Annie Leonhart (Lost Girls)

cigarette

Annie Leonhart (アニ・レオンハート) is a Military Police Brigade soldier who lives in Stohess District.

Wall Sheena, Goodbye arc
Sometime before the Survey Corps' 57th expedition beyond the Walls, a superior officer briefs Hitch, Marlowe, and Annie on an illegal drug known as Coderoin. She is informed that the drug has only recently been introduced to Stohess District. Hitch is interested to learn that any soldier that confiscates enough of it will receive a special bonus.

On the morning before the Survey Corps' 57th expedition beyond the Walls, Annie wakes up in her room in the Military Police Brigade Quarters barracks.Thinking back on the battle in Trost District and the aftermath, she wonders how many lives she will need to take in order to capture Eren Yeager. She steels herself, believing that nothing must stop her from completing her mission.

As Annie puts on her hoodie, Hitch mocks the lack of variety in the cloths that Annie wears, suggesting that Annie should dress up for a change. Annie asks Hitch to report her sick during the next day's district patrol, so that she can take care of some minor business. Thinking to herself, Annie notes that she will not need an excuse if she succeeds tomorrow, but if she fails she will need an excuse for her absence. While Annie considers her options, Hitch hands her a sketch of a young woman who was reported missing, Carly Stratmann. Hitch tells her that if Annie takes care of this case for her, it would return the favor for Hitch reporting Annie sick. Hitch asks Annie who the guy she is meeting up with tomorrow, to which Annie with a 15-meter Titan. Hitch tells Annie to work on her sense of humor.

While eating her breakfast in the barracks mess hall, Annie evaluates if it is worth the effort to start a missing person's case in a single day. Seeing Marlowe in his usual professional state working on his day off, Annie decides that it would be best for her to keep her mind busy and play soldier for one more day.

Annie reads over the case file on Carly as she rides in a cartridge on the way to the mansion of the Stratmann family, to talk with Carly's father and head of Marleen Company, Elliot Gurnberg Stratmann. Upon her arrival to the mansion, Elliot butler welcomes her and leads her to Elliot. Annie asks Elliot about the circumstances to Carly's disappearance, to which Elliot seems unsurprised that his daughter is still missing even after ten days of him reporting it to the Military Police. When Elliot asks Annie if the Military Police is incompetent, she replies that he is free to think that. Elliot calls Annie a liar, hypothesizing that Annie was too lazy to search for Carly. Annie tells the man that he is correct, yet Elliot claims once again that she is lying because if Annie were truly lazy she would have never come to ask him questions. Impressed with the man's intuition, Annie informs him that she is the first person to follow up on the report after it had gone through two other policemen.

Elliot asks her how long she has been in the Military Police, and is bitterly amused when Annie informs him that she has been in the MPs for only a month. Annie asks Elliot why he has not hired private professionals to find his daughter. He tells Annie that private professionals can only be trusted to separate him and his money, but his eyes tell them that he can trust Annie to find his daughter.

As Elliot explains the circumstances surrounding Carly's disappearance, Annie jots down notes in her notebook. Elliot explains that Carly did not show up to dinner twelve days prior, despite it being a rule to always have dinner together, regardless of their busy schedules. Annie further questions Elliot about Carly, but Elliot responds to each of her questions telling her that he knows little about his daughter and only cares that she shows up to dinner every day. Elliot informs her that Carly graduated from Einrich college three years ago, majoring in chemistry. Annie asks Elliot if Carly's disappearance could be because Elliot is a rich and powerful man, to which he responds no due to the lack of ransom demands. Annie asks him if there is a possibility that Carly might have run away, but Elliot is unsure since they have cooperated in living together since her mother's death.

Their conversation is interrupted due to a loud knocking at Elliot's door. As Elliot sends his butler to answer the door, Annie notices a man leaving the estate and jumping the fence outside. When Annie asks Elliot to clarify what he meant by "cooperated," he restates that he and his daughter only interacted at dinner. As Elliot receives a note from his butler, Annie thinks to herself that Elliot is acting odd and suspects that he is hiding something.

Annie goes back to the Military Police Brigade Quarters' materials storeroom. She asks for information about the Stratmann family and the Marleen Company, and learns that the Marleen Company mainly traded with merchants from Wall Maria until Shiganshina District fell in the year 845. After the fall, Marleen Company went into a large downsizing, reduced to only a carriage service. Annie is skeptical of how Elliot can remain so financially stable with only a transport service. Furthermore, she is also curious about why Carly Stratmann is unemployed despite having graduated from Einrich College with a major in chemistry, three years ago. Annie wonders about the relationship between Elliot and Carly, finding it strange how neither is involved in each others' lives. She thinks back to her relationship with her own father, who subjected her to restless training from morning to night with no room for disobedience. Annie returns her thoughts to the Stratmanns, finding it odd that Elliot spoke about Carly as if she was independent of his finances despite her seemingly needing to rely on him for money.

