God of Hate
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"So, you claim you have no prior knowledge of this creature or the existence of Titan-Shifters?"
Krista sighed, more from sheer exhaustion than actual annoyance. Or so she told herself as she sat at a table in a small, dark room with only an oil lamp for light. "I'm sorry, but I'm still...trying to process that one," she said slowly as she rubbed her forehead and looked across the table at the Scout Commander, Erwin Smith. "You're saying that there was a soldier that turned into a Titan? How is that even possible?"
"That is what we are attempting to discover," Erwin acknowledged neutrally, not giving away if he believed her ignorance or not.
"But why ask me? And why won't you let me see anyone?" Krista asked in confusion.
"Because the Titan Shifter revealed themselves immediately after you were saved by the Beast," Erwin continued, leaning forward intently. "You would appear to be of great importance to one or both of them. So it is a little hard to believe you know nothing of either."
Krista paused for a moment as she realized something. "I'm being detained."
"Until we're satisfied with our inquiry, yes," Erwin confirmed with a nod.
"But I don't know anything," Krista insisted helplessly. "I mean, the...Beast was trying to save others too, so I'm not that surprised. But a Titan-Shifter? Why would I know anything about that?"
"Because the Shifter wasn't just a soldier, but a cadet of the 104th," Erwin elaborated.
Krista's eyes widened at that. "One of us? One of us was a Titan this whole time?" she said in disbelief.
Erwin said nothing, letting the silence speak for itself.
"Who?" she questioned, the question leaving almost involuntarily.
"Are you sure you don't know the answer to that yourself?" Erwin returned evenly.
Krista's mind raced. Who? Who could it be? She wanted to say none of them, but if it had to be one of them...
She had been eaten. Or that's what it had to look like, right? And when she was falling, there was one person racing forward to try and save her...
"Ymir."
Erwin narrowed his eyes at the answer, no matter how soft it was given. "Yes, it is Ymir. How did you know that?"
"Wait. Just...wait," Krista said slowly as she ran her hands through her hair, her mind spinning as her heart pounded in her small body. "Ymir? Is...is she alive? Is she hurt?"
"She is alive, but being contained elsewhere," Erwin explained stoically.
"What are you...what are you going to do with her?" Krista asked cautiously, eyes turning alarmed before sharpening in fear. "Did she hurt anyone?" she asked, knowing that if she did, Ymir might have no hope at all of being seen as anything but an enemy.
"No human, no. But she attempted to kill the beast after it saved Trost,' Erwin answered pointedly.
The blond girl suddenly stood up, hands slammed on the table. "But she only did that because she thought I was eaten! That had to be it!" Krista insisted.
"So, you're saying that this Ymir would value your life at the expense of humanity?" Erwin inquired.
Krista froze at that. "I...I don't know. I don't know what she was thinking," Krista said, sliding back into her chair. "You...didn't answer my question."
"Even if we ignored her attempt at destroying the first hope for humanity against the Titans in a hundred years, there is a more pressing matter," Erwin admitted sternly. "Ymir's very existence implies that she might not be the only shifter, nor the only one to have infiltrated the walls."
"You think that she...helped the Colossal and Armor Titans? That she's working with the ones that broke through Wall Maria?" Krista asked slowly. She knew Ymir could be callous and not gave a damn about most other people, but she couldn't...couldn't reconcile the Ymir she knew assisting in something like that.
But that was the question. Did she really know Ymir at all?
"She hasn't given us any reason to believe otherwise," Erwin answered. "In fact, she's refused to cooperate with us at all."
"That idiot," Krista said, taking a deep breath. "If...if she doesn't, then she'll...you'll..."
"The Military Police will likely have her killed so that her remains can be studied," Erwin admitted without hesitation.
Krista stilled, and Erwin watched rather intently as she raised her head. That was a very different look in her eyes and a shift in her very posture. "I have no idea what's going on, Commander," she restated firmly. "But I want to know."
