To You, 2000 Years From Now.
Chapter 1: Curiosity.
You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself turn into a villain. But in this world, there's exists not a right or a wrongful action.
Who would have known, I would have wished to return to my birdcage.
~ Trost District ~
The wooden tables screech as the kids sit next to each other carefully waiting for the teacher to give proper instructions. As usual, the classroom was calm and peaceful compared to the other classes who were more loud and extroverted because of the grouping of students.
The class came into session, every apprentice readied themselves for the material that would be learned that same day. Mr. Berulan who was the instructor for this subject called out the attendance of the kids in the room.
Mr. Berulan starts straight from the top of the list, Hiroaki Nara. With an awkward expression on his face but smiling, he stands up confidently off his seat and confirms his presence. While going down the list we can see that our own student was distracted again, he wished to have returned to his precious birdcage. Berulan asks the class if Suzume came to school today while directly staring right at him as he wonders out into the outside.
Suzume after hearing his name being brought up snaps back into reality noticing the glances of everybody in the room quickly responds with a silent tone "p-present". He goes back to looking outside, wishing he could go back to his beautiful birdcage. The 14-year-old wasn't characterized as introverted or shy, according to him, he was just an 'observant'. As Suzume glanced to the people walking, the only thing in his mind was that he was trying to figure out how humanity ended up being cramped up inside a space, they were cattle to the monsters outside these walls. While staring unconsciously into the sky through the window he saw two birds fly overhead and the thought of him being able to levitate made him smile anxiously, thinking about the possibilities of using technology to maybe, just maybe someday travel the entire world.
Hisoka, Ayala. The girl on the other side of the room had a cold blank expression on her face, not paying attention to her surroundings and after still giving this vibe she answered the roll call by saying "present" nonchalantly. Her sound waves expanded across the room making the male-dominated space all pay attention to the girl that was speaking at the moment, this was not uncommon because of her different characteristics. Suzume still on his own world didn't move a tiny inch.
"As we all know titans have existed for centuries now, we have constantly been in a fight with them for dominance of the earth. We don't know where they came from or what their purpose is, and because of this creature, we have been subject to famine, poverty, and isolation from the outside. For a long time we couldn't defend ourselves against the advanced regeneration that they had but after many hardships, we found the 'cure' to our dilemma". As he speaks Suzume listens attentively, his eyes widen as he receives more information, he wonders if someday he will be able to make any kind of change, this is what he desired most based on all of the things he wanted to achieve. Suzume raises his hand with total comfort while asking the most important question, a question that has bothered him ever since.
Why?
Why is everything the way it is?
Why do we have to live like cattle inside fences?
Who created them?
Suzume slowly raises his voice while bringing up his body in complete force, the students in the room staring at him lost in what was happening.
Who created the walls!?
What are titans!?
The girl who was perfectly quiet before now stands up while hearing all the shouting ambling to Suzume as he questions the teacher's version of our history
Why can't we remember anything before we become sheep?
DO PEOPLE EXIST OUTSI-The sentence is cut short by who appears to be Ayala, she completely surprises the class by putting her hand over Suzume's mouth making him stop producing words, even though he isn't amazed by her action he looks at her confused as to why she did that.
"Did I say too much?" says Suzume in his head while he silently glares at the teacher for a response. Berulan with a blank expression on his face, tilts his head facing the wooden floor covered in dust.
With not much to say, the words he wanted to express couldn't come out of his mouth. He slowly walks to where Suzume is located "rumbling the earth".
"What defines freedom Suzume? Is it the feeling of being free, or is it the modus operandi of not being oppressed by any other superior force or unbreakable boundaries?. Nobody will ever know, we don't know everything and we never will. The whole purpose of life is to better ourselves to the best of our abilities, take the gifts we were born with to evolve them to its final stages. Beyond this district, lies the wings of freedom, a place where you can go die a hero or see yourself turn into a corrupt leader which nothing matters but their own profit. Someone will drive us to extinction sooner or later, you know why though? Curiosity and stupidity. As long as we know nothing we will always be stupid when we are stupid we become curious about the things we don't know and these two things don't mix well," Smiles nervously while hitting the edge of a table slightly bending his whole body to look at the body part which took the impact. He picks up his leg with all his strength and places it on top of a chair stopping his movement with a dangerous grin on his face, it had seemed to be filled with fear but at the same time of joy and happiness. "If you want the answers! Go look for them, it's somewhere in this world, no matter what you do!... KEEP ON FIGHTING! AS LONG AS YOU DON'T LOSE YOUR WILL TO FIGHT HUMANITY WILL PREVAIL OVER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE! WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!" The class stood in shock, everybody watching the person who was supposed to be their role model break out of character, but in the end, he seemed to be relieved letting a lot of emotions out.
