Chapter 3

All of the sudden the world around me turned dark and time slowed. I questioned what was happening to me and I figured it must've been my ackerman ability subconsciously kicking in. I looked around and noticed that my eyes moved slowly because my body wasn't used to those types of speeds. I looked down at the water and the fish, I focused on the fish's movement and began to predict them. It looked like it was going to swim to the left, I very slowly moved my spear in that direction. I figured out that using this ability was going to take focus and concentration. I would also need to train my body to react at these high speeds, I also figured out that my ackerman ability can trigger unconsciously. I pushed the spear down to the fish stabbing it in the middle of its body. Once the fish was on my spear, time started to speed up.

I brought the spear to my line of sight and looked at the fish, its blood dripping down the pointy stick and into the water, my eyes followed a small drop of blood flowing with the steady stream of water. I never once thought about how I looked, It didn't really matter to me and we didn't have many mirrors in the orphanage. In the reflection I saw a kid with a pale white face and purple eyes that had dark rings around them as a sign of lack of sleep. My hair was messy and unkempt, midnight night black and down to my shoulders.

I swiftly looked away and got the fish off the spear and got ready to catch a couple more. The awakening of the ackerman ability made it easier to catch a couple more fish. I stabbed about 4 fish before I decided that I had caught enough, I walked back to my new home and plopped the still wet and slimy fish on the table. I walked over to my backpack and grabbed a small knife that I had stolen from the kitchens of the orphanage. I sat down on the seat I had fixed, expecting it to break, I gutted the fish and took out its spine and other dangerous bones and organs. Only the edible meat was left attached to the fish. I put the freshly gutted fish in a pile and went to get some logs and sticks to start a fire. On the way out the door I grabbed my axe and headed out to the nearest tree. I used my axe and cut down a small thin tree with the thickness of an arm.

Twenty to thirty minutes later I finished cutting down the tree, giving me twigs, sticks and logs as firewood. Using the easier and more convenient method of starting a fire, I lit some kindling and put it under a couple of small sticks in order to make the fire bigger. The worn down fireplace had been charred and some of the bricks were chipped. A slab of cement and rocks covered the bottom portion of the fireplace, preventing the fire from spreading. Sparks and ashes rose up from the fire and into the chimney as I speared one of the fish and held it above the fire for it to cook.

David Fischer POV

Last night my mom had to stay with Dr.Grisha lucky my dad was going to go pick her up from the doctors office while I was at school. I decided to leave the house an hour early to search for my friend. While walking to school I thought, 'Where is Yakeru?'. I decided to ask someone so I walked up to a stranger and asked, "Hi, do you know anyone named Yakeru Ken?" I said looking at the older man and woman together. "You mean that creepy kid from the orphanage? He ran away from the orphanage around two days ago." The man said. "He never really talked, I heard his parents were also drunks and that's why they abandoned him." The woman besides him added. "Yeah I wouldn't go near him kid, No one knows where he went plus he doesn't seem right in the head." The man commented. "If you knew who he really was you wouldn't be talking" I said under my breath. "What did you say?" The man asked. "Nothing…" I said quickly and walked away from the couple.

I walked over to a stationed military corps officer, I approached the man and asked him. "Hi, Do you know where the orphanage is?" I asked looking up at the tall freshly shaven man. "You tryna get adopted or something?" The man asked laughing. "Nope, just trying to find the orphanage." I said with a serious face. "It's down that third road." The officer said visibly annoyed. I ran towards the orphanage, a group of adult women stood near the entrance. I quickly cleared myself of any exhaustion and went up to the women. "Hi! Do you know a kid named Yakeru Ken?" I asked them expecting them to tell me they had found him. "We do, he ran away a couple of days ago. We've been trying to find him." The woman replied. I stepped away from the group of adults and tried to think of where Yakeru would go.

I tried to put myself in his shoes, thinking of where he might have gone. He's smart, he's fast, and he makes decisions in milliseconds. Maybe the underground city, or the forest nearby. Those are the only places people never enter. The city would be in ruins, overrun with filthy animals and homeless people. The forest would be more like it, secluded and lonely. I decided to run towards the woods, passing by stands of fisherman and farmers. The city came to a close when the forest stood in front of my eyes. Tall spruce looking trees with big leaves covered the entrance of the woods. I walked inside and looked around. The sun beamed down onto the tree's but not the forest floor, the leaves of the large trees prevented the light from getting inside into the forest. I kept walking into the forest going deeper and deeper inside. Hearing the chirping of birds and bugs made me paranoid as I walked deeper and deeper into the forest, as the sky turned darker. The clouds faded and the light blue sky turned an orange tint, the sun was going down.