"What are you suggesting?" Erwin inquired.
"Let me see her. Let me see if I can get her to talk," Krista requested firmly. "I know you might not believe me, but I want answers too."
Erwin remained visually unphased by her request, but he did appear to be considering it. "And why should I believe that you yourself are not just an ally of hers, possibly another Shifter as well?"
"I don't know how to prove I'm human," Krista admitted before frowning. "But I have something I can give you. I doubt you've had time to check, but there are no records of me existing before entering the military."
Erwin raised a brow, showing his interest.
"I'm the bastard daughter of a noble. I was set up with a fake name and made to join the army so that I would disappear," Krista explained bluntly. "Ymir...Ymir knew that. She said she overheard it."
"And you think that was why she attempted to get close to you?" Erwin questioned.
"I didn't think so at the time, but now..." Krista said doubtfully. "I thought I knew Ymir better than anyone. I still want to believe that."
"And if you do?" Erwin asked pointedly. "If, by chance, your only importance to her is your bond with her, what do you believe?"
Krista smiled. Erwin couldn't help noticing it seemed more genuine than the other ones he had seen from her. "That Ymir is not an enemy of humanity."
Erwin watched her, as if searching for any doubt in her eyes before nodding slowly. "For now, I'll believe you. You will have your meeting with the Shifter. If you agree to some terms."
"You want to use me to trick Ymir into talking, don't you?" Krista predicted, almost expecting it.
"Is that an issue?" Erwin countered.
"No," Krista said with a sigh. "Because knowing Ymir, she's either being too stupid or stubborn to help herself right now."
End Flashback
"Krista?"
She blinked away her memory, tilting her head as she heard the voice from the other side of the wall. "Yes?" she asked with a scrunched brow.
"Krista...I told you my secret," Ymir reminded softly. "Mind sharing yours?"
Krista smiled; almost grinned really. "Historia. My real name is Historia."
Ymir gave a breath at that. "Historia."
Krista tried not to smile too wide and blush too hard at how her true name sounded on Ymir's tongue. "I'm not using it yet."
"Huh? Why not?" Ymir asked, sounding a bit disappointed.
"I thought I'd wait until after this mess of yours clears up some before doing something like changing my name," Krista said with a snort.
"That's fair," Ymir conceded, her chains jingling as she shrugged. "So...you believe me, right?"
Yes, yes Krista did. "I want to," she said instead. "But-"
"I...I know how it looks," Ymir admitted, swallowing thickly. "Anytime an intelligent Titan shows up, it destroys something that helps humanity against the titans. The walls, the cannons, and I took a bite out of the thing that saved Trost. So...I get it. I look suspicious at best, and this is not my best," she said with a half-hearted chuckle.
"And you won't say anything," Krista continued gently. "Ymir, I understand everything except that. I mean, I get why you didn't come forward before. But you're already caught."
Ymir didn't respond this time, clenching the sheets in her fists.
"...They were still clearing out the bodies in Trost," Krista mused.
Ymir clicked her tongue, "Are you trying to guilt-trip me?"
"What? No?" Krista answered with a frown. "No, I'm just...wondering about the others. So many people died, and our friends are spending their days collecting the corpses."
A small silence came over them as Ymir frowned in thought. "Mikasa turn to tears yet?" she asked, blunt yet without bite.
"I don't know. Armin looked like he was holding up, so I guess she is too," Krista answered with a sad smile. "It's hard to believe, Eren died just before he could see the Titans finally pushed back."
Ymir opened her mouth before closing it with a furrowed brow. "Yeah, hard to believe."
Krista raised an eyebrow at the tone. "Ymir? Can you answer me one thing? Please?"
"I'll try," Ymir promised, and it hurt Krista to hear her say it with such a pained tone.
"Why did you come here if you're not our enemy or ally?" Krista inquired.
Her question was met with emptiness.
