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

21. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: I will show you the way back home, never leave you all alone. I will stay until the morning comes.… I'll be right here.

Right here - Ashes Remain

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10:07 PM - Ten hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition. First day.

The air in the hospital room assigned to Mizuki in Karanes was stale. She had been attending to patients for ten hours straight, ever since the expedition had returned behind the walls, and in all that time the windows had remained closed, since she didn't want to hear the chatter of people in the streets, maliciously dissecting yet another failure by the Survey Corps. Only after the last patient had crossed the threshold of her office did Mizuki finally throw the windows open to let some fresh air in.

The girl sighed, running two fingers over her puffy, sleep-deprived eyes - she hadn't closed them in almost forty hours - and leaned back in the chair.
Erwin and Levi watched her intently, looking no less battered. They had come to her for a quick debrief on the events at Tennison Manor and an update on the survivors' conditions after their meeting with the squad captains; the ones who remained, at least. Dita Neiss was not among them.

Dita Neiss was dead. Along with him, four other soldiers whose names Mizuki refused to acknowledge.

They were dead, and she hadn't been there when it happened.

The idea, simple as it was, wouldn't settle in her head. It was as though her mind refused to accept it; as if, so long as she didn't admit it, Dita Neiss might still burst through the door without warning, announcing he was heading to the stables to feed his beloved Charlotte.

For now, Mizuki clung to that undignified lie. She needed it. If she wanted to support the others, she had to keep herself together.

"Is that all?" Erwin asked in an expressionless tone.

"That's all," she confirmed. "Five soldiers dead from their injuries; nine in critical condition; the other twenty-three have minor wounds."

The commander nodded. "Understood. In that case, if that's everything, we'll take our leave…"

"No," Mizuki said abruptly, springing to her feet. "I'm not finished; I still need you."

The two men froze, uneasy at her sudden solemnity, as Mizuki circled the desk and positioned herself in front of them. Levi instinctively took a step back, towards the medical cot, as if sensing that some catastrophe was about to befall him

"Captain. Take off your trousers." Mizuki enunciated each word clearly, though she didn't have the strength or courage to look him in the eye. She grimaced. "Please."

Levi turned ashen. Of all the things he might have expected in that moment - her breaking into tears, accusing him, slapping him, even mocking him cruelly - this request, made in front of the commander, was not one of them. Especially not after a similar plea, albeit with roles reversed, had been exchanged between them just three months prior.

Erwin's eyes widened in disbelief and he glanced hopefully at the door. "I think I might be intruding here. Perhaps I should get going…" Even a man of his caliber seemed unprepared to face a situation this ambiguous, a scenario where one of his subordinates was being asked to strip in front of him by the woman for whom said subordinate had clearly lost all composure.

"Don't even think about it, Commander. I need you here as a witness when I prescribe to this stubborn man what he can and cannot do." Mizuki, now fully assuming her role as a doctor, regained her composure. She even managed a defiant glance at the captain as she jabbed an accusatory finger into his chest. "You think I didn't notice? Maybe you can fool everyone else, but not me. I had my suspicions the moment I saw you dismount. You're walking to avoid putting weight on your left leg. And earlier, I treated a girl - Mikasa, I think her name was - who told me what happened with that Titan. She described the sound your leg made: crack. Do you realize that? Crack. When exactly were you planning on telling me?"

Levi clicked his tongue and turned his head stubbornly to the side. "It's nothing serious. It can wait."

Mizuki let out an exasperated sigh. "How old are you, five? You think you're going to slink back to your clean little lair and lick your wounds?"

The sarcastic remark didn't sit well with him. "I can still walk."

"Are you kidding me? Your leg went CRACK, for heaven's sake! Now, take those damn trousers off!"

"Do you have any idea how shit you look right now? You're the one who needs rest, not me."

"Listen…" Erwin began, looking as though he'd suddenly found himself caught between a turbulent medical exam and a lovers' quarrel. He'd heard that Mizuki became authoritative, impatient, and unyielding when in doctor mode, traits that normally didn't suit her at all. Having never been seriously injured himself, he'd never had the chance to confirm the rumors, but he certainly didn't expect them to be this accurate.

Almost as if to prove the point, Mizuki lost her patience entirely. With a swift motion, she shoved Levi square in the chest with both hands. The captain lost his balance, already rather unstable due to the fact that the only point of support for his body weight was his right leg, and toppled backwards onto the cot behind him. "Look at yourself. You can't even stay on your feet," she taunted with a smirk.

"You just earned yourself a week in detention," Levi growled, though he made no effort to get up.

She laughed in his face. "You just earned yourself a week in detention," she mimicked mockingly. "Why don't you try taking me down instead of throwing out those empty threats? Then maybe it'll finally hit you how bad your knee actually is."

"Fuck you."

Mizuki rolled her eyes. "Tell me, do you know where we are?"

"Are you messing with me?"

"Exactly, well done. It's a stupid question, because the answer is obvious. We're in a hospital. Which means I'm in charge here." Mizuki crouched and, without further ado, grabbed the belt he was wearing on his trousers. Levi swatted her hand away with a less-than-gentle shove, making her grimace in annoyance.

Levi hated being pitied or helped. Since Kenny had abandoned him, he had developed a genuine aversion to burdening those around him. Yes, from that distant day, he had resolved to be the one to support others, never the other way around. He could see clearly on Mizuki's face the signs of mental exhaustion more than physical, echoes of the chasm that had opened in her heart. From that, he concluded that the brat needed rest as soon as possible, especially considering the dark days looming for the soldiers of the Survey Corps.

"I have no intention of…"

"In fact I don't recall asking for your opinion. When patients don't understand a damn thing, we doctors couldn't care less about what they think." This time, she managed to grab his belt. With a deft movement, she slipped the buckle free and pulled it off him.

Unlike Erwin, Levi had already had the privilege of meeting this authoritarian version of Mizuki. She had first appeared at the castle, during Theo's medical examination and subsequent panic attack, and he had also experienced firsthand her talent for stripping people down.

Mizuki raised her tired gaze to him. "If you plan to keep throwing a tantrum, I have no problem stripping you down completely, like a five-year-old. But since your boss is right here, I'll give you a chance to save your face and handle it yourself."

He returned her stare with a murderous, stubborn glare. Not only had the expedition been one of the worst in recent years, and his knee was throbbing terribly, but now he also had to endure the scolding of this brat, who was the very embodiment of the word "insolence"? And worse, he had to suffer through her crouching in front of him, trying to tug off his trousers, her hair hastily tied back, her lips exactly at the height of…

This was absolutely not the day for any sexual mishaps. If he let himself give in to his impulses, he wouldn't be able to stop, even if the entire Corps had burst into the room at the climax.

The brat wasn't the only one inside whom a chasm had opened up with a sinister roar. A dark, hopeless void had opened in Levi with his mother's death, and with every subsequent loss, that abyss deepened, eroding what little reserves of happiness, balance, and sanity he still possessed. That morning's ordeal had reached deep inside him, stirring the ever-active fault line of his grief. He was certain that if he held her in his arms, her presence would fill that void, even if only for a fleeting moment; their sufferings would seek and court each other in a hypnotic dance and, finally, support each other to make them complete.

But this, of all moments, was the absolute worst time to give in to feelings. The next day, Eren would likely be handed over to the Military Police; the Central Government had already summoned him and Erwin to Mitras, officially to receive a detailed account of the expedition, but in truth, to pin the failure on them. Two events that herald a catastrophe. There was no room for recklessness now.

"Listen to me. Everyone here relies on you, I don't need to tell you that. But their trust would be entirely misplaced if you turned out to be someone who couldn't even take care of himself," Mizuki said, carefully rolling his belt and setting it on the floor.

Levi clicked his tongue. "Hearing that from you really pisses me off."

Mizuki smirked at him. "Respect your doctor, Captain. As I suspected, you're the textbook definition of a difficult patient."

"She's right, Levi. Do as she says," Erwin interjected. While the two continued to bicker, he had silently made his way to the door. "I really can't stay, Mizuki. Between the outcome of the expedition and the disaster at Tennison Mansion, I'll have Nile Dok and Commander Zackley breathing down my neck in no time. But you have my full support: examine him, and whatever she prescribes, Levi, you'll follow it to the letter. That's an order."

Those were Erwin's final words before he slipped out of the infirmary, leaving Levi to glare after him and mutter a rather unflattering curse.

The captain stalled for another moment before sighing and reaching for the button of his trousers. Mizuki, still crouched between his legs in a position that was unconsciously suggestive, leaned back slightly to give him space to remove the garment, fold it neatly, and place it on his lap to cover at least part of his exposed state.

Levi stood before her in his underwear and uniform shirt; far more than his admirers would ever dream of witnessing. Not that it mattered much at the moment, though he was at least curious to see her reaction to his undressing.

To his dismay, he quickly realized that, despite their history, Mizuki's interest was purely clinical: all she saw before her was an injured body in need of treatment. Once she took on the role of the feared Mizuki-the-doctor, known for her authoritarianism, Mizuki reduced the world to very simple equations, based on equally elementary expressions, namely the patient's need for care and her own ability to provide it, excluding any other detail - such as the fact that the body shamefully exposed to her eyes belonged to Levi - considered insignificant or counterproductive.

With that mindset, Mizuki reached a hand towards his left knee but paused to examine it closely first. It was swollen, it was possibile to see it at a glance. "You hurt yourself saving that girl, didn't you? She told me as much when I was treating her."

"Don't spout nonsense. I hurt myself saving Eren's ass."

"Should I pretend to believe you, or can we skip that part?"

Levi grunted but said nothing more.

Mizuki-the-doctor couldn't possibly know nor even imagine it - since the phenomenon, although biological, was beyond the scope of the current intervention - but all of Levi's concentration and willpower were channeled into one effort: avoiding the rather difficult situation of getting hard right in front of her.

Slowly, she began to probe the front of the joint; at times, she cast sharp, concentrated glances at Levi's face, which was stubbornly turned towards the ceiling as she searched for any hint of pain, but the captain's mask of impassivity did not waver in the slightest.

"Captain?" Mizuki called out impatiently.

He didn't move his head.

"Does it hurt?"

"Of course it hurts, brat."

"From now on, since your face isn't exactly expressive, please do me the divine favor of describing your sensations out loud."

Levi was at the end of his rope. Each time Mizuki's hot fingertips brushed against him, his lower abdomen tightened in spasms of both pain and arousal. Though he kept his face turned away, he couldn't help studying her figure out of the corner of his eye: the stray curl escaping her ponytail and falling across her forehead, the crease of concentration between her brows, the way her lips moved as she murmured medical observations to herself. her head tilted slightly to the side, as if she were straining to hear a melody carried by the wind.

And that image aroused him terribly. Damn it, how much he wanted her.

The examination lasted about five interminable minutes, during which Mizuki pressed, tapped, rotated, and listened. Finally, much to Levi's relief, she stood, retrieved a jar of ointment from the pouch of medicines and vials she always carried with her, and began applying it skillfully to the entire front and back of his knee.

Under her touch, gentle and soothing in a way far more dangerous and seductive than just the sight of her kneeling before him, Levi closed his eyes halfway. He hadn't expected the hands of that brat to move with such care and grace, especially considering how absent those traits were from her everyday actions. They anticipated how she would devote herself to him and his body under the covers.

At last, Mizuki grabbed a roll of bandages and tightly wrapped his knee.

Once she finished, she stood again, planting her hands on her hips. "The joint is damaged. For now, I've applied a generic soothing ointment, but I'd like to prepare a mixture more suited to your type of injury. In any case, these are only measures to promote healing and ease the pain. The only real remedies are rest and an absolute prohibition on putting weight on the leg. Do I make myself clear? Absolute prohibition. A prognosis of at least two weeks."

