This is my first Fullmetal Alchemist fanfiction, please correct me if I put anything wrong into it :)
Desclaimer: I DO NOT own Fullmetal Alchemist, or Hagane no Renkinjutsushi. I only own Esme and her inventions.
As a Shadow
chapter 1
It is a sunny day. After a "hard day's" work, Ed and Al lied down on the soft grassy field along a river. Ed relaxed with the breeze softly hitting his face, and Al playing with the little fish in the river. Then Ed decided to try something new, fishing.
"Al," Ed said grumpily, "stop playing with the fish, you're scaring them away."
"But brother..." Al replied innocently, "it's better than catching the fish with a hook, have you ever thought about how the fish's feeling when their mouth get caught with the hook."
"Well, as long as..." Ed was going to retort, but a rumble in the bush took their attention. "Who's there?" Ed called, standing in fighting position. After another series of rumble, a shadow of a person emerged from the bushes. It's a girl, about the same age with Ed, her short brown hair sticking in every direction with a few leaves stuck in them. She wore a white t-shirt and a pair of loose jeans, on her right hand she held a seemingly empty bag, and on her back she carried a big yellow flag with red letters that said "Handy Handy Tools".
"Oh! I think I'm lost!" the girl smiled at Ed and Al, she fix her hair and took off the leaves. Ed stared at the girl.
"Brother, you shouldn't stare at a girl like that."
"Good thing I met you guys, I thought I'll never find my way out." the girl kept smiling.
"Are you lost, miss?" Al asked kindly, "it's dangerous out here, you shouldn't be wandering alone."
"Yeah, I've been walking for three days and two nights, but I still don't know which way I should go!" the girl said as if she was very scared, but her face didn't show any trace of fear.
"Don't worry miss, we'll help you get to wherever you want to go!"
"Hey, who said we will help her? I don't remember agreeing to this. I don't care even if you starve to death." Ed said.
"Brother, we should help out people who are in need!"
Ed shrugged, "we can care less about strangers!" he put his hands on the back of his head.
The girl's eyes followed the movement of his arm and murmured, "automail? So you're really the Fullmetal Alchemist..."
"How does she know you have automail limbs?" Al had a big anime question mark on his head, "and she knows you're the Fullmetal Alchemist!"
"She might know some mehcanics, or maybe she's a mechanic herself. she could be some person working in the military... or she could be..." Ed stopped.
"A SPY-------!" Al gasped, and covered his mouth.
"Shhh... don't be so loud!"
"Is she with the homunculus?"
"Don't know," Ed said, "we should study her for a little while, and she looks like a pretty weak girl, we can catch her and ask her some questions..."
Al nodded.
"Or maybe she's actually pretty strong, but she's hiding it." Ed continued analizing.
"You guys don't have to worry I'm only a merchant!" the smiled.
"Merchant?" Ed and Al asked at the same time.
"Look at my flag, anyone can tell I'm a merchant"
"But, not an ordinary merchant, right?" Ed crossed his arms in front of his chest, studying the girl.
"Hm?" the girl smiled.
"Tell us what you're up to!" the girl rolled her eyes, "I'm not a spy or anything, I just like to sell things and talk business with famous people 'cause they have more money! I'm the famous inventer slash merchant, Esme."
"Inventer?"
"You see, I don't approve of alchemy. I think technology is more realistic, and more convenience for people. We don't need some stupid alchemy to make our lives better, besides," Esme smirked, "you make lots of money out of it. Although I do make some things that consists of alchemy, or else some people just won't by it. I hated alchemy, but without it I can't sell my stuff to famous alchmists, right? Like that Flame Alchmist... was it Roy Mustang? Yeah, I made those gloves for him."
Ed's jaws dropped open when he heard the name Roy Mustang.
"If a great alchemist like himself has to go around drawing circles while he fights, it's kind of pathetic isn't it? So I offered him my invention of the gloves, and he gladly used it. By the way, he paid with a good price." Esme smiled, "since we are so lucky to meet each other, I'll let you try some of my products for free" Esme opened the bag and pulled out a moon-shaped object about the size of a human's palm.
