Chapter 8

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Author's note: Sorry if you find a spelling mistake.

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The feeling caused by using the three-dimensional maneuvering equipment for Ayanokōji has been something that he got used to too quickly, feeling small emotions of tranquility and peace that were quite addictive, even so, he was very careful when using the equipment. But that didn't mean he wouldn't risk trying some maneuvers.

Most cadets using 3D maneuvering gear are average, or below this, if they faced a battle of the titans they would likely die. But, just as some cadets are not good at using 3D maneuvering equipment, some are above average. Springer, Bold, Sasha, Ymir, Bertholdt, Braun, Eren, Kirstein, Leonhart, and Mikasa.

Mikasa Ackerman. She could master any maneuver with the ODM team with ease, too easily, if he was being honest. She just needed to see how a maneuver needed to be replicated, sometimes she failed when she tried, but the adaptation skills were amazing for a normal human and it didn't take long for her to master the maneuver.

Even in unfamiliar terrain like using a three-dimensional maneuvering team, Ayanokōji was able to easily adapt and handle it as if it were first nature. Despite that, that didn't mean he had some setbacks, although they were easy for someone like him to remedy.

Ayanokōji Kiyotaka has to admit that Mikasa Ackerman, gave him some good competition when it comes to the three-dimensional team. Once when she was competing in a race, Mikasa used a speed that took Ayanokōji completely by surprise, had it not been for his instinctual reaction to catch her and her survival instincts to slow down. Mikasa could be injured by exceeding a speed that her body was not used to. She had used too much gas propulsion on that.

The internal frustrations within her made her do a reckless act. Ayanokōji knew very well what was the cause of her internal frustrations. But still, he won't mention anything about these.

At the moment we were receiving a class, which was quite important for our training. They gave us a book for us to review before the face-to-face classes that the teaching instructor will give. So here was Ayanokōji trying to listen to something that he had already read before.

His fellow cadets were also paying attention. No one was talking or getting distracted, they only participated when the instructor asked or when they had a doubt about the subject we are dealing with.

"If even the documents of our historical literature that survived over the years give us clues about the origin of the Titans. We know almost nothing about them, the little we know about their bodies, we learned from the latest reports from the squad recognition" The learning instructor explained, holding a book in his hand.

That was a disadvantage, a huge one if he was honest. Not knowing the origins of the titans is counterproductive for humanity. Not knowing the cause of reproduction of these giant humanoids, then they could not find a method to be able to do a genocide to this race that threatens the extinction of humanity.

To find a cure for a certain virus in our human organism, it is first necessary to understand what caused the origin of these. Although there may be some exceptions for some diseases, despite these exceptions a treatment is almost always found.

Following this example, raised many questions: if they can't find a cure, then why don't they seek treatment? If the people within these walls could create the ODM team to fight the Titans, why not create other weapons? Why stagnate and settle for the ones you have? If they had a vehicle or aerial weapon, I was sure that hunting down the Titans would be much easier.

100 years have passed since the appearance of the Titans and these people had so few defenses to counter them, it was no wonder they were on the brink of extinction.

"The titans show no signs of intelligence, and there are no instances of successful communication with them either. The body structure is fundamentally different from the other creatures. They have no sexual organs, and their method of reproduction is unknown" the instructor continued his explanation.

Ayanokōji looked at his book that was on the table, looking at the drawing of the titan that was in the book.

He frowned, narrowing his eyes slightly at the image.

The creature itself, while quite similar to the anatomy of a male human, included deformities. These deformities found in Titans come in many forms, an overly large belly, longer or shorter limbs, even some limbs were at unnatural angles. Something out of a horror story.

"Most of them have a human-like physique. Their bodies exhibit extremely high temperatures. To their confusion and dismay, they show no interest in any creature except humans. Apparently, they are driven exclusively by the desire to consume humans, However, the fact that they have survived for more than a century in an environment without humans, leaves us to conjecture that they do not need to eat. Therefore, they are not predators, they are annihilators." Said the instructor, beginning to draw a drawing with the chalk on the blackboard.

