"Keith, there are plenty of promising recruits this year. The 104th batch looks excellent. Choosing you to lead the Training Corps really was the right decision." An elderly instructor watched the recruits practice their balance alongside Instructor Keith, looking thoroughly satisfied.
"It's the result of their own hard work," Keith said. "Many of them are quite talented, especially those two recruits, Yago and Mikasa. I have a feeling the top graduate of the 104th will be one of them."
"Oh?" the old instructor said in surprise. "If even you think so highly of them, Keith, those two must be exceptional."
Keith said nothing.
"Hm? That recruit..." The old instructor looked in one direction in surprise. Keith followed his gaze and saw Eren dangling upside down from the training apparatus, his head below his feet as he swayed unsteadily.
Quite a few recruits had already gathered around him, and some had begun to laugh. Jean openly mocked him. "Wasn't someone shouting about wiping out all the Titans? How are you going to do that? Perform that move and make them laugh themselves to death? Hahaha!"
Ever since Eren had made that offhand remark and Mikasa had actually cut her hair, Jean had seemed deeply rattled. Whenever he spoke to Eren, his words were barbed.
Eren was frantic too. How could this happen? He couldn't even manage the most basic balance exercise. The words he had repeated countless times now seemed like a joke. The laughter of the recruits around him filled him with both shame and anger, because he had told them about the Colossal Titan back then.
Many of the recruits knew this boy who shouted about wiping out the Titans.
"Perhaps some people simply lack the natural talent, no matter how loudly they boast," Keith said. Then he looked at Eren with a complicated expression. This boy shouldn't have joined the military.
It was growing late, and most of the recruits had left, but Eren was still trying to practice. Mikasa, Yago, and Armin stayed with him.
Mikasa watched in distress as Eren fell again and again, until his head was nearly covered in bumps. "Eren, take a break. You can keep trying tomorrow. It's already late."
Armin chimed in. "Yes, Eren, don't rush yourself. Even I learned how to do it, so you definitely can too."
Yago was puzzled. From what he could sense, Eren's muscles were perfectly normal. He should have been well suited to this kind of balance training, so why did he keep failing over and over?
Still, he reassured Eren that there was no need to rush. But how could Eren not be anxious? He wasn't even in the mood for dinner. Once he returned to the dormitory, he went around asking for advice, questioning every recruit there who had successfully maintained his balance. To their credit, everyone was sincere. Even Jean, despite his dislike of Eren, honestly shared his own experience.
But all their supposed experience boiled down to a single word: talent.
After asking around for so long without learning anything useful, Eren felt numb. He took off his belt and tossed it onto his bed, looking utterly lost.
Suddenly, those blurry images in his mind came back to him.
"Dad! What are you doing?"
"Eren! Remember this key! You must, you must remember it!"
"What are you talking about, Dad?"
"One day, you'll learn the truth! Eren! Trust him! This power isn't a curse!"
"Eren! Eren! Protect your mother!"
The images were blurry and unreal. Eren suspected he had simply been under too much stress lately. His most pressing concern was still figuring out how to complete the balance training.
"Oh, right, Eren," Armin said. "We could ask the guys in the dorm next door. Reiner, Bertholdt, and Mark might be able to teach you a few tricks."
Hope naturally flared in Eren's heart. "Huh? By the way, Armin, have you seen Yago?"
"Yago? Now that you mention it, I didn't see him at dinner either." Armin only just realized it himself.
Connie passed by and cut in. "Yago? I think I saw him heading toward the mountain behind the camp."
"What would Yago be doing back there?"
Meanwhile, behind a huge rock on the mountain behind the Training Corps camp, Yago sat slumped on the ground. In the faint moonlight, his face looked somewhat contorted, the veins in his neck bulging. His ten fingers dug into the ground, carving ten deep furrows.
"A perfect creation, a perfect creation! I wasn't wrong! Haha, I'm the true genius!"
That nightmarish voice kept ringing in his ears, accompanied by excruciating pain. Ever since he had used Titan Power for the "first time" in Shiganshina District, Yago had suffered this torment at night around the same time every year. Was this the price of gaining power?
Somehow, Yago seemed to understand that if he couldn't endure this torment, he might truly become a monster. And then there was the voice in his memories. Perhaps all of this had something to do with it.
In those hazy conversations, "weapon" was the word mentioned most often. Could I be this so-called weapon? Looking at it that way, Yago felt he really might be some kind of weapon-a weapon that controlled Titan Power.
Then was it possible that the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan, which had breached Shiganshina and Wall Maria back then, were also humans who could wield Titan Power like Yago? Or rather, weapons?
Still, all of this was only Yago's speculation, and he couldn't tell anyone about it yet. No one would believe an ordinary recruit. Even if someone did, most people would probably react with fear and disgust rather than curiosity or excitement if they learned that Yago possessed Titan Power. The people inside the Walls had hated Titans for more than a hundred years.
After Wall Maria had been breached, their hatred of Titans must have grown even deeper. Yago decided to wait until he had matured and become strong enough before investigating all of this.
"Whew..." Having finally endured that bout of torment, Yago's back was completely soaked with sweat. Over the past five years, he had gradually grown accustomed to it. The first time it happened, he and Lucia had been gathering firewood and edible mushrooms in the forest.
The Battle to Retake Wall Maria had not yet been organized then. The population was still just as large, and food was desperately scarce. Fortunately, they had been in a forest where few people ventured. That time, Yago had lost control outright and turned into a half-crippled Titan. Only his extraordinary hearing had allowed him to catch Lucia calling from far away and calm down.
That had also been the only time Yago felt he might become a monster. In the days that followed, he had learned to sense when that feeling was coming. Today, for example, he had come alone to the mountain behind the Training Corps camp so no one else would see.
"Well, time to head back. Ah, I haven't even had dinner." Yago rubbed his stomach ruefully and headed back to the dormitory by moonlight.
As he passed a cliff, Yago heard Eren's voice. "I know I can do it!"
Curious, Yago walked over. "Eren? Armin, Reiner, and Bertholdt too? What are you all doing here?"
"Yago?" Armin said. "So you really were on the mountain. We came to keep Eren company."
Reiner and Bertholdt nodded in agreement. At the same time, a bead of cold sweat appeared on Reiner's forehead. For some reason, his keen warrior instincts told him that Yago was dangerous-so dangerous that even that power might not be enough to deal with him.
After a generous helping of motivational talk, Eren was full of determination again. Yago was hungry and didn't say much. He offered Eren a few words of encouragement, then headed back with them.
Back in the dormitory, Yago wearily took off his belt and tossed it onto his bed. He fell asleep the moment he lay down. He was utterly exhausted.
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