Chapter Eleven :: A Master and an Apprentice
It was dark; Shin's eyes needed a bit longer to adjust to the darkness of the tunnel he was in. In a few minutes he was good to go and proceeded down the inky black tunnel. The tunnel seemed to go on for miles and with no idea which direction he was going, Shin would have to take the next exit he could find. It took him a little more than half an hour of walking, but he could literally see the light at the end of the tunnel. As he got closer to the light he realized it was coming from above, a sewer opening much like the one in the fifth laboratory. Shin carefully inspected his surroundings before he pushed open the grate. He breathed a sigh of relief; it stunk like hell down there. He was now in a well-lit room, almost like another warehouse; the walls were a pale eggshell-crew color, slightly warming his spirits.
"Well," Shin said exhaled slightly. "Out of there, now time to get the hell out of here."
"Oh I don't think you'll be going anywhere." A rough voice spoke out from behind Shin, he could smell whoever it was behind him; it was rank and smelled like the sewer he was just in - only worse.
Shin quickly threw an elbow from his left arm around to where he heard the voice. He could hear the bones in the figure's face behind him crush under the force of the attack, and Shin could hear the figure crumple to the floor. Shin turned around to see his attacker, to his surprise the man had a large mouth with sharp fangs hanging out of the side; a bushy light brown mane for hair. Shin wouldn't say the man was scrawny, but at the same time he couldn't say that he could overpower him either.
The man began to stand up. "Ugh, now you've done it!" he growled, and clutching his face as he groaned.
Shin picked the man up by the shirt and stood him up in front of him. Less than a second later Shin kicked the man through the wall; it shattered on impact sending drywall everywhere. The man collapse on the other side of the wall knocked out cold. To Shin's surprise he saw Edward on the other side of the wall gawking at the gaping hole in the wall. "Oh?" he began, stepping over the knocked out man on the floor. "Hey there, Edward! What's up?" Shin smiled at Edward who was still shocked that Shin literally threw someone through a wall. Shin walked into the next room where Edward was he could now see that there were a few more fighters in the room. There was a large creature in front of Edward, it had a humanoid figure and was all black; it had a toned figure and had red nodes above its collarbone. Shin walked in front of him and stood there, "Who's your friend, Ed?"
Edward snapped out of his gaze and answered Shin's question. "He's not, his name is Greed and he's a homunculus."
Shin scoffed and ran his boots across the floor leaving a black streak. "Impossible." He said simply, "No one's ever created a functional homunculus before."
The homunculus known as Greed laughed, his voice seemed to echo throughout his entire being and the entire room as well. "Kid, you should take the runt's advice. He's not lying."
Shin noticed a woman behind Edward, she was slim, young looking and her hair was in micro-dreadlocks. "Hey Ed, is this who I think it is?" Shin asked looking at the woman.
"Yeah, she's my teacher." Edward responded, motioning to Izumi.
Suddenly Shin could hear gunfire down the hallway everyone stood frozen in the room. The door burst open and military soldier raided the room opening fire on Greed. Greed smashed through a wall and ran down the hall out of sight when Shin looked over to Edward he was behind the soldiers, but Izumi was nowhere to be found.
Click!
Shin looked to the soldier who had their guns fixed on him ready to fire. "What the hell is this?" he demanded. "I'm a State Alchemist for God's sake!"
"We have orders directly from the top to escort the boy out of here. King Bradley told us specifically to wipe out anyone else!" a soldier said fixing his iron sights on Shin's head.
Shin sighed. "Guess I have no choice then." He walked to the soldier at point blank range. "Would you really shoot superior officer?" He asked, "Think of what that would do to your career? You'd be court marshaled, tried, and probably executed! That is, of course, if you kill me." Shin took out his pocket watch and brandished it to the soldier. "Now then," Shin said brushing some left over drywall of his shoulder. "I'll be leaving if you don't mind." Shin walked out of room and out of the Devil's Nest showing his pocket watch to several other soldiers who had him at gunpoint.
Shin walked down the street and stopped when he heard a voice from behind him. "Quite impressive what you did back there." Shin turned behind to face Edward and Alphonse's teacher, Izumi Curtis.
"Oh? It was nothing, really. I heard you're Edward's teacher, I've heard quite impressive things from him myself."
Izumi chucked, "I'm not that amazing, and to be quite honest I'm just a simple housewife. Nothing more." She paused before walking off.
Shin hesitated, "If it's all right, Izumi, would you mind if I train under you? I want to learn better techniques in combat!"
