Chapter Four :: Departure
The duo was on the move again; they quickly left for the train station but not before thanking the concierge for the stay. They swiftly ducked into the streets of Central and made their way to the familiar train station; again they boarded the train. This time Shin was carrying both bags; his training really paid off because had this trip have been a few years ago these bags would feel much heavier than now. The train was pretty packed; there was almost no room for Wynn or Shin to sit down. Shin navigated to the back of the train; there was one spot left which appeared to be open until he got closer: the space was occupied only leaving two seats left.
"Oh, sorry!" Shin apologized to the people sitting down. Looking closer at the strangers he realized one of them was in a suit of armor and the other wore a red coat and similar black attire to Shin. He had golden blond hair and eyes; he also looked about a few years younger than Shin. "Is it okay for us to sit here?" Shin asked.
"Yeah, it's fine." the boy responded. Shin put Wynn's things down on the ground and moved to the window side. Wynn followed suite; the fabric in her crimson jacket rubbed against back of the cushioned seat making a 'zip' sound. Once the two were settled there was a brief moment of idle silence. Shin looked at the boy's hands; they had white gloves over them and on the right one he would see between the sections of material that his right arm wasn't flesh.
It's automail… Shin thought to himself as he furrowed he brow.
"So, who are you guys? What brings you to Central?" Wynn said, breaking the deathly quiet air.
The boy smirked. "I'm Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist! And this is my brother Alphonse; we're on our way back to East City. We had some business to take care of Central." Shin's eyes opened when he heard the name Fullmetal? This is the same alchemist Führer mentioned, the one who can transmute without circles, just like me.He thought.
"The name's Shin Maxwell; I'm from Rush Valley. This is my automail mechanic, Wynn." Shin said gesturing to the girl on his left. An expression of urgency was noticed on Edward's face.
"Automail? Did you have some sort of accident?" he asked Shin.
Shin wanted to tell Edward the whole truth, especially since he wanted to know the real reason why he had automail himself. He could only speculate that he had a limb amputated, but that wouldn't explain why he was able to transmute without circles. Frankly, Shin had no idea he could transmute without circles until two years ago and still, he didn't even know fully how it worked.
"I don't remember." Shin said looking to his boots, "I suffer from a severe case of amnesia, though it's getting a little better. After bringing me back from the brink of death, Wynn and her father gave me an automail arm." Ed looked concerned, but his gaze shifted to Shin's pocket. He noticed a shimmer of silver in Shin's pocket he thought to himself, A State Alchemist?
Shin took out the envelope he was given by Bradley and read it. He slipped the paper back in the envelope and sealed it. "Luna, that's my codename that was given to me," he said, putting the envelope back in his bag. "It's not as intimidating as yours, Fullmetal, but it will have to do." Shin said, smiling at Edward. Edward gave a respectful look to Shin but didn't say anything. "So, you can transmute without circles?" Shin asked.
"Yeah that's right, do you need a demonstration?" he asked proudly. Shin shook his head and said locking his eyes towards Edward,
"Ah, it's quite alright! I just wanted to see if the rumors were true, that's all!" Shin said as he laughed lightly.
The train chugged along the tracks. Shin began to go into deep thought. He needed to find a way back but since he was in Eastern Headquarters it would be harder for him to get the information he needed. East City did have an impressive collection of books, however, it was nothing compared to Central.
East City began to come into view, before long the train stopped at the station and the passengers began to disembark. Edward and Alphonse began to get up but Shin stopped them.
"One more thing," he began "Do you have any idea who Colonel Roy Mustang is?" Edward's face gave an unimpressed stare.
"Great, what do you need with the Colonel?" he asked
"I'm under his jurisdiction; I'm to report to him as soon as I get in"
Edward showed him where HQ was located and Shin made his way in. There was a small area where Alphonse and Wynn agreed to wait until Ed and Shin were finished with Mustang. When they got to Mustang's office, Ed just opened the door and walked right in; not even hesitating, Shin followed behind him and closed the door.
Mustang was sitting in a chair across from Edward and Shin; he had short, ear length jet black hair, charcoal eyes, and wore similar gloves to what Edward wore. He closed the book he was looking at and turned to the boys.
"Ah, Fullmetal, welcome back." he paused. "Did you find anything of value in Lior?"
