Chapter 2

When morning came around, I half expected to be back home. The other half of me wasn't surprised when I was still a hulking behemoth. This wasn't just some horrible, anime-induced fever dream. No, this was real. Which means I don't have plot armor. Which means I could very easily die. The only questions that remained were 'Where and When am I'.

That divine smell hit my nose again. Even though I knew it was humans I was smelling, that didn't mean they didn't smell delicious. Speaking of humans, which city was this? From what I had read about the wall layouts, a single wall was reinforced by an outer town. The town was the main way in, with the entrance to the inner walls at the back of it. This was mainly for the event of a Titan attack so the inner walls wouldn't be immediately flooded by titans.

Flooded by titans...Aw, shit. I forgot about the breach.

When would it happen? The show and manga never gave a precise date! Shiganshina and Trost could have been breached at any time! Did it already happen?! Am I too late?!

Out of desperation, I ran up to the wall and started climbing it. It was...painful. Not physically painful, but more exhausting if anything. If the wall had been recently breached, there would at least be people in neighboring towns moving about more frequently than usual. There would be refugee food lines and rest areas. Although..If someone saw me climbing the wall, red flags would certainly go up and cannons would be loaded. On the other hand, I had to know where I was. It was totally worth the risk.

I reached the top of the wall and poked my head up. I tried to shimmy my body along the top of the wall and stay as low as possible. If someone saw me, panic would already be everywhere. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. I looked over the edge into the town, and everything seemed calm at the moment. As I inched back to the outer ledge, I heard the sound of metal hitting the ground.

I turned my head slowly, and I was met with a garrison soldier. I tensed up, preparing for the worst. He looked just as terrified in that minute of a staring contest. I swear to god, I heard a fart. The first human I had met here, and I had literally scared him shitless. He took a step back, then turned to run. I didn't blame him at all. I would run too if a man-eating monster climbed over the one thing protecting me.

I started to climb back down and sprinted back into the forest. After I got a decent distance away from the open, I slumped against a tree and thought over what just happened. I had exposed myself, and that means people will soon know I exist.

I got up from the tree, and started wandering along the side of the wall. Nothing really interesting happened, so I decided to walk at a distance from the wall in hopes I could find some living punching bags. Of course I did, so I punched them into steamy meat piles. It wasn't exactly fun seeing all the blood and gore at first, but it passed the time and I soon got used to it.

Days have passed now, and I'm morbidly curious as to when more humans will show up. Suddenly, as if someone read my mind, I heard a bang and saw a green flare shoot into the air. I tried to remember the flare color meanings. Red meant Titan, black meant abnormal titan, yellow meant success or something like that, I forgot what the retreat signal was. When someone shoots a green flare, you're supposed to go in the direction of the arc, then relay the signal in the same fashion.

Unfortunately, curiosity killed the Titan. I made my way in the direction of the first shot, hoping I would find some form of contact. I got closer, and a black flare went up in the sky. On one hand, it's nice to know that they see me as different. On the other hand, it means I stand out and it's harder for me to hide. I was curious as to how these humans would react to an abnormal in this situation. I hadn't seen any meaningful interaction in the manga or anime, except for the scene in Trost and one of the expeditions. I knew from the series that abnormals were erratic and unpredictable to the point where fighting them was downright suicide.

I heard a few humans yelling, probably about me getting closer. I saw multiple black flares go off one after another. They were frighteningly close together. It would be a really bad idea to just waltz into the center of that formation, so I'd back off and retreat into the trees. Well, I would have if I didn't see Six titans getting too close to the formation.

This had to happen sooner or later, so I charged past the soldier to the first titan and brought a swift knee into its side. I heard a few loud crunches, probably ribs being shattered. I pinned in to the ground on its belly and brought my mouth to its neck. Teeth sunk in, flesh ripped and tore, and steam erupted from the wound. I got up and spit out the chunk of flesh. It tasted like a mix of iron from the blood and rotten meat.

Judging by how easy it was, and the bite marks I briefly saw, I appear to have very sharp, pointed teeth. I ran about the formation, bolting from Titan to Titan, killing them all the same.

A scream filled the air as a woman was grabbed off her horse. I ran towards the scream and she was being raised to the drooling jaws of my mindless kin. I picked up a good sized stone and chucked it at the beast's arm. Its arm broke off, and the soldier was sent falling to the ground in the severed hand. She struggled to lift the hand off her.

