Previously:

"Sasha?!" her father shouted, evidently just as surprised as she was.

"You all right, Sasha?!" Jacob asked. "Is Heidi with you?!"

"Heidi went South! Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be all right," Sasha replied.

They quickly got Sasha on a horse and took off again before the blinded titan had a chance to heal and come after them. Sasha looked back at the girl she had saved and saw that she was crying. Sasha smiled a little. It looked like she had finally come out of her shock. She should be all right now. Eventually.

"We went all 'round here givin' horses ta everyone. That kid told us someone was still over here..." her father explained. "But who'da thought… it'd be you! So you fought a titan to help that kid out?"

"Yeah..." she answered.

"Sasha… you've become a fine woman," he told her with a proud smile. Sasha was surprised.

"..." She smiled. "Father… I'm home."


Chapter 29: South Westward


Sixteen hours after the titans were spotted...

Hange stared at the piece of mineral in Hange's hand as Hange, Levi, Nick, Eren. Mikasa, and Armin all rode together in the back of a wagon. They were traveling southwest to investigate the breach in Wall Rose in a convoy. It was dark now, and they could just see each other's faces thanks to the torchlight around them. Mikasa made sure Eren was wrapped up in a green Survey Corps cloak.

'That brat better be all right...' Levi thought. He couldn't help being concerned about Heidi, knowing she was probably out there without her gear. Not even she could kill titans barehanded.

"… What should we do..." Armin said, a bead of sweat sliding down his face. "To think that Rose would suddenly be breached… What options… do we even have left to us…? Even if we go with Eren to the damaged spot… I can't imagine it going well… And… why are we taking a Wallist priest with us?"

"Oh… Nick and I are buddies!" Hange said, putting an arm around Nick. "Right?"

"..." A bead of sweat slid down the side of the priest's face. Mikasa, Eren, and Armin stared at him.

"He knew titans were inside the walls. But he kept it a secret until now," Hange said. "I don't know why, but—it seems he's serious about dying before he'll spill any more. Still… their church knows some sort of secret about the walls." Mikasa, Eren, and Armin's eyes widened.

"Huh?! What the hell?!" Eren exclaimed, jerking out of his seat to loom over Nick. The cloak fell away. "Agh..." He stumbled and fell back down on his seat.

"Calm down… You're still tired from transforming..." Mikasa said, steadying him.

"We could have asked some other believers… but he chose to come with us," Hange continued to explain. "Since the situation's different now… he wants to see if he can stay true to his principles and keep silent even after seeing how things really are. He says he's going to judge with his own eyes… and then he's going to ask himself..." Again, Mikasa, Eren, and Armin stared at Nick with wide eyes.

"Wait, wait… but that's ridiculous," Eren said. "If there's something you know, please just tell us… how could anything be more important than keeping humanity from being wiped out?" Hange cast a sideways glance at Nick

"The minister looks like a righteous man of good judgement..." Hange said. "But on the other hand, perhaps… there really is something more important to him… than the extinction of humanity..." Nick sweated nervously.

"Well… I guess he's got some guts," Levi said. "But I wonder about the other believers… hard to imagine those bastards have all got the same kind of willpower." Levi pressed the gun he was holding under his jacket to Nick's side. "There are a lot of ways to ask a question… I may not be of much use right now… but I can at least keep an eye on one minister. I… would sincerely like to avoid seeing a hole thoughtlessly blown through someone's body. I believe we both do." Levi stared at the minister for a moment before turning his attention to Hange. "But never mind that… Hange?"

"?" Hange said.

"I didn't think you had any hobbies so dreary as playing with rocks," Levi remarked.

"Well… you're right," Hange said, holding up the piece of mineral for everyone to see. "This isn't just a rock… This is a fragment of the female titan's gardened skin that she left behind."

"..." Mikasa and Eren stared at it.

"Wh… What?!" Armin said, surprised. "It's still here?!"

"That's right!" Hange said, glad someone else was excited by that discovery too. "Even after Annie turned back into a human and was detached from her titan body… Well, just look! It's not evaporating… and it's not disappearing. It gave me an idea..." Hange thought back to when Hange examined it under a microscope while Moblit tried to get the squad leader to hurry up. "And when I compared it to a fragment of the wall, the two were very similar, down to their physical structures. In other words, the central pillars of that wall were Colossus Titans, and its surface was made up of their hardened skin." Nick closed his eyes, Hange glanced sideways at him to see his reaction.

