CHAPTER FOUR

Angel was having a dream. A dream of being attacked by a Titan.

He knew that he was dreaming because he saw the same scene every time he went to sleep. A wide expanse of barren, sand-swept land spread before him, and a gigantic man towered overhead. It was Mammon. Angel, try as he might, couldn’t forget his fearless smile. Mammon clenched Solm’s body with such ease that his best friend might as well have been a doll.

“Again? You’re doing this to Solm again?”

Solm’s face contorted in agony and blood frothed from his mouth.

“Stop!”

Complaining to a dream was meaningless, but he could not stay silent. He never wanted to see Solm suffering again.

Mammon showed no signs of complying with Angel’s request. The Titan squeezed Solm’s body like a fresh fruit. All four of Solm’s limbs bent in impossible angles as bones jutted out of his torn skin, fresh blood dripping on the ground.

“Aaaaahhh!”

As soon as Angel shrieked clawing at his hair, he was jolted awake by the loudness of his own voice.

“Just…a dream.”

But the dream seemed all too real. His heart was ringing like an alarm, and his night sweats were so severe that he was drenched down to his underwear.

Attacked even in my dreams…

Angel took deep breaths to calm his disordered breathing. A week had passed since the expedition, but the persistent nightmares only continued to wear on his body and mind.

So there’s nowhere to run.

It was all due to the expedition’s disastrous outcome. They had set off enthused to shed light on the Titans’ behavior, but merely learned of their enemy’s prowess a few times over.

If Solm hadn’t held back Mammon, I wouldn’t be…

While the task may have been essential to humanity’s future, the cost simply had been too large.

If I hadn’t joined them on the expedition, he might not have had to die.

He had wondered this countless times since the expedition but always came to the same conclusion.

I bet Solm would say…it’s not my fault.

Angel sat up and slapped his cheeks to exhort himself.

“Just gotta move forward,” Angel muttered audibly to himself and got out of bed.

As soon as he stood, however, his vision warped like a stick of soft candy. Unable to stay upright, he sank down to the edge of his bed and applied pressure to his temples. He couldn’t get enough sleep, nor did he have an appetite, and his body seemed to have grown even weaker than he’d imagined.

While he sighed over his own frailty, there was no time to fuss over it. Solm and Corina would laugh at him if he let a bit of dizziness put him out of action.

What drove Angel, though, was more than just thoughts of his friends but a sense of duty.

“I have to do this.”

He grit his teeth and stood up, quickly got dressed, and set off for the lab.

***

“Sheesh, just look at you.”

Angel was needled the moment he stepped into the chief’s office. The inconsiderate remark came from Caspar, the master of the room. He sat reclined on his sofa and gazed at Angel with an appraising look.

“You look like you’re about to collapse. Have you been eating?”

“Treated to that scene, not really…”

Every time he slept, the despair he experienced on the expedition revived all over again. It was no wonder that he had no appetite.

“Forget about me, how are things going?”

“That the only thing you care about?” Caspar sighed. “No news,” he stated flatly.

While that was enough to discourage Angel, he didn’t give up. “Could you try talking to Jorge again? It’s important.”

“The result’s going to be the same no matter how many times I try.”

“Dammit.” Angel bit his lip. “One more time… I need to go on one more expedition…”

“To do what?”

“To show that we can kill the Titans.” It would not have been an overstatement to say that Angel now lived for no other reason than to prove this. “I saw it for myself. A Titan died.”

The image was still fresh in his mind. Solm’s suicidal attack against Mammon had more than just stalled the creature.

After that, the Titan turned to smoke and disappeared.

Though the scene looked nothing like a human’s death, Angel considered it the equivalent. It removed the threat posed by a Titan, so putting aside the process, the result was identical.

While still approximate, he’d also located the Titans’ weak point. To be certain of it, he had to go on another expedition to confirm his theory, and the Survey Corps’ cooperation was essential for that. Angel had tried to approach Jorge through Caspar but had received absolutely no reply.

“The problem here’s that you were the only one to see the Titan die.”

“You’re saying I’m spouting nonsense?”

“That’s not it.” Caspar rubbed his shaved head, then glanced at Angel. “But it’s hard to prove anything if yer the only one who saw it. Right?”

“But I…”

“Yeah, I know. Ya saw him bite it, I know you did.” There was no doubt in Caspar’s voice. “And just between us─” Caspar leaned forward before continuing with a solemn expression, “Jorge saw something like that, too.”

“He did? He saw the Titan die?!”

Angel grew animated at Caspar’s words. No matter how convinced that a Titan had died, Angel was the only one making the claim. He had spoken to the soldiers on the expedition, but none of them had seen the Titan’s final moments. In fact, some even suggested it might have been a delusion triggered by the extreme circumstances.

But if Jorge could confirm the Titan’s death, that would give credibility to Angel’s claim.

“Then why won’t Jorge send me a reply?”

“He’s probably way too busy dealing with the aftermath of the expedition.” Caspar shrugged. “You went on it, so you should know. The Survey Corps was halved in number.”

The eighty-man Survey Corps now numbered under thirty. Not only was it no time for another expedition, the future of the force was endangered.

“Still, this is the time if we’re going to go.” Angel wasn’t being stubborn simply in order to get his way. He sensed that if he let this chance slip, he would never get another expedition.

It was common knowledge that the Survey Corps had been dealt a devastating blow. Growing ranks of residents were skeptical about the expeditions, possibly because the loss set back reconstruction. This lent influence to the conservatives and might accelerate their efforts to seal the gates and dissolve the Survey Corps. A step needed to be taken before those decisions could be made.

“They probably feel the same way.” Caspar scowled with crossed arms. “In any case, there’s nothing we can say that’ll make a difference. We’ve just gotta sit here and wait for a reply.”

“But…”

“You just keep developing. Even if they do decide to go on an expedition, there’s no point unless they can bring some special gear with ’em.”

Caspar was absolutely right, and Angel had no choice but to agree. He had been so caught up in whether there would be another expedition that he’d neglected his work. Knowing the Titans’ weakness wouldn’t matter if they didn’t possess the appropriate gear, whose development was an urgent task, no question about it.

“Your job is to develop arms. Got that? It’s not slaughtering Titans. That’s Jorge’s job.”

“I know.” Achieving their goal was nigh impossible if Angel stayed flustered and lost sight of things. He’d nearly made a crucial mistake.

“By the way, have you talked to Maria?”

As soon as Angel heard her name, he felt a pricking pain in his chest.

“Eh? So you still haven’t talked to her.”

“How could I ever face her… Do I tell her I’m alive thanks to Solm?”

Angel had last seen Maria at the soldiers’ funeral service three days earlier, though it would be more accurate to say that he’d simply caught sight of her. She looked exhausted and unapproachable. More to the point, Angel didn’t have the courage to speak to her.

“Personally, I think it’s yer duty to tell her how Solm died.”

“Couldn’t Jorge…”

“Are you some kinda idiot?!” Caspar snapped. “Just go tell her what you need to. That’s an order from your boss.”

“Come on…”

“How else is Maria supposed to sort out her feelings? Or you, for that matter?”

Caspar shooed Angel out of the room.

***

Angel stood in front of Wall Maria’s main gate, looking up at its towering presence. Though the wall had allowed Mammon to enter, it was as imposing as ever. The bloodstains and guts flung on it washed away, the Wall now majestically presented itself to Angel as if nothing had ever happened.

He hadn’t come to the main gate in order to take a look at Wall Maria’s condition. He was interested in the watchtower atop it, and specifically, a soldier stationed there: Maria. While he was obeying Caspar, who’d gone so far as to term it an order, it wasn’t as if he were there unwillingly. As the one who’d witnessed Solm’s final moments and heard his dying request, he certainly felt that he needed to speak to Maria. What he had to say was simply too cruel, however, and he lacked the courage to tell Maria to her face. Caspar’s strict order was the impetus he needed.

Still… I don’t want to have this conversation…

He had kept putting his unpleasant task aside, and this was the result. While he knew it was his own fault, he couldn’t keep from sighing. Nevertheless, he could not back down now.

Angel paused for a moment and looked himself over. Instead of his normal work clothes, he was wearing a Garrison soldier’s uniform. He could have waited until after her shift but was afraid his nerves might fade. Thus, he’d brought out the uniform, even though his disguise was already known to the corps and may not serve its purpose.

“Now or never…”

Angel scratched his head, made up his mind, and ploddingly climbed the stairs that led to the watchtower. He passed a number of soldiers on his way, but none of them so much as asked him to stop. Either they didn’t notice or were pretending not to, but whichever the case, Angel was thankful.

He could now see the watchtower above. As Angel approached, a soldier stationed within exited sluggishly, perhaps mistaking the craftsman for relief. Raising his hand, Angel nonchalantly stepped inside in his stead.

