Welcome To The Facility

Jean slowly opened his eyes. His vision was a bit blurry, but it fixed itself within a few seconds, realising that he was lying on a stretcher in an ambulance truck.

"Good you're up," The doctor said, opening the truck doors.

Jean lifted himself to now he was sitting on the stretcher. He noticed that his arm was now in a sling.

"Doc, did I pass the test?"

The doctor shrugged. "You would have to speak to the instructor about that. As for your shoulder, I suggest you keep your arm in a sling for 1 to 2 days."

"What? Then I'm going to be at a disadvantage. You don't have anything that could heal up the process faster?"

"I'm sorry this is all I can do right now. But if you have your test within those 2 days, you could use this instead," The doctor gave Jean a black shoulder brace.

 "What about the others that were with me? What happened to them?" Jean looked at the brace, looking at it from every angle.

"Are you talking about the other three boys and the bird girl you were with? Well, the blonde boy was mostly fine apart from his glasses and spilling the contents in his bladder, the boy with the swirly hair had a similar injury to yours except he had less blood loss. The fire boy passed out from overheating so we had to put him in a cool room to balance his temperature and the bird girl just had a minor concussion," The doctor said. "But they all managed to recover and are now waiting with the others for a repairman to arrive and fix the coach buses."

'Good they're okay, but we did mess up the coach buses…'

"Thanks," Jean got up and walked out of the truck and took his dirty varsity jacket with the right part of his jacket being a dark purple because of the navy blue mixed with blood and the white shirt had a mix of dirt and blood on it making parts of the shirt a reddish-brown hue. 

The end zone area was a big grassy field with tall trees surrounding the area except the ones that Jean crashed into, laying flat on the ground or leaning on the other trees for support.

Half of the coach buses were massively dented but it seemed that they flipped the trucks back to normal but it was still unable to drive.

"They should've gotten the stronger ones," Jean commented.

The examinees had their stuff with them, reminding Jean to get it. He walked to a large truck guarded by a pair of flying robots.

"Please scan your fingerprint here," the robots instructed.

Jean remembered when he had to scan his fingerprint at the signup booth.

'That's why they wanted us to scan our prints.'

The robot deciphered the print and said: "Examinee number 476, Jean Kristein."

The robot flew into the truck until a minute later, it came out holding Jean's stuff with an arm.

"Here are your belongings, examinee 476." 

Jean placed his bags over his right shoulder and sat on one of the benches that were put for the examinees. He looked around but he didn't see any of them.

'I don't see any of them. Were we too late?'

"Jean, you made it!" he heard a familiar voice.

"Oh. It's you, Reiner," he turned to see the tall, muscular teen smiling.

"Did you pass?" 

"Dunno. I woke up a few minutes ago so I'm out of the loop," Jean said.

"I'm pretty sure you did because the instructor told the other four that they passed, so you probably passed too," Reiner sat down next to him. "Me and Krista passed the test a while ago so we had plenty of time to relax."

"Speaking of Krista, where is she?"Jean asked.

 'I want to talk with her so I can strangle her so much that her big eyes would pop out of her socket!'

"I don't know. She said that she needed some space."

'Guess she was mad that her plan didn't work,' Jean chuckled.

"Something funny?" Reiner looked at him, puzzled.

"No, just laughing at the fact that I passed."

"Guess it was worth the injury right? One step closer to becoming Adventurers," Reiner said with a smile.

"What's gonna happen with the buses?" Jean asked."Most of them are totaled and I'm not in the mood for walking."

"The instructors said that they're gonna fix them, we just had to wait a minute."

Jean opened his bag to take out his water bottle and took a big gulp.

In a couple of minutes, a sleek,expensive looking black car drove in and when the driver's door opened, a man who was barely six feet tall with long dark blond hair in a small low ponytail with very short bangs that were parted in the middle with brown eyes and a short blond goatee with no mustache to compliment. He was wearing black dress pants and a formal vest with a white long-sleeve dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, showing off his left arm that was robotic with the arm looking exactly like his organic arm but it was grey with glowing green lines going around the bicep and the forearm of the prosthetic.

"Hey, Petra, I guess these are this year's examinees, huh?" the man said.

