Grisha was riding back toward Wall Rose. Yeager's face was grim, his teeth clenched tight. The Colossal Titan had caused such a commotion that even from far away, he had sensed it immediately.
"Eren, Carla, Mikasa, Chen Si, please be all right..." Grisha kept murmuring, whipping his horse harder and harder as tears streamed down his face.
That night, at the refugee camp, Chen Si's right eyelid kept twitching violently. It went on for a long time without stopping.
Huh? Is there something even the Ackerman bloodline can't control? Chen Si pondered.
"Mikasa, does your eyelid ever suddenly start twitching like crazy?" Chen Si decided to ask Mikasa, who possessed a genuine Ackerman bloodline.
"Yes. It happened a little before the wall fell," Mikasa said after thinking for a moment.
Could the Ackerman bloodline also predict danger? The original never mentioned that. After all, twitching eyelids are superstition-or probability. Mine didn't twitch before the wall fell. Was that because I already knew?
Or did my body think the wall falling posed no threat to me? Maybe it isn't danger, but something unexpected. What could happen? Chen Si rested his chin on his hand and kept thinking.
"Big brother." Mikasa looked at Chen Si worriedly.
"It's nothing, Mikasa. Go to sleep," Chen Si reassured her.
Mikasa nodded obediently. The tension of the day must have exhausted her, because she soon curled up beside Chen Si and fell asleep, her back pressed tightly against him.
Chen Si was getting a little drowsy too, so he decided to sleep and recover his strength. He yawned and closed his eyes.
Just then, soft footsteps approached. Grisha arrived with a fierce-looking bald man standing behind him. Chen Si narrowed his eyes slightly. After seeing that Eren and Carla were both safe, Grisha breathed a sigh of relief.
Keith Shadis, the future bald instructor, also relaxed when he saw Carla unharmed.
Grisha went over to Eren and called to him softly. Eren opened his eyes groggily.
"Dad."
"Eren, come with me." Grisha took Eren's hand and led him out of the camp. Shadis followed them.
Carla, who had been sleeping soundly beside Eren, gradually opened her eyes when she felt the warmth beside her disappear. Seeing Shadis's retreating figure, she quickly got up and limped after them.
Chen Si had considered following them or stopping Carla, but on reflection, neither would accomplish anything. Grisha was bound to die, and with Carla's personality, she would not stop following just because Chen Si tried to hold her back.
As for whether Carla would discover the truth, Chen Si thought she would have to learn it sooner or later. Better to accept it now.
"What exactly are you doing?!" Shadis ran up beside Grisha and demanded.
"This is a family matter. Please don't follow us any farther." Grisha gave Shadis an extremely stern look.
Shadis wanted to say something, but stopped without speaking. He watched Grisha walk into the forest step by step, then slipped in from another direction. He saw Grisha talking to Eren.
Maybe he has something to tell him, man to man, Shadis thought. Just as he turned and took a few steps to leave, an explosion rang out and a bolt of yellow lightning shot into the sky. Shadis's eyes widened, and he immediately rushed in.
Once inside, Shadis found Eren lying on the ground, steam rising from his body. He picked Eren up, already harboring a vague suspicion about where Grisha had gone.
After Shadis emerged from the forest.
"What happened?! Is Grisha in there?!"
Carla, who had followed them all the way, endured the stabbing pain of the shattered bones in her right foot and rushed forward anyway, grabbing Shadis's arm as she shouted.
Ignoring her injury entirely, Carla stared at Shadis with anxious, pleading eyes.
After a moment of stunned silence, Shadis replied:
"Doctor Yeager said he had an important patient, so he hurried off to see them..." Shadis decided to conceal the truth from Carla.
Carla took Eren from him and cried at Shadis through her tears:
"We've known each other for so many years. You won't even tell me the truth?" Clearly, Carla's instincts told her that Grisha might have been in danger.
