Chapter three
"Thanks for everything, Granny," Ed picked up his trunk of necessities
"Sure"
"Where's Winry?" Al asked
"She has been working overnight for several days in a row. Want me to go wake her up?" Granny offered
"That's ok, that's ok" Ed interrupted. "She'll just nag at me about making sure to do maintenance, and whatever. Bye" They set off.
"Listen" Granny added "come back once in a while and have dinner with us"
"Ok"
"Heh, you want us to come all this way into the mountains to have dinner?"
"Ed, Al, Asuka," Winry appeared on the balcony "Come back soon"
"Sure" And they headed down the hill and made their way towards the train station

"It burned up completely, huh?" Ed attempted to pick up a burnt book, but it disintegrated on the spot
"Major Armstrong" An unfamiliar voice called out. Asuka turned to face a young, blond man and a brunette woman, who appeared to be the speaker.
"Oh, if it isn't 2nd Lieutenant Ross and Sergeant Brosh. What's the matter?"
"You have been ordered to report to the Command Center" The woman responded
"We will be taking over for you in escorting Edward Elric" The man continued
"Hmm, very well" Armstrong said as his custom pink sparkle popped up
"What is this?" Ed complained "Here I thought I could finally get away from the stuffy old guy, and now, we've got another escort?"
"As far as the library incident, there is someone who is well acquainted with the materials at the first branch" 2nd Lieutenant Ross turned out to be the woman. They had introduced themselves after everyone got into their car. "Although she is no longer working there"
"Doesn't sound very hopeful" Ed doubted
"Did you need something?" Al asked after a few moments of silence, when he noticed Sergeant Brosh was staring at him.
"Oh, um, forgive me for asking, but why are you wearing that suit of armor?"
Ed and Al immediately tensed up

"That's just what he does"

"That's just what I do"

They said at the same time. What idiots, Asuka thought, if they didn't act so suspicious, then nobody would suspect them.

"Ah, Al, isn't the view here pretty?" Ed acted completely oblivious to the whispering officers. It's so obvious he's trying to change the subject, it's sad.

"It sure is Brother" Al played along

When they arrived at their destination, they were greeted with thousands of books stacked up to the ceiling

"Wh-what's with this mountain of books?" Ed stuttered out

"Is there really someone living here?" Brosh asked. Everyone began to search, but since there were so many stacks, the books not only restricted movement, but the stacks were placed so close together that it also made it a pain to walk

"Miss Sheska? Are you here? Miss Sheska?" Ross called out, but was answered by silence.

"Help me..." Al faintly heard. He turned to face the source of the sound. "Help me..."

"Brother, there's someone..." Al began "There's someone buried under there!"

"Dig! Dig! Dig this place up!"

"Hang in there!"

After a long time of back aching digging, they finally discovered the owner of this apartment.

"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!" Sheska, or who Asuka assumed was Sheska, apologized continually "I accidentally knocked down a mountain of books. I thought I was going to die under there. Thank you very much!"

"Are you Sheska?" Ed questioned

"Yes"

"The one from the first branch?"

Sheska suddenly gasped, and quickly went to a rant about the beauty of books, and then her life story. Asuka was reminded of Winry's frequent speeches of automail.

"Um there's something we'd like to ask you" Asuka interrupted "Do you remember seeing any research notes belonging to someone named Tim Marcoh?"

"Tim Marcoh... Tim Marcoh... Ah, yes I remember"

"Really?" Ed piped up

"They were handwritten and moreover, they had been shoved in a bookcase in the wrong section, so I remember them well" Sheska continued

"So they really were there!" Ed said in fascination but quickly became depressed "which means, sure enough, they were burned up"

"Do you want to read those research notes?" Sheska questioned

"Yeah, but they burned up... Sorry to have bothered you" Ed got up and headed towards the door

"I remember everything that was in them" Sheska said

A few seconds of silence went by as everyone processed this information.

"EH!"

"Well, I mean, I remember the content of any book I read"

"Are you serious?"

"It will take some time, but do you want me to duplicate them for you?"

Ed grabbed Sheska's hands "THANK YOU BOOKWORM!"

"Worm... you say?"

"Are these cookbooks really research about alchemy?" Asuka asked, five whole days later, when Sheska claimed that the recepies she wrote down were, word-for-word, the research notes of Tim Marcoh. But Asuka was already beginning to doubt her, because on the way to central library, she heard a group of people whispering. She didn't think too much about it until she caught the words "philosopher's stone". She then eavesdropped by pretending to drop all the papers that Sheska wrote and stopping to pick them up.

"Are you sure they have the stone?" A group member asked

"No. They claim that they have information on the stone, but they're probably just bluffing, trying to get attention, but if you want to check for yourselves, they'll be in that restaurant down the street over there" the speaker pointed to that restaurant down the street "they're just teenagers, though. There's no way a couple of kids have the legendary philosopher's stone. You'll find them easy enough. They really stand out, and they'll be there all day and night"

But when she told Ed about it, it caused him to call her stupid, which lead to one of their infamous fights.

