Chapter 16: The Nine

Sorry for not updating for a bit, Ive been going through some things, and my sleep schedule is fucking horrendous, so yeah, if I don't update for a while, just know I'll try to be back as soon as possible.

With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter.

(Third Person POV) Location: Wano

"To put it simply, Titans were, in essence, giants, with the only key difference between Titans and actual giants being that Titans, most of the time, lacked any form of intelligence, had deformities of varying degrees, could regenerate and... ate people..." she explained the last part of her description somewhat hesitantly.

"Holy shit," said the Lunarian as his eyes widened at the last piece of information.

Mikasa nodded. "Yeah...they weren't fun to deal with when they still roamed around..." She shook her head, not wanting to relive old memories. "Back to the main topic, there were three different types of Titan. The Pure Titan was the most common of the three. They lacked intelligence, were slow, and were the easiest to kill. The only time they were dangerous was if they were in large numbers."

"So they were basically like the typical zombie? Weak on their own but dangerous in numbers, " Crow said with an amused tone, and Mikasa rolled her eyes but lightly smiled at his statement.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," her smile soon as it quickly vanished and was back to her typical apathetic expression. "Anyways, next was the Abnormal Titan. They were like the former in appearance, but outside of that, their behavior differed, hence the name. Unlike Pure Titans, Abormals were fast and had some intelligence as they often ignored people in favor of taking actions that would fuck us over the most. Lastly, there was the intelligent Titan, also known as one of the Nine or a Titan Shifter. As the name implies, the person with the power of the Nine can transform into a Titan, retain their intelligence, and gain unique abilities," this piqued the Lunarian's interest.

"Special abilities, you say?"

Mikasa nodded. "Yeah, each of the Nine has a different set of abilities or aspects that make them unique, and thanks to the aid of a scientist named Vegapunk, the capabilities of the Nine were magnified significantly, although some of the abilities were lost due to how complex some of them were. However, he was able to get rid of the Curse of Ymir so, which more than made up for the loss of some of the powers."

"Curse of Ymir?" Crow asked, looking at the older woman, confused.

"Ah, right, you don't even know what that is," she slightly blushed in embarrassment but quickly composed herself. "Before Vegapunk came into the picture, the moment a person inherited one of the Nine, they would have a life expectancy of thirteen years," she revealed, shocking the Lunarian.

"Well fuck that would be one hell of a downside," Crow commented wide-eyed. "If you ask me, I'd rather lose a couple of my abilities than a majority of my lifespan."

Crow couldn't imagine only thirteen years before fucking off six feet under. There was still so much for him to do, see, and discover; no amount of power, no matter how great it may be, is worth that kind of price. Plus, he wouldn't selfishly abandon his loved ones and put them through the pain of knowing he'd kick the bucket sooner rather than later just for a stupid power-up.

Mikasa nodded in agreement. "I'm glad you agree. Now, onto the Nines capabilities. The first and most versatile of the Nine is the Founding Titan. When inherited, the individual can create, control, and change the anatomy of the Titans. They can also manipulate memories and telepathically communicate with others," Crow gawked at the list of abilities the older woman mentioned.

"Not gonna lie, that's pretty insane," Crow whistled, impressed.

Mikasa explained the rest of the Nine's abilities to the Lunarian.

The Attack Titan grants regenerative abilities powerful enough that only decapitation, destruction of the entire brain, or total bodily erasure could kill the individual.

The Armored Titan grants the individual at will to increase their defensive capabilities by covering their complete Titan form with incredibly durable yet flexible layers of armor plating. They can also increase the hardness and density of the armor plating at the cost of movement and travel speed.

The Beast Titan grants the individual's Titan form to take on animal traits that vary from person to person and, depending on the animal they take after, will gain ability related to said creature.

The Cart grants a massive increase in stamina and travel speed.

The Colossal Titan allows the individual to transform into a sixty-meter titan, alter their size, control transformation power, blast radius, and control steam.

The Female Titan grants increased learning speed, making learning new skills/abilities easier and the ability to emit powerful sonic screams.

