Disclaimer: Psh! I wish. FMA belongs to Ms. Arakawa. I own Chi Izumi. And the cat.
Blood Diamond alchemist
Chapter Two: Goodbye
Chi Izumi woke to the sound of shouts. After the accident the night before, people had come running from many places to find what had become of the Izumi family. It took hours before the blaze finally died, and many thought that the entire family was gone, yet Jace knew that Chi was still alive.
So after a brief search he had found her some distance away clutching the red and white cat with black rings around its eyes. Chi didn't hear nor comprehend what was happening, all she knew was that Momma and Papa were missing and uncle Jace was taking her back to his place giving her comforting words that never seemed to get through.
After lying in the spare bed at Jace's home for some time with the kitty curled up next to her, she eventually drifted off into an uneasy slumber. And the next morning is when all the trouble began. Walking out of her temporary room, she saw uncle Jace and an old guy fighting. Well, Jace was doing the fighting; the other guy was just using stern words.
The kitty mewed once to announce its presence, and then the two of them proceeded to listen at the door.
"Why the hell should Chi go with you? She's four years old damn it, that's too young to go into the military anyways!" Jace fumed. Chi was astounded the old man wanted her to go into the military. She'd heard her father talk about the military, but never once did she think it would request her to join it.
"It's for her own good. I've heard about how her father taught her alchemy and about how good she is. I believe it would be highly beneficial if she were to join and pursue a military career." The old guy stated firmly.
"Like hell! There's no way Satoshi and Yume would allow their child to become a dog of the military at aged four!" Chi got a feeling that Old Man was watching her. But that was silly right?
"Well, if they care so much for their daughter, why did they abandon her?" Chi gave a startled cry that drew the two men's attention to her.
"Chi, your awake? Listen, your parents did not abandon you." Jace said firmly.
"Why are you bothering to hide the truth from her? She'll find out eventually anyway." Tears welling up in her eyes, Chi burst out of the house with the kitty in tow. Her parents abandoned her?
Back in Jace's house, he was busy abusing the Fuhrer for saying such lies in front of Chi. "Like hell they abandoned her you shit! They were killed and you know it!" Jace screamed as two military guards held him back while King Bradley left the house. One way or another, Fuhrer Bradley would be recruiting the girl with diamond bones to the military.
Chi was too busy crying to notice someone walk up behind her, but she did notice when he put a comparatively large hand on her small shoulder. "Don't cry little girl. I know it hurts that your parents have abandoned you, but if you join the military, you can practically get a new family. I'm sure one of my men can take you under their wing and help you vastly improve your skills. What do you say?" It was the old guy, who, until now, Chi didn't notice had an eye patch.
"W-who are y-you?" Chi sniffed out.
"Oh, of course, how rude of me. I am Fuhrer King Bradley, leader of the military." Bradley spoke so kindly that Chi instantly fell into the trap. "So, will you join?"
Chi was quiet for a moment before nodding her head. "Yes, I'll join."
As Chi and Bradley, who was kind enough to let her keep the kitty, were on the train heading towards Central, Bradley filled her in on what would be happening with her training. "You will be given an instructor who will teach you the basics for defending yourself in the army. You will also be given a room to stay in the actual military base. Over time I hope that you will become one of our best alchemists, after all, lots of people who have heard about you are hoping for your success."
Once Chi and the Fuhrer arrived, Chi's room was allocated and her instructor turned out to be a nice man who reminded her of a nicer version of Uncle Jace. Over time her tutor, who was named Roy Mustang, and her bonded, Chi even began to look upon Roy as a father figure. She learned plentiful amounts from him as far as alchemy goes, but it was by pure accident that she found her ability to turn her skin into diamond.
During one of the training sessions, Chi and Roy were going back over the basics when Chi transmuted the wrong thing and turned her skin to diamond. Roy was so astounded by the fact that a five year old had managed to become good enough in the art of alchemy to turn herself into a living diamond. Well, part of herself anyway. "Chi! Th-that's amazing! How the hell did you manage to turn your arm into a diamond?" He stammered.
"Well, it's only the skin that's diamond, and I kinda got distracted." Chi admitted bashfully, sweat-dropping as Roy practically collapsed in shock.
"'Kinda got distracted'? How in Hell's name did you get distracted and still successfully perform a transmutation? And a human one at that?"
"Ah, well… I started thinking about the composition of my diamond bones, and about how cool it would be if I could turn my skin to diamond as, like, the mega ultimate defence." She explained while tilting her head to one side, her pupiless aqua eyes wide with honest innocence.
"Holy c—wait, wait, wait. Diamond bones?"
"Yeah, didn't Grandpa Bradley tell you? My bones are fused with diamond. I had a really bad calcium… thingy…"
"Deficiency?" Roy offered.
