Nine-Tailed-Titan

Chapter 7: Fortunate Survivors

Late in the afternoon within a shrouded forest, the sounds of a screaming child echoed along with the yells of a man. The child was being held down by the man and struggled desperately to get away, but the man's grip on the child was strong although he struggled to accomplish what he set out to do on the child properly due to the relentless struggles of said child.

The most surprising aspect of this situation were the identities of the man and the child. The man was in fact Grisha Jaeger and the child was his son, Eren Jaeger.

"Eren!" Grisha exclaimed.

"Dad! Stop it, dad! What are you trying to do!?" Eren shouted tearfully.

"Just give me your arm!" Grisha shouted as he held up an injection.

"Have you lost it!? Let me go, dad!" Eren shouted.

"This is for your sake!" Grisha stated and he proceeded to inject whatever was in the injection into Eren's arm.

"Argh! Dad!? What are-" Eren was cut off by Grisha handing him a key.

"Don't forget the key, okay!? You must get there..." Grisha instructed as Eren's vision began to blur, "Someday, you'll understand...until that day..."

Eren started to go numb and whatever Grisha was saying to him was muffled with white noise. Eren turned his head as he slumped to the ground, and although his vision was blurry, his eyes widened upon catching a peculiar and horrifying sight.

Deep within the bushes watched the monstrous eyes of the monster he'd sworn to kill. The eyes of a demon that had bathed in the blood of his fellow man. They were unmistakable. Those were the eyes of the Nine-Tailed-Titan!

That in itself was horrifying, but what sent chills running down his spine was the fact that although blurry, the glowing red fox eyes belonged to Akuma.

Something told him that she noticed the fact that he spotted her, because she grinned at him right after, brandishing her sharp animalistic teeth.

"Eren."

Eren jolted up from the haystack he was sleeping on with a gasp and sweat running down the side of his head. He looked up to see Mikasa standing over him with her ever neutral look, although she was frowning.

"Eren, are you okay? You were tossing and turning the whole night." Mikasa asked.

"I saw my dad...and..." Eren muttered as he looked down.

"And?" Mikasa asked.

"A monster." Eren stated.

"It was probably just a nightmare." Mikasa rationalized.

"Was it?" Eren asked, looking back up at her.

Mikasa was unsure on how to answer that so she opted to change the topic and not dwell on the subject for the time being.

"Let's go. They said they're going to distribute food." Mikasa informed.

Eren nodded and he got up, following her out of the barn. The both of them were met by Armin, Carla who was now in a wheelchair and Armin's grandfather.

"Hey, Eren!" Armin greets with a smile.

"Good morning, Eren." Carla greets with a smile of her own.

"Took you long enough, kid. We gotta hurry before the rations run out." Armin's grandfather said as he started walking.

Armin helps Carla by pushing her wheelchair to which she thanks him in kind for. They all manage to catch up with Armin's grandfather and continue their way to the ration line.