#three supplementary angles
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Sacked Squad Leader - File No. 04 Hange’s Side (1/3)
When Hange got up in the middle of their room, it looked nothing like it usually did.
“Wuh?! What’s going on here?!”
…It was definitely the room they always used for research. But its floor, tables, and bookshelves had been changed entirely.
“I can’t believe this… The whole place has been sacked.”
The books were scattered, the lab equipment on top of the desk had met a horrible end, and fragments of wood and ropes had been scattered along the floor, leaving no place to so much as walk.
Hmm, this is bad. I don’t remember a thing.
******
Just as Hange was feeling lost, they heard a knock at the door accompanied by a frantic voice.
“Squad Leader, Squad Leader…Hange!”
“Hm? Moblit!”
A moment later, Hange’s aide broke through the door and entered the room holding a hatchet that must have come from a storehouse.
Hange noticed the broken lock on the door and realized that he must have broken the latch in order to come inside. Despite his imposing appearance, Hange’s aide let his shoulders down as he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Could you please answer if you’re awake…?”
“What do you mean?”
“The door was locked and you weren’t replying at all. I had no choice but to destroy the door…but what happened here?”
Moblit had been so preoccupied with confirming the safety of his superior officer that he only now showed surprise once more, having seen the terrible state of the room.
******
“…Your books and lab equipment. What happened to everything?”
“What should I do? I wonder if I did this?”
“You don’t remember?!”
“Not at all,” Hange said as they scratched their tousled head.
They remembered declaring that they would be holing up in the room for an experiment. That must have been what they were doing, given the prototypes scattered around. While there were some half-scribbled notes, they ended with a notice that the experiment was about to begin.
“Let’s start from the beginning and sort everything out. I was passed out here for a while, right?”
“Yes. It seems like you told Nifa that you’d be in here for a while. It was quiet whenever we passed by, for quite some time.”
He said everyone had left Hange alone for a while because it was assumed they were taking a nap.
“But then we received some paperwork that needed immediate confirmation and needed to wake you up.”
That was when Moblit did everything to wake Hange up, making loud noises and beating on the door.
“I was afraid that your heart had finally exploded from all of the excitement…”
“Hah, you worry too much. I don’t even have a scratch on me… Or probably not.”
Hange finished the work given to them by their subordinates a few minutes later, then went to Erwin to explain the situation.
“And that’s what happened, Erwin, but I don’t remember doing it at all. So please, just don’t make me write an apology…”
“At the moment, I’m afraid that’s exactly what you’re going to have to do,” the Commander of the Survey Corps said after hearing Hange out, shaking his head without emotion.
“It was a room locked from the inside, with no way in or out, right? In that case, the only one who could have destroyed that room was you, Hange.”
Though it was a daily occurrence for things to break in the course of Hange’s duties, given their enthusiasm for Titan research, they were also living in a resource-starved world. The Corps’s equipment was under close management, and anything that was broken had to be procured again and taken out of the budget.
Hange knew this well enough. But there was a reason they thought this wasn’t their fault.
“Think about it. My Squad was working on new types of weapons. Even our valuable prototypes were in pieces. Do you really think that’s something I would do?”
Erwin remained calm. The order he gave was not to pin down a criminal but to find the truth.
“…Alright, then.”
Hange decided to start by going to a subordinate who might know what was going on.
SOURCE:Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Disappearing Steamed Potatoes - File No. 03 Ymir’s Side (3/3)
So Krista and I are in different squads tomorrow for the logistics march.
A few hours before the stomach-shaking case of the many missing potatoes was discovered…
It’s a long route, but there’s so little food… This seems pretty tough. Knowing her…she’ll probably give her food to some second-rate recruit.
Alone and on water-fetching duty, Ymir thought to herself as she passed by the storehouse with a bucket in her hands.
Are those…Garrison soldiers? Are they slacking on the job?
“Hey, what about guarding the storehouse?”
“Who’s going to steal that gruel they feed the recruits?”
Ymir clicked her tongue as she watched the soldiers chat away.
It’s like they don’t have a care in the world… Wait a second.
A thought came to Ymir’s mind. If anything was to happen, guards this flippant about their duty would surely try to cover it up.
******
Then, after dinner that day.
I feel bad about what I did to Sasha, sending her into the kitchen like that…but she’ll just have to hold on. If I can just skip those into the cargo that’s being distributed…
Ymir was walking to the stables while trying to avoid being spotted by anyone. A voice came out of nowhere from around the waiting horses.
