Another Hero of the People – Chapter 4 – Hurricane of Dynamite
"Oh, yeah, Roy's a hitman, too."
"Principal Mustang? But how-"
"He's a skilled explosives expert." Reborn crawled into bed. "I've heard he can just snap his fingers and blow up an entire town right after that."
"But… that's scary?" Tsuna wailed. But he stopped to think. He should have suspected Principal Mustang to be strange. No normal man would walk around with a big black eyepatch on his face. But he head was met with the green mallet.
"Stop whining," Reborn sighed, ignoring Tsuna's whimpers and climbed into Tsuna's bed. "I'll make sure you can do things like that someday."
"What? You teach me? How to blow up towns…?"
"Go to sleep," That was all Reborn said that night, and the same night, Tsuna found out the baby rigged his bed with traps.
"RUN MY HUNDRED KILOMETERS TO THE EXTREME!"
Ed jolted out of his bed and landed headfirst on the floor. Swearing, he massaged his head and looked out the window (the night before, he began to complain that his room was facing a window, and Armstrong, so Roy decided to give him the spare room, using his former room as a storage room).
"First I had a wall, and now I have a shouting exercise fanatic for a wakeup call," He sighed, peering over the windowpane, and he turned his attention to changing for school that day. He hadn't been to school for a long time… he really didn't need to, either, actually… he dropped out just when he and Al were determined to get their mother back, and they spent days studying, apparently and miraculously poring through their father's archive in a space of a week.
He eyed a small marblee he snuck into the house the day before. He brought it for a test. Lazily, he clapped his hands together as if in prayer, and a small hum came from his hands. Taking them apart, he placed his fingers on the little sphere, and the stone riveted up in miniature ripples of white. When he was finished, a beautiful figurine of winged horse stood on the desk. Admiring his handiwork, he grabbed his school bag, and swung the door shut behind him.
Tsuna closed the door behind him, still unsatisfied with the news Reborn brought to him… He was going to be the Tenth boss of a mafia family… that was reassuring… Moreover, his principal was a pyromaniac assassin… Just as pleasant… Wait… maybe Reborn was playing around with him! No way could Principal Mustang be part of the mafia! Sure the man loves fire (he always asked the teachers about fireplaces and always paid visits to Chemistry and Physics if there was a lab involving fire), but that doesn't mean he's a pyromaniac.
"Hey, Tsuna," Alphonse's voice made the poor brunette jump in fright. Ed joined his younger brother nearby Tsuna's gate.
"Hey… no need to get so worked up," Ed sighed. "We'll walk with to school, if that helps."
"S-sure…" Tsuna nodded. The Elrics glanced at their house beside Tsuna's, and Winry had yet to appear.
Al explained to the clueless boy, "Winry likes to sleep in a lot. She likes to stay up taking things apart. I think she did that to the radio last week."
Ed added. "We'll just have to take forever waiting for her lazy as-"
His words were cut off by a flying wrench at his head. The blonde toppled over, half dead when said girl stomped up to his feet. She was already in her uniform, contrast to Ed's words.
"Now, who said I was-" She then noticed Tsuna, who was pale and speechless, and Alphonse, who was grinning sheepishly.
"Oh, hi, Tsuna," she smiled, forgetting about what she was angry about earlier. "Let's get going to school, shall we?"
"Wait!" Ed got up. "What about me? And this big bruise on the side of my cheek?"
"It's only a flesh wound, right, brother?" Alphonse smiled, and Ed grumbled at his brother's optimism, but was shoved into walking with Winry and Tsuna.
"I've heard today's going to be a volleyball tournament," Winry smiled. Ed and Al looked at her quizzically, not sure what 'volleyball' was. "Um… it's a game where you hit a ball over a net to the other side while other people try to hit it back… I learned how to play it last year."
"How high is the net?" Al asked. Winry tapped her chin.
"I don't remember, but obviously tall enough for Ed to not make it."
