Attack on Titan: Kuklo Unbound

Kuklo, his body on guard, stared at the man. Though he had no idea who it was, and despite being unable to see his face, the man’s unfamiliar voice proved that they’d never met before.

The one coming to buy me? But it was hard to imagine Dario’s trading partner visiting in the middle of the night, especially in this weather. Even if it were daytime, most people would stay indoors.

Something else about the man bothered Kuklo. He carried a blade though he was no soldier.

Who is he?

If it came down to it, Kuklo was prepared to break his chains and fight, but he wasn’t sensing any harmful intent.

“I had hoped to rescue you sooner. Finding your trail took longer than I predicted. Please forgive me.”

While the man reverently lowered his head, Kuklo had only one thought: What’s happening? Unable to process this development, he felt bewildered. The man, though, seemed to be very familiar with Kuklo’s circumstances. On top of that, his remarks suggested that he possessed information that Kuklo did not have.

Should I ask? Doing so would incur a large risk. Until now, Kuklo had played the part of the witless Titan’s son in order to disarm people and ensure his safety. So long as he did not know the man’s identity, carelessly speaking to him wasn’t smart. He needed to extract information from the man first. The only problem was that getting it would be difficult unless he risked conversation.

Even without resorting to speech, there was one thing Kuklo could infer. He was searching for me. For quite a long time, at that. From at least before Dario bought him. In other words, this man in black had been searching for the Titan’s son.

That was more than enough cause for distrust, but the man did not seem to fear the Titan’s son. In fact, Kuklo could practically feel affection in the man’s words. Still, that was no reason to trust him.

“Come, allow me to undo your bonds,” the man said, drawing his blade.

Kuklo was wary, but the man did not seem to want to hurt him. His favorable intentions, however, likely didn’t extend to those other than Kuklo.

What do I do? Kuklo immediately thought of Sharle since he knew she would be coming to the shed. What the man would do if he encountered Sharle was a foregone conclusion.

The storm clouds must have squat above them. A flash of lightning tore through the sky while thunder roared. A dazzling flash filled the room, revealing the man’s figure in detail.

Hey…

Kuklo’s eyes popped open. The man’s blade was coated in a thick, red liquid. Not only that, he could see what looked like blood spurts on his face.

The worst of all possibilities began to creep into Kuklo’s mind. “Who did you kill?” he asked, standing up straight. The time was past for feigning that he couldn’t speak. He had to bring himself up to date.

Upon learning that Kuklo could talk, the man began gesturing wildly in surprise. “How wonderful! You are indeed the great Titan!”

A worshipper… So this man was a heretic who deified and worshipped Titans, a member of the cult that Elena, Kuklo’s mother, had joined. Most of the devotees were arrested by the Military Police after she caused the incident fifteen years earlier, but some must have escaped and gone underground.

Kuklo could guess why the believers sought him out. They wanted someone to enshrine. A Titan’s son was convenient for the weakened organization since rebuilding it would be easier with one as the group’s symbol. Kuklo, however, had no interest whatsoever in the restoration of any group. It was the Titans’ fault that he’d been treated like a subhuman in the first place, and helping the believers was out of the question.

Kuklo glared at the man. “Who did you kill?!”

“Security guards, that’s all… What of it?” Before Kuklo could breathe a sigh of relief the man added, “As we speak, my fellows are giving them their just retribution.”

“…Them?”

“The evil, wicked humans who dared to lock a Titan in a place like this, of course.”

“Ngh!!”

With a beastly grunt, Kuklo yanked the chains on his hands and feet with all his might. Thanks to his meticulous preparations over two long years, he tore apart his shackles with utmost ease.

Not having the luxury to savor his newfound freedom, Kuklo rushed in and slammed his fist into the man’s face without hesitation. Groaning in pain, the worshipper fell to the ground with his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He’d put up absolutely no signs of a fight, hardly expecting to be struck by the Titan’s son.