"It's really… eaxactly as Armin said," Mikasa said, surprised, as she and Eren glanced at their friend.

"Ah…!" Armin gasped. "T… Then…!"

"Hold it!" Hange said, covering his mouth with Hang's hand.

"Pft…?!" Armin said.

"Let me say it, Armin!" Hange said, still keeping his mouth covered. "As things stand, it's going to be very difficult to seal the destroyed section of Wall Rose… As long as there isn't a conveniently-sized boulder to stop up the hole, that is..."

"…?" Eren said.

"But, what if… Eren transformed into a titan… and used the titan's hardening abilities… to seal the hole in the wall?" Hange suggested. Hange stopped covering Armin's mouth.

"…!!" Eren said. "Use me… to seal the wall…?!"

"..." Levi was a little surprised, but if they could pull it off…

"The material its made of should be the same… If you can leave behind your petrified titan's body without it evaporating after you turn human, then just maybe..." Hange said. "Of course, that's only if something like this is even possible. That's what I've been thinking about..."

"… I think it's definitely a gamble worth taking..." Armin said. "And if he can do it more than once… then there's hope for retaking Wall Maria, too. Until now, repairing a wall has always meant transporting huge amounts of building materials. When you consider the personnel and logistics needed to support that kind of mission… we had no choice but to establish supply sites outside the walls… Not only that, the numbers showed that it would take around twenty years to complete repairs. But take away the need for wagon escorts… and I think we could even head for Shiganshina district, at top speed!"

"I see..." Hange said. "With just a small squad, we might be able to get straight to Wall Maria." Eren and Mikasa were amazed. Armin looked up again as something else occurred to him.

"How about executing a night operation outside the walls?" Armin suggested. Hange's eyes widened a little.

"At… night…?" Hange said.

"Yes! Night, when the titans can't move!" Armin said. "We can't get there at full speed on horses by torchlight alone, but… even at a slower pace… with a smaller group… we might make it to Wall Maria by dawn!"

"..." Hange stared at him, then looked down at the mineral Hange was still clutching. "Even in moments of the deepest despair… I guess we can still find hope, huh?"

"Yes… but—all of this… depends on whether or not Eren can seal the hole," Armin said, glancing at him. Eren stared back with wide eyes as a bead of nervous sweat rolled down his face.

"… I know that coming up with an answer for this is hard, but… do you think you can do it?" Hange asked him seriously. Eren stared at them. Could he?

"Uh..." he said awkwardly.

"The question's not whether he thinks he can do it..." Levi said, furrowing his brow slightly.

"…!" Eren said.

"Do it," Levi ordered sternly. "You have to do it. Look at us. There's nothing the military can do but flail desperately… so you have to succeed."

"..." For a moment, Eren just stared at him, but he steeled his resolve. "Yes, sir!" he responded with determination. "I will seal that hole! I have to..." 'That ability Annie used… there's no reason I can't use it too,' he thought. 'If she could do it...' Eren furrowed his brow and frowned. "… Ugh… I'm sick of not knowing what's going on… First… we'll go plug Wall Rose… and once we've repaired Wall Maria… we'll go to the basement," he said, holding the key that was hanging around his neck. "If everything he said was there is really there… maybe It'll even tell me where he went… All the answers… should be… down there… And then I'll know… I'll know who exactly to point all this anger at..." He glared at the key, gritting his teeth. Mikasa watched him silently.

"Ah… We're almost to Ehrmich district," Hange said, recognizing their location.

"So this is it for the minister and me… I'll leave the rest to you," Levi said. "Erwin has decided all of you will make up an improvised team. Understand, Armin? Just keep wracking your brain together with Hange."

"Y… Yes, sir!" Armin answered.

"Mikasa… use all your skills to protect Eren," Levi ordered.

"…!" Mikasa said. She furrowed her brow with determination. "Yes, sir! Of course."

"..." A bead of sweat slid down the side of Eren's face.

"I… don't know why you're so attached to Eren..." Levi said. "But control yourself. Don't mess up again."

"..?" Eren said, wondering what he was talking about.

"… Yes, sir," Mikasa said, the crease in her brow deepening. "Of course." She didn't want a repeat of last time either.

—∞—

In Ehrmich district, Nick stood there staring in shock at the scene before him.