Maria was there, looking past the Walls with a pair of binoculars. He could see signs of fatigue on her face, but she was the picture of dignity as she stood on duty. She seemed, at first glance, to have gotten over Solm’s death, but that was doubtful. No doubt she’d donned the uniform as support, both mentally and physically, consciously placing a lid on her emotions.

Just as Angel tried to think of a way to begin, she spoke. “That day… I was up here when you went on the expedition, waiting for all of you to return.” She was still looking beyond the Walls through her binoculars. “I remember having an awful feeling when the Black Star went up.”

“I see.”

Angel walked to Maria’s side and looked out with her. Scanning the area, he saw no Titans. But that was only what he could see. He knew there were Titans lurking here and there.

“It was just a week ago that I was down there…”

Angel had ventured beyond the Wall because he hadn’t known just how fearsome it was out there. The Titans were absurdly strong, and the world ridiculously broad. The more you learned, the more you understood how miniscule you were. It was difficult to leave the Walls unless you truly had guts.

But I need to go out there again.

He would develop new gear and use it to overturn the established theory that the Titans didn’t die. It was his mission now. He knew it was reckless, and if he could have helped it, he wouldn’t go out there. But he had to make another expedition happen. Proving that a Titan had died was something he had to do, both for his best friend and for the life to be born.

This won’t get us anywhere, though…

Angel hadn’t climbed the Wall to become aware of his own mission.

He looked at Maria out of the corner of his eyes, mentally prepared himself, and began, “I’m sorry, Maria. If only I were─”

“Was he impressive?” Maria interrupted, turning her eyes from the world beyond, towards Angel.

“If it wasn’t for him, I might not be here today.”

“A proud end it must have been.”

“I still can’t believe that idiot. Sacrificing himself so that everyone else could get away…” Angel had survived as a result, but it didn’t do that his savior had succumbed to death himself.

“I’d always thought this day would come.”

The specter of death closely followed any soldier enlisted in the Survey Corps.

He could die one day─any soldier’s family members and friends felt the same. At the same time, they were prone to nurture a groundless belief: “Well, not him.” No matter how irrational, they had to think that in order to stay calm.

“What’re you going to do now?”

“I haven’t thought about it yet…”

“Will you stay in the Garrison?”

The main reason Maria had done so was to guard the place that Solm returned to. Now that she had lost him, there was no reason for her to stay.

“What about you?”

“I’m going to craft arms to kill the Titans.”

“Even though Solm’s gone?”

“It’s not just about him at this point.”

“I think I’m the same way.”

“What do you mean?”

“Solm was why I started, but I’m proud of this job now.”

“So you can’t quit so readily.” That much was evident from how Maria approached her work. “It was a dumb question.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Maria put on a faint smile. “Of course, I don’t think I’ll be able to do this for that long.”

“Why not?” Angel asked, but he remembered right away. “Well, I hope the baby will be nice and strong.”

“Like Solm?”

“I guess we don’t know if it’ll be a boy.”

“Healthy will do for me.”

“Too healthy, and we might end up with another Survey Corpsman on our hands.”

“I’ll worry about that when it happens. I don’t think I’d be against it.”

“I’m surprised to hear that.”

“We’re going to be able to defeat the Titans by then, right?” Maria stared Angel in his face with a serious expression. “In that case, I wouldn’t be afraid of expeditions. I wouldn’t have to wait in fear.”

The common sense that Titans could not be killed would be a thing of the past once Angel completed his anti-Titan gear and went on an expedition. And that day would be coming soon.

The kid will be mighty proud of his dad.

While Solm never had the chance to embrace his child, he’d done his duty as a father before passing away.

“Man. What a guy,” Angel sighed, turning his gaze past the Walls once more. “I need to put my life to good use, too.”

He did not doubt for a moment that it was the only way he could ever repay Solm.

***

“I don’t have the materials!” Xenophon sprang into Angel’s development lab with a nonsensical outburst. His agitation was manifest from his breathing like a wild horse and his sickly-pale face, but it hardly suited what he’d said.

Having your room invaded as though by some raider just because he didn’t “have the materials” was past annoying. Especially if you’d been focused on your work.

“If you’re short on materials, just go order some!” Angel shot back, looked away from Xenophon, and turned his concentration back to his hands.

The disassembled parts of the Equipment sat on his work bench. They were sorted into three main groups: the controller, the gas cylinder that held the fuel, and the main unit that connected the two. Each of them had their own problems, both big and small. The big problems were the strength of the wire and the cylinder. These two issues needed to be overcome for the Equipment to be practical. In other words, he had absolutely no spare time to waste on Xenophon.

“They’ve shut down the distribution channel. I can’t even place orders.”

“What?” Angel furrowed his brow. “Was the factory city attacked or something?”

“No. Seems like orders from above.”

“The old man?”

“Please.”

“So then…”

“The royal government.”

Xenophon’s answer caused Angel’s eyes to open wide. “Why are the authorities getting involved in our business?”

“I’d say the talk of shrinking the military is starting to feel real.”

“Are the conservatives ramming that through?”

“It’s possible.”

The conservatives’ goal was to shut everyone within the Walls. What kept it from fruition was the fact that they were evenly matched with the reformers, but the shut-ins were gaining force after the Titan invasion.

“If distribution stops, both production and development becomes impossible,” Angel said.

“Supplies to the corps will be cut off, too.” The first to be affected would be the Survey Corps. “Pretty soon, expeditions will be out of the question.”

“Worst case, we’re talking about dissolution.”

If the Survey Corps were disbanded, there would no cause to go beyond the Walls. There would be no drawbacks to sealing the gates. That had to be the conservatives’ roadmap.

“What’s the old man doing?”

“He left for a meeting. Sounds like he’ll be discussing the matter with workshop chiefs from other towns.”

“All right,” Angel nodded and set to thinking about how to overcome the situation. He quit before long, however, and turned to face the Equipment that sat before him.

My job is to complete this thing.

Doing so should improve their situation, too.

“Either way, my job is to keep working on this Equipment. That’s all I can do.”

“It’s the same for me, but our supply of materials has been cut off.” That was why Xenophon had jumped into the room in a panic.

“So we’ve played right into their hand…” Angel laughed bitterly, but he couldn’t give up. “We’re development and production professionals. ‘We didn’t have the materials’ won’t cut it.”

“Do you have a plan in mind?”

“There are materials lying all over this workshop, aren’t there?”

Huge piles of neglected junk had accumulated all around the lab. Though useless in their current form, they could be dismantled and processed to be reborn as workable material. As far as trinkets tantamount to trash went, the workshop was a rich hunting ground, and if necessary, arms awaiting shipment could be reverted back to their materials. For the time being, and for development purposes, they would be fine.

“Okay, let’s get started.”

Angel reached for a prototype of unclear function that sat on the floor.

***

He’d resumed development on the Equipment because he realized that it could help defeat the Titans. Originally designed to close the gap in height between humans and Titans, the device seemed to be headed in the right direction.

While he once pondered how beneficial investigating the Titans sooner could have been, without all the conditions in place the enemy would have been unassailable. Those conditions had been met now, via locating their weak point and the development of powerful arms. Essential to developing those arms, however, was the discovery of new materials, namely Iron Bamboo and Iceburst Stone. Furthermore, if not for the factory city, those materials would have remained beyond their capacity to process. It was thanks to all the gears miraculously meshing that preparations were finally in place for a counterattack.

The Titans’ weakness was their throat. This was Angel’s guess based on where Solm blew himself up. While still unconfirmed, he was sure that whatever organ corresponded to the human heart resided there.

But they were up against ridiculous monsters who revived themselves without ado even after having their skulls split. Underestimating them spelled death.

“The short sword can cut their throats open… The question is that Equipment,” Xenophon, staring at it, groaned as if in the grips of a fever.

Although they’d happily secured materials by collecting junk from around the workshop, they lacked so much as a clue on how to solve the Equipment’s durability issue. As a result, ruptured cylinders piled up in the development lab in what looked like a mountain of returned stock. Still they pushed on, continuing to make one test model after the next, and eventually succeeded in creating a reasonably strong cylinder.

But it’s only reasonably strong…

Anything they made would be meaningless unless it was polished enough to entrust one’s life to.

“We’re going to have to use Iron Bamboo, after all.”

“That’s the only way to get the toughness we need,” Xenophon seconded.

Though they were agreed on using Iron Bamboo, with distribution halted by the royal government it would be extremely hard to get any. They had some scraps left from manufacturing the short swords and the capture net, but not enough for trial and error.

“Should we collect some without permission? We do know where it is.”

“Theft should be our last resort. If they catch us, we’ll be marked as traitors and they’ll chop our heads off,” Angel said, waving a leveled hand across his throat.

“I would greatly prefer to be remembered as the savior of humanity. I’d rather not sully my name.”

“Remembered or not, we need to leave results.”

