Ed sighed and pulled his coat up around his neck as he hurried down the street. Spotting the coffee shop where he was supposed to meet Winry, he crossed the street and reached the door of the small shop. Just as he reached for the handle, the door was opened in his face.
"Woah- Watch it!"
He picked himself up, ignoring the girl's offer of help, and dusted himself off.
"Watch where you're going," he snarled. The expression on the girl's face turned from worry and embarrassment to indignation and anger.
"Why don't YOU watch where YOU'RE going, shorty?"
Ed's eyebrow twitched.
"Sh- shorty?"
He grabbed the collar of the girl's shirt.
"Just who are you calling a tiny speck?"
She wrenched herself from his grip.
"I never said that. Jeez, you're worse than Mason."
She glanced down at his raised fists. Then her expression turned to curiosity.
"Woah, your arm- is it-"
She grabbed Ed's arm and yanked up the sleeve. He jerked it away angrily. She stared at him in stunned disbelief.
"Holy shit. Your arm is metal!"
"Yeah, I think I already knew that."
Just then the door opened behind the girl and an older man came out. He put his hand on the girl's shoulder and bent down to speak into her ear.
"Better get a move on."
The girl pulled a yellow slip of paper from her pocket and looked at it, then checked her watch. Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly. Then she fixed a smile back on her face.
"Anyway, I'm George."
"Ed. Edward Elric."
George extended her hand and Ed shook it. As he did so he felt something strange, almost as if some sort of energy had left his body. He stepped past George and entered the coffee shop, noting as he did so the people in the stall next to Winry's. Two women and a man were sitting there, and their conversation seemed to be comprised of three phrases only:
"Please, Daisy?"
"No, Mason."
"If you don't shut the fuck up, I will shoot you, Mason."
The last was from the black police woman. Ed sighed and sat down opposite Winry. He noticed that George had just sat down beside the man he assumed was Mason. But hang on; hadn't she just left the coffee shop? She whispered something in Mason's ear, and he glanced over his shoulder at Ed.
"What, that bloke there?"
"Shhh!"
Ed sighed and smiled at Winry.
"Hey."
She smiled back. It was then that Ed saw a flicker of movement out the corner of his vision. He turned his head sharply, but the thing was gone before he could focus on it. It was a little gremlin-like creature. As he looked back at Winry, he could see the astonished and slightly worried expression on George's face. Suddenly he had a sudden flash of understanding: that creature meant death. He stood up.
"Come on, Winry, we have to go."
"What, but-"
He grabbed her hand and dragged her to the door. As they reached the door, Ed stepped aside for the man coming through. What he didn't realise was that he had just stepped into a puddle of sauce spilled by the child sitting in the booth next to them. He slipped, and landed flat on his back. As he groaned and rubbed his head, the tremors from his landing were still vibrating through the wall next to him. The ornamental swords above him trembled and slipped off their fastenings.
George sighed as she heard the sickening thik. Mason peered over the top of the booth.
"Ooh, nasty. Right between the eyes."
George pulled him down.
"Don't stare, Mason."
The girl's cries sent shivers down George's spine.
"Ed! Ed! No!"
Roxy sighed and shook her head.
"Mason, have some compassion. The poor boy looked about ten, that's no way for a kid to die."
"Actually, he was fifteen."
George and Mason stared at Daisy.
"You knew this kid?"
Daisy nodded.
"Oh yeah. That's Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist. He's some sort of scientist, a child prodigy of sorts."
"A scientist?"
"Yes, a scientist, Mason. He's quite a charmer, too."
George rolled her eyes.
"Right. And why should I care who he was and what he did?"
Daisy smiled and tilted her head slightly.
"Because you reaped him, Georgia. You need to understand the people you're helping to the next life."