"Ymir?" Krista prompted.
"I'm thinking," Ymir answered distantly. "I guess it's just as I said: I wanted to live my life for myself. Out there, I couldn't really do that. I did in these walls, for a while."
"As a thief in the interior?" Krista asked as a jab, one she didn't realize she made.
"Oh, Historia has some bite to her," Ymir teased with a chuckle. "But yeah. I didn't mind being a street urchin. It wasn't that different from-"
Krista frowned as Ymir abruptly stopped her explanation. "From what?"
"Nothing," Ymir said neutrally but forcefully.
Krista rolled her eyes. "You're not very good at lying, Ymir."
"Eh, lying is for pricks and surprises," Ymir countered good-naturedly.
"Well, you know what I think?" Krista asked with a smirk.
"No?" Ymir asked, curious by the tone.
"I don't think you were trying to avenge me or anything sweet like that," Krista said impishly. "I think you were jealous."
"Jealous? What are you on about now?" Ymir asked in confusion.
"That Trips knows what I taste like now."
Dead silence rang in the cells, permeating the very air.
"That scaly motherfucker!"
Meanwhile
Eren's boredom grew and waned as Hange wrote down notes. He understood the importance of studying him, hence why he was standing next to a building, giving something for Hange to use as a reference to estimate his size and, occasionally, moving to give her a better look.
"So, he's about twenty meters tall, twenty-five if you stretch the necks up. Speaking of which, those beauties are eight-and-a-half, while the heads are about two meters tall. The body is a lot less slender than I'd expect, at six meters, but that's probably to compensate for the three heads," Hange murmured to herself, looking up with a grin at her subject. She still couldn't help marveling at him as she stood on the ground, staring up at the golden beast. "I'm coming in for a closer look, okay?!"
Eren nodded with all three heads. Drei yawned, getting a look from Eins and Zwei. The left head looked apologetic until Eins yawned as well, glaring at his opposite head for starting this. Zwei just rolled his eyes while keeping his attention on the human approaching them.
"I need to figure out how that works one day," Hange mused as she approached, studying the legs and tails. "Okay, these twins of yours must be thirteen whole meters from the base. Hmm, two tails but three heads? Maybe he'll grow another tail?" Hange pondered before looking at the legs. "You seem to always stand like this, so I'll just say the legs are in the four-and-a-half range."
Eren pondered that point about his tails and heads. Why three heads? Why two tails? But then again, that might be asking why humans didn't have three or four eyes or only one set of arms. He missed arms though. Not even just human arms, he just missed having front limbs. It felt so weird not to have them, and his side heads ended up picking up his instincts to use his hands sometimes.
"Your claws all vary a bit, but I'd say around three-fifths of a meter is the longest," Hange continued on, glancing to his scales. "Oi, I'd love to take a scale off, but we should probably be careful about that."
Eren appreciated that. He was pretty sure that he'd cripple Hange if he accidentally flung her off his foot.
Hange hummed while looking up, tapping her chin with her pencil. "Like a Titan, no genitals. But it might just be internal, seeing as you appear to be a reptile. I'll have to look into that more."
She couldn't see it, but Eren's three heads had deadpanned. If they had the biological ability to blush, their faces would have turned orange from embarrassment. He was actually glad he didn't have a penis in this form, or a visible one at least. Because then Hange would be sketching it, commenting on the size and girth, and he'd just want to smash all of his heads into the building and ignore everything.
"Huh. I wonder...?"
While Hange continued her observations, Erwin was having a rather unusual meeting with Commander Pixis.
"My, you certainly do pop up a lot lately, Cadet Arlert," Pixis noted with a smile as the group of four met on the walls, soldiers from both corps nearby.
"Sir," Armin greeted, himself and Mikasa saluting the commanders.
"At ease," Erwin said simply. "The Section Commander has already told me of last night, but I would like you to confirm it once more."
