Creation began on 06-23-21
Creation ended on 02-07-22
Attack on Titan
Attack on Titan: The Chosen Few
A/N: Who will stand for the many and who will fall in battle?
Paradis Island was a place not many considered a friendly place to visit or even live on, but those were just the opinions of those that never spent so much as one day there. In truth, the island and its people were quite a peaceful bunch, probably among the most peaceful you'd ever find in the world. Excluding its military formation, the professions there ranged from teachers, farmers, fishermen, homemakers, musicians, firefighters, doctors and whatever else one could do to make a living. But military-wise, there were three branches: The Survey Corps, an elite group tasked with surveying the skies around the island, the Garrison, a ground-based army tasked with protecting the general populace, and the Military Police, a small group that protected the wealthy like they were private bodyguards.
Eren Yeager, a young man with ambitions to join the Survey Corps because he wanted to fly, had completed his application to join that branch of the military and then proceeded to head down to the ferry docks.
"So, you're really heading to Marley?" His best friend, Armin Arlert, asked him as he walked down the street towards the docks.
"Yeah," he answered him; he had to go to Liberio to identify the body of his father and make sure it was returned back to Paradis for a burial before his ex-wife decided to have it cremated, as she blamed his father for the murder of their son. "My mother can't go due to the animosity between herself and Dina; the last time those two met, Dina tried to have her thrown in jail just for existing. It turns out that not every woman can stand that their ex-husband has a better relationship with their second wife than with themselves. It's…conflicting."
"Well, be careful while you're over there. I've been hearing things in that country that have me concerned about the efficiency of the police force. There have been several cases of unsolved murders going back eight years, all involving several fighters."
Eren sighs and ponders how to best avoid such a thing from happening to himself; he had a tendency to get involved in petty conflicts with anyone due to conflicting beliefs and opinions. Once they found the boat that was heading to Marley, he parted ways with Armin and promised to try and get back within a week; he had no intention on staying longer than necessary to identify his father's remains and bringing them back to Paradis for a proper burial.
Unsolved murders? He thought about what Armin had told him. All of them fighters? Who would kill a bunch of fighters?
If he was fortunate, he would avoid this fate due to an incident eight months ago; he had gotten into a dispute with a boy's father over his son's ambition to join the Military Police and ended up with his left leg broken in three places, requiring him to recover and learn how to walk again once the bones mended, which reduced his own fighting abilities after the doctors informed him that his chances of ever regaining full mobility in his leg were slim to none. His mother had to tell him, time and again, not to engage in unnecessary fights with other people simply because he had a problem with their beliefs being different from his own, that this was a free world and people were within their rights to disagree with others, for better or for worse. It was harder for Eren to deal with when his mother told him that getting involved in unnecessary feuds would get him hurt or worse if he refused to show restraint.
"Don't fight unless it's for something greater than yourself," she had told him, angry that he had instigated the fight that ended up putting him in the hospital to begin with.
Unfortunately, Eren was among those that couldn't see the difference between fighting for personal beliefs…and realistic ones. To people like him, they were often one and the same.
-x-
Music in the background was set to blare, but this woman's anger was set to outdo it in ways that were upsetting as she and a small group of men in tactical uniform walked down a hallways that was occupied by cables and metal framework.
"This information legit?" She asked, holding an arrow beside her recurve bow.
"It's solid, Blouse!" A man with a nervous look on his face responded as he followed behind her. "These guys like to party in this place."
"Well, they better be, 'cause I want Kano!"
"You can trust Hoover, Blouse," a blond- haired man informed the girl as he followed behind them. "He's got reliable C.I.s."
"I only trust one person right now, Braun. You're talking to her."
A year ago, Sasha Blouse was not the type of woman that you would see engaging in disputes of hostility with other people from Marley, but during that time, she received the worst revelation a woman of her experience could've received: Her husband of five years, Niccolo, had been killed by a man going by the name of Kano, simply because of the assumption that he had witnessed another murder that happened the night he went out to shop for groceries for their fifth anniversary. All she had to go on with finding this Kano was a description with one aspect that stood out: The guy had an expose plate of metal on the right side of his face that had a red eye. To Sasha, a guy like that could've stood out a mile away.
"Make sure the exits are all being monitored," she told her men as they came to the end of the hall where a bright light was.
"Yes, ma'am," Braun replied as they passed through the light, entering a large room full of people dancing to the blaring music. "I hate raves!"
Sasha shoved her way through the people.
