"HEY, MOPTOP!"

"SIR!" Armin saluted.

"WHAT DO THEY CALL YOU, MAGGOT?"

"ARMIN ARLERT, FROM SHIGANSHINA, SIR!"

"WOW, SERIOUSLY? WHY WOULD YOUR PARENTS CURSE YOU WITH SUCH A DUMB NAME?"

IT WAS MY GRANDFATHER, SIR!"

"ARLETTE, WHY IS A RUNT LIKE YOU HERE?"

"TO HELP HUMANITY OVERCOME THE TITANS!"

"THAT IS DELIGHTFUL TO HEAR, YOU'RE GONNA BE A GREAT LIGHT SNACK FOR THEM. ABOUT FACE, RUNT!"

On it went: "WHAT DO YOU CALL YOURSELF?"

"SIR, MY NAME IS THOMAS WAGNER, FROM THE TROST DISTRICT!"

"I CANT HEAR YOU!"

"I'M FROM TROST, SIR!"

"NOBODY HERE GIVES A DAMN!"

He passed through the row, and then another.

"ROUTE FOUR ABOUT FACE!"

There were some he passed without talking to. I was one of them, though he stopped and glared at me as though I'd done something terrible.

"WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?"

"JEAN KIRSTEIN, SIR, FROM THE TROST DISTRICT!" A boy with white-blonde hair saluted. I blinked, he looked cute. I mentally slapped myself. No! This wasn't the time. If I lost my focus Shadis would shit all over me.

"AND WHY ARE YOU HERE, CADET?"

"TO JOIN THE MILITARY POLICE, THE BEST OF THE BEST!"

"That's nice," Shadis's voice was harsh, but not shouting, "you wanna live in the interior, do ya?"

"Yes." Jean's face lit up, and Shadis immediately headbutted him. I winced, not the face!

"NO ONE TOLD YOU TO SIT, RECRUIT!" Shadis roared as Jean fell to his knees, clutching his nose, "IF YOU CANT HANDLE THIS, KIRSTEIN, THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL FORGET ABOUT THE MILITARY POLICE!"

He moved on to the next boy, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE YOU SMILING IDIOT?"

"MARCO BOTT AT YOUR SERVICE SIR, FROM JINAE, SOUTH SIDE OF WALL ROSE! I AIM TO JOIN THE MILITARY POLICE AND TO GIVE LIFE AND LIMB IN SERVICE TO THE KING!"

"WELL THEN, THAT MAKES YOU AN IDEALISTIC FOOL, AND A ROOB!" Shadis was really starting to piss me off.

"HEY Q-BALL, YOUR UP NEXT!" Shadis said.

The boy started, "who, me - ? SIR! CONNIE SPRINGER FROM ROCKAGO VILLAGE, SIR!"

I flinched and Connie was picked up by his head.

"YOU GOT IT BACKWARDS, CONNIE SPRINGER." Shadis spat, "THAT WAS THE FIRST THING YOU WERE TAUGHT. THAT SALUTE REPRESENTS THE RESOLVE IN YOUR HEART TO FIGHT. IS YOUR HEART ON YOUR RIGHT SIDE?"

chomp.

I turned to look at the girl next to poor Connie. She was eating a steamed potato, looking as serious as the rest of us. Shadis dropped Connie's head, "hey, what do you think your doing?"

She ignored him, and we watched her as she took a bite.

"YOU ARE OFFICIALLY ON MY SHIT LIST!" Shadis seemed to explode, "JUST WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"

Sasha gulped her bite of potato and saluted, "SASHA BROWSE FROM DOPPER VILLAGE, REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR!"

"Sasha Browse, huh? And what is that your clutching in your right hand?" Shadis had gone quiet again. That was bad news.

"A STEAMED POTATO, IT SAT IN THE MESS HALL BEGGING TO BE EATEN, SIR!"

"I understand the theft ... But here ... Why eat it here of all places?"

"IT LOOKED QUITE DELICIOUS, AND IT WAS GETTING COLD, SO I GAVE IT SHELTER IN MY STOMACH, SIR!"

"Why .. I can't comprehend... Why would you eat that potato?"

"Uh ... Are you asking me why people eat potato's? Sir? I'm surprised you don't know."

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing.

