Hizuru Engineers

The Hizuru Engineers, also referred to as the "Azumabito mechanics", are minor characters in the manga and anime, Attack on Titan. They are a group of intelligent technicians who work for Kiyomi Azumabito. They are responsible for the creation of world's first flying boat, and they helped the alliance between the Marleyans and the Eldian renegades by using their invention to stop the Rumbling.
==Appearances==
All the Engineers are middle aged men from oriental descent. They have short black hair except for the oldest member who has white hair in the manga. They seem to be of short statures while wearing sophisticated suits, with a few of them wearing circular glasses. 
==Personalities==
The Engineers are very knowledgeable and clever technologists, considering that they are regarded as Hizuru’s best engineers, and they were hired by Hizuru's government and the Azumabito family to develop the world's first flying boat, a multi-purpose airplane, for the nation. 
During the Rumbling the five men were noticeably frightened and miserable regarding the grim situation their homeland and families were put under, facing imminent destruction and massacre. But they would nonetheless put their fear and despair aside to assist the alliance in order to stop the Rumbling and hope to save whatever was going to be left of humanity. 
==Story==
===Background===
The Engineers were civilians of the nation Hizuru, and by the time of the main story were all technicians of high renown in Hizuru, presumably prestigious and highly paid.
===Marley arc===
By the year 852 or prior, during the Marley Mid-East War in the west, a member of the Marley Army, Zeke Yeager, secretely met with Kiyomi Azumabito, a high-ranking member of Hizuru's government who dealt in foreign affairs. The Azumabito family obtained from Zeke a sample of a special fuel called iceburst stone, which was found in the mines of Paradis Island. Zeke had previously obtained such sample from the seized 3DM equipment of an enemy soldier during Marley's Paradis Island Operation. He gave it to Kiyomi to tempt Hizuru with an alliance with Eldia. Zeke's plan worked, as Hizuru quickly fully realized the potential of the iceburst stone, which true technologial and financial value was not remotely understood by the Eldians of the Walls.
After a visit to Paradis, and political arrangements and deals made between Hizuru's embassy, Zeke and his followers, and the Eldian government of the Walls during 852 were being discussed, Hizuru's representatives working for Kiyomi Azumabito started to slowly develop a potential secret political alliance with Paradis. In Zeke's terms, plans that were said to require Hizuru's cooperation included the development of Paradis's military technology until the use of the Rumbling would no longer have been necessary for defense, but the details of such plans and how much support Hizuru would have given to Eldia remains unknown, although it would have likely been costly. These plans involving Hizuru's possible assitance for the Eldians and the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers were left on hold and remained only promises, as negotiations and discussions between the governments of Hizuru and Paradis were still ongoing. Zeke's plan was not yet accepted by the Eldian government, as they did not wish to intimidate and terrorize humanity with the Rumbling and gain a forced peace. Instead, Paradis favored trying peace negotiations with the rest of the world first, and against Hizuru's terms sought to offer trade of resources with other nations.
Hizuru hired the best engineers living in the country to work for the Azumabito and the state in aircraft development. Between 852 and 853, the Engineers would develop the world's first flying boat, a vehicle that works as both a plane and a ship. Hizuru integrated the sample of iceburst stone as the flying boat's primary fuel source. Meanwhile during 853, Hizuru's government turned down Eldia's request for help to trade and communicate with other nations, as they wished to monopolize Paradis Island's resources, leaving only the Azumabito offering help to act as the Eldians' intermediary to speak to a political faction in Marley named the Association to Protect the Subjects of Ymir. On the same year, after making arrangements with Zeke and the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers, the Azumabito brought Eldia representatives of the Survey Corps to Marley, in attempts to negotiate for peace and alliances with the world.
===War for Paradis arc===
During 854, a few days after the beginning of the war between the Global Alliance and Eldia, started with Willy Tybur's murder and the Raid on Liberio in Marley, the Engineers are part of Kiyomi Azumabito's entourage on the journey to Paradis Island, being brought along in order to help with the training and preparation of the flying boat. Upon reaching the island's sole naval port in the southern docks, the crew is met by government officials of Paradis and a group of men wearing Marleyan military uniforms (presumably Volunteers or captives), directly led by the nation's leader and military Premier Dhalis Zachary. The Azumabito intended to use the flying boat to test the Founding Titan's powers and observe Zeke's small-scale Rumbling - originally meant to assault Marley's naval forces - from an aerial perspective. With the war against multiple nations led by Marley having started at that point, Zeke revealed his plan to use the Rumbling to destroy the Global Alliance's naval forces. The flying boat is kept anchored to the boat used by Kiyomi's entourage to return to the island, with the Engineers taking residence at the port.
