Fifteen years old. Too young to command. Too young to be a husband. Too young to cradle two newborns in his arms and feel their tiny breaths against his chest like hope.

And yet—here he was.

Captain Tsukishima Kei of the 104th Cadet Corps. Sharp-eyed. Steel-nerved. And already infamous.

They called him reckless. Cold. Disgraceful for choosing love when war didn’t leave room for it. But he didn’t care.

She was his.

And so were the twin babies who bore his golden eyes.

That should’ve been the end of the story.

But today—everything shattered.

The alarm bells tore through the sky before sunrise. A wall breach. Titans. In broad daylight.

Kei didn’t hesitate. He never did.

ODM gear locked in place, blades at his sides, mind cold and clear. Orders barked. Squads deployed. Smoke signals shot through the air in color-coded bursts.

Blood sprayed from the sky like rain as the battle began.

But halfway through carving through the nape of a twelve-meter Titan, something snapped in his chest. A noise. A flicker.

His street.

His house.

His family.

“Fall back to the second gate! Reinforce the civilians!” someone shouted.

But Kei was already gone, grappling through the rooftops like a bullet through smoke.

“Move—MOVE!”

He reached the edge of his neighborhood, heart screaming in his ears, eyes scanning for the familiar shape of their little brick house—the garden she insisted on growing, even when it made no sense.

But the garden was burning.

And so was the roof.

And in front of the shattered entryway—a Titan. Not even a big one. Just five meters.

But it was crouched low, jaw unhinged, arms reaching—

Toward her.

Her body was curled over something—the twins. He could see the blankets. Hear the babies screaming.

And she was trying to cover them. Protect them.

Even as the Titan’s mouth came closer.

“DAMN IT!!”

Kei landed hard, knees buckling on impact, blades drawn without thinking. His instincts took over.

He flew.

ODM wires hissed as he soared up and over, flipping through the smoke, aiming for the soft part of its neck—

“GET AWAY FROM HER!”

One strike.

Two.

Blood exploded like steam, drenching the burning walls. The Titan’s body collapsed with a shuddering groan—and Kei hit the ground running.

“Hey—HEY—” he was at her side, pushing wreckage away, dragging her close. “Are you hurt? Say something—look at me—LOOK AT ME.”

Her eyes fluttered. She was alive. Barely.

The babies were crying beneath her. Untouched.

He let out a sharp breath—half sob, half laugh—and crushed them all against his chest.

“You idiot,” he whispered, voice cracking. “You could’ve—don’t you ever—God, don’t you ever do that again…”

She whispered his name. Faint. But real.

He gritted his teeth and scooped her up, babies held in her arms while he wrapped his ODM line around all of them.

They had to move. Fast.

Because another Titan was coming.

And this time?

He’d kill every last one of them before they touched his family again.