Skeleton Flowers [Shingeki no Kyojin]

✾ Chapter 5 ✾

Izanami remained silent, her mind trailing far away from the Earthly spot that she stood upon – the years had changed, the locations had changed and even the Izanami of the past had changed. Yet the death and horror of life continued to persist around her. Izanami felt cursed yet she continued to remain still – every single sense of hers overwhelmed by those around her.

Armin's cries filled her ears, the touch of his tears warm against her cold skin, the smell of Franz's death stung her nostrils, the sight of Hanna's anguish excruciating to witness... and the taste of something dark in her own mouth held her tongue. Izanami felt cursed yet she continued to remain still – staring at the darkening skies, there was only one thought in her mind.

There is a purpose.
Whether it is mine or not... I shall know, one day.

With the weight of Armin, it was hard for Izanami to go anywhere from her position. She had no idea where she needed to go to find that purpose of hers. She had been assigned to the vanguard but all of them had been wiped off in front of her, and she had come to find the middle guard suffer the same. Now, Eren was gone, and Armin was in too much of a shock to let Izanami continue.

There was no way that Izanami could leave Armin behind and go off on her own to inform of the situation to the rest. And from what she was witnessing, the supply team had also abandoned their post. There had been no reinforcements, and Izanami was forced to pick off more gas canisters from the dead.

It was strange, the concept of survival – Izanami knew that it was disrespectful to pick up something from the dead's corpse, yet the drive of survival pumped through her body like the heat of gasoline. Izanami stood over the remnants of what had once been human like her and prayed for their souls.

But as her dark eyes took in their scattered appearance, Izanami also wondered if they were, at last, more human than she was. She wondered the linguistics, the progression from the word 'human' to 'corpse' – and she wondered, given that she had no purpose of her own, if she was also a corpse. The body that once breathed for a reason had died, and she breathed without a reason for living.

As they soared through the air, Izanami carried Armin on her back. He had cried himself into a deep shock and Izanami had no choice but to look for a safe location to drop him off before she was to continue on her trajectory toward killing more of the Titans that had infiltrated the city.

Titans roamed throughout the city and many of them had made their way far too deep into the city, with only the more arriving in droves. Izanami avoided their attention, given that she had her friend strapped onto her back. She did not stop until her eyes fell onto a safer location, given the presence of other humans. They were all standing on top of the roofs.

Stepping down on one of those roofs, Izanami let Armin down and let him rest against the wall. She moved back, opening her long hair to cool her head and get some air through so that she would not feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable when she returned to the battlefield.

"Izanami!"

This was a familiar, feminine voice and Izanami turned around to find Sasha Braus rushing in her direction out of excitement. The brunette threw her arms around Izanami and hugged her, talking so much and so fast that Izanami felt a bit disorientated by it, but she still patted the girl's back.

Sasha's presence meant that this group of cadets were one of the middle guards, and as Izanami glanced around again, she recognised them now. Having seen far too many half-eaten bodies had disassociated her from everyone and it was hard to imagine life in the eyes of these people until Sasha had called out to her and had come hugged her. But what truly brought Izanami back to reality was what happened next –