The Hunters (Chapter)

 is the 45th chapter of Shingeki no Kyojin, it follows the aftermath of the battle between Eren and Reiner and the Military hunt for the traitors of humanity.

Summary
The chapter begins with the Colossal Titan, Hannes and a few others on top of the wall where Hannes is asking Christa why the Titan was there and also where was Eren. She tells Hannes that Eren and the others were on the other side of the wall and when he looked over, Hannes saw Eren and Reiner in their Titan forms fighting on the ground. Reiner let out a scream for help in the last chapter and here we see the outcome of that, Bertholdt came to the rescue doing a 60 meter body press, attempting to capture Eren to stop him from defeating Reiner. After the explosion, we go back to Wall Rose where we see the boulder that Eren used to plug the breach  with Titans who were still trying to get in, and also Commander Pixis who was taking a well deserved nap.

A soldier comes and smacks him in the head to wake him up, saying that he wasn't young anymore and that she didn't want to get stuck taking care of him. On a serious note, she told him that new Titans had stopped appearing in the first and second line of defense and when they sent out search parties to survey the area, they only found a few wandering around. Pixis replied that if Hannes and the Vanguard were still alright, they would be showing up at the Wall soon enough which implied that they ran into the party from the Chlora District and headed back to Trost. Commander Irvin from the Scouting Legion comes in looking for Pixis and tells him that they had finally managed to get the Military Police to leave the safety of the inner walls and go to the areas under immediate Titan threat.

Then, the chapter switches to a group of soldiers from the Military Police where we see Jean and Rivaille among them. Jean was wondering if everyone was okay and then some of the members of the Military Police started complaining to Rivaille about the location of their prey as if they were regretting the peaceful moments they were in. Rivaille apologized for not having a "hot Titan date" ready for them and said that if they were so anxious to fight, they could always have various opportunities in the Scouting Legion. This, however, shows us the cowardly attitude that these policemen possess, saying that they have inland work to do when all they do is gamble and drink instead of staying on guard.

Another soldier comes in and tells Pixis that there were no abnormalities or breaches in the wall but that the situation was terrible either way. They had found out that three members of the 104th trainee squad turned out to be Titans, earning a shocked reaction from Jean, and Irvin asked what had happened after their identities had been exposed. The soldier said that the Scouting Legion engaged the Colossal Titan in combat but by the time he and his group joined the battle, it was too late, the three Titans had disappeared. We switch back to where the battle took place and Mikasa, who was passed out, woke up and immediately started to ask Armin where Eren was. Armin told her that Eren and Ymir had been kidnapped by Reiner and Bertholdt and that it had been five hours since then.

Mikasa asked Armin if there was anyone dispatched to look for them but he said no because there was no way of tranporting their horses to the other side of the wall. They were currently waiting for the elevator to arrive so they can switch sides and go after Eren but for the time being, Mikasa had to rest because the extent of her injuries were not known. Armin also notified Mikasa that Hanji and a few others of their superiors were heavily injured and couldn't move, which is another reason why they hadn't deployed a search team for Eren since they needed skilled soldiers to do so. Mikasa then tells Armin that when Eren was kidnapped by Annie, she and Rivaille teamed up and somehow managed to recover him but that this time, a whole 5 hours had passed.

Mikasa puts her scarf back on and asked Armin what was the reason that Eren always ended up far away from them, and Armin noticed that even when they were little, Eren always ran off on his own and left them behind. He says that this was the fate bestowed upon him by the star he was born under and Mikasa told him that all she ever wanted was to be by his side but was interrupted by Hannes bringing both of them a peice of bread and saying that it was always the same, Mikasa always had to take care of the trouble that Eren got into. He said it was like a bond that she could never escape, not even now, they still had the same routine as when they were kids no matter the circumstances. He acknowledged Eren,however, saying that although he never saw him win, he never saw him give up when he was losing. Hannes gave Armin and Mikasa consolation saying that Eren wouldn't stay still, he would raise hell with everything he had no matter who his enemies were until someone went to rescue him.

He said that he would go look for Eren with Armin and Mikasa and that he wouldn't stop until he got the old days back. With that said, the three of them were ready to go into action. Now we see the Military Police riding on horses on top of the wall and Armin tells Christa that he would rather her stay on the wall, to which she disagreed, saying that she was not gonna leave Ymir alone. Connie says that he will not believe that Reiner and Bertholdt are their enemies unless he hears it from them personally. Hanji grabs on to Commander Irvin asking for the map and says that because of exhaustion and danger from other Titans, the traitors along with Eren and Ymir should be heading to the Forest of Giant Trees and that they can make it before nightfall if they hurried up. The chapter ends with Eren waking up alongside Ymir in said forest and Reiner asked if he was finally awake.