The Jaw Titan grants increased agility, movement speed, attack power, and the ability to bypass most forms of defense.

The Warhammer Titan grants the individual the ability to produce and manipulate Crystals. It also allows individuals to control their Titan Form from a distance instead of being within the body.

"And that's about it," Mikasa finally finished.

"Thats...that's a lot of abilities," Crow whistled, impressed at the variety of abilities he would have at his disposal.

"Yeah, I know," Mikasa said with an amused tone, but she returned to being serious. "But before I give the power of the Nine, I should warn you of the downsides. The first is that transforming, regenerating, and using any of the Nine's unique abilities will rapidly deplete your stamina more than even Haki and, if you're not careful, could drain your life force," the Lunarian's face went pale at the last part. "So don't be stupid and overdo it, got it?"

Crow slowly nodded. "Don't worry, I won't. King and Uta would be on my ass if I did that, especially King," the Lunarian commented while inwardly shivering, recalling the past punishments King inflicted on him whenever he acted out or did something stupid.

Those weren't good times...

"Good," Mikasa nodded in approval. "The other and last downside is that no matter how much control of your transformation you have, shifting into a Titan will always be destructive. The only thing you can do is lessen the damage you do to your surroundings through training, which, I won't lie to you, will be incredibly difficult due to the Colossal Titan's power. So until you can control the heat and energy released from the transformation process, don't go into your Titan form when you're near your allies or civilians."

"Couldn't you just give me each of the Nine individually?" Crow asked, and Mikasa shook her head.

"Unfortunately, no," Mikasa let out a tired sigh. "Before Vegapunk could begin recreating the powers of the Nine, the Paradis Government requested the scientist to combine the abilities of the Nine instead of having them separated like before."

"Why?" Crow had a good idea why they would request that, but it never hurt to confirm it.

"Why else? Power. Imagine a single soldier having the power of not one of the Nine but all of them. Now, imagine an army of them," Crow inwardly shivered at that image.

Yeah, that would be pretty terrifying.

"So does that mean I won't be the only one with these powers?"

"Yeah, although I don't know how many Titan Shifters they have currently, but I doubt there are many of them. When Vegapunk completed the project, only one percent of the compatible candidates survived the years of training and mastered all the Nine's abilities."

"How many candidates were there exactly?" he asked curiously.

"Five hundred. Only five survived, and that's because four of the five were former inheritors of each of the Nine while the last candidate was just incredibly lucky."

"Huh, not as bad as I thought it would be," Crow was lost in his thoughts for a moment before he shrugged. "Alright, I think I'm ready."

Mikasa nodded and got up from her seat. "Meet me outside in ten minutes."

(Timeskip) Location: Random Island In the North Blue

After soaring through the skies for nearly an hour, the duo finally managed to locate an island in the North Blue devoid of inhabitants.

The Lunarian landed on the ground, and Mikasa got off his back. The teen looked at the older woman and chuckled at her disheveled appearance.

Mikasa's once neatly done now looked unkempt, with large strands of her black hair sticking out everywhere, and the little amount of makeup she wore was smeared all over her face, making her look like one of those crazy chicks from horror movies.

"I like the new look," Crow commented with an amused tone, making Mikasa blush in embarrassment and growl.

"Shut it," she grabbed his shirt and used it to wipe off the makeup on her face, much to his chagrin.

"HEY, THAT'S MY FAVORITE SHIRT!!!" he attempted to pull away, but Mikasa had a firm grip on him. "LET GO!!!"

"NO!!!" she yelled back.

Not wanting to rip his favorite shirt, the Lunarian begrudgingly let the older woman wipe her with it and waited until she was done. Once she was finished, the teen looked at his shirt and was horrified by the amount of stains on it.

"I'm kicking your ass after this," he said, glaring at her, and she rolled her before smirking.

"You ain't gonna do--" Before Mikasa could finish her sentence, she received a powerful punch to the nose, causing her to stumble back a few feet. "Fucking shit," she hissed. Mikasa touched her nose and felt the lower part of it bending toward the right direction. "You fucking broke my nose, asshole," she glared at him for a moment before snapping her nose back in place.

