Year 845 of the King's Calendar.
Near the inner side of Wall Maria.
Out in the countryside, amid grass and woodland, Eren had found a large tree and dozed off beneath it. Beside him, Chen Si had also fallen asleep, his head resting on Eren's shoulder.
Carrying firewood on her back, Mikasa sighed at the two sleeping boys. Just then, a rabbit hopping in the distance caught her eye. She sprang forward with swift strides and caught it in her hands.
Mikasa looked at the rabbit in her hands. It nuzzled her palm, leaving her briefly startled. Her grip loosened, and the rabbit wriggled free and bounded away.
Watching the rabbit run off, Mikasa's lips curved into a faint smile.
Under the tree, Chen Si abruptly opened his eyes and jerked upright. At the same moment, Eren woke with a start beside him. Both cried out in alarm.
Their sudden outburst sent many of the birds in the trees scattering.
"Mikasa, come back!" Chen Si blurted out instinctively.
"I'm right here, Brother." Mikasa was beside Chen Si, bending down to look at them.
"Uh... oh." Chen Si pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling waves of sharp pain in his head.
"Brother, why are you crying?" Mikasa asked, leaning closer.
"Me?" Chen Si touched the corner of his eye, where a tear had left a trail. He rubbed his fingers together, feeling a slight stickiness.
"Maybe I haven't been sleeping well lately. I keep having strange dreams. Just now, I dreamed about... uh... what was it again?" Chen Si stood up, holding his forehead.
"Mikasa, Chen Si, why are you here?" Eren asked blankly beside them.
"I... forgot." Chen Si scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.
Mikasa turned to Eren and shook her head. "You both seem half asleep. We should head back."
"Oh, right! Firewood! Where's my firewood?" Chen Si hurriedly looked around for it.
"I have it. It's on my back." Mikasa indicated the two bundles on her back. Another lay at her feet.
"Thanks for carrying it, Mikasa. I fell asleep without meaning to." Chen Si picked up the firewood as he spoke.
Mikasa shook her head.
"It felt like an incredibly long dream." Eren held his head.
"What was it about? I can't remember..." Eren tried hard to recall it.
Mikasa tilted her head to look at the corner of Eren's eye, her own eyes widening slightly. "Eren, why are you crying too?"
"Mikasa, has your hair gotten longer?" Eren asked in a daze.
"Huh?" Mikasa looked puzzled.
"A dream?" Chen Si suddenly jolted.
Eren seemed able to see the future in his dreams. Could my dreams do that too? Chen Si immediately shook his head, dismissing the idea. He was neither an Eldian nor the Attack Titan. It was probably just an ordinary nightmare.
"What are you thinking about, Brother?" Mikasa stepped out from behind Chen Si and came to his side.
"I'm thinking we can have something extra for dinner tonight." Chen Si's gaze locked onto a rabbit in the distance, and he immediately lunged forward.
Mikasa was surprised to see that the rabbit still hadn't gone far. Without thinking, she said, "That rabbit..."
A fine current of electricity swept across the rabbit's nape. A moment later, it hung motionless in Chen Si's grip.
Mikasa froze for a moment. What was that just now? She said nothing, but kept studying Chen Si with a strange look in her eyes.
When Chen Si returned carrying the rabbit, Mikasa immediately cupped his face, rubbing, pinching, and kneading it. After examining him closely, she declared solemnly, "Yes, you're definitely my brother."
"Ahem, Mikasa, what's wrong?" Chen Si began trying to think of an explanation. He had squeezed too hard just now and somehow released electricity without meaning to.
"Nothing." Mikasa shook her head. To her, no matter what strange things happened to Chen Si, all that mattered was that he was still her brother.
Seeing that Mikasa had nothing more to say, Chen Si stayed quiet too, planning to explain it to her later.
Chen Si spotted a piece of firewood on the ground that had slipped out of its bindings, and his eyes lit up. He didn't think he had ever tried starting a fire by rubbing sticks together.
"Mikasa, how about we try roasting a rabbit ourselves?" Chen Si asked.
"All right. Do you need help?" Mikasa nodded.
"No, I'll do it myself." Chen Si rolled up his sleeves and got straight to work.
Crack! After only a few twists, the stick snapped.
Embarrassed but unwilling to give up, Chen Si picked up another stick. That one broke too.
By then, Mikasa had put down her firewood and was rolling up her sleeves as well.
