Chapter Summaries

After learning that Hannah had died by suicide over Franz, the soldiers struggled with their wartime trauma until Keith Shadis forced them to pull themselves together. Chen Si then told everyone that Erwin had ordered them to return that night for combat training ahead of the Wall Maria Retaking Operation.

• Thomas told Eren and the others that Garrison soldiers were joining the Survey Corps, and Hannes vowed to stop running away and protect Carla's children.
• Thomas revealed that Hannah had joined the Medical Department and killed herself two days earlier, leaving behind a diary about Franz.
• Armin blamed himself for failing to help Hannah, and Chen Si used his energy to steady Mikasa and the others as their grief resurfaced.
• Keith Shadis scolded the soldiers and urged them to put their faith in hope and prepare to free humanity.
• Chen Si announced that Erwin had ordered everyone to assemble that night for combat training before the Wall Maria Retaking Operation, disappointing Jean and Sasha while Eren welcomed the news.

The Survey Corps gathered at headquarters after returning from leave, as Chen Si weighed how long it would take to restore Pure Titans and reassured Connie about his mother. Erwin announced that the Wall Maria Retaking Operation would begin in a week, with soldiers from the Garrison and Military Police joining the Corps.

• Jean arrived after visiting his mother, and his mention of family stirred Chen Si's longing for the parents he and his friends had lost.
• Floch reported that Chen Si's religious branch in Wall Sina was gaining believers, while Chen Si learned it would take a year and three months to gather enough faith to restore one Pure Titan.
• Chen Si promised Connie that his mother could become human again, and Sasha arrived without her uniform before Levi sent her to get a spare from Chris.
• Chris returned to duty in uniform, gave Sasha a spare set, and drew the attention of the soldiers gathered on the parade ground.
• Erwin announced that the Survey Corps would begin the Wall Maria Retaking Operation in one week and that soldiers from the other military branches would join them.
• Marlowe, Ian, Rico, and Hannes stood among the soldiers preparing to join the Survey Corps.

Chen Si and Eren pushed through brutal experiments and sparring to develop Eren’s hardening before the coming battle. The chapter ended with Erwin transforming into the Colossal Titan, revealing that he had taken Bertolt’s power.

• Marlowe, Ian, Rico, Hannes, and the others answered roll call, and Chen Si felt relieved to see many people who should have died alive again.
• Eren repeatedly transformed to practice hardening, and Chen Si’s strike shattered the hardening on his fingers before it regrew stronger.
• Chen Si and Eren sparred for five days, helping Eren harden both arms while Eren endured severe injuries and improved his strength.
• Oruo cleared the training grounds and Levi led the soldiers to a distant wasteland for a dangerous experiment.
• A gigantic, blood-red Colossal Titan appeared, and Levi revealed that Erwin had taken Bertolt’s power.

After Erwin tested his new Colossal Titan power, the Survey Corps celebrated ahead of the Retaking Operation with a lavish banquet. Sasha transformed into the Jaw Titan and went berserk over the meat, while Mikasa’s possessive affection for Chen Si caused an awkward moment.

• Erwin said his Colossal Titan transformation could destroy Headquarters and nearby streets with a single thought, and Erwin announced the Retaking Operation would begin in two days.
• The Survey Corps held a banquet, where Sasha snatched meat from the table and bit Connie to break free.
• Sasha transformed into the Jaw Titan and attacked the banquet table, while Eren, Connie, and Mina struggled to restrain her.
• Chen Si caught Sasha’s punch before it hit Mikasa, and Mikasa told him he could touch her but warned him against touching anyone else.
• Eren and Mina helped Connie tie Sasha to a pillar, and Mikasa fed Chen Si meat before Eren objected to Chen Si’s remark.

Marlowe watched the Survey Corps soldiers turn a meal into a chaotic brawl while Chen Si explained their rough camaraderie. Levi ended the fighting and ordered everyone to clean up before bed, while Sasha remained tied up and unable to get anyone’s attention.

• Marlowe regretted being assigned to the rear guard, and Jean explained why recruits were better off surviving and learning their duties.
• Eren and Jean began wrestling, while Gunther and Elderdin started another fight by trading embarrassing stories.
• Oruo provoked Petra, who punched him, and the veterans’ dirty secrets caused the gathering to grow rowdier.
• Chen Si and Mikasa let Eren and Jean fight, while Marlowe struggled to understand the soldiers’ idea of greeting each other.
• Levi kicked Eren and Jean to the floor, ordered the soldiers to clean up and go to bed, and Sasha woke up tied up as everyone left.