Armin nodded stiffly. "The three-headed creature is Eren Yeager of the 104th, believed to be KIA until last night."
"Hm, so our big friend isn't just a soldier, but a young cadet fresh out of training," Pixis noted with interest, looking greatly amused. "I'd share a drink with him, but I fear we'd run out of the good stuff before he was even buzzed."
Erwin didn't acknowledge the joke, while their audience looked on awkwardly. Armin was obviously worried about this meeting's intent, while Mikasa had an impatient air about her. "For now, only a handful of people were made aware of this discovery, besides those from last night. Until we understand more, it would be best to keep such information a secret to only those that need to know."
"Sir, wouldn't people be less wary of him if they know he's human?" Mikasa questioned with a frown.
Pixis hummed to himself. "You'd have a point, if not for the Titan-Shifter," he commented casually.
Erwin nodded in agreement. "Word of the Titan-Shifter has already spread beyond our ability to contain. If the people learned that this creature was originally a human as well, they wouldn't have reason to believe there is any difference between him and a Titan-Shifter."
"Right," Armin said thoughtfully. "We can see the differences between him and a Titan, but anyone just hearing or reading about him would just be imagining another giant monster…one on our side, but still."
"Exactly," Erwin said. "At the moment, we just don't know enough to convince the public of anything. The tales are now more or less of how a giant creature that hunts Titans helped save Trost and defeated a Titan that could masquerade as a human; concerning, but an overall hopeful tone."
Mikasa nodded in understanding. "May I ask why we are here, Commanders?"
Erwin and Pixis shared a look before turning back to the cadets. "We are currently forming an informal group to...keep an eye on this creature," Erwin continued on. "It was mainly to give the illusion that we have some control over the situation. However..."
"To be frank, we don't know how much this has messed with the boy you used to know," Pixis simplified. "And being around familiar faces that know who he is might make the situation a bit better for him."
Armin blinked as he understood the meaning. They were trying to placate Eren. While his friend seemed to be himself, they had no way of knowing if this...transformation hadn't affected his mind. Even if it hadn't, Eren was effectively confined to Trost with no way out and very little to do.
It was almost funny. For right now, keeping Eren content was actually a military priority. Armin knew Eren wouldn't do anything to endanger those around him, not intentionally, but he decided not to voice these assurances and appear too biased. If it gave Mikasa and him an excuse to have access to Eren, he'd let the military worry for now.
"Our primary goal is to understand this situation as best as possible," Erwin continued. "As the ones closest to him, do you believe you can interpret him to some degree?"
"I believe so/Absolutely," Armin and Mikasa both answered, Armin turning a bit sheepish at Mikasa's lack of hesitation.
Both commanders noticed the differing answers but didn't comment on them.
"Due to keeping his identity a secret for now, we must ask that you address him by an alias when around others that are not in the know," Erwin explained.
"...Some of our friends have taken to calling him Trips," Armin explained awkwardly, very sure that Eren wasn't too fond of that nickname. "Will that suffice?"
"That will do," Erwin answered, utterly unphased by the nickname. "Now-"
They were cut off by roaring coming from within Trost. Three roars in sync to be specific.
"Eren?!" Mikasa said in alarm, racing to the edge, to look down for the giant spot of gold, others doing so as well.
The sight quickly became less alarming and more confusing. It was a bit hard to make out from the distance, but Eren clearly wasn't being attacked. Instead, his heads were roaring and growling down at something, or someone.
"Well, I wonder what's got him all up in a fuss?" Pixis mused idly.
"I believe I know," Erwin answered, turning to the cadets. "Come with me. This is as good a time as any."
"Sir!" They answered, all three of them descending off the wall. Pixis remained, deciding to make sure no one on the cannons got trigger happy.
By the time they had reached the area, Eren was no longer roaring but was still growling. They landed to see that all three of Eren's heads were united in glaring down at a sheepishly grinning Hange, who waved at their arrival.
