Attack on Titan: Kuklo Unbound

Yet, their skills hadn’t improved decisively. Facing a Titan still seemed like a pipe dream, and beating a hasty retreat was all that the device seemed good for.

At the same time, it wasn’t as if they hadn’t honed their techniques at all. It was just that the thing took a while to master. Titans had to wait until after graduation, but showing off what the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment could do at the contest was well within their reach.

To begin with, perhaps they shouldn’t be rushing to graduate. Middling technique did them no good, and heading to the battlefield as they were spelled death. Waiting until they were adept seemed acceptable to them. While repeating a year would be unusual, an academy first in fact, it was nothing to be ashamed of. If anything, it was the right decision, and Jorge, their instructor, agreed. They’d surely be granted a second year of training as a special measure if they could show off the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment’s capabilities at the inspection matches.

Their curricular training done for the day, Kuklo and the others equipped their machines and walked to the usual woods off the athletic grounds. What wasn’t usual was the presence of other recruits who’d come to watch.

“How distracting…” grumbled Rosa.

“There’s a few more every day. Looks like we’re popular.” Cardina chuckled and glanced at the recruits observing them from a distance. Following his gaze, Kuklo counted about thirty absorbed spectators following their every movement, perhaps hoping to steal some techniques.

While Cardina and the others seemed to find the gallery distracting, Kuklo, used to being watched, felt nothing. They aimed no hostility or hatred toward him, so he considered them as harmless as the vegetation around him. Thinking about them was a waste of time and energy.

He pulled his controllers from the holsters and looked at the sea of trees ahead of him. Full of thriving cedars, pines, and cypress trees over twenty meters tall, the setting drew out the full potential of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. The Titans needed to be lured onto similar terrain if they were to be felled. While there were only a few such places outside the walls, the oases featured a decent density of trees.

Okay! Kuklo fired himself up and stared at a thirty-meter-class cypress that soared before him. He set his sights ten meters up it and used his controller’s lever to fire an anchor. He missed his target slightly, but the anchor dug itself into the tree more or less where he wanted. I guess that’s fine.

Accuracy was somewhat of an issue for Kuklo, who was missing his right eye. But that was nothing new. He could make minor adjustments on the fly, so there was no need to disassemble the gear to make mechanical adjustments.

Kuklo returned the controller lever to its original position and leapt into the air. The wire quickly reeled back in, sending his body flying with ease. Cardina, Rosa, and the others all sank anchors into other trees and began to move. Repeated practice had rewarded them with both bruised bodies and newfound skill, and their movements were as smooth as silk.

The audience oohed. Their reaction testified to the impressive possibilities hidden in the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment.

Kuklo and company weaved through the trees at a relaxed pace as if they were jogging.

“How self-serving, though.” Cardina seemed bewildered by the other recruits’ change in attitude.

“I have a feeling they’ll have another change of heart if we don’t do well at the contest,” Rosa offered her cool, realistic take. “But thanks to them, rumors about the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment will spread. We need to show them everything it can do.” She began increasing her speed.

Cardina followed after her, bantering, “Honestly, I think we already stand out.”

Though they only expressed anxiety and discontent, they were proud of the daily growth in popularity the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment was enjoying. Kuklo, on the other hand, couldn’t care less what others thought.

All I care about is killing Ogre. The Vertical Maneuvering Equipment was attracting attention on his way to that goal, nothing more.

Likewise, he needed to perform well at the inspection matches in order to defeat the Titan. He hadn’t been moved by Jorge’s passion, nor was he concerned about the future of humanity. What drove him was utterly personal. He wanted to sever his ties to the Titans. But whatever it was that motivated Kuklo, no one would object if he put up some results. He was certainly putting in the required effort.

It happened when he was fine-tuning the placement of his anchors even as he proceeded among the trees. A shot from his right firing mechanism strayed far from its target and missed.

“Wha?!” Kuklo opened his eye wide in surprise. It seemed like a mechanical malfunction. Having lost its mark, the anchor descended in a parabolic arc.