"What's..."
"Strengthmeter! It measures how strong an alchemist is, the higher the arrow goes the stronger the alchemist is."
Ed took the strengthmeter, and the arrow slowly moved up. "Feels like I'm the battery or something."
"That's correct!" Esme clapped happily, "the strengthmeter absorbs your energy so the arrow would move up!" Ed looked at it a little more, "okay" he threw it back to Esme. Esme frowned, "It's not done yet."
"Brother, I wanna see strong you are." Al sounded disappointed.
"Stuuuuupid! Who would show how strong they are to a stranger!"
"Oh yeah!" Al said, but Esme shook her head, "Mr. Elric, you're making sound very untrustworthy, I always keep secrets for my customers and guarantees my product. Plus, if I don't know how strong you are, I can't invent the best tool for you!"
"When did I say I was going to buy something from you?" Ed said, "besides, I can do alchemy without a circle." then Ed remembered something about the strengthmeter, "that strengthmeter printed some number, I think it was '2', was there a number 1 before this one?"
Surprised by Ed, Esme blinked, but then smiled, "yes, there was a number 1 before this one, but it exploded when this certain person tried it." Esme then put on a big smile, "well, if you're not interested in this one, then I guess you could try something else!" she put her hand in her bag, moveing it around to search for the one. The bag looked empty, like it didn't have anything in there.
"You invented this too?"
Esme said as she searched, "Digi-space Bag, I could put as much things as I want into this man-made digital world, and it's as light as an empty bag. How do you think I'll survive carrying this much stuff?" Esme's face brightened, "take a look at this, I put it together!" she took a strand of necklace-like thing.
"You're not telling me to wear this!" Ed said with disgust. He looked at it, it had four colors--- red, blue, green, white. All four colors looked bright and clear, it looked very cute, but from any direction, it still looked like an object of a girl's possesion.
"What's these words for?" Ed asked. Each colored stone had small words on them. Lead, Breathe, Transport, and Lock.
"Blue, breathe, you can live 15 minutes without breathing. Green, transport, you can move to any place in a second, but I couldn't make it let you choose the place you want. White, lock, you can lock away your opponent's power for a few minutes. Red, lead, you can lead other people's attack another direction so it won't hit your direction." Esme explained.
"How can it be so small if it has so many effects?" Ed asked suspiciously, "It must have some disadvantages, it can't be so perfect!" Esme rolled her eyes, "I've only heard of merchants who sompliment their product, never insult their product."
"Che! That's why I don't trust you people!"
"But they do have the effects of everything I said." Esme said.
"Fine, how do you use it?"
"Mr. Elric, you must know the common sense about paying first before you use it." Esme reminded. Ed shook his head, "I only know about protecting the rights of the customers and the customer's knowledge about the product. If you can't even demo for us, does that mean your product have some side effects?"
"...fine, I'll show you." Esme said and put the necklace on Ed.
"Hey! You're supposed to put it on yourself!"
"Hmph! If I used it myself, you'll say that I already used it! I'll use the blue one on you!"
Esme took Ed's normal hand and put it on the blue one, "give me your other hand!"
"Wait..." Ed felt that something is not right.
"Like this!" Esme pushed the other stones.
Ed wanted to grab Esme, but he missed. Esme already disappeared, and he couldn't feel his body.
After 15 minutes, "AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Brother, she took your automail arm!" Al gasped.
"I knew she was up to something!" Ed gritted his teeth.
"What about your arm?"
"... I think we'll meet her again, but Winry can take care of my arm."
"Brother, what kind of person is Esme? She makes me confused." Al asked. Ed looked at the necklace that was still around his neck, "I want to take this to Winry, maybe she'll find something out about it."
For a little while, no one spoke between Ed and Al.
"... I have a feeling," Ed looked up into the sky, "that there will be a storm coming..."
TBC
Please r&r :)
