Prologue
I click 'off' on my remote and the TV shuts off the credits of "Conqueror of Shambala". I sigh. I wish my sister wasn't borrowing the Anime, because I really want to enjoy more Fullmetal Alchemist… I'm in a Fullmetal Mood… I think to myself. Then it clicks in. Hey, where's the manga? I can enjoy that!
I go over to my bookshelf, in my hallway of my tiny one-bedroom suite in my parent's basement and pick up Fullmetal Alchemist, the manga, Volume 1.
Only… it looks different…
"That's not Al…" I murmur to myself, looking closer at the art… "The girl looks familiar, though…" Winry, maybe? Rose?
Then I realize who it looks like.
"HOLY SHIT!" I scream, dropping the book and bringing my hands to my mouth in surprise.
The girl in the book wasn't Winry. Nor was it Rose. It was me at seventeen!
That can't be right… I think to myself. I mean, I'm already 21! And I've never done any of this stuff that's in the book… That can't be me…
Sure enough, I look again at the cover and an anime version of me with my shoulder-length, curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes is popping out of Al's armor with a mischievous grin on her face.
I pull a strand of my hair over my shoulder. Waist length, straightened and black. I dyed it shortly before my eighteenth birthday, and I kept it black ever since.
I open the book to see if I'm there, too, and I'm greeted by a bright light and unconsciousness.