Children (Chapter)

While Ymir's severed limbs finish steaming back into place, Eren stews over how little information his captors will surrender. Out of earshot, Bertolt questions relying on the woman whose Titan devoured Marcel, their childhood companion, but Reiner argues her devotion to Historia makes her useful: Annie's surveillance of the Wallists tied Historia to a noble family connected with their church, which could help the Warriors locate the Coordinate they were sent to retrieve. Bertolt dreams aloud of completing the mission, collecting Annie and Historia, and never setting foot on the island again, while Reiner needles him about finally confessing his feelings to Annie.

Ymir asks Bertolt whether he hates her and admits she recalls nothing of the roughly sixty years she spent roaming beyond the Walls in Titan form, a stretch she compares to a nightmare without end. Signal flares on the horizon cut the conversation short: the Survey Corps has somehow assembled its detection formation without moving horses over the Wall, and Reiner suspects Commander Erwin himself has come. The Warriors strap Eren and Ymir to their backs and take to the trees, but Ymir clamps a hand over Bertolt's eyes and threatens to make them fight to the death unless Historia comes too. Reiner gives in.

When the pursuing soldiers enter the forest, they find Ymir's Titan clinging silently to a trunk as Connie and Jean call out to her. She studies each face around her until she spots Historia, scoops the girl into her mouth, and bolts with startling agility. Ymir lands on the back of Reiner's freshly transformed Armored Titan beside Bertolt, and as the kidnappers gallop away, Hannes swears he will bring Eren home whatever it costs him.

Reiner and Bertolt weigh trusting Ymir despite her Titan having eaten Marcel years earlier.

The pair plan to exploit Historia's noble church connections to help locate the Coordinate.

Ymir reveals she spent roughly sixty years trapped in her Titan body with no memories of it.

Ymir blackmails the Warriors into taking Historia, abducting her by carrying her in her Titan's mouth.

The group escapes on the Armored Titan's back while Hannes vows to recover Eren at any cost.

Children opens volume 12 as the 47th chapter, released July 9, 2013 in Japan during the Clash of the Titans arc. Its story is split across two anime episodes, Opening and Children, and it sits between the chapters Opening and Someone.