Chapter 4: Infiltration

Erwin led the group to the horse stable, off to the side of the building to the left.

In the midst of the chaos, Saitama caught sight of black smoke drifting from atop the walls in the distance; even being as far away as it was, the caped hero could still see the outline of a massive humanoid figure that loomed just above the wall. Its large head seemed to stare down at the city below, and its long arms grasped at the tops of the tall structure. The sun shone behind the figure, so Saitama was only privy to its silhouette - a large, black outline of potential danger.

"Levi, gather your troops," Erwin said, mounting one of the steeds, "if it's true the Titan's have infiltrated the walls, we'll need every soldier available to help move the citizens away from danger."

"Shouldn't we assign a small collection of our forces to engage the other Titans?" Levi questioned, mounting his own horse as well, "it might slow them down long enough to evacuate most of the city."

"Agreed," the Commander said before turning to the pair of men he had just met, "I know I don't really know you, and you don't know me, I suppose. But I ask you, in as honest a manner as I can muster, will you please help save my people?"

Saitama smiled, "Well, I don't know about HIM," he shot his thumb over at Garou, "but in my world, heroes do their utmost to protect people. I see no reason to turn away now."

Erwin nodded his head at the bald warrior, "Thank you," he said before turning to the Hero Hunter expectantly.

"Don't look at me," Garou said, shifting away from the Commander's gaze, "none of this is any of my business."

"...I understand," Erwin said solemnly.

"So, you'd rather watch hundreds of people die then," Levi interjected, glaring down at the demon from atop his steed, "even though you have the power to save every last one of them."

"Levi!" Erwin shot at the Captain, earning little else but a momentary glance.

Garou clenched his fist, "PISS OFF! I DON'T OWE ANYBODY ANYTHING!" he shouted, "SO STOP LOOKING DOWN AT ME LIKE YOU'RE BETTER - YOU'RE NOT! YOU'RE NOT BETTER THAN ME JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE A HERO!"

Levi elevated his chin, "A hero? When did I ever say I was a hero? I'm no hero, I just know what I have to do. I'm a soldier."

"Yeah? Then this is YOUR war," Garou hissed, "leave me out of it."

Levi fell silent for a second before narrowing his eyes, "Fine," he said with a low voice, "but the next time you see a child crying because their mother or father has died, do the child a favor, and spare him your fake pity. Spare him the pain of knowing that you could've saved his parents, that he could've been living a life of happiness rather than misery - all because you did nothing."

Garou gritted his teeth at the Captain's comments.

"Levi, we don't have time for this," Erwin noted as his steed slowly turned around, "we have to conveen with the rest of the forces. We must hurry."

With that, Erwin kicked his horse into high gear and galloped down the street, disappearing into the building-dense city; Saitama gave one final look to Garou before sprinting off after Erwin, leaving Levi and Garou in a perpetual stand-still.

Finally, Levi decided to turn his horse, never letting his gaze shift from the eyes of the Hero Hunter, "I've known men like you before," he said, "angry men, who blame the world for their misfortunes. Men who ignore people's cries for help because nobody helped them in their time of need. I don't really care what your past was like, but just know, you are doing the very thing you detest other people for doing - nothing."

His narrow glare lingered on Garou for a few more moments, as if to highlight the severity of his words, before he too took off on his horse and headed down the street towards the wall.

Garou just stood there, alone now, a villain whose purpose was now put to the test.

"Assholes," he whispered to himself.

It was true, Garou had no attachment to the people of this world - their experiences and challenges were entirely divorced from his own. He thought back to what Levi had said. 'I am no hero'. Those words echoed in his mind, like a thudding wake-up call trying to get him to see something that was already there. This world had no heroes.

He looked down at his open palm, as though analyzing it for answers.

In his own world, he yearned to become 'absolute evil', to become the unbiased symbol of fear that would unite people, good and bad, to fight against him in a desperate attempt at survival. He would've been the ultimate unifier, the change that the world needed to see. But now what was he?

As he stood there, fully immersed in his own thoughts, swaths of people began trickling in through the streets, most of them led by soldiers that directed them away from the walls. Garou looked up and watched as these people ran past him, some of them were men desperately leading their families through the moving crowd, others were women who held their crying children close to their chests, refusing to let go for even a moment. All of these people had vastly different reasons to live, and all of them probably had vastly different lives too, but they were all unified in the desire to live. To survive. To protect.

