I see what people can't (rivamika)

The Truth Unmasked

Levi's POV...

"Alright losers, what do we have here?"

Everyone saluted as I walked in the forensic laboratory, some still coward in fear by my mere presence and Hanji was just waving at me like a fool. They had set the table up with what I can see to be the evidence collected from the apartment.

"Is this all of it?" I ask.

"Y-yes sir, every last piece submitted that day and the two days after, though the only other thing we found after your pause was a small engraved button inside the victim's right lung" a young officer told me and saluted.

"Yes yes! And it was a rather bizarre engraving too, it looked like nothing I've seen before" Hanji butted in.

"Alright, give me a moment, I'll see what I can do" I say and the rest of the cadets left the lab while Hanji stayed behind.

"Oi Hanji, I need you to take notes on what I tell you in detail, think your dumbass can manage it?"

"Oh but of course, it's just like the good old days of high school where I used to take your notes in class and look where that got you, huhuhu"

"Yeah, and with the same notes I took you an extra year for you to graduate because you managed to fuck up the wrong chemicals and blew up the classroom" I retort.

"That was an accident!" she says with a pout.

"And what about that table you kicked with your little invention that broke it to pieces? That an accident too?"

".......no"

"Just take the notes damn it and keep quiet"

"Wiiiiill dooooo" she said in song and took her notepad and pen out.

Alright then, time to examine this junk. Let's start off with the main piece, the plastic bag used to suffocate the victim to near unconsciousness.

"Where's the test results from the lab?" I ask.

"The prints were unfortunately unidentifiable with our data collection, whoever they are have done well to keep out of the radar"

"He must be from the underground district then" I say in a whisper, talking more to myself rather than Hanji.

"He? And underground district?" she asks curiously.

"Obviously, the fingerprint sizes are far too large for a woman's hand when given the statistics"

"Women can still have big hands"

"Balance of probability suggests that on average most men will have bigger hands, and unless you want to tell me that the killer is an overweight middle aged woman then I suggest you take my word"

"Ok but how would you know if he's from underground?"

"Well most permanent citizens of the district have been kept hidden from the main city, that includes fingerprint data on most" I explain.

"Hmm, interesting" she says and starts jotting down.

"Next then, photos of the victim's body, we have the lungs, leg scratches, stomach insignia, the head wound and the markings on his neck"

"We also found out there's two broken ribs as you suspected" she hands me the last photo.

"Intelligent, cunning, stealthy, an expert at manhunting and trick usage. They all seem familiar but I don't know why"

"Familiar? In what way?"

"Like I've seen such techniques used before, when I was much younger" I say. "No matter, I spotted something odd about the Titan insignia on his stomach, take a look"

She does as I command yet looks at me confused and asks me to explain.

"The lines are not in the same spot, almost making their own logo within it"

"Don't you think that could just be the killer being bad at carving?"

"Absolutely negative, each member is given training for months and are excellent slicers and cutters, plus the specific killer has already proven to be rather experienced, given the time scale and level of experience I'd say around mid-50s perhaps"

"Uhuh..." she kept noting down on the paper.

"Next is the blood splatters and photos of all the rooms in the apartment. Those ones I've already explained and is rather easy to understand once you see them"

"Alright, and the last piece of evidence is the engraved button in the boy's lungs"

"Alright, is it clean?" I ask.

"Yes, and the engravings are rather bold and unique, no store here has them"

She hands me the button in the bag for me to look at. When I first heard of it I thought there's no way this could lead to any real clues but after looking at the engravings, no, no it can't be, I... have seen those before, they're not any Titan engravings, but they are familiar, the Ackerman family insignia was carved in fine detail.

"No... it can't be, not him. Why now?"

"Uhh, Levi? Are you alright? You look rather pale" Hanji asked me but I couldn't answer.

"How? It can't be him, Kenny..." I whispered to myself, yet Hanji heard me.

"Kenny? Who's that?"

"Kenny Ackerman... and my uncle, he's the murderer" I said in a low voice.

Just then, my head started aching and flashbacks of my childhood came back into my memory. Times like the day Kenny found me in my mother's room, barely more than a skeleton and my mother dead on her bed for days. The time he took me in that day and fed me, the time he taught me how to survive in that shithole, how I learned to use a knife, how to fight, how to live. Kenny, who left me on my own a year later, left me to rot in the underground by myself and vanished. He's back... and he is the murderer responsible for Mikasa's best friend's death.

"Your, uncle? The one that found you and took you in?" she asks me

"Yes...  he's working with the Titans, and he killed Armin"

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Ooo, plot twist but not really. Hope you guys enjoyed this one and sorry to those who got a notification that the chapter was out previously, I accidentally uploaded it half finished. Let me know what you think of this and I'll see you on the next one...