[Attack on Titan] The Gate of Hakogawa

?#16

"click"

The head of the key fit snugly into the key hole, and there was a crisp sound of gears loosening as the key was turned, and the lock head was easily removed.

The thing that has been pursued for so long is now within easy reach, Erwin took a deep breath to calm down his frantically beating heart.

The surrounding air seemed to be stagnant due to the tense atmosphere, and the soldiers waited with bated breath, their gazes focused on Erwin one after another.

"Go, go."

The almost frozen air was broken by these words, and at the same time, Erwin pushed hard with his right hand──

Accompanied by an ear-piercing sound, the wooden door leading to the basement was opened, and a gust of icy wind blew up through the crack of the half-opened door in an instant. The wind not only carried stale breath and dust, At the same time, it brought out the bottomless darkness from the space behind the door.

The sudden cold wind blew away the hem of everyone's clothes, but it also calmed down the overheated heads.

Standing in front of the door and looking down the stairs, there is darkness below the ground, which is like a black hole, even the sun at noon may not be able to penetrate it, let alone the moment when the sun is setting.

"Bring the lamp."

Staring at the darkness, Erwin beckoned someone to prepare the lamps. In an instant, the soldiers who had fallen into a dead silence seemed to wake up, and the scene became as noisy as a market.

Lamps were brought into the house one after another, and about 9 people including Erwin and Hanji were about to enter the basement. When everyone was ready, the kerosene lamps were lit, and the soldiers followed Erwin's order. One by one down the stairs.

The stairs are very long and deep, the shadows of the soldiers are reflected on the wall, swaying with the candles in their hands, small clusters of fire light are quickly swallowed by the darkness, the leader Han Ji has long been invisible figure.

Just as Erwin, who was pressing the team, was about to go down, he seemed to remember something, pulled out the key inserted in the keyhole, and threw it back.

After a short flight in the air, the copper key fell into the other hand accurately, and subconsciously took what was thrown at him. Levi spread his palm and found out what was in his hand. He looked up in surprise Look at Erwin.

"Come down when you're ready."

Erwin didn't look back, just left this sentence and walked down the stairs.

Levi paused slightly, and subconsciously tightened his palms. He was about to say something, but was interrupted by a sound from the side. He turned his head and looked over, and saw a figure standing at the main entrance of the house, seeing In front of the other party's face, he heard the small sound of water hitting the ground, the sound was a bit like the first raindrop before the torrential rain, forbearing and heavy.

Mikasa Ackerman.

This is the first time that Levi has seen such a fragile expression on this female friend of Allen. Although he is not familiar with Mikasa, he still knows a little bit about this. A woman of unprecedented genius.

With excellent physical abilities and combat skills, whether it is fighting against humans, manipulating three-dimensional mobile devices, or slashing and killing giants, he can be regarded as one of the best players in the survey corps.

Taciturn, calm and indifferent, only when facing Allen, she will rarely show strong emotions, and even show sharp negative emotions towards him.

He knew that only the matter of Allen could shake her, just like the resentment and hatred that confronted him when they met in the corridor before. He thought that the girl's emotions were either frozen dead pools or raging waves, but he didn't expect it at all. You will see such a scene.

The girl standing at the door just shed tears silently, her expression was very sad, she didn't even notice Levi standing inside the house, her expression when she looked at the house seemed to be deep in the long memory, everyone in the house Every corner is full of nostalgia, every moment she spent with Ellen, Karla, Grisha, and her family, but all of them are gone, all of them are dead, all the good things that used to be It's all gone, she has nothing left.

The corner of her mouth was smiling, but tears were streaming. She didn't know what expression to put on to face all this. She didn't even know why she was still alive.

Levi watched her silently, but Mikasa just stood motionless at the gate, she seemed afraid of stepping into the room, her struggling and broken expression changed on her face.

Clenching his clenched hands, the hard body of the key slammed into his palm, and a slight pain came up through the nerve endings. Levi couldn't tell the source of the pain, but he had already made a decision.

He strode towards the door and stopped in front of Mikasa.

"This, take it, you should be able to cherish it more than it is in my hands, and the owner of this thing will be happy because of it."

The absent-minded eyes focused, and a golden and copper-colored luster appeared in the vision blurred by tears. Before regaining consciousness, Mikasa subconsciously raised her hand. At the same time, a slightly cool hard substance fell into her hand. .

When her hazy vision finally became clear, she saw clearly the object lying quietly in her palm.

It's Allen's key.

Mikasa's eyes widened almost unbelievably, and Mikasa raised her head immediately, but the face full of tears turned into astonishment when she saw Levi, but the other party didn't show the slightest emotion because of this, just looked at her calmly .

"Why…?"

Mikasa's eyes were full of disbelief and hesitation, she did not expect the current situation at all, Levi has always been the object of her hostility, not to mention that after Alan's death, she did not hesitate to spit out the most vicious words to him He poured all his grief and anger on him.

She actually knows that although Levi is hateful, what she hates the most is her powerless self, but she is unwilling and unwilling to face this fact, so she uses Levi as a target, an excuse, so that Shake yourself off responsibility so that you become an innocent victim.

Just blame Levi, Allen's death is his fault, yes, it's all his fault, it must be like this, it must be like this, please make it like this, otherwise, otherwise...

She will break down.

Looking at the girl's unpredictable face, Levi sighed slightly in his heart. He more or less guessed what the little girl was thinking, but he also didn't have the extra effort and willingness to intervene. Giving her the key is already the limit of what he can do, what happens next depends on Mikasa's own choice.

"I've said it... I don't want to say the same thing a second time. Also, hurry up and get your emotions in order before you come down. Maybe there's something useful for you."

As soon as he finished speaking, Levi didn't wait for Mikasa's response, or he didn't think the other party would give him any decent response, so he turned and walked towards the entrance of the basement.

Mikasa stared at Levi's movements in a daze, she curled her fingers unconsciously, but suddenly realized that the key in her palm had already been tainted with her temperature, and was no longer cold.

She lowered her head stiffly and stared at the key. The familiar outline, the slightly hot temperature, and the memories with that person seemed to be revived at this moment, and those faded pictures were all alive again. She could vaguely hear Alan What would he say to her.

Obviously she couldn’t say it no matter what, and she absolutely didn’t want to say it to that person, suddenly it didn’t seem so difficult, just think it was for Alan, she knew it wasn’t the case, but now she still can’t admit it , So, let's temporarily borrow Alan's name first.

"……Thanks…"

The thank you, which was as thin as a mosquito, came from behind, and Levi couldn't help slowing down his pace. He knew that the corners of his mouth curved up uncontrollably.

Although there was a wistful emptiness around his chest, it was since that day that he finally felt like he had done something right.

When the footsteps started again, he had restrained his smile. The darkness under the stairs forced him to settle down. He thought that no matter what was in the basement, they might not be able to laugh for a while.