"Well, this is interesting~ Such a young alchemist coming to visit me! You will be learning so much for the sake of your life in this world, and now I must send you to another. How interesting!" the shadowed void spoke, somehow smiling at him.
Edward looked around, dazed and confused. "What? Where am I? Where is Al?" he asked, eyes squinted as he looked at the blinding white that surrounded him.
"Your brother is still at your home, paying the price for his share of the knowledge you both were seeking~" the blank figure said with what sounded like excitement.
"Paying his share of the price? What does that mean? All the ingredients were there!" Edward yelled, finally remembering where he had left off; what he and his brother had been doing. There shouldn't have been any problems. All their measurements were correct, and they had slaved over making sure their transmutation circle had no flaws.
"Not quite, young alchemist." the void said, his annoying smile turning into a condescending smirk. "You would have been able to make a blank body, but what do you think the price is for giving it life? A soul?"
Edward froze, his face showing his horror. "Am… am I dead?" he asked, his heart sinking as the weird figure started to laugh.
"Oh, you silly little alchemist! You aren't dead! But you are part of the exchange; a part of the payment. Too bad I can't hold onto your soul and body here. I will have to put it somewhere else for the meantime."
Behind him, a large gate opened, black tendrils snaking out and wrapping around him with a vise grip. "What? A different world? What are you talking about?!" he yelled, his voice breaking, struggling to fight against the shadows pulling him into the gate.
"You have been used as payment, all of you belongs to me! But I can't keep you here, young alchemist. The payment taken from one world can't be stored in the same place, nor can it be stored here. You must go somewhere else! But do be careful, young alchemist. Even if you belong to me, you can die. A pity that what is given to me can't last forever," the being said, a fake pout shadowed onto its face. "Try to make the most of the knowledge that you paid for!"
Before Edward's vision went black, the gate closed in front of him and knowledge was shoved into his brain, the pain excruciating. He saw why it didn't work, why they couldn't bring her back with what they were trying to use in exchange. He saw it all. And then he didn't see anything.
When Edward first became aware that he wasn't in the void anymore, he was standing in the middle of an alley, the sun peering down at him to show that it was midday. Looking away from the sun, he looked left and right at both openings to the alley before walking towards the one with less traffic, hoping that that would be enough to gather information without creating some kind of confrontation. When he was able to actually see the people walking passed him, however, he froze, his eyes widening in shock.
It looked like there had been some kind of mass alchemical accident. But they couldn't have all been actual chimeras, could they? From what Edward knew, tring to mix an animal with humans was against the law, and yet right before his eyes he was seeing humans with some kind of animal traits. He saw scaly skin, tails, clawed hands and so many more bizarre sights. But that didn't explain how he was seeing people with extra eyes, blue skin, and water for hair? His head started to hurt at the strange mix of people in front of him.
He didn't know how long he stood there, watching and taking stock of all the different things happening in front of him. Eventually though, he was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of a door opening. One of the buildings he was in between had a door that led to the alley, and he watched someone throw a box into the dumpster. When the door had closed again, Edward decided to see what was thrown out. He was scared, and overwhelmed, but his body was falling into a numb state of survival. Maybe he could find something useful there?
Winry would have made fun of him if she saw how he was rifling through a trash can. But in reality, he found some pretty useful stuff. There was a bag that looked like it was missing a handle, but it still had one to spare, so he didn't pay it any mind before using it to store anything else of use that he was finding. And really, this one was a bit of a gold mine. He wasn't sure why these had been thrown out, but the box that had gotten his attention originally was full of individually packed pieces of bread and other baked goods. He had no way of knowing that they had been thrown out because they reached the end of their sell by date, even though they hadn't actually gone bad yet. It was almost like he was being given a floatation device to deal with the ocean he had been thrown into.
Still in a state of shock, he was falling back on the skills he had learned by being deserted on that small island for alchemy training with his brother. He had figured out the food, and now he just needed water and shelter. With wide, blank eyes, he braved going out of the alley and onto the sidewalk. He got some weird looks, considering he was a kid walking out and about in the cities during school hours, but he didn't pay them any mind. He was still busy seeing all the different ways people were standing out. That one had swirls for eyes, and he had to look away when looking at them had started to make him dizzy.
Edward probably walked for an hour before a familiar word caught his eye on the side of a building. It read 'Library'. Maybe his search for water and shelter could be put on hold until he found out a bit more about where he was?
Luckily for him, inside the library was somewhere that he could drink as much water as he needed from a fountain. After that, though, he was a bit lost. How was he supposed to look up something that he didn't know the name of? Standing in the middle of the large opening that was before the rows and rows of shelves, it wasn't surprising that someone finally approached him.
"Is there something I can help you find, kiddo?"
When Edward looked to see who had spoken to him, he was met with the sight of a young man that didn't seem to have any extra appendages or some kind of unnatural colors anywhere. He looked like someone that he could find in his old world, and at that point, that was also something that stood out to Edward.