As she delivered her diagnosis, she moved to a corner of the room and retrieved what looked like a crutch.

"This should do for keeping weight off your leg. As for the rest... You're officially injured, so don't you dare leave this hospital to return to the camp outside the city. The first night of recovery is the most important," Mizuki decreed imperiously, gesturing with her chin towards a door in the corner of the room. "Behind that door is a bedroom. For tonight, I'm granting you asylum here. It's clean, don't worry. On the dresser, you'll find a patient's nightgown." With one hand on the doorknob, she turned to shoot him a warning glance. "And don't even think about sleeping in the chair instead of the bed, or I'll come in and pull your ears while you're sleeping. The leg needs to be stretched out and resting. I'm off to take a shower and handle my nightly rounds. Don't wait up for me."

Mizuki was gone for about two hours. When she returned, the light in the infirmary was still on. From the doorway, she took in the scene: the crutch leaning against the wall, the chair pushed back from the table, the tea set resting atop it, and finally, the figure of the captain standing at the stove; the hospital office where Mizuki had settled, in fact, was equipped with a tiny cooking surface where it was possible to prepare and heat up simple dishes.

"The crutch, damn you."

The captain gave no indication that he'd heard her or cared in the slightest about her comment. Resigned, Mizuki approached the table and slumped into one of the chairs with a sigh.

Though she hated to admit it - since it went against the very instructions she'd so sternly given him - she'd secretly hoped to find him awake when she returned. Now that the chaos had subsided and she'd finished all the tasks she'd set for herself, nothing remained to shield her from the gaping void in her chest, which seemed to widen with every passing second, threatening to consume her. If she let herself succumb to it, Mizuki feared she'd sink into an abyss of darkness. A darkness that, this time, she might not escape. A darkness where horrifically familiar voices echoed, voices she would never hear again in the real world. A darkness where the curse of her Uchiha blood would gain renewed strength, whispering alluring plans of revenge and extermination, and promising peace if she carried them out.

The captain's presence offered her the chance to console someone other than herself. As long as she stayed focused on helping others, as long as she had a purpose, as long as she didn't have to confront the emptiness of her loss, Mizuki would be safe from that darkness churning inside her, passed down by her father.

Levi lifted the steel teapot from the stove, brought it to the table - Mizuki noticed with satisfaction that he walked with a slight limp, careful not to strain his injured leg - poured the tea, and slid a cup towards her.

She accepted it without a word.

By now, words of gratitude between them felt superfluous; even if spoken, they would surely have sounded unnatural, misplaced, forced. They had long since crossed the point where they needed to feign politeness or make awkward attempts at conversation to fill the silence.

Such silence lingered between them for a few more minutes. The only sounds in the room were the tapping of Mizuki's finger against the hot cup and Levi's slow sips.

"What happened?" the girl asked suddenly, as if the question had forced its way out, escaping the place where she had tried to keep it confined.

Levi waited for more details to clarify the question, studying her profile as she abruptly turned her face towards the strip of sky visible through the window.

"Out there. What happened out there?"

Levi didn't know how to respond. He never had. There were no right words to describe the horror of the outside world. She, after all, should have been as aware of it as he was: she came from there, and had often returned there during expeditions. "What the hell do you think happened? The same thing that happens every time. Do you need me to draw you a picture?"

As always, she wasn't intimidated by Levi's sharpness. With a decisive gesture, she pushed her cup away, as if to physically underline her rejection of such a simplistic answer. She stood up and, circling the table, approached Levi. She dove deeper. "I read the report. Why did you go back to resupply on gas instead of alerting your squad to retreat?"

Was that what she meant when she'd asked him that question?

Mizuki was intelligent; she'd already deduced what had happened. It hadn't taken her long to notice the flaw in the chain of events: Levi was the captain, and the commander had ordered a retreat. Both military logic and common sense dictated that he should have regrouped his squad and, most importantly, warned them of the mission's failure.

Maybe she already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from him.

"I followed orders. And they died."

It was the bare truth, stripped of any embellishments meant to soften it. Levi articulated it in a tired, resigned, defensive voice, laden with an unspoken question: why was she torturing him like this?

They.

Dita Neiss, the tireless captain who gave lectures to the recruits, a lover of animals and good company.

Gunther Schulz, hopelessly in love with Lavinia and passionate about cooking.

Eld Jin, calm and reliable, who was supposed to get married in August.

Oluo Bozado, absurdly determined to imitate his captain and always too quick with his tongue.

Petra Ral, so kind, so brave, so loyal. Petra...

"I followed orders too," Mizuki murmured. "And when they died, I wasn't by their side."

Their situations were the same. It didn't matter that one of them had been within the walls and the other only a few meters away. Neither of them had been with their comrades at the crucial moment; neither had protected them.

What was the point of all the lessons, the training, the hard work? What was the point of Levi's superhuman strength? Of Mizuki's sharingan? What was the point of being considered humanity's strongest soldier or his special pupil?

What did it matter if neither of them could save them?

They were both equally guilty; both stained with a burden they would carry until their last breath.

Levi, however, resisted sharing such a burden; although he had accepted it in the past, nothing obligated him to do so now. Once again, he withdrew from her and everyone else, curling up in a small, dark recess to retrace his mistakes in solitude, to curse Erwin's orders, Erwin himself, the Female Titan, and the miserable situation that forced them to endure their comrades' deaths in silence, gritting their teeth.

In this, too, they were alike. They hid their suffering, shedding no tears, with an almost physical aversion to the idea of causing trouble for others, weighed down by the duty to be a barrier against the tide of madness for their comrades: on the mental front, Mizuki soothed spirits shattered by endless defeats with her optimism and forwards drive; on the practical front, Levi inspired courage in humans paralyzed by the terror of the Titans. With so many eyes full of expectation fixed on them, they had to endure, confront the world's cruelty with heads held high, appear strong and invincible, hide their profound humanity; they couldn't afford to falter for even an instant, or the entire army would collapse with them.

This was what they both felt and thought, lucidly although perhaps a little too drastically, while a jagged shard pierced both their hearts, tearing them apart, shredding them, annihilating them.

"Let's not talk bullshit," Levi said, quickly averting his gaze and brutally pushing her away. Then, almost absentmindedly, as if to soften the harshness of his words: "Good thing you weren't there."

Mizuki remained still and silent, taking the blow.

For a moment, it seemed like she was about to retreat from the fight.

No impression could have been further from the truth.

Suddenly, she recovered. Without any warning, she made a rapid movement that was unfamiliar to Levi and therefore impossible for him to predict or avoid. Or rather: he did know it, the body's memory rarely forgets such a gesture once experienced. But it had been decades since anyone had dared or been in a position to do it with him… Decades, yes. The last time had been when he was four years old, and his mother still had enough strength to hold him, to give him warmth, gentleness, and the baseless conviction that she could protect him.

Mizuki stepped closer, positioning herself between Levi's slightly parted legs, and wrapped him in her arms. She slipped her hands behind his head and pressed it gently but firmly against her abdomen, holding him there.

She held him tightly, as though they were plummeting into a ravine and this grip was their only hope of salvation; she held him tightly, as though nothing else in the world existed or mattered; she held him tightly, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. She held him tightly, just as his mother had when Levi was four and - like all children - he needed to feel protected.

It was his turn to remain motionless, frozen.

"Let go of me," he ordered after what felt like an eternity, his voice cold and colorless.

"Not a chance," she replied. To emphasize her point, she tightened her hold, pulling him deeper into that damned embrace.

"Let go."

"If you want me to let go, you'll have to tear me off. Break my arms, both of them, because as long as I can hold you, I won't let go."

With every word she whispered, Mizuki's hold became firmer.

Levi clicked his tongue in irritation, lifting his arms to grab her and push her away, ready to do exactly what she had suggested if necessary. His hands landed on her hips, prepared to pull her back… but the moment he touched her body, as had already happened before, Levi lost control of his own.

He had already experienced the devastating effect that touching her had on him.

And yet, this embrace was different from any other contact they had shared, accidental or not: the first, in the middle of a forest, it had been the embrace of two survivors gripped by the terror of having lost each other; the second was that of lovers, consumed by a blind and overpowering passion. This instead was the embrace of two people who wanted to care for each other, protect and support one another, share both their joyful days and their darkest moments. What they had previously communicated with words and glances, she now conveyed through that embrace.

Never before had he perceived with the same overwhelming intensity the reality of an object, its being an element endowed with physicality and volume with which he could interact.

Mizuki was real; she was alive; she was there in front of him, holding him tightly with fervor.

Her slightly labored breathing, her chest rising and falling, the softness of her abdomen against which his face rested, her slender arms around his neck, one hand buried in his hair, her pinky brushing the tip of his ear. He pictured her face in the darkness: her eyes narrowed, her brow furrowed, her effort to hold back tears, and the pain, frustration, and anger that consumed her, betrayed by the faint tremble of her lower lip.

He placed his hands on her waist to push her away, to create distance between them, but it was already too late. Those arms encircling him, stubbornly refusing to release him, were far too aware of what they were doing, of the pain and loneliness they were trying so desperately to counteract.

She could see through him; she always had. Even when Levi didn't utter a single word, Mizuki could discern what he was thinking, as if there were an invisible connection between their minds.

He wanted to push her away. He ordered himself to do it. He screamed it internally.

But his body no longer obeyed him.

His arms slid from Mizuki's waist to her back, and they wrapped around her, mirroring the embrace she was already giving him.

He closed his eyes and surrendered to that embrace.

Over the years, he had had contact - intimate contact even - with other women. And yet, with none of them had he surrendered to such an experience. An embrace so consuming, so exclusive, so overpowering that it became impossible to tell where he ended and she began. An embrace in which he felt naked and defenseless, stripped of the armor he had worn since the day his mother died. An embrace in which he melted and allowed the pain to flood him, no longer bothering to suppress it.

He accepted it.

After all, she already knew everything, she knew too much. The pain he tried to hide from everyone, that attacked him in the form of terrifying nightmares, she knew it was locked inside his chest. She felt it, despite how skillful he was at donning his mask of indifference. She knew, and that was precisely why she embraced him like this. repressing her own suffering for the loss of the first comrades within the walls that had accepted her. She embraced him, unconcerned about herself, overwhelming and imposing as always, leaving him no escape, no path to retreat.

He was her prisoner, held captive by an embrace that bore no trace of eroticism and carried a bittersweet flavor. An embrace shared by survivors of a colossal tragedy, to draw strength from one another.

The oppressive images Levi had glimpsed in the forest on the way to fighting the Female Titan and retrieving Eren overwhelmed him again, this time accompanied by the haunting words of Petra's father. He thought they would crush him, robbing him of breath, as had already happened in the past. And, in a way, they did. But the warmth and strength emanating from her body wrapped around him, gently protecting him. He retraced those harrowing memories, walked once more the path among the trees that had revealed to him the mangled bodies of his squad. He murmured words of grief and farewell to each of them - Oluo, Gunther, Eld, and Petra - guided by that faint sense of hot numbness that kept him from losing his way.

His subordinates. His beloved, trusted comrades. Slaughtered like cattle, mercilessly butchered, destroyed by a vile monster who…

"It was crying…" Levi murmured, his voice muffled against Mizuki's abdomen.

"Crying… who?"

"That bitch. The Female Titan. It was crying…"

Mizuki absorbed the information passively, but her exhausted mind refused for now to process it.

