Creation began on 06-01-23
Creation ended on 06-27-23
Attack on Titan
Transgressional Reckoning
Frieda wanted to tell Historia what she had discovered, what she wanted to do, but after what happened today, whatever it was that relieved her of the Founding Titan while she was still alive, she wasn't sure how she could explain anything right now. Also, it was strange to see her half-sister with a new friend, as there were few kids her age that lived around these farms…and not many of them had any measure of a relationship with Historia due to her isolation out here. She felt compelled to change this situation, to take her home with her. Even if she couldn't convince her parents that Historia should live with them, she felt she needed to save her from her loneliness out here.
I'll tell Father first, she decided upon as she returned to her family's estate. Something beyond the power of the Titans has happened and I can't see anything. I doubt that anyone who possessed the Attack Titan last could see anything, either. But if there are no more Titan powers, then that would also mean that the thirteen-year lifespan has also been negated, leaving the people that used to possess the Nine Titans free to live without a reduction in their lives. Even if those were on their deathbed and had only a few days left to live were spared and restored of their health. It's truly a miracle.
-x-
"…I don't think your big sister likes me," Ymir tells Historia as she lays on the floor in her room.
"It's not that," Historia responds. "She just has a lot on her mind. Some really amazing things happened today that most don't know about or how to adjust to yet. But give her a few days, and she'll see that you're a good person to know."
"Thank you."
As Historia lays on her bed, she ponders what she would do next to change things. At first, she wanted to deal with her mother, but then realized that she could deal with her whenever she wanted. What she really needed to do was deal with the way people were treating the people on this island and around the world. But it was always best to start with the place that was home to those that lived on Paradis.
Without the power of the Titans and the undesired penance that enabled us to be turned into Titans against our will, we're just regular people now, she thinks as she lays her head on her pillow. But as soon as people start to realize that the Titans are no longer roaming the land outside the limits of Wall Maria, they'll try to leave the island before any attempt to talk to people from beyond the ocean can be established…and they'll likely harass the people I turned back into people that have residence in the villages I made for them to live in until further notice. There needs to be…a safety net of sorts, a measure that will protect the people on both sides until I can settle the imbalance here. Maybe…a school of large sharks that will drive away those that try to get close? No, that would defeat the purpose of opening the island to the world. Maybe a kraken, then? Kraken are massive and can live in the ocean depths for long periods of time and never get hurt because people are generally unaware that they're in the water. And because of the ocean is not see-through, people can't see where they are or attack them. And they have many, many tentacles. Nine of them should do. Way out there, each as big as the Colossal Titan and covered in hardened scales like the Armored Titan, but tasked with driving trespassers away by knocking their boats around.
She could imagine these krakens as massive, dark blue creatures of the deep with long tentacles covered in these curved, triangular scales that collapse into each other. Just one of these creatures would be enough to incite great fear in people that couldn't hurt them, but the mere belief that nine of them would cause people from places like Marley to refrain from trespassing on Paradis and leave the island alone for a while longer. The idea would be that something recent disturbed them from their deep slumber and they became territorial, wanting to protect their food source which existed only on the ocean floor surrounding the island, viewing ships that didn't come from Paradis as a threat. It was Historia's hope that they would "convince" outsiders from trying to go to Paradis until she could deal with the unresolved issues that plagued the people that lived on it.
Nothing disastrous, thought Historia as she drifted deeper into slumber. Just to scare people away from the island for a while.
-x-
Deep in the ocean, twenty-seven large, glowing eyes appeared, belonging to nine beasts that emerged from the cold depths, extending their long and strong tentacles. Moving swiftly through the water, they traveled around the coastal terrain of an island that they claimed as their domain. Any that dared to trespass upon their feeding grounds would know the fury of these creatures and what it meant to enrage those that fought to the death for their food.
-x-
The military leaders of Marley were not happy with what they had learned from the recent developments going on in their country. It wasn't just the loss of their captured Titan powers, but the discovery that none of the Eldians they kept segregated from their own people could be turned into Titans because the serums they possessed no longer worked on them. Not only this, but the noble family that had enabled them to retake their land from the royal family of Eldia had also lost their Titan they kept for over a century since their defection. It was as though an act of God had made and it was affecting everyone.
"And nobody knows how this happened?" Calvi, the current general of Marley's Liberio branch, questions the generals of the other branches.
"Nobody," a second general from a neighboring city responds. "No matter how many times we injected the Subjects of Ymir or how much we inject them with, there's no longer a reaction, and all previous Titans have returned to human form."
"We've had their blood analyzed and as far as we can tell, whatever was there that caused them to stand out amongst the other races is no longer traceable. These Subjects of Ymir are just…regular people. Not even they can explain it." A third general from further away utters.
"This all started during the demonstration of the Titan powers wielded by the Warrior Unit, right? Could they have had anything to do with this phenomenon?" A fourth general suggests.