Edward walked forwards to the Colonel "Yeah, there was a false priest there conning people. He said he was going to create an army of believers who were not afraid to die…" His voice trailed off "Or something like that. I brought him down and exposed him to the rest of the city; the stone he was using to bypass the Law of Equivalent Exchange…" Ed paused and clenched his fist. "It was a fake! After all this searching we finally found a lead, and it turned out to be a dead end."
Mustang took a file from the top right hand corner of his desk and opened it. "I wouldn't call it quits just yet boys, there's a man living here in East City named Shou Tucker the Sewing Life Alchemist. He practically wrote the book on how to bring things to life; he earned his state certification when he transmuted a talking chimera." Mustang dropped the file on the desk in front of Fullmetal. "You can drop by to ask him a few questions; he is the closest alchemist who has any knowledge of bio-alchemy."
"Now," Mustang began, "the next order of business is introducing me to this newcomer; I don't believe we've met. You are…" his charcoal eyes locked onto Shin's mysterious pale blue eyes.
"It's Shin." he said, breaking the lock between the two. "Shin Maxwell, the Luna Alchemist." Shin was proud to flex that title around; he had to make it stick and make a good first impression, especially with the higher ups.
"I got a call from Central before you got here…" Mustang began now standing up with one hand in his pocket. "You're quite the talented alchemist; the Führer sees a lot of potential in you."
"Thank you, sir." Shin said bowing his head.
Mustang began to walk to Edward while maintaining eye contact with Shin "Fullmetal is heading to the Tucker residence today; you're welcome to join him if you have any questions about bio-alchemy."
Shin nodded his head in affirmation. "Thank you, sir. I will take you up on that offer."
"Good, I'll send someone to give you a ride."
The door creaked open and Ed and Shin walked through. The sound of rugged, hollow, metal footsteps approached the two boys. It was Alphonse and Wynn.
"Brother," Alphonse began, his voice echoing through the suit of armor "how'd it go? What did the Colonel have to say?"
"He said we're going to the Tucker estate; he might have some knowledge on bio-alchemy"
"Which means we may find out a way to get our bo—" Edward gave a stern look to Alphonse which he quickly understood as 'Another time, another place'
"Also," Edward began, "we're bringing this guy with us." he said motioning to Shin who was standing right next to him.
"I have a name!" he snapped.
"Oh right, Shin. Or should I call you Luna?" Edward joked, stifling a small chuckle.
"Says the micro-midget." Shin shot back.
Something like a thread snapped and could be heard all the way down the hallway; a vein appeared on the left side of Edward's forehead. His right arm swung fast, but Shin reacted quickly and blocked the punch with his left arm. A loud clang echoed through the hallway.
"DON'T CALL ME SHORT!" Edward erupted with rage.
Wynn noticed the design of Edward's right arm, his automail arm; it was very similar to the way she modeled Shin's arm. She walked over to the fuming alchemist, totally unfazed by the fit of rage he unleashed on Shin and took a hold of his right arm. She rolled up the sleeve and confirmed her suspicions, "Ha! Just as I thought, the way the rail aligns and grips with the wrist, the feeling of that sturdy housing and the lightweight material used to make the arm. This is top craftsmanship; a work of art." The young alchemist looked puzzled, with all that gear-head talk you could swear that Wynn was related to— "Winry Rockbell is it?" Wynn started, interrupting Edward's thought process "Yep this is definitely my cousin's work! No doubt about it!"
Edward went wide. "Winry's your cousin?" Edward blurted out. Wynn smiled at him, sliding down the bright red sleeve back to where she found it.
"We're distant cousins, on my mother's side that is. To be honest we've never actually had a proper introduction; my original plan for the past few weeks was to gather enough money to head down to Resembool," Her voice slightly weakened, "that's when Shin arrived, and everything changed."
Shin didn't say anything; he wanted to say how much he appreciated everything Wynn had done for him so far but he refrained from doing so. The four began walking towards the exit, when they reached the main doors there was a car outside already waiting for them. Ed sat in the passenger's seat and Shin, Alphonse and Wynn crammed into the back seat. It was a very tight squeeze since Alphonse was large and almost took up two seats. Fortunately the ride there didn't take very long which was about ten minutes at best. When they arrived at the Tucker estate Mustang walked the four to the doorstep and rang the bell. The sound of footsteps approached and the door opened. A man stood at the door with feint stubble on his chin reaching to both sides of his jaw, small glasses hovering on the end of his nose and short chestnut colored hair.
