(Levi Ackerman x OC) Melting A Frozen Heart ~ Attack on Titan

Chapter 35 - Part Two: Bigger Questions

this is how i imagine ruff in my head lol - like kinagase tsugumu

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[f]

"What the hell?!" Chi screamed as Alabaster slowly pulled the knife out of his abdomen, the blade dripping with his blood. "Why the—you're—?!"

"Relax," Alabaster coaxed, lifting the hem of his sweater to show his stomach. The wound, below his left rib cage, was bleeding for certain—but the skin was weaving together like a basket, forming a self-regenerated bandage. Within mere seconds, it was completely healed, the only remnants being the blood on his skin, sweater and the knife. "See? A-okay."

"Wh—what the—how did you—" Chi choked, staring in awe at the missing injury on his torso.

"It's all a part of our training here," Clare explained in place of Alabaster, who'd gotten up and left briefly to change out of his shirt. "Remember how Alabaster talked about how we were all raised by the elders and stuff? Well, just like the big scary titans," She paused to sarcastically roll her eyes, "we have regenerative abilities too. When we repeatedly practice the ability of regeneration, our body becomes more accustomed to it and it barely becomes a task. Almost everyone here can heal a cut in the blink of an eye. Once, Ruff accidentally lost his leg to a scientist at the FADE HQ, but it grew back in two seconds flat! I think he holds record time."

Ruff didn't avert his gaze from the wall, but his stare hardened and the hint of a smug grin was there for a second at the corner of his mouth. Rowan playfully punched the large man's shoulder, throwing Chi an exasperated look.

"It's true!" the older man agreed, nodding his head. "Ev'ryone knows that Ruff here is one o' the toughtest kinds of us Deviants."

"Deviants?" Chi repeated, cocking a brow.

"Oh, nobody told you? Makes me sound stupid, doesn't it?" Rowan chuckled and shook his head, smiling warmly. "We call ourselves the Deviants."

"But... why the Deviants? Why not the... 'Tools of Humanity' or something?"

Clare, Ruff and Rowan exchanges looks of surprise before they burst into laughter—Ruff pursed his lips to hold in his laughter and rubbed his face with his calloused palms.

"That's actually not too bad of a name!" Clare giggled, her shoulders shaking with laughter. Chi sat there with a bewildered look on her face, perplexed.

"You do realize that everyone here, every Deviant, has a will of their own?" Alabaster smiled, trekking back to the other four with a clean white shirt. "I overheard your little remark, and let me tell you, I used to think the same thing. I can see it in your eyes." He took his seat beside Chi, kindly beaming at her. "I was frustrated because I was designed to be used like a tool, therefore I was to be discarded if I wasn't useful anymore. It just didn't seem like... like there was any point in living, you know? I thought that the reason for my existence was solely to work for humanity, but when I found out that I wasn't even supposed to exist in the first place, I felt truly lost."

Chi nodded vigorously; strangely enough, his words perfectly described what she felt about her life for the longest time.

"Well, through a lot of painful and horrible training that proves to be quite useful, I learned that there is no way that anything in this god-forsaken world can force me to do something I don't wish to. Even though yes, we all share a part of the titans, in the end, we are all human too. We may not be entirely human, but even if it's the tiniest shred hidden in our hearts, we are still a part of humanity. We can do as we wish—because if you haven't realized it yet, we have our own beating hearts and working brains. It's not anyone else's. It doesn't matter why you were brought into existence; the fact is, you're here now, and you have the right to why you want to stay here."