CHAPTER 11: CH'I
"My name is Ling Yao," the Chinese introduced himself, his voice echoing in the dimness of the large gym hall. "I'm just wondering one thing. Why do you have more than one soul within you?"
Al abruptly stopped any attempt on struggling his way out of the grip that held him plastered against the wall. Unable to keep his face expressionless, he knew by the look on his own face that it would be impossible to keep the truth hidden. His copper eyes had widened fractionally in shock.
How could this person possibly know?
The Chinese boy looked at him expectantly with a small smirk on his face, not making any sign of letting him off before he had an answer. Al forced himself to calm down. This Ling Yao had saved him from getting beaten up by those bullies, as embarrassing as it had been Al owed him. Besides, he didn't seem like a bad guy. But even if Al was a master of reading people, he found it hard to read the meaning of the expression on Ling's face. His eyes were still slanted closed, which made it impossible to see the real expression in them.
Al took a deep breath. "I'll tell you if you let me go."
Ling mulled it over for a moment before letting go of Al's arms and let him step away from the wall. "My apologies," he said. "You are new to this school, aren't you? I can't recall seeing you here before."
Alphonse nodded and regarded him for a moment. He was almost as tall as Alfons Heiderich, with long, pointy bangs and his hair in a long ponytail like Al had. "I moved here from Germany not long ago. Tell me… why did you bring me here exactly?"
"Because I knew no one would be here this late," Ling said. "And this is a little hush hush," he smiled. "Most people are pretty sceptical about these things. So, are you going to tell me the truth?"
"I can try," Al said cautiously. "But first I want to know how you know."
Ling kept smiling and crossed his arms. "Knowing things is my specialty. At least I try. Although, if you think I've met someone else like you before, that's not it. You're the only one so far. That is why you caught my attention."
"I guess that's good," Al muttered. "But I'm not sure you'll believe the truth nonetheless."
"Try me, I'm quite open-minded," Ling said blithely.
"You have to promise you won't tell anyone else," Al said, not even knowing yet what to tell the older boy.
What if he had a connection to Dietrich, Kimblee's parallel person? What if he wanted to use the information for the wrong reasons? But on the other hand, there had to be something unusual about him since he could know that he had more than one soul. Maybe he knew about alchemy?
Ling nodded and laid his hand on his heart. "I promise you, I will not tell anyone else. What's your name, my young friend?"
Al reached him his hand and Ling took it. "Alphonse Elric, but most people call me Al." He took a deep breath before adding: "I'm not really from this world."
Ling let go of his hand with an interested expression. "Not from this world, you say?"
"I'm from a place where alchemy was developed as a science, and I'm an alchemist," Al said. "Do you know anything about alchemy?"
"Alchemy is a legend," Ling said. "I've only heard of it."
Al was slightly surprised that Ling believed him this easily, but it made things a bit easier. Even if he knew he wasn't supposed to tell anyone about his old life, telling this person didn't seem wrong at all anymore for some reason. "There is a Gate connecting the worlds together. Inside it holds bodiless souls and one of them came with me to this world. That's why there's another soul inside me."
"So, he knows about me?" Schiller said, having decided to step out. "It even looks like he can see me."
Ling stared at Schiller's ghostly form standing next to Al. "I can both see and hear it."
How was that possible? Al was kind of happy that he wasn't the only one anymore. It sort of confirmed that he wasn't crazy. On the other hand it was pretty unbelievable. He hadn't imagined that there existed people like this in this world. But why not? Alchemy probably seemed as alien to them as fortune telling and the ability to see ghosts were to him.
"His name is Schiller," Al introduced. "He was a soldier in the war." He thought it was odd that Schiller could show himself like this here and now when Al wasn't by himself in his room or if he was upset.
"Um, hello Mr. Schiller, it's a pleasure to meet you," Ling said with a smile and bowed deeply.
"Hello Ling Yao."
"I have to admit, I've never seen anything like this before," Ling said cheerfully. "It seems like a completely new form of ch'i."
"Ch'i?" Al echoed.
Ling nodded. "In China, where I come from, we believe in a flow of energy that is the life force of everything that exists. The more we learn about both our own Ch'i and the Ch'i of others, human or nature, the more we can use it to get stronger."
"So, everything has its own energy?" Al surmised.
