Hello my readers, so I hope you've been having a good day, sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been doing a lot lately, but let's not waste time and get into it!

Chapter 9: flashback

It was Sunday and the group decided to get together and hang out for the day, Ed said that they should come over to his place, when they got there Ed answered the door and was wearing black sneakers, black pants, a black shirt and a letterman hoodie that had black sleeves, and a red front, but the thing that stuck out the most was that there was a custom made patch of the symbol that was on the back of his coat, and his hair was now simply tied back instead of its usual braid, and when they got in his apartment they noticed that his apartment was cleaner thasn't when they first got there, seeing that the tables and desks were clear and there was no more garbage, they decided to play poker with betting, but the only ones who bet were Ed, Yosuke, Teddie, Chie, Kanji and even Yu.

"I'm out," Yosuke said in a groan

"Me too," Chie sighed.

"oh well," Yu said

"this sucks Beary much" Teddie said, with anime tear streams.

"Looks like I win," Kanji said showing that he had a full house.

Kanji was about to take his winnings but before he could someone stopped him.

"Not so fast kanji, you shouldn't celebrate so soon because…" Ed showed his cards to reveal a royal flush" I'm the king."

"What!? No way! Your cheating!" Kanji said as the betters handed Ed a 100 yen each.

"Come on Kanji, your just sore because I not only beat you guys 5 times in a row, but also because my persona has the coolest ability," Ed said with a smug smirk.

"But it's also the most boring looking," Chie said.

They all laughed and started another game back up.

"Hey Ed, I've been a little curious lately about something," Naoto said.

"What's that?"

"Why did you come to Inaba in the first place?"

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that myself, why would you want to come to a place as boring as this, especially since your trying to find a way home, why would you waste time going to school?" Yosuke asked.

"well its funny you ask that, because I never wanted to come here in the first place… like at all," Ed answered.

"So, then why'd you come here?" Yukiko asked.

"well that's a long story, but not as long as my life story so don't worry, but I should start from when I first woke up here…"

One year ago

Ed opens his eyes only to be blinded by a bright light, when his eyes finally adjusted, he realized he was in a hospital, but this ne was different from the ones back in amestris, it had a lot of technology that he didn't recognize, he saw a nurse walking by and when he tried to say something all that came out was a light groan, but it was enough to get their attention, when they realized that he was awake they ran to find a doctor, a few minutes later a doctor came in and asked Ed.

"Can you hear me?"

"I tried to say something again, but I still couldn't, so I just nodded, but my head started to hurt, but when I went too hold my head realized something, I looked at the hand I was holding my head with and realized he had his automail arm back! I took the blanket off me to see that I had my automail leg too, I was in shock for a moment, but I snapped out when the doctor shook me out of it."

"Sir, you shouldn't do any moving right now, go back to sleep,"

"I didn't do anything and just fell back to sleep, the next day I woke up and there was a cup of water next to my bed and when I was done drinking it I saw that the doctor from yesterday was in the room too."

"Can you speak?" he asked.

"Now I can," I answered.

"Good, now I can ask you a couple of questions about what happened to you, first, what happened to you, all the witnesses say you just fell out of the sky on the side walk."

"Umm I accidentally fell off a building, by the way, what exactly was wrong with me."

"Honestly, you are probably the luckiest man to ever come in here, your organs were fatally damaged, 4 of your ribs were broken, you were bleeding fatally, and you had a terrible concussion, its amazing your still alive at all."

"You can't kill me that easily."

"I wouldn't call that easy, anyway, you had a lot of strange markings on your body, why was that? Don't tell me you really jumped because of some cult."

"No, like I said, I fell, and as for the markings, I don't really remember, I guess I have some miner amnesia, I don't really remember why I had them on me."

"Okay then, final question, where are you from and do you have any family nearby that we could contact?"

"It's complicated on where I'm from and as for the family thing I… don't have any family…"

"So, you're an orphan?"

"Yeah… I guess you could say that."

"Then is there a guardian or an orphanage we could contact?"

"No, I live alone."

"Well that's weird, considering how your clearly 12."

"What makes you think I'm 12?"

