Gaining Fortitude

The air in Stohess was surprisingly better to breathe in than René had thought. Despite the regular hustle and bustle of a city town like it, the air in the city was calming, almost reassuring. The night before, René had stayed up practicing where he’d find Shimura Works and how he’d introduce himself. Now that he thought about it, it was quite embarrassing. Whatever. Stohess was a big city so there was no time to sit around worrying about mistakes made in the past. Just worry about finding Shimura Works. He wandered through the streets of the city, marvelled by the buildings that stood close to one another, as if in a meeting conversing the secrets of the city.

This time around, René hadn’t been able to afford to borrow a horse or buy a carriage ride to the city, so he had walked to the city, an aching ordeal but not the worst. He had almost forgotten his plans to show to Shimura Works. He’d gone over them again to make sure his usual scrawl was legible. This ‘Mitsuo’ character that Alan had said would be around… maybe he should ask somebody? He pondered this thought for a moment. He decided to explore a little on his own a bit. After all… Stohess couldn’t be that much different from Yarckel could it?

Around a half hour later, René had given up trying to find Shimura Works on his own and decided to take break before asking some townspeople about it. Seems this place was a tad harder to find than he had thought. He approached an elderly man first, asking him about the location of the shop. “Ah yes!” The old man replied, his voice full of satisfaction. “They’ve repaired an old dagger of mine in the past. Such nice employees! If I remember correctly they’re North of here, by the warehouse district.” “Ah, thank you very much sir!” René left the man with the best wishes and went on his way.

The said warehouse district was mostly quiet, only occupied by those working there. Sometimes the sound of a saw or hammer would echo eerily around the area. The workhouses and such were nearby the ports, for shipping purposes between the walls obviously. As the sun set, the visibility went down and René had a hard time reading the waterworn signs of the warehouses. The only lights came from inside the warehouses themselves, and so the streets weren’t lit. he hoped he’d maybe stumble upon Shimura Works soon. If the streets of Yarckel were bad, the streets of Stohess probably were too.

Mitsuo was taking a break from work. He'd been working at the warehouse almost a full day now.
He let out a relaxed sigh as he finished taking a sip from his warm tea.

The mechanic watched the sun set, its gorgeous golden orange colours bouncing off of his eyes.
His mind shot back to thoughts of life in the future, beyond the walls, when there would be no such things as Titans anymore.

Beibg lost in his mere fantasy, Mitsuo did not notice the exhausted scout stumbling down the cobbled road. If he had, he'd had helped him out... probably by offering a place to sit for a while for the boy to rest.

Instead the young Shimura started humming a random, cheery tune. Not one of any particular song but a nice little sound that would please almost anyone who wandered by.

Just as René was about to give up, the warehouses lining the streets seeming to taunt him at his loss of finding Shimura Works, he heard a sound. It wasn’t a scream of death or a yell of surprise that he had expected from the darkening streets of Stohess, but a hum. That or the scuff of a boot. He wasn’t quite sure, but someone was there. He swore he could hear a tune almost, it sounded bright and sunny. A kiss to the senses. That or he was going insane.

René decided to investigate. If someone was that cheery (if there was someone), they might be willing to help him. He tried to follow the sound, but it echoed a little in the wide space. That was when he spotted a light from a window, and heard a trickle of sound which he thought was coming for it. There was definitely at least someone inside if the lights were on, even if it wasn’t the person humming the tune.

He trudged to the window and peered inside. The tables were scattered with parts and there was a man sitting on a stool relaxing. René went around to the other side to ask the man for directions. “Hello! I don’t mean to bother you this late in the evening but I think I’m lost. I’m looking for Shimura Works? I heard they’re pretty famous around here! Just didn’t expect them to be this hidden!” He tried to make his voice sound as cheery as he could get it. The humming stopped as the man on the stool looked up.

“Hello! I don’t mean to bother you this late in the evening but I think I’m lost. I’m looking for Shimura Works? I heard they’re pretty famous around here! Just didn’t expect them to be this hidden!”

The voice brought Mitsuo back to reality, and he quickly jolted his head to face the direction of the voice's owner.
His face, at first, was one of surprise as he didn't really expect to be spoken to at this hour but that quickly change to a quizzical expression as he understood what the boy had said.

After a moment of silence, a smile appeared on Mitsuo face, "I guess we should put a sign up then. Congratulations, you've found the place. Come inside and we can talk about why you wanted us."

The mechanic chuckled, using his hand to gesture to the door. He was curious as to a boy needed to desperately visit them at this time of night. He was also curious as the boy was not from Stohess considering he was not familiar with the place.

At first the man look surprised, but then confused. René could understand why. It’s not everyday a stranger comes into your shop asking for something. The man smiled, his teeth flashing brilliantly in the sort of dingy workshop. Then he spoke. “I guess we should put a sign up then. Congratulations, you’ve found the place. Come inside and we can talk about why you wanted us.” He motioned to René to come inside and plodded inside. “I’ll assume you’re Mitsuo Shimura? I’m René Alfons, pleasure to meet you!”