They stayed that way for an endless, indefinite amount of time. With each passing minute, they clung to each other more tightly. In some corner of his mind, Levi realized he might have been overdoing it and resolved to moderate his strength; but keeping that resolution proved difficult. He certainly didn't want to hurt her, but an irrational, uncontrollable desire had taken hold of him: to erase any physical boundary between them. If he had known how, he would have fused with her at that very moment, even if it meant losing his individuality forever.

Mizuki's legs could no longer support her. Besides having been on her feet too long, she was exhausted from the long hours of riding and keeping watch and from channeling her remaining, meager strength into the embrace. With natural ease, almost without thinking about what she was doing, she settled onto Levi's uninjured leg

He accommodated the movement without lifting his eyelids, burying his face in the hollow of her shoulder, among the strands of hair that fell across her chest. He inhaled that fresh scent, reminiscent of a winter flower; one of his hands drifted upward along her back while the other remained at her waist. Mizuki, in turn, rested her face on Levi's shoulder, deeply inhaling the sharp, earthy scent of the captain, a smell that reminded her of a mountain forest shrouded in morning mist, while the short, bristly strands of his hair tickled her nose and forehead.

In their new position, they remained for a long time, each immersed in the scent and in the arms of the other, eyes closed. Neither of them - who until now had been obsessively careful not to let anything about their feelings seep out - considered how dangerous the situation was. The infirmary door was open, and any of their comrades or medical staff could have walked in at any moment. Although the desperate embrace in which they were entwined was devoid of any erotic connotation, to an outsider, that detail might not have been so evident.

In hindsight, neither of them could have explained, if asked, how they eventually freed themselves. They probably decided to let go at the same time, in a shared and tacit agreement, but their memories on the matter were rather hazy. Mizuki only recalled muttering something about how Levi's leg needed to be stretched out on a bed. Regardless, the following morning, the captain woke up wrapped in the blankets of the service bed, while Mizuki - in a kind of trance - lay down on the infirmary cot.

And that was how Hange, who had entered searching for her subordinate to inform her of Erwin's summons, found them.

.

Yet someone had witnessed the scene without either of the two noticing and had been left feeling quite bitter.

Not out of shock or outrage at that transgression, but out of jealousy.

Despite the disproportionate workload Erwin had dumped on her, Lavinia had gone to the infirmary to avoid leaving Mizuki alone; a decision she had actually made long before the expedition even began, predicting its disastrous outcome, and that had only been strengthened by the sensational annihilation of Levi's squad. She had no doubt her friend would need someone to talk to and was equally certain Mizuki wouldn't seek that solace on her own; thus, Lavinia had decided to bring it to her, convinced she was the only person Mizuki would allow herself to be vulnerable with.

No one knew or understood Mizuki like she did. No one was as necessary to Mizuki as she was.

The scene Lavinia encountered as soon as she quietly pushed open the infirmary door, however, proved her wrong.

Without a word, Lavinia softly closed the door and walked away.

In a certain sense, it was that episode that made her fully grasp the depth of the bond between her friend and the captain. Sure, those two liked each other, that was no news; but until that moment, for some mysterious reason, Lavinia had downplayed the indescribable connection between them, dismissing it as a particularly strong but superficial physical attraction.

After peeking into the room where she thought her friend was languishing in solitude, she had to admit she had been wrong all along: the exact word to describe their relationship was a kind of dependency.

A primal, irrational, exclusive need.

Mizuki had become necessary for Levi's survival, and Levi had become necessary for Mizuki's.

Their intertwined bodies were burned into Lavinia's mind as if branded there, embodying tangible proof of her own irrelevance. Those two had embarked on a dance from which Lavinia was excluded, a dance in which she was relegated to the role of a spectator sighing with envy and bitterness, dreaming of taking the place of one of the dancers.

Levi had completely replaced her. Not only had he claimed the role of the object of Mizuki's desire and affections, but he had also become her confidant, her safe harbor, the arms to which she would return and which would hold her tenderly in moments when the darkness of her blood took over, all roles that had so far belonged solely to Lavinia.

Lavinia left the infirmary and returned to the camp.

Erwin was seated at a precarious, rickety work table when she entered his tent. The commander raised his head, caught off guard. In the dim light, it took him a moment to recognize her. "Lavinia," he said. "You're not sleeping? It's late."

"You're not sleeping? It's late," she retorted mockingly.

"I'd like to, but the summons to Mitras and the meeting with Armin Arlert require me to reflect on our next moves."

The Survey Corps had barely had time to return within the walls, defeated and with their tails between their legs, when the Central Government - seemingly just waiting for a suitable excuse - had summoned Erwin to the capital to "discuss the recent events." Likely, the king - or rather, the courtiers who pulled the strings of the puppet raised to king - had decided to use this opportunity to get rid of the Survey Corps diplomatically; this aligned with what Mizuki had reported about her conversation with Duke Tennison, who had hinted at the intention to achieve the same goal by more forceful means, delegating their annihilation to "that man from the First Interior Squad of the Military Police."

The following morning, the Survey Corps would be split: the delegation to the capital would remain in Karanes, while a selected group would be sent to a remote outpost halfway between Wall Sina and Wall Rose.

The order to head to that distant location, as well as the careful selection of soldiers to be deployed there, constituted the first countermeasure implemented by Erwin Smith after a swift consultation with Hange and Lavinia, in the presence of a stunned and impressed Armin Arlert, who had just shared with his superiors his suspicions about Annie Leonhart's involvement in the catastrophic events at Trost and the recent expedition.

The recruit, with his slight build and hesitant demeanor typical of someone who lacks confidence, had not only provided valuable information about the Female Titan, but had also shed some light on the identity of one of her possible accomplices: Reiner Braun. The evidence Armin Arlert presented to the commander regarding Reiner's involvement in the attack was even more tenuous and shaky than that concerning Annie Leonhart.

The Female Titan had headed to the location of Team Levi only after the clash with Jean, Reiner and Armin, who had just shared his theory about Eren's true position with his companions at Reiner's insistence. Although the suspects had not communicated verbally, the alleged Annie had seized Reiner; Armin hypothesized that the transfer of information could have occurred at that moment, specifically through Reiner inscribing details on the Titan's palm.

The possibility aligned perfectly with the commander's suspicions about the presence of enemies among the 104th Training Corps recruits who had witnessed Eren's transformation in Trost. Thus, despite the uncertainties, Hange, Lavinia, and Erwin had agreed that it was essential to prevent any contact between Annie and her presumed accomplice, who had been sent to the Survey Corps' outpost farthest from Stohess, where Annie was stationed. Since she was suspected of being the Female Titan, it could not be ruled out that he possessed the same ability to transform into a Titan; therefore, Erwin had deemed it wise to distance him from the city, placing him in a desolate location where any damage would be minimized in case of resistance.

The issue Erwin was mulling over was precisely how to handle Annie; in other words, it meant devising a plan to capture and expose her before the meeting in Mitras.

After expressing his thoughts, gathering up his courage, the recruit Armin Arlert had also proposed a rather bold and risky strategy to trap her. Erwin listened to him carefully and then retreated to his tent to reflect alone on whether to authorize Armin's plan and, if not, to find an alternative solution. He needed to make a decision before dawn, when he would meet with Eren before his inevitable custody by the Gendarmerie.

"What's there to think about so much? It's obvious that our only option is to follow Arlert's plan: if she's to be cornered before reaching Mitras, we have to do it in Stohess," Lavinia commented indifferently, as though reading his thoughts.

"In Stohess," Erwin repeated absently, because, since she had entered, he couldn't focus on anything except the sensual and dangerous aura Lavinia exuded. Although she hadn't yet done anything - neither made claims nor taken any rash actions - Erwin knew her well enough by now to guess that this night visit couldn't just be a casual one. "Can I do something for you, Lavinia?" he asked, as curious as ever about the initiatives born from her brilliant mind.

An initiative that didn't take long to be set into motion: Lavinia studied him for a moment longer, then, without warning, approached him and gracefully sat on his lap.

She assumed the same position she had seen Mizuki curled up on Levi's lap, though, of course, Erwin couldn't have known or even imagined this. She wanted to put herself in the same situation as her friend to see if she could replace Mizuki just as easily.

She quickly realized that this was not the case: although she felt an undeniable attraction to the commander, no one could ever take Mizuki's place in her heart.

That realization made the emptiness inside her explode.

And Lavinia filled it in the only way that made sense to her in that moment: she took Erwin's face in her hands and kissed him.

Erwin, for his part, quickly recovered from the confusion Lavinia's unexpected behavior had thrown him into. He returned the kiss, deepened it, savored it as though he had been waiting for nothing else, and in a sense he had been.

Lavinia had long been aware that he desired her; and she, within the limits her heart, already devoted to another person, allowed her, desired him in return.

One of the girl's hands slowly slid down Erwin's chest, following the lines of his sculpted muscles, until it reached the bulge of his trousers. There, she lingered on the throbbing source of his passion, already warm and swollen. However, just as she was about to undo the button, Erwin firmly grabbed her wrist, stopping her from going further, and interrupted the kiss. His piercing blue eyes studied her closely, the intensity of his gaze like heated needles. "What does this mean, Lavinia?"

Erwin Smith did not disappoint. Despite the woman he was infatuated with being curled up in his lap and having just kissed him passionately, making it clear she wouldn't mind going all the way with him, his analytical mind was still working tirelessly, demanding an explanation for the sudden assault.

"I think it's obvious what it means." Lavinia intertwined her hands behind his neck and shifted her position on his lap, making sure her thigh rubbed insistently against Erwin's erection.

The commander let out a soft groan, but didn't relent. "Why now?"

"I'm attracted to you; in two days, we risk being out on the street, or worse. So, why not now?"

Erwin weighed her words thoughtfully; then shook his head, signaling that he didn't buy the lie, but decided to let it go. "I thought men didn't interest you," he commented instead.

"I never said men didn't interest me. On the contrary" Lavinia quickly replied; then, averting her gaze in a hurry, "I just happen to like Mizuki. That's all."

Erwin leaned back in his camp chair, which creaked dangerously under the weight of both their bodies. As he had imagined, something had happened with Mizuki; a rather serious incident, judging by the way she had jumped on him.

"Listen," Lavinia said, as she slightly shifted, straddling him and pressing her damp sex - because she was being honest, unlike her usual habits, when claiming she was attracted to Erwin, as proved by the fact that she had gotten wet the moment she had kissed him - against the erection that was clearly visible beneath his trousers, showing no sign of weakening despite the pause for negotiations; perhaps it was precisely the need to negotiate with her that was making him so aroused. "I really like you. You and I are alike; there's attraction between us, we can't deny it. But, you will never take her place. This is what I can offer you: if it's fine with you, fuck me." She paused to give him a chaste kiss on the lips. Then, almost casually, still with her lips a millimeter from his and her eyes half-closed, she added, "I think this compromise would benefit both of us. I can't put you at the top of my priorities, and it's someone like that you need. This way, you won't feel guilty when you don't put me at the top of yours."

However, even to these considerations, Erwin did not respond. It seemed that whether or not he would allow himself to surrender to her required the same amount of thought, reconsiderations, and reflections as the arrangement of teams in the formation diagram.

Lavinia sighed, irritated and even slightly offended by his hesitation. "I'll give you time to make your evaluations," she said curtly, withdrawing her arms. "Anyway, it would have been a bit difficult to go through with it here," she commented with an ironic laugh, casting a glance at the creaky cot and the wobbly camp table.

