Author's Note: In all honesty, I wrote the first chapter as a joke and did not expect it to go this far.
Chapter 7: Aberrante
On the rooftop of their Headquarters, members of the 104th squad stood in quiet awe of the sight before them. Still unconscious, Haruka lay limp in Mikasa's arms and unaware of her emotional sobbing.
How… how can this be? Armin's eyes darted between Haruka's bare limbs, the fabric cut off at exactly where each had been bitten clean off. Armin walked towards Haruka, falling to his knees. Back then… I saw that Titan swallow him… His arm and leg… they came back…! He lifted Haruka's arm and interlocked Haruka's fingers with his. He was met with a strange, spongy barrier, and hastily put the arm back down. Armin had forgotten about the webs.
Jean looked away to scan the streets around them. "Does that mean all of this… was Haruka's doing?" The steam from all the rotting Titan corpses fogged up their view of the city and blocked the sunlight. "This is unreal," he breathed.
He then spotted Sasha crouching over the ledge of the roof, holding two sticks with dumplings skewered at the ends.
"Sasha what in god's name are you doing?"
"Making steamed dumplings."
"… Why."
"Are you asking me why people make steamed dumplings?"
Jean shoved her off the roof with his foot.
It was only that morning that the Recon Corps left on an expedition mission outside of Wall Rose. Their departures were always noisy and exciting affairs; the entire main road was cleared for them, but lined along the sidewalks were the citizens of Wall Rose jostling amongst each other to get a good look at the soldiers. At the head of the procession rode Commander Erwin Smith, his head held up high and noble, his expression that of unyielding determination. A few members of the 104th training squad stood in the crowds to watch him and his men and women depart.
Additionally, the usual scantily-clad groupies danced on top of some wooden boxes to get the attention of the Recon Corps, shouting rhymed cheers and throwing their bras and confetti at the soldiers. They called themselves the Legs of Freedom, and they wore matching tight green tank tops and white short shorts with belts. They also had a male member. His name was Kenny.
"Recon Corps
Shed some gore
Make those Titans live no more!
Come back home
Wave your flags
Please don't be in body bags!"
One of them threw her bra directly at Erwin. He caught it and put it in his cloak for good luck.
"Wow, they Recon Corps really are amazing, aren't they?" said Armin. "They're so brave to go out there and face the Titans."
"There's Lance Corporal Captain Rivaille Levi Ribai Heichou," said Mikasa. "Or Levi Heichou for short."
"And there's Squad Leader Hanji Zoe," said Armin in admiration. "I heard she came up with a safe strategy for capturing live Titans for study."
"I heard she studies humans too," said Jean darkly. "Not always with their consent."
"You don't need consent for science," replied Armin unsmilingly, still staring at the procession. Jean inched away from him.
"Commander Erwin is soooo handsome," cooed Sasha, eyeing him like a piece of premium meat. "I'd share my food with him."
It was saying a lot.
"I heard he's so handsome they kicked him out of the Military Police for being too handsome," said Connie. "They didn't like the competition."
"I heard he's so handsome it's illegal for him to be shirtless because it caused an accident once," added Jean.
"I heard he's also banned from looking directly at virgins without covering his face first."
"I heard he's carved out of real marble."
"Whoa, that shit's expensive. Real marble."
"I heard he's hiding an actual pair of black and white angel wings under his cloak," said Reiner.
"That's stupid, then why would he need the maneuver gear?"
"Because he can't be shirtless!"
"Oh right."
Not far behind Erwin, Levi grew more and more irritated at the confetti being thrown at him. His hand inched towards the handle of his blade.
"Oh, stop it, you," said Hanji, who rode beside him and noticed his deepening scowl. "Stop getting so worked up over every tiny piece of dirt. You don't want to get wrinkles, do you?"
Levi's face softened. "… Fine." He put his hand back on his reins, making a note to arrest the members of the Legs of Freedom later for littering the streets, like he always did after returning from missions.
Haruka remembered it.
He remembered reaching out for Armin's hand. He remembered the abrupt appearance of teeth the size of bricks, the sudden pulse of blood spewing out of a stump where his left arm had been a split second before.
"Goddammit… Armin…" Haruka felt his damaged body being tossed to the back of the Titan's throat by its tongue, and then he was subject to a rapid but horrific sensation of being squeezed through the esophagus.
He landed in the stomach acid with a splash. Even though he was swallowed butt-first, Haruka somehow managed to exit the cardiac sphincter and dive into the stomach acid in perfect form.
When his head emerged, he found himself floating in deep liquid, much deeper than the kiddie pools Mikasa had been making for him since the fall of Wall Maria.
I will exit this world the same way I entered it, he thought to himself. Swimming in the liquids inside a larger being. The feeling of content washed over him the way he loved to be washed.
He relaxed, letting his body float on its back… but he kept bumping into things. Frustrated, he pulled himself upright and took a look around him.
There were bodies floating everywhere.
Not all of them were whole; many sported gruesome injuries (not unlike Haruka), and many of the bloody floating masses were only severed heads or limbs.
