Bandits (Anime)

The kidnappers were a trio of men who killed Mr. Ackermann and Mrs. Ackermann before kidnapping their daughter Mikasa Ackermann in the year 844.

Appearance
The appearances of each kidnapper varied. The leader was a stout man with a short beard and a wool cap. The axe-wielding kidnapper appeared to be older, and was taller and thinner with short-cut blond hair and a thin mustache. The kidnapper who arrived late on the scene appeared to be the youngest, well-dressed and clean-shaven with short brown hair.

Story
In the year 844, when Mikasa Ackermann was nine years old and living with her parents, the kidnappers arrive at the Ackermann family residence. Hearing a knock at the door, Mikasa's father opens it thinking the visitors are Dr. Jaeger and his son Eren. When he does this, the leader among them stabs him, calmly walking into the house with his men. Mikasa's mother attempts to fight back against her would-be kidnappers, but one of them wielding an axe strikes her in the shoulder, killing her. He then approaches Mikasa, punching her in the face and knocking her unconscious. In some other location, the leader and the axe-man are passing time in a cabin while Mikasa slowly regains consciousness. The axe-man looks down at Mikasa, asking out loud why they went to such trouble to kidnap her. The leader sitting nearby explains that Mikasa is of Asian descent, and is the last of her race within the Walls. He explains that because of their race and the rarity of their people in the Walls, they will be able to fetch a high price if they sell them as sex slaves to buyers in the captial's underground market. The axe-man remarks that her father did not look Asian, therefore the girl cannot be a pure-blooded Asian. The leader angrily replies that the real value would have been to sell her mother, the pure-blood Asian.

Before their argument can continue, Eren, who had with his father discovered the bodies of the Ackerman family, arrives at the cabin pretending to be lost. The axe-man tries to console him in order to get rid of him, but he is stabbed by Eren while he is off his guard. Before the leader can react, Eren takes another knife tied to a broomstick and impales the leader through the shoulder. Eren jumps onto the leader's belly, stabbing him in the chest many times until he dies. As Eren unties Mikasa, the third kidnapper arrives late to the cabin, shocked at the sight of his dead accomplices. Kicking Eren across the room, he begins to strangle Eren in a fit of rage. Through the man's choking grasp, Eren tells Mikasa to fight. She takes up Eren's knife, unsure of what to do until a surge of power passes through her, giving her the focus and strength to stab the man in the back, piercing his heart. The bodies of the three kidnappers are later discovered by Military Policemen that Eren's father had alerted.

Six years later, as Eren in his Titan form is about to seal the breach in Trost District, he remembers the time he killed the leader of the kidnappers. He thinks to himself that people who reject the freedom of others, no matter how strong they are, do not matter.