Warning: I'm new to AOT/SnK. I have only watched the anime for a few weeks now so pardon me if I there's many mistakes in this story. Also note that I'm not an English native speaker.

Shiganshina District - Year 845th

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"This is my colleague and his son. Say hello and introduce yourself, son."

The boy frowned, stared up at his own father in discomfort but obliged, nonetheless. "Hello. I'm Conan."

Eren stared half-heartedly, disinterested and not really trying to hide it. He was here because his father wanted him to socialize and have more friends. Only when his father nudged him by the shoulder did he reluctantly say; "... hello. The name's Eren."

After that, they stared at each other, with discomfort for Conan and Eren with undisguised boredom, waiting for their respective fathers to say something.

"Conan here is one of the last descendants of the Oriental," Grisha said, trying to make his son interested.

Eren scrunitized the boy in front of him. "Like Mikasa?"

Grisha smiled and ruffled his son's hair. "Yes. Isn't that right, Allen?"

"It's good to hear some with the blood of the Oriental are still out there. And... ah, yes, Grisha. My wife's a descendant of them. But, Grisha, I'd appreciate it if you don't tell this to anyone else."

"Of course. And Eren here isn't a tattle-tale, so don't worry."

Eren hummed quietly to himself, seeing it with his own eyes that Conan boy's face screamed 'foreign!' in some way, like Mikasa. Not that he cared about that. He wasn't into 'making friends', his father was. If Conan's personality wasn't to his liking, he'd be out of here in a blink.

"How's your wife?"

Allen, Conan's father, grew noticeably solemn at the question. He bowed his head and with no vigor, he informed, "Not good. She isn't responding to any medicines. At this rate, she'll..."

Conan, who was in a silent staring contest with Eren, broke eye contact. He stared down, frowning at the mention of his mother.

Grisha frowned at the news. "I'll check." Before going inside, he gave his son a look. "Stay here, Eren."

Eren nodded and stepped away.

Conan's mother was pronounced death by sundown that day.

"Hey."

Conan hastily looked behind him, startled.

"Conan, was it?"

It was Eren.

Not knowing the intention of Eren approaching him out of nowhere made Conan admittedly a little suspicious. But Eren was just a kid, Conan told himself. And so he gestured for Eren to sit beside him, who obliged without a question.

"Why are you alone here?"

Conan kept his gaze at the river. He picked a stray rock and threw it. "Why do you want to know?"

"I was just walking around the town." Eren looked up, staring at the vast, blue sky above them. "But then I saw you, so..."

Conan let out a tsk. He wanted to shoo the boy but something told him not to. He instead resorted to let his frustration out with an audible sigh. "So you're saying you don't have a reason?"

"Huh? Wasn't that a reason enough?" Eren scowled. He relented when he saw Conan's glare. "Well, you could say that I'm a bit curious. I never saw you around here before."

Conan bit the inside of his cheek at that statement. "Hmm, you're a little weird... fine." He gave up the idea on driving the boy away after seeing the little resemblance between his past life's self and Eren. It's the amount of innocent curiosity they both possessed, perhaps. "Well, you know that my mother's dead, I'm sure."

Eren let out a hum to that, not offering his sympathies. It was kind of pointless, in his opinion.

"Heh, well... guess what? My father was found hanging on that tree the other night... so he's dead, too." Conan pointed to the tree on the riverside. He let out dry chuckle at Eren's wide horrified eyes. "You asked me why I'm alone, right? Hey, tell me, Eren; am I not allowed to be alone? Is there a law saying I'm not allowed to be alone here?"

"No, there isn't," Eren uttered, eyeing Conan. He was wary at that little outburst. After a brief silence occured between them, he hesitantly asked, "So, your father, he.. was he...?"

Grasping the question, Conan showed Eren a smile, yet no hint of joy was shown in it. "Yeah, he killed himself. There's no evidence of murder, no matter where, no matter what angle I looked at it." He paused. "Damn it all."

"Suicide..." Eren mumbled to himself, as if in trance.

Conan's gaze flickered from the river to Eren. "So you know what suicide is, huh."

Eren mumbled, "Uh-uh."