"Yeah, Eld. We just need you to fix these buses so we can take the 80 that passed to the hotel and take the rest home," Rico said.

"This is only the first test and I had to exert myself already?"

"Stop complaining and get to it, Eld. I wanna get there before the sun comes down," Rico said, pushing the man to the damaged coach buses.

Eld sighed before he created a yellowish-orange translucent dome surrounding the whole area. The dents of the coach buses started to pop out and the scratches started to disappear.

The dome started to fade away but the trees stayed damaged.

"There. The buses are now back to normal." Eld said proudly.

"Thanks, Eld! Guys, this is Eld Gein and he will be the manager of the hotel for this year's exam.So, if you have any problems, contact the office and he or one of his co-workers will get to you."

"What happened to your arm, Eld?"Jean turned to see Eren pointing at his arm. He looked fine aside from the clothing being a bit tattered from the fall.

Eld looked at his new arm before answering Eren's question.

"Oh, I lost it on an A-rank mission a couple of years ago, but I'm fine. Alright, Petra I will leave the rest to you and meet the rest of you guys at the hotel. Good luck everyone," he waved as he went back to his car.

"The eighty that passed head on to the coach buses over there and the rest of you that failed head on to that one," Rico instructed.

Jean saw the four teens that he worked with heading to the buses for the ones that passed.

"Excuse me, instructor Rico, right? I want to know if I passed or not," Jean asked the silver-haired woman.

"You're examinee number 476, right? Yes, you and your group were the last ones to pass."

Jean wanted to shout in excitement but he held it and said thanks before he went to one of the coach buses. Luckily, the backseats on the left side coach buses were available.

He sat down, putting on his earbuds to listen to some rock music as he was looking out the tinted window.

'I can't believe that I worked with them. I didn't mind working with Mikasa but working with them three?! What the fuck is wrong with me? And by the way, Reiner glared at me back there, I'm bound to hear an earful from them.' 

The sun was now starting to set, turning the sky into a bright orange, giving the white coach buses a yellowish-orange hue before the engine started to run and the buses started to move. Jean felt his eyelids getting heavy and was ready to succumb to slumber until he felt a hard tap on his injured shoulder making Jean flinch in pain as he removed the right earbud out of his ear.

"What do you want?"Jean said, a little bit irritated.

"Is that how you talk to people?"

Jean turned to see Krista sitting next to him, looking directly at him. She had her phone in her hand but she was looking directly at Jean instead of the screen. She had glared at him intensely.

'I fucking knew it...' Jean placed his right hand on his face.

"What's the matter, Jean? I have not told you the reason that I am in your presence," Krista said.

Jean continued to look out the window as the bus began to move. Jean was looking through and could see Krista was still looking at him with her blue eyes through the reflection.

"Go and sit with your boyfriend, Krista. I don't want to talk right now," Jean said while still looking at Krista through the reflection of the bus window.

"Why did you work with them, Jean?"

"Because-"

"You're supposed to look at someone when they're talking to you, Jean."

Jean hissed his teeth as he continued to look through the window. Krista doesn't usually speak and when she does, it's usually in a monotone. So, hearing some anger in her tone made Jean send a small chill down his spine.

'Leave me the hell alone unless you want your face to stay the same colour.'

"Jean, are you hearing me? Look at me when I'm talking to you. Hmph, I thought your mother taught you some manners but it seems I've overestimated my expectations."

Jean gritted his teeth and slowly turned to the blondie.

"What the fuck did you say?!"Jean shouted.

Krista clasped her small hands together. "Now that I have acquired your attention, why did you side with them, Jean?"

"Because I thought it would've been easier to pass the test and I didn't have to use my stamina," he said with the anger still in his tone.

Krista nodded. "And what happened when you worked with them?"

"Floch got shot and we crashed into a bunch of trees." 

Krista slowly shook her head as she clicked her teeth. "You see, Jean? They are bad luck. Not only did you nearly fail the test, you nearly died in the process…twice! Jean, you cannot aid them. Especially Eren. That street rat jerk is way too daring and clearly doesn't care about your life. I mean, I'm shocked that his friends survived that crash."

Jean looked at his injured arm before looking back at the short blonde.