"No, Mikasa. I can't make you do everything. Eren! Do you know how to start a fire with sticks? Come help! We've got a rabbit!" Chen Si hurriedly called Eren over.
"Starting a fire with sticks? Chen Si, can't you just zap the wood with your hand to light it?" Eren asked with complete seriousness.
"What?" Chen Si stopped what he was doing and froze.
"Eren, what nonsense are you talking about?" Mikasa looked exasperated.
"Uh, well... damn it, why did I mix up a dream with reality?" Eren scratched his head awkwardly.
"Eren, you dreamed about me?" Chen Si asked at once.
"I think so, but I can't remember..." Eren said.
Chen Si put the matter aside for now. He probably wouldn't get anything out of Eren by questioning him at this point.
"Starting a fire with sticks, right? I know how. Let me!" Eren snatched the wood from Chen Si and began drilling furiously.
A few minutes later, he had broken another five sticks.
"All right, enough. Stop. Keep this up and our whole morning's work will be wasted. Let's go home and let the grown-ups handle it," Chen Si said helplessly.
"Damn it! I can do this! Let's keep going! I know I can... huh? Hey! Don't drag me away!" Just as Eren was about to abuse the remaining firewood, Chen Si and Mikasa took him on either side and dragged him off.
They shouldered their firewood, and the three children and one rabbit headed home toward Shiganshina District.
"You can't tell anyone I cried," Eren whispered to Mikasa beside him.
"I won't, but Uncle should take a good look at you if you're crying for no reason," Mikasa replied.
"That's right, Eren. Crying out of nowhere could mean something's wrong with your eyes. You'd better get them checked properly," Chen Si added with a smile.
"You too, Brother!" Mikasa turned to Chen Si.
"Exactly! You cried too, Chen Si! And you're making fun of me!" Eren protested.
"You call that crying? I just didn't sleep well, and my eyes felt uncomfortable," Chen Si said.
"Then I didn't sleep well either," Eren insisted.
"Oh, please. You snored louder than anyone, and you say you didn't sleep well?" Chen Si said.
"Huh? When did I snore?" Eren didn't believe him at all.
"Don't worry, Eren. I definitely won't tell Uncle Grisha that a nightmare scared you into crying." Chen Si leaned close to Eren's ear with a mischievous grin.
"You're the one who got scared into crying! That wasn't why I cried!" Eren stubbornly argued.
"What's Eren crying about?" Hannes, the drunkard at the gate, suddenly appeared in front of them.
"Did you make Mikasa angry and get a beating from Chen Si?" Hannes bent down and teased him.
"What? Why would I cry? Why would I get a beating? You stink of booze!" Eren said in disgust.
Just then, the sounds of soldiers drinking and laughing nearby reached Eren's ears, grating on his nerves.
"What will you do in an emergency if you're all slacking off like this?" Eren tried to reason with them.
"What sort of emergency?" Hannes looked puzzled.
"Isn't it obvious? When the Titans destroy the wall and get into town!" Eren shouted angrily.
"Hahahaha! The doctor's boy certainly has plenty of energy. If they really destroy the wall, of course we'll fight hard. But something like that doesn't happen even once in a hundred years." A potbellied Garrison soldier strolled over as he spoke.
"But the moment you feel safe is when you're in the most danger! My dad said so!" Eren kept trying to persuade them.
"Eren's right. You never know which will come first, tomorrow or disaster. It might happen ten years from now, or it might happen in the very next second," Chen Si agreed.
"You're as mature as ever, Chen Si. You and Doctor Yeager both have a point. But I don't think those Titans can do anything to a wall fifty meters high," Hannes said unhurriedly.
"You're not prepared to fight at all! You shouldn't call yourselves the Garrison. You might as well call yourselves the Wall Repair Crew!" Eren roared.
"You're right, Eren. But it's when soldiers become useful that things are at their worst. When people call us useless freeloaders with nothing to do, it means everyone is living in peace," Hannes said slowly, glancing at the wall.
That much is true. But an army that neglects its training and a country that fails to respond to crises in time will only face destruction. Fortunately, there's still Erwin's Survey Corps, Chen Si thought.
"But even if you never leave the walls your whole life, and you can survive by doing nothing but eating and sleeping in here every day... wouldn't that make us no different from penned livestock?" Eren lowered his head with a frown, sounding bitterly disappointed.
Hannes's pupils contracted slightly. Eren's words had clearly struck a chord in him.