"No." She said coldly, without a skipping a beat.
Shin cringed; he didn't expect such a fast response. "Why?" he asked.
"Because I don't undertake students."
"But I'm good! I just need some pointers!" Shin begged.
Izumi turned and looked Shin directly in the eye, her ink black eyes locked on to Shin mysterious light blue eyes. "Alright," she said turning the other way, her back facing Shin. "If you're certain you can handle intense training like this, I won't stop you. Come to 620 Stock Road. Noon. Tomorrow." With that Izumi departed for home leaving Shin trying to figure out the address in his head.
Shin found a place to stay in a hotel. The hotel wasn't as classy as the Cascade Hotel in Central; it was a roof over his head in the chilly night of Dublith. Shin awoke the next day at 11:30 and made a phone call to Southern HQ notifying them of his absence and gave a very brief report to Nathan Gould and told him he would get his full report once he was finished in Dublith. The way Gould responded to Shin gave the impression that he wasn't happy, not one bit. Leaving the hotel, Shin plucked out his pocket map and quickly located Stock Road; it wasn't far from the hotel and was within reasonable walking distance.
Fifteen minutes later Shin arrived at the Curtis' residence. He calmly knocked on the door…there was no answer. Shin heard the grass crumple behind him; he rolled out of the way just in time to avoid an attack from behind.
It was Izumi! She chuckled and cracked her knuckles, "You're quicker than you look! And your perception of sound is quite impressive!"
"That's some welcome you got there." Shin said sarcastically. He looked around, "So where's the dojo?" he asked. "I thought we were training? And how long is this training going to take?"
Izumi cracked a light chuckle. "We are training! As for the length, it's one month."
"One month?" Shin snapped. He had a serious report he had to disclose to Mustang and Gould and this training would be severely cutting into that time. The band of five's trail could have gone cold by the time he was done! Shin shook his head. It doesn't matter. After that encounter with Blade, I'm lucky to be alive! I'd really hate to see what the other four would do to me…
"Is that a problem?" Izumi asked crossing her arms.
"No, Sensei." Shin said respectfully.
"If you can best me in combat, then you are more than capable to proceed on your own." Izumi cracked her knuckles again. "Now, come at me!"
Shin swallowed hard, despite what he had learned in Amestris and fighting experience back in his own world; he knew he was going to have his ass handed to him. Shin rushed Izumi throwing a punch at the side of her face.
Izumi gracefully dodged the blow as if it was moving in slow motion. She countered by throwing Shin over her hip onto the hard ground. "You're form is off!" She beckoned to a battered Shin, "How the hell are you supposed to hit anything if you aren't balanced!"
Shin got up and rubbed his lower back; he defiantly bruised it after going down like that.Shin took in consideration on what Izumi said about his form. Before rushing her again blindly he focused his energy and tried to throw another punch while following through with his body. He still missed.
Once again Izumi countered his blow, but this time she kneed him in the stomach knocking the wind right out of his lungs. "That was better!" she said to Shin, who was now trying to get air back into his lungs. "Keep it up, you followed through this time!" Shin scrambled to his feet readying himself for his next attack. This went on for hours before Shin finally collapsed; it hadn't been a total waste though Shin learned that day that brute strength wasn't always the key to victory, especially if your opponent knows how to fight back. Izumi let Shin stay at her house after deeming him worthy of being her student, Shin met with Izumi's husband, Sig and her assistant, Mason. After a good dinner Shin made his way to his room and crashed on the bed falling asleep.
Shin readied himself the next morning as ate a light breakfast Mason had pre-prepared less than an hour before Shin woke up. Shin heard Izumi calling him outside so he walked out the front door assuming Izumi had a task for him. He closed the door behind him and when he turned around he ducked just in time to avoid a throwing knife. "Whoa!" he exclaimed trying to get his bearings as he scrambled to his feet.
"Today we will be working on improving your reaction time! Judging by that quick dodge I think you might get out of this test unscathed." Izumi said readying a throwing knife in the webs of her hands.
This woman is insane. Shin thought to himself. I'm doing to die here if I don't pick it up! Then again…If Edward and Alphonse made it through training like this…then why can't I? Shin dodged another blade it embedded itself in the tree behind him. Izumi began throwing the knives faster and made them less predictable where they were going to be. Shin managed to dodge all of them, but the last two which grazed his left leg drawing blood from his torn pants.
"Nice work, Shin." Izumi said, clapping her hands. "You made it through the first two days!"
