19 Struggle For Trost(6)

Eren had awoken. He could feel his nostrils being assaulted by the smell of a musty carpet as he arose. The rays of light peeking in from a large window beside him caused him to squint his eyes a little as he attempted to fight off the lingering grogginess.

The soft give of a pillow and mattress was inviting him to close his eyes again. However, just before he could do so, his eyes were taken hostage by a man sitting right in front of him.

….

(After a while)

"And that's what occurred… "Erwin said, "Are you sure you have no recollection of what happened when you transformed into a titan?"

His right eyebrow rose a little higher.

"No… but somehow... I just know that if I inflict self-injury I can turn into one-"Eren said, "Eh?"

He tried to keep his gaze steady as the commander studied him.

Erwin closed his eyes again, his eyebrows finally relaxing, "Guess it can't be helped."

Eren said nothing, feeling a little ashamed he couldn't contribute more information.

"You know, it's a good thing you graduated early and joined us ." He paused, flopping back in his chair a little. "Considering your previous achievements, as well as how you held up the armored titan, preventing him from destroying the gate."

"I'm quite sure once Zachary hears of this, he will surely view your existence as incredibly beneficial to humanity," he said.

"Zachary?"

A dazed look crept across Erwin's face ."You don't know your commander in chief?"

Eren averted his gaze from him for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts about who that person was.

When he turned back to Erwin, he saw him shaking his head in disbelief.

"The higher-ups in the Military Police will definitely be out for your blood once they catch wind of what happened, not like they can do anything about it though." chuckled Erwin. "Not with what you have already done for the humans within these walls."

"Thanks to you ... Wall Rose still stands."

He stood up and gave Eren a bow.

"Erwin-n-n I--"

"This is on behalf of all the lives you have saved." Erwin smiled at him.

"By the way, Commander Pyxis mentioned to me about your friend Armin."

"Armin?" Eren's heart skipped a beat. "Did something happen?"

"Well, Pyxis suggested to me just now a plan on how we can retake Trost, apparently he was one who came up with that." The corner of Erwin's mouth quirked up a little as he touched his chin.

"After studying it, I must say, he has a pretty impressive mind."

Eren's face grinned with relief. "Armin's a brilliant person. He even saved me and Mikasa's lives once before. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for him."

A look of realization suddenly dawned upon Erwin's face as he realized he had forgotten something.

"Mikasa! You can come in now, Eren is okay." Erwin raised his voice a little, "Just wanted to make sure his brain didn't go crazy from transforming into a titan."

"ERENN!!!"

The sound of a door being slammed open with incredible force could be heard, followed by a figure dashing into the room.

"Mik-asa?"

Eren could feel his hand sandwiched in between a familiar warmth.

"Why are you always so reckless..." Mikasa held Eren's hands tightly.

He was the one who told her to leave him.

Why is it that every time she left his side?He would always get into trouble?

The aberrant horde, and now the armored titan. It felt like Eren was going to abandon her… going to be taken away … the feeling of losing a family for the third time.

She didn't want to experience it again.

"Sorry to break your lover's reunion, ahem, but time is short ."Erwin said, "I'm going to brief both of you now on the plan to retake Trost ."

He shot the duo a teasing look as heat started blazing in both their cheeks.

"Hey, Erwin! That's not it! We're famil-"

=====

[Somewhere in Trost]

The tumbled walls of the houses near a huge boulder stretched upwards, basking in the hot afternoon sun glow. Patches of blood dotted the roofs and pavements that were once filled with people.

It was at that instant, a bolt of huge lightning struck near it, emitting a bright yellow flash that overshadowed the scorching afternoon sun for an instant.

A titan could be seen emerging from it. It was none other than Eren.

[Alert]

[Transferring control of the Attack Titan to user]

[As this is the first time user is transforming into Attack Titan in a conscious state, the user will have full control of all the movements of the Attack Titan henceforth and in all future transformations]

Eren could hear the cold emotionless voice sounding in his head as he was inside the titan's nape.