-x-
"…Eh-heh-heh!" A man chuckled as he received new intel on his cell phone whilst looking down at the people below dancing to the loud music and flashing lights in the background from a private room in the building. "Good work."
He hung up and put the phone in his left pants' pocket, turning his right to face someone sitting away from him with his eyes closed, as if meditating.
"That arrow girl is here right now," the man informed, revealing the right side of his face had a plate of metal with a bright, red eye. "I honestly respect the punctuality in a woman. Wouldn't you agree…Mr. Shang Tsung, sir?"
The man sitting down opened his eyes and looked at him.
"So, are you sure she'll follow me to where you want her to be?"
"You killed her husband, did you not?" The man questioned him. "If need be, she'll follow you to Hell and back again. Nothing makes one dedicated to their drive like revenge obscuring a need for personal justice. Just make sure she's on the boat when it arrives. Sasha Blouse must be at the tournament before it begins."
"Understood, sir."
"Oh, and Kano?" The man, Shang Tsung, stopped the guy before he could slip away under a metal grate that he ripped open and tossed aside. "If you so much as touch her…you will need a seeing-eye dog. I'd hate to see you lose the rest of your face."
The other guy, Kano, looked at him and frowned as he remembered what led to him losing his right eye and much of his face to go with it. He would do whatever it took not to experience that again, unable to ignore the phantom pain he still felt.
"Understood, sir," he replied to Shang Tsung, and leapt into the floor.
-x-
Eren once found it ridiculous that one of his childhood friends from Paradis had left when her parents tried to become film stars. But after seeing another poster on the boat he was on advertising a film about a martial artist looking for the ultimate fighting practice to resolve a war, he found he had no room to complain when he saw that it was his childhood friend on the cover; there weren't many ladies that went by the name Mikasa Ackerman.
So, she became a movie star like her parents, he thought, wondering if he should see her film. I haven't seen her in almost five years. Does she even remember me?
As always when traveling by boat, the food service was terrible and the fact that they were moving over the water didn't help with those that were susceptible to getting seasick after a while. This…and because Eren didn't enjoy the fact that Paradis had yet to establish its own airport yet, making sea travel the only available means of transport for the people.
-x-
Mikasa Ackerman, a young woman that came from stressful beginnings, had a difficult childhood, and had to watch as her parents try to rise up in difficult times, was not enjoying the fact that she was facing five men in tracksuits that looked at her the wrong way.
"Before we get started, gentlemen," she spoke to them, "does anyone want to get out?"
Each man had either a heavy chain, a knife, a club, a taser or brass knuckles, and they ganged up on her!
Mikasa ducked under the guy that had the club and threw him atop the man with the chain. Then, she dodged a blow from the guy that had the brass knuckles and smacked him hard across the face, sending him falling. She saw the taser-wielding man charge at her, and she grabbed his hand and directed it towards the back of the guy with the knife and had him tased.
"Aaah!" He groaned as he fell to the ground.
Then, Mikasa disarmed the man of his taser and punched him four times in his face, followed by a kick to the abdomen. But he was still standing, like this was nothing but child's play. This caused Mikasa to sigh in disappointment.
"This is where you fall down in defeat," she had to remind him.
"Damn!" He grunted as he threw himself backwards onto the ground.
"Cut!" A guy with a megaphone yelled, and Mikasa groaned as she walked off the set. "Excluding that slip, you were incredible as always, Mikasa."
"And yet people say I don't know what I'm doing?" Mikasa asked; as of late, she'd been getting negative reviews that many of her scenes in the three films she had been in were all stunts made by other performers, but the people failed to see that she did each of those moves herself, that she was not being played down, that she was as good as her parents were when it came to martial arts. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my trailer."
"Uh, wait, Mikasa," went one of the special effects personnel as she came by to converse with her. "There's someone here to see you. He says he knows your father."
"A lot of people know my father. Did you ask who he is?"
"No, ma'am."
"Pray it's not a reporter. My mother punched the last paparazzi in his face, and the lawyer's still trying to sue for his own arrogance in getting punched in the first place."
Mikasa went over to where her father was and met the man that was here to see her. He was a tall man with a stern face, looking down at a newspaper that had her picture on it detailing some bogus fiction on how her moves were fake.
"Hello again, Mikasa," he greeted her kindly, though his stern voice didn't hide his disappointment in what he read in the tabloids.
"Sifu Calvi," greeted, bowing her head to him.
"I see the press have been giving you a harder time than they do your parents."
"Not a single person thinks I can do what I do without having someone that looks like me doing them, and they don't exist."