"Oh, hello there, Colonel." Tucker said pushing up his glasses to the bridge of his nose. Faint bags under his eyes suggested that he hadn't had any sleep for a couple of nights; the tension in his eyes suggested that he had been straining his eyes, possibly from looking at a textbook for hours.
Mustang slipped one hand in his pocket; he smiled at Tucker "We have a few alchemists here who would like to meet you. May we come in?"
Tucker's expression changed; he was happy to get visitors. "Yes! Please do come in!"
His house was large, but it was very messy. He led the five into the kitchen where they sat down, everyone except for Alphonse who insisted that he'd stand when Shin offered his seat. The dishes were literally piling up in the sink; that's about three weeks' worth of wash! Shin thought in his head.
"It was never like this," Tucker said darkly, "my wife used to live with us before we moved here; it was a rough life of poverty. One day she just got fed up, and left leaving myself and Nina." Tucker said reaching down to the little girl at his side. Shin had completely missed her. Nina was a small, cute looking girl with light brown hair tied in pigtails at the bottom. She had blue eyes and wore a light pink top with blue overalls; she looked to be no older than four years old. Tucker cleared his throat and continued. "Shortly after, I attained my state certification by transmuting a talking chimera. Unfortunately it died shortly after. I'm sorry you're too late to see it." Tucker interlocked his fingers on the table. "Well now, I've told you everything. Now it's your turn. Why are you interested in bio-alchemy? It's what we alchemists do; this is Equivalent Exchange after all..."
"Ah, well you see. Ed's—" Mustang began. Ed silenced him with a respectful hand on his shoulder,
"Mr. Tucker does have a point Colonel" Edward said beginning to unbutton his shirt. He told Tucker everything, Shin was amazed! Edward had attempted human transmutation, and survived the rebound! He escaped with two missing limbs while Alphonse lost his whole body, and had his soul bound to a suit of armor. Wynn held her mouth in disbelief; she couldn't believe what she was hearing; Shin had gone through a tough time when he got here but this was a new level of insanity.
"I see…your mother, eh? That must have been rough," Tucker said, sipping the tea he had made prior to the arrival. He turned to Shin. "What about you? Tell me your story, heard you're the new prodigy Shin Maxwell was it?" Shin nodded his head,
"You're well informed Mr. Tucker" Shin said, also unbuttoning his shirt "My story is more or less the same…" Shin flexed his left arm, and the gears inside tightened against the tension. Shou Tucker nearly dropped his cup; he couldn't believe his ears; was there now TWO cases of human transmutation? "Don't get it wrong, I never attempted human transmutation. There was a mining accident back in Rush Valley a few years back. I escaped with my life albeit with one arm missing. Wynn—the girl next to me—found me on the side of the mine, unconscious and my left arm missing. Her and her father, Treize, patched me up and gave me an automail arm."
"Because I've told my superiors that Edward's body was lost in the Eastern conflict, I'm asking you not to mention anything about the human transmutation incident." Mustang said bowing his head.
Tucker rose from his seat taking his cup with him "I wouldn't want the military to waste talent such as Edward's. Please follow me." He placed his cup by the sink with all the dirty dishes and paced out of the room and down the hall. He opened a large door; light burst into the darkness when he switched the lights on. "This is my study, feel free to look around!" Shin and Edward mouths' dropped to the floor, the study was huge! There were at least a thousand books just sitting there waiting to be read, Shin dove for the nearest bookshelf as did Edward and Alphonse.
"I'll send someone to come get you in the evening" Mustang said. Edward and Shin were hard focused into the books they were reading.
"I don't think they can hear you anymore. It's amazing how focused those three are." Tucker pushed up his glasses. "Quite a couple of prodigies."
At 6pm Shin and Wynn left the Tucker estate and found another place to stay. Due to Treize's connections they two were able to stay for free again. They unloaded their things inside the hotel and collapsed on opposite beds. "Hey Wynn…" Shin began; the sound of snoring was heard. Shin smiled and adjusted his head on the pillow; he figured he'd be back at the Tuckers the day after tomorrow to look at more books. He might as well get a good night's sleep.