"So the name of this titan is the Attack Titan?" Eren thought as he tried to process the information. "I wonder why it's called that though?"

He had received this "system power" during a sudden headache in a weird incident when he was young.

Ever since he opened the Beginner's Gift Package, he had found the system to be a great help to him.

"Unfortunately it has never responded to any of the questions I have asked."

"But it has really changed my life so much … beyond the power I have received, it really made me realize how badly I have treated Mikasa previously." Eren murmured."I really was being such an asshat then."

Turning his head, he looked at the green cloaked figure that was standing on the roof of a house beside him.

He felt that he had always been brushing away her concerns in the past, often in a very rude and hurtful manner.

The scene of Mikasa crying over him, when he had fainted due to the headache caused by the system. He could still remember it.

"I'll definitely make up for it now… by being nicer to her." He stopped his contemplation and fixed his gaze to the huge boulder in front of him.

"Time to get to work."

=====

With the help of the scouting legion and Eren's titan power. The hole in the Trost district had been plugged with a huge boulder.

The buildings around in Trost served as a great environment for ODM gear, and with Levi's elite squad assigned to protect Eren alongside Mikasa, how could any titans possibly harm him?

Furthermore, Commander Pyxis of the garrison corps had also sent 2 teams, the best he had - led by Mitabi, Rico to back the survey corps up.

They easily carved out a safe path for Eren in his titan form to carry the huge boulder to the gate.

Any titans that were brave enough to approach found themselves facing the dust on the ground, reflecting on the error of their ways … if they were able to think that is.

At the end of the day, the retake of Trost was accomplished smoothly with no incidents, using Eren to seal the hole in the wall using the boulder carried by his titan. His role in doing so caused his popularity to skyrocket, especially within the Survey Corps.

The only one dissatisfied was Mikasa, annoyed at how some girls in the scouting legion would now intentionally approach Eren.

[Inside a Survey Corps Building]

A person could be seen walking hastily among the long corridor. Right beside it was a large grassy lawn, manicured hedges littered the area along with leafy trees.

A few rabbits were hiding in the shrubs, occasionally venturing out to forage, quickly running for cover whenever the sound of footsteps was heard.

"Arghhh I overslept again!"

Eren was blaming himself for being so ill-disciplined when it came to waking up on time as he quickened his steps.

Rising on time seemed to be one of the traits that had eluded him his entire life.

"Still, what is up with Erwin recently … it's already the fifth meeting we are going to have in two days, it feels like he's cooking something up ." Eren rubbed the back of his neck as he hurried along the corridors, it looked like he would have to meet that egg-shaped face again.

"Officer Eren!"

"Natalie?" Recognizing the voice, his face lit up. "What is it?"

Natalie was running over towards him. She was beautiful. She had a shapely figure and her waist was tapered. The extremely tight white-buttoned shirt worn underneath her uniform only added to the allure of her curvaceous figure.

With graceful movements, she pushed the loose strands of her flowing black hair behind her flat and cute ears, before revealing a set of perfect and white teeth as she smiled at Eren.

"Could you teach me how to swing my blades like you?" Natalie said, "You're so good at it!"

She grabbed Eren's hand tightly, pressing her body against him as she leaned in.

"Ahhh…? S-Sure... Here's how you do it … L-Let me teach you." Feeling his arm trapped between two round soft sensations, Eren sheepishly grinned and held Natalie's hands, leading her along with the motions.

"OfficER ERen." A person's face that stood not too far off was getting darker and darker.

"AH-H? Yes, Mikasa?"He smiled at her, before facing Natalie again."Sorry, I'm quite busy at the moment. Could you wait?"

Eren was staring at Natalie as though Mikasa wasn't there, completely enraptured by what was before him. He was after all just a 15-year old boy who had almost never experienced the charms of a woman before, how could he resist?