“…So it was you.”
“Armin! …What’re you doing there?”
“What about you, Ymir? Why are you in these stables?”
“I dunno… Why don’t you answer my question first?”
With strong, determined eyes that didn’t match the rest of his frame, the short boy looked at his fellow corpsmate.
“I…was hiding here to talk to whomever came here right now at this hour.”
When he saw Ymir wasn’t going to say anything, Armin began to explain his thoughts in full.
******
“…The case of the missing potatoes was more than someone stealing food to eat on their own. While that was happening, a huge number of potatoes was taken as well.”
“…That’s no good. Thieves?”
“They would have gone for something more valuable if they were motivated by money… I think it’s someone who needed food used in training.”
Armin lowered his eyes for a moment before looking Ymir in the face.
“It was a gamble…but I thought that if a recruit was going to hide food, they’d hide it in the horse fodder. You could even carry it on horseback to a separate location that way. That’s why I was here, waiting for that recruit to come to the stables.”
“How do you think I did that, then?”
“It’s only a guess, but…when you were on water-fetching duty, you pretended to start carrying water before throwing it out near the storehouse, then filled your bucket up with potatoes that you hid in the fodder. The area around the storehouse being wet was proof that you threw the water out.
Ymir let out a deep sigh when she heard Armin putting the pieces together.
******
"So? Are you going to squeal on me?”
“I…want to let you decide that. There should have been no need for you to steal an entire box of potatoes if you were just trying to make things easier for yourself.”
And if she had wanted to pad the number of potatoes her squad got, she didn’t need to take so much that she’d be discovered. Armin continued to explain with disappointment in his voice, like it was something he had done himself.
“Could it be…that you risked getting noticed and stole a whole box so that everyone would have more food?”
“Do you really think I’m that good of a person?”
“You wouldn’t need this many unless you were also considering the squads of your friend like Krista and Sasha.”
“Hm…Is that so?”
Ymir scratched her head and looked back at the stolen potatoes, as if she wondered what she should do. Now that she had been discovered, perhaps it would be best for her to return them with grace.
But if the training exercise goes forward as planned, she'll…
“This case made me notice that there’s not enough food during tomorrow’s training, too.”
As if he had anticipated Ymir’s concerns, Armin took out his notebook and showed her his notes. In it was a detailed plan describing how to get through the training exercise with only the food provided.
“I tried to come up with preparations. The numbers make me think it’ll work… What do you think?”
“Are you going to tell Krist–all of the others?”
Armin nodded. Ymir decided that if this work had come from none other than Armin, they would somehow be able to survive.
“I’ll return the potatoes. If needed, I’ll accept whatever punishment they give me… Because I trust your calculations.”
“You’re such a kind person, Ymir. You did this for your friends, and…”
“I did this for myself. Now get out of the way, I’m returning these,” Ymir said, cutting Armin off and pointing the loaded horse toward the storehouse. She didn’t like the thought of having to beg and plead with Garrison soldiers, but she did feel a little better. It was like a lingering concern had been lifted from her heart.
SOURCE:Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Disappearing Steamed Potatoes - File No. 02 Armin’s Side (2/3)
It was like any other day until the case of the disappearing steamed potatoes. As punishment for the missing potatoes, the recruits had their meals pared down, and now they were despondent.
“We have less to eat for dinner, and it’s all Sasha’s fault.”
Connie eyewitness testimony made it seem that they were all to blame because Sasha had stolen food, but…
That’s strange… How could this happen?
Armin was suspicious of the explanation.
Food is a matter of life and death when we’re undergoing training this harsh. Punishing the squadmates who should have been watching her would be one thing, but cutting everyone’s food…?
“…Oh,” Armin mumbled. “There’s no way…that Sasha could have done it.”
******
“What did you just say, Armin?”
“Sasha admitted it herself that she took it.”
“Yes. I’m sure that she took potatoes as they were being steamed. But…there’s something I want to make sure of.”
After their meal, Armin and a number of other interested recruits went to the food storehouse together.
“The instructor would have easily been able to know it was Sasha when he heard the details, right? So then he should have just punished her. I think he didn’t do that…because he only had one choice.”
“…And that’s why you want to look at the storehouse.”
Motivated by Armin’s doubts, the recruits searched through the storehouse to try to find anything suspicious.
While storehouse with items such as expansive cuts of meat were locked and guarded, ones for wheat, potatoes, and so on were simply piled high with boxes. It was relatively easy to look around them as one pleased.
