I'm No Eren In Distress

The dark heavy clouds brought with it a gloomy atmosphere as it cried, mourning for the little girl who lost her parents that very day and taken by the killers to a cabin where they took shelter from the sky's tears as they wait for the rain to pass before looking for potential buyers for her.

Unbeknownst to them, while they await the rain's passing, death also awaits them as walking step by step to them is a titan hunter who for the heinous sins they have committed, had already marked them as foe without giving them a chance.

A cold gleam flashed in his eyes, reflecting the sharp edges of his kunai knife as Heishi followed the tracks the criminals left. Rage fueled the bloodlust in him, pumping adrenaline throughout his body and numbing him from the pain he felt.

…

Inside a house just outside the woods, a family of three sat down in front of the table. The father was busy peeling potatoes while the mother and daughter embroidered each on a piece of cloth.

"Finished! Mom, have a look."

The little girl said excitedly as she raised the cloth in front of her before showing it to her mother. Taking the cloth from the little girl's hands, the mother praised the girl with a smile. "My, you did a splendid job, Mikasa. It's beautiful."

Joyful about the praise, the girl giggled. "This embroidery has been passed down our family for generations. If you have children someday, teach it to them," The mother said to the little girl.

"How do you have children?"

The mother smiled and replied, "Well, you should ask your father."

The other party who was minding his own business was surprised that he was suddenly put into a tight spot all of a sudden.

"Hey, Dad."

Flustered, the other party turned towards his wife only to see her smiling at him, showing no signs of helping. "Uh, well, Dad isn't so sure either."

"Ah, right. Dr. Yeager will be here soon, so why don't we ask him?" Helpless, he could only push the matter to another scapegoat while the mother chuckled in amusement.

*Knock knock*

"Oh, looks like he's here already." The father said in surprised elation upon hearing the knocking.

*Knock knock*

"Coming!"

"Dr. Yeager, we've been wait-" The father said with a smile as he opened the door when a knife was suddenly thrust into him. Looking down, he saw as the bloodied knife left his body and blood continuously poured out of the open wound. He swayed as he moved backward and fell by the side of the table with a loud thump.

The mother and daughter, surprised by the sound turned towards the source and found two strangers in front of the door while a third one remained outside. One of the strangers, a stout man with a wool cap on his head had a bloody knife in his hands. "Why, hello there."

Staring at the bloody knife, the mother slowly reached for the small scissor on the table.

"You'd be wise to listen to us. Unless you want your head split in half by this-" The tall skinny man beside the father's killer said as he raised an ax above his head.

Before the man could finish, the mother grasped the scissor in her hand and charged at the man with the knife with a scream while the girl gasped at her mother's actions.

The skinny man hurriedly restrained the frenzied woman while her target hurriedly ducked his head and retreated to the side. "This b*tch..."

"Mikasa, run away!" The mother said to the girl without turning back as she continued to struggle free from the skinny man.

"M-Mom..." The girl, Mikasa, could only say one word as she stood in fear looking at the sight in front of her.

"Mikasa, hurry!"

"Um..." Mikasa held her hands together with her thought process seemingly frozen as she looked down at the corpse of her father, sitting on a pool of his own blood. "Dad..."

"Damn it, that's enough!" The skinny man said in frustration as he freed his hand holding an ax and hacked it at the woman's shoulder.

All sounds of struggle stopped at once as blood spurted out of the gaping shoulder. The mother's body trembled as she lost her grip on the scissor and her knees caved in. She grasped the wound with one hand and reached for her daughter with the other as she fell down most likely urging her daughter to run one last time before all signs of life disappeared from her eyes within a second and her body hit the ground.

"What the hell, man?! I told you we'd only kill the dad!" The man with the skullcap bellowed in fury at the skinny man. "But she was-" The latter tried to argue but was interrupted by the former. "Quit your excuses. Nab the brat!"

Mikasa trembled and her breath hastened as she stared at her mother's dead body.

The assailant walked over the woman's corpse, grabbed Mikasa by the neck, and told her with words laced with threat. "Hey, now you'd better behave. Otherwise... I'll do this!" He said before he punched her in the face with fury in his eyes, knocking her out.

...

While Mikasa was dreaming of what had just happened to her, her body had been brought by the three robbers inside an old cabin deep in the woods. The third man who had only watched the events from outside then but had helped in carrying her unconscious body stepped out of the cabin to relieve himself in the woods.

The man walked a fair distance away from the cabin before finding the outhouse that was built there for some reason, took off his pants, and just as he was going to do a number two, a cloth was suddenly used to cover his mouth before a kunai knife impaled his throat and stabbed through the cervical vertebrae of his spine, killing him within moments.

After hunting one of the killers, Heishi continued to stab the neck of the man until he was completely decapitated before bringing the head with him along with another part of the man's body. He then proceeded towards the cabin a short distance away with a calm look that concealed his killing intent.