"You say that even though it was you who did it!"Jean pointed his finger at her.

The blonde sighed. "Because Reiner and I were so angry that you sided with them. I thought we were friends, but perhaps I was wrong. So I apologize for letting my emotions get the better of me."

Jean sighed. Krista wasn't wrong. If he never joined them, he probably would've passed a long time ago along with Reiner and Krista and he wouldn't worry about getting shot by her and getting lost in the forest. Sure, the only thing he would have to worry about is the surprise cloud attacks and landmines but with his barrier, he could've easily protected himself. Although she was partly right, he would've passed earlier and not have to have his arm in a sling if it wasn't for her.

"I understand."

Krista nodded."Thank you for understanding, I'll see you later, Jean. And next time, stick with me and Reiner. Don't stoop so low like that again."

She got up from her seat and walked away. Jean grunted and leaned towards the window again, trying to fall asleep through the trip but that talk with Krista kept him awake.

'Yeah,sure….fucking bitch…'

Although, he doesn't regret that he got to be with Mikasa even though the plan didn't go well. He still remembered the warmth of her elegant hands, making his cheeks heat up again. Jean managed to fall asleep throughout the trip. By the time he woke up, It was nearly sundown. He yawned as he descended the stairs of the bus only to see a large hotel with a facility right in front of him with the pathway to the facility illuminated with post lights.

"Welcome to the Adventurer's Exam facility! The building right in front of you is a 5-star hotel where you'll be resting after each part of the exam. Follow me and I will guide you through the hotel."

The examinees followed Rico to the entrance of the hotel. There was a marble fountain in the middle of three tall white buildings connected. Jean entered the hotel through the front entrance of the hotel. The main area was huge with large golden chandeliers hanging on the ceiling and a bunch of furniture to sit on as well. there were large windows that showed the large area in the back which had 2 large pools with a jacuzzi nearby with rows of black beach chairs and a great view of a giant canal which shipment boats use to take a shortcut to the north of the island.

"Outside you'll see at the left side of the hotel, there are two big pools but if you want to see the full view you can enter from there," Petra explained before standing at the automatic sliding door to the pools.

Petra put her hands together and smiled. "This hotel has two top floors just for entertainment so if you want to watch movies, play games or just hang out, you could go there. There's also a restaurant with a bar inside the hotel on this floor over there that's completely free of charge, so you eat and drink to your heart's desire. However, examinees who are underage don't have access to the bar."

Jean yawned again as Petra and the rest of the examinees continued the tour of the hotel. They were outside again. The massive building in front of Jean was 6 stories tall and about the size of an airport parking lot with the roof of the building coloured black. The white walls and square-shaped windows were along the front and sides of the first floor of the building.

"This building is the training facility. If you want to train for your body, or your power or even both, you can come here and get your work in. It's open 24/7, so you won't have to worry about closing time and there are simulator rooms, so you can try out fighting different monsters or opponents in a variety of different conditions like in the snow or the desert or maybe even in a jungle. it's all up to you. Anyways with that, it's the end of the tour, go and get your listed hotel room key and get lots of rest cause the next test is tomorrow at noon."

After Jean got his card key, he headed to his room and unlocked the door, opening to see a room with white lilac walls with peach-coloured sheets including a small side table made of maple wood and a maple wood television stand with a 32-inch television resting on top with a window that has a good view of the pools and the big river across from him. Jean yawned as he walked to his bed and dropped his bag by his bedside.

"I'll take a shower first thing tomorrow," Jean said, taking off his shoes as he plopped on his bed.

He was so tired, he didn't even bother to get under the blanket. He was about to fall asleep when he heard a knock on his door, he sluggishly walked to the front door and looked through the peephole to see Reiner standing there with Krista beside him.

'Shit, I knew it…' Jean thought as he carefully took a step back from the door. Jean slowly tiptoed back to his bed, hoping that they wouldn't hear until he nearly stepped on his bag.

"Jean? Are you up?"

'To you, I won't be,' Jean said in his head before carefully sliding back into his bed until he heard a sound coming from his phone. Jean carefully went into his bag and got his phone. It was a message he got from Reiner and read from his home screen and it only said: 'Are you up?'