It was then that one of Erwin's powerful arms wrapped around her waist. He lifted her effortlessly, like a porcelain doll, light and delicate, carrying her with him as he stood. With his free hand, he grabbed the blanket folded on the cot and spread it on the ground in a hasty, urgent motion. Despite the rush, he gently laid Lavinia on the floor; but that was the last act of courtesy from the commander. After that, he pounced on her and took her. No gentleness, no foreplay, not even a kiss, like an animal. He stripped her urgently, only checked that she was ready, and penetrated her.

Lavinia, eyes half-closed, her nails dug into Erwin's back, her thighs wrapped around his hips, enjoyed it deeply. She had desired him as much as he had desired her; and the brutality of the act satisfied her need for surrender, for the total erasure of herself, for submission to someone else's dominance. She quickly reached orgasm, which caused her to throw her head back and moan indecently.

For the duration of that wild act, devoid of any poetry, she thought of nothing but Erwin. She succeeded in banishing from her mind the image of Mizuki and Levi, embraced in silent pain, separated from the rest of the world. Mizuki, however, never left her, not even at the height of pleasure. She was there, a presence that had now fused with her soul, so much so that it would have been impossible to separate them. As long as there was life in her, Mizuki would be there.

Afterwards, they lay side by side on the blanket, panting and satisfied, without touching each other, for several minutes.

Lavinia stood up and quickly dressed.

Staring at her, Erwin crossed his arms behind his head. "Will you tell Mizuki?" he asked nonchalantly, watching the shadows cast on Lavinia's curvaceous body by the flickering light of the oil lamp.

"It depends."

"On what?"

On whether Mizuki will share what happened with the captain, or if that will be such an intimate moment that she'll want to keep it secret even from me.

But Lavinia, of course, did not voice that thought aloud. To Erwin, she only responded with silence.

"I'll see you in a few hours, commander." After putting on her uniform jacket, the girl turned her back on him and left the tent without saying anything further.

.

OOO

.

6:55 AM – Nineteen hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition. Second day.

Eren shifts his stunned gaze from Mikasa to Armin.

He can't wrap his head around the suspicions of his most trusted friends.

Annie… the Female Titan?

If it weren't for the commander's presence, he'd think it was a joke.

And yet, Erwin Smith is there, sitting right in front of him.

Dead serious.

Dead determined.

Dead ready for anything.

The same could be said for the beautiful girl with black hair standing behind the commander.

Eren's gaze moves to Captain Levi.

His expression as he reviews the documents is as impassive as ever.

Even though he's voiced some reservations about Armin's theory, Eren knows the captain won't back down.

Desperate, he seeks reassurance from the last person in the room.

Miss Mizuki is leaning against the wall.

She doesn't notice his silent plea for help.

Her eyes are fixed on the floor, absent.

She's physically present in the room, but her mind is elsewhere.

She's thinking about something else.

Judging by her distressed expression, it must be something rather unpleasant.

Eren is left to fend for himself.

No one seems as shocked as he is by the revelation.

"How could you suspect Annie?"

That's what he keeps repeating to himself, like a mantra.

"Eren. You fought the Female Titan hand-to-hand, didn't you?"

Mikasa Ackerman's eyes are cold, her words merciless.

"Didn't you see any of Annie's unique techniques, then?"

A memory Eren had tried to bury resurfaces with overwhelming force.

"Deep down, you know it, don't you?"

.

7:48 AM – Twenty hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition. Second day.

Eren Jaeger was taken into custody by the gendarmes stationed in Karanes as a precautionary measure ahead of the following day's summons.

Before that, however, Eren reluctantly agreed to participate in the plan to lure Annie Leonhart into a trap.

.

OOO

.

4:30 AM— Forty hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition. Third day.

The moonlight spilled lazily over the streets of Karanes. Perched on the edge of the walls, her legs dangling into the void, Mizuki sat above the sleeping city, which she was observing with a vacant and distant gaze.

The towns within Wall Rose, all sharing the same design, were nearly indistinguishable. Karanes reminded her of Trost; Trost before the attack, a Trost that now existed only in her memories.

Now, nothing of that Trost remained.

Only ruins, ruins, and more ruins.

The battlefield of a fight lost before it even began. The broken remains of a child's favorite toy, swept away in a tantrum and reduced to rubble.

Mizuki thought about the dying city to distract herself, to keep her restless mind from wandering into dangerous territory during the long vigil of the night. Dwelling on Trost's decline was less painful, even though she had fallen in love with the place.

Yes, she loved Trost, which had welcomed her and become a home; its people, who always greeted her with warm smiles; and the fleeting moments of life she had spent there.

But above all, she loved her comrades. The comrades she had lied to, the comrades who had brought her warmth, the comrades who were now dead.

Despite her efforts to avoid venturing into a territory full of dangers, Mizuki lost her way, and her thoughts tangled with Eren's account of the expedition beyond the walls.

Acting on Erwin's orders, Mizuki had gone to check on Eren a few hours after the formation's return, only to discover - unsurprisingly - that the boy was in no need of medical attention. What he needed was someone to listen to him, to console him. Mizuki had taken on that role, even though every word from Eren was like a dagger stabbing mercilessly into her heart.

Gunther, his neck horrifically slashed, left dangling from the ODM gear's cable.

And she wasn't there.

Eld, caught in the monster's jaws and torn to pieces.

And she wasn't there.

Petra, smashed against a tree, her spine shattered, like a mere insect.

And she wasn't there.

Oluo, struck by the foot of a fourteen-meter creature, that kicked him away like a crumpled piece of paper.

And she wasn't there.

Trembling, Eren had recounted every second, every frame of those horrific moments in painstaking detail. He had blamed himself for everything: the slaughter of Levi's squad and their comrades, the failure of the mission, the captain's injury.

Mizuki had listened without interrupting, a cold weight crushing her chest. When his tale was finished, she had wrapped him in an awkward embrace, and, rocking him gently, whispered into his ear: "It wasn't your fault, Eren. They could have died even if you had transformed sooner. We'll never know how things might have turned out, and they were prepared to risk their lives to complete the mission. That's what it means to be a soldier in the Survey Corps." Then, lowering her voice even further and sounding almost hesitant, she added: "Please don't say these things to the captain. If you need to talk, come find me instead."

And then there was Dita Neiss…

Mizuki hadn't learned about Dita Neiss's fate from Eren.

It had been the most horrific death of all, the most humiliating end, the strongest fuel for her rage.

.

Mizuki descended the wooden stairs of Karanes Hospital with slow, weary steps. Reaching the landing on the ground floor, she approached a half-open window overlooking the courtyard to take a breath of fresh air before returning to the rows of beds overflowing with the wounded. She leaned against the wall, her hands at her sides, her eyelids heavy, and let out a deep, tired sigh.

A faint breeze carried two familiar voices to her, strained with the effort of staying quiet despite the heated argument taking place.

"Loki, calm down…"

"I don't give a damn about orders! I'm going to kill her!"

"I understand your anger, I swear I do. I'm furious too. But capturing her alive is essential for…"

A violent sound cut off Amado's rational explanation. Judging by the groan that followed, Mizuki guessed Loki had either shoved his companion against the wall, punched it, or both.

"Amado, listen closely and use that brilliant brain of yours to remember this: I don't give a damn about orders, got it? I'm going to kill that bitch."

Loki's voice cracked.

"I want to kill her, understand?"

A gasp. Loki had begun to sob.

"I have to kill her, do you get it?!"

Amado let out a long sigh. Mizuki sensed he had pulled Loki - the proud, relentless, arrogant Loki, now reduced to tears - into a crushing embrace.

"I get it. I get it."

"She killed them like… like they were insects. Petra, she smashed her against a tree…"

"I know…"

Amado was crying too.

Mizuki struggled to breathe, her vision blurring. She pressed herself even harder against the wall, her legs trembling, unable to bear the weight of her body and of those images.

"Dita Neiss, instead? Do you happen to know how he died? Did you hear…? Jean Kirstein, one of the survivors from his squad…"

Mizuki brought her hands to her head and clenched her eyes shut. Let her at least be spared that torment. Let them at least not shatter the fragile veil of ignorance still covering Dita Neiss's death.

Her fingers brushed against her ears, but she didn't press them down to block out the voices. Because deep down, she wanted to hear. She wanted to be wounded. She wanted to suffer and transform that suffering into rage.

"… he said she grabbed him by one of the cables and spun him around like a toy until he was dead. Do you understand?!"

Mizuki's arms fell limply to her sides. A wave of nausea rose, as though her body, already saturated with horrors, couldn't contain the sickening depiction of Dita Neiss's death.

"Lavinia is right, Amado. Mizuki mustn't know."

"Yes, I think so too. Let's spare her this, at least."

But Mizuki already knew.

.

She knew.

She suffered.

She burned.

With indignation, fury, and hatred.

Annie Leonhart.

Mizuki retained only a blurry memory of her. She had crossed paths with her during a visit to the training camp and then never again. A solitary girl, apathetic, constantly bored, at least, so she seemed.

And now, Mizuki hated her with every fiber of her being. She did not believe she had ever harbored - nor thought herself capable of harboring - such hatred towards another human being.

She wanted to crush her. She wanted to see her writhing in agony at her feet. She wanted to reduce her to despair. She wanted to annihilate her.

She made no effort to suppress these violent emotions. She was far too devastated to manage it, too mortified, too hollowed out. She felt like an orange wedge left on a windowsill on a scorching summer day: the slice begins to shrivel as the liquids inside evaporate from the heat, until it becomes a dry, dusty pouch. The same process had unfolded within her: with every new revelation about the abominable deeds of the Female Titan, she withered; her feelings of humanity and her capacity to forgive drained away, leaving behind empty husks that demanded to be quenched by the blood of the monster.

Mizuki felt like a hollow mannequin. All that remained of her was skin and a skeletal frame that allowed her to stand upright, but someone had gouged her insides out, draining her of blood, organs, and above all, her heart and every emotion except rage.

She was empty. She was nothing. Nothing but hatred.

She had told Eren that monsters - the real monsters—were not the Titans, mindless creatures as they were, but humans. Annie Leonhart was both.

Had she been wrong? Or not?

Was Annie Leonhart a monster because she was a human capable of transforming into a Titan and wielding its terrifying power for shadowy purposes, or because she was a Titan guided by the will of a human?

Mizuki didn't know the answer. What she did know with granite certainty was this: anyone capable of murdering Dita Neiss by swinging him around like a toy couldn't be anything but a monster.

Annie Leonhart belonged in that category. And from her, suspicion had spread to another recruit all too familiar to Mizuki.

Reiner Braun. That had been the final cherry on top.

Lavinia had revealed Erwin Smith's conjectures to her, along with the plan the commander intended to execute in Stohess, as they waited for the start of the confidential meeting where this information would also be shared with Eren.

The doubts about a hidden enemy among the 104th Training Corps. The web closing in around Annie Leonhart after Armin Arlert's revelation and, from her, extending toward the one Mizuki affectionately called "big guy."

Lavinia had provided her with all the information at her disposal, delivered with precision and detachment. Then she had asked: "What do you want to do, Mizuki?"

At first, Mizuki didn't understand what her friend was implying. Lavinia then made herself more explicit: "Are we going to kill her? I think that you, me, Amado, and Loki could pull it off together." Then she had waited in silence for some sort of signal from her friend.

Caught unprepared by the question, Mizuki simply shook her head, conveying her confusion.

"It doesn't matter. Take the time you need to decide. Just know that I'll be ready to back you up at any moment if you decide to take her down." At that point, Lavinia had cast her a curious look, one in which Mizuki detected a faint hint of reproach she couldn't quite decipher. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Mizuki furrowed her brow. She didn't think there was anything to update her about. She had already recounted in detail the disaster at Tennison Mansion; as for the rest, she had spent the previous day tending to the wounded, a topic Lavinia was unlikely to find interesting. So what was she referring to? "I... I don't understand, Lavinia. Why do you ask? If I had something to tell you, I would have."