"Hey… Keep moving," Levi told the minister, giving him a kick from behind to urge him to move forward. "You'll get us left behind..."

"T… This is..." Nick said with wide eyes and sweat sliding down his face.

"… What else did you think was going to happen…?" Levi asked him. "The wall's been breached..." They both stared out at all the people walking past with faces filled with anguish and despair. The main street was filled with refugees coming from the opposite direction, all fleeing their homes in Wall Rose to evacuate to Wall Sheena. Some of them shed tears as they walked. All of them seemed heartbreakingly hopeless.

"Waaah… Mommy…!" a little boy cried, looking lost in the huge crowd. "Daddy…!"

"Ah…!" Nick gasped and took a step forward to help him. Levi placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

"Hey," Levi said. "What are you thinking…? Is it a little different from the delusions you spread in your church? Those are people you and your followers want to send to their deaths…" Nick gazed out at them with pity. "Direct your pious looks on the faces of these folks who've lost their homes… They may be gripped with fear and insecurity right now, but… if you people get what you want, and titans pour through the walls… This isn't what their faces will look like in the end. In the end, they'll all be the same. They'll be inside a titan's putrid mouth, experiencing the worst torture known to humanity as they die. And all of humanity will be one flock," Levi concluded darkly.

They joined the others, who were getting ready to depart again.

"Here on out is titan territory," Hange said.

"Eren, do you think you can ride?" Moblit asked.

"Yeah… my strength is coming back," Eren replied.

"There's a horse ready for you at the west lift. Hurry," Moblit instructed him, guiding him to it.

"..." Hange looked back at Levi and Nick.

"Squad Leader, we have to go," Moblit reminded Hange.

"One second, Moblit..." Hange said. "Have you… changed your mind?" Hange asked Nick. Nick looked grimmer than before, but he remained silent. "There's no time left!!" Hange yelled. "Don't you realize that?! Are you going to talk, or are you going to stay silent? Tell me, please!!"

"I cannot speak," Nick said with regret. "The other followers feel the same. They will not change their minds."

"Well, thanks a lot!!" Hange snapped, turning to leave. "You telling me that sure is a big help!!"

"It… It would simply be too big a decision for one man to make," Nick said. "The burden we carry is just too heavy… as the ages passed, we created for ourselves a firm covenant… entrusting the secret of the walls to a single bloodline. We can't speak. However… I can tell you the name of the one who can." Hange stared at him.

"So… You'll shove responsibility onto someone else… just to protect your church and yourselves?" Hange asked.

"… Yes..." Nick replied, looking troubled. "The child… was caught up in a conflict in the bloodline three years ago… and is in hiding, under a false name. She still has no idea, but… she knows the secret of the wall, and possesses the right to choose to speak it in public. I heard that she entered the Survey Corps this year."

"!" Eren said.

"Her name is..."

"Excuse me!" Sasha said loudly, opening a door to join them, bearing a message. "104th cadet corps! Sasha Braus!" She noticed that the others had not only ignored her, they were still in the middle of a discussion that had Armin, Eren, and Mikasa staring at the others in shock and surprise.

"What…?" Armin said.

"H… Her?" Eren asked, furrowing his brow.

"…?" Hange said. "… What…?"

"Bring her here," Nick told them. "She should be able to learn even truths that we could never acquire. Though whether to speak those truths would be up to her. This is the most I can concede. I leave the rest in your hands."

"That girl… She's in the 104th… which would mean that she's on the frontlines right now..." Hange said, concerned.

"Let's go!" Eren said. "We've got to get to the battlefield now!" He turned to run and crashed right into Sasha.

"Ouch..." Sasha said.

"Sasha?!" Eren exclaimed, surprised to see her there.

"What are you doing here?" Mikasa asked. Wasn't she supposed to be with the rest of the 104th?

"!!" Sasha gasped and quickly grabbed the rolled up message she was supposed to deliver from the floor and stood up to present it to Hange. "Upon my arrival, I submitted my report to the Commander! Afterwards, I was entrusted to deliver this message to the Section Commander!"

"Message?" Hange said, accepting it. "Thank you. Good work." She grabbed a potato from a nearby pile of provisions and gave it to her as a reward.

"…!" Sasha's eyes widened and shined at the beautiful sight. She immediately took a huge bite that made half the potato disappear.

"Wait! I still don't know the names of everyone in the 104th…" Hange said.