Mikasa could feel heat flaring at her skin right now at the nearness Eren was displaying towards Natalie.

Seeing Eren touching another girl was making her extremely uncomfortable and sour.

Extremely.

Espe-cially the way it was happening right now.

"Ah ~"

"That hurts. Eren, you're holding my hand too tightly." Natalie exclaimed as she cast him a flirtatious look, pressing even closer to him and bending her chest slightly downwards.

It didn't seem like she was here to learn from Eren how to swing her blades more skillfully ...

That instant, the murderous aura coming from Mikasa shot up even further, a genocide looked like it was about to take place.

The rustling in nearby shrubs stopped, as the white furry ears that occasionally peeked out disappeared.

"S-Sorry, I'll be more gentle next time." Eren laughed as he tried to maintain eye contact with Natalie. He could feel two objects squeezing now with even greater intensity against his arm.

Sneaking a glance, he saw the two "culprits" that were trapping his hand. Wrapped tightly against her uniform, the landscape of two small circular objects stood out distinctly.

Eren's defense completely shattered that instant. This girl was more dangerous than the titans.

She could probably break all the walls of humanity alone.

His face started to heat up, unable to think coherently as his thoughts started taking a holiday trip to places it had never been before.

However, he wasn't the only one whose mind was in a mess.

"Eren..."Mikasa could feel her heart sinking further.

She wanted to be the one there. To be the one Eren was holding, the one he was talking to, for Eren to laugh and smile with her.

She wanted to be the girl Eren looked at. To be the only girl in Eren's life, even though it was a selfish dream.

Starting to feel a little depressed, her thoughts started to wander further and further.

What if Eren really liked Natalie? Perhaps she liked that cute personality of hers? Or was it… her chests? Like what Armin mentioned before during their cadet days … Did Eren have an attraction towards that?

To be honest, Natalie was very pretty as well, Eren falling for her was not out of the question.

How long had they been together? Had Eren been secretly spending time with her?

"Don't tell me N-Natalie did t-t-that."Her eyes started to widen as she stared blankly into space. "With E-Ereh a-a-already."

"N-N-N-No w-w-way."

Mikasa now looked like she had seen a ghost, her face was ghastly pale, color had completely drained from her face.

Rooted to the ground, her soul was seemingly nowhere to be found.

"Mikasa… Mikasa…"

"MIKasa…"

"Oi MIKASA!" She could feel someone shaking her shoulders.

"Ah-h?"

"Sheesh. I've been calling you so many times. Could you take place in teaching Natalie? I have an officer's meeting to attend. It's gonna start soon. " Eren said as he eyed her closely.

"Look at you, your scarf is all loose already.'' Shaking his head, he quickly draped the red fabric around her.

"Here, that's better now. "

He was wondering inwardly to himself what Mikasa was thinking about just now, it was rare to see her lose herself like that.

If only he knew ...

"Thanks ... Sure! " She touched the muffler around her neck, her lips curling slightly upwards, feeling secretly relieved that Eren wouldn't be around that seductress anymore.

"Great! Knew I could count on you." Eren clasped both of her hands in gratitude. "See you later then."

Mikasa's heart raced for a moment, as her ears turned red.

"mHm."She nodded."See you later … Eren."

Smiling wistfully, she watched as the figure got further and further away, unable to take her eyes off him until it had completely disappeared.

Now, how should she "train" Natalie?

A murderous aura filled the room once again as Mikasa turned around. Every living thing within a 300-meter radius could feel a chill running down their spines, even the rabbits hiding nearby fled for their dear lives.

Entering into Kill Mode, she was about to personally show the girl who had chosen death by talking to Eren, the door to the deepest levels of hell.

Eh?

...

When was the building so empty?

A/N: Trost part is finally over, I decided to skip some parts and not elucidate them in detail as it wasn't particularly important. I wonder how the upcoming Female Titan arc will turn out in the end? :)