The Last Ackerman

Chapter 5: Armin

The second Elysian walked into Erwin's office a red flag had gone off in Levi's mind. There was something too familiar about her, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He had no memory of ever seeing her before, but she was awfully familiar and he was immediately suspicious. She had the same sunken eyes he remembered from the underground and the same cocky posture as the drunkard assholes he remembered from the taverns, but she didn't have the same menacing undertones. Sure, she acted like an absolute brat and he was sure he'd be making her swallow teeth in no time, but she didn't have bad intentions, he could tell. All through the night, he couldn't shake the feeling, and it bugged him as he was doing his paperwork in the early hours of the morning. As his candle slowly burned, he worked and tried to brush off his suspicions, but when morning broke and amber light brushed the sky, he still hadn't rid himself of them.

When dawn broke, Elysian was woken once more by knocking on her door, and a gruff voice telling her to get ready and head to breakfast before today's training. She groaned and rolled out of bed, pulling on her trousers and jacket, throwing her hair into a bun and cursing this place for waking up at the arse crack of dawn. Kenny had pretty much never instigated a bedtime or wake up time, and it wasn't uncommon for her to go to sleep in the early hours of the morning and wake up in the evening, so this organised sleep schedule was really messing with her internal clock. She flung open her door in her half asleep state and headed back towards the mess hall, ignoring the grumbles and whispers around her. When she got there, she took her rations and sat back in the corner seat she was in at yesterday's evening meal. Thankfully she seemed to be early, and the table was empty so she ate quickly and in peace as others streamed in and sat at others tables. She thought back to last night as she ate. Levi didn't look a lot like her or Kenny, but just by the feelings she got being around him she could tell he was an Ackerman, no doubt about it. His stance was confident and self assured and she could tell he was brilliant at combat. Although, she feared Levi may have noticed her physical similarities to her father and that this had given her away as an Ackerman before she wanted to. Giving herself away wouldn't cause too many problems, but she didn't want Levi to know yet. She wanted to know about him before he knew about her. While she was thinking, two people approached her table, and her eyes slowly wandered over to them. One of them was a slim built but muscular woman with shoulder length black hair and cold blue eyes, and the other was a small boy with shoulder length blonde hair and the brightest blue eyes Elysian had ever seen. A nervous blush was spread across his cheeks and he was fiddling with his hands as he stood in front of her.

"Hey, we haven't met you yet. I'm Mikasa, this is Armin." The girl spoke. Her tone was almost as monotonous as Elysians' own. She merely nodded in acknowledgement and the two awkwardly looked at each other for a moment before Armin spoke up.

"Um, I'll be taking you for your ODM training today, so I'll see you on the field." Armin waited for a response, but all he got was an aggravated sigh as Elysian pushed up and left the mess hall, the remains of her breakfast on her plate and they watched as she pushed past everyone to leave, flipping Ymir off as she went. Armin and Mikasa were equally confused but thought nothing more of it as they ate their own meals. While everyone else had free time in the morning, Armin had been sent to teach Elysian the basics for ODM, having been singled out as someone who could afford to lose a bit of free time, and it would give him practice too. After breakfast, Armin headed to the ODM gear storage unit and took his gear as well as a spare set before heading to the field where he spotted Elysian leaning against the building with Miche standing not too far away. Armin felt a small wave of relief, knowing that he wouldn't be left alone with her. When he reached them, Mike explained he was only there to observe Elysian, and then strapped the gear onto her and stepped back.

Elysian quickly felt the extra weight on her waist and braced her legs to absorb it. Armin explains how to shoot the anchors and how it uses up gas to fly, and then demonstrates how to spread body weight whilst in flight. Within two hours, Elysian was easily flying small distances with swords in hand, and had grasped how to speed up and change direction.