"Mikasa, you're among the most amazing fighters in the world of martial arts currently alive in this day and age, and you may actually be able to prove it to the people of the cinematic world."
"Really? How, exactly?"
"With a tournament. The tournament, in fact (he hands her a scroll inside a wooden box). It's held only once every generation, and all the best fighters are invited to show their skills. You win the tournament, you win their respect, and they'll tell the world that you're for real."
"Okay," Mikasa accepted this proposition, noticing a symbol of a serpent at the bottom of the scroll. "How do I get to…"
"There'll be a boat to take you," he informed her. "It leaves the pier at Liberio the night after tomorrow. Be there."
Mikasa nodded in understanding that she needed to be at Liberio once she packed her bags and left Acier. The sooner she left, the better. If she could win this tournament, the people would see her for who she really was. Not a fake, but a true martial artist.
-x-
Sasha was beyond pissed when she found the guy that worked for Kano had taken an arrow to his chest, surviving only because he had on a vest that stopped bullets.
"Where's Kano?!" She demanded, wanting information.
"He said to tell you that he'll be waiting for you at the pier," he groaned. "That's all I know."
She threw him over to Hoover and Braun and went down a hole in the floor, assuming that it would take her to wherever Kano had fled.
-x-
Liberio had many sights after becoming a melting pot of other parts of the world, including what was seen on Paradis.
"Eren," uttered a young with his hair slicked back to Eren as he showed up at a temple landmark.
"Marcel," Eren responded; the two had only met three times in their lives, but knew each other enough just to be polite, and Marcel was here to show Eren the supposed scene of the murder of his father.
"So, this is where it happened?"
"We're not entirely sure, but this is where we found your father's body."
"What do you suppose happened?"
"After he found out your brother was killed, he probably tried to find out who did it. Then, whoever murdered Zeke and a bunch of other fighters…came for him. One report even said they all had one thing in common: They had a mark on their bodies, some kind of…serpent."
"A serpent? Like this one?"
Eren showed the mark he had on his arm to him, and Marcel gasped.
"Yeah, they all had that mark…before they were found dead the next day," he revealed.
"Before?" Eren questioned.
"They didn't have the marking anywhere on them when they turned up dead; one guy had it on his chest the last time he was seen alive, but when he turned up dead, the marking was gone. If you have that marking and you're a fighter, that means you could be next."
"Then, I hope this killer does come after me."
"Man, I know you're crazy, but even I wouldn't hope for that to happen. Whoever killed these guys isn't someone you can just fight without knowing how they fight. The craziest thing is the police aren't sure how this assailant even kills or stalks their victims. There's no sufficient evidence, no reliable leads, and they're not even sure if the killer's even human."
"Well, what do you think killed them, an alien?"
"That'd be ridiculous."
"Everything is ridiculous when you look at them from only the perspective you're used to looking at them from," they both heard a man say, and looked towards one of the pagodas where a man wearing a gray robe and straw hat. "Anything unfamiliar to the eye that does not accept all over the one…is unfamiliar with any one over the all."
It was the way this man was speaking and the tone of his voice; it was as though he knew more than he let on…or was just very observant.
"To go after a killer targeting fighters because two of them were related to you, as if you're tracking them due to a need for revenge," the man continued, looking at them, revealing that he had white hair and blue eyes. "Revenge clouds one's judgement and leaves them unable to see clearly and they lose sight of all else."
"You know this guy?" Eren asked Marcel.
"No," Marcel responded, "but he likely hangs around here. Probably a monk or priest."
"He looks like a beggar."
"We don't use that word around here, Eren. It's offensive. You wouldn't like it if someone called you stubborn or suicidal."
The mysterious man that tossed something at Eren, who caught it, revealing that it was a scroll. Before Eren could say anything else, the man had vanished.
"Do people here also disappear like this?" He asked Marcel.
"You're talking to a guy that minds his own business and wants to be a cop," Marcel replied, looking at the scroll. "Hey, this is a map of Liberio's coastline…and date. It's set for tomorrow night. A boat will be arriving and then leaving within an hour."
"And a message: 'Come and see'. What does that mean?"
"I think it means…you have a boat to catch."
To be continued…
A/N: This chapter was overdue, so I decided to get to work on it. What do you think so far? I'm pretty much combining elements from the original film and the new version, but it gets most of its plot from the original with some twists. The challenge for this chapter was to decide which of the characters would be the ones that would carry the story. So far, it's Eren, Mikasa and Sasha, and for different reasons.