He clicked his tongue and quickly tried to reel the wire back in, but the right controller linked to it didn’t respond. He pressed the lever again and again, to no avail.

Oh no… Kuklo’s wires were his mode of transportation as well as his lifeline. When they failed, he was essentially throwing himself off of a tree. What now? What do I do?!

His left wire having been reeled in, Kuklo’s body was flying forward from the momentum. Normally, his right anchor would grab its target and stabilize his body, but now…

Kuklo quickly looked around him but spotted no branches that might save him. His body began to decelerate and lose balance. He found himself overtaken by a strange, floating sensation.

I’m going to fall… Just as Kuklo thought this, his body began hurtling toward the earth.

Ten meters to the ground. He could see a verdant rug below him, but it seemed unlikely to catch his body gently. His scattered blood would turn the flowers into crimson mementos.

“Kuklo!” Cardina and Rosa yelled almost simultaneously.

“Damn it!” Kuklo spat, gripping his left controller. Dying thanks to a tool meant to kill Titans was no way to go. No thanks!

He had options left, too. While his right controller wasn’t functioning, thankfully his left one still did. While he could no longer maneuver in three dimensions, he could still move up and down. In other words, he just had to imagine that he was using the old Equipment.

The only problem was his sense of direction, which had been scrambled thanks to his rapid descent. His inner ears seemed not to be working, and he couldn’t even tell which way was up.

He’d crash into the ground unless he did something, but just then, his eye caught a nearby tree.

Here! Kuklo immediately used the lever on his controller. An anchor shot from the firing mechanism and went straight into its target.

Far from a miracle arising from exceptional instincts, it was a conditioned reflex, the sort of feat that became possible only through grueling practice. He had learned how to move his body in his wrestling classes, and he’d fostered his sense of balance using Xenophon’s practice apparatus. Thanks to the old Equipment, he’d grown familiar with his gear’s workings. His response was the summation of all of this training and not a matter of chance.

Just a meter away from the ground, an intense force ripped through his body and he came to a sudden stop. The harness spread the impact out to some degree but didn’t eliminate the stress altogether. Kuklo quickly started losing consciousness.

While he’d narrowly missed hitting the ground, that was not the end of his troubles. The impact also affected his anchor, which pulled itself out of the tree trunk, unable to support his body.

This time, Kuklo did fall to the ground, and that was when he blacked out.

***

But that was exactly what he was seeing.

Fortunately, Kuklo’s superhuman nimbleness had kept him from falling all the way down, but he was surely hurt. He was now face-up and flat on the ground, completely still.

He couldn’t be… The worst of all outcomes crossed Cardina’s mind, but he shook his head, denying the possibility.

“Cardina!” Rosa yelled out to him and descended to Kuklo’s side before he could. His classmates followed.

I was just jumping to conclusions. Cardina breathed a deep sigh and quickly shot out a wire to head back to the ground. He landed, recovered his anchor, then rushed over to where Kuklo lay spread out.

“He’s just unconscious. It doesn’t look like he’s particularly hurt.”

Just as Rosa diagnosed, Kuklo seemed to be okay. He had no noticeable injuries and his breathing was normal. He would be bruised the next day, but they were confident he’d come to soon.

“In any case, I can’t believe how tough he is.” Cardina was genuinely stunned.

“It might not be appropriate to say this, but I’m kind of relieved.”

“Why?”

“Now I know he’s human, too.”

“Ah, I take your meaning.”

Kuklo had been known as the Titan’s son, and his body was hardy enough to give credence to the label. Rosa could be forgiven for harboring a faint, lingering suspicion.

“As you can see, Kuklo is just a regular human. Though he is tougher than most people need to be.” Cardina shrugged his shoulders. “Still, I can’t believe he’d fall… What could have happened?”

“I was in the air a little behind him…” Rosa looked pensive for a short while but continued, “His anchor flew off in a weird direction, so it could have been a mechanical malfunction.”

If the error was due to the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment not working properly, then even Kuklo could not avoid falling.