"Yeah that thing, so my Papa bonded my bones with Momma's pretty necklace." Chi explained, smiling brightly.
"Huh. No, Grandpa Bradley didn't tell me… Excuse me for a moment." And with that, Roy left the room. From that day forward, Chi continued working on her diamond skin transmutation until she could eventually turn her entire body of skin into one protective diamond mould.
One day when she was training her fighting skills while wearing her diamond skin, one of her fellow comrades, Jean Havoc if she remembered correctly, made a joke about her skin. "If it's her own skin that she's turning into diamond, y'know, with all the blood and stuff, wouldn't that make her skin a 'Blood Diamond'?"
Yes it was an incredibly crappy joke that wasn't even funny, but the name 'Blood Diamond' stuck, until eventually she became known as the 'Blood Diamond Alchemist'. It was also the time she began writing her name with the symbol for 'blood' instead of the symbol for 'knowledge'. Then at aged 8, she became the youngest female state alchemist, while still retaining her childish ways.
No one complained of course, in fact, everyone loved it. A state alchemist with the personality of a child was a very refreshing concept.
- 5 years later -
Over the 5 years that Chi was with the military, she adopted the 'mature cuteness' look as everyone like to call it. Her new outfit consisted of half a crimson coloured kimono that she customised herself, with gold trim and a green and blue floral pattern spanning from the corner of her skirt.
The skirt edges met at the hips before separating over her right leg, and reached just under a quarter of the way down her thighs. The half kimono's single sleeve reached ¾ of the way down her arm; the sleeve was also decorated with the same floral pattern as on her skirt.
Under the half kimono were white bandages wrapped around her chest, and plain black 'gym bloomers'. She also had a gold obi with a black ribbon around the middle, finishing in a sort of bow at the back.
On her legs were more snowy coloured bandages, reaching from her ankles and winding their way up to just below the knees. And finally, on her feet were a pair of rich crimson flats.
Her long hair, now reaching to below her butt, was always kept in a high ponytail via a black ribbon, with the two wavy strands dangling delicately in front of her ears and her sweeping side fringe topping it all off. Her eyes were still a very mesmerising shade of aqua, and her skin was still as fair as falling snow.
Another factor in her 'mature cute' look, was the fact that at the age of thirteen, she was still very small. Even her figure was small, but at least she could blame her height on the diamond bones weighing her down and stunting her growth.
The diamond bones also made her very heavy, which ended up being a very sensitive point for her. Roy Mustang made the mistake of commenting on this fact. Let's just say that he had to take almost a month off work because of the incident that followed shortly after. A day after it happened, her and Riza Hawkeye, assistant to Roy, became rather good friends.
And in case your wondering about the red and white cat that Chi owns, well it lives in Chi's room with her, and was eventually named Galatea. Just like Chi's childish personality, everyone adores Galatea, even when she breaks out of Chi's room and tries to steal the fish from the cafeteria.
Now back to the story…
This one particular day at headquarters Chi had been asked to go and visit an alchemist who was looking after a couple of boys that were planning on taking the state alchemist exam. She was told to check and make sure he was taking care of them properly, and to discuss exactly how he was helping them.
Apparently the boys were one and two years younger than herself, and she was to make sure that he wasn't going to give them an unfair advantage. So here she was, riding towards Shou Tucker's house by the orders of Roy Mustang to check up on two boys' progress. If Chi was completely honest with herself, she was glad to meet kids around her own age with the ambition to join the military. She greatly hoped that at least one of them managed to join.
Hopping out of the car, she skipped up happily to the Tucker Mansion's front door and knocked firmly on it. Idly playing with one of her wavy strands of hair as she waited on the door, her shining blue eyes scanned the area in hope to see something of interest. Fortunately, the door opened before long and Chi was greeted by a small girl with long brown hair in twin plaits coming from the base of her skull. "Big sis Chi!" The girl cried out as she latched on to Chi's waist and buried her head into Chi's tummy.
"Hey Nina-chan! It's so good to see you! But I have to speak to your father. I can't play today." Chi finished in a pout that was closely mirrored by Nina. "But I promise to play with you right after! If not then, then I am definitely coming round to play with you tomorrow!" Both Nina and Chi's faces were smiling now.
Chi straightened out her short floral printed skirt as she was led into the lounge room where Shou was currently sitting. Greeting him formerly, she explained her reasoning for this little expedition. Which went a little like this; "Hey old man! Colonel Mustang wants to make sure your not giving the two boys your looking after any cheats for the exam. If you are, I promise not to tell! I'd love to have someone around my age in the military!" This was of course followed by an exasperated sigh with a smile.
"I'm not giving them cheats. They're determined to pass the exams themselves. If you don't believe me you can see for yourself." Shou offered with a slight grin.
