to Levi, overflowed with warmth and light, so that those positive feelings could envelop him and ease the invisible wounds tormenting him. They stared at each other for so long, across the room, while the fate of the world was being decided around them.

Behind Mizuki, a recruit who had been with the Corps for only two months let out an excited squeal. "Oh my God! Captain Levi is looking this way! How cool is he?"

"Oh, yeah!" replied the girl beside her. "He must have a heart of ice, just look at how he handled that monster..."

"Yeah, a heart of ice that would melt only for me, his beloved... how romantic!"

As Levi's attention shifted to the Supreme Commander, who was announcing his decision, Mizuki's mouth twisted into a grimace. Those two really didn't understand Captain Levi at all; she found it rather baffling that anyone could think he was "cool" after witnessing him just beat a defenseless boy, unless they knew the true emotions of the offender. Mizuki, of course, also thought he was "cool," but because she knew: the captain didn't have a heart of ice, quite the opposite; he was simply a man who always did his duty, even when he hated the role he was given. In this particular case, his orders were to use his reputation as humanity's strongest soldier and the fear generated by the boy's power to corner the Gendarmerie.

After the trial, she never saw him again, nor Eren, nor the captain.

The boy was immediately taken away and transferred to a facility controlled by the Survey Corps. Only the veterans most loyal to Erwin Smith, were allowed near him; even Lavinia was not permitted to meet him. Within a few hours, Eren and the Special Operations Squad had left for the former Headquarters, and had not returned since, though Hange kept Mizuki updated on the progress of the experiments and life at the castle.

Nevertheless, Mizuki constantly thought about the captain. In the spare moments between signing death certificates and stitching up wounds, she wondered what he was doing, whether he was getting enough sleep and food, whether his headache was letting up. She would have given anything to see him again, even from a distance, even just for a fleeting moment, just to make sure he was okay.

Talking about this and that - after the disaster, they always talked about trivial things, just to ease the suffocating tension hanging over the soldiers - Jackie, Gelgar, and Mizuki arrived at the dorms.

"Shall we go to dinner?" the man suggested, nodding towards the mess hall door.

Before the two women could accept the invitation, however, Nifa rushed toward the group, out of breath. "Mizuki!" she exclaimed, without even a greeting. "You're finally back! The commander needs you. It's urgent!".

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In the living room of the former Survey Corps Headquarters, the silence was absolute, and a heavy atmosphere of despondency hung in the air. Levi was sipping his evening tea, sunk into the couch, while Hange feverishly flipped through her notes beside him. At the wooden table placed in the center of the room, Levi squad, Amado, and Eren were seated; while the other soldiers spoke in hushed tones, the boy kept his gaze fixed on the table, fists clenched in front of him, his face marked by a mixture of frustration and anger. He still hadn't been able to transform back into his titan form, and with every failure, Eren's mood worsened.

What a nuisance, Levi thought, making a mental note to ask Hange, once they were alone, for details on her plan to lift the brat's spirits. It had been two days already, and nothing had happened...

Just as the captain was lost in these thoughts, the door to the room suddenly burst open, and a small figure appeared in the doorway. "Good evening, everyone!" Mizuki chirped, raising an arm as a sign of greeting, her trademark smirk plastered on her face. With the same energy used for the greeting, she pulled down the hood of her green cloak and shook her hair, which fell over her chest, filling the room with the scent of the misty, damp evening. "It's me! Did you miss me?!"

For a moment, the others - who expected anything, even an attack from the Armored or Colossal Titan - were stunned by Mizuki's unexpected appearance.

Only Levi's expression remained unchanged: he casually lifted the cup to his lips and took a sip of tea, as though nothing had happened, but inside his chest a turmoil erupted. At first, the captain wondered if the appearance was just an illusion produced by the combined action of nostalgia and his headache; then, after realizing that the energetic, exuberant girl before him was too real to be a mere fantasy, his stomach tightened in a vise.

He had longed to see her again, desperately and passionately, knowing how unlikely it was; and now that the improbable had happened, the complicated state of their relationship overwhelmed him, with the relentless and ungovernable intensity of the days before the Trost attack. No matter the changes in the world, Mizuki remained the person he had almost undressed and fucked in the territory of the Titans, rejected and ignored for months; and now, she was standing before him, as unexpected as rain on a sunny day.

Although he hadn't given up on the idea of clearing things up with her, the current situation - the unrest among the population, the crumbling society, the military on the brink of war, the entrance to Trost blocked by a mere rock, the custody of the moody brat, the organization of the next expedition - didn't exactly encourage a sensitive conversation like that. Until he had initiated such a discussion, though, interacting with her normally would be difficult, and most likely, Levi would have to persist in his cold detachment.

The first to recover was Eren, who quickly jumped to his feet and placed his hand over his heart in greeting. "Miss Mizuki!"

"Oh, Eren, do you really remember who I am?!" Mizuki bounced towards him, all lively and not at all intimidated by the recent events concerning the boy. "I didn't expect this! What a surprise!"

"Of course, I remember you! We talked less than two weeks ago…"

"Ah, but when someone becomes famous, you know, they tend to forget about insignificant people…"

"What are you talking about?! You're not insignificant! I could never forget you!"

"Cut the crap, idiot. I know it's hard for you, but try to hold back for once so you don't shock our new comrade too much. Set a good example," Loki chided, walking in through the still open door with an exhausted air. "Good evening, everyone. I've brought the troublemaker of the Survey Corps; from now on, she'll be stationed here to assist Hange and Moblit. Orders from the commander. Now, she's all yours."

"Oh, look who it is. The brat!" Oluo, recovering from his shock, stood up and circled the table to reach Mizuki and Eren. "Did they finally put you to work?"

Mizuki studied Oluo's pleased expression without losing an ounce of her arrogance; still smiling smugly, she tilted her head to the side, laced her hands behind her back, and chirped: "Hey, Eren. If you want to survive in the Survey Corps, there are some people you should never listen to. Never. Absolutely. For any reason. Got it? One of them is Oluo." Then, leaning in towards Eren, who was gasping for a response, she shielded her mouth with her hand and whispered in a confidential, conspiratorial tone, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "I don't know if you've noticed, but this guy is only good at biting his tongue while talking nonsense."

"Hey! How dare you, little brat?!"

Eren barely managed to suppress a laugh; Gunther, on the other hand, didn't even try to contain himself and began chuckling uncontrollably in Oluo's face, who had turned quite red.

Mizuki raised an eyebrow and shot Gunther a threatening look, as if promising that he would be the next victim of her irreverence. In fact, slightly tilting her head in his direction, she added: "And don't trust this one either. I don't know if you've noticed, but his head's shaped like a chestnut. You can't trust someone whose head is shaped like a chestnut."

"Mizuki!"

This time, Eren's attempt at restraint failed: the boy desperately leaned his arms on the table and buried his face in it, trying to hide the laughter that burst from his lips. Mizuki was immediately on top of him, grabbing him by the shoulders and trying to force him to sit up so she could enjoy the results of her work. "Oh, you're laughing?! Come on! That means you noticed it too, huh? I'm not the only one who thinks that!"

Eld exchanged an half amused half exasperated look with Petra, and shrugged. "What can I say? You can tell Mizuki's arrived. Until now, the castle had been so quiet, so peaceful…" he said, though the change in atmosphere didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.

Loki raised both hands, palms open, to disclaim any responsibility. "As I said, this human disaster is your problem now... I was just following orders."

The two superiors, sunk into the couch, hadn't said a word yet. Hange glanced sideways at Levi to gauge how much the sudden chaos had irritated him, but she found, not without surprise, that he was perfectly calm. "You see…" she whispered, careful not to be heard by the soldiers still bickering around the table.

"You did well," Levi stated, sensing his comrade's gaze on him. After the initial shock wore off, his rational mind immediately grasped the reason for Mizuki's summons. "It was the right choice. Look at him."

Since they had arrived at the castle ten days earlier, Eren had never laughed. When he thought the situation called for it - that is, when a superior or one of Levi's squad tried to joke with him - he would twist his lips into a grotesque, clearly forced grimace, lacking any trace of joy. A rather pathetic sight when compared to the uncontrolled, genuine burst of laughter that Mizuki had elicited barely a minute after entering the room.

It was a gift of hers, that. Levi was deeply convinced of it. She had the extraordinary, instinctive ability to understand and make others feel good, a rare and valuable talent whose effects he himself had felt and appreciated.

"Ahhhh! Come on, stop pretending and tell the truth!" Facing the joint attack of Oluo and Gunther, who had tried, unsuccessfully, to defend their soldierly seriousness in front of Eren, Mizuki waved her hand dismissively. "Admit it, you missed me! Without me, you're bored out of your minds!"

Another round of ridicule from Mizuki, piling on top of the previous humiliations, prompted an indignant reaction from Oluo and Gunther, who both shouted in unison: "Who wants you?" and "Go back to where you came from," which only escalated Eren's fit of laughter and the general confusion.

With a fluid movement, Levi stood up and headed for the door to leave the room.

Summoning Mizuki to the castle to provide psychological support for the brat had been a move worthy of Hange, but Eren wouldn't be the only one to benefit from it.

Now that she was here, Levi felt like he could breathe again after a long, super long breath-holding: the headache disappeared, the anxiety that had been gripping his chest subsided, the gloomy atmosphere of the castle seemed to lighten, and their situation suddenly appeared less critical. A small taste of that medicine was enough to make him feel better; even though the presence of the brat at the castle promised to bring one annoyance after another, the biggest of which was that he couldn't remain in the same room with her for too long. It literally drove him crazy, having her so close and not being able to touch her; hearing her laughter and knowing it wasn't meant for him; wanting to lose himself in her golden eyes, only to realize they were avoiding him.

Fuck Eren. Fuck the Titans. Fuck the situation. I need to talk to her.

.