"That's right. Everything is connected," Ling said.
Al brightened up and stared at him. For once he felt that this world really had a lot of similarities to his own. All is one, one is all. Everything is connected. It was exactly what his teacher had used to say.
"When used right, certain types of ch'i can even save lives and used to heal both mental and physical wounds," Ling continued.
"Healing powers?" Al said eagerly. Alchemy could be used the same way! Ch'i seemed to have a lot in common with Xingese alchemy. Or maybe, ch'i was the energy, the very source, which made the existence of alchemy possible?
Ling nodded. "The question is which kind of ch'i to use in different situations. And everyone can't specialize in all kinds of ch'is, there are too many."
"What kind of ch'i are you specialized in?" Al asked, genuinely interested. This was amazing!
Ling regarded him for a moment, scratching his chin. "Well, Al. If you want to, I can show you. But the timing will be better right after school tomorrow."
"Okay?" Al looked at him, slightly disappointed. He wanted to know more!
Ling nodded pleased. "Come with me to my material arts class tomorrow then. I recommend it as an option for your multiple choice subject. Since it's an optional subject, anyone can join no matter what age and class."
Al nodded in wonder. "All right." That sounded like a good idea. It would be a good opportunity to keep himself in shape.
"Meet me here after school," Ling said as they left the gym hall and came back outside. "I'll see you then."
"Thanks, see you!"
Al hurried towards the school gate and looked around for Mei, but he couldn't see her anywhere. He hoped she had just gone home after what happened. Schiller had disappeared as well. With a thoughtful scowl, Al started on the way home, half-running. Alfons was probably done for the day too by now. What a strange day.
When he got inside the door, the smell of dinner met him and he immediately got into a lighter mood. Alfons stood by the stove, but turned to him and smiled as he heard the door close.
"Hey, how was your first day, Al?"
"It was okay," Al said and dropped down in a chair by the kitchen table. "My teacher didn't know that I was starting today, so he was a bit put out at first. But I think he's okay."
"That's good," Alfons said. "Dinner will be ready soon. I made stew."
"Awesome! How about you?" Al asked. "Did you get the job?"
Alfons chuckled. "Yes, before I even knew it. I found out that Mr. Cotton is actually the leader of the team, together with someone else called Goddard. I'm meeting with him tomorrow. Even if they work together, they have two separate working places. Goddard works in Auburn."
"Where is that?"
"Only about one hour away from Boston," Alfons said. "I might be working a bit over there as well sometimes."
"That's great though," Al said with a smile. "Working with rocketry is your dream, isn't it?"
Alfons nodded but his eyes traced off towards the wall behind Al. "Well, yes. At least it used to be." He smiled softly. "Now I'd probably settle with anything, as long as..."
... Edward could be here too.
"I see," Al said. He quietly stood up from the stool. "Let me know when dinner is ready, I have a lot of homework to do."
"Ten minutes," Alfons said. He smiled to himself, knowing Al wouldn't be able to keep track of time the moment he started working. "I'll knock and remind you."
"Thanks." Al brought his bag into his room and dropped it down next to the bed. Then he settled down by the desk without even touching any school books and started deciphering the codes from his father's notebook, hoping to find something he could use in the new array. He had to get it right the first time, given that alchemy only worked for some hours during full moon on the 21st of February. They both needed Edward back. He had even started to wonder if Alfons might need Edward more than Al did. He would never forget the look on his face the night Edward had last appeared, desperately asking him to get Edward back right away. Alfons had probably seen something awful. Al's fists clenched around the book and pencil.
It was all up to him, and he wouldn't let either Alfons or his brother down.
The next day, Tuesday morning, Al walked sleepily through the corridor of school to his locker, found his chemistry books and shuffled towards the classroom. He had barely slept at all last night. First he had spent hours caught up with solving the codes, then spent most of the night on the first English essay. He still had one more to write before Thursday, in addition to the History and Biology homework. He wouldn't have time to work on the array much more until Friday night.
He dropped down by his desk and stared dully straight forward, gaining a concerned look from his left. "Hi Alphonse," a girl's voice said in a light tone.
He shook out of his trance and stared at Mei – with the little panda on her head. "Mei! I'm sorry I just disappeared yesterday... Are you alright?" he asked, mildly concerned.