"Commander Erwin, fancy seeing you here," Hange said in false innocence.
"Hange, why is he growling at you?" Erwin asked pointedly.
"Well, about that- and can you stop that for a second while I explain, please?! I'm sorry, okay?!" Hange called over her shoulder at Eren.
The giant creature complied, still glaring at Hange with...with...
'Wait,' Armin thought in confusion as he tried to read Eren's expression. It was hard, but it wasn't a raging kind of anger. 'Is Eren...embarrassed?'
"Thank you," Hange said before turning back to her leader, who watched her patiently yet expectantly. "Anyway, I have good news! I have confirmed that he is almost definitely NOT a Titan."
Erwin became interested, especially with Eren's reaction. All three heads stopped glaring to look at one another other with questioning looks before turning back to Hange expectantly. "And just how did you come to that conclusion?" Erwin asked intently
"Simple: He has an asshole."
Dead silence rang over them for a moment.
"Excuse me?" Mikasa asked pointedly, Erwin raising an eyebrow as if to prompt Hange further.
"Look, I know how that sounds! But a Titan doesn't have an anus! They just have butt cheeks! They don't digest what they eat, so they don't need one!" Hange reminded, before gesturing to Eren with a confident grin. "But he does! And if he does, that means that he has a digestive system! That his body doesn't function like a Titan's, but something else entirely!"
Armin's eyes went wide as he understood Hange's point. Eren's shape could be overlooked as just a very...VERY odd-looking abnormal titan. But the more fundamental difference between him and the Titans made it easier to prove that Eren was in fact NOT a Titan at all.
Still, that did leave one question...
"And how, exactly, did you discover this, Hange?" Erwin asked.
Hange grew silent, feeling the accusing stares of giant green eyes stabbing into her backside.
Erwin looked up at Eren. "I apologize for her," he said sincerely. "I'll be sure to have her supervised better in the future."
Eren let out three separate sighs; One of annoyance, another of understanding, and the last of gratitude.
"Come on, Erwin, you know this isn't the craziest thing I've done even this week!" Hange defended.
"That is my concern, Hange," Erwin stated bluntly.
Eren's left head nodded with wide eyes, as it was now his concern as well.
"On that note, where is Moblit?" Erwin questioned with a frown.
"Oh, taking care of Sonny and Bean or sleeping. He was up all night helping me again, so I'm not sure anymore," Hange explained with a casual shrug.
"I see," Erwin acknowledged, before turning to the Cadets. "I should assume you both accept helping watch over...Trips?"
If Eren was surprised by the nickname's use, he only looked annoyed.
Both of them nodded their confirmation.
"Very well. Hange, perhaps you should go check on the Titans," Erwin suggested.
"Eh? But I'm still not done with my-" Hange started, only to see that the Commander was glancing in the direction of the cadets. "Oh. Right. That's a good idea."
"Thank you, Sir," Armin said in understanding, the two Scouts leaving the trio to some privacy.
There was an awkward moment when Mikasa and Armin just stared up at their giant, scaly friend.
"Good morning, Eren," Mikasa said suddenly, smiling as if everything was normal.
Armin decided that perhaps that was best. "Morning," he waved back.
Eren's right head gave a nod with a grunting roar, returning the greeting as best he could.
"Did you sleep well?" Mikasa asked, feeling some relief wash over her as the right and the middle head rolled their eyes at her concern.
The left one, however, tilted his head back and forth, perhaps as a shrug or a so-so gesture. For Armin, it was easy enough to understand: It wasn't as bad as you might think.
"That's good? So..." Armin gave half-heartedly, glancing in the direction of the clogged breach. "You actually thought you could fill the hole with ripped-up buildings?"
Eren gave him a flat look.
"Yeah, I guess you didn't have a lot of options," Armin said, glancing to Eren's armless torso.
