I wasn’t sure how, but I had found myself in a darkly lit room. I wasn’t sure how I had gotten here but… I’m grateful. Even to an old man such as myself, you’d think I'd be more accepting of my own demise. It was when I had tried to get up, that my right abdomen felt sore. That's when I remembered about my wound. When I lifted up the blanket, I discovered that my wound had been wrapped in bandages. When I removed them, I was stunned to see that my wound was almost completely healed. The only reminder I had of it was a faint scar. I wasn’t sure what to think anymore, because this was either some sort of hallucination during my last moments of life or…. This was reality and somehow by some miracle, my wound was healed and somehow managed to survive.

Footsteps could be heard from outside the room, a young woman had entered the room. Judging by her clothing, she's from Reinhart village that sits close to the ice pit. So I guess that’s where I had ended up, but something didn’t sit right with me. When the woman saw that I was awake, she looked relieved. She put a tray of medicine on the table by the door and said

“It’s good to see that you’re awake. You’ve had my grandfather pretty worried ever since he found you wounded and half buried in the snow. Fortunately for you that he just so happened to have found you while out scavenging for herbs, or else you would’ve been, well…”

“Dead?” I replied

“Yeah, pretty much. But at least it looks like you’re doing better. My grandfather should be back later to see how well you’ve recovered.”

She stays silent for a minute. She takes a breath and manages to say “Tell me… are you a hunter? When grandfather brought you in, he was also carrying what he thought was your hunting gear.”

She pointed across the room where my coat and hunting gear was placed

“Yes, I'm a hunter. The injuries I had sustained were the result of my latest hunt… to be honest, I thought I was going to die… Fortunately, that wasn’t the case though”

Her eyes sparkled with curiosity as she asked “So what’s it like being a hunter, do you really get to travel to faraway places and hunt titans and monsters?”

I found her questions to be amusing, it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to talk like this.

“Well, for the most part, yes. Many in my profession tend to do some traveling as well as hunting monsters and titans. Most hunters like to stay near their homelands though.”

She looked very excited at my response, and as a result, She began to bombard me with numerous questions. I tried my best to answer as much as I could but there were too many questions to answer at once. But oddly enough, I liked this. I felt joy and peace as I talked to this young lady who was so curious about the world. Because of this, I couldn’t do or say anything to make her stop the bombardment of questions.

I don’t know how much time had passed but, it seemed to be well into the evening because the young woman had gotten up and said “Well, it’s getting pretty late, it’s about time that I get dinner started. You should stay here and get some rest Mr. hunter, you still need time to recover.

“That I will” I replied 

When she had gotten to the door, I realized that I never asked her for her name, so before the opportunity slipped by, I managed to say

“By the way, I forgot to ask for your name”

She stood near the doorway shocked, she had an apologetic expression on her face and said “ Sorry about that, I was too excited when I saw that you might be a hunter, and I, I…”

She didn’t know what else to say, so she quickly said “ My name is Chiyo, it’s nice to formally meet you”

I smiled and said, “ Well, my name is Kenzō, and it’s nice to formally meet you too”

For a second, I could’ve sworn that I had seen her blush as she exited the room. If she did, I have no clue as to why. Either I haven’t lost my touch after all these years, or she likes older men? I’m honestly not sure what to think. As I lay back down I noticed a mirror and a table near my bedside, and when I saw my reflection, I was shocked. I quickly grabbed the mirror and took another look at my reflection. It was unbelievable. I was young again.

After further examination of my body, I found that most of the scars that I had sustained throughout my time as a hunter have completely vanished. The shooting pain that I constantly had while moving was gone, no cramping of my muscles, nothing. I felt good. Really good in fact. Many weird and downright insane events have happened to me throughout my life, but this one takes it to a whole new level. Somehow I had regained my youth. That's when the realization hit me. My new/old look is what had caused Chiyo to blush. I felt somewhat defeated by that for some reason.

I shook my head and tried to get my thoughts back on topic. I kept trying to remember what had transpired after I had passed out in the snow. How did I heal from such an injury? It wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary that hunters could be healed after the consumption of a titan’s heart. But I don’t think their injuries were ever as bad as mine was, and that effect is usually stronger on younger people. Sure I was stronger than other men at my age, but I still should’ve died back then. So what was so different this time that I miraculously got healed and became young again?

Then it hit me. I didn’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner! It would explain pretty much everything, even though it seems pretty far-fetched, this was the only clue I had. The reason I survived and became young again was because… I had eaten my seventh Titan heart. No one in recorded history has eaten more than six titan hearts. The heart of a titan can give a hunter great power once it has been consumed, and once that power becomes one with the hunter, their body changes and adapts to that power so as to become a stronger vessel. As a hunter consumes more titan hearts, the more their body has to change to contain that power. So what would happen to a hunter who has great power, but also has a frail body? On average, most hunters retire around the age of seventy-five, that’s when a hunter’s physique starts to decline and our bodies become frailer. No hunter would be crazy enough to keep hunting after that point. Well… except for me, that is, I’m a ninety-year-old hunter that just so happens to have eaten his seventh titan heart.

Because of my frail body, the titan heart must have forced my body to change again. Including the energy and abilities I had previously accumulated thus far, my body had too much raw strength to handle. So when the change occurred, my body changed into a vessel that would not only handle this newfound power but one that could also use that power with greater ease.  That’s the theory anyway, I have no other information or clues as to how or why this happened. So for now I’ll just have to go along with it. But something else bothers me. I can’t explain it but… it feels like something else is there. As if there’s some sort of other change in my body… something that wasn’t there before. I’ll have to try looking into it later when my body fully recovers.

Looking at my reflection in the mirror again, it looks as though I might be in my early twenties, maybe even a little younger. I couldn’t think straight, I just lay there, so many unanswered questions floating around in my head. Right now, my future seems so... so uncertain. For now, all I can do right now is recover, even if most of my injuries have healed already, it could be troublesome if I ended up in a similar situation like the hunt with the frostborn. As of now, I don’t think I'm going to get any answers for how all of this has happened anytime soon. So for now, I think it would be best just to rest for a while and enjoy this while I can. As soon as I have recovered and gathered some supplies, the better chance I'll have of surviving once I leave the village.