The World the Girl Saw: The Struggle for Trost, Part 2

"This world is a cruel place, but also very beautiful."

- Mikasa reflects on the world after being kidnapped.

Shōjo ga Mita Sekai -Torosuto-ku Kōbōsen (2)- (少女が見た世界　―トロスト区攻防戦②―) is the 6th episode of the 1st season and the 6th episode overall of the Attack on Titan anime, produced by Wit Studio and Production I.G.

Overview
The battle continues in Trost District. Armin has witnessed the deaths of his entire squad, including Eren. This creates a conflict between the cadets, which is augmented by the stress and the horrible things that they have seen and suffered through. Some of them are at their limit, such as Armin and Hanna. In another part of the city, Mikasa saves a crowd of people from an abnormal Titan. She then threatens a local businessman to leave his belongings and let the people go through the gate which he was halting with the demand that his belongings go first. After this, Mikasa begins to remember how she met Eren. She lived peacefully with her mother and father when three human traffickers killed them and tried to kidnap her, but she was saved when Eren killed two of them which gave her the will to fight and kill the third. From this she gained an intuition to right regardless of context. Grisha then decided to raise Mikasa and the children became family.

Summary
After witnessing the deaths his Squad 34, which included Thomas Wagner, Nack Tierce, Milieus Zeremski, Mina Carolina, and his best friend Eren Jaeger, Armin comes out of a state of shock to find Conny Springer shaking him. After snapping out of his trance, Conny asks Armin what happened to the rest of his group. Christa's friend states that they were obviously wiped out and criticizes him for being a coward as only he escaped death. Conny is about to fight her, but Christa breaks them up and attempts to calm everyone down.

Armin leaves because he feels he would simply bring everyone down again and realizes that the world has always been vicious and believes his friends, Eren and Mikasa, viewed him as someone to protect because he is so weak. He soon after comes across Hanna Diament, who is attempting to resuscitate Franz Kefka who was torn in half. She continues to administer CPR and begs for Armin's assistance, but Armin sees that Franz is dead and cries, pleading for Hanna to stop her futile efforts and expresses to himself that he can not take this any more.

At the base of Wall Rose, a crowd of people are waiting by the gate as a merchant is unsuccessfully attempting to get his wagon load of goods into the interior. Tempers flare as the people argue that they need to evacuate first and push a Garrison soldier to the forefront to arrest him. However, the merchant threatens the soldier using his clout with the military higher-ups and silences the soldier before saying his goods are worth more than the lives of people or any amount of money they will every make. At that moment, a little girl notices an abnormal Titan running toward them, ignoring the elite soldiers following it. Mikasa quickly overtakes and dispatches it with little effort.

Mikasa notices her now dulled blades before looking up to see that the civilians have not evacuated yet while the merchant attempts to threaten her too. Mikasa is unfazed and walks toward him, threatening to execute him if it will mean the rest of the people can survive. He backs down and as the civilians run through the gate, the little girl thanks Mikasa who salutes back to her. As Mikasa's team leader congratulates her on her quick actions, he wonders out loud what she had to live through to became such an efficient soldier.

While thinking of the little girl and her mother, Mikasa begins to reminisce about her own past. She had just shown her mother an embroidery she had done in the style of her people when her family heard a knock on the door. Outside, Eren and his father Grisha Jaeger are at Mikasa's house and while Dr. Jaeger tells his son about Mikasa, Eren gruffly replies that only Mikasa will determine if they become friends. Dr. Jaeger begins to think something is amiss as no one is replying and opens the door to see both of Mikasa's parents dead. After checking for pulses, he hurries to report the incident to the Military Police Brigade and tells Eren to wait for him at the base of the mountain.

Meanwhile, Mikasa wakes up with her hands tied behind her back. Her father had answered the door only to be stabbed in the stomach as human traffickers entered the house. Her mother picks up a pair of scissors and tells Mikasa to run as she attacks the group. However, Mikasa is paralyzed by fear at these turn of events and one of the kidnappers kills Mikasa's resistant mother. She becomes even more shocked as the kidnapper lands a punch, knocking her out.

The men discuss selling Mikasa at the black market because Oriental people have died out and she is the last one. One realized Mikasa's father is not Oriental and they argue about why Mikasa's mother had to die, as she was the last pure blood. At that moment, Eren timidly opens the door and says he is lost. A trafficker goes up to him and pretends to comfort him when Eren pulls out a knife and stabs the man in the throat and then brings the knife out the side. Everyone is shocked and as Eren quietly closes the door, a second man angrily pursues him only to see Eren running at him with a knife tied to a broom as he guts him before pulling out another knife and mercilessly stabbing the man whom he calls an animal for enslaving children. Afterwards, he introduces himself to Mikasa and frees her, and she mentions that there was a third man in the group. Just as Eren hears it, the third man comes in, shocked, and begins choking Eren before he is able to reach for his knife.

Eren tells Mikasa to fight, but she is scared and holds the knife unsteadily. However, she then takes a moment to think, and realizes that the world is cruel and death is a constant part of this world as she remembers seeing a praying mantis eat a moth and her father bring back a duck he had killed while hunting. This activates powerful instincts inside her, which she still retains to this day. She gains complete control of herself kills the third man with a stab through the heart from behind. Later, the Military Police look over the crime scene and are stunned at the ferocity and age of the those who had killed the human traffickers.

Dr. Jaeger scolds Eren for not considering his own safety, but Eren says he simply wanted to rescue Mikasa as soon as possible. Mikasa is sad at the loss of her family and asks how to get home as she is cold and has nothing left. As a sign of family, Eren gives her his scarf and says that she can keep it before Dr. Jaeger tells her to come live with his family. Mikasa is emotional and overjoyed and as the flashback ends, she reiterates that the world is cruel.

The bell signalling the evacuation is finished and that the soldiers can retreat is sounded. Ian calls for Mikasa to go up the Wall, but she leaves to help the vanguard.

She concludes that even in these harsh conditions, she has a family and that with Eren, she can do anything.

Ultrahard Steel
''A material that is both hard and flexible, allowing it to tear through Titan flesh. The "single-edged swords" that use the material are widely known as anti-Titan weapons.''

Refining Ultrahard Steel requires the use of blast furnaces that exist only in the Industrial City, meaning it can't be made anywhere else.

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