"Well you look like you are and your just short e- "

But the doctor didn't get a chance to finish… because I kicked him in the face.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MIDGET SO SMALL THAT YOU CAN'T SEE HIM!?"

But, before I could hit him again, my sides began to hurt, and the doctor helped, me back into bed.

"Be careful about your movements, you're wounds still need time to heal,"

"As much as I don't want to be here, I don't want to be here longer than I must be, anyway mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Of course, ask anything you want."

"First of all, where am I? and what year is it?"

"You are in England, and the year is 2012, I think that amnesia is worse than you think."

"Shut up! Anyway, how long will it be till I can go?"

"That's honestly hard to answer, it could very on how long your wounds heal completely, and considering how you were near the brink of death when you were brought in, I wouldn't expect to be out tomorrow."

"That sucks, how long was I out?"

"Only a few days, almost a week,"

"Okay, one more question…. Do you know where I can find Van, Hoenheim?"

"I'm afraid not, I'll see if I could find anything, but don't keep your hopes up."

"After that nothing really happened, the most exciting thing to happen was that I'd get into a fight with a nurse about drinking my milk, I was there almost 4 weeks before they let me out, and I was surprised when they told me that they found where Hoenheim was now, when they gave me the address and I ran strait there, but what i found was different from what i had expected."

"So… this is where you are now…"

"Van Hoenheim- 1880- 1965" the headstone read.

"It's not like I'm surprised, you were probably the only person the could get me home, but I guess I got to work from scratch if I want to get back, I'll see you later Hoenheim."

"I had nowhere to go, all I could really think to do was wonder around, looking for somewhere to stay or to make some money, and at one point I found the " Kensington Central Library" and I went in for a look around, I got all the alchemy books I could find and spent the next few hours looking for an answer on how I could hopefully get home, but it didn't take me long to finish the books, cause they were mostly filled with things I already knew, I noticed the librarian and went over to ask her about alchemy books."

"Excuse me, do you have any more books on alchemy?"

"I'm afraid not, from the looks of it you took every alchemy book in the entire library from basic to complex," she answered.

"Damn it, what am I going to do now?" Ed said in his head.

"Is that all or is there anything else?"

"Yeah, I just moved here a few weeks ago, and you know anywhere I can get a job or maybe I could get a job here,"

"I'm not sure about here, give me some time and I'll let you know if there's an opening."

She spent almost an hour making calls and looking at things on her computer before calling me back over.

"We do have a small opening for the back of the library."

"I was happy about getting the job, but because I was new they had to set me up with another worker till I got the basics down, it sucked but what could I do about it?"

"Mr. Elric, I would like you to meet shezka."

"H-hello, Mr. Elric, it's a pleasure to meet you," she said raising her hand.

"But I was too in shock to shake it, she looked almost exactly like she did back in amestris, except for a few miner details, like her hair was longer and she was a little taller, Sheska put her hand down and blushed and said."

"Lets just… go to where You'll be working." She said.

"Oh! Umm right" I said following her to the back.

"When we got where I'll be working, there were tables upon tables of books stacked so high that it looked like the slightest breeze could knock everything down."

"These are all the books that were donated recently, what you are going to do is sort all the books by genre, make sure you give each one a pile of their own," Sheska said.

"Sounds… easy," Ed said trying to keep his cool.

"Don't worry we know that this is way too big to finish in a day, we just need you to finish by the end of the week, I really wish I could help you." Sheska said this looking like she could burst into tears right now.

"Why would you want to help with this? And why can't you help me?"

"Because, the thing is…. THAT I LOVE BOOKS SO MUCH, I'VE LOVED THEM SINCE I WAS LITTLE AND CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH OF THEM," she said holding a book to her chest as she jumped for joy, but she almost immediately fell to her knees and cried anime tear streams," But I can't, because I work with sorting the children's books now, I used to work with both, but now that you work here, you took my place."

"O-oh… I'm really sorry, if anything I could go talk to her if you want- "

"No, no, you don't have to do that, in fact I don't even blame you, it's just a little upsetting, in fact its probably best I don't work this aria anymore, I would spend more time reading than sorting them anyway," she said with a slight chuckle.

