"Cut the flesh!"
Following Hange's shout, one staff member used a sharp blade to carve out a piece of flesh from the Titan's body, while two other staff members, long prepared, waited. One held a glass jar containing some solution, and the other was ready to receive the slimy piece of Titan flesh.
Plop!
The flesh fell into the solution, and the entire jar was quickly sealed.
Under Hange's initial anticipation, which then turned to disappointment, the flesh gradually smoked, evaporated, and vanished as if nothing had happened. She carefully instructed the staff to measure the amount of solution in the jar, finding that it had not decreased or increased even slightly. This meant that, apart from the fact that science inside the Walls was not advanced enough to accurately measure air content, this was evidence that the Titan's flesh or substance did not convert from one form to another, like water changing between solid, liquid, and gas states. Instead, it completely vanished, leaving no excess particle of matter.
As for the spot on the Titan where the flesh was cut, it was smoking. Individual muscle fibers could be seen regrowing from the air at a speed visible to the naked eye, completely violating the principle of conservation of energy.
"Oh, Bean! If only your flesh didn't evaporate..."
"We would have eternal meat... eternal... eternal..."
Hange hugged the Titan's large body in a state of ecstasy, while the surrounding staff members' faces were rigid like statues, mechanically conducting the research. As for Hange's final sentence, their minds automatically discarded it and tossed it into the trash heap. Something seemed to be warning them: if they continued thinking about it, something terrifying would happen!
The reason she named this Titan "Bean" can be left unmentioned. No one wanted to recall that moment.
Asahi was standing far away, observing Hange directing the staff in dissecting the Titan. Although these people were quite inexperienced, given the Titan's characteristics, it didn't matter how many times they messed up.
Since the Titan was completely transferred here, research actions like the flesh cutting just now had been performed more than once, at various locations. They even tried the pupils and spinal fluid, with no effect. The entire living mass of the Titan behaved this way, not just a specific organ.
Although Asahi mainly observed, sometimes his direct involvement was needed. Even though he didn't understand science and creature research well, basic knowledge from a civilization superior by two centuries was enough for him to suggest, or rather, provide ideas to these people.
Titans lack a digestive system—no, it must be said that their insides are practically hollow, containing only an abdominal cavity and a tube running down from the throat. Asahi personally used his sword to "open up" the entire Titan, allowing all the research staff to see the Titan's "cross-section" structure.
It was truly... too rudimentary. The inside and outside were very, very far apart. If the "outside" could still be considered a standard for living organisms with a system of bones, tendons, muscles, and marrow... even the Titan's mouth cavity was complex and complete, no different from a normal human's. The inside resembled a hollow core of a children's toy model, albeit a somewhat gruesome one.
Hange paid attention to another substance: the viscous fluid in the Titan's abdominal cavity. This fluid continuously flowed from the cavity wall, a type of not-too-strong acid that was difficult to corrode skin unless exposed for a prolonged time. Victims who ended up in the Titan's stomach primarily died from infection or fatal injuries sustained beforehand, their flesh rotting off due to prolonged decay.
Notably, this fluid only existed in the Titan's stomach, meaning it was a completely separate component not attached to its body. Yet, when Asahi opened its stomach and the fluid flowed out, it evaporated, just like the detached body parts.
Next, he performed an even more daring act: directly splitting the Titan's head in half to see what was inside.
The result was that the Titan's skull only contained a mixed mess of cerebrospinal fluid and mushy matter stuck to the inner wall of the cranium. Calling it "flesh" felt wrong, as he really didn't know what it should be called. Organs like the pupils, even when pierced through, were not connected to it, appearing almost independent.
Anyone with basic biology knowledge knows why we can see images of the world through our eyes: light signals are converted into neural signals by photoreceptor cells on the retina. These signals are then transmitted to the brain via the visual nervous system and confirmed as images in the brain. This is the mechanism by which the eye works to see something. But in Titans, their pupils were only minimally connected to the cranium, their simple function being to prevent the eyes from falling out of the sockets. Even if they were connected further inside, he didn't know if that mushy substance could function as a brain.
Yet, the Titans' eyes not only worked but worked well, not much worse than human eyes.
This contradiction caused Asahi to fall into deep thought. One must realize how much it violated biological rules for a complex organism, not a single-celled, multi-celled, or simple life form, to have such a simple and drastically deficient structure.
Asahi fell silent after seeing all these things. The people of this world were still restricted in their thinking; they only saw and feared the outermost layer. They feared the Titans because they were huge and ate people, but there was another layer of fear that was even more terrifying.
A type of life—no, he didn't even know if he should call it life—was an existence that was too unreasonable and unnatural. This thing fundamentally could not have arisen naturally; the only thing he could think of was that it was promoted and created by someone or something.
And as for what that something was, it was likely that only one person, the first Titan, Ymir, could know the truth.
Mentioning Ymir, something suddenly stirred in Asahi's heart, like a flash of electricity. He remembered something, instructed Hange to continue directing the research, and returned inside the institute to his private room.
He sat at the desk, took out a stack of paper, and began to write.
"Coordinates, paths, Eldian bloodline..."
The experiences of that day appeared clearly in Asahi's mind, as if he were watching a 3D movie. Moreover, with his enhanced will-power and ability to utilize his brain and nervous system, he could fully simulate a God's-eye view, encompassing all his memories from the most holistic perspective.
First, the description of Grisha's moment of appearance and transformation from human to Titan.
"Appeared from the void."
And following that, the disappearance when the Titan was killed.
"Vanished into the void."
In both his and Grisha's experience, the two states of Titan appearance and disappearance were contradictory "non-existence to existence." To put it simply, if one assumes all matter in this world, from something as small as a fundamental particle to something as large as the entire Earth, is the "existence" state, then the Titan must be the "non-existence" state. Simply because the Titan fundamentally does not fit the natural laws of life, nor the laws of energy conservation. They should not exist in a world without the "supernatural." But for some reason, they could transition from the "non-existence" state to "existence" and, upon death, revert from "existence" back to "non-existence."
And this transition requires a crucial, extremely important link.
That is the Paths.