Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Hidden Away
Chapter One:
Surprise after Surprise
Ed sighed and tossed the book aside, it must have been the hundredth book he'd looked at today and neither he nor Al was any closer to finding the Philosopher's Stone. His gloved hands rubbed at his tired golden eyes wondering how much longer it would be before they discovered a reliable clue. From behind him he could hear the soft clinking of Al's armor as he scanned the books looking for anything useful. Ed turned his eyes upon the pile of books on the table he had already gone through, and all of them contained nothing. He was frustrated but to tired to complain about it, instead he sighed again and said,
"Let's give it up for today Al." He could hear his brother turning around. There was silence for a moment then Al said,
"You didn't find anything, did you?"
Ed shook his head, "No and it wasn't for lack of trying either." Once again he turned his head to look at the piles of books. Al looked at them too.
"Well let's try another town, maybe we'll get more lucky." Al finally commented. Ed nodded his head in agreement and he stood up.
Ed collided with something hard and for a moment he thought it was Al.
"Al you great lummox would you watch – " Ed lifted his head and his eyes met with those of a young woman, he blushed. "Sorry, I thought you were my brother."
To his surprise the young woman didn't look angry or annoyed, she shook her head her bright, jade-green eyes looking him over for a moment. "It was my fault I wasn't watching where I was going at all."
XXX
Her voice was kind but it had a note in it that suggested that though she was young she had been through some hard times. It was Ed's turn to look over her for a moment. The thing he had noticed first was her eyes, they were a bright, jade-green, though he had seen green eyes before they were never as intense as hers. The young woman's black hair seemed to be tied up in a bun, and it was up with some impressive skill for not a single strand had escaped when they collided. The young woman was slender (and curvy), supporting his theory that she had been through some hard times.
Her clothing seemed simple, she wore a pair of loose dark brown pants, and she wore her black, knee-high boots over her pants in a military style though her pants weren't that baggy at the bottom only slightly. Her shirt was tight fitting, black, long sleeved, and (Ed couldn't help but notice) a little low cut. She had slender, long fingered hands but they were covered in black gloves and for a second Ed wondered why, it wasn't cold in here. It took him little more than a moment for Ed to gather this information and remember it, a skill he had developed quickly when he became a State Alchemist.
The young woman didn't scramble to pick up any dropped belongings; she just gently lifted a book from the ground and held it carefully in her right hand. Remembering his manners Ed helped the young woman up and in the process didn't notice that she had dropped the book in his coat pocket. The woman thanked him kindly and then without another word she disappeared around the corner of a bookshelf.
"Who was that Brother?" Al asked looking at where the woman had disappeared. Ed was wondering that too, he stuck his hands in his pockets thinking.
His left hand brushed against the book and for the first time he realized that something was in his pocket. Carefully he grabbed the corner of the book and pulled it out to examine it.
"She's swift, I hadn't even noticed that she dropped this in my pocket." Ed said taking a look at the front cover. The Journal was written on the cover, it was leather bound and it had the looked like a research journal. Ed turned the book over to look at the back of the book but there was nothing on the back. Finally his curiosity getting the better of him he opened the book and started to read the last few entries. The first two pages he read were interesting but they didn't say too much though it did mention a Philosopher's Stone.
December 15, 1907The process and the stuff needed to perform a human transmutation is proving more difficult than I thought. Winter is making it easier to conduct my research as I can stay inside for long periods of time without it looking suspicious. Hopefully I will make a breakthrough soon.
January 13, 1908
I'm making more progress than I thought, the winter has helped tremendously but once the snowmelts I will be forced to spend less time on my research. If I disappear for too long a time my absence will be noticed and the only time it's not counted upon is when it's winter for people just blame it on the cold. I MUST use this to my advantage while I have time. A Philosopher's Stone would speed up the process tremendously, but until one is found I have to take the slow road.