"I'm fine," Mei beamed. "I'm glad you didn't get hurt."
Al wondered how she knew that, when he remembered that she had brought out her tarot cards in the middle of the fight. "Uh, can I ask, what did the card from yesterday say? The one you picked during the fight."
Mei shrugged. "It said you'd be alright."
"Really?"
"Well actually," she said slowly, hesitating a little before continuing. "It showed the Prince of Wands."
That didn't really explain much. "But, how did you know something would actually happen?" Al asked, remembering her reaction as she looked at the card.
She shrugged. "I didn't. I just assumed it would." At least she was honest.
"Isn't that a bit risky?" Al asked. "Someday you might be in real danger, and what if you depend on the cards too much, you might pass the wrong judgement of a situation and get yourself hurt?"
Mei just smiled at him and gently lifted the little panda down from her head to hide it inside her sweater. "You don't have to be worried about me, Alphonse. The morning before you arrived, the cards told me I would meet a kind and tolerant person who would speak to me."
"But, what if I hadn't spoken to you if you hadn't given me your book," Al pointed out. "The fact that you got that card could've affected your decision to lend me your book. Your cards didn't tell you to share the book with me, did they?"
"No," she said, though she didn't seem put off by the implication. "I did that because you needed a book. You're overthinking this, Alphonse."
Al went silent as the teacher came into the classroom, and his jaw dropped as he recognized him. His first thought was to hide behind his book, when he remembered the person wasn't the same as in his world. Which was good...
"Good day, class," the parallel person of Brigadier General Carl R. Kiehle said with an awkward foreign accent. "Open your books on chapter six. You'll be given a test on Friday about the periodic table. You can find the full map of the table in the back of the text book."
The majority of the class moaned in dissatisfaction. Al flipped to the back of the book and studied the table of elements. This was completely his field, though the table in his own world had been a bit different. Though, he didn't think it would be much of a problem to get used to this one.
Next to him Mei beamed. "You like chemistry?"
Al looked up and shrugged modestly. He loved chemistry! "It's okay, I suppose." He looked up at the front of class at the teacher who had started scribbling an assignment on the blackboard with close to illegible handwriting. "Who is the teacher?" he whispered to Mei.
"Professor Kiehle," Mei said. "He moved here last year from Romania."
"Romania?" Al said.
"Yeah, I don't think it's very far from Germany where you lived," Mei said. "He used to teach at a University there."
Romania was the country where his brother had first met Alfons. He remembered Alfons telling him about that. "How is he?" Al asked a bit hesitantly.
Mei shrugged. "Okay, I guess. A bit dry maybe, but he's good at chemistry."
Professor Kiehle turned around and scanned the class with narrow eyes. "Oh yes, I see we have a new student here today."
Al straightened up a bit and met the Professor's eyes.
"You can call me Professor Kiehle," he said formally. "And what is your name, young man?"
"Alphonse Elric, sir," Al replied politely.
Kiehle's eyes narrowed at him and he took a few steps closer. "Elric? Where have I heard that name before?"
Al raised his shoulders into a civil shrug.
"You do remind me of a student I used to have back at the University in Brasov one year ago. He was a brilliant young man, Alfons Heiderich was his name."
Al smiled in pleasant surprise. "He's my half-brother, we look quite alike. If you know him, maybe you know my brother too. He went to the University with him."
"Ah, that must be it," Professor Kiehle acknowledged, his voice changing into spite. "Edward Elric, I remember that arrogant and foolish know-it-all. I sure hope you haven't inherited his ego, Elric."
Al blinked in light shock. Until now, this man hadn't had anything in common with the other man called Kiehle, but as soon as he had mentioned Edward, it was like pushing the cruel cold-heartedness-button.
"There's an assignment for you at the blackboard, everyone," Professor Kiehle barked. "Get started. You will do it individually so there will be no reason to talk. Hand it in after class."
Eventually Al got used to the new teacher, but felt a bit edgy as he handed in the paper by the end of the class, especially because of the 'I expect a lot from you-look' he received from Professor Kiehle.
Mei met up with him outside by the lockers, smiling brightly as always. "It's funny that Professor Kiehle knows your brothers!"
"Yeah," Al mumbled. And of course his brother had to go and get on wrong terms with their common teacher so he could let it out on him.