Not for a fraction of a second did it occur to her to mention the embrace with the captain. To Mizuki, that moment represented a precious instance of intimacy and connection after months of misunderstanding and distance, a spiritual balm for her tormented soul, an act of trust on Levi's part in showing his vulnerability and leaning on her. She would never betray him by revealing the incident to anyone, not even to Lavinia.

In her friend's disorientation, Lavinia found confirmation of her own fears. Mizuki hadn't consciously decided to keep it a secret; she simply hadn't even considered sharing the experience, clearly viewing it as something far too personal. A secret between her and that damn captain. Pressing her lips together as if to suppress an unwelcome comment, Lavinia averted her gaze.

Her reaction further deepened Mizuki's confusion. Before she could ask for an explanation, however, Erwin - accompanied by the recruits Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman - joined them in the corridor and invited them into the room where Eren and Levi were waiting for the confidential reunion.

During the meeting, Mizuki paid no attention to the voices of the commander and Armin. The worm of doubt gnawed at her, and despite her confusion, the suspicious behavior of Reiner - behavior she had always dismissed as mere oddities - nagged persistently at the edges of her mind.

She hesitated for only a moment, torn between the genuine affection she had developed for him and the emptiness left by the slaughter of her friends.

In the end, she gave in. She wouldn't risk endangering more comrades out of foolish hesitation.

Timidly, she asked to speak and gave voice to the discordant notes that had colored their relationship, notes she had always dismissed as peculiarities without assigning them much importance. Their first conversation: that peculiar way he spoke about his family situation. Their last dialogue: the out-of-place comments, his chasing after her, the mention of his mother, the veiled hint that they might never meet again.

As her account unfolded, the faces of everyone present darkened, especially Eren's and Levi's: the former due to the exposure of yet another traitor among his friends; the latter, because of Mizuki's evident struggle to treat Reiner as a likely enemy.

Once the meeting was over, Mizuki returned to the hospital, where she spent the entire day tending to the wounded. Only in the evening, after lying down in one of the camp tents, did her mind, no longer preoccupied with practical matters, begin to descend into the long-dreaded darkness. Unable to sleep, she headed for the walls, where she climbed to the top and began to reflect.

Lavinia had planted the idea of revenge in her mind, the curse that had nearly destroyed her father.

Revenge against the Female Titan. Against Annie Leonhart. Against the one who had massacred her comrades.

And now, she couldn't think of anything else. It was in her blood, after all: despite bearing her mother's surname, despite having inherited the dominant personality traits from her mother, despite her innate empathy and mental flexibility, Mizuki was still an Uchiha to her core.

Revenge.

How sweet and satisfying that word sounded on the tip of her tongue.

.

A few steps away, Jacqueline Tennison clutched her coat tighter to shield herself from the icy wind sweeping across the wall's summit.

She had been watching Mizuki for almost half an hour.

She hadn't been able to sleep that night either. As she wandered through the Survey Corps camp where she was being hosted, she spotted Mizuki sneaking out and decided to follow her. She hadn't deliberately intended to tail her; it had just happened. Her friend was walking so quickly that Jacqueline hadn't been able to catch up until Mizuki finally collapsed on the edge of the wall. Even after bribing the guard at the pulley to let her climb up, Jacqueline hadn't tried to hide; she advanced towards Mizuki, bathed in the moonlight, but her friend showed no sign of noticing her arrival.

Even though she was huddled just a few meters away, Jacqueline had the distinct impression that Mizuki was distant, kilometers away, locked in an unreachable place. She was entrenched in her pain, her guilt, and the boiling sea of resentment, and she was losing her way.

Jacqueline had known this would happen sooner or later. Such a moment came for everyone, especially for sensitive people like Mizuki, forced to perform a wretched job like the one assigned to the Survey Corps members.

That was why she hadn't stayed at the hospital with Clayton, who still hadn't regained consciousness.

Silently, Jacqueline crouched down beside her, wrapped her arms around her knees, and waited.

It took Mizuki a few minutes to notice her presence. Suddenly, she snapped out of her thoughts, tilted her head slightly, and stared at Jacqueline in surprise. "Jackie? What are you doing here?" she asked, as if the other woman had just arrived.

"I couldn't sleep. I saw you leaving the camp and climbing the walls, and here I am."

"Got it."

The chirping of cicadas filled the spaces and silences between them, enveloping them peacefully, like the comforting and powerful embrace of a grandmother.

"How's your brother?"

Jacqueline rubbed her calf. "Stable. Thanks to you, the damage was contained, and the wounds didn't get infected. That's what the doctor told me, at least. For now, he's sleeping, but he could wake up at any moment."

"You should've stayed at the hospital with him," Mizuki blurted out, her irritated tone faintly reminiscent of the captain.

Jacqueline shook her head almost imperceptibly. "It's not Clayton who needs me right now."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"You're heading to the capital tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah. The commander's going to get a good dressing-down."

"Of course." Jacqueline's fingers traced the line of her calf, brushed against her knee, and stopped there to draw arabesques, letters, and meaningless lines. "Unless you manage to capture the Female Titan before reaching Mitras."

Mizuki flinched. An image flashed through her mind: Gelgar and Jacqueline slipping away together before he departed for that castle in the middle of nowhere with Mike, Lynne, Nanaba, and a group of recruits. After casting a wary glance at her friend, Mizuki cleared her throat and commented dryly: "Gelgar really can't keep his mouth shut, can he?"

Jacqueline winked at her, feigning the air of an expert. "When you finally get things going with the captain, you'll learn one of the oldest truths in history: men rarely manage to keep their mouths shut after sex." Gelgar, in reality, hadn't gone as far as revealing Commander Smith's plans, merely advising her not to go to Stohess for any reason. That had been enough for Jacqueline to piece together a fairly accurate picture of the situation.

Mizuki clicked her tongue in irritation. Jacqueline had noted that in the months Mizuki and Levi had been avoiding each other, her friend had picked up many of the captain's habits - the annoyed tone of voice, the perpetually furrowed brow, the flashing eyes, the arms crossed over her chest, the tendency to click her tongue in disapproval - almost as if, by doing so, she could somehow make up for his absence.

"Let's just say… tomorrow, many residents of Wall Sina might see a Titan for the first time," Mizuki muttered after a moment of hesitation.

"And you admit that so casually? Are you going to kill me for knowing too much now?"

"Well, Gelgar already spilled the beans anyway. And besides, I trust you."

A pleasant warmth spread through Jacqueline's chest, smelling of everyday life and Mizuki's scent. "So you're capturing her tomorrow. Alive."

Mizuki hesitated. "Of course," she finally said, with a grimace she had, once again, borrowed from Levi's repertoire.

"And after that?"

"After that, we'll force her to tell us everything she knows, starting with the identities of her accomplices."

"And then you'll take them too?"

"We'll hunt them down one by one."

"And after that? What will happen then?"

"After… I suppose Hange will perform experiments on them to gather as much data as possible."

"And after that?"

"After…" Mizuki stopped and gave her friend a slightly bewildered look. "Why do you keep asking me what happens after?"

"Will you kill them?"

She received no answer, but this didn't unsettle or stop Jacqueline.

"You said earlier that tomorrow many residents of Wall Sina will see a Titan for the first time. You're right, and I feel sorry for them. But you should know that some - though only a few, I admit - have already encountered one."

Mizuki shifted her position cautiously, turning her side towards the void below the walls and facing Jacqueline. Her focus, previously fragmented, now sharpened, as piercing as the blade of anti-Titan swords. "Jacqueline, who are you talking about?"

"Me, for instance…"

"You? Where would you have seen a…?"

"I was in Shiganshina that day, five years ago," Jacqueline replied in a practical, emotionless tone.

Mizuki's eyes widened in shock. "You what?"

Jacqueline turned her gaze to the sleeping city, drew in the crisp night air, and smoothed the hair falling over her chest with one hand. "Yes, Mizuki. I was there when the disaster happened, you heard me correctly. That's also why, when Trost was attacked, I didn't lose my head: because I had already experienced a mess like that, unfortunately. On that distant and cursed day, after months of pleading and sweet-talking, Chloe, my twin sister, and I managed to convince our mother to take us to visit the outer territories. We wanted to watch the soldiers of the Survey Corps return to the walls. We thought of them as heroes. Mom was reluctant; she hated everything beyond Wall Sina. But Chloe and I pushed and begged so much…"

Mizuki swallowed hard. She knew Jacqueline's mother had passed away, but until now, she'd been unaware of the manner and timing of her death, and that Jacqueline even had a sister, let alone a twin...

Just like Lav...

"When the gate was breached and the Titans entered the city, the three of us were walking near the outermost wall. Chaos broke out, as you can imagine. People panicked; everyone was running and screaming like mad. A suffocating crowd formed, and I, just a young girl at the time, got separated from them. I don't remember what happened after that; my memories are very blurry. All I know is that I ran, I ran as fast as I could, even though I'd always been a lazy, non-athletic kid. I ran, climbing over people who fell to the ground, women, men, children, the elderly. In that moment, the only instinct driving me was to put as much distance as possible between myself and the hell behind me. I've never wanted anything more in my entire life."

She paused briefly to catch her breath, as if she'd just been running for her life all over again.

"Following the directions of the few soldiers who hadn't fled, I made my way to the river, clinging to the childish hope that I'd find my mom and Chloe there. I don't know how it happened… Maybe the line of Garrison soldiers trying to hold back the Titans broke, but at some point, one of them reached us. It wasn't very big… No taller than four or five meters, but at the time, I was horrified. It appeared like a beast, a massive, menacing monster, with long arms and legs it would use to chase and grab us, no matter where we ran or hid. There was no hope of escape. Only then did I truly understand the real meaning of the word 'despair'. I was on a very narrow street. The people around me started pushing and shoving, desperate to escape faster, like a herd of animals cornered by a predator. Amidst that chaos, I lost my balance and fell. I saw people… People being trampled by the approaching Titan, others crushed by the stampeding crowd, and still others grabbed and… You know. You're a Survey Corps soldier, after all."

Another pause: this time, Jacqueline shuddered slightly, bringing a hand to her mouth as though to suppress a wave of nausea. Mizuki's hand moved instinctively, reaching through the darkness to graze her friend's fingers.

"That would've been my fate if not for the arrival of a group of Garrison soldiers. One of them picked me up and ordered me to run while the others engaged the Titan. I believe all of them died that day. I searched for them far and wide afterwards, but I never found any trace of them. Thanks to their intervention, I managed to reach the river port. I was fifteen at the time, and my family's crest was sewn onto my dress; because of that, I was immediately allowed onto one of the boats, and I escaped that hell."

A heavy silence followed her words. Someone more naive, despite the grim prelude, would have waited anxiously to hear the end of the story, trusting in an unpredictable and improbable happy ending; but Mizuki had served as a soldier far too long to fall into such a trap.

"My mom and Chloe, on the other hand, never returned from that trip to Shiganshina."

The grip on Jacqueline's hand tightened. Mizuki couldn't tell if the gesture was meant to comfort her friend or herself, bracing for what she knew she had to do. Keeping her gaze low - she didn't dare meet Jacqueline's eyes, fearing they'd betray the inner turmoil roiling within her - she murmured through clenched teeth, "I… When we find them…"

But she couldn't finish. To make her a promise - to grant what Mizuki believed Jacqueline was asking of her - would mean binding herself irrevocably, taking a one-way street with no return, which would lead her directly to face the darkest side of her nature, the one she usually preferred to pretend didn't exist. Because Mizuki always kept her promises, and she sensed the making and fulfilling that one would leave an indelible mark on her soul.

