Chapter #1
Five Years ago
Year 845, Shiganshina district.
«Have you heard? It seems there is a masked hero running around Yalkell district», said the merchant, helping his colleague to unload the creates from the cart.
«Yeah, I heard. The ones who saw her said she wears a black overcoat and a balaclava and her red eyes are scary enough to make the criminals run away. She also uses a three dimensional maneuver gear…»
«Wait! "She"?»
«So it seems».
The two men brought the heavy box into the shop and put it down near the counter. One of them pulled out of his pocket a handkerchief and wiped away the sweat on his forehead, sighing with relief. «Finally, that was the last one. Let's take Betty back to the stable and then we can have a beer».
«You really called that nag "Betty"?»
«What? You don't like it?»
They were about to step outside when a loud explosion forced them cover their ears. When the sound faded away, people started coming out from their houses to see what happened. The two merchant looked at each other in confusion, until a girl screamed. They saw her lift her trembling hand to point at the walls. A giant hand was holding on the top of Wall Maria.
«Syo? Syo, wake up!»
The woman woke up startled and ungracefully fell from the hammock she was sleeping on. She sat up quickly, rubbing her head. «Ah! What is it? Oh, it's you Franklin…»
The blonde, long haired man reached out a hand to help her get up while laughing. «Sorry cousin, but that was too funny».
She scoffed but accepted his help. When she stood up, Franklin looked at her from bottom to top and giggled a little.
«What?» she asked raising an eyebrow.
«Nothing, it's just that you have become really big. How tall are you, now?»
Syo sneered with pride and placed a hand right in front of his face, two fingers raised. «Exactly two meters tall! You envious, Frank?»
«Of course not! I could never find clothes in my size».
The two cousins walked together to Syo's house, a small mansion in the countryside just outside Yalkell district. Syo had inherited it from grandparents and she had moved there not long before to escape the noble life her father wanted for her. Sure, being a noble woman meant she could have had everything she wanted with a snap of her fingers, but it also meant to have strict rules to follow in order not to lose the honor of the family, having to entertain relationships only with other nobles, arranged marriages…
What she hated the most about nobles was their ignorance and their greed. There had always been so many poor people begging for some alms around her family house but despite being covered in gold, nobody had ever given them some help. Only Syo, her mother and Franklin seemed to have some compassion for those unfortunate people. But there was another reason why she had left her family.
Among the members of the Masaru family there were some recurrent physical characteristics that made them easily recognizable and that were exceptionally visible in her. Her skin was literally white, making her look like a ghost, and her dark brown hair and brown eyes seemed to turn crimson when struck by sunlight. Plus, she was very tall and strong. All those things contributed to make her look like a collector's item in her father's eyes. He was always trying to make her look more and more attractive to draw the attention of the most rich men of Yalkell looking for a wife for their sons. She still remembered how angry he was when she finally managed to cut her hair short.
«I'm hungry Frank, wanna eat something?», Syo asked, opening the front door. Franklin peeked inside and saw the total mess his cousin lived in.
«Syo, why is there a sock on the chandelier?»
«Oh, that! Don't worry, I'll clean it up later».
«Sure, later…»
She held the door open for him and let him in. When Franklin entered the large living room he sighed, slapping a hand on his forehead. «Syo, you really have to clean this mess. Why don't we go get a broom after lunch and…»
He stopped mid sentence when he noticed she was still outside. «Syo, are listening to me? What are you looking at?», he asked a bit worried.
«Smoke…»
Franklin approached her and saw her looking at something in the distance. He squinted his eyes and tried to follow her gaze.
«Syo, where is the smoke? I can't see anything».
«There», she said pointing at the distant walls, «to the South. I can barely see it but there is smoke rising from there».
Franklin looked at her and he understood from her worried look that she was going to take the action. «Will you go check it?»
«Yes. You can stay here as long as you want, I have to go».
She ran inside, heading upstairs where her room was. There, she opened a big wooden chest placed at the end of the bed and pulled out a balaclava, a black overcoat and her uncle's old three dimensional maneuvering gear, putting them on quickly. When she was about to leave the room, the blonde man was standing in the doorway, blocking the way.
«Syo, are you sure you're not going too far with this whole hero thing? Maybe it's just a small fire and the MPs are already taking care of it».
«But what if it's not and someone needs help?», she asked with her voice muffled under the hood, going to the window and opening it. «I need to go and see if someone is in danger. Please, don't worry and wait for me here».
With that, Syo leapt out of the window and smoothly landed on her feet while Franklin watched her run away, concerned.