Mizuki rubbed her sleepy eyes and stretched her back upwards with a yawn. Apparently, she still hadn't fully recovered the hours of sleep she'd lost during the emergency phase of the disaster, and her body, worn down by tension and fatigue, was begging her to lie down and take a nap, but there wasn't much she could do about it: there was no time for rest right now. While the Special Operations Squad reported back to Erwin and resupplied in Trost, the responsibility of watching over Eren, who had been left at the castle, fell to her.

Hange and Erwin had been quite open with her about why her transfer to the former Headquarters was necessary: to help Eren. Considering the delicacy of the task, for once the Commander hadn't issued her a blunt and irrefutable order but had instead asked if she believed she could handle the boy. Mizuki had spent an entire night weighing the pros and cons before accepting the assignment. Even though she wasn't at all sure she was the right person to cheer up a depressed teenager, she wasn't the kind of person to back away when someone needed help. Not to mention, the task offered her the tantalizing opportunity to relocate to the castle where Levi's squad was stationed, a factor that have played an absurdly significant role in her decision.

Mizuki quickly realized that Hange's account of Eren's fragile mental state hadn't remotely captured the reality. The situation was far worse than described. The boy was as lost as a child separated from his parents in a panicked crowd, disoriented and terrified, glancing around in a frenzy of desperation, searching in vain for a familiar, friendly face.

Leaning lazily back in her chair, Mizuki cast a glance at the boy under her watch, who looked for all the world like someone caught in the throes of an existential crisis.

Every detail of his demeanor betrayed the deep despair stemming from the morning's failures. Eren sat with his hands clasped in front of his face, his elbows planted firmly on the table, his gaze fixed and his brow furrowed. His fingers pressed so hard against his knuckles that the nails had turned white, and one had even dug into the soft skin of his hand, leaving a wound that he absently prodded, as if the pain might somehow ease his sense of powerlessness and disappointment.

Mizuki tapped her fingers against the tabletop. She'd been tasked with supporting him, but how in the world was she supposed to do that when she was practically forbidden from forming any sort of human or friendly connection with him? Before leaving the castle, Eld had bombarded her with a long list of prohibited activities regarding Eren: no taking him outside, no sitting too close to him, no being overly familiar, no touching him, no sharing sensitive or personal information that could be used against her, no encouraging him to transform, no giving him weapons, no supporting him in any activity other than sitting at a table and brooding endlessly, and so on and so forth. "Security protocol," Eld had added when he noticed Mizuki's scandalized expression. That long list of restrictions had already given her a headache and an irresistible urge to break every single one of them. "The captain was very insistent that I explain it to you. It's for your safety, you know, since you'll be alone with him."

If it's so important, maybe he could have spared a tiny fraction of his oh-so-precious time to explain it himself. But of course, sunshine himself hadn't bothered to initiate a face-to-face conversation with her. What else did she expect, anyway? When she'd accepted the transfer, it had been with the stupid and naïve hope that the attack on Trost might have somehow repaired their relationship. Yet that was one of the few things that hadn't changed an inch. The Captain was still avoiding her like an Abnormal.

In Mizuki's opinion, in any case, it seemed far more likely that the brooding boy would harm himself rather than her.

To hell with it.

She had never followed rules in her entire life and had no intention of starting now, especially not at the ripe old age of twenty.

"Hey, Eren."

At Mizuki's call, he lifted his green eyes abruptly; yes, she'd been entirely correct in her earlier description to the two gendarmes, they really were a bright, vivid green, the color of fresh spring grass. His face wore an eager expression tinged with poorly concealed apprehension, a clear sign that he was ready to obey any command she might give him, even if it was to walk upside down around the entire castle. Mizuki had already had the opportunity to test the boy's deep-rooted tendency to comply with his superiors, especially those he admired, among whom, due to some kind of misunderstanding, she was also included.

"Want to take a walk in the woods? There's something I'd like to show you."

Eren hesitated, clearly tempted by the suggestion, but his sense of duty won out. "I can't go outside without permission. Captain Levi drilled that into me."

"But you'd like to, wouldn't you? I'm giving you permission since I'm your current caretaker." Of course, she had no actual authority to override the damned security protocol, but that wasn't going to stop her.

Eren wavered for a few moments longer, torn between his fear of Levi and his - grossly misplaced, though he didn't suspect it - trust in Miss Mizuki, for whom he had endless respect and even found likable; in the end, the latter won out. He agreed.

Mizuki told him to wait for her in the hall. She wrote a note addressed to Levi, announcing her walk with Eren and candidly taking full responsibility for the act. It was a precaution that would, in all likelihood, prove futile; she didn't believe for a second that the captain would have the slightest doubt about who was responsible for this little stunt. Still, she wanted to avoid causing any problems for Eren at all costs. Finally, she retrieved a box from the kitchen, along with a tablecloth, and joined her special charge.

They set off in silence, and just as silently, they ventured deeper into the forest. Eren was lost in dark thoughts, his blank gaze fixed on the sky, fists clenched and dangling at his sides. His foul and irritable mood hadn't changed in the slightest despite the change of scenery; if anything, his newfound freedom seemed to have made it worse, as if he were convinced deep down that he didn't deserve such a privilege.

This boy is so... so full of anger. At the world. At the Titans. And most of all... most of all at himself. If he keeps this up, he's going to explode.

Mizuki stopped next to a pine tree with a massive trunk, carefully spread the tablecloth around its roots, then invited Eren - curious now about her preparations - to stand about a meter away and placed the box next to him, revealing that it was filled with glasses, cups, and chipped or cracked plates.

"Today, an outdoor activity!" Mizuki announced triumphantly, hands on her hips, noticing Eren's puzzled expression. "It's a game to relieve stress. Throw this stuff at the trunk, put all your energy into it, and think about the worries that are eating at you. If you feel like it, you can even shout. Send them to hell! Your anxieties, the world, society, me, sunshine, anyone you feel like telling to go to hell! Trust me, you'll feel better afterward."

If possible, Eren looked even more bewildered and wary than before. Still, his deeply ingrained tendency to please his superiors - Mizuki, though not formally one of them, firmly belonged in that category in his eyes - took over once again. After a moment's hesitation, he bent down to pick up a plate. He weighed it in his hands for a moment, then threw it against the trunk without much enthusiasm. With a sharp crack, the plate shattered, and the shards fell onto the tablecloth like petals of a flower torn off by the wind. Mechanically, Eren bent down again, grabbed a cup, and threw it.

Mizuki leaned against a nearby tree, arms crossed. Truthfully, she also had plenty of stress to work off, and the main source of her frustration was always the same: Levi. Levi and her yearning for him; Levi and his unchanged cold demeanor; Levi and the dreams in which he took center stage; Levi and the flawless profile he offered her as he issued orders without so much as looking her in the eye. They slept on the same floor - in separate rooms, of course, but Mizuki had formed the absurd notion that she could hear the faint sound of his breathing in the stillness of the night -, they ate at the same table, conducted experiments on Eren together, ignored each other while staring at the same spot on the wall or in the sky.

It was maddening to have him so close and yet be unable to touch him as she wanted, to share with him the emotions stirred in her by the attack on Trost, to even remain in the same room with him without breaking into a sweat.

It was enough to drive anyone crazy; Mizuki for sure.

Throwing a few plates would undoubtedly provide some relief to her frayed nerves, but she refrained. She had managed to scrounge up only a few pieces of junk, and she thought it better for Eren to use them. His worries were far weightier than hers: his life had changed overnight with the discovery of his surprising power, and with it, the acquisition of the contradictory status of both enemy and savior of humanity, hated and revered by the masses in equal measure.

The first throws came in a slow, hesitant succession, clearly driven only by the desire to please her. Suddenly, though, Eren muttered something under his breath, and this time, the motion with which he hurled the plate was sharper and angrier.

"I'm useless!" he shouted fiercely immediately after. CRASH.

"Everyone is counting on me, and I'm letting them down!" CRASH.

"I'm pathetic!" CRASH.

"I'm worthless!" CRASH.

"Why can't I transform?!" CRASH.

"I swore I'd kill all the Titans!" CRASH.

"But if I can't do anything, how can I make that happen?!" CRASH.

"So many people have died…" CRASH.

"…to protect a useless being like me!" CRASH.

"And so many more will die soon…" CRASH.

"…for the same reason!" CRASH.

"Jean even said it!" CRASH.

"And this…" CRASH.

"…even though…" CRASH.

"…I transformed…" CRASH.

"…into a MONSTER!" CRASH.

The last glass sailed towards the trunk, shattering in an explosion of shards, and Eren collapsed to the ground, panting.

The final words had been shouted with such intensity that he'd been forced to fragment the sentence into a series of disjointed, breathless phrases.

So much anger in such a small body.

Mizuki shivered.

She, too, had been consumed by anger at one point in her life. If someone had asked her to describe herself during that time, she would have used only one word: rage. She felt nothing else. She was nothing else. From the moment she woke up, through the endless hours of the day, until she went to bed again, Mizuki had been a pure vessel of rage. Dark, oppressive, all-consuming rage that blotted out everything else.

She had been an angry child, bitter over the unfair ostracism her family had faced and, later, over her mother's untimely death, which had taken her years to come to terms with.

She had been an unruly teenager, convinced she was undervalued and misunderstood by her father.

Only after the deaths of Terence, Rei, and Caroline had she managed to channel that immense, feral anger into something other than destruction, into a positive pursuit: her medical training. It was then that she had finally found a sense of peace and fulfillment she thought she had lost forever.

After a childhood and adolescence marked by turmoil and resentment, Mizuki thought she had become an expert on the subject of anger. But she had never encountered anything like this.

A boundless hatred for the Titans and for himself, who had become one of them.

It will kill him, she thought this hatred will kill him if we don't do something.

