That Day (Chapter 2)

The chapter opens five years ahead of the disaster, with a training instructor reciting the accepted history: 107 years ago, Titans devoured all of humanity save the population behind the Walls. The story then returns to Shiganshina as the Colossus Titan finishes demolishing the outer gate. Debris rains across the residential district, and while Armin freezes in panic, Eren races home with Mikasa at his heels, dreading what he will find. Their house has been crushed by a hurled boulder, and Carla lies pinned beneath the wreckage. The children strain against the debris while a Titan closes in. Carla, her legs crushed, orders them to leave her and run, screaming for them to honor her final wish.

Hannes arrives intending to slay the approaching Titan and repay his debt to the man who once saved his family, but one look at the creature drains his courage. He sheathes his blades, seizes both children, and flees. Over his shoulder, Eren and Mikasa witness the Titan pluck Carla from the rubble and eat her. Ashore among the refugees, Eren attacks Hannes, insisting his mother could have been rescued with more time. Hannes forces the harder truth on him: Eren lacked the strength to save her, and Hannes himself lacked the courage to fight. Mikasa gazes back at the site of the death and murmurs a strange, detached observation that this has happened again.

At the evacuation, military officers debate sealing the inner gate when the choice is made for them: the Armored Titan bursts through Wall Maria, shrugging off cannon fire. Realizing his home is gone forever, Eren swears to destroy every Titan on earth. The narrative then jumps to the year 850, where humanity has ceded Wall Maria entirely and retreated behind Wall Rose. At the 104th Training Corps graduation, the top ten trainees are named, among them Mikasa, Reiner, Bertolt, Annie, Eren, Jean, Marco, Connie, Sasha, and Krista Lenz, the only graduates eligible for the Military Police. Eren renews his oath, promising that humanity's turn to devour the Titans has come.

Carla Yeager, trapped beneath the ruins of her home, is eaten by a Titan in front of Eren and Mikasa.

Hannes abandons his attempt to fight, saving the children instead, and later admits his cowardice to a grieving Eren.

The Armored Titan destroys the main gate of Wall Maria, forcing humanity's full retreat to Wall Rose.

Eren vows to wipe out every last Titan.

Five years later, the 104th Training Corps graduates, and the class's top ten are announced.

That Day is the second chapter of volume 1, published in Japan on October 9, 2009 and in English on June 19, 2012 as part of the Prologue arc. Its events span the anime episodes That Day: The Fall of Shiganshina, Part 2 and The Night of the Closing Ceremony: Humanity's Comeback, Part 2.

The volume's supplementary Current Publicly Available Information page explains why districts jut outward from the Walls: concentrating Titan attacks on a single predictable point keeps defense costs manageable, with residents of these bait towns publicly honored as the bravest of warriors to encourage settlement. The chapter shares its English title with chapter 86, which explores a different meaning of the phrase. It sits between To You, 2,000 Years From Now and Night of the Disbanding Ceremony.