A normal person would have taken much longer to get there, but Syo was certainly not normal. She arrived to Shiganshina running on the walls, just when the last boat full of citizens was leaving the district. Her heart missed a beat when she noticed all the titans wondering in the streets. Many people hadn't been boarded and those giant monsters were getting too close to them. Syo leapt off of the wall to the top of a bell tower and, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, she approached the nearest titan. The creature didn't even look at her, more interested in the people gathered by the river, and Syo used the grappling hooks of her gear to reach the back of its neck. Once she was up there, she tried to keep calm despite her racing heart and studied the nape. «Alright, here should be its weak spot. I hope I can…»
She punched it with all her strength, passing through the skin with her hand up to the wrist. The titan stopped walking and let out an horrible scream before falling forward. Syo almost pissed herself when the giant body went down and hit the ground, making her loose her grip. She fell on the ground banging her shoulder on the paving of the street. The woman stood up immediately but as soon as she tried to move her arm, she had to hold back a cry. «Ah, fuck! I'll never do that again…»
Massaging her shoulder, she turned to the river to see if the citizens were alright. They were all safe, looking at the unmoving titan with both fear and hope in their eyes.
«Is… is it dead? Did you kill it?» asked a man, approaching her hesitantly.
«Yeah, I think so». Syo turned to look at it just in time to see a huge hand moving quickly towards them. She jumped forward and pushed the man away, but couldn't avoid the titan's grip. In a matter of seconds she found herself being dragged by her legs towards a big mouth. She froze for a moment, her wide eyes fixed on the stupid and creepy grin on its face. She came back to herself when the titan tightened the grip around her and her first reaction was to beat her fists on the big hand but even though she could hear its bones creak under her punches, the titan didn't seem to be going to let her go. «Fuck! Why didn't I take the blades too? I'm a fucking idiot!»
When she felt its hot breath against her skin, Syo lose her hope and closed her eyes but unexpectedly the titan loosened its grip letting out a wail, while someone grabbed her and brought her back to the ground. When she opened her eyes a man and a woman were looking at her angrily, while the titan lay dead behind them.
«What the hell are you doing here alone?» shouted the woman. Syo didn't know what to say, but from the symbol on their uniforms she understood that those two soldiers where part of the Garrison.
«Hey, did you hear what she asked you? Are you a soldier?»
«Well, it doesn't matter now. Let's take her on the walls».
«Wha… no!», Syo shouted, abruptly moving away from them. «We have to help these people!»
«We can't, there are too many titans for us», tried to explain the woman, «and the Survey Corps can't fight anymore right now. All we can do is give the alarm to the citizens who live behind Wall Maria».
At that moment a titan appeared down the street, running towards them. «Another one! Quick we have to… Hey, where did she go?»
Before they could drag her away, Syo used the maneuvering gear to fly in front of the titan and draw its attention. «You two do your job and bring as many people as you can on the walls. I'll try to lure the titans away!», she shouted to the two unbelieving soldiers.
Flying between the buildings she managed to attract some of the titans and lead them somewhere else, but unfortunately she couldn't distract them all and many were still walking towards the river. She looked back to see if the soldiers had listened to her and didn't notice one of the hooks missing the target. She didn't even realize she was falling until her body hit the pile of fishes on a market stall.
«Ah, not again!», she exclaimed rubbing her shoulder.
Seeing the titans coming, she fled in a nearby alley that led her to the main street. «What do I do, now?»
Running out of the alley, Syo tried to figure out a way to help those people but she was quickly losing her calm. «Waaah! I feel so useless! All those people will be eaten and I can do nothing! I really haven't learnt anything from uncle Pierre! Gah!»
In that moment she heard someone crying and saw a young kid pulling the sleeve of a woman whose lower body was crashed underneath a huge boulder, right next to a man. Syo felt a shiver down her spine. That wasn't the first time she saw someone dead, but seeing that made her sick. She looked away from the bodies and slowly approached the kid.
«Hey, are you hurt?», she asked with a trembling voice.
The child turned around sharply and ran to her, hugging her leg. «Help me! Please, help mom and dad!»
Syo didn't need to look at them again to understand that there was nothing she could do. A loud step came from behind her and she didn't even turn back, just taking the child in her arms and flying away with him. With some difficulties she managed to dodge the titans that had grouped around them and reach the top of Wall Maria. From up there, Syo watched the people being eaten by those giant monsters and she could feel her heart shatter, knowing that in the end she couldn't do anything for them.
She looked at the child in her arms.
«What's your name, kid?» she asked with her smooth voice. The kid looked at her with his puffy, reddened eyes and Syo gave him a sad smile. For a moment he looked at her in silence, confused.
«Fi… Filippo…»
«Alright Filippo, you can calm down now», she said patting his blonde head, «we're going home».