The world didn't shake.
It shuddered.
Like a breath held too long… then released in the wrong direction.
---
Mitras – A Sudden Shift
It began with something small.
A soldier passing Eren in the hallway suddenly stumbled and blinked, confused. "Eren?" he asked, eyes twitching. "Weren't you in the… Third Corps?"
"No," Eren replied, puzzled. "I'm in the Training Corps."
That was the first crack.
Then came the letters. His mother's name replaced. His age altered. Tiny edits to his history only Armin seemed to notice.
Arata burst into the hallway, his Rinnegan scanning every surface.
"It's started," he said.
Armin looked up, pale. "Started what?"
"Kaen isn't just rewriting powers anymore…" Arata muttered.
"He's rewriting people."
---
The Scroll of Eren Yeager
Far away, in the Citadel of Ink, Kaen stood in front of a giant scroll.
Lines from Eren's past stretched across it like veins. Scenes reformed and re-inked at his command.
"I've decided," Kaen whispered to Ren. "In this version, Eren's mother was never eaten. She joined the Scout Regiment and died later—heroically, at Eren's side. And Grisha? He never gave him the Founding Titan."
Ren tilted his head. "So what does he become?"
Kaen grinned. "A vessel. Empty. A wildcard."
He placed his palm against the scroll—and a pulse rippled through reality.
---
Ren Ackerman – Before the Spiral
Before the world twisted, before Kaen's whispers… Ren Ackerman was a man of silence.
A cleaner. An orphan of the Underground, like Levi. But while Levi climbed out, Ren stayed buried.
No one knew of him. No one gave him orders. He was never registered.
He lived beneath a chapel.
Slept in shadow.
Listened in silence.
And resented everything.
Then one day, during a mission gone wrong, he encountered a glowing fragment—an ember of Kaen's leaking reality.
It spoke to him.
> "Acknowledge the rewrite… and become remembered."
Ren, forgotten by the world, accepted. And the Sharingan opened not from bloodline… but narrative corruption.
---
Levi vs. Ren – Round 2
Blades clashed atop a cathedral's roof as thunder cracked overhead.
"You're not an Ackerman anymore," Levi growled, dodging a burst of corrupted wind chakra.
Ren sneered. "No. I'm something better. Something written."
His Mangekyō flared—though twisted, red lines carved like scars across his sclera. Not pure. Not natural.
He blinked—and reality shifted for a second. Levi's sword twisted mid-air. Time blinked. The sky cracked like paper.
"You see?" Ren said. "We're not bound by physics anymore. I can move in panels, not steps."
Levi gritted his teeth. "That's not power. That's cheating."
"No," Ren replied softly. "It's a second chance. Something you and I never got."
---
Arata's Race – Save Eren or Erase Him
Back in HQ, Arata found Eren collapsed on the floor, clutching his head.
"I don't remember my mom's voice," Eren whispered.
Arata knelt beside him, heart pounding.
"You're being rewritten. Your identity—Kaen is deleting who you were."
"Can you stop it?" Eren asked.
Arata looked away. "Not without making a choice."
Armin stepped forward. "What choice?"
"To keep Eren real…" Arata said, eyes glowing, "I may need to cut the connection. Sever his soul from the rewrite. But if I do that—he may never awaken the Titan inside."
Mikasa entered, blades already drawn. "Then don't. We fight Kaen. All of us."
---
Kaen's Message – A New Chapter Begins
A black envelope appeared at Erwin's desk.
No messenger. No seal. Just one sentence:
> "The new Chapter begins. Choose your genre: Tragedy or Chaos."
—Kaen
Erwin read it, then stood.
"Prepare everyone. I don't know if this is war…"
He looked out the window, where the sky flickered between frames like a skipping reel of film.
"…or unwriting."