"She's the smallest girl in our year, just slightly shorter than Heidi!" Eren said.

"She has long blonde hair, and… um…" Armin said. "Also, she's cute!"

"It's the girl who's always hanging around with Ymir," Mikasa added.

"What…?" Hange said as her and Levi's eyes widened slightly in recognition. They had heard that name before. "Ymir?"

—∞—

Seven hours after the titans were spotted, west team…

Ymir was riding beside Krista, behind Nanaba and another Survey Corps veteran named Henning. Ymir glanced at Krista.

"This area is close to the wall. There won't be any people living around here," Henning said.

"I see… we finished faster than I thought we would," Nanaba said. "..." She considered their options. "All right… let's keep heading south." Krista's eyes widened slightly and Ymir's narrowed.

"… Why?" Ymir asked. "There shouldn't be any people farther south."

"We have to determine where the wall was breached..." Nanaba replied. "We'll ride along side it from the west and have a look. It'd be faster than letting the south team do it alone."

"… You know that Krista and I don't have our combat gear, right?" Ymir reminded her. "Anywhere farther south should be crawling with titans… It's highly probable we'd end up as snacks. Please let Krista and me… pull back from the front lines for now."

"… Ymir?!" Krista gasped.

"No," Nanaba said. "We don't know what could happen. I want to have at least one messenger ready to go. I know how you feel, but… since you chose to be soldiers, you need to be prepared. Everything's riding on this early response mission..."

"..." Ymir furrowed her brow.

"Ymir… I want to stay here and do everything I can," Krista said. "I mean… I decided to join the Survey Corps on my own. But…" she glanced sideways at her. "You didn't, right? Back then… you chose the Survey Corps… because I..."

"Because what?!" Ymir snapped challengingly. "Huh?! Are you saying I joined for your sake?!"

"Then why are you here now?" Krista asked. "If you don't have a reason, then just start running..." Ymir didn't say anything. She just riding forward with the rest of them. "I knew… there was no way I should have been that close to the top ten of our class… Ask anyone, and they'd have said that you should have been closer instead… maybe even come in tenth… I don't know how you did it, but… maybe it was you constantly pushing me to go into the Military Police… or maybe you even tried to give me your spot..." She looked at Ymir. "Why… Why would you do that much for me?" Krista looked down, feeling troubled. "Does it have… something to do with my family?"

"Yeah. It does," Ymir replied. Krista's eyes widened slightly. "But Krista… don't worry," Ymir said, looking back at her. "I'm here entirely… for my own sake."

"… All right," Krista said quietly. "Good..." She smiled brightly in relief.

—∞—

Nine hours after the titans were spotted, south team…

"Connie, wait!!" Heidi called when he pulled ahead, galloping into his village on his own. "Calm down!!"

"She's right! There could be titans anywhere!" Reiner said. "Fall back for now." But Connie didn't listen. He rode his horse through town as fast as he could, searching for survivors. All he found was ruined buildings. "It can't be… Isn't anyone here…?! It's me! Connie!! I've come back!!" he yelled. There was no answer. He gritted his teeth. Then came the hardest part of all. "My house…!" He could see a titan footprint in the path. "Dad… Mom… Sunny… Martin..." he cried desperately. His horse stopped short when they reached his destroyed home. There was a titan laying on its back, staring him in the eye. Connie stared back in shock.

"!!" Heidi gasped when she saw it as she and Reiner came up behind him.

"Connie! Fall back!!" Reiner said, grabbing his wrist to pull him away.

"I… It's my house..." Connie said shakily. "My..."

"You three, fall back!!" Gelgar ordered.

"Keep an eye on our surroundings!!" a veteran with a ponytail, Lynne, reminded everyone. She and Gelgar moved into position to deal with the titan, when Gelgar and Heidi noticed something strange.

"…?" Heidi said, furrowing her brow in confusion as her eyes widened.

"Wait… this thing's..." Gelgar said, looking at its pathetic excuses for arms and legs. "It can't move?! With those limbs… there's no way it could!" Connie and Reiner looked at him with wide eyes. "… B… But then….. how did it… get here?!" Heidi looked at the rubble around the house and frowned. Something wasn't right about it.