Annie asks for any interrogation records relating to the Stratmann family, and she discovers that Carly was interrogated once after being found in a drunken state in front of a bar in Stohess, the Pit Lidors. She heads to the Pit Lidors without any delay.

Annie walks into the bar and sets the sketch of Carly on the counter, asking the bartender if he knows her. The man denies knowing her, and Annie turns to ask a patron standing at the bar, who also denies knowing her. Annie orders a limeade, amusing a table of patrons. She approaches the table of patrons and questions them about Carly, and after a moment of silence, they continue to tease her. The largest patron tries to grab at Annie but she grabs the man's arm instead. The group of patrons tries to fight her but she makes quick work of the patrons, sending them flying across the room and destroying a chair brandished at her with her signature high kick. She pins the biggest patron against the table, dislocating his shoulder. She takes a pouch from him, spilling its contents on the table revealing coderoin.

Using the coderoin as blackmail to get answers, Annie asks them again about Carly. She promises that if she is given answers, she will overlook their drug use. One patron tells her that Carly frequently visited the Pit Lidors to buy beers for the patrons and dance with them, becoming loved by all the regulars for her generosity. They say that she disappeared ten days ago, noting that she had become angry on the day before her appearance when she noticed a patron using coderoin. The patrons tell Annie that strangely, Carly showed no such anger when other drugs were being used by the patrons. They tell Annie that they suspect that Carly may be involved in some illegal activity, which would explain her financial independence despite being unemployed. The patrons also note that a strange man with a red glass eye visited the tavern asking about Carly's whereabouts. Annie prods them for information about the man, and the bartender tells her that they honestly know nothing more on the subject. The bartender tells Annie that Wayne Eisner, Carly's boyfriend, may know more about the matter, and he tells her about his home in South Aachen Avenue. As Annie leaves, she puts the large patron's shoulder back into its place. She asks the bartender how he knows about Carly and Wayne, to which he responds that bartenders pick up such bits of information over time even if they are not wanted.

As Annie eats her lunch she plays with a cat. Annie starts to think back to her days in the 104th Training Corps and starts to question why she is trying so hard to play soldier. She decides that she will go to Wayne's house and give up if she does not find anything.

Annie asks a carriage driver to bring her to South Aachen Avenue, who at first refuses but then accepts once she offers double the money. She asks the driver if Marleen services any carriages in the area and the driver tells her that he has not seen them around lately. On the way there Annie reflects on the fact that the Military Police does not even bother to put South Aachen on their patrol routes. Once they get there Annie offers the driver triple the price of the way back if he waits for her, half up front and half when she gets back. The driver agrees, giving her an hour.

A group of thugs approach her as she enters the neighborhood and begin to taunt her. She quickly defeats the group and they give her Wayne's address. When she comes to his home, she tries knocking on the door only to find out that the door is unlocked. She enters the apartment to find out that nobody is home. She notices that there are two glasses of drinks left on the table and suspects that the drinks might belong to Carly and Wayne. She considers waiting for them to come home but decides that the wait would not be worth it if Wayne came back alone. She decides to search the apartment for ten minutes to see if she can find clues. At the end of her search, she comes across a drawer full of boxes of coderoin beneath Wayne's bed. Annie wonders if Wayne is a coderoin dealer and if Carly earned her money helping him but gets stumped when she remembers that Carly got mad when she saw coderoin.

As Annie thinks about why the man with the glass eye was looking for Carley, she suddenly gets unnerved by the feeling of someone watching her. Searching further beneath his bed, she finds a man behind the boxes. She stumbles back in shock and knocks over some glasses of liquor. Annie asks herself if the man is a deceased Wayne Eisner. Annie hears one of Wayne's neighbors in another apartment, yelling at her to keep it down. As the neighbor starts to threaten to confront her, Annie realizes that she did not lock the door.

Annie is able to make it to the door and lock it in time, frustrating the neighbor until they eventually leave. Annie searches the body and finds a license to operate carriages, confirming the man as Wayne. Annie starts to weigh the consequences of her possible courses of action. She decides to continue searching for Carly in order to create an alibi and then later anonymously report Wayne's death.

As she walks back to the carriage she thinks contemplates what could have happened to Carly, and Wayne and thinks back on her briefing on coderoin and how Wayne ended up with so much of it. She decides to head back to Elliot for further questioning. Upon entering the carriage she notices that the driver has been replaced with a stranger and it then ambushed by two men. One of the men holds a knife up to her face and warns her not to move. Annie recognizes the man with the knife as the man with the glass eye.