"Who are you calling short?" Ed growled.
Alphonse and Tsuna laughed nervously, but Tsuna felt strange. Suddenly these three just take him in, not bothering to consider how much trouble he could cause for them… They were really sticking to him like glue…
"Hey, Tsuna."
"Hye? Yeah?" Tsuna looked at Ed.
"You look sleepy…"
Tsuna groaned. "I can't even stay awake, let alone the fact I have to be there to be for a volleyball match. I mean volleyball… I can't even play it…"
"I thought there were extras, and the team, too." Winry wondered.
"For some reason, almost all of them are unable to play," Ed said. "The General said they were sick from food poisoning, because they were eating from the same pizza shop last night."
This caused Tsuna to blanch and start walking lopsidedly.
"Still…" Tsuna sighed. "That's not going to keep me awake…"
"Something kept you up?" Al asked.
"I slept on the floor." Tsuna answered flatly.
"You rolled off the bed?"
"No. Someone took my bed for the night."
This only set a lot of giggles coming from Winry. Tsuna, Al, and Ed stared at her in question.
"I knew that would happen." She commented, and she bounded off.
"Volleyball…" Ed read through the sports book he found lying in the hall. "So that's how you play it…"
"What are you looking at, brother?" Al peered over his shoulder.
"Winry didn't give me enough information on volleyball, so I thought I'd check it out myself."
"Cool," Al nodded. "Can I see it?"
"Suit yourself," Ed passed the book on to Al, who eagerly grabbed the book, and buried his nose into it. Winry watched warily, overlooking the expanse sandy sports grounds outside. Ed watched her, and joined in on it, too.
"No one there," Ed sighed, but Winry shook her head.
"I've been told people could make illusions," She muttered. Tsuna, who watched the three new students, sighed inwardly. People who don't know volleyball re watching the empty yard outside like there was some exciting football game out there… that's kinda funny…
"Hey, did you hear?" Hana's voice was heard around the room. "There's another new guy today."
"Another one?" A classmate tilted his head in confusion. "Suddenly our school turned popular or something…"
When class settled down with the arrival of the teacher, a shadow was seen behind the closed classroom door. Winry, Ed, and Al were quite ready to pounce, for they felt some killing intent behind that door.
"Ahem, class," Mr. Nezu smiled. "Today, we have yet another transfer student. Ah, please, you may come in."
The door was slammed open and shut. A boy, with silvery gray hair and sharp gray-green eyes stalked to the middle of the class, then turning to glare at the class.
Gokudera passed by Winry's desk, and only gave a snort of disgust, while the girl pouted and began staring holes into the back of Ed's head, who was in front of her.
"I fell asleep during science…" Tsuna muttered to himself. "I didn't understand a single tad thing about it…"
"Hey, Tsuna!" Yamamoto greeted the boy. "Guess what? Even though I'm from baseball, people want me to join volleyball team. I said yes, of course! I feel like it's a challenge! You're playing for the volleyball tournament today, too, right?"
The clumsy brunette squeaked and toppled off his seat, and got up, massaging his head.
"I guess… so…"
Yamamoto laughed heartily. "That's great. Ever since your fight with Mochida-sempai, we all think that another miracle's gonna happen. Isn't that funny, Tsuna?"
"It's not a miracle…" Tsuna thought at the back of his mind. "It's Reborn…"
He heard Ed snicker quietly from beside him, and all the boys turned their attention to the former State Alchemist.
"I've heard you're pretty good at sports, Ed-san," One boy asked the ponytail blonde, who was sitting nearby. "Why didn't you or your friends sign up?"
"I just got here yesterday," Ed answered flatly. "Just because I was able to kick a soccer ball into the goal last evening isn't going to get me into a volleyball team. Al hasn't even done anything, and Winry is a girl. She would end up on the girl's team, and that would be quite useless."