—∞—

In the end, after splitting up to search more thoroughly for survivors, Connie found himself standing in front of his house and the titan who had flattened it, holding an armful of unlit torches. Tears spilled from his eyes. Heidi, who had paired up with him, placed a hand on his shoulder, wishing there was something more she could do for him. But there were no words for this. And, as tragic as it was, she couldn't help but feel something strange was going on. She couldn't quite put her finger on it yet, but…

"Connie! Heidi! Are there any survivors?!" Reiner asked. Heidi looked at Connie.

"… No," she answered for him. Reiner and Bertolt looked horrified for him.

"Gone… It's all over… There's no one here," Connie said. "My home… is gone..." Reiner furrowed his brow and gritted his teeth. He also placed a hand on Connie's shoulder, wishing there was something he could say or do for him. A bead of sweat slid down the side of Bertolt's face as he watched.

"Hey… something's off," Gelgar said as he and Lynne joined them. "Has anyone seen any bodies?" The four recruits stared at them. Connie shook his head.

"… Now that you mention it..." Heidi said, a bead of sweat sliding down her face.

"… No," Reiner replied.

"I haven't see any," Bertolt said.

"I didn't see any blood, either..." Heidi said.

"Is that even possible?" Gelgar asked. "Could a titan really wipe out a village without leaving a single drop of blood behind?"

"They must have all fled!" Lynne said, getting excited. "There's no way titan's could eat them and leave no trace! Meaning that no one in the village was eaten, including your family… I'm sure of it! They must have seen the titans before it was too late."

"..." Tears filled Connie's eyes again. "Yeah… You're right…!" he said.

"Sure… They must have left here hours ago," Lynne said, though Heidi thought she saw a little doubt creep into her expression. "I bet they're already on the other side of wall Sheena." A bead of sweat slid down the side of Gelgar's face.

'But there are other things that don't add up… If the villagers really were able to evacuate completely… Why would the titans completely destroy a village full of empty houses...?' Heidi wondered. Her eyes met Gelgar's and she could tell from the look on his face that he was thinking along the same lines.

'What confuses me the most is the village stable I just saw...' Gelgar thought. 'A line of horses, still tied up… You can run from a titan, but if you're not on horseback, your chances of survival are slim… In any case, I can't show that stable to Connie.' "Are the torches ready?" he asked. "We're going from here to locate the damaged area of the wall." He headed back to their horses, which they had tied up nearby and left to drink water from buckets and basins. "We're heading out."

"..." Connie spared one last glance back at his broken house. "Okay." He was mounting his horse when he heard something that gave him chills.

"Welc… ome… home..." a deep voice said. Connie froze. He looked back at the titan with wide eyes. Did that titan…?

"Huh…?" Connie said, his heart thumping hard in his chest. "Did it just…"

"Hey! Connie!" Reiner said, maneuvering his horse so he could grab his shoulder.

"!" Connie said, surprised. He saw Heidi had slowed her horse and was looking back at them.

"Hurry up! We're going to fall behind Gelgar and the others!"

"Reiner… Did you just hear that?" Connie asked anxiously. "It just—"

"I didn't hear anything!" Reiner said. "Anyway, stop talking and… focus on our mission!"

"It… It… just…" Connie stuttered, in shock. "It can't be, but… It sounded like… my mom..." Heidi's eyes widened slightly.

"What did you just—" she started to ask.

"Connie! Do you understand our situation?!" Reiner yelled. "Our actions right now will affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people!! What's more important?! That, or getting lost in some sort of ridiculous delusion?! If you're going to think, think about your family right now as they're taking shelter! If you're a soldier, you need to focus!"

"… Yeah..." Connie said, furrowing his brow. He tightened his grip on the reins. "Of course… That's right!!" he said with renewed determination. He galloped away with the others, leaving his house and the titan behind. Reiner and Bertolt glanced sideways at him. Heidi spared one last glance back at the titan as she followed, picking up the rear.

'What Connie just said… now I know what was bothering me about the rubble around his house!' Heidi thought, frowning and furrowing her brow. 'But if that's true… If that's true…!!' Heidi gritted her teeth and tightened her grip on the reins. "It can't be…!!"

—∞—

Nine hours after the titans were spotted, eastern line of defense…

The Garrison's 1st division, elite forces, were luring a titan into a trap.

"Keep going! Draw it closer!" Captain Kitz Weilman ordered the Garrison soldier acting as a lure. The soldier playing bait rode his horse through the middle of the barricades, leading it straight to the line of cannons they had waiting. As soon as the titan was in range, and the soldier was clear, Kitz gave the order. "Fire!!"

