"I'm weak?" Eren murmured when he heard Chen Si's words.
He looked down at his palms and clenched his fists. His spirits sank, but he soon rallied, his eyes blazing with determination.
"Chen Si, Mikasa, I'm going to be as strong as you two. I'm definitely joining the Survey Corps!" Eren declared with unwavering resolve.
"You need to get fit first, then train your body more," Chen Si replied.
As Mikasa watched Chen Si and Eren discuss how to join the Survey Corps, she hurriedly interrupted:
"Eren, you still haven't given up on joining the Survey Corps?"
Eren lowered his head without answering.
"Let's go home first," Chen Si said.
Mikasa nodded, and the three of them returned home together.
"You're back?" Carla's voice came from inside.
Eren set down the firewood he had carried home, while Mikasa went over to help at the stove.
"Oh my, Eren, this is unusual. How did you gather so much today?" Carla asked in surprise.
Eren silently considered how to answer, but Carla grabbed him by the ear.
"Did Chen Si or Mikasa help you?" Carla clearly knew Eren well.
Eren pursed his lips and said nothing.
At the dining table, Grisha packed his things in preparation to leave while Carla washed dishes nearby. Mikasa suddenly spoke up:
"Eren said he wants to join the Survey Corps. I think my brother wants to as well." As she spoke, she glanced at Chen Si.
This girl wants Aunt Carla to stop me. I really can't hide anything from clever, perceptive Mikasa.
Carla was visibly startled. She spun around, and Grisha's hands abruptly stopped moving. An unsettling silence fell over the room.
Eren suddenly slammed the table and shouted at Mikasa:
"Mikasa, didn't I tell you not to tell anyone?"
"Eren, do you know how many people go beyond the walls and never return? And you, Chen Si, you've always been so mature and sensible. Why would you suddenly have an idea like this?" Carla rushed between Eren and Chen Si, placing a hand on each boy's shoulder and looking straight into their eyes as she firmly tried to stop them.
"I know, but I'm going no matter what!" Eren answered stubbornly.
"Eren, Chen Si, why do you want to go beyond the walls?" Grisha asked gravely, looking at the two boys.
"Because I want to know what the world outside is like. Like Chen Si said, I don't want to be a frog at the bottom of a well, spending my whole life inside the walls knowing nothing.
"And if no one carries on the Survey Corps' work, won't all the blood they've shed have been for nothing?" Eren argued.
"Living inside the walls doesn't just rob us of physical freedom, but freedom of thought as well. Any discussion of the world beyond the walls is forbidden.
"Humans inside the walls are like livestock being raised in captivity. And livestock are always at risk of being slaughtered. I believe the best defense is to attack, to explore.
"As a doctor, Uncle, I think you've probably realized it too. Medicine can't save the people inside the walls. Doctors can cure ailments of the body, but not those of the heart." Chen Si spoke calmly, his words nothing like what a nine-year-old child should have been capable of saying.
Grisha gave Chen Si a long look, his mind already in turmoil.
Medicine can't save the people inside the walls... Medicine can't save Eldia...
"Carla, humanity's thirst for knowledge isn't something you can suppress simply by talking people out of it. And it's precisely because children have ideas like these that humanity has a future." Grisha gave Chen Si another long look. What sort of people were his parents, to have such an outstanding child?
Grisha took a key from inside his clothes, then looked at Eren and told him:
"Eren, when I get back, I'll let you see the Secret Basement."
Eren immediately brightened and kept waving at Grisha as he walked away. Watching Grisha's retreating back, Chen Si knew a horrific tragedy was about to unfold.
"Don't bring up this foolish idea again. I absolutely forbid it. You're not joining the Survey Corps." Carla threw cold water on Eren's excitement.
"Foolish? I think the people content to live as livestock are the real fools." Eren turned and ran off after his angry retort.
"Chen Si, Mikasa, that child's temperament makes him far too likely to get into danger. If anything happens, you must look out for one another," Carla told them, deeply worried.
Mikasa nodded, and Chen Si laid his hand over Carla's.
"Don't worry, Aunt Carla. I'll take good care of him."
"Ah, Mikasa really is the one I don't have to worry about. When Mrs. Ackerman gets back, I'll ask her to help me talk some sense into that child," Carla said with a sigh.
Chen Si and Mikasa followed the route Eren had taken. After turning through several alleys, they spotted him in the distance, facing off against three children.
Chen Si and Mikasa hurried over. The three children, who had been about to attack, saw them and scattered like mice spotting a cat.
Chen Si and Mikasa had cleaned up Eren's messes more times than they could count.
"How are you, Armin? Can you stand?" Chen Si asked, holding out his hand.
Armin instinctively wanted to refuse, but when he looked up and saw Chen Si, he took his hand and got to his feet.
"I'm fine," Armin said timidly.
"Armin, why didn't you fight back just now? If you'd fought back, the two of us definitely could have beaten them."