Haruka's scowl only deepened. How was he supposed to enjoy his final swim with all these people in the way?
"And none of you are actually swimming!" he seethed, balling his remaining fist. "YOU'RE JUST A BUNCH OF LOITERERS!"
He hated loiterers.
The rage bubbled up inside him like boiling water. Only, unlike a metaphor, it appeared to be actually happening; white steam began streaming out of the open wounds on his head and stumps.
"I knew it!" he cried out in horror, his worst fear being realized. "You lied to me, Armin! YOU SAID I COULDN'T EVAPORATE."
An arm shot out of the gnome-like Titan's mouth faster than Sasha volunteering to clean leftovers.
It fell forward face-first and its back tore wide open; out emerged a full-grown Titan, fierce in its stance and steaming hot with wrath.
I just wanted to swim! He went to the nearest child-like Titan and kicked it in the face. Why doesn't anyone understand me?!
Another Titan lunged at the Rogue, only to be punched in the face. Haruka stomped the Titan into the ground with every vile thought that flowed through his mind.
"It's late and the pool is closing, Haruka!" "Get out of the bathtub, Haruka!" "You need to breathe, Haruka!" "Why are you licking my tears, Haruka?" I'm so tired of people repressing me! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!
"I'll kill you all."
"… Haruka?"
It was most unfortunate that he fondly said this line in front of about a hundred battle-ready soldiers, all of whom had their eyes dead set on him.
"Huh? Where am I?"
A pair of sky-colored eyes met his gaze.
"Haruka, are you okay?"
"Armin? What's going on? Did we win the relay?"
"Again with the relay dream," said Mikasa from somewhere nearby. While Armin was crouched near Haruka, Mikasa stood with her back to him, ready to single-handedly take on the soldiers before them.
"Did you hear what he said?" asked one of the soldiers in a frightened tone.
"He said 'I will kill you all'!" replied another. "We all heard it! He's a Titan and he wants to eat us!"
"He says that every time he wakes up," explained Mikasa. "It's normal for him."
Haruka realized the seriousness of the situation when he saw that the soldiers were pointing their blades at the three of them. He then looked up to see the barrels of several cannons all aimed at them too. He glanced behind him only to see the literal corner he and his friends were pushed into.
"Armin, we told you they'd eventually catch up with your overdue library books," he said.
"Haruka, you have to tell us what happened back there!" said Armin, looking desperate. "And I have until noon!"
"It's you they're after, Haruka," said Mikasa.
"I didn't borrow any library books."
"Take this seriously, Haruka!" Armin's tearful eyes darted here and there, as though looking for an exit or a weak spot. "Or they'll kill all three of us!"
"They'll have to go through me first," said Mikasa, tightening the grip on her blades.
Haruka frowned. "Is the orphan card not working?"
"Trainee Haruka Jaeger!" shouted a Captain Weilman of the Garrison Guard, who had a soldier at either side of him aiming a shotgun at the trio, because swords and cannons were not enough against three children. In a more modern setting, he would have had several tanks, eight missile launchers, a flamethrower, and a shin-level table with sharp corners aimed at them as well, but he made do with what he had. "You and your comrades have displayed traitorous behavior!"
"We didn't mean it!" said Armin.
"I must now decide what to do with you! Try to pull any trick or leave that spot and we'll shoot without hesitation!"
"But I have to pee," said Haruka.
"I'll go straight to the point," continued Weilman. "Tell me, Jaeger! What are you really? Human or Titan?"
"Yes," responded Haruka.
"Haruka!" Armin slapped his forehead. "You're supposed to say human!"
"I didn't understand the question."
"A number of soldiers saw you coming out of a Titan! That makes you a threat to humanity! Not to mention that armored Titan from five years ago might appear at any moment, so I am not willing to take any risks!"
"Go ahead and try," said Mikasa menacingly, raising both blades at chest level. "I once sliced my way through a lake to get Haruka out for dinner, don't think the cutting of human flesh will be of any difficulty to me."
"I'm still angry at you for that," stated Haruka. "How did you stay dry?"
"I've been meaning to ask you that too," said Armin. Then he shook his head and came back to his senses. "We can't protect Haruka like this! I say let's run and hide somewhere within the confines of the walls!"
"You think they'll just let us go, Armin?!"
"Mikasa, please don't instigate a fight with them! What are you trying to accomplish, fighting humans? Hasn't school taught you anything?"
Armin was of course referring back to their freshman seminar of "Getting Along with Other Recruits" that was conducted with hand puppets and song. By the end of the "practical portion" of the seminar in which recruits were requested to sit across from each other and express their feelings towards one another, Jean and Haruka started a slapping match and had to be separated, Rei received a black eye from Ymir, Armin was in tears after Rin rudely suggested he had not been weaned yet, and Annie nearly strangled Mikasa with her own scarf after Mikasa asked her if the rumors about her being part reptile were true. Needless to say, Miss Ama had had to cancel all future sessions before any more tears or blood could be shed.
"I don't care who I have to fight," snarled Mikasa. "I will not allow Haruka to get killed."