Ayala removed her hand from Suzume's mouth while she awkwardly with disgust looked at the teacher, after giving a slight glance back to him she told him to "shut up" with no context before going back to her seat. Suzume sits down, feeling defeated in a battle of words. The class resumes with the teaching but every student doesn't have the same smile anymore, everybody seems petrified at the cogitation of being trapped forever.
Class ends exactly minutes after this conversation, Suzume now feeling nervous marches out to go straight into lunch time. His usual routine comprised of being by himself, he never liked being around people as much but he never had a difficulty making 'friends'. He sat by himself, in a table in the extreme upper right corner, the lunch was quiet anyway, today felt like it would not be a regular day. People flood the sitting area and many conversations go off. Suzume while eating sandwich heard a group of kids talk about how Shiganshina had been breached.
"Shiganshina…. Breached? That's impossible. Those walls are over 50 meters tall!" thought to himself on his head
He started paying more attention to what they were saying and all he heard was "I heard that the teachers were alerted to evacuate school early, no wonder the garrison was running towards the south, titans might be coming from over there! We need to leave this district before we die"
"How? How is this possible? That wall is too tall for titans to come through! Or maybe…"
Suzume starts to think deeply while ignoring his surroundings, his environment becomes dark while he is imagining the situation in Shiganshina.
"There's a titan that's bigger than 50 meters? But how would it be so intelligent that it would specifically go for the wall? Maybe Titans aren't as dumb as we thought… or the titan's are being controlled by?" His sentence is cut short, he feels as his head is grabbed by the hair and pushed down to the table slamming the plank with an extreme amount of force. Suzume had lost consciousness for a minute, he didn't really think of anything as his head was thumped in such aggressive manner, his head was totally blank, no thoughts succumbed his mind after that hit.
"How come you have the name of a girl, Suzume. Don't tell me you are in the wrong tree branch, Ms. Suzu. I heard about what happened in your classroom, are you seriously that interested in going outside? just to be eaten like the rest of people that try to?" With a grin on his face, the grip of his hand over Suzume's hair gets tighter, and he soon picks up the entire skull making him face directly at his face. The commotion had gone unnoticed for a while but students in the lunchroom heard what was undergoing. Silence yielded the entire room, the aura being emitted from both students was completely contradicting each other although Suzume hadn't said a single word, he hadn't even attempted to free himself from the rascals grasp.
His expression was completely numb and although he could certainly release himself easily, he just...
"ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, WORTHLESS RAT? PEOPLE WHO CAN'T CONFORM WITH LIVING INSIDE DESPITE HAVING EVERYTHING YOU WISHED FOR WHILE BEING SAFE HAVE NO RIGHT IN THIS WORLD". Everybody stood astounded as the two ideas indirectly faced each other through their minds, however, something sparked in Suzume's head. He felt like a sudden spark of energy rush through his body feeling him with a huge amount of rage his tears coming out, he quickly put pressure on his head which was being grabbed by his litigant's hand pushing him away, the knife placed near his food was made of a sharp metal end which he quickly grabbed and pointed it at his contrary.
"Leis!" His friend comes in rushing grabbing him by the arm and pulling him away as he saw that Suzume had become armed, tears gushing down his eyes he had the pointy edge directly aimed at him waiting for the next move. Leis had a confused look on his face and everybody in that spot had placed their eyes on both of them until eventually, the teachers had come in to check on the disturbance that was heard from the classrooms. Everybody quickly went back to their seats, Suzume had placed his arms cross intersecting each other while having his head completely placed on top, he refused to anybody see his face and after a brief moment, he calmed himself down a little bit more before going back to his tired/stale eyes he normally 'wore' every day. The teachers that had seemed suspicious were now going through each array of lunch tables where the disciples were sitting at, inspecting every single teen.
Minutes went by with docents scrutinizing the expanse, nothing was found to be dubious enough for them to examine, the girl that had once pulled Leis had come to where Suzume was sitting at staring into his plate but having a slight graze at the outside of the building, Suzume already knew her because of some classes he had with her, Sophie Ehrlich. They often described her as 'The perfect student'.
"Sorry for what my friend did to you, Suzu~kun, his father used to work for the survey corps so he has a hard time understanding why he isn't around much, he believes that we should just stay inside forever, that there is no future outside this district," said Sophie who stared at Suzume with sorrow.
