Levi's Journal

Volume 4 Entry 3

Day: 3rd
Month: July
Year: 854

You know it's funny I could fill an entire book about Hange, Isabel & Farlan, Erwin, my old squad.

But I'll try to keep things in a proper timeline. 

I remember Erwin called me into his office. All three branches of the military were a buzz about what had taken place in Trost. From the reappearance of the Colossal Titan to this Eren Jeager kid, everyone seemed to be in conflict.

Despite Eren being able to plug the whole in the Wall, the MPs wanted to thank him by dissecting him.

So I had an idea as to what Erwin wanted to see me for.

He explained to me that Zachkly was going to put him on trial, to let the courts decide what to do with this kid. Erwin did like that idea. He had tried pleading his case with Zacckly but he wasn't interested.

That arrogant a** didn't really see the Survey Corps in a positive life. He kind of had the same attitude as most of the Royal Family and many in the inner most wall. The Scouts were waste of resources. We go outside the walls, a good chunk of us die, and we don't find out much.

Still I followed every order Erwin gave me. Not just because he was my superior, but because the devil had my utmost trust.

Erwin stressed how important it was that the Scouts gained custody of Eren.

He said "he is the key to humanity's freedom".

I laugh thinking about that now. Instead of being the key to humanity's freedom, he destroyed 80% of the human population.

Some savior, but to those on Paradis he is a hero. The liberator of the Eldian people.

The scary thing is, a part of my agrees with the Jeagerist, and I know Erwin would have supported Eren's plan for the Rumbling, knowing what we know now.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Erwin laid out a plan on how we could use Eren to retake Wall Maria and a new long range scouting formation.

He mentioned my squad, telling me he wanted us to be responsible for Eren.

At first I resisted. I didn't want to be responsible for that brat. I told him I felt that Hange would be more suited for the job. She had been dying to get her hands on Eren. I felt my squads skills would be wasted. But what started as a request, turned into an order.

I told Erwin that if Eren lost control even for a moment I wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

"And that is why I'm asking you Levi, I know you are the only one who is capable of killing him"

Turns out that wasn't true.

Some of you reading this maybe familiar with what happened in the court room, Armin and Mikasa.

It wasn't looking good for Eren or the scouts. Then the brat opened his mouth. Going on some impassioned speech about humanity wanting us to put our faith in him.

To be honest I don't even remember hoping over the railing, but I just wanted him to shut his mouth. It sounds sadistic but I enjoyed seeing Eren's tooth fly out of his mouth. I know to this day Mikasa doesn't forgive me for beating Eren so badly, but she's lucky I did. That beating saved his life.

Yet she is the one who has to live with the fact that she killed Eren in the end, not me.

Eren took the beating well, and it didn't take him long to understand why I did it. Honestly I'm not entirely sure, but I think Erwin some how knew something like that was going to happen.

It did make me happy to see how excited Hange was to finally work with Eren. Not even with him for more than five minutes, and she's already poking and prodding.

But as I learned Eren got his wish. He had always wanted to be a Scout. Not sure why that's anyone's dream in life.

My team wasn't too thrilled at our new assignment. Petra did her best to be supportive, but Petra was always like that. I don't think she would ever had had the guts to speak against me like Eld and Gunther did. It didn't help matters when I told them we would have to move out into the forest, to the old scouting headquarters.

I had promised them that after a month and the 57th Expedition they could go on an extended leave. But they never came back from beyond the walls.

That fateful expedition, the one that was supposed to be a major step in freeing humanity. Will haunt me for the rest of my life.

-Levi Ackerman