Birds in a Cage (Male Reader X Attack on Titan) Book 1

Training A New Generation

Y/n Pov~

"Springer you're using too much gas!" I yell out as the small bald boy uses another unnecessary burst of gas from is ODM gear. "Braune you're too tense, loosen up" I order to the large blonde guy while he flies through the trees. We've been training the cadets in the same large forest I trained in with their ODM gear, luckily, we haven't had any rogue wires cutting off any fingers or broken legs from hitting the ground too hard yet. "Kirstein watch that wire" I warn, the taller boy with the odd hair scoffs and continues his incorrect course and his wire's anchor that didn't pierce the tree deep enough falls out of the tree and causes him to start plummeting to the ground, screaming in fear. Before he crashes into the ground, he is caught by the mountain of a boy Bertholdt and flung back into the air into the formation we showed them to maintain for training. The cadets continue their exercises with no more incidents for the rest of the day and once I call for them to land, they all do so and start to smile and talk amongst themselves, proud of their progress with the difficult gear. I walk up to the boy Jean Kirstein and stop mere inches in front of him with a not so happy look on my face, "Pretty lucky that Mr. Hoover was there to save you today Kirstein" I raise an eyebrow. "I appreciate it Bertholdt but I had it under control" he shrugs, I look to Bertholdt who shakes his head but doesn't say anything, "I see, "under control" is what you call falling to your death, screaming like a little girl who's seen her first Titan?" I smirk as he gasps and growls at my mocking. Some of the cadets' snicker at my taunting as he looks around at his peers in shock. "At least I'm not a pathetic poser" he crosses his arms and scoffs, after he says this all of the other cadets fall silent and stare in shock of his jab at me. A wave of confusion runs over me from what he said, "A poser? What's that supposed to mean?" I question as he looks proud of himself for what he said. "What kind of "instructor" is merely 2 years older than his students? Not to mention you're supposed to be some kind of prodigy with ODM gear, yet you only ride your horse when you train us. Commander Shadis I understand because he's older, but you're supposed to be the runner up for "humanity's greatest soldier" Jean scoffs. "You probably didn't do half the things they claim you did, 30 titan kills to your name, yeah right" he rolls his eyes. After he finishes his tangent the whole forest falls silent, the cadets stare in awe at their comrade standing up to one of their instructors. "Please don't listen to him, he's just tired from training all day" the freckled boy Marco tries to excuse his friend's outburst. I walk up to Jean and lean in uncomfortably close to him, "I wish what you said was true. I wish I hadn't had to kill those titans, because every titan I killed that day, I killed because they ate a friend of mine" I say in a monotonous voice, making all the cadets gasp. "You mean...?" Sasha whispers as I stare Jean in the eyes without blinking, "Mhm, I lost 30 fellow cadets, 30 comrades, 30 friends, in 15 minutes. So, you claim that I'm a "poser" and the only thing I have to say to you Mr. Kirstein is. When you're getting fat in the interior with the Military Police, sitting on your pompous ass, drinking good ale and playing cards. Remember that I could have been in the Military Police too, but I chose to do something more with my life than be a pig in a pen" I spit at him and dismiss the cadets for the day as they all stare at me in surprise. I start to walk away back to my horse and mount up, before I ride away, I look back at Jean and see that he seems ashamed of what he said. "And Mr. Kirstein? I'd recommend getting better with ODM before getting cocky, because at the rate you're going you'll be following in my comrade's footsteps and be a titan's dinner" I shoot at him as I ride off towards base.

Time Skip~

Third Person Pov~

The 104th Cadet Corp are currently training in hand-to-hand combat, a matter of controversy among the cadets because they see no use in learning how to fight humans when more than half of them will end of only fighting titans or working on the walls. Only the top 10 of them will be allowed into the Military Police and have genuine use of this training but who those top 10 will be is unknown. Most of the cadets slack off with this training, because it isn't on any tests and they aren't even being graded on their performance. But a few cadets take this training as serious as their normal training and for a few of them, even more serious. Eren Yeager is one the cadets who is more or less taking it seriously, but even though he is determined to do well in this form of training he is still getting pummeled by the sparring partner chosen for him, Annie Leonhardt. The two cadets don't know it but they are being watched closely by the head of this form of training, Captain Y/n. "Poor Yeager is terribly outclassed and he doesn't even know it" Shadis snickers as he stands next to the younger Captain. "No kidding, that girl could give me a run for my money in hand-to-hand combat" Y/n chuckles as Eren tries to stab at Annie with the wooden knife they train with. In a flash, she catches his arm and uses his momentum to pull his arm down and sweep his legs out from under him, knocking him on his back in the dirt.