Losers

Following Eren's distant roar, Levi rides past the broken bodies of his squad, pausing over Petra's corpse before pressing on. Mikasa, meanwhile, has chased the Female Titan to exhaustion after watching her rip Eren from his Titan's neck and hold him in her mouth. Her strikes at the nape shatter against hardened skin, and when she tries to pursue the retreating Titan, Levi intercepts her mid-air and orders her back.

Mikasa argues Eren must be alive, since the Titan deliberately extracted him rather than crushing him, suggesting a kidnapping. She bitterly blames Levi for the loss, and he, noting her attachment, decides the priority is rescue rather than revenge. His plan is simple: Mikasa draws attention while he carves the Titan apart. The Titan sees through the bait and swings at Levi instead, but he evades and opens her arm nearly end to end, blinds both eyes, and severs the muscles of her legs, moving too fast for her hardening to answer. When Mikasa breaks from the plan to strike the nape, the Titan's hand nearly takes her; Levi hurls her clear and kicks the hand away, wrecking his ankle. He then slashes through the Titan's cheeks and jaw muscles until her mouth sags open and Eren slides free. Carrying the unconscious boy, Levi glances back and sees what look like tears on the Female Titan's face.

Eren wakes in a cart to learn the mission failed. At Karanes District, townspeople mock the early return and grumble about wasted taxes, while a boy and girl on a ladder stir painful childhood memories in Eren and Mikasa. Petra's father approaches Levi, cheerfully sharing hopes for a daughter he does not know is dead, and Levi endures it in silence. Others in the crowd heckle Erwin over the casualties and his Wall Maria ambitions as Eren weeps. The debacle costs the Survey Corps its supporters: Erwin is summoned to the capital to answer for it, and Eren is ordered into Military Police custody.

Levi discovers the bodies of his entire squad, including Petra, on his way to Eren.

Mikasa deduces from the Titan's behavior that Eren was taken alive, reframing the attack as a kidnapping.

Levi cripples the Female Titan with a blinding, tendon-severing assault and injures his ankle saving Mikasa from her counterattack.

Eren is cut free from the Titan's mouth, and Levi notices what appear to be tears in her eyes.

The Survey Corps returns to public scorn in Karanes; Petra's unknowing father thanks Levi, Erwin is called to the capital, and Eren is remanded to the Military Police.

Losers ends volume 7 as the 30th chapter of Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan. It appeared in Japan on February 9, 2012, with the English release on September 24, 2013, and belongs to the Female Titan arc between Crushing Blow and Grin.

The anime adapts it as The Defeated: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission, Part 6. The chapter's title captures its structure: a tactical victory in the forest framed entirely by defeat, from the annihilated squad to the jeering crowds at the gate.

The Female Titan's tears, glimpsed only by Levi, quietly humanize the enemy well before her identity is confirmed, and the encounter with Petra's father became one of the arc's most quoted moments of restrained grief.