“What’s this? An empty box…? I guess it hasn’t been thrown out yet because a few potatoes are left in here.”
You would normally carry the entire box of potatoes to the kitchen. Why are there only a few in there? I wonder…if we can find any more hints.
Armin looked closely at the wooden box Reiner pointed to, then approximated its size. That’s when he noticed something.
“…One box of these potatoes would weigh more than half of Sasha’s body weight… No matter how much of a glutton she is, she couldn’t possibly eat more than half of what she weighs.”
“Hey, wait. In that case, that would mean the potatoes disappeared…from this storehouse?!”
Armin nodded silently. While his corpsmates began to stir, he was shockingly calm as he judged the situation.
******
After a bit, Armin’s eyes landed on the group of soldiers who had come by on patrol.
“I think…the patrol are probably the key here.”
He gave them a salute from afar so as not to attract attention, then left the storehouse to look fit more clues. While he did, he continued to piece his thoughts together.
“If the potatoes had been stolen before they got to the kitchen, then lookout would be responsible. It would reflect poorly on the senior soldiers who usually act like they’re so much better than us…which is why they covered up the truth.”
Eren took on a look of anger as he stood next to Armin.
“So the instructor gave us some vague junk about shared responsibility instead of saying who the real culprit was, all for their sake?”
“Does that mean the real person behind this was s thief from town or something?”
“Why would you go out of your way to steal something like potatoes if you were capable of sneaking into the barracks? There must be more valuable things to take.”
“So there’s a reason it had to be potatoes…” Armin began to think again as he corpsmates spoke. He knew that finding the criminal wouldn’t bring back their dinner, but he wasn’t the kind of person who could let the unknown stay that way.
******
A reason that someone would take the risk to steal potatoes and nothing else. The criminal Armin imagined was one not motivated by monetary gain.
…Our logistics training march starts tomorrow.
“Did you figure something out, Armin?”
Armin hesitated to share his thoughts.
The ability to resupply the front lines… Training that tests to see if we can manage food and resources… If you wanted to gain an advantage, you would need food for training. In other words…the culprit is one of the recruits.
He didn’t want to accuse a fellow recruit here and aggravate matters. If anything, he thought, finding the truth now might mean he could talk it over with them first.
“Hey, Armin. I see footprints here.”
“But there’s too many of them. We can’t tell who they belong to.”
Footprints around the storehouse. And they’ve been made in…mud?
While each of the recruits tilted their head to see the flame-lit footprints, Armin was alone as he quietly laughed.
“So that’s it…!”
“Did you figure out who stole them?”
“It’s no one dangerous. I’ll go myself.”
Armin ran off as the others grew surprised, disappearing into the night.
[PART ONE | PART THREE ]
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Disappearing Steamed Potatoes - File No. 01 Connie’s Side (1/3)
A free moment between training sessions…
As Connie tried to take a shortcut, he went the wrong way and passed by the kitchen.
Sasha? What’s she doing there?
The door was cracked open, and through it he saw Sasha, a fellow corpsmate, snooping around. When Connie stopped, wondering what she could be doing, Sasha noticed him and let out a surprised yell.
“C-Connie?! Were you watching?!”
“Huh? Watching what?”
Connie hadn’t seen what Sasha was doing. But he had a vague idea. She must have been sneaking a bite again.
******
“Hm? Aren’t we missing some food for dinner tonight?”
“Do you ever listen to what people say, Connie? The instructor just now told us we’re all being punished by only having one plate each for dinner because someone pigged out on potatoes.”
It wasn’t until Connie had finished half of his dinner before he realized that the mood in the room was heavy.
Jean seemed as disgusted as could be, and he was looking at Sasha, who acted openly suspicious.
“Like I said, it wasn’t me!”
“Coming from you, that’s hard to believe.”
Even Connie was dubious of Sasha. While it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black, he thought that idiots like her were bad liars. Just then, Marco asked him a question.
“Speaking of which, didn’t you say you were taking a shortcut and going by the kitchen, Connie? You still just barely made it in time… Did you see something there?”
“Ah… Umm… I don’t know.”
“What you mean, you don’t know? You must at least remember if you saw someone there or not.”
Connie couldn’t find the words for an answer. Armin, who had been deep in thought until then, began to speak.
“This is just a theory… But Connie, did you…?”
To everyone’s shock, he guessed the exact words that were stuck in Connie’s throat.
******
“…Would you please take this and keep quiet?”
“A potato? You didn’t steal this, did you?”
