“What are they doing?” he whispered to Mikasa.
Take it. Use it. Don’t let it be for nothing. attack on titan soldier salute
The soldiers didn’t march in victory. They limped. Some wore blood-soaked bandages. One man’s left arm ended in a cauterized stump wrapped with dirty linen. But when Commander Shadis’s voice cracked across the square—"Present hearts!"—every single survivor raised a fist to their chest, then rotated it outward over their heart. “What are they doing
Eight hundred fists answered. Many of those fists would be cold by sunset. Don’t let it be for nothing
“It’s what he gave me,” Ilse said. Her voice didn’t shake. “His heart. He wanted us to carry it forward.”
Viktor nodded. He looked at the smoke rising from the funeral pyre. Then he faced the remaining soldiers—twenty-three hollow-eyed men and women—and raised his own fist. “Present hearts.”