I live, I die, I live again [Eren J.]

12: Realizations Aplenty

In the days following her adoption into the Survey Corps, Mikoto had somehow become an indentured servant of sorts to Squad Levi. In that time, she quickly learned that the intel she collected on Captain Cravat about his hypochondriac tendencies had been understated. She was by no means a messy person but having to dust under tables, make her bed with hospital corners and wash the sheets every day was a bit much.

Could be fucking worse though, the redhead mused, knuckles stinging as she scrubbed the sheets, could be mucking the stables like Eren.

Ironically she had very little contact with the whole reason why she had ended up in her current position— a certain green-eyed stable-mucking recruit— outside of meal times. She wasn't dull enough to not realize that it was by design. Either Commander Eyebrows or Captain Cravat or even Section Leader Glasses must have made the executive decision to always separate Eren from Mikoto. There were a handful of reasons for why this could be so.

One, Section Leader Glasses, for whatever hare-brained "scientific" reason, wanted them to interact purely under the controlled conditions of whatever weird experiment they happened to cook up.

Two, Commander Eyebrows and/or Captain Cravat still did not trust Eren and/or Mikoto (considering her resources and her proven track record of threatening military officials... understandable) and therefore wanted to limit the their time to 'plot'.

Three, Captain Cravat just straight up did not like them and wanted them to suffer their chores in isolation.

Could've been all, could've been none. Considering the fumes from the amount of bleach the clean freak captain had her using to disinfect the laundry with, she was surprised she was even capable of coherent thought.

" Yahooo! " The mad scientist's voice echoed around the laundry room before Mikoto caught sight of their gleaming glasses and unhinged grin. " Miiikoootoooo...! "

Strange, that Humanity's Strongest and the Commander of the Survey Corps didn't send lashes of dread through Mikoto's synapses the way they did. She was hit with such a wave of deja vu, as she pondered how her life choices led her to this point, having been grasped by the forearm and manhandled by the section leader (again). Mikoto didn't even bother to struggle as she was hauled a little away from the castle, completely barren save for a single well, with her supposed superior jabbering in her ear about something— "Titan"— or another— "Eren" the entire way.

Finally coming to a stop next to the short stack Captain, Glasses (finally) released their death grip on Mikoto to cup their hands around their mouth. Taking an exaggeratedly deep breath in they yelled:

" Ready, Eren? "— Eren? Mikoto's nose wrinkled as she looked around. But where— " When it's prepared, I'll use the smoke round to notify you! After that, it's all up to you? "

" Rodger that! " Eren's disembodied voice came from—

He's in the fucking well?!

Her disbelief must have shown on her face, Glasses taking it a trepidation surrounding the experiment rather than Mikoto finding it utterly ridiculous that they'd dropped her Er— friends... comrade...— into a fucking well.