"No," went Theo Magrath, the current leader of the Marley's Eldian branch of the military. "Each of them was confused about why their Titans no longer worked for them. We've tested their spinal fluids and there's nothing to indicate they possess the Titans, anymore. We've cut them enough times to discover that there's no regeneration beyond the regular that other people possess. We know that Titan spinal fluid evaporates when exposed to the air. This is not the case, however. There was no evaporation. The Titan powers are just…gone."
Everyone in the room looked at him like he had more to say…and then Calvi spoke again.
"And there's no indication that they're lying?" He asks Magath.
"These kids have nothing to gain by lying."
-x-
With the way things were going around the farm, being quiet and away from the rest of society, Historia wasn't going to be missed by her grandparents while she and Ymir did a little wondering around. And if something unusual happened, all Ymir would understand is that Historia made a wish upon an unusual star and received powers as a result, hiding the fact that her powers were bestowed upon her by forces bordering of divinity. They were wandering around Shiganshina District, just taking in the sights when they saw a scene going on.
"…Hey, back off, kid!" They heard a man's voice yell to someone.
Historia came over and saw three adults and four children on opposite sides of the walkway, and one of the children, a boy with a frown, holding a stick against a man dressed in military uniform. She recognized the uniform as the Garrison, the branch tasked with protecting the people within the districts and went over to resolve the issue.
"What seems to be the problem, gentlemen?" She asks them, getting their attention; she might've been just a kid herself, but there was no denying that she was…by all intents and purposes, an exceptional beauty among the people.
"Uh…uh…" One of the Garrison soldiers went, a little stunned by her presence. How can a little girl be this adorable to look at?! She's more beautiful than my grandmother was!
"This young man here," said the other soldier who pointed to the frowning boy, "tried to pick a fight with us because of a rumor that the Survey Corps is getting disbanded."
Historia looked at the frowning boy and another boy with blond hair that was pretty enough to be mistaken for a girl because of his face.
"Is there any truth to this rumor?" She asks.
"Maybe, but we were just talking amongst ourselves about it," the third Garrison soldier expresses. "The boy came and assaulted us just for talking about it. It's not even his business."
"If it's nothing more than just a rumor, there's not justification to pick a fight with these men," Historia told the boy. "You need to apologize to them."
The other children gasped when she said that.
"What?!" The boy shouted. "You want me to apologize to these jerks?!"
"That's right."
"No!"
"You really should do it."
"I'm not apologizing to these losers that would keep us caged up!"
"Nobody's locked up. Apologize to them."
"I'll tell you what," the boy retorts, "they'll get an apology…the day a chicken comes out of my butt! That's when I'll apologize to them! How's that?!"
"The day a chicken comes out of your butt?"
"That's right!"
"Okay."
"R…really?"
"Yeah…because that's today."
The boy then straightened up, his face expressing some discomfort from something.
"Aaurgh!" He groaned.
"Um, are you alright, Eren?" The pretty boy asks him.
"Un-uh," he uttered, feeling funny. "Aaaurgh!"
Suddenly, a bulge formed in the back of his pants…and a beak poked out of, expanding the hole until a brownish chicken flapped out and ran across the street, surprising a bunch of people that witnessed the small phenomenon.
"Oh, my God!" A woman gasped.
"Did that chicken just come out your butt, boy?" One of the Garrison soldiers questioned.
"I'm…sorry," Eren utters…and then drops down onto his face and chest.
The chicken returned and sat on his head.
"Bakaw!" It went.
"Wow," Historia goes as she looks down at Eren, poking his head. "Are you feeling better now that you apologized?"
Not even Ymir was sure of what she just witnessed, but she was thinking the same as what most of the people were that saw this: The boy that had a problem with authority deserved it.
-x-
"How does something like this happen?" Calvi questions as he looks at the former holders of the Titan powers Marley had possessed for over a century. "How does six of our seven Titans that have been loyal to Marley ever since the end of the Great Titan War…end up disappearing shortly after the demonstration of their abilities by you kids?"
One of them, the former Beast Titan, raises his left hand up.
"Yes, Yeager?" He asks.
"Could the answer lie on Paradis Island?" He asks back. "There have been nine Titan powers that the world knows, but Marley only possessed seven of them. We know that Paradis has at least Titan that we know of. Could it be the reason the other seven are no longer around?"
"It is a possibility…until we know for certain."
Then, the former holder of the Armored Titan raised his hand up.
"Yes, Braun?"
"What should happen if we encounter Titans still on Paradis?" He wanted to know.
"As of now, this isn't a matter for the Warrior Unit. Even with weapons training, the number of Titans present on that island could be anywhere from one-hundred-seventy-two-hundred-ninety, depending on how many of those people survived as Titans. For the time being, a reconnaissance crew will be deployed to Paradis. Once they have something to say about the current status of the island, we'll know how to proceed with modifying our goal to invade it for its resources, including the Founding Titan."
