HUMANITY'S STRONGEST? by Rebecca C Brister
PROLOGUE
One needed only to look at Levi to know that he was not a man to be trifled with. It was written in his steely grey eyes; Cross me and you will pay dearly. Yet, there were still those foolish enough to try anyways. They would see a seemingly light framed man of only 160 cm (5 ft 2½ in) and assume he was an easy target. The thought never crossed their small minds that Levi made his living killing titans that were hundreds, even thousands of times his own size. Needless to say, a mere human was no real challenge for the man.
To survive out in a world where titans roamed, with no other purpose but to eat humans, one had to be harder than steel. Levi may only be 160 cm tall, but he weighed a surprising 65 kg (143.3 lbs). A life of preparing to and now killing titans made him hard, with a much higher bone and muscle density than other humans. Combined with his cold, sharp intelligence and fierce determination, it made him a true force to be reckoned with, whether the opponent be human or titan.
He had become hard by choice; a choice he had made when he was but 5 years of age. He had an easy life and could have continued a soft, sheltered existence as was his birthright, but he chose instead to walk a hard, dark and often lonely road for the good of humanity as a whole. He chose to not be the product of his environment and circumstances. He chose to mold and shape himself into the one person that could actually change the world as everyone knew it. He was determined to make the world a safe place for all, no matter what the cost.
He was a contradiction. He took advantage of any opportunity to show off, but hated being the center of attention. He didn't like being alone. He liked having people around, but he hated being touched. He was something of a clean freak, bordering on OCD (perhaps as his way of dealing with the stresses of his chosen path), yet he did the filthiest work of all – slaying titans. He had definite ideas about right and wrong, but for the sake of humanity, he did things that went against his moral standards.
As the firstborn child of the Rivallier (Rĭ-văl-lē-áy) family, the second highest ranking family within the walls surrounding what was left of humanity, Levi was destined to live a life of luxury and ease. Why would anyone walk away from that? The majority of humanity could only dream and long hopelessly for such a life in the palaces contained within wall Sheena. Yet walk away from it he did.
Until shortly after his fifth birthday, Levi had lived unaware of anything beyond the walls surrounding the capitol. His parents were rarely around, as they had their "social obligations" to attend to. One fateful day, however, Levi's father decided to bring the boy with him on a business trip out between walls Rose and Maria. The man was, perhaps, not equal to the task of keeping track of a small, and very curious boy; especially one that seemed to be lacking in any kind of fear. Levi left his father's side when he saw other small children playing in the streets. He was confused and hurt when the children made fun of him and then wanted nothing to do with him because he was wearing "strange clothes". He wandered off, but, as with most small children, he was easily distracted, and there were just so many fascinating things to see. The sights, sounds and smells of this noisy world full of people was intoxicating. One thing leading to another, he explored himself into trouble.
Trouble came in the form of four teenage boys with far too much anger at the world. "Well! Look what we have here!" shouted the largest one. "Looks like a noble came down from on high to pay us worthless peasants a visit!"
"Look at them fancy clothes!" cried another.
"Think the kid'd be worth somethin'?" a third asked. "We could use the money."
"What's your name, little boy?" the first teen asked.
For only the second time in his life, Levi felt real fear. In fact, he was too scared to answer. Were it not for his constant companion, a large, black horse named Firestorm, he might have found out the hard way just how much trouble he had wandered into. Not even four burly teenagers were willing to go up against Firestorm, with her ears laid flat against her skull and her massive, feathered hooves stomping on the pavement as she snorted angrily at them. The four delinquents took off, leaving the poor child trembling in terror as he hid behind Firestorm's front leg.
Firestorm got down so Levi could climb up on her back and proceeded to bring the wayward child back to his father. You can only imagine her disgust when she discovered that even after almost two hours, Levi's father had no clue the boy had even been missing! Levi, however, saw a brilliant opportunity. One that he was determined to take advantage of.
Even after his scare, Levi still wanted to know more about this world beyond wall Sheena. But first, he would have to do something about his clothes. He didn't want to stand out like he did today. His parents paid little attention to him, especially since the birth of his little sister just weeks earlier, so getting out of the house was no problem. With Firestorm around, transportation wasn't an issue either. But the clothes … He soon found some in the form of one of the kitchen worker's little boy. The clothes were a bit too big for Levi, but that didn't matter. Less than a week after his first trip out beyond wall Sheena, he was off again … well, after convincing Firestorm that it would be okay. Thus the rocky journey to becoming "humanity's strongest" was begun.