We saw two people coming towards us through the tall grass, "Guards up guys." Levi whispers to everyone, "Hanji?!" I shot up when I saw her and Moblits walking over, "Here." Hanji hands me a letter, "And there you have it, the coup was successful, Premier Zachary now has full control of the capital and government, for the time being at least, the nobles are staying in line," Hanji says, "Okay but what about the incident with Mr Reeves?" Armin asks, "We got a public confession from one of the interior police, Reeves son Flegal really pulled through for us. It's all written right there, the abuse of power the bogus charges against the Scouts, and that King Fritz was a puppet and a fraud! It's clear we only acted in self-defence. In short..." Hanji grins, "We're no longer criminals. Nice going Hanji," I stand up and we knock forearms, "YEAH!" "WHOO!" "YES!" All the kids leapt up and cheered, I went to Levi, "We're back in action." I wrapped my arms around his neck and pecked his cheek, he smiles, "That can't be... they beat us?" The commander says, we tied him up with rope, "Looks like Erwin's gamble paid off," Levi looks at the article, "It sure did, but it wasn't just Erwin who gambled, many people had to make a lot of hard choices in order for this to work." Hanji says, "Whereas my choices got three of yours killed. I'm sorry." Levi looks at Hanji, she nods, "Here's the thing, the interiors may have lost but not all of them know it, they still have Eren and Historia too, we need to find them quickly." Levi looks out at the night sky, "Right, let's get there and put an end to this fight. But where to start..." She says, "I think I've got a clue." I bring out the book Erwin gave me about the Reiss family, everyone looked and me and geared up.
I sat in a wagon with Levi, Hanji and Mikasa as Armin drove it, everyone else was on horseback, "Nat, you said you might know where they are?" Mikasa looks at me, "Oh right, guess I should explain how. Erwin gave me this Scout report and it contains an investigation within Lord Reiss's land, it details a certain incident, that occurred five years ago in the Reiss estate." I hold the book up, "Five years?!" Armin turns around, I nod, "Mmhm, it was the day Wall Maria was breached. I'll summarise the most important details. So, as far as regional lords went Lord Reiss was well respected by most nobles, including my family, their name constantly was thrown around within the interior where I used to live. He had five daughters, the most well known was Frieda she was a down to earth girl that even the peasants adored, but five years ago, on that night. Disaster struck, with the fall of Wall Maria having plunged the world into chaos, bandits ran off and set fire to the only chapel around, unfortunately for them the entire Reiss family had gathered there to pray and so, the entire family was massacred that night by a group of bandits except one. Rod Reiss managed to escape with his life, furthermore, this incident was only a few days after Historia's mother was killed by the interior police. So we know in the instant loss of his family, Rod Reiss sought out after Historia, and I think it isn't just a newfound paternal affection." I tap the cover with my fingers, "Well she is of royal blood, or do you think that bloodline has some more secrets?" Levi looks at me, "It could be possible but I don't want to point any fingers just yet, what sticks out most to me is that although large parts of the chapel were destroyed the chapel was built from stone, it would take a lot of time and effort to destroy it, if it were bandits they'd just ran in and taken as much as they could then rushed out, also, Rod Reiss was the only witness, no one confirmed his story. Then, Rod Reiss immediately rebuilt the chapel with his own personal money as soon as he could what was his rush?" I look at them, everyone turns around, "Think about it, this story would only make sense with the addition of a titan attack, I might be rushing to conclusions but think about it, it's the only lead we have for an investigation. Before night ends, Rod's land will be crawling with out soldiers, unfortunately we can't expect him to wait that long. We have to get there as soon as possible, before Eren ends up in someone's stomach." I ball up my fists.