Angel grabbed a node of Iron Bamboo and began toying with it. Their inventory consisted of a few pieces cut into nodes, and there was little they could do with that amount.

“We managed to do something about the wire…”

Like the cylinder, the wire had toughness problems, but this was fixed by using the web from the Titan capture net. While it hadn’t sufficed to keep down a Titan, the wire was certainly strong enough to support a human. There was no substitute for a gas cylinder, though, so they had no choice but to make one.

“I just wish we had a little more of this stuff,” regretted Xenophon.

“Do we turn the Iron Bamboo in the short swords back into raw materials?”

“Unfortunately, the only short sword here is the one prototype I made.”

“I don’t suppose we could recall the rest from the Survey Corps.”

“They’re the ones who’ll be doing the fighting. Can’t fight a Titan if you don’t have weapons.”

“Yeah…” The Equipment and weapons worked as a set. One was meaningless without the other.

“What about reducing the Iron Bamboo content? We’ll lose some durability, but it’ll still be better than what we have.”

“That’s one way.”

“You don’t look like you agree.”

“Nope,” Angel flatly admitted.

Xenophon’s proposal would better a difficult situation. No one would find fault if they adopted it.

But it’s not the best solution.

As a craftsman, it was only natural for that to be Angel’s goal.

“So, what to do.” Angel stared at the Iron Bamboo in his hand, waiting for an idea to hit him. He knew, though, that inspiration didn’t descend as if from heaven. The answers all lay within himself.

He resentfully glared at the Iron Bamboo.

The bamboo, a muted silver, was a top ingredient, provided by nature, and there was no greater joy for a craftsman than to work with it. If only they could use Iron Bamboo, he had the confidence to create the ultimate gas cylinder.

Do we steal more knowing the risks, or do we make do with what we have?

Neither choice appealed to Angel, but at this rate development would only be delayed further. He couldn’t obsess over materials and end up having the Equipment shelved.

“Processing, huh?” Angel muttered as he flicked the stem with his finger. Lending his ear to the high-pitched sound, he felt something nag at him.

“Let’s try going to the Trost District workshop. There might be some Iron Bamboo left there.”

“Iron Bamboo…”

“They distributed some to workshops in every town. We could probably find some if we looked around.”

“Bamboo…”

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I just like the sound it makes.”

“This is no time to be taking it easy.” Xenophon shrugged in disbelief. “As you know, bamboo is hollow. That makes the sound resonate.”

“Hollow…”

Just as Angel repeated after Xenophon, he understood. Not that bamboo was hollow, but what was nagging at him.

“We’ve been doing this wrong.”

“Excuse me?”

“Our instincts as craftsmen must have gotten in the way.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“When we were given the Iron Bamboo, we saw it as a material to be processed.”

“Of course we did.”

“Because we’re craftsmen,” Angel agreed with a nod. “But what if we don’t need to process it?”

“Pardon me?”

“I’m saying that we’ve had our cylinders here all along,” Angel said with a grin, passing the Iron Bamboo to Xenophon. “This is our cylinder.”

“Oh, I see! What an idea!!” Xenophon grasped Angel’s intent with due speed. “So we use its properties as bamboo.”

“Bamboo is hollow. All we need to do is put gas inside and we have our cylinder.”

“And it’s Iron Bamboo, so no durability problems.”

“Exactly,” Angel replied, brimming with confidence.

He felt he was on to something. They had solved their biggest problem, durability. Now they just had to knuckle down and start manufacturing the Equipment. It wouldn’t be long until they were done.

“All right, let’s get started.”

***

Development of the Equipment moved forward surprisingly smoothly, coming together in just a few days.

It had required neither sleepless nights nor miracles, as the real work only consisted of swapping the Equipment’s wire and cylinder. While they thought that it would be a long process at first, that was not the case once they discovered the solutions to their problems. It seemed like a joke: to make the wire, they simply unbound Angel’s capture net and respun the material, and for the cylinder, what they had on hand served whole.

As the cylinder had shrunk in size, they also made a few minor changes to the Equipment. Now smaller and lighter, the energy source was relocated from the back to the sides of the hips, and they now used two controllers instead of one. While the system was designed to keep working even if one of the controllers was damaged, using both together would allow a user to even climb over Wall Maria. As they could not obtain Iceburst Stone, they filled the cylinders with natural gas, but the Equipment still functioned well. Fuel efficiency was poor, however, making it unsuitable for long periods of use. In order to properly implement the Equipment, they needed Iceburst Stone. All they had to do to fix that was to prove the Titans could be killed.

Still, wait as they might, no reply came from Jorge. The rumors that Wall Maria would be sealed were growing louder by the day, and, as if to lend credence, the royal government started to merge and close down workshops. Angel’s was no exception, and regular operations were temporarily halted. While he and Xenophon ignored this and continued working, they could feel the situation worsening by the moment.

Angel and those around him were the only ones who saw it as a crisis, though. The residents seemed to pay no mind. They knew nothing about the world outside the Walls, and their daily lives bore no relation to it. The gates shutting wouldn’t have any impact on them. For the residents of Shiganshina District in particular, such a decision was in fact welcome. Angel recognized it as a major crossroads affecting humanity’s future, but only a small minority saw things his way. The vast majority of residents had no room in their lives to imagine what the future held. What mattered to them was their livelihoods here and now.

Angel patiently awaited Jorge’s reply, but the situation was only getting worse. Public opinion supported sealing the gates, and Angel knew that it was only a matter of time before that became a reality. He didn’t know how much emphasis the conservatives placed on the issue, but sealing the gates would be the best way for them to choke the life out of the reformers. They would be pursuing their objective aggressively. The only way to stop them was to take down a Titan during an expedition.

No longer able to sit still, Angel grabbed the Equipment and headed to the Survey Corps barracks together with Xenophon. It was of course to make a direct appeal to Jorge about going on another expedition.

They had nothing to lose. It would be a cruel joke if the Equipment had to be shelved, never to see the light of day. Though Angel was prepared to be turned away, he was shocked at how easily he was granted an audience.

***

“Things are really starting to look ugly.”

The mood in the barracks was heavy, and every soldier wore a dark expression as though misfortune had come to someone they knew. It was easy to guess that their situation was similar to the craftsmen’s.

A soldier led Angel and Xenophon to the commander’s executive chamber.

It was hard to imagine the Survey Corps doing administrative work, but it seemed as though once you reached as high a rank as commander, you had to fight both on and off the battlefield. The small office, no larger than ten square meters, was mostly occupied by a broad desk. On it were piles of documents stacked high.

Instead of a sword, Jorge, the room’s master, held a pen in his hands as he silently worked through the documents. Either tired of office work, or distressed over the Survey Corps’ future─possibly both─he looked exhausted.

“You look busy,” Angel noted.

“I’m not cut out for administrative work. I think I’d be much better off punishing my body,” Jorge replied with a stern face. “You’re here to talk about an expedition, right?”

“That was fast. Did you harangue him to death?”

“Like I could,” Angel brushed off Xenophon’s question. “I’ve only requested it once after the last expedition. That makes this the second time,” he continued, and stepped forward. “I want you to give me an answer.”

“As you may have already guessed, I cannot grant your request. That’s my answer,” Jorge told him in a flat, colorless voice.

As Jorge pointed out, Angel had been prepared to be denied. Still, the reality of losing his last glimmer of hope stung him. “I suppose you’d already have contacted me if you wanted to go on an expedition…”

“I do want to.”

“What?!” Angel’s voice cracked.

“You must be facing some rather annoying circumstances,” surmised Xenophon.

“Orders from above, huh?”

“Simply put, yes,” Jorge replied gravely and balled his hand into a fist. It was clear what that signified. Of everyone affected by the Survey Corps being unable to go on an expedition, Jorge was the most frustrated of all.

“An indefinite freeze on expeditions. Directive on status of Survey Corps to follow. That’s our current situation.”

“So you’d like to go, but can’t.” Xenophon looked persuaded, but Angel was not.

The Survey Corps would soon be dissolved if nothing was done. Once that happened, it would be too late to do anything.

Angel closed in on Jorge. “Are you telling me that the commander of the Survey Corps is just meekly backing down?”

“H-Hey. Don’t you think you’re being a little rude?”

Xenophon was visibly uncomfortable, but Angel was shielded by his sense of duty, standing tall despite the presence Jorge exuded. Escaping a near-death situation outside the Walls must have toughened his nerves, too. There was nothing in the world more outrageous than the Titans, so nothing could frighten Angel any longer.

“The only way to change the situation is to produce results. And that’s possible now.” Angel placed the Equipment on the desk. “This is the machine we use to kill a Titan.”

“A Titan? With this?” Jorge looked at the Equipment with a baffled expression as though he had seen a ghost. To Jorge, who didn’t know how to use the Equipment, it must have looked like a mysterious contraption.

“Solm showed us that the Titans can be killed. You saw it, didn’t you?”

