Chapter 4

   "Snap out of it."

   I was still pondering on that incident with the 3D Maneuver Gear because I knew... I just knew that I was here before. I know that I was here before but the real question is when?

   "Lukas, was I here before inside the walls?" I asked with innocent eyes.

   He looked startled to hear my question as if the answer was already obvious. Laughing nervously, he responded, "Well, if you were living outside the walls, you couldn't have come here before. If you really want to know, we can see all the soldiers' documents, with heichou's permission, of course."

   Turning to Levi, I questioned, "Can we go check the soldier's documents, heichou?"

   "Tch, do whatever you want, brats. I'll go tell Erwin while you guys go."

   Lukas, let's go!" I cheered, fist pumping the air with a gleeful laugh.

~*~

   "There's nothing interesting here," I complained with my head being supported by my hand as I continuously flipped through the papers. The documents were just a quick sketch of the person, their names, some information about their family and where they were from, what Trainees Squad they were from and a couple other things. Many of the faces and information were similar and boring. I wanted to skip all of them and only look at a few but I couldn't miss any one. Sighing, I started to check a new stack of documents, only glancing at the sketches this time. What could I do to make this more interesting... hmm. Ah hah!

   "He's ugly, she has a weird hairstyle, why does he have facial hair, he's bald, she has fat lips, you have squinty eyes like Levi, he has extreme eyebrows, and... what's this?" I came across a picture of a man with short hair and a calm expression. Something about this man... intrigues me. Reading his information, I found out that he was dead. Nothing else was written about him other than his name which was Arthur with no last name.

   "You're attracted to Arthur, are you?" Lukas joked with a sad smile. While pouting, I crossed my arms and looked away.

   "Let me tell you a little something. Arthur was one of my only friends during training. He was mysterious, shy, but opened up to me. I remember him saying that he had an abusive father at home but he didn't tell me anything else. It was weird because even though he was talented and skilled, he got grabbed by a titan in the first expedition outside the walls we had. He was almost better than anyone else, but he did everything to not get himself noticed. I guess he was too modest," Lukas recalled.

   "Oh... I'm sorry. Well then, let's go and eat. I'm done looking," I suggested with Lukas just nodding. I felt guilty for making him upset but he comforted me by saying, "Don't worry, I'm over it."

~*~

   The food was simple, just some bread and soup with a cup of water. Everyone seemed to stray away from me, trying to be as far away from me as possible. Some looked at me with scared faces, some with hatred, and a small group with sympathy in their eyes. I don't mind because if I were in their shoes right now, I would probably be afraid of a person who claims to have eaten humans - Coughing, I remembered things I probably shouldn't have. No, don't think about it. You're human just like everyone else here, with a normal life.

   "Are you okay?" A girl with dark maroon hair with shades of brown in a short ponytail approached me with concern.

   Giving out my best smile, I answered, "Thanks. What's your name? You're the first person to have approached me so far in here." Lukas had to do an errand with Levi so he left early.

   "It's okay, it's not your fault that you had to live out there. You're human just like everyone else, right? Everyone has a different past and that's what makes everyone unique. You didn't know you were eating... you know so it isn't your fault. In fact, you're special because you may be able to befriend more titans, which would lead to humanity's survival in the future. We are actually lucky to meet someone like you since this case is extremely extraordinary. Everyone should respect a candidate for humanity's special weapon against the titans. Anyway, I'm Clara from Lukas's Squad," she explained, holding her hand out.

   I shook it and said, "I'm Ria and Lukas had a squad? I thought he was in Levi's squad. In my opinion, his personality is more of a follower than a leader. Being a squad leader probably is hard work after all. You have to think about all your members' needs and limitations. If a titan is coming, you have to give specific orders, have the perfect timing, know the amount of risk to take, and know when sacrifices are needed. You need to know how much to gamble or else your whole squad might die. Squad members are highly skilled after all so they can't be wasted as mere titan bait. Know where the titan is or all the titan's locations, then either attack with one person, two people, or any number of people. And-" I quickly stopped talking because of how much information I knew about a topic I thought I was unfamiliar with. Everyone around the room stared at me with gaping faces and wide eyes. Someone even dropped their spoon into their soup.