She was almost certain that the inhabitants of the Walls, Commander Zackley, Pixis, Nile Dok, and perhaps even Erwin Smith didn't care about his fate. Eren Jaeger was merely a pawn - an essential one, no doubt, but still just a pawn to be exploited in the most advantageous way possible - in the battle between humanity and the Titans.

But she cared. As she gazed at the boy's trembling shoulders, too thin, hunched over by the burden of humanity's destiny that had fallen upon him, she made an unyielding decision: if she ever became convinced that escaping would somehow save him from the torment consuming him, she would let him go without the slightest regret.

Mizuki crouched down on the grass beside Eren, who was lying flat on his back, and crossed her legs.

For a while, neither of them spoke; the only sound between them was Eren's labored breathing, which gradually began to even out.

"Miss Mizuki," the boy said suddenly, his eyelids shut, his face turned towards the sky. "Thank you."

"Do you feel any better?"

"A little."

"Mmmm." Mizuki twirled a curl around her finger and bit her lip. She had never intentionally given a lecture to someone younger than herself before. It took her a moment to organize her thoughts into something coherent and convincing, and to decide to begin with one of her mother's pearls of wisdom, which she always considered the perfect opening for a serious conversation.

"You know, Eren, I've always thought of my mother as a very wise woman, and she once told me that life's problems fall into two categories. Those that can't be solved and those that can. There's no third option. For the unsolvable ones, there's nothing to do but accept the consequences in the smartest and least harmful way possible. For the ones that can be solved, finding the solution may be more or less difficult, but it's something that can be done. This means that problems, even very tough ones, can be overcome. Do you follow me?"

A faint nod served as his only response.

Mizuki licked her lips, nervous about reaching the crux of her point. "Personally, I think that not understanding how your transformation works is a problem that falls into the second category. There is a solution, even if finding it might prove difficult." She paused again, but Eren didn't intervene, a sign that he was listening intently and wanted to know the conclusion of her reasoning. "You possess an extraordinary power, Eren, let's not beat around the bush. I've heard the stories of those who witnessed your transformation at Trost, and they're nothing short of legendary. However, no one expects you to do everything by yourself. It would be naive to think that a single soldier, even with a power like yours, could face and defeat an army of Titans alone. You're part of a whole, a cog in the machine - an essential cog, I'll give you that - but a machine isn't made of just one piece. It's a complex mechanism." Mizuki hesitated for a moment before reaching out and awkwardly patting Eren's head. "The moral of the story? You do your best, and we'll do ours, within our abilities. I can assure you that now, in this race against time, you're surrounded by the best minds the Survey Corps has to offer. You're not alone in trying to solve this puzzle, and I'd bet my life on the fact that you'll succeed, sooner or later. You just need to tackle things one step at a time, be patient, and always remember that a solution exists somewhere out there, just like my dear old mother always said."

With her final words, Mizuki withdrew her hand and fell silent, waiting for her message to sink in the boy's mind.

"Do you really believe that?" Eren asked timidly after nearly five minutes of reflection, stealing a sideways glance at her.

Mizuki winked at him. "Of course!"

The boy sat up and began brushing the fallen leaves and dirt from his back with meticulous care. "Is your mother… dead?" he asked abruptly, casting her a hesitant glance over his shoulder, as if to ensure he hadn't crossed a line inappropriate for someone of his rank.

"Yes," Mizuki replied softly. "She died when I was ten, from an incurable illness. She faded slowly, losing her strength little by little."

"I'm sorry. I lost my mother too. But it wasn't to illness. It was to the Titans."

Of course, Mizuki already knew that. Since her assignment involved monitoring Eren's mental well-being, she had considered it prudent to have a conversation with his best friend, Cadet Armin Arlert, before leaving Trost. From him, she had learned the tragic story of Eren's mother. They had discussed it one evening over dinner in the common hall, when Mizuki had found Armin alone, strangely unaccompanied by the ever-present dark-haired girl, Mikasa, Eren and Armin's childhood friend. In fact, Mikasa had been the first person Mizuki had approached in an attempt to gather information about Eren's past, but the deadly glare she'd received in response to her first innocent question had quickly convinced her to give up.

Both Armin and Mikasa had decided to join the Survey Corps, like most of Eren's other comrades, whom Mizuki had met during her visit to the Southern Training Camp. Among them were Reiner Braun - whom she persistently called "big guy" - and the tall, lanky one with black hair whose name she could never quite remember and who didn't seem particularly fond of her. She had run into both of them in the mess hall but, overwhelmed with work as she was, had only managed to exchange a few polite sentences with them.

"I'm sorry," Mizuki said gently. "Is that where your resolve to exterminate them comes from?". She phrased the statement as a cautious question, though deep down, she had no doubt about the answer. She was firmly convinced that the death of Eren's mother had triggered in him an incurable illness, the main symptom of which was the visceral, ferocious, and almost bestial hatred that occasionally flared in his eyes.

"Yeah. Instead, I haven't accomplished anything yet. Actually, what's worse is that I've turned into a monster." His words dripped with bitterness and contempt, punctuated by a dry, weary laugh.

"You say you've become a monster because you can transform into a Titan?"

"Titans are monsters," Eren replied simply. "So, I'm a monster."

"Mmm."

The boy frowned, surprised by Mizuki's reaction. "Don't you think they are?"

"No… I mean, yes. Of course, they are. They eat humans. But…"

"But?"

If she had told him her perspective, the true one, would he understand? Probably not. Eren was entirely and irreparably blinded by his hatred for Titans, a hatred that prevented him from reasoning rationally or considering any opinion that challenged his beliefs.

They were monsters, in the literal sense of the word, there was no doubt about that. But whatever their reason for devouring humans, which fully earned them the label of "monsters" in a literal sense, those horrifying creatures weren't driven by malice. Their actions were dictated by an instinctive, irrational nature, devoid of any trace of cruelty.

To her, however, being a monster - in the substantive sense of the word - meant something else: causing pain, suffering, and harm consciously, mercilessly, and for one's own gain. And in light of this different definition, Titans weren't monsters; humans, on the other hand, were.

Still, Mizuki doubted that these reflections would resonate with Eren's black-and-white worldview, which operated on rigid and unyielding extremes. So, she awkwardly attempted to formulate an answer that struck a balance between her true convictions and what Eren might be able to hear without flying into a rage.

"I just think there are worse monsters than Titans out there."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"For example?"

"Well, for example... the worst atrocities in history have been committed by humans."

Eren seemed to ponder this for a long time. "That's true," he finally agreed, though he didn't sound entirely convinced. Mizuki guessed his response was more a reflection of his natural inclination to always agree with his superiors than a genuine shift in perspective.

"Shall we head back?" Mizuki suggested, certain that she had by now provided him with all the help that could be expected from her, and that he was capable of receiving.

They folded up the tablecloth, carefully ensuring that no shards of glass or ceramic fell onto the grass, tucked the bundle into the box, and began walking down the path back to the castle.

Upon their arrival, they found Levi's entire squad in an uproar, along with Hange, Moblit, and Amado. The only one who seemed perfectly calm - almost indifferent - was the captain, who eyed Mizuki and Eren with a bored expression.

Before the reprimands could start, Eren - unaware of the unforgivable breaches of the "security protocol" he had committed - rushed toward the soldiers. "Hange!" he exclaimed, breaking into a genuine and unrelenting grin. "I know it's late, but what do you think about running some experiments?!"

Despite her initial astonishment, the squad leader didn't need to be told twice. With broad, animated gestures, she began issuing orders to Moblit and Amado to prepare the necessary equipment. Even Levi's squad was swept up in the preparations, leaving no time for anyone to berate Mizuki for the dreadful fifteen minutes of panic she had made everyone go through when, returning to the castle, they had discovered Eren's disappearance.

Levi didn't follow the group, which was now headed towards the garden under Hange's enthusiastic leadership. Mizuki was certain he had stayed behind for her, likely to reprimand her for her blatant disregard of the damn "security protocol."

"I guess the kitchen is all mine tonight," she muttered lightly, clasping her hands behind her back. If she was going to be punished, she might as well get it over with.

"No," Levi replied without so much as a twitch. "But only this once. You did good."

It was obvious he had noticed the change in Eren's demeanor.

Mizuki's heart pounded like a drum. This could very well count as the first real conversation - meaning a natural exchange, in which neither party appeared to be suffering from a very powerful attack of diarrhea or addressed the other as if, rather than that, they would have preferred to find themselves brushing Titan's teeth, as had also happened during the experiments on Albert and Ciki. - that they'd had in a long time.

The captain, however, did not carry on the first real conversation that had finally taken place between them, and indeed abruptly interrupted any possible continuation peeling himself away from the wall and heading towards the garden.

But it didn't matter.

Even though it had been nothing more than two paltry, barren sentences, Mizuki let out a relieved sigh. She allowed herself the comforting illusion that maybe not all was lost, and that, with time, the rift between them might just heal.

.

Erwin Smith was marking incomprehensible symbols on the map spread out across his desk, using a sharp pencil, a compass, and a ruler, which he alternated between his fingers in a pattern known only to him.

Lavinia watched the man's hands move incessantly - large, yet capable of sketching shapes with delicate and precise strokes. She had long since grasped the logic behind how the commander organized formations for expeditions, but there were still steps that eluded her understanding, and Lavinia Williams didn't like when things escaped her. Those inexcusable gaps in her knowledge could translate into danger for Mizuki, a risk amplified exponentially in an expedition as fraught with challenges as the one scheduled for the following month.

For this reason, Lavinia had been seated at the desk for about an hour, studying Erwin Smith as he positioned rectangles representing squads and jotted down names and placements.

Not that she needed a particular excuse to be there - she was required to attend as the commander's assistant - nor did she have to struggle to stay focused. The commander always worked with meticulousness and an infuriatingly intelligent approach, just the way she liked; Lavinia knew she could learn a lot from Erwin Smith, and she enjoyed that as well, so she seized every opportunity to watch him in action. The spectacle never bored or disappointed her.

