Meeting The Ancestors

"Heishi, wake up son." A kind masculine voice was heard as Heishi regained consciousness. He slowly opened his eyes and found a magnificent scene in the sky. The sky was lit by countless twinkling stars and something akin to aurora borealis was present but instead of the usual aurora borealis that was in a straight line, it was swirling around like a whirlpool at his location. The eye of this whirlpool was near him and in this eye, a pillar of light was shining down on the ground towards what seemed to be a tree of normal height made of light.

"Are you alright little one?" This time, Heishi sat up and took a look at the ground and what was in it. He woke up in a desert, beside him was a statue of Tamajin's titan made of sand and in front of him was a middle-aged couple. The man had short black hair while the woman had long curly blonde hair. The most unique trait about them was their eyes. The man had azure blue left iris and a purple right iris while the woman had a purple left iris and a scarlet right iris.

Looking at them more carefully, they looked like the statues of his family's founding ancestors in the center of Dedication city. "Ancestor Heiwa? Ancestor Hakai?" Heishi carefully ascertained their identities.

"Hmm Indeed, child, it is us and you must be Heishi, I presume? It's good that you're alive." Ancestor Hakai said.

"Yes, Ancestor..wait, what do you mean by that?" Heishi replied.

"Alright, let's begin. We have more time to catch up later. After all, you'll be here for a long while," said Hakai.

...

The ancestors led him a distance away from Jin's titan's sand statue where they had more space to work. They handed him a pail and instructed him on what to do. The height of the titan/s a person can possess is limited by their potential and blood. Those who do not possess chosen blood could only reach up to 15-meters at best and the only exceptions are those titan powers that are special cases such as the Colossus. Those who possess their special blood are the ones who can surpass the limit for normal cases and those with high potential could become even taller. Of course, there was one more special exception. Should one of the original trio wills it and choose to use the Limitbreak method, they could exhaust a high amount of energy from their own to create a titan form that surpasses the normal for a person by transferring their own potential to the other.

They gave him two choices on how to go about it. He could shape and form his titans and they would help him in doing so or let it be and the True Origin would manipulate the otherworldly sand to create his titan forms for him. They recommended he create his own although it would take time for the True Origin had quite the heavy taste. The ancestors had a strong connection with the True Origin which helped them see through time which they could use to share things with their inheritors.

Time flowed like water in the ocean to land and back to the ocean. The first ocean was the present and time flows as the water does, it was like a river that would diverge and converge, some would end at a particular spot while some would continue to flow till it reaches the ocean once more. What they could do was use their energy to peer through the time by looking and following a certain flow. Decisions would cause the flow to diverge and they could only follow one flow.

Throughout their peering, they found only 3 chances wherein the True Origin was the one that created the titan form, their friend Ymir's origin titan, the jaw titan form of a boy named Falco, and the founding titan form of a boy called Eren Yeager. The appearance of the three was...strange to say the least.

They had only seen one flow, for they combined their energy to peer further than one could alone. This was when they explained to him what they saw. In that timeline, Guri was not present and Heishi who obediently listened to Nasuko was killed after the tunnel collapsed and he was buried underneath for the few enemy soldiers in hiding secretly planted explosives inside the tunnel. The morale of everyone in his family drastically dropped and they lost the war. The Mid-East branch would then begin making preparations to acquire the rest of the titans from the other branches and would fight for a long time. In the end, they would succeed but just as they were about to begin conquering the continent, they would find that it was already destroyed. It was only until that part that they foresaw. They saw that they could do nothing to stop or intervene having no power to do so.

Now that Heishi survived, that timeline could no longer come true but they were glad it was so. After understanding everything, Heishi was glad he found Guri within the trial grounds and they did not listen to his grandfather to stay put. The collapse of the tunnel still occurred in this timeline but he was not buried. Heishi wondered why he did not bring back Guri in that timeline and was the lack of his partner's presence the reason he obediently listens to Nasuko and died?

He naturally understood what they were trying to imply therefore he followed their suggestion and the three of them began working. Heishi found it quite enjoyable for the process was like building a life-sized sand castle but was a statue instead of a structure. He found it interesting that the sand did not need water to stay in place. It was clearly sand but the way they used it was like it was modeling clay.

They worked and worked on the two forms. Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours, hours turned to days, days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years. Building the titan forms by himself would have taken lots of years but because there were three of them working together, they finished the two forms three times faster.

He looked at the two statues they have finished with satisfaction. He learned two interesting facts about his titans that he took into consideration before finishing their forms, the Combustion's in particular.

The Combustion's vents could only be located in the torso and head for the fire produced by the organ travels through tunnels within the body and towards another special kind of organ that would release it outwards in 3 different forms depending on the users choice; smoke, normal fire, and concentrated fire. These organs were too big to be placed within the limbs and could be squashed by the contracting muscles.

Though he made the limbs thicker, he had no intention of placing the organs in them for he had already made his own plans on what to do.

He of course also learned something about the Life titan but it had nothing to do with the titan form. The Life Titan's true potential, as Hakai said, was its energy. This titan can transform a special kind of energy into its own and use it the way it wants to. Non-Ryoshis could only use this energy to interact with the otherworldly sand to mend bodies but its true potential was much more than just this. In the hands of one of their own, they could truly transform this energy into something else. Combined with another titan power, the user could transform this energy into a near-infinite power supply for that other titan power. By itself, the user could transform it into something he/she produces in his/her body such as sweat, blood, white cells, and everything else. (I'll let you guys think about the rest.)