He wasn't facing her but silently said some words, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap like that" having his constant nonchalantly looking face, which often made people believe that he was asocial. She smiled at him awkwardly patting him on the back which caught his attention, he looked at her with her soothing simper which then would have appeared to have lead to a full conversation.
"It's all right, he should have never said that, but trust me he his a good person just that sometimes he lets bad memories get the best of him" Sophie replied after getting the attention Suzume. There was a weird silence but both of them were smiling for a long time just staring at each other's eyes.
"S-so I heard you want to go outside the walls to explore, right?" Sophie said nervously.
Suzume didn't expect this question, it was abrupt, but he was also trying to break the weird silence between them "Y-yes, I don't want to die inside this little melting pot of a chamber not knowing what's out there, even if it's just an uninhabited world with roaming giant beast's waiting for their next tidbit..." Suzume had changed his expression from one of happiness into a confused face, he out of everything in the world, wanted to "return to his birdcage"
Sophie amazed by the comment struggles to find the words to describe how she feels, "That's, that's great. But isn't that a little too extreme? many people die out there and I heard the chance of you coming back after your first mission is only 50%. You are one crazy boy with big ambitions" After saying this Sophie laughs really hard and for the first time in his life, Suzume had somebody in his life who attempted to talk to him and not give up after the few instances. "You can come to sit with us in our table, I could introduce you to some of my friends, come on they will accept you don't be alarmed wee boy, Suzu~kun," Sophie appended.
"I have this negative aura around me, people think I hate them. I'm glad I got to, meet a person who wouldn't just ask me for the homework, say please or thank you, I finally met somebody that may be understood that I didn't know how to make good conversations," he thought in his mind as he stared felicitously at Sophie who had grabbed his hand to make him come with her towards her group of friends.
At last, we saw him smile.
Not much time had gone by since the incident in the cafeteria, Suzume got to meet many of Sophie's friend and apparently started to fit in with her group. However, the school had ended abruptly after guards had reportedly been dispatched to where the boats usually came from, most students did not understand what was going but Suzume knew this had some sort of connection to Shiganshina.
"See you, Sophie". said Suzume minutes later after leaving through the main door of the school, he waved at all his new gained friends goodbye.
"Goodbyeeee, Suzu~kun!". She seemed to be pretty excited about meeting him earlier.
The streets were a type of cold that was indescribable, this didn't stop the fact that most of them were rich of people. Suzume lived not that far from home, but unlike the districts in the outer wall region. It was mostly comprised of large apartment complexes that were made of wood. This day was particularly peaceful, it's usually filled with kids playing outside, vendors selling food and clothing, but today it was just many passersby' going through the street. He walked down the alleys of the city which were often described as 'dangerous gateways to hell' because of the recent high murder and robbery rate. It was dark, the sounds of the steps hitting the puddles of water traveled against the concrete walls being able to be heard from not that far away.
He finally came out of tunnels of walls that seemed endless, where he finally saw his house. A 3-floor building which was made of a white-ish wood possible of the forest's near war maria. He went up the stairs up to the last floor where he rang the bell and waited for a response. The door opened, this young looking woman with black long hair about 5'7 in height opened the door.
"How was your day at school, Harukun?"
"It was great ma, I met this girl and she showed me her friend's, some of them also had the same dream as me," he said enthusiastically.
"Dream? you never told me anything about that. But you go around telling your friends?" she laughed sarcastically as he sat down at the dinner table.
"Oh, I thought…" he said almost silently under his breath
"You thought?" she sat right next to him pulling one of the chairs
"I thought, that my dreams, you wouldn't be able to understand me... because. I want to go outside and explore the outside all on my own, even if it means if I die in the process" Suzume said while never facing once to see her own mothers face.
Without saying a word, Suzume's mother proceeded to stand up and kneel before her son who had his head down the entire time, misty-eyed would be the best words to describe the dam who even if she didn't say it through her mouth, her movement told us otherwise, she was dealing with great amounts of grieving. Wrapping her hands around her son's neck, she gave him a hug that would signify a lot of things, but apparently, Suzume was happy that she had at least showed him support in any way possible.
"Did I ever tell you about your father?" she said as she stuttered over her words tear slowly gushing out of her sobbing eyes
"N-no" he replied
The mother proceeded to stand up and walk towards the nearest window where she started to cry even harder, she had a little bit of composure in her however and she was able to start telling him everything
"He was part of Survey Corps, Keith Shadis was the commander when he was working there as a squad member. During one of his expeditions…"She suddenly stopped crying and had her face turned from sadness to hatred, it was an indescribable look, her eyes were dull like an empty void filled with darkness while she slowly tightened the grip of her hards, you could almost hear the teeth-grating each other.