As the carriage starts to move, the two men restrain her by tying her hands together. Annie learns that the man with the glass eye is named Wald and that the other is Lou who she recognizes as a patron from Pit Lindors. Lou takes her ring and Wald starts examining her notebook. Wald informs her that plan to take her to the industrial ward and throw her into a tub of sludge to dispose of her. Annie tries to threaten the men to release her by telling them that more military police would come looking for them but Wald dismisses her, revealing that Elliot told him she was working alone and that Wald knew she could not report Wanye's death. Wald tells her that they were not the ones who killed Wanye. Annie askes Wald how he is connected to the Stratmann family but he replies that she does not need to know.

Annie asks the two men to give her ring back to her before they throw her into the sludge, however, Wald instead tells Lou to give the ring to him. Wald inspects the ring and discovers a small blade hidden within it. Suspecting that it is poisoned, he pricks Annie's hand. All according to plan, Annie makes use of the wound and generates an arm of the Female Titan. The arm destroys the carriage injuring both Wald and Lou.

Now free Annie retrieves her ring from her Titan's fingers. As she is distracted by Wald asking her questions about what just happened, Lou shoots her in the back with his gun. Lou then kicks her on the ground and takes her ring before shooting Wald and walking away. As Wald is dying, Annie heals herself and asks him about Carly's location. Wald confesses that Carly is at his office, No. 197 Van Gelder Street. He tells her that he and Lou were hired by Elliot to find Carly and that along the way they found Wayne. He tells her that they agreed to Wayne's plan to use Carly as blackmail and get ransom money. Wald asks Annie who she is to which she replies that she is a Titan. Wald considers this to be a joke and soon after dies.

Later during the start of the night, Annie heads to Wald's office where Lou and some others are celebrating Wald's death. Annie knocks on the door pretending to be delivering alcohol and hits the man who opens the door, in the face. The rest of the men charge at Annie to attack her but she easily knocks them all down. Lou aims his gun at Annie and fires but Annie throws a broken bottle, deflecting the bullet and sending shards of glass towards Lou. While Lou is distracted by the flying glass Annie gets behind him knocking him to the ground. She takes his gun and shoves it in his mouth while threatening him not to tell anyone that she ever met Lou or Wald, causing Lou to pass out in fear. Annie hears a person behind and turns around to find Carly.

Annie takes Carly back to Pit Lindors and the two have a conversation on the second floor. Annie tells Carly about Wayne's death and tells her that she is willing to overlook her involvement in the coderoin trade if she returns home. Annie asks Carly about her involvement in the coderoin trade and is surprised to learn that Carly produced the drug. Annie learns about Wayne's involvement as a dealer but is surprised to learn that Elliot ran the operation. She learns that Carly made a deal with Elliot to produce coderion on the condition that it would not be dealt in royal capital however she ran away once she discovered that Elliot had broken the deal. Carly request that Annie reports that she never found Carly. Before Annie left she asked Carly why she produced coderion and learns that Carly did it to help her dad make back all the money he had lost.

Annie returns back to the MP Quarters and grabs a Wall Rose Travel Permit. She finds a note from Marlowe in her mailbox. In the note, she reads that Elliot came to the MP Quarters to inform Annie that Wayne had told him that two men were searching for Carly and that Wayne was now a target of these two men. Wayne requests that Annie come to his house and talk to him. As Annie changes out of her bloody clothes to put on new ones she realizes that the note was made a bit before she searched Wayne's apartment.

Annie returns to Pit Lindors to get Carly. As they walk outside Annie learns that Carly paid for the drinks of patrons of Pit Lindors because they do not realize that they cannot retrieve something that is gone. Carly asks Annie if she ever went against her own father and Annie replies that she only did so once. Their conversation is interrupted as Annie's stomach begins to growl because she has not eaten since lunch. As Carley goes to get them some food Annie thinks back to the time she disobeyed her father. During her strenuous training, Annie had snapped and attacked her father relentlessly. Ever since that day, her father walked with a limp, proud of the strength Annie had displayed. Since that day, her training had been even more brutal.

Carly returns to Annie and offers her some limeade to which Annie declines. Annie takes a mental note that Carly's eyes are red. Carly gives Annie a donut and is shocked to learn that Annie does not know what it is. Annie takes a bite out of her donut, realizing its wonderful taste, quickly devours it and asks for another. As Annie eats her donut Carley explains to her that she is the only one that knows how to make coderoin and once she leaves, her dad will be financially ruined. Annie hands Carly a forged travel permit and asks why Carly need to leave town. Carly explains that she wants to prevent herself from allowing the patrons of Pit Lindors to be affected by coderion by ensuring that she does not pity her dad and start producing it again. After Carly bids Annie farewell, Annie prepares to tie up her last loose end before her mission the next day.

Annie returns to the Stratmann estate to report that she could not find Carly. She tells Elliot that she does not believe that Carly will return. Annie asks Elliot about the type of cigarette he is smoking and he responds that they were once made in Wall Maria but now he is the only left who is able to smoke them.

