"Knock, knock, knock!"
Just as Arthur was puzzling over why he felt that way, someone knocked on the door.
"Is that Dr. Grisha? That was quick!" Kane wondered why Dr. Grisha had come so early today, but he thought little of it. He set down his work and walked to the door, placing his hand on the handle to open it.
Yet in the few steps it took Kane to reach the door, the sense of danger in Arthur's heart grew stronger and stronger.
Some inexplicable instinct seemed to be telling him that something terrible would happen if the door opened.
"Uncle Kane, don't open the door!!" Arthur slapped the table, sprang to his feet, and shouted.
But he was a moment too late.
Kane had already turned the handle.
The next second, someone shoved the door open. A sharp knife gleaming with an eerie, cold light shot in from outside, thrusting straight toward Kane's chest at terrifying speed.
Caught completely off guard, Kane had no time to dodge. The sharp blade plunged into his chest.
The knife struck where Kane's heart lay. Hit in that vital spot, he instantly felt all his strength drain away. He only had time to glance back at Arthur and Yumiko rushing toward him before he crumpled.
"Darling?!" Yumiko cried out in horror as Kane fell. Mikasa, sitting beside her, had yet to react.
Arthur froze at the sight of Kane collapsing. He watched the blood stain Kane's white clothes red.
He had actually watched a member of his family in this world die right before his eyes.
Remembering how Kane had saved him from the wolves, taken him in, and gone hunting with him, Arthur felt fury burn through him. He snatched up the table knife Kane had just set down.
"Sorry to intrude!" The door was pushed all the way open, revealing four men in raincoats standing outside.
The men held an axe, a hunting rifle, and machetes, grinning cruelly like beasts without a shred of humanity.
"You animals! Die!!" Arthur raised the table knife, fixed his eyes on the fat man in front who had killed Kane, and hurled it with a furious shout.
The table knife traced an arc through the air and plunged into the fat man's throat at tremendous speed.
The fat man failed to react at all. He did not even dodge, merely watching as the knife pierced his throat.
He clutched his throat as blood kept flowing back into it, choking off his breathing. After struggling for a long while, he collapsed.
Even as he died, he had never imagined that an eleven-year-old child would kill him.
"Noff?!" The three accomplices behind him stared in shock. Their companion had died, and a child had killed him. They had never expected that, after killing the man of the house, they would fall prey to a boy.
"Die, you little brat!!" The gunman reacted first, raising his rifle and pulling the trigger at Arthur.
Bang! Driven by the pressure of exploding gunpowder, the bullet shot out of the barrel toward Arthur. At that critical instant, Arthur suddenly felt everything around him slow down.
It was only thanks to this that Arthur managed to dodge to the side in time, narrowly avoiding the fatal bullet. Even so, it grazed his arm before burying itself in the floor, sending wood splinters flying.
"Hiss..." Arthur felt a searing pain in his arm, but he was not afraid. He pulled the table knife from the throat of the man named Noff and charged straight at the bandit holding the hunting rifle.
He had to take out the gunman first, or he would never stand a chance against three burly men.
"Arthur!" Yumiko shielded the terrified Mikasa behind her as she watched Arthur attack the bandits to protect them.
"Die, brat!" The gunman's two accomplices were not about to stand idle. Seeing that Arthur was targeting the gunman, they hurried to block him from either side, then raised their machete and axe and swung down at his head.
"Get the hell out of my way!" Arthur roared, ducking beneath their attacks. He drove the table knife into one man's thigh, then twisted it violently to widen the wound.
Squelch! Arthur's stab happened to strike a major artery. The intense pressure sent blood spraying out, staining his pale face red.
"Die!!" Arthur yanked out the knife and slashed the badly wounded bandit's throat.
The bandit clutched his throat in agony, but it was no use. All he could do was stare in terror at Arthur's blood-covered face.
In that instant, he seemed to see an utterly terrifying devil looming behind Arthur, looking at him with a savage grin.
He bitterly regretted it. If he had known, he would never have taken this job, but there was no undoing what had been done.
"Every last one of you animals deserves to fucking die!"
Arthur was utterly consumed by rage.
They had promised to live happily together as a family, yet because of these scumbags, Kane-the man who had been like a father to him-was dead.
Bang! Just as Arthur prepared to deal with the other man, another gunshot rang out.
This time, Arthur failed to dodge. The bullet punched straight through his shoulder.
Arthur grunted, staggered, and fell to the floor.
He saw smoke rising from the muzzle of the gunman he had meant to take down. While the other two had held him off, the gunman had gained enough time to reload, leading to this moment.
"No!"
Seeing Arthur get shot, Yumiko could no longer stay still. She ran straight toward the hunting rifle hanging above the fireplace.
Mikasa stared blankly as the bullet struck Arthur and he fell, then watched her mother try to go to his aid.
In that instant, her mind went completely blank. She looked at her motionless father by the door, then at Arthur, who was about to meet the same fate.
"No... please." Two streams of hot tears ran down Mikasa's cheeks as she gazed at Arthur clutching his endlessly bleeding shoulder in agony, then at the bandits' vicious faces, murmuring to herself.