We finally found out that Kenny was also affiliated with this case adding another set of risks, "You need to understand that this is Kenny the Ripper if he's there he'll be our biggest obstacle, in terms of his threat level it'll be like you're fighting me. Oh wait. With those weapon's he'll be much stronger." Levi says, "Then he'll be unbeatable, I mean at least for us." Sasha was holding a torch as she gallops, "Maybe we should wait and meet up with other soldiers." Connie says, "No chance in hell." Mikasa had a dark look on her face, "Of course, if we wait for reinforcements Eren might be eaten." Connie gulps, "You know, based on what Levi's told us, the odds aren't always in Kenny's favour." I point my finger up, "You really think so?" Jean asks, "Mmhm, they have guns sure, but we've got way more combat experience." I nod, "I don't get it, you lived with Kenny the Ripper but you know almost nothing about him. Did the two of you never talk?" Hanji asks, "Not much, I only just learnt the man's last name, dunno if you heard but it's Ackerman, might be a relative of yours." Levi looks at Mikasa, she looks up, "I remember my parents saying, my dad's side, the Ackermans, were persecuted when they lived in the cities. My mum's side, they were Eastern, her family's appearance made it difficult for her to fit in. Both groups were chased deep into the walls. That's how my parents met but my father never told me how the Ackermans were persucuded. He looked the same as all of you, so I don't think he was of a different race." Mikasa had her knees hugged to her chest, "Have you ever felt like there was a power awaken inside of you?" Levi asks, "I have." Her eyes widen, "This has happened for Kenny Ackerman as well, suddenly, out of no where, he felt an absurd amount of strength surging through him and in that moment he knew exactly what he needed to do. It's happened to me too, it made me wonder..." Levi taps his chin, Mikasa looks at me, "Your previous name. Zhang, it's eastern too. How was it that you ended up in the interior as a noble family and so tightly regarded, even to this day even though you're a different race?" Mikasa looks at me, I looked at my tan skintone and black hair, it was obvious that I was Asian like Mikasa, "To be completely honest, I don't know myself. Both my parents were Eastern but I think it all started from my Grandfather, he invented the original and modern day ODM gear back when they lived in Wall Maria, his new found knowledge was commended and spotlighted that they were carried into the interior, soon, my father was born and all he knew was the life of riches and wealth, he met my mother soon who was a noble lady, I guess then I was born, I was no better. I grew up with frilly petticoats and was babied from anything I ever knew of, a scratch and they'd fawn over me, made me want to protect my body as much as I could just so that they'd leave me alone. I guess I soon learnt of titans and the regiments, the walls too, all this I was sheltered from." I ball my fists up, "I guess that's all I can tell you." I sighed, Levi strokes my hair and it fell from between his fingers, "We're here." Armin says, we look forwards and saw the chapel fast approaching.
"Found it, a hidden door." I lift up a carpet and cough as the dust was blown up, "So you think Reiss and Eren should be inside?" Hanji looks at me, I nod, "Hopefully the layout is close to what I've predicted and what the investigators have written down." I look at the trapdoor, "These presents better be worth it considering how long it took for us to make them." Levi looks at the bomb we created, I stand up, "Okay, we should be ready to go now." Armin finishes up the last bomb, "Alright then, is everyone here ready? Cause you're all about to dirty your hands." Levi looks at the squad, they were all silent, "Guess that's a yes." He looks back at the door, he put his hand over mine and I heard the clink of our rings as they hit each other, "One piece, go into the fight on one piece, come back to me in one." He looks at the door, I take a deep breath and nod, we open the door quickly and roll the barrel bomb down, we quickly rush in after and Sasha uses her bow and arrow with a flame tipped spear to explode them, our main objective was to create as much of a smoke screen as we could. Levi and I speared our anchors up to grab their attention, they looked at us then the rest of the team fired green smoke signals to create even more of a cover, "Twenty four, thirty two..." I hear Levi mutter under this breath, "Thirty five total! In the upper parts of the pillars! Continue the plan! We take them all out here!" He shouts, "Everyone scatter! Disperse them they round them up!" The woman shouts, we knew one major weakness in the anti-personelle ODm gear, the anchor points in the same direction as the gun so once it's deployed the gun can't change direction again which means while the user is moving they're vulnerable to an attack from behind.
Armin kept firing smoke signals to create more smoke cover and Sasha was working as a sniper support and was also protecting Armin, we used their reloading time as another weakness, I was shot at but I quickly flipped up avoiding it, "DAMN IT!" He curses and goes for a reload, while he had his hands down reloading, I stabbed his torso, I slightly stuck my tongue out, "Yuck." I shivered at the blood on my face and I went back into the smoke, I was killing people left and right, once we were in close range our blades are much more powerful than their guns which don't stand a chance, Levi killed three people in a millisecond, he was about to kill the woman, "LEVI!" I screamed and powered my gas towards him and wrapped my arms around his waist and fired my anchors into a pillar, stopping him from continuing to travel, "WOOHOO!" I heard a bang on the other side of the pillar, I gasped for air as I clutched onto Levi, "It's Kenny." I look up at him, panting for air. "Hey Levi, I don't exactly have time to waste on ya but I just can't have you goin' any further. So be it. We'll just have to play." We heard Kenny reload, "You go to the right so Kenny's left, he's right handed so he'll probably shoot towards the right so I'll go left which is his right." Levi looks at me and explains the plan, "But Levi-!" He clamps his hand over my mouth, "Please, I can't lose you." He looks at me, my eyes widen and I nod, "I love you." He kisses me, my breath shakes and I kiss him back.