BOOOM!

While the titan was wounded from the cannon, Rico attacked from begin and removed its nape. The dead titan fell to the ground with a crash. Rico slid a little as she landed on the roof.

"Got it..." she said.

"We can do this, Rico!" one of her fellow soldiers said excitedly. "If we keep this up, we'll be able to hold this line!"

"… No," Rico said. "What makes the titans terrifying is their numbers. If they come up in a group, this line will probably be broken in seconds. But… What could it be… Something's..."

—∞—

Nine hours after the titans were spotted…

"Strange..." Hannes said as he rode along the wall with the other members of the Garrison's Wall Rose countermeasures unit.

"Captain Hannes. Is something the matter?" Peter asked.

"… It's odd," Hannes said. A bead of sweat slid down his face. "We've yet… to encounter a single titan… We should be nearing the breach… yet it's still quiet… Every time they've broken through the walls, they've done it after gathering a huge number of titans. Hopefully… It'll stay this calm, for once..."

—∞—

Eleven hours after the titans were spotted, south team…

Gelgar rode in the lead, followed by Reiner and Lynne, who were followed by Bertolt and Connie, with Heidi picking up the rear. They each held a torch in their hands. It was pitch black now, with a darkness so dense they could only see about two feet in front of them.

"Haah… Haah…. Haah… Haah..." Gelgar breathed heavily, doing his best to remain calm in the face of a threat they would have virtually no warning against as he led them. None of them blamed him. They were all anxious themselves, struggling not to imagine that the worst was about to happen. His position was probably the most dangerous. 'We need… to be moving quicker… but… it would be suicidal to go any faster than this...' he thought, sweating bullets. 'We can barely see past our own feet… You'd have to be insane to gallop a horse off the road in pitch darkness. Not only that, at any moment, titans could come jumping out at us.' He could already see them in his mind, just waiting to devour him. 'No… as we move nearer to the hole, it's not just a possibility… that moment is inevitable. Damn it… I feel like I'm about to go mad.' His hand trembled holding the torch. "Haah… Haah… Haah… Haah..." 'When's it going to be… when… will they appear...' "Haah… Haah… Ngh…?!" Suddenly, he could see a cluster of dim lights up ahead. As they drew closer together, they saw that it was Nanaba'a team. Her team looked just as surprised by the encounter as they were. "… Did you follow the wall here, too?" Gelgar asked her.

"Yeah… so… where's the hole?" Nanaba asked.

"Huh…?" Gelgar said.

"… We took a detour and followed alongside the wall starting from the far west, but we didn't find anything strange," Nanaba explained. "If we didn't find it, then surely you must have?" Gelgar stared at her.

"No… We haven't seen a hole, either," he told her. Their expressions were confused but grim.

"… Could you have missed it?" Lynne asked.

"No way," Henning said. "The damage would have to be large enough for a titan to pass through."

'This… doesn't make any sense…' Heidi thought. 'Unless...' A chill went up her spine. She glanced at Connie's back. 'Unless it really...'

"What should we do… Do you want to check again?" Gelgar asked.

"We should, but… I think both we and our horses are near exhaustion," Nanaba said. "We'd just be even less focused than before. If we at least had some moonlight..."

"Hey..." Gelgar said when the clouds started to part and the moon peeked out t them. In the distance, not too far away, they could make out what appeared to be a fortress with a tower. "Is that… a… ruined castle…?"

—∞—

They stabled their horses and made themselves at home in the tower of the dilapidated castle. Heidi sat close to the fire in the middle of the floor, next to Connie and Reiner, along with Nanaba and Lynne. Bertolt sat in a chair against the wall. Krista and Ymir sat on the floor together, also against the wall. Gelgar was exploring, and Henning was hanging torches to light the rest of the place up.

"Jeez… this place is close to the wall," Henning said, putting one of the last of the torches in another wall mount. He joined the others by the fire. "But there are signs that someone was living here until recently…" Like the convenient pile of firewood and the remnants of an old fire in the middle of the floor, which they had rekindled. "Some hooligans must have been using this place as their base. The sign said it's called 'Utgard Castle'."

"Hey… check this out," Gelgar said as he rejoined them. He was holding what appeared to be a bottle of liquor. "I even found this right here… Hm…? What's written on it?" Its label was in a language he didn't recognize.

"Is that alcohol, Gelgar?" Lynne asked. "You're not thinking of… drinking it, are you?"

