It started with a flicker.
Arata was standing in the training yard behind the Scout HQ, talking with Mikasa and Levi, when the world suddenly glitched.
Just for a second.
The sky turned grey. The ground beneath their feet shifted. A strange white flash blurred their vision.
And then—
Everything changed.
---
Arata opened his eyes.
They were still at the Scout HQ… but it was different. Cleaner. Sharper. Like it had never seen war.
The banners were different too—no Wings of Freedom, no Scout logo. Instead, a symbol Arata had never seen before: a circle, split in half by a sword.
Mikasa was gone.
Levi stood nearby, silent, scanning the area. His eyes narrowed.
"Something's wrong."
They walked through the grounds together. The people… the soldiers… none of them recognized Arata. Or Levi.
They weren't afraid. They weren't hostile.
They just looked confused.
Like they'd never existed here.
---
"Where's Mikasa?" Arata asked.
Levi didn't answer. He was too focused, too sharp.
"More importantly," he said, "where's Eren?"
They searched the HQ. Then the barracks. Then the records office.
Nothing.
No name.
No file.
No trace of Eren Jaeger.
Not in the military.
Not in the cadet corps.
Not even in birth records.
Arata felt a chill run through him.
Kaen had done it.
He rewrote the world and erased Eren entirely.
---
As they stood in silence, the lights above flickered.
Then the sky split open—just slightly—and a tear in reality opened above the HQ like a scar in the air.
Kaen's voice echoed down, calm and smug.
> "You wanted to protect the story, Arata.
So here's what it looks like… without its main character.
Let's see if you still think this world is worth saving."
The tear closed.
And in its place… stood a child.
Black hair. Pale skin. Red eyes.
A boy who looked like Arata.
---
He introduced himself as Rei.
He didn't smile. Didn't blink much. But he spoke like a soldier.
"I'm the one who was born instead of Eren," Rei said. "The rewrite made me."
Levi moved forward, blade half-drawn. "Are you a threat?"
"I don't know yet," Rei said. "Kaen wrote me to be… undecided."
Arata stepped forward slowly. "What do you want?"
"I want to understand why I exist," Rei answered, eyes flicking between them. "And why I feel like I don't belong."
He looked straight at Arata. "You're like me. Aren't you?"
---
Just as they began to speak, alarms rang out.
Titans.
Huge ones.
But they weren't normal.
Some were fused with armor. Others had spiral symbols glowing across their bodies.
Kaen wasn't just rewriting the past.
He was rewriting the Titans themselves.
---
Arata's eyes flashed.
He summoned his Susano'o again, its purple energy exploding into the sky.
Levi didn't ask questions—he launched straight into the air, blades spinning.
They fought as a team, cutting through the new Titans with precision.
But even as they won the battle, Arata knew this wasn't the real fight.
The real fight… was for the story itself.
And Kaen was already five pages ahead.