That Day
The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 2
Over a century ago, beings that prey on humans suddenly appeared. Their absolutely overwhelming strength quickly pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. The surviving humans built three walls: Maria, Rose, and Sina, which bought them a century of peace. However…
Eren froze in shock at seeing his mother die.
He barely registered the fact that Hannes was still carrying them away from her. Away from the Titans. He gasped, turning toward Hannes, hitting him on the back of the head, stopping his running.
"Eren! What are you doing?!" questions Hannes.
"We were so close to saving Mom!" shouts Eren. "Why couldn't you mind your own business?!" he raises his arm, hitting Hannes with his elbow. "We were so close to saving her!"
"Knock it off, dammit!" barks Hannes, throwing Eren to the ground from his place on Hannes' shoulder.
Nora and Mikasa managed to get out of Hannes' grip, running to Eren.
"Eren," says Hannes calmly, stepping toward the trio. "You couldn't save your mother because you lacked the strength."
Eren growls, attempting to punch the blond man. His fist didn't reach its target, stopped only by Hannes' hand on his wrist.
"And I… I couldn't stand up to the Titan…" Hannes looked to Eren, tears streaming down his face, "because I lacked the courage!"
Eren stopped struggling as tears began gliding from his teal-green eyes.
Hannes stood, walking to Mikasa and Nora. "I'm sorry," he says, pulling Eren along with him.
He slowly led them out of the city, knowing that the Titans still focused on getting the citizens who were still closer to the gate.
Armin stood, looking toward the docks for his friends.
"Sit, Armin," his grandfather commands, glancing to his grandson.
"But they still aren't here," argues Armin, turning back the docks, seeing his friends. "There they are!" he says, somewhat cheerily. He almost waved them over, stopping only when he saw the dreary looks on their faces. "Eren?"
"Just let him be for now. The poor thing. How very traumatized he must be…" his grandfather mumbled.
"Huh?" asks Armin, not receiving an answer.
Mikasa watched as soldiers lifted the boarding strip away from the boat, not allowing any more passengers onto it.
People outside the boat rioted. She didn't particularly care about what they said, or how they handled it. All she cared about was the fact that Nora, Eren, and Armin were safe, and on the boat with her.
In unison, Nora and Eren looked to the wall, hearing the pounding footsteps from behind it. Mikasa soon joined them, seeing a large, fifteen-meter Titan barreling through Wall Maria.
The boat kept moving as though nothing happened. Several of the others on the boat muttered to themselves, all saying humanity was going to die.
Out of the corner of her eye, Mikasa saw Eren stand, clenching his fist. She looked to Nora, who seemed to want to fold in on herself. She gently tapped her on the shoulder, pointing to Eren and Armin. Nora nodded slowly standing to join them.
"I'm... going to…" Eren whispered, walking to boat's edge.
"Eren," Mikasa lightly calls.
"What's gotten into you, Eren?" quarries Armin, putting a hand on Eren's shoulder.
Eren pushed past him, scoffing.
"Eren…" murmurs Armin.
"...drive them out!" declares Eren with a glare. "I'm going to drive out… every last one from this world!"
That same year, the central government made the decision to withdraw all of humanity's domain behind Wall Rose. An estimated ten thousand people were eaten by Titans during this time.
Nora awoke to the sound of bells ringing.
A few moments later, Eren's breathing picked up as sweat started to coat his tan skin. Nora put two fingers to the side of his neck, feeling his pulse pounding against her fingertips. Eren? Just what is it that you're dreaming?
He abruptly woke, his eyes wide. He gasped, taking in as much air as his lungs would allow.
"Eren. Nora." she vaguely heard Mikasa say, "Are you okay?"
Nora nodded, messing with her now chin-length black hair. She still wasn't used to it being so short. She combed it out with her fingers, looking around.
"Eren, you were having a nightmare."
"I feel like I just saw Dad…" mutters Eren, placing a hand on his head.
"No. You were dreaming."
"Oh…"
"Let's go," Mikasa grabbed Nora's hand, gently pulling her up from the hard stone ground before turning back to Eren. "They said they're going to hand out food."
Eren nodded, putting his father's basement key back under his shirt and following the oriental girls.
"Apparently this was their food storehouse. They've gathered all the boat refugees here."
Nora blocked the blinding sunlight with her small hand. She looked around, seeing many different people standing in a line, waiting to get their rations. This is terrible. It's all those damned Titans' fault. If they hadn't managed to get through Wall Maria, the situation wouldn't be nearly as bad!
"I ain't eaten anything since last night!" a refugee shouted to another.
"We can't say we've survived just yet." Mikasa says.
"Eren! Nora! Mikasa!" a familiar voice calls.
Nora quickly turned to Armin, who ran to them panting, four small loaves of bread in his arms.
"Here! Just in time!" he says with a slight smile. "My grandpa got us some by saying it was for children!" he handed them each a loaf.
Nora nodded in thanks. Her gaze flicked a soldier, a member of the Garrison Regiment, who scoffed at them. Her gaze darkened. She started for the man, stopped only by Mikasa, who wrapped an arm around her, keeping her from him.
"What's his problem?" she barely heard Eren ask.
"You can't blame him. There's probably not enough food to go around," Armin looked to the loaf of bread in his hand, "And that's an entire day's worth. There are just too many refugees. There was already a food shortage going on, plus the people here aren't treated as well as citizens on the outer wall."
Nora calmed herself, clenching her fists and taking a deep breath.
