The Love We Give

Flashback 05 - 1 vs 1

Long time no see - I'm so sorry, if anyone's been waiting. Work is craaaazyyyy, but I managed to finish another chapter, that focuses on the developing friendship between Sira and Reiner. I'm very happy putting out that chapter, as it contains foreshadowing and also includes Hange again, yay!
Have fun reading and a big thank you to all the people supporting this fic!

Song recommendation for this chapter once more:
"Guilty Hero" by Kohta Yamamoto

"Take mine, it's of better quality."

With a swift motion, Sira had taken her dagger out of the holster, offering it to Berthold now, the handle facing his way, as her own hand held onto the sharp blade. She had seen him looking over the set-up table for a while, his eyes hovering at the many weapons, probably unsure what to choose.

Some weeks ago, when she had started training the cadets in their use of weaponry, she took notes every time, watching all of them closely. Some more than others, like Mikasa and Annie, due to their level of skill. Jean and Eren, due to their determination to compete against each other. Armin and Marco, due to the fact to how squeamish and reluctant they were. It had almost been two months by now, but still Sira felt as though she couldn't quite put her finger on the person Berthold Hoover was. He was just two years younger than Reiner, hanging around him a lot, but nothing about the tall cadet seemed to come together. He was quiet and skilled, very much so, but he wasn't keen on being outstanding or grabbing attention. He wasn't one to laugh a lot or enjoy the funny moments in life, she thought, but also didn't kill the mood. All he did was keep to himself and Reiner, and stay in the shadows.

Today, she wanted the cadets to try take her in a fight, with use of weaponry of course, as she felt they had gotten enough training during the last weeks for them to give it a go. She wanted to see where they could still make changes, improve – so it felt like a good moment in time, to have them face her now and again another few months later.

Some of them looked excited, obviously, Eren did and a cadet named Floch, too. Others were indifferent, Annie and Jean – and then there were people like Marco and Berthold, looking ever so hesitant about this.

Their training session had been going for about two hours by now, cadet after cadet choosing a different kind of weapon to use in their 1 vs 1 with Sira. It came to no surprise that Eren volunteered first, having chosen a longsword, much bigger than the usual ODM blades. His movements were eager, quick – hasty, which obviously gave Sira enough advantage to have him lose grip of the handle sooner than later. Although she had stated preferring to fight with smaller weapons herself, that didn't mean she wasn't good with bigger ones; it only took so much time for her until she had Eren backing against a tree, the blade of her own sword right on his throat.

"Careful, Yeager. The line between being fearless and reckless is dangerously thin. You don't want to end up like this against an opponent. Next thing you know, they behead you.", she would say to him, before withdrawing the longsword again, praising him for his dedication, though, as he surely was the most eager cadet of this year's trainees.

Floch Forster, a cadet not really appearing much on her radar, as he seemed like didn't want anything to do with the Survey Scouts anyway, acted almost equally eager that day, coming second right after Eren; but the fight ended ever so quickly, leaving Sira with the impression that he didn't possess a lot of skill with any weapon to begin with.

As the training rounds went on, it became more and more clear how skilled Sira actually was in her use with weapons; of course, she only stood against mere cadets, young teenagers. But most of the fights ended rather quickly. She was swift and steady in her motions, a firm grip around the weapons. Her body's tension adapting to whatever weapon she held, balancing out the weight of an axe or a scythe easily, as if it was nothing.