Perennial Rose | {Levi x OC} | Shingeki no Kyojin |

Chapter 38: His Path

Among the crimson stained field of ghosts clinging to their lives, dying souls that wander aimlessly about, and flowers that are frosted over by the chill of disappointment, there is one flower bud that basks peacefully in the grace of the sun. The young flower has not yet bloomed into the beauty it is renowned to be. However, it is constantly being nourished by the hearts of two soldiers.

They lie on heavily used stretchers in the field of the injured and dying, waiting to be transported inside the castle. Their wounds have been bandaged and treated properly by the busy medics. Yet the drumming in their heads and their broken bones cannot be fixed immediately. Their only antidote is time and rest in the infirmary.

The two fixate their tired eyes on the sky as they watch white, mountainous clouds stroll across the land. Their own inability to move makes any sign of motion a satisfying scene; even the slight brushing of the blades of grass against their bare hands makes them feel fulfilled.

Although trapped in different bodies, their minds share the same thought: If it wasn't for the captain's squad and their undying loyalty to him, the two wouldn't be gazing up at the sky side-by-side like this. His subordinates' surpassing skills had allowed them to escape successfully with their unconscious superiors.

Why had the world permitted them to continue with their lives in such a close encounter with death?

Renata believes that it is a gift from Kain.

Levi believes that it is a sign. A sign telling him that he has not yet finished a task that he has been contemplating on doing for quite some time.

To satisfy the benefactor that had offered him this sign, he starts to talk. He tells her of his childhood in the Underground City. He tells her of his earliest memories of the dark room in which his mother took care of him; it was the same room in which he watched her drift away in an slow death. He tells her of the man who had found him and taught him how to live with power and strength. He tells her how the man had abandoned him one day, leaving him with nothing but a knife and his violent teachings.

Levi tells her of his life as a thug in which he resolved matters only with his knife and fists. He tells her of the invincible group he had formed with two other underground dwellers, whom he considered as friends. He tells her of the time Erwin had recruited them into the Survey Corps, and their mission to find the document that would promise them their citizenship above ground. He tells her of his drive to kill Erwin and to take the document that the commander supposedly had on him. He tells her how he chose to do this without the help of his friends, and how this choice had ultimately led to their deaths. Lastly, he tells her of his final decision to continue to work in the Survey Corps.

He had done what the sign had beckoned him to do. Levi had to submerge into the sorrow, desolation, anger, frustration, and misfortune of the dark corners of his memories again; there must be some sort of recompensation for going through the trouble of recalling the moments of his past that he had tried so hard to forget.

What will he receive in return for rewinding and replaying the pain of his past?

Did it lift the burden of these memories off his shoulders?

It did not. He still feels heavy after talking about them.

Did he somehow realize something about his past that he did not know of?

He did not. His past is still the same as it was before.

Levi tilts his head to the side.

Glinting tears stream down Renata's face and fall into the crevices of her ear. Her eyelashes are wet with dainty droplets, adorning each lash with tiny crystals. Her eyes continuously well up and send more tears down her cheek after each blink. She bites her trembling lips as she concentrates on the sky above her.