Mikasa was wandering around the forest to find Jean after she found and checked on Floch, now knowing that he was okay. She marked arrows on the bark of each tree she passed by to keep track of where she was, that way she could meet up with Floch, just in case the search went nowhere.
'As long as he doesn't take the arrow out, he should be fine, but how long have I been looking for him' Mikasa thought.
Mikasa slowly became curious about Krista's ability because every weapon she would summon would have the same nullifying effect whenever the weapon made physical contact with someone like the bracelets they wore in school whenever they were not practising their ability or doing simulations.
Thinking of Krista made Mikasa kick a tree causing it to break off its trunk and fall on the ground. If it wasn't for her, they would've passed and wouldn't be in this situation at all. When she looked up at the timer, there were only around 8 minutes left with 15 spots left.
'Damn it! 8 minutes left and I have no clue where I am. Floch and Jean are injured and Eren and Armin are lost somewhere.' Mikasa quickened her pace, using the tree branches to hop around the area, going faster as she gained momentum until she heard a branch crack nearby, stopping her in her tracks.
'What the hell was that?' Mikasa thought, placing a firm grip on her sword.
"Who's there?! Get out of your hiding spot this instant!"Mikasa warned, slowly unsheathing her blade.
"Heh, I guess I'm lucky to run into you first…" A familiar voice said.
When the source of the voice stumbled out of the bushes, it was a bleeding Jean. He was putting pressure on his shoulder wound by tying the sleeves around it making his jacket stop the bleeding.
"Good. You're putting pressure on it."Mikasa said. "If only I had some medical equipment, I could've patched you and Floch properly."
Jean chuckled weakly. "I'm surprised that you left Floch to find me."
"Floch's injury wasn't as bad as I thought. It barely went through so he just needed a bit of rest, that's all," Mikasa explained. "And he wasn't bleeding out like you were, so you're just lucky."
"Want to boost my luck even further?"
Mikasa scowled. "You're pushing it."
"Just joking. Just joking. But thanks for looking for me.I appreciate it."
"You haven't broken your promise yet so we're still allies as of right now so let's go," Mikasa turned to reverse her steps.
"Do you even know the way back?"
"I've been keeping track of my journey by making arrows on the tree bark. Can you walk?"
"I'll be fine, it's my arm that's fucked up," Jean said. "But we need to hurry up if we want to pass."
"The issue is that I have no clue where Eren and Armin are," Mikasa told Jean as they began to head back to Floch.
"And there's only 7 minutes left with 15 spots remaining," Jean reminded. "Think we can still make it?"
"We can only hope that they're already there, but right now let's meet up with Floch and think of a plan from there," Mikasa said.
Mikasa quickened her pace as she became more familiar with the path she travelled using the arrows as a guide to head back. Jean was a few steps behind, making sure he didn't fall behind and get lost.
"Back there, you were pulling out your sword, right?"Jean asked.
"Yes but luckily, you didn't jump scare me," Mikasa said.
"Or else?"
"You would've had another wound to try about."
Jean swallowed some of his spit."Lucky me…"
Mikasa looks up to see that there are only 6 and a half minutes left with 13 open spots left.
"Do you think that Eren and Armin already made it?" she asked.
"I don't know, I doubt it. But if anything, probably Eren made it," Jean said.
"What about Armin?"
"What about him?"
"Do you think he made it?"
Jean chuckled. "Doubt it. Honestly, he probably broke his glasses and is now wandering around like a buffoon."
"What's your issue with him?"Mikasa asked, coldly. "I don't understand it. Did he do anything to you to deserve your bullying?"
"Hey, you said you wanted an answer to your question and I gave you one. What's the problem?"
Mikasa stopped to turn to the brunet."Now I want an answer to my question.What's your issue with Armin?"
"This shouldn't be the top priority right now so let's focus on the test for now."
Mikasa sighed. "Whatever. Let's hurry up."
The two teens quickly continued their way back as the timer was going down as well as the remaining spots. Jean tripped but Mikasa caught him from falling by grabbing the back of his shirt.
Jean sighed in relief."Thanks."
"Mhmm."
Mikasa heard two voices nearby, accidentally dropping Jean and grabbing her sword. "Did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I heard it too. I heard voices as well."
'Could that be?'
"Armin?!Eren?!"Mikasa shouted.
"Mikasa?!" one of the voices replied.
"Over here! Jean's here as well!"
She waved her arms around, now able to see Armin and Eren with Floch on his back.
"Heh, lucky us," Jean said, slowly standing up.
"Great. All of us are here," Armin said. "Now, we need to figure out what to do."
"We don't have much time, so we have to hurry up," Floch said, pointing up to see that there were almost 5 and a half minutes left with only 13 spots remaining.
"Floch, think you can turn into your bird form?" Armin asked.
Floch shook his head. "I don't think I can do it. My shoulder is killing me right now and I need two arms to fly, so that's out of the option."
"Not entirely," Mikasa said. "I'll do it, Floch. I'll fly us there."
"Think you can handle it? It's not very easy to fly around."
Mikasa touched Floch's hand for a couple of seconds before taking a few steps back and practising by transforming one of her arms into a bird as well but instead of having auburn feathers like Floch's, her feathers were black.
"How come your feathers are black but Floch's are auburn?" Armin asked.
"It's connected to your natural hair colour," Floch said. "My father has the same ability but he has brown hair so his feathers turn brown when he transforms."
"Do black hawks even exist?"Eren asked.
"They do exist. They're just not seen very often," Floch answered.