“If you can call what happened to that Titan death, yes.”

“It would be a different story if the corpse stayed on the field,” remarked Xenophon. Indeed the situation would be quite different had the Titan’s corpse not disappeared. Still, in terms of eliminating a threat, the outcome equaled death.

“In order to keep the Survey Corps from being dissolved, we need to show everyone that the Titans can be killed.”

“Are you telling me to ignore orders from above?”

If a commander flaunted rules and regulations, he would be setting a bad example for his subordinates. It would surely lower morale, too. The conservative leaders would seize the opportunity and move to dissolve the Survey Corps.

“Your plan could threaten the existence of the Survey Corps.”

“I can see that…”

“And you want me to accept it?”

Jorge glared at Angel as if to intimidate him, but the pressure was not enough to make him waver.

Jorge isn’t what I’m afraid of.

What Angel feared was his own heart buckling to his terror of the Titans.

He met Jorge’s stare. “Only if you want to sway destiny.”

“Don’t you think you’re asking for a little much?” Xenophon timidly interceded.

Angel was fully aware that he was. Yet, he could not back down.

“Do you really think you’re worth betting the future of the Survey Corps on?”

“I say you’re not looking at it the right way.”

“What do you mean?

“What Solm entrusted us with isn’t the future of the Survey Corps. It’s something bigger, no?”

“True. What needs protecting isn’t the organization called the Survey Corps.”

“So you’ll go?”

Though Angel’s face was already beaming, Jorge shook his head sideways. “It’s the soldiers’ lives that’ll be on the line, not yours. It’ll be their responsibility, too. And mine, of course.”

“You’re saying my proposal is mere talk?”

“I’m just stating the facts.”

Angel had not planned to leave everything up to the Survey Corps, however. “I’ll come with you.”

“You? You’re joking, right?!” Jorge seemed to honestly wonder this and could not help but show it. “After that terrible ordeal, you say you’re able to step into the jaws of death?”

“Unless I go, how─”

“Well, I do know. Once you’ve seen as many soldiers crumble as I have, you know,” Jorge said before Angel could finish. “Even troops whose minds and bodies have been hardened lose it more or less when they see a Titan. They’re monsters, and you know that. A sense of powerlessness plunges many a soul into despair.”

“And I’m one of them?”

“At best you’ll stand there paralyzed in a pinch. You’ll exacerbate our losses.”

Jorge’s point, which seemed to allude to Solm’s death, gave Angel pause.

“Why don’t we leave it at that?” Xenophon cut into their exchange. “Any more and you’ll just be jerking open your wound.”

Angel appreciated Xenophon’s consideration, but he couldn’t give up even if it meant blood pouring out of the crack in his heart.

“If you people won’t go, then I’m going alone.”

“You know that’s impossible!” Xenophon objected.

“I’m serious.”

“I see how strong your resolve is, but we can’t let a civilian past the Walls,” Jorge replied to Angel after a moment of mute deliberation. “But that doesn’t settle it for you, does it. So I’ll give you a chance.”

“A chance?”

“If you can beat me in a fight, do as you wish.”

“And if I lose?”

“You give up.”

“Okay. Simple, I like it.”

Angel nodded to Jorge.

An agitated outburst came from Xenophon.

“Give it a little more thought! He’s a pro. You have no chance of winning. It’s absolutely hopeless!”

“It’s only an overwhelming disadvantage. There is hope.”

“You know, there’s such a thing as being too optimistic…”

“I have this.”

Whether the Equipment was effective against humans was still a cipher.

Since Jorge didn’t know its abilities, Angel could at least count on surprising him with it. Even a battle-hardened veteran who marshaled the Survey Corps would show some sort of opening. If Angel had any chance of winning, it was with that.

“Sorry, Angel?” Xenophon whispered. “He never said you could use that thing.”

“Ah…” Angel let out a small, yelping scream and fearfully looked Jorge’s way.

“Let’s change locations,” Jorge told Angel as he stood up from his chair.

He already seemed to be prepared to fight, and his expression was stern enough to make a wild beast flinch. Being freed from the bonds of paperwork seemed to usher back his ferocity.

“I’ll handle your funeral preparations at least,” Xenophon promised unhelpfully.

***

It seemed as though an announcement had been made that the commander would be putting a cocky civilian in his place. A crowd of a few dozen had spontaneously formed in front of the barracks. Ninety percent of them were Survey Corps soldiers, while the rest were traders and merchants who conducted business with the corps. They all gazed upon Jorge with intense anticipation, not a single one of them paying any attention to Angel.

“I don’t like this.”

Angel felt like a soldier stranded in enemy territory. He could tell by the mood that the crowd essentially viewed him in that way, too.

“You brought this situation upon yourself. Don’t forget that,” reminded Xenophon.

“What a pal you are. But you’ll avenge me if I lose, right?”

“Please. I’d prefer to stay alive for the time being,” the older craftsman promptly declined.

“I’ll give you a small advantage,” Jorge offered, his face brimming with confidence. “You can use that Equipment of yours. I’d like to see how it works, too.” He added, “I’ll fight you unarmed. You win if you can land a single attack on me.”

“Confident, aren’t you?”

“Well, I’m not new to the combat arts.”

“Don’t get worked up and pull that sword from your hip.”

Jorge stood there calmly as if to invite Angel to come at him from any angle. Carelessly jumping in would no doubt elicit a merciless counter-punch.

“What a lucky break. A one-in-a-thousand chance. You might even pull off that impossible upset.”

In other words, according to Xenophon he still had a near-zero chance of winning.

“This is turning into one hell of a product unveiling…”

Angel gauged the Equipment on his body and breathed out.

So the first combat it sees is against a human, huh.

The human in question, moreover, was the commander of the Survey Corps. An able adversary, all too able.

There’s basically no chance of me winning.

That’s what an impossible upset meant. But he didn’t have to beat Jorge.

If I can make him slip up and get just one shot in…

As modest a miracle as that might be in his powers to occasion.

“Ready?”

His body filling with vigor, Jorge assumed a fighting stance. Angel could sense the ease the man felt as an expert in combat. With an amateur as his opponent, it was only natural for him to appear relaxed.

It’s a little late in the game, but this doesn’t look good for me.

He couldn’t let Jorge take the initiative and dictate the pace of the fight. Angel crouched and retied his shoes. This was in order to dampen Jorge’s spirit, but he also grabbed a clump of dirt from the ground.

“All right, let’s get this started!” Angel yelled, throwing dirt at Jorge’s face at the same time in an attempt to blind him.

Cowardly, aren’t I?

But it was no time for Angel to be picky about his tactics. Right now, winning was the most important thing of all.

Angel kicked against the ground, quickly closed the distance between himself and Jorge, and hoisted up his right arm. It was a flashy, obviously amateur move, but with his enemy’s sight compromised, he didn’t fear a counterattack.

Angel tightly balled up his fist and swung for Jorge’s face. With no combat experience, he had no idea how powerful the blow was. But if it hit, it would surely put a dent in Jorge’s cool demeanor.

But Jorge stopped Angel’s punch as though it were nothing, then twisted his right wrist. Angel’s forearm turned, naturally causing him to fall on the ground. From there, his strong arm was pressed to his back in a hammerlock. It all happened in a flash, and the joints in his arm and shoulder cried out in pain at once.

“Good attack. You never know what to expect on the battlefield. Letting your guard down for a single moment could cost you your life.”

Jorge released the submission hold. Angel had tried to rattle him and to sneak in an attack, but the plan had failed spectacularly.

He got up and shook his aching arm a few times to check if it still worked. There was still a dull pain in his wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints, but they were still fully functional. If Jorge had applied just a little more pressure, though, Angel would surely either have broken bones or destroyed joints.

“Ahh, your only chance…” Xenophon said, holding his head in his hands.

“My ‘only’? Don’t say that.”

But it was the truth.

If a surprise attack won’t work, then I’ll just have to go with a straightforward one…

When and how he brought the Equipment into play would be key. Jorge had no idea about its mechanism, so Angel moving vertically had to be unimaginable. Even a man of his level would surely show an opening or two.

I guess I have to rely on surprise attacks all tbe way.

Angel looked around and found a number of targets for his anchors, such as the barracks and trees.

The question is whether I’ll hit them or not.

He had test-fired the Equipment a number of times, but significant training was needed in order to accurately hit a target with the anchors. You could hit a gigantic target like a wall with your eyes closed, but technique was required to hit a small target such as a tree trunk, especially in the middle of combat.

Hold the controller carefully, as though you were sniping, fix your aim on your target, then pull the lever: you needed to do all of that in order to be accurate, but it meant exposing yourself in a defenseless state. A Titan would probably pay no mind, but not Jorge.

“If you’re not going to make a move, then I will,” the commander abruptly interrupted his challenger’s thoughts.