"I'll be looking forward to censor this so I can see if you live up to your name," the professor had said before waving him off. If analyzing that sentence, it was kind of a compliment to his brother, Al figured, even if the professor didn't seem to want to acknowledge him.
"Did you live with your brothers in Romania at that time?" Mei prodded curiously.
"No, I lived with my grandma," Al said, feeling edgy again.
"In Germany?"
"No, that was somewhere else. London." Al didn't want to, but he figured he should keep to the same story Alfons had cooked up long ago so he could keep track of what he had told people. But still, he hated lying. Besides, if Mei could use tarot cards like that, would she know that he was lying to her?
"Oh, you seem like you've travelled a lot," Mei said as she opened her locker and brought out her geography book.
"I don't feel like I have," Al said. "I haven't seen that much of the world yet."
Mei closed her locker door and beamed. "We're travelling to Africa today in Geography class."
Al chuckled. "That is definitely a place I haven't been before."
"Me neither," Mei said. "But I imagine it's both nice and terrible."
The next two hours were spent in the classroom listening to Mr. Redman talk about Africa. Al found Geography almost more interesting than any other subject, because it was one of the things he didn't already know that much about. After the class was over, he wanted to travel to Kenya and just explore the new wild territory.
The last class for the day was gymnastics, and he went with Mei to the gym hall where he had been taken to by Ling Yao the day before. They went to each of their locker room, and Al wished slightly that he had gotten to know some of the other boys from his class already. He made sure to stay away from Brad and his friends as best he could and put his bag down on a bench next to brown-haired boy he hadn't talked to before.
"Hi," Al said.
"Hi," the other boy replied. He was sitting finished changed on the bench and closed his eyes behind the glasses for a moment. "These days are too long. And putting gym last is just ridiculous."
Al changed into his shorts and smiled. "I'm Al."
"Jake." He looked at his watch. "One minute until class starts. I guess you haven't met the teacher yet. She's a tough one."
"I've had tough teachers before," Al said with mirth in his voice.
Jake stood up from the bench and stretched like he had just slept. "No one beats this one. If you get tired, she'll beat you up." He grinned. "She won't care if it's your first gym lesson."
They headed out the door of the wardrobe, into the large gym hall where Al had agreed to meet Ling the day before. Brad stepped past Al as they walked and purposely collided into his shoulder. Al staggered forward a bit and scowled at him.
"Watch where you're going, middle-schooler," Brad grinned. "This isn't a place for kids."
Al was about to come with a fitting reply when he was interrupted by an alarming flute. "Shut up everyone and gather around here!" a female voice shouted from the left.
As Al and Jake followed the other students to gather in front of the teacher, Mei joined his side. The teacher still held the flute readily against her lips and a ball under her arm. She was slender and beautiful, wearing a white outfit. She had long, dark dreads, gathered in a ponytail behind her head.
Al gasped a bit with wide eyes. He would never get used to seeing these people all the time...
"Keep quiet and get ready to run! We're warming up today with twenty laps around the hall. I will not tolerate any slackers. I don't teach weaklings!"
Some of the students straightened up a little in quiet obedience.
"I heard we have a new student here today!" the woman called out strictly. "Show yourself!"
The students next to Al automatically stepped a bit away from him, allowing him space to step forward. Most of the others were much taller than him so she never would've had a chance to even see him otherwise.
She regarded him with a narrow look. "What's your name, kid?"
"Alphonse Elric, ma'am," he said politely.
"Elric," the teacher acknowledged. "I'm Izumi Curtis, but you can refer to me whatever you wish. I hate formalities." She addressed everyone again. "When you've warmed up, we're going to play basketball, with no complaints! Now, get started!"
The students started on the rounds around the gym hall, Al jogging next to Mei and lowered his voice. "Uhm, how does basketball work?"
Jake heard the question and Al received a strange look from him, which almost made him surprised that he received no similar look from Mei.
"There are two teams, one ball which you throw into your opponent's hoop, you can't kick the ball and you have to bounce it in the ground while you run," she explained.
"How come you've never heard of it?" Jake asked.
"Uhm," Al said.
"Are you serious?!" Brad showed up behind them. "This kid doesn't know what basketball is? Have you lived in a cave or something?"