A small tinge of disappointment filled their faces as Ed was left to his reading. Tsuna couldn't help but notice that Ed seemed a bit skeptical of the term "volleyball…" This wasn't something he noticed every day, but he had the burning thought about it.
Tsuna came in stumbling into the court, with half the crowd jeering again, and the other half cheering, hoping for the big moment Tsuna made a miracle happen.
"Poor Tsuna…" Winry watched the boy fall for the fifth time. "He's trying, but it's not helping, isn't it?"
Then they noticed a familiar gun model hanging from the window near the roof. It hit Tsuna's legs, and the boy fell flat on his back. Everyone began to stare at the boy, but he got up and shrugged. Ed and Al looked at Winry, who shrugged.
"That's funny," she said quietly. "Usually those should work…"
But the time came when Tsuna had to hit the ball. He sprang from the ground and began to soar higher into the air, higher and higher, and he should be hitting the ball soon…
The Elrics and Winry winced at the results, and everyone gasped at Tsuna's situation.
"Oh… god…" Ed blanched. "Reborn planned this to happen, right?"
"Probably," Winry sighed. "He takes training off the standards. It's funny, if you're not the student."
"Poor Tsuna," Al whimpered. "I miss Teacher a lot now…"
They walked down the hall, discussing the volleyball match from earlier. Surprisingly, Namimori actually won the game, and Tsuna was left limping off to the locker rooms, sadly. Lunch on a minimum day was near, and they decided that the courtyard would be a good place to eat. Just as they passed by the offices, Roy stepped out, with a rather blank expression on Ed.
"What do you want, Mustang?" Ed asked with a small hint of annoyance.
"I suggest you hurry to the small street behind the school," he said briskly. "I saw Tsuna hanging around by himself a while ago. He seems to be waiting for someone."
"Look," Ed shook his head. "We're not stalkers."
"But you need to keep an eye on him," Roy folded his arms. "I'm busy here, so you're going to have take the shift. Good luck."
Roy went past them to the cafeteria, only to make Ed growl.
"Bastard," He muttered. "He just wants his lunch."
Then an explosion echoed through the halls, sending the three teens into a panic.
"Crap!" Ed shouted as they ran down the hall. "I don't remember people setting bombs in a school!"
"It's coming from where Tsuna was!" Al yelled. "Hurry!"
But Ed was already a long way ahead. Adrenaline, he thought, must be the adrenaline.
Much to Ed's annoyance, the explosions stopped once they reached the door, where they saw Tsuna in his boxers, surrounded by sticks of dynamite. They assumed that the boy diffused all of them, according to the charred ends of the dynamite, and his hot red hands. A silver haired boy was standing against a wall, panting heavily, utterly shocked.
Tsuna sighed, slightly disoriented. "Whew… somehow I made it…"
Immediately, the silver haired boy dropped down to his knees, hailing the brunette with many compliments and a request to be part of the 10th generation family. As Reborn began to explain about gaining subordinates for a mafia family to a confused Tsuna, Ed could hear both Winry and Al giggling silently behind him. He, on the other hand, thought this was flat-out ridiculous.
"Good job, Tsuna," Reborn smiled. "You got yourself your first subordinate. I think I'll actually not give you the mallet tomorrow."
"Wait, what?"
The boy, Gokudera Hayato, as Ed had heard, looked sideways and noticed the three of them, and held out a handful of dynamite. Ed was beginning to think this was even more ridiculous.
"Really, dynamite?" Ed sighed. "Are weapons getting more unique in the mafia?"
Gokudera's temper seemed to flare, but Tsuna's frantic urge for him to stop made him bow down to Tsuna again like a lost puppy, pleading for forgiveness and swearing he would never stain his "Tenth's" reputation again.
Eventually Yamamoto somehow made his way into the crowd, and he got instant admittance into Tsuna's family, which surprised the three Amestrians even more. Just as Ed, who felt a bit generous to help people, handed Gokudera his bookbag, the bomber snatched the bag, his quick hand slapping Ed's fist a bit too hard, and he heard a small clang of metal. Ed gulped at the sound, and Gokudera's face seemed quite shocked at the sound.