"… At a time like this? Don't be stupid..." Gelgar said, but there was the hint of a guilty tremor in his voice.

"Who'd have thought we'd owe the roof over our heads to a thieves' stash…?" Henning said.

"Are you sure we're not the thieves here?" Nanaba said.

"Haha..." Lynne laughed. Heidi and the other recruits were quiet. They were tired, exhausted from riding around all day and being constantly on edge. And, in some cases, they had a lot to think about.

"You recruits rest up..." Gelgar said. "The sun has been down for a while now. I doubt any titans will still be moving. But we'll take turns keeping watch. We leave four hours before sunrise."

"Um… If… it turns out the wall really hasn't been breached, then… where could the titans have come from?" Krista asked.

"Determining that is our job tomorrow," Gelgar replied. "Focus on resting for now..." He left them to take first watch, climbing the stairs to the top of the tower.

"… Could it be… that things aren't as bad… as we initially assumed?" Krista suggested. "How could I put it… ah..." Heidi hugged her knees tighter.

'… No… if it happened the way I think it did… then things could actually be worse, in a way...' Heidi thought nervously. 'The debris around Connie's house looked as though the house had been crushed from the inside out… if that makes any sense... not like something attacked it from the outside… The other houses we looked at were like that too.' She stole a sideways glance at Connie. 'That titan in his house… it couldn't have gotten there on its own… It's as if it spontaneously generated from within his house… We already know some people can turn into titans and back again, so…" She looked at Connie again. It was probably better to keep this theory to herself for now, at least until tomorrow. Connie had been through enough for one day. 'I hope I'm wrong… but I from what we've seen so far… I don't think there's a hole in the wall...'

"Yes… the number of titans does appear to be small," Henning said. "It'd be hard to say for sure that they've really broken through the wall."

"The only time we've seen any titans so far… was when we first discovered them..." Nanaba said.

"…" Ymir stared at them. She noticed Heidi was being unusually quiet. She looked at Connie. "Connie… what happened at your village?"

"It was destroyed," he replied. "The titans… had already trampled through the entire village." Ymir and Krista stared at Connie with wide eyes, feeling bad for him. Ymir looked down.

"… Oh…" Ymir said, about to offer him her condolences. "That's—"

"But no one had been eaten," Connie continued. "It looks like everyone managed to get away. I'm at least… glad for that. Ymir stared at him.

"Didn't you say your village was destroyed?" Ymir asked.

"Houses and everything were damaged, but there were no victims from the village," Connie replied. "If they had been eaten, then… there would have been blood or other remains left behind, right? There weren't any, so… it means that no one was killed."

"..." Again, Ymir stared at him. Heidi stared into the fire, sincerely hoping that was the case.

"Only… there's one thing that's bothered me since then..." Connie said. "It's the titan that was in my house. It was just lying there for some reason, even though there was no way it could move on its own..." Reiner looked at him out the corner of his eye. "The thing kind of… resembled my mom..." Heidi tightened her grip on her legs again. "What could it—"

"Connie… are you still going on about that?" Reiner asked. "You're—"

"Are you stupid or something?" Ymir asked Connie, bursting with laughter. "Dahahahaha… So… your mom was a titan, Connie?! If that's the case… then why the hell are you so tiny?!" Heidi stared at her. Not that it wouldn't be in her character, but would she really laugh about something like that now? Surely even Ymir… "Hm? C'mon, Connie…! How does that even make any sense?! I always knew you were a moron, but… maybe it's the opposite!" Ymir laughed. "Maybe you're some kind of genius! Right?! Gahahahaha!!" Even the veterans were staring at her now.

"Ugh… just…. Shut up," Connie said, blushing a little as he scratched his head. "This has gotten stupid."

"So if your theory is right, then your dad must be a titan, too! Right?" Ymir said, red in the face from laughing. " 'Cause if not, then… you know. How would they be able to do it?!"

"Just shut up and go to bed, you bitch!!" Connie snapped at her. Heidi was still staring at Ymir. Listening calmly… wasn't there something forced about her laughter?

'Is she trying to distract Connie…? But… wouldn't that mean she suspects something, too?' Heidi thought, confused, looking down. 'But she didn't see the village, so how would she…?' She looked at Ymir again, who was laughing and slapping her thigh. 'Maybe I'm just overthinking it...'

