End Of The Ryoshi Inheritance Trial Within The Walls

"Who's there?!" The two simultaneously said as their bodies tensed up.

"Relax, it's just me. I'm Eren...who are you guys?" Said a young boy the same age as them who came out of hiding behind a tree. The boy had a green raincoat on and a red scarf on his neck.

"Mikasa." She said bluntly as her body relaxed finding no trace of hostility from the boy called Eren. Heishi on the other hand kept silent while inspecting the newcomer.

"You're Mikasa? Then who's he? Dad told me you were the only kid in this area." Eren asked remembering his father's words a while ago.

"I'm not from this area. Why are you here?" Heishi asked.

"Actually, I'm here to save her..."

Eren replied while pointing at Mikasa before the situation became awkward as she said, "Thanks...but I don't need saving anymore."

The awkwardness in the air was thankfully broken by Heishi after he determined that he was a friend. "Why don't you come and join us, The duck is about to be ready."

"Thanks"

With that, Eren joined the two as they began conversing while eating the roasted duck.

...

A while later, Eren brought up again the topic of where Mikasa would stay now.

"As I said before, You're welcome to come live with me. My parents would be happy to have you be a part of our family." Heishi said as a reply to Eren while reminding Mikasa of his offer when suddenly a screech was heard accompanied by flapping of wings as a falcon flew down and perched on Heishi's shoulder.

"It's one of our family's messenger falcons. Oh...Looks like I'll have to take back my offer for now. My family's preparing for another war against one of our rebel branches and it would be too dangerous to bring you with me right now."

Heishi said as he read the message tied to the falcon's leg. He had a look of resignation as he apologized to Mikasa for the sudden change of plans.

"Don't worry Mikasa, You can live with my family. It'll be fun, I'll introduce you to Armin.", Eren said.

"Yeah, You can live with them for now. After everything settles back home, I'll come to fetch you." Heishi agreed with Eren's suggestion.

To their words, Mikasa merely nodded and made an uhm sound to signify her approval.

"Alright, now that everything's settled I better get going. There's probably a search party looking for you two right now and I can't be seen...not yet. See you guys." Heishi was just about to head to the woods when a vision appeared on his mind again. This time it was of young Eren trying to act as a hero for a yellow-haired child but got beaten up by bullies instead, Eren arguing with others even Mikasa, and an older Eren fighting titans within a breached district.

"...Mikasa, before I go, can I ask you to do something for me? It's about Eren. Watch out for him for me, will you? I have a feeling he'll be a troublesome and hard-headed guy but he might be of help to my mission in the future."With those words said, He dashed out and deeper into the forest towards the mountain where the trial grounds were situated in.

Sometime later...

"Eren! Mikasa! There you are!" Grisha Yeager exclaimed as he ran towards the two. He knelt down and pulled his son into a hug.

"Eren, I told you to wait at the base of the mountain. Do you understand what you've done?!" Grisha said as he scolded his son.

Eren was about to retort when Mikasa signaled him to not reveal Heishi remembering what he said about how he should not be exposed. Eren thankfully got the message and changed his words while assuming to have done as he planned. "I killed some dangerous animals. They were beasts that just happened to look human!"

"Eren!"

"They would've been long gone if we'd waited for the Military Police Brigade to arrive. It would've been too late!" Eren continued.

"That's no excuse! You were just lucky, Eren! I'm scolding you for thoughtlessly risking your life like that!" Grisha lectured.

"But...I wanted to save her quickly." Eren explained in a soft sad tone.

Grisha was momentarily surprised before regaining himself as he looked at Mikasa by the side and asked, "Mikasa. Do you remember me? We met a few times when you were younger."

Mikasa similarly pretended that she had not met Heishi and had a conversation with him as she said"Dr. Jaeger, which way...should I go to return home?" It's cold. There's nowhere...for me to go home to."

