perception ⸝⸝ aot

9

"I'm Erwin Smith, the Commander of the Survey Corps," Erwin said to the large audience consisting of the Training Corps. I stood at the stairs leading up to the stage where he stood, as he had ordered me to. Among the crowd, I spotted Jean, Armin, Mikasa, Christa and Ymir, Connie and Sasha and Reiner and Bertolt. I furrow my brows as I try to look for Marco. 

"Not only did Eren Jeager allow us to stop the Titans, but he also provided us with a way to unveil the Titans' mystery!" Everyone gasped in awe, but I was unwavering because Erwin had told me this morning when the incident with Sawney and Bean took place. 

"Listen, Amana, I had a theory that since Eren Jeager can transform, there must be others among us that can do it too. Perhaps the reason why the Colossal and the Armoured disappeared is that they're among us? I think one of them killed Sawney and Bean, Hanji's test subjects, to keep us from finding out something? What do you think?" Erwin says to me as we sit in his room at his desk. 

"I think that makes sense," I tell him. "The Cadets' ODM gear should be checked and if no leads come out of that, we should set up a trap." 

"Great minds think alike," he smirks and pulls out a paper. "This is the battle formation for our next expedition," he points to the figures and scrawled handwriting. "If Eren is in the Scouts, then the supposed spies are bound to join. We'll keep Eren here," he points to the middle-rear in the formation. "With the Section Commanders and Levi," he explains to me. "The rest of the Cadets will be assigned different positions and given different outlines of the formation, and if Eren is ambushed then we'll know who the spy was, depending on which part of the formation is targetted." 

"You're so smart," I say, dazing at his pretty eyes. He smiles sheepishly and looks down at his desk. I shake my head, snapping myself out of the trance. "But what if they don't join? What if they have a different plan?"

"Then we'll make them change their plan," Erwin smirks again. "We can disclose the information on Eren's cellar. How there's something there about the titans. No one will be able to get there anyway, because of the giant boulder crushing his house and because Eren's the only one that has the key. It'll surely draw them in." 

As Erwin told them the secret in Eren's basement, I scanned the crowd to see if anyone looked different. They all had surprised looks on their faces, but Bertolt looked really worried and he was murmuring something to Reiner. Reiner had a shocked expression on his face but nothing out of the ordinary. Annie held the same bored expression she always held. Bertolt's reaction is the only one that seemed suspicious. 

Armin seemed deep in thought, and I bet he's already figured it all out. Smartass. I looked back at Erwin, and he seemed to be deducting every person just like I was. "We aim to reach that basement in Shiganshina District," Erwin told them all. I examined his features. The dim torchlight made his cheekbones and brow bones more accentuated, making him look painfully stunning.