Year 847
—Day 1—
The siblings are sat inside Levi's office, talking about Hoshino's registration for the 104th Training Corps. Clearly, Levi was against that idea form the moment Erwin first mentioned that she could be a huge help to the Scout Regiments.
One more inevitable thing was Hoshino's desire to be with her brother, she idolizes him and wants to be just like him. She doesn't know what could happen whenever they went on expeditions outside the wall, and she just couldn't sit still knowing that her brother is fighting titans, always doing something dangerous.
"Are you really sure about this, Hoshino?" Levi asked his sister who's currently in front of him, she nodded making the older one sigh as he pat her head "Once you graduate, think hard on which corps you'll join in. I know you can make it to the top 5."
Hoshino smiled at his brother's words before she jumped in his arms "Thank you, brother!"
Levi just let out a 'tch' at his clingy sister, the door then suddenly opened which made the siblings turn their heads to look who it is and it revealed Shiyo Ashford, a soldier under Levi's command.
"Yo, Hoshino! Are you ready?" She asked Hoshino and the younger nodded in response as she hurried towards Shiyo "Alright let's go then! We'll get going, captain!"
Levi nodded "Sorry for bothering you with my personal troubles. I just needed to get work done here." He told his soldier.
Shiyo promptly laughed "Are you apologizing to me captain? It's alright! Besides, Commander Erwin sent me to observe the trainees for their Vertical Maneuver Gear testing." She chimed before her face darkened "Just don't forget the wine you told me about..."
"Tch, corrupt soldier."
"It was a joke obviously, your sense of humor has me worried about you, captain."
"I should be the one worried about you, carrothead."
The soldier had a quick pause before finally talking "Fine fine, just give me that thing that you promised." She said and left the office with Hoshino beside her "So? Which Corps are you planning on joining, Hoshino?"
The younger one had a determined look on her face "The Survey Corps"
Shiyo wasn't surprised at all as she has known Hoshino since Levi was assigned as the captain of the Special Operations Squad. That once little kid was always by his side, she watched her grow to be an adventurous kid, always watching the Survey Corps train. That time when she asked Shiyo to teach her how to use the Vertical Maneuver, she knew what that kid wanted to be.
"Oh? How come? Why Survey Corps?" Shiyo asked in curiosity "I assume you got influenced by Commander Erwin just because of his comment on your raw skills."
"N–No... I just want to be with my brother, I wanna be like him, I want to fight alongside him. Whatever happens, I'll be there to protect him." She said in a rather cold tone which left Shiyo in a confused state "It's just that, he's been doing everything to protect me since the years that we lived underground. I want him to recognize my strength and trust in me, I want to show him that I can protect both myself and him too."
Shiyo kept staring at her as they walked outside the headquarters "That's really admirable Hoshino"
"How about you, Shiyo? Why did you join the Survey Corps?" The younger one asked the older one.
Shiyo was caught off guard by the fact that Hoshino would ask her that story, she just showed a quick smile before looking at the road ahead of them "Well, there wasn't any other choice..."
———
As the two arrived at the Training grounds, the trainees were already lined up in front of the former commander, Keith Shadis. And so they hurried there towards him saluting to him and apologised for being late before Hoshino went and lined up with the others, beside her was a tall guy with black hair and the other side was a girl with blonde hair.
Shiyo also saluted to Keith "Sir, I am here under the command of Commander Erwin Smith to come and observe the trainees with their Virtual Maneuver gear skills. May I ask when their trial is?"
Keith took a good look at the soldier before him, he noticed the color of her hair before outing a sentence "Ginger hair huh... You're the girl from the Ashford clan?" He asked which earned a quick silence from the girl.
Her eyes were darkened as it was covered with the shadow of her bangs "Yes, sir." She replied with a mumble.
"Very well, it starts tomorrow. You can come anytime you want."
"Thank you, sir!" And with that, she was off in a hurry.
As the soldier had left the field, the rite of passage began. Hoshino went through it without catching the eye of the instructor as she's been through hell down there at the underground city, and he knew that very well. After that, they got dinner from their dining house.
Hoshino looked out the window of the dining house as she was getting her food and saw the girl with potatoes earlier still running, she had been running for five hours straight as her punishment. Hoshino couldn't blame the instructor as she thought it was stupid of her to steal a potato and eat it during the rite of passage.