"Is this how I die? A meal stolen from one Titan only to be eaten by another?"

The first Titan fell to the ground with a huge gash in its neck. The soldier looked up in horror at her...savior? I'm not sure whether I should be proud about the fact that I saved her, or be frightened about this trained soldier that's very willing to kill me. She looked at me for a bit, still struggling to be free.

"Well?! You have me right where you want me! What are you waiting for, an invitation?!"

I made a low growl and walked towards the steaming hand. Her anger turned to fear and instant regret.

"Oh god no, I'm sorry! No! Stay away from me, you freak!"

Jeez, this lady is loud.

I pried open the fingers of the evaporating hand and picked her up in my hand. She managed to pull out one of her short, dull blades and tried stabbing my hand repeatedly. To say the least, it kind of tickled.

"Put me down! Put! Me! Down! I didn't come all this way in life to be lunch!"

I opened my hand into an open palm so she could sit comfortably. She was still furious, jabbing my hand with that dull blade until it was whittled down to the hilt. I'm really not sure what she was trying to accomplish, so I just let her vent her anger on my hand until she came to her senses. She was panting, out of breath with all hope lost.

I stroked the index finger of my free hand across her head and curved my mouth into a toothy grin. That was not the smartest thing to do, because I may have forgotten about my sharp teeth soaked with Titan blood. That freaked her out even more and she started screaming.

"Jessie! Hang tight, this guy's going down!"

This was a new voice. I turned around to see a black haired man on horseback riding towards me. He had a face reminiscent of that one cool kid at school. You know, that guy. The guy who thinks he's hot shit? Yeah, him.

He jumped off his horse, and shot a hook into my shoulder. I watched him swing around me, to the back of my neck. I jerked my shoulder and shook him off-course. He wrapped back around and slammed into my chest with the hook still attached.

He looked up, hoping I hadn't noticed him somehow. This guy amused me, so I decided to spook him. I slowly looked down and showed off my creepy smile. He shrieked. I picked him up and dumped him onto my hand with the woman. I took out the hook and it dangled off my hand. They looked at each other in shock, eyeing each other for injuries.

"Jessie! Are you hurt?!"

"No, I-I don't think so. I think this Titan...saved me. It hasn't eaten us yet, and I don't know if it understands us…"

These two were adorable. They thought I was a mindless beast. Hah! I wanted to mess with them. As soon as she finished her sentence, I opened my eyes as wide as possible and jerked my head forward. I'm pretty sure that did it, because they huddled together in what they thought were their final moments.

I patted them both on the head and sprinted towards the center formation, holding the two soldiers close to me.

I saw another black flare go off. Then a green one. I hadn't noticed the man in my hands fiddling with a flare gun. He shot a flare, although it wasn't really a flare, it was more of a noisemaker, which made a god-awful bang that left all our ears ringing.

"Hey, Titan!"

Huh? They were...talking to me?

"If you can understand us, stop here and don't go anywhere. The squad is going to meet us here."

My eyes shot open. Why would they suddenly trust me? I mean, I wasn't complaining. I stopped as they instructed, and set them down. In the distance I heard horses galloping in our direction. He wasn't kidding about the whole squad.

I saw a few soldiers emerge from over the hill. There was actually quite a lot of them. I'm actually surprised they survived this long.

They looked frightened. Oh wait, Titan. Right. I guess in this world it's "guilty until proven innocent". I held my hands up in surrender and stepped away from them, which they thankfully got the message. Probably.

A couple of them dismounted and ran over to their comrades, checking for injuries and helping them up.

"What happened out there, rookies?" One of them said. I looked around me, and saw I was surrounded by soldiers. I may have been closer to the center than I originally planned to be…

"A Titan sprung out from behind a building and grabbed me. Something destroyed its arm then killed it, the next thing I know, me and Julian are in the palm of this Titan behind us."

The soldier wrinkled his nose and looked at me. "How is that possible? A friendly Titan? It's nonsense." I hate to admit it, but I really wanted to eat this guy. I wanted to show them all that I was a friend. I stood at attention, clenched a fist, and pounded it against my heart in a salute. My two new friends down below returned the salute, and everyone just looked at us in dead silence.

If all goes well, this is gonna be fun.