Darkness (Hiroshi Nagao)
My mother had died giving birth to me and my father left my brother and I for a young woman half as old as he was. Feeling the air around me, the absence of any presence, it was something I was used to, being alone. As one of the Military Police Brigade in Shaginshina, brother was one of the many who died but the few who had sacrificed their lives to save others. Little did I know that whatever lives brother could've saved were probably killed off on a suicidal mission to reclaim Wall Maria. My brother took care of me when I was younger, he had joined the Military Police Brigade so that he would have enough money to feed us even thought he wanted to become a doctor but school would've taken too much time and money.
A pale, almost translucent hand grabbed me, it was a titan hand. The titan then waited for the other titan to lunge for me and he used his other hand to push the other titan's face into the ground. Trees shook, the ground was overturned, the hand around me was loose enough for me to breath easily, but escape would've been impossible. In the same fluid movement, the titan holding me slammed his foot on to the other titan's exposed neck. Why did one titan attack another titan? Am I going to die? I stared at his blue eyes, they looked so alive, intelligent even. He lowered me on to the floor, I was too shocked to move, he kneeled in front of of me. Exposing the nape of his neck, the titan closed his eyes. Titan steam spread everywhere, I put my arm over my eyes, it was hot and as thick as fog.
When it cleared the massive titan had its face in the dirt, if I had been a few more meters to the left then he would've crushed me. Something was emerging from the nape of the titan's neck. Titan meat snapped, a human with his arms outstretched fell backwards, there were horrible burn marks around his eyes. He looked familiar. Lying on the grass he was looking up at the sky, it was Ichiru.
Half an hour passed, I had salvaged as much as I could from the camp, my goal was to get back to the districts and report on what had happened. It was a long shot, but the only choice I had. Anyone else would've left Ichiru to the titans and set out for the wall right away, but a nagging instinct told me that he wouldn't hurt me. I still don't understand why he was inside the titan but I knew that he had come back even though he had been leaving. Not only that but he came back and saved my life, I don't understand how but he did. The fire was starting to die out, hesitant as I was to leave Ichiru I needed to get more wood or I would be alone in the dark with an unconscious Ichiru.
When I got back, he was gone, it was like he had been a dream. A ghost, he was certainly pale enough to be one. I'll remember him, the sadness in his eyes, because they'll join my brother and squad members in haunting my nightmares.
Alone (Ichiru)
It was still dark, fire next to me was a hotbed of coals, I touch around my eyes. All traces of the burns had healed, I distinctly remember killing the titan and holding Hiroshi in my hand, so where was he? I tried to ignore the truth, that he had left me, at least he hadn't tried to kill me, I thought he was better than other humans, I guess I was wrong. It was quiet again, silently I headed out towards the direction of Wall Maria, I resolved that I should forget Hiroshi. Better that than to remember how imperfect and cruel humans could be.
My Cave (8 Months Later)
"What are you doing here?" The village leader's nose wrinkled in disgust, "shouldn't I be asking you that question?" The village leader grunted, he clearly didn't understand what I was asking, his son remarked, "I think that Ichiru believes that he is a caveman." "I don't, I just want to know what you are doing here after I said that I didn't want to talk to any of you ever again," I said, my voice even. "Straight to business ehh?" He nodded, contemplating his next words, "we need your help..." I looked up from twiddling my thumbs, "WHAT?" "You heard me," he snarled, I almost danced with glee, the village leader was asking for my help! Then I remembered, turning down a request would mean that every titan shifter would become my enemy, I'd be lucky to survive one day without a life or death situation. He laid out his plan, I was supposed to join the Survey Corps and become a Captain within a few years. After that they'll start sending young titan shifters from the village to train, the plan was that with enough shifters in the wall, they will be able to destroy the wall and kill all the humans inside. It wasn't a bad plan, I ignored the small voice saying that I'd be killing Hiroshi and humans like him, humans were cruel. "I'll do it," the village leader looked slightly surprised that smirked, "you have one day to finish any..." he waved his hand at my small belongings scattered aroung the cave, "loose ends." They both bit down on there hands simultaneously and jumped out of the cave, the titan steam finally cleared half a minute later to reveal 2 titans running off in the direction of the village. What a mess I had gotten myself into.
Enlisting (1 Day Later)
"So you want to join the Survey Corps?" The recruiter smirked, "well, you're rather old to start training now but if we see you're not bad then we just might let you join." I try to resist rolling my eyes at his arrogance. Gritting my teeth I thank him, he led me further into the recruitment office, after a few turns along long corridors we reached a training room. Shouts, cries of pain, and curses echoed off the walls as we walked into the room. The walls were wood while the floor was a sort of stone, tiny rectangular windows ran along the very tops of the walls. A man around the same age of my recruiter grinned, clapped his hands together, then shouted. "We have someone challenging Amon!" We stepped onto a platform raised about a foot off the ground, the platform was made of wood but it would still hurt if I fell on it as I moved up and down to test its buoyancy. Someone tossed us both wooden practice swords, they were similar to the ones I would use to kill titans. Amon asked something but I didn't hear, "what?" He looked angry, as if I was pretending not to hear him, "I said... ARE YOU READY!?" The second I nodded he took a defensive stance at me, I took my own stance and someone counted down from 10.
The first attack was a downward slash, I was only able to dodge just in time by grabbing his shirt with both my hands and throwing him off balance while falling painfully on my right shoulder. Amon got up from the floor, his pale face blotched red from fury, now I had enraged the bull. Instead of giving us both a second to breathe he lunged at me swinging his sword blindly. A blow that would've caught my cheek I blocked with my sword, we ended up interlocked, he had me at an advantage, I was weak from being malnourished. There was no way to get more leverage on him and Amon kept pushing with all his weight and strength downwards, there was only one thing left to do. I swept my leg at him and succeeded in knocking him off his feet, before he could re-position his legs under him I brought my elbow in his stomach. Extending my arm so that he fell on his back and my sword's point touched his throat, despite how much I wanted to make fun of him, in order to get a high rank I would need friends. "Wow, you're really good," the lie came out of my mouth smoothly but even so he frowned, "you still beat me, so I can't be that good if I got beat by a new kid." "Yeah, but I've been practicing since I was 6," this was a lie but it comforted him. "If that's the case then I'll recommend you for the advanced classes, no point taking the beginner classes if you already know how to handle a sword." It was too easy to manipulate humans, they bored me.
Author's Note: Junko is a character from another anime called Nana that I stopped watching. Since I am american, I don't know Japanese names so I just went with that name. I used a random japanese name generator for Hiroshi's name.