Eren waved his fists indignantly.
You really are all brawn and no brains, Chen Si thought, utterly speechless.
"If I fought back, wouldn't that make me just like them? They only hit me because I won the argument," Armin said calmly.
"Why did they hit you?" Eren asked, confused.
"Because I told them that sooner or later, humanity would cross these walls and go out into the world, to live somewhere we could see the ocean. Then they called me a heretic," Armin replied.
"Those damn bastards! What's wrong with wanting to go beyond the walls?" Eren said indignantly.
"There's nothing wrong with wanting to go beyond the walls. What's wrong is wasting your breath on them. You can't talk to a summer insect about ice," Chen Si said slowly.
"You can't talk to a summer insect about ice? Chen Si, what does that mean?" Armin asked curiously.
Mikasa blinked her wide eyes and looked at Chen Si with curiosity too. Eren was ready to commit whatever Chen Si said next to memory. Chen Si's words always cut straight to the heart of things, and Eren learned a great deal from them.
"It means you shouldn't talk about ice with insects that only live in summer. Those three who hit Armin are like three insects that have never seen winter. They don't even know winter exists, so how could they believe in ice?" Chen Si explained patiently.
"I see. You're right, talking to them about these things really is a waste of breath. But even the royal government's officials are insects that have never seen winter. They make everything beyond the walls taboo. Aside from the Survey Corps, no one knows about the outside world." Armin grew dejected as he spoke.
"Exactly. Even the king is such a coward now. Armin, Chen Si, that's all the more reason for us to join the Survey Corps. It's the only way we'll see the outside world!" Eren shouted, raising his arm.
"Absolutely not." Mikasa remained firmly opposed. Ever since her father had been murdered, she had cherished her family above all else. She simply couldn't accept Chen Si and Eren going beyond the walls into danger.
"Speaking of which, you're the one who exposed me in front of my parents today," Eren said, giving Mikasa an unfriendly look.
"Mikasa only wants what's best for you. She's worried about your safety," Chen Si said, exasperated.
"Eren, I understand how you feel, but going beyond the walls really is dangerous," Armin said, somewhat hesitant himself.
"Armin, even you're trying to talk me out of it?" Eren looked utterly wounded.
"Actually, I really don't understand why everyone thinks we're guaranteed to be safe inside the walls. Even though it's been peaceful here for a hundred years, that doesn't guarantee the walls won't fall today," Armin said.
"You never know which will come first, tomorrow or disaster. Disaster could strike in the very next second. But at least when that moment comes, I only want to be beside the people who matter most to me." Chen Si took Mikasa's hand, already preparing himself for the sudden crisis in his mind.
Mikasa had no idea what Chen Si was thinking. Her pretty face flushed, and she snugged her scarf tighter before smiling sweetly. Chen Si had asked Aunt Carla to help knit the scarf. It was red, and he had personally wrapped it around Mikasa's neck. She wore it almost every time she went out.
Just then, a blinding golden light flashed across the distant sky. Immediately afterward, the earth shook violently, as though heaven and earth were tearing apart, and countless birds took flight in alarm. The four of them looked beyond the wall, where a huge cloud of thick smoke rose higher than the wall itself.
The next sight left all four stunned. An enormous hand that blotted out the sky suddenly gripped the top of the wall. Then a gigantic, blood-red, skinless head rose into view, steam pouring off it.
The sudden earthquake disrupted their conversation. Eren and Armin fell straight to the ground, while Chen Si and Mikasa stumbled but quickly steadied themselves.
"It's a Titan! That's a full fifty meters high!"
"A Titan taller than the wall? How is that possible?"
"Holy shit!"
Everyone cried out in different ways, but they all expressed much the same thing.
Holy shit, that's incredible. Its head alone was bigger than a dozen of him put together. Chen Si stared, dumbstruck. Reality really was nothing like anime.
"Run!" Chen Si was the first to react, shouting aloud. Still holding Mikasa's hand, he had only taken two steps when they exchanged a glance and nodded.
They let go of each other's hands, each grabbed one of the boys, and turned to run. As Chen Si pulled him along, Eren looked back and saw something he would never forget. With a single kick, the colossal Titan smashed the massive wall inward. The fifty-meter-high wall was rendered utterly useless in an instant.
Eren watched the rubble fly, with stones hurtling toward his home.
"Mom! The rubble's flying toward Mom!" Eren was horrified. Everyone on the streets fled toward the inner city in panic, while Titans streamed through the breach in the wall. Fortunately, Chen Si had been running toward Eren's home from the very start.
As he ran, Armin watched the terrified faces of the people they passed. He even saw Titans beginning to appear in the distance, and said in utter horror:
"It's over. This whole district is doomed."
"Mom, please be all right." Tears spilled from Eren's eyes as he used every ounce of strength to keep pace with Chen Si.