'Ack!' Eren immediately remembered that they had already discussed this before and what truly happened. He felt indignant for receiving a scolding for something he did not do...or at least something he wasn't able to do due to someone beating him to it.

Despite his discontent, he continued with the act and went forward to Mikasa but instead of offering her his scarf, he instead took off the properly worn purple scarf Heishi gave to Mikasa and wrapped it on her neck and over her head only revealing the upper left side of her head before it fell on her neck to reveal her other eye once more(just like how he did it in the anime).

"Here, let me help you. Feeling warmer?" Instead of looking at her while slightly blushing, he instead cheekily smiled at her as he said the words. His action caused her to glare at him but forced herself to say, "Yes, warmer" through gritted teeth.

Grisha was dissatisfied with his son's action but paid no heed to the origins of the scarf thinking she had already had it before the incident despite the exquisite materials and techniques used to make it as he walked to them. "Mikasa, why don't you live with us? You've been through a lot. You need plenty of rest."

Mikasa looked at Eren after hearing his father's words. "What? Come on, let's head back already." He said as he took her arm hidden in the jacket.

"To our home" He continued as he looked back at her.

Mikasa's eyelids opened wide before lowering once more as tears began to form in her eyes and fell down to her cheeks and further down into her scarf as she remembered once more Heishi's words to her before leaving. "Okay."

With that, the three left the forest but not before Mikasa glanced back at the direction Heishi left in and held the violet scarf closer to her face.

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest where a large stone wall was erected to isolate a piece of land to serve as the Ryoshi trial grounds, Heishi walked silently back towards his real camping grounds reminiscing the eventful day he just had.

Upon reaching his camping grounds, what awaited Ryoshi was a familiar ape, the very same primate that helped him in his predicament earlier that day. The mixed breed between a bonobo and a chimpanzee was currently in front of the campfire he must have lighted up himself, sitting on the log while boiling eggs on the frying pan.

"It's you. Thanks for saving me earlier this morning. I owe you one." He said as he walked into his tent. There he took out 2 pieces of cloth with embroidery on them from within his clothes. He returned to the house of the family to take these before heading to his camping grounds to remind himself of Mikasa, his promise to her, and to have something to give her once they met again in the future. He folded them neatly before placing them in the emergency kit where he found the violet scarf and placed it away carefully. After securing the mementos, he took out some more clothes from the pile he found while searching for resources before tearing them and used them to wrap around his wounds.

After finishing patching himself up, he walked out of the tent and towards the campfire. He held out his hands towards the ape and introduced himself."I haven't properly introduced myself yet, I'm Heishi of the Ryoshi clan main branch."

Instead of shaking hands with him, the ape scraped his hands with its own and look at him confusedly.

Heishi similarly looked at it confused by its action. "Huh?"

The ape looked at his still outstretched and hesitatingly pointed at the eggs being cooked in the frying pan. "What? No. I don't want those, I just want to shake hands." Heishi realized what it was thinking and corrected it.

The ape seemed to suddenly came to a realization and took a wooden bowl from beside it and placed it in his hands. "What's this?" Heishi looked at the bowl filled with mashed plants that looked like green cream.

The ape had another look of realization before pointing at the cream-like substance within and acted out rubbing on its skin while looking at him as if it was looking at a fool.

"Medicine?" Heishi realized its content with a dark look after seeing the expression on its face. "Thanks." Heishi removed his bandages before rubbing the cream on the wounds and covering them up again.

"Now that that's over with, Glad to meet you. Your pretty intelligent for an ape." Heishi extended his hands once more but this time before the primate could think of something else again, he took its hand and shook it. As their hands shook, memories began to appear on their heads which was not their own or at least not in their current body. The man and monkey received a major headache as the thing that wanted to break loose in their mind finally succeeded as memories of how a young boy and monkey met each other and grew up together began flashing in their minds. Heishi looked at the ape as an image of a suited monkey called Gurisumonki melded with it while the ape looked at him as an image of a young but older man named Jiyu melded with his face.

"Guri?"