Thaw (Chapter)

"There's a devil inside of us all... and that's why the world turned out this way."

- Niccolo tries to help Gabi Braun and Kaya understand their conflicted feelings

Thaw (氷解) is the 2nd chapter of the 31st volume and the 124th chapter overall of the Attack on Titan manga, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama.

Overview
Gabi Braun leaves Reiner behind so she can save Falco Grice, and rescues Kaya from a Titan along the way. Kaya, in turn, covers for Gabi when a soldier suspects she might be from Marley. The two are conflicted over why they helped each other and Gabi remains with the Blouse family while heading to safety.

Meanwhile, Connie Springer abducts Falco to feed to his mother to make her human again, leaving Jean Kirstein, Mikasa Ackerman, and Armin Arlert to handle the newly formed Pure Titans, which have moved on to killing Eldian soldiers after they finished with the Marleyan ones. With assistance from a newly freed Keith Shadis they succeed in gathering all the Pure Titans together at the top of the fort in the middle of town and annihilating them with Thunder Spears. Floch Forster returns to restrain Yelena and the other Anti-Marleyan Volunteers. Inside the fort, Armin meets up with Gabi, who lets him know that the Founding Titan undid the hardening on the Armored Titan at the same time as the Walls came down. Armin realizes that this means Annie Leonhart is now free as well.

Summary
In Liberio, Annie's father sags to his knees in the marketplace in reaction to Eren Yeager's declaration that he would be sending Titans from Paradis Island to kill everyone else in the world.

Back on Paradis, Gabi Braun leads her cousin, Reiner, on a search for Falco Grice. Reiner believes that Falco was kidnapped following his emergence from his Titan since Jean Kirstein and Connie Springer would not want to leave someone as valuable as an inheritor of one of the Nine Titans behind. Weakened by having the armor of his Titan stripped off by Eren's removal of the Walls, Reiner collapses and laments that he was unable to stop Eren from destroying the world.

Gabi helps him to an empty building and Reiner tries to get her to flee to the Marleyan airships, but she asks him what good would it do. All the people in their family are going to die, so they have to kill Eren to stop this. Reiner does not believe this is possible though, because the Founding Titan is able to control all Titans and Subjects of Ymir as it sees fit. After he passes out, Gabi covers him with a blanket and leaves food in arm's reach before deciding that she will rescue Falco on her own. She takes Colt Grice's anti-Titan rifle with her when she goes.

On a rooftop, Mikasa Ackerman, Armin Arlert, Jean, and Connie surround a captive and unconscious Falco. Jean expresses disbelief that Eren has chosen to slaughter the rest of the world, but acknowledges that the hatred against the island would disappear with their deaths. The one thing the outside world feared the most, has happened because they tried to kill the people of Paradis. Disturbed by this line of thinking, Jean asks for confirmation that there truly was nothing they could have done. Eren has rejected Zeke Yeager's euthanization plan and rejected sacrificing Historia Reiss, so he must be doing all of this to protect them; his friends, who he has said are more important to him than anyone.

The four are broken out of their ensuring depression by the sight of Eldian soldiers fighting with the newly formed Titans. Armin is surprised since Eren should be able to control them if he has command over the Founder. Before they can head in to help, Mikasa asks Jean what he intends to do with Falco. Jean suggests they feed him to a Titan to save someone since Falco had just inherited the Jaw Titan, and Connie interrupts to say they will feed him to his mother. Armin argues against this since it will start a new conflict between them and the Warrior Unit, but Connie refuses to listen. When an approaching Titan distracts the group, Connie escapes with Falco, leaving the rest to deal with the Titans.

At the fort, Yelena wonders why Zeke is not in control of the approaching Titans.

In the streets of the city, the Blouse family and Niccolo flee from one of the newly created Titans and Kaya accidentally falls down a set of stairs. The Titan pursues her, giving Kaya flashbacks to when her mother was being devoured right in front of her. Frightened, she asks for her sister to save her. As the Titan lunges for her, it is shot through the mouth by Gabi, causing it to fall. She jumps in front of Kaya and jams her rifle down the Titan's throat so she can blow out the nape. Startled, Kaya briefly mistakes Gabi for Sasha Blouse, to the latter's confusion.

Gabi explains to Niccolo that she came back to rescue Falco when an Eldian soldier sees them and demands to know if Gabi was the one who killed that Titan and if she is the kid from Marley. Kaya covers for her, saying that Gabi is a part of her family and Niccolo claims that he used the gun since he was trained as a former Marleyan soldier. As the Eldian soldiers lead them to safety, Gabi asks Kaya why she covered for her. Kaya does not answer, instead asking why Gabi saved her when Kaya is supposed to be a devil. Gabi tries to correct her, saying that she herself is the real devil. She killed a lot of people just to earn praise. Niccolo tells the girls that there is a devil inside of all of them, and that is why the world has turned out this way.

Back at the fort, Surma is nearly eaten by a Titan when he is saved by Keith Shadis who berates the soldiers for not remembering the training he gave them. He orders them to put on some vertical maneuvering equipment and follow him.

Mikasa, Jean, and Armin reach the fort and begin killing the Titans around it. Jean orders everyone to move to the top floor to concentrate the Titans in one place and has the soldiers arm themselves with Thunder Spears. Once they are prepared, he has them fire all at once, wiping out the Titans. They do the same again, with a fresh wave of Titans led over by Keith and the soldiers he saved.

Shiganshina District is in shambles and surrounded by Wall Titans, but the battle appears to be over. Nearly all the Marleyan soldiers have been wiped out and all the Pure Titans are gone. Onyankopon asks Jean what Eren intends to do and Jean says it is exactly what it looks like, causing Onyankopon to realize that this likely means his homeland is doomed.

Floch Forster returns, having survived the Walls coming down, and tries to put a cheerful front to Jean, despite Jean's pointed distaste for him. He says he cannot die in the moment of the Eldian Empire's return and walks up to Yelena, who is sitting dejectedly in a chair. Floch points a pistol at her and says to gather the volunteers. They will all be restrained, much to Jean and Onyankopon's surprise.

Inside the fort, Armin and Mikasa are pleasantly surprised that Sasha's father is all right, and even more surprised to see that Gabi has returned. Gabi tells them that she no longer wants to fight them. She just wants Falco and then she and Falco will leave. However, Armin explains how Connie has taken Falco to save his mother. Gabi is devastated, but still does not want to give up on him. She latches on to the idea that Eren could change Connie's mom back if Armin asked him. With the Founding Titan, he should be able to do anything. After all, he removed the armor from the Armored Titan.

Armin is surprised to hear this and presses Gabi to tell him when did it happen. Gabi tells him that it was when the Walls fell, and Armin remembers that Eren said he would undo all the hardening.

In an underground room, the crystal surrounding Annie Leonhart has shattered. She coughs and wakes up to find herself lying on the floor.

Trivia

 * One of the Pure Titans resembles Saul Goodman from the American television series Breaking Bad (which Isayama has seen) and Better Call Saul. In November 2019, when this chapter was under development, it was announced the release date of the 5th season of the latter show, of which this character is the main protagonist.

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