Behind Erwin, Mike was eyeing the map with a worried expression. "Erwin," he said suddenly, unable to hold back. "How are you doing?"

Lavinia raised her gaze to the towering captain, the second-strongest soldier in humanity. Erwin, on the other hand, didn't lift his attention from the rectangle he was sketching. "I'm fine. Why?"

Mike wrinkled his nose. Lavinia wondered if the man had smelled the lie the way he could smell Titans from miles away, or if Erwin had been betrayed simply by the fact that Mike had known him for years. "Are you really going to pretend everything's fine, even with me?" The captain huffed and met Lavinia's eyes. She noticed his exasperation and silent plea for support, but she kept her expression neutral, refusing to encourage him or let him think he had her as an ally.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Erwin replied coldly.

Mike shook his head and, without another word, left the room. He hadn't been dismissed, but among Erwin's most loyal veterans, formalities like that were rarely observed.

As if nothing had happened, Lavinia resumed her absorbed study of his work.

"Do you remember the conversation we had during the Survey Corps Foundation celebration in July?" Erwin asked abruptly, not pausing in his pencil strokes.

Lavinia raised an eyebrow.

.

"Ah, that. There are many things she is unaware of, of course. But I think that you, commander, have run into a misunderstanding. Mizuki knows me. She knows what I'm like: selfish, unscrupulous, concerned only about the people I deem important to me, and ready to manipulate others for my own purposes. She knows it perfectly well. You don't believe it?"

"No, no. It's just that knowing Mizuki..."

"She accepts me for who I am, and that's all I need. I don't hide anything, neither from her nor from myself, commander. Unlike you."

"Unlike me?"

"You lie all the time, Erwin Smith. You lie to your subordinates and friends, embodying to perfection the role of the brave commander who leads humanity toward hope through sacrifice and abnegation. But your true nature is different. You are like me. There is something you want, and you are willing to do anything to get it. Do you really think others haven't noticed? Or that they will never notice? I have, and I've known you for much less time than they have. And the worst part is that from playing the part of the spotless and fearless knight, from telling the rest of the world this nauseating lie, you sometimes end up convincing even yourself that it's the truth. I'm not wrong, am I?"

"No. No, you're not wrong."

"Mizuki loves me even though I am who I am. You too should trust your friends more, commander. And if they don't understand you, know that I, at the end of the day, don't mind working with you, even if you get in my way."

.

The sound of the pencil scraping across the paper brought her sharply back to reality. Hearing Mike's words, Lavinia's mind had also gone back to that incident. "Vaguely," she conceded with a smile.

"You were right again."

Lavinia had indeed predicted that Erwin's long-time companions would eventually notice - if they hadn't already - the deception he had woven and his dual nature. Just as she had also foreseen that Levi would neglect his soldier's duties, for Mizuki. Both events had, as expected, come to pass.

"It's easier to judge from the outside," she replied nonchalantly, secretly pleased with having scored two victories against a man of Erwin's caliber. She hesitated, unsure whether to voice the doubt that had been bothering her; in the end, she decided to do so, given that Erwin Smith seemed exceptionally receptive that afternoon, and the conversation was already well underway. What better opportunity would she ever have? "So, it's the outside world that interests you, huh?"

This time, Erwin's eyes shot to Lavinia's emotionless face. He studied her black, impenetrable eyes for a moment before sighing and setting his pencil down. "Maybe."

Lavinia didn't flinch. She hadn't expected a sincere or direct answer. It wouldn't have been like him, nor would she have been satisfied with the truth so easily given. In the end, she was intrigued by the way they tried to outwit each other, stealing each other's unspoken secrets and bending them to their advantage. "I think that's the case," she insinuated sweetly. "Your expression when Eren was talking about his basement... well, I won't hide it from you, it was slightly unsettling. You had the same glazed look as in your first conversations with me, Mizuki, and the others. Kind of like the look of a man who's just had a memorable fuck, you know?"

Erwin didn't flinch either; unsurprisingly, given that he negotiated daily with the upper echelons of the military and Central Government and had long since mastered the art of concealing his emotions. Yet, a flicker of excitement still sparkled in his blue irises. "Vaguely," he replied, before shifting to the offensive. "Do you know them?"

"I've seen a couple." Lavinia leaned back in her chair. No, she had to admit it: she didn't mind the rather subtle, veiled flirting between her and Commander Erwin Smith, probably incomprehensible to normal people. It was fun, harmless, and thrilling, the way they danced on a razor's edge, trying to outdo each other while simultaneously protecting their weak spots from the other's attacks. It was a wild, circular dance, the oldest game in the world. Despite this, she couldn't afford to lose sight of her real goal: to negotiate a delicate matter. "If the provocations you made during the closing ceremony hit their mark, we'll be dancing during this expedition," she observed, running her index finger along the edge of the map. The roughness of the paper against her fingertip sent a shiver down her spine.

"We'll be dancing," Erwin straightened his back, his cold eyes scanning Lavinia's figure from head to toe. He didn't try to conceal the desire igniting in his gaze; that, too, was part of the dangerous game they were playing. "At least, I hope so. We need to flush them out."

Flush them out: Titans turning into humans, or humans turning into Titans, wandering incognito behind the walls, smashing down the gates.

The enemies Erwin had suspected existed for five years, since the attack on Shiganshina.

"If they attack us out there, they'll target Eren Jaeger." Lavinia's finger slid along the map - a motion as soft as the one she'd use to caress a man's back, the mischief in her black eyes seemed to suggest - until it reached the rectangle representing Levi's squad.

"Do you want me to put Hange's squad on the other side of the formation?" Erwin teased, elegantly interlacing his hands - a gesture made with the same mixture of decision and delicacy with which he would grasp a woman's hips, the gleam in his blue eyes seemed to suggest.

"You already do that." Lavinia snorted. "You put Hange's squad so far out on the formation's edge that it'd be better to leave them at home."

Erwin flashed a sly smile. "Maybe it won't be necessary to be so dramatic. Lately, it seems those two have grown a bit distant. Though, the sexual tension that flares when they're both in the same room is still pretty noticeable."

She simply shook her head. She suspected that the commander hadn't been informed by that old grumpy man about what had happened between him and Mizuki, and Lavinia certainly wasn't going to make up for that lack of knowledge.

"Will you warn her?" Erwin changed the subject abruptly.

Lavinia raised an eyebrow. "Who, and about what?"

"Obviously Mizuki, and obviously about the danger we might face during the expedition."

"I'll warn her that, just as Eren Jaeger exists, there might be others capable of transforming into Titans and to be cautious, though I doubt it will do any good." Lavinia withdrew her hand from the map and placed it gently in her lap. "Mizuki will most likely mention something to Amado and Loki, but it won't be anything concrete."

Erwin nodded thoughtfully and, picking up the signal that the conversation was to be considered concluded, inherent in the gesture of lifting the hand from the map, he reached for the pencil and compass. "I suppose there's no way to avoid this indiscretion on your part," he mused, returning to his work.

"Only if you consider leaving Hange's squad at home."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"A real shame."

While they enjoyed teasing each other and being teased in turn, it was just a pastime to drive away the boredom, incapable of truly changing their situation.

Both Erwin and Lavinia were individuals who desperately wanted something, and who placed their own goals above all else.

Lavinia wanted to protect Mizuki, her beloved, at any cost.

Erwin wanted to uncover the truth about the world and the Titans, at any cost.

They shared certain traits - tenacity, inflexibility, selfishness, a fierce individualism - that allowed each of them to understand and respect the other, even when their aspirations didn't align, or were even incompatible.

They worked so well together precisely for that reason: because they were disgustingly alike.

After that last brief exchange, Erwin once again immersed himself in the arduous task of organizing the formation, and Lavinia in the focused study of the precise, calm movement of his hands.

.

"Mizuki, could you pass me that box?"

"Sure. If it needs to go on one of the shelves, just tell me which one and I'll take care of it... I've already picked it up!"

"Then put it on the first shelf on the right. Thanks."

"No problem, Petra."

Mizuki and Petra were busy organizing the supply boxes in the castle's cellar, working side by side; they were diligently sorting the crates, exchanging polite phrases, and behaving with even more consideration than usual. Their manner was so sweet and obliging that it seemed suspicious: an outsider would have easily doubted the honesty and selflessness of the two girls; and rightly so, as each, in her own way, was trying to keep a secret from the other, one that neither would have revealed even under torture.

The friendship between Petra and Mizuki was rather peculiar, the classic bond between two people who care for each other but, for one reason or another, have never fully opened up to one another. Those involved in such a relationship typically respect each other, are courteous to the point of artificiality, and never risk making a sarcastic or reproachful remark, even in jest, out of fear of committing an unforgivable offense against their friend. The creation of such a relationship doesn't stem from the superficiality of the emotion - it's entirely possible that the individuals involved have known each other for years, even a lifetime, and have faced various adventures together - but from pure chance: because it was born and developed according to this pattern, because of the characters of the individuals involved, because of an inherent incompatibility between them, and because of external and completely random circumstances which, at the decisive moment of raising the relationship from a stage of cordial and superficial sympathy to a deeper closeness, had caused the foot already about to climb that stair to got stuck and the step to be interrupted.

This was how Petra and Mizuki's friendship was, and Mizuki realized it most when comparing it to the bond she shared with Lavinia and Jacqueline.

Both, even if they ignored it, were guilty towards each other, and they both kept their respective sins with the utmost secrecy.

Mizuki occupied the rather uncomfortable role of the other woman, the one who stood between Petra and the fulfillment of her romantic dream, and because of whom a heart would eventually be broken, all without even enjoying the usual privileges that came with such a position.

