Perfect Game

Inside Shiganshina, Bertolt's freshly transformed Colossus Titan hurls burning wreckage across the district. Connie breaks into hysterical laughter until Sasha and Jean quiet him, while Eren seethes at the destruction of his hometown. With Hange missing, the survivors look to Armin for direction. His first instinct, retreating beyond Wall Maria to wait out Bertolt's stamina, collapses under Jean's objections: debris can be thrown over the Wall, and the Corps lacks the supplies for a waiting game. Accepting that combat cannot be avoided, a rattled Armin asks Jean to take command, and Jean agrees on one condition, that Armin keep working on the decisive solution only he can find.

Beyond the Wall, Erwin watches Bertolt advance and wonders whether events are unfolding exactly as Zeke intends. A squad leader reports the mindless Titans nearly cleared and offers to mop up the stragglers so Levi can rest. Moments later crushed stone rains across the field: Zeke, supplied by the quadrupedal Titan, has begun pitching shattered boulders at the Corps. Squads Dirk, Marlene, and Klaus are torn apart in the bombardment. Levi survives and falls back to the recruits guarding the horses at the base of Wall Maria, where Erwin arrives to tally the catastrophic losses and the recruits panic at being the last soldiers standing. Levi asks his commander whether any plan remains.

Back inside the district, Jean has Eren shout to bait Bertolt away from the Wall, but the Colossus Titan pointedly ignores him. Committing to a direct assault, Jean assigns Armin to observe from a distance and gives Connie's Thunder Spears to Mikasa. As the others fan out, Eren's Titan seizes one of Bertolt's legs, and for a heartbeat the squad believes the advance is stopped. Bertolt simply kicks free, launching Eren across the district and into Wall Maria, where he slumps, unmoving.

Armin, shaken by his encounter with Bertolt, cedes battlefield command to Jean, who accepts while insisting Armin remain the group's strategist. Zeke's throwing attack, delivered with pinpoint accuracy from beyond blade range, wipes out Squads Dirk, Marlene, and Klaus and reduces the Survey Corps outside the Wall to Erwin, Levi, and the recruits at the horses.

The chapter's title comes from Zeke's baseball framing of the slaughter, his opening throw described as a warmup before a perfect game. Eren's attempt to anchor Bertolt by the leg fails completely, ending with him embedded in Wall Maria and incapacitated as his friends watch.

This chapter demonstrates the Beast Titan's effective artillery role for the first time at full scale, with the Cart Titan acting as its ammunition carrier. Bertolt's decision to ignore Eren's challenge shows the Warriors' discipline: he stays on mission rather than taking the bait.

The material spans the anime episodes Descent and Perfect Game. It opens volume 20 of the Return to Shiganshina arc, between the chapters Descent and The Nameless Soldiers.