"Why should we hafta give our food to some lousy outsiders?" she heard one soldier ask. "If the Titans got through the wall, they could've at least eaten some more people, if you ask me!"
That's the soldier from before!
She glared at him again, this time not letting Mikasa stop her. Eren was at her side.
"This is just gonna make the food shortage even worse," the soldier continued.
Eren kicked him in the shin, Nora following with a punch to his stomach. He cried out in pain before raising his fist. "What the hell?! You damn kids!"
Nora caught his fist before it hit either of them, squeezing it as tight as she could. She focused so hard on the first soldier that she didn't see the one next to them as he kicked her to the ground, going after Eren next.
He landed next to her, making sure not to land on her.
"You don't know what it's like!" Eren yelled. "You've never even seen it!"
The soldiers paused for a second.
"You've never seen what the Titans do to people!"
"Shut up!" the first soldier bellowed, starting for them again.
Armin quickly intervened. "I apologize! He's just hungry, and she's irritable! That's why they so rudely lashed out at an adult… I'm very sorry!"
Mikasa stepped to them, checking Nora over before moving to Eren.
Nora saw Armin bow to the soldiers, almost causing her to scowl. The soldier looked around, seeing that they were causing quite the scene.
"Man… It's 'cause of us that you guys aren't starving to death, you know! Even you kids oughta be thankful to us!" he grumbles, stalking away.
"Of course!"
"Damn…" Eren says, absentmindedly gripping Nora's small hand in his somewhat larger one. "I refuse to let them take care of me."
After getting Nora and Eren back to the old food storehouse, Mikasa decided to keep a slightly closer watch on them. She knew Nora was temperamental, she just didn't realize it was like this.
"I'm going back." says Eren. "To Wall Maria! I'm going to destroy every last Titan!"
"Eren…" prods Armin gently. "You're not being serious, are you?"
"I'm serious!" he exclaims, jumping from the stone railing. "I'm not like those guys who do nothing but act tough inside the walls!" he picked up his bread, throwing it away from him. "I don't need this crap!"
The loaf hit Armin's shoulder. He barely managed to catch it. "Eren! You'll starve to death!"
"Doesn't it bother you at all?! It's because we take everyone's charity that we can't beat the Titans!"
"It's impossible! There is no beating them! All we can do is live inside the walls! If we try anything, we'll die! Just like my mom and dad!"
Nora's eyes widened slightly. He usually never brings them up… He must be getting angry.
"So you're just gonna grovel to them then?! That's not shameful to you?!" Eren shouts.
"There's… There's nothing we can do for now!" Armin yells.
"That's just an excuse! If you wanna live like livestock forever, go ahead! You wimp!"
Armin's blue eyes widened.
Mikasa, who could no longer stand to hear them arguing, reeled back, punching Eren in the face with so much force that he fell to the ground.
"Mikasa…" says Armin in shock.
"If Armin's a wimp, then so are we. Whether it was running from the Titans or fleeing the town, we didn't manage anything on our own. We even had help finding food today. There's no way such powerless people can defeat even a single one of those Titans. Staying alive is what matters most. Just like your mother said." declares Mikasa, focusing her serious gaze on her adoptive brother.
She took Eren's loaf of bread from Armin. She quickly pushed as much of it as she could into Eren's mouth.
"Mikasa!" proclaims Armin in shock.
"You need to eat and stay alive. I won't let you starve to death."
Tears fell from Eren's eyes.
Nora's gazed drifted to the floor as she nibbled on her loaf. Stay alive. We have to stay alive if we ever want to see what's behind the walls.
Several days later, the throngs of refugees were tasked with cultivating the wastelands to secure food. However, a food shortage was unavoidable. So, in the following year of 846, the central government sent a multitude of refugees on a mission in the name of retaking Wall Maria. Of the two hundred fifty thousand sent—nearly twenty percent of the population—not even two hundred survived. Although it wasn't much, their sacrifices did improve the food shortage situation for the rest of the population.
Armin stared at his grandfather's hat in despair. Tears rolled down his eyes as he remembered the day he left to retake the wall. His sobs were nearly silent as his mind replayed his grandfather setting his hat on his head before leaving.
"This is all the Titans' fault. If we could just subdue them, our place in the world could be ours again." says Eren, sliding down the wall to sit by his friend. "Armin. Nora and I have decided to apply for the Cadets next year. We're going to gain the strength to fight the Titans!"
"Me too…" murmurs Armin, his tears stopping.
"Armin?!" asks Eren in surprise as Nora covered her mouth, not believing what she heard.
"I will, too." claims Mikasa, calmly.
"Mikasa… You don't need to! You said yourself staying alive is what's important!"
"Yes. That's why I'm doing it; so you two won't die." she turns to Nora, nodding to her.
Nora nods back, standing. She looks to the boys, seeing determination in their eyes.
"All right. The four of us, then." Eren says.
"The 104th Cadet Corps Class entrance ceremony will now begin! You have the misfortune of having me, Keith Shadis, as your commander! I do notwelcome you warmly! In your current state, you'd be nothing but food for the Titans! You're mere livestock! You're lessthan livestock! Over the next three years, we're going to train you worthless nothings and teach you how to fight Titans! Three years from now, when you come face-to-face with the Titans, will you be fodder for them?! Will you serve as an honorable barrier that protects the king?! Or will you be a glorious soldier for humanity that drives the Titans out! It's up to youto decide!"
Nora glared. I have to get rid of them! I won't die until they're all gone! Every last one of them! Gone!