"After a few minutes of telling me what books to put in what pile she left me to get started, for the next few weeks or so of sorting new piles of books, I did get to talk to shezka more often, mostly during lunch breaks, she was exactly like her amestrian counterpart, she did help me with the sorting on my aria too because there weren't typically a lot of kids donating their books off, but I would have to keep an eye on her because she would sometimes find a book that interests her and try to read it, the days at that library were probably the longest few weeks of my life because there were always so many books and it felt like i was just wasting my time, the only reason I stayed was because I was hoping for someone to donate a alchemy book or something that could help, but would always get nothing in the end, but one day something happened."

"Man, it feels like these piles grow more and more every week, I can't wait to get home and leave this stupid job behind," Ed said.

"Oh yeah, you moved here from another country, didn't you? why do you want to go back so bad?"

"Because, there are still people there that I want to see again, and something happened to my brother before I left, and I want to make sure he's alright."

"What happened?"

"I would rather not talk about it, it's a lot of personal business that I don't want to get into."

"I understand, but how much do you think it's going to take to get there?"

"Honestly, I don't know, it could take anything to get there, it's not like transportation here, where you pay 1,000 dollars or something, the payment it takes to get back to where I'm from takes more."

"Then how do you plan to get back if that's the case?"

"I don't know, but I'm not going to give up that easily."

"I hope you do get home."

The librarian walked in and said.

"Mr. Elric, there is a phone call for you."

"That really confused me, i had no idea who would be calling to talk to me, i never talked to anyone but Shezka, so this was weird, i thought that it was probably the hospital calling about some news, but when i picked up, it wasn't what I expected.

"Hello, is this Edward Elric?"

"Yeah, who's asking?"

"This is the london police department, and If I recall you were asking about a man named Van Hoenheim while in the hospital, correct?"

"Yeah so?"

"Well recently we found a letter addressed to you from him."

"I was honestly shocked, because my dad actually knew I'd come back? that seemed almost impossible."

"Mr. Elric, are you there?"

"What? Oh yeah, I'm here, what were you saying?"

"we have a letter addressed to you from him, you can come pick it up anytime."

"So they gave me the address, I told the librarian that i needed the rest of the day off and i went strait there, when I got there they gave me the letter, it looked like it had been in there for a while because it had stains and a wax seal, when i opened it, it didn't have anything special written inside, just instructions telling me to go to the bank and a zip code, so I went strait for the bank and gave them the letter to check out the zip code, when they came back, they had yet another letter that looked identical to the last one, except that this one was a little bulkier, and when I sat down and opened it, I saw another letter, but this time, it wasn't instructions, this time it was actually saying something."

"Edward, if you are reading this, then I'm dead, I don't know when your reading this, it could be fifty years from where I am or a hundred years, but one thing is for sure you passed through the gate again, and I leave to you the only thing I can."

"And when I looked down into the envelope and saw a hundred dollar bills, I was shocked, because when I counted it, there was 10 thousand dollars in there! guess the old man actually left me something good before he left, so I got some clothes, a passport and anything else I might need, quit my job at the library and left, and for the next year I did nothing but traveling, trying to see if any country had any information that I could use to get home, I went to places like egypt, italy,germany, africa and anywhere I could get some information on, I didn't spend money that much, just on food, a place to sleep and getting my clothes clean, but no matter where i went, i didn't find information on anything, as you could imagine i hit a rut in my search, but one day, i got the worst possible news i could get, and during december i had just finished my investigation in japan and i got this news."

"Hey, i'd like a ticket to new york," Ed said. the ticket agent.

"Of course give me one moment sir," she said with a smile on her face.

"So I scanned my card and it got declined, so I tried again to see if it was a glitch and got the same thing."

"Sir, I'm afraid you don't have enough money."

"What!? how much money do i have on it now?"

"About... 1,000 dollars."

"Are... are you serious!?"

"I-I'm afraid so sir,"

"And there is nothing you can do!?"

"I'm afraid not sir."

"DAMMIT."

"Sir, if you don't calm down, then I'm afraid I'll have to call airport security," she said as her smile wavered.

"Sorry, is there anywhere i can go?"

"Well, there is a bus to Inaba leaving in the morning."

"Is there anywhere else?"

"No, all the other busses are cancelled due to the roads they take being iced over."

"What about somewhere here I can stay."

