The Town Where Everything Began (Chapter)

A narration weighs what Wall Maria means to the people inside the Walls: losing a third of their territory to the Titans left scars that never healed, and humanity's survival still rests on creatures it cannot defeat. Yet a single boy once brought a Titan down, and the question lingers of what reclaiming the lost Wall would do for humanity's belief that it deserves to live and steer its own fate.

Beyond Wall Rose, the Survey Corps travels on foot through a forest at night, guiding their horses by the glow of crystal shards taken from the caverns beneath the Reiss chapel. Shiganshina lies just over the mountain. Eren apologizes to Mikasa for making her lead his horse, but Squad Levi insists he conserve himself for the mission. When Jean spots a Titan slumped nearby, Hange waves the column past it; starved of sunlight, the creature is dormant, which is exactly why the operation was scheduled for a new moon, guarding against any Titans that might draw energy from moonlight. Hange grins about wanting to capture one eventually.

Eren notices his own hands trembling and starts doubting himself, until Armin takes his wrist and admits he has been shaking too. The pair recall the day a Titan nearly devoured Armin and Eren traded places to save him, a choice Eren traces back to the volume Armin once showed him describing the world outside, which reshaped how he saw life inside the Walls. Steadier now, Eren thanks him. Mikasa recognizes the terrain from her firewood-gathering days as the group reaches the mountain's base, and the three brighten at nearing home again after five years away.

At Erwin's command the soldiers switch to vertical maneuvering equipment and soar over the breach the Armored Titan left in Wall Maria, looking down on a ruined Shiganshina. Erwin reasons that Reiner and Bertolt will anticipate both the sealing of the Wall and the search of Dr. Yeager's basement, so he has sent one hundred hooded soldiers rushing the gate at once to hide which of them is Eren. Armin spots the remains of a campfire knocked from the top of the Wall and alerts Erwin that the two enemies are close. Hange grows uneasy at how few Titans have appeared, and Levi concludes they are walking into the enemy's design, but the operation proceeds. Passing over the wreckage of his old home, Eren reflects that he and his friends can succeed because they have been free since the day they were born. He glides into position over the breach in the outer gate and readies his transformation while Reiner and Bertolt, fully equipped, watch from concealment.

The Survey Corps marches to Shiganshina overnight, timed to a new moon so that dormant Titans pose no threat along the way.

Armin calms Eren's nerves by revisiting the memory of the book that first made them dream of the outside world.

Erwin masks Eren's identity by sending one hundred hooded soldiers over the Wall simultaneously.

Armin discovers evidence of a recent campfire on the Wall, confirming Reiner and Bertolt are nearby, and the strange scarcity of Titans convinces Levi the Corps is playing into enemy hands.

Eren moves into position above the breach in Wall Maria and prepares to transform as Reiner and Bertolt secretly observe.

The Town Where Everything Began is the third chapter of volume 18 and the 73rd of the series, created by Hajime Isayama as part of the Return to Shiganshina arc. Japanese publication came on September 9, 2015, one day after the September 8 English release. The chapter shares its title with the anime episode that adapts it.

It follows Night of the Battle to Retake the Wall and precedes Mission Objectives. The chapter's title quote comes from Eren's resolve as he prepares to seal Wall Maria, declaring that he and his friends have been free from birth.