Opening the Gate

Six days after Trost is retaken, every trainee submits to an equipment inspection meant to expose whoever killed the captive Titans Sonny and Bean. The check turns up nothing. While the investigation runs its course, the graduates weigh their futures: Connie voices his dread of the Survey Corps, Annie tells him the choice is nobody's but his own, and Armin admits that despite his fear he intends to enlist with the Scouts anyway. Annie judges him frail in body yet strong where it counts, then reveals she is bound for the Military Police for reasons she keeps to herself. Jean, insisting he shares nothing with Eren, announces the same destination as Armin.

At a formal assembly, Commander Erwin Smith addresses the recruits with total candor. He presents Eren and his Titan ability as humanity's new weapon, outlines a coming operation to reach Shiganshina District, and openly names the basement of the Yeager home as the expedition's prize, a disclosure that leaves Armin suspecting a deliberate agenda behind such openness. Erwin then recites the branch's casualty record, ninety percent dead across four years, and invites anyone unwilling to accept those odds to walk away. Most of the crowd does. Twenty-one remain, among them Mikasa, Armin, Jean, Connie, Sasha, Reiner, and the bulk of the class's top ten. Bertolt watches Annie depart for another branch.

One month on, the Survey Corps launches its 57th expedition from Karanes District, forced eastward because Trost's gate is permanently sealed. A Titan appears the moment the column exits, and while the support squad intercepts it, Erwin orders the formation onward toward Shiganshina.

The inspection of the trainees' vertical maneuvering equipment fails to identify who destroyed Sonny and Bean. Erwin publicly reveals both Eren's strategic value and the existence of the basement in Shiganshina, and his recruitment speech deliberately filters out everyone unwilling to die for the cause.

Twenty-one members of the 104th, including most of its highest-ranked graduates, formally join the Survey Corps, while Annie leaves for the Military Police Brigade. The chapter ends with the 57th expedition riding out of Karanes District toward Shiganshina, its first Titan contact handled by the support team.

This chapter includes a Currently Publicly Available Information page on Survey Corps horses, describing selectively bred mounts roughly 160 cm tall, capable of bursts near 80 kph, calm around Titans, and so costly that a single animal equals an average citizen's lifetime earnings. Jean's dawning horror at his own choice, along with Sasha's and Connie's shared reluctance, underscores how fear rather than idealism defines the class's enlistment.

The material adapts to the anime episode What Needs to be Done Now: Eve of the Counterattack, Part 3, and the chapter sits between Special Operations Squad and Long-Distance Enemy Scouting Formation within The Female Titan arc.