"Don't worry, Mizuki." For the first time since she'd begun her story, Jacqueline turned to face her friend and smiled: a sad, resigned, nostalgic smile. "I didn't tell you my story to extract a promise. It would be selfish of me to ask you to kill them, no matter the cost. To avenge my mom and Chloe."

Mizuki listened intently but still didn't dare lift her eyes. She kept them fixed on their intertwined hands. Hands that had once been filled with treasures beyond price, so often taken for granted in their ordinariness. Hands that, because of Annie Leonhart and her accomplices, had lost everything.

"Then…?"

"I longed for revenge for a very long time. If my father started funding the Survey Corps after 845, it wasn't just to reclaim the territories and protect that cursed vineyard of his, it was also because I insisted. I wanted… I wanted those monsters to be wiped off the face of the earth, every last one of them. I kept living like that, consumed by rage and hatred, for so many years. And now… Now that I've discovered that the disaster, that the deaths of my mother and my sister, were most likely caused by human beings…"

Jacqueline didn't need to articulate the dismay, shock, and fury brought on by that revelation; it wasn't necessary. The ultimate destination of the path taken by the victims of the Female Titan, the Colossal Titan, and the Armored Titan - Annie Leonhart and Reiner Braun - was clear enough to Mizuki. She had already reached it.

The first rays of the imminent dawn struggled against the night to pierce the horizon.

"But you know, over the long years I spent alone in that vast, empty mansion, a certain thought began to buzz in my head. I don't even know where it came from. The fact is, it happened. The first few times it struck me, I hated myself with everything I had because I saw it as a betrayal of my mother and Chloe."

"What… What thought, Jacqueline?"

"Even if I killed all the Titans and all the people behind the Titans who caused the disaster in Shiganshina… Would that bring them back?" Jacqueline's voice trembled. Even so, the words she had nurtured through years of solitude reached Mizuki, like energetic strokes of paint from an artist with an ambitious vision, though too little had yet been revealed for anyone to discern the meaning or picture the final result. "Because if you told me it would… If you told me that killing them all would bring back my mother and my little sister, I'd enlist with you and fight to the death. I'd wipe them out, every last one. If it would give me back what I lost, I'd do anything."

A faint, dim, almost imperceptible light timidly spread along the horizon. It was nothing more than a pale announcement of the coming dawn; darkness still reigned over the plains and the sleeping city. But it was there. A single ray gleamed invitingly; it continued to shine, despite everything, offering itself as an improbable and often ignored guide for those at risk of losing themselves in the tortuous meanders of a cruel world.

"But if it wouldn't… If it wouldn't, then becoming a monster makes no sense."

Jacqueline released Mizuki's hand and knelt. Gently, she took Mizuki's chin between her fingers and lifted it until her golden eyes could no longer avoid her. Jacqueline loomed over her, a shadowy figure backlit by the faint glow. And yet her sleek, platinum-blonde hair framed her like radiant wings, giving her a warm, reassuring, almost impossibly luminous aura.

Despite being a civilian, Jacqueline Tennison had also grown the mighty, burdensome Wings of Freedom; she too bore the curse of the Survey Corps soldiers; she too had been seized by the resolve to fight for justice, or at least, for what she believed was justice.

"I'm not asking you to kill them, Mizuki. I know full well you could never do that. But I also know you're suffering right now. And when you're in pain, you lose sight of what's truly important. That's when you need someone by your side to remind you of what really matters. To remind you of who you are. You did that for me, that snowy night. I promised I'd return the favor. That's why I left the hospital: because I want to remind you of who you are, and more importantly, who you aren't."Jacqueline leaned closer and, still holding Mizuki's chin between her fingers, placed the faintest kiss on her lips. "You are an extraordinary human being, Mizuki. You perceive reality in a way that's entirely your own, you think for yourself and want to know all the facts before acting, you don't let yourself be swayed by prejudice or appearances. What you are not is a cold-blooded killer. Even if you're overwhelmed by rage right now. Even if Petra and the others are gone. You are not a murderer. I know that."

She moved away after those words, her voice like a chant, the final syllables swallowed by the sharp, relentless gusts of wind.

Mizuki was left alone, gazing at the city about to awaken, watching the light triumph over the darkness: dawn.

Perhaps she should have heeded the message the universe seemed determined to send her; but not even the dawn, not even Jacqueline's unspoken, heartfelt plea, not even the benevolent influence her mother's memory still exerted over her could scrape away the image frescoed on the walls of her mind by Loki's words: Dita Neiss being killed in a brutal manner, waved in the air like a handkerchief bidding farewell to a departing son.

.

OOO

.

6:55 AM – Forty-three hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition. Third day.

The first delegation of soldiers from the Survey Corps departs secretly for Stohess to set the trap for the suspect.

Mizuki Onizuka, born Uchiha, still hasn't made her decision.

Follow Lavinia's suggestion of vengeance or adhere to her moral principles, as Jacqueline urged her to?

It's a dilemma that haunts her throughout the entire journey.

A dilemma that, perhaps, only facing the enemy head-on can resolve.

.

9:15 AM – Forty-five hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition. Third day.

The second delegation of soldiers from the Survey Corps officially departs from Karanes towards the capital.

The summoned soldiers are crammed into two dark carriages with tiny windows sealed by heavy curtains, resembling the door of a crypt: Eren in the first; Erwin, Levi, and Lavinia Williams in the other.

Eren is formally escorted by several high-ranking officers from the Military Police, who, in reality, have been drugged and gagged by the Survey Corps before departure.

Riding with him in the carriage are Armin Arlert and Mikasa Ackerman.

In just a few hours, they'll reach Stohess.

.

1:29 PM – Forty-nine hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition.. Third day.

The two carriages enter Stohess and proceed along the designated route.

As the delegation passes a narrow, dark alley, three figures slip out of the first vehicle.

No one notices.

Everything is ready for the trap set for Annie Leonhart.

.

At Annie Leonhart's feet lies a staircase.

At the bottom, three figures urge her to descend.

Armin Arlert, Mikasa Ackerman, Eren Jaeger.

The golden trio.

Annie has sensed their attempt to lure her into a trap.

And she has no intention of falling for it.

"There's still a chance that you're just an idiot with bad timing, who's playing along as part of some dumb joke! Anyway, just het over here!"

As usual, Eren is yelling his reasons at the world.

"You can prove this to us just by coming underground! Get in here and give us proof!"

Despite the overwhelming evidence, he still believes there might be a plausible explanation.

Foolish, idealistic Eren.

"I can't go down there. I… I couldn't become a warrior."

As usual, Eren refuses to accept it.

"I thought I told you! Enough with the dumb jokes!"

But Armin, too, is an incurable optimist.

"Talk to us, Annie! We can still talk his over!"

He's still trying to reason with her, despite knowing.

The only one who truly understands the situation, the only one who won't hesitate, is Mikasa.

Annie knows this.

She's the real danger.

"Enough. I can't keep standing here listening to this."

With a fluid motion, Mikasa sheds her cloak.

"It's pointless…"

She draws her blade.

"I'll slice you to shreds all over again, Female Titan."

A moment of stillness, in which the terrible accusation, finally spoken aloud, hangs in the air.

Then Annie Leonhart smiles, a smile that makes one's skin crawl.

And that is the best proof she could offer them.

Yet, within that grin linger signs of deep inner turmoil.

.

A deafening explosion shakes the city.

Other comrades have just been blown to bits.

Next to the cannons strategically placed in Stohess's winding streets, Mizuki squints.

Smoke rises over the neighborhood she once walked through in the company of Levi and Erwin.

She'll never again see the icy canals of Stohess.

Just as she'll never again see the vibrant Trost where she once lived.

Just as she'll never again see her friends, slaughtered by the Female Titan.

That Female Titan, towering over the destroyed buildings.

It has taken everything from her, even her memories.

By now, Jacqueline Tennison's advice has faded to a forgotten whisper.

Lavinia is winning.

The dawn has lost.

.

Despite Annie, now transformed into a Titan, trying to kill them, Eren still struggles to convince himself she's the enemy.

A form of denial so childish and absurd it borders on the ridiculous.

Armin and Mikasa are charging towards their deaths.

All because he can't come to terms with reality.

Mikasa's and Miss Mizuki's words echo in his mind.

"Deep down, you know it, don't you? That Annie is the Female Titan. So, doesn't that mean you have to fight her?"

"I just think there are worse monsters than Titans out there. The worst atrocities in history have been committed by humans."

Eren raises a hand to his mouth.

His teeth sink into the flesh.

He'll fight.

.

"What are you saying? This is Wall Sina! There's no way a Titan could be here!"

Nile Dok is stunned.

Erwin Smith's words sink slowly into the commander's mind.

Awareness comes just as slowly.

"Erwin… What in the hell are you up to?"

Beside the two men, Captain Levi has his head tilted upward.

Smoke rises over the neighborhood he once walked through in the company of Mizuki and Erwin.

He cherishes the memory of that walk like a precious jewel.

She was so happy that day, marveling at Stohess's icy canals…

And now that place no longer exists.

Down there, it's become a battlefield.

And here he is, safe.

He can't join the fight.

The weight of his helplessness bears down on him.

What's the point of being humanity's strongest soldier if he can't even stop innocents from dying?

What's the point if he can't protect her?

Levi clenches his fist with every ounce of strength in his body.

.

Reverend Nick begins a prayer.

He invites the circle of adherents to thank the god who raised the walls.

His heart, infused with faith, is light.

Does he truly believe the claims he fills his sermons with?

By now, even he doesn't know.

The only certainty he has is that it's the right thing to do.

The last chance for humanity within the walls.

"Our pure and faithful hearts protect us from the Titans."

The ground trembles, but he doesn't even notice.

The fervor of prayer blinds him.

"For the only power that drives the Titans from us…"

The church's circular wall suddenly collapses.

A Titan has just landed on the crowd of devotees, crushing them, despite their pure hearts full of faith.

.

On the rooftop of a building, blades drawn before her, Mizuki stared hypnotized at the battle.

In all her existence - admittedly not a particularly long one - she had never witnessed a spectacle as terrifying and, at the same time, as mesmerizing as this.

Two monsters, fifteen meters tall, furiously fighting in the middle of the city.

On a couple of occasions back at the former headquarters, she had glimpsed Eren transformed; but back then, the boy-titan had stood motionless, awaiting orders from Hange or Levi, wearing the expression of someone afraid that even a deep breath might alarm his handlers and cost him his life.

Now, however, he was unleashed.

The combat styles of the two titans were similar, but Annie moved more fluidly than Eren. Her strikes were precise, controlled, lethal. Eren, on the other hand, had succumbed to his emotions, attacking wildly and clumsily.

Mizuki followed them, careful to keep a safe enough distance to avoid being crushed by debris or by one of the titans' bodies hurled through the air by the other, but close enough to seize the opportunity when it arose.

She was waiting for an opening to attack Annie Leonhart and erase her from the face of the earth.

In the initial moments of the plan to capture her, Mizuki had stayed with Nifa beside the cannons hidden in the side streets, tasked with firing them when Annie came into range. Then, as expected, the situation had spiraled out of control: chaos erupted, and while soldiers scattered in all directions, Mizuki had taken off after Annie and Eren.

Even she hadn't clearly envisioned what she would do once the longed-for opportunity arose; she was simply chasing it, patiently, convinced that she would know what to do when the time came.

Within her chest, two opposing currents clashed violently, stirring a whirlwind of chaotic thoughts.