"He was a stupid man" she added while she covered her eyes with her hands, "I told him not to join them, he didn't listen to me. He died in his first expedition outside of the walls, he was actually one of the first 3 soldiers to die. Not everybody is fit for war, your father wasn't, you aren't. Stop this cycle of death, the last thing I saw of your father was his head severed from his body. Son, I don't want you to see you the same way I saw your father, you are what's most precious to me….. But I don't want to deny you your liberty, If you want to become a bait and die immediately as you go out, become a scout"
The words that had come out of his mother's mouth was quite impactful on Suzume, the atmosphere had become tense, the pressure was completely on his shoulders and he needed to give an answer quick. The mother who hadn't turned her back to face her child started to tap the floor impatiently.
Suzume never lifted his head up, since he got to speak with his mother about his dreams he also never had the heart to face her, he was fearful.
However, he suddenly had a brief moment of thought where everything came back to him, lightning-like energy surged through his body, he had felt like everything was lost, fear, happiness, he couldn't feel those emotions anymore. The reflexes on his body made him act without any previous thinking, his body was completely straight as he stood with an extreme amount of brute force pushing the chair making it fall off. His feet were pointing at completely different angles, The look in his face was serious, impactful like somebody was on the verge of collapse. Unexpectedly, He took his right hand with precision and placed it right on his heart while he started screaming
"THE ONLY PURPOSE IN LIFE IS TO DIE IF I DIE YOUNG IT'S BECAUSE I HAD DECIDED TO. IF I DIE EVEN AS THE FIRST FALLEN SOLDIER IN A EXPEDITION, I WOULD HAVE AT LEAST HAVE EXPERIENCE WHAT IT REALLY FEELS LIKE TO BE FREE UNLIKE THE CATTLE INSIDE THE WALL WHO THINKS THIS IS RIGHTFUL LIVING. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO PURPOSE IN LIFE AND THAT'S WHY WE GIVE MEANING TO IT, SO I DECIDED RIGHT HERE AND THEN. I WILL NOT DIE INSIDE THIS WALL, I WILL OFFER MY HEART AND SOUL IF I NEED TO IF I GET TO LEAVE THIS RESTRAINING BIRDCAGE" he shrieked piercingly at the top of his lungs
"There's…. nothing worst in this life, then not being free. We are slaves mother, We are slaves to this wall". he stated before he ran out of breath.
His mother was not surprised at all, she had foreseen this outcome and the only thing she could say was that she was "proud of what you have become son"
Still confused, he understood that his mother made one last attempt to convince him to not venture out and follow his dreams, but she had failed. If only she knew he would have wanted to return to his gorgeous birdcage.
She gave him a big hug, Suzume was indescribably happy. He got what he always wanted, a little support from his mother in whatever he wanted to do with his life, this turned out to be a great success, he felt the love and the gap that his father left when he died was filled with a simple explanation, who would have thought a simple sentence could fix many things for him.
Not much time had gone by, the atmosphere of the house had changed drastically, the secrets they once had were no longer secrets, there was nothing to hide. She still was confused about a small little thing however….
"Why did you come from your school so early?" she said as they both sat down in the table eating the exquisite Lunch his mother had prepared.
"I don't know mother, it was all so sudden. The guards just told us about a sudden emergency, and now that I think about it" he quickly changes his facial expression towards a more confused manner. "I heard the Shiganshina district in wall maria was breached by titans somehow" he added.
"BREACHED!" she exclaimed while putting both of her palms hard on the table, His mother's eyes quickly widened while she trembled and shook all over the place. "But how!, I thought… Titans were only 15 meters or fewer! that's impossible!"
A sudden burst of sound came from the outside, it appeared it was a soldier from what you could see from the inside. The insignia in his military jacket had a red rose, and he was carrying on what appeared to be a long hunting rifle. Suzume and his mother went outside the door, not going down the steps of their house he started hearing what the man was preaching.
"Citizens of Trost! Evacuate now! the Evacuation boats are now underway. The Shiganshina district has been breached by a colossal titan of 60 meters! The government has called for a complete shutdown of the maintenance of wall Maria and it's now prioritizing the evacuation of the citizens. The death toll is already estimated to be in the thousands, for further security we require the district of Trost among some others to move into the open land of wall Sina till the situation is under control to avoid further issues, That is all!"