Chen Si, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin reflected on their hopes for the future, while Levi and Chris remembered their old comrades and resolved to protect the new generation. After seven days of training, Erwin announced the start of the Wall Maria Retaking Operation.

• Sasha thanked Levi after he untied her, but Levi ordered her to stay and clean up.
• Chen Si, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin discussed their different hopes and promised to protect one another and see the world beyond the walls.
• Levi and Chris compared the four younger soldiers to their old group and resolved to protect them and help them fulfill their dreams.
• Petra brought a nervous Mike to meet Chris and Levi, and the four crossed paths at an intersection.
• After seven days of training, Eren improved his Hardening, and Chen Si upgraded the Titan Slayer to kill 12-meter-class Titans.
• Erwin announced the Wall Maria Retaking Operation, and the officials and Survey Corps officers saluted in support.

The Survey Corps began the Wall Maria retaking operation amid cheers from Trost District’s residents and rode toward Shiganshina. Near their destination, Mike and Chen Si detected Titans hidden underground, while Zeke watched the stopped column from afar.

• Chen Si and the Survey Corps departed Trost District as residents and Congregants cheered them on, and Erwin declared the Wall Maria Retaking Operation begun.
• Reiner waited atop the wall at Shiganshina District while Zeke watched Wall Rose.
• Levi ordered the Survey Corps to avoid fighting Titans along the way and conserve their strength for the enemy, and Hange explained that Eren’s hardening would require a half-hour interval between sealing the gates.
• As the column approached Shiganshina, Mike sensed a mass of Titans and Chen Si identified their location underground.
• Erwin rejected fighting the hidden Titans immediately because it could waste their strength and expose them to the enemy’s long-range attacks, then asked Armin for his idea.
• Zeke watched the Survey Corps halt from a treetop and wondered what they were discussing.

Chen Si inferred that Zeke had planted humans who could transform into Titans along the Survey Corps’ route, then arranged to stay behind with Eren as bait. The Survey Corps continued toward Shiganshina as Zeke spotted Eren and urgently told Pieck not to shoot.

• Chen Si suggested that Zeke had buried people who would transform into Titans, and Mike’s scouting confirmed that Titan scents were spaced evenly along the route.
• Chen Si told Erwin that Zeke would not let Eren die and proposed using Eren as bait while the Survey Corps kept moving.
• Chen Si persuaded Mikasa to let him stay behind, then stopped Eren and told him to help put on an act.
• Erwin ordered the Survey Corps to escort Eren toward Shiganshina, unaware that Chen Si had kept Eren behind.
• Zeke saw Eren remove his hood and shouted for Pieck not to shoot.

Chen Si used Eren as bait to draw out Zeke, then defeated the Beast Titan and captured Zeke. As the Survey Corps fought the Titans Zeke had unleashed, Reiner transformed into the Armored Titan and entered the battle.

• Chen Si and Eren staged an execution to provoke Zeke, and Pieck fired at Chen Si before Zeke transformed into the Beast Titan.
• Zeke released dozens of buried Titans and hurled rocks at Chen Si, while Eren transformed into the Attack Titan and fought the advancing Titans.
• Chen Si destroyed the Beast Titan's limbs, pulled Zeke from its nape, and welcomed him to the Eldia Empire.
• Levi ordered the Survey Corps squads to turn and fight the approaching Titans as Hannes reassured Mikasa about Chen Si.
• Reiner left his hiding place inside Shiganshina's outer wall and transformed into the Armored Titan.

Chen Si defeated Zeke and captured Pieck while Mikasa used a burst of borrowed power to cut down Reiner’s Armored Titan, though Reiner escaped and transformed again. The chapter ended with Erwin’s Colossal Titan appearing and grabbing Reiner.

• Levi disabled Reiner’s charge, and Mikasa used lightning to slice his Armored Titan in half before he escaped and transformed again.
• Mikasa pursued Reiner, but he threw a rock that blinded her with dust and gained distance.
• Chen Si blasted Pieck’s Cart Titan form repeatedly, then pulled Pieck from her nape and forced her to surrender.
• Zeke was injured when Chen Si flung him into the air, and he fell onto the Cart Titan’s back.
• Erwin transformed into the Colossal Titan and seized Reiner’s Armored Titan in his giant hand.

The Survey Corps defeated Zeke’s forces, captured Zeke and Pieck, and prepared to reclaim Wall Maria. As Chen Si and Mikasa’s feelings became the subject of teasing and warnings, Chen Si was left wrestling with what he wanted.

