Chapter 6- Mikasa Ackerman (Arc 1)
Mikasa Ackerman's life has not been an easy one. In any way, shape or form. She has been crushed by existence, time and time again. But what good is a sword that is not forged in the hottest flames, shaped by the harshest hammers and sharpened by the most unforgiving stone? This is the tale of Mikasa Ackerman.
Mikasa Ackerman lived on a small farm in one of the outer lying districts with her family. Both her father, her mother and herself had travelled across vast oceans and stretching lands from the east to come and escape feuding of warlords and emperors and build a new life in the promise of progress that was the Viking city of Berk.
Oh how wrong they were.
It wasn't at all their fault, as they weren't to know, but in the forest near their home was a small Dragon Hunter base, nothing more than a campsite. And in that campsite were mercenaries and hunters who did whatever the highest bidder paid them to.
So it wasn't the Ackerman's fault when a price was placed on the 'exotic and rare pale women near Shiganshina' by a Titanian Businessman.
It wasn't the Ackerman's fault that the Hunter's broke into their home.
It wasn't the Ackerman's fault that a husband and father was stabbed through the heart in cold blood.
It wasn't the Ackerman's fault that they were grabbed by the hair and dragged off, kicking and screaming.
It wasn't the Ackerman's fault that the only thought that flooded through the women was to fight.
It wasn't the Ackerman's fault that she had an axe sunk into her neck.
It wasn't Mikasa's fault that she was thrown into a crate and put onto a carriage as her family and home lay frozen in time. Cold. Dead.
But as she lay there, trapped in that crate, the creaking wood all around her, the jeers of the men filling her ears, the pungent odour of blood filling her thoughts, she could only have one clear thought that she would hold onto for years.
"This is all my fault".
She was held in a small cabin further up the mountain, waiting to be collected and sold off to, to become some rich man's plaything, his toy. And all that flooded her head was their deaths and the words. "It's all my fault".
She was so entrapped by these thoughts, like a fly in a spider's web, she didn't realise the smell of blood had come into existence once again as she looked up and saw a boy, no more than her own age burying an axe into the Hunter's chest, screaming as he swung again. And again. And again.
She could see what was happening, heard what the boy said, but her body wouldn't move. Until she realised. She only saw two dead bodies "Where's the third one…" came a soft whisper and as she said the words, the door was kicked in and the murderer of her father took his step into the room.
She turned to see the boy turn away from cutting her ropes, the cold blade in his hand, as he swings at the man. But this man was not a fool nor unprepared as the other two. He caught the arm, breaking the wrist in one fluid motion, sending the axe spiralling out of the boy's hand as his screams of pain filled the air. He took the child by the throat, crushing the life out of him and all she was trapped. Again. She couldn't do anything. This is all her fault; it's all her fau- her thought was cut off by the young boy's voice "Fight! Defy! You have to fight! You die, you lose; you win you live and you can only win if you fight!"
And suddenly, her mind became clear. All of the thoughts of blood and screams had become memories. Only one thought filled her head.
Defy. Fight.
She didn't realise she held the blade that was now in the man's spine until she felt the blood trickle down her hands. As his limp and lifeless body fell to the ground, her eyes followed it. Feeling nothing but a sense of justice and a feeling of grief over her parents.
As she was taken outside by Eren, they were eventually picked up by his father as the Scales arrived. Realising she had nowhere to go, the Jaegers took her into their home and she lived with them. She stills remembers how when they got to the door, Eren took off the scarf around his neck and put it around hers and smiling at her. She grew to love Eren.
She'd never say it out loud but she knew what that feeling was. Of course she would grow to love Armin, Eren's best friend who she met some time later as well, but in a different way. For Eren, she knew that he had risked everything for her back at the cabin, so when Eren said he was enlisting, she hated it, but knew that she had to risk everything too, joining him to protect him as much as she could.
Whilst Eren had an Iron will, Mikasa had something to match even that. A purpose. As pure and refined as silver: Defy. Fight. Protect.
It was this purpose that drove her as she mastered hand to hand combat, capable of entering a version of that same state of clarity of mind anytime she held her weapon in her hands. Whilst she was fond of the traditional Viking dual axes, they were somewhat lacking in the finesse that her Assessors had mentioned she had the easy potential for in her top of the cadet corps report. As such, during one of her registered leaves, she, Armin and Eren, all went back. Back to her parent's home.