Petra, on the other hand, had thrown her heart over the obstacle, the very one that her friend had supported and encouraged her to overcome, though without ever discussing it with her, for fear that, upon discovering the failure and the dissolution of the promise, Mizuki would have a free pass. And if Mizuki truly threw herself into the game, Petra had no doubt that she would secure a resounding victory.

Neither of them, though desiring it, knew how to escape the dreadful situation they had gotten themselves into. Both Petra and Mizuki believed in the innocence and good faith of the other, and thus felt that they had to act alone to resolve things.

So, both guilty, both deceitful, they lived side by side, suffering for their sins. The only defense mechanism they had each devised, on their own, to cope with the guilt towards their friend was this: the more their suffering grew and the more time passed, the sweeter and more affable they became with each other, to the point of verging on falseness.

Mizuki and Petra continued to arrange the boxes for another hour. Though forced close together by the cramped space of the cellar, they had never been so far apart from one another.

.

Twenty-three days after the attack on Trost

Cling.

A teaspoon falls onto the grass.

A hand reaches out to pick it up.

A deafening explosion.

Smoke and bursts of heat.

Eren doesn't understand what's happening.

All he knows is that around him hysterical shouts rise, and his hand is stuck to something sticky and burning.

"Calm down!"

It's Captain Levi's voice.

"I told you to stay calm, guys."

The smoke clears, and finally, Eren sees who the captain is addressing.

Eld, Oluo, Gunther, Petra.

They have their swords drawn and the look of people ready for anything.

They've surrounded him.

It's against him that their blades are aimed.

.

Finally, after nearly three weeks of failures and despair, something happened, and the soldiers stationed at the former Headquarters - and with them, the humanity they represented - took a tentative step forward toward the longed-for victory.

Mizuki was not present when the miracle occurred. She had returned to Trost earlier that day to visit a couple of critically ill patients at the request of the doctor in charge of the hospital and to say hi to her comrades and Theo, who were still at the Headquarters. As she was about to head back, she ran into Hange and Moblit rushing out of Erwin's office. The moment Hange noticed her, the squad leader, in a clearly disoriented state, rushed towards her: after grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her vigorously a couple of times, Hange put together a heated speech filled with disconnected sentences, throwing Mizuki into complete confusion.

"Eren… you won't believe it, Mizuki! Oh God, I'm still shaking with excitement! A hand appeared… Nifa, please! Go saddle my horse, Moblit's and Mizuki's! You're coming with us! ... of a titan. A titan appeared, you understand? They all had their swords drawn… Nifa, faster! Oluo looked like he was about to explode. Keji, get my journal, I left it with Erwin… The only calm one was Levi, of course. He was just standing there… next to… that wonderful thing - so warm, Mizuki, so hot! Boiling. Do you believe it? Oh, I'm still getting chills! We have to hurry! Thanks, Keji!"

Poor Mizuki couldn't make heads or tails of what had happened, and, most importantly, she couldn't decide whether to rejoice or prepare to treat someone from the Special Operations Squad. The only certainty was that only one type of event could cause such a reaction in Hange: the appearance of a Titan. Mizuki glanced at Moblit for an explanation, and he reassured her with a nod of his head. "I'll explain on the way," he whispered in her ear, as Hange's rambling speech still hadn't stopped.

As they rode towards the former Headquarters, Moblit filled Mizuki in, explaining that around lunchtime, Eren had turned one of his hands into that of a Titan, Levi Squad had understandably and inevitably gone crazy, and Levi was currently taking care of the boy, who, after the transformation, had fainted and had been carefully transported to the cellar, just in case. Meanwhile, Hange and Moblit had rushed to Trost to report to Erwin.

Upon arriving at the castle, Eld informed Mizuki that Levi and Eren were still in the cellar, as a precaution. Noticing the nervous atmosphere around the four soldiers from the Special Operations Squad, Mizuki offered to go down and inform the captain of Hange's return, a task that was delegated to her without hesitation.

As soon as she opened the door to the cells, she heard Levi's calm, reassuring voice. Overcoming the urge to remain still and eavesdrop on that voice, one she hadn't had the chance to hear much lately and missed dearly, Mizuki fully opened the heavy wooden door. "Eren!" she called as she began to walk down the stairs.

"Miss Mizuki?!"

The boy, sitting on the last step, barely had time to jump up and give a half-hearted salute before Mizuki threw her arms around his neck with great force. They staggered; luckily, he quickly regained his balance and kept both of them upright.

Neither she nor Eren noticed, but Levi - who was leaning against the stone wall beside the stairs - narrowed his eyes into slits as he watched the scene. His attention was mainly focused on their bodies pressing together without the slightest awkwardness, on the boy's hand awkwardly placed on Mizuki's back, on Eren's flushed cheeks from embarrassment, and, above all, on the damned way the boy's shoulders towered over her by at least a span.

"You solved the problem!"

"Well, not really… I don't even know why or how it happened!"

"Still, it's a start! And Hange is so excited," Mizuki, completely at ease, pulled back just enough to take his face in her hands and give him a few playful taps on the cheeks, a gesture that made Levi click his tongue. "By the way, she and Moblit just got back! They're waiting for you upstairs."

"Damn… she made me wait all this time…" the captain hissed, unable to stop watching her fingers gently caressing Eren's cheeks.

Could it be? Could he have ended up feeling jealous of a brat?

Yet, it was undeniable that, at that moment, Eren spent far more time with Mizuki than he did, and that they got along better than the two of them ever had, even when things were going well.

Levi clicked his tongue again, walked around Mizuki and Eren, still wrapped up in their embrace, and started climbing the stairs. After a couple of steps, however, he stopped and sharply ordered, "Here, Eren. Take note. If she had been present at your transformation, this idiot wouldn't have been cautious and wouldn't have drawn her sword like the others. Instead, she would have jumped at your neck, just like she did now."

"Of course I would have jumped at his neck! It's a huge milestone!"

She liked clinging to him that much? Was it because of his height? Or of his smooth, always accommodating personality? "Tsk. Do you even read the reports?"

"Obviously. And even if I forgot, Hange knows them by heart and literally talks about them nonstop! What does that have to do with anything right now?"

"Uhm… Miss Mizuki, I think he's referring to when I lost control in Trost…"

"Oh, that!" Mizuki huffed, waving her hand dismissively and silencing Eren. "Those are two completely different things. Moblit told me your hand was the only thing that transformed, and the rest of you stayed the same, right?"

"Yeah, but Captain Levi…"

"It's useless, Eren." Levi turned his back on the two still very much entwined and, with his usual graceful and fluid movements, resumed climbing the stairs. "She'll never understand; that's why, despite her skills, she's not part of the Special Operations Squad. It's a miracle she's still alive."

Mizuki flinched at the reference, as that particular topic had been the subject of their last conversation before the incident, one which she remembered - and replayed in her mind quite often - in every detail, every line, every shift in the captain's tone. Even though he hadn't addressed her directly, Mizuki understood that those words were an awkward, clumsy, and inexpressibly convoluted attempt to make contact with her after two months of avoidance, and her heart swelled with happiness.

A part of her - her more mature side; her heart that ached in her chest because of Levi's coldness, her eyes longing to meet and lock onto his again - would have liked to respond politely, perhaps with an embarrassed laugh. But while she was formulating the intention to behave, for once, as a subordinate properly adhering to hierarchy, her tongue had already moved on its own. "I thought I already told you that you won't get rid of me that easily," she said, pulling away from Eren, who was staring at her wide-eyed, incredulous that there was someone brave or crazy enough to address Levi so disrespectfully.

The captain stopped in the doorway. Mizuki thought he would continue without even sparing her a glance, but instead, he turned - his figure towering and unyielding, like a statue immersed in a flickering twilight - and Mizuki felt his gaze descend upon her, making her feel small and exposed.

For a handful of moments, it was as if they were the only two people in the dungeon.

Everything else disappeared: Eren was forgotten, the jealousy and excitement he had caused became faded memories, and the fragile condition of humanity lost its importance.

There was only Levi, for Mizuki.

There was only Mizuki, for Levi.

In the dimly lit dungeon, the captain parted his lips.

Eren chose that moment to try something new for him: to intervene in the conversation without being directly addressed by a superior. "Uhm… Squad-leader Hange…"

"Tsk."

Mizuki distinctly heard the sharp click, marking Levi's irritation at being abruptly brought back to reality, a reality in which they were not alone in the dungeon but in the presence of a stunned boy waiting for orders. The captain said nothing, but that silent and ambiguous gesture was enough to send a shiver down her spine and give her hope that the festering wound in their relationship was finally beginning to heal.

"Move your ass, Eren," Levi hissed, and walked out.

Eren hurried after him, breathlessly climbing the steps two at a time. He really didn't want to incur the captain's anger. Only Miss Mizuki was crazy enough to defy humanity's strongest soldier.

.

"Ah, I'm so bored!" Jacqueline sighed, fanning herself with a folded piece of paper and raising her hazel eyes melodramatically to the ceiling. "Joseph left me, breaking my heart. My business is either stagnant or losing money because of the attack on Trost. The city is deserted, and the remaining soldiers are too busy with reconstruction to spare even a minute for love. Mizuki's gone, and she always knows how to entertain me… And don't get me started: even that dull fish of a captain is gone. At least if he'd stayed, I could have mocked him, but no! I'm so terribly bored!"Jacqueline, her silky hair spread across the pillow, tilted her head back like the tragic heroine of a play. She was lying on Petra's bed. When Petra was ordered to move to the Former Headquarters, she had given her bed to the former duchess, now a guest of the Survey Corps, making her a temporary roommate of Mizuki and Lavinia.

Then Mizuki had been sent to the castle, leaving only Lavinia as the original occupant of the room.

Lavinia, who was currently hunched over the desk, was poring over reports from the captains assigned to training the new Survey Corps recruits, blatantly and remorselessly ignored her roommate.