"Exactly. If a people refuse to move forward, stop searching and exploring, and live penned in a cage like cattle and sheep, sooner or later they'll be slaughtered like cattle and sheep too." Already shaken, Hannes was deeply struck once again by Chen Si's words.
"Right! You think so too, Chen Si! That's my best friend for you. We can't live like cattle and sheep inside these walls forever. We'll get out someday!" Eren told Chen Si excitedly.
"Hahahaha! Kids sure love talking tough when they can't do a thing. Isn't that right, Hannes?" Two drunken soldiers nearby jeered at Eren and Chen Si.
"Ah, yeah." Hannes gave a noncommittal reply.
Chen Si ignored them and walked straight ahead. Mikasa and Eren followed close behind, paying the drunks no further attention.
"Hey! Eren! Chen Si!" Hannes called after them.
"Do you two want to join the Survey Corps? I'm telling you, you'd better not. In any case, I won't agree to it." Mikasa glanced at Chen Si, then at Eren.
"Mikasa, do you look down on the Survey Corps too?" Eren asked indignantly.
"It's not about looking down on them." Mikasa shook her head.
Just then, a bell rang. Eren instantly dashed off like Jerry catching the scent of cheese.
"Chen Si, Mikasa, hurry up! The Survey Corps is coming back!" Eren shouted as he ran.
"Mikasa, do you remember the story I told you about the frog in the well?" Chen Si asked with a smile.
Mikasa paused.
"I do. A frog looked up at the sky from the bottom of a well and thought that was all there was to it," Mikasa said after a moment's recollection.
"That's right. And right now, we're that frog." Chen Si smiled again, took Mikasa's hand, and ran toward the Survey Corps.
Mikasa remained slightly dazed, turning his words over in her mind.
At the gate, crowds lined both sides of the street to watch.
The adults blocked Chen Si, Eren, and Mikasa's view. The children found a basket to stand on and could finally see clearly.
Eren watched the passing Survey Corps with eyes full of envy and anticipation, while Chen Si studied Erwin curiously. Mikasa calmly surveyed the people passing by as well. An observant man with slicked-back blond hair noticed their gazes-Erwin Smith.
Erwin looked toward those two different gazes, one full of longing and the other full of curiosity. He awkwardly turned his head aside, unwilling to look any longer.
Eren finally noticed that something was wrong. Behind them came wounded soldiers with missing limbs, bandaged heads, and blood covering their bodies. A lifeless, oppressive gloom hung over the entire procession. Eren stared at it all in disbelief.
"Moses! Moses! Um... I can't find my son, Moses." A haggard old woman ran out.
"It's Moses's mother. Bring it here." Keith Shadis, who was leading the procession, ordered someone to fetch something and handed it to the woman.
It was a bloodstained object wrapped in bandages. With trembling hands, the woman unwrapped the bloody cloth. Inside was a severed arm.
The old woman broke down on the spot, sinking to her knees and weeping in grief.
"But my son's death meant something, didn't it? Even if he didn't accomplish anything himself, his death helped humanity fight back, right?" the devastated old woman demanded loudly.
"Of course. No... our expedition this time... still achieved nothing. It's all because of my incompetence. I kept letting soldiers die for nothing, yet failed to uncover what they truly are." Tears of remorse fell from Keith Shadis's eyes as well.
Those words were extraordinarily cruel to a mother. They amounted to telling her outright that her son's death had meant nothing, that he had died in vain.
The onlookers nearby were also sneering and making snide remarks. Hot-blooded Eren couldn't bear it. He picked up a stick and went to fight several adults far bigger than him.
Chen Si felt helpless at the sight. Eren really was reckless, relying on raw courage without weighing the realities. No wonder he rushed to destroy things as soon as he gained power.
Still, if one didn't want to think too much, it really was the most reliable approach. If he was simply too stupid, wouldn't killing everyone smarter than him mean there was no one left smarter than him?
Seeing this, Mikasa picked Eren up without a word and dragged him away. Then she hurled him aside, leaving him aching from the fall.
"What are you doing? The firewood's scattered everywhere." Eren still hadn't grasped the situation.
"Eren, Mikasa just wanted to knock some sense into you," Chen Si said, speechless.
"What? Chen Si, don't you support the Survey Corps too? Are you backing down just because some of them died?!" Eren demanded loudly.
"Were you planning to join the Survey Corps after getting beaten to a pulp? If Mikasa hadn't stopped you just now, they might well have crippled you right there in the street. You're still too weak. You're nowhere near ready to join the Survey Corps." Chen Si laid bare the brutal truth.