Chapter 5: To Change a Monster

Screaming men and women pushed past each other in a desperate attempt to escape; by this point, dozens of titans had infiltrated the main wall, spreading throughout the city. Thankfully, their slow pace and one-track mind gave the people more time to evacuate, although nobody had time to recover any household items.

The golden light of the now-diminishing sun set the scene - the entire city had been cast in the veil of an intense orange color, simulating the hue of raging embers and spreading fires. In any other scenario, the wash of sunlight over the tops of roofs and across the stretch of cobbled roads would've been a beautiful sight - one to remember. But now, the rays of light casted an air of desperation and doubt, doubt that some of the citizens may not live to see the sunrise tomorrow.

By now, the crowd of people slowed to a concentrated halt at the northern wall, as the congested flow of people grouped together in haste.

Garou confidently walked against the influx of people, sometimes earning quick glances from citizens as they passed by; once in a while, he would receive a warning from some of them, telling him not to continue further into the city. He ignored it.

Over the past few minutes, Garou had noticed a sudden change in his body; the hard, dark armor that had shelled his figure this entire time seemed to slowly peel off and fall to the floor as he kept his pace. The covering that had adorned his face was now crumbling away, revealing more and more of his human features; what's more, the further he walked, the quicker the armor fell apart, until he was bare-chested and wore nothing more than tattered, loose pants.

Although he felt the covering whittling away bit by bit, he didn't feel as if he was getting weaker; no, on the contrary, he experienced an undoubtable surge of energy rising up from the pit of his stomach.

'What is this?' he wondered to himself, pressing onward, 'what is this power?'

He didn't understand where this strength was coming from, but he also didn't care - not now, anyway.

Eventually, he spotted what appeared to be the rigid body of a child laying against the brick wall of a building; for a moment, Garou thought the boy was dead, since his back was facing away from the wall and he wasn't moving. It only took Garou a few more seconds to realize that the boy had cradled himself into a fetal position against the building; his shoulders moved up and down in tandem with the boy's sobs, and his body trembled violently out of fear.

"Mommy…mommy…mommy," he cried, over and over again.

Garou was about to walk over to the boy, but his approach was halted by the sudden appearance of a Titan that turned the corner and headed down the street towards him. The Titan's eyes were glazed over, like there was no life inside, no hint of thought or deliberation.

"Huh, you're really not human, eh?" Garou said to the Titan as it slowly hobbled over to him, "Guess I don't have to worry about letting you live, then."

The Titan's eyes then drifted down to the feeble figure of the boy just below, turning its entire attention on the new meal that sat before it.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Garou demanded, his thick eyebrows lowering.

The Titan ignored him and reached its large hand out to the sniveling boy; almost as if detecting its presence, the child looked up to see a grotesque smiling face staring down at him as an outstretched hand larger than his body neared him.

The boy let out a sound that was a mix between cry and a yelp.

"I said, what are you doing?" Garou roared, breaking the ground as he leapt forward.

His whole body seemed to move on its own; his hips jutted forwards and rotated as his back foot swung its way around, curving into the side of the Titan's neck. The death was quick and instant - his pointed toes tore through the creature's flesh, separating its head from its neck and ripping the tissue in the process.

The fell lightly to the floor, landing in front of the horrified child, who stared at it in disbelief; panting heavily, he looked up at the man before him, the hero who had so gallantly saved his life.

Garou stared down at the boy. Titans' blood had splattered upon the Hero Hunter's face, quickly sizzling into steam before leaving his skin bare once again.

The boy's unibrow curved upwards as an expression of awe and hesitation adorned his face.

"Hey," Garou said, bending down to meet the child's gaze, "You want to see your mom?"

Swallowing to clear his dry throat, the boy nodded eagerly, "yes!" he said.

"...ok," Garou said, before standing up and offering the child his hand.

The boy took it, and the two of them headed back down the road.

Meanwhile, at the Northern Wall….

By now, hundreds of people had surrounded the Northern Wall, all of them screaming and pushing against each other in unison. Although time was getting short, the exit through the wall was being blocked by several men who tried to force a large carriage through the width of the passageway. Citizens screamed in anger at the group of men who had, for reasons amounting to greed, effectively plugged the only exit way available.

"Hey, move out of the way!" some voices yelled.

"We've got women and children who have to leave!" others shouted.

