The Attack Titan

With the Marleyan soldiers' ammunition spent, the Owl's Titan wrecks their ship, kills every man aboard, and scatters the remains across an ocean Grisha's journal describes as covering seventy percent of the world. Evidence erased, the Owl climbs back to Grisha, frees him, and finally gives his name: Eren Kruger, a Subject of Ymir hiding behind forged blood tests, and the holder of one of the Nine Titans. Kruger credits Grisha's leadership of the Restorationists and his foresight in placing Zeke among the Warriors, though he concedes that Grice's condemnation of Grisha was fair. Grisha lashes back, demanding to know why Kruger spared him rather than Dina and her royal blood, and why the man never simply intervened. Weakening visibly, Kruger admits he tortured and condemned countless fellow Eldians to preserve his cover, all in service of Eldia, and announces that the remainder of his mission now belongs to Grisha: infiltrate the Walls and seize the Founding Titan. He cannot do it himself because every inheritor of a Titan dies thirteen years after receiving it, a limit set by the lifespan of Ymir Fritz herself, and his own time is finished.

Framing the flashback, Eren narrates these events to Armin from a jail cell while Armin records them. The curse's arithmetic lands hard: Armin has thirteen years left, Eren only eight. Eren explains what happens when a holder dies without a successor, the power leaping to a random Eldian newborn, and describes the invisible network one inheritor called paths, channels that carry memories, Titan flesh, and the power itself, all converging on a single coordinate: the Founding Titan.

Kruger's conversation with Grisha continues through the same ideas. Asked which nation's history is true, Kruger dismisses the question, doubting any version deserves the word truth, though he confirms Dina's royal lineage is genuine. He allowed her Titanization, he explains, because the alternative was Marley breeding her line for royal blood; unable to save everyone, he chose one person. When Grisha confesses his hatred has burned out, leaving only sins, Kruger reveals why he was chosen anyway: not for hate, but because Grisha was the boy who walked out of the internment zone. That single act of defiance set every consequence in motion, Faye's death included, and those debts will pursue them beyond the grave. Handing over the family photograph he rescued from Grisha's home, Kruger extracts a promise to restore Eldia's dignity. His final gift is a name. The Titan Grisha will inherit has always pressed onward through every era, chasing freedom: the Attack Titan.

The Owl annihilates the Marleyan soldiers and reveals himself to Grisha as Eren Kruger, an Eldian infiltrator holding one of the Nine Titans.

Kruger discloses the Curse of Ymir: no inheritor survives past thirteen years with the power, mirroring Ymir Fritz's own span.

In the present, Eren relays the story to Armin in prison, and both confront their own shortened lifespans.

The concept of paths is introduced, invisible connections among all Subjects of Ymir that converge on the Founding Titan.

Kruger passes his mission and his power to Grisha, naming it the Attack Titan.

The Attack Titan is the second chapter of volume 22 and the 88th overall, released December 8, 2016 in Japan and a day earlier in English. It belongs to the Return to Shiganshina arc and was adapted as the anime episode Attack Titan. Its Japanese title, Shingeki no Kyojin, is identical to the title of the series itself, and the chapter ran under the provisional English title The Attack Continues before the volume release.

Series editor Kawakubo Shintaro has named this chapter his favorite of the entire manga. It follows Borderline and precedes Meeting.