XXth February 846

Time passed, and we became half a year older. I became proficient in hand to hand combat, learnt how to ride the horses despite their clear animosity towards me, and grew closer to everyone else in the unit. Ah, and another thing happened-

"Oi! Eren do you think Mikasa's your slave, you dipshit?!" Jean Kirschtein turned into an irredeemable nutsack.

"What's it got to do with you?" I scoffed while getting up from the table.

"What's it got to do with me? You wanna take this outside and see what it's got to do with me?"

"Why outside? Do it right here."

He swung his fist but it took at least a couple of days to even reach me. I gave him a decent uppercut by the time it arrived.

"You little!" He fell back a couple of steps.

We always fought... but there was never any bad blood between the both of us.

Just that we liked the same girl.

"Jean... Jean... you should give up already. She's already obsessed with him." Connie came into the middle of the fight.

Jean looked up and Mikasa with a flushed face.

"S-shut up! I'll get you back for this!" He ran off.

"And Eren you too... stop making Mikasa do stuff you can do on your own!" Historia came to lecture me. In the past half a year she had become a sort of younger sibling that I never asked for. Well, her being here isn't all that bad.

Historia took the gear we had just received from Mikasa's hands and handed it back to me.

I didn't even give it to Mikasa in the first place! She just takes everything on her own! Why did everyone call me out as lazy when she was the one who pampered me unconditionally?

"Mikasa, let's go! These people are too anal about everything."

"Eren." She said and followed me.

I could hear a variety of reactions coming from the background.

As we got out of the canteen, where they handed the gear out, I came across Armin. He was chatting with Annie, as he did fairly often. I could only feel happy for him. The frail little boy who I took care of was in the arms of a capable woman. Even if that woman was a monster when it came to hand to hand combat.

But she wasn't strong enough to beat me anymore, though.

'I will leave them be for now.'

Mikasa and I went to the large boulder situated on one side of the camp.

"So you two got here first." After dealing with our batch the commandant has definitely calmed down a lot. "Who's up first?"

"I'll go." I said. It was easier to get these things done earlier than later.

"Sure." He tugged me onto the ropes hanging off the boulder and hailed me half a meter off the ground.

My feet swayed back and forth until I heard something click in my gear and I got hurled forward. I immediately put my hands in front of my head and broke my fall.

All happened in an instant. Before I could even start the assignment.

"You failed." The commandant said after a moment passed.

"Let me do this again."

Using a gear was an experience I had never felt before. But I was sure that I can make it work.

I pushed myself up and grabbed the ropes to get back in position.

"Eren is here already." I hear Armin and the others arrive as I get back in position.

Yet again, I heard a click and fell forwards.

"Eren, go back." The commandant urged me to take the ropes off. This wasn't my fault! I didn't have the information I needed to make this work. I wanted another chance, I did... But pissing him off anymore would just give me a worse score. So I reluctantly agreed.

Damn it! How could I mess up the most important part of scout training?

I needed to get better for my family's sake.

"Can I go again after everyone is done?" I asked with the last of my faith.

"What do you think you can achieve by then when you couldn't even balance properly?"

"I can do it." I bit my top lip. "I will try."

"Hmm... Okay. Step back."

So I did. I stepped back up close and watched everyone do it.

The rest of the squad got up on the rope and pulled it off. Effortlessly, might I add. Was it really just me? Armin got on and got it on his first try too. Historia was undeniably good at it too.

But while they were doing it- I didn't hear a click. Not a single one.

When I became a ghoul, my senses heightened to the point I could hear stuff from across a busy hall. So there was no way that I would miss a click.

There really wasn't a click when they did it.

"Sir, can I inspect this from a little closer?"

"Huh? Why would you do that?"

"There's a problem with my gear."

"Are you blaming your gear for your failure?"

"Yes."

"This is ridiculous, what's your proof?" He was rather angry.

"There's no clicking sound."

"Clicking sound?"

"Can you make someone try to do this with my gear?"

"Hmmm... are you sure about this? If the other person can do it properly, you will be held responsible. And your grades would be at stake."

"I'm sure." There was no way I was wrong about this.

The commandant sighed. "Who wants to volunteer?"

"I'll do it! Sir!" An unexpected voice immediately came out of the crowd. Jean. The man just wanted to show me down.

He grabbed the gear and put it around his waist. Attached his gear to the rope... and fell down before even reaching the designated height.

A simple faceplant.

"What's going on?! I was able to do it a minute ago."

"The click. The gear is broken, you dimwit." I bragged.

"Tch." I heard the commandant click his tongue. "This just had to happen. Which one of you idiots did it?"

"What do you mean, sir?" Connie spoke up. "Why do you think one of us did it?"

"The gear was quality checked this morning. So the only person who could've tampered with it must have been within your unit."

"We did nothing! We were together all day!" Connie tried to defend the group.

"Oh really?"

"Yes sir!"

"Then why is Sasha sneaking away."

Everyone turned their attention to this one girl who was slowly making her way out of the group.

"What did you do now?"

"I swear I didn't do anything! When I heard there were supplies coming I thought food came in! It wasn't my fault the gear was kept so close! I didn't push it off on purpose!"

"You idiot!" Connie started kneading her head.

"That's one more month of running for you!"

"Sir, that's six months in a row now!"

"Whose fault do you think that is?!"

"Kkk." She got pressured into a new ordeal.

All's well that ends well I guess.

"Eren, borrow someone else's gear for now."

"No, sir. I think I get the gist of how I should work the defective one."

"Huh? Just use a working one. You don't need to act cool!" Jean shouts from the ground.

"I'm not acting cool. If I got this gear in battle or if my gear broke, I would've died. It's better to prepare now than mess up then." Not really.

A gear wouldn't just break from a little fall as Sasha called herself out for. Someone deliberately messed with it.

I wanted to show them that their intervention would do nothing to me.

So I went up to Jean and pulled him out of the gear.

I put the gear on.

"Are you sure about this? This will get on your score."

I just needed to pass anyways. Getting into the scouts doesn't need the highest score. The only reason I was so attached to the scores was that I didn't want anyone to show me down once I joined the squad.

The quicker I could hit my titan kill quota, the quicker I could retire.

"Yes, sir."

The rope pulled me up off the ground.

Find the broken centre of balance and counterbalance.

The click goes off.