One year later...
Year 845
"ATTENTION, RECRUITS!"
"I AM KEITH SHADIS, AND I HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO BE ASSIGNED TO TRAIN YOU WORTHLESS PIECES OF SHIT!"
We fresh soldiers, including myself, were enrolled as members of the training corps. The madman who stands before us is Keith Shadis, our head instructor who will scream until your ears bleed. His eyes were bulging out, filled with anger and possibly sorrow, meaning the outside world had a huge impact on him.
We are now comrades of the trainee corps.
"I'M NOT HERE TO WELCOME YOU ALL!" Keith continued screaming. "SINCE YOU ALL SIGNED UP TO GET EATEN BY A TITAN, I HOPE YOU SAID YOUR LAST WORDS TO YOUR FAMILY, BECAUSE STARTING TODAY, YOU SHITHEADS ARE NOW TITAN FOOD!"
Everyone swallowed a lump down their throats.
"BUT FEAR NOT! IN THREE YEARS, I WILL TURN YOU, UNFORTUNATE BASTARDS, INTO KILLING MACHINES!" his voice boomed across the training ground. "ONE DAY, YOUR SORRY ASSES WILL STAND BEFORE A TITAN, BUT WHAT PATH WILL YOU TAKE!? WILL YOU BECOME TITAN FOOD!? WILL YOU WORK IN THE INNER WALL TO WIPE THE KING'S ASS? OR PERHAPS, BECOME A HERO WHO RELENTLESSLY SLAYS TITANS LIKE A BADASS!? CHOOSE YOUR FATE!"
I have already decided my fate. My purpose in joining the military is to prove I am not a titan, but also, I also need to find Levi, Farlan, and Isabel. I wonder if they're still around in the Survey Corps, or are they alive at this point?
Please be alive...
When Levi told me to survive, I took his word as a promise.
"I'LL START WITH YOU! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?" Keith stands before a tall gentleman on the far left side of the line.
The young man with brown, silky hair flashed a cocky smile, then placed his right fist over his heart and the other behind his back to salute.
"Viktor Kraus from Shiganshina District, sir!" he introduced himself, still smiling and the instructor was disgusted by that look on his face.
"AND WHY ARE YOU HERE, VIKTOR!?"
"To protect the weak and join the Survey Corps!"
"HOW ADORABLE, VIKTOR!" Keith forced a laugh. "SO FAR, YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST BALLS OUT OF EVERYONE! I HOPE YOU DON'T PISS YOURSELF IN A TITAN'S MOUTH IF YOU DO JOIN THE SURVEY CORPS!"
"I will do my best, sir!" Viktor screamed louder this time, and Keith approved of his spirit.
The instructor turns to the next person in line next to Viktor and leans over the blondie's head. "NOW, YOU BLONDIE! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?"
"Abel Felix, from Shiganshina District, sir!" the blondie salutes to him, trying to compose himself.
"OH? SO YOU MUST KNOW VIKTOR, HUH?" Keith assumes.
"Yes, sir! We are childhood friends!"
"SO YOU MUST HAVE THE SAME DEATH WISH AS YOUR BOYFRIEND OVER THERE!?"
"I-I want to become a hero like you, sir!"
Keith was surprised, so he leaned towards his face. "OH? ARE YOU SAYING YOU WANT TO TAKE MY PLACE?"
"No, sir! I—!"
Everyone gasped inwardly when Keith grabbed onto his shoulders and raised a knee to his stomach, bringing Abel down to the ground to hug his belly in pain.
"KNOW YOUR FUCKING PLACE, ABEL! A FUCKING TWIG LIKE YOU WOULD BE NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE! IF YOU CAN SURPASS ME, I WILL GLADLY RETIRE FROM THE MILITARY!"
Keith then walks over to a young lady with raven hair tied in a ponytail. She looked unfazed by the situation we're in right now.
"AND YOU! WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME THAT LOOK, CADET!?"
It almost seemed like they were having a staring contest, and in her eyes, she looked unbothered as well.
"WHAT IS YOUR NAME!?"
"Name's Zaiya." she introduced herself in a monotone voice. "Zaiya Scarlett."
