Reborn as Eren Yeager: The Gacha System

Peace, it turned out, required more paperwork than any battle Eren had ever fought.

"Three parties," Armin said, spreading documents across the war tent’s table with the particular focus of a boy who’d finally found a problem shaped exactly like his strengths. "The walls’ provisional council, Marley’s reformist coalition — what’s left of it after Zeke’s defection gutted the old guard — and Historia’s Aeldrin delegation. All three signing a formal non-aggression treaty in eleven days, in neutral territory."

"Neutral being where, exactly?" Mikasa asked.

"An old trading post on the coast. Historia’s people helped choose it — accessible by sea and land, defensible, symbolic. First time in two thousand years all three groups will occupy the same room without swords already drawn." Armin’s excitement was visible despite the gravity of what he was describing. "This is bigger than anything we fought on the cliffs, Eren. If it holds, it actually ends the war. Not through victory. Through agreement."

[New mission detected: "The Signing" — Objective: Ensure treaty signing proceeds successfully. Tracking mode: Investigation. Combat stats suspended for this mission’s duration.]

Eren blinked at the notification, genuinely startled. "Combat stats suspended? What does that even mean?"

[This objective cannot be solved through strength. Reflexes, Titan physiology, and Coordinate access provide no direct advantage here. New tracked attributes: Evidence Gathered, Trust Established (per NPC), Timeline Integrity.]

"It’s telling you to sit this one out," Mikasa said, not without a trace of dark amusement. "Two years of fighting and it finally found something you can’t punch."

"That’s not entirely comforting."

The first sign of trouble arrived four days before the signing, delivered by a courier who’d nearly died reaching them — a diplomat from Marley’s reformist coalition found dead in his quarters, staged to look like a heart attack, except for one detail the coroner nearly missed.

"Titan-serum residue," Armin said, examining the report with grim focus. "In his bloodstream. Someone injected him with something derived from Titan physiology research — the kind of material only a handful of people should have access to."

[Sub-mission "First Victim" — Evidence Gathered: 1/5. Suspect pool: Anyone with access to restricted Titan serum research.]

"That’s Reiner, Annie, Zeke, myself, and whoever else Marley’s old research division hasn’t accounted for," Eren said slowly, the weight of the implication landing hard. "The system just made all of us suspects."

"Not just made us suspects," Mikasa said. "Made it official. Look."

[Trust Established — Reiner Braun: 78% (baseline, unchanged). Annie Leonhart: 74%. Zeke Yeager: 41%. Note: Trust levels reflect party’s subjective assessment, not proof of innocence or guilt.]

"Zeke’s the lowest," Armin noted quietly. "That’s not evidence. But it’s not nothing either."

They confronted Zeke that evening, careful, uncomfortable, the old wounds of the cliffside confrontation still close enough to the surface that nobody quite knew how to phrase the question without it sounding like accusation.

"You think I did this," Zeke said flatly, before anyone had actually said as much.

"We think someone with your knowledge could have," Eren said carefully. "That’s different from an accusation."

"Is it?" Zeke’s jaw tightened, old bitterness surfacing. "I gave up everything to stand with you. My old command, whatever standing I had left in Marley, any path back to the life I once had. And the first sign of trouble, I’m still the first name anyone’s mind goes to."

"That’s not fair to him," Ymir said quietly, having joined the conversation uninvited, her new, contained power settling steady and quiet beneath her calm exterior these days. "I know what it’s like, being defined by what you could theoretically do instead of what you’ve actually chosen. Nobody deserves that, however understandable the suspicion."

[Trust Established — Zeke Yeager: 45% (+4%, influenced by Ymir Fritz’s testimony)]

"The system’s tracking this in real time," Armin said, watching the number shift with fascination and unease both. "It’s not deciding guilt. It’s just... measuring how the conversation actually goes."

Zeke studied the notification Armin showed him, something complicated crossing his tired features. "A machine measuring whether people believe me. That’s almost worse than simply being accused outright."

"Or it’s a chance to actually prove it, instead of just being assumed guilty forever," Eren said. "Help us investigate properly. Whoever’s doing this wants the peace to collapse. If you’re actually committed to what you told me on those cliffs, this is where you prove it."

Zeke was quiet a long moment before finally nodding, something resolved settling into his exhausted expression. "Then let’s find whoever’s actually responsible. I’d rather clear my name through evidence than argument."

[Sub-mission "Investigate the Serum Source" — New ally: Zeke Yeager. Investigation efficiency +15%.]

The trail led, over the following two days, to something none of them expected — a name buried in old Marleyan supply requisitions, cross-referenced against restricted research access logs Zeke still, technically, had clearance to view.

"Colt Grice," Zeke said, staring at the name with dawning, horrified recognition. "A former subordinate. Young, talented, utterly devoted to the old regime’s ideology. I trained him myself, years ago, before I ever questioned any of what I was doing." His voice went tight. "He disappeared after my defection went public. Officially listed as deceased in the chaos. I never confirmed it myself."

[Suspect identified: Colt Grice. Motive: Loyalty to Marley’s deposed hardline faction. Believed deceased — status: unconfirmed.]

"If he’s alive," Armin said slowly, "and if he’s the one staging these deaths to look like the reformists and the walls are secretly preparing for war—"

"Then he’s trying to collapse the peace conference from the inside," Mikasa finished, dread settling cold in her voice. "Before it can even begin."

[Active Mission: "The Signing" — 7 days remaining. New objective: Locate and stop Colt Grice before treaty signing. Evidence Gathered: 3/5.]

Eren looked around the war tent at the strange, careful alliance they’d built — Zeke, once an enemy, now genuinely working to clear his name and save the peace he’d once nearly died trying to destroy — and felt something settle in his chest that no combat victory had ever quite managed to provide.

"Seven days," he said. "We find him before the signing, or the whole peace falls apart before it’s even signed."

Outside the tent, the coastal wind carried the first scent of the approaching diplomatic gathering — banners being raised, delegations preparing to travel, a fragile hope building toward a moment that someone, somewhere, was determined to shatter before it could ever properly begin.

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