On one side, Lavinia, who had planted the seed of vengeance in her mind.

On the other, Jacqueline, who kissed her and whispered softly that she wasn't a killer.

Exactly in the middle, Dita Neiss, spinning hanging from the wire of his maneuvering gear: the snapping of his spine, the body twisted by the centrifugal force, the agonizing scream of someone staring death in the face.

No matter how much she weighed her options, in the end, Captain Neiss's death would tip the scales. She would act driven by that nightmare.

The Female Titan leaped, clinging to the walls and frantically climbing upwards. She looked desperate now. Mizuki, standing at the base of the wall, remained still: Mikasa Ackerman was right on the enemy's heels, determined to make her pay for the humiliation suffered during the expedition, buzzing around the Titan like a swarm of flies on a ripe fruit.

Mizuki wasn't wrong to trust in that composed recruit's abilities: with a strike of surgical precision, Mikasa Ackerman severed the Female Titan's fingers. The titan wavered backwards. Mikasa gracefully landed on its forehead and murmured a few words before the enormous body plummeted into the void.

The impact with the ground was devastating, yet even then Mizuki - her hair whipping in the gusts of wind and her lungs wracked with coughing from the clouds of dust raised by the fall - did not move.

She was still waiting, patient, as her father had taught her.

At last, she had a perfect view of the Female Titan. The muscles, pale pink or reddish in color, rippling in the sunlight with each movement of its limbs, clung to her body like leeches, giving her a revolting appearance. The only details faintly resembling human features - and matching the image of Annie that Mizuki had in her mind - were the blonde hair and the pale blue eyes.

Eyes filled with despair. Eyes sharp and intelligent. Eyes that belonged to someone fully aware of what they were doing. Someone who knew they had killed Dita Neiss, and especially how grotesque the act had been.

Finally, Eren, crashing onto the Female Titan, gave her the opening she had been waiting for.

Mizuki cautiously drew out a kunai.

.

"Mizuki, we're stopping."

"No… I can… I can keep going!"

"I said enough! You've been using the Sharingan for two consecutive hours, and you're not used to it yet. You need a break."

A thirteen-year-old Mizuki - who, like all teenagers, was characterised by a textbook annoying attitude and an equally developed and detestable arrogance - grumbled but eventually relented and prepared to follow her father, who was already heading towards the backpacks left under a tree.

She had learned far too early that arguing with Sasuke Uchiha was not a good idea. Above all, any protest, no matter how valid, would be pointless.

He never changed his mind, by definition.

Father and daughter ate without speaking the sandwiches Sae had prepared that morning grumbling. As she cooked in the kitchen, Mizuki's sister had complained that Sasuke and Mizuki trained even on Sundays, even though they already spent every afternoon of the week that way in the company of Terence and Rei.

"Mizuki," her father called suddenly, leaning against the trunk of a massive oak tree. Since his eyes were closed, she had thought he had fallen asleep.

"Yes?"

"Do you know why I insist on training you even on Sundays, without your teammates?"

Because compared to Terence, I'm hopeless and need to catch up, Mizuki thought bitterly, but she made sure not to voice the comment aloud. "No," she said instead, licking the jam that had dripped onto her finger.

"Ninjas work in teams. You know this; it's the first lesson they drill into you at the Academy: to achieve results, you must act in harmony with your team members. To a certain extent, it's a valid principle. That's why I make it a point to train your teammates too, those who will watch your back on missions. However, there's another lesson I want you to remember." Sasuke Uchiha's pitch black eyes suddenly widened, already fixed on the face of his daughter who was listening to him attentively, as if they had been observing her even while they had remained hermetically closed. "If there's something you truly want done, take care of it yourself. Never rely on others." Without warning, he reached out and tapped her forehead with his index finger. "If you desire something, you must be able to claim it yourself. That's how the world works. That's why I want you to be the best. Keep that in mind."

Mizuki nodded, her heartbeat quickened. She couldn't think of any better way to respond to her father's monologue, unusually lengthy by his standards.

Even if he had sugarcoated the pill, Sasuke Uchiha had just imparted one of the oldest teachings passed down in their clan: the Uchiha don't delegate important matters because they trust no one to be up to the task and they don't have faith in outsiders.

After all, they've always been the best.

.

Mizuki had never assigned much weight to that seemingly casual conversation with her father. It only came back to her when Annie Leonhart, under the pressure of the assault, slipped out of the nape of the Titan. From the cavity torn open by Eren's fury emerged only the upper half of Annie Leonhart's human body, surrounded by sprays of blood and clouds of white smoke.

Sasuke Uchiha had been right: some tasks cannot be delegated.

Mizuki would not entrust Annie's death to Eren. Or Mikasa Ackerman. Or Lavinia, Amado, and Loki. Or the captain. Or Erwin Smith, after Annie had ceased being useful to him.

She would erase her from the face of the earth herself. Right there, beneath the walls of Stohess.

Suddenly, a blinding light burst from the Titan's body, momentarily blinding Eren and the soldiers closest to it. But it couldn't overpower Mizuki's Sharingan. She kept watching and immediately noticed a translucent layer starting to envelop Annie, rising from her feet up along her legs.

From the reports on the Female Titan, she had learned of the enemy's ability to harden parts of its body. She instinctively understood that Annie was using the same mechanism to shield herself from Eren's attacks and that, if the process were completed, she would escape.

Mizuki activated her device, hooking the cables to the Female Titan's shoulders. Pulled by the retraction of the wires, she would shoot through the air and pass directly above the gash in the nape.

Annie heard the whistling of the cables.

Her head snapped in Mizuki's direction.

Both of them, as seasoned fighters, knew Mizuki wouldn't reach her in time. The retraction of the wires took only fractions of a second, but it was still too long a window: the translucent layer was already wrapping around Annie's abdomen.

Mizuki's right hand left the grip of the device. She was yanked to one side and, adjusting her trajectory, pressed her arm flat against her chest, clutching the kunai with the poisoned tip she had drawn earlier.

One of the many lessons from her father had been to always carry a weapon coated in poison, its blade sheathed for safety, for situations where she might face an elusive or unpredictable opponent.

.

That Sunday morning training session had greatly disappointed a teenage Mizuki.

During breakfast, Sasuke Uchiha had promised her a special lesson that day. She had eagerly awaited it, only to discover that her father planned to lecture her on poisons and their usage.

"Did you hear me, Mizuki?"

"Yes, Dad."

"This is a secret poison, its recipe passed down through our family for generations." Sasuke shook the small vial containing a colorless liquid, seemingly harmless but capable of killing a man within half a minute with just a drop. "You must always carry some with you when you're on a mission."

Mizuki pursed her lips. "I'm not so sure about that. A ninja should be able to defeat their enemies without resorting to such tricks. If someone's weak, I doubt a poisoned kunai would make much difference. That's why we train so much, isn't it?"

He made a sharp gesture to silence his daughter's poorly disguised complaint. "You say that because you're still a child and know nothing about how the world works. Mizuki, you might face opponents weaker than you but impossible or difficult to catch. In such cases, using a poisoned weapon is the most effective strategy: even a tiny cut would take them down and solve your problem. Even the strongest enemies, if human, are vulnerable to poison."

Mizuki refrained from pointing out that she had no intention of killing anyone and that she much preferred her strategy, that is facing opponents head-on, like a real ninja, and defeating them without necessarily having to kill them.

She was sure her father wouldn't understand. He never had such qualms.

Believing he had convinced her, Sasuke Uchiha continued, "The recipe for this poison is quite complicated, as is sourcing the ingredients. Only top-tier specialists can manage it. Unfortunately, the expert our clan relied on passed away a few years ago."

Mizuki perked up. "So who made that one?"

Sasuke held the vial high above his head. Sunlight filtered through it, casting rainbow reflections on the barren ground. "I asked Sakura… Doctor Haruno for this favor," he admitted after a long pause.

Mizuki exhaled sharply through her nose. She knew it. That woman just wouldn't let it go. Her mother wasn't even cold in the ground, and she was already trying to sink her claws in.

"This vial is for you. If you need more in the future, you can go to her. She'll be happy to help."

In her worst nightmares, Mizuki would never have imagined doing such a thing, and not just because she had no intention of using poison, but because she absolutely refused to have anything to do with that woman.

She couldn't have foreseen that, one day, Sakura Haruno would become her mentor.

.

When she departed on the mission that had brought her to the walls, Mizuki had tossed the infamous vial into her pack almost absentmindedly, only to remember its existence that morning, just before setting out for Stohess.

Her back muscles tensed, her arm snapped forward.

She was about to hurl the kunai.

The translucent layer crept up Annie Leonhart's sternum.

Only a hundred meters separated them.

A normal person might have risked missing the target.

But not an enraged Uchiha, taught by her father never to hesitate when the moment came to strike down the enemy.

.

Mizuki leapt at her target, a clone created by Sasuke Uchiha.

She had been tailing it through the forest for ten long minutes, waiting for ideal terrain or a moment of distraction to spring her ambush. Her patience had finally paid off.

She was about to drive a kunai into its leg when the target suddenly spun around to face her.

Mizuki found herself face to face with her father.

Even though it had noticed her, she was already too close for the Sasuke-clone to evade her attack.

And yet, at the last moment, Mizuki hesitated.

The strike missed its mark.

Even if, as a father and as a human being, he left much to be desired, he was still her father. She could never truly launch an attack against him with hostile intent.

The Sasuke Uchiha clone grabbed her around the waist and slammed her to the ground without a moment's hesitation, disappearing in a puff of whitish smoke as it did so.

"Ugh!"

"Mizuki!" The furious voice of the real Sasuke Uchiha rang out above her head. "How many times have I told you never to hesitate when you attack?! Do you think I enjoy repeating myself?! Your life depends on it!"

Mizuki crossed her hands over her stomach, not moving. Despite the carpet of dry leaves, her back had taken a hard hit and throbbed painfully. "But... Dad, I just can't attack you like that, in cold blood."

"That's exactly what you need to learn to do." Sasuke loomed over her, his gaze stern. Despite the fact that he was the one who had reduced her to that state, there was an unmistakable concern in his eyes. Of course, he would never admit to being worried about her: he just wasn't able to do that, and in any case it was against his principles as a parent. His educational philosophy revolved around the belief that children must be accustomed to the world's cruelty and that treating them with excessive leniency would render them weak and incapable of facing life's challenges. "If you can attack your father, you'll never falter on the battlefield." The man crouched down beside her, gently brushing a lock of hair from her forehead. "You have to learn this, Mizuki. I don't want something to happen to you because you hesitated at a critical moment. Don't do it. Don't hesitate."

.

After enduring many more beatings and lectures, Mizuki had, with considerable difficulty, internalized that lesson as well.

She wouldn't hesitate.

Annie could feel the absolute determination in the gesture with which Mizuki's arm traced a perfect arc through the air.

Her expression, usually set in perpetual boredom, twisted: wide eyes, lips drawn into a silent scream, pure terror igniting her blue irises.

In those red eyes, in that tense body driven by hatred and a cry for vengeance, Annie saw the earthly form of death itself. Perhaps, in the face of her attacker, she also glimpsed the reason for her undoing, the memory of that man she had mercilessly hurled into the air, only to kill him. She had no knowledge of who or what Uchihas were, but her primal instincts, awakened by danger, told her one thing: the demon hurtling towards her wouldn't miss its mark.

Mizuki's fingers loosened ever so slightly around the poisoned kunai, poised to be thrown with the full weight of her pain.

Then, Dita Neiss vanished.

In her place appeared a little girl, her brown hair tousled, her cheeks smudged with soot, her gaze lost. Behind her lay the ashes of a destroyed village. Destroyed because of Mizuki, because of her blindness, because of the order she had followed without understanding its purpose.

