Nina Cried Power ━━ Attack On Titan

06. A Piece of Home

Saving Armin to get himself killed sounded like something Eren would do. Nina knew it wasn't Armin's fault- it couldn't be. But Nina already threw away her mask of indestructibility and she needed to direct her anger at someone to avoid her grief.

What about Leone? Could he be dead too?

She felt a shadow over her frame. Nina met eyes with the black haired girl for merely a second before her dark eyes moved to Armin- she seemed cracked, but sturdy. Like a porcelain vase that chipped, but it still remained unwavering. "On your feet, Armin." Mikasa spoke in the voice of a commander. "We don't have time for you to get emotional now. You too, Nina."

The blonde haired girl hated the way she was referred to and glared at Mikasa, her anger boiling hotter. "I'm not emotional, Mikasa, I'm human." She snapped, standing up so she was face-to-face with the dark haired girl who still clung on to the red scarf Eren gave her years ago. "Unlike you, on the other hand, who seems to feel nothing at all. Didn't you say you would take care of Eren? Didn't I leave him with you, trusting that you would protect him? You knew he needed his family, yet you never bothered telling him that? Knowing that I'm always there, trying to look after him?"

Nina pushed Mikasa's shoulders much like she did to Jean earlier. "You say he's your family- then act like it."

"Nina!" Marco grabbed his best friend's hands when it looked like he was about to punch Mikasa. He forced her to look at him, pain stinging him as he noted her red-rimmed eyes. In their nine years of friendship, he never once saw her like this. "The Titans are still here, people are still dying. Mikasa isn't your enemy. They are."

Nina's grey eyes flashed with something Marco never saw before. The blonde girl slowly bobbed her head, realising the meaning of her best friend's words. "You're right, Marco." She said, running a hand through her dishevelled hair. "You're right, I'll kill them."

She immediately used her ODM gear and dashed away from the troop before he could even respond. "Nina!"

The young girl was long gone. She was too privileged for far too long in her life and now, she finally understood grief. She finally understood why her mother wept for months after Aunt Carla died, why all she did was stare out the garden like a ghost, forgetting all about her surroundings. She understood why Eren rejected Maria Holzer's advances of bringing him and his friends to her home, too fueled by hatred.

Nina finally understood why he sought revenge, but never thought she would seek it for his death.

As she zapped by buildings, the wind washing over her body, adrenaline pumping wildly, she slashed every Titan she came across. Her thoughts ran frantically, not allowing her to even look back at the maneaters to cross check if they were killed. Nina couldn't do anything except think and kill.

Nina thought of her cousin and his teal eyes that always contained inexplicable fire. She thought of her own brother and his kind jade eyes and wondered how he was faring, praying to God that he was alright. She thought of what Leone told him moments before the Colossal Titan bombarded Wall Rose. Grisha Jaeger- an Outsider. Did Eren know? She never got to ask him.

As Nina slashed the nape of her twelfth Titan kill, she wondered if Eren was the enemy her great grandfather had mentioned in his old and worn out diary, the diary which changed the Holzers' lives forever.

◣◥◤◢◣ ◥◤◆◥◤◢◣◥◤◢

Year 844. Jinae Town

"See!" Nina shoved her test papers into her cousin's face, showing him a toothy grin but all Eren could see was the remains of a leaf on her teeth. "I scored the highest in Titan History too!"