Eren nodded meaningfully, repeatedly: Yes, it is weird not having arms.
"Should we be worried about getting him something to eat?" Mikasa asked with a frown. "He hasn't eaten anything since before the battle."
Armin blinked at that very good point. Humanity did NOT have enough cattle to feed something this big.
Eren gave out a call to grab their attention, all three heads shaking meaningfully before gesturing to his stomach and shaking again.
"Is he saying he's not hungry?" Mikasa guessed, getting a rapid nod.
Armin frowned, cupping his chin. "But if he has a digestive tract, shouldn't he have to eat something?" Armin murmured.
The blond boy blinked as he felt hot air on his body. Looking up, he saw Eren was now closer to him, and the left head was right in front of him, with a rather...blank look on his face. "Eren?" he asked, just a bit intimidated because, Eren or not, it was a giant head suddenly right in front of him.
"Armin," Mikasa said, nodding to the side and drawing his attention to Eren's tail, which moved about before it started to rattle for a moment.
Armin stared for a moment, and then turned sheepish as he looked back towards Eren, noting the right head was giving him a grin, while the middle just watched on. "Yeah, pissing you off probably wasn't the sanest plan either, but it worked, right?" Armin reminded with a weak chuckle. The other two heads nodded, but the left one gave him a disapproving look still. "Besides, I trusted you," Armin assured with a smile, getting skeptical glances all around. "Well, yeah, even before I knew it was you. You were letting Titans eat you while you pushed the boulder! It was pretty obvious you wanted to help at that point."
All three heads gained amused looks, chortling out roars that must have been laughter. Mikasa smiled, enjoying the peaceful moment they were having.
Which ended as Eren suddenly went silent. They looked up in concern, Eren standing back at his normal height again, but all three heads gained expressions that appeared to be of deep thought and consideration before abruptly turning around.
"Eren?" Mikasa said in surprise. He looked back at them, nodding for them to follow him. She shared a look with Armin before they followed him, taking to the roofs to run along them. Eren wasn't going at a very fast pace, but it still required effort for those of human size to keep up with him. "What's gotten into him?"
"I don't know. Maybe he just wanted to walk?" Armin mused, looking to Eren's heads. No, he was looking too keenly around to just be taking a stroll. "What's he searching for?"
They used their gear to get over a crashed-in gap in the roof, almost on instinct, but Mikasa's brow furrowed as she glanced around. "Armin. This path? Isn't it...?" Mikasa pointed out
"Yeah, you're right. This is the path Eren took to move the boulder," Armin confirmed, eyeing the spot where he had yelled at Eren to get him angry enough to stun the titans.
Eren suddenly stopped. It was impossible not to notice, the sudden silence and stillness bringing them to a halt as well. The three-headed dragon was now peering up and down the road before him. Mikasa and Armin moved to the edge, looking down for whatever might be there.
It quickly became obvious what was different about this area. There were plenty of normal signs of battle: damages to the buildings and roads from Titan attacks, the smears of blood from the fallen, and the occasional discarded piece of their blades. But there were also large smears of a black substance on the ground.
"This is where the Titans were biting him, before we could arrive," Mikasa realized with a tinge of regret. But neither male noticed this, their attention on something else.
"He definitely isn't a titan."
Mikasa looked to Armin in confusion, who was staring down with stunned eyes, his brain working a million miles a minute.
"Titans vanish, even their blood. His didn't," Armin stated. "He wanted to show us this?"
"No," Mikasa said suddenly, watching as Eren leaned down to examine the area. "He's still looking for something."
Armin furrowed his brow as he recalled what he said himself before Eren started acting like this. "Is he looking for his...flesh?"
It was a strange thing to say, even if they knew Eren was fine. Or as fine as he could be in this form.
"The garrison probably already rounded it up," Mikasa mused. "But that would still be proof, right?"