.

"Miss ... what happened?"

"What do you mean, what happened?"

"I mean... I mean all of this. Why did it happen? Why did they die?"

"It is difficult to explain..."

"..."

"..."

"Why?"

"I..."

"Tell me!"

"I'm sorry, but I don't know."

.

Mizuki shuddered violently.

Did she truly understand what she was about to do?

.

"It was crying…"

"Crying… who?"

"That bitch. The Female Titan. It was crying…"

Why had that monster cried after the battle in the forest of giant trees?

Why had she so desperately tried to escape rather than make another attempt to capture Eren?

What lay beyond the walls that called to her?

Who was she trying to return to?

Why?

.

Annie Leonhart's lips moved to form a single word.

Mizuki caught it clearly.

"Dad…"

.

The kunai sliced through the air.

Annie squeezed her eyes shut.

The blade sank into flesh.

The translucent coating finished enveloping the girl: a smooth, crystalline dome closed over her head with a jolt, as though an undertaker had just nailed the lid on the coffin, sealing it for eternity.

Mizuki landed on the shoulder of the smoldering corpse of the Female Titan. Slowly, she bent down and retrieved the kunai lodged in the titan's carcass. She turned it over in her hands absently, then lifted her gaze to the crystal cocoon where Annie Leonhart appeared to float, suspended in midair.

She had hesitated. At the most critical moment, Mizuki Onizuka, born Uchiha, had hesitated.

Not because she didn't want revenge. She wanted it. Oh, how she wanted it.

Not because she had qualms about becoming a cold-blooded killer. She couldn't care less about morality or human life at that moment.

But that haunting memory had gotten in the way, once again.

Her legs felt weak. She trembled.

Ironically, to keep from collapsing, she had to steady herself against the jaw of the Female Titan.

In her entire career as a ninja, she had never come as close to killing someone as she had that day.

.

The face of the Vice Commander of Marley's Warriors was twisted into a sneer.

"Pathetic…" he growled through clenched teeth, glaring at the revolting scene unfolding at the base of the walls.

The insult had no specific target.

It could have been directed at Annie, who had allowed herself to be captured, or at Mizuki, who, despite having the chance, had failed to eliminate her enemy.

He loathed the thought of not yet having managed to eliminate that annoying pest, despite his countless attempts.

If only he had more time… Amidst that chaos, with the soldiers' attention elsewhere…

But he didn't. Not enough time, at least. As soft as she might have become, Mizuki Onizuka wouldn't go down without putting up a fight. The news hadn't reached Stohess yet, but the Vice Commander already knew what was happening in the outer territories: his superior, Zeke, had finally made his move.

He couldn't risk being discovered now, of all times.

A sudden idea flashed through the man's mind.

He didn't have the time to confront her directly, true; but perhaps, by whispering a word or two into the ears of the right people, he could make things very difficult for that filthy Uchiha and her little friends.

The sneer slowly transformed into a ruthless smile.

Oh, yes. This was going to be so much fun.

.

Afterwards, a hellish chaos broke loose.

Mizuki realized she wasn't the only one seething with fury and murderous intent towards Annie Leonhart. As soon as they recovered from the blinding flash that had temporarily left them sightless, several soldiers charged at the crystal wall, hurling insults and threats.

She watched them from the ground, one side leaning against the still-hot corpse, arms crossed over her chest, biting her lower lip. That pathetic display only reinforced her father's theory: never delegate a task you want done right. She was the only one among them who'd had a genuine chance to eliminate Annie Leonhart, and if it hadn't been for that sudden hesitation, she would have succeeded.

Beside Mizuki, Hange was barking orders, commanding the soldiers to stay away from the cocoon; a little further back, Amado and Loki whispered to each other in hushed tones.

Many heads were turned upwards. Mizuki assumed her comrades were commenting on the damage to the wall caused by the Female Titan's climb.

She tilted her head back as well, shielding her eyes with a hand, and...

What the hell is that?

The question sprang up instinctively but was purely rhetorical.

There was no mistaking it.

Every soldier of the Survey Corps would recognize that thing anywhere.

From one of the grooves gouged into the wall by Annie's desperate climb, a face emerged.

A massive face.

"Hey, Hange…"

Despite being in the middle of talking to at least five people at once and answering to just as many requests, something off in her subordinate's tone made the squad leader turn around.

Mizuki was staring upwards.

Frowning, Hange followed her gaze.

"What the…?"

That's when the blank eyes of the Titan moved.

Downwards.

Mizuki couldn't help but take a step back, her hand flying to the hilt of her sword.

There was a fifty-meter-tall Titan inside the walls.

It was looking at them.

It was damn alive.

.

OOO

.

5:56 PM – Fifty-three hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition. Third day.

After two years in the military, Amado Kizuki has come to know Hange Zoe well.

She is cheerful, research-driven, passionate, and energetic.

At heart, a good person.

But there is one golden rule among her subordinates.

Never make Hange angry.

When she gets mad, she is more terrifying than Captain Levi.

Unfortunately for Reverend Nick, no one has warned him about that detail.

And now he is on the verge of being thrown off the very wall he worships.

The only thing standing between him and death is the collar of his robe, clenched tightly in Hange's fingers.

"Squad leader!"

Moblit's desperate shout echoes.

He can tell that this time he won't be able to stop her.

That man has gone too far.

By refusing to answer, he has spat on everything they believe in.

On their ideals.

On the comrades they had lost.

On their dream of freedom.

Hange won't forgive him.

"Fine. You're dead."

When all seems lost, however, the unthinkable happens.

The squad leader comes to her senses.

With a yank, she drags Reverend Nick back to safety.

The priest collapses to the ground.

Hange, on the other hand, sits down on the edge of the wall.

"Reverend Nick… So, is the entire wall made out of Titans?"

Moblit and Amado, still in shock, move closer to her.

"Squad leader…"

"Somewhere along the line, I forgot this feeling… I haven't felt it since my first time outside the walls."

The sun is setting on the horizon.

"It's terrifying…"

.

9:00 PM – Fifty-six hours after the return from the Fifty-Seventh Expedition. Third day.

The dungeon housing the crystal cocoon containing Annie Leonhart reeked of mold and dampness. Mizuki wrinkled her nose. After getting used to the cleanliness standards imposed by Captain Levi, it was hard for her to stay in such a place without feeling the overwhelming urge to find a window to throw open or a rag to scrub the filthy surfaces.

Hange had assigned guard duty to the most experienced soldiers, those she and Erwin trusted. It was a relatively small number, given that many veterans had been sent to a remote location to monitor Annie's suspected accomplices. Being part of that select group, Mizuki and Amado had taken over from Levi and Nifa a couple of hours earlier.

At the moment, however, Mizuki was alone in the dungeon. Her partner had excused himself - formally - to take care of a "biological necessity." In truth, Amado was likely using the excuse to sniff out updates on Erwin and Hange's ongoing meeting with the Military Police officials.

Mizuki paced distractedly in front of Annie, her hands clasped behind her back. Out of the corner of her eye, she studied her enemy's new dwelling, searching for any crack in that compact, seemingly impenetrable mass.

A draft of cold air snuck into the dungeon, causing the chains around the oval cocoon to rattle.

Mizuki stopped.

"Annie Leonhart," she whispered, savoring each syllable as it rolled off her tongue. Then she corrected herself: "Female Titan."

Annie didn't react, of course, just as she hadn't reacted to any assault, provocation, or attempted conversation thus far.

"It's me," Mizuki continued.

Annie's frozen expression betrayed the terror of death that had gripped her face in the moment before she was sealed by that curious defense mechanism. Mizuki had no proof that Annie could hear her . and didn't care if she was talking to thin air, since all she needed was to vent - but something told her that the translucent armor protecting Annie from any physical attack couldn't block sound.

"I'm the one who nearly killed you. Remember? I know you saw me and understood before this clever little trick of yours took effect." Mizuki rapped her knuckle against the crystal. "Maybe I'm stating the obvious, since you've probably figured it out already, but I want to be clear about where we stand. I didn't miss because of a mistake. No, if I'd wanted to, my kunai would've pierced your throat, and the venom coating its tip would've coursed through your body. If the wound didn't kill you, the poison would have. This pretty fortress you've built around yourself prevents anyone from harming your body, but I don't think it could've stopped a physiological process already underway inside you. I guess we'll never know. It didn't happen. It didn't happen because I missed. And I missed because I chose to give you a second chance."

Mizuki stepped closer to the crystal wall, so close now that each breath fogged the glossy surface.

"And just to be clear, I didn't do it - I didn't choose to spare you, that is - because of some moral scruple. Oh no. My desire to kill you for what you've done is as strong as ever, if not stronger. No."

She shook her head, strands of hair spiraling like a twisted staircase falling across her forehead.

"I stopped for my own sake. For my own peace of mind. I don't do anything unless I'm convinced it's the right choice. And I can't be convinced until I know your reasons."

A cold, crimson light flickered in the semi-darkness. The glass cage reflected the glow of the Sharingan that lit up Mizuki's gaze.

"One day, you'll be pulled out of there, or you'll come out on your own. I know it'll happen, and I'll wait for that moment to hear what you have to say. Why did you do it? I'll decide then what to do. Your reasons better be damn good if you want any hope of survival. Let me be clear about that. I've heard what you've done. Do you know what you've done? You killed my friends. They were the first to welcome me into this world I don't belong to, the ones who made me feel at home. Oluo Bozado, Eld Jin, Petra Ral, and Gunther Schultz. I want their names burned into your memory. And Dita Neiss... Remember the one you waved around like a napkin? He was an extraordinary man, you know?"

Mizuki's words struck like arrows, dripping venom and fury, promising relentless vengeance.

"If your reasons are valid, I'll refrain from harming you. But if they're not... you can run. You can hide, but I'll find you. I swear it. I'll crush you under my heel like a mangy dog. But first, I'll destroy everyone you care about. I won't spare a soul, woman or child, innocent or guilty. Only after making you experience such intolerable suffering will I grant you the mercy of death. Do you hear me, Annie Leonhart?"

Fists clenched until they whiten, a crazy, hallucinated look, red as blood, a face ashen and devastated: Mizuki had turned into a nightmare creature as she threatened a comatose girl who might not even be capable of hearing her. Had Keiko Onizuka seen her at that moment, she would have recoiled: Mizuki had never resembled her father, neither in appearance nor demeanor; but in that moment... in that moment, the resemblance to Sasuke Uchiha during his darkest days was startling.

Jacqueline had been right: Mizuki wasn't a cold-blooded killer. She couldn't kill without reason.

But she could become a killer and take a life, given the right circumstances.

She was her father's daughter, after all.

"Maybe you think I'm exaggerating. That I'm bragging. But I assure you, if I set my mind on killing you, I will. And do you know why? Because I'm an Uchiha. I don't think you understand what that means, so let me explain it to you. Being an Uchiha means revenge runs in my blood. It poisons me; it's my destiny."

Annie Leonhart, now widely known as the Female Titan, of course, didn't respond to the intimidation. She didn't move so much as a single facial muscle. Yet Mizuki convinced herself that the already pale color of the girl's complexion had turned an even grayer shade, and she took a deep satisfaction in that.

The silence was shattered when the door swung open with a deafening bang, slamming against the wall.

"Mizuki! There's been a catastrophe!"

Amado burst into the underground chamber. He doubled over from a cramp in his stomach, gasping for air, but his near-collapse didn't stop him from delivering the news he had, reluctantly, come to share.

"Titans! Titans inside Wall Rose! They've breached the walls!"