By the time Angel realized what was going on, Jorge was already in front of him. Although being caught off-guard while planning out a surprise attack was the height of folly, Angel at least managed to guard his face with both hands, an impressive feat for an amateur.

“Guard high and you’re open low.” Jorge’s fist sank into Angel’s defenseless solar plexus.

“Nghh…”

Angel’s body bent over, and his breathing stopped for a moment. At the same time, he felt such intense pain rush over him that he thought he might black out. Hardly able to stand, he clutched his abdomen and collapsed to his knees. Tears welled in his eyes, and the contents of his stomach rushed back up and spewed out of his mouth. He curled up into a fetal position, cowering atop his own vomit. He was half-conscious, making the pain in his stomach hard to bear; simply passing out would surely have been easier on him. Jorge had no doubt intentionally punched him with the perfect amount of strength to get this result.

Give me a break, brawling isn’t my specialty…

Angel tried to curse Jorge but couldn’t speak the words aloud.

“Is that all you have for me?” Jorge’s disappointed voice rained down on Angel. “Maybe I overestimated you.”

Jorge reached out his hand, possibly to deliver the finishing blow.

Damn it… I’m not going to let it end here.

Still crouched, Angel felt around for his holster and pulled his controller’s lever. The Equipment groaned, and compressed gas shot out of a nozzle.

“Hunh?!” Jorge grunted in a baffled tone and jumped backward, putting some distance between himself and Angel.

Angel hadn’t shot an anchor, only releasing a small bit of gas, but it was enough to make Jorge cautious. It seemed like a pathetic last-ditch tactic, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, and Angel needed to get back up.

Still, it wasn’t easy to shake off the damage Jorge had dealt, and he wouldn’t be so kind as to wait for Angel to recover. This was a real fight. At the very least, Jorge was treating it as one. Angel could no longer afford to keep the Equipment’s abilities a secret in hopes of a surprise attack.

He aimed the muzzle of the controller at the second floor of the barracks, a relatively simple target to hit. He sunk an anchor in it and quickly pulled his body upward. Flying was out of the question even for Jorge, so Angel could attempt to recover from the damage he’d taken. It was a cowardly tactic, but the Equipment was the only advantage he had. He’d do anything to win.

“I see. An interesting device.”

Jorge had taken an honest interest in the Equipment, as did the soldiers looking on. Their reaction was natural: while it didn’t allow Angel to fly, they’d seen him move in an unthinkable way that ignored gravity. They had probably realized the potential of the Equipment, too, and were sure to come up with tactics Angel couldn’t even imagine, employing them on the field. Angel’s chest filled with excitement, as this was the best possible unveiling ceremony, but it would all be meaningless if they could never use the Equipment against a Titan.

He rubbed his aching stomach and calmed his breathing.

I should have had Solm spar with me…

As he laughed bitterly, the pain in his stomach subsided a bit. He loosened the wire and returned to the ground, then yanked the anchor still stuck to the wall and sent it back into the muzzle.

“You can aim at the Titans’ weak point if you have this.”

“But how will it do against me?”

Jorge taunted Angel with a beckoning gesture, but Angel’s knees were still weak from the earlier attack, leaving him in no shape to approach Jorge.

But I do have a way of getting around.

Angel held the controller horizontally, aiming its muzzle toward Jorge. The man stood about five meters away, but it was a tree trunk behind him that Angel was targeting.

Seven or eight meters away. Please hit…

Praying, he lightly fixed his aim and pulled the lever to shoot out an anchor.

Jorge seemed to think that Angel was aiming at him. He drew his short sword with a backhanded grip and used its pommel to deflect the oncoming anchor. It veered off course and landed far from its target.

“Just as I’d expect from the commander of the Survey Corps. Such incredible kinetic vision and reflexes,” Xenophon marveled, clapping, but Angel was in no place to join along.

He had no time to recover his anchor and aim again. He tossed the controller aside, then pulled the lever on his other controller. The anchor slipped past Jorge and dug into the tree trunk. Angel’s body took to the air.

No tricks! I’ll charge straight into him!

The moment he manipulated the lever, Angel flew toward Jorge head-first like a bullet.

Jorge immediately dropped into a fighting stance and pulled his right elbow back slightly. He began to deliver a short, close-quarters blow with his muscular arm.

For a moment, Angel’s eyes met with Jorge’s.

Did he just smile?

Before he could check again, a sensation like a hammer smashing into his face shot through him. He felt himself fading rapidly, and his vision began to grow dark.

Did I do it?

But before he could make certain, Angel blacked out.

***

A jolt of pain shot through Angel, who’d been sleeping like a log. It was so intense that it nearly made him jump, but his body was unresponsive, and he couldn’t even scream. His body burned feverishly and ached from head to toe. His face hurt most of all, and it was so swollen that his eyes could not open past a squint. It was obvious to him that he was hurt, but he could not understand why he was in such a predicament.

“Where am I…”

Angel pulled his eyelids up with his fingers in an attempt to glean any information he could from whatever vision he was able to muster.

“The development lab?”

Repeated experiments and small fires had left the ceiling of the room dirty and covered in soot. In other words, Angel was back in his headquarters, and as he scanned his surroundings, just moving his eyes, he discerned a room filled with a jumble of items. He was lying on the bed of his development room.

“What happened again?”

He could tell by the light coming through the window that it was around noon. It felt as though he had been sleeping for a while, as his stomach began to grumble as soon as he woke. Aside from his injuries, his body seemed to be functioning fine.

Angel gathered his strength and will and used his arms to raise his torso out of bed. His body ached horribly, but he was able to move as long as he could block out the pain.

From Angel’s face, contorted in agony, fell a warm, wet washcloth. He placed it against his throbbing cheek and looked down at his body to find discolored, reddish-black bloodstains splattered on his work clothes.

So… What happened to me?

As he began to think again, the door to his development lab slowly started to open.

“Finally awake?”

Maria entered the room with an appalled expression.

“How long was I sleeping?”

“Around a full day.”

Maria let out a deep sigh as she walked toward Angel. “I knew you were an idiot, but I didn’t think you were this much of a moron.”

“What do you mean?”

“You sparred with the commander, didn’t you?”

“Oh, right. I fought Jorge and─”

He couldn’t remember what had happened after that but could guess the outcome from his outstretched position on the bed. The swelling and pain in his face backed up his conclusion.

While it hurt him to do so, it seemed as though he had no choice but to admit defeat.

He was just too strong for me.

Angel was proud of himself for having the courage to challenge the commander of the Survey Corps, but it was all meaningless if he couldn’t win.

I wish I’d at least got a shot in on him.

That Angel couldn’t was proof of Jorge’s extraordinary abilities.

“Too bad. They probably could have put the Equipment to good use.”

“But you won, didn’t you? Your efforts paid off.”

“I won? I did?!”

“Xenophon was saying that the commander lost by disqualification.”

“Disqualification…”

Angel searched through his memories but couldn’t think of Jorge doing anything unfair. The man wasn’t the type to cheat, and all Angel could recall was a pro graciously giving a lesser opponent a lesson.

“He said Jorge drew his short sword.”

Angel suddenly remembered and understood. “He’s admitting defeat just because of that?”

“I think it means that winning and losing didn’t matter to him.”

“Didn’t matter?”

“It means he saw your resolve.”

“So that’s why he wanted to fight? That’s a pretty rough way of doing it,” Angel snorted, frowning sourly.

“It’s the kind of thing he’d do.”

If Angel had lacked conviction, the blow to his abdomen alone might have incapacitated him.

“I think the commander is dying to go on an expedition, too. He just couldn’t agree to it because of his position.”

“And he’d definitely face punishment if he disobeyed an order.”

Jorge was responsible for his subordinates and their families, which had to weigh heavily on his shoulders. So much responsibility surely turned decision-making into an ordeal. Angel had no baggage in that regard.

“He says the expedition is in a week.”

“The expedition?! So Jorge─”

“He must have made up his mind.”

In other words, Jorge was embarking on an expedition fully prepared to resign from his post as commander.

“The Survey Corps and a few others concerned are the only ones who know. If disciplinary measures are all we end up facing, we’ll consider ourselves fortunate.”

“So you’re in.”

“I’ll be the one opening the gate that day.”

“What about your colleagues?” Angel asked.

“There’s no way I could tell them,” Maria said, shaking her head no. “There are a lot of people with conservative streaks in the Garrison. If they found out about the expedition, there’s a real chance of a leak.”

“Are you really okay with this?”

“Yeah. I’ve already made up my mind.”

Whatever the outcome of the expedition, everyone would surely be punished. Common soldiers would be dishonorably discharged and forced into a life of shame. Veteran’s benefits they were slated to receive would be revoked, too. Guided though they might be by their convictions, it was all too risky an act.

Maria seemed prepared, though, and her bright expression was free of doubts.

“We’ve already come this far. I’m sure it’ll go well.”