Al had a terrible feeling that he was supposed to know about that sport, no matter what country he was from, so he couldn't really blame the fact that he was from "Germany". Though, it did remind him of a similar sport in his own world, only that the name had been something else.
Brad chortled with glee. "I'm going to destroy you, Elric."
When they finished the laps, Al was so nervous he could hardly even stand. This world probably had a lot of things that was different from his own, and he was nervous about failing at things that were completely common to everybody else. It was a strange feeling, being this nervous, especially since he had been through far worse in his life than a simple ball game.
The teacher threw out some bands in blue and red. When they had been divided into a blue team and a red team (where Brad purposely made sure to pick a different colour than Al), the teacher blew her whistle and the game started.
Al used a couple of seconds to observe what all the others did as they played, while bouncing around for defence outside the mob without trying to fetch the ball. But it didn't seem too difficult, and his world did have a ball game that looked like it.
Jake caught the ball and bounced it forward towards the basket of the blue team, but got blocked by two of Brad's friends. He spun around, discovering Al from the side and threw the ball to him. Al caught it and continued bouncing it towards the end of the field, swiftly avoiding the defence and slipping past Brad underneath his arm. He reach the blue team's basket and tossed the ball up, the ball slipping easily into the hoop and scored the first point to the red team.
Al received some nice comments from his teammates and an ugly look from Brad, and the game continued. After a while, Al had helped the red team to score several points, and the blue team turned more and more grumpy. In general the two teams were equally strong though, and the blue team managed to score enough to keep up.
Al realized, running around like this, simply worrying about a ball, was the most relaxing thing he had ever done lately. He was fighting in a way that wouldn't get him killed, and he couldn't help enjoying it. He also noticed than being smaller than the others not necessarily was a bad thing in this case.
Al tossed the ball to Mei, observing that she kept passively away from the centre of the game, and as soon as she got the ball, Brad took the chance and snatched it away from her before scoring a point to the blue team, making the score equal.
"The next score wins the game!" Izumi announced.
The red team tossed the ball around each other and the blue team put up a defence. Brad kept close to Al, blocking his view on the ball with his height, and it would be difficult to get rid of him. Jake ran across the central line of the field, straight towards Brad who was blocking for Al, and bounced the ball down between Brad's parted legs. Al caught the ball behind Brad and set two quick strides forward before he tossed the ball into the hoop, scoring the winning points to the red team.
Izumi whistled the match as over, and the red team cheered for their victory. Al noticed some acknowledging looks from many of the class, and it felt surprisingly good. He felt more accepted than he'd been yesterday.
"Nice passing," he told Jake.
"Nice scoring," Jake replied.
"Good match, students!" Izumi acknowledged. "That's all for today."
Al smiled as most of the class turned to leave for the locker room. Brad didn't say anything to him, but the look he received might as well been a dagger thrown at him. Al was kind of glad that he didn't have to hit the showers yet. He would've been very uncomfortable being exposed like that around Brad.
"You're not going?" Mei asked him as he didn't make a move back towards the locker room.
"No, I'm staying for material arts class," Al said. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"All right, good luck," Mei smiled and then disappeared into the girls' locker room.
He sunk down on a bench by the wall with a sigh and wiped off some sweat from his forehead. The class had gone surprisingly fast.
"You're still here, kid?" Izumi said, stopping beside him with the ball under her arm.
"I'm waiting for someone," Al explained. "I'm thinking of joining the martial arts class."
"Oh really," Izumi nodded. "That's good. I think you'll fit well into that class." She smiled a crooked smile and then left for the locker room.
Not long after, the Chinese boy showed up in the gym hall, waving a hand while holding a pile of clothing in the other. "Hi there, Al! I watched the match for some minutes. Not bad!"
Al chuckled. "Thanks."
Ling stopped before him, his bright, slanted eyes in a constant beam. "So, are you ready for some real training?"
"For sure," Al nodded excitedly.
"Well, first you need to change," Ling said and threw the pile of white clothing into Al's face. "This is your uniform, for lighter weight."
Al held the clothing away from his face and regarded it curiously. It was light and silky white with small button straps at the side of the chest. "Thanks, I'll be right back." He hurried towards the locker room to change. To his small relief, Brad and his friends had already disappeared when he got there, so he changed undisturbed into the new outfit. He had never worn anything like it before. It felt more like a pyjama than a training uniform. He didn't have a mirror, so he had no idea if he looked good in it or not but that probably didn't matter anyway.
