"Commander, the titans are coming!" A man rode his noble steed deep into the rain, crakling on the moody ground. He was in the middle of a peloton of at least twelve.
They saw black flares shooting up the field. Although due to the darkness and the rain, they were difficult to see.
"We have erratic ones, shoot the green flares to the northeast, we're heading into the forest!" The commander wore a cloak, the back of his cape had the sign of the wings of freedom.
He was the commander of the Legion.
'You're special, like a hero!' Even in despairing situations, he recalled the words of that man.
'What hero...? We have had dozens of deaths for nothing!'
Upon reaching the forest, the legion dismounted. They shot their ODM gears at the trees and took flight. Hooking onto the trees as their horses carried on running ahead. The titans paid attention to them and chased into the forest.
It was five of them.
One of the officers locked onto the neck of one of the titans and went for it.
"HAAAA!!"
He sliced a clean triangular cut that thrashed the five metres tall titan onto the ground leaving a cloud of smoke. However, he was grabbed by another titan in his onward momentum.
"AHHH!!!"
"Fred!"
One of his legs was chewed off, his screams of pain resonated.
"Leave him the fuck alone!".
One of his companions flashed and sliced the titan's arms, freeing him. Fred fell on the muddy ground unable to move. Two more of the group rushed to his aid to at least try to get him onto the trees.
"Lock in, Fred! We have to recover quickly!"
The commander of the Legion, Keith Shadis, locked onto a ten metres titan that headed towards the healing Fred and the two members of the legion that tried to assist him. He sliced that titan's neck and it stumbled onto a rock, shattering it.
A lightning strike fell at that moment, very close to that position, it shattered their eardrums. The atmosphere felt a lot denser for a moment, but none of them paid attention to that detail.
They went onto the top of a tree to help Fred whose leg was gone, they bandaged it and hoped they could lead him together towards his running horse after they got rid of the titans chasing after them.
"WAAAAA!!"
!!!
They all looked at each other in shock when they heard a baby crying. In the middle of a muddy forest with thundering lightning, outside the muralls... they heard a baby crying.
"What...?" One of the ladies thought she heard wrong.
"Am I hearing things?" Another one asked, but between the noise of the thunders and the stumbling of the approaching titans' feet, it was difficult to tell.
"Everyone be quiet!" Keith screamed, and everyone stayed silent.
The titan he sliced began to evaporate, the ground shook with the incoming titans, but the crying of that baby resonated audibly, attracting the titans.
"WAAAA!"
There was no doubt, it was a baby, but they couldn't point its position. Once the titan that Keith killed evaporated, they saw the baby crying in the centre of the shattered rock as if it had come out of it, like a hatched egg.
"What is a baby doing here... where did it come from?!" They looked in disbelief. Did it come from the rock? Did it come from inside the titan?
To make the situation even more stupid, the titans were ignoring them and heading towards that baby instead, wanting to eat it.
Keith went to the action, he used his gear and shot towards it... there was no time to lose and saving Fred's life was also impossible now that the titans had shown up.
"Prepare to evacuate right now! The titans won't stop coming!"
He flashed and grabbed that baby. Fred could only look helplessly as he was abandoned by his companions... but he was ready; he knew this was what it meant to belong to the legion.
The noise of shattering bones and tearing flesh were the last thing the legion heard alongside the cries of a baby. Keith landed on his still running horse together with what remained of his unit that came out of the forest to meet the other units.
Most of them saw him ride the horse with a baby in his arms and were stupefied and confused. A pregnant woman couldn't enlist in their ranks, so where had that baby come from?
The baby looked at the rushing expression of Keith Shadies and in his eyes he saw his own reflection.
"Everything will be okay. I don't know what you're doing outside here, but... I am bringing you back home!" He said to the kid, unaware that the kid understood his every word.
**
**
[Arthur's POV]
I arrived in the world of Attack on Titan in strange circumstances. When I woke up, I was in an orphanage in the east of the District of Trots. Naturally, at the time, I didn't even know it was Trots.
I only knew I was a kid a bit quirkier than most, a bit more clever than most... who also happened to have memories of his previous life.
'Reincarnation' as they call it. That's what I thought I had experienced.
So started to live my life the best way I could. I remember back in London, I used to once every so often ask myself what I would do if I was given the chance to go back in time. What decisions would I have made differently?