Could that really be it, though? It had been developed by Xenophon and Angel. They wouldn’t overlook such a flaw, but if an anchor flew in a direction its user didn’t intend, there had to be some cause.

Cardina looked at the parts in question, the right controller and firing mechanism.

Well, I don’t see any damage. He couldn’t be sure until he took it apart, but an amateur like him probably wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the problem anyway. Since the left anchor worked properly, the main unit of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment had to be fine. The cylinders are full of gas, too.

Cardina performed a quick check of all the equipment on Kuklo’s body but found nothing that could have caused a malfunction.

We’ll probably have to learn how to service these things sooner or later. Having to call the craftsmen every time something broke wouldn’t do in an emergency. At the very least, they needed to learn how to disassemble the machinery, study its parts, and reassemble it.

“Let’s carry him back to the barracks for now. It could be that he’s sick.” Though Cardina didn’t really think Kuklo was ill, a medic needed to see him, just in case.

He took the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment off of Kuklo’s body, then moved on to the harness. When he was nearly done, a section of it snapped and tore off.

Rosa looked at the split harness. “So this was the problem…”

“The machinery must not have registered his movements because this part was coming loose. It makes sense that an anchor flew in the wrong direction.”

Cardina sighed in relief now that he had a satisfactory answer. Rosa, however, continued to stare at the harness with a grave expression.

“Is something bothering you?” he asked her.

Rosa nodded and pointed to the severed part. Carved into it was an unnatural notch. “If it tore itself apart, there would be fraying. But this…”

“Yes. It’s like someone used a sharp blade to make a cut there.”

“Did someone tamper with his harness?”

“I hope not…”

Yet the artificial slice made it clear that someone had meddled with it. It must have been left mostly intact just so it’d fail in the air. In other words, the cut was like a time bomb.

Did someone try to kill Kuklo?! It was a natural conclusion, considering the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment’s purpose. A chill ran down Cardina’s spine.

“But who would do such a thing…” Despite the words that spilled out of his mouth, he didn’t need to whittle down a long list of suspects in order to name the culprit. Kuklo had an enemy, and the answer was obvious.

“I think we might know who our criminal is.” Rosa seemed to be thinking of the same individual. “So, what do we do?”

“Let’s consult with the instructor first. This isn’t the first time that guy has done something evil.”

“Not the first time?! Why let someone like that join the Training Corps?” Rosa demanded, visibly distrustful.

Oops, I said too much there. But it was too late for him to take it back. “There’d been a certain situation,” Cardina said evasively.

Rosa looked even more doubtful. “Are you going to spout some bullshit about suspicious organizations again?”

“Please, let’s just leave it at that. I’ll tell you about it once we get everything sorted out.” Given the nature of the matter, however, that time might never arrive.

Cardina hoisted Kuklo up with his teammates and returned the way they came.

***

“Where am I…” A familiar ceiling came into Kuklo’s view, and he knew right away: he was lying sideways on his own bed in the barracks.

“How do you feel,” Cardina asked, peering into his face. Behind him stood Jorge.

“How do I feel?” Kuklo was still groggy, just having woken up, but he soon remembered something important. “Oh, yes. I was using the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment when I─”

Since he was still alive, he’d just barely avoided crashing into the ground. His body was in pain because he’d pushed himself to the limit to survive. He could have been left with muscle injuries, tears in the worst case, but it seemed as though he hadn’t moved in overly extreme ways. His pain was within manageable bounds, and he’d recover in a few days.

But that was not what was important. He needed to focus on the chain of events that began with a mechanical malfunction and ended with a nearly fatal dive.

It took place over just a few seconds, but in that brief moment Kuklo had considered many things and settled on a course of action. It felt as though he’d applied all of the skills he’d learned.

As soon as he came to this realization, his heart filled with a sense of accomplishment. I handled the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment perfectly during that split second.

“Anyway, about the accident…” Cardina said, looking serious. “There was actually a problem with the harness you were using.”

“I see…” Kuklo balled his fist. His euphoria seemed to be acting as an analgesic, and he felt no pain.