"You see, I don't really know much about him. My father, he's a doctor like your father so he's not often at home. We rarely interacted. I was fine with that, because I... well, all I know is..." Conan paused, eyes unseeing. "I think he loved his wife too much."

"But he left you alone." Eren gritted his teeth at the realization. "This is... this!" He trembled, green eyes shining. "This isn't right!"

Conan looked at the boy, eyebrows lifted, bewilderment showing in his face. "What?" he whispered.

Eren looked down, and then he looked at Conan right in the eye and passionately declared, "All humans' lives are precious! Your father's a doctor, his job is to save lives and yet he took his own life! More than that, he left you, his own son, alone!"

"..." Conan stared up at the boy, speechless but catching all the words the boy spewed.

"You've just lost your mother, right? He wasn't the only one losing, right?" Eren clenched his fists tightly. "Isn't that... selfish? You... you should just forget him. Killing himself, taking his own life... that isn't right! Don't concern yourself with him anymore! He isn't worth it!"

Conan abruptly stood up, eyes wide and forehead suddenly glistening with sweats.

"O-oi! What the heck are you babbling about? You're like, ten! You're just a kid!"

Eren glared defensively. "I know I'm just a kid. But that doesn't mean I'm ignorant. I've... I've killed before."

Conan felt a shiver ran through his body at the look Eren was wearing. He agreed with the kid about 'all human lives are precious', but this was too much. A nine-year-old kid shouldn't have that kind of opinion. Even when Shin'ichi was around the same age, he wasn't like this at all. No kid at the age of nine had that strong opinion about lives.

Did Eren's father being a doctor have something to do with this?

Conan felt the air around him a little bit colder than usual when Eren's words began to sink in.

"You've killed... before?" Conan smiled, his voice shaky. Eren meant animals, right?

Eren finally looked away. He didn't know why he blurted that out, but what's done is done.

"They were animals ―" Conan was about to sigh in relief but Eren continued on ― "They just happened to have human forms."

"You, but...?" Conan didn't know what to say, too horrified to even accuse 'murderer!' to Eren's face.

Eren informed, "The Military Police said it's 'self-defense', so that's why I'm not locked up in jail."

"B-but," Conan reached to Eren, his hands grasping his shoulders. "Why did you... why did you kill them?" Self-defense... but murder was still murder in his book. Eren should be in jail or a mental hospital or something.

Eren stood still. "They killed Mikasa's parents and kidnapped her. When I found their whereabouts, I overheard their conversation about selling Mikasa to a rich, perverted old man somewhere in the Underground city. It's obvious I couldn't let them! So, I..."

Conan's hands went slack, his eyes wide as he tried to process Eren's 'confession'.

"Eren!"

"Ah, Mikasa, why are you...? Never mind. How did you find me this fast? Oi, stop!"

"Eren, your mother asked me to get you. Come, you're about to miss lunch."

"Let go! Oi, Mikasa!"

Conan blinked. Eren was dragged away faster than he could process it.

Conan let out a shaky chuckle. He was scared, his heart said. He admitted it to himself that this world was messed up, but this much?

Finding out that Eren had murdered people at such a young age felt like someone had punched him right in the gut. Figuratively, of course, but still it shocked him.

Sitting down, Conan hugged his knees together.

His mental state hadn't improved a bit. He wanted to get this over with, he didn't... really want to die, after all.

The conversation with Eren brought back the memory of his last conversation with his mother about the Military Police.

The Military Police was corrupt, his mother told him so in her bed. A warning to stay away from them, but his mother only had the courage to tell him before her death.

How much corrupt, he didn't know.

Putting aside that thought, Conan fished something out of his pocket. It was a bread he had stored for two days.

"Here, Conan."

"Thank you, sir."

Bringing the bread to his lips, he sniffed. It still smelled good, at least to him. Conan bit the bread lightly and chewed on it, savoring it.

It was Eren's father that gave him this bread two days ago, when he was searching for his missing father. Grisha Yeager was a doctor, but he loved to interact with kids more than tending to patients.

Conan snorted. That doctor should open an orphanage or something to know what normal kids were like. Because Eren wasn't a normal kid, like, at all.