Chapter 2: Unforgettable Day
Several days had passed since then. From time to time, the bullies would come to beat Armin, but took off as soon as they spotted Mikasa and Dave. After that, they didn't show up as often anymore.
Dave was walking quietly through the streets one morning when he heard what appeared to be a fight on the next street. He turned into a small alley to reach the street and was surprised, in part, to see Armin being held against the wall, while being punched by someone. It was those guys again.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" Dave said to them as he approached at a leisurely pace. Seeing him, the bullies tensed slightly. They let go of Armin and pulled away.
However, one of them began to dash towards him. "I refuse to lose to a little boy."
Dave calmly sidestepped to the right as the bully stepped up to punch him. Before he could do anything else, Dave smacked him across the face.
"Tsk. You guys never learn do you?" Dave said with a shake of his head as the bullies grew pale.
Dave beckoned at Armin to come over to him, which he did without hesitation. He pulled Armin behind him and looked down at the person who was passed out on the floor.
"Take your friend and get out of here," Dave told them with a shooing motion.
Under Dave's steely gaze, the bullies fled the alley after retrieving their friend.
Armin let out a sigh of relief as he wiped some dust off his pants. Dave's eyes fell on something lying on the corner and went to pick it up.
"Thanks for helping me again, Dave," Armin said.
"No problem," Dave shrugged, holding out a book to him.
Armin recognized it was the book about the outside world that those guys had tossed away when they snatched it away from his hands.
He took the book from Dave's hands and turned it over and over to see if it was damaged in any way.
"How is it?" Dave asked. Although he did not show it, you can hear the concern in his voice.
"Thank god it is okay," Armin replied, sounding relieved. He shut the book and tucked it under his arms.
Without saying anything else, the two began to walk out of the street.
Some years ago:
In the forest, the sound of wood clanking each other echoed throughout the clearing. At this time, Dave was fighting against a boy who was a little bit older than him.
The boy lunged at Dave, swinging his club at his head. Dave managed to get a block in just in time, but the blow was so strong that it threw him off balance.
His opponent took advantage of this and landed another blow to his side. Dave managed to block it once again, although he slipped as a result.
Without letting him recover, the boy hit him on the back of his legs. Dave felt his legs give out under him before crashing down. He groaned as he slammed into the ground hard, the impact forced all the air out of his lungs.
Dave was panting from exhaustion. However, a quick peek across told him that his sparring partner barely even broke a sweat.
"You have gotten better, shorty," the boy told him, offering him a hand.
"I know, yet I still can't beat you, Alan," Dave said as he grasped his hand and helped himself up.
"Everyone has to start from somewhere." The boy, now called Alan, ran a hand through his hair as he motioned him to get back into position.
"Again!"
Present:
"Who are you?" Dave reflected in his mind.
A couple of months after arriving at Shiganshina, he began to piece together some of his past, with the first memory being of the young kid Alan. More memories began to return to him after that, but none of them included Alan. He had no other memories of Alan other than that.
Dave was able to learn how to fight because of him. To him, Alan was a mystery and he had no idea of how they were related.
Was he still alive? If yes, was he looking for him?
"You told my parents!"
Eren's outburst suddenly brought Dave back to reality. He glanced to the side and saw Eren yelling at Mikasa. Shortly after he helped Armin, they ran into Eren and Mikasa.
The four of them were going down a set of steps that led to the river at the edge of the town. Armin, Dave, and Mikasa were a little behind Eren who was in front of them.
"I never said that I would support you," Mikasa said in a calm voice.
Armin and Dave shared a confused look as they didn't know what they were talking about.
"What happened?" Dave cut in.
"She told my parents that I'm going to join the Scout Regiment!" Eren didn't take his eyes off Mikasa and glared at her.
"Really? Didn't they know that already?" Dave said, amused. Eren had never tried to hide the fact that he looked up to the scouts or wanted to become one of them.
Eren looked affronted. "I…that's not the point!"
"And how have they taken it?" Armin stepped in to cool things out.
"Well…they didn't seem very happy about it," Eren answered grudgingly.
Armin just sighed. It surprised him that people believed that the walls would protect them forever. Sooner or later, the Titans-
"Boom!"
A thunderclap along with a powerful shockwave sent the quartet tumbling down the stairs. Dave rubbed his aching ass and stood up. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the others weren't hurt.
"What was that? An earthquake?" Eren murmured as he got back up.
"Impossible." Armin sat on the ground and was petrified looking over the wall.
The other three looked in that direction to see the head of a Titan peeking over the wall.
Everyone was shocked. A Titan?!
Eren was the first to react and ran to the main square to get a better look at what was happening.
"Eren!" Mikasa and Armin yelled and followed their friend.
Dave continued to stare at the Titan for a while longer, unable to believe what he was seeing. He took a moment to process what was happening before snapping out of it and started running after his friends.
All of sudden, Dave heard a loud blast and then saw many large pieces of debris flying all over the town.
One of the pieces went in the direction of Dave, who had to jump to the side to avoid it. Unfortunately, he slammed his head on the curb, knocking him out cold.
"Oh…"
Several minutes later, Dave heard someone screaming for him to get up. He couldn't think properly. His mind was all jumbled up right now. Suddenly, a torrent of memories rushed into his mind.
Dave wasn't sure how that happened, but he was pretty sure all of his memory had returned.
"We need to go now!"
He heard a woman yell before feeling someone grab his hand and pull him away. After the pain in his head subsided, he took a closer look at her and recognised her as a soldier from the Garrison.
He looked back and noticed several Titans in the distance. What happened when he was passed out? Did the Titans break in?
The woman's hand tightened around his wrist, and he thought he heard her speaking to him, but his muddled thoughts prevented him from understanding what she said.
Suddenly, they stopped. The woman was talking to someone, but Dave couldn't hear anything. He lifted his head to see Eren and Mikasa. They were with Hannes, a friend of Eren's dad.
Dave couldn't help but notice that Eren had his head down the entire time, clenching his hands so tight they almost bleed. Did something happen?
After the woman finished speaking with Hannes, she told Dave to stay with Hannes and quickly left with the other soldiers. Hannes turned to them and told them to follow him to the boat that would take them to the inner wall.
As they moved, Dave noticed Mikasa looking at him with concern. He gave a head shake, signaling her that he was alright.
It was almost dark when they reached the boat. The quartet was sitting in a corner. Armin had arrived a couple of minutes before them along with his grandfather. Later, Armin and Dave learned of Eren's mother's tragic passing from Mikasa.
As they boat was leaving for Trost, they suddenly saw a Titan in some kind of armor break the rear gate of Shiganshina District, allowing the other Titans to enter Wall Maria.
Then and there, all of them realized they could no longer return home.
At this time, the silent Eren suddenly stood up and swore to kill all the Titans for taking his mother away from him and destroying his home.
Armin walked over to comfort Eren. Mikasa stood up as well and sent a worried look in Eren's way. Dave remained hunched up against the wall, but his eyes were fixed on Eren. Little did they know that this was only the beginning...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone