Return to Ryoshi Island

It had been a whole night of catching up for this newly reunited duo. Heishi found to his surprise that not only did Guri retain its previous intellect but it also seemed to have been enhanced for the ape could now do complicated stuff like cooking, drawing, and even communicating through sign language. The Guri he once knew could only do simple actions such as pointing to show its intention and handing out stuff to him like coffee cans, cooking & mechanical tools, gadgets, and utensils.

They of course unanimously decided to return to the island together. The whole morning of the 6th day was spent relaxing as they await grandfather Nasuko's return.

It was 12 o'clock sharp when a loud hissing sound could be heard from within the tunnel underneath the mountains. Standing by the entrance were the human and Chimp-Bono with their things all packed up and ready to go beside them. Heishi wore simple clothes composed of a plain white shirt and brown pants while Guri wore the combat leather suit the young man used in his hunting throughout the week. The former tried to convinced the latter to wear simple clothes as well instead but the ape refused expressing how it was more familiar with wearing a suit and how it was not used to and did not like wearing such clothes as well for during the course of its new life in this world it had not even worn any clothes at all.

"Heishi! Are you still alive boy?! Terrence, get your team to scout for him in the east I'll go check in the west." The loud voice of a former captain of the scout regiment could be heard echoing within the tunnel and into the entrance followed by some figures that could not be seen clearly due to the lack of sufficient light source within the tunnel.

The suited ape turned and raised its head towards its partner.

"..."

"I'm still alive gramps!" Heishi loudly said towards the figures as they were hit by the sunlight from the entrance and the first person to be clearly seen was his grandfather.

"...Nevermind" Nasuko obviously noticed the monkey and asked about it. Upon learning that it had saved his grandson's life the other day, he agreed to bring it back with them.

...Sometime later

The ride home was uneventful. What did you expect? It was a tunnel underneath the mountains and oceans. Halfway to their destination though they received a radio message.

" *static* Nasuko, sir *static* the entrance to the tunnel has been blocked. *static* The Mid-East branch launched a surprise early attack on us to distract and bypass us. *static* someone must have given them inside information about the test *static* Oh Lord! *static* How many people did they abduct! *static* There are too many pure and abnormal titans! *static* Careful Sir. *static* We lost visual of their shifters. *static* They might be setting up an ambush at the entrance. *static* Lady Aria is heading there but she'll take time with these numbers."

After giving an affirmation to the officer on the radio and turning it off, Nasuko's expression darkened before laughing out loud. "Hahahaha! Old Gekido that fool! He never learns his lesson. I kicked his ass 12 years ago and I'm about to do it again!"

Heishi considered himself lucky to have temporarily left Mikasa for he could not even guarantee his own safety in front of 2 abnormals not to mention a whole lot of pure, abnormals, and shifters.

...Sometime later outside near the entrance to the tunnel.

The tunnel's entrance in Ryoshi island was located behind a mountain behind Dedication City, the only city within the island making it hard for them to guard or provide reinforcements there in times of war such as the present.

The people assigned to guard this area had already fallen leaving it in the hands of the invading branch. The area is now occupied by dozens of titans and hiding within this crowd where 3 shifters; Pressure, Leaping, and Predator. They circled the area carefully to conceal themselves within the group and not simply to prevent any of the mindless titans to become aggressive and attack them as they wait for the arrival of their target because they were Ryoshis, descendants of two of the three original titan-shifters. Just like Zeke, they had almost perfect control of these titans.

"Gekido, are you sure they can handle Nasuko all by themselves? That monster was able to fight against you and your sons alone. We even had to leave behind Ainiku. That fight back then must've left a mental scar on you huh? Look at you, too scared to face him again. Grandfather was wrong to pass on our titans to your side of the family. So much for the so-called prodigy of the branch." An old man with whitening locks taunted the old man with graying hair sitting on a chair while holding a glass of red wine.

*Shatter* The glass Gekido held exploded at the same time his temper did. Blood and wine mixed together as they dripped from his hand and into the floor. " Shut your mouth! I'm not scared of him! Those boys are better at using the titans than their fathers. Besides, they now have the predator with them. Those kids won't need my help. They just have to bring his head back to me."

"Let's just hope your grandkids are not as incompetent as their fathers. We just acquired the predator. We lost the combustion to their branch and should we lose one more, we will be placed in a very precarious situation. The Marley branch is furious at us and is looking for a chance. Should we lose this war, we will have to immediately launch an all-out war with them before they expect it or we would not get any advantage at all once we fight." The older old man said.

"...Indeed. Let's go, Failure is not an option." Gekido said while raising his hand that was emitting steam as both blood and wine evaporated while the wounds from the exploded shards quickly healed. They looked out the window of the airship and towards a certain mountain wherein a group of titans was aimlessly walking around isolated by a certain distance from the rest of their kind.

...

' SCREEEEEEECH!!! TSHHHHHHH!!! ' Harsh sounds of the transport skidding to a hard stop accompanied by loud hissing sounds of gas being released was heard from within tunnel as it stopped a distance away from the passage that leads outwards.

"Heishi, you stay here with the monkey. Terrence, you and your team will handle the pure and abnormals. I'll take care of the shifters. Now suit up. We'll rush out in 5 minutes." Nasuko calmly gave out his orders as he sat down and prepared as well by placing himself in his best optimal state for battle.

"He's an ape grandpa, not a monkey." Heishi corrected while also complaining about why couldn't go and help.

"You need to stay here young master Heishi. It's too dangerous outside. You have yet to undergo the ceremony and heading out with us right now will only be seeking death." Terrence kindly explained.

"Let's go," Nasuko said as he stood up and got out of the transport. Terrence and his team quickly followed fully equipped in ODM gears with strange metal spears strapped to their backs.

"They won't leave us out of the action now won't they Guri? Come on, help me look for things we can use." He said as he rummaged the place. Eventually, the two found an extra functioning ODM gear and a broken one.

Heishi was still thinking of what to do when Guri took apart the broken ODM gear and detached the cables with the grapple hooks from the whole thing and attached a blade to the grapple hooks of both cables and tied the end of the cables to its hands. It then motioned for Heishi to quickly wear the working ODM gear.

Once both of them finished getting ready. They also stepped out of the transport and followed the tunnel to the passage.

...

'Whoosh' One of those strange spears shot out from within the passage entrance hitting a titan with its back turned right in the nape. The spearhead dug deep into its skin until the skin bumped into an exposed piece of metal that acted as a switch. The trigger was pushed up and caused a chain reaction inside the spearhead making it explode. The titan fell and began decomposing as steam rose up from its body.

"Go!!!" A shout was heard after the titan fell followed by a dozen cables being launched and the grapple hooks on the end of the cables sinking into titan skins. Hissing sounds were heard once more as a dozen figures connected to the other end of the cables launched themselves into the air with crystal blades in hand. Along with those figures was an old man who similarly launched himself into the air but without any strange mechanism on him. Steam could be seen rising from his body and his clenched fist was pulled back as he prepared to punch.