Levi eye's widened, and there was no mistaking the incredulous look when he glanced back towards her. Of the few questions she'd asked, none of them had been of this flavor. Has it stopped raining yet? or Where do you think they're coming from? — these had definite answers related to their mission. Straightforward. Obvious.
Really, it was a step in the right direction. That she even bothered to ask could have been one, but if Mikasa didn't care at some deeper level, then she probably wouldn't have wasted her breath. She was looking to him for an answer that every captain or squad leader in the army would give differently.
He turned back and, for a moment, continued leading her in silence, heading outside to where the horses were waiting.
"You probably think it's different than fighting," he said at last. "It's not. Not much. You pick somewhere to be — the best available place. The spot with good vantage where you won't get fucking crushed. Then…" He paused again. "If some smart-ass tried to explain it like this to me, I'd want to break his teeth, but —" he made an irritated hum "— like chess. For every opening sequence, the best players know all of the moves. That's up to a point. The moves that win and lose games are the ones that shit all over what they knew.
"It doesn't always work. You can get lucky, or not. I lived underground for a long time; if I hadn't, maybe I wouldn't have thought to look there. It doesn't matter. Thinking rationally, or irrationally… what matters are the results, and nothing changes in this shitty world when all anyone does is play by the script. Go your whole life like that and you might as well be rotting under there with the rest of those stinking corpses."
you saw only a mirage
Really, it was a step in the right direction. That she even bothered to ask could have been one, but if Mikasa didn't care at some deeper level, then she probably wouldn't have wasted her breath. She was looking to him for an answer that every captain or squad leader in the army would give differently.
He turned back and, for a moment, continued leading her in silence, heading outside to where the horses were waiting.
"You probably think it's different than fighting," he said at last. "It's not. Not much. You pick somewhere to be — the best available place. The spot with good vantage where you won't get fucking crushed. Then…" He paused again. "If some smart-ass tried to explain it like this to me, I'd want to break his teeth, but —" he made an irritated hum "— like chess. For every opening sequence, the best players know all of the moves. That's up to a point. The moves that win and lose games are the ones that shit all over what they knew.
"It doesn't always work. You can get lucky, or not. I lived underground for a long time; if I hadn't, maybe I wouldn't have thought to look there. It doesn't matter. Thinking rationally, or irrationally… what matters are the results, and nothing changes in this shitty world when all anyone does is play by the script. Go your whole life like that and you might as well be rotting under there with the rest of those stinking corpses."