Sasha offered Connie something in the kitchen. It was, without question, a freshly-steamed potato.
“No, I didn’t take it! I was just here because it was my turn to get some water!”
“I know you must have taken this from that pot. Why else would I need to stay quiet? If I do, I’m gonna lose out on food, too!”
While he was as right as could be, Sasha had already eaten it. There was no turning back now.
“It’s not like I can give it back… It won’t be a problem for anyone as long as you stay quiet, Connie. By the way, what about our next training…oh, there’s the bell.”
“…Crap! We’ll be late!”
Sasha popped the entire potato in her outstretched hand into her mouth before running off. While Connie had his reservations, being late for his next training session was the bigger concern. Somehow, nothing came of it in the end.
******
Connie agreed with Armin’s Defence of him and explained everything that had happened. All the others looked at him and put their head in their hands.
“So you let Sasha win you over.”
“Why would you say that?!”
“You just admitted it.”
Only Sasha looked panicked now.
“Oh! Wh-What’re you talking about…? I was only in the kitchen to fetch some water… And that’s when I met Connie… And…”
“Sorry. We were on duty too, but someone suddenly asked for our help. We made Sasha go to the kitchen by herself…”
Krista tried to take some of the blame with this flimsy excuse. While they were all ready to take Sasha down, Armin was the only one who still seemed puzzled.
“There's…no way that Sasha could have done it.”
“What did you just say, Armin?”
Connie was astonished to hear the words. But Armin was always able to explain everything in a simple way. Connie waited for Armin’s next conjecture, hoping that he would reveal an unseen truth.
[PART TWO | PART THREE ]
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Corps Tea Party - File No. 09 Levi’s Side (3/3)
“According to Oluo’s explanation, some high-grade tea was accidentally sent to the Survey Corps, and so the mighty Military Police Brigade are coming all the way here just to retrieve it…”
“Is it really worth getting that worked up over? It’s hard enough to get adequate food to eat, so I doubt there are many soldiers out there who have discerning tastes in tea.”
The notice regarding a collection of provisioned tea had arrived as soon as they woke up. All of the soldiers under Levi had their heads tilted as they tried to understand this inexplicable situation.
It is true that these tea leaves are a lot more tolerable than the ones we normally get. But…I think the truth of the matter is…
While the theory about the Survey Corps being unsuitable for the luxury goods that accidentally reached them did make sense, it wasn’t a good enough reason for the Military Police to be acting so frantic.
“…Oluo, bring the tea leaves here. There’s something I want to check.”
Just then, Levi recalled the way the Military Police Brigade “did business” and that’s when he decided to check for himself.
******
“Eren, give me that spoon over there.”
The tea that had been brought to the room was barely any different from what was normally supplied to the corpsmen. As Levi hated to get his hands dirty, he took a thin, long teaspoon from the recruit and calmly stirred through the leaves.
“What is that beautiful stone?!”
…A moment later, a large, glimmering rock was there in Levi’s hand. A rock that in their walled society could only be seen in Royal and aristocratic estates… It was a decorative gem that lowly soldiers such as the Survey Corpsmen had only ever seen in illustrations.
“I-Is that what you call a jewel?!”
“I’ve only ever seen gems that shine like that being treated like the holy treasures of the Wall Religion…!”
“What is that, Captain?!”
He brushed the tea leaves off the gem and rolled it on the table.
“This is what the Military Police have been looking for…from the very start.”
Then, based on his experiences along with stories from old acquaintances, Levi began to give his own thoughts on the incident.
“They were trying to cover up their bribes by hiding valuables inside tea that they claimed was a donation…? Really?”
“No matter how rotten they may be in the inside, even the Military Police have to take a neutral appearance. It doesn’t look good for them to be taking money directly…”
“But food is a different matter. Like Oluo said, luxury goods or not, no one’s going to complain about them donating tea that any regular citizen could get and say that it should have been used as alms.”
Levi’s talented soldiers quickly digested what he said and arrived at the truth themselves.
“And some stupid MP must have mixed things up. So now they’re saying the tea isn’t fit for consumption and are trying to retrieve it,” one of them said, playing with the shinning rock… Outside of the Walls, it was nothing more than a worthless pebble. Eren agreed with the corpsman, looked at the gem with curious eyes, and asked.
“What are you going to go with this gem, Captain?”
“…That’s up to Erwin.” “We’re going back immediately,” he announced, and began heading back to the Commander, the head of the Survey Corps.
******
“I see… It’s a good thing you were you quick to figure out what was really going on. Let’s let the MP in charge of this know.”