—∞—

Smoke from the fire they had made on top of the tower floated up into the night sky. A cool wind blew. Inside, Heidi woke up from a very short sleep. She had tried to get some rest while she could, but she just couldn't stay asleep after everything that had happened. She couldn't remember her dream, but she had been awoken by an eerie feeling of unease, as if something was about to happen. She got up and decided to stretch her legs by walking around. She paused when she saw Reiner open the door to a small side room. She was about to say something, when he started talking.

"What do you think you're doing, Ymir…?" he asked, standing in the doorway.

"Creeping into a girl's room at night, Reiner…?" Ymir said. "That's surprising. You didn't seem like the kind of guy who was interested in women..."

"Sure… and you don't look to me like the kind of girl who's interested in guys..." he retorted.

"Hah..." Ymir laughed. "I'm just digging around for something to fill my stomach. This'll probably end up being our last supper."

"… I wanted to ask you… when Connie was talking about his village, you… changed the subject on purpose, didn't you?" Reiner said. "If you can, I want you to keep acting that way… so that... he doesn't get too worried about his family..."

'Does that mean… Reiner also suspects…?' Heidi wondered.

"What're you talking about?" Ymir said. "Ooh! This'll do. Herring isn't my favorite, but..."

"Any more in there?" Reiner asked. "Let me take a look." There was a pause, during which she must have handed him the herring.

"This is canned food?" Reiner said. "…!" Another pause. "… What are these letters? I can't read them. This says… 'Herring' on it…? I'm surprised Ymir… you can… read these things…?" Heidi was surprised too. If it was like the writing on the bottle of liquor that Gelgar found, it was completely foreign to her.

"All troops, wake up!!" Lynne shouted urgently as she came rushing down the stairs from above. "Get to the roof!! Everyone! Now!!" They all followed her up to the top and looked out over the side of the crenelated roof. Heidi's eyes widened. There were titans swarming all over the place. And they were moving around freely, despite the darkness. "The moon came out, and the next thing I knew..."

"Why?!" Gelgar exclaimed, shocked. "Why are they still moving?! Hours have passed since sunset!!"

"What's… going on here…?" Krista asked nervously.

"Hey…! Look at that!!" Connie shouted, pointing. They looked to see what he was talking about. Their eyes widened. "It's huge… What the hell is that thing…?"

"A titan… covered in hair…?" Heidi said, a bead of sweat sliding down her face. It really was huge! 'That appearance… is that a… 'monkey'…?' she thought, furrowing her brow, recalling a description her grandfather had given of a beast that lived in the world outside the walls that looked almost like a human covered in hair.

"Doesn't it look like some sort of animal?" Connie asked. "Right?" He glanced at the others and saw Reiner and Bertolt's expressions. "..." A bead of sweat slid down the side of his face. "Hey… It's… heading for the wall..." He was right. It was very clearly making its way to the wall, strolling right past them.

BOOM!

They were all startled when another large one crashed into the tower.

"Agh…!!" Lynne cried as tiny pieces of the tower crumbled. The tower held, but it couldn't keep taking hits like that.

"Huh?! Wait..." Gelgar said, leaning over the side to get a better view of the smaller titans who had started attacking the wooden door at the bottom of the tower. "Wait, wait, wait, wait… Don't start... coming in here..." The door buckled. "You've got… to be kidding me..." he said, covered in a cold sweat. He gritted his teeth and stepped up, drawing his blades. "Don't fuck with me!!" he said, turning his fear to anger.

"Gelgar!" Lynne said.

" 'Cuz of you bastards. I can't even… get a drink!!" Gelgar yelled at the titans.

"Stay back, recruits," Nanaba told Heidi and the others. "It's time… to switch to 3DMG." She stepped forward and drew her blades. "Let's go!!" she told her fellow veterans, and they all leaped from the tower with blades drawn.

Meanwhile. The hairy 'monkey' titan had scaled the wall, coming to rest on top of it. It looked back at the castle.

—∞—

Seventeen hours after the titans were spotted…

Other members of the Survey Corps were riding their horses through the darkness, carrying torches. Moblit rode right next to Hange, holding the torch so that Hange could read while riding.

"This tower should give us a good view of the wall," Hange said, checking the documents in hand. "It's an old castle near the southwest part of the wall… Yes… we're heading to Utgard Castle." Eren furrowed his brow as he rode alongside Mikasa and Armin.