He went back into the gym hall and found Ling together with some other students who had turned up, already dressed in their white training outfits. There were rubber mats laid out all over the floor. The class wasn't very big, it seemed, as there was only around ten students attending.
"Alright, let's start!" Izumi Curtis called out, showing up again and the students turned to her. She had changed into a similar outfit. "Gather up in pairs! We have a new student today, which is terrific. I will pair you up with..." She regarded each student thoughtfully.
Ling stood with his arms crossed and smiled cunningly. "I'll be his partner, Teacher."
"All right, Yao," Izumi nodded. "But don't be too harsh on him on his first day, alright?"
"I won't," Ling replied cheerfully.
"First of all we're learning the Chinese type of martial arts called wushu," Izumi stated out loud. "And today we're going to get a closer feel of a secondary fighting style in wushu, called xingyiquan. Xingyiquan features contain aggressive, shocking attacks and direct footwork. The linear nature of xingyiquan hints at both the military origins and the influence of spear technique alluded to in the Chinese mythology. Despite its hard, angular appearance, cultivating soft internal strength is always essential to achieving power in xingyiquan, in other words your ch'i." She took a stance in front of the group on the mat, raising her hands straight forward and the students mimicked her. "Always breathe slowly and deeply. It's a form of meditation you'll need to get in contact with your ch'i. Follow my movements and feel your inner strength like a flow of energy within you."
Al could only think of alchemy. It was the main energy flow within himself he believed in. Often his old teacher had taught him and Edward that they needed to depend on their own strength more than alchemy, and not use alchemy for everything. Had that lesson something to do with this?
But if this wasn't the same as alchemic energy, then what was it?
After warming up, Izumi demonstrated some moves for them to practise on. "Go together with your partner and take turns on practising what I just showed you," she instructed. "Needless to say, there will be not thrown any real punches here, but there wouldn't be training unless someone got hurt. People who can't control their ch'i have no need to be here."
Al swallowed. He had never been nervous about a fight before, unless it had been with his old teacher, and yet here he was nervous about a training fight. Al stepped onto a separate mat he shared with Ling, at some distance from the other pairs. He had fought countless of men with the intention of hurting or murdering him, and he had always lived to tell the tale afterwards. But those fights worked in a different way than training. Still he had been good in sparring fights with his brother too, not only as a suit of armour, even if he was the younger one.
Ling brought his hands together, like a prayer, like Edward would do whenever he preformed alchemy. Al stared at him for a moment.
"First we bow," Ling announced.
"Oh, right." Al brought his hands together the same way and they both bowed deeply to each other.
As they straightened up, Ling spoke again. "I want you to come at me with your best shot. This will be a mere test round."
"Alright." Al took a stance on the mat and readied himself for an attack. Receiving a signal from Ling he shot forward with the intention to get in a few shots and proceed by dodging the counter-attacks. He was more used to dodging than starting a fight, and had to admit that he preferred a position of defence rather than an attacking position, even if defending was harder than attacking.
Ling dodged him, making him miss all the attack attempts and shot out a grip around his wrist with one hand, and around his forearm with the other. Before Al knew it he got swiftly flipped off his feet and landed on his back on the mat, while Ling was still holding his arm pointing upwards, freely able to twist it out of proportions if he liked.
Al stiffened and remained seated on the floor, not knowing what to expect.
"You're fast," Ling said. "But your fighting style is too blunt and messy. I could easily read you, though I can tell that you have experience in fighting."
Maybe he was a bit out of training after all. This wasn't exactly the same as avoiding an assault of an old drunkard. Al sighed. "I do, but I haven't trained in a while. And it wasn't the same style as this, I suppose."
"What style was it?" Ling asked.
"Uh..." Al said. His arm got released and he rose to his feet. "Another world-like?"
Ling laughed. "Really? No wonder then." He stepped back on the mat and went into a new stance. "I will do the first attack now. I need to see how you defend yourself."