She went and sat down at an empty table after getting her dinner, purposely avoiding the people gathered around that Eren Yeager guy who was at the scene when Wall Maria fell. They were asking him variants of questions regarding the rumors and the titans who breached the wall, Hoshino Promptly staring at them every now and then.
It wasn't long before a guy came and sat in front of her "Yo, can I sit here with you? Others are full." He told her, she recognised the guy as the one who got headbutted by the instructor earlier.
She stared at him "Jean Kirschstein?" She asked him and he nodded, a bit impressed that she remembered him.
"Woah, you remember my name. You like me don't you?"
She gave out a disgusted look "No, you were easy to remember. Considered that sorry excuse of a reason to join the Corps." She bluntly told him that made Jean stare at her in disbelief.
"Hey! What's wrong with wanting to live within the walls?!" He exclaimed at her.
Hoshino gave him a look before looking away "Don't know."
"HA?!"
"Alright alright, let's not make a scene shall we?" A blonde girl then came and calmed the two down, giving them each a drink as she sat down with them "I'm done eating but I wanted to go around and get to know people, then I saw you two making some commotion so I came and gave you drinks." She smiled at them, a genuine one.
Hoshino looked at the drink she gave, then to the untouched drink she currently has "But I already have a drink, thank you though."
"Oh yeah, I noticed there was a stain on your cup a while ago. I was glad you haven't drank from it, you look like you're not used to dirty things so I got you a second one." She told Hoshino making her turn her cup and it was true, there was a stain on the part where she couldn't see it due to the angle.
It disgusted her.
The blacked haired girl showered the blonde girl with compliments in her mind for how nice she is, but it occurred to her how suspicious it was that she knew she was conscious of cleanliness, just like her brother.
"What's wrong with a stain? It can't hurt you." Jean asked confused about what's the big deal with the stain on Hoshino's cup.
The black haired girl's face darkened as she looked at Jean "You wouldn't understand, filthy horseface."
"NOW YOU'RE JUST BEING MEAN!"
The blonde girl laughed "Dirt conscious?"
Hoshino nodded "I guess I got used to the clean surroundings since my brother is obsessed with clean things, he always disliked dirtiness."
"By the way, I don't know your names. You weren't asked by the instructor earlier, does that mean you've been through hell?" Jean asked them which earned a silent response making the boy guilty "I... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that."
Hoshino sighed, having a flashback memory of what happened that day, the day she killed someone "I'm Hoshino, just Hoshino. I used to live in the underground city."
The blonde girl chuckles "Things always happen down there. I'm Shallie Elz, from Shigansina"
—Day 2—
The trainees gathered outside on a sunny day as they prepared to test their balance to see their potential with the Vertical Maneuver. As expected, Shiyo came to see the kids' skills with their balance.
"Good morning kids! I am Shiyo Ashford from the Special Operations Squad led by captain Levi." She announced which earned a murmur from the crowd, some are about the mention of Levi and some are about her being from the Ashford clan "I am here under the orders of Commander Erwin to observe your skills, I will list down a few of you who can serve humanity with your skills alone." She announced in front of the trainees as she stood on top of a box since people at the back couldn't see her due to her small size.
"What if we don't want to join the Survey Corps? Some of us still want to live!" One shouted from the crowd and some started agreeing.
This ticked Shiyo off making her shout at them to silence, earning shocked and scared faces from the kids "I don't care about your will to live! You can stay here living with cowardice for all I care! Commitment and bravery counts as a skill when choosing a soldier who is fit to serve humanity, we don't want your coward asses who can't even sacrifice something for humanity's sake!" She shouted at them that humbled a lot of those who spoke out of turn "Keep in mind, you cannot gain anything without sacrificing something."
Hoshino looked at Shiyo with admiration, she's never seen her do a public announcement before and here she is now, making people inspired by her speech about the Survey Corps.
Beside her was Eren who was determined to make it to that list, he was even more inspired now that he heard those words from a Survey Corps soldier. Shallie on the other hand was chatting with Armin, she wasn't listening to the commotion in front at all, she gave no
interest in it and kept talking with Armin about the outside world. She seemed to know what he was interested in.