(04) Trainee Corps I

(Strauss POV)

[Keith Shadis

Condition: Healthy

Power level: 7

Potential: D

Keith Shadis is a military veteran who's skill is proven by the fact that he is the only Survey Corps Commander in history who managed to retire before death. His experiences have granted him a valuable sense of wisdom and a knowledgeable outlook on life. He now serves as an Instructor in the Trainee Corps to better the next generation of soldiers. He currently doesn't hold much hope for this batch of recruits.]

"You'll make excellent titan food!", Keith Shadis, the man who would be in charge of us for the next three years shouted as he towered over a girl in the front line.

"Yes sir!", The poor girl could do nothing but straighten her back and give the mightiest salute she could as she screamed her lungs out.

He made his way towards Armin eventually, staring him down with the most intimidating look he could muster. "You there!", he bellowed, making Armin sweat nervously.

"Yes sir!", Armin straightened his back and produced the best salute he could as he addressed the instructor.

"Who are you?", the instructor demanded an answer.

"Armin Arlet, from Shiganshina!"

"What a stupid name! Your parents named you that?"

"My grandfather sir!"

While watching the scary old man give the wimpier guys something to fear was entertaining at first, it got boring quickly. I zoned out thinking back over the last two years.

I spent almost the entirety of it training with Mikasa, Eren and Armin and I found out a few things. First was potential, a feature I wasn't quite sure about in the past. But over the two years I'm 99% sure that potential correlates to the limit of growth you can achieve physically and how fast you're able to grow. In other words, it was like physical talent. I pretty much spammed observe on every person I could to confirm this theory, almost everyone's potential was D, except for Eren's and Mikasa's. And sure enough their power levels grew much quicker (stopping at 7 for Eren and 8 for Mikasa) compared to Armin who only had a potential rating of D. Not to discredit Armin though he still grew comparably stronger to his cannon counterpart reaching a power level of 4, which meant that his physical attributes could almost be compared to the average grown man. An impressive feat considering he wasn't even anywhere near finished growing.

And while on the topic of power levels, mine grew to a whopping 23. Unfortunately, physical activity while granting me experience for my bloodline, wasn't all that great. The amount of experience I needed to level up was simply too much so I only gained a level and a half for my Ackerman bloodline, meaning it now sat at level eight and halfway through to level 9. I found that the best way to improve it was the use of that 'focus' mode when that adrenaline kicked in. But I couldn't make that happen at will and there weren't really any stressfull situations that made it happen.

"You're saluting wrong!", I was caught surprised by what sounded like thunder rumbling as I turned to see the instructor literally holding a small, thin boy with a shaved head up in the air. He held him with both hands by the head making his face stretch a bit and causing him to drool. A quick use of observe told me that the boy was Connie which I had already guessed anyway.

"I'm pretty sure that I explained the point of this salute is to demonstrate your resolve to devote your entire heart to the people! Is your heart on your right side?", the tension in the air was palpable, and it honestly seemed like Shadis was about to murder the poor guy then and there until a loud crunch was heard. Everyone turned their head to see a brown haired girl biting into a potato.

The instructor let go of Connie and walked over to the girl with the potato. "You. What's your name?", he asked in an eerily calm voice after a few seconds of silence.

"Sasha Braus, sir!", she responded while saluting, an odd sight as her face was covered in crumbs and the potato was still in her hand.

"Why do you have that potato", the instructor asked in a perplexed tone, clearly never experiencing such a situation before.

"Because I was hungry sir! Would you like some? If you want I'll give you half sir!", Sasha explained with the most serious expression on her face. Acting as if eating a potato during the entrance ceremony was an everyday occurence.

It served to confuse the instructor even more. "I don't understand. Why would you choose to eat it now?", he questionned.

"Are you asking me why I get hungry sir?", the potato girl responded in confusion still holding the salute with the potato in her right hand.

The instructor stood there dumbfounded, confusion riddling him. 'I guess all that experience couldn't have possibly prepared him for a situation like this', I thought to myself, trying to hold back a smirk.

The instructor's face suddenly contorted in anger as he suddenly bellowed out ferociously. "Do you think this is a joke? All of you must think the training corps is one big joke! Everyone, 50 laps around the track right now! But you potato girl! You give me 500!", some complaints arose from the crowd, questionning why they had to run as well but one stare down from the instructor shut them up.

"What are you waiting for you idiots? Start running now!", another command from Shadis, and everyone started running.

I took this chance to use observe on some of the cadets here.

[Sasha Braus

Condition: Healthy

Power level: 2

Potential: C

Her upbringing as a hunter by her father granted her keen intuition...]

[Marco Bott

Condition: Healthy

Power level: 3

...]

[Conny Springer

Condition: Healthy

Power level: 2

Potential: C]

I was genuinely surprised, there were a lot of people with a potential rating of C here, but I picked up the pattern pretty quickly. Those with a potential rating of C would eventually have at least a somewhat significant role later on. I also wondered how broad the rankings were. For example, Marco, Sasha, and Conny were all rated as C ranks but so was Mikasa, and Mikasa grew comparably faster compared to the rest of them.

I pondered over that last thought for a little bit, before three people caught my eye.

[Reiner Braun

Condition: Healthy

Power level: 6

Potential: C

From a young age, he was selected to be a warrior candidate, inheriting the power of the armoured titan. He was one of the perpetrators of the fall of Shiganshina, and the one who broke the gate into Wall Maria, in turn causing the death of many people. It is an event that haunts him everyday as he tries to battle his guilt.]

[Bertolt Hoover

Condition: Healthy

Power level: 5

Potential: C

Selected as a warrior candidate from a young age, Bertolt inhereted the power of the colossal titan. He is one of the perpetrators of the fall of Shiganshina and responsible for a lot of deaths. Guilt fills him to this day for the genocide he started but he's prepared to do anything to complete his mission and return home.]

[Annie Leonhart

Condition: Healthy

Power level: 3

Potential: C

Selected as a warrior candidate from a young age, Annie now holds the power of the female titan and is one of those responsible for the fall of Shiganshina and Wall Maria. She distances herself from everyone in an attempt to bury the guilt she feels.]

I read their descriptions with a tinge of anger. These three have indirectly killed thousands of people, creating countless orphans, widows and widowers. Countless lost their family and their homes. All semblence of peace torn from them right infront of them. I obviously knew of their endings, and that Reiner and Annie would get a redemption at least later on, but not after being responsible for even more deaths and terror. However even their redemptions weren't a promised ending. Who's to say that my intervention in this world's events won't change the course of things.

'Either way letting three mass murderers on the loose isn't gonna work for me. I won't hesitate to kill all three of them if I have to. No... I will kill them without a single shred of hesitation them at the slightest move'.

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A/N: anddd thats the start of the trainee corps. A bit of an extreme ending I know but it shows how serious he is about his payback and how much he was affected by the whole wall breaking thing. I considered making him want to kill them immediately at first sight but that woulda been way too edgy for my liking lol.