A/N: I don't own Darker than Black or Fullmetal Alchemist, and I'm not profiting at all from this.

A Huang-centric chapter! I like Huang, he's one of my favorite DtB characters outside of Yin, Hei, Mao, November 11… well, actually, I like pretty much all the DtB characters. :P

Also, I think I'm going to be updating just once a week for a while so I don't get too far ahead of what I've already written. You can expect updates around the end of the week.

If Huang had been irritated at the rookies before, now he was furious. One of the cops had actually turned a gun on the Fullmetal Alchemist. If the famous alchemist pressed charges, his office would be living hell for weeks. "How stupid can you get?" Huang yelled at the man, who was now cowering before him. "You can't even do a simple search! Go back to HQ and have them assign you something to do. I'm through with you for now." The man nodded ashamedly, and headed out of the train station in a slump.

Huang sighed tiredly and rubbed the bridge of his nose. How was the day not over already? It seemed to dragging on longer and longer as time went by.

"Um…" said the armored man the cop had tried to shoot. He, the Fullmetal Alchemist, and a girl were standing off to the side a couple of feet away. "Was that man right in saying that the murderer was an armored man carrying a butcher knife?"

"Huh…?" asked Huang distractedly. "Oh. Yeah, he was. They were pretty nasty murders too; every victim was chopped into pieces."

"Chopped into pieces?" the armored man repeated. His voice turned grim. "That's him alright."

Huang froze. "Wait…" He turned to face the armored man fully. "Do you know who committed the murders?"

"I have a good idea," the voice emanating from the armor said. "Not long ago, I fought an armor—an armored man—matching that police officer's description. He…" the armor looked down with a clanking noise. "He managed to chop someone up during our fight too. So I bet it's him."

Huang exhaled slowly. This was perfect. Just the lead he needed to help solve the case. "Tell me all you know about this guy."

"Al," the Fullmetal Alchemist interjected in a warning tone, and then looked at Huang seriously. "How much are you willing to risk to get some intel about this guy? Do you have any family?"

Huang took in his grave expression and sighed. "Nope. Not anymore." Yesterday he might have considered saying yes; he had spent so much time with Isozaki and his wife that they seemed like family. So much could change in just one day. "And if it's that dangerous, maybe it's a good thing that idiot didn't understand what you were talking about…" Huang dragged his hand across his face. "I don't have anything to lose. You can tell me whatever you need to, and I'll tell my superiors—"

"That wouldn't be a good idea," interrupted the boy.

"What?" asked Huang, a little incredulous. "Why?"

"Not here," hissed the boy. "Come on." He started marching off towards a more secluded corner of the station, then stopped and called over his shoulder, "Winry, I think maybe you should go ahead and get us some hotel rooms. Take this," he said, tossing his watch at her with his only hand. "And tell them that you're reserving two rooms for the Fullmetal Alchemist."

Winry glowered at him. "Trying to keep me in the dark again?"

"Winry," said the armored man this time in a firm voice. "You really don't need to hear this."

She glared at them for another moment, but consented with ill grace when they didn't waver. "Fine," she sulked. "Maybe I'll go around Mr. Hughes house later and ask his neighbors when he's coming back. That way I can come back when he's here next time."

Al nodded at her. "Good idea."

"Of course it is," she muttered. "You two always think that hiding stuff from me is a great idea."

With an annoyed toss of her hair over her shoulder, she stomped off.

Huang stared after her, his face screwed up in thought. He was sure that he had heard the name Hughes before, but he wasn't sure where…

"Hey!" said Ed in irritation to Huang. "Are you going to stand there all day, or are you coming?"

Huang resisted the impulse to make a snap back at the alchemist. This kid was irritating him, and today of all days he was not in the mood to put up with rudeness. "I'm coming." Brat, he silently added on.

"Good," the alchemist replied shortly and stomped off.

"I'm sorry about my brother," sighed Al, the armored man. "He's… just like that sometimes."

Huang took a deep, slow breath before replying gruffly, "'Snot your fault. You don't have to apologize for him." They followed the blond alchemist until they reached the shadowed spot away from the crowd of people.