But there was still a problem with that way of thinking. Even if the reconnaissance crew sent to Paradis was able to find out anything, the question of whether or not Marley could deal with the island was anyone's guess. And there was no guarantee that all of the Titans were gone, including the Nine Titans. If they were gone, then there was nothing Marley could do against their other foes without the ones they initially had to fight against with.
-x-
Eren Yeager's Chicken. That was the official designation for the chicken that the boy had unexpectedly expelled from his body when he had to apologize to the soldiers from the Garrison, making him known for something that was ridiculous and impossible to believe or disbelieve due to the fact that over a dozen or so people from Shiganshina had seen it happen. This surprised his parents so much that they didn't think to ask about who the girl was that wanted their son to apologize for his misbehavior.
"A chicken out of the butt," went Ymir as she and Historia sat atop the wall overlooking the district. "As funny as that was, that's going to haunt me for a while."
"He is the one that said he wouldn't apologize until a chicken came out of his butt," Historia responds. "He's probably regretting what he said."
"You think he'll have any trouble going to the bathroom?"
"Goodness, no. I wouldn't hurt anyone like that. He'll be fine…for the most part."
"The most part?"
"I don't expect he'll hear the end of it from people for a while. He did poop out a chicken."
"Eh-heh-heh! He's a chicken boy now."
Ymir then watched as Historia was holding up a crystal ball in her hands.
"Seeing something of interest?" She asks her, but then sees her face sadden. "Historia?"
"I'm seeing this poor girl and her parents," Historia explains, showing the ball's contents. "They're being bothered by these three men. This is going to happen tomorrow."
"You're looking into the future?"
"I'm looking for signs of harm befalling people that don't deserve it…and these three don't deserve it. What would you have me do…if I could do something about it?"
Ymir thought about it and expresses, "Put them inside the Walls for a few days and let them wander around with torches until they find the way out with no clue which one they're inside, but away from the people and villages. I have wondered if grown men can handle being in the dark without any clue if there are monsters hiding around them, waiting to attack at any moment. The feeling of fear, knowing that the next breath you take may be your last."
"That sounds scary…but I'll give it a try. One man inside each of the Walls, lost in the darkness for a while."
She imagined the inside of the Walls now that the Titans inside them were no longer around as a long, narrow path in a cold, dark place. The men that threatened to harm this young girl's parents, each armed with only a torch for light, forced to wander until they found the way out. With a smile, she made this a reality for the men, taking them away from whatever it was they were doing previously and placing them inside the Walls in order for them to find their way out and away from the people they would harm or exploit. But she made sure to give them only three days' worth of food so that they wouldn't go hungry; she didn't want to be a heartless person.
Across from them, on the other side of the district, Brother Correction, having observed the same thing that would've happened in the future, smiled at Historia's methods to protect the girl and her parents from the men that would've done them great harm…and chuckled at how she made the boy from earlier apologize for intruding on the conversation between soldiers of a branch of the military that were just having a chat about what may not even be true.
"I've imagined and done worse to that boy than what she did to him," he told himself. "A snake out the nose…or even out the hose…and the latter hurts more than the former. But Eren's lucky in this case; crapping out a chicken is a lot like expelling big pieces of dung. It hurts, but you recover from it after a while. I can't believe they kept the chicken, though. At least they'll have their own supply of eggs for a while."
-x-
"…So…nothing?" Rod Reiss asks his daughter Frieda, regarding the Founding Titan's loss, seeing her prick her left index finger again.
"There's nothing," she responds, letting a drop of blood drop to the table in front of her. "The Founding Titan is gone, and so is the ideology of our ancestor and all the power that came with the Titan."
"How can this be?" He questions. "It's an act of God here. Are you sure you didn't do anything?"
"Father, even if I wanted to, because of the ideology of Karl Fritz and the clairvoyant perception of the Founding Titan, I couldn't do anything, even to change the outcome. What I saw was originally unavoidable. But now that I no longer possess the Founder, what I saw no longer applies to anyone."
"What do you mean?"
"The Founder possessed the knowledge of the future and its many outcomes, but without the Founder, the future is unwritten. It's no longer set in stone and predetermined. All we know…is what we know now…and I know what I want to do."
"And what is that?"
"Historia. She may not be recognized as a member of the nobility because of what you did, Father, but she's still my sister. The fate I saw her dealt with, the fate that befell us all because of that Titan and our ancestors' curse, they no longer apply to us. I want to bring Historia here to live with us. I don't care if she's illegitimate. She's still family. She didn't choose any of this, but we're responsible for her. We're responsible."
To be continued…
A/N: I'll be honest, I wanted Eren to suffer a little more in this chapter, but after the chicken bit and the fact that he still has the chicken, he's gonna be suffering for a while until he does something else or something else happens to someone else. Historia creating kraken to safeguard Paradis felt appropriate, but her intentions are just to keep the island off-limits to people that bring danger to the people living on the island, not to harm anyone, so their objective will be just to attack ships enough to drive them away. And as for Marley, they are, more or less, in a hole that is only going to get deeper for them. Look forward to your reviews.