"Alright little one, It's time for you to go. Don't forget, you're the one destined to finish this. Fulfill our wish and don't forget to give her our regards." Heiwa gently said to Heishi while Hakai patted his head and told him, "Remember to tell her we're sorry."

"I will. Farewell ancestors."

The last thing Heishi saw was the two of them waving at him before some kind of suction force pulled him up and he lost consciousness.

...

Back in the Ceremony Grounds in Ryoshi Island. Heishi's eyes had just dimmed when electricity crackled around his body. Miyuki and Colline hurriedly moved away upon seeing it as lightning quickly converged in the night sky and struck down in the form of a thick pillar of yellow lightning. The lightning struck Heishi and enveloped him in a bright sphere of electricity that enlarged to cover a wide area. Inside the sphere, huge bones began appearing and formed a skeleton. Muscles wrapped and covered the skeleton before skin finally began covering the entire thing. The process has yet to end as short black hair grew on his head and some parts of his shoulders and upper back sunk in, in a circular shape.

The bottom of these holes separated in the middle before opening up like a hatch. Smoke came out of these holes and the bright electrical sphere enshrouding the titan disappeared. With the electric sphere gone, the people finally saw what was inside.

Standing straight was a humongous titan that easily reached 18 meters. The titan had a gigantic body with large thick limbs but a small head. The head was actually really big but its size compared to the rest of the body made it look small. The eyes opened up and the body immediately moved. It pulled back its arms and roared at the sky. Along with the deafening roar was a fountain of fire like a volcanic eruption. It was not just the mouth that released these flames but the vents releasing black smoke also released it. The flames enshrouded its head making it look like its upper torso just blew up.

"Time to get ready," Clara said as she stood up and got ready to use her powers. In a titan shifter's first transformation, they would always go wild and it would take some time before they gain control of their titan. Most of the time, it would even be some time after their second transformation that they would actually gain control. She knew this and her power was quite handy in this situation. The Cleansing titan had the power to cleanse the mind, allowing people to regain focus. It was not only limited to human and titan shifters but it was also effective on pure and abnormal titans. Just as she was waiting for the titan to show signs of aggression so that she could activate her power, something happened which made her look at it with surprise.

The fire receded and as it looked down on them, its originally dim red eyes like cooling lava lit up with a red, orange, and yellow light like burning hot magma that just erupted out of a volcano. Clarity returned into Heishi's eyes as his consciousness returned even without Clara doing anything.

It blinked in surprise at what it saw before raising its left hand and began opening and closing them up. 'Am I...Inside my titan?'

"Heishi! Cut off your connection with the body! Get out of there already!" Clara yelled at him.

He turned towards her and thought of how to leave the titan when his vision blacked out. He regained his vision and found himself back inside his own body but it was attached to muscles and everything around him was the same. "Is this my titan's nape?" He pulled hard until he was able to detach himself from muscles. As soon as the last strand attached to him snapped, the titan fell down headfirst and began quickly decomposing. The muscles behind, or in this case, above him weakened and Heishi finally ripped open a hole in it and got out.

After leaving through the hole and standing up, he found himself on the back of his titan. Steam was everywhere, limiting his vision so he carefully walked in the direction of the figure he could make out of from the steam. His extended foot did not find solid ground and Heishi fell down the titan's body. Fortunately, he was able to land on his feet and did not disgrace himself in front of so many people.

Clara and Nasuko approached him to check his conditions. "Heishi, try to remember the feeling of using the flames from a while ago," Nasuko said. He did as he was told and tried hard to feel that feeling once more. Clara and Nasuko noticed that the irises in Heishi's eyes were flickering between a deep violet and something akin to hot flowing lava. He tried his best and his fair peach skin began turning red and steam began emerging from his body. Spark began appearing all throughout his body, they connected and became strands of electricity that circulated around him. With a loud *fwrushh* sound, flames ignited in his palms and covered both his hands shortly before all the changes reverted back to normal as if nothing happened.

"Good that's enough, any more and you might accidentally turn into your titan form again. For you to be able to do this much on your first try is truly impressive. As far as I know, you might even have an even higher potential than any other Devil's Chosen." Clara complimented as she held out her hands and touched his head. "Get ready, it's time for you to get cleansed."

A strange golden mist gushed out of her hands and into his head. As the mist was absorbed by his mind, Heishi felt very comfortable. He did not even notice it until the mist hand stopped coming out of her hands.

"There now you can view the previous users' memories without worrying that they might affect your personality," Clara said while retracting her hands.

"Alright, now it's time for the...ape, to undergo his inheritance," Nasuko said as he gestured for Colline who took the squirming little spine creature from Akami to bring it over.

....

After Guri finished receiving his inheritance, the ceremony finally concluded and it was time for the celebratory party to begin.

Everyone enjoyed the party to their heart's content. The long banquet table, filled with various delicious dishes had an orderly group of people lining up in two lines while holding their plates and utensils. Those who would wait for the line to decrease or had finished eating began heading to the open area in the center and danced with others.

"May I have this dance?" the surprised Andrea turn towards the owner of the hand extending to her. Heishi noticed that she was just quietly sitting on her chair while looking at the people slow dancing therefore he went ahead and asked her to experience it herself with him.

Andrea's cheeks blushed red as she shyly placed her hand on his. He held onto her hand as he gently pulled her up from her seat and led her towards the area where people were slow dancing. Their actions were once again not left unnoticed by their grandparents who had been keeping an eye on the two.

Heishi and Andrea began slow dancing as well in the center and the rest of the night was spent peacefully. Soon, the party ended and everyone returned home.