Kuklo tore off the man’s clothes, put them on, and leapt outside. As soon as he did, he was struck by a sideways sheet of rain. He was instantly soaked, but he felt nothing resembling discomfort despite the freezing-cold storm. The sensation was almost a pleasant one as the filth was washed from his body. It surprised Kuklo just how overcome with pure darkness the world around him was. His body nearly melded into the shadows. The decision to exploit the dead of night for his escape was a correct one, but his plans had been ruined by the uninvited guest.

Lightning shot through the sky, illuminating his surroundings. He may have only been in a garden, but the spaciousness of the outside world was overwhelming to Kuklo, for whom ten square meters of emptiness had been everything.

Though he was terribly confused by his range of vision suddenly expanding to dozens of times what it was before, he had no time to waste. He set his sights on the two-story mansion that stood on the grounds. It was clear from the building’s size that it had a large number of rooms, but that didn’t matter. The shouts, screams, and disorderly noises coming from within did, for among them was a familiar female voice.

She’s alive… Kuklo was relieved, but Sharle only drew breath for the moment. Her life would come to an end unless he acted soon.

The mansion’s rear door had been left open, and like a banner it flapped back and forth in the storm. It must have been used by the worshippers to break in.

Rather than consider his various options, Kuklo went straight for the door. Freed from its restraints, his body felt even lighter than he’d hoped. He found his momentum hard to control due to his lack of experience. A moment of distraction might send him careening, and so he reserved half of his strength. Even then, his body seemed to move with unbelievable swiftness.

He slid through the rear entrance before he could register the power and freedom he’d gained. As soon as he entered the building’s halls, he encountered a man wearing black, probably a believer, but Kuklo struck him down and charged ahead.

The floor plan of the building was unknown to him, but his finely honed senses functioned as a scanning device. He could roughly locate the angry shouts and curses that echoed through the mansion. The faint smell of blood lingering in the air served as handy road signs. Armed with this information, Kuklo stormed through the halls.

Every hallway door had been left wide open. Inside the rooms were people, probably servants, who’d been murdered in their beds. They seemed to have been attacked in their sleep since there were no signs of struggle. Perhaps they never even noticed they were being murdered.

One of the rooms was uniquely extravagant, and inside of it was a giant bed that could easily hold a number of people. Across it lay the remains of Dario, the master of the house.

He is dead… Kuklo glanced at the corpse but felt no emotions in particular, neither hatred nor sadness. He simply took note that someone he knew had kicked the bucket. Dario meant that little to him.

Kuklo spotted what he was looking for just ahead of him. Five believers, each armed with a blade, had cornered Xavi and Sharle at the end of a hall.

I’m not too late… Still, the two were clearly in peril. Xavi had been putting up a fight with his own sword, but he was utterly outnumbered. It was only a matter of time before the attackers’ weapons were stained red with blood.

Kuklo had no reason to rescue Xavi, but he needed every bit of help he could get if he wanted to keep Sharle out of harm’s way─even if that help came from the despot who had tyrannized his life.

Kuklo’s ferocious charge surprised everyone, and they all turned to look at him. Unleashing the power he’d so far kept in check, he swept in like an untamed animal, closing the distance between him and his enemies.

Although the heretics worshipped Titans, they hadn’t received any sort of special training. They were too busy quaking in their boots to respond in any adequate way to Kuklo’s screaming assault. The black clothes he wore, the same as theirs, must have added to their confusion.

Kuklo pressed in on one of the believers, who stood frozen in place, and slammed his balled fist into his abdomen. The man groaned and sank to the floor. If Kuklo felt no reluctance about killing humans, he’d have stolen the man’s blade and finished him off then and there. Thoughtless slaughter was the province of the Titans.

“Kuklo?” Sharle cried in surprise, her eyes wide open. She’d recognized this new intruder.

“What?!” Xavi said, astonished at Sharle’s words. “Why are you even here…” Though in shock, he didn’t waste this valuable opportunity and cut down a couple of the off-guard believers.