"So?" asked Huang with a displeased frown. "Why can't I tell my superiors?"

"We can't tell you that," said Ed firmly. His face slid into a scowl and he crossed his arms to emphasize his point. "I heard from Al all about this guy before we got off the train, and I'm telling you right now—we won't go into the politics of the situation at all. We'll just give you the basic info we can tell you, and we'll be on our way."

Huang sighed. He'd heard speeches along that line before. "So you were either bribed or ordered to keep quiet about this, huh?"

Ed twitched.

Huang scratched the back of his head. "Nothing new coming from the military. I was just hoping for something more from the famous Fullmetal Alchemist." Maybe a bit of goading would get him angry enough to loosen his tongue.

Ed opened his mouth to speak, but Al held out his arm in front of Ed to stop him. "It's okay, Ed," he told him quietly. Turning to Huang, he said, "I'm sorry that we can't help you on that account, but we'll give you as much information as we can."

He would take what he could get, especially if it was coming from the far more civil Elric brother in the armor and not the short kid. "Fair enough." Huang pulled out a notebook and pen from his uniform's breast pocket.

The sound of someone taking a deep breath echoed out of the armor. "I met that armored mass murderer when we were… um… well, never mind that. Anyway, he attacked me with two huge butcher knives. And he bragged that he was the famous mass murderer Barry the Chopper."

Huangs eyes widened, but he stayed quiet, his pen scrabbling furiously across the paper.

"Another guard came up to him and told him to put his hands in the air. But—Barry chopped him up before I could stop him." Al paused for a second. "Then…something…er… happened…and he ran away. I was worried because Ed was hurt, so I didn't really think about it till later. Um… that's all."

Huang stared at the little notebook in which he was jotting down what the armored man was saying. There were only two lines of notes. He raised his eyebrows at the suit of armor. "Do you realize how vague that is?"

Al's head lowered a little. "I'm sorry."

"Never mind," Huang grumbled in frustration. "I'm going to ask some questions, answer them if you can."

"Okay."

"Can you tell me where you were when this happened?"

"No."

"What hurt Fullmetal?"

"Sorry, I can't tell you."

"Was the guard part of the Military Police?"

Al hesitated, then nodded. "I think so…"

"You don't have to tell me how you know, but… do you believe that armored man is Barry the Chopper, despite the fact that he was supposed to have been hanged a long time ago?"

Al looked away, and replied quietly, "I'm almost positive."

Huang contemplated the armored man for a moment. It really was troublesome not being able to see his facial expressions… it would help him ascertain if he was lying or not. But… he did seem to be telling the truth judging from his voice. Huang scruffed up the back of his hair again in frustration.

"Gaah… the higher ups pulled a Mustang, huh?"

"A… Mustang?" asked the young blond alchemist, speaking up again.

Huang's expression darkened, but he said in a forcibly calm voice. "I'm sure you haven't heard since you just came back to the city, but a notorious killer mysteriously disappeared yesterday, and all signs point to Mustang having helped him." Huang gritted his teeth and spat out the next sentence bitterly. "But of course, no lowly MP is allowed to question the actions of a high-ranking officer."He had tried to do just that this morning to one of his superiors. The speed in which he had been brushed off had to be a record.

"Hmm…" Ed murmured.

Huang could hear the hint of skepticism in the sound. "I know what you're probably thinking. I had heard Mustang was a decent guy and I believed it for the longest time," admitted Huang grudgingly, loath to admit any respectable qualities to his enemy. "I know veterans from Ishbal that do nothing but praise him, saying that he always looked out for his subordinates no matter what. But once your best friend is murdered, I guess it's too easy to lose sight of your morals…" His voice trailed off. No matter what happened to Isozaki, I'll never go down Mustang's path, He assured himself, albeit a bit shakily. I'll do whatever I can to keep being a good cop.

Ed's eyes widened. "Wait—his best friend? When did he lose his best friend?"

"I read about it just this morning. He lost him just before he transferred to Central… What was his name… Hughes something or another?" Ah, that's where he had heard Hughes before.