"Oops, my bad. My hand just slipped," Crow said in a feigned apologetic tone.

Mikasa narrowed her eyes further and growled. "You're gonna pay for that."

"Scary," the Lunarian said in a mocking tone.

Mikasa took a large intake of air before letting out a long breath. Once she calmed down, she grabbed her backpack and pulled out a small metal box. She opened it, revealing a syringe with a golden fluid encased within the tube. Mikasa grabbed it and tossed the box and her backpack to the side. She then looked at the Lunarian.

"Turn around," she ordered, and Crow did as she asked. "Just letting you know this is gonna hurt like bitch," she snarled and, without warning, aggressively stabbed the needle into the Lunarian's neck, making the teen curse "fuck" and injected the fluid into him.

Within a few moments, the Lunarian body was glowing bright red, and electricity was emitting from his body. Mikasa quickly jumped back twenty meters two times before stopping atop a cliffside and watched as the Lunarian turned into a mighty giant.

The clouds went dark and quickly covered the bright blue skies. Then, a bright red light came from the clouds, and not a moment later, a red lightning bolt descended towards the Lunarian and struck the teen.

Everything with a ten-meter radius turned to ashes or was blown away. After five seconds, the bright red lights disappeared, leaving only dense smoke and the sounds of crackling fire behind.

The older woman waited several anxiety-filled seconds until a familiar, enraged, spine-chillingly reverberating deep roar could be heard. The roar continued for several seconds, and when it stopped, giant footsteps could be heard.

Mikasa's breath hitched as she saw Crow come out of the smoke in his Titan form, which looked eerily similar to someone else's transformation from the past, with the only difference being that it stood at twenty meters in height, had his long black hair with red highlights, massive black wings with red ends proportional to its size, regular looking mouth so it was probable that he could talk while in his Titan form and had bright pupilless red eyes.

Once it was completely out of the smoke, the Lunarian Titan Shifter looked around the area, and it didn't take long for him to spot the older woman. They stared at each other for several seconds in silence until one of them broke it.

"Yo," Crow said, giving Mikasa a friendly wave before walking towards her.

The older woman looked at him in disbelief and amusement. She fully expected him to go into a Berserker-like state and attack her like he and the previous inheritors did when they transformed for the first time. But apparently, Crow's compatibility with the power of the Nine was greater than all of theirs.

Mikasa wondered if it had something to do with the fact he wasn't human. She shrugged, as there was no use in overthinking it; she was just happy he didn't attempt to turn her into a bloody and fleshy paste, something she was really glad for as, depending on the person, the Berserker state could last for quite a while.

"Yo," she waved back at him. "How do you feel?" she asked once his face was in front of her.

"I feel like tearing shit apart. Is that normal?" Crow titled his giant head in curiosity and mild worry.

Mikasa nodded. "Yeah, although your case is different. Unlike everyone else, you didn't go into a literal Berzerker-like state and attempt to kill anything that moved."

"Huh, just means I'm fucking awesome!" Crow said in a joyful tone.

The older woman rolled her eyes and smiled. "You're a Lunarian; of course, your body and mind were more suited for the power of the Nine than the others were, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're special. If you were human, I doubt we'd be having this conversation at the moment," she replied with a mock stern tone.

"Wow, Mikasa, why you gotta hate? You're just jelly that you can't be this great," Crow shot back.

Mikasa shook her head in amusement. "Whatever. Are you ready to get started in your training?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

End.

As you guys have read, the Curse Of Ymir is no longer in effect, and the Titan powers have gotten a significant power boost, at the cost of draining even more stamina than Haki and being harder to control.

Speaking of Titan powers, you guys have probably noticed that I removed a few powers, such as the ability to see into the past, present, and future.

I personally didn't wanna add it due to a mix of laziness and that it would make the story boring, as Crow would know everything. I have a narrative reason why I didn't add it as well, but I won't go into that for a while.

I also made references to several references to characters from the Anime/Manga, and they will eventually make an appearance in the story.

Other than that's pretty much it, so have a good one!