Was this what he had missed?

To his left, Garou heard a woman shouting; it was a desperate and shrill cry that rang out from amongst the panicked murmuring of the crowd.

"NO, MY BABY!" she shrieked, as she fought against the grip of a soldier, "MY BABY IS STILL BACK THERE, PLEASE!"

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but there's no time," the guard replied somberly, "we need to get you to the nearest exit."

"PLEASE, PLEASE!" she croaked through loud sobs and tearful eyes, "MY SON IS STILL…HE'S JUST A BOY!...he's my baby…."

She slumped to her knees, still gripping at the soldier's leather jacket before she hid her face in her hands and began to cry.

Garou recognized the woman. She had stood next to the boy he saw when he first entered the city; the boy with the unibrow.

She was his mother.

Garou didn't know why, but he couldn't take his eyes off of the woman; her body looked so frail, so weak, but perhaps that is what a broken spirit can do to a person.

Maybe there was something he could do to help her; maybe there was something he could do with his strength that would keep her from being weak.

…..something he could do.

He formed a fist with his hand; the same hand in which he had searched for an answer not moments ago, was now closed with a new-found sense of purpose. That's right, there was something he could do.

Something only a villain could do.

With that, he turned around and moved against the crowd, headed deeper and deeper into the city.

Meanwhile, at the southern end of Wall Rose…

Eren regained his footing against the side of the wall as the wire to his ODM gear strained against the weight of his body; only moments earlier, the Colossal Titan had suddenly appeared through an explosion of mist and light. Before Eren could react, a sudden gust of heated, pressurized steam wafted over the top of the wall, pushing himself and several other cadets off the side of the massive structure. Eren was the first to react, shooting a grapple into the side of the wall before eventually stopping the momentum of his fall; looking around, he watched as his fellow cadets did the same, slowing themselves to a halt with the ODM.

Eren internally cursed. If he hadn't reacted as fast as he did, he would have plummeted to the bottom - death at the hands of a Titan did not sit well with him.

He looked back over at his teammates, making sure none of them were harmed during the assault. He noticed Sasha, holding onto another cadet with her ODM gear; the grapple had apparently been shot directly into the tissue of his calf muscle, tearing most of the tissue but keeping him alive. He must've been unconscious, otherwise Eren couldn't comprehend why he wasn't screaming out in pain right now.

Averting his gaze, he looked back up to the vertical stretch of the wall's mass, only barely making out the Colossal Titan's movements.

He had to get back up there. He had to kill it.

"...this is it," he whispered, albeit mostly to himself.

Connie glanced over in Eren's direction, eying the brown-haired boy, "what?" he asked.

"This is our chance," Eren continued as he grabbed at the handles of the swords on either side of his person, "our chance to kill it."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Connie pushed, the nervousness in his voice seeping through his tone, "Eren….we need to get out of here. We have to retreat."

"No," Eren barked, slowly unsheathing the blades from their metal holsters, "We have to kill it."

With that, he clicked upon the built-in triggers on his handles, the reeling mechanism for the wire tugged at his torso and flung him upwards. Using the rotation of his body, he twirled through the air, the blades of his swords creating swiping patterns as he moved. He landed roughly atop the structure, the light breeze tugged at his clothing as he finally made eye contact with the monster that had destroyed his life so long ago - the Colossal Titan.

"Hey," he greeted the giant; intense animosity radiated off of him, "It's been five years. I've been waiting for this moment."

The Titan's eyes shifted ever so slowly to meet with Eren's, as though recognizing his presence and intention; thick steam swarmed around the titan's bust, drifting upwards and away from its face. The rows of teeth that narrowly lined the creature's jaw glinted against the golden glow of the sun.

There was a moment of total stillness as the two of them stared at each other - Eren stiffened his muscles, preparing for an attack as the monster moved back. It then reeled forward, swinging its massive arm alongside the top of the wall; its open palm whistled through the air, cutting through the rows of cannons that lined the structure.

Eren maneuvered upwards, glancing back down at the damage left behind by the Titan's swipe.

"He was targeting the cannons?" he thought to himself, "it's…..intelligent?"

The next few moments went by slowly.

