Some things are more important than life.
Even if she is no longer here…
Even if she never loved him…
"Zeke, you weren't wrong."
"You just wanted to survive."
"Report them. That way, at least you and your grandparents can live. It's worth sacrificing two people who don't love you for two who do."
"Remember, they never loved you."
"They were just using you—a tool to seize power for the Eldian Restorationists."
"They didn't care whether you could endure the training."
"They didn't care that inheriting a Titan's power meant you'd die in thirteen years."
"They never loved you as their son."
"They never showed affection, never cared about your thoughts, likes, or dreams. To them, you were a pawn—nothing more."
"They don't love you, Zeke."
On the day his parents were taken away by the Marleyan officers, Zeke didn't cry. But Mr. Ksaver did. His mentor's arms wrapped around him tightly, shaking as he wept for the boy who'd just lost everything.
People need lies to survive.
To keep Zeke from breaking, Mr. Ksaver spun a lie—one that Zeke clung to for years. If he could convince himself that his parents never loved him, then he wouldn't have to live with guilt.
But a lie is still a lie.
Ksaver knew that, too. He whispered the false comfort through tears, and Zeke believed it—had to believe it. Because only through that belief could he keep living… and not lose himself to madness like Reiner.
"Let's just destroy everything. We're all doomed anyway, so why struggle? The purpose of living things is to reproduce—but we die all the same. What's the point of 'living'? Why fight so hard just to suffer? Better to accept death quietly. Maybe, at the very end, we'll even feel relief."
During the Rumbling, on the vast, glowing Paths, Zeke met Armin Arlert—his brother's dearest friend, a boy with soft eyes and hair like a yellow mushroom cap.
He expected Armin to dismiss his words as nonsense.
But instead, Armin sat down beside him. Thoughtful. Quiet. Listening.
We're all going to die anyway, Zeke had said. So why stop the Rumbling? What difference does it make whether we die from age or from Titans?
Just then, a dead leaf floated before Armin.
He caught it gently in his palm.
"I don't know the meaning of life," Armin said, "but I remember something small."
He told Zeke about one evening at dusk—how he, Eren, and Mikasa had raced to the big tree on the hill. Eren ran off first, shouting. Mikasa followed, pretending to lag behind so he'd win. Armin, of course, came last.
He lost.
But the wind had been warm that day. The sky painted orange. Just running—just breathing—had felt good.
Dead leaves danced all around them, golden in the sunlight. And in that fleeting moment, Armin thought: Maybe I was born just to run here with them.
When he stayed home reading on rainy days…
When a squirrel nibbled a pinecone he'd given it…
When they laughed together in the market…
Those tiny, ordinary moments—they mattered.
"I think," Armin said softly, "that's why I was born. Not for something grand like reproduction, but for these simple, fleeting moments… and for meeting the people who became my friends."
As he spoke, the dead leaf in his hand seemed to transform into a baseball—Ksaver's baseball.
To Armin, it was just a leaf in the wind.
To Zeke, it became something far greater.
He finally understood.
"Yeah," Zeke murmured. "Throwing the ball, catching it, throwing it again—it's meaningless on its own. But somehow… I'm happy just to keep playing."
He turned around—and saw them.
Mr. Ksaver. His father. So many others—the wise men of ages past—standing quietly behind him, smiling.
And in that instant, Zeke understood the meaning of his life.
"If I could just play catch with Mr. Ksaver again," he whispered, "I wouldn't regret being born."
So then… why?
If he'd truly been given another chance at life, why this point in time?
Why not return to when he first met Ksaver?
Why not before his parents joined the Restorationists?
Why not before they sent him to the training camp?
Why here—why now—on this cursed land?
He hadn't come back to meet his parents again.
Not to ask, Do you regret it?
Not to ask if they ever felt guilt, or love, or sorrow.
Not to ask whether, as they were executed and turned into mindless Titans, they'd thought—if only I could stay with my son for one more second.
Was there ever love at all?
One punch after another.
Zeke's knuckles cracked against flesh and bone as he rode atop Hange Zoe, eyes bloodshot, mind blank. He struck again and again—like a beast driven by nothing but rage.
"Captain Hange!"
The Survey Corps soldiers shouted in panic. None understood why their supposed ally—humanity's "hero"—had suddenly turned on their commander.
Despite Keith Shadis's roar of command, the squad rushed to pull Zeke away. But even four or five trained soldiers couldn't restrain him.
"I've seen this before… Levi!" Erwin Smith shouted, eyes narrowing as he analyzed Zeke's movements.
Levi was already in motion. Together they lunged, grabbing for Zeke's arms—but Zeke, wild-eyed and shaking, twisted with monstrous strength, flinging both men aside as though they were children.
Levi stumbled back, nearly toppling onto Isabel.
"Oi, you lost to him?" she cried, stunned.
"Accident! Total accident!" Levi barked, face flushed. "Didn't think the brat could hit that hard!" He darted forward again, teeth gritted.
He hadn't expected this—this quiet, awkward man who'd once flinched under his stare to fight like a cornered Titan.
Erwin and Levi re-engaged, blows echoing through the narrow street. Behind them, the soldiers dragged a barely conscious Hange to safety.
"Captain Hange, are you all right?"
"I'm… fine…" Hange groaned, eyes swelling into two dark circles. Through her half-blurred vision, she saw the ongoing battle and gasped. "Zeke-chan… is that really you? He's holding off Levi and Erwin at once?"
The soldier supporting her gawked. "You're still calling him Zeke-chan?! He just beat you into a pulp!"
"It's okay, it's okay," Hange wheezed, waving weakly. "Zeke-chan must have his reasons. Maybe I said something wrong? But wow… I've never seen him this angry before. I wonder what I did…"
...
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