I'll Make A Soldier Out Of You

Chapter 9

*Edited*

Chapter 9

Elizabeth's POV

When the bell that signals the end of lunch rings, I get up from my bed and walk back to the training grounds, where both, Hibari and Atsushi, walk towards me. I ignore them and keep walking, stopping near a rock and leaning on it. The instructor walks towards all of us and clears his throat. "THERE ARE FIFTEEN TITAN DUMMIES IN THERE!" He motions to the forest. "I EXPECT YOU TO GET RID OF THEM ALL!" With that said, a few soldiers carrying gears walk towards cadets, handing them out.

Since I already have one, I walk to the edge of the forest, waiting for the rest of the cadets. After a few minutes, the instructor's voice break all the chatter, meaning we had to start. I shoot my wires towards a tree and use a little gas, getting close to the tree and pushing myself, boosting my speed without using too much gas. I jump from tree to tree, using a little gas in between, and after a few minutes, a titan dummy makes its way in my view. I take out my sword and prepare myself to cut the nape. I shoot my wires to a branch and stand on the underside of it. I jump from the branch, going as fast as possible, making a deep slice in the nape. I shoot my wires to another tree, looking for more titan dummies.

~Time Skip~

After a few hours of looking around the forest for the fifteen titan dummies, the instructor's voice rings through the forest. "TIME IS UP! ALL TRAINEE'S RETREAT!" I shoot my wires back to the camp, seeing most of the trainee's walking down a dirt path. I'm guessing they're out of gas, and, me being me, I decide to be a bitch about it. I move lower, closer, to them and use a little gas to catch up to them. Some of them look up at me and I smirk. I speed up, blowing some of the girl's hair in their faces.

I make my way to the camp, landing perfectly on the ground and walking towards the instructor. "Cadet Magnolia, you seem to have plenty of gas left." He says looking at me with a brow raised. "May I ask how?"

"Well, sir, I just used it when it was absolutely necessary." I say calmly. "Let me see you gas canisters." He says, more like demands me. I take one of them off and he checks it and then does the same with the other one. When he's done, I put them back in their place. With a brow raised and crossed arms, he sends me a nod and looks back towards the forest.

After a few minutes, more cadets start to reach the training grounds. Most of them walking, but a few of them, like Atsushi, make it back with barely any gas left.

The cadets that I passed were one of the last to get back, but when they did, they send me a glare, to which I give a smirk in return. Atsushi walks towards me and I sigh. He smirks. "You're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you?" I ask monotonously. "Yep!" He says in a proud voice. "Fine, just don't screw up your life because of me." I say and start to walk away, taking off the gear and taking it back to its place.

I walk around the camp for a few minutes, until I reach the forest again and walk in, going to the tree I sat down yesterday. I climb it and sit on the same branch, looking at the sky. 

'So different from The Underground... The stars actually glow...' 

~Flashback~

"Levi, do you think the sky actually glows at night?" A eight year old me asks the raven haired boy sitting next to her. The boy wraps an arm around the small girl and she rests her head on his shoulder. "They're called stars and yes, I believe they do." The usually cold and monotone boy says kindly. "Will we ever see them?"

"One day we will. The both of us, together. I promise."

~Flashback End~

"You promised we would see them together..." I whisper, leaning my head back on the tree, sighing.

Atsuhsi's POV

A walk out of the Mess Hall with a piece of bread on a napkin to give to Elizabeth, since I didn't see her at dinner, when I hear a whisper come from one of the trees at the edge of the forest. I walk in and look at the branches, until I spot a figure sitting on one of them. I walk towards it and see that the figure is Elizabeth. "Elizabeth." I call her and she looks at me. "Hey..." She jumps from the tree and lands in front of me. "Here." I take out the bread and give it to her. "Thanks." She says as she takes it. "Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I'm not a good person and I don't want people to think of you the same way they think of me."

"You know, I don't care what happened in your past. All that matters is that you're here. You have been given a second chance. You shouldn't waste it. Not a lot of people from The Underground get the chance to see what's up here." I say while looking at her and I notice a few tears fill her eyes. "I-I guess..." She wipes them away and looks at the grass. "But I didn't earn my way up here. I'm here because I had no other choice if I wanted to survive. It was join the Corps or go with The Military Police, who would've killed me already..." She says and sits on the ground, moving her knees to her chest and hiding her face between them. I sit next to her and pat her back. "Anything you want to talk about?" I ask her and she looks at me. "You should know the truth about me..." She says and sighs, looking to nowhere in particular. "When I was six years old, I ran away from my mother and sister, making an alleyway my new home. One day, my sister, somehow, found me, saying that our mother had died. We lived together in the same alley for about three months and, even though I'm two years younger than her, I would go out and steal some food for us. That went on for a few weeks, until I stumbled across a certain group of kids. Me being the eight year old I was at the time, followed them to a house. When I was going back to my alley some drunk guys attacked me. I, somehow, got my hands on a knife, which I used to kill one of the guys..." She stops for a moment and hides her head again. "Apparently the kids heard the fight, because they came out and saw me kill another one of the guys... I thought they were going to call the M.P's and tell them about it, but they did just the opposite. Ever since then, I would sneak out of the alley and go with them. We would cause chaos all over The Underground. That went on for a few years, until my sister found us..."