Cadet Training (2)

After completing the punishment, Eren was now resting in his bunk. Mikasa and Armin were beside him.

"Are u feeling better now Eren? Instructor Keith is sure a monster. Making u and Sasha run 10 rounds. So how does it feel? Carrying a pretty girl on your back hehe" Armin teased him.

"Hey, Armin! It's… not like that. I can explain.."

"It's ok. You don't have to explain, I know the type of girls you like. It's her chests right?" Armin replied. Giving Eren a playful wink.

"Armin! You promised not to tell anyone " Eren glared angrily at him, apparently worried about what Mikasa would think.

"So Eren likes these types of girls…. Damn. I won't let you succeed Sasha!" Mikasa's thought to herself as her fighting spirit surged. Eren was hers. She loved him, even though she was too shy to tell him about that yet. All she wanted was to be by his side. He would not allow anyone to harm or take away her lover… urm family.

=====

Thud

"Your're so weak Eren" A sweet voice sounded as Eren back slammed against the ground again.

"I… I was just holding back!" Eren brushed the dirt off his clothes and stood up again.

It was the drills session, and Eren was sparring with her partner, Annie. It had already been 10 minutes. But he couldn't even take her down once.

"I'll get you this time, be prepared. " Eren spat out a mouthful of saliva as he readied his fists and assumed his fighting stance.

Annie looked at him in exasperation. This person was really tenacious, she had already beaten him down so many times , but yet he still wanted to keep going ? To be honest, she found that attractive about him for some reason. Perhaps it was his eyes that burned with purpose?

Ever since her father, she had never met another person that was able to move her feelings. The feeling was small , but she couldn't resist it , it was akin to someone giving a thirsty person water. She gave a smile for the 1st time as her lips gently curved upwards and assumed fighting stance again.

A distance away , a pair of eyes would keep stealing glances at the familiar sight of Eren getting knocked down over and over again by Annie.

"I… give up, Mikasa, let go of my hands, hey Mikasa!"

"Uh.. yes. Sorry" Mikasa replied before letting go . She hadn't been able to concentrate during the drill session at all. She had been feeling out of sorts, seeing Eren together with another girl. She kept telling herself that Annie was just Eren's sparring partner, but yet still was unable to shake that sour feeling away. She wished she could take Annie's place.

She wanted to be close to Eren, it didn't matter what was going on. Anywhere was fine as long as she could be by his side. The sight was of Eren being close to another girl made her very jittery and… insecure.

"Arghh. That hurt! Annie!" A loud voice broke Mikasa's thoughts. She turned behind to see Eren holding his back as he stood up wobbly. It was clear the outcome had not changed.

"Eren.." Mikasa muttered to herself softly, how she wished the instructor would have paired her up with Eren instead. Why was the world so cruel?

Unbeknownst to her, the very person she wished could help her, Keith Shadis , was fully aware of everything that was going on.

Mikasa may be outstanding in almost every area , but when it came to Eren, she was just like any other girl in love. Her body language and emotions were totally telling that. Keith Shadis thought as he chuckled to himself.

He wasn't an emotionless and heartless person, contrary to his appearance. It was just that experiencing the cycle of the pain of losing a loved one over and over again during his time in the survey corps had caused him to harden his heart. Looking at Mikasa , reminded him of his love for Carla.

He decided he would give them a hand. The Cadet's Training was extremely unforgiving. If he could bring a little joy into those kids' lives, why not? After all he had known Grisha and Carla, he imagined they would have wanted to see their children happy as well.

He clapped his hands and commanded "Alright everyone, we'll now swap sparring partners . Here are the new pairings for everyone, listen up …. "

….

"So it's you eh , Mikasa " Eren grinned as he looked at his new sparring partner.

"Umm yea. " answered Mikasa, who was still caught off guard by the sudden decision of instructor Keith. Was this … a dream? Now Eren was all his, she could be close by his side.

"Just because you're my sis , doesn't mean I'll go easy on you, be prepared, I'm not holding back!" Eren roared as he charged forward.

Mikasa smiled and easily dodged the charging Eren, before swiftly striking his back with an arm chop in one flawless motion.

THUD

…

Eren felt like crying. This was way too brutal. Even against Annie he didn't lose that badly. He felt so embarrassed about the manner in which he had just lost.

"Are you alright Eren? Sorry if I was too rough. I'll be gentler next time!" A concerned Mikasa quickly asked and stretched out her hand towards him.

"Yea. No worries about that. You don't need to hold back." Ignoring the pain in his body. Eren took Mikasa's hand and stood up. The truth was he really wanted Mikasa to use less force, but if he said that, what would the other girls in the training think of him? That would be too embarrassing! He had to act cool

Mikasa however, was on cloud nine. Eren… had just held her hand.

Why was the world so beautiful?

=====

It has been a year since Eren joined the cadet corps. Today was the day of the final 3D ODM Gear test. The recruits would be given an evaluation based on their performance which was determined by the number of how checkpoints they could reach , as well as dummy titans they could kill along the way, well, if they were able to kill any.

A good evaluation would greatly increase the chances of them being able to finish top 10 in the class and be given a coveted spot to join the Military Police. Safe in the inner walls and far from the horrors of fighting against the titans.

