Armin's Training

Armin's Training (アルミントレーニング) is the 25th chapter of the 2nd volume and the 52nd chapter overall of the Spoof on Titan manga, written and illustrated by hounori.

Overview
Armin seeks workout advice from Mikasa and Eren.

Summary
Mikasa coaches Armin in strength training, and he gets extremely exhausted. Eren, who happens to be watching him do pushups, offers to coach him instead since it is more convenient that they share a room. The next day, Eren helps Armin train, but he gets bored and wants to spar instead. Armin decides to train with Mikasa instead.

Marco finds Armin reading ancient documents about gaining muscle in the library. Based on what he read, Armin tells him that egg whites contain nutrients that help build muscle and that they must eat eggs after every workout. However, they are always served bread and vegetables for meals, and there is nothing they can do about the food.

Eren notices that Mikasa appears more muscular than before. He asks to feel her arm, with Armin following suit, noting that her arm feels like steel. Jean sees them crowding Mikasa and wants to touch her arm as well, so while washing dishes with Reiner, who is baffled by his behavior, Jean imagines that the frying pan that he is holding is Mikasa’s arm.

Mikasa tells Armin that he will be doing pushups with her on his back. Eren is worried for Armin since Mikasa is heavy. Mikasa gets offended, and Armin warns him to refrain from commenting on a girl’s weight, but Eren believes that their relationship is past that point. When Armin starts training with Mikasa on top of him, he begins to complain about Mikasa being too heavy.

Armin tells Annie that he wants to be as built as Mikasa, but Annie doubts that he can reach her level. However, Annie offers to train him to get to her level, which Armin is relieved by, saying that Annie is a lot more human than Mikasa. Later, Armin tells Mikasa that he is excited to train so that he can become as built as Annie. Sitting on Armin’s back again with a 10-kilogram barbell, Mikasa forces Armin to say that he wants to be like her instead of Annie.

Armin excuses himself from training because he is drained out and apologizes to Mikasa. Seeing that Armin cancelled his session with her, Jean asks if she can coach him instead, but Mikasa refuses because she is already coaching someone. She forces Eren to train with her despite his protests. In tears, Jean yells at Armin for being the reason why Mikasa rejected his invitation to help train him.

Eren informs Armin that the instructor was talking about how Armin has the ability to accomplish greater things if he takes advantage of his potential. He wonders what the instructor could have meant by it. Mikasa guesses that the instructor was talking about Armin's gender and feminine appearance, which Armin is displeased by.