"You have to see it from their point of view," pleaded Armin. "Anyone would be scared out of their mind when faced with a situation they don't understand." Much like that one situation in which Sasha found that, if left unshaved, her leg hairs would just keep growing and growing.
Haruka sat there, looking at his missing fabric and pondering why everyone was so stressed and mad at him. Was he really a Titan?
Great, he thought. If it's true, then not only am I a land animal, but I'm a huge land animal. This isn't what I wanted at all.
"I'll ask you again," said Weilman, "What are you!? Human or Titan?"
Haruka knew that if he answered incorrectly, he could get Armin and Mikasa killed. He took a deep breath, willing himself to concentrate on the answer and not further upset the captain or the soldiers.
"No," he said.
Armin sat down, resigned to his fate.
"I see." A dark look crossed Weilman's face. "Please don't resent us for this… We have no other choice…" As if in slow motion, the Shiganshina trio watched the captain of the Garrison Guard lift his hand, signaling their doom.
Mikasa dropped her blades; she turned on her heel and picked up Haruka, throwing him over her shoulder. Armin could only stare in horror, fully aware they could not outrun the cannon loaded and ready to fire at them.
Haruka's consciousness suddenly faltered, becoming immersed in a strange flashback.
"Haruka," said Grisha, frantically removing the key from around his neck to place it on his son. "I am so sorry I couldn't find a cure for what you injected yourself with. That Titan serum was a side project and I never intended to actually use it."
"Can I have more?"
"No you can't have more! My god I never should have let Carla have that water birth."
"It was like a water slide."
"Pay attention, now!" Grisha shortened the knot on the string a bit so that the key necklace would fit around his thin son's neck. "You must listen to me." He put his hands on both of Haruka's shoulders and lowered his head to be at eye level with him. "Whatever you do, under no circumstances should you ever bite yourself on the hand. Got it?"
"Uh… Alright, if you say so."
"Especially if you have a clear goal in mind."
"Understood."
"Because if you do, you'll make a lot of people very, very upset."
Haruka could not explain it, but he knew exactly what to do.
He rolled off Mikasa's shoulder and pulled against her elbow to stop her from running, and then grabbed Armin and yanked him close. He then turned to the cannonball, staring hard at it before chomping down on his palm.
All the while, the others had been awaiting orders as the military regrouped itself after the attack on Trost.
"… and that's how we managed to resupply our gas and escape the Trost district," said Connie, finishing his story of escape to Ymir, Krista, and some other trainees.
"Oh you poor things," said Krista.
Ymir looked wistfully at her. "I suffered too, you know. Look at this splinter in my hand."
"What about Mikasa and the others?" asked Krista as she dug in her pocket for the First Aid kit that contained a pair of tweezers for such an emergency (splinter removal was in chapter one of their Shrapnel and other Foreign Object Removal textbook). "Didn't they come back with you guys?"
Connie frowned and looked over and Jean, Annie, Brethlodt, Reiner, Sasha, and Rei.
"We're prohibited from saying what happened," said Jean. "It's confidential and all that crap. But I seriously doubt it'll stay secret for long."
"Yeah, just like the fact that the world doesn't end at Wall Maria," said Reiner. Indeed, when some young hooligan scaled Wall Maria fifty years ago on a dare, he was surprised to see land as opposed to more sky.
I just hope Haruka doesn't do anything stupid, thought Jean. Not a moment passed after he thought this when a blasting sound of a nearby cannon scared the wits out of the recruits and put them on high alert.
"What was that?!"
"That came from inside the wall!"
"Was it breached?!"
"Are there Titans?!"
"DID TITANS BREACH WALL ROSE?!"
"KRISTA YOU SHOVED THAT SPLINTER FURTHER IN!"
"I'm sorry! I jumped!"
So loud was the sound that Armin and Mikasa were sure they had been hit; huge strings of muscle and giant vertebrae sprouted out from where Haruka stood, the ribs spiraling around them in a matter of seconds.
Still being formed, the Titan arm extended as though it were attempting to perform a breaststroke, catching the cannonball before it hit anything. It exploded with a blast; smoke mixed with steam, and the soldiers could see nothing.
Armin and Mikasa could only look within their temporary shield in utter disbelief. Even Mikasa found her legs turning into jelly. She reached out a hand to touch the rib in front of her, marveling at its solidity despite the dire situation she and her friends currently faced.
Armin, too, felt breathless; Haruka really was a Titan.
"This… this is unbelievable…"
He felt the sweltering heat radiating from the rapidly decaying Titan interior. He looked around himself at the exposed inner body parts, still trying to piece together this remarkable phenomenon before this Titan body disintegrated like all the ones before it. When Armin looked up, a large piece of gallbladder dislodged itself and fell, splattering all over his face with a splregh.
"... I hate Titans. I hate them."
Author's Note: Subtle thanks to Hugo the Diabolic Penguin for the idea of the dead bodies blocking Haruka's swim as a rage trigger xD
Also, I very much enjoyed speculating about Erwin. How many of you are members of the Legs of Freedom?