Chapter 228 227
On a Friday near the end of December, the internet was already boiling long before broadcast time.
Although many fans still did not understand why the first season of Attack on Titan had twenty-five episodes while the second would have only twelve, that no longer seemed to matter very much. Over the past few weeks, the story had been piling twist upon twist, barely giving the audience a chance to breathe. Eren had been captured, the entire Scout Regiment had thrown itself into pursuit, and even when Commander Erwin had his arm bitten by a titan and was dragged into the air, he still found the strength to shout the order to advance and rescue Eren.
Reiner, in his armored form, was fleeing with everything he had.
But where, exactly, was he trying to go?
"We're already in the second season, but why does it feel like this anime only opens more questions with every episode?"
"Where is Reiner and the others' homeland, anyway?"
"And that titan that ate Eren's mother and Uncle Hannes showing up in that forest to attack again? Honestly, that development felt kind of forced."
"It really exists. I almost fainted when it appeared in the last episode. What an absurd coincidence."
"There's only one thing to say: that cunning bastard Sora is too good at torturing fans. He knows exactly what we like and what we hate, so he deliberately creates stories that hurt in the worst possible places."
"So the twelfth episode of season two is going to be about Uncle Hannes fighting the titan that devoured Eren's mother?"
"Maybe. Five years ago, Hannes didn't even have the courage to fight and ran away with Eren and Mikasa. Now he can kill that titan, get revenge, and destroy the demon that's been trapped inside him since that day."
"I still want to know whether they'll be able to capture Reiner and Bertolt! Two seasons have passed, and we still don't know where these intelligent titans came from!"
"Ever since Reiner's betrayal was revealed in episode six, the plot of the second season has become more and more intense… and every week we still have to endure the wait."
"When is Kantoku Sora going to upgrade from one episode a week to two? His works are way too addictive!"
"Exactly! Instead of wasting time making animated films, why not put the entire production team on Attack on Titan? Two episodes a week would be perfect!"
"Two episodes a week… you people are incredible. You don't even stop to think whether Kantoku Sora would survive that!"
"In the past, an anime Kantoku who managed to release one work a year was already considered a model of dedication in the industry. Now Kantoku Sora, who delivers an average of two works a year, is still being criticized by fans for not working hard enough. If he read these comments, he'd probably cry."
"Heaven gave him that talent, so he has to work harder. If the Japanese animation industry can't rely on him, who is it supposed to rely on? Those so-called veterans who now only know how to imitate his works?"
From the afternoon onward, online forums and fan groups grew increasingly restless. Southern Alliance Television's audience numbers had also been rising day by day, and that night, the anticipation felt even heavier, almost tangible.
Since early morning, Shiori had prepared a pile of snacks and sweets on the table, waiting for the broadcast to begin. While nibbling on one thing after another, she watched TV commercials announcing official Attack on Titan merchandise. Collectible figures, posters, keychains, limited editions, special boxes - everything appeared on the screen with that carefully calculated shine that made any fan feel their wallet tremble.
When she saw the prices, Shiori's fair face took on a slightly defeated expression.
"Too expensive…"
Even when it came to similar character figures, products related to Attack on Titan cost at least thirty percent more than those of other anime. And still, they kept selling out. Of course she wanted them. But as a recent graduate, that kind of figure was not something she could pay for without thinking twice.
So all she could do was eat her snacks, swallow down her desire, and wait for the final episode of the second season.
It did not take long for eight o'clock to arrive.
Shiori had already heard the theme song "Surrender Your Heart" countless times, and yet her chest still warmed whenever the first notes began. Although she was only an ordinary girl sitting in front of the television, when she saw the soldiers charging against giants on the screen, something inside her was dragged along by the tension, the courage, and the despair of that impossible war.
Advance.
In this episode, they had to bring down Reiner and Bertolt.
The titan that devoured Eren's mother?
Let it die too.
The episode continued directly from the eleventh. Reiner fled through a horde of ferocious titans while the members of the Scout Regiment pursued him in a formation that grew more chaotic by the second. Their advance gradually fell apart. Everyone was separated, pulled into individual battles, pushed into desperate situations.
The mobile unit of the Scouts was losing soldiers at a frightening pace. Eren, weakened and unable to transform into a titan, found himself facing the very creature that had devoured his mother five years before, now walking toward him with that grotesque, empty smile.
With no gas left in her three-dimensional maneuver gear, Mikasa could only remain beside him, protecting him as best she could. In front of them, Hannes stood alone on the defensive line, drawing the titan's attention and throwing himself into battle.
Eren, Mikasa, Hannes, and the titan that had devoured Carla.
After five years, fate had placed them face-to-face once again.
At the same time, there was the conversation between Christa and Ymir, heavy with impossible choices and feelings too tangled for words. There was also the final confrontation between Reiner and those who had once been his comrades-in-arms.
Only a few minutes after the twelfth episode began, Shiori could already feel the tragic grandeur of its conclusion.
This episode did not seem nearly as simple as some people online had claimed.
Why did the number of deaths keep rising?
This was different from the previous titan-focused episodes.
In the original versions of certain anime, when production reached critical moments, visible animation flaws sometimes appeared: scenes with insufficient frames, repeated cuts used to save effort, battles that should have crushed the audience's heart but ended up losing impact because of recycled movement and tensionless editing.
But in this Japanese-produced version, Sora had not allowed Hannes to be reduced to a weightless scene.
Perhaps Hannes truly was not strong like Mikasa or Levi. Perhaps he did not have the talent to cut down titan after titan with absurd ease. Perhaps he was only an ordinary soldier, aged by regret and guilt. Even so, before dying - if he was meant to die - he deserved at least one dignified fight.
On the television screen, Shiori saw Hannes advance.
He dodged the titan's monstrous hands, slipped between its fingers as though passing through a living trap, and with one precise strike, tore through one of the creature's eyes. Then he circled behind it, reached its back, and drove his blade directly toward the nape.
"Go to hell!"
Hannes's furious roar made Shiori shoot to her feet.
That was it.
Revenge.
Without a doubt, Attack on Titan was excellent at manipulating the audience's emotions. In that instant, Shiori truly believed Hannes would finally settle the debt from the nightmare of five years ago. That he would crush Eren's trauma, avenge Carla, and prove that this time, he would not run.
Then the story turned.
The titan that had devoured Eren's mother raised its other hand and caught Hannes in midair.
Shiori stopped breathing.
What?
What was that?
How?
That was not how the script was supposed to go.
Trapped in the titan's grip, Hannes could no longer move. Eren, no matter how desperate he was, could not transform. Mikasa, with no gas left in her equipment, could not help him either.
"If I don't turn into a titan, none of this means anything!"
Eren's eyes were consumed by an almost insane fury. He bit his own hand again and again, trying to make blood flow, trying to force the transformation to happen. But it was useless. After losing so much strength, his body no longer responded. No matter how much pain, hatred, and despair burned inside him, nothing changed.
So all he could do was watch.
And Shiori watched with him, sitting before the television, unable to look away.
Amid the screams, Hannes was carried into that monstrous titan's mouth. His body vanished between enormous teeth, crushed, torn apart, devoured alive. The violence of the scene did not need exaggeration to be brutal; the sound, the sharp cut, Eren's powerless expression, and the silence that followed were enough.
Shiori stared at the screen, stunned.
The more heroic Hannes had seemed only moments before, the crueler the fate that had just fallen upon him became.
Rage and disbelief began to boil inside her.
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