“Yeah.”

Angel did feel anxious. It wasn’t as if he’d cleansed himself of his fear of the Titans. Yet, he was confident that the expedition would be a success.

All the conditions have been met. All that’s left is to take down a Titan.

There was something he had to do first, though.

“Couldn’t he have gone a little easier on me?”

Angel rubbed his swollen face.

***

Roughly thirty people would participate in the expedition. It would consist of the entire Survey Corps, led by Jorge, and Angel. As they would be disobeying orders, participation was voluntary, but every Survey Corps soldier was determined to go. That, however, was only natural. One did not sign up for the Survey Corps, a group never far from death, without being at least somewhat of an oddball. Part of the mystery that was the Titans stood to be revealed, and missing the chance to witness the historic moment was unthinkable. That alone was enough motivation for them to go on the expedition, and the Equipment’s potential also stirred them.

They would only have one unit of the essential tool. It should have been supplied to every soldier, but couldn’t be manufactured with no Iron Bamboo available. The silver lining was that they’d already distributed the short swords.

It was decided that Angel would represent the group and wear the Equipment. Someone outside of the Survey Corps participating in an expedition was rare enough, let alone his partaking in combat, but no one could use the Equipment as well as Angel. Though he could hardly be described as a practiced hand, Jorge had determined that the maneuvers he’d demonstrated during their mock battle sufficed. Still, Angel was an amateur. It went without saying that the Survey Corps would be running a great deal of interference for him.

I guess you could call it fate.

Wearing the Equipment himself and fighting Titans wasn’t what he’d envisioned.

But I suppose I’m glad it turned out this way…

He now had the opportunity to kill a Titan with a device he’d developed, so he ought to be happy. That was not all. He’d be able to show off the usefulness of the Equipment and prove that the Titans could be defeated.

And I can avenge Solm and Corina.

In other words, Angel had the chance to settle things personally. There was nothing for him to complain about.

The only question is if I’ll be able to handle a Titan.

Titans were not only large but strong and difficult to kill. Their behavior, however, followed incredibly simple principles. In order to defeat Jorge, Angel would have to train in all aspects of combat and spend many hours on the battlefield, but against a Titan, there was no need for mind games. It was more like exterminating a giant pest.

Angel spent the week leading up to the expedition training with the Equipment. He kept flying through the air over and over until it felt like an extension of his own body, until it was as natural as breathing. The process left his body covered in bruises, but he felt able to call himself the foremost expert at wielding the Equipment. Whether this would be of any use on the battlefield, though, was a different question.

Angel stood in front of Wall Maria and glared at the towering barrier. It was difficult to train for a fight against a Titan, but he could visualize the battle by picturing the wall to be his enemy. Angel concentrated and began to form the image of a Titan against the wall.

The Titans’ weak point is their throat. I tear it open.

With a practice sword in his right hand and a controller gripped in his left, Angel slowly let out a breath.

All right!

Angel fixed his controller’s aim on his image of the Titan. He shot an anchor, and it plunged into the Titan’s throat. The moment he verified this, he flew into the air, leapt straight to its weak point, and swiped sideways with his practice sword. Once he completed the smooth chain of maneuvers, his mental image disappeared, leaving behind the familiar face of the wall.

“All that’s left is to face a real one…”

Angel had brought down dozens of imaginary Titans, but the one that mattered was the real Titan he would be facing.

“It all comes down to tomorrow.”

Angel touched Wall Maria with his hand and turned his thoughts to the outside world.

***

It was when he was relaxing in his development lab that the situation suddenly changed.

Summoned by Caspar, Angel walked to the chief’s office. Jorge was waiting for him there with a grim look. The commander’s sour face indicated that something serious had happened.

The first thing out of Jorge’s mouth was a piece of shocking news: “They’ve decided to dissolve the Survey Corps.”

“Dissolve…” Befuddled, Angel repeated the word, then quickly turned pale as the situation sank in. “What? Why?!”

Angel shot off a barrage of questions, but Jorge merely replied, “Decision from above.”

“Then what about the expedition? What’s going to happen to the expedition?”

“Back to square one, he says,” Caspar relayed the conclusion with a bitter expression.

“The expedition is tomorrow! Canceling it after we’ve come this far…”

“I feel the same way.” Jorge curled his fist. “But I don’t have any authority whatsoever at this point.”

“Now of all times…”

“One of the royal government’s hounds might have worked their way in somewhere.”

It seemed possible, but Angel was not interested in tracking down a culprit. What was important was the fate of the expedition.

“After they dissolve the Survey Corps, they’ll seal the gates. Once that happens, we’ll never be able to ride out again.”

It was an illusion in the first place to think that shutting the gates would bring peace. While things would remain placid for a while, it doomed humanity to gently wasting away. As long as they were a walled city, not going past the gates guaranteed a steady decline.

“If we don’t do it now, we’ll never be able to recover.”

“I know.”

“If we could just get results, the Survey Corps should be able to avoid dissolution.”

“I know that.”

“Then…”

Angel wouldn’t let go, but Jorge sank into a pensive silence. It was clear that the commander hadn’t come to terms with the royal government’s decision, but he still seemed hesitant to act, bound by his duty as a corps leader.

Angel could understand Jorge’s anguish but didn’t have the time to wait for the man to make up his mind. If the decision had been made to dissolve the Survey Corps, the gate could be sealed at any moment.

“Damn it!” Angel spat, turning his back to Jorge and Caspar.

“What’re you going to do?” inquired Caspar.

“I’m going to prepare for the expedition.”

“Y’know full well that ya can’t do it alone.”

“I don’t care whether I can or not. I’m going,” Angel declared and left the chief’s office.

***

Cutting a figure was all well and good, but as Caspar pointed out, there could be no expedition if Angel was the only one going. At the very least, he would need one other person to work with him. The only one he could ask to be that person was Maria, a Garrison soldier and protector of the Walls.

Angel walked to the barracks.

The three-story facility provided housing for the majority of the soldiers stationed in Shiganshina District, including Maria.

“So you want me to just watch as you go off to get yourself killed?” Maria expressed her disagreement in no uncertain terms after Angel explained the circumstances. “How could I help you if the Survey Corps won’t be going with you?”

“Now is our only chance. We’re going to regret it if we don’t take it.” Using the Equipment to defeat a Titan and avenge his fallen comrades─he wasn’t letting such an incredible opportunity slip away before his eyes.

“Why don’t you wait until the commander has a change of heart?”

Angel would have considered Maria’s plan had he had time. Jorge was sure to eventually collect his thoughts and opt in favor of an expedition. But they could not afford a single moment of delay. They had to make up their minds immediately and save any regrets for later. If the gates were shut, they would have no course of action.

“If they do seal the gates, it’s not like they’d do it today or tomorrow, right? I haven’t heard of any orders like that, either.”

“The dissolution of the Survey Corps was sudden, too. Anything could happen.”

“But…”

Maria remained opposed to Angel’s plan. She had probably already arrived at a conclusion, and it was the same for Angel. In short, they could keep arguing and never see eye to eye.

“Okay, fine.” Angel said, half-forcefully bringing the conversation to a stop.

“I think waiting a little is the right thing to do.” Maria breathed a sigh of relief, believing she had dissuaded Angel.

“I’m going on an expedition tomorrow morning, as planned.”

“What?” Maria opened her eyes wide. “But if I’m not there, the gates…”

“I can go outside without your help.”

Scaling Wall Maria would be simple if he used the Equipment to lift himself over it. If there was a problem, it was that he would not have a mount.

“I guess I don’t have a choice, then.” Maria let out a deep sigh. “I just need to open the gates like you asked, right?”

“You’re okay with it?”

“Of course I’m not!” Maria immediately snapped back. “But if you’re going to go even if I tell you not to, I don’t have a choice.”

“I see. I’m sorry.”

“Like you mean it,” Maria shrugged.

“Okay. I’ll be counting on you tomorrow, then. Just like we planned.”

“Please don’t do anything too stupid.”

“I know.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Liar,” Maria accused before holding Angel tight. “I don’t care if you kill a Titan or not. Just promise me you’ll come back alive.”

These were surely Maria’s honest thoughts. Her hatred of the Titans was outweighed by her desire to not lose anyone else. Angel felt the same way, too.

“I promise,” Angel replied.

***

As the saying goes, it’s always darkest before dawn, and it was hard to make out faces and figures in the dim light before the sun rose. It was dark enough to have to ask who you were speaking to, but Angel knew that it was Xenophon by his side as they had left the workshop together.

“All ready?”

“I have the Equipment, and I have one of your short swords. I have a whole bunch of explosives ready, too. I’m good to go,” Angel said coolly as he mounted his horse.

“You don’t seem nervous.”

“I am. How could I not be scared?”

He would be exiting the gates alone to go defeat a Titan. Normally his body would be shaking and his mind completely blank. Nevertheless, the situation was so unreal that his senses had been numbed, and thankfully his body was no more tense than it needed to be.

