Eren's pov
"Welcome to Shelter B06-32"
This man......
A real person.....
In the outside world.....
But.....
He doesn't look like someone who would want us to be living in the underground shelter with them.
He's kinda weird too
He's drinking from a broken, empty cup......
What is this....?
Is this a joke?
"Are you Minerva?" Asked Emma.
"Nope." He answered with a scowl.
Wait what?"
"Too bad for you, kids."
"I'm not William Minerva."
He must be here......
Somewhere....
"Then please call him. We came all the way here in order to meet Minerva." Ray asked politely.
"He ain't hear chum!" He said while chewing on a cookie. His response put as in a slight state of shock.
"What a shame huh? No Minervas around here, at all."
What's the meaning of this?
Did we come all this way just to be greeted by some weird guy?
Not the person we expected?
"Calm down." Ray told the kids.
"Clearly you know of Minerva, too. We need more information. Where is he right now?" He asked again.
The man then started to laugh and leaned back on his chair.
"No idea, man!"
"Tch, let's get to the point, who the f*ck are you? What the hell are you doing here?" Captain Levi asked with an annoyed tone while holding the hilt of his sword. He went to the front, beside Ray.
"Woah, that's a big boy language you got there short stack, and that logo you and your buds have......wow I thought I told them to not bring more brats....."
"Them?" I asked while going at the front, holding back an angry Captain because he got insulted by his height.
"Anyway...."
"Who am I?" He then brought out something from one of the pockets of his clothes.
"I'm your senior." He held out.....
The same pen.......
That Minerva gave us.....
"It's the same pen...."
"Senior?"
"Yup."
"Well, not from Grace Field at any rate." He added.
He then lifted up his shirt to show a code on his abdomen.
"I came from a plantation called Glory Bell, I escaped it 13 years ago...."
"With my colleagues."
"And thanks to this pen." He finished.
"Same as us..."
"He's like us....."
"That's right...." He responded to the kids' comments.
"I'm just the same as you. Ended up here while searching fro Minerva."
Human beings like us.....
Living outside the walls....
Wow
Just saying that in my mind brings back memories.
"However." He crouched down on the table. Emma was the nearest to him.
"When I finally reached the place for real, Minerva wasn't around. I waited for him a hella long time, ended up living here, and no trace of the man."
"No way around it, man's a dirty liar."
Wait.....
"Though...."
"I gotta say I'm grateful for this shelter, y'know?"
Something's......
"There's a stock of water and food, running electricity.....plenty of living space, too......"
"Everything's provided for."
"And a lot of material about the world, and valuable information."
Wrong.....
"Hurrah for my man Minerva!"
13 years....
He lived here for 13 years....
Does that mean.....
He wasn't here all along?
Does that mean?
He's dead?
"Say, where's the rest of your group then?" Asked Emma.
The man looked at Emma dead in the eye.
"Dead. All of 'em. I'm the only survivior."
Emma's face was filled with worry so I stepped beside her and held her shoulder for reassurance.
"Ah- come on, don't get so gloomy now! It happened a long time ago."
"But...."
"And I gave up looking for Minerva a long time ago, too. Now I'm just taking my time and having it easy."
"Whaaaaa- you gave up Mister?"
"What's with you guys though? What sorta group are you?"
"Ah! We're...."
"Hold it." He interrupted.
"Most of you are from Grace Field, the 15 that escaped it 7 days ago. The others, eh.....they're like the other two brats. That much is clear enough." He told us.
Wait....
Other two like us....?
Scouts?
Two of my friends are here!
"A glance at this and it was obvious."
"What I wanna know is....."
"How come a bunch of total suckers like you chumps....managed to survived this long, without a single one biting the dust?"
"Huh?"
"Well, I wouldn't call the chumps in green cloakies with those logos, suckers, it's obvious at first glance that they faced near death experiences and such."
"Look, it's just like I said..."
"This is a shelter."
"Food, water, furnished rooms.....it has everything."
"However, stocks are limited you know?"
"I'm not letting anyone take a single bite of my share. I'm serious."
"I'm older than most of you, I came here first. This is my home."