Ed flipped the page and he noticed that this entry was written a couple months after the other two, it was also covered in drops of blood. He was so busy examining the page that it took him a moment to notice that the entry had a single sentence on it written in what looked like a shaking hand. He bent closer to examine the tiny print.
April 20, 1908
I have succeeded.
Ed's eyes grew wide with shock; he read the short sentence several times before he fully absorbed it. Next to him Al finally got curious enough to ask,
"What is it Brother? Have you found a clue about the Stone?" Ed shook his head and he looked up at his brother his eyes still wide with shock.
"Read these." He said softly flipping back a page and gently handing the book to his brother to read.
Al took the book and Ed watched him as he read the two entries and then flipped the page. Al didn't spend time examining the page itself for a moment later Al gasped and said,
"This…this means…"
"That the young woman I just ran into, or whoever wrote this performed a human transmutation and succeeded." Ed finished taking the book back and closing it with a snap.
"And judging by the entries he or she performed it without a stone." Al added looking around for some sign of the young woman.
"Maybe that young woman is still in the library let's split up and search for her. We'll meet back here in ten minutes." Ed turned on his heel placing the book back in his pocket.
XXX
Ed sat in the chair that he had vacated fifteen minutes earlier and he was awaiting the return of his brother. He had no luck in finding where the young woman had gone, he had searched every row of books two times over but she was nowhere to be found. Moments later Al came round the corner; he looked at Ed and shook his head.
"I couldn't find her anywhere, but the librarian said she left almost fifteen minutes ago."
"I wonder where she went then." Ed sighed and once again he rubbed his tired eyes. "Lets go back to the inn for tonight and try finding her tomorrow, she can't leave this late at night no trains are running."
"How do we know that she won't leave in the morning?" Al asked.
"We'll check the station before the first train leaves, then we'll know for sure." Ed replied standing up and stretching. He looked up at Al, "This very well may be the break we're looking for, and we need to find out where this book came from."
Al nodded his head, "If we plan on getting up early enough to check the train station we should head back now and let you get some rest."
Ed also nodded his head, then without another word he and his brother walked out of the library and headed down the street towards in the inn they were staying at. It didn't take long for the two of them to reach the inn, they had chosen the one closest the library for convenience, and they both knew they were going to be out late. Once in front of their room Ed fished in his pocket for the room key, then he let himself and his brother in. They were only in the room for a moment but unable to help himself Al asked,
"Brother, may I see that book one more time?" Ed looked at him then pulled the book out of his pocket.
"Sure but be sure not to endanger it, like I said it's the only lead we have at the moment." Al took the book and he started to rifle through the pages.
Al was so busy that he didn't notice an envelope fall onto the floor at his feet, and since Ed had his back turned to him he didn't notice either. After he rifled through the book once he started examining the pages before the last three entries. He turned a page back and gasped causing Ed to turn around and look at him looking confused.
"What's up Al?" He asked.
"Look at the entry on this page and then look at the entry on the next page." Al said handing the book to his brother.
Wondering if there was some significance in these two entries Ed read them in silence, he was about to ask what was so important when he noticed it. The handwriting on the two pages was different. Most of the research journal was written in print, the letters were medium sized and rather sloppy but on the next page the writing was in cursive and in tiny print.
"This could only mean that the journal itself was stolen and the research continued in the same journal, or the person doing the research died and someone else took over." Ed said studying the pages trying to look for similarities in the writing. He was studying the way the dates were written when he noticed something about them. "Wait a minute these dates are over a year apart. Why would anyone wait that long to continue such important research?"
"The journal must have been hidden and then someone must have stumbled upon it almost a year later and decided to continue the research." Al said in answer to Ed question.
Ed handed the book back and his eyes went to the ground as he tried to think, it took him a moment to notice the envelope on the floor. Ed bent down and picked up the envelope, he noticed that it wasn't sealed so he opened it and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. He read the paper to himself for a moment and then he re-read it out loud catching Al's attention in the process.