Al nodded and readied himself. This was more his field. In the next moment Ling's hand shot toward his face like a bullet. Al twisted his head, but still felt the breeze of the movement against his chin. A leg came from the other side, like Ling had known exactly how he would move on beforehand, but in the last moment Al hunched down and ducked before the foot hit him. But now that he was down on his knees, he couldn't really defend himself properly. He lifted his right hand to meet the next blow, blocking it from hitting his face by meeting the fist with his palm. In the same motion he pushed himself up on his feet while trying to push Ling back. It worked, except that Ling was heavier and stronger and more skilled than him.
In the next second Ling had placed his foot around his knee and pulled him right off balance, gripping Al's arm before he was tackled backwards and before Al knew it the sharp air of Ling's other palm fell on his exposed throat as Ling stopped the strike only a few millimetres away from his gullet, like his hand was a knife ready to chop off his head.
Al didn't even breathe. He'd probably be dead if this had been a real fight. His eyes directed up at his opponent, feeling a bit awkward in the position, and the only thing preventing him from hitting the mat was Ling's grip around his arm.
"You do not really understand it yet," Ling said.
"Understand what?" Al managed. "I haven't fought like this before."
"True," Ling beamed and let go of him. "But you have some great potential."
Al sat on the mat with his legs crossed. "You mean ch'i is supposed to lead the fight, right?"
"Exactly," Ling said. "Let's try it again."
Al pulled himself up to his feet, determined that he wanted to understand this. For some reason, this seemed important. Ch'i had some sort of connection to alchemy and that was good enough for him.
Ling shot forward, gripped around his left arm to pin him to the spot and swung his left leg up against his head from the right side. Unable to dodge, Al barely even had time to block the foot swinging at him with his free arm, though it didn't help. He got brutally knocked over like a domino piece and ended up lying on his back, his arm aching after taking most of the blow.
"Ops," Ling muttered. "Maybe I got a bit carried away there. But that only means that I'm not underestimating you, right?"
Al pulled himself up on his feet again, rubbing his arm. "Yeah, appreciate it..."
Ling chuckled joyfully. "Have another go at me," he encouraged.
Al nodded and moved into a new flow of attacks with his hands while never standing still on one spot. The teacher had mentioned quick footwork, and he had noticed how Ling would always move to one of his sides to charge from a blind spot instead of coming straight on.
Ling held his fingers straight and got in some quick jabs at Al's chest and shoulders. Al winced, surprised by the pain of the light attacks. It was like Ling was consciously aiming for each and every spot he hit. He was getting his ass kicked! He tried to aim for Ling's beaming face, using it as a motivation to wipe it off of him, but Ling always found a way around his attempts.
Ling laughed merrily. "Focus on my ch'i. If you do that, you'll eventually be able to read my speed and movements."
"But I don't know how to do that yet," Al groaned. He had never tried to read another alchemist's abilities before either, even if many alchemists had one special skill. He had never thought of the possibility. Still, this wasn't exactly the same. Fighting wasn't the same as alchemy, but often he had combined the two in his own world. Edward had as well. It gave Al something to think about and gave him an idea.
"To tell you the truth," Ling continued, "reading ch'i isn't something everyone can do. But, I have a reason to think you might be able to, being that you're sort of a special case."
Feeling some new encouragement flushing through him, Al shot out his own arm, the right one, and pressed it against Ling's chest. Hoping his idea would work, he kept his palm there for a long second, closing his eyes and tried to visualize the invisible flow of energy within a human's body. It was like he had just clapped and felt the warm energy rush through his body, only that this energy came from someone else than himself.
Ling dodged away from his hand and wrapped his arm swiftly around Al's arm with his elbow, an efficient trick to pin someone's arm and then snap the bone. Al could see Ling's move playing off inside his head, even before it happened.
But knowing Ling would never actually break his arm even if he still could use the upper hand to throw him down on the mat again, Al thought fast and used the only trump card he had. He was left-handed. Ling had caught the arm he believed was the dominant one. He crouched down and shot his left hand up underneath Ling's cheek. His right arm was released as his attacked missed. Ling jumped away from him and sank into a ready stance a couple of meters away, while Al backpedalled to gather himself and gain back his breath.
"You're getting better at this," Ling complimented. "But it doesn't help to have a background of training if you're not used to read your opponent's ch'i properly."
"I know that," Al breathed, but felt his own eyes shine of excitement. "I'm not tired yet."
Ling watched him thoughtfully for a moment, a small smile on his face. "Could it be that you were able to feel my ch'i for a short while as you touched my chest? The source of ch'i is the heart, so the flow of energy is always strongest in that area."
