#late night stories
Late Night Stories Vol. 08 Annie Leonhart : A Story of Days Past
“You know… I’ve always wondered.”
A Military Police Brigade station in Stohess District.
Work was officially over for the day, and so the lights in most of the rooms were off. However, brightness continued to leak out from one room. In it were this year’s new recruits, taking care of the office work that had been forced onto them by their superiors.
“What is it, Marlowe? Who are you talking to?”
“Annie. I always wanted to ask.”
The blonde girl who coolly worked her way through the documents, mechanically flipping through them and stamping them, looked up with a furrowed brow.
••••••
“You trained in Trost District and experienced actual combat right afterwards, right? The others who made it into the top ten would have experienced the terror of the Titans first-hand, too… It wouldn’t be surprising at all if they’d wanted to become MPs and live in the interior. So why were you the only one who joined the Military Police Brigade? They didn’t all die in that battle, did they?”
“…Only one died. The rest joined the Survey Corps.”
“The Survey Corps?! Not even the Garrison?! Why?”
Annie didn’t so much as flinch as Hitch overreacted and confronted her with the question.
“…Who knows.”
The dismissively reply made Hitch stars at Annie’s face and changed the question.
“In that case, what kind of people were your corpsmates? Huge idiots?”
“Yeah… I guess they were idiots.”
••••••
Annie’s hands never stopped sorting through the paperwork as she answered the badgering with a few words about the other members of the 104th.
“First…was an idiot obsessed with family. Her childhood friend wanted to join the Survey Corps…and she said she’d protect him. That friend of hers was fifth, right after me, but he said he was going to join the Survey Corps from the beginning… He was the weirdest one.”
“Do weirdos like that really exist in this day and age?”
“The rest of them…were probably influenced by what that idiot said. He actually declared in front of everyone the night before graduation that he’d exterminate all the Titans so that we could explore the world freely.”
“Hah. It’s not quite the same reasoning, but he sounds like Marlowe.”
“I think it’s natural for anyone to follow their ideals. Without dreams or goals, humans are just…”
Marlowe stopped working to try to give his personal opinions about the world, but Hitch cut him off and asked Annie to continue.
“Yeah, yeah. So what about the others? It’s not like everyone was influenced by this idiot, right?”
“There was one guy who said he was going to become an MP even after the battle, so…I might have been a little surprised by him.”
••••••
“He…lost his good friend… His marks were good up until then, but he was the kind of person who always bragged about them. He only ever thought of himself…but then he changed.”
“Was it something about his state of mind?” Marlowe asked, but Annie expressionlessly shook her head.
“Who knows. Like I said earlier… I’m not them. I’m not some stupid dreamer, and it’s not like I have ideals, either. I don’t have anything I want to protect… I’m a coward who just wants to save herself.”
“That goes for everyone who became an MP, though. Are you someone who gets self-conscious about what others think of you?”
“No, that’s not it. I…” Annie began, her hands stopping suddenly in the middle of organizing the pile of now-completed documents and latching them together.
“…I’m heading to bed.”
“Hey! No fair, Annie! You need to help us with the rest…! C’mon.”
Hitch’s attempts to get her to stay were in vain. Just as Annie was about to close the door, she stopped.
“I just…make whatever choice seems easiest.”
As Annie looked to the floor, she thought of her training corpsmates. She bit her tongue as if to brush the memories away and headed to the sleeping quarters.
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
TRANSLATION: Ko Ransom
Late Night Stories Vol. 05 Reiner Braun A Story of Absent-Mindedness
“…You know it’s your turn today, Reiner.”
The recruits were busy training, marching through the night. They dragged their heavy feet, weary from the afternoon, as they carried torches in their hands.
“My turn for what?”
“…Remember when we pulled an all-nighter studying the other day?” Bertolt said next to him, causing Reiner to remember.
“Oh. To tell a story to keep everyone awake?”
“I’m begging you to… I feel like my feet are about to stop. I won’t fall behind if it’s an interesting story. I’d need to be in the group to hear it, after all,” Armin said, looking up at Reiner as he staggered back and forth, just barely keeping up.
“Okay. In that case… I’ll tell you a story from the other day.”
••••••
A few days earlier, Reiner was training with a group outside, when they were caught by a heavy evening squall. Of course, rain was no reason to stop a training exercise. If the soldiers didn’t have any rain gear, that just meant a drenched uniform. Their one saving grace was that they would be heading back to the barracks immediately afterwards.
“…Once all of you guys got back, the first thing you had to do was dry your clothes and wash off any mud with well water, right?” “ But you were squad leader then, Reiner, so you had to go and give a report before that,” Armin continued. Reiner nodded while a shiver ran through his body, as if he was remembering how cold he was that day.
“I finally gave my report to the instructor and went back to the well, then took off my shirt to start wiping off my body, but just as I did…”
••••••
“Aahh?!”
Reiner turned to face the shrieks and saw two female Training Corps recruits, Mina and Krista, passing by. Thinking that they must have been shocked to see him shirtless, he turned his back to them in a panic and apologized.
“S-Sorry. I’ll be done fast, so, just a minute…”
“N-No, we’re sorry, too! Don’t worry, you can finish up!”