A portly man with sunken-in eyes angrily spat back at the crowd, "No one goes anywhere until we get this cart through!"

"Forget the cart!" one of the voices in the crowd responded, "if we don't leave right now, we'll all die!"

"Shut up!" the man growled, "The content carried in the cart are infinitely more important than the rest of you are! Besides, the soldiers we pay for are buying us some time!"

As a roar of insults and threats emanated from the crowd, a young girl held closely by her mother pointed curiously down the road behind the group of people, "Mama, what's that?" she asked.

The crowd's cacophony of shouts quickly died down upon the sound of massive footsteps nearing the corner of a street a few hundred meters away; almost immediately, all of the citizen's murmuring had reduced to nothing but silence, waiting for what would come next.

Just then, a terrifyingly fast figure emerged from beyond the row of buildings, turning the corner and scraping against the structures on the opposite side as it approached the crowd; everyone screamed in horror as the titan ran forward, totally disregarding a small group of soldiers who pursued it with their ODM gear.

"Dammit! Why's it ignoring us?" one of the soldiers said.

"It's an abnormal," replied another, "don't even bother trying to guess!"

As they flew forward, a female soldier said, "it's too fast! We're not going to be able to catch up to it!"

Then, from behind the ranks, one of the soldiers launched themselves forward, earning startled glances from the other three; twirling in the air, the soldier launched a grapple into the back of the Titan's neck, pulling themselves closer and delivering a killing blow.

The Titan fell forward, only taking a few more steps before finally collapsing on the ground, mere meters away from the astonished crowd. The soldier stood atop the Titan's head, triumphant, as her short black hair swayed in the wind. Mikasa stared down at the large group of citizens, confused by the situation.

"What…are you doing?" she asked in wonder.

"Great!" came the arrogant voice of the large man beside the carriage, "Make them help out!" he gestured to the crowd, "You'll be greatly rewarded!"

Mikasa remained wide-eyed in disbelief as she stared at the man with incredulous eyes, "My comrades are dying out there," she said, returning her sword to its sheath, "because the citizens still haven't finished evacuating. They're laying down their lives to hold the Titans back."

"Of course," the man returned with an entitled tone, "That's your job - to protect the people. Don't start getting full of yourselves just because you're useful for the first time in a century."

Mikasa's demeanor fell into one of cold and malice as she lowered her eyes and hopped off the Titan's head, landing on the ground below. She then proceeded to walk calmly towards the men, her emotionless gaze never wavering. The crowd of people moved aside as she pressed forward, making a pathway for the girl.

"If you think it's natural for people to risk their own lives to save others, then, surely, you understand that a single death can save many lives," she whispered, threateningly.

"How dare you!" the man shot back as two bodyguards stepped in front of him, "I go way back with your boss! We'll be laughing together over your dead body!"

Mikasa continued forward, even as the two guards charged her; using both of her blades, she smacked both men on the backs of their necks, forcing them to fall down past her and onto the ground. She pressed forward before finally stopping in front of the man.

"I wonder," she said menacingly, "What kinds of jokes can corpses tell?"

The man's horrified face didn't faze her as she raised her sword above her head.

"Oi!" came a sudden voice from behind her.

Mikasa, as well as the rest of the crowd, turned around to see a tall, white-haired man staring back at them; he held the hand of a young boy, who's terrified face softened at the sight of his mother.

"Mommy!" he called out, running towards a dark-haired woman who got to her knees and hugged him.

"Axel!" the woman gratefully called out, pressing his crying face closely to her chest.

She looked up at Garou as he approached her, "Thank you," she said through honest sobs, "...thank you for saving my boy…"

The man fell silent for a moment before glancing up at the situation before him; he tilted his head in confusion.

"Hey, aren't you guys supposed to be evacuating, or something?" he questioned.

"Well, we would be, if this man hadn't blocked the exit with his carriage," one of the men from the crowd answered, pointing to the chubby merchant next to Mikasa.

"Oh?" Garou said, shoving his hands into his pockets as he approached.

Mikasa silently watched the man as he approached, his confident gait and menacing demeanor keeping her attention. Soon, he stood next to Mikasa, staring down at the man. Mikasa wasn't aware of it, but she had instinctively moved out of the man's way, clearing his path to get to the merchant.

"You're the guy?" Garou said carefully, through measured breaths.

"I…I…uhhh…." the man's bottom lip quivered ever so slightly.