   "W-wow I guess Lukas or Levi must've told you a lot. Maybe I'll ask them to teach me about this too because I want to have my own squad one day. I'm starting to think you would be a better squad leader than Lukas," Clara chuckled.

   "N-no, I think Lukas and heichou are both busy right now. They probably have other things to worry about so you shouldn't bother asking them to tell you about all this squad leadership. I'll tell you more some other time," I assured her. What was that about? Since when did I know information about squads?

   Afterwards, we talked about many things. She told me about some of the trainees she just saw with the 3D Maneuver Gear Training. Apparently, one girl with black hair was completely steady and a natural at it but one guy kept flipping upside down. I told her about my first experience with Levi and Lukas. Clara hysterically laughed when I told her Levi's response when I was "pulling a crazy stunt" and when I tried to piggy back him. According to her, no one else would've dared to do what I did and was lucky Lukas was there. Since the talk with Clara, I always ate with her and quickly became friends. I finished training early because I was a complete natural at it. Whatever Levi threw at me to do, I did it perfectly. However, I couldn't be as good as Levi.

   Days of training and talking with Clara went on and on until I finally "graduated" from my training. There wasn't really any celebration since it was just Levi telling me I was done. Actually before that, since Levi thought I was missing something, I had to undergo an interesting test.

   "Are you that f*cker who ate titan sh*t outside the damn walls? How did it taste?" a man with intimidating eyes interrogated.

   "Sir, I did not eat titan sh*t outside the walls and my name is Ria! I also believe titans do not sh*t for I have not personally experienced seeing it!" I replied with my head held high and my hands positioned in the salute for giving your heart to humanity.

   "Well too bad I don't care what you think, you little sh*t. You know why? BECAUSE YOU'RE JUST A HUMAN LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, PERFECT FOR TITAN BAIT!" he exclaimed with his head close to my forehead.

   "Sir! I am a human perfect for titan bait!"

   "No you're not! You're the pig that eats sh*t out in the f*cking farm!"

   "Thank you sir! I think of that as a compliment sir because meat is really rare! That means I am special and rare!"

   He took a moment of silence while he thought about what I just said.

   "Sir, you are a pig too since you're so special!"

   I don't know what I was thinking at this time, but I was probably out of my mind.

   "Never mind you're f*cking human because if you're a pig, you can't be helpful even as damn titan food."

   "Is that an insult, sir?"

   I don't want to remember what happened next but in the end I passed.

   This meant that I could go outside the walls with Lukas, Levi, and Clara now. I can maybe meet any of Erik's friends...

   That was the plan, to go outside the walls to test my abilities with befriending titans in a week. I wasn't supposed to meet any titans before that week, but I did. At that incident, I figured something out I should've solved a long time ago.

~*~

>.< Sorry for the time skip! I just had to get this part in for the next part. Hehe I'm excited to write the next part and soon... I'll be dying to write the next chapter! Oh and I'm trying to upload at least 1 chapter per week. CLIFFHANGER again, sorry but I guess this is how you look forward to the next chapter! Hint: There will be action and this whole accident thing. Oh and just to clear things out the incident didn't happen yet so far in the chapters and the next few chapters will be about it! Oh and sorry again for the short chapter. I added a little Keith Shadis scene there XD Thanks for reading! If you liked it, I would really appreciate votes or comments (constructive criticism would be nice) because I just see the reads go up so I can't tell if someone is just clicking on my story 200 times. I sound really selfish so I'm going to stop there. Oh and to everyone who read this story, voted, added to their reading list, and commented, I thank you SO SO much because I am really happy that people enjoy the story. They make my day and I freak out so much when I get a notification like that. Thanks and bye!