Titan Warrior

Chapter 3

As the morning sun rises a crowd of cadets group together in the courtyard, ready to begin training with Yaku. Among the group stands Eren, Mikasa, Sasha, Armin, Mina, Thomas, Marco, Bertholdt, Reiner, Christa, Ymir, Amelie and several others. They wait patiently for Yaku's arrival, some more eager than others to get started while the majority are only there out of curiosity.

Yaku approached the group, momentarily surprised by how many had shown up. “More of you showed up than I expected,” she says.

The group turns to face Yaku and stands ready.

Amelie smiles as she stands ready with the rest. “We're ready, Yaku.”

Yaku smiles at the group and stands tall as she addresses the group. “Alright, so all of you wanna be tough to accomplish your goals I take it.”

“We've seen what you can do,” Thomas responds. “You did a thousand laps in five hours!”

Mina nods in agreement to Thomas. “If we can get even half as capable of what you can do, we're willing to go the distance.”

“Okay, but just so you know I'm not going to go easy on anyone here,” Yaku says as she rolls her shoulders and cracks her neck. “So let's start with twenty laps around the wall for a bit of a warm-up.”

Amelie blinked, unsure if she had heard right. “Around… the wall?”

Yaku is already beginning to move out. “Come on, everyone, keep up!”

Several of the cadets hesitate, already looking as though they regret their decision. They still follow after Yaku.

“You can do this,” Amelie tells herself as she follows along with the others.
Sometime later, after their laps, Yaku has the cadets doing push-ups.

The cadets push themselves as hard as they can, some struggling to keep going as their arms burn, and others having already collapsed after a handful of reps.

Yaku has hardly broken a sweat, counting aloud for the group. “365… 366… 367… come on everyone! Five hundred of these a day and forget riding. You’ll be the one carrying the horse!”

After the push-ups were sit-ups, and then squats.

“Gotta swap out all that nasty flab for ironclad muscle!” Yaku tells the group enthusiastically.

“At this rate, she's gonna kill us before the Titans even get a chance!” Connie says, tears in his eyes.

Amelie struggles just as much as the others, her muscles burning and tears in her eyes. She grits her teeth and forces herself to keep moving while praying she will be able to move at all the next day. She continues to tell herself not to give up, and that this will be worth it. This was her time to prove to everyone that she was far more than they expected her to be.

Soon, everyone was finished and collapsed to the ground trying to catch their breath and suffering through aching muscles.

“She… is insane,” Ymir says.

“She is definitely not human,” Reiner adds.

Yaku is the only one standing, and she does so with her arms crossed. “What are you guys lying around for? That was just the warm-up. The real training starts after breakfast.”

Several cadets groan while others pass out.

Sasha almost appeared to have been foaming at the mouth in her disbelief.

“If there is a Titan close by… please just let it eat me right now,” Bertholdt says.

Amelie lays on her back, staring up at the mid-morning sky as she catches her breath. “Just think… every day it will get easier… and it will all be worth it.”