"Alchemy can be a dangerous art if misused" Ed answered "To prevent that, alchemic research is encrypted. It may look like an ordinary cookbook to the average person, but the actual content can only be understood by the person who wrote it"

"But these are advanced alchemic notes. If only the writer can understand them, how are we gonna crack the code?" Asuka thought they were fighting a pretty hopeless battle right now.

"With knowledge and insight. The rest is intensive, arduous work" Ed flipped a page of the cookbook he was holding

"So we're gonna pull nothing but all-nighters for the rest of the week?"

"Al, there's a section on squab in here!" Ed ignored her

"Pigeons? You don't suppose that means..." Al wondered

"Yeah, it might refer to the green lion, the philosopher's month. Did you bring over Flamel's Codex? Or Lambsprings Concerning the philosopher's stone?"

And the brothers went to work on cracking the code. It made no sense to Asuka so she might as well get some sleep...

"Curse you, Marcoh, this is the devil's research"

"Oh, did you crack the code?" Asuka wondered. It's been 10 days and she was getting pretty restless.

"The ingredients for a philosopher's stone are... live humans! What's worse, in order to create one stone, it requires multiple sacrifices"

"What? They're holed up in their rooms again tonight?" Armstrong asked, several hours later, having just received the whereabouts of Asuka and the Elric brothers.

"Yes, they haven't eaten all that much"

"Hmm, their fatigue must have caught up with them. Lately, they seemed to have devoted all their energy into this."

Meanwhile...

"Brother, go get yourself and Asuka something to eat" Al said. Ed laid on the sofa, feet dangling off the edge. Asuka sat next to Ed's head, asleep.

"Don't want anything" Ed replied "What a pain, huh? You know, it's kinda like, just when we think it's within reach, it slips away from us. When it's finally within our grasp, we get kicked down by whatever we've caught... God must really hate people who commit taboos... I wonder if we'll be like this the rest of our lives... Al, but I've been too afraid to mention it-"

He was interrupted by the extreme pounding on the door. Asuka jumped so violently, her whole body left the couch for a second, before sitting back down.

"Elric brothers! I know you're in there! It is I! Open up! Asuka!"

"What do we do?" she asked

"Ignore him, just ignore-"

However, he was interrupted again as Armstrong broke the door off of it's hinges. He clutched the handle in one hand. The other resting on the wall. "I heard, Edward Elric! What a tragedy! To think that such a terrible secret was being concealed by the philosopher's stone!" anime tears ran down from Armstrong's eyes. "Imagine the military conducting something like that! The truth can be a cruel thing at times!"

Ed gasped in realization

"The truth? Al, do you remember what Marcoh said back then? The truth within the truth... What we see on the surface is only a fraction of the real thing. There's more."

Armstrong brought out a map when Ed requested one. "Currently, there are four alchemy laboratories within Central which have connections to the government. From among those, Marcoh worked at the third Laboratory. That one is the most suspicious"

"Hm-mm, we went around to all the laboratories in the city, but they weren't doing any remarkable research-"

"Here," Asuka pointed at a building with a red X over it, interrupting Ed "What is this building?"

"That was the building for the 5th laboratory, but it's currently not in use. There's a risk of it collapsing, so it has been declared off limits."

"It's here" Asuka was confident. "There's a prison next to it. They'd have condemned criminals in a prison. Officially, they could say they were executed..."

"You don't mean the prisoners were the ingredients...?"

"And if prisons from other jurisdictions were involved..." Ed followed Asuka's train of thought.

"This could become a highly political issue." Armstrong said after he rolled up the map. "I shall look into this. In the meantime, 2nd Lieutenant, Sergeant, speak of this to no one. And you kids, behave yourselves."

Ed and Al jumped. They seriously need to learn how to do a poker face.

"Look here, you three, you were just thinking of sneaking into this building and think about looking around inside, weren't you?"

"No we weren't, no we weren't!" Ed and Al made a feeble denial

Asuka slipped through her door and past the brother's door with swiftness of a ghost. She had on a grey hoodie and short shorts on as to not attract too much attention. She tied the end of the rope made of bed sheets that she had prepared earlier onto the sofa and threw the other end of the rope out the window. Asuka then propped one leg out of the window and was about to descend...

"Where do you think you're going?"

Asuka turned to face him "Out"

"At this hour?" Ed questioned farther

"..."

"I promise not to tell Major Armstrong if me and Al can tag along"

"Fine. But we're going to that restaurant down the street over there first, and then we're going to the fifth laboratory"

"Not that stupid assumption of yours again..." Ed complained

"I'm just asking you to go with me, dumbass blond!" Asuka hissed "So suck it up!"