"Your arm… it's automail… isn't it…" Gokudera said flatly. Ed was close to sputtering and denying it, but that wouldn't help.
"Yeah, so what..? And how did you know about automail?"
"That blonde over there was babbling about all day last year," Gokudera snarled, his eyes briefly flitting to Winry. "Unfortunately, I had to attend an event she was at, too."
Ed shook his head in substitution for a laugh. "Hm… Winry's very passionate about her work… But I noticed that you had some book on magical creatures in Japan lying out of your book bag. I'm sorry to ask, but are there any many mentions of chimeras?"
Gokudera's eyes lit up with the near same excitement he had when he was put into Tsuna's family. "You bet there is! There's ten whole chapters about them! You read this stuff?"
"I used to look into that stuff," Ed nodded. "Since it's connected to…"
He stopped himself. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone about alchemy, but since Gokudera's in Tsuna's family…
"Alchemy, right?" Gokudera completed the sentence with big smile, taking Ed by surprise (He could read minds?). "I read about it, too… haven't been able to do anything with that knowledge, though. I only got my hands on three books so far."
"What did you read?" Ed asked quickly, wondering if the texts about alchemy were different from the ones he learned back in Amestris.
"Well…"
Just as Gokudera and Ed were about to plunge into a long conversation about science, Winry waved her hand furiously.
"Well, can we go now, Ed?" Winry smiled, but the silver-haired teen snarled.
"Who cares about you, mechanical freak?"
Ed and Al paled at the statement, and Winry stopped walking, turned around with a large smile still plastered on her face. "What did you… SAY?"
"You know that weird metal contraption you fixed at my place in Italy. It broke. And you call yourself a master at fixing things…"
"IT WAS A PROTOTYPE, DAMNIT! GIVE ME SOME SLACK, YOU JERK!"
Al took the liberty of holding the girl back from beating the silver haired boy. Gokudera and Ed seemed to immediately gain some sort of acquaintance.
"You put up with her?" Gokudera looked at Ed. "I can't seem to see how you do it."
Ed sighed. "Winry's always like this. Whenever someone insults her mechanic skills, she explodes like Mt. Vesuvius…"
"What's that?" Al asked, struggling to keep Winry from moving and straining to hear over her shouts.
"It's a volcano in Italy." Gokudera got up.
Ed got in front of Winry. "Hey, just stay calm…"
Then his face met with a flying wrench, which lead to more swearing and shouting and explosions. Tsuna, still in his boxers, was squirming away from the scuffle, terrified that they just might destroy the school at this point. Yamamoto laughed, talking about how he wanted to join in. This later led to a greater scuffle when a bunch of delinquents attempted to jump Tsuna while no one was looking. Those boys were met with the angry bomber and an enraged boy with an arm as hard as metal.
Meanwhile, Nana was running about the supermarket, seeing if there were any sales…
Apparently, Roy was typing away on something he called a "laptop." Apparently he seemed to spend his life on this thing. Ed and Al had yet to understand the technology of their future.
"You look tired, Ed," Roy sighed. He now got used to calling Ed by his nickname rather than his military title. They were no longer in the military, so their rank and titles barely mattered anymore. But the boy looked off today. He had been very tired for the past two days every since he returned to them. His brother wasn't as bad, but Al too seemed weary.
"I'm fine," Ed grumbled and plopped down on the couch, his head bowed.
"You seen Al or Winry?"
"Yeah, they were going to take Tsuna somewhere," Ed answered flatly. "I'm just thinking things over, that's all…"
Roy already understood Ed's situation, but he decided not to press it until now. The Flame Alchemist did his research (he was quite fond of the "websites" they made, but it was slightly hard to look at a bright screen with letters on them. Still, he got the information he needed…
"1945," Roy stated, making Ed look up with surprised.
