That day still haunts him like yesterday..

where he lost his faith..

Hated himself for the decision he made..

yet he cursed the pouring rain.

It was year 846 (a year after the fall of shiganshina) The gate ready to be opened. Signified bravery of the determined scouting legion. It was a regular expedition held once in every 3 months to secure the path in wall maria hope that it could reached into Shiganshina again someday. So far they have explored 20% of the path in 1 year yet it cost many lives. Just a vivid example of how weak humans are compared to the titan with their size and number. But Commander Erwin Smith always have faith in humanity. Everyone put their faith on him. Including the humanity strongest. Especially for today's mission. He wouldn't let Erwin messed up.

"Oi Erwin" He approached him with his black horse and met the white one.

"What is it , Levi?" The blond man didn't shift his eyes to him

"The weather isn't that good, isn't?" He sound cautious. The commander looked up the sky

"Hm, We can handle it better this time. Those people in the capital already invested so much on us and paid your cleaning supplies. You think I'll cancle this and went to all the trouble again in Sina, huh?" He replied sarcasticly

"So you mean those fat pigs money is way more important than the lives here?" He sound annoyed

"Trust me" Finally the bright blue eyes met the dark blue grey-ish eyes.

"Tch.." he was right. He couldn't do anything about it. All he need was to trust him and survive. Especially keep them alive. He went back to the line and joined with his new squad. The special operation squad consist of 4 incredible soldiers. Most of them only been in an expedition for 4-5 times. But their skill and number of kills already amazed the dark haired man to actually recruit them. Months of training as a whole team was enough. He scanned each of their determined face one by one. Eld Gin, Gunther Shultz, Auruo Bossard, and Petra Ral. "They are ready.." He thought.

"Sir, It looks like its going to rain soon or later? Does danchou have any plan for it?" Eld asked

"I talked about it before.The long range formation would be tighter and we will use the sound flare if the smoke gun can't help the situation. Just stay focused and get close with each other you all hear me ?" He command them with the infamous bored expression.

"Yes sir!" All of the team member saluted "Good then."

The bell rang , signified the opening gate. All soldiers began to leave the wall and scattered for the long distance formation.

  "ADVAAAANNNCCCEEEEE!!!!" The commander voice rang in each of the soldiers ears across the direction.

Levi squad was positioned on left flank this time , Not too edge but not too centered since they still could see the titans across the horizon but none approached their territory yet so far. At first the whole formation could avoid the dark clouds and titans well for the first 3 hours ride. But as they reached the rest of the unexplored land and the tension went different, the clouds also getting darker and darker. the wind blowed hard followed by sudden rain drops. Before the rain went harder, yellow smokes were shot from the front line, it was a signal to tighten the formation. Even if the commander well prepared for the rain, He couldn't help but to curse on the situation they were right now.

"Tch...Not this again" he was getting worried and it appeared on his face vividly, Petra who was right beside him saw the change on his expression and began to call him

"Heichou..?" He didn't reply

"Heichou..!" She called a little bit louder and the voice surprised him, He looked at her direction

"Don't worry heichou, the commander got this" She tried to smile at him and hoping that it would reassure him, but it seemed like it didn't work at him. He maintain his stoic face ahead without replying.

The rain finally went hard on them, they put on their raincoat and keep maintaining the horse speed so that they wouldn't get too far from the front line. Cold began to crawl on their skin as the rain wash all over their body. It was getting foggy by all sudden and made the visibility worse to just 8m ahead. God knows where and what titans around them.

A loud sound from the sound flare suddenly be heard and alarmed them. Not just once but several times, It came from the left side of the formation. They drew out their blades getting ready for any worse case scenario they will face soon and later. Auruo began to curse a lot, his muttering could be heard by all the members, Usually they would shout at him and warn him for being too loud since he could bite his tongue anytime but this time they couldn't afford wasting time and energy for that.

Her heart pounded so fast at the situation knowing that anyone wouldn't be safe, she kept her gaze on the left side ready to greet the titan.

*RRROOOOAAAARR* A massive hand suddenly slammed on Auruo horse causing him to be throwed up and fell hard misseraly on the dirty wet ground and bit his tongue for sure and went unconscious. His position was a bit far behind than the rest of the squad with Gunther who hurriedly slashed on the hand that almost gripped the injured man. It turned out that the titan was a fast crawling type and they agreed that it was an aberrant. Everything happend so fast, they didn't managed to speak at each other but attacked on it as fast as they could. Eld managed to cut the limbs and gunther aimed for the nape but he missed as the titan head turned to his direction leaving him almost get eaten. Lucky enough, their captain managed to cut the nape right on time before it ended Gunther's life. The titan fell down and steam began to appear. Petra and Levi quickly went to Auruo side to check on his condition while Eld checking on Gunther.

"Is He alright ?" Levi asked

"I think he just hit his head, nothing too serious aside from his bleeding tongue sir" Petra replied with calm voice. Eld and Gunther went to their direction

"Gunther, you alright ?" Levi asked them

"I'm Ok sir, just a scratch" Gunther replied, his forehead bit bleeding from the fall

"alright then..Eld ! bring Auruo on your horse, we need to mov-!"