She didn't like Jacqueline Tennison at all, and Lavinia made no effort to hide it.

She tolerated her only because Mizuki, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy Jacqueline's company a great deal, a fact that never failed to provoke a storm of a fatal and uncontrollable jealousy in Lavinia. Jackie reminded her too much of her late sister Caroline, making her impossible to like. Jacqueline bore the dual flaw of resembling her deceased twin while, at the same time, not being her. As Mizuki herself had once observed, Tennison shared Caroline's proud, brazen, frivolous, and vain nature, as well as her penchant for moving from man to man without much thought. However, Jacqueline differed in her streak of laziness and subtle irony, traits entirely foreign to Caroline, who had always been in constant motion and utterly lacking in subtlety.

Lavinia couldn't shake the unpleasant impression that the trio shattered by her sister's death had somehow been reassembled, albeit in a less-than-perfect manner. Mizuki had never voiced such thoughts aloud, but Lavinia had often caught her staring dazedly at herself and Jacqueline, reading the truth in her sparkling gaze.

Now that Mizuki, the only one who could endure Jacqueline, was gone, Lavinia had struggled to resist the urge to banish her from the room.

During the day, when both were absorbed in their duties - Lavinia working alongside the commander to prepare the expedition, and Jacqueline tending to the wounded at the hospital - their coexistence was almost bearable, as they rarely crossed paths. However, in the evenings, when they both returned to the same room, Lavinia weighed down with stacks of paperwork and Jacqueline with her incessant and tiresome complaints, it became exceedingly difficult for the raven-haired girl to maintain her composure.

Theo, the unofficial occupant of the room for about two years, handed Jacqueline one of the sheets of paper on which, lying on the floor, he had been scribbling the scrawls that Mizuki proclaimed as works of immeasurable artistic value.

"Oh, thanks, Theo!" Jacqueline muttered, casting a distracted glance at the drawing. "This is you and Mizuki holding hands, right? So innovative, truly. It's only been the subject of your last seventy-five masterpieces. And this one on the other side? Oh, he's blond. That must be Gelgar. You've really missed the mark here, Theo, I won't lie. You should have drawn that grumpy dwarf… Though, on second thought, you might not be entirely wrong. You may have foreseen the future! If that dull fish doesn't make a move, Gelgar might actually snatch her up as soon as he recovers from his heartbreak over Nanaba."

The young Theo listened intently to the rambling about the various romantic entanglements within the Survey Corps, affairs Jacqueline had become fascinated with, thanks to Mizuki's updates.

If she doesn't shut up this instant,I'm throwing her out, Lavinia thought furiously, irritated by Jacqueline's incessant, superficial chatter, and even more so by how casually she discussed the topic of Mizuki and the grumpy dwarf. So, it seems this Mikasa Ackerman possesses exceptional abilities. At least that's what Shadis' letter of recommendation says, and Matt, who's in charge of training the recruits, confirmed it. She almost reminds me of that detestable man… It would serve him right if a younger recruit came in and stole his position! The commander plans to keep the recruits as protected as possible during the upcoming expedition, but perhaps she could be placed on the outer perimeter. Someone with her talent might reduce losses, despite her inexperience. Especially given the danger that…

"Hey, what's this?"

Lavinia narrowed her eyes and gripped her pencil tightly, ready to assign the damn Tennison a task that would keep her out of the room for at least three hours.

"La Romanée?"

Lavinia's head whipped around.

Jacqueline had folded the sheet Theo had given her to strengthen her makeshift fan. On the back of the drawing was a list written in Mizuki's tiny handwriting, which had caught the woman's attention; it was a roster of the still-at-large members of the mysterious organization, including their leader and two top lieutenants.

Lavinia mentally cursed herself. It was her fault that Tennison now had her hands on classified information.

That evening, returning from a meeting, she had been horrified to discover that the stack of papers Mizuki had bought to nurture Theo's artistic pursuits had run out. Lavinia couldn't care less about the boy's development as an artist, but she had quickly learned that the best way to keep Theo entertained and out of her way was to supply him with drawing materials. Dreading the prospect of dealing not only with insufferable Jacqueline but also an idle Theo, she had hastily handed him some old documents pulled randomly from the pile of files awaiting disposal on the floor. Apparently, among them was the dossier on the mysterious organization.

"The Wizard? The Giant?" Suddenly serious and alert, Jacqueline straightened up and furrowed her brow. "How is that possible?"

How is that possible?

"Do you know them?" Lavinia didn't expect much from the answer, convinced that Jacqueline's comment stemmed from her inappropriate and insatiable curiosity. Still, it seemed prudent to ask. Just to be safe, she thought, noting how the ex-noblewoman's demeanor had shifted so abruptly.

"Of course I know them," Jacqueline replied, to Lavinia's utter surprise. "Those were the nicknames of two regular guests at my house. Back when I still lived at Tennison Mansion, you know."

Lavinia's mouth went dry, as if someone had drained every drop of saliva with a straw. "Regular guests? And how often did they come? Since when? Do you know their names?"

Jacqueline tilted her head to one side and narrowed her eyes, searching her memory. "So many questions… I think they came once a month, maybe twice. Their visits began after the tragedy in Shiganshina."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I can't give you the exact date, but it was after my mother and sister died." Jacqueline scrutinized Lavinia carefully, her gaze sharp. At the same time, she absently reached out to run her fingers through Theo's hair. The boy, who had curled up beside her on the bed, was listening to their conversation with the same rapt attention he had shown to Jacqueline's earlier, rambling chatter.

Lavinia took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain calm. Her mind raced feverishly, assaulted by conjectures and hypotheses. "So, do you know who they are?"

Jacqueline shook her head decisively. "I don't know the real names of the Giant or the Wizard. When I first met them, they introduced themselves using only those nicknames, and on the rare occasions I saw them again, that's what they were always called." She paused, pressing her lips together as if debating whether or not to continue speaking. Then, overcoming her hesitation, she added, "But if you're interested, I do know the real name of the Romanée."

Lavinia's heart skipped a beat. "Who is it?"

"Well, it's simple. La Romanée is the name of an extraordinarily fine wine that humanity used to produce before the Titans appeared. At least, that's what's written in the books we have on the subject."

Seeing Lavinia grow impatient with her roundabout explanation, Jacqueline sighed. She'd hoped the explanation would be enough to lead the other woman, sharp as she was, to the answer, without forcing her to make a further admission, but evidently she was wrong. "La Romanée… that fine wine he adored… is the nickname the Wizard and the Giant used for my father. Now, I have a question for you: why were those names written on… Hey, where are you going?! Lavinia?! Lavinia!"

The moment she heard the revelation, an unnatural calm had settled over Lavinia. As Jacqueline kept talking, she rose and marched to the door with purpose.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to Commander Smith," she hissed, flinging the door open. From the threshold, she cast a menacing, unyielding look at the stunned Jacqueline. "And you're coming with me."

.

Humming softly and careful not to trip, Mizuki crossed the long, decrepit hallway shrouded in darkness, heading towards the kitchen. A perfect half-moon floated, serene and indifferent, in a cobalt-tinged sky. Through one of the square windows, a beam of moonlight slanted in, cutting through the glass and the shadows to draw patches of white light on the wooden floor. Those pale spots guided her steps like stones poking out of a shallow stream, sketching a path towards the shore.

She had been woken by yet another erotic dream, an occurrence now so frequent it had become routine, barely unsettling her anymore.

Yes, she wanted to make love, desperately so, she needed it. So what? What was wrong with that? She was twenty, and having such desires was perfectly natural. Especially when you were madly in love with someone, as she was.

Mizuki had come to accept the sexual frustration she was living through, though it troubled her that such a small, insignificant taste of the captain had been enough to make her so utterly addicted. She couldn't help but wonder what would become of her if that taste were ever to turn into a full meal. If that were to happen, would she ever be able to go without him?

Sharing a room with Lavinia, Petra, and Theo had nearly driven her insane. Despite the aching desire surging through her body, the constant presence of others had made it nearly impossible to satisfy herself, save for a few hurried, stolen moments, always clouded by the fear of being caught. Luckily for her and for her newfound addiction, the former headquarters was spacious enough that each of its few inhabitants had their own private room, a circumstance that had allowed her to indulge her urges at least partially. When she woke with a start, dazed by thoughts of him in the darkness, her fingers would slide daringly between her thighs. Half-closing her eyes, Mizuki honed the noble art of self-pleasure, convincing herself more and more each day that she had neglected its study for far too long.

Afterwards, she always felt lighter, more at ease and ravenously hungry, a fact that often led to midnight raids on the kitchen. Supplies were rationed, but at least she could fill her stomach with a warm drink.

Still humming, Mizuki pushed open the kitchen door with her hip. Freed from the fear of disturbing the sleep of the other inhabitants of the castle, she raised her voice, emphasizing the lyrics of her song, and snapped her fingers in time with the melody.

"Still making a racket in the middle of the night. Some things just never change."

Mizuki jumped, startled.

The room was split in two by a long wooden table. Levi's head slowly peeked out from over the edge, on the opposite side from where she was standing. Mizuki's arrival must have caught him in the act of crouching in front of the cabinet containing the teacups.

All of Mizuki's confidence crumbled. Instinctively, as though trying to put as much distance as possible between them, she leaned back against the kitchen counter. "You know me," she muttered under her breath, unable to stay silent.

Levi had stood up and was looking at her. "Here for a midnight tea?"

"Yes, but if it's a problem…" She was already turning to flee.

He didn't let her finish. "I've already put the kettle on. There's enough for two." Then, bending down again, he retrieved two teacups from the cupboard and set them carefully on the table.

The invitation, which carried all the weight of a command, confused her even more.

Only the sturdy oak table separated them. It was a heavy piece of furniture, but it wasn't enough to make her feel safe.