"What about it?"
"You saw it all, didn't you? The Holocaust…"
A deep growl came from Ed as he laid back on the couch.
"Yeah, both Al and I saw it," he said quietly. "We had to disguise ourselves when we were passing through big cities. I didn't let Al see the camps."
A small pause came between them.
"Which one?"
"Birkenau."
"What did you do?"
"We had to pass by, now stop asking me questions."
"I have every right to know about my subordinates, Edward." Roy said sternly. "You were gone for two years, you come back to Amestris for a few hours and go away for another year, then we go looking for you only to end up not in Amestris, where we waited another two years to find you."
"And you all miss me," Ed finished it.
"Ed, just tell me," Roy sighed. "You should at least say something, especially if you did pass by Birkenau. What did you do? I know that someone like you wouldn't just leave it be."
Ed hadn't looked at Roy the entire time, nor did Roy raise his voice at all. There wasn't any need to. Roy looked at Ed, who wasn't looking back. "How long did you stay there?"
"A month," Ed replied finally in defeat. "We couldn't do anything… both Al and I… There were too many people we weren't be able to get a hold of… If we had alchemy it would have been easier…"
Roy closed his laptop, and got up, setting the notebook onto the chair. He seemed to be making his way to the kitchen for some late cup of coffee, seeing that he passed Ed on the sofa, but what caught the boy off guard the most was the hand that ruffled his blonde hair.
"I only saw the pictures," Roy said quietly. "They remind me of Ishval. It seems that what I read wasn't all that happened… am I right?"
Ed answered with a quick yes. Roy sighed.
"So we're on level ground now, huh…" he mused.
A/N: Those who don't know what happened to Tsuna at the volleyball game, please do read it. Finals are this week, and I must study! but I felt like writing, so I uploaded some chapters (my excuse... I'm writing as a preparation for English?). Well, two questions popped up since last chapter.
1) Will any of the Elrics be an extra guardian? Before, I considered doing that for both of them, but I decided to drop it, because that's becoming too much of a recurring theme in Reborn fanfiction. Although there is a legitimate Snow Ring now (it's featured in a DS game for Reborn, btw), I will not use it in this story.
2) Is Mustang and his staff part of the Vongola? As a matter of fact, they are. Roy is one of their best hitmen, and everyone else works under him, including Winry. Ed and Al have not been officially been stated as members of the Vongola, so this will a key in later elements of the story. I have an original arc for this story, and it focuses on the minor characters.
Oh, and my old English Homework made its way to this story, so you get a parentalRoyEd moment about the Holocaust because with Ed and Al traveling around Europe, it's unavoidable that they somehow come across a concentration camp, but without alchemy and little practice in sparring for more than a year, they're obviously not in good shape to just stroll into camp and knock out all the soldiers there. So that explains their uselessness. But we will safely assume that Noah, the Rosa doppleganger in the Shamballa movie, survived, and was able to escape out of Germany, where she started a life anew. Poor Ed and Al...
Although, I did land upon a story where the Elrics do become prisoners at those camps, but they die tragically at the hands of Dr. Mengele (creepy guy, I must say) after they save an alternate version of Trisha who survives and has two little boys by the name of Ed and Al.
Chapter 5: While Ed, Winry, and Al are having a very good time at school, and Roy is busy maintaining Namimori High, the rest of the cast have yet to get themselves a job other than killing Vongola enemies. Just their luck, the city seems to be full of "Need employment" signs... right? Just the ones that aren't their interests. Hawkeye and Havoc compete to gain a job at a local shooting range, Breda tries to find any sort of place about food. They seem to have hard time, except Falman, Fury, and Armstrong. Falman and Fury easily get into a city news office and find easy connections to the forensics department of the police, meeting a familiar character. As for Armstrong, well... the gym has extra spots for a fitness teacher.