René handed the blueprints that he had brought with him to the man, who opened them carefully looking over the drawings. “You see… I actually have a referral from Alan Katwande. I think you’ve met him before. Long story short, I have an idea for the cannons on the walls and he sent me to you for an appraisal. How much it’ll cost and such and what materials we’ll need. You know the whole shebang. As much as I’d like to finance this on my own, I do need to get approval from the heads of all the military branches and from the King himself. Not quite sure how I’ll do it yet but it’s going to be difficult.” He paused, almost unsure of what to say next. “I’ve already gotten Commander Erwin’s approval. Alan’s helping me convince Commander Dok but he says that the plans should have numbers on them. To help convince him.”

Mitsuo studied the blueprints, nodding slightly, "Ah, Alan's giving me more work, eh? Yeah, me and him are friends but I never would've expected him to refer me."

Mitsuo slightly looked up at Rene, almost as if to check the Scout was still there, before returning his gaze to the plans.
"The idea isn't bad, the materials are easily supplied, cost I would assume would be a little more expensive than a grape-shot."

"I would assume you'd want about a quarter of the total gunpowder they use in high explosive shells, spreader out evenly through the new ammo, of course. You'd want 1/4 less of the grape-shot volume, however, to make up for space."

Mitsuo looked up at Rene, once more. This time he studied the boy, noticing his Scout jacket.
"So you're a Scout mechanic as well, huh? Tell me, why do you want to increase the canons on the walls?'

The young Shimura got out a new piece of blueprint paper and a pencil and started jotting down notes, shifting his gaze between Rene, Rene' s prints and his own notes.

René watched nervously as Mitsuo gazed upon his plans. His head nodded slightly. “Ah, Alan’s giving me more work, eh? Yeah, me and him and friends but I never would’ve expected him to refer me.” René chuckled, trying to keep the mood light. “The idea isn’t bad, the materials are easily supplied, cost I would assume would be a little more expensive than a grape-shot.” René felt his heart leap. That was good at least.
“I would assume you’d want about a quarter of the total gunpowder they use in high explosive shells, spreading it out evenly through the new ammo of course. You’d want ¼ less of the grape-shot volume, however, to make up for space.” René pondered over what Mitsuo said about it. That was true, you wouldn’t have to use the exact same if you plan to make the shot more aerodynamic. Mitsuo knew what he was talking about.

He saw Mitsuo look at him before he spoke “So you’re a scout mechanic as well, huh? Tell me, why do you want to increase the cannons on the walls?” Mitsuo rummaged around for paper. “Well I’m not actually a mechanic, just a small hobby I had during trainee days was to try and modify my 3DMG to fit more gas tanks or to hold more blades. So I don’t really know a lot about it, mostly just tinkering stuff. I’ve been on a few expeditions outside the wall, seen my fair share of the titans…” He trailed off, unsure of what to say next. “The cannons on the walls… the number we have now are actually fine. It’s the shots. Both are rather inconsistent and if we’re going to win this war we need to find better ways of killing them. We need to make things more efficient. If a single cannon shot right now can incapacitate a titan for a short while, we need to increase that time so we can send more people out. That or make it harder for them to regenerate. If we can do something. I think the problem now is that we’re aiming for their heads. Where are their weak spots? The nape of the neck. If we accidently hit that… I’m not sure if that’d be good or bad to be honest.” René stopped, realizing he was rambling. He winced, hoping Mitsuo wouldn’t think he was weird or something.

Mitsuo chuckled, slightly shaking his head, "you have promise, kid. You'd make a really fine mechanic."

Mitsuo rolled up his and Rene's blueprints together and tied them before handing them back to the scout.
"Those are my notes for a possible prototype, complete with measurements and costs."

Before letting Rene take the blueprints, Mitsuo shook his head once more, "I understand that the cannons are practically useless, even as a defence system, but that isn't your job to worry about as a scout. That must make you a good person, you should know that."

Mitsuo’s laugh echoed around the quieting shop. “You have promise, kid. You’d make a really fine mechanic.”

René blushed, honored that a hobby had been recognized as a talet. Mitsuo fussed with the blueprints and offered them to him. “These are my notes for a possible prototype, complete with measurements and costs.”

“Thank you so much. You don’t know how much this means to me,” René said smiling warmly at Mitsuo. As René reached for the prints though, Mitsuo spoke. “I understand that the cannons are practically useless, even as a defense system, but that isn’t your job to worry about as a scout. That must make you a good person, you should know that.” René nodded, biting his tongue to keep from saying something bad to Mitsuo. He had almost said that the Garrison wasn’t even doing anything about them, so who else would? Mitsuo seemed to be waiting for an answer. “I try to be,” he scratched the back of his head. “I realize that I’ve asked a lot of you, so is there any way I can repay you for your time? I don’t really want to take advantage of you.”