• Reiner panicked when the Colossal Titan appeared, while the Survey Corps and Eren defeated the Pure Titans Zeke had released.
• Chen Si captured Zeke and Pieck, and Erwin ordered the prisoners taken into custody and the troops to enter Shiganshina District and seal the wall.
• Hange examined the prisoners, Levi cut off Zeke’s limbs, and Pieck cooperated with being restrained and guarded.
• Hannes praised Chen Si and Mikasa, then warned Chen Si not to hurt Mikasa if he became involved with her.
• After Hannes and Chris questioned Chen Si about his feelings, Chen Si called out an offer of a hair-regrowth and beauty treatment to stop Chris from speaking.

Chen Si watched the Survey Corps reclaim Shiganshina, but visions of Mikasa, Historia, and a monstrous Titan left him terrified that disaster still awaited them. He fought to kill every Titan in sight while Eren went to seal the inner wall, and the captured Zeke and Pieck watched the battle.

• Eren hardened the outer wall as Erwin, Levi, Mikasa, Chris, and the other soldiers killed Titans and reclaimed Shiganshina.
• Chen Si saw visions of a bombardment, Historia facing a firing squad, and a Berserk Titan before snapping back to reality and crying out Mikasa and Historia’s names.
• Chen Si jumped from the wall, killed seven Titans, and joined Mikasa in fighting every Titan he encountered.
• Hannes urged Eren to seal the inner wall, while the Levi Squad protected him from nearby Titans.
• Erwin hurled Pure Titans toward Chen Si, who killed them in midair, while the other soldiers and the captured Zeke watched in astonishment.
• Hange tried to provoke Pieck into transforming, but Moblit stopped her and gagged Pieck again.

The Survey Corps reclaimed Wall Maria and cleared Shiganshina District without losing anyone, while Chen Si raised his Titan kill count to four hundred. Erwin then led Eren, Chen Si, and Mikasa to Eren’s family basement to learn what Grisha had left behind.

• Eren and Erwin helped Chen Si and the Survey Corps kill the Titans in Shiganshina District, and Eren sealed the breach in the wall.
• Erwin announced that humanity had reclaimed Wall Maria, and the soldiers celebrated their victory and zero losses.
• Mike questioned Zeke about sunglasses, while Mina encouraged Armin to value his dream of seeing the sea.
• Chen Si borrowed equipment from Armin and Moblit, killed dozens more Titans, and reached four hundred kills.
• Chen Si considered using Eren’s Coordinate power to gather Titans together, then prepared to return to the Royal Capital.
• Erwin ordered Levi and Hange to leave the others guarding the wall and took Eren, Chen Si, and Mikasa to Eren’s family basement to learn about the outside world from Grisha’s belongings.

Chen Si, Eren, and the others searched Grisha Yeager’s basement for the information the key might unlock. Chen Si found a damaged journal hinting at Marley’s Titan research and a mysterious divine revelation plan, and Erwin uncovered a hidden keyhole beneath the desk.

• Chen Si and Eren glimpsed two figures in the street before the group reached the ruins of the Yeager home.
• Chen Si found that his electric energy had not yet recovered, so the group lifted the rock blocking the basement entrance together.
• Levi broke down the basement door, and Hange, Erwin, and the others searched Grisha’s laboratory for important evidence.
• Chen Si found a torn journal with fragments about Grisha’s children, Marley’s Titan research, Ackerman blood, and a divine revelation plan.
• Chen Si worried that stopping Marley might require Eren to unleash the rumbling and resolved to do whatever was necessary if that proved to be the only option.
• Erwin found a concealed keyhole in a drawer beneath the desk and called Eren over.

Erwin and the others discovered Grisha’s hidden notebooks and learned that humanity still lived beyond the Walls, including in Marley, where Eldians were persecuted. Eren learned about his aunt Faye, his father’s former family, and his older brother Zeke, and was left consumed by anger over the oppression of his people.

• Eren gave Erwin the key, and Erwin found three notebooks hidden beneath the drawer’s false bottom.
• Chen Si and the others examined the damaged notebook and found references to Marley’s secret military plans and a plan involving Titans.
• Eren opened another notebook and the group found a photograph and Grisha’s account of life Outside the Walls.
• Hange read Grisha’s diary, revealing that Marley had tortured and killed Grisha’s younger sister Faye.
• Eren learned that Grisha had once been married to Dina Fritz and that Zeke Yeager was his older brother and a royal descendant.
• Eren struggled to accept that people beyond the Walls had confined and oppressed the Eldians, and hatred took root in him.

