Crippled Beyond Repair (Attack on Titan/Levi x Hanji)

Chapter 13

"Where were you?" Hanji seemed to tower over him, glaring with eyes like daggers.

"Did you see my note?"

That seemed to only make her angrier. "Yes, of course I saw your note. You left it in plain sight. And do you know what that note said? "I'm out, but I'll be back soon." Do you even realize how vague that is? That gave me literally nothing. It told me nothing about your location or when you would be back. What is the point of leaving a note if I can't even come and get you if I really need you? I thought that you came here on the condition that you would listen to any order that I gave you!"

Nadja was up and sitting in the chair that he had occupied earlier. He couldn't see her face, but she was being abnormally quiet.

"You never said that I couldn't go out."

"I also never said that you could. That wasn't right. Don't ever do that again. You had me really worried."

"Yes. I won't do it again."

The argument seemingly over, Nadja jumped up from her chair and ran towards him, enwrapping him in a hug. "You had Hanji really worried. I was scared too. What if you had been killed by the same people or person that killed Captain Hanji's parents? We wouldn't have known where you were or anything."

This is one of the reasons that he didn't work well with others. He didn't like having to explain what he was thinking, but he also knew that no one could read his mind and know what he was thinking. This is why he worked alone. Then the only person who had to know all that was going on was him.

He sighed, but raised his hand and ruffled her hair. "Don't worry about it, kid. Stop overthinking. Hanji does it enough already." It was only a minute later that he realized what he had done. What was he turning into?

The girl let go of him. "What did you go out for in the first place?"

"To confirm my suspicions of who were the ones who killed Hanji's parents and kidnapped her brother."

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Hanji's eyes begged for answers.

"Yes." He pulled out the chest from where he had hidden it under his cloak.

She reached for it, but he pulled it away from her.

"What do you think that you're doing? Let me see it. Where did you get that from?"

"No. Wait. Let me explain."

She pushed her glasses up to rest on the top of her head. "Fine, but we might as well all sit down first. I want an explanation, from the beginning. What do you know about the killers?"

She and Nadja sat on the bed, while he sat down in the chair across from them.

"I told you that you might not want to know. Are you sure that you want to know now?"

"Yes, I'm as sure as I'll ever be. I need to know. I have to find my brother. I don't have any more time to waste."

"You're right. You want to know the truth. I'll give it to you. The first thing that you should know is that this is my fault."

"It is n–"

"Let me explain. Then you'll understand why I say this."

She nodded. Nadja didn't say a word.

"There is this gang in the Underground known as the 'Black Skulls'. That's because they're known to wear these black cloaks with a white skull mark on it. I was a part of the gang once, right at the beginning of its formation. I stuck with them, because at the time I thought that it would be beneficial for me. At first, we were a gang for the sake of survival. But as we fought for survival, we became stronger. Soon, we were the strongest and most influential gang in the Underground. It didn't take long for this power and strength to get to the gang members' heads." He looked down at his hands, fidgeting. "They became more violent, more vicious. They didn't care about the consequences of what they did. They could do whatever they wanted, because no one was able to punish them for what they did.