"Thanks." Shin said, trying to get the blood to stop flowing out of his wound.
"I should warn you, it's only going to get harder from here." She paused, looking at Shin's wound. It wasn't deep, but he would have to get it looked after to prevent infection. "You can back out any time, you know. I won't think any less of you."
"No!" Shin said sharply. He fixed his tone before continuing, "I need this…more than anything."
Izumi admired Shin's determination to be the best. She helped him inside and took care of his wound. Then went back outside for a couple more hours of reaction timing before it started to get dark again and Shin went to sleep.
Training continued throughout the whole week pushing Shin's abilities to the very limit. The worst was endurance training which Izumi put a twist to. She crafted identical garments that Shin wore and switched them before he woke up. When he began to train he noticed that his clothing was at least twice as heavy as before, Izumi quickly filled him in on her secret and said he was to wear them every other day to give his body time to recover.
More than three weeks had past. When Shin woke up on Monday morning he was told by Mason to meet Izumi outside of Dublith to continue his training. Shin met Izumi where she instructed him to, right outside the city of Dublith.
"Its regular training today Shin, but with a twist!" Izumi said.
"Twist? What kind of twist?" She asked, slightly perplexed.
"You'll find out in a second." Izumi said, motioning for Shin to make the first blow.
Shin had gotten better at predicting Izumi's movements now, while he still wasn't able to land a hit on Izumi because of her remarkable perception and unwavering defense…he could at least see her moves and prepare for them accordingly. Shin charged Izumi with a right hook and swiftly disengaged before Izumi could counter, he tried to sweep her legs from under her, but she jumped over his legs and countered with a left hook. It connected with Shin sending him backwards.
Clap!
Shin recognized that familiar sound. Alchemy! He thought. I was wondering when she was going to turn it up! Shin looked back to Izumi who now had her hands pressed on the ground she send a stone wall out from the ground out at Shin. Shin quickly jumped on the slab of stone and slid down it using the momentum to increase his speed. He tried to close line Izumi, but she dodged his attack yet again clapping her hands in midair she dragged one hand across the ground summoning a sword into her left hand. Crap! Shin thought. Frantically looking around taking in consideration the angle which Izumi might attack at; he back peddled quickly knowing that any other direction would be a death sentance. Izumi quickly closed in on his retreat and slashed at Shin who managed to dodge a few critical swipes of the sword. He was at a serious disadvantage here he would have to disarm her, or use alchemy to counter her own. Shin dodge a couple more blows narrowly avoiding a deep laceration above his left knee. Izumi's attacks became much more faster and ferocious as Shin struggled to keep up with her attacks. Is she actually trying to kill me? Shin thought as his mind raced. Shin dodged a couple more blows, but was pushed back, and by the time he saw Izumi again she already was on top of him. He had only seconds to react to this attack; he thrust out his left hand against the force of the blade causing it to snap in two.
Shin clapped his hands making his own sword from the ground and went after Izumi with a flurry of strikes. She narrowly dodged each of the strikes, but Shin saw an opening in her defenses and broke the strikes with a swift side kick to the ribs. Izumi was pushed back a great deal and left trying to get air back in her lungs. Shin dropped his guard and his sword. "Shit! Sensei, are you alright?" he said running her side.
Izumi shrugged off the pain and got to her feet. She readied to attack when she dropped to her knees and began to vomit blood all over the ground. She collapsed shortly after almost unable to move at all. Shin panicked, he put Izumi over his shoulder in a 'fireman's carry' and hurried her back to the house. To Shin's great surprise Sig was already waiting outside ready to receive Izumi.
"I knew that one of you would be coming back like this," Sig said opening the door. "Either you bested by Izumi, or Izumi collapsing from her illness."
The next morning Shin woke up to Izumi sitting down on a chair close to the door. "Izumi! What are you doing up?" Shin asked. "You should be resting!"
"I'm fine, Shin, you can trust me on that. This happens regularly when I get too worked up." She paused, looked at Shin's left arm she could see the automail clearly now. "You saw it too didn't you?" she asked.
Quick flashes from the Portal of Truth flashed before Shin's eyes; they always ended with the same horrifying grin from Truth himself. The last words from Truth boomed inside Shin's head making him cringe noticeably. It's a fair trade, no? "Yeah." Shin finally responded. "I saw it as well."
"You damn fool!" Izumi snapped. "Why in the world would you go through with human transmutation?"
Shin clenched his automail fist. "It's not like that!" he snapped. "It's different! You probably wouldn't believe me anyways."
"Try me."
