Shiganshina District was bustling with energy. Filled with pedestrians, the avenue that ran from north to south through the center of town was so alive that one might be forgiven for thinking it a festival day. There were no roadside stalls, but the people walking down the avenue wore excited smiles on their faces.
Shiganshina District was a gigantic town that boasted the largest population of any inside the country. It was also the nation’s center of trade. While it was full of energy even on a regular day, today’s commotion was something special.
Kuklo and the others had not made it in time, but the Survey Corps had left on an expedition that morning. In other words, the men and women on the street were spectators, and their unusual enthusiasm was due to the Survey Corps’ imminent return.
Dumbfounded, Cardina watched the spectators in front of the main gate. “It’s like some festival.”
“An expedition is a festival for them. They’re here for the return parade to the barracks,” Kuklo said.
“You seem to know a lot about this. Have you been in one of these crowds before?”
“I was in a parade with the Survey Corps.”
“That’s quite a valuable experience there…”
The town only grew more restive, and the area around the gate became jammed full of people trying to secure front-row seats. At the moment, though, their attention was focused on Kuklo and the rest of his group. The crowd was used to seeing soldiers, but recruits must have been an uncommon sight. That fact alone may not have garnered their attention, but Kuklo and the others wore the old Equipment. The strange armament naturally drew eyes toward them.
Wearing the Equipment was a part of their training, meant to get their bodies used to the machinery.
“Nothing wrong with being looked at,” Cardina welcomed sarcastically, but Rosa and the others looked stiff. Perhaps they were excited and afraid of the outside world in equal measure, for their faces bore an inscrutable mix of emotions.
The classes might be part of the problem, Kuklo suspected. While knowledge was necessary to survive beyond the walls, it was counterproductive if the lectures planted fear in the recruits’ hearts. Even so, fears rooted in knowledge rather than experience wasn’t true fear.
Kuklo looked at the towering wall and concentrated on what was on the other side. No Titans nearby…
Just as he confirmed this, Jorge returned from speaking to a Garrison soldier. “Okay, let’s go up,” he said, pointing to the top of the wall. He pulled out the Equipment controller from its holster on his waist.
“We’re not going up there using these, are we?”
“Of course we are,” Jorge disabused Cardina. Then he fixed his aim and pushed down on the controller’s lever. An anchor flew from its muzzle and sank into the top of the wall. “This is the perfect opportunity for you to display the fruits of your training. Make a good impression here and it’ll be easier for me to talk to the higher-ups, too.”
Jorge smiled fearlessly as he returned the controller’s lever to its original position. The machine on his back howled and rewound its wire at a fierce rate. Jorge’s body flew into the air and approached the top of the wall almost instantly, causing spectators to cheer in amazement. After grabbing the edge of the wall to pull himself up, he motioned to Kuklo and the others to follow.
“That’s the instructor for you. I guess he had this all planned out from the beginning,” Cardina marveled.
“He seems like he’d do fine out there, too,” Rosa said, sounding just as surprised.
Jorge had moved with such fluidity and grace that it was hard to believe he was a veteran who’d stepped away from the front lines. If anyone dared to spar with him, he would end things quickly after amusing himself, no doubt.
Kuklo grabbed his own controller and followed Jorge’s lead, sinking an anchor into the top of the wall. The taut wire provided him with solid feedback; the Equipment would be able to support his body. Having made sure, Kuklo used the lever, and the Equipment roared in response. His body shook off gravity and suddenly flew into the sky, guided by the anchor. He was nearly to the top just a moment later, and he let off speed to make a soft landing. As soon as he did, he grabbed the edge and moved onto the wall.
One by one, the others followed.
“Looks like all that practice is paying off,” Jorge nodded, looking satisfied. Still, that didn’t keep him from adding a pointed reminder. “The goal is to learn to control the Vertical Maneuvering Equipment. Don’t forget that.”
The top of Wall Maria was full of soldiers at work. With an expedition in progress, they had to bring their A-game and be ready for anything.
Jorge and his students moved to a watchtower, and from there they could see the world beyond the walls alongside the lookouts.
The tower was perfect for getting a panoramic view of the outside world. Of course, all they saw was an expanse of unused, barren land, with little of note. Kuklo cast a quick glance across the area but found nothing more than a dreary wasteland stretching to the horizon. No Titans seemed to be nearby.
But they have to be somewhere… He could be sure of that.
“You know, though, the more I see it, the worse it looks,” Cardina said with some feeling, perhaps reminded of his dash through the outside world. Kuklo didn’t care to play another life-or-death game of tag with a Titan, but it was inevitable if he wished to take one on.
Rosa spoke next. “I can’t believe that people used to live there…”
“Without humans there to tend the land, it ends up looking like that.”
That was especially true where the Titans roamed. When they rushed through a town, it was enough to turn buildings into rubble.
Only one Titan had entered Shiganshina, but it had razed half the district, leaving countless people dead or injured. It was said that hundreds of Titans existed─perhaps thousands. If a horde of them descended on a town, it would collapse almost instantly.
The soldiers burst into activity. A lookout had spotted something beyond the walls through his binoculars.