Which was quite strange, because every organism needs some circumstances for survival. Why did the Titans eat exclusively humans? What is it that these beings attract our attention? What motive or objective did they have for eating us?

If the titans do not need to eat to survive to feed, then it has to be a source of energy that kept them alive, at first humanity had thought that their source of energy for the survival of the titans was sunlight, but they were totally wrong.

Titans only need the energy of sunlight to be active, to be able to move. It was discovered that Titans do not usually move at night. Despite this discovery, the Titans do not need sunlight as a source of survival, even if they circumscribe the Titans from sunlight. These will only be in a state of drowsiness or rest.

So if it wasn't sunlight. What source of energy do they need to survive? What is the fuel of the Titans if they do not need to feed on humans for their survival? Was some supernatural source keeping them alive? Is there a nucleus that will keep all the titans alive?

In the 2012 Avengers movie, in the alien attack, despite the efforts the six heroes made to take down the aliens from left to right, more just kept coming through the portal.

Tony Stark, known as Iron Man, sent a missile through the portal, exploding the core or source of energy that kept these extraterrestrial beings alive. Thus killing all the aliens that were both inside and outside the earth.

An unorthodox comparison for the situation. But nothing that Ayanokōji can simply rule out.

"The main factor that humanity has been cornered by. It is the amazing survivability of the Titans, for a long time, humanity has fought using the technology of cannons, but even that power could not stop the Titans. If you blow the head off a Titan, it will regenerate in a minute or two, although there are individual differences," Explained the instructor, turning around giving the cadets a serious look.

"It's crazy ..."

"As if its size wasn't enough ..."

The cadets began to murmur in disbelief, amazement, and fear.

He couldn't blame them for showing fear of these beings. The ability to even regenerate the head in a matter of seconds is not something to be taken lightly. Ayanokōji could tell that many of these people would not be mentally prepared to face a titan.

Despite all the training they go through to fight them, fighting a training dummy is not the same as fighting a titan. Fear, terror, most of the cadets in this room would probably freeze when faced with a Titan.

"Instructor, are the Titans invincible?" Bold asked, rising from his seat as he extended his hand.

"They are not," The teaching instructor said, pointing to the drawing of the rear view of the human body that was slate with the chalk. "There is only one way to defeat a Titan," he explained, circling the neck of the drawing. "Aim here. If significant damage is dealt with in that area, the Titan will die instead of regenerating. To cut its flesh, we use double swords, like the one on this table" The teaching instructor said, pointing at the swords.

The weapon, which was made of super-hardened steel, was on the table in front of the cadets, showing a display to everyone in the room. This weapon consists of a saber blade divided into folded segmentations and in addition to being flexible, the blade is sharp enough to cut through the flesh of a Titan with exact precision.

However, these are not infinite since their use is very limited, which is why the user has several replacement blades that are added to the cartridges on his waist.

"If the attack reaches its weak point, the Titan will not have time to regenerate and will die quickly. Despite this, the safest way to kill them is by cutting an area one meter long and 10 centimeters wide at the nape of the neck." the instructor clarified, looking at the watch in his hand. "Well, that's all. I hope you study the brochure that was given to you, you can ask any questions in the next class" he said, ending the lecture.

Right now we had free time before it was time for dinner. Ayanokōji looked at his book, reading it for a few seconds to briefly review the content.

The sigh.

"Hey, Kiyotaka" A voice that he recognized made me look in his direction. It was Springer "Do you want to hang out? Jean, Sasha, Marco and with others, we will have some fun. The training has been quite hard, so we were going to do something to relax" Springer asked, pointing with his thumb behind his shoulder where Kirstein was.

"I'd like to join you though. I'm a bit busy right now, so maybe next time," he explained.