As they read Grisha's notebook, Eren and the others learned of Marley’s military power and the oppression of the Eldians, forcing them to confront how isolated and vulnerable they were. Chen Si argued that the tens of millions of Colossal Titans beneath the walls could give the island leverage, and Erwin identified that threat as the Rumbling.

• Eren fell silent after learning about the world beyond the walls, while Grisha's notebook revealed Marley's advanced military and the Eldians' low status.
• Levi and Erwin reacted angrily to the persecution of Eldians and the island's ignorance of humanity beyond the walls.
• Erwin proposed contacting Marley's enemies and developing diplomatic relations, but Hange questioned what the island could offer.
• Chen Si suggested that iceburst stone could serve as a valuable resource, though Mikasa and Hange doubted the island could negotiate as an equal.
• Chen Si named the tens of millions of Colossal Titans beneath the walls as the island's leverage, and Erwin declared that the 145th King had called their deterrent the Rumbling.

Chen Si secretly freed Zeke and pretended to share his euthanasia plan, convincing Zeke they were kindred spirits. Zeke urged Chen Si to let him and Pieck return to Marley so its military would not attack Paradis Island.

• Erwin ordered Levi and Chen Si to guard Zeke and Pieck while the group returned to the walls, and Chen Si said Zeke might cooperate because he cared about Eren.
• During the journey, Chen Si freed Zeke’s bonds and told him he wanted to liberate the Eldia people from their suffering.
• Chen Si claimed to support Zeke’s plan to make the Eldia people extinct, and Zeke excitedly called him a kindred spirit and proposed an alliance.
• When Petra checked on them, Chen Si struck Zeke and pretended he had merely subdued a prisoner who had escaped.
• Chen Si shocked Zeke with one hundred thousand volts when Zeke embraced him, then asked about using royal blood and the Founding Titan to sterilize everyone.
• Zeke said they should first strengthen Paradis Island and build infrastructure, then urged Chen Si to let him and Pieck go to prevent Marley from sending troops.

The Survey Corps returned after reclaiming Wall Maria, and people across the walls celebrated with public feasts, tax relief, and free baptisms. At the royal palace, Eren struggled with memories about Dina Fritz and royal inheritance, while Historia prepared to enter a meeting as Queen.

• Erwin led the victorious Survey Corps through Wall Rose, where residents cheered and celebrated their success.
• Anka announced the victory to Zackly, Pixis, Nile, and the other Military Government officials, and celebrations spread throughout the walls.
• Blake ordered free baptisms for residents, Patrick announced three years of tax relief and a week of free food and drink in the Royal Capital, and Reeves offered three days of free drinks in Trost.
• Eren recalled fragments concerning Dina Fritz, Grisha Yeager, and royal inheritance, then blurted out a realization that worried Chen Si.
• Historia met Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Chen Si, Levi, and Kenny; Chen Si reassured her about her role as Queen, and she went to the conference hall when a staff officer announced the meeting was about to begin.

At a council meeting, Erwin argued that controlling the Founding Titan might require Eren or Historia to inherit it, but Chen Si refused to let either of them be sacrificed. The meeting ended with Historia postponing any decision, while Chen Si kept his knowledge about Eren and Zeke’s potential contact secret because he distrusted how Erwin might use it.

• President Zachary opened a council meeting to discuss the Survey Corps’ discoveries and the threat from Marley.
• Erwin explained the Founding Titan’s limits and proposed that Eren inherit Historia’s royal bloodline if the Corps needed to control its power.
• Chen Si rejected the proposal and declared that neither Eren nor Historia would be sacrificed.
• Chen Si claimed his growing strength could let him and Erwin withstand Marley without relying on the Founding Titan.
• Zachary asked Historia for her view, and she adjourned the meeting.
• Chen Si withheld his belief that Eren could access the Founding Titan’s power through contact with Zeke because he feared Erwin’s response.

Chen Si agreed to help Historia form a cabinet and planned to find her a female protector. Erwin accepted the burden of leading through the coming wars, and the Royal Palace prepared to debate whether to tell the people about humanity beyond the walls.

• Chen Si told Historia he would help her form a cabinet and promised to ask Kenny to keep his distance while protecting her.
• Chen Si considered Ymir as a suitable maid and planned for Kenny to train her in combat.
• Levi asked Erwin whether Eren or Historia had to die, and Erwin explained that fulfilling his dream had left him responsible for the soldiers and the coming wars.
• Levi pledged his support, while Pixis urged Erwin not to worry about distant problems; Erwin insisted that war would never end as long as humans remained.
• The Royal Palace held a second assembly the next day to discuss revealing the existence of humans outside the walls.