"To Whoever Finds this Book,
As you can see this book is a very detailed research journal that is mainly concentrated on the forbidden practice of Human Transmutation. I hope that these details don't fall into the wrong hands or that the information is not put to a horrid use. However, this journal is not only a show of my success, but of my failure. Please use this journal for the greater good and not for your own greedy reasons. May your success be greater than mine.
Signed,
J.N.W."
"Well Brother, it may not be as hard to find the owner of this book as we thought." Al said after a moment of pondering the letter.
"That's assuming the owner isn't already dead." Ed said folding the letter and putting it back in the envelope.
"What makes you say that?" Al asked.
"Why else leave a letter in a book asking not to put its contents to bad use?" Ed slipped the letter back into the pages of the book.
"I don't know." Al stared off into the distance for a moment. "Brother, do you think that the woman who slipped it into your pocket is the owner of the journal?"
"I don't think so, because then she would have told us not to put the journal to bad use." Ed said after thinking the question over for a moment.
"Maybe she doesn't want us to know who she is. Human Alchemy is a forbidden science after all." Al suggested.
"Well maybe, we'll know for sure tomorrow. If she's skipped town or going to then we can pretty much assume that she is the owner of the journal." Ed yawned, threw his bright red coat into the corner and laid down on the bed. "Let's get some sleep."
"Yeah, it's been a long day." Al said looking over at his brother. He chuckled softly, Ed had already fallen asleep he was stretched out on the top of the bed his automail arm glinting in the candlelight. Al used his hand to wave out the candle. "Good night Brother."
XXX
"Brother. Brother. Ed wake up!"
Ed opened his eyes groggily, wondering what on earth was going on, and why he was being awoken so early in the morning. Al stood leaning over him, and was gently trying to prod him awake.
"What do you want Al?" Ed asked still half asleep.
"We need to get to the train station remember?" Al said
It took Ed a moment to remember what Al was talking about but when he did remember it, he leapt out of bed grabbing his jacket and the book. "Let's ask the innkeeper for an extra night that way we can spend all day searching and we can leave tomorrow."
Al nodded his head, "Just hurry Brother. We have to make sure to get to the train station before the first train arrives."
Ed nodded his head, threw on his jacket and was out the door in less than half a minute. Asking the innkeeper for an extra night also went by smoothly and within five minutes they were all set to go to the train station. Conveniently enough their inn was also situated close to the train station, the innkeeper was a smart man, and he knew that travelers would want a place to say for the night if their train left in the morning.
The two of them entered the station; Al once again drew stares from the travelers because of his armor. Ed and Al ignored the stares completely used to them by now, and used to the odd whispering that went on after they passed. They split up and searched the entire station, but there was no sign of the woman who had given them the book the night before.
"Well at least we know she hasn't left." Ed said an hour later as he sat on a bench and watched the first train leave. "How do people wake up this early to travel?"
Al chuckled, "I don't know Brother, but we had better start searching for this E.N.L. person, and that woman right away."
Ed sighed and he stood up, he was already tried, but he knew that they had to search the entire town before he could finally go back to sleep. He knew that he would be fully awake by then, but even though he was excited at the prospect of a successful human transmutation he just couldn't stay awake at that very moment. He stifled a yawn and turned to Al who was still sitting on the bench, "We'd better get started then."
XXX
In the end the searched provided nothing, there were only two members of the town with initials J.N.W., one was too young to perform alchemy and the other was so old he didn't know what alchemy was. The woman was also nowhere to be found, Ed and Al found out that she had been seen around the town for the past two days, but no one knew where she was staying. Ed and Al now sat on a bench in the small park, Al was staring off into the distance and Ed lying back on the bench staring up at the sky.
"Nothing, we searched all day and we found nothing." Ed muttered annoyed that all their tiring searches had found nothing.
"I wasn't too surprised that we didn't find someone with the initials J.N.W., that journal could be hundreds of miles from where it was found. Still, why couldn't we find that woman?" Al said voicing his thoughts out loud.