Erwin’s reaction to hearing what had happened was flatter than they expected. As there could have been more than one stone, he briskly ordered his aide to ask the Military Police how many items were “unfit for consumption” and to arrange for an investigation of all of the tea to make sure that no foul play had taken place.
“…So you’re going to hand them back without a word?”
“I think it’d be more convenient for us to have the Military Police owe us one rather than turn the entire Brigade against us because we pilfered a couple of pebbles. Not happy, Levi?”
Levi had no objections to Erwin’s decision. He thought it was best to let Erwin handle the way he dealt with the military brass and other branches himself.
“I’ll leave all of the political maneuvering up to you.”
“If you have any requests, I’ll be happy to pass them along as ones by the first individual to discover the goods.”
“Hmm…”
Levi recalled the tea he’d had a single sip of that morning. It was undeniably excellent.
“I don’t care about these pebbles, but the tea was good. It’d be nice if they supplied us with more of the same.”
Erwin grinned before repeating Levi’s simple request in his own trademark way.
“Okay, I’ll let them know. I’ll ask for them to supply you with tea next time with whatever made it ‘unfit for consumption’ taken out.”
He then turned his back to Levi in order to go meet the MP leading the case himself as Levi returned to his own job.
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Corps Tea Party - File No. 08 Annie’s Side (2/3)
“…And so some of the tea shipment distributed the other day included some that was absolutely unfit for consumption. Today I need you to collect all of the tea sent to the military and give out new tea in its place. That is all.”
The Military Police Brigade officer’s words sounded even more stern than usual. That still didn’t mean that he would rethink his tendency of handling off all his work to the recruits, though. He simply ordered them to get results fast before returning to his room.
“That’s weird. The food supplies we give to the Survey Corps and Garrison are always second-rate. Why would we go this far over some bad tea?”
“While Tea might be a luxury, it’s still something you put in your body. Someone would need to take the blame if anyone’s health was affected.”
Among her fellow recruits, Annie stood alone, wondering how she would get out of this annoying Mission.
…This is stupid.
******
The recruits began to disperse, and Annie casually turned around as she stood behind them all. In what must have been their haste, the door to the officers’ quarters was cracked open.
…None of them are drinking today?
Annie noticed that the scene she glimpsed inside was different from the usual one. She split off from the others and listened in from the shadows.
“…So do you think we’ll be able to find it?”
“There are only so many places it could have been distributed, so it’s just a matter of time. What’s annoying, though, is that some of it has already been sent off to the Survey Corps.”
They were talking about the “unfit for consumption” tea. The officers seemed to be uncharacteristically frantic in their search for it, and MPs belonging to ranks so high that Annie had never seen them working before streamed in and out of the room.
The Survey Corps…
“This is Erwin we’re dealing with here. If he finds it, he might even try to use it against us some day…”
Some of Annie’s friends would be in the Survey Corps. Not only that, this tea seemed to be such a big deal that it had the potential to turn into a major scandal that could be used against the Military Police Brigade.
It’s just some tea. Why would they be this obsessed with it? I think…it might a good idea to look into this.
Her past experiences told her that if she had a little more information, she might be able to use it as insurance if worst came worst. Annie pretended to go back to work before heading toward the records room.
******
…The day the tea we’re supposed to recover was sent out, the brass was scheduled to meet with important Wallists. But…the plans were canceled right after the shipment.
Fortunately, the Military Police had plenty of time to create documents. They kept reasonably detailed records of plans and shipments going in and out.
These are yesterday’s records of donations from the aristocracy… They gave money, as well as…precious metals?
“Hey, Annie. What do you think you can get done looking at records like that? Are you sleeping with your eyes open or something?”
“…Yeah, maybe.”
“God, you’re boring!”
Annie parried another MP’s snide remarks before looking at more records.
And the records of where these metals were kept…don’t exist? They were taken somewhere before they even had a chance to go into storage…
Annie understood where that “somewhere” was.
“…I get it now,” she muttered so that no one else could hear, slowly shutting the records. She was done with the case now…and decided to skip as much work as she could.
******
“Make any progress, Annie? It seemed like you were looking into some sort of records the whole time,” a serious recruit asked Annie, his hopes high. She had no intention of telling him the truth, though.
…I can’t have any attention on me. I’ll just ignore this.
“…Not really.”
“Like I said, she was slacking and just pretending to work. You’re the only one who took this seriously, Marlowe.”
