The 5th Ackermann

47- The Secret Vessel

Written: 1/12/21

Published: 2/5/21

I don't even know what the name means.

Short Chapter.

Hanji, Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Levi, and Y/n were sitting in a wagon, heading towards Ehrmich district. It was already dark outside. Preparations had taken awhile. Riding along with them... was Pastor Nick.

"What should we do..." Armin wondered aloud. "To think that Rose would suddenly be breached... What options do we even have left to us? Even if we go with Eren to the damaged spot...I can't imagine it going well... And..." He looked at Nick. "Why...are we taking a wallist priest with us?"

Hanji put an arm around the pastor. "Oh, Nick and I are buddies!" She excitedly said. The three Shiganshina teenagers stared at her with brows raised. Hanji then became more serious. "He knew there were titans inside the walls. But he kept it a secret until now. I don't know why, but... It seems he's serious about dying before he'll spill anymore. Still...Their church knows some sort of secret about the walls."

Eren suddenly stood up. "HUH!?" He yelled. "Ack..." He fell back on his seat. Mikasa held him.

"Calm down..." She told him. "You're still tired from transforming..."

"We could have asked some other believers...but he chose to come with us. Since the situation's different now...he wants to see if he can stay true to his principles and keep silent even after seeing how things really are. He says he's going to judge with his own eyes and then ask himself."

"Wait, wait..." Eren said. "But that's ridiculous. If there's something you know, please, just tell us. How could anything be more important than keeping humanity form being wiped out?" He asked and received no answer.

"I wonder..." Hanji said. "The minister looks like a righteous man of good judgment...but on the other hand, perhaps... there really is something more important to him than the extinction of humanity..."

"Well...I guess he's got some guts." Levi spoke up. "But I wonder about the other believers... Hard to imagine they'll all have the same kind of willpower." He dug his hand in his coat pocket. "There are a lot of ways to ask a question... I may not be of much use right now... but I can at least keep an eye on one minister. I...would sincerely like to avoid seeing a hole thoughtlessly blown through someone's body. I believe we both do."

Y/n sighed. "Lay off, Big Bro."

Levi shrugged as he put his gun back into his pocket. "But never mind that...Hanji?" He asked. She looked at him. "I didn't think you had any hobbies so dreary as playing with rocks." Y/n looked in Hanji's hand. She didn't notice Hanji was holding something until now.

"Well...You're right." Hanji replied. "This isn't just a rock. This is a fragment of the female titan's hardened skin that left behind."

"What?!" Armin exclaimed. "It's still here?!"

"That's right!" Hanji exuberantly replied. "Even after Annie turned back into a human and was detached from her titan body..." She held up the crystal-rock thing. "Well, just look! It's not evaporating...And it's not disappearing. It gave me an idea... And when I compared it to a fragment of the wall, the two were very similar, down to their physical structures."

Y/n grinned. She could almost see Moblit begging her to hurry.

"In other words, the central pillars of that wall were colossal titans, and it's surface was made up of their hardened skin."