"Eren Yeager!"

"Yes Sir" Eren stood forward, his right arm thumped towards his left chest.

"You have 10 minutes, from the briefing earlier , all the checkpoints are as shown , reaching a checkpoint will grant you points, and killing dummy titans along the way too will as well. Note that the depth of the cut must be deep enough to be counted as a kill. Start!"

CLICK CLICK SHiinnng!

Eren pressed the triggers on his blades as he took off towards the forest. Ever since he had acquired the expert ODM Mastery skill from the system, moving in it felt so natural to him, as if it was a part of his body.

For normal people to switch their mindset from 2 dimensional to 3 dimensional would normally be a very difficult task, and that was not all , some would be dizzy from the speed of the movement.

They would also have to be able to analyze their surroundings quickly and to identify suitable points to launch their grappling hooks to in order to continue moving . It was not a matter of just firing the grappling hooks at random and hoping they would land in the right place.

This was multitasking at a whole new level. Now imagine adding having to kill titans on top of all that .

Which was why soldiers who were able to kill titans were considered to be very skilled ones. In face of the fear of titans , one had to first be calm, identify points to use the 3D ODM gear to approach it, and in the process of approaching it still keep an eye out for surroundings while not losing sight of the original objective.

Many soldiers have lost their lives being too fixated on killing the titan and not paying attention to their surroundings, smaller titans sometimes would hide in blind spots before leaping and munching down their unsuspecting prey.

"Here he comes, release the dummy titans into his path!". An instructor in hiding signalled.

Eren was now moving through the forest with ease. He had already reached 3 of the checkpoints and was on his way to the fourth when suddenly two gigantic figures appeared in his path. Although he was taken aback by it at first , he recovered and quickly thought of a path to take that would take him through the napes of these 2 "titans" in one swift movement thanks to the ODM skill he acquired.

"Hmph!" Eren said as he increased the speed of his ODM gear suddenly by an huge amount, traveling at now twice his normal speed. He knew his weakness was that his physical strength was lacking, even though he had improved it to a stat of 10 points when he checked the system yesterday.

However, it was still not enough to guarantee a deep cut. He would use the kinetic energy from the increase in speed to try to perform a cut deep enough on the nape.

Kacha Kacha.

Two pieces of meat like substances fell off the dummy titans as Eren whizzed past them.

"Heh" Eren grinned to himself in satisfaction and returned to his normal speed. While his skill did allow him to travel many times faster than a person could in ODM gear, the gas consumption was immense, it was not practical to sustain it for a long period.

From far, an instructor hiding was looking in awe.

"Amazing… the only other cadet who managed to take out both these dummy titans in this simulated surprise attack was Mikasa. Some of the other cadets have titan kills as well but those were titans that were in the open and not hidden. Even though the depth of the cuts made by Eren is still not as deep as Mikasa's, it should be enough to take out the weaker 3 to 4 meter class titans who have a thinner layer on their nape.

The instant the 2 dummy titans appeared, he formulated a path to take and points he had to use the grapple hooks to latch on to using the 3 ODM gear, showing excellent reaction, judgment and composure. He tries to compensate for his lack of strength with his speed, converting the kinetic energy into his blade to perform the slash so as to leave a deeper cut. It's a smart idea but it uses too much gas… " Keith thought to himself as he scribbled some letters on a piece of paper.

======

" You require fresh recruits from the cadet corps, Erwin? But the training hasn't yet finished. There's still another year to go." Keith frowned as he looked towards the man seated in front of him. He was wearing a green cloak, emblazoned with an emblem with the wings of freedom - the survey corps. This man was the 13th commander of the survey corps - Erwin Smith.

Ever since he had taken over from him as the new commander , casualty rates have fallen considerably compared to before, he had also managed to recruit and train incredibly skilled elites who were able to take on titans in a 1v1 situation and win. The central government was extremely impressed with his achievements and had recently granted the survey corps more funding to aid in the retake of Wall Maria .

"I understand it's a difficult request Keith, but due to the recent unexpected attack on our recon flank in the long-range scouting formation in our most recent expedition, we have lost a number of men in them. We need people skilled in maneuvering to serve as the recon in the formation. Otherwise, they will die too easily and lead to even more casualties in the formation.

We cannot afford to wait another year for new recruits to join. Who knows what will happen in between? This is the final outpost in the resupply route from Trost to Shiganshina. Once we have this done we will be able to begin the mission to retake Wall Maria." Erwin replied, taking a sip from the hot tea as he looked at Keith.

"Well, I do have a person in mind. But I can't force him to join. But there's a pretty good chance he might since he has an intense hatred for titans. If you are able to convince him it might be possible. His movements in 3D ODM gear are incredible, easily top 3 in all the years of training recruits I have seen " Keith said as he sat down.

"Top 3? That's extremely impressive…. Intense hatred for titans?" Erwin commented approvingly before asking.

"Yes, his mom was killed by them in the fall of Shiganshina District ." Keith nodded.

"I will speak to him, name?" Erwin asked, his interest clearly piqued .

"Eren Yeager"