“Part of me wants to go with you, but sadly, I don’t have the courage. I apologize.”

“It takes courage to admit your weaknesses, doesn’t it?”

“I’m happy you said that,” Xenophon admitted.

It did not seem right to call a solo expedition an act of courage, though. Angel recognized that he was confusing recklessness with bravery, but he still believed that things would somehow work out. He’d have a difficult time answering why, but all the conditions for killing a Titan had been met. Perhaps the answer was that he didn’t see why he couldn’t kill a Titan.

“I don’t need to say farewell, do I?”

“Of course not. I’ll be right back.”

“Then may fortune be with you.”

Angel nodded and started to ease his horse forward. The town and its people were in a deep slumber, and not a soul stood on the avenue leading to the gate. It was eerily silent, the only sounds around him his horse’s steps and its breathing. The town would wake in another hour and return the avenue to its usual hustle and bustle.

That, or there’s going to be a huge uproar.

If the main gate was opened with seemingly no notice or reason, the residents were sure to be disturbed. They would be reminded of the day that a Titan barged into their town. Of course, the gates would only be open for half a minute, and it was still early morning. The number of witnesses would likely be few.

Angel gradually approached the Wall. According to the plan, Maria would be waiting in the watchtower above, ready to open the gates.

He suddenly started to feel nervous, but unlike on the previous expedition, he remained calm. He had made meticulous plans, eliminating uncertain factors as much as possible so that dealing with a Titan would be like routine paperwork. True, it was an incredibly difficult mission, ridiculous, reckless, and rash, but it certainly was not an impossible one.

“Time to say goodbye to my nightmares, too.”

Angel grabbed a flare gun, pointed the muzzle above his head, and pulled the trigger. A White Star exploded in the sky, filling everything around him with a bright light as if to herald dawn.

“Daybreak comes a little earlier today.”

He looked away from the White Star overhead and directed his eyes straight in front of him.

At that very moment, a single cavalry suddenly appeared─or rather, he had been there from the start, only unseen in the darkness.

“True to your words, I see.”

“Are you here to stop me?”

Angel sat up defensively as he gazed at the stately mounted figure. It was Jorge.

“I think you’d be sprawled out on the ground by now if that were the case.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Thought I’d offer what little help I could. That’s why we’re all here.”

Angel was confused, but he heard the surging sound of galloping horses behind him.

“The Survey Corps… Are you sure?!”

“It wouldn’t be accurate to say that.” Jorge pointed to the back of his cloak.

“Your emblem…”

The winged emblem identifying him as a member of the Survey Corps was nowhere to be found on Jorge’s cape, with frayed cloth visible there instead. He must have removed it with his own hands.

“What a bunch of damned fools.”

Just as Angel moaned out the words, the gates that led beyond the Walls began to roar open. Birds took flight across the city, seemingly frightened by the sound.

“Okay, let’s go!”

Angel broke away to take the lead as Jorge and the soldiers followed behind. As the gates loomed closer and closer, Angel looked up as though he had suddenly remembered something. He saw Maria up in the watchtower, bathed in dawn’s first rays. He smiled at her divine appearance.

As if to rebuff the group, a dust-filled gust of wind swept in from the desolate plain, but it was hardly enough to make them shrink away. Angel steeled his will and broke off into the hazy, dust-clouded expanse.

***

Angel and the others had set off to accomplish something unheard-of: exterminating a Titan. An hour had passed, though, and they had yet to find their target. It almost seemed as if the Titans had sensed that they were now the hunted and had conferred and fled as one. It was an undeniably deflating situation after they had sortied beyond the Walls in high spirits, but they remained on edge. Anything could happen past the Walls.

The company was on standby about five kilometers south of Shiganshina District. There had been no contact from Team 1, which had gone scouting, but it would surely find a Titan before long.

Just three teams… Their numbers have shrunk a lot.

The Survey Corps had, at one point, as many as eighty members, but now only numbered thirty. They had been split into a precarious arrangement of three teams, led by Jorge and his two deputy commanders. While their organization had always been a small, elite force, there were now too few of them to maintain a Survey Corps.

Angel gazed southward, where Team 1 had disappeared out of sight. The goal may have been to subdue a Titan, but they still wanted to avoid a long sojourn outside. They sat in wait just five kilometers from the town so they could fight a Titan in a more advantageous location. Even if things went wrong, at just five kilometers out, their retreat would be smooth. They could promptly get in firing range of the cannons and have the Titans driven away.

If they’ll fire them, of course.

The Garrison had no obligation to save a party that had flaunted the rules and left.

“You’ve got some guts,” Jorge said as he approached Angel. “Why not go ahead and join the Survey Corps?”

“Not funny. This is the last time I do anything this dangerous.”

“I think you’re surprisingly cut out for it.” Jorge sounded like he could be serious, as Angel heard disappointment in his voice.

“They say there’s something called the Sea out there,” Angel said, pointing south.

“The Sea? What’s that?”

“I don’t really know, either. I’ve just heard that over half the world is covered by waters called that.”

“Aren’t you a know-it-all.”

“Solm was.”

Jorge looked convinced.

“I don’t plan to become a soldier, but I’d love to come back to lay my eyes on the Sea.” Angel didn’t know if it existed or not, but it was worth seeking out. The story would be the greatest souvenir he could bring to Solm’s gravestone. “That’s why I need you Survey Corps guys to stand your ground.”

“We’ll try,” Jorge answered solemnly.

Just then, a crimson signal rose in the south sky. It was a Red Star.

“Looks like they found one.”

Jorge took out his binoculars and checked the sky to the south.

A few moments later, one Red Star and countless Yellow Stars shot into the air.

“A big one’s coming, a ten-plus-meter-class.”

Jorge offered his binoculars, and through them Angel glimpsed the hazy figure of a tall, thin young man. The Titan approached quickly, and his fuzzy outline gradually grew sharper. He looked like a heartthrob in his mid-teens. As though upset about something, an irate expression was plastered on his face.

Ahead rose a cloud of dust presumably made by Team 1’s horses. Behind it a man-shaped monster charged ahead, bringing with him a rumble in the ground. The Titan was half a kilometer away but still visible to the naked eye. Mammon’s size was out of the ordinary, but this Titan rushing toward them like a tsunami was a third larger. Impressive even for a Titan, he was as big as they came.

“Prepare for combat!”

The moment Jorge gave his order, the soldiers took fighting stances, each with a weapon of choice in hand.

There were three hundred meters left between them and the Titan. They had seen many Titans before, but the ten-plus-meter-class monster charging toward them was like a living disaster. The overwhelming presence demanded awe, but human beings possessed the intellect and courage needed to brush such feelings aside and do more than gawk at an incoming threat.

The Titan fiercely rushed toward them, seeking prey. Every step he took rattled the ground and sent vibrations creeping up their feet. When Team 1 rejoined them, the soldiers spread out to intercept the Titan in a V-shaped formation.

“Fire!!”

Carbines exploded simultaneously on Jorge’s signal. Bullets dug into the Titan’s shoulders, bore holes through his chest, and demolished a part of his head. Yet, his expression unchanged, the Titan neither groaned nor staggered. Scar tissue-like membrane quickly covered the wounds, which began to heal before the soldiers’ eyes.

Nevertheless, the Titan stopped after taking a few more steps. As soon as Jorge saw this, he commanded the two wings of the formation to close into a circle that trapped the Titan. A few soldiers moved in with short swords in hand.

“We’ll get the Titan’s legs. You take his head.”

“All right,” Angel replied with a stern expression.

Though the Survey Corps would be setting the stage, Angel still had to take on a Titan having had zero experience. It was no surprise that his body was stiffening.

“All your hard work was for this day, was it not? You’ll be fine if you just keep your wits about you.”

“Yeah… You’re right.”

Angel took a deep breath and calmed himself, then opened his eyes wide and took in the status of the battle.

The soldiers were weaving back and forth and persistently attacking the Titan’s legs. This probably didn’t do so much as tickle him, but wounds could still deprive the Titan of his physical capacities, if only for a moment.

“All right!”

Angel gathered his resolve, grabbed his carbine, and pointed it toward the Titan. He used its sights to aim between the Titan’s eyebrows, then pulled the trigger. A bullet flew out of the muzzle, causing the gun’s barrel to hop backward. Its aim true, the shot buried itself in the Titan’s brow, and he jerked his head back as if to take in the sky.

Angel tossed his rifle to the side, gripped a controller in his left hand and his short sword in his right, then pointed the controller’s muzzle at the Titan’s throat and pulled the lever. The Equipment’s main unit groaned at his hip and shot out an anchor. The wind slightly changed its course, and the anchor missed its target and sank into the Titan’s chest. It wasn’t going as he had visualized, but the result fell within the margin of error.

