Fukushū e no kōgeki

Chapter 4: Wall Rose

A few days later...

A faint scream from afar, it sounded so agonizing that it could ring your ear drums.

Screams of a traumatic, horrid, and unforgettable soul. Tano couldn't tell what could be more traumatizing. He was curious as to where the screams were coming from.

He slowly opened his eyes, it took a bit to adjust his vision before he could see properly.

"Ugh, my head hurts like hell." Tano thought to himself as he held onto his head. He slowly got up on his feet by the support of the tree beside him as he walked sluggishly to the scream.

As he dragged himself to the agonizing sounds, all Tano could hear were creepy whispers. From his point of view, it was terrifying. Some of the words were redacted.. as if they were blurred. He couldn't pin together what was happening.

"DO NOT TRUST [REDACTED]" , "PLEASE SAVE [REDACTED]" , the redacted sounds were disturbing enough. It was probably just his headache, not comprehending on what had happened.

He finally managed to walk through the path, finding himself and his dad. The screams had come from himself, the scared 8 year old boy. He was so confused, he couldn't understand why he could see himself. Why was his dad trying to inject him with something? Countless numbers of thoughts ran through his mind as he had observed the scene in shock.

"Protect Mika and Chris, Tano! They're the most important pieces to your puzzles. Be the gentleman I couldn't be. Be the person I wanted to be. I believe in you, so give me your hand!" His father yelled at his scared, confused son who just wanted to see where his friends were.

When Tano looked around at the scenery, they had seemed to be in the woods, and no sign of life was to be seen nearby.

Right before he knew it, there was a sudden bright light that caught his attention. He squinted to try and see through it but had no luck and it eventually disappeared.

He looked down to see himself infront of him, it was like there were clones. Tano's dream eventually faded into nothing but darkness and he went back to normal, but he had a golden-ish key, with his father's broken glasses that laid beside him. As he gained consciousness, he cried out for his dad. He couldn't remember what happened afterwards. Next thing he knew, he found himself on a blanket. He woke up and looked around at his surroundings to see Mika. He was relieved, knowing she was doing okay.

Tano sat up, smiling at Mika as her reaction was a worried and confused expression.

"What're you smiling for? I've been waiting for you to wake up, y'know.." She said with a rather stern tone, whilst having her right eyebrow raised.

"I.. don't know. I just had a dream tha-" He had cut off his sentence as he had no memory of his dream, he just stood there in a paused state.

"Where's Otou-san? I haven't seen him since he left the house for work.." Tano asked in a worried expression.

"I don't know, he's probably okay since he wasn't nearby the incident.. let's get up, I heard they're giving out food." Mika got up, as she waited for Tano.

Tano got up as well, realizing the necklace on him, "Since when was this here? I guess Otou-san must have given it before he left" he shrugged it off whilst picking up his scarf and walked towards Mika.

As they left the area they were staying in, they ran into Chris. Tano hadn't seen him since before the incident so he was overjoyed.

"Hey Tano! Glad to see you finally woke up. Here, my grandpa managed to grab some extra food for you guys." Chris said as he handed them each a piece of bread.

"Ah thank you Chris!" Tano said with a smile before eating his share.

Mika also thanked him and ate her food. When they finished they all sat down against a nearby wall. They sat there in silence for a couple minutes until it was broken by Tano.

"I've come up with a plan." He said swiftly.

"And what is that?" Chris replied with a confused tone.

"In 4 years, I'll finally be able to join the training corps. So that's what I'll do. I'll join the training corps and then once I pass that, I'll join the survey corps!" Tano said proudly.

Chris and Mika immediately turned their heads towards him with shocked expressions.

"You're seriously still thinking about that?! You saw what the titans look like, that's a crazy idea!" Chris said whilst grabbing Tano by the shoulders. Tano sighed before Mika decided to speak up.

"If you're going then I am too-" She said as Chris let go of Tano's shoulders to look at her.

Chris sighed and looked down worriedly. "Well there goes that.. if you two are joining then I am as well." He said and the other two stared at him with their eyes wide open, leaving them in a deep silence.

Tano smiled softly before he began to speak up. "I won't complain, but you two have to promise me that you won't die out there!" He stated sternly before pulling them into a tight group hug.

They promised Tano and then the three of them got up and began to walk around the refuge camp. There was a sudden commotion and they all ran towards it to see what was going on. To their surprise, they saw the soldiers beating a lady as she had taken bread without permission. Tano couldn't stand watching them beat her so he ran infront of her right as the soldier went to hit her.

"What are you doing stupid kid?! Get out of my way!" The soldier yelled as he went to grab Tano and shove him away.

The soldier then grabbed him and went to push him but as he did, Tano made no movement and remained in place. As he looked down at him, he noticed the look in Tano's eyes.

"Leave her be, she's clearly hungry so why can't you just be nice and let her go?! Your job is to protect the people not beat them, tell me I'm wrong!" Tano stated before being grabbed and lifted into the air by the soldier.

"Listen here brat, I don't have time for scums like you who just came into our district because the wall breached. In my own personal opinion, you all should have been left to die." He said with a stern tone before throwing Tano towards his friends.

Before Tano could get up and say anything, Chris and Mika lifted him up themselves and dragged him away from the scene. Once they were far enough away they set him down. Mika scolded Tano for a solid 5 minutes and after that they went silent and decided to rest.

End...