The sky was now dark and it became harder to see, I tried to make a torch out of a stick and some paper which had been in my backpack. I had nothing to light the torch I had just made so it was basically useless. I started to panic, I was lost inside of a forest I didn't know. I had no other choice but to yell out for help. "Jay!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "Jay!" I said once again.

Yakeru Ken POV

I was there sitting near the fire, roasting the fish that I had been cooking. In the distance I had heard something I hadn't heard in a long time. Someone was yelling my nickname, Jay. I thought maybe I was going a little insane, but I kept hearing it, Jay!... Jay! Someone was definitely yelling for me. I sat the fish down on a piece of wood, accepting that it might burn. I grabbed my axe, and a long thick-ish stick and lit it on fire. I ran outside and looked around, I heard leaves being crushed and sticks being cracked. I could see a silhouette in the distance floopin around and I walked towards it. Without fear I knew that it had to be Isidro, or as he's now known, David. I kept getting closer and closer till I could see his hand reaching out. I assumed he saw my torch.

"Why are you screaming like a maniac?" I questioned. "I don't know, maybe it has to do with the fact that I was lost inside a forest I've never been in!" David yelled. "You don't have to yell like you're dying beesh!" Yakeru explained. "Sorry, but I was kinda freaking the hell out, dumbass." I replied in a calmer manner. I looked at the semi-chubby kid, about 4'3 or 4'4 wearing a white shirt and dark blue hoodie, his bottoms were dark gray pants. His shoes were worn out, black faded shoes with round tips. "How did you find me?" I asked. "I asked someone in town if they knew you, they said you were a problemed kid." David stated. "Oh, well at least they didn't call me slow." I replied. "Actually… they called you wrong in the head." David explained. "Oh." I said not surprised. "Yeahhh…" David said.

"So what are we going to do about the armored slash colossal titan incident?" I asked trying to prepare for what was to come. "We have 4 years, my guy I think we're good." David answered. "We're in the year 841, the titan attack is in 845." David had added. "What should we do for training? I know a bunch of martial arts from my past life, the problem is getting you in shape." I questioned. "Ok atleast im not as fat as I used to be." David replied obviously annoyed. "Still we gotta train you, cause I remember everything. You on the other hand know nothing." I told him. "Okay, what about my titan form?" David asked me. "Well your transformation is going to create lightning so its going to be hard to train that, plus when you first start to use your titan you screambecauseoflackofcontrol also the fact the you're goingtobetwentymeterstallmeansyou'llbebiggerthanthetrees." I rambled. "You wanna repeat that my guy, I heard literally nothing that you said." David had said pausing me from speaking. "You cant train your titan form because you'll be bigger than the trees and you'll scream when you first transform." I said slowly for David to understand. "Jesus you're dumb." I added. "Well it's not my fault you blabber like a fucking sailer." David had announced.

"Okay, so we can't train my titan form, that just means we'll have to train me alot more. It only makes sense right?" David questioned. "Yeah but you cant just sit there and be a lazy piece of shit. You actually have to do things." I said looking at David with a serious face. "I know, I know. So when should we start?" David asked me. "It's night, come on i'll take you to my quote on quote house." I answered putting air quotes in the air. We started walking through the forest, pushing past leaves and branches that had been sitting on the forest floor. "You have a house in the forest?" He asked me. "Yeah, I found it a bit ago. I had to fix it up, it was really busted up." I replied. "How fucked was it?" David asked me. " Pretty bad my guy. The walls were basically falling down." I said answering his question. We kept on walking for a while, answering questions and talking about how our new lives were. Once we arrived at the house David stood outside the house looking at its outside features. "J- I mean Yakeru, this is the house that mikasa gets kidnapped in…" David stated. 'Oh… Lovely. I'm going to have some fun with those guys? I said smiling very creepily. "Now I see what they meant when the people in the town said you're a problemed child." David explained.

We entered the house, the chairs were sitting near the table, the fireplace crackling, and the floorboard creaking. "I mean shit good job on fixing this place, I would never think this place was breaking down." David said looking around the comfy little house. "I spent a whole day fixing it, so yeah I hope it looks good." I replied to the chubby kid standing in the middle of my newly acquired home. "You can stay tonight if you want, it's nighttime and it's hard traveling the woods right now." I added to the conversion. "I mean my parents are going to freak out because i've never been out this long." David explained. "The worst thing that'll happen is they tell the military police you're missing. You'll go home tomorrow you'll be fine." I said reassuring him. "True true." David commented. "Anyways, we'll start training you tomorrow, so you can sleep in the chair or on the floor." I explained.