"Kid?" the stranger asked, trying to get his attention.
Blinking, Edward met his eyes, about to say 'no', before realizing that this was his best chance to get answers. But how to ask them without sounding crazy? "Uhm, actually, I was in an accident a while ago and I am having a hard time remembering things. Can you tell me why people have…" he stopped, trying to think of a way to word it, but in the end he gave up and decided to be blunt. "Why do people have tails and stuff?"
It was the young adults turn to look confused. "You mean quirks? You forgot what quirks are?" At Edwards nod, he slowly started directing him to a back corner. "That seems like a weirdly specific thing to forget about, but… this area should have everything you need." he said, leading him into a section labeled history before stopping by a shelf with what seemed to be multiple books about the origin of quirks. "This should have all the information you need. If there is anything else you need help finding, I will be at the front desk."
Edward nodded in thanks before getting to work.
The rest of his day was spent pouring over books about quirks, which was apparently just a phenomenon that gave people what sounded like impossible abilities or body alterations. When he felt like he had a basic grasp on that, he moved on to other history that he could find. He focused on the advancement of science when he couldn't find anything about alchemy. He then learned what this world looked like, where he was in it, and about other large advancements made by man.
By the time the library closed, Edwards' head felt cotton-filled. He was still in a numb state, but knew that he needed to find shelter. He could go back to the library the next day for more water, and he still had plenty of trash bread even though he had eaten a sizable dent throughout his study session.
He wandered in a manner that seemed aimless, but in reality, he knew that his best bet of finding an empty shelter was to go towards where the least amount of people were. In the end, he was right. He wasn't sure what it was once used as, but eventually he found a large, busted and dirtied building that was devoid of both furniture and walls. The floor was hard concrete, the windows were all broken, and there was garbage strewn about, but he didn't have any energy to care about any of it. All he did was go to the least dirty corner and huddle into a ball, falling asleep almost instantly.
When Edward woke up the next day, it was like all the cotton and fog had been lifted from his head. He was finally registering all the information he had gotten the day before, as well as the fact that he was in a new world. His body tensed, and even though he tried to hold them back, tears started to roll down his cheeks in fat droplets. It wasn't fair. They had just wanted to bring their mother back, but now Edward was without even his brother. He was all alone in a scary world that he should never have had contact with.
At some point, Edward ran out of tears, leaving him with sticky cheeks and feeling worse for wear. His head hurt, and his body was stiff from sleeping on the hard ground. He needed a better shelter. His heart was still heavy, but if he wanted to get back to his brother, his first step was to survive, no matter how hard that would be.
He started with altering his shelter. The broken windows had left Edward cold, and he didn't want to get sick by not keeping himself warm at night. Looking down, he lightly ran his hands across the concrete that he was sitting on before clapping his hands together and putting them on the ground once more. On either side of him, the ground warped until he had made a stone dome for him to stay in at night, complete with a little half circle entrance. Taking off his backpack and leaving it in his hut, he was about to crawl out before a voice stopped him.
"Excuse me? Did you make that with your quirk?" When he had scrambled back inside, the voice rushed to reassure him. "Oh, no, don't worry, I won't report you for it! I was actually wondering if you could make one for me too?"
Edward hesitated for about a minute before poking his head out slowly, looking at her with his golden eyes. To his surprise, it was a middle aged woman who appeared to be pregnant. Her clothes were dirty, and she looked far enough along to pop, but she was still smiling at him as if to say that he could trust her.
"Your quirk is pretty useful for this situation, huh? Being able to make a shelter like that. Is it some kind of element manipulation?" she said, trying to put him at ease with some friendly conversation.
"...my quirk is Alchemy?" he said, though the end lilted to a question.
Her gaze turned a little concerned. "Do you not know what it is registered as? Are you a late bloomer?"
Edward shook his head. "I, uh, I don't know? I can't remember much of anything. All I know is my name, and uh," he paused, brows furrowing to figure out how much he wanted to make up. In the end, he decided to go for a vague truth. "I remember that I don't have anyone to stay with."
A sad look came across the woman's face as she nodded in understanding. "That's okay, we don't have anyone to stay with either." she said, looking down and rubbing at her stomach. "That is why I was wondering if you would be willing to make another one of those little shelters?" Her voice turned hopeful.
Edward pursed his lips, not sure if he wanted to have another person staying so close to him. But he figured with how pregnant she was, he couldn't just leave her to potentially take help from someone with bad intentions. So, he crawled out and made another tent on the other side of the empty building for her.
That was the start of a small homeless community. Others showed up and asked if he could make them little huts too. He eventually gave up and started doing it without any fuss. What was most concerning to him, however, was that each time he made a hut, he started to get waves of dizziness, each time worse than the last. He had no way of knowing why, but he made sure not to let anyone see in case it was used against him later. After all, he may be helping people, but he wasn't naive enough to believe that no one would ever wish to harm him.
