"Annie! Stand up! What kind of behavior is lying there! Stand up!"
"Father, I can't do it, I really can't do it....."
"Annie! You must come back alive, you must live, even if the whole world betrays you, your father will stay by your side!"
"Annie? Wow, how are you so amazing? Can you teach me? I want to learn too!"
"Come on, Annie, this is the latest kind of dessert—try it quickly! What? Money? Don't worry about that, I earned it myself. Haven't you always wanted to eat this? Hurry and try it."
The boy pretended nothing had happened, but no matter what, he couldn't hide the hideous wounds and needle marks on his arms.
"Ah? Norman? That experimental kid? Dead. Died a few weeks ago. Just an Eldian orphan..."
...
Annie opened her eyes, her hands gripping the blanket tightly. She silently got dressed, then sat blankly on the edge of the bed, gently rubbing the two rings on her hand—both gifts from the two most important people she had ever had.
"Annie, you're up? Hurry, we still have training today." Hannah hurriedly finished getting dressed and urged Annie.
"This belt system is so complicated." Hannah complained. The Vertical Maneuvering Equipment had to work together with this belt system to be used flexibly, but for new recruits, sorting out all these straps was no easy task.
"Annie, can you help me?" Annie had already finished putting everything on, while Hannah was still fumbling with the complicated buckles.
"Okay." Annie didn't say much and went over to help Hannah tidy them up.
...
Over on the boys' dormitory side, Yago lay comfortably on his bed. He had already finished putting on his belt system, watching everyone else rush around in a panic, drenched in sweat. It couldn't be more relaxing.
"Damn it! Why are these things so annoying!" Connie completely broke down. Buckles everywhere—it was driving him crazy.
Eren was also extremely anxious. No matter how he tried, he couldn't get it right. But Eren was stubborn—the harder it was to put on, the more he insisted on doing it himself. Finally, Armin finished putting his on, then Marco, Reiner, Bertholdt... In the end, even Connie had finished, yet Eren was still locked in mortal combat with the buckles.
In the end, Armin couldn't stand it anymore and helped Eren organize everything.
The Training Corps' schedule was simple: theory in the morning, practical training in the afternoon. When they arrived at the theory classroom, because Yago ate breakfast very slowly, the room was almost full. Yago scanned around for a long time before spotting an empty seat in the very last row.
He walked over and sat down, yawned, then looked to the side—only then did he suddenly realize his desk mate was actually Annie.
"Morning, Annie."
Annie glanced at him and said nothing.
The morning lecture was history. An elderly instructor stood on the podium, telling them how the First King had led his people in battles of wits and courage against the Titans.
Listening to this history that sounded more like a story, Yago grew drowsy. It wasn't just him—most people were the same.
Forcing himself to stay awake, Yago looked at Annie. Annie was actually staring seriously at her textbook?
The terror of a top student was truly something. Yago admired her. After a while, though, Yago felt something was off. Why wasn't the top student moving at all while staring at the book? And the page Annie was looking at had already been covered by the instructor long ago.
Yago gently leaned closer to the desk and carefully glanced at Annie. Her blue eyes were beautiful, but on closer inspection, her pupils were unfocused. In plain terms—she was spacing out while daydreaming.
Yago: "False alarm. Turns out everyone's just bronze."
After a bit more time passed, Yago's bored eyes rolled, and he remembered a scene from his memories. A mischievous smile appeared on his face.
He picked up his pencil and slowly moved closer to the absent-minded Annie. Suddenly, he used the eraser end to lightly poke her arm, while lowering his voice and quickly saying,
"The instructor's here!"
Annie was already lost in thought, completely unguarded. Suddenly being startled by Yago like this—even someone as calm as Annie screamed in fright.
"Ah!"
At the same time, a sharp spike emerged from one of the rings on her right hand.
Cold sweat instantly broke out on Yago's back. This might have gone too far. Was this girl really that easy to scare? Her reaction was way too big.
The scream made the entire class look over. Among them, Reiner and Bertholdt had the strangest expressions—they had never seen Annie lose her composure like this.
The instructor frowned. "Recruit, do you have a question?"
"N-no, sorry." Annie's face reddened slightly, a rare sight.
"If you have any questions, just raise your hand." The instructor gestured for everyone to quiet down, then continued the lecture.
Annie sat back down and realized what had just happened. Her cold gaze shifted to the right, toward Yago. Yago shuddered violently and slowly turned his head, meeting Annie's eyes. Those icy blue pupils carried boundless coldness and... terrifying killing intent. Yes—killing intent.
Yago swallowed hard and cautiously opened his mouth.
"Well, Annie, I can explain. I just saw you spacing out and wanted to remind you we were in cla—...ugh!!!"
Yago clenched his teeth hard, his face turning red, fists tightly clenched, as a piercing pain shot up from the top of his foot.
Under the desk, one of Annie's feet was mercilessly stomping down on one of Yago's.
"I'm sorry! I was wrong, Annie, spare my life!" Yago begged in a low voice. This girl had terrifying strength.
After a while, Annie finally let go. Yago let out a breath of relief and sincerely apologized again—but unfortunately, Annie completely ignored him.
Seeing that his apology had failed, Yago sighed. Why had he suddenly decided to mess around just now?
Yago picked up his pencil, flipped to a blank page in his notebook, and began scribbling away, occasionally glancing at Annie. Annie remained silent, continuing to stare at her textbook.
After a long while, just as class was about to end, a sheet of paper suddenly appeared in front of Annie—it had been slipped over by Yago. Annie glanced at Yago. He wore a pitiful, apologetic expression, which made Annie feel strangely unsettled. She unfolded the paper.
Annie's pupils shrank. A pencil sketch leapt off the page—every detail from individual strands of hair to the expression in the eyes was vividly captured. Most importantly, the person in the drawing was Annie herself. It was her profile, drawn from Yago's perspective. It really was beautiful—perhaps even Annie herself had never noticed she could look this good.
Annie flipped the paper over. There was another drawing on the back: a chibi-style figure. Even in chibi form, it was immediately obvious that it was Yago. The chibi figure was bowing exaggeratedly, with the words written above:
"Please forgive the foolish Yago, beautiful Lady Annie!"
The exaggerated pose made Annie let out a soft laugh before she could stop herself. Yago was stunned. Annie really looked incredibly beautiful when she smiled.
"What are you doing! How can your thoughts be this sleazy! Annie is still a child!"
Yago furiously scolded himself internally, while his body honestly kept sneaking glances at Annie.
"It's drawn really well. Can you teach me?" Annie asked.
Yago, of course, agreed. Teaching a pretty girl how to draw was also a kind of enjoyment, wasn't it? If it were Eren or Armin asking him to teach them how to draw, Yago wouldn't even spare them a glance.
While Yago wasn't paying attention, Annie carefully folded the drawing and put it away.
It really was too similar. Perhaps they were the same kind of person—both sly, both interesting. But why had he forgotten her? Annie didn't know the answer.
(A/N: Regarding the Training Corps section, I'll write a bit more. After all, the Training Corps trained for three years, while the anime only spent two or three short episodes on it. A lot of things weren't clearly explained. I've also looked into quite a bit of material myself and can share it with everyone.)
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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