Shin explained his situation he was in to Izumi. Word for word with no exaggeration, down to the very last detail he could remember himself watching the board light up before his very eyes, but still unable to remember what came after. "So that's basically it. That's the truth, I swear it."
"Well." Izumi said, crossing her legs. "I don't envy your position, but at the same time you're story sounds a little far-fetched if anything. Then again, how would I know?"
Shin paused. "Sensei, you can also transmute without circles as well. Did you commit the taboo like Alphonse and Edward?"
Izumi flinched and paused. "Yes, I did. Years ago after Sig and I got married, I got pregnant. However, I grew fatally ill during the final week of the pregnancy and I gave birth to a stillborn. In hysteria and grief I tried to bring my baby boy back from the dead. The transmutation failed of course, and as punishment for my own mistake I was robbed of my reproductive organs. A rebound from the transmutation."
"I had no idea…I'm sorry, Izumi."
"Don't be. You're in a worse position than I am." Izumi responded. "You lost an entire arm, and was thrown into a different world than your own; with no apparent way of getting back."
Shin chuckled catching Izumi off guard. "I can't say that this arm doesn't have its benefits. And clapping to make transmutations sure comes in handy, but I wouldn't want to stay like this forever. There was a long eerie pause before Shin started up again. "How long have you known?" Shin asked beginning to show a warm smile. "My arm…how long have you known it was fake?"
"Ha! Since the first day we sparred! I could tell when I threw you on your back that first day."
Shin got ready and met Izumi outside once again. He had this weird feeling in his gut, something was telling him to give it all he had got today. Because today he felt like he could win; the two martial artists squared off in the yard ready to fight. Shin sprinted from his position, he felt faster all of a sudden like the wind was traveling underneath his legs accelerating him forward. He rushed Izumi yet again who had trouble dodging his attack amazing on how fast he had gotten all of a sudden. Shin body checked Izumi then followed up with a flurry of punches which she managed to block, she countered one of Shin's blows and attempted to off balance Shin, but he pushed her forward. Izumi rushed Shin this time, he could see her blows clearly now. He blocked a few misdirecting the blows off the side of his body and grabbed one of Izumi's punches out of the air. Izumi broke Shin's grip and disengaged from close combat. For the rest of the week Shin and Izumi were on part in terms of combat.
For the final day of his training Shin was instructed not to wear his weighted clothing. He joined Izumi on the outskirts of Dublith once again, this time Sig was standing by to help the loser. The battle scars from the furious bout weeks ago still remained etched across the land.
Izumi got into a fighting pose, "Alright, Shin. This is it. Don't hold anything back!"
"Right! Here I come!" Shin said, bolting off from his position. Without his weighted clothes Shin felt as light as a feather, Izumi's training was indeed awkward at first, but he began to understand how it was working. Shin let out a whirlwind of punches easily making them dodgeable for Izumi; the easy punches were part of his plan to give her a false sense of security. He proved his point by landing a roundhouse kick on Izumi sending her flying back across the ground. She picked herself quickly and transmuted a sword from the ground and rushed Shin while at the same time transmuting a stone wall in front of him blocking his path. Shin knew better and jumped over the wall as it was forming, on his way down he used the wall to transmute a sword of his own and engaged Izumi in close combat.
The blades clashed against each other seeming to cry out after each clash. The two were evenly matched in swordplay and a final connection of the swords caused them to break under the tension. Shin head-butted Izumi knocking her off balance, he used this opportunity to end the match. He knocked the wind out of her, followed up with an uppercut, a left hook, and then finally threw Izumi through her own stone wall causing it to break apart when she came flying out through the other side. Izumi struggled to get up, but Shin was already over her; his eerie tall figure menacing over her. Izumi laughed to herself, "I think you've won, Shin."
"Have I?" he asked, quite skeptical.
"No, for real this time. I can't move and you've broken at least three of my ribs." Izumi said, carefully inspecting the left side of her body. "How are you holding up? That was quite a beating you took."
Shin just realized he had being so focused on beating Izumi he completely forgot about his wounds. He had a laceration above his right knee and a dislocated thumb on his right hands. He also had a light cut across the left side of his head from the blade fight. He popped his thumb back into place, shaking his hand out at the pain then offered his left hand to Izumi. "Thanks." She responded taking his hand. "I neglected to mention something." Izumi said limping as she walked supported by her husband. "The training you underwent…that the most rigorous training I could think of. Something I devised up myself, not even Edward went through training like that. I specifically designed it to train the person not to lose focus under extreme situations." She paused then laughed sharply, the pain in her ribs spiked her. "Of course don't tell Ed I said that."