"Hughes… is dead?" repeated Al in a choked voice as the blond boy stared at Huang, a look of horror growing on his face.

Huang sighed and scratched the back of his head as he flipped through old police reports about Barry the Chopper. It was the best lead he had at the moment, but once again, he was having trouble concentrating. He kept reviewing in his head how appalled that pair at the train station had been once he had told them about Hughes before they had run off. Damn it. I should have remembered. That girl mentioned a Hughes. I shouldn't have… they shouldn't have found out that way. Finding out about a friend's death when he was mentioned so flippantly… that had to be terrible. Although he knew perfectly well by this point there were worse ways to lose a friend…

"Gaah…" he said, putting his head in his hands as he slumped down into the chair of the desk at which he was working. He should be able to keep working, just like he had every other time he had lost a partner. Right? So why wasn't he able to forget that terrible, empty look in Isozaki's eyes as he gazed blindly up at him from the ground?

No. Don't think about that.

How long before he could leave work and try his best to get drunk? He looked at the clock ticking on the wall opposite him. The back and forth motion of the pendulum reminded him of the way Isozaki's wife had rocked back and forth on the hospital floor, a crazed look in her eyes. He had been the one to drop her off at the hospital before he left for the bar, and he knew from that short journey that she had one of the worst cases of shock he had ever seen. She hadn't even seemed to recognize him.

"No!" he told himself loudly, tearing his eyes off the clock. The sound quickly stifled in the empty room with no one to hear it except himself. Usually, he and Isozaki would be here looking up cases together, but now…

"Stop it!" he commanded himself and put his head in his hands. His voice cracked a little. "Stop!" Everything today seemed to be conspiring against him, reminding him at every turn that Isozaki was dead, that he would never see him again. He couldn't bring himself to focus.

He had to try anyways though.

He lifted his head and gazed blearily at the documents in front of them. Focus. Every one of them stated that Barry the Chopper had been hanged years ago… but if that was fake, then why? Barry the Chopper seemed to be a ruthless criminal, one of the types who just killed for the sake of killing. Why would the government fake the death of someone so hard to control? And why would Barry the Chopper just start rampaging now of all times?

Huang sighed and got up. He wasn't concentrating well enough to do anything useful here. Field work might be able to get his blood moving and his mind off of…what had happened. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

Maybe he would see if he could inspect the prison and all the government institutions surrounding it. If he could find out more about Barry the Chopper, he was sure that he would clues about where Barry was hiding, and more importantly, that he would find out who had let this vicious criminal off the hook.

He picked up a map of Central, walked out of the records room and down the hall, took a swig from his hip flask full of liquor (he let himself bring it just this once, to get him through the day), and headed down to his boss's office.

"Hmm… the closest government building to the prison is Lab Number Five," he muttered as he wiped the alcohol that had dribbled out of the corner of his mouth. "I'll ask for permission to go to those two today, and see what happens afterwards."

He paused in front of his superior's office to finish wiping his mouth, and then knocked on the door.

"Come in," said the voice.

Huang stepped in and saluted smartly. "Colonel Douglas, sir!"

"At ease Huang," the stern commander of the Military Police said. "What is it? Something to do with these murders?"

"Yessir. I have reason to believe that Central Prison and Laboratory Number Five may have something to do with these recent murders. I would like permission to inspect them."

Colonel Douglas's frown deepened and he interlinked his hands in front of him. "Do you realize what you are insinuating, Huang? Those are both military facilities."

Huang hesitated for a moment, warning bells going off in his head. Something wasn't right. "Yes sir, I think I do."

Colonel Douglas stared at him for another moment and then sighed deeply. "Follow me, Huang."

"Sir?" asked Huang, a bit nervous despite himself. He had assumed, wrongly apparently, that a simple inspection request wouldn't be suspicious. He could only hope he could trust Colonel Douglas.

"I don't have the authority to get you into Lab Five. Come with me. We're going to Military Headquarters."

Headquarters? As in, where the Fuhrer is? Something was definitely off. But… What could he do? If he tried to run, he could easily be shot down by all the guards in front of the Colonel's door.

Huang nodded. "Yes…sir."