Flashback, in the realm of Heaven...

"Kenji Ichikawa...was it?" A teenager suddenly woke up in a fancy room decorated with statues and gold carvings. He stands up and saw an old man sitting on a throne

"It says on file that...you are 'a passionate anime and manga fan, and a mangaka who made it to the number 1 spot within 3 years of your career, and your cause of death was-' " He suddenly stopped reading

"Splendid,  you are the one then"

"If you don't mind me asking, where am I? The last thing I remember was..."

"Who I am does not matter, not to you anyways. I only have one question for you...do you hate Attack on Titan's ending?"

"OF COURSE I DO! WHAT WAS THAT MANGAKA THINKING?! THERE COULD'VE BEEN SO MANY ALTERNATIVES TO GIVE THE READERS A SATISFYING AND WHOLESOME ENDING, AND LOOK WHAT HE HAS DONE?!" The boy takes a deep breath and calms himself down

"Sorry, I lost my composure"

The old man laughs wholeheartedly  

"No no, it's quite alright. I agree with you, to be completely honest. Now, my final question for you...would you like a chance to change the ending? If you succeed, I shall grant you eternal life in the realm of heaven along with anyone in that world who you wish to bring back."

"Sorry for my rudeness, but who would believe an old man could grant me something like that? I would at least need proof that you could actually even send me into an anime world in the first place before I-"

The god snaps his fingers as a horde of pure titans come out of nowhere and tries to grab Kenji, they disappeared just before they touched him. Kenji collapsed in fear, not believing the things he saw.

"Now do you believe me?"

"Ahem, I will take you up on that offer" He ponders a bit

"But I would need to be more powerful if I want to survive in a world like that"

"Not to worry, I will grant you 3 powers of your choice. However, it cannot be a power so strong you could beat every foe with ease. That dimension cannot handle that kind of energy it gives off. Take Dragon Ball for be example, choosing Saipan bloodline is forbidden."

"I...I need some time to think about this"

"Take as much time as you need, we have all the time in the world"

 

After several hours, Kenji has come up with 3 powers that would be very useful in the Attack on Titan world

"For my first power, I want full immunity to the curse of Ymir"

"Granted"

"Second, I wish to be a titan shifter with my own custom titan" The old man ponders a bit

"Granted, however, you would need to design that titan yourself. The titan's strength will be determined by your skill as an artist, any objections?"

"None"

"Splendid, which power do you desire for your last wish?"

"I want...breath of the sun from Demon Slayer"

There was a long period of silence

"...granted. Now get to work on your titan, I'm quite curious to how it would turn out" A stack of papers along with a box of pencils, erasers, paint brushes, paint, canvases, and everything that is needed for drawing appeared.

Kenji cracked his knuckles and grabbed a pencil and paper

"Alright, get to work! I will put all my heart and soul into this!"

.

.

.

.

.

After what seems like an eternity later, Kenji finally completed the final product of his desired titan

"Behold, my finest masterpiece!"

Author's notes: Ignore the wings

 

The old man examined the titan very carefully, then made a decision

"To be honest, I am impressed that a mere human could produce such a work of art. Fine, I shall grant your titan an ability worthy of its glamor"

He placed his index and middle fingers onto Kenji's forehead 

"Remember this with all your soul: If you want to utilize your titan's strength, you must utter these 14 phrases..."

Flashback ends

 

And that brings us here to the present, Eren only managed to recover all of his memories as Kenji after he inherited the Attack Titan from Grisha Jaeger.

With a gasp, Eren was jolted awake by Mikasa. He looked around and found himself in some kind of storage room.

"Are you okay? Did you have a nightmare?"

"I...I get the feeling I saw dad."

"Impossible, it must've been a dream"

"You think?"

Eren looks at himself and clenches his fist

"Damn it, I was not able to save my mother after all. The scene played out almost exactly like the anime" He could remember that day like it was yesterday. Despite him desperately trying to get his mother out of the house, he was already too late. The boulder fell right onto his house, trapping Carla in the process. Eventually, some of the garrison soldiers had to take him and Mikasa away, leaving behind Carla.

"Let's go, I heard they are distributing food"

"Sigh....yeah, lets go, Mikasa"

The two exits the storage room to see a crowd of people waiting for their share of food.

"They said this is a warehouse for food, everyone who came on the ferries are gathered here." Mikasa said to Eren, who is still shocked at the amount of starving refugees.

 

"Hey, line up like everyone else!"

"Shut the fuck up! I haven't eaten since yesterday!" Two people amongst the crowd are already fighting over food, it won't take long for people to resort to theft.