"Ha, you got it!" Shin said as he opened the door for Sig. He climbed into bed and got a good night's sleep, in the morning he would have to depart back to Southern HQ to give a full report on the events in Weom and his absence from duty.
Shin's body ached the next morning as he woke up. He ate a quick breakfast; he could hear the faint snores of Sig and Mason and knew they would be awake soon. After eating Shin made his way out the front door, and slowly closing it behind him trying not to make any noise. Today Shin wore his weighted clothes and carried his regular ones inside a small bag, he had left his suitcase back in Rush Valley at Treize's house to he would have to stop by there to get it; if he had put the weighted clothes in the bag it would have torn off the paper handles of the small bag.
"So you're leaving now?" Izumi said, sitting on the grass looking into the sunrise.
"Yeah, I'm heading out." Shin walked by Izumi and rested his left hand on her right shoulder. "Thank you for everything, Sensei; it's been quite an honor learning under you."
"Izumi." She said quickly. "Call me Izumi from now on. You are no longer my student."
Shin smiled, "Sure, Izumi." He started to head off in direction of the train station of Dublith but stopped for a second. "I might be coming back around here if I get rusty again. I trust you will ready to face me again?" he asked, not turning from his direction.
Izumi laughed, "You can count on it!" she said happily. "I'll be more than happy for a little rematch, you've proven to me that I still be beaten in close combat." She paused for a second. "You're alchemy's also top notch as well; I doubt there's any more I can teach you. The rest you'll have to learn on your own. Exactly the way I did."
"Trust me. I've got quite a bit of practicing to do!" He looked towards Izumi and nodded his head. "Thanks."
Shin was early for his train by the time he got to the station. He didn't have to wait long before it came rolling into the station. The train passed through the small towns of Awbeziz and Ydfuxlukya before it made it to South City. When it arrived Shin quickly disembarked the train and went to Southern Command, he was thinking he probably should have called before he showed up. He walked past the reception desk and down the hall to Gould's office; he pushed open the door without knocking to find Gould sitting at his chair. The same sharp glare from his first time here was still present on his face right now.
"Welcome back, Shin Maxwell. How did the mission in Weom go? I hope you still remember the details of the mission."
Shin could tell he wasn't pleased, although, he did a good job of hiding any sort of body language or facial expressing giving away his mood. "Of course I do, sir." Shin began, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a few notes etched on a blank paper, notes he had taken from the warehouse in Weom he showed them to his slightly aggravated CO. "I made these notes directly off a dossier inside the warehouse you set me in." Shin continued flipping the paper over, "If you look on the back here, I drew a very rough sketch of the diagram I saw. It's some sort of plan organized by five ring men." Shin paused. "I had to kill one of them."
Gould looked at Shin then back at the papers. "You finally got a kill, good work, Maxwell. I knew you had it in you." He smiled. "If you were killed this mission would have been handed down to someone much less competent as you. We might have had to scrub the whole slate clean." He folded the papers in half and walked over to his desk placing them underneath a black pen. "But, since you're alive and kicking I guess we'll have to shelve this case for now. We have more pressing matters to attend to."
Shin's face tightened, "What?" he asked. "Why shelve it? We could get to the bottom of this!"
"It's not my call, Shin." Gould frowned.
"But sir, just let me continue my investigation. I promise I will be subtle! Just please—"
"That's enough, Maxwell!" Gould sharply interrupted. "Don't argue! Just be quiet…be quiet and obey."
Shin recoiled. He didn't like where this was going, but Gould had a valid point. There was no facts in play other than what Shin had put together and to continue this investigation would use up time and resources. But that wasn't the point. Something was troubling Gould, Shin could sense it inside of him; not knowing what it was bothered him the most.
Gould cleared his throat, "I hear you're working with the Fullmetal Alchemist. From what I've heard from Central he's gone up North." Gould slumped down in his chair crossing his legs before he spoke again. "Bring a jacket, it's brutally cold up there." He paused yet again, "Take care of yourself, Shin. Dismissed."
Shin snapped a salute to his CO and went to the barracks to collect his things. He boarded the next train and was back off to Rush Valley. Shin gritted his teeth on the train, still furious about the outcome of his covert operation. He was almost killed and the best excuse he got was putting a 'yield sign' on the operation. The train got a move on; Shin sat patiently in his seat eagerly waiting to arrive in the Rush Valley Terminal.