Mikasa flapped her wing arm to get used to the motions.
'It's basically just moving your arm up and down like a regular human arm.'
"The issue is that when I copy an ability after physical contact, I can only use it for 3 minutes before losing it. How can we fix that issue?"
"Hmm, true we don't know how far the end goal is and Mikasa can't touch Floch if he's going to be on her back as well," Armin said."But how about you just hold Floch with one of your claws? Therefore, your power timer will always reset and you don't have to worry about time."
"But that could hurt me even more," Floch argued. "Bird talons aren't a joke and I already have a wound to worry about."
Mikasa nodded in agreement. "True, my talons could puncture him and create another wound."
Floch sighed. "But we don't really have much of a choice do we?"
Mikasa and the others looked at each other before looking at the teen and shaking their heads, causing Floch to sigh again.
"Fine. Just watch the talons."
Mikasa nodded before she transformed her version of the hawk form but instead, she was black and noticeably bigger than Floch in his bird form. She stumbled a little bit, trying to get a grip on a bird's way of walking, adding to the fact that her vision changed to that of birds as well with her being able to see at a wider angle, it made her bump into a couple of trees in the process.
Floch chuckled at her struggle before she squawked at the teenager in anger but that made him laugh more.
"Is it me or that she's bigger than Floch when he was in his bird form?" Eren said, a bit confused.
"Female hawks are bigger than male ones," Floch informed. "Their bigger size contributes to sitting on the nest longer while scaring off predators from getting close to the nest at the same time while the males' smaller size is more beneficial for hunting."
Armin, Jean and Eren climbed on her back, getting ready for lift-off. Mikasa slowly moved her arms in a flapping motion,slowly rising from the ground.
"So I use my feet to grab you?"
"That's right. Just like a monkey."
She landed back on the ground and tried to walk towards Floch but she misstepped and nearly fell on the ground, almost dropping the three teens on her back.
"Careful," Floch told her. "Walking like a bird is not the same as walking like a human. The knees are bent the opposite way."
'I feel like a baby trying to walk for the first time,' Mikasa complained.
She slowly stood back up and decided to try again so she slowly lifted a foot and took a step forward before doing it again and again until she was able to get a hang out of it. Going around in circles and going faster as she completed a lap.
"Good. You can walk. Now I want you to fly and grab me at the same time."
Mikasa took a few steps back before she flapped her wings and flew a couple of feet in the air before extending one of her feet and grabbing Floch.
"Good job and you don't need to flap your wings all the time, it's better to glide, just keep your arms straight. Now let's hurry! There's only 4 minutes left and 9 spots remaining!" Floch said.
"Do you guys see the dirt trail?"Armin asked.
Jean shook his head while Eren continued to look around until he shouted.
"No fucking way, I see it!"
"Where?" Mikasa turned her head.
Armin was startled, seeing her rotate her head.
"Over there! And look, the checkpoint says 40 kilometres so we're almost halfway there!" Eren said.
"How can we complete 60 km in almost 4 minutes?!" Jean hissed his teeth. "Fuck… we're screwed…"
"No, we're not! I have an idea!" Eren exclaimed.
Eren took off his shoes and gave them to Armin. "I'm going to use my fire to boost us to the finish. Mikasa, I just need you to keep your arms straight and get ready to turn."
"Uh, I'm not sure about this…"Armin drawled.
"Too late! Hold on tight!"Eren shouted before Mikasa spread her wings.
Eren jumped and grabbed a fistful of feathers with each hand before launching them to the finish line with Armin and Jean nearly falling off.
Mikasa held strong by keeping her arms straight while turning to align herself with the track's turns and curves but the boost of speed made it very difficult. In a mere half a minute, they were already blitzed past the 50-kilometre checkpoint.
"10 spots remaining!" A female AI voice announced.
But that made Mikasa keeping her arms straight a more difficult challenge. Armin's reminder made Eren go even faster to the point that she started to get worried that she might not have any feathers on her body by the time they made it or even if they would make it and pass. But Mikasa knew that she didn't want to go home. She would ensure that the next time she heads home, it would be to tell them that she made it.
"Faster!" Mikasa commanded.
Mikasa herself passed the trees faster and faster and noticed that she was now at the 60-kilometre checkpoint. A few seconds later, they passed the 70-kilometre checkpoint, then the 80-kilometre checkpoint, then the 90 but even though they were getting closer to the endpoint, there were a little more than 2 minutes remaining. The amount of open spots went from 10 to 9.
'Shit, there's 9 spots left and five of us. We have to go faster!'
"Push it!" She commanded Eren.
"Don't have to tell me twice…"
"Eren, you're pushing yourself too far! You're gonna overheat!" Armin warned.
"I have to push myself or else we'll fail…and i'm not fucking failing!" Eren shouted in anger before he managed to push himself even further.
"8 spots remaining!"
Mikasa felt sharp pains in her arms as if hundreds of knives just stabbed her but she was going to endure it, she had to.
"7 spots remaining!"
Mikasa was able to see the end point from the naked eye.
"6 spots remaining!"
She looked down to see a couple of examinees heading toward the finish line making her decide to lean in to increase the speed
"Brace for impact!" Floch shouted before Mikasa tucked in her legs to protect Floch
" 5 spots remaining!"
The five teens crashed into the end zone, damaging the coach buses and the trees behind them. Jean was able to create a spherical-shaped barrier around Mikasa and the others to try and soften the impact.
"0 spots remaining! Test complete!"