Night of the Battle to Retake the Wall

In Trost, Erwin gathers Hange, Levi, and the squad leaders to sift through what is now known about Dr. Yeager. Grisha came from beyond the Walls and held Titan powers, yet unlike Annie, Reiner, and Bertolt, he seemingly worked for humanity's benefit. Hange guesses he stayed silent about the Reiss family's abilities to avoid the Royal Government's notice, then went straight for them when Wall Maria fell. Erwin floats a darker reading of the basement: Grisha may have been unable to speak of its contents, which could hold knowledge of the outside world scrubbed from public memory by the First King. With no way to verify, he sets the operation for two days out.

Levi lingers to argue that Erwin, still recovering from the loss of his arm, should sit out the expedition and leave Hange in command. Erwin refuses even the suggestion of being bait, and when he reaches for another lofty justification, Levi threatens to break his legs. Erwin then admits the truth: more than victory itself, he must personally witness the moment the Corps learns what the world really is. Levi yields and puts his faith in that answer.

Dinner descends into chaos when a squad leader blows two months of food budget on meat. Sasha loses all reason at the sight of it, forcing Jean and Connie to wrestle a slab away while she gnaws Jean's hand and flattens Marlowe with a punch, unconscious yet still moving. Later, an argument about recruit placement boils over and Eren and Jean brawl until Levi batters both into silence and sends everyone to bed.

Outside, the original trio talks through the future. Eren admits he has stopped measuring himself against Mikasa and Levi, having realized that everyone contributes a distinct role to a greater whole. Mikasa wonders whether their old lives can be restored once Wall Maria returns; Eren answers that some things are gone permanently, and the Titans owe a price for that. Armin rekindles their childhood catalog of wonders beyond the Walls, seas of flame, fields of ice and sand, and above all the ocean, which Eren agrees to see with his own eyes. Levi quietly listens nearby.

At dusk the next day, cheering crowds led by Flegel Reeves send the Corps off, a first in its history, and an uncharacteristically moved Erwin roars the operation's start. Far away on Wall Maria's crest, Reiner and Bertolt look on as the light fades.

The chapter ran August 9, 2015 in Japan, one day after the English simulpub, within the Return to Shiganshina arc between Bystander and The Town Where Everything Began. Its pre-volume title was The Night of the Operation, and the anime adapted it under the chapter's final name.

The closing page holds a canonical oddity: the sun sets in the east, matching Isayama's statement that his world's sun runs mirrored to ours, rising in the west. Marlene's hairstyle is also drawn inconsistently across the meeting scene.

The chapter quote is Eren's promise that the old days can be partly recovered, paired with his vow that the Titans will pay for what cannot.