***

"Finally ... Finished ..." I gasped, dropping in front of the mess hall. I lay there for a few minutes, catching my breath, then watched potato girl run for a few more minutes. I'd only been told to run till supper. Potato girl had to go on until the sun set, Bad...

I walked in just as Eren said; "yea, OK? I saw the big guy."

The crowd around his table gasped, "wow." Thomas commented.

"OK exactly how tall was he?" Marco asked.

"He stuck his head over the outer wall."

I took a cold bowl of soup and a roll from an empty table and tried to get closer to Eren and the others, I might as well have been trying to push through wall Rose in human form.

"No way, I heard he stepped over the wall completely!"

"Me too!"

"That was the rumor in my village, too!"

"Nah, he was big, but not that big." I said, no need to let Eren hog the glory. The crowd cleared to look at me and I took the opportunity to sit next to Eren.

"You saw it too?"

"Yep."

"So what did it look like?"

"It had a mouth like a corpse, and no skin, just muscle." Eren said.

More gasps, "and the armoured titan? The one that broke through wall Maria?"

"Is that what they're calling it?" I asked.

"In all the confusion it was just another titan to me." Eren interrupted me before I could speak.

"No way, so what were they like?"

Eren froze, and dropped his spoon. I looked at him. He looked as though he would throw up.

"OK guys, that's enough, I'm sure they don't wanna relive everything they went through." Marco said.

"Sorry, we didn't mean-" Connie said.

"It's not like that." Eren took a bite of his roll, a cocky grin on his face, "Those stupid titans, they're really not that big a deal, if we focus on using the Omni Directional Mobility gear they gave us, it's titan payback time. I've been waiting years to be trained to become a soldier. All of a sudden the reality's sinking in. I'm joining the scout regiment, then I'm sending the Titans back to hell. I'm gonna butcher them all."

"Hey, you crazy or something?"

It was Jean. I desperately tried not to get my heart rate up.

"Not that it's any of my business, but signing up for reconnaissance like a death sentence."

"I guess we'll see, or at least I will." Eren said contemptuously, "you seem content hiding in the interior with the MPs.

" look, I'm just speaking honestly here, kid. I think it's better than being some loudmouth braggart tough guy wannabe pretending he's not as piss-scared as the rest of us."

He was seeming less cute...

"You trying to pick a fight?" Eren stood up.

"Hey, knock it off, guys." Marco, the apparent peacemaker, tried to stop them.

"OK, sure." Jean stood too, "makes no difference to me."

Eren and him stood nose to nose - well, nose to throat, Eren was about a head shorter than Jean.

The Bell rang for bed, and everyone stood up. I gulped down my soup and roll and Jean sighed, "hey, I apologise. Sorry for calling you names and dismissing your choice of career." He lifted his hand up, but Eren didn't take it. "Yea. Right. I'm sorry as well."

He slapped the hand away and walked out the door. I followed him. A few seconds later, Mikasa joined.

"Would you lay off? It's no big deal." Eren snapped at her.

"It's just that you get so worked up you don't think things through,"

"I'm sorry but it's true." I said pointedly.

"Stop ganging up on me! Jesus," Eren sighed, "if you two insist on worrying, worry about how long your hair is, it'll catch up on you two in a bad way when we start on the ODMs."

"In your dreams, Maestro. I'll just tie it up, problemo solved." I shrugged and flipped my long dark brown hair, it had reached the small of my back since 845.

"OK," Mikasa agreed.

"What?" I asked in disbelief.

"How short do you think I should go?" She asked Eren.

"What am I? Invisible?" I asked. They ignored me. I sighed, Mikasa would jump into a pen full of titans if Eren was at the bottom. They were so in love.

***

"ITS APTITUDE TEST TIME SO LISTEN UP! YOU CANNOT STAY IF YOU CANNOT PERFORM! PASS OR GO TO PICKING IN THE FIELDS!"

This wasn't so hard. I balanced on the strings. "Hey, when do we get to the wind in the hair super fast really cool part?" I asked the guy who was training me.

"Uh, not for a few months, I think." The man blinked a few times, "your a natural."

"Eh, it's just swinging, like when I'd hang in my tree ..." I trailed off. "don't let Shadis hear you compliment me, we'll both be dead."