"YOU TALK LIKE A MOSQUITO! SPEAK UP OR I'LL FEED YOU TO A TITAN MYSELF!"
She then salutes him, and this time, she raises her voice slightly. "Zaiya Scarlett, from Trost District, sir!"
"WHAT AN AWFUL NAME YOU HAVE!" Keith insults her once more. "AND WHY ARE YOU HERE!?"
There was a long pause until she opened her mouth.
"No reason."
Everyone was shocked, including myself. This awkward silence in the air grew bigger until Keith's screaming killed it.
"SO YOU'RE TELLING ME... THAT YOU'RE WILLING TO GET EATEN BY THOSE GIANT BASTARDS!? WHAT WILL YOU DO ONCE YOU GO BEYOND THE WALLS!?"
"The world doesn't excite me anyway," she explains blandly. "I just want to kill titans."
"SO KILLING TITANS IS A HOBBY NOW!?" he scoffs at her face. "YOU MUST BE LIVING A SHITTY LIFE RIGHT NOW!"
"Maybe, sir." she remains blunt.
"YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND! LET ME BEAT THE FUCK OUT OF THAT FOSSILIZED BRAIN OF YOURS!" Keith then raises a fist above her head, but Zaiya surprisingly catches his wrist without looking at his face. Our jaws dropped at this moment.
"Please do not touch me," she warns him, and the instructor is shocked as well.
"OH, WHAT IS THIS!? ARE YOU SUDDENLY A THREE-METER TITAN!?"
Zaiya finally released him and remained calm and collected. "My apologies, sir."
There is an odd yet dark vibe lingering about this woman, but how can she be so calm around the instructor? It's almost as if she's a doll or something. Beautiful, yet creepy.
After insulting and hurting the recruits, Keith finally got to me.
"YOU! STATE YOUR NAME AND WHERE YOU'RE FROM!"
I slam my right fist over my chest and salute him. "Alina Vogel, from the Underground District, sir!" I had to come up with a fake name at the last minute. If I used my real first name, the recruits from Wall Sina would probably recognize me as the titan's child.
When Levi and the others left me in the Underground District, I spent most of my time training myself and fighting my way up to the surface. Joining the military is the only option to find my friends and also find myself.
"FROM THE UNDERGROUND DISTRICT, YOU SAY!?" Keith observes me, and I try to make a straight face. "YOU POOR SOUL! YOU MUST'VE LIVED A SHITTY LIFE AS WELL! HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE ON THE SURFACE!?"
"I feel relieved, sir!" I raise my voice, almost the same level as him. "I feel like a new person!"
"AND WHY ARE YOU HERE, ALINA VOGEL!?"
"To go beyond the walls and fight for humanity!" I say out of passion and Keith seems surprised at the tone of my voice. He probably felt the hint of pain and suffering in my voice, so he sympathized with me. I want to find a meaningful life.
"HOW ADMIRABLE! THAT IS WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!" Keith praises me. "YOU WILL DEFINITELY BECOME FIRST-RATE TITAN FEED!"
"Yes, sir!" I played along with him, and at that moment, he knew I intended to join the Survey Corps.
When he got to everyone else, about 60% of the recruits were eager to join the Military Police to serve the King in the inner district. Depending on your marks in the training corps, you're free to choose the Military Police as your assignment after you graduate. The Military Police wield quite a lot of political clout, you see. Many politicians and merchants want their sons to join. But, in the future, only the top ten graduates out of three hundred of us can enlist in the Military Police, while the other graduates can only choose between joining the Survey Corps and the Garrison.
Speaking of the King, he must be sending the Military Police to come search for me, because I had murdered my father, who was also the King's doctor.
And this concludes our ceremony.
The same morning, we start by working out until our bodies give out and Keith continues to bark at us once more as we do pushups as a group.
"ONE HUNDRED AND ONE, ONE HUNDRED AND TWO!" Keith shouted, and whoever drops to the ground, we have to start over from the beginning. Our goal is to get to two hundred, and later on in training, the goal will be higher.
While the sun is up, we immediately dive into hand-to-hand combat training to test our strengths.