The only person he really talked to was the pregnant lady. She helped explain the world to him in a way that books couldn't; she was able to show the emotions behind the facts, and it helped him get a better picture of the world that he was now stuck in. Her name was Miharu, and she was homeless because she was kicked out of the home she had shared with her boyfriend, the father of the child she was carrying. When he had shown outrage at the idea, she had laughed.
"Quirks are amazing things, Edward, but there are many that have prejudiced opinions on what they see as 'evil quirks'," she explained, using air quotes at the end. "My quirk is what my ex defined as evil, and when I got pregnant, he wanted me to get rid of our child because he didn't want my quirk to get passed down to his child. I managed to get this far, but he suddenly decided that he would just disown our baby before it was born by having me leave. That is just one of many reasons that someone with a less desirable quirk ends up in this situation." she explained.
"What is your quirk, though? It can't be all that bad if I can't even tell what it is…" he said, wrinkling his nose.
"Hmm, maybe I will tell you another time." she said, before deflecting by showing him what she had found in an alley nearby.
His life in the small community continued for a couple weeks, the building still a place for people to come and go with a few making it a more permanent home base. He was still going to the library more days than not, Miharu willing to watch his stuff while he was gone so that he didn't have to keep everything with him. It wasn't like he had much to begin with, but he appreciated the gesture nonetheless. He continued to learn about this world, and would come back with questions for Miharu so she could put feelings behind the facts, and Edward was getting a better understanding after each trip.
At one point, someone new had come to their little safe haven, and with them came the police and an underground hero. He was average height, and honestly dressed like he could have been living there with them, with long dark hair and yellow goggles hanging around his throat. The others had warned Edward that if a cop or hero found him living on the streets, they would most likely try and get him into the foster system, so as soon as he saw the hero he had decided to try and sneak out. Miharu noticed, and she tried to subtly step in front of him and the small hole in the wall he was going for, hoping to hide his escape attempt. Sadly, the extra movement seemed to have the opposite effect.
"Where do you think you are going?" the underground hero said, and Edward heard him walking towards them.
"Run!" Miharu hissed, and Edward scrambled through the hole that he was just small enough to fit through, getting a few scrapes in the process. He didn't want to start somewhere new, but he knew it was better than being put in the system that Miharu had described. She had grown up in it herself, after all, and it did not sound like somewhere Edward wanted to be.
Edward started running as soon as his feet were flat on the ground, but the hero had somehow jumped up to the empty window and was already on the ground in front of him. "Is there a reason you feel the need to run, kid?" the hero asked, his hands in his pockets and a bored look on his face.
Edward scoffed, "Yeah, actually, it's called not wanting to be put in the system. I saw you eyeing me when you first got here. I'm not stupid," he said, crossing his arms and glaring. His mood was sour, frustrated that his somewhat comfortable place in the building beside them was no longer safe.
The hero raised his eyes, not expecting the kid to actually give him a reason. "And what is so bad about the system? It has to be better than living on the streets."
Edward wasn't fully sure how to answer. He knew that if he was to go into the system, they would try to find out where he had come from in the first place. Amnesia would only get him so far; he had learned that after someone gets a quirk, it was uploaded to a registry with his other personal info, but Edward wouldn't be in the registry. Not only that, but he just wouldn't have the same kind of freedom in the system as he had now; he didn't have to go to school, and he could focus on learning this new world around him and on how to get back to his brother. It just didn't fit in his plans.
"Depends on who it is; I just so happen to prefer it out here. Think ya could turn around and pretend you never saw me?" Edward said with a snarky grin. His body was coursing with adrenaline, and he hoped it would be as easy as talking the hero out of taking him in. Of course, things never went that well for Edward.
"Sorry, I don't think I can do that."
Edward nodded his head. "Right, in that case, I think I have to go." Without waiting for a response, Edward turned around and tried to run away in the opposite direction. Before he could get very far, though, his legs were tangled up in something- wait, was that the man's scarf? Did he just lasso me? What kind of cowboy bull-
"Don't make this any harder than it needs to be, kid. Just come with me down to the station so we can figure things out from there," the hero said, slowly walking towards Edward. Before he could get too close, though, Edward clapped his hands and put them on the ground. Blue sparks began to shoot out of his hands as the ground rippled under the hero, it warping up to wrap around his legs. Halfway up, the man's hair had started to float, but Edward didn't stop until the concrete was encasing his whole lower body, even though the transmutation left him with black spots in his vision.
Edward smirked at the confused look on the hero's face, even though he couldn't see the whole thing. "How does it feel to be all stuck?" he mocked, flopping his own tangled legs uselessly.
"How the hell did you do that?" the hero demanded, his gaze sharp.
Startled, it was Edward's turn to look confused. "Do what? Use my quirk?" he said, barely remembering not to call it alchemy at the last second.
"My name is Eraserhead, the Erasure Hero. To put it simply, my quirk turns off other people's quirks. Care to explain why it didn