"Are you sure?" Springer asked, causing him to nod in confirmation. "Well. You miss it." Springer shrugged as he waved mercilessly and walked away.

He didn't leave because he wanted to assess someone's mindset.

Armin Arlert. One of the three friends who came from Shiganshina who were on the day the breach occurred, the Colossal Titan and Armored Titan's attack on the remaining humanity. Despite his lack of athletic skills, Armin was intelligent, sadly his talent is overshadowed by his lack of self-confidence. It is when he is alone with his friends that his true intellect can be detected.

That is why when classes started, Ayanokōji was keeping an eye on him. Arlert always stayed alone for a few minutes in the classroom to review everything they had learned and whenever he had a question, Arlert would let the instructor know. The great curiosity of the shy boy with the coconut hairstyle made Ayanokōji nostalgic.

It reminded him of his time, in the white room every time he looked for a book to find an answer, he always had to find the answer to his question himself, since most instructors in the white room despise him for being "son" of that man. They also envied him for his great talent and monstrous growth.

With this plan in mind, he went to where the boy was and something caught his attention when he realized the book that Armin was reading

"Good book?" he talked.

He was surprised to see me talking to him. He almost dropped the book he was reading and almost fell if he hadn't grabbed him by the shoulder. The young man instantly turned to me, revealing sky blue eyes that were surprised to see him approach him.

"Er...?"

"Sorry," he said, raising his hand apologetically. "I didn't mean to scare you like that. I thought you would have heard me approach."

The boy, Armin, gave a little laugh, then released it when he was sure he wasn't going to fall.

"No ... it's okay," Armin said, "I tend to concentrate pretty easily when I read and forget about the world around me."

He nodded "I understand the feeling" it was not a lie, when he was in the White Room he would spend hours reading forgetting, even for a few moments, the world around him, even with Hiyori we concentrated a lot on our reading time, enjoying the comfortable silence between us. "I was curious what you were reading, I mean, for you to immerse yourself so deeply in the book it must be a good book, right?"

Armin showed him the book he was reading.

"Since they wanted us to do our own maintenance on our ODM," Armin said, "I was reading the manual on the most common problem they might have with the equipment and be prepared when they happen, so we can recognize them faster."

Oh, ~. He was a bit impressed actually, not many cadets had read the maintenance manual that should be done with three-dimensional maneuvering equipment. Most preferred to ask other people for help, especially those who had no idea how to do it.

He was not a mechanic, but Ayanokōji read quite a few books on architecture and engineering. In addition to knowing how certain tools work at the time of construction. It is thanks to this knowledge that you can easily understand the repair of the three-dimensional shunting equipment.

Still, repairing equipment was one thing, modifying equipment was something else entirely. Due to my limited knowledge of mechanics, modifying his equipment had to be based on trial and error. To be sure of the modifications he made to his three-dimensional maneuvering equipment.

"That's smart. Not many seem to take maintenance seriously" which was pretty much everything in his opinion, in a life and death situation, this kind of knowledge can save your life. "By the way, Armin. You want to join the Scouts, right? "

Armin blinked at his question, before shaking his head and replying "I... if I do, I want to join the Scouts with my friends, why?" Armin commented curiously.

"First of all, make it clear to you that I don't think it's silly to join the Scouts, in fact, I think you have the courage to join them and put yourself in the front line in battle," he said, not wanting to offend their decision, "Still I'm curious, why? What motivates you to join? "

Armin fell silent at that, almost as if he was thinking for a few moments.

"I ..." Armin shook his head before taking a deep breath and continuing "As you already know when the superiors sent the refugees to fight against the titans to end the food crisis. In that campaign my grandfather joined and never returned" he commented in a gloomy and regretful tone. "As a child, I have always depended on Eren and Mikasa, but I am already tired of that, I want to have a good and significant impact on the world, showing that I am not the same child as before. I do not want other people to have to suffer the same consequence that we suffer. That's why I want to join the Scouts "Armin explained.

