44 Eren's Trial

*thud thud thud thud*

The sound of boots echoed along the hall as Asriel, Mikasa, Annie, and Armin along with the members of the Scout Regiment made their way towards the room where Eren will be judged by the Commander-in-Chief, Darius Zackly, the head of all three military branches.

" Armin, calm down, relax, Eren's gonna be fine," whispered Asriel towards Armin. He saw Armin stiffly walking alongside them with a really pale face.

" I...I'm fine, Asriel, I...I'm not w..worried or anything," replied Armin with a sweatdrop. Asriel just looked at him from his peripheral vision and chuckled but didn't say anything else.

"Worst-case scenario, we just have to fight our way out if something happens," teased Annie with a smirk.

Hearing what Annie said, Armin gulped a mouthful of saliva, appearing paler than before, eyes darting everywhere as he planned for a way out if things get worse.

" Eren will be fine, Armin," Mikasa said, nonchalantly as she walked closely beside Asriel. If only there weren't other people around, she would've already clung to Asriel like a koala and try to melt into him. In fact, she didn't really care if there were other people around, the only thing holding her back was that she was worried that the officers from the corps that Asriel want to join, would disprove her actions as lack of discipline and cause trouble for him. Even now, she had to use all her willpower to hold back from reaching out and holding his hand but unconsciously, she would glance at him every now and then with affection, letting out a small smile.

Asriel noticed her behavior and made a note in his mind to spoil her lots later on but for the moment, he reached out to her hand and held it in his, gently smiling her way.

He also did the same towards Annie beside him, lest he is blamed for favoring one over the other. One could easily tell how ecstatic Mikasa is by simply looking at her mesmerizing smile and the glowing aura of happiness that is exuding from her being. On the other hand, Annie had a shade of red on her face by the sudden action from Asriel towards her.

Her heart was beating fast as she felt warm in her heart. She too was holding back from showing affection towards her beloved for the same reason as Mikasa. She doesn't care what those weaklings think about her but she doesn't want to cause unnecessary trouble towards her beloved.

Meanwhile, Armin looks on with a wry smile towards the three love birds. He was happy for them and was also quite jealous as he thought, when would he too have a girlfriend or...boyfriend? His thoughts stopped dead on the spot right there as he also stopped walking. From a corner of his mind, a name popped up for a flash and a particular thought too but was quickly cast away by him as he shook his head violently.

' It can't...be.....right? Was he.....*gulp*.....into me and that's why he kept helping me without caring about his well being and getting beaten up every time? No...maybe...maybe he thought I was a girl....no.....no that can't be it as well but I cannot know for sure. He didn't show any signs of attraction towards the opposite gender during all those years at the training corps too. Even back then, when we first saw Mikasa, even I was a bit mesmerized by Mikasa but he didn't show any signs...he didn't because he already have eyes on someone?' at this point of his thoughts, Armin's body involuntarily shook as every hair on his body stood up and also having goosebumps. ' What should I do?? What should I do??? What if he suddenly confessed to me??? Should I accept or refuse????? But, but he helped me out a lot so maybe....wait but I don't like him that way!!...Maybe I should give it a try? But, but I like girls! Uuuuu...what to do....awawawawawawa' as his thought deviates further and further away, his mind couldn't handle it anymore and overloaded. He fell onto the floor with swirly eyes and an open mouth. If one looks closely, they could see his soul trying to leave his body from the mouth.

Fortunately, he was brought back to the land of the living by a slap and constant violent shaking from Asriel.

" Armin!! Armin wake up!! *slap* Wake up damn it!! *slap*" (Asriel)

" Wha...what is....." before Armin could continue, Annie interjected saying " Let me try" and started slapping him back and forth as well.

*slap* *slap* *slap* *slap*

" Ahhhh!...wait!....stop!.....I'm...." shouted Armin as he flopped his arms and legs around trying to stop Annie from continuing.

