The wilderness marching training ended. Although the process was full of twists and turns, and so many unexpected things happened.
Armin and Thomas, as situation recorders, were successively called into the office by Instructor Keith to explain what had happened. As for what they talked about, no one knew.
This matter was soon gradually forgotten as time passed, and in the blink of an eye, winter was almost here.
...
During a morning theory class, Armin had been carefully organizing his notes when he accidentally knocked a book to the floor. That book had always been treasured by Armin—it was the only thing his grandfather had left him.
Armin hurriedly bent down to pick it up, carefully brushing the dust off the cover. When he raised his head, he met a pair of indifferent blue eyes.
"Ah, Annie? What is it?" Armin asked nervously.
If one were to ask which girl in the class boys absolutely did not dare to provoke, it would undoubtedly be Annie. Not only did her formidable combat ability make everyone wary, her cold demeanor also kept many boys at a distance. As Jean Kirstein liked to say, who would go stick themselves next to an ice block for no reason? Was Historia not cute enough, or was Mina not gentle enough? Aside from Yago, no one really approached the ice-block girl, right?
"Ice-block girl" was the nickname most people used for Annie. The girls were fine with her, but Annie's usual attitude was simply too cold, so even among the girls, she didn't have many close friends.
Annie looked at Armin and asked, "Where is Yago? Why didn't he come to class today?"
Armin let out a sigh of relief. So she was looking for Yago. That made sense. Thinking of how weak Yago had looked that morning, Armin explained,
"Yago seems to be sick. He went to the infirmary to get checked, and now he's resting in the dormitory."
Annie frowned slightly when she heard this.
"Okay, thank you." After softly saying thanks, Annie turned and left.
Armin watched Annie's departing figure. For some reason, he felt a faint sense of strangeness, but he quickly ignored that tiny feeling and continued organizing his notes.
Annie returned to her seat and looked at the empty seat beside her. For a moment, she felt a bit uncomfortable. During class, without that guy who always slacked off and slept, occasionally teasing her with a remark or two, it really did feel a little unfamiliar.
Annie took a small notebook out of the inner pocket of her jacket. When she opened it, two folded drawings were pressed against the first page. She gently unfolded them, and the corner of Annie's mouth lifted into a slight smile. Carefully folding them back up, Annie put the notebook back into her pocket, thinking about whether she should bring something to that sick guy.
...
At this moment, Yago was lying on his bed with a pained expression, his hands clenched tightly, his fingernails digging deep into his palms. Yago's hands were under the blanket—if one were to lift it, they would find thin wisps of white steam constantly rising from his hands, with faint yellow sparks of electricity flashing from time to time.
Under the brilliant starlight, it was that familiar desert again, and that pillar of light shooting straight into the sky again. This time, Yago directly locked onto a direction and sprinted wildly toward it.
After an unknown amount of time running, Yago quickly drew close to the pillar of light. He reached out his hand and suddenly realized—sure enough, that layer of barrier was still there. Above the pillar of light, eight faint, barely visible slender paths of light were connected.
Passing through the barrier, Yago once again saw that blurry figure. Only this time, the figure gradually became clear. Yago stared at it and finally saw it clearly—it seemed to be a little girl, squatting on the ground, piling up sand, just like a child playing on a beach.
Yago felt an impulse—an impulse to replace that girl. Yes, to replace her. This feeling was uncontrollable, making Yago feel as if he were a puppet.
As if she had noticed Yago's gaze, the little girl slowly turned around. Yago inexplicably grew tense. Every cell in his body began to sound the alarm, and a powerful sense of danger enveloped him.
Yago held his breath, his pupils dilating. The little girl in front of him vanished without a trace. In her place, a towering giant appeared before Yago—so tall it seemed to pierce the clouds. Compared to this giant, the Colossal Titan that once appeared in Shiganshina District was like a mere infant.
The giant's movements carried an unparalleled momentum. Yago couldn't move at all.
A soft whisper suddenly sounded in his ears.
"Fate cannot be changed, and you will be no exception. Why do you try to resist Fate Titan?"
The whisper continued incessantly, until Yago couldn't take it anymore and shouted angrily,
"To hell with fate! You're really damn noisy! Who the hell are you?! To hell with this bullshit fate!"
It seemed that Yago's furious shout had an effect. The whisper actually disappeared. Along with it, the towering giant and the pillar of light also vanished. Yago's consciousness began to blur. In a hazy in-between state, Yago saw a figure in a white lab coat approaching him. Instinctive fear surged in Yago's heart—an uncontrollable fear.
As the white lab coat drew closer, Yago's fear grew stronger and stronger, yet he still couldn't move at all. Finally, the white-coated figure stood before him. Its face seemed to be obscured by mist. He only heard a soft, thin voice whisper,
"Norman, my most perfect creation. Hehehe… let those rotten old fools of Marley regret it! Hahahahahahahaha!!"
The words turned into manic laughter, filled with obsession and madness.
Yago felt intense disgust and fear toward that voice, yet at the same time, there was an eerie sense of familiarity. This person seemed connected to his past self. Yago had lost all memories from before he was picked up by the Survey Corps—this person must be connected to his memories!
...
Whoosh! Yago snapped his eyes open. Half of the blanket had already been soaked by steam. He raised his hands—his fingernails were still embedded deep in his flesh. As he pulled them out, the wounds began to heal, white steam rising from them.
Yago struggled to sit up. His body was weaker than it had ever been, yet he could faintly sense that after this period passed, he would become even stronger.
But… was that just a dream? That girl piling sand, that person in the white lab coat—who were they? And who was he himself? What was Marley?
Yago felt his head swelling. There were far too many things he still didn't know. He seemed to be carrying many secrets within himself.
Yago sighed. There was no way to deal with all of that right now. Even if he couldn't remember his past, wasn't there still a world and people worth protecting now?
After a while, Yago suddenly realized something.
"Damn it, how am I supposed to explain this blanket?"
In a situation like this, there was one misunderstanding that would easily arise—wetting the bed. Yago's scalp went numb. This was bad. In the middle of winter, with such a large wet patch, if Yago said it wasn't bedwetting, no one would believe him. The key problem was that he couldn't tell them the truth either. The power of the Titans was far too shocking. What was he supposed to do?!
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