I get to spar with a few people and they tried their hardest, only to get their asses handed to me after I body-slammed them to the ground, restraining them. Some of these fighting skills... it's all thanks to Levi.
"GOOD, ALINA!" Keith praised me again. "NEXT!"
This is probably going to be my last opponent, and the next person who stands before me is Viktor Kraus. That cocky smile of his never left his lips and someone shouts in the distance.
"You can do it, Viktor!" Abel shouts, supporting his friend with a positive vibe. He seems like a friendly guy, and very kind. Not only that, I notice a few female cadets drooling over this man. He has to be some kind of charmer.
"I despise hurting women, but I don't have a choice," Viktor tells me, but I don't mind since this is only a spar. "Please don't take it personally."
"It doesn't really matter." I scoff at him. "Because women can hurt men, too."
"Well then, show me what you've got!" Viktor was the first to swing a fist towards me, but I successfully dodged the blow by leaning to one side. Next, recklessly, I use my flexibility to spin in a circle and kick him on the side of his head. This sends him flying until he hits the ground, and he grunts. "Nice kick, but that wasn't enough to knock me out."
I was pleasantly surprised at his pain tolerance, so I let him get back up on his feet at his own pace. Unexpectedly, he charged for it. With quick movements, he dashed to me, sneaking up in front of me so he could get ahold of my body, but I raised my knee to his face. When his body was floating in midair, I used my elbow to slam his back and Viktor fell to the ground with dirt in his mouth.
I could hear Abel laugh and everyone else around us until Keith shut them up. "YOU SWINES! I WILL MAKE YOU DO TWO HUNDRED MORE PUSHUPS IF YOU KEEP ACTING LIKE CHILDREN!"
"Sorry, Viktor." I apologized. "I must've gone too hard on you."
"No, this is what I needed." Viktor slowly gets on his knees. "I will not accept defeat so easily."
He is now back up again. This man is stubborn, in a good way.
Finally, some real challenge.
This time, I go in with all my might with a dropkick and Viktor rolls over to the side to dodge it. I get on one knee because I am nearly at my limit and feel dehydrated at this point after all the workouts and fighting. The sun makes everything worse for me, so I try to remain conscious. I was unaware of Viktor's movement and he somehow snuck up behind me, tackling and restraining me with his left arm and maneuvering a wooden blade over my throat which became known between us.
"I guess I win this round." Viktor smiled again, and so badly, I wanted to wipe that smile off his face. I refuse to lose to this cocky bastard, so I raise my leg to kick him in the crotch area.
I then realized I had gone too far when Viktor dropped the knife to roll on his back, holding his crotch area like a crybaby. Abel laughs inwardly in the distance and the girl Zaiya probably didn't find it amusing but entraining to watch someone suffer in pain.
"TIME IS UP!" Keith Shadis finally ends the spar between us. "ALINA IS THE WINNER."
I salute, and everyone cheers for me. Now, I can finally take a break while the others spar against each other. In the corner of the training ground, I watch as people help Viktor up and notice Zaiya walking up to the field to spar, searching for an opponent.
"ZAIYA AND ABEL, YOU WILL BE NEXT!"
I could tell Abel was hesitant, and Zaiya was intimidating him. It seems like he accepted his defeat even before the match started.
"P-Please go easy on me," Abel whispers to Zaiya, but she doesn't respond. When the match started, Zaiya was the first to charge at him, and within seconds, Abel ended up on the ground.
"W-What incredible speed!" one of the trainees shouted, and there was a sense of fear coming off them.
The winner was Zaiya.
Abel, at this point, was knocked out and Viktor was shocked as well.
Zaiya is very strong. I thought to myself. Her strength almost matches Levi's. No... not even close to Levi, but it's possible.
We trained until the sky turned orange, and the sun stretched out on the horizon, leaving for the night. During sundown, everyone either returns to the barracks or heads to the cafeteria where we have to cook dinner for ourselves. But I decided to keep training on the training ground next to the cafeteria. Even after what had happened in the mansion, I still didn't have an appetite. It haunts me to this day, and I still feel guilty about it.
In the distance, I could hear people talking.
