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[Scene: Forest Clearing – After the Final Battle]
Eren's POV (as the bird)
The skies… once my escape, now feel like a cage.
I've soared above ruins where walls once stood tall, over fields now hushed by silence. I've watched the scars of a world I tried to change, only to realize I left it broken.
But today… I see her again.
Beneath me, Mikasa sits at the base of that familiar tree—the one that marked the end of everything. The battlefield is long gone, but here, the weight of it still lingers.
Her scarf, that red thread binding us since childhood, still wraps tightly around her neck despite the warmth of summer. She whispers something under her breath, soft enough to be mistaken for wind. But I know what it is.
My name.
I circle lower, wings heavy.
And then it hits me—
A stirring deep inside. Not just pain. Not just longing. But something heavier than the air itself pressing against me.
I remember.
Her final goodbye.
Her trembling hands.
Her lips on mine.
The moment she severed my head… and freed me.
That kiss—burned into me like an unhealed wound, a curse that clings to me even now.
That look in her eyes—fierce, breaking, more terrifying than death itself.
I didn't want to forget.
I didn't want to leave.
But I did.
Not as a man. Not as the boy who once dreamed of freedom.
I left as this—
a bird.
And yet, I return.
Not as vengeance.
Not as fate.
But because I couldn't stay away from her.
My soul is still tethered.
To her.
---
[Flashback: Paths – Eren and Mikasa's Final Talk]
Time fractures. The memory resurfaces.
The Paths stretch endlessly, glowing strands of light tangled with fragments of all I was. In this void, she stands before me. Not the warrior who killed me—but the girl who wrapped a scarf around a boy's neck.
Her eyes are wet with sorrow.
Eren (human form):
"You made your choice, didn't you?"
Mikasa:
"I did… but I still see you in every corner of this world."
Eren:
"You set me free. I became the villain. The god. The devil. But under all of that… I was just a boy who couldn't let go of you."
Mikasa (tears falling):
"Then why… why did you go through with it?"
Eren:
"Because if I didn't become that monster, none of them would have lived. Armin. Jean. Connie… even you. I had to go. But… I never stopped loving you."
Her voice shakes, torn between rage and love.
Mikasa:
"I hated you… for making me choose."
Eren (quietly, with a faint smile):
"I know. Maybe that hate is what kept me alive here… in this after."
Mikasa (whispers):
"Will I ever see you again?"
Eren (gazing at her, fading):
"You already are."
---
[Back to Present – Forest Clearing]
I blink, and the vision is gone. The forest sways. The air hums.
Below me, Mikasa tilts her head upward. Her eyes widen—not at the bird, but through it, beyond it. As if the veil of worlds has thinned, and she sees me.
Mikasa (whispers):
"Eren?"
I land beside her. The grass bends under my small frame. She doesn't blink. Doesn't flinch.
Her hand trembles, reaching out. I do not fly away.
Mikasa:
"I always knew… you never truly left me."
A single tear slides down her cheek. It falls onto my feathers.
And suddenly—
The wind halts.
The trees hush.
The world itself seems to hold its breath.
Then the air turns golden—
like the heartbeat of a titan echoing through the very fabric of time.
Mikasa gasps.
And I feel it—
the tether pulling me, unraveling my disguise.
---
[Scene Shift – Paths Realm Cracking Open Briefly]
Light shatters through the clearing. For the briefest moment, my form changes.
No wings. No feathers.
I kneel before her again—humanoid, faint, glowing, as if made of memory.
Her breath catches.
I'm not whole. Not truly here. But I am enough.
Eren (softly):
"I wanted to say it while I still can… thank you. For everything."
Mikasa (voice breaking):
"I never stopped waiting."
Her hand stretches toward me. My own rises to meet it. Our fingers pass through each other—light on flesh, ghost on living. Yet… there is warmth.
For one heartbeat, it feels real.
Then the glow begins to fade. My body fractures like glass in sunlight.
Her lips tremble.
She whispers my name one last time.
And I vanish.
The bird remains.
---
[Narration – Mikasa's POV]
She holds her hand against her chest, the warmth still lingering.
"Even if the world buries him in silence… I'll carry his name in my heartbeat."
He wasn't a hero.
He wasn't a devil.
He was Eren.
And he was mine.
---