Changing the subject she accuses Elliot of killing Wayne, to which Elliot says is absurd. Annie theorizes that when she visited Elliot in the morning Wayne saw her and was scared to find out the MP was involved. Wayne left a note for Elliot telling him to come to Wayne's apartment and give him ransom money in exchange for Carly. Annie continues saying that she believes that after she left the estate Elliot went to Wayne's apartment and killed him. She believes that when she visited Pit Lindors, Lou reported it to Wald who then visited Elliot. Elliot sent Wald and Lou to Wayne's house and then went to the Military Police Branch District. Elliot told Marlowe to leave Annie a note telling her about Wayne, Wald, and Lou. Annie guesses that he did all this in order to frame Wald and Lou for Wayne's murder. Elliot knew that his coderoin business would eventually be found out but he could bribe the MP to keep quiet.

Elliot claims once again that Annie's theory is absurd. Annie states that the cigarette Elliot smokes matches the cigarette butts she found in Wayne's apartment. She also states that if Elliot did not kill Wayne he would have no reason to not tell Annie about him the first time she came by. With this, Elliot confesses to the murder, saying that Wayne would not have handed over Carly and would instead take Elliot's money when he was drunk.

Annie halts the conversation, asking Elliot to stop smoking. When Elliot objects, she snatches the cigarette out of his hand, saying that she has had enough of everyone smoking or drinking during her task that day. Elliot asks her why she is so irritated, and Annie says that she is tired and anxious for tomorrow's mission. Elliot requests that he should be allowed to smoke in jail, but Annie lets him know that he is not going to jail.

Together, Annie and Elliot take Wayne's corpse and throw it into a vat of sludge in the liquid waste storage facility of Stohess District. Elliot asks Annie why she is helping him but she responds that she is doing it for her own sake. As Elliot takes Annie back to the MP quarters they discuss Elliot's inevitable financial trouble in the future. Annie asks why he and Carly always had dinner together. Elliot tells her that they used dinner time to talk about the drug trade. Elliot asks Annie what she talked to her father about but Annie tells him that it was nothing worth mentioning. Annie thinks back to her conversations with her father which were always about various fighting techniques. As Elliot drops her off, he tells her that she is welcome to come by at any time and have a meal with him. Annie thanks him but says that if things go well she will be able to return to her hometown and would be unable to visit.

Annie writes a report saying that Carly and Wayne left for the royal capital using forged travel permits. As Annie returns to her room she finds a flower ribbon and a note from Hitch. In the note, she tells Annie to wear the ribbon if she wants to look pretty. Annie leaves the note and ribbon in a drawer before heading to the showers. Annie thinks back to her promise to her father to someday return to her hometown. She reassures herself that she will do anything she has to in order to complete her mission and return to her hometown.

Lost Girls
As Annie's Female Titan form falls off Wall Sheena, Annie recalls an interaction with Mikasa during their time in the 104th Training Corps. As Annie is peeling potatoes in kitchen, Mikasa enters the room, and asks Annie what she is doing. Annie explains that she is peeling potatoes, and asks if anything is wrong. Mikasa then closes the kitchen door behind her.

Mikasa pulls a ring out of her jacket pocket, and Annie recognizing the ring as hers, pats her own pocket. Mikasa tells Annie that she found the ring, and asks if the ring belongs to Annie, to which she confirms. Mikasa then uses her thumb to reveal a hidden blade in the ring. Annie explains that the blade is for self-defense. Mikasa questions why Annie, with her martial arts skills, would need a ring with a blade. Annie explains that there are situations where she can not rely on just her martial arts skills. Annie explains her parents gave her the ring as a gift when she left her village. Mikasa asks Annie to be careful with the ring when training with Eren, as to not injure him. Annie explains that she rarely wears it, and that it is her good luck charm.

Satisfied, Mikasa turns around to leave the kitchen, but before doing so, she asks why Annie is in the 104th Training Corps. Annie explains that like most other people, it is so she can join the Military Police, and live in a safe and pleasant place. Annie comments on how Mikasa has clearly joined for different reasons. Mikasa tells Annie that she is different from the others as well. While most of the others want to join the Military Police because they fear Titans, live in luxury, or dedicate their life to the king, Annie appears to want to join because she has to. Mikasa asks what Annie is carrying with her. Annie explains that everyone has some kind of baggage. Annie tells Mikasa that just because the ring might not have much use, it was still made with a purpose in mind. She believes that she can not be heartless about the ring's purpose and that that is her baggage. As Mikasa opens the door, she tells Annie that she hopes that Annie will never be in a situation where she needs to use the ring. Annie tells her that she agrees with this statement.

Annie then refocuses on the present and looks at the severed ends of her Titan's fingers. She then looks at Mikasa who stares back at her. Mikasa then tells Annie to fall.