How was she supposed to act normal in a situation like this? Alone in a dark, deserted kitchen while the rest of the castle slept deeply, oblivious to the dangerous encounter taking place downstairs?

In that suspended moment, anything could happen, and no one on earth would ever know.

How? How could she pretend? With what face? With what heart?

Pretend that nothing had happened. That they were strangers who had recklessly gotten too close and got burned by the proximity, but who now meant nothing to each other.

The thought was hateful, stifling, repulsive.

And yet, that was the game the captain had chosen to play by inviting her for tea. And while she hated the idea of playing along, she hated even more the thought of running away and losing this chance he had offered her.

So, she settled herself more comfortably against the kitchen counter, lowered her gaze to the table, and waited.

Levi, from his side of the barricade, did the same.

"Can't sleep either?" Mizuki asked, absently twisting the same lock of hair she always toyed with.

Levi shrugged. "As usual," he replied, but there was a strange undertone in his voice, something that suggested his words weren't entirely truthful.

Mizuki suddenly wondered if the captain had also been awakened by a slightly naughty dream that had her as the protagonist; if in reality, before meeting in the kitchen, they had not done so in a dreamlike world, in which the boundaries of their respective dreams had overlapped and their consciousnesses had merged; if, ultimately, the man who, while she was lying on a meadow in the middle of the woods, had climbed on top of her to kiss her had not been the real Levi, the Levi who moved in a dream, and not a mere representation of Levi born from her subconscious.

Perhaps the captain's soul had walked through corridors, barriers, dimensions, impenetrable walls, entire worlds, to reach her.

She still remembered it perfectly: the way he had walked towards her, the way he had leaned over her.

The moonlight poured in obliquely, illuminating only the right side of the captain's face and sprinkling his raven-black hair with tiny, shimmering crystals. His eyes - windows into a soul that felt as though she'd known it for an eternity, yet was still the most unfathomable of mysteries - never left hers, not for an instant. One of his hands, strong and well-proportioned, was entwined with hers; the other was buried in her hair.

Something incredibly real and warm slid into her, moving with slow, tender precision. She moaned. It was the first time her dreams had ventured to this point of no return, and Mizuki felt the experience so vividly that she seriously began to doubt she was even asleep. She felt the captain pulsing inside her, releasing fluids, reaching deeper, as though he was trying to find a secret place within her, a place inaccessible to anyone else but himself, and then stay there forever. She tried to guide him, to direct him to lose himself completely within her.

Mizuki bit her lip.

That vision could have become reality; she was achingly close to it. It hovered before her like a soap bubble floating in a vivid blue sky, just a hand's breadth away from a child watching it, spellbound. All she had to do was reach out, grasp the bubble, and it would happen. She would make it happen according to her will.

If they had stepped into the garden and walked just a few steps; if Mizuki had lied down beneath the shade of a tree and looked up at the stars, that would become trustworthy witnesses to their sin; if he had sat beside her only to roll over and cover her with his body, then dream and reality would merge and become one.

It wouldn't take much - just crossing the table, trapping Levi's hand in hers, and leading him outside - to plunge into that bubble of unreal happiness. Deep down, she knew he wouldn't resist; quite the opposite.

And yet, Mizuki couldn't bring herself to act.

"You did a good job," Levi said abruptly, breaking the silence.

"About what?"

"The brat, of course. Hange was right to call on you," Levi said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Oh, I didn't do anything… I just had him throw a few glasses," Mizuki replied nervously, still caught in the haze of her hallucination. "It was a group effort from everyone, and…"

"No," the captain cut her off, and suddenly his eyes locked onto hers with the deadly precision of an arrow. "It wasn't our doing. My squad and I see him as a prisoner we might have to put down at any moment. Hange sees him as nothing more than the subject of her experiments, no different from those two shitty titans that have kicked the bucket. And he knows it. We could never have helped him. He needed someone to treat him like a human being, like the boy he is, and not like a monster or a lab rat. He needed you."

Levi spoke those exact words. And yet, even though he was clearly referring to Eren, it felt almost as if he wanted to give the statement a broader meaning. Almost as though he was saying that anyone could harbor a hidden need for Mizuki.

As though he, certainly, did.

I need you, he was saying to her without words, his eyes searching hers with relentless insistence. I've tried to go without, but I simply can't.

Mizuki felt it coming, just as one sometimes wakes in the morning with the gut feeling that the day ahead will take either a wonderfully positive or catastrophically negative turn. They were on the verge of addressing the unmentionable incident, ignored until then through a clever game of fiction and dissimulation, as they believed that forgetting was the best course of action.

A surprising sense of calm settled over Mizuki. The realization that, one way or another, the matter would soon be resolved - and the fiery look in Levi's eyes hinted at exactly how it would end… - filled her with confidence and composure. She lowered her hand, releasing the lock of hair she'd been torturing, straightened her back, and met his piercing gaze head-on.

Here I am, her silent response screamed back at him. I'm ready to sort this out. I'm ready to open myself to you, to confront you. I'm ready to give you everything.

"Listen…" Levi began after a long pause.

It was then that the garden door swung open, and a hooded figure stepped inside.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Erwin Smith said with a faint smirk. "There's something important we need to discuss."

Behind him, Lavinia Williams filed into the room, followed by…

"Jackie?!" Mizuki exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock. "What the hell are you doing here?"

.

"Their visits began after the Shiganshina tragedy. They came once or twice a month. They always brought gifts for me, and treated me with kindness and respect. Afterward, they would lock themselves in the study with my father to discuss business. I had no idea what they were talking about. I never got involved in managing the family estate." Blowing on her cup of hot tea, Jacqueline finished summarizing for Levi and Mizuki the information she had already repeated ad nauseam to Erwin and Lavinia. Her hands trembled slightly; a drop of golden liquid overflowed from the edge of the cup, and after slithering along the rim, fell onto the table.

"So you're telling us you didn't know anything about their dealings?" Levi asked, standing against the kitchen counter, clicking his tongue. "How very convenient."

Lavinia nodded, for once in agreement with the captain.

Mizuki, on the other hand, raised her head indignantly and shot them both a reproachful look. "Of course she didn't know anything! She just said so!" she retorted angrily.

"Mizuki," Jacqueline murmured, reaching out a hand toward the girls seated beside her. She placed it on her arm, squeezing it slightly. "The captain is right. Anyone in your position would doubt my innocence in this matter, and they'd be right to. I mean, you've been looking for these people for almost two years now, and now that you're going after the higher-ups to wipe out the organization for good, here I am, popping up with names read casually on a note left by Mizuki, claiming to know them."

On this point, Mizuki had nothing to reply. She, too, had almost fallen off her chair when Lavinia had recounted her story. The key to tracking down their enemies, a search that had taken them to the farthest corners of the walls, had always been right beside her, hidden in Jacqueline's memories. She often discussed work with her friend, but never had she told her about the mysterious organization, not so much because Erwin Smith had asked his soldiers to keep quiet, but rather because of the inextricable link between the affair and the secret of Mizuki's arrival at the walls and her ninja identity. She had only once followed the orders, and this was the result… An ironic discovery that left a bitter taste. "I admit that it's an extraordinary coincidence, but…"

Jacqueline noticed that Mizuki had no idea how to finish the sentence, and seized the opportunity to continue speaking. "If I were a member of the organization, and I thought my days were numbered because I knew you were after us, it would be a smart move to hand over my associates and save myself by pretending to be completely uninvolved with their criminal activities. It's all too convenient for me to say I know nothing, like the captain says."

Jacqueline's voice faltered with emotion, and she had to stop and clear her throat. She looked awful, and seemed defeated, in a way Mizuki had never seen, not even after the attempted murder by her ex-boyfriend. Yet, despite the anguish the situation caused her, she chose her words carefully, forming simple sentences and ideas, and the determination in her gaze never wavered. "You don't have to trust me. I understand. But at least let me help you catch those assholes." Her grip on Mizuki's arm tightened, causing her a slight pang of pain.

However, Mizuki didn't pull away; she understood that for Jackie, that grip was her only physical and moral anchor against the storm that had suddenly overwhelmed her, and she wouldn't deny her that support for anything.

"If my father did even half the things the commander told me…" Jacqueline's voice trembled again, but she didn't stop. "Then he must pay. For all the harm he's done, he deserves to face the proper punishment, and I want to help you. It's my duty, after having lived for years off the profits of such an enterprise, stained with the blood of countless innocent, faceless people, and of Tim."

Perhaps it was the unwavering look on her face; perhaps the fact that, even after all this time, she still remembered the name of the servant killed by Liam Heather, but Levi's attitude towards her softened. He clicked his tongue just once, but didn't comment on Jacqueline's impassioned statement.

Instead, he turned his attention to her companion.

Mizuki sat motionless, absorbed by Jacqueline and her declaration of intent. From the way she held her arm, as stiff as a rod, one could guess that the noble's grip was causing her pain. Levi, however, was sure she wouldn't pull away. It wasn't in her nature.

He had dreamt of her again, and once again had woken up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat and desire; once again, he had descended the stairs in the dark to calm his nerves with a good cup of tea; once again, he had prepared himself to spend endless hours of wakefulness trying to erase the traces of the vision, aware that, rather than fading, their vividness would only grow…

By now, he was used to this routine, and it no longer frightened him.

It was then that the very person he had been dreaming of walked into the room, humming cheerfully and unknowingly.

Before he realized what he was doing, Levi had invited her to stop and have a cup of tea with him, blocking her poorly concealed attempt to escape. She hesitated, wary, making him think she was about to give in to her original plan; but instead, to his surprise, she leaned against the counter, surrendering to the fate that had brought them together in the middle of the night in the kitchen.