"I'm afraid not, all hotels are booked due to the holiday season."

"Fine, give me a ticket." Ed groaned.

"So she gave me a ticket and I left for my new destination, and as I was leaving I could have sworn I heard her whisper "Dick" as I left, so I stayed in a shelter for the night and went strait for my new destination, it took 2 days before I finally arrived, when I was in the marketplace, I started to ask about a place to stay and no one knew anywhere I could go to except for this expensive place called the "amagi inn" or something, but it was booked out, and even if it wasn't, it was more than I could afford, but after a long time of searching, I finally found someone that could help me."

"Excuse me, but, do you know if there is anywhere I could stay or live, I just got here.

"Hmmm, can't say that I do, sorry."

"Its, fine, thanks anyway," I groaned.

"Wait! Actually, i do know one place,"

"Really!? where!?"

"It's a apartment they just built for college students , its men't for students that go to a college near by, but out of town students that still go to highschool can stay there too."

"That's gre- wait students? as in people going to school?"

"Yeah why? wait your not a student?"

"No! so I can't stay there?"

"I'm afraid not."

"Then I guess I'll have to become a student then."

"That's good, at least you won't be on the streets."

"Yeah, so when can I enroll in this school?"

"They start to enroll students on January 1st, so you should get a place to stay till then."

"Yeah, thanks."

"You could imagine how upset I was at this, and before I left, I asked the guy that helped me for something."

"Hey! whats your name!?"

"Ryotaro Dojima!"

"And the rest is simple, I found a shelter I could stay in, and enrolled in the school the moment I got my chance, they sent me a uniform and before I knew it, I was starting up a new year of annoyance."

Ed was walking down the halls of the school looking at the class schedule he got, he had a pained look on his face as he was going, he looked up to see his class and sighed deeply.

"Lets do this," he said before opening the door and going in.

End flashback

"And that's just about it," Ed said as he finished.

"Wow, you never seem to get a break do you?" Yukiko asked.

"Doesn't seem like it, and I'm pretty mad at Hoenheim."

"Why?" Rise asked.

"Because if he was gonna leave me anything! why couldn't it have been is research!?" Ed yelled.

"That is weird, maybe he couldn't trust anyone who would read it before you got here," Yu suggested.

"Probably not, alchemists usually encrypt their research so no one could understand it and use it for selfish reasons."

"Well there has to be a reason one way or another, because he probably would have given them to you," Naoto said.

"Yeah, there's definitely something in there that i probably couldn't know, or maybe this whole thing is bigger than we think then there's just another killer on the loose," Ed said.

"You think your dad was involved?" Yu asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but i don't think we shouldn't consider it a possibility."

"Then we should see about looking into this more, now why don't we get back to the game?" Chie said.

"But you lost again," Ed said, showing his hand to reveal he had a four of a kind.

The betters groaned and handed over a 100 more yen, but when Chie was about to give hers over, she saw a small white thing sticking out of Ed's jacket, she swiftly grabbed it and saw it was a card.

"...I can explain...," Ed said sweating a little.

Chie grabbed his arm and rolled up his sleeve only to have cards come out.

"I KNEW IT!" Kanji said getting up.

"Are you serious!?" Yosuke said.

"I feel betrayed," Yu said.

"I feel beary sad now, Teddie said.

"alright, I'm sorry, here's your money back," Ed sighed, reaching into his pocket.

"Actually, you could keep it," Chie said with a smile.

"What!?" everyone else shouted.

"But i want my money back," Yosuke whined.

"But, you have to order all of us food with it,"Chie said with a smug smile with her arms crossed.

"Fine," Ed groaned getting his phone.

So they spent the rest of the day eating chinese food and talking, but since Ed didn't have enough winning money, he was forced to use some of his own, so after a long day they went home and called it a day.

Well that's it for this chapter, i know i likely got a lot wrong in terms of how some things work with the donated books thing, airplane expenses and a few other things, these were all just things to help the story move along smoother, but if you wanna tell me what i got wrong, then go ahead, also i have an idea for 2 more earth counterparts of fma characters, let me know if you have any suggestions on who'd you like to see. so with that said, i hope you enjoyed, fav, follow and review, see yah!