“Really? Okay, then…”
Reiner paid no mind to the girls as they watched him wring his shirt with his exposed, muscular body, before starting to wipe it clean…
“Hey, Reiner? Um… Can we ask you a favor?”
“…And then the girls asked if they could touch my abs. It’s not like it would hurt anyone to say yes, so I let them, and…they said things like, ‘Wow, it’s really a six pack!’ or “What do you do to work out?’”
The girls didn’t hold back as they put their hands all over him.
“Heh! You’ve got a pretty solid chest, Reiner.”
“Wait, Ymir…! Hey, both of you!”
Ymir’s teasing stirred the girls on, as they started to touch not only his abs but also his chest, arms, and back. Reiner sighed at what a mess the situation had become.
“That…was surprising.”
“Wh-What did you just say happened…? Really? I’m so jealous of you!!”
While the situation could be seen as fortunate depending on one’s point of view, Reiner spoke of it as if it were a complete mystery to him. Jean, who was next to Reiner, impulsively threw his torch to the ground.
“Oh! Well, Mikasa wasn’t there, you know!” Reiner said.
“That’s not the problem here!!” Jean replied through clenched teeth. Marco tried to calm Jean while picking up his torch.
“Why don’t you try working out until you have a body like Reiner’s?”
“O-Oh, so I just have to keep working out…”
“I wouldn’t if I were you,” a smiling Armin said as he listened in on the conversation, shutting Jean down completely. “Vertical Maneuvering is your specialty. If you put on any more muscle, you wouldn’t be able to use your skills as well.”
“T-True, balance is important… Wait, don’t tell me that right now, Armin! Can’t you leave me the smallest bit of hope to cling onto?!”
This made Reiner notice that Armin, who tended to lag behind, was still in proper formation with the rest of the squad. He saw that everyone else was there, too and was satisfied to know that he had accomplished something by telling his story.
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
TRANSLATION: Ko Ransom
READ ALSO:Late Night Stories Vol. 03 Krista Lenz : A Heart-Pounding Story
Late Night Stories Vol. 01 Jean Kirstein : A Story of Disappointment
Late at night, a languid atmosphere lingered in the air in the boys barracks. In front of each of the recruits surrounding a table was a thick textbook on tactics, along with a variety of notes.
“Ugh… I’m so sleepy…” Connie said as he rubbed his eyes.
“This test is ridiculously difficult… Even I’m not close to finishing the materials,” Reiner shrugged.
“That’s why we’re all here pulling an all-nighter. You’d better not sleep,” Eren said, fighting back a yawn as he nudged Connie, who had his head in his hands. As Armin watched, he suddenly clapped.
“I know! Why don’t we all go around telling interesting stories so that we don’t fall asleep?”
“You want to tell interesting stories?” Jean echoed. Armin smiled back at him.
“That’s right… For example, Jean, why don’t you tell us about a time you were disappointed?”
“Hunh? Why me?!”
“I see… I might not fall asleep if we did that.”
“Good idea. I want to hear that, too.”
Though Jean was against the idea, he had no choice after all the others agreed. His shoulders fell.
“You, too, Marco?! Ugh… Fine.”
••••••
It happened when Jean went shopping with Marco. As part of their training duties, recruits had to calculate the food that would be needed during a fixed duration march, then go buy it.
“So you went in your military uniforms?”
“Yeah. But Jean said prices would be high in towns, so we went to a nearby farming village.”
While one could describe it as simply going shopping, this was actually an important part of their training that required a firm grasp on the many factors that went into a march.
“…And so, the shopping went fine. But…”
Jean sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
••••••
To the society inside the Walls, being a soldier meant having a stable job that allowed one to live off the people’s taxes.
…And so, to put it plainly, recruits were popular. The farmers and other young citizens of the village, both men and women, saw them as possible marriage partners who had promising futures.
Just as Jean and Marco finished shopping and had loaded their wagon, it happened.
“Um… These are for you.”
A number of girls from the village handed them snacks. The two gave their thanks and took them without a second thought before opening the packages, but…
“…Huh? What’s this letter?”
“Hm?! There’s no letter in mine!”
The bread that Marco had been given came with something extra, and it was clear to both of them what it was…
••••••
“Bfft… Haahaha! So no love letter for you, Jean?”
The entire table burst into laughter, beginning with Reiner. Jean did everything he could to protest as they roared.
“Don’t laugh! It was our first time meeting them, you know! What’s the big difference between me and Marco, anyway?!”
“I have a feeling I know what it is. You look like a bad guy, Jean, and Marco seems like someone you’d have a more stable life with.”
“Hey, what’d you just say about my face?!”
As Armin tried to stifle his laughter and explain the workings of a woman’s heart, Marco hopped in from the side to try to smooth things over, since he was the only other recruit involved in the story.
“It’s okay. I turned them down by saying that I didn’t know if I’d be able to become a full-fledged soldier or not.”
“Again, why would you turn them down there?! It only makes it sting more!”
The recruits laughed to one another, to the exclusion of a desperate Jean.
“Ah, all that laughing woke me up… That was a good idea.”
“I bet we could use it during camping training, too.”
“I’ll pick who tells the story next time!”
“I like that idea,” Armin smiled as he looked around. Now that his fellow recruits were awake, they began to switch gears and dig into their homework.
The night was far from over.
SOURCE:Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
