𝑺𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒇 | A Yeager Story

[10] A Glimpse into the Past

Mina's POV

Mikasa's hurt, and that is all I can think about.

No joy can be found in my mindless head, even when the hole has finally been sealed and even when I was helping in the clean-up process. I was just... blank. Dull eyes who had just witnessed absolute failure even when it happened right before my useless and nugatory figure.

Yeah.

Where can I hang myself?

I am an absolute failure of a daughter! For the love of Ymir, where in the bloody hell can I drown this stupid, bootless, dud-

"Is something wrong, Mina?" I looked up – halting my self-loathing – and saw Krista's hunched figure, gazing at me, who looked nowhere near okay. "Do you need water?"

It seems that I require such liquid, for when I tried voicing out my thoughts, the hoarseness of my voice almost made the young girl faint from worry. "S-sorry."

"No need to apologize! Here," She immediately pulled out a container from who knows where and placed it on my fatigued hands. "You were amazing out there, Mina. If you hadn't brought Eren back, who knows how many soldiers would have died while waiting for the wall to be sealed up."

"No..." I drank a certain amount of water before giving the container back to her. "I failed."

"Huh?" Krista tilted her head in confusion as the image of Mikasa's wounded face once again made my whole complexion pale. "What do you mean?"

"What, you got scared after seeing someone get eaten by a titan?" Ymir rudely asks, to which I shake my head and deny such an accusation. "Then why'd you look like shit?"

"Mikasa..."

"What happened to Mikasa?" Then, it was Jean's turn to interrupt. He was, however, instantly smacked on the head by Connie. "What?! Is she in a critical state? Where is she anyway? Speak you, damn woman!"

"A-A cut," I choked as a dramatic sigh eventually escaped through my chapped lips. "S-she had a small cut-"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Are you dumb?" Ymir laughed as loudly as she could manage after hearing the reason why I wore a gloomy expression. It didn't sound funny, though, I mean, not to me. "You got worried over a damn freaking cut, holy shit, Carolina. You're even worse than her when she's playing mother towards the shitty suicidal maniac!"

"Ymir..."

The tall and freckled trainee eventually placed her head on top of her friend's blonde hair. "Finally, some amusement. Fucking Carolina, what did you eat to become overprotective towards that monster?"

She's the younger version of my mother. Isn't that enough reason for my protectiveness?

But instead of saying those words out loud, I heaved a long and depressive sigh. "Enough about me. How about you guys? How are you all faring?" When no one replied, I looked up from my seated figure and noticed each of their expressions becoming dark. So, I added, "Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, it's," Jean hesitated, making me a bit intrigued by what he had seen to wear such an expression. "It's just that... Marco, Marco's dead."

My eyes widened while the other trainees all began to show their distress and anxiety openly and, most of all, sadness. Connie was the first to ask, "What do you mean he's dead? That's not... That's not possible!"

Oh, it is possible. It's just that... the news of his death spread around a lot faster compared to the second world. Is it because of what I did to quicken our mission of sealing the wall earlier? Darn it, and here I thought I could finally learn about how he died in this world and prevent it if I had the time.