Solm, Corina…

Angel thought of the two as he summoned up his courage.

“Here goes!”

Angel stepped onto his horse’s saddle and jumped into the air. As soon as he did, he set his eyes on the Titan and adjusted the controller’s lever.

Gas shot out from the Equipment’s nozzle as it began to wind the wire back in. Angel flew toward the Titan’s chest like an arrow.

The Equipment momentarily freed its user from the yoke of gravity, but it demanded a high price for the inconceivable movements it enabled. Enough pressure to incapacitate a person bore down on Angel’s body, and his face twisted in agony. If he lost even a bit of focus, he courted calamity, but he grit his teeth and withstood the force as he carefully adjusted the lever and lowered his speed to make a soft landing on the Titan’s chest.

Angel continued to move, recovering his anchor and grabbing a collarbone to lift himself up. Losing no time, he slashed at the Titan’s throat with his short sword. Angel didn’t have the strength needed to decapitate the Titan, but the short sword’s blade was sharp, digging a wound twenty centimeters deep. It was a more than sufficient blow on a weak point, but there was no such thing as overkill with a Titan. Angel stabbed the Titan’s Adam’s apple with the sword. Its tip seemed to go far enough to hit bone, as the feeling of something metallically hard traveled through his palm. Whether it was a problem of purity or lax tempering, a faint crack appeared in the blade.

“How’s that!”

Angel glared at the Titan. Steam erupted from the wound, engulfing Angel before he could get away.

“Ah!”

The extreme temperature made Angel writhe. It was like being in a sauna, with so much hot air around that it was difficult even to breathe.

He grimaced at the blowing steam and locked eyes with the Titan who’d been facing up.

Angel’s eyes grew wide. The Titan’s dark black pupils were full of vitality, with no traces of the fleetingness of a dying creature. A strong will dwelled in them. A powerful desire to eat the human Angel.

What’s going on?

Before Angel could consider the possibilities, the Titan’s hand reached throat-ward.

Angel removed his short sword, then shot an anchor into the Titan’s foot, giving himself enough slack to rappel down to the ground.

I felt it. I’m sure I hit his weak point dead-on.

Though he was confused, Angel’s mind raced.

If he still won’t die, that means…

There was only one conclusion.

Their throat isn’t their weak point?

With three meters left, the Titan’s arm caught in Angel’s wire, causing him to swing widely to the side. The momentum dislodged the anchor, and Angel flew into the air.

Dammit!

Angel cursed in his heart.

He’d reel the anchor back in, then shoot it back into the Titan. Or move to another target─

The sequence of actions ran through the back of Angel’s head, but he had neither the time nor the reflexes for it. Perhaps if he’d been holding his other controller instead of his short sword, but it was sitting in its holster.

So you need to use both hands to have meaningful control.

Just as he realized this, Angel crashed into the ground.

A sharp impact ran through his whole body as though he had been thrown off of a horse, and Angel began to lose consciousness.

“Angel! Get up!!”

He jumped up at Jorge’s bellowed command but was immediately assaulted by severe pain. He felt like all the bones in his body were being ground into dust.

“Gah…”

Angel curled up and tried to fight off the pain.

It was a nightmare situation, but he had managed not to break any bones at least. He had been three meters in the air when he fell and merely had his body slammed. He might have still cracked a few bones but was able to move.

Next step, allowing the use of both controllers alongside your weapon…

Angel forced himself to laugh, then got up by using his short sword as a cane. The incredible pain that ran through his body was almost enough to make him scream, but he bore it.

Once he checked his surroundings, he immediately understood his situation. He had collapsed within the soldiers’ circular formation, in other words, by the Titan’s feet. It was not luck that had kept him from being stepped on, but the soldiers’ constant attacks against the Titan’s legs. Other soldiers’ carbines were firing a hail of bullets at the Titan’s torso, which was why he hadn’t grabbed Angel.

Why couldn’t I kill it?

Angel looked up at the Titan and combed back over what he knew.

The Titans can be killed. I’m certain of that.

But the Titan was still standing, even though Angel had attacked the weak point.

That means their weakness isn’t their throat.

It had to be in that area, though.

What was it that Solm did?

Angel balked at rehashing the terrible memory, but he dredged it up nevertheless. Solm had intentionally held grenades in his hand and blown himself up in order to let the others get away. He must have judged that hurling them might not slow down the Titan. To make sure, he’d grabbed onto the nape and blown the Titan’s head off. Although the creatures did not expire from losing a portion of their bodies, it limited their movements until they regenerated. In fact, it was thanks to the troops neutralizing the Titan’s physical capacities that Angel hadn’t been stepped on.

But the Titan whose head we blew off still didn’t die.

In other words, destroying their head only limited their capacity to act. It wasn’t their weakness.

That only leaves one place.

Angel looked toward the Titan’s nape, but he was too close to see it. When he thought back, that was where Solm had grabbed onto when he blew himself up. During their behavioral study, it was the only area they hadn’t destroyed. The horrible sight of a Titan’s brains scattering had distracted them enough to gloss over a crucial point.

The Titan stomped on the ground in what seemed like anger at being used as target practice for so long. The impact was like a direct hit from a cannon, rumbling through the soldiers’ feet and making it impossible to stay standing. It surprised the horses, who ran wild and scattered the formation.

“Angel, come back! We’re retreating!” Jorge yelled, apparently having judged that the situation had turned sour.

But Angel saw it as an opportunity. He returned his short sword to its scabbard and took controllers in both hands. Checking them, he found them to be fully functional. He had gas left, too. As soon as he confirmed this, he pointed his left controller at the Titan and shot an anchor into the abdomen, quickly pulling himself up. Next, he used his right controller to aim for the chest. By using both controllers in tandem, he soared up to the Titan’s eyes. The problem was how he would get around to the creature’s back.

Vertical movement isn’t enough. I need to be able to move in all three dimensions.

Through this battle Angel had discovered a number of ways to improve the Equipment, but it was not the time to be occupied with them. With both hands taken up by controllers, there was no way for him to attack, either.

Then I’ll just have to use this thing!

Angel shot an anchor into the Titan’s right eye, steadied his body, then visited the left eye with the other. Even Titans had to come to a grinding halt when their vision was taken away.

Yet, perhaps peeved that his eyes had been crushed, the Titan began shaking his head from side to side like an obstinate child. Angel’s body swung in arcs as a result. The centrifugal force nearly caused the anchors to fall out, but Angel used it to his advantage. It allowed him to move horizontally in a way that the Equipment did not and to circle around to the Titan’s back. Angel quickly reeled his wires in, clung to the Titan’s nape, and drew his short sword out from its scabbard.

“It ends here!”

Angel forcefully cut into the Titan’s nape, but the weakened blade could not stand the impact, splitting cleanly in two with a high-pitched sound.

“Now of all times…”

Angel clicked his tongue, but he still had another option. He could expect to do a significant amount of damage if he detonated the grenades he carried. That had been Solm’s method; at the same time, Angel didn’t intend to blow himself up along with the Titan. The problem was that he faced a ten-plus-meter-class monster, which meant he might be short on firepower. Even if he were to fire the flare gun along with the grenades, he could only do so much damage, but he had no other explosives.

We’ll just have to try and see.

As he reached for a controller, Angel suddenly realized it.

They’re certainly explosive.

The cylinders he wore on his hips. They were both full of gas, and if he could detonate them along with the grenades, it would likely be enough to do the job. He would lose the Equipment’s fuel, but he could manually extend the wires, and that would be enough.

Angel took both of his cylinders off, stuck them in the Titan’s wound, and began to release the gas they held. Next, he grabbed the grenades he carried on his hip, pulled the safety pins, and tossed them inside. All that was left was to jump off to avoid being caught by the explosion. Angel grabbed his controllers, kicked off from the Titan’s body, and dived into the air.

A moment later─

The grenades exploded with a radiant flash, setting off the cylinders in turn. The Titan’s nape was blown off, sending chunks of meat and bone and bodily fluids in every direction. As this happened, a dark red flame engulfed the Titan’s head.

Everything was going as planned so far, but having detonated grenades and gas at a close distance, Angel had to worry about himself. A shockwave surged toward him, and with it a gust of hot air. He had neither the time nor the means to protect himself, and his senses wavered upon taking the full brunt of the impact. He felt as though the hot air was scorching his body hair and heard crackles all around his body. Sunburn-like pain radiated from his exposed skin, but he paid no mind as he continued to watch the Titan. Something seemed to cause the hot air around the Titan to shimmer hazily, perhaps the explosion or the heat it gave off. Soon, the haze turned to fog and began covering the Titan’s body.

“The Titan… He’s disappearing…”

Angel felt light just as he noticed this. The anchors must have come unstuck from the Titan’s body as it grew unstable. Angel’s body was pulled back toward the ground.

“See? You can kill Titans…”

Angel grinned.