"She's still training?" one of them said from the wooden porch, and it turned out to be Abel. "She doesn't know when to rest, huh?"
"How's your head, Abel?" Viktor asked since his head was bleeding earlier, but he is fully conscious now.
"Still hurts, but I'll manage." Abel forced a laugh, hoping Viktor wouldn't have to worry about him.
"You're very intelligent, Abel. I thought I lost you when your head hit the ground first." Viktor sighs in relief since he didn't lose his only friend. The blonde boy giggled as he clung to his friend's strong arms.
"Thanks to my mom, I was born with a thick skull." Abel jokes around, and Viktor continues to watch me train myself. After a long pause of staring, Viktor hops off the porch and Abel starts giving him a confused look. "Viktor!"
"HEY, YOU!"
I turn my head back to see Viktor approaching me and I lower my fists, giving him a surprised look. My sweat is probably glistening in the orange sunlight and he stares at me with a smirk.
"I want a rematch."
My eyes widen at him, wondering why he's bold enough to spar me again. I then let out a breathy smile. "Viktor, right? I assume you like to hit on women now."
"Don't take it the wrong way." he chuckles at my retort. "I was just going easy on you at that time. I won't lose to you."
"I like your confidence." I compliment him for once, smiling back even more. "If you try me again, you might regret it."
"We'll see about that." Viktor rolls up his sleeves, flexing his biceps in front of me. "With these bad boys, I can knock you out in an instant."
"Then prove it to me." I taunt him and he is the first to zoom towards me. With his fists, he swings them around, but I dodge every single blow. I could tell he was just warming up, and this time, he started taking off his shirt in front of me. "Don't mind me. The heat is unbearable."
I raise my fists in a ready position. "Stop showing off your body and fight me for real this time."
"But aren't you exhausted from our first training?" he asked out of the blue, but I answered bluntly.
"I'm used to it."
"You're so determined unlike the other girls here. You truly amaze me." he smiles at me warmly. I didn't expect him to compliment me, so I blushed a bit. "You creep me out..."
This time, I charged at him and jumped in the air to dropkick him again, but this time, he caught my leg and I cried when I landed on my back in the dirt. He towers over me with his strong body, his defined muscles were glistening in sweat as well and I found it disgusting.
"What makes you want to join the military?" Viktor suddenly asked, and I thought about it as he pinned me down, putting his weight on me as I tried to resist.
"There's a place I want to go," I speak firmly through my clenched teeth. "To Shiganshina District, and beyond the walls to meet a titan."
I want to make sure... of who I am.
"Shiganshina District? You mean my hometown?" Viktor was surprised at my response. "Is there somebody you're searching for? And also, meeting a titan can get you killed unless you're lucky."
"It's none of your business, now release me!" I raise my voice this time since his sweat is dripping on me and I cannot stand it anymore.
"You're struggling." Viktor teases me further. "Also, I believe life is about luck. Show me if you can escape me this time."
With all the energy left in my body, I force myself to roll to the side so he can fall to the side. Quickly, I get on top of him to raise a fist in the air, but he successfully catches it.
"Too slow," he smirks, but I didn't want to give up just yet. I raised my other fist to strike once more, but he did it again. "You're kinda cute when you're furious."
"Would you stop it already, you damn pervert!" I suddenly called it a day after climbing off him and stormed away until he called out to me.
"You want to join the Survey Corps, right?" Viktor shouts, but my back still faces him. Without even glancing back, I stand in one spot, wondering how he knew about my intentions. "Maybe we can help each other out?"
Without another word, I stormed off, leaving him in the training ground as the sky grew darker. Like hell, I would.
In the barracks, men and women are in separate wings. I was assigned to a room where there were at least twelve bunk beds and my bed was in the far left down, bottom one. This is where I'll be sleeping, but the sheets were unpleasantly dirty.
Later that night, I discovered that Zaiya, out of every other girl, would be sleeping in the same bunk bed as me up above. Everyone else in the room was chit-chatting away, sharing their stories, but between Zaiya and me, we decided to go to sleep after a long day.
Tomorrow, we will be training with the 3DMG.