The attention was taken off of Annie thanks to another recruit who was napping alongside Annie in the records room. She couldn’t help but let one thing slip out when she saw his ever-fierce attitude.
“What the officers are looking for…has probably been taken far, far away already. It’s up to the MPs there now…”
“That doesn’t make it alright for us to slack off, though! Sheesh…”
Still, the words didn’t seem to be enough to make him take notice of anything. He was either a true idiot, or maybe what you’d call an honorable man. Annie knew people like that existed.
If the shipment was sent to the Survey Corps…I don’t need to be the one acting like some kind of righteous hero.
Annie also thought the right kind of person to expose this corruption would be just that kind of person.
[PART 1 | PART 3 ]
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Corps Tea Party - File No. 07 Oluo’s Side (1/3)
“All that’s left is the tea. Can you take care of it, Oluo?”
“Yeah… I got this.”
It was, as always, a busy morning.
The Survey Corps Special Operations Squad, also known as Squad Levi, was working to make yet another simple breakfast from their provisions in the old Survey Corps headquarters they temporarily called home.
“…Hm?”
As his fellow soldiers carried trays to the table, Oluo began to make some tea, his superior officer’s favorite…but Oluo felt like something was off as he performed this simple task.
These tea leaves… While the average person would think they’re regular leaves…
He looked at the tea he had just opened with his own hands and was sure.
There’s no mistaking it. This…is going to be an issue.
******
As Oluo brought the teapot into the dining hall, the “issue” was already beginning to manifest. Everyone was looking with suspicious at a sheet of paper that seemed to be from Levi, their leader.
“What’s going on here, Petra?” Oluo asked as calmly as he could.
“We got a report from the Military Police first thing in this morning. It said the tea we were supplied with the other day was ‘unfit for consumption,’ and that we should return it all without opening it up.”
“Unfit…for consumption?”
That was strange.
The Military Police had given them the notice, but they were known to hoard all the best meat and luxurious alcohol for their own use. They considered the Survey Corps utter idiots.
“They’re the kind of bunch that would go out of their way to give us the bad-quality stuff…”
It seemed like they would have loved the chance to get rid of anything unfit for consumption by handing it off to the soldiers at the bottom of the totem pole. As everyone wondered why they would bother to take it back, Levi asked a question.
“Oluo, did you use the tea yet? Did you notice anything?”
The Captain’s voice was calm, almost as if he knew exactly what was going on.
I knew it… That Tea…!
Oluo nodded and gradually began to give his opinion as he poured each of the others their tea.
******
“Now listen… Tea comes in different grades. But that doesn’t have anything to do with its quality… It’s all a matter of the size of the leaves…
Of all the corpsmen present, Oluo was the only one to see the tea they had been given. He also knew that something was different about it.
"Does that have something to do with this commotion about a recall?”
“Stay cool, Petra… The truth isn’t going to sneak away from us. It’s right in front of your eyes, after all.”
“Stop talking like such a creep. I’m telling you to give us your conclusion.”
Oluo handed his offended corpsmate her tea as he explained.
“The tea that makes it all the way down to us is a blend of late-picked, poor-quality teas. No matter how high the grade, there’s not going to be any noticeable change in taste. However… This was something different. The tea had a young colour and a deep aroma… While the size and shape of the leaves is no different from our usual blend, the actual product is something entirely different. This is made from the leftovers of the kind of first-flush tea leaves that those damned aristocrats drink in the interior!”
“The colour of the tea being lighter than usual is proof of that,” he proudly concluded.
******
His squadmate Eld took a small sip. He did feel like something was different about the taste, but he cocked his head to the side.
“…So you’re saying they accidentally sent some high-quality tea our way, and that they’re trying to take it back because we’re not worthy of it?”
“It’s not like cover-ups are anything new for that bunch… Someone was probably too drunk and sent us the wrong supplies by accident, and now they’re trying to hide the fact and get it back by claiming the tea isn’t fit for consumption.”
Oluo looked to the captain he so respected for backup. Levi took a sip of the tea in his hand and seemed to enjoy it more than usual before he sighed.
“You’re right… This does seem a little better than the cheap tea we always get. Oluo’s reasoning must be right. But…”
“Captain?”
Everyone in the squad, including its recruit, had their eyes on Levi, who seemed to be deep in thought.
So he’s saying…that’s not all…?!
Oluo was on pins and needles as he waited to hear what words would come from the mouth of the man he unconsciously aspired to become.