“This doesn’t leave this room, but there were signs that your harness was tampered with.”

“Someone did that, then…”

“Oh, so you’ve figured it out. Please take a look.” Cardina brought the harness out in front of Kuklo and pointed at the torn area. “We believe that someone made a notch here with a blade. The culprit is most likely─”

Waving his hand to cut him off, Kuklo said, “Enough about that, listen to me!”

“What? This is important, you know?” Cardina looked quite nonplussed.

“The revolution! It’s happened!” Kuklo exclaimed.

“What are you talking about?”

“I think I’ve mastered the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment.”

“Really?!”

Kuklo nodded, then explained why he thought so to Cardina and Jorge.

“Perhaps being on the brink of death drew out new possibilities,” mused Cardina.

“And thanks to an ambush of sorts. All of your disparate skills combined as one due to an accident, the machine failure,” Jorge remarked with a look of understanding.

“So now we know what the revolution we need is…”

“An ambush can’t be the only way, Cardina. It must be one of many methods.”

“But we found one,” Kuklo said.

“Yes, a rather dangerous method…” Cardina’s cheeks had grown stiff. He clearly preferred a different method. Reacting in the wrong way could lead to a fatal fall or a career-ending injury, so he was hardly to blame.

“A small price to pay for mastering the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment,” Kuklo insisted.

“I don’t think so. Live to fight another day, and all that,” Cardina countered.

“An ambush is definitely dangerous,” the instructor admitted. “But if you can’t overcome one, then sooner or later, you will drop out. I don’t mean to pressure anyone, of course.”

“I was the one who decided to stick with him, so I’ll try my best, but… Please don’t get your hopes up.”

“Don’t worry. You can do it too, Cardina. So can everyone else.” Kuklo was certain of it, though he couldn’t explain why in words.

Jorge expressed his agreement. “If Kuklo can master it, everyone else should be able to. You have a tendency to underestimate yourselves, but you’re all completing the same training. You can be more confident.”

“I sure hope so…” Cardina sighed. “Getting back to the harness, what should we do?”

“Do?”

“Weren’t you listening to me at all?!” Cardina put a hand to his forehead and groaned. “Someone tampered with your harness. Don’t you think you need to question him?”

“So that’s why my Vertical Maneuvering Equipment was strange?”

“Yes.”

Kuklo immediately had an idea of who had done it, but he was not interested in hunting down the perpetrator, nor did he feel the desire to expose him and see him ruined.

I don’t care about that stuff. It was a waste of time.

In fact, it was thanks to this perpetrator that Kuklo could now use the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. He felt like he needed to thank him if anything.

“He’d regret it, and his face would turn red, if he heard you say that,” Cardina said chuckling.

***

Kuklo ought to have suffered major injuries during a training accident a few days ago. Yet, he was the picture of health with no noticeable after-effect. In fact, his movements were more agile and exact than before. Did he now have complete mastery over the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment?

The same was true for the other flunkers. Advancing smoothly as though they were marching on the ground, they looked like full-fledged servicemen. The only difference was that the sky was their stage, not the earth. There was no longer a trace of apishness.

There’s no way he could be fine. They trained twenty meters in the air. Anyone falling from that height would suffer grave injuries, and there were in fact rumors that Kuklo had been dealt a fatal one. After all, Xavi had prepared the cause of the accident and foreseen the calamity that befell Kuklo.

A debilitating injury at the very least. Preferably, death…

Yet, contrary to Xavi’s expectations, Kuklo was brimming with energy. At this point, Xavi had to question the source of the rumors.

I have to murder him. There’s no other way… Dirtying his hands was undeniably risky, but the only option left was to watch Kuklo die with his own eyes. Unless he committed the deed personally, Kuklo would come back to life again and again, just like a Titan, to stand in Xavi’s way. I have to put an end to it myself…

But killing Kuklo would inevitably generate suspicion─a dire problem for Xavi, who wished to join the ranks of the Military Police Brigade. He had to figure out a way to not only kill Kuklo but to come out of it clean. He was asking for too much, but he needed to make it happen.