"And consequently.....y'all gonna die. Sooner or later, you dead. 100% chance."
" 'cause most of you are weak."
"WE'RE NOT-" One of the kids tried to argue but was cut off by the man.
"Are too. Just look at you."
"It's obvious that you kids all never been on the grip of death. You've barely even scratched the surface of the very basics.....and yet you're all here. It's expected that you'll depend on the more experienced like them." He gestured to me and my friends that are in The Scouts.
"This is nagging me."
"The very image of naive chumps who know nothing....."
"That's why I can guarantee it."
"You will die."
"No matter what you do, It's simply impossible to stay alive in this world."
"That's what happened with your former colleagues?" Asked a trembling Armin.
"Exactly."
"Dead one after another, 'cause they all were wimps...."
"Until I was the only survivor."
"I was the only one able to survive."
"13 Years...."
"Only I...."
"Only I figured out the trick to stay alive."
"The trick...?"
"Drop the dead weight." He responded.
What...
"Comrades equals dead weight."
No....
"Hope equals dead weight."
No.......
"Caring equals dead weight."
No...........
"All of that just weights you down."
I was getting frustrated.
I clenched my fist and let go from holding Emma's shoulder, it was obvious that we were both ticked off with his answer.
"YOU'RE WRONG" Emma slammed her hands at the table while I growled at the man, watching his every move.
"Afraid I'm not. It does."
I saw that he took of his coat and was hiding something from behind. I widened my eyes and pushed Emma away from the man and me. Making me get trapped at the man's clutches, with a gun pointed to my head.
"EREN!" Mikasa, Armin, and Emma screamed. Mikasa had her hand on the hilt of her sword.
"EMMA!" The others called out to her while she was at the ground, staring in shock. Ray helped her up while looking at me.
Captain Levi held Mikasa back while saying "Fall back Ackerman!"
"You let Eren go!" She growled.
"Mikasa......"Armin tried to help on holding back Mikasa by hugging her other arm like that time at court.
What shocked the others was that my face held a calm but angered expression, not a scared one.
"Worst dead weight of all is a troupe of clowns passing as chums."
"Hand it over."
"Your pen kids, fork it already. I'll be keeping it, so that ya'll will never step in here again."
No!
"I don't want anyone weighing me down. Sorry, but you guys will have to leave."
"Well then, gimme your pen and get the hell away from my face. Otherwise every single one of you is gonna die here right now."
Don't!
"Come on. Fork it over already. I'm tired of your faces."
It's all right!
I can regenerate once the bullet's out of my head!
He can't kill me
I'm a titan shifter
Not a full human
Wait....
I got an idea...
I smirked at the idea I formed in my mind.
Ray's pov
No way we can just leave.....
We're right in the middle of a deserted wasteland!
How cold can it get?
And what about out pursuers?
We can't just go and make fires.
And what could we do out there anyway?
Where should we go?
Which path should we follow?
Just wander aimlessly?
It's too dangerous.
Especially with the kids....
No,
worse....
Even if we decided to put up with it and face the risks....
Leaving this place could mean....
.....Giving up on our only lead to Minerva!
Doubly so if we lose our pen!
We can't afford it.
Not that!!!
Not that....
But....
"Well?" I looked at the calm but angered Eren in Mister's clutches.
Eren has the power to turn into titan
He said that he can regenerate even in his human form
So....
We don't need to worry....
As long as we remove the bullet...
But
We don't even know if his power works in this world
And I can't take the risk to lose a comrade....
A comrade that could be a big help on our survival
Eren
Emma
All of a sudden, Eren smirked, formed a fist and hit the man......in the nuts.....
The man held a shocked and pained expression, let go of Eren and started holding the place he was hit in between his legs with his hands, he crouched over and held the place in between his hands in pain.
My lips broke into a small smile while we held an expression of slight concern, especially the boys.
"Wha-"
"Ouch-"
"NNNGH!!!" He groaned.
Eren's pov
I got out of the man's grasp and was engulfed in a hug by Mikasa. I hugged back and pulled away, looking at the man.