Mikasa was just as good as I was, and so was Jean ... I still liked him ... I think I might like like him, but he and Eren didn't get along to say the least.

Eren ... He couldn't seem to stay upright. He kept falling upsidedown, or twisting, or getting tangled... Pretty much in every way possible.

He was panicking, I could tell.

***

"Just remember the basics and you'll be fine."

It was just before dinner, and Armin, Mikasa and I were helping Eren.

"No need to try any fancy maneuvers, just focus on your balance." I added.

"Then distribute the weight evenly between the belts on your waist and your legs."

"Try to keep your stance loose a little bit, if I can do it I know you can."

"OK, loose stance, got it. Let's give it a go, Armin."

He lifted slowly, he was doing everything we said, but then-

WACK!

he fell and hit his forehead on the hard ground. Knocking himself unconscious.

***

"Hey, Daz, check him out. He was talking big about butchering all the Titans. But he got real quiet after ODM training, didn't he?"

I resisted the urge to throw my soup bowl at the guy.

"I guess it's the fields for him tomorrow. Can't keep wasting food on the useless."

Eren's eyes widened. I eyed the bandage, wincing. Wait ... Wasmit my imagination ... Or ... Was steam coming from the bandage? I blinked and it was gone. My imagination.

"Worrying won't solve a thing, we'll get some extra practice in come morning." Armin said positively.

"How pathetic. How am I supposed to kill em if I can't even stand up straight?" Eren muttered.

"It might be time to let that dream die." Mikasa said.

We all stared at her, "don't be stupid." I blurted out.

"What do you mean?" Eren asked.

"I think you should give up this attempt to be a soldier. There's a lot more to fighting and combat than just throwing your life away."

"What are you saying?" Eren repeated, angrier, "after everything we saw that day? After what happened to my mom? Your crazy if you think I'm just gonna walk away?"

"I get it. But it doesn't matter how determined you are."

"It - wait, what do you mean?"

"Because whether or not your fit to be a soldier, isn't up to you."

The Bell rang. We all stood up, clearing our things away. I tried not to think of what tomorrow would mean. But I knew I wouldn't sleep well.

***

It was the morning. Everyone had gathered to watch Eren fail. I hated them for it. Reineer, Bertholt, Mikasa, Armin and I stood in the front of the crowd. Eren looked terrified. I felt terrified.

Shadis stood like an executor in front of him, "Eren Yeager, are you ready?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Proceed."

Thomas began cranking the frame. Eren began rising...

The moment of truth. If he failed. We would all leave.

He lifted his arms and relaxed his spine. He held his legs out for a fraction and let the knees go limp. He was doing it!

Everyone began cheering. Eren shook slightly, but he was doing it! He was -

"No!" I squealed. He spun and turned upside down. His head grazing the dirt. " No! Once more! I can do it!"

It was over. We were going to the fields. Out of all of us, he was the most upset. This had been his dream more than all of ours. His dream, which was disintegrating before his eyes.

"Lower him." Shadis said.

He fell to his knees. "I ... I'm finished."

"No ... Eren..." I closed my eyes.

"Wagner, please exchange belts with Mr Yeager."

Thomas blinked, then straightened up, "yes, sir!"

They did, and Eren was lifted up again. Was this ... No...

"Your equipment was defective." Shadis announced, "If given a piece of functional gear, you might not be worthless after all, Yeager."

We looked at each other, Eren looked as shocked at the rest of us. He was balancing perfectly.

"The Master didn't notice this broken clasp. Might have to visit the supply depo and crack a couple of skulls.

I was all for it.

The same people who had been laughing last night were now in awe, "he still did it, even while wearing that busted gear ..." One muttered.

"So ... Are you saying I didn't wash out?"  Eren asked.

"... You made the cut. NOW KEEP TRAINING CADET!"

"I did it! I really did it!"  Eren threw his arms up in victory, "check me out, Mikasa! I can do it! I can fight the Titans! You don't have to worry about me! Not anymore!"

"Hey, his eyes are saying check me out!" Armin smiled.

"No." We turned to Mikasa, "they're saying he doesn't have to leave me. Not anymore."

His ... Eyes? But he's just said those things ... Right? He'd just spoken them aloud. We all heard it!

Or ... Was it just me?