Just before he finished his sentence, another round of sound flare could be heard again from the left side.

"What the hell....What are the other team doing right there...tch" He cursed on the situation right now as the rain didn't get any better at all. They hurriedly went to their horse and move again.

A loud thump sound could be heard from the left side, it was a sound of a falling titan. Gunther went to the side to check out, He met Nanaba who just solo killed the regular titan there. The short haired woman replaced her swords.

"Nanaba-san..? Aren't you from the front lines?" Gunther asked

"Yes, I came further back to relay message from the front lines." The rest of the squad went to their direction

"What's the situation right now?" Levi asked in harsh voice

"Because the storm isn't getting any better, Erwin decided to make the formation goes west to an abandoned castle Whitz there for protection. Please relay this message further to the rear line I need to get back to my squad ahead. Hanji in charge on relaying message on the right flank. Now, excused me" Nanaba explained and soon disappeared on the fog

"You heard that brats, lets move on" Levi instructed them. They went on their move again with their horse, The rain went even harder again

"Sir, someone should relay the message to the rear line, I'll do it !" Petra initiaved right beside Levi

"IN THIS RAIN ? THE HELL YOU WON'T" He shouted since the hard rain made it hard to communicate well

"If we don't. the formation will be break further and they won't head to the castle sir !" She kept begging him

"Tch....We should wait for the rain first" he replied in lower voice

"It would be too later sir, Eld already cary Auruo and Gunther injured...So-"

"I'LL DO IT ALONE THEN !!" He snapped, he was stressed enough at this situation.

"But..that's dangerous sir..we should go together then!"

"FINE RAL , LETS GO."

He suddenly turned his horse direction to the back .He had enough ,, he really had enough. He knew that she was such a hard headed woman but he couldn't deny that she was right. He regretted that he shouted way too harsh on of her. She was shocked by the sudden shout but she followed his direction quickly leaving the rest of the squad behind. "Guys be safe!" Eld shouted at them only replied by petra's nod.

_______________________________________________________________

Levi and Petra kept heading back to the rear line. The tension between them was so tight due to their previous arguments. It was their first expedition together as a squad after all, but the strawberry blonde haired woman was still feel disappointed on her captain, Never did she think that he would shout at her close so harsh at such high volume with angry face directly to her. That thought terrified her. She remained silence along the way. Levi realized the sudden silence and had a glance at her, but she kept her sight down didn't have the courage to face him. He felt really bad about what he did earlier, He really didn't mean it. In fact, he really don't know why he was always so harsh on her in every situation including training. He thought that he just want to make her stronger than ever and didn't want her to feel treated different than the boys. Or he simply just being more cautious with her especially outside the wall. He wanted to keep her safe. Right..that was all he wanted to do for her.

"I'm Sorry..Heichou.." He was bit startled by the sudden apologie yet he didn't face her

"No..It's all my fault, Sorry for snapping on you like that..I swore i didn't mean it.." He replied softly

She didn't expect to hear an apology coming right from her captain. The Humanity Strongest just admitted his fault to her. That moment just made her respect even bigger to her captain, she couldn't hold her smiling face that time but still managed to hide it from her captain.

"ACHOOOO!!"

Suddenly she sneezed loudly as she began to sniff on the running nose. Levi found out that her sneezing sounds cute and looked at her direction. She felt embarassed on her sneezing sound. Her nose getting red and her Body began to shiver a bit since they already inside the rain for like an hour. Somehow, it also affected Levi, he began to sneeze as well yet his sneeze still sounded so manly. "How can his sneezing sound still as good as his feature huh..?" She thought

"I really need some hot tea and a shower right now.." He murmured

"Haha...I'll make sure you got that later sir.." She replied

Fortunately they were lucky enough that they didn't encountered any titan on the way as they finally met with the rear line an hour later and succesfully spread the news and started to catch up with their squad ahead again as they kept heading west to the castle as fast as possible.

In the middle of the way, they suddenly found out a group of massive footprints headed towards their squad direction "4...5...7...10? You fucking kidding me..?" Pure shocked hit him. The captain froze for a moment.

"Did we somehow passed right through them earlier? Heichou! we need to go back fast! There is no way those three can handle it..! Auruo even knocked out! " Her face looked terrified unsure what to do next. She realized that his face also changed.

He knew this situation. This felt too familiar.. Way too familliar..... Still dumbfounded, He was sure that he could hear his own heartbeat inside his ears.

"..Heichou..?" Her hand suddenly right above his and caught him off guard. He came back to his stoic face again and started to move his horse ahead. She followed him

"Lets hurry."

____________________________________________________________________________

That day still haunts him like yesterday..

where he lost his faith..

Hated himself for the decision he made..

yet he cursed the pouring rain.

____________________________________________

To Be Continued to the 2nd Part of "Cursed"