"You did him dirty." Said The Captain.
"That's not the priority now!" I raised my voice a bit.
"Quick, get out of this room, everyone!" Emma yelled.
"My neck kinda hurts!!! I thought he was going to choke me!" I said while folding my own neck.
"Eren! You idiot! What are you even doing!" Emma yelled at me while the others rushed out of the room.
"Right! What if he'd pull the trigger?!" Yelled Armin at me.
"But he didn't" I said.
"He was bluffing. He doesn't want to kill anyone, just chase us out......am I right?"
All of a sudden a gunshot sounded in the air. I moved my head to the side, the bullet grazed my cheek and hit the wall behind me. This alerted the others.
"Eren!"
"Jaeger!"
"Eren!" Mikasa rushed to my side and held the wound on my cheek. I felt it slowly regenerate and let off steam, she saw the steam and knew it was my regeneration, Mikasa let out a sigh of relief and turned to the reason why my cheek was grazed.
"Like hell I was bluffing." He said with the gun in his hand.
"Well see? You just missed again." I informed.
"To be able to miss a few centimetres a from the face with your gun, you need to be really skilled, otherwise, you'll hit your target directly, so this really means you're bluffing." Armin informed us.
"You don't want us around....But you don't reall want to kill either, that's why you're trying to make us leave." I said.
"He's right....if it's all the same to him, he could have just killed everyone from the beginning....what's more, by kicking us out, he's risking that we make a ruckus and end up leading the demons here." I hear someone behind me say.
"BULLCRAP! I DON'T WANT TO DEAL WITH TONS OF BLOODY CORPSES IN MY HOME, THAT'S ALL!" He defended.
"I could care less 'bout you stupid brats...."
"Don't think you're worth a damn."
"NEXT IN AIN'T FOR SHOW!"
"I'M SERIOUS!"
"FOR REAL THIS TIME, GET OUTTA HERE OR I'M GONNA BLOW YOUR FRIGGING HEAD OFF!!" He warned.
"We refuse." Me and Emma said in unison.
"We can't afford to leave this place." I said first.
"We can't give up on our pen, either." She added.
"And also, my family and friends aren't dead weight!!!" She yelled while some of us in the background smiled with determination.
"Whatever you think of death and weighting down....."
"Comrades...."
"Hope...."
"Caring..."
"THOSE ARE IMPORTANT THINGS!!!!! ALL OF THEM.... ALL OF THEM ARE IMPORTANT!!!!"
She yelled more.
The man was taken aback from what Emma said, all of a sudden, he was trembling.
"Hey...."
He clutched his head and fell to his knees, then he started to say some words to himself, we can only hear only a few though.
"Stop...."
"That's not it...."
"That's not it.........."
"It's wrong John....."
"YOU SHUT THE HELL UP LUCAS!!!!" He suddenly yelled.
Lucas....?
Who's Lucas?
"No...."
"No....."
"God dammit....."
He stood up straight then....
"They're.......really.......awful....." He said before collapsing on the table.
"It's not acting, he's out." Said Captain Levi after checking on him.
"What's with him all of a sudden?"
"Dunno...."
"Who's Lucas anyway?"
"Is he alright....?"
"What could have happened....?
"And who does he mean by 'they'....?"
All of a sudden, the door was slung open by.....
"Hey! What's going on here?"
Said a boy.
My eyes widened at the sight, I could tell the same for Armin that we are both in shock, Captain Levi and Mikasa, they are, but they aren't showing it that much.
We made eye contact and his eyes darted to the other scouts in the room. He was also shocked by this.
"What's-" Emma was interrupted by another person. Ray then signaled Emma and the others to stay quiet.
"Hey! They might be our enemies-!!!!" The other person was a girl, she went inside the room and once she saw us, she gasped and cover her mouth.
"Captain Levi......Mikasa.....Armin......Eren......" Said the boy.
"Is that really you.....?" Asked the girl, putting her hands down.
I recovered from my state of shock and spoke.
"Yeah it's us......."
"......コニー.......ヒストリア......."
Next Chapter: The Shelter, ------ and -------