*Knock* *knock*

"Hahaha that was fast, don't you need the rest of your usual half an hour?" the voice of the tall skinny man was heard inside.

*knock* *knock*

"It's not locked... and since when did you ever bother to knock?"

*knock* *knock*

"What are you doing? I told you, it isn't locked."

*knock* *knock*

"Stop messing around, just get inside!"

The knocking stopped, the door was then slightly opened before stopping. Seeing no one coming in, the two men turned towards the door, confused about what their partner was up to when a head suddenly rolled in. It rolled for quite a short distance before stopping beside the stout man who sat on a chair. As the rolling head came to a stop, they were immediately able to see that it was the bloody head of their partner. "What the hell?!"

Terrified the skinny man retreated to a corner of the wall while the stout man fell down his chair due to him suddenly pushing back. Too scared to bother, the stout man hurriedly continued to push himself away from the head until he had his back against the wall with a window before grasping the wall with his palms to stand up.

Unbeknownst to him, someone was staring at him from behind the window, and as his back stuck itself to the window, the one on the other side aimed for his neck and thrust a bloody kunai knife straight for it with great force.

*Crack*

Shards of the glass followed the tip of the blade as they impaled the stout man's back. The knife was quickly withdrawn while the stout man's knees caved in and he crashed down onto the ground with his hands on his throat that was emitting gurgling sounds as blood flooded his trachea.

An eye with violet irises looked through the broken part of the window at the last criminal inside the cabin while the rain soaked the person's hair making it hard to see his/her facial features. The person's head tilted before laughing slightly and suddenly dashed out of sight. "Puhuhu"

"Puhuhu" The sadistic laugh seemed to come from everywhere as it echoed from the walls before suddenly coming to a halt from outside the door where the head rolled out from.

The tall skinny man grasped his ax with both hands, at his wit's end, he could not even be bothered about the unconscious girl near him.

"Puhuhu Thrills, chills, kills. It's just a joke, right? There's no way someone... was killed again...! A body has been discovered! Following a brief period of investigation, we will commence our school trial! Puhuhu What's wrong? In a tight spot? Let me give you a hand." A harrowing voice laced with malice in its words was suddenly heard from behind the door as it opened further before a bloody hand came flying out towards him.

Terrified, he hurriedly hacked at the hand with all the might he could muster but missed and the bloody hand ended up hitting him right in the face.

"Aaaaaah!!!" The man's scream came to a halt with a 'Puu' sound as the person who killed his partners charged out of the other side of the door and kicked him right in his family jewels with great force.

A cracking sound was heard from down there as the skinny man fell down and curled up like a shrimp while grasping his shattered jewels in pain. He stared at the person and realized in shock that it seemed to be a soaked and dirty kid the same age as the girl they had taken. The boy's violet eyes looked at him without blinking.

His eyes suddenly glowed for a few seconds before returning to normal. His mouth then curled up into a grin as he raised the bloody kunai knife in his hands above his head but did not thrust it into the skinny man and instead used the small handle-end to knock him out.

Seeing as there were no longer any foes, the adrenaline he received from the fury of witnessing the corpse of the little girl's parents died down and the pain all over his body returned. 'Scaring someone till they can't remember or care about the hostage would have been very hard if I didn't learn the Stalking Cicada Movement.'

He turned towards the girl and saw her awake and looking at him with an unfocused gaze before shortly falling unconscious again, most likely woken up by the man's scream.

Despite the pain, he moved towards the unconscious girl and cleaned his knife before untying the ropes that bound her hand and used them to tie the man's hands then he looked for an extra rope and bound the man's legs too. He then tied another rope to the ones that bound the man's hand and attached it to his belt.

Slowly, he knelt down and princess-carried the girl as he brought her out of the cabin while dragging along the skinny man and into the woods while the rain had finally passed.

…

Mikasa woke up slightly muddleheaded and as her vision cleared, she found herself lying on the ground in front of a fire while a boy about her age was beside her. It seemed to be the same boy she saw shortly before she passed out again. Recalling the incident that happened to her family and thinking he was part of the group who killed her parents, she continued lying down and doing nothing, giving up on putting any resistance to whatever fate that awaited her.

"Hey, you alright. I'm Heishi. What's your name?" He said as words of comfort while also introducing himself. Mikasa only continued to look at the fire without saying anything.

"Hey, you can't be like that, I just saved you from those three, can't I know the name of the one I saved at the very least?" Heishi said with a chuckle before. "Here, see?" He said before throwing the blood-stained wool cap the stout man had worn. Knowing that she might not believe him at first, he had brought the wool cap with him.

"Your parents' unjust death has been avenged. They can now rest in peace. As for you, I prepared a surprise just for you."