Through the sea of splinters that sailed through the air as a result of the wooden canon bases being reduced to pieces, Eren watched as the Titan went in for a second attack, thrusting the mass of its left arm directly at him.

The hand closed in on him, the fingers stretching out to reach him. He reacted instantly, employing the ODM's maneuvering ability to glide towards the hand, weaving through the fingers and landing on the forearm. Keeping his momentum, he ran along the Colossal Titan's arm, heading up towards the shoulder. His target was in sight - if he could just get to the neck.

"Hey there," came a sudden voice.

Eren looked over to his right and saw a strangely dressed man in a yellow suit and yellow cape - for some reason, the fact that the man was bald didn't seem to faze him nearly as much as the getup.

It took Eren a while to realize that the man was apparently running along the Titan's arm with him, keeping pace; it took him only a few seconds longer to notice that the man had no ODM gear on him - how did he even get here?

Distracted by the man's presence, Eren lost his footing as he slid off the side of the Titan's tricep, his back hitting against the large tendrils of muscle and tissue. Before he knew it, however, he felt something grip the back of his coat and he was quickly hoisted back up onto the arm again.

"Woops, careful," the man said, looking down at him, "you almost fell."

"...L-let go of me!" Eren screamed, thrashing around in the man's gloved arm.

"Hey, calm down! You'll make us both fall," the man snapped angrily, although he seemed far too calm in a situation like this.

"I said let go of me!" Eren continued, pulling at the man's wrist.

"Good idea," the man said, suddenly throwing Eren backwards into the air.

He sailed upwards for a while before the weight of gravity returned to him and he hit his back against something hard; sitting up, he noticed that the bald-headed man had tossed him back onto the wall, several meters away. Even though his back stung from the impact, he was thankfully okay, and simply watched as the man stood daintily on the Titan's shoulder.

"Hey, you're pretty big," the caped warrior said to the Colossal Titan with hands on his hips. He then put a finger to his mouth in thought, "this reminds me of that time I went against that giant dude a while ago. Deja vu, I guess."

The creature merely turned its head and looked over at the man, steam still pouring from unseen pores on its body.

"I guess I can't just tell you to 'stop', eh?" he questioned, a faint glint of hope in his eyes.

Without saying a word, the Titan directed its opposing hand towards its shoulder, fully intending to squash the bald man where he stood.

The man casually leapt away from the spot, narrowly avoiding the attack as the Titan's hand crashed down on its now vacant shoulder; with his cape flapping in the wind, the bald hero neared the Titan's head and reeled back a fist.

Eren watched in disbelief as the man's fist connected with the side of the Titan's jaw. There was a split second where nothing happened, where the punch seemed as useless as a meger slap, but then a gust of wind scattered in various directions away from the impact and a thunderous sound echoed into the sky. Eren thought the rumbling in the ground was the product of his imagination for a second.

He watched as the form of the Titan's face seemed to collapse inward on itself, away from the man's fist; its teeth were the first things to go as the jaw was carelessly knocked from its hinges. One of the eyes was pushed against the inside of the nose until it seemed to suddenly burst, and the Titan's brow was forced into an unnatural shape. Gallons of blood splattered outwards, away from the skull as if it were trying to avoid the man's fist altogether. All of this happened in a matter of seconds, but to Eren it felt like full minutes were going by as he witnessed this grand display of strength.

The frame of the Colossal Titan wavered momentarily before appearing limp and falling to the ground, like the desecration of a mountainous tower.

The man landed next to Eren, unscathed, and unbothered.

"Whew," he said, padding his hands together as though knocking the dust from his gloves, "he definitely felt THAT."

Eren was speechless. His eyes drifted to the seemingly dead state of the gigantic cadaver before him, recalling the ridiculousness of the series of events that just transpired before him.

"Oh, sorry for not introducing myself," the man continued, looking down at Eren, "my name's Saitama."

Eren opened his mouth, however, before he could say anything, a loud hissing sound emanated from the unmoving Titan corpse below, as waves of voluminous vapor seeped out from the Titan's back, covering the entire body in thick steam. Eren and Saitama stared dumbfounded, as the smoke finally dispersed, revealing an empty ground before them.

End of Chapter 4

Author's Note: Hey, everyone! Pure honesty, I didn't get this chapter out earlier because I was lazy. Ok, bye!