Suzume became restless, he looked at his mother with confusion wondering why they needed to flee if Shiganshina was the only district to be invaded by titans. His mother hadn't said a word but just stared at the soldier with the same eyes as before, all the news she was receiving was too much for her. Suzume grabbed his mother's hand and ran down the steps his mother still impacted tried to tell him some words…
"Wait, the house... We can't leave it like that" she mumbled
"MOM! That doesn't mother right now snap out, we need to get safe to the…." he quickly turns around the corner, what he saw amazed him on astronomical levels. People were demonstrating the worst side of humanity, he saw how people were breaking into houses, screaming everywhere, rocks being thrown at people, there was a dead child in the floor with a wound in his head presumably from a rock.
Suzume fell down to the floor putting both of his arms in the floor, chokingly trying to breathe a puff of air. His mother picked him up while covering his eyes, "Everything is going to be fine don't worry, the people are just scared, they should be anyways this is serious". She patted him on the hair for comfort while she now took the lead grabbing his head with a big smile that almost seemed fake, he noticed this but didn't say anything about it. Looking back at this, it is a clear sign of her motherly instincts, isn't it?.
The boats were full of people but in the distance, we could see how the next one got closer and closer. The winds gushed the air with the water violently pushing against the side of where most of the people were located. It was a dark day, it felt like a day of huge loss and tragedy but who knows maybe it was just my imagination.
We all connected through paths, either we like it or not. We are all intertwined. Strings that are tangible and easily broken by the simplest touch cutting many other paths. Its time to say goodbye.
~ MUSIC START - Hiroyuki Sawano [ Call Your Name ] ~
A soldier, apparently about 6ft tall was stopping every single person with a kid accompanying them. There were towels that covered logs on the floor neatly placed in columns, or that's what it seemed like.
"Ma'am we are going to take your child safely to the inner walls, we require them to be evacuated safely first. An order directly from the king was put in to place and adults are arranged to be the last ones to be transported, please understand that you will meet your progeny in the inside" The soldier had a green like horsed with long white hair as his insignia, this apparently meant that they had the most direct contact with the king as they served right under them. However, no garrison or scout forces seemed to be around and many adults were already in a perfectly straight line. The kids were already boarding the small wooden ship, there was another soldier placing what looked like wheat bags over children's heads, Suzume didn't think much of it but to stop them from seeing the horrors of the public discontent with the emergency.
Suzume's mother gripped his hands and got on her knees right in front of him looking straight at his eyes which had a hazel-like color.
"Survive" With a smile of relief she let go of him almost bursting out in tears pushing him onto the boat.
The wheat bag was placed over his head and he was placed on the other side of the boat, even if he wanted he couldn't see what was going on where he was previously at. Water was being pushed by the motors, the doors were open and the barge finally sailed away.
Parents stared at their children, confused as to why they were excluded to board the ships but happy that their family got to survive.
One of the many soldiers gathered everyone's attention and with a grin on his countenance, he lowered down his cap almost giving him a dark shade over his eyes.
"The government never put that law into fruition, that was a lie." He gets serious, and the tone completely changes, wind breezing through blowing his cap onto the water but not changing his stance at all.
Every single parent is surrounded by many guards who come running out of windows with the same militant rifles the garrison had. The mouth of each gun pointed at every individual head, dozens of people were encircled in the middle of that section while the zone was desolated as you couldn't see anybody blocks away.
"In your marks
Set
Suzume's mother on the ground perplexed on what was about to happen, completely motionless let out a scream.
"SUZUME, SURVIVE!" she snapped out for a moment seeing the reality of the circumstances.
This is what I believe she was trying to say that day, but in all reality, she never finished her sentence.
FIRE!"
The soldier screamed loudly, the waves of sound bounced across the district being able to be heard miles away.
The sound of guns exploding their barrels shocked the kids, Suzume heard his mothers voice as she said his name but couldn't comprehend what she tried to say after, they were ordered to keep their heads down for safety purposes. Suzume had felt lightning-like energy once again go through his body giving him a static shock, he never thought he would have wanted to return his glamorous birdcage.
Relics dropped, and then there's was one.
~ music stop.
Author Notes:
My name is Arata, and this is my first story/fanfiction. This is just a quick resume chapter, nothing big just introducing the plot of what it is going to be about. Of course, its based on the best anime of all time in my irrelevant opinion. Not much I have to say just that keep your eye out for many grammatical errors and repetition I am going to be committing since I'm only new to this. Quality wise, I'm trying to make my Fanfiction the most confusing and unique wise of all time, but we all know that ain't going to happen since there are people out there that are way more talented than me, I'll give it a shot though.
See you in the next one, Your neighborly friend Arata Seven.
