*Note; the following work is from the previous version of HHNM and are no longer canon in concern to the updated story.*
PROLOGUE ━━ DESTRUCTION OF SHIGANSHINA
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MICAH ISHIDA WAS NOT A STRANGER TO DEATH.
Hidden within the walls, one became accustomed to dirty business. On more than one occasion the boy of twelve took notice of the stains that stubbornly clung to any surface. His first encounter with death was when he was nine. Bated breath, skinned knees—he remembered it so clearly that a phantom pain burned his lungs and tugged at his chest. The look on his brother's face...the scream of anguish that sent his mother crumbling to the ground, disregarding the bodily fluids at her feet that consisted of blood and vomit. The pain and misery were all too familiar.
So it came to no surprise when Wall Maria fell and tales of bloodshed and horrid deaths spread like wildfire. Fear seized people's minds like a parasite jumping from one host to the next without hesitation.
The first story Micah heard was from a middle-aged woman clutching the body of a small child to her chest. From his spot next to his mother, Hana Ishida gripping his hand like her life depended on it, he couldn't be sure if the child was alive, unconscious, or dead. Regardless, the woman held tightly to the figure in her arms. She spoke sporadically, sobs cutting into her sentences and breaking apart her thoughts as they left her mouth. Micah's own tongue felt dry at the details she gave the officer kneeling in front of her. The man who looked to be no older than eighteen, reached for her hands, pleading with her to hand over the child so a medic could exime them both for injuries, but she just kept rambling, refusing to hand over the body in her arms.
Titan...bigger than the walls...killed my husband...I can't...I wanted to help...so big...it's eyes...so human-like...I ran...but then the other one...
Micah wasn't even sure if she knew who she was speaking to, or if she figured anyone was listening. The woman kept crying long after someone yelled at her to shut her mouth, and someone behind her even reached out and smacked her in the back of the head. Her weight shifted on the crate she sat on and she tumbled forward into the officer's arms. Unfortunately, her own arms gave out and the child she held onto fell to the ground, landing splayed out on her back.
Hana gave her son's arm a harsh pull, raising the other to the back of his head, steering him into her embrace. If possible, she was holding onto Micah with more urgency than the mother from Shiganshina. She turned him away too fast for him to witness the look on the woman's face when she saw her daughter sprawled on the pavement, but her scream said enough.