" Seems like he needs more slaps, Mikasa, want to give it a try?" asked Annie with a small smile on her face as she looked towards Mikasa.

" Nn" replied Mikasa as she started to make her way towards Armin while preparing her hand. Seeing her coming his way Armin couldn't help but screamed out loud. *Insert Wilhelm scream*

...

" Uuuuu, you guys.....do you have some grudge against me or something," complained a teary Armin as he nursed his puffed-up cheeks.

" Well, in our defense, you looked like you needed a good slap," replied Annie looking to the side crossing her arms.

" Nn, what Annie said," (Mikasa)

Hearing their reasons, Armin didn't know if he should cry or laugh.

" Alright guys we should go to the courtroom now, Eren would be arriving any time soon and we can't keep our senior officers waiting," interjected Asriel as he started walking towards their destination.

....

" Where were you brats left off to?" asked a frowning Levi when he saw them come to the Scout Regiment side of the courtroom and stood beside him.

" Armin had a stomachache and wanted to go to the toilet. We went together with him cause he was afraid and nervous to go alone," replied Asriel with a straight face. Hearing what he said, Annie had to rein in her laugh but was failing miserably while Mikasa was nodding in agreement to what her Eru said. Armin on the other hand had a look of betrayal on his face.

" Maa, maa Levi, it's not rare to suffer a stomachache when someone is nervous and besides, it seems like Eren is finally here," said Erwin with a smile. And as if to prove his words, the guards inside the courtroom opened the door to see Eren being escorted by Hange and Mike. The courtroom became silent, as Eren was led into the middle of the courtroom where he was promptly restrained by a heavy metal pole in between the gap of his handcuffed hands and his back.

Eren looked around the room to see prominent people from high positions such as the leader of the military police brigade Nile Dok, commander Pixis, Erwin, Levi, and finally, he noticed his friends. He was happy they came for him and he swore he saw Asriel stuck his tongue out at him. Before he could look twice, the head of all three military branches, commander-in-chief, Darius Zackly sat down and started to begin the trial. As in cannon, the military branch wanted to extract as much information as they can before turning him into a martyr for the human race.

While the fanatic priest of the wall wanted to execute him immediately. The survey corps, of course, wants him to use his power to retake Wall Maria. The merchants being merchants, not thinking about others and only thinking about themselves, wanted to seal the walls and be done with it which triggered the priest who went on spouting how the walls are a gift from gods.

Unlike in canon, Eren didn't save Mikasa when he was young nor stabbed anyone nor attacked anyone during his titan form so the military branch only has one thing on him to support their claims. That was, Eren wasn't in the right mind when he transformed the second time, making people believe that he couldn't control his powers. And added that he is like a powder keg that could explode any minute.

The ignorant people started to get agitated and started pointing fingers. Somehow the merchants gained information about what happened near the wall where Asriel and the rest had a conflict with the soldiers. One of em, with a frightened look, pointed their finger at Asriel and stated,

" That one too! How do we know he's a human!? From what I've heard from some of my connections, he alone made a few people faint with his killing intent or aura or whatever! In fact! Wouldn't he be more of a threat!?"

Others also joined in saying " Yeah! We should restrain him too," or " He is too dangerous to be left alive."

Hearing this, Asriel smirked and thought ' Hmm those guys are really good actors, guess money is not the only thing they know.' Before coming to the trail, Asriel leaked the information of what happened to these merchants and paid some of them to act in a certain way so that the end result would be the same as in canon. Asriel was just thinking about how he would just have to wait for Eren to act and everything would blow over. Unfortunately, the butterfly effect was too much and he became the center of attention. Eren did try to say something but was interrupted by Darius as he said,

" I'm curious about this as well, from the reports it is said that you could rival 100 soldiers or more in strength. In fact, you might even be comparable to Levi who can rival a brigade. Is it also true that you could make people faint with just your, killing intent?"

' Shit!' was all Asriel could think of when he was felt that things are about to become even more troublesome.