With her, it was always like this: as if someone had wrapped an invisible rope around his waist, pulling him along, Levi acted without having formed a clear and precise intention, as if in a trance; he acted driven by an irresistible force, by her, by her presence. Then, suddenly, some element of the external reality would shake him, and he would snap back to himself, finding himself in situations that bordered on the absurd, not knowing how the hell he had ended up there. He almost felt like a sleepwalker who, in a state of unconscious half-sleep, moves, carries out a series of actions, follows his desires, only to suddenly wake up in the middle of a forest, naked and holding a severed head, without knowing how or why.

While they were conversing awkwardly, waiting for the tea water to boil, a curious thought had crossed Levi's mind. He wondered if Mizuki had also been awakened by a slightly naughty dream that had him as the protagonist; if in reality, before meeting in the kitchen, they had not done so in a dreamlike world, in which the boundaries of their respective dreams had overlapped and their consciousnesses had merged; the girl lying on a meadow in the middle of the forest, on top of whom he had rolled to kiss her, had not been the real Mizuki, the Mizuki who moved in a dream, and not a mere representation of Mizuki born from his subconscious.

Perhaps the brat's soul had walked through corridors, barriers, dimensions, impenetrable walls, entire worlds, to reach him.

He still remembered it perfectly: the way he had walked towards her, the way he had leaned over her.

The moonlight flooded the figure lying on the grass, making her honey-colored hair, scattered around her head like a crown, shine. She was beautiful, incredibly beautiful; in that moment, he thought he had never seen anything or anyone more beautiful in his entire life. He felt with painful certainty that everything he longed for was contained in her, in that tiny body, in that soul overflowing from her golden eyes, fixed on his and full of tenderness. One of her tiny hands, with fingers as thin as flower stems, was intertwined with his, the other was buried in his raven-black hair.

With a slow and gentle movement, Levi entered her; he went mad for the soft moan she let out. It wasn't the first time his dreams had pushed him to that point of no return, but that night, the penetration felt so real that he began to seriously doubt whether he was actually dreaming. He felt her sex pulse as it welcomed him, closing around him as if it wanted to embrace him and make him its prisoner for eternity, taking him to a secret place, a place inaccessible to anyone else but himself, and Levi followed. He allowed himself to be guided, he entrusted himself to her completely.

The possibility that such a delight might come true had overwhelmed him; he was achingly close to it. It hovered before him like a soap bubble floating in a vivid blue sky, just a hand's breadth away from a child watching it, spellbound. All he had to do was reach out, grasp the bubble, and it would happen. He would make it happen according to her will.

He would catch her in an impregnable embrace and, after taking her outside into the warm night, would replicate step by step what he had dreamed, down to the finest details. He was certain she wouldn't resist; in fact, she would support him in everything. The persistence with which she avoided his gaze, the way she pressed herself against the kitchen counter, and the nervous motion with which she twisted a lock of hair all revealed this to him.

However, first, they needed to clarify their respective positions. Even Levi, as clumsy as he was in expressing his feelings, could sense that. There was an order to respect, they couldn't just throw themselves at each other and then find themselves back at square one, with no certainty in hand once their craving for pleasure was satisfied.

So he cleared his throat and began: "Listen..."

Then Erwin, the brat's pal, and the noblewoman had barged into the room, and Levi, like a sleepwalker, had awoken, finding himself on the verge of discussing something he had been trying to avoid for almost two years.

With that thought, Levi returned to the present.

Erwin Smith had just spoken. "I trust Miss Tennison: I have no reason to doubt her sincerity. For now, at least. A year and a half ago, she helped us in the Heather case, getting us out of a real mess. She's been away from home for almost a year now, severing all contact with her father. The descriptions of the Wizard and the Giant match those given by the other thugs we've captured. Furthermore..." The commander paused and turned his head towards Jackie, as if asking her permission to continue.

"Let me handle it," she murmured, looking down. "Commander Smith has also spoken to me about the drug used to control the more unruly subjects... How refined it was, and according to Hange and Mizuki, the work of an experienced chemist..." Another hesitation, and Jacqueline Tennison's whole figure trembled at the thought of the revelation she was about to make. "He... graduated in chemistry in Mitras, he's very talented... My father built him a lab at the villa so he could synthesize substances to preserve the wine better. That's what they've always told me, but..."

"Jackie," Mizuki murmured, placing her hand on her friend's. "Who are you talking about?"

Levi, who had already guessed who Tennison was referring to, scowled. "Tsk. Filthy pig."

Jacqueline suddenly grew agitated. Her cheeks flushed and her gaze blazed, she twisted her mouth and started speaking rapidly, with an almost delirious cadence. "I'm sure Clayton has nothing to do with it! He's a fool, a first-class fool, but he's not bad! My brother wouldn't harm a fly! If only he had known what his creation would be used for... He must have been deceived by our father! He's the snake! If there's anyone capable of killing or selling human beings, it's my father! I'll prove it! I'll prove that my brother knew nothing, and that the devil is him!"

At that final cry, Mizuki finally decided to wriggle free from Jacqueline's grip - the next day, a bluish bruise would appear on her arm, the mark of her friend's desperation - but only to wrap her in an embrace. Only then did the woman, clinging to her just as tightly, burst into convulsive tears.

At the sight of this scene, Lavinia rolled her eyes, and Levi clicked his tongue.

Erwin let out a low, embarrassed cough. "Before coming here, Miss Tennison sent a letter to her father, the Duke, requesting a clarifying meeting about the Heather affair. It's not guaranteed that he'll respond, since she severed all ties with her family when she ran away. If he does agree, we'll escort Miss Tennison to the meeting and make sure we get to the truth."

Mizuki nodded firmly at these words, tightening her grip on Jacqueline, even more determined to protect her.

"The letter was sent from Trost," Erwin continued, mostly addressing Levi. "Since she ran away, Miss Tennison has never revealed her whereabouts to her father. Upon receiving the letter, it's possible the Duke will conduct some investigation and find out that Jacqueline is currently staying at our Headquarters. That's also why I decided to bring her here to the castle: she'll be safer. If he's really who we think he is, Duke Tennison isn't unaware that we're on his tail, nor that his daughter possesses very dangerous information. He's no fool: Jacqueline's presence with us could raise suspicions; I wouldn't want him to decide to kidnap her to protect his secret..."

From his tone, it was clear that Erwin didn't find it unlikely that, if cornered, the Duke might resort to far worse measures than kidnapping.

"Mizuki..." A faint whimper came from Jacqueline's face, buried in Mizuki's shoulder.

"What? Tell me everything!"

"If my father does reply... could you accompany me?" Jacqueline raised her eyes, swollen and reddened, towards her friend. "Please..." she added in a whisper.

"What kind of question is that?! If you need me, of course I'll go with you!" Mizuki replied, indignant that Jacqueline could think she would abandon her.

Erwin gave up on reminding her that, as a soldier, Mizuki couldn't make decisions for herself; it would have been a pointless remark, one that would have gone in one ear and out the other, leaving no impression on her. Instead, he focused on observing the reactions of the other two present to Mizuki's rash commitment.

Lavinia and Levi both seemed extremely annoyed.

The girl, as the commander immediately sensed, was consumed by a creeping jealousy at the sudden appearance of a rival who, even if unconsciously, aimed to steal the role of Mizuki's best friend.

His captain, on the other hand, deplored the ease and recklessness with which Mizuki involved herself in matters that didn't concern her and promised nothing but trouble and danger. At the same time, however, Levi was also stirred by another feeling, one leaning towards admiration and respect… Yes, respect, because Erwin had now understood that Levi valued more than anything else Mizuki's humanity, generosity, and her unconditional and selfless love for others.

Studying this web of love entanglements and much darker, more irrational emotions - a web in which, honestly, he placed himself too - Erwin Smith became convinced that their seemingly accidental convergence wasn't truly random, and, in fact, was cloaked in an undeniable sense of inevitable necessity.

Mizuki, Lavinia, Jacqueline, Levi, Erwin.

They had all been drawn here, all five of them, by intangible forces - the mystics would have seen signs of a higher divinity, the fatalists the workings of destiny - so that they could become the protagonists of a tragedy that, sooner or later, would burn their hearts, until it consumed them.

.

.

Notes:

Good evening everyone! Thanks for reading until here.
It took me a while to update, and I'm sorry about that.
After the end of the first arc I took a break and, in view of the beginning of the second part, I started rereading the manga. What can I say? I was enchanted as much as, if not more than, the first time! It's absolutely one of my favorite stories, not to mention that the initial part (along with those on the civil war) is among my absolute favorites! and in fact I couldn't resist... I inserted very short references that contain the essence of some key scenes (at least, according to my personal interpretation).
as for the rest... where did we leave off?
Cold war between Mizuki and Levi, which seems to be about to end, but the signing of the peace treaty is prevented by the appearance of a fifty-meter tall titan that breaks down the doors. They try again, after various upheavals, and this time it's dear Erwin Smith who interrupts them.
Aside from that, Eren is starting to become a more important presence (let's give him a few scenes, since he's the real protagonist), but he's not doing well. In addition to getting depressed, he also arouses (not intentionally) Levi's jealousy. About this... I don't know, I can't help but imagine our captain as a jealous person. Not in the negative sense of the term, a possessive jealous who wants to lock his beloved in a tower; but the jealous-insecure. Levi is a resolute and decisive man, as far as war and titans are concerned; but with feelings, it's a whole other story. He's a loser, he can't express himself, and this makes him fear that he could lose Mizuki at any moment, or that she'll be interested in another less problematic man. And who would blame her?
At the end of the chapter, one of the big bosses of the mysterious organization is revealed! incredible, huh? It's him: our beloved Duke Tennison. When I chose the code name for him, I wanted a term that recalled wine and so I arrived at la Romanée, a French wine apparently super fine. If someone had googled the term and remembered the existence of the duke, they would have understood everything (maybe).
Other than that, I hope as always that you enjoyed the chapter.
See you soon.