Bite

Guard duty grates on Jean. Posted with Armin among the trees rimming the giant forest, he grouses about the vague assignment Erwin has handed them, essentially standing watch so nothing gets into the woods, and even floats a half-hearted threat at his squad leader before conceding he will follow orders. A five meter Titan soon shuffles up, drawn by the soldiers overhead, and the troops simply let it loiter below, safely beyond its reach.

Deep inside, the pursuit closes. Squad Levi comes face to face with the Female Titan, and Petra calls for a switch to their maneuvering gear. Before any order comes, two soldiers dive at the nape from behind; she flattens the first against a trunk and bats the second away like an insect. The squad clamors for permission to engage. Levi answers with a sound grenade instead, then spells out their true assignment: Eren's protection is the whole mission. The words stun Eren, who believed the veterans existed to shield everyone else from him.

The dying continues behind them as they ride, and Eren lifts his hand toward his teeth, ready to fight as a Titan. Petra begs him to stay in the saddle. Levi declines to decide for him: nobody ever knows how a gamble will land, he says, so a soldier should take whichever path leaves the smallest regret. Betting on himself or on comrades staking their lives is Eren's call alone.

A memory from the previous month surfaces. Hange had rigged a test in a dry well to learn whether Eren could be carved free of a berserk Titan body without dying, and on the signal he chewed his hands bloody trying to change. Nothing came, and even his rapid healing sat dormant. That evening Levi warned that failure would scrap the operation to seal Wall Maria, and then a small accident rewrote everything: bending for a dropped teaspoon, Eren spontaneously erupted a partial Titan torso around one arm. Blades came out across the room, panic spread, and Levi planted himself in front of his own squad, demanding calm. Weighing that scene against Petra's last plea, Eren wavers with the choice still open.

The Female Titan overtakes Squad Levi in the forest depths and butchers the soldiers who go for her nape.

Levi reveals that keeping Eren alive is the squad's actual assignment, then leaves the transformation decision in Eren's hands, framed around minimizing regret.

A flashback covers the failed well test: no transformation on command, and no healing either.

The teaspoon accident produces a spontaneous Titan arm, and only Levi's intervention keeps the frightened squad from turning on Eren.

Volume 6 carries Bite as its third chapter; the running count places it 25th overall in Hajime Isayama's manga. Japanese readers got it on September 9, 2011, and the English edition followed on August 27, 2013. It sits in The Female Titan arc between The Titan Forest and The Easy Path, with its events spanning two anime episodes set during the 57th expedition beyond the walls. The opening quote is Levi admitting he never knows the right answer, paired with his advice about choosing whatever will cost the least regret.