It was his first time ( LeviHan )

It was his first time meeting a woman so eccentric.

Rivaille studied the person before him carefully without changing his stoic expression. The person had blond hair, was tall-very tall-and had quite the mustache. Sniffing him a couple of times, the blond then snorted, leaving Rivaille in slight surprise and ire. He didn't do anything and the man just snorted at him for no reason at all. Was it his face?

"This is our new recruit Rivaille. I will be leaving him in your care, Mike."

The tall man, Mike, nodded in confirmation and Irvin left the scene. The Commander had always been doing everything on a whim and without telling him a thing beforehand. Now he was left in the care of a strange stranger he had just met two minutes ago.

"Come on. Let's have you meet the other Squad Leader."

"There's another Squad Leader? I thought this legion has very few soldiers." Rivaille commented dryly.

Mike shrugged, "Only a few compared to the Stationary Troop and Military Police, but still, a lot." He said as he began to walk down the corridor, Rivaille trailing from behind. "She is a very eccentric person. You will never get bored around her." Mike spoke up and Rivaille assumed that he might be talking about the other Squad Leader.

Rivaille raised a questioning brow, 'She? The other Squad Leader is a female? This legion is fucked up to let a female handle the soldiers.'

But then again, he had no right to say that. His former occupation was very life-threatening, and nevertheless there were a few females doing it for the sake of fulfilling their life expenses. Seeing the females struggle to make ends meet slightly changed his mind about them. Females might be emotion-driven beings but there are times when those emotions were the ones supporting them. However he still hadn't changed his mind that being emotion-driven was unnecessary to become a soldier who fought when prepared to toss away their life at any minute.

"We're here."

Mike's nudged on his side snapped him back to reality. He studied the wooden door before him. It was old and dirty. He would've sworn the owner of this room never bothered to clean it at all. He could hardly believe anyone would be able to adjust themselves here, let alone a female.

"Are you sure this isn't the wrong room?"

Mike raised a brow and began sniffing the filthy door. "Pretty sure. Her smell's here albeit faint. Why?"

"That's... a little nasty. But oh well, whatever you say."

Shrugging, Mike was about to reach the doorknob when suddenly a nervous-looking guy burst out of the room and bumped into the two of them, though Mike wasn't shifted at all while Rivaille had landed on the floor.

"Ah-excuse me, Sir!" the nervous-looking guy bowed and offered a hand. Trying to be polite at least on his first day, Rivaille accepted the offer with nothing as much as glaring at the younger guy.

"What's wrong, Moblit? Don't tell me she ran away somewhere again?" Mike asked as though this happened on daily basis.

"-Squad Leader Mike!" Moblit showed his respect "Yes! What should I do? I can't find Squad Leader Hanji anywhere!" he began to freak out, sweat trailing down his pale face.

"Don't worry, she'll return once she's hungry."

"But she doesn't get hungry!"

"Well that's a huge problem. Dispatch the Hanji squad to search for her before she found herself surrounded by her babies. You do remember what happened the last time she's missing. She somehow found her way outside the walls."

The conversation happening before him left no clue for Rivaille on what they were talking about. This Hanji person suddenly sounded more eccentric than how he had imagined before. It was hard to believe that they were talking about a female.

"I will participate in the search. How about you, Rivaille? You joining?" Mike asked.

"I'll pass."

"Alright. You can wait at the cafeteria. I'll meet you later."

"Understood."

On his way to the cafeteria, Rivaille had only realized that he didn't know where it's located. Neither Irvin nor Mike had shown the place to him. And he definitely wouldn't ask for help from anyone. With that thought in mind, he decided to take a detour and explore the headquarters instead. The place was large, indeed, but he wouldn't get lost that easily. Even if he were to get lost, he could always use the 3DMG and find the way from bird's eye view.

.

.

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"...Where am I?"

He looked around. The place suddenly seemed foreign. There were trees everywhere in sight. Before, it was gray stones everywhere.

"GYAAH!"

He heard a yelp and decided to turn around.

It was a tall woman; brown hair in a messy ponytail and brown eyes. She moaned as she rubbed her butt while cringing in pain, perhaps she fell from one of the trees.

"Hauu... It's freezing..." the woman rubbed her palms together and exhaled on them. It took her a while to notice Rivaille's presence. "Eh? Who are you? You're wearing our uniform," she cocked her head to the side and squint her eyes.

He noticed that she was also wearing the Scouting Legion uniform-the wings of freedom properly attached on the back of her uniform.

Don't tell me she is...

"It's common sense to introduce yourself first before asking someone for their name," Rivaille suddenly regretted saying that line, because the woman before him had started cackling like it was the funniest line in the world.

"That line is so cliché! Did you read too many drama novels?" she asked, indirectly mocking him.

Rivaille was too proud to let himself be mocked by a stranger. When he was about to counter her, she beat him into it, "Hey, can you help me return to the headquarters? I lost my glasses somewhere. I think it's stuck on the tree" she pointed upward to the tree she had fallen from "when I fell just now."

"Unfortunately I am lost," it took him a lot of pride to admit that.

She blinked at him. Once. Twice. Then she squint her eyes, "Whose squad are you from? How can you get lost? Are you the new recruit Irvin said he will bring today?" she flooded him with questions.

"Yes, I am."

The woman pouted at Rivaille's very short reply. It wasn't like she didn't get what he meant but it was a bit rude to only answer one of her questions. "I see," she nodded before holding out her hand "nice to meet you, I'm Hanji Zoë" she laughed in-between "actually, today I have the appointment to meet you but I got too interested when I saw this certain species of bird I've never seen before-from the window of my study. Before I realize it I ended up here. I climbed up the tree to find the bird's nest but the mother bird chased me off! She's so protective!"

Rivaille almost widened his eyes at how fast this woman could talk in what seemed to be a single breath. Another side of him was convinced that this person was the other Squad Leader he was supposed to meet just now.

She was just as eccentric as he thought. She didn't even bother to use formal speech.

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