Al nodded slowly. "I think I understand a bit better now."
"Yeah, not a bad discovery," Ling said. "Definitely an improvement. But you have to be able to feel the energy without touching your opponent as well. Once your opponent is aware of that, he won't let you touch him again during the fight." He beamed again.
"We'll see," Al challenged back.
The class went by all too fast and Al found it being his favourite class so far. They agreed on meeting again soon and train together. Ling had totally owned him by the second half of the session as well, and Al hadn't been able to read his ch'i. But he guessed he needed more than a day to learn to do something like that.
As he headed home he wondered if Alfons might be worried since he was so late. He had forgotten to tell him that the martial arts class was placed after his last subject on his time table. All the other days he ended school at half past three, but now the clock was almost six already.
He stepped up the stairs of the house, feeling tired and looked forward to eat and sleep. If he went to bed early, maybe he could get up a couple of hours earlier tomorrow morning and work on the array before school started. Then he remembered the English homework and inwardly groaned. When was he going to get more time to work on the array if he had to do homework all the time when he wasn't at school?
He stepped inside and closed the cold outside, and he found Alfons lying asleep on the couch with a book over his face. Al smiled and stepped out of his boots, carefully avoiding stepping into the melting snow that was falling off of them. He hung his brown coat up on a hanger and tip toed across the room so he wouldn't wake him. Alfons had probably had a tiresome day at work as well. Al stopped by the spotless kitchen counter. It seemed like Alfons hadn't made any dinner yet since he'd probably waited for him to come back.
Working quietly, Al started making dinner. He hadn't made dinner a single time since he and Alfons started living together, and figured that was hardly fair. Alfons had done a lot for him, despite how heartbroken he was, and Al hadn't even realized it in the beginning.
After a while, Alfons stirred awake by the smell of food cooking across the room. He put away the book with a low sigh and blinked at the light. "Al?"
"Yeah," Al said, answering by the stove. "You're hungry, right? I figured I could make it today."
"Oh, thanks," Alfons said in wonder. "How was school?"
"It was good," Al said. "I have a lot of homework, but I was attending martial arts class as an option. It was cool."
"Sounds fun," Alfons smiled.
"How was your day? You slept like a log there," Al noted, sensing that something might not be right. Alfons seemed a bit edgy.
"It was fine." Alfons sat up on the couch and rubbed his forehead. "I wasn't that tired when I got home, really. I just..."
Al stopped cutting vegetables for a moment and turned around to stare at him. "What?"
"I tried to... I mean, sometimes when I sleep I can..."
Al put the knife down on the counter and stepped closer to his doppelganger while regarding his sorrowful, blue eyes. "Were… Were you trying to contact Brother?" he asked carefully.
Alfons nodded. "I wanted to warn him... about showing up here. It sounds mental saying it out loud, but in my dreams we can somehow communicate. However, while his soul is here, his mind and body don't know what's going on. I thought I could tell him that... that we're getting him back soon and that he has to stay put. But, it is out of my control. I'm not able to decide when I can see him…" He looked down with a sad frown. He didn't mean to be so depressed around Al, but he couldn't help it.
Al smiled softly and sat down next to Alfons. "He already knows that."
Alfons let out a soft sound. "Maybe. But still, I wish I could tell him. I'm worried. He hasn't showed up anywhere since that night." What if something else had happened to him?
"It's only because of the Gate," Al reasoned. "It doesn't want him to connect to us, right? It's blocking him to separate us. In all other ways, Brother is fine."
Alfons lifted his gaze. "I've never missed someone as much as I miss your brother, Al. I can't even begin to explain how much I regret that I didn't listen to you from the first day we arrived this world."
Al went silent.
"But the next prime moon won't be wasted away," Alfons said.
"No, it won't," Al agreed, smiling mildly.
Alfons smiled as well, and felt an urge to hug Al. But he figured that might be a bit out of place.
He was silently amused and very surprised though, when Al moved closer and beat him to the rib crushing. Al's cheek rested against Alfons' shoulder and his arms wrapped tightly around his back. Slowly Alfons put his arms around the smaller boy's shoulders to hug back. He was yet again reminded of that even if Al and he weren't the same; they were still very much alike.