Fortunately for him, an event where he might do exactly that was going to be held in two days. If he proceeded boldly yet carefully, he should be able to slaughter Kuklo once and for all.

Glaring at his enemy among the branches, Xavi began to consider the necessary steps.

***

Unlike the gallant expeditions of the Survey Corps, everything about the contest seemed plain. The audience consisted only of government officials, military brass, and a few other concerned parties. All in all, they numbered only about fifty people, but it sufficed for publicizing the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment to keypersons.

Kuklo and company came very first on the program. They would be making practice runs in the way of unveiling the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. A large dummy sat on the grounds in place of a Titan.

How would the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment alter anti-Titan combat? Could they really beat the Titans to begin with? Kuklo and the others’ mission was to answer these questions definitively with their demonstration.

“Don’t overthink it. You don’t need to try to show them anything special. Just do what you always do, and you’ll provide the results we need,” Jorge instructed the recruits.

Putting aside Kuklo, who was used to being observed, Cardina, Rosa, and the others were all nervous to varying degrees. Failure was not an option, so it was little wonder they couldn’t relax.

“You’ll stop worrying once you’re up high,” Kuklo declared flatly. The demonstration wasn’t taking place on the ground. Though the posts were only ten meters high, the view from them would be drastically different. From that height, the spectators would blend into the scenery where they could be ignored.

“Then I’ll just pretend they’re potatoes or something,” Cardina said, scratching his head.

“That’s probably the right approach,” Rosa seconded. “We have an inspection match waiting after this, so we need to save some of our strength.”

While the run was all that mattered to Kuklo’s team, the mock battles to be held afterwards offered the other recruits a final chance to self-promote. The matches were crucial to them, especially if they were aiming to join the Military Police.

It doesn’t matter one way or another to me. Still, Kuklo planned to go all-out in the match to gauge where his abilities stood.

“Let’s go.” He pulled his controllers out of his holsters.

“Did you check your harness?” Cardina teased.

“Just don’t fall. It’d be shameful to see,” Rosa said.

“I’m okay.”

After Kuklo’s accident, they made a point of inspecting their harnesses before wearing them. Going forward, the plan was to add inspections and maintenance of the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment to the routine.

Kuklo turned his attention to the top of a post, then fired an anchor using his controller. Feeling much like a bird, he rushed into the air. His visual field suddenly opened up and the world transformed.

They really could be potatoes. With his bird’s-eye view ten meters off the ground, the people below him seemed like a simple mob. From up there, differences in social status and talent meant nothing, government officials and recruits all potatoes. Nothing about them could put anyone on edge.

As if to chase after him, Kuklo’s comrades sped to the same heights. They split into two groups, each rotating around their target, the dummy. One group went clockwise while the other went counterclockwise. Both made sure to vary their altitudes as well.

The audience let out cries on the ground, but the wind whooshing past the recruits’ ears blocked the exact words. The reaction didn’t sound bad at all, though.

After maneuvering for a time, the team shifted to attack mode. Appending single-edged swords onto their controllers, they confirmed the location of their target, the Titan dummy, and settled on routes to its weak point, the medulla oblongata. Approaches weren’t hard to deduce against a stationary target.

Kuklo lifted his body to a point higher than the Titan, then moved horizontally to swing around to its back, bringing the nape of the dummy’s neck in sight.

There! Locking in on the Titan’s weakness, Kuklo began swooping down toward it. He moved from upper right to lower left in a slashing motion as if he himself had become his blade.

He aimed strictly at the Titan’s nape and not its body. An attack anywhere else yielded nothing more than a tactical advantage. Forming a V with the single-edged swords he held in each of his hands, Kuklo slashed at the Titan dummy as if to slice away its medulla oblongata. True to their mark, the blades gouged it out.

Cardina, Rosa, and the rest of the recruits followed in succession toward the dummy. They came from above to below, from below to above, or on the level, and sliced. This proved their ability to strike a Titan’s weak point from any angle. The team exchanged glances, finished their run, and returned to the ground.