Jean ignored the knocking and went to sleep. The next day, Jean woke up and checked his phone. It was only 10:30 a.m.After his morning routine, he went into his bag and took out a jar of grease, deciding on whether to grease up his hair or not.

"Not today," Jean dropped the grease jar back in his bag. He took out his room key and put it in his pants pocket as well as his phone and earbuds case and walked out of his room. He was listening to hip-hop music this time, wearing a black tank top with a black shoulder brace on his injured shoulder instead of the sling with beige cargo pants and his Nike Uptempos with one earbud in his ear so he could hear his surroundings better.

As Jean headed for the elevator, he didn't feel like eating so he headed directly to the training facility. When he entered, he saw other examinees training as their bodies like lifting thousands of pounds with ease and running on treadmills that could go as fast as jets. As he went to the elevator, Jean noticed a group of girls blushing and looking at him in awe causing him to grow a little grin, until he heard a familiar voice behind him and then the grin faded away.

"Jean! What's up? Coming for a good workout before the next test?"Reiner asked, appearing behind Jean, wearing a red tank top and grey shorts but he sweated so much that it darkened the top half of his red tank top and with the bright light above, it made the sweat shine on his broad shoulders and muscular arms. 

'And this guy is only turning 17 in a few months,' Jean thought.

Reiner was supposed to be a grade above Jean but when he asked about it, Reiner told him that he just redshirted. Redshirting is typically used for athletes to lengthen the period of eligibility, but sometimes people do it even before they reach college so they reach physical maturity faster than their peers for a higher chance at athletic success.

"Anyways, yeah I'm here to get a warm-up in. Where's Krista?"

"Oh, she's practising her archery skills on the upper floors of the facility. Do you want to get some reps in?"

"Nah, I came here to practise my ability so I'm heading to the simulator. Plus, you know? my shoulder?"

"Oh yeah, what did you and Krista talk about?" Reiner asked, crossing his massive arms together.

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"Krista went to the back to talk to you. What was it about?" He repeated the question in a more serious tone.

Jean most likely knew that Reiner was involved with it but he's not going to jump the gun yet, at least not here.

"She just apologized to me, that's all."

"I guess she was affected by your betrayal," Reiner said.

Jean hissed his teeth. "For what? We hardly even talked to each other back in junior high, so I highly doubt that."

"Well, that's what she told me," Reiner shrugged. "Whether you want to forgive her, that's totally up to you. Honestly, I felt betrayed, like come on I thought we were friends. We were the top 2 for defence together, we like a defensive duo."

'Oh yeah, that.'

Back in junior high, they would have a leaderboard for each class to try to encourage the students to perform better. They would have leaderboards in terms of academics for each subject like mathematics and sciences. As for the Adventurer-Advanced Program, they would make leaderboards as well but have more focus on athletics like lifting and striking strength, running speed, reaction time, offensive capabilities and defensive capabilities. Reiner was ranked first in overall defence and third in overall offence. The first spot was contested between him and Reiner but he was much more proficient with his power and more athletically gifted than Jean so he took the top spot.

Jean crossed his arms."Have you never heard of 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer?' "

Reiner looked up in thought. " That sounds familiar. Feels like I heard it before."

"Yeah, that's because that was my plan. After all, if we are bound to go against them at some point."

Reiner put one of his sweaty arms on Jean's shoulder. "So, what did you learn?"

"Uh, well I learned uh…."

Jean was thinking about what he learned from his alliance with them. The only that he learned was that he might get another arrow to his shoulder. But he did learn something interesting but it might hinder her chance of passing.

"I learned more about Mikasa…" he said, a bit solemnly.

Reiner removed his arm from Jean and looked at him with a smile. "Actually? Cool. What did you learn?"

"Well, apparently there's a time limit on her copy ability.3 minutes."

"3 minutes? That's pretty useful," Reiner nodded."Anyway, I'm going to do another set. I'll see you later. When your shoulder is fully healed, let's do some reps together."