The girl looked at the wool cap in surprise before slowly looking up at the boy's face and saw him pointing in a certain direction. Following the direction he was pointing at with her gaze, she saw the skinny man who killed her mother tied to a tree with all four limbs bound and his mouth stuffed with a piece of dirty blood and mud-stained cloth. The man's head hung low and his eyes closed, making no sound.

"I knocked him out, didn't want him interrupting your rest. Of course, now that you're awake, it's time for him to do so... one last time."

Heishi carried a bucket filled with water and threw the contents onto his head, successfully waking him up. The man shivered and shook his body in a fruitless effort to break free. Muffled sounds kept coming out of his stuffed mouth and a look of fury was in his eyes as he stared at the two.

"With your parents gone, I'll protect you in their steed. Of course, I can never make sure I would always be there. Luckily, I received a solution for that. All we need to do is awaken your bloodline. But before that, may I know your name?"

"Mikasa"

"What a beautiful name," Heishi said with a smile.

Noticing the cold temperature, He took off his jacket and helped her wear it. He then noticed that she was still slightly shivering as her breath could be seen by the mist that appeared due to the low temperature despite the jacket for the jacket had already sustained some rips in some places because of his wild day thereby allowing some of the chilly air to seeped inside and caress her pale white skin.

He noticed his violet scarf and took it off before carefully wrapping it on her neck and half of her face to ease up the cold. "There, Feeling better?"

To which, the young girl called Mikasa nodded and made a uhmm sound as a faint blush appeared on her cheeks which was not visible to Heishi for he covered it with the scarf.

"Alright, let's get to it then. Hold this and end him."

Heishi helped her stand up before passing his kunai knife to her. With a weapon in hand and being told to kill, Mikasa's body shook as her knees trembled.

"Fight. If you lose you die. If you win, you live. If you don't fight, you can't win. I'm sure you've witnessed it before, time and time again. It's always been unfolding before you, you just chose to turn a blind eye to it. Well, now it's time to take a clear look. This world..."

Heishi's words struck and resonated with something inside Mikasa's mind. Memories began to flash in her eyes and a sentence that she would always keep in her mind from then on had finally formed as she finished Heishi's sentence. "...is cruel. Fight. Fight!"

The ground beneath Mikasa erupted throwing soil and rocks into the air as she charged with newfound conviction. Because the kunai knife was formed through titan crystal, it didn't bend, unlike Eren's knife whose handle broke. With a scream of determination, she plunged the knife into the man's chest, piercing through his lung and impaling his heart.

"Mikasa right? Well done, now you have the power to protect yourself without my help. This power can keep you and those you care for out of harm's way." He said as he held the girl's hand that held the knife and slowly took it from her, wiped the blood off it, and placed it back on its sheath in his leg. He did not let go of her hand as he led her back near the fire as the cold rain had ceased a while ago but the chill it carried continued on.

"It's getting dark. The cabin they kept you in was too far from my camp. So, I made a temporary one here for the night." Heishi said as he helped her sit down and calm her blood down before he dragged the body back into the cabin, He dismissed any idea of staying inside the house for the night because that was where he was going to leave the bodies of her kidnappers and her parent's murderers. It was the first time they had truly killed people and it might leave a mental trauma on the both of them if they rested in the same cabin as corpses.

...

A while later, smoke could be seen rising in the air in a part of the forest where 2 kids set up camp a distance away from a cabin. The two kids were a boy and a girl who sat beside each other on a log in front of a campfire while a crude little tent made of vines, leaves, and branches was behind them.

"Where did you learn to do this kind of thing?" The girl asked as she held a stick, fumbling with the dried leaves and branches inside the fire while the boy was busy roasting a duck above the fire.

"Back home whenever I trained with grandpa. It was common to set up camp and fix up our dinner because we would always train deep within the mountains and it took a long time to travel back." The boy said as he sprinkled some chopped and crushed herbs on the duck which he found in the forest.

"Thanks for saving me back there." The girl said to which the boy responded "Nah, don't mention it. They could think properly and had the freedom not to do it and yet they did and their reason for doing so was for profit. It's already showing mercy to them to be quickly killed. Enough of those gloomy topics, let's change it to more bright ones like how that scarf looks great on you." The girl just smiled back and raised the scarf a little to hide her blushing cheeks.

These kids are of course Mikasa and Heishi who made small talks and joked around to lighten up the mood.

"Now that mom and dad are dead, where am I going to live now? I can't stay at our house, I'm too young to live on my own. I guess I'll stay in an orphanage from now on." Mikasa said as her mood dampened once more remembering the state she was now in.

"You can always stay with me you know. I'm sure my family would be glad to have you be part of it. Don't worry, I'll take care of you there, bullies would always think twice before messing with me at home." Heishi said with a confident and reassuring smile, too young to realize the meaning others would comprehend from his words.

His words made her mood lighten up once more as she smiled back when a crackle could be heard as a branch snapped in half near them.

"Who's there?!" The two simultaneously said as their bodies tensed up.