[PART 2 | PART 3 ]
SOURCE: Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Sacked Squad Leader - File No. 06 Nifa’s Side (3/3)
Hange’s lab had been sacked despite it being a locked room with no way in or out. Hange, who was inside, had no memories of the incident, and everyone was trying to figure out the true story behind what had gone on.
Nifa, who worked under Hange, said she had carried tools for her superior officer’s experiments until moments before the room was locked.
“You can put Unit #1, the log mockup, in front of that bookshelf. Unit #2, the pendulum, goes in front of the desk, and put Unit #3, the wire trap, next to the shelf.”
The room was by no means large, but Nifa brought model after model for the trap into the room.
Is it really okay to put these inside here…?
Still, they didn’t have unlimited resources. They would have to run at least a few experiments using smaller mock ups before doing anything at larger scale. Nifa knew this, which is why she obeyed Hange’s instructions.
******
“I want to be alone for a bit, so I’m going to lock myself in here, okay? You take care of it if anyone comes by, Nifa. Give any documents or anything else that isn’t urgent to Moblit,” Hange said before swapping their glasses out for goggles. It seemed like they were getting ready to hunker down and start researching.
The Squad Leader didn’t even sleep last night… I don’t want to leave them on their own, but…
While Nifa was concerned for her Squad Leader, she believed in Hange, someone who had made it out of more than a few life-or-death situations.
“Please don’t do anything unreasonable.”
“Aren’t Survey Corpsmen always doing the unreasonable?”
“We’re inside the Walls right now. I’ll come get you when it’s time to take a break.”
Hange would be fine as long as they got the rest they needed. Nifa and the other squad members just needed to be on top of things. Having convinced herself, Nifa closed the door and heard it lock from the inside.
******
Petra was shocked when she heard Nifa’s explanation of the prototypes and leaped to her feet.
“You tested heavy pendulums and log traps inside of a room?! Isn’t that really dangerous…?”
“They’re smaller because they’re prototypes. At most, they were the size of this chair,” Hange said while gesturing to show the size of the prototypes. But Levi was still dumbstruck.
“Why did you lock the door? Did it not strike you that no one would be able to come in and help if there was an accident?”
“That’s right! You should have at least had someone else…”
When Nifa heard Petra say these words, she recalled that Petra was the type of soldier who put a strong emphasis on teamwork.
…But that wasn’t to say that Nifa’s corpsmates didn’t think of one another, either.
“I was working with traps that can activate out of nowhere. If someone who didn’t know what was going on came in and set one off, it’d be dangerous.”
…Yes, that’s the kind of person Hange is.
Hange may have appeared to me caught up in the experiment, but they cared about others, too. It was that kindness that lead to the accident. The rest of Hange’s squad knew that, which made them share the responsibility for what happened.
“…At least one of us should have stayed.”
“It’s fine with me, I’m still alive. I just don’t remember. So, Nifa, what do you mean when you say you figured it out?”
“Let’s go back to the scene one more time.”
The blame would be Hange’s alone unless the truth of the matter was revealed. Nifa knew that she had to prove her hypothesis, and so she went with her officers and squadmates to the room where it all happened.
******
The room remained in shambles. Still, Nifa’s eyes landed on a single piece of debris. She ran over Ang picked it up.
“Look! You changed the size of the model, didn’t you!”
“Oh… Now that you mention it…”
Nifa had brought a piece of wood used to support one of the prototypes into the room, but a table was now attached to it.
“That’s right, the small-scale experiment went well, so I thought I’d adjust it so that it’d reach a seven-to-eight-meter-class Titan…and put the pendulum trap on the desk…and that’s when it happened.”
As soon as Moblit heard Hange said this, he immediately began to scrutinize the desk and the size of the trap, compared that to Hange’s height, and arrived at the same conclusion as Nifa.
“So this log pendulum must have gone swooping down and hit you in the head, Squad Leader. That’s what caused you to pass out…
"…And then the base gave way, causing it to hit the shelf…”
“…Which caused the books to fall onto your test equipment, which is how we ended up with this mess… Excuse me, Squad Leader.”
Just to make sure, Nifa stood tall and raised her arms, thrusting her hands into Hange’s ever-tied hair.
“You have a huge bump on your head!”
“Oh, I do. Well, you know how sometimes bumps don’t hurt that much depending on where you get them!”
“I guess that happens every once in a while, but…”
Hange’s temporary memory loss must have caused them to forget the pain, too.
“…We’ll write apologies as well. We came up with these traps as a squad, after all.”