Garou's animal gaze locked onto the man's eyes, staring deeply into them like a pair of daggers.

"Get out of the way," he finally said to the man, who merely gulped and quickly stepped aside.

The man took a quick stance and kicked the back of the carriage; the force of the kick knocked into the back of the wagon, breaking apart the wooden frame and pushing the entire object through the exit, immediately clearing a path. Bits of wood and splinters littered the ground now, and everyone stared wide-eyed at the mysterious man; Mikasa couldn't believe her eyes, and she just stood there dumbfounded at what she had witnessed a second ago.

"Well?" Garou finally said, "Are you guys gonna continue evacuating, or not?" he asked.

The crowd provided little resistance, remembering the fleet of death that awaited them if they stayed, and they all eagerly piled through the exit one after another.

As the sea of people bottle-necked through the open passageway, Garou felt a strange sensation on his leg; he looked down to see the young boy, Axel, hugging at his knee and staring up at him with wide eyes.

"Thank you, mister!" the young boy said with a childish smile.

Garou stared down at the kid, not knowing exactly what to do in this situation; he then placed his hand on the top of the boy's head and gave him a soft pat.

"No problem," he answered with a small smile.

"Are you gonna go save everyone from the Titan's now?" the boy continued gleefully.

His mother apologetically pried the child from Garou's leg, a sheepish smile on her face.

"Sorry," she replied, "he sometimes doesn't know when to give people their space."

"It's fine," Garou said, kneeling down to meet the boy face-to-face, "and as for your question - yes, I'm going to save everyone. I promise."

The boy didn't need to say anything as his massive grin was all Garou required to see that the child was happy. The mother smiled tenderly down at her son before giving Garou the same warmth; she then escorted the boy away and through the exit, all the while allowing him to wave back to the Hero Hunter.

As they finally left from sight, Garou turned around to see a cautious Mikasa staring him down.

"What the hell are you looking at?" he growled.

"...what are you?" she questioned, holding one of her blades to his throat, "that strength isn't normal."

The white-haired man made no effort to pull away, "Eh? This is how you treat someone who just saved the lives of several hundred people? My god, you have a terrible welcoming attitude."

"What regiment are you from?" she asked, her sword remained unwavering.

"Regiment?" Garou answered, "The hell are you talking about?"

Before Mikasa could continue, a blonde man sailed down towards the two using his ODM gear, graciously landing before them.

"I'm impressed, Ackerman," the man said, glancing over at the fallen Titan, "you managed to kill it, I see."

He then noticed Garou.

"Who's this?" he asked.

"No clue, sir" Mikasa responded evenly, "he's not a part of any regiment."

"No? Where is he from?" the man turned to Garou, "are you a citizen?"

"No," he replied, "but I don't have time to tell you where I come from. I've got some Titans to kill."

With that, he began to walk off.

"Hey, wait! You have to have to evacuate along with everyone else," the blonde man screamed, "we're pulling all of our forces out of here as soon as possible."

"Great, have fun," Garou said with a wave of his hand.

"Tsk, damnit!" the man cursed before hesitantly turning to Mikasa, "Our orders are to leave, Ackerman. Follow me over the wall so we can regroup."

Mikasa blinked, her mind suddenly flooded with questions of Eren's wearabouts; she hadn't seen him exit the confines of the city, meaning he must still be within the Trost district.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't," she admitted with a grim expression, "I have to go back."

Before the man could voice any disagreement, she had already launched herself into the air and began flying over roofs and streets.

"So, you decided to stay too," came Garou's voice right beside her.

Mikasa looked over, surprised to see the white-haired man casually keeping pace with the ODM gear, easily hurtling over chimneys and clearing gaps between buildings.

"...how are you-" she began, but was cut off by Garou first.

"You know, normally, I would just let random people like you run straight into death, but I made that boy a promise, so I guess i'm sticking to it," he said with a grin.

Mikasa lowered her eyebrows, "I don't need your help," she said, turning away from him.

"Doesn't matter," Garou said, "I would've gone anyway."

She looked back over at him inquisitively.

"Those Titans just piss me off," he huffed before easily leaping across a wide alleyway and landing on the other side, "I won't stop until every last one of them is dead!"

Mikasa blinked at the strange man; his determined eyes and fiery attitude reminded her of something - a feeling that troubled her.

End of Chapter 5