The Female Titan

The Female Titan is the fifth chapter in the fifth volume and the 23rd chapter overall.

Summary
Now the last surviving member of his group, Armin is being chased by the female titan. She catches up to him in no time and knocks him off of his horse. Armin, expecting the worst, is surprised when the titan simply moves the hood of his cloak to get a look at his face and then walks away, leaving him relatively unharmed.

Both in shock and relief, Armin is unable to move as he wonders what has just happened. After seeing the last smoke signal, Reiner arrives on the scene and he and Armin ride off after the female titan. Reiner believes they are after a deviant titan, but after witnessing the event that just took place, Armin believes otherwise. He believes the female titan is the same as Eren; a human with the ability to transform into a titan. Getting ready to fire a smoke signal, Armin is stopped when Jean catches up to them and fires it first.

Soon after, they see a series of smoke signals and discover that the lookouts on their right flank are gone. The female titan gathered a hEld of fast moving titans and led them directly to the formation. Still chasing the female titan, Armin explains the reason he believes it's not a deviant class; it didn't kill to eat, it just killed among other signs of intelligence. He also deduces that the titan is looking for someone; namely Eren. As they try to figure out where Eren is, they realize they've all been given different information. Armin thinks about Commander Erwin and wonders if the misinformation was on purpose. Considering the value of Eren to the Survey Corps, Armin surmises he must be in the safest place in the formation, around the center. Without having a way to properly communicate the specifics of the threat, Jean says that they must distract the titan themselves in order to give the formation enough time to get the retreat signal out.

Now set on what they must do, they quickly hash out a plan. Armin warns of her intelligence and tells everyone to keep their hoods on. If the titan is actually looking for Eren, she won't risking killing someone until she knows if it's him or not. As the chase goes on, the titan slows down allowing them to catch up to her. Jean tells them to cut the tendons in her legs, but don't get reckless. As Armin gets close to her side, she notices him and grabs his horse and flings it into the air. Armin is sent skidding to the ground, knocking his 3-D maneuver gear off in the process. Reiner and Jean look on in horror as the titan crouches over Armin. Jean comes to Armin's aid and launches himself onto the titan. The female titan instantly reacts and swings at Jean, narrowly missing him. Jean takes the opportunity to swing around to the other side and attack the nape of her neck. She reacts again, this time taking measures to protect her weak spot, surprising Jean. Realizing the vulnerable position he's now in, he prepares himself to be thrown to the ground. Suddenly, Armin begins to yell that Jean must avenge "the guy who was in a hurry to die"; referring to Eren. He yells that she killed him in her rampage through the formation. Initially, Jean thinks that Armin has finally lost it until he sees that the female titan has stopped moving allowing him a chance to escape. Armin continues his outburst, saying that she crushed Eren as he saw the body stuck to the bottom of her foot.

Reiner rides up and believes this is his opening to attack. With his 3-D maneuver gear, he propels himself towards her head. Jean thinks the attack just might work. Just as Reiner gets to the side of her head, she catches him leaving Jean and Armin thinking the worst. What at first appears to be the titan crushing Reiner's body, turns out to be Reiner using his blades to cut her fingers off, freeing himself. Reiner scrambles down, scoops up Armin and says that they've distracted her as much as they can. If she's not going to eat them, she's not going to bother chasing them. The titan then regenerates her fingers and starts to run in the other direction. Reiner wrongly asserts that she's running away in fear, until Armin sees that the direction she's moving in is toward the center of the formation.