A few days has passed since the collapse of Wall Maria, Mikasa noticed that there are several things different about Eren ever since his headache. For one, he is a lot stronger and faster than before. They ran into Armin on their way back home a while back, he was being bullied by 3 other teenagers. Eren simply walked over to them and beat them down without giving them a chance to fight back.

Second, he is a lot less stubborn than before. He is a lot willing to ask for assistance from her instead of trying to prove he could do everything without her.

Finally, he seems to be...a lot more affectionate than before.

Mikasa did find his sudden changes very strange, but she is happy about them at the same time.

Another few days later, many refugees were forced to cultivate wasteland to boost food production, children included. However, it had little to no effect as food shortages is still an issue. During the following year, the central government enlisted many refugees in the pretext of reclaiming Wall Maria. 

They numbered 250,000. It was proportionate to 1/5 of the human population, but only around one hundred survived. Armin's grandfather was one of the enlisted refugees, he unfortunately died in action.

Armin held onto the hat that his grandfather gave him before he left and cried. 

"It's all because of the titans..." Eren clenches his fist

"if we defeat them, we could take back our rightful place in this world."

Thus, Eren decides to enlist into the training corps next year. After much arguing, Mikasa and Armin decided to come as well. The very next day, Eren started his training in breath of the sun and total concentration breathing. He used the wooden sword that he bought on the streets for sword training as well as the clay gourds he stole for constant total concentration breathing. At first, the training seemed hellish and there are multiple instances where he thought he'd die of exhaustion, but he managed to pull through.

There is only one motivation that kept him going: Mikasa. In the original series, Eren went ahead and did everything himself, leaving behind Mikasa and Armin because he thought he'd bring in harm's way, little did he know he was doing more harm than good. But this time, it would be different. To hell with Zeke's master plan, to hell with those Marlians! He would destroy them all if they get in the way of him and Mikasa. Though, he is planning to take a trip to Marley anyways just to fuck with Reiner.

 

A year has passed since then, there is only 1 day left until they have to leave for the Training Corps. Eren could be seen on top of a mountain, smiling. He made a lot of progress in a single year, it only took him 6 months to master breath of the sun to the point he could use all the forms without any drawbacks. He used the rest of the time he has left to expand his lung capacity.

He took a deep breath before jumping down a cliff and ran down the mountain so fast that only a blur could be seen. Suddenly, a wild boar with an arrow on its back emerged out of nowhere, blocking his path. He unsheathes his wooden sword and jumps high into the sky

"Breath of the Sun second form: Clear Blue Sky"

Eren unleashed a 360 degree slash, cutting the boar in half like a hot knife cutting butter. He didn't think much of it and hurriedly rushed down the mountain. Moments later, a brown-haired girl emerged with a bow and arrow stared at the boar in confusion and shock.

"Huh? Who butchered my prey?!"

 

Eren collected some firewood, no, uprooted a whole tree and brought it back to the small shack the trio is currently staying in. 

"E-Eren, I have told you before right? We don't need a whole tree for some firewood!"

"Ahahaha~ sorry Armin, I forgot to collect firewood when I was training so I just brought back a tree instead" He took off his shirt, revealing a perfectly toned body along with a six-pack.

Mikasa blushed before looking the other way

"H-here's your towel, go take a shower already" She hands Eren the towel and abruptly left the shack to calm herself down. Eren simply smiles and went to a nearby lake to clean himself up. 

He finished his bath after a few minutes and combed his hair after drying himself. Durin that year, he didn't really have time to cut his hair , so Eren simply asked Mikasa to tie his hair, thus resulting him to have the hairstyle he would have gotten in season 4 of the anime.

 

Later that evening, Eren chopped down the uprooted tree into planks for firewood and secretly took some bacon and potatoes from the warehouse to cook dinner for all three of them. Since there aren't many seasonings and ingredients to choose from, Eren first boiled the potatoes until they looked cooked enough while frying the bacons and chopping them to pieces. He then put both of them on the grill and seasoned them with chili powder, black pepper, and a pinch of salt.

"Phew, all done. I guess this is the best I could do with only these cheap ingredients." He raised his voice and called Mikasa and Armin for dinner. "Oi! Dinner is ready!" 

"Coming!" As soon as Armin came out of the shack, the strong aroma of chili powder and bacon sent him straight into heaven.   

"Here, Armin." Eren hands Armin his plate, he took a bite and the flavor was even more delicious than he expected. The potatoes are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, the bacon goes too well with the already delicious potatoes.

Mikasa also started eating her share, she simply sat and enjoyed the food with an expression that is too cute to explain with words.

"Eren...are you sure you want to be a soldier?"

"What do you mean? Of course I do"

"You could be a great house-wife for Mikasa" Eren lightly smacks Armin on the forehead. "Stop joking around, would you?"

 

---> To Be Continued