"Fine. I'll go get Al"

After running for a couple of minutes, they stood in front of a very cozy looking restaurant. The sign on the front door said "24 h"

"Somehow, I thought that this restaurant would be more... I don't know... more bar-ish? From the way that group was talking about it..." Asuka commented "Anyway, "Both of you are well known throughout Central so they will recognize you if you confront them. You two just find a seat far off and... never mind. I take that back. Al would stay outside and wait. A suit of armour will attract too much attention"

"Sorry Al, but what she says is reasonable, for once. So I'll go in with her" Ed agreed

"Oh, and Ed, I need to borrow your state alchemist pocket watch. Just in case..."

"So you want to know about the philosopher's stone?" The teen, who appeared to be the gang leader, asked. That group member wasn't correct at all. The gang did not stand out at all. They just looked, and dressed like normal teenagers, so Asuka had to rely on her woman's intuition and, by a stroke of luck, she got it right on the first try. It was a trio of teens. One wore a green hat, one had a piercing on his left ear and one wore a purple shirt.

"Yeah!" Asuka switched to her charming side "While I was walking by on the street one day, I heard some rumours that you had information on the stone and here's where I'd find you. So I was wondering if you could teach me about it"

Ed stared at Asuka's back from his seat 8 meters away. His orange juice sat on the table, forgotten

"Please! I gotta know!" Asuka pleeded

"Hmph, we don't know anything about it. Hurry up and get lost" Piercing continued

"C'mon, don't be like that..." Asuka wined

"You're nosey. Kids like you should be in bed already." He waved her off

This is bad, she thought

"I get the feeling she's gonna crack soon..." Ed mumbled to himself, taking a sip of his drink.

"Hey, I'm not a kid anymore!" Ed choked on his orange juice after hearing this, causing him to spray it out

"Hey... You really aren't..." Purple shirt commented after checking her out "I've taken a liking to you..."

"Oh, really?" Asuka summoned all her will not to sack him right then and there, but to maintain her girly appearance. "Will you tell me about it, then?"

"But really, we can't just give it away for free..." he stared at her thighs

"Um, if you want money, I have a bit..." Asuka offered

"Money's good" he said and stood up "But I was thinking of something more like this" He tried to put his arm around her, but she quickly ducked and spun out of his reach

"But that's kind of scary..." Asuka pouted. If she was forced to say any more of this, she was going to crack. Ed started banging his head on the table. He really hoped she wouldn't crack and his juice, once again, lay forgotten on the table.

"I really don't know much about that stuff..." Asuka continued. "Money's really no good...?"

"You just said you were not a kid, right?"

"Sniff... sniff... I lied to my family" Asuka looked down, fake crying. Her hands went up to wipe away imaginary tears

"Huh, what's this all of a sudden?"

"Hic... sniff... hic... hic... the philosopher's stone's my last hope..." Her elbow bumped into her pocket, causing Ed's state alchemist pocket watch to 'accidentally' fall out and hang in plane view. "So... sniff... Can't you help me?" She made a puppy dog face, causing purple shirt to blush, obviously fallen for her. Ed continued to bang his head against the table. Feelings of fierce protection ran through him. If that thing dare touched her, he was going to have Ed to deal with.

"Well, stop crying for now"

"Because... sniff... I..." Asuka covered her face and continued to fake cry

"That's a state alchemist pocket watch, isn't it?" Green hat whispered to the leader. "We might be able to pick up some good money from her"

"H-hey" Purple shirt tried to calm her down

"Come on, stop that annoying crying" Piercing complained "We'll tell you about it"

"Thank you mister!"

"How about we step outside, then" he suggested "We can't talk about it here. Let's go"

They led her out the restaurant and down the street into a dark alley. "Here's good" Piercing said "There's no one to get in the way"

"Then-" Asuka began hopefully

"First of all, give us the cash you have, and all of it"

"Um, I prepared some, but giving it all is..."

"Huh, you want to know about the philosopher's stone, right? So pay up already!"

"Yeah, that's right, better hand it over" The other two agreed "Or maybe we should strip you and take it from your clothes?"

Purple shirt and green hat grabbed her, an arm apiece. "We've been waiting in that restaurant for two friggin' weeks, and finally an idiot comes along. Truth is, we don't know anything about the stone-"

But at that, Asuka snapped at the new information and electrocuted everything within a 5 meter radius around her. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to keep from killing you in that restaurant?" Blue-white electric currents were appearing here and there "Do you have any idea how hard it was to play along and act like that? I basically gave up all my pride so that you can tell me about the stone, but you turn out to be fakes?" Asuka ranted, even though they were all knocked out and could no more hear anything than the wall beside her

"Good thing you ended it" Ed's voice rang out "I was just about to attack them, and if you hadn't snapped, I would have murdered them gruesomely. Asuka..." He looked serious"... Never do something that reckless again"

"Too late. You already promised me we were going to laboratory 5. Go get Al, and let's go"