It was late.
Most of the Scouts were asleep, but Arata sat with Hange, Levi, and Erwin around a table covered in old books and scrolls found deep beneath the capital.
"According to this," Hange said, flipping through yellowed pages, "Kaen didn't just appear out of nowhere."
She slid the book toward Arata.
The page showed a faded drawing of a boy with black hair and red eyes, wrapped in strange clothing that looked half-Naruto shinobi, half-Attack on Titan military.
Arata stared at the image.
"It's him," he said quietly.
"It gets weirder," Hange continued. "This kid... was from another world. A world like yours."
---
The First Rewrite
Erwin stood, arms folded. "The records call him 'The First Rewrite.' A man who arrived in this world over a hundred years ago. Just like you."
Arata looked up sharply. "He reincarnated too?"
"Yes," Erwin said. "But unlike you, he wasn't trying to blend in. He didn't want to be part of the story. He wanted to control it."
"Why?" Mikasa asked, entering quietly.
Arata already knew.
Because he recognized the feeling.
---
Kaen's Past
Kaen wasn't always a god.
He wasn't always cold, manipulative, or obsessed with control.
He used to be a normal teenager from Earth—a boy who loved anime and manga. His favorites? Naruto, Attack on Titan, and Death Note.
He admired heroes like Naruto and Eren. Not because they were strong, but because they meant something. They resisted fate. They mattered.
And Kaen? He never did.
Back on Earth, he was just background noise. Invisible. Forgotten.
Until the day he died.
---
Reincarnated in Naruto World
Kaen's first rebirth wasn't into the Editor's Space.
It was into the Naruto world.
He woke up in a small village near the Hidden Rain. An orphan with no chakra, no clan, and no destiny.
He struggled. Starved. Survived.
And then, the system came.
> [Disc Rewrite System Activated]
"You've entered a narrative world. Would you like to modify your story?"
Kaen chose "Yes" without hesitation.
That was the first time he rewrote reality.
He gave himself chakra. Then talent. Then a clan. Slowly, he made himself someone important.
But with every rewrite… people stopped feeling real to him.
By the time he reached 15, he had rewritten the world so many times that no one remembered who Naruto or Sasuke even were.
He made himself Hokage.
He stood on top of a world that didn't even resist him.
And he hated it.
---
The Editor's Space Calls
Kaen thought he was the center of the story. The chosen one.
But then they appeared.
The Editors.
Being beyond even rewritten fiction. Watchers of stories across worlds. They offered him a place in the Editor's Space—a limbo of broken stories and rejected characters.
A place where he could become something more than a character.
A writer.
Kaen accepted.
But deep inside, something twisted.
He was no longer satisfied being strong in a world like Naruto's.
He wanted to own the entire narrative itself.
Not just a ninja world.
All worlds.
He started seeing worlds as scripts—something he could rearrange until it matched what he wanted.
---
Kaen began to believe that nothing truly mattered—not Eren's pain, not Mikasa's strength, not even the Titans. He saw it all as "fiction" written by someone else.
And if it was all fiction… why not take the pen?
Why not become the one writing the story?
That's why he made the Spiral-Titan.
That's why he's corrupting people like Ren Ackerman and rewriting past events.
He's trying to prove one thing:
> "This world doesn't deserve freedom unless I'm the one who creates it."
---
Arata and Kaen: Two Sides
Arata sat quietly as the truth sank in.
He and Kaen were the same in one way—they were both pulled from Earth into a world they once thought was fiction.
But where Arata chose to protect the story, Kaen chose to own it.
They were two sides of the same coin.
"He's not trying to destroy the world," Arata said at last. "He's trying to become its author."
"And what are you trying to become?" Levi asked.
Arata looked up.
"…Just someone who keeps the ending honest."