Chi was ecstatic at the thought of meeting the two boys, but covered it by pretending that she was just doing it to make sure they weren't being given cheats. Tucker wasn't fooled for a second. "Well, if it's just to make sure they aren't getting cheats, I suppose I could check on them." Tucker raised one eyebrow before leading her to the boys' room. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Chi nervously twirling her ponytail in her hands. '5 years in the military and she's still acting like a 4 year old. How the heck is that even possible?'
Knocking on the door they entered once they heard acknowledgement of their presence. "Edward, Alphonse, this is Chi Izumi, the Blood Diamond Alchemist. She's come to make sure you two aren't cheating for the test." Without looking up, the boy sitting at the desk growled out a response.
"We're not cheating." Chi felt it necessary to defend herself.
"Hey! I'm just doing what Colonel Mustang told me to do." The boy at the desk's head shot up at the sound of such a young, high-pitched voice, and he quickly turned to look at Chi. First there was a flash of annoyance on his face, but it was then quickly replaced by one of pure and utter shock.
"Y-you're a state alchemist?" Chi nodded in confirmation. "B-but you're younger than us!"
Chi huffed in annoyance. "I'll have you know that I am in fact older than you!"
"No way!" Chi whirled around and for the first time noticed the large suit of armour in the room.
"Wha- who are you?" She practically cried out while pointing her finger at him dramatically.
"I'm Alphonse Elric, Edward's younger brother." He said gesturing to the blonde boy at the desk.
"You're a year younger than him! But you're huge!" She cried out, still pointing her finger at him.
"And you're smaller than Brother, but you're still older than him."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT A DUST MITE COULD ACCIDENTALLY SQUISH?" Apparently Edward was sensitive about his height. Chi decided to have a bit of fun. Raising her hand she responded childishly.
"I DID!" Edward glared at her.
"Hypocrite! You're shorter than me!" He growled.
"I have diamond bones weighing me down, what's your excuse?" Chi stated matter-o-factly. "Oh. Wait, I wasn't supposed to say anything about that. Oopsie." Chi rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. That didn't stop the Elric brothers' response though.
"D-d-d-diamond b-b-bones?" Edward stuttered out. "You have diamond bones? How the hell is that even possible?"
"There's no way your body would be able to grow at all! How?" Alphonse joined in with the freak out.
"Well, technically they're only diamond coated, but I guess after the first few months my body started adapting, with the help of some special carbon pills of course. Obviously it stunted my growth, but I'm super strong from carrying around all the extra weight!" She explained cheerfully.
There was a very uncomfortable silence following this. Chi began nervously tugging the hem of her skirt, suddenly wishing it were a mite longer. She also vaguely wished for a more modest top the way Edward's eyes were scanning her, with Alphonse, she couldn't tell, but she guessed he was doing the same. With a blush steadily creeping over her face in discomfort and embarrassment, she broke the silence.
"Edward, Alphonse, if you don't stop staring, you'll hear the story of Roy's tragic accident when he upset me, and become a victim." She stated calmly with her eyes closed and head turned away, the blush still lying lightly over her cheeks.
Edward's worried face and Alphonse's stiff posture was exactly the reaction she wanted. But seeing as how Edward was so small, he looked so cute. She instantly forgave him. Then, giggling she walked up to him, hands behind her back. "You look so cute chibi!" She smiled leaning forward slightly. She could hear Alphonse's snickering behind her.
"DON'T CALL ME CHIBI!" Edward screamed out. Chi just shrugged her shoulders before turning and walking out the door, her crimson flats barely making any noise. Calling back over her shoulder, she gave the two boys some encouragement.
"Good luck Edward, Alphonse. I hope at least one of you makes it into the military."
"Thanks! And just call us Ed and Al!" Alphonse called back.
"Okay Ed, Al. Hope to see you exam day!" And with that, Chi said goodbye to Shou and Nina and headed on back to headquarters.
Chi really like Ed and Al, she had a feeling they were going to get along wonderfully.
A/N Currently un-beta'd, so if you spot any mistakes or if something just doesn't seem right, let me know.
The first two chapters were written just to get all the sady, angsty stuff out of the way. I don't like writing that stuff. Gets lighter from here on out. And I've already chosen the pairings. Oh, and if any one wants, I can upload the sketch of Chi Izumi aged 15 on my Deviantart account and link it on my profile.
Dum da da duuuuuuummm! If you can correctly guess where I got my inspiration for Chi's 'mature cuteness' outfit, you will get a super awesome prize! If no-one gets it, then whoever comes up with the funniest way to embarrass Envy will win. You'll see what I mean by 'embarrass' by about chapter 4 or 5-ish. Maybe later, I haven't confirmed.
Now! Review!
