In Memories

Chapter 8: In Memories: 104th Division

Chapter 8: In Memories: 104th Division

"If loving you was a sin, then I would rather stain my soul dirty until my time on earth expires."

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Our story goes a few years back.

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He met her during his 15th year. She doesn't stand out that much. She was just this petite blonde girl with blue eyes as clear like the skies. Her eyes never sparkled, in fact, it has lost all its vibrance. His classmates said that she always slacked off and avoided chores. Truth is, she could have been pretty, if only she was more sociable. Even Mikasa says that there is something off about her: like its either she is hiding something or that she really is just a good for nothing.

Eren always thought otherwise.

He first saw her standing opposite him as Shadis interrogated them on their first day as military trainees. He had his own reasons for joining camp: a titan came and destroyed his home and ate his mother right before his eyes. His heart is full of nothing but hatred. Damaged, is a very good word to describe it, and in its hollowness, he felt alone.

Sometimes the feeling of loneliness, could invoke feelings of isolation. He knows he and his sister weren't the only ones who has lost much, Armin did too. In effort to reduce its growing population inside the walls of Rose, the government ordered that the remaining survivors from Maria should gather supplies outside the second wall. It was usually the adults whom they let outside. Armin begged his grandfather to not go, burying his tear-stricken face on his shirt, but his grandfather would just answer him "If I didn't go, how could I feed you and your friends? I will be back Armin, I will be back," he reassures his grandson. Everybody knew that stepping outside the protective walls and into the titan infested territory of Maria, nobody would ever survive. After a week, Eren couldn't even talk to Armin. The poor boy held his grandfather's clothes tightly in his arms with his books scattered around him, all of them, wet with tears. The moment his grandfather stepped out of wall Rose, Armin knew it would be the last he would see of him.

Everybody here at the 104th squad division has a story to tell. Her eyes tell him that there is more to her that meets the eye. He wonders about everyone's past. Afterall, they all have their reasons of being here. Her expression is between boredom and anger as their primary instructor, Keith Shadis delivers his speech to the newly recruited trainees.

When orientation and welcoming ceremonies are done, they go back to their dormitories.

"I'm surprised you aren't shaken infront of Shadis. Did he ask you something?" a tall muscular man with blonde hair approached the girl he was eyeing. The girl didn't even give him a glance.

She just sighed and pushed a loose strand of hair away from her face. "No,"

Eren continued to watch the tall guy tease the shorter girl, who never seemed to respond to any of his advances. How weird.

"Eren!" he heard Armin call behind him. "I already have our room number."

The floorboards creaked as they passed along the wooden hallway. The dormitory is divided into three buildings: males stayed on the Eastern wing while the females stayed at the Western wing. On the main building was the lecture and study halls, administration offices and mess halls. The whole dormitory itself is made up of wood. Armin guessed that the building is probably decades old due to some termite marks he found along some wooden posts.