Attack on Titan: The New Generation

Chapter 17 Hidding the Truth

A few cadets finally get to Shaun and take him into an emergency room to patch up his eye. I sigh and walk to fence that is surrounding the area. I lean on the fence and watch the other cadets who continue to do the exercise, or mess around.

"Hey! You need a partner?" Someone asked. I turned my head and saw a cadet that I've seen, but really didn't talk to.
"Yeah." I replied. He smiled and waved his hand for me to come with him. I followed and we stood at an open area for us to do the drill.
"Are you ready?" Asked the cadet, tightly holding the fake dagger.
"Um, yeah. But I'm really sorry if I hurt you any way." I replied. The cadet laughed, not believing that I can actually do damage.
"It's fine." Laughed the cadet.

The cadet ran towards me, holding the dagger out. When he got close enough to cut me, I stepped to the side, making the cadet miss. He stopped and gasped as he stood hunched over in shock. He looked up and I saw his eyes were widen. I swung my leg up and launched it back down on the cadets back. The cadet slammed into the ground. As he laid there, I saw that his grip on the dagger was gone.

"Are you ok?" I asked while getting on my knees. He nodded his head and began to get up.
"You just moved something, I just needed time for my breath to come back." Said the cadet. I got up and picked up the abandoned dagger.
"Do you want to attack me now?" Asked the cadet. I quickly shook my head. He raised an eyebrow.

"Look it really bugs me to be 'attacked' and just to let it happen. I've already done that once today and I feel like weakling. It's nothing against you or anyone else. I just don't like falling victim to this. If I'm going to attack, I'm doing things my way. It's just an instinct I've had for a long time." I explained.

"Oh, is that instinct, your Titan instinct?" Asked the cadet, being a little cocky.
"I'm not trying to be an enemy. So please don't see me as one, and please don't bring this fact up. But think about, if we continue to attack the same way all the time, people will catch on, and make a counter attack. Do something different for once, surprise people!" I said, very close to the cadet. He backed off and nodded his head. He walked away, and I stood there. Alone, holding the dagger.

I looked up at the sky and saw two birds fly over head. The birds criss crossed as they flew with each other. I smiled and looked back down. I looked around and saw Battlow watching at his high post. He turned his head and was now watching me. I squinted my eyes and decided to talk to him.

When I got to his post he was now watching the other cadets.
"What." Said Battlow still watching the other cadets.
"Sir, I want to know what the point of this drill is?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" Battlow asked. I sighed and tried to keep my cool.
"What's the point of doing meaningless exercises when we should be doing things with the maneuvering gear."
"I don't know what to tell you." Said Battlow, as if he really didn't want to tell me.
"Ok." I said as I walked away.

I walked back to the fence and and rolled my eyes.
"This is stupid. We shouldn't be doing this." I said to myself really quietly. I looked around and noticed that Mariana was also sitting out of these exercises. I looked even more and saw that Tom is sitting out. He stood around the corner from Mariana. I looked even closer and saw that they were talking to each other.
"I thought that Mariana didn't trust Tom. What's going on? What are they talking about?" I asked myself.

Suddenly a bell started ringing, I looked up to the tower and watched a cadet bull the rope to ring it.
"TEN MINUTE BREAK!" Yelled the cadets who ran the things around here. I stopped leaning off the fence and watched people scatter to wherever. I looked over to where I saw Mariana and Tom talking, but they were no longer there.

I started to walk to the mess hall, and eventually met up with Jen and Mariana. I put my hand into her should to get her to stop walking.
"Hey I saw you talking to Tom, not to be rude, but what was it about?" I asked with a little smile. I saw that she slightly widened her eyes, as if she wasn't expecting that I would have noticed.
"Oh, he was asking why I didn't like him. I just told him to not talk to me. But I still don't like something about him."
"Oh, well I hope sometime you'll at least be polite." I laughed.
"Maybe." Mariana sighed. She turned back and continued walking. I started walking along with them. Jen came back and started to talk to me.
"So how was the drills and stuff?"
"Fine I guess. I stopped doing them any way." I replied.
"Why?!"
"These are dumb! We should be doing this type of stuff. You shouldn't be doing them either." I sighed.
"But what about Battlow?" Asked Jen with a worried tone.
"I don't care, I'll take my chances." I said. Jen started freaking out saying I should go against the higher-ups.

"So what were you and Mariana talking about?" Jen asked when she finally calmed down.
"Something just caught my eye of what she was doing. But when I asked her about it, I could tell she was lying."