Special Chapter: Lance Corporal Levi

[springcleaning]

[When Levi comes to, he's sopping wet and covered in slimy bile. The last thing he remembers is being swallowed by a Titan. Did it vomit him out before he'd been digested? He shuddered at the thought. He'd rather be dead, than...]

Shit.

[He gags a little, pushing his hands against the grass in front of the school until they're dry enough to get the slop off his face, before looking around.]

[It was nothing like where they had been fighting, but he couldn't be sure of that, with how Titans could move, but... Something felt wrong. Levi looks down at himself, seeing his 3D Maneuver Gear was gone as well. He was vulnerable, he couldn't stay outside.]

[So he goes into the school building, surprised to find it recently used, and looks for somewhere he can clean off.]

Comments

[springcleaning]

Like I said, I'm not fucking used to that sticky sweet shit. I'll try it again some time.

[He reaches to pour another cup of tea, drinking at it slowly this time.]

[strawberrytart]

[ She's gonna make this guy the best damn strawberry tart he's ever had next time since fruit tarts are a lot less sweet than cakes and hers is award-winning ok. ]

Thanks. Have you tried flavors other than potato and stale bread though? What sorts of things do you like?

[ She can figure out what sorts of tastes he likes too, like if he tends toward more bitter she can make opera cake, which has a strong coffee flavor. Or if he actually likes potatoes she could even make some sweet potato desserts. Or green tea desserts. Or pretty much anything, she just wants to figure out what his tastes are so she can get it right. ]

[springcleaning]

[He thinks about it a moment.]

Tomatoes, cabbage, beets, carrots, spinach... Sweet potatoes sometimes.

I had honey once.

[strawberrytart]

Hmm... I could make a sweet potato pie so that it'd be a familiar taste. Or maybe carrot cake.. or red velvet cake!

[ She sounds like she's getting more excited about this. ]

[springcleaning]

I'd try them, if you made them.

[strawberrytart]

I'll make them then!

[springcleaning]

Just tell me when, or something, I don't fucking care.

What do you want in return?

[Levi doesn't like gifts for gifts sake.]

[strawberrytart]

I don't want anything.

[springcleaning]

You must want something.

[strawberrytart]

Nothing that's in the afterlife with us and nothing I'd want to end up here either...

[ A pause. ]

Except maybe more equipment, but if you don't know about sweets then you wouldn't know where to get those either.

[springcleaning]

I don't fucking like getting things for free. Makes me feel like I owe something.

[He started as a thief, but he'd moved on to bigger and better things. Now it just seemed cheap.]

Maybe I could teach you something too.

[strawberrytart]

You don't owe me anything, it's not like I have anything else to do here.

[ None of her friends from home, not her family or her dreams or goals. Not her boyfriend or a shop or anything. She's pretty much just got her love of baking left so she doesn't really know what else to do besides hope she can make people smile here.

Also take care of fish because she's got like a bunch of little fish that she keeps in a bowl in her room ok. ]

Like what? I'm not very good at most things that aren't baking related.. though I got an A in my flower arrangement class!

[ Even if she kept arranging her flowers like cakes.. ]

[springcleaning]

Flower arrangement...?

Nah, no, something fucking useful. You look pretty light, so you'd be good at what we do back home, with some training.

[strawberrytart]

Well learning about flowers is useful for cake decoration since you learn about how to put candy-type flower decorations together to look right but..

[ Basically, it's useful to her. ]

What do you do back home?

[springcleaning]

We're trained using 3D-Maneuver Gear to kill Titans. It's this device someone came up with... like...

[He doesn't have the gear, the blades or the gas tanks, but he still has the harness straps on, over his military uniform. He gestures to them.]

With these and a set of cables you can use your body weight... I think that's how it works? I didn't fucking pay attention in the written part of class. You can basically propel yourself through the air and kill shit at high speeds.

[strawberrytart]

[ That kind of description makes Ichigo 5000000% certain of one thing: ]

I absolutely can't do that.

[springcleaning]

What makes you sure?

[strawberrytart]

I'm not graceful on the ground, I can't go through the air.

[ Instead of killing a titan, she'd probably run into it ]

[springcleaning]

[It's happened before.]

CQC, then. Women should know how to protect themselves, too.

[strawberrytart]

C..Q..C?

[ She both looks and sounds perplexed. ]

[springcleaning]

Close quarters combat. Sorry, I'm too used to fucking military terms.

[strawberrytart]

I'm not..

[ And then she remembers how she died um oops. There's just this look on her face like she regretted thinking about that. ]

It's a little late for that I guess.

[springcleaning]

Doesn't fucking matter. It's something to do, right? Besides, what if this isn't actually the-- whatever you lot call it, the fucking afterlife and we're just being rounded up by some asshole?

You should always know how to fight.

[strawberrytart]

We remember dying though and we're from different times and places so how could it be anything else?

[ Ichigo frowns. ] Anyway, I'm kind of clumsy, I don't think I could really do it. I've never been very good at anything besides baking.

[springcleaning]

At least give it a fucking try.