"Well, whoever she is, she's pretty damn good at staying hidden, that's assuming she didn't skip town when we were searching for her." Ed said in response to his brother.
"She couldn't have, we asked the man working the ticket booth at the train station if he had seen her and he said no." Al responded.
"That doesn't mean that she didn't leave town by some other means." Ed said sitting upright and pulling the journal out of his pocket.
Al sighed and he looked up at the slowly darkening, pink sky. "It's getting late let's head back to the inn for tonight."
"Guess so." Ed stuffed the book back into his pocket and stood up blinking slowly, he was deep in thought.
"Edward?" Al asked tentatively almost as if he didn't want to ask. Ed looked at him letting Al know that he had permission to speak. The next question was almost a whisper, "W-What if the journal is a fake?"
Ed stared at him for a moment, and then he turned his eyes to the ground clenching his fists,
"I sure hope it's not, we've come so far the thought of loosing it all now…" He trailed off afraid to finish the sentence. "Let's go."
Ed turned on his heel and he began to walk back to the inn, he wasn't tired but at least he could examine the journal in privacy before turning in for the night. It wasn't until he lifted his head and looked into a dark alleyway that he realized someone was watching him and his brother. Immediately he recognized the jade green eyes and he dived for the woman just as she was about to disappear into the shadows. His right hand closed on her left wrist and with a slight jerk he pulled her out of the alley and into the light.
"Where did you get this?" He demanded pulling the journal out of his coat with his left hand.
"I found it." The woman said trying to pull her wrist free of Ed's grip. Ed's grip didn't loosen,
"Where did you find it?" His voice was almost a hiss.
"A small town a day's train ride away from here." She looked at him and her eyes grew hard, "Now let me go."
The woman's right hand reached over and managed to pry Ed's fingers off her wrist, she gently rubbed it and Ed noticed that she still had her gloves on even though it was really warm outside. Once again she looked at Ed and then she said,
"If you want I could take you to where I found the journal."
Ed looked at her in surprise he hadn't expected this from her, unable to say anything Al took over and asked,
"What's your name?"
"It's Elenya." She stopped rubbing her wrist and she looked over at Ed. "You're Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist aren't you?"
Once again Ed stared at her, "How did you know?"
"Your automail arm." She pointed to his right arm as she said it.
"But I didn't show…" Elenya cut him off.
"Your grip is way to strong to belong to a normal arm. I tried to wrench my wrist free with enough power to break anyone's grip, but it did nothing to yours." She smiled cunningly, "I know for a fact that I could never get out of the grip of someone with automail."
Ed was impressed and he couldn't help but smile. "You're clever, so how do I know you aren't lying and you won't ditch us the first chance you get."
Elenya thought for a moment then she grabbed a leather string around her neck, for a moment Ed wondered why she had grabbed. A moment later his question was answered, attached to the leather string was a round, metal pendant, it took him a moment to realize that the pendant itself was an intricate transmutation circle. Elenya pulled the necklace over her head and she placed it in Ed's hand.
"My father gave that to me when I was just a child, he made it and it is my most treasured possession. As long as you have that in your possession I will never run."
"You can perform alchemy?" This was a new surprise that Ed hadn't expected.
"Only a little, I can only perform it with that pendant."
Ed continued to look at the pendant for a moment before he pulled it over his head and tucked it into his shirt, it took all of his will not shiver, the metal was cold. Elenya smiled when he put it on and then she said,
"Now you know I won't desert you, meet me at the train station tomorrow at noon and I will take you to the place where I found it." She looked as if she was going to leave but then she added, "Oh, and bring something to amuse yourself it's full day's train ride to get anywhere close to there."
Ed watched her leave then he turned to Al grinning broadly, "This day went from bad to spectacular in less than ten minutes."
Though he couldn't see his brother's face Ed could hear Al's excitement when he spoke. "We might have our bodies back soon."
Together the two of them went back to the inn where they ate a quick dinner and then retired to bed unable to wait until the next day when they would start their new journey.