When Eren was about to initiate the Titan transformation, Levi, escaping the kiss of Yama again and again, sitting on the back of the Jaw Titan, understood that something was not right. When they had dragged Eren out of the rib-cage Titan, Eren had transformed again, triggering an explosion—but that explosion hadn't been that strong.
However, Armin was right beside Eren now. Things could go terribly wrong in this situation. Levi didn't know about the true nuclear explosion that the elf-like Titan was capable of triggering, but he knew that even a normal transformation from the elf Titan was more than enough to finish off the Colossal Titan in this weakened state.
With his next thought, Levi jumped down from the back of his Titan. The Colossal Titan was too close to Eren, leaving almost no time to react once the transformation was initiated. But he was too late—or so he thought, as he watched the sparks begin to form around Eren inside the crystal cocoon.
Yet somehow, the sparks grew dull. Those few extra seconds were more than enough for him to pull Armin out.
With a fine, sharp cut to the neck, Levi sliced open the flesh and picked Armin up like a ragdoll. Armin, having depleted all of his energy and stamina, looked like a starving man on his last breaths. Levi pulled out the ODM cable attached to the collapsing Titan's body and fired the other cable at the Jaw Titan in the sky. Within a swift motion, they were airborne. This all happened in a matter of seconds.
Just as the heat wave followed by the explosion erupted, Levi and Armin were just about to land on the Titan's back. The Jaw Titan accelerated its flight, but even then, the heat wave caught them. They were in the air, Mikasa prone down on the jaw titan's back, by now though they were out of the direct zone of the explosion, the blistering heat scorched the Jaw Titan's underbelly, while Levi was also came in the contact of the heat wave that followed after the explosion, severely burned, leaving only his right side untouched as Armin he holding as the shack took the the heat wave on his body.
Armin was burned just as severely, if not more so, than Levi. As a Titan host, his body could eventually heal, but because he had lost a massive amount of stamina and energy, his regeneration was agonizingly slow.
Mikasa looked at the terrible state of Levi and Armin. Armin lay flat on the back of the Titan, wrapping his hands and feet into the netting strapped across the Jaw Titan's back. Mikasa tied Levi securely to the net and removed the ruined ODM gear from his waist.
Somehow, his ODM gear was still working, but she wasn't sure for how long. She checked the blades in the holsters. Except for the very last blade resting against his outer thigh, all the other swords had lost their sharpness. The intense heat wave had caused the metal to expand, leaving the blades much duller than before. Still, they would have to be enough for her to use in the upcoming battle.
She knew they had lost. Without Armin, there was no Titan left who could hold off Eren for even a few seconds, let alone stop him. She knew it was just a matter of minutes before he reached the glowing centipede, and then everything would be over.
But she had to fight. Even to the very end, until her dying breath, she would fight. She would rather die fighting than watch the world end like this. She sheathed her blades and, taking a deep breath, began to strap on the ODM gear.
Just then, Armin opened his eyes. Mikasa knew that Armin had been conscious the entire time, but for some reason, he hadn't been opening his eyes. Now, he did. His eyes were filled with tears. His lips parted and closed, but no words came out of his mouth.
The memories—the memories that Eren had previously made him forget—were forcefully pulling themselves back in. Like air trapped underwater finally rushing towards the surface after being released, the memories of Eren, the Rumbling, his hidden thoughts, and his true words all started to pop up in his mind. He didn't know why these memories were resurfacing only now, but his heart and rational mind were in utter turmoil. Eren's words and the emotions he had shown began to sting him deeply.
He looked over at Mikasa beside him, but his eyes widened when he saw her sitting with her legs folded back. Her head was down, but her shoulders were trembling violently. They moved up and down as tears splattered onto her hands, which she was clenching so hard that the tendons looked ready to pop out from her skin.
Just as Armin's memories of his time with Eren in the dreamscape had returned, her memories of him had returned as well.
She watched her past self or a self that she have no Idea of.
She—Mikasa.