Everyone nodded at Nifa’s words before moving straight to cleaning up the room.
“I’ll take all the blame for this. We did learn that the weapons, while small, do at least work on humans.”
“Before you do, can you please go to a doctor to get that bump checked out?”
“You never know,” Nifa said, “once we start cleaning up, we might find out that surprisingly little equipment was destroyed.” After that, she pushed Hange out of the room.
“Sorry, I’ll get you something to make up for this,” the squad heard their leader say. They only shrugged as they began the work of picking up books and gathering splinters of wood.
SOURCE:Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
Three Viewpoints Selected Cases
The Case of the Sacked Squad Leader - File No. 05 Petra’s Side (2/3)
Petra Ral did not belong to the Survey Corps’s Fourth Squad, which was led by Squad Leader Hange. She just so happened to walk by Hange’s locked laboratory around the time it had been sacked.
“Um! I have a notice from the Captain to the Squad Leaders!”
There was no reply. She tried the doorknob, but it was locked.
Is Hange out? I’ll tell the Captain to go to them last.
Just then she heard loud noises.
“Ah?!”
Sounds of objects rattling apart, papers or something similar fluttering to the ground, and a loud, dull boom.
She instinctively knocked on the door to see if everyone was all right, but there was no answer.
Maybe they piled things up in a sloppy way and it fell over?
Petra didn’t think much of it because she assumed that the room was empty and went back to her work.
******
When Hange and their subordinates came by to talk to Petra, that was the first time she learned Hange was actually inside the room when those loud noise occurred.
“…I bet you were so drowsy that you managed to mess up and break that stuff on your own. You’re lucky your glasses didn’t break,” Levi spat at Hange now that he was near, but their only defense seemed to miss the point a bit.
“I had goggles on, Not glasses. I was testing a new weapon.”
Hange looked at Petra and asked her about the situation.
“Petra, so I heard you came by the room while I was in there? Do you know anything?”
“…I heard a noise. I thought it was empty and assumed that some things just fell over.”
She then went on to talk about the sound she heard and what took place right after.
******
A storage shed overseen by the Fourth Squad sat right next to Hange’s locked lab, always filled with an assortment of different items. At times it may have been vegetables to feed to Titans in experiments, while at others it could be spears used to hurt them.
I wonder what kind of experiment they’re running today? Logs…and a rope…
As Petra walked away from the room and passed the shed, she saw something curious and stopped.
Nifa, one of Hange’s subordinates, called out to her.
“Oh, do you need our squad for something?”
“I do. There’s a tactics memorandum going around, and… Oh, I’ll come back for Hange later.”
“That would be appreciated. The Squad Leader’s busy right now,” Nifa laughed, before realizing that Petra’s eyes were fixed on something in the shed. She casually explained what it was.
“Were you wondering about that? Those are the materials for the anti-Titan weapon prototypes.”
As always, the Fourth Squad was full of new ideas. Petra thanked Nifa, still amazed as she left the scene.
******
“Weapons?”
Though Levi seemed to be uninterested as he listened to Petra’s story, he now furrowed his brows.
“Yes. It seems like they’re trying to test how much of an impact a Titan body can take.”
“The only way to stop one of those things is to slice out its nape. We learned that a long time ago.”
“The goal isn’t to defeat them. These are stationary traps meant to stop Titans by neutralizing their limbs. If this works out, it’d help out a lot in cases like defending an encampment while on a march.”
As someone who fought on the front lines, Petra thought it was a good idea. Titans may not move much at night, but some might. There was no such thing as too much safety when it came to the Titans.
“So it’s research that will help lighten the load on any of us on watch duty?”
Petra had been able to stay alive thanks to the way she and her fellow corpsmates helped one another out. As such, she saw Hange’s plan as attractive. Avoiding battles would mean more of her comrades making it back alive.
“That’s right. It’s not smart move to tire out combat specialists like you by placing you on patrol duty.”
Still, Levi was cautious. “That all sounds great, but do our wagons have the space to carry this alongside all of our other valuable resources?”
“They’re made with the assumption that the materials can be procured on-site. They uses pendulums and hammers made out of trees and ropes. We’ve been trying a lot of things.”
“Oh, Squad Leader!”
Suddenly, one of the corpsmen that Hange had brought spoke up. It was Nifa, who seemed to be there hiding between the larger soldiers.
“Nifa?”
“I…think I figured it out.”
The sudden words shocked everyone, and they all turned to listen to her.
SOURCE:Attack on Titan: Short Stories 2
