Shinzou wo Sasageyo Ayanokouji

𝕮25:𝕿𝖊𝖗𝖗𝖔𝖗 𝖍𝖆𝖘 𝖏𝖚𝖘𝖙 𝖇𝖊𝖌𝖚𝖓

C25:Terror has just begun

Ayanokouji POV

The darkness in the landscape was vivid as the visages of my fellow companions blurred up from the starless night sky. The pastor kept his mouth shut as he kept stealing glances from Hanji in a fear-stricken look. She was often fearless and borderline suicidal at points considering that she didn't have a single ounce of doubt before stepping up and studying the titans. But she also had another lesser-known side which was quite interesting as it would come out when she was feeling an extreme sense of disgust from someone. It seems the pastor gave me an opportunity to dissect her less prominent psyche for once.

After a while, it seems she tried her best to stop that side of hers as she took out a piece of shining rock-like thing from her back pocket. I was curious considering that it of course wasn't having any geological significance on my earth. What if this was a stone of this earth and I hadn't found it? That's impossible considering that such a shiny rock would probably be worn by the female comrades I had or at least someone in the whole city.

Except I had seen it......

I couldn't help myself but confirm a hypothesis, "Hanji was this a part of the titan we fought?" The gazes of every one were immediately pointed at me, making me slightly uncomfortable being the centre of attention again. But I was getting used to it again, after all, I was always deemed to be the centre of every chess board...that is, only if a game of chess was able to convert me into a chess piece.

She looked at me with slight fascination as she said, "You are completely right! Goddamm your observation is something quite charming indeed. Isn't that right Levi?" He glanced in my direction and then at Hanji's, "Yeah sure I guess. Kiyotaka, why don't you tell me further what you have in mind? After all, that mind of yours is a titan in itself."

Was that a compliment? Or a challenge?

"Hey hey, Levi I didn't know you held Kiyotaka to such high standards. Congrats! Kiyotaka you just levelled up." Hanji's overexcited nature hid the fact that she was indeed curious and pushed forward Levi's plan. Considering the people in this carriage were going to be the longest to survive considering the various observations I have made in these years, I decided to reveal my thoughts a bit and display a single card from my arsenal.

"While I was fighting the titan, I had noticed it's hardening capability and brushed over it a couple of times as I had fought the female Titan. What I noticed was that this material was quite different in feel than the hardened bones inside the skeletal system. I thought it had some significance as it was after all made from the protein in the muscles. I had felt a similar substance when I had closed up the wall with the rock. Now consider the previous me didn't have the information that, such a fragment as in Hanji's hand can last even after the titan disappears. It has ascertained that....

The wall is made of titan's hardening capability. And if we consider the size and amount of this hardening that must have been done, it has to be the colossal titans lined up and hardened to build the very walls we are standing inside of. Ironic isn't it? We are being protected by the very things that will end us." As I ended my short speech, Hanji's jaw dropped to the floor and so did the pastor's. It seems I was accurate enough. Levi looked at me suspiciously as the other three simply couldn't keep up except Armin and then he asked, "Hey Hanji, how much of this brat's words are worth gold?"

"A-Al....All...of it." She couldn't formulate words as Levi threw his razor-sharp glare at me as he murmured, "As expected."

Armin immediately asked as he got out of his shock,"How....did you do that? How did you predict everything?" Armin was completely wrong and this was a moment for him to realise how much his intellect had to grow. I said, "I just observed."