However, a month since the raid on Liberio, Hizuru's plans for their test is overturned by the sudden murder of Premier Zachary and the Yeagerist uprising. With the sudden disorders within the Walls, Hizuru's delegation is deemed no longer safe there, and Commander Dot Pixis hastily assumes control of the government and military. He urges Lady Kiyomi and her escorts to leave the Walls and stay within the buildings of the island's harbor until the crisis is solved. The Engineers would later be rejoined by Kiyomi, the unnamed ambassador with her, and their bodyguards, and they would all remained stationed at the harbor. However, the chaos is aggravated by the unexpected and premature invasion of Paradis Island by the Marleyan military for a surprise counterattack in Shiganshina District, known as the Revenge for Liberio. As Marley arrived from the south, it is possible that the seven invading airships might have previously been sighted from the harbor by the Engineers, presumably while Kiyomi was still at the Walls, as the Marleyans already came to the island in advance sometime before the battle, and were gathering intel through scouting ahead before revealing themselves at Shiganshina. If they spotted the Marleyan airships, Hizuru's crew at the harbor were likely unsure about what to do and about who was going to be the winner of the war at that point. They presumably chose to do nothing and wait to see whether Marley was going to manage to reclaim the Founder or not.
Everything changed when Eren Yeager gained full control of the Founding Titan’s power. He unleashed all the "tens of millions" of Colossal Titans within the Walls and ordered them to begin marching towards the outside world, in order to have them trample and destroy all surface-dwelling life outside Paradis Island, including the Engineers' homeland Hizuru, with a full-scale Rumbling. The Engineers would presumably have seen hordes of Wall Titans leaving the island by passing near the harbor's docks and start swimming towards the Marleyan continent, with the Engineers being completely helpless to stop it. 
After at least two days went by, the Wall Titans reached the mainland and are assumed to have already destroyed the north-eastern part of Marley. The Engineers, Kiyomi and her bodyguards still reside in the headquarters of the harbor. Their situation is worsened when the Yeagerists leader, Floch Forster and numerous of his troops occupy the whole harbor after reaching it via locomotive through the railroad, caused by a certain suspicion that Eldian members of the Survey Corps and Marleyan stragglers from the previous battle have formed an alliance and might plan to use the Engineers’ flying boat to stop the Rumbling. The details of the Yeagerists occupation are unseen, but all of Kiyomi's security guards are killed and the woman that accompanied Kiyomi is no longer seen, impliying that she has been killed as well. Floch tries to force Kiyomi and her five mechanics to work for Eldia to develop the island's technology, such as aircraft and seafaring. Using scare tactics, Floch shows what will happen to the crew if they don't comply by killing three Azumabito bodyguards, but the remaining five Engineers and Kiyomi still refuse to join Eldia. 
Floch is seen standing in the room where the Engineers and Kiyomi are in. He looks at the massive steam cloud generated from the Wall Titans despite being on a different landmass. Floch rejoices by what he’s seeing, claiming it to be permanent change in history, while cruelly reinstating that their homeland and culture will all disappear as well. The Engineers are seen sitting at a table being noticeably horrified and saddened regarding the situation. He claims that while he himself feels that the technology the Engineers are capable of isn’t Eldia’s main priority at the moment, but that it’s important for the recently created government to put down any form of resistance, and for the Engineers and Kiyomi to “know their place”, while saying this, some of the Yeagerists drag the corpses of Kiyomi’s bodyguards out of the room, insisting that a conflict took place. 
Floch’s dialogue is stopped by Armin Arlert and Connie Springer who pretend as though they are chasing the Cart Titan, and that they need the Engineers to start up the flying boat immediately so that they can track them down. 
Floch thinks about it while Armin and Connie go to the flying boat. He claims that it doesn’t add up, as they could have used the locomotive so they could get to the docks faster and that they strangely disappeared after the Rumbling was activated, knowing that traitors needing the Engineers could mean a possible alliance with them, Floch decides to kill at least one Engineer so he can, “nip any concerns in the bud”. Floch is stopped however by Kiyomi who tackles Floch to the ground, before she can be killed by a few of Floch’s henchmen, Mikasa Ackerman storms in the room through a window and defeats the two Yeagerists. Floch escapes by using his ODM Gear and reports to his troops that Mikasa, Armin and Connie have betrayed Eldia and must be killed. Mikasa yells to the Engineers and Kiyomi that they quickly must go to the basement as the Yeagerists are going to blow up the room by using Thunder Spears. As the Engineers reach the hallway they are stopped by a group of Yeagerists, but they are killed by Commander Hange Zoë, General Theo Magath, and Jean Kirschtein. The trio would lead the Engineers to the basement and defend them from any enemies.
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