"Sure I'll see you later," Jean made a peace sign as he headed towards the simulator as Reiner went to continue his javelin presses on his left arm. He looked closely at the weight plates that Reiner was lifting and realized that he was lifting plates that each weighed twenty thousand pounds with 3 plates on each end of the barbell meaning that he was lifting 120 thousand pounds only doing a javelin press with his left arm.

Jean scoffed as he headed up to the simulator. Jean took the elevator to the second floor. He wasn't really listening to Petra so he didn't know what each floor contained. The elevator doors opened to see it was another part of the gym but there was hardly anyone in there.

"So, the first floor is full because all of the girls are looking at Reiner. Lucky him," Jean bitterly muttered as he pressed the button to the third floor.

The elevator went up and its doors opened to see a room with a wall of weapons from swords to shields and maces with archery targets and practice dummies as well. Jean looked around to see Eren, Armin, Floch and Mikasa looking at the different weapons. Jean noticed a pair of metal gauntlets on the wall across from him and the simulator room on the right side entered in as well.

'Those gauntlets look cool back there, but my shoulder is still recovering.'

"Do you guys think that I'll be good with a sword too?"Eren asked as he grabbed a longsword and began to twirl the weapon around with his left hand. He was wearing a red sweater with black jogging pants with the ends stuffed into his white socks and wearing his dirty Nike shoes.

"I mean, do you have any weapon training?" Floch asked. The auburn-haired teen was wearing a black sweater, blue jogging pants and his Converse shoes. 

"No, just hand-to-hand self-training," Eren replied.

"Speaking of which, what style of martial arts did you learn again?" Armin asked.

"Oh, I'm self-taught. I did learn a little bit of Muay Thai from Annie but, besides that, most of it is just brawling," Eren said as he placed the sword back on the wall.

"Annie? Wait, you trained with Annie?"Mikasa said ,curious.She was wearing a dark purple long-sleeved shirt with a black choker around her neck and a black knee-length skirt with a black belt around her with black tights underneath and sporting her black combat boots.

Eren nodded and sat down next to Armin. "Yeah, we trained and sparred about three to four times a week, give or take."

"And nothing special happened between you two during any of those sessions?" Floch asked with a smirk.

Armin looked curious about it as well as he glanced at Eren.

"No. Nothing like that," Eren replied.

Floch rolled his eyes. "That's a bummer. If I was you, I would've lost my virginity to her already."

Armin and Eren started to laugh as Mikasa was giggling.

"Stop lying!"

"What?! I'm not lying, Eren! If I was you, I would've already!"

"Sure, buddy."

Armin started to tinker with a small robot he made. The blonde was wearing a long-sleeved green shirt and tan pants."Speaking of Annie, do you know if she's here or not?"

"To be honest with you, I don't know. I haven't seen her here and last time I asked her about it, she didn't really give me an official answer."Eren leaned back and sighed. 

Jean grinned as he approached the group and sat next to Mikasa before he wrapped his right arm around her. "Maybe, because she has the smarts to not be here unlike some people."

"Get your arm off of me, "Mikasa demanded as she elbowed Jean's side. 

"Then, why are you here, then?" Floch asked.

Jean briefly looked down and lost his grin. He remembered what happened that day. The train. His old friend.Seconds away. He tried to, but it was too fast. Jean scoffed and folded his arms.

"None of your business," Jean said angrily. "Anyways, why are you guys even here?"

"We're waiting to try out the simulator but it's busy right now," Eren answered.

"Do you know who's even in there?"Jean said.

Armin shook his head. "Nope, we knocked on the door but there was no response."

"There's another one on the top floor," Mikasa informed.

Floch, Armin and Eren slowly turned their heads to Mikasa.

"Why the hell didn't you say anything?!" The three boys shouted in unison.

"I apologize. It slipped my mind."

"Ok. Let's go upstairs and check if it's available," Eren said.

The quartet got up and headed to the elevator.

"Let me join."

Eren turned around."What?"

"Well I was planning on trying on the simulation as well but we can spar after your simulation test and prove that I can whoop your ass even with a hurt shoulder."

Eren grinned, showing his sharp canine teeth. "Oh yeah, you want to redeem yourself after the last fight, right? Okay sure, you could get your ass beat again."

"I will win this time."

"Keep telling yourself that."

Jean smirked as he went back to the elevator.