Eren felt the warmth coming from the backs of the hands on his palms. He opened his eyes, an indescribable emotion appearing in them. For a moment, all the plans which ran in his head all day vanished.
His mind was fully focused on the warmth coming from the backs of those hands.
Sasha's mind was also in turmoil; she didn't understand what she had just done. Was it impulsive? But if given the choice, she would still put her hand on his.
Krista's motives didn't have anything hidden in them. If her friends were getting punished, how could she do nothing? Left alone unpunished, how would they look at her? She also placed her hand to get punished.
But looking at this heartwarming moment, not all the people in the room seemed to be happy. Shadis's face had turned black, and then visible anger lines could be seen on his neck and eyes; he was on the brink of activating any hidden bloodline he had. But he took a deep breath.
"You three! Get out and start running now, and no one is stopping until I say so. Understood?!" he shouted.
"Yes, sir!"
Three voices came at the same time. One had a little cheer in it, the other seemed to have a sense of relief—these two belonged to Sasha and Krista—while the third voice didn't have any visible excitement.
At first, Eren was just going to receive some cane strikes; with his Titan regeneration things would be fine.
But now he had to run, and for a Titan shifter, his biggest problem is stamina; they are still bound to human stamina, with only little improvement. But looking at the girls, he couldn't bring himself to become mad at them. Helpless, he just sighed.
"What are you sighing for? Get lost and start running now!" With a thunderous roar, they were thrown out. The girls also followed right after.
The sun had just set, and night was just starting to cover the sky as all three started to run. Bit by bit, minutes passed, then hours.
They were sweating from head to toe. Although Eren had much more stamina left than the girls, he matched their rhythm, because anyway they were not in a race, so he also told the girls to run as slowly as possible.
When the first rays of the sun hit the ground in front of them, the command from Shadis to stop finally came. All three were too exhausted to even stand, but Eren warned them not to stop.
Slowly, they transitioned from a run to a light jog, and then to a walk. After several minutes, when they were moving even slower than a person walks, they stopped. If they had stopped right after the orders came, Eren would be fine, but Sasha and Krista could have faced some problems; their bodies could have collapsed, or they could have fainted, or in the worst case, suffered an injury.
It was very important to let the body enter a state of rest slowly and cool down gradually before stopping.
All three, panting, dropped down onto the ground. The sky seemed much brighter and bluer today. After some trainees threw them onto their beds in their respective quarters, the training for the others started as normal.
At the training ground, there was someone who was looking for something or someone, but couldn't find them at all. Her eyes were looking and gazing all over the grounds to see that familiar face, even just the back of his figure. But no matter how hard she tried, Mikasa couldn't find Eren.
It had been more than an hour since training started, but he wasn't there. This had never happened before; Eren was always on time for training. What could have happened? Where is he? A deep worry for Eren started to fill her heart.
Although Eren had said to her, let's be strangers, can they become strangers just because he said so? Did he ask her? Even if she becomes a stranger to him, he never would or will be a stranger to her.
With every passing second, the worry started to grow. Did something happen to him? Did he fall sick? She knew herself that with a Titan's power it's almost impossible to fall sick, but her heart, like a whirlpool, was rotating all her thoughts and emotions in her head. She walked forward toward Armin.
"Did you see Eren?" she asked directly, a sense of hurry and panic driving her voice. Armin would have noticed that under normal conditions, but he had just run and was panting heavily; he shook his head.
"I didn't see him in the quarters either. I thought that he got up early and was on the grounds training." But then, he also realized he hadn't seen Eren since morning.
"Are you talking about Eren?" A boy next to them just overheard their conversation and asked while walking forward.
"Yes, did you see him?" Armin answered.
"Yes, we did," another boy, who was taller and slimmer than the first, answered.
Mikasa's eyes lit up. She moved forward, grabbing his collar, and asked in a questioning tone—though to the boy whose collar she was holding, it felt much more threatening than questioning.
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He tried to say something, but only stuttering sounds came from his mouth.
"We... w... we..."
Seeing him unable to talk, she tossed him aside and looked at the second boy. Before she could say something or make a move, he spoke up in one breath.
"He collapsed on the outskirts, and we just thr... placed him on his bed and came to training! We know nothing else!" When he was about to say they threw him onto the bed, he felt Mikasa's eyes becoming darker, so he instantly changed it to placed.
If possible, he would have even said gently, too. Unlike his friend, he was more intelligent and smart; he wanted to continue to tell her that it was Instructor Shadis who ordered it...
But before he could even open his mouth, like a gust of wind, Mikasa ran past him. She wasn't in the mood to hear anything anymore. Eren had collapsed on the ground. how could it be? What could have happened to him? And remembering that just yesterday Ymir had gone missing—and by Eren's behavior, he seemed unrelated to it—her heart filled with even more panic.
They were on the other side of the camp, far from the quarters. Her legs started to become a blur because of the speed at which she was running. When she passed a rock, only scattered pieces remained in her wake; with every step, the wind seemed to follow her.
The distance that normally took an hour to cover, she had traversed in minutes. She was panting heavily, her bangs were stuck to her forehead, and sweat was dripping from the tips of her hair.
She rushed to the boys' quarters and pushed open the door.
"Eren!"
continue—