Wings of Freedom - BSD x AOT

Chapter 4

“Ow!” Mark yelped as he hit the ground, holding his injured head.

“I'm sorry, I probably shouldn't have been so rough,” Atsushi smiled sheepishly as he offered a hand to his friend, whom the other took with a grateful smile.

“It's alright man, this is combat training, after all,” the dark orange-haired replied.

Two years had passed ever since they were officially recruited as soldiers. The training was hard, but bearable. Suddenly, Mark glanced to the left, jabbing into Atsushi's side right after who yelped in response.

“You see that girl over there?”

Atsushi confusedly followed his gaze, which fell on a beautiful girl with dark red hair that was put in two thick braids and a white flower hairpiece on the left side on her head.

“Lucy?” the boy breathed out, marveling at the girl from a safe distance. Unnoticeable to him, Mark glared at the white-haired, the way he was staring at Lucy seemingly irritating him a bit. He regained his composure quickly, instead playfully leaning towards him and whispering into his ear.

“Look, she's skipping training. Shouldn't we remind her of her responsibility as a soldier to follow the headmaster's instructions?”

“Oh, I'm unsure…” Atsushi mumbled, contemplating the thought when Mark suddenly pushed him towards where Lucy tried to escape the training grounds until both were standing right in front of her. In her way, to be exact.

“Ahh, h-hello Lucy,” Atsushi stammered, his heart suddenly beating twice as fast as it had before. Lucy didn't honor his greeting with a response, instead sending her usual glare at the boys in front of her.

“Seems as if you were itchy for a headbutt from the headmaster,” Mark then continued in a lecturing manner. “If you don’t wanna shrink even more, I suggest you remember the beginner times and pull yourself together!”

“Eh?!” Atsushi was more than surprised by Mark's harsh words, especially since he had always thought that Mark was secretly very fond of Lucy. Or maybe he tried to conceal that. It didn't really matter right now though – what worried him more was the way Lucy was staring at them. Her expression could easily compare to Akutagawa's. She looked utterly angry.

“Let’s get started, won't we, Atsushi-kun?” Mark hummed with a smile before pushing the boy further ahead and in front of Lucy with a wooden knife in hand which they were using for training today.

Unarmed, Lucy stood there silently with her arms raised as if ready to aim a blow anytime. Atsushi was still unsure about whether he really wanted to fight her, but quickly found that he had to go through this now. He hadn't seen her combat-fighting at all during their time here yet, so he planned on being a bit considerate.

“We're practicing combat-fighting with blade weapons. You know what you gotta do, right?”

She didn’t answer yet again, so Atsushi simply took her silence and focused stare as a Yes and charged at her with full-speed. He was about to reach her when he suddenly felt pain shooting up his leg, and he fell down on the spot. It took him a moment to realize that, instead of using her fists like she made him assume first, she brutally kicked his legs away.

“What…?”

“Can I go now?” This was the first time she spoke, and now she really seemed to be annoyed and also a bit bored of all this.

“N-No,” Mark stammered, “This training's over once you got his knife!”

“W-Wait a moment…” Atsushi stuttered with a scared expression on his face. He knew that he definitely did not want to fight again. Lucy just sighed before getting into position again, leaving the boy no choice but getting up to his feet as well.