𝐈𝐋𝐒𝐄'𝐒 𝐉𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐋.ʜᴀɴᴊɪ ᴢᴏᴇ̈

『𝟏𝟓』𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐂𝐇

𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘, 𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝟐𝐍𝐃, 𝟖𝟓𝟎 𝐀𝐓 𝟏𝟏:𝟑𝟒

⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺

  You put your hands out in front of you, holding them together as both you and Moblit waited while listening to any sounds the forest provided. More often than not the peaceful chirping of a bird could be heard from above, and if you strained your ears enough, you could even hear the occasional squirrel or chipmunk scatter around in the branches hanging above your heads. As you glanced your head up, after hearing an animal rustle the leaves once more, you spoke up, "Four hours and no animals found. Just our luck, huh?"

  "It seems so, captain." he responded.

  It was turning out to be true. After all, the three of you -Moblit, Hanji and yourself- had been wandering in this forest just looking for some sort of aggressive animal, 'I guarantee if we were not looking for one and just wanted to go on a walk there would be twenty different animals all trying to jump us at once. Maybe we should've just said that we were going on a walk to Hanji's squad, perhaps fate would've been nicer to us.' you thought before holding back a scoff, remembering the gigantic beasts that preyed on you for the past century, 'Not that fate has ever been known to be kind to us anyways.' The best you had come across was a skunk, but the black and white striped animal didn't exactly fill the criteria you all had in mind; the animal had to be aggressive, strong enough to inflict damage on a titan, and not so small that it would just be trampled.

  Shaking your head slightly at Moblit's insistence to use your title, you turned your head from the sky and patted the tranquiliser darts you had in a pouch (each of you had one) attached to your leg -the small pouch fit snuggly, secured to your leg via two belts going horizontally at the top and bottom of said pouch.

  All of the sudden you heard fast footfalls to your right, and snapping your head into the direction it came from provided you no visuals as a thick layer of shrubbery laid in between you and the creature. Moblit, who came up to your side, tensed and drew his 3DMG blades while you opted to take out your tranquiliser dart so then you could shoot it should this animal fit the criteria. You could see the leaves of the bush start to shudder, and unknowingly you took in a breath before a ball of brown shot out of the shrub.

  "Guys! I'm back!"

  It was only Hanji.

  "Section Commander Hanji, you should be more careful! That could've ended really badly!"

  "Eh, it's all good. I'm fine," she said as she jabbed her thumb to her chest, "You're fine," she said, pointing a finger at Moblit, "And she's fine!" she said lastly, throwing a digit your way as well, "No harm, no fowl, right?"

  "Sure, sure," you replied with a roll of your eyes, trying to hide a smile that was growing on your face, "Let's just keep moving, I really wanna see this experiment through."

  "You don't have to tell me twice," she spoke, walking ahead and taking the lead, "C'mon you slow pokes."

  Currently, the three of you weren't following any sort of direction consciously -just wandering wherever some small paths took you.

  Well, if you could even call them paths.

  The slightly cleared sections of forest more greatly resembled a skinny trail at best, yet you all found yourselves not straying from it and opting to take what little clearing of tall grass and bushes it gave. At first you were just going wherever you could, not taking the man-made, dirt-covered paths as you figured that animals would tend to stay away from them -but after a while you had all reached a miniature path, the one you were currently on, and decided that it wouldn't hurt to follow it.