"Yeah. Yeah, definitely. There's no mistaking flesh that large for a hum-" Armin stopped as Eren gave a call, coaxing them to use their ODM gear to descend down to the street, careful to avoid Eren's necks. His heads were all looking at a smear of his own black blood, the middle head glancing to them as they approached.
Mikasa's eyes caught something in the dark blood, something shining. "Is this...?" she said, moving forward to pick it up. It was bigger than her hand, and it was smeared in the blackness. But Mikasa turned it over to reveal a clean spot, shining like gold.
"One of his scales," Armin realized. "The others must have missed it with all the blood. We've...barely ever planned for what to do with a territory reclaimed by Titans, let along with something as big as them that doesn't just...vanish."
Zwei gave a hum-like growl from behind them, causing Armin to look to Mikasa curiously, who shook her head. She couldn't guess what Eren was thinking right now either. Armin found that the middle head was the hardest to read. They were eventually going to have to talk with Eren, try to get whatever answers they could get from him in this form.
"What do you think the Garrison did with these...pieces?" Mikasa asked idly.
Eins made a strange hissing noise. "They probably burned most of it," Armin answered, the same head nodding to indicate that was his idea too.
Meanwhile
"What do you mean you burned them!?"
Hannes flinched under the glare of the rather crazed-looking female Scout. "Look Ma'am, I was just following directions. And the higher-ups already set aside some for studying," he explained, attempting to be diplomatic.
"Do you idiots have any idea how important those pieces of flesh are!? They might be our only way of understanding our beautiful new ally!" Hange declared, looking like she might bite him.
Hannes decided to ignore the 'beautiful' part in that sentence and hoped that was just his tiredness playing tricks on him. "Well, it's a good thing it's all still here, right?" he pointed out.
Hange started to say something before closing her mouth, gaining a curious look. "What do you mean? You didn't start burning yet?"
"Oh no, we started all right," Hannes answered, waving her over to a table, where three rather large slabs of strange meat sat, with yellow scales still on them. "We had those things on a pyre all night, but they didn't burn one bit."
Hange just started at the flesh, her entire demeanor changing.
"Ma'am?" Hannes prompted, causing her to step towards the chunks of flesh intently.
"The remains don't dissolve, the flesh regenerates in a completely different form, and it doesn't burn," Hange mused. "Two of those things are proof it's not of the same kind of creature as the Titans, but this...?" Hange stopped short and started smelling the air. "Do you smell that?"
"Huh?" Hannes said, taking a few whiffs of his own. "I don't smell anything."
"Exactly," Hange stated with wide eyes. "This flesh has been dead for nearly two days now. It should reek."
Hannes frowned. He hadn't thought about it, having had his mouth and nose covered when handling the main stash of this, but she had a point. "What should we do then? Bury it?"
"We might have to in the end. For right now, I have some research to do," Hange said, turning to the soldier. "Don't let anyone touch this. I'll be back soon."
"Ma'am," Hannes called after, causing her to pause. "That thing in there? It's on our side, right?"
"Hmm?" Hange asked, looking over her shoulder at him curiously.
"You just seemed rather...spooked, I guess," Hannes stated warily.
Hange slowly gained a rather disturbing grin on her face. "Oh, it's not that. I'm actually about to burst in excitement, and it's taking every ounce of will to control myself. But don't you worry, that gorgeous lug is definitely with us."
With that, she left.
"Huh. So I didn't imagine her saying that," Hannes said, rubbing the back of his head. "Where the hell are those brats in this mess anyway...?"
End of Chapter
Well, there you go. Gope you all enjoy this. Especially with how Hange confirmed that Eren isn't a titan, lol. But other than that, we got Hannes showing up and the deepending mystery for everyone as Eren proves to more and more "not a titan" by his very nature. Meanwhile, Krista is fishing for whatever info she can get out of Ymir.
That's about it for this chapter. Not a lot happened, but things are being set in place. Anyway, until next time! Hope you all are safe!
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