She was sitting on a wooden bench. The bench had a rough, rustic texture, but comfort and safety had clearly been taken into consideration when someone created it. Mikasa's head was tilted to the side, and she was dosing off. The soft, radiant sunlight of the late morning fell over her, providing a long-lost warmth and comfort that usually only comes after a brutal winter when the first ray of sun touches the skin. Losing herself in that comfort, she fell asleep right there on the bench. The only other thing to notice was a hammock hanging directly in front of her, suspended between two massive oak trees.
The present Mikasa just stood there, watching herself sleep on the bench, minute after minute. After a while, the Mikasa sleeping on the bench shifted. Her head tilted further to the side, and she began to lose her delicate balance.
Just as she was completely losing her balance and about to topple over, someone sat down right next her. Her falling head came to rest gently on his shoulder.
Catching a whiff of a familiar scent, the sleeping Mikasa sniffed closer. Recognizing the fragrance as something deeply comforting, a small smile appeared on her face, and like a cat, she nuzzled against his shoulder.
"Are you awake?" Eren asked softly. He gently lifted her head and repositioned it so that it rested directly on his lap.
Mikasa didn't answer his question, choosing instead to bury her face into his abdomen.
Sighing helplessly, Eren brushed a stray strand of hair away from her forehead. "Why are you pretending to be asleep? I know you're awake," he said.
"No, I am not awake. And I'm not pretending, either."
Eren playfully pinched her nose closed and used his other hand to seal her lips. Out of breath, Mikasa snapped her eyes open and bit down hard on his hand. In mock agony, Eren—the man who could cut off his own limbs and blind his own eye without blinking once—pretended to be in immense pain for her.
The real Mikasa, standing as a ghost and watching all of this playful venture, couldn't even fathom for a moment that the person in front of her was the Eren she currently knew. She couldn't remember Eren ever being like this before. His smiles and his playful nature had remained buried only as a faint memory in her heart; the events of past and all this past years bit by bit corroded those memories, the reality of the world had stolen that version of him away from her.
Eren stopped pretending to be in pain and looked deeply into the eyes of the Mikasa resting on his lap. Mikasa looked right back into his eyes, and for a moment, both locked gazes in a strange, heavy tension.
Just when the bubble of tension seemed to be growing larger and larger, both Eren and Mikasa burst into laughter. Mikasa's laughter was gentle and soft—a sound that was completely alien to the real Mikasa standing beside them. She knew they couldn't see her, so her eyes and face didn't try to hide her emotions; a clear, profound shock of seeing something that she can't even imagine of was visible on her face, as if the word shock had been written directly onto her face.
Eren's laughter wasn't loud either, carrying the exact same softness as Mikasa's, but more than that, his laughter had a calmness, there's no strings of revenge hiding. His eyes were sharp, but they didn't hold that familiar coldness. His brows were relaxed like a peaceful river, entirely stripped of the hidden flow of anger and obsessive desire they usually held ever since the fall of Wall Maria.
They both stopped laughing, and Eren started to lower his head. The other Mikasa, resting her head on his lap, her face flushed a deep red, a prominent pink hue spreading across her cheeks from tips of her ears. She closed her eyes, silently accepting whatever was about to come.
The original Mikasa, who was watching all of this transpire from the sidelines, also felt her ears turn hot. Her lips trembled. Her heart began to beat frantically, by now she had immerse in this reality so deeply that looking at them she had forgotten entirely about the world and tensions of it, that she is carrying just moments ago, wave of nervousness like never before coursing through her head.
Wh... What are they doing? What is he going to do now? Is he... is he going to do that to her? What should I do? Should I turn my head, or should I close my eyes?
It's not proper to peek on others privacy, I shouldn't look. She raised her hands and placed them squarely over her eyes.
But as a young girl with no experience, and even the farewell kiss refused by Eren at the end movement, her fingers were parted wide enough for the Jaw Titan to fly through. Her hands were deployed in an "out of sight, out of mind" fashion, but the only thing they were actually hiding was her own blushing face, not the romantic theater playing out directly in front of her.
Although I knew no one could see me here, for some reason, I still covered my face under the pretense of shielding my eyes—ensuring no one would know I was peeking, no, not peeking it's a educational act.
continue—