He doesn't want to be the same kind as before. Eh. There are many reasons why a person would suffer from a lack of confidence or low self-esteem. Did they despise it? Intimidated? It can even be a case of both. Or maybe he thinks that he depends a lot on his friends, so he comes to despise himself considering himself weak or useless.

"I see. But you know that to have an impact on the world, you have to work pretty hard, right? To be honest I don't think you will leave an impact on the world if your thoughts are based on: Being weak or useless because I depend a lot on people" he said, giving him a flat look making him wince.

"W-what?"

"No matter how hard you work to improve your physique, you will never be able to surpass someone like Eren or Mikasa. You will always be below them when it comes to physique. But... who said that physical strength is the only way to leave an impact? in the world" he explains.

"Eh. You mean...?"

"If we talk about physical abilities, then maybe you can surpass average people a bit if you try hard in these three years" he nodded, interrupting him and confirming his suspicions "You are quite intelligent Armin, your analytical capacity and your processing capacity is much taller than any cadet in this camp, despite that, you let your anxieties take over you, that's why you brake your abilities" he lectured him "If you can't trust your intelligence and you let your anxieties dominate you, then let me tell you that you will never have an impact in this world," he told him coldly.

"I... I see, I guess you're right. But how can you know that I won't fail or disappoint someone because I didn't measure up?" Armin asked frustrated.

"If you fail or not fail. You can't know until you try, right? Stop thinking about What if? Make an effort and try without letting anyone stop you, if you cower and think back, then you should never join the cadet corps" he commented, patting his shoulder "Just think about what I told you, okay?"

Armin nodded determinedly "Thanks, for the advice. Kiyotaka," he said, smiling at me.

"By the way, can you help me with something related to the 3D team," he asked him.

"I ... I'm not that skilled with equipment," the blonde told me with a slightly embarrassed tone.

"Not the maneuver," he said, "But with these calculations ... do you think you can help?"

Armin looked at the numerous diagrams he had drawn, his eyes scanning them with a slight frown on his face. His eyes were looking quickly at the numbers, speaking quietly to himself.

"You ... are you really calculating that much?" Armin asked, sounding surprised at him.

Yes. In fact, he could calculate much larger amounts, but he needed to give you a thumbs up. Armin was an intelligent person, unfortunately, his kindness and shyness made him an easy person to read and manipulate.

He nodded in confirmation before explaining that he had prepared "I was working on something with my ODM team. I wanted to learn a maneuver, but I was not having much luck figuring it out."

The young blonde just gives him a little nod.

"Okay," he said, "I'll see what I can do."

The rest of the day we spent talking about the modifications of the 3D ODM kit and Armin was able to solve the calculations that he had written down in his notebook easily. Although Armin, at one point in the conversation something that caught Ayanokōji's attention.

"The ocean?" he blinked in confusion, asking for clarification.

"Yes. The ocean is the largest body of water in the world" Armin said passionately, looking around to see if no one was there. "My dream is to explore what is outside the walls one day, I want to see what the ocean is"

"I... I see, it's a good dream" he said understanding completely, when he was a child he also wanted to visit various places abroad, but when he finally got to visit some places, like the uninhabited island or looking at the ocean. In the end, he could not feel anything, without satisfaction, without happiness. A little disappointing if he was honest.

"I will show you the book I have from abroad, but I have it hidden so that the military will not find it" Armin explained.

"Hidden?" he asks confused. Why would a book from the outside need to be hidden? Now that he thought about it. He had never heard people mention the outside as if it was something taboo that should not be mentioned.

"The nobility forbid any acquaintance with the outside. They are too afraid of what people might do if they knew about the outside. That's why no one talks about it" Armin explained, writing something in his notebook.

He didn't answer, he was silent, thinking about the new information he had obtained, it was quite useful. Too useful, this generated many answers to your questions and

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