Tsubaki

Tsubaki (つばき) is a little girl who seeks to become Murakumo's apprentice. She wants to become strong so she may avenge her parents who were killed by Titans. She is one of the protagonists of Attack on Titan Volume 0, the draft story written by Hajime Isayama which later evolved into Attack on Titan.

Appearance
Tsubaki is a short, young girl, with large eyes. She has black, unkempt hair tied in a bun, with her bangs parted down the middle and framing each side of her face; nearly covering her ears. Though somewhat inconsistent, she wears a black shirt with a long-sleeved, zip up hoodie, and light colored pants.

Personality
Tsubaki seems to be passionate and hardheaded. She wants to become strong in order to kill the Titans and she wants to train with Murakumo, which bothers him a lot. She seeks to enter the Vanguard Corps and she is ready to do whatever it takes to achieve it. She has pure hate for the Titans, to the point where she is confident enough to fight a group of them head to head without hesitation and armed only with a couple of knives.

Story
She is first seen in Murakumo's house, where she is waiting for the private to return so that they can train together. Murakumo refuses her invitation and Tsubaki starts insisting, telling him how she wants to become strong and kill the Titans that ate her parents. Murakumo finally tells her to practice her blade swinging 100 times a day if she wants to train with him. She is later seen running towards the Titans inside the city to kill them, mad and full of rage. One of the Titans tries to grab her, but Murakumo protects her and tells her to stay back and let her master take care of the fight. She crumbles in despair when she sees her master get eaten and is shocked when Murakumo transforms into a Titan. While Murakumo is fighting, Tsubaki tells him that his nucleus is vulnerable. But it is pointless - Murakumo dies; but not before attempting to take the Titan with him. Tsubaki screams terrorized, but regains her composure and prepares to fight the Titan. It turns out Murakumo's did deliver a fatal blow to the Titan, and it melts into a pile of blood and steam.

Tsubaki is later seen sitting in front of Murakumo's grave. She starts crying but she stops in order to start training for her 100 daily blade swings and fulfill her goal: to enter the Vanguard Corps and kill all the Titans.

Relationships

 * Murakumo - Tsubaki looked to Murakumo as her master. She deeply respected him and trusted in his strength. She was not even afraid when it turned out that Murakumo was actually a Titan. She was very sad when her master died and decided to train in front of his grave.

Trivia

 * Due to the similarities between her and Eren Yeager, it is likely Hajime Isayama based Eren off of her design and personality.
 * Her name means "."