The conclusions of those answers were my current life.
It wasn't until I was old enough to start going out that I saw the massive murals around the city. I heard the conversations about Titans, the Legion, the Royal Police, training squads, so on and so forth. I realised that I was in the world of Attack on Titan.
How was it possible? I didn't know... I didn't care either. But being in this world wasn't the only surprise... There were more compelling aspects; I had powers.
...
The people I was acquainted with were very limited. I was in an Orphanage that belonged to the Church of the Walls. We were periodically indoctrinated and told stories about the walls and why they were important for humanity, and yadda yadda, they hoped we'd either be adopted or we'd work for the church upon reaching adulthood.
Aside from some cleaning staff, three nuns worked in this Orphanage. Sister Marla, Sister Jane and Sister Vanessa.
Marla and Jane were middle-aged, very strict ladies. Vanessa, the youngest of the three, watched after me and some more kids. She was a relatively well-off girl whose parents forced to join the church in search of status in the city.
In this world, the closer you are to the centre, the higher your status is. I wasn't aware of the circumstances in which I was born, I didn't even know who my parents were, and to this day, I wonder why I have lived in a district like Trots and not some more run-down place like Shiganshima.
One thing I knew was that I wasn't normal.
I mean... physically normal.
...
It all happened when I was three years old. I was going around the streets with the other boys of the Orphanage. The food and supplies we could get from the orphanage were very limited. Two sets of clothes, three meals a day and daily education... it may not sound like much, but that was a privilege not a lot of kids within these walls could afford.
As ambitious as I am, I couldn't live like that... so as soon as I could go out, I convinced some friends to see what we could do to earn the bread. Among the kids, some were as ambitious as I, or at the very least, they were still hungry after their three meals, and wanted more.
Those who stayed, I didn't bother with them... those are the losers who are going to become the church's next spokespersons.
We were five kids, and we went around doing the only thing we could do to survive: stealing.
Take bread, fruits... if we could, then even gadgets and mineral stones. We had to run very fast, sometimes we even had to avoid the police and their gear. In two years, I never got caught, but two of my friends did... they were given a small beating and then taken back to the orphanage.
One day we were circled around by a small gang of bigger kids, we fought back... but they were bigger kids at the end of the day.
We all got a beating, but I noticed I didn't really feel pain? Let alone one of them was even smashing us with poles and even that didn't hurt me one bit.
I didn't feel pained or tired after fighting all of them for a while.
'W-What the hell is wrong with this kid, he won't go down!' things like that they said.
Unaware of what to attribute it to, I thought I had some special characteristics of anime characters or whatever.
In any case, I was literally unstoppable.
The questions flowed through my mind. What was I going to do in the future? The knowledge I have of Attack on Titan is very shallow. But I know in the year 845 humanity is going to be attacked by the Titans.
Should I stop it? Should I warn them...?
Sadly, it doesn't look like it is going to be possible. I am six years old now, by the time the walls fall, I will be eleven, around the same age as Eren and Mikasa, perhaps a bit older... even if I have miraculous knowledge, there is very little an eleven-year-old boy can do to change anything, especially in a world like this... where you're not even allowed to think out loud.
I stood in front of the mirror while Vanessa fixed me, she tidied my hair and even gave me a small suit that was so uncomfortable but made me look like a noble snob.
My original plan was to somehow convince this young woman to adopt me... she knows my behaviour and she doesn't mind. I have lent her some money to help her family and she turns a blind eye to most of the things I do despite the fact that she's supposed to be taking care of me.
But her adopting me is a pipe dream. She was enrolled by her family to become a nun in the Church of the Walls. It was that or marrying some fatso in Sheena... she wasn't even allowed to choose. That fatso was supposed to pay her family a compensating fee as a dowry and he didn't... hence why she was sent to the church instead.
She didn't have where to stand, let alone adopt me. But I still thought we could if we wanted.
Her family wouldn't bother reaching her father from Rose, if we moved to Wall Maria, we should be able to live peacefully until the catastrophe started.
But now she showed me this option. A rich family in the district of Orvud. I can't say I am not tempted. An eleven-year-old boy can't change anything... but if I had influential people to talk to...
That's when I could start changing things.
In the end of the day... regardless of world, it is the same bullshit.
The same Bureaucracy also coupled with Monarchy. But it is different this time, now there is no gatekeeper.