𝗥𝗘𝗗𝗔𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗖𝗬 | 𝙅. 𝙆𝙄𝙍𝙎𝙏𝙀𝙄𝙉

𝐭𝐰𝐨

Six months had passed and by now everyone was accustomed to their ODM gear and the arts of hand-to-hand combat. Right now, all the remaining cadets that had withstood the training were all standing in a line, waiting for Shadis and soldiers from all three regiments to come out and watch us train.

"Pst, Y/n," Connie whispered out from beside me. My head shoots past him to make sure Shadis wasn't making his grand entrance from out of the cabin anytime soon then looks back to him.

"Yes, my favorite bald boy," I whisper back just as urgently. Connie's face slackens from its once excited expression.

"I already told you I have hair," he whispers out harshly.

I shrug. "Not my fault your head looks like a tennis ball." Connie gasps from beside me and sways to the side, his hand coming up delicately to rest on his forehead. Sasha catches him before he could fall to the ground.

"Oh how you wound me, Y/n," he says dryly, regaining his composure. "I just wanted to see if you think your uncle's gonna come watch us today."

I hum, thinking about his question. "Maybe, but uncle isn't that much of a people person," I say, rubbing my chin in thought.

"What do you mean by that?" Sasha asks.

"Well-"

"All of you shut up, they're coming out," Ymir hisses at us.

The three of us turn around, saluting the soldiers coming out of the cabin simultaneously with everyone else. My eyes widen a bit when I see my uncle, Hanji, and Levi, all sporting either proud, excited, or annoyed looks. I think you can guess who was doing what.

Hanji gives me a wink when they meet my eyes as they and the rest of the soldiers stand in front of us.

"At ease, cadets," Shadis yells at us. We all relax, spreading out our feet and holding our hands behind our back. "As you all know, today's the day where these soldiers from the Garrison, Military Police, and Survey Corps Regiments are going to assess your training! They will all be watching for any soldiers who show potential for their branches. Do not disappoint them!"

"Yes, sir!" We all reply. I catch Miche's gaze from across the yard, giving him a firm nod of the head with a small smile. He nods back, his gaze firm but with a soft, proud smile peeking onto his face.

"Cadet Y/n!" My head snaps to Shadis as he walks over towards me.

"Yes, sir!" I say, a calm expression on my face. I keep my usual smirk hidden, wanting to be well behaved in front of Miche.

"Lead the warm-up." I nod with a salute, already used to this. Ever since I joined the Cadet Corps Shadis always used me for examples or to lead things like warm-ups, and thanks to my time spent in the Survey Corps barracks, I had already learned how to use ODM gear by Miche and Hanji and hand-to-hand combat by Levi.

"All right, split into four lines!" I yell at everyone and they do as I command. After everyone's situated, our ODM gear already intact, we head into the forest. Detaching and reattaching the grappling hooks to our gear, we swing through the trees, only the sound of labored breathing and the swish of the cables and air occupied the forest. I look behind me to see everyone faring out alright and speed up just a bit. Some of them groan, already knowing what I was up to.

Over the past few months, I had a reputation of working everyone hard whenever I led the drills or warmups, always increasing the speed and intensity as we went on.

Looking to the side of me I see the soldiers from the different regiments following us at a distance. I give Miche a short smile then go back to the training. Even though I always kid around everyone else, I took training very seriously, which surprised Shadis the first day we really got into things.