While the tables had been turned, they could not relax until all of the cultists were suppressed. Kuklo sprang toward another and launched a front kick into the torso of his enemy, who stumbled back into a comrade before falling.

“Filthy paupers…” Xavi spat at a writhing believer before backhanding his blade and thrusting it into his chest. Sharle looked away at this cruel, merciless act.

“Why did you kill him?” Kuklo asked.

“Why should I hesitate to kill my enemies?” Xavi replied stone-faced. Then he said, “This is quite a surprise. You can speak.”

Though he betrayed amazement, he followed up with a bored snort. He drew his sword from the man’s chest.

“Did Sharle teach you these things?” he surmised, glaring at his sister. “I don’t know what you were thinking─so you’re the ones who brought the cultists down upon us?”

Xavi’s grip on the sword hilt tightened. The idea that Kuklo and Sharle were somehow involved appeared to come to him, and his shoulders shook. He seemed ready to turn his blade on them next, and as danger filled the air Sharle turned pale and winced.

“Not Sharle’s fault,” Kuklo declared, moving toward her. He shielded her behind him, putting her beyond the reach of her brother. Xavi was making no effort to conceal his murderous intent.

“I see it now,” Xavi said. The sinister light in his eyes hinted at a crooked interpretation of what had happened. Surveying the scene of the calamity slowly, deliberately, he accused, “Well, at any rate, you are responsible for our current plight. I should have killed you ages ago.”

As soon as the words left Xavi’s mouth, his blade sliced through the air sideways. Kuklo thought of jumping back, but Sharle was there. He could not dodge to the side, either. No matter which way he went, if he tried to circumvent the attack Sharle would fall in his place to the sword’s swipe. Yet he would die unless he did. He swayed back to evade the edge that now came toward his throat, but his range of motion was too limited.

I’m going to be killed… The tip was headed toward his eyes. Kuklo reflexively turned away, but it grazed his right eye. A burning sensation assailed his face as though a heated poker had been pressed against it.

Holding the wound in his right hand, he swiftly moved to make a counterattack and found a target in Xavi’s legs. He put all the force he could muster into a roundhouse kick against Xavi’s undefended right knee.

“Hrrg!” Xavi lost his balance, having taken the full brunt of a strike that snapped into his leg like a whip.

Kuklo continued his assault, sending a knee into Xavi’s chin next. The blow seemed to have caused a concussion; Xavi slumped forward and sank to the floor. It would be a while until he regained consciousness.

“Are you okay? Show me!” Sharle circled around to in front of Kuklo. The moment she saw the wound, her expression clouded.

Kuklo didn’t need to be told that his right eye was in terrible shape. It radiated a throbbing pain, and blood, not tears, ran from it, staining red the hand he held over his face. He wasn’t so injured that he feared for his life, and he could withstand the pain, but he was worried.

My eye… Whether it was the blood or actual damage to his eyeball, a portion of his vision was gone on the right side. The worst possibility presented itself, but it was no time to dally. He just had to make up for the missing segment with his other senses. Right now he had to leave the estate as soon as he could.

“Sharle! What do we do?”

Perhaps not understanding him, she blinked a few times. “Huh?”

“Dario is gone now. You don’t have to escape.”

“Right, but there’s no place for me in this house anymore… Xavi found out about everything, anyway.”

“I see…”

Kuklo took her meaning. Dario’s death and the raid by the cultists would cast groundless suspicions on Sharle. He was worried how Xavi would treat her, too. It was easy to picture Xavi acting like another Dario. In other words, there was not a single reason for Sharle to stay home.

“Let’s go.”

“All right.”

Recovering the supplies Sharle had prepared, the two left the house with barely more than the clothes they wore.

The raging storm portended the troubles that lay ahead of them, but heading into it would let them shrug off any and all pursuit.

As if to celebrate the pair’s departure, a humongous clap of thunder roared through the air.