Shadis opened his mouth, then turned his head away, unable to meet Carla's eyes.
Carla turned and limped away. Seeing this, Shadis hurried forward to support her.
"Don't touch me!" Carla flung Shadis's hand away. Gritting her teeth against the agony of her shattered bones, she carried Eren forward one small step at a time.
Seeing Carla's anger and knowing how stubborn she was, Shadis did not dare say anything else. He stayed beside her, carefully supporting Eren to help take some of the weight.
After Carla carried Eren back to camp, Chen Si saw the tear tracks at the corners of her eyes and sighed inwardly. Fate was the destination of every cycle, and love made people fearless.
When Eren woke the next morning, he held his head and said:
"I think I saw Dad." Carla sat beside him in silence.
"You must have been dreaming."
Mikasa had been awake for a long time, while Chen Si was still lying there, sleeping in. He was already awake, but he suffered from that awful affliction common to modern high school students: waking up and simply refusing to get out of bed.
"Big brother, get up." Mikasa tried to wake Chen Si.
"Oh." Chen Si kicked his legs a little, rolled over, and went back to sleep.
Mikasa looked helpless.
"They're handing out food now." I'll just bring some back for him, Mikasa thought.
Eren glanced at the key hanging against his chest and stared blankly for a moment, then got up to join Mikasa in line for food.
Eren surveyed the chaos around them. Some people were fighting over food, some were crying over lost loved ones, and others were missing arms or legs. He fell silent.
"It looks like we can't say we've survived just yet." Mikasa saw the situation clearly.
"Eren! Mikasa!" Armin ran over from a distance, panting.
"Grandpa picked up our portions for us kids." He handed them to Eren and Mikasa as he spoke.
"Thank you," Mikasa said, accepting hers.
A nearby Garrison soldier gave a contemptuous sneer and turned away.
"What was that guy's problem?" Eren asked irritably.
"There's nothing we can do. There isn't even enough food for everyone to get one portion, and this is supposed to last a whole day. There are so many refugees, and food was already scarce. Those of us from the outermost areas face the most discrimination, too," Armin explained.
"Why should we share our food with outsiders? The Titans have already crossed the wall. We might as well let them eat more people and cut down the number of refugees. That would save food, too." The same contemptuous blond man with the center part spoke again, practically begging for a beating.
Eren and the others turned grim at his words. Eren clenched his teeth, charged forward, and kicked the center-parted man.
"Ouch! That hurt!"
The center-parted man cried out in pain and stepped forward to punch Eren. The soldier beside him kicked Eren as well, knocking him to the ground.
"You don't know anything! You've never seen how Titans eat people!" Eren shouted defiantly.
Carla, who had just returned with water, quickly put down her bucket and rushed in front of Eren.
"I'm sorry. He's so hungry he isn't thinking straight. Officers, please don't hold it against a child. Ah!" Carla pleaded, aggravating the injury to her shattered ankle.
"Mom!" Eren cried out in alarm.
Murmurs spread among the nearby refugees. Some of the more spirited men with families could no longer bear to watch.
"Wow. Didn't see you swinging a blade at any Titans on the front line, but you're sure quick with your fists and feet when it's a kid. What good are you? The two of you together wouldn't even plug a Titan's asshole."
Chen Si strolled over at that moment, stretching as he spoke.
"Say that again, you little country brat!" The center-parted man left Eren behind and stormed up to Chen Si, roaring viciously.
"How many years have you been pickling that mouth? The stink's really soaked in. It's killing me!" Chen Si covered his nose and waved a hand in disgust.
Hearing this, the center-parted man gritted his teeth and swung a fist at Chen Si's face.
With both hands behind his head, Chen Si stepped back and easily dodged. The center-parted man kept throwing punches, and Chen Si kept twisting at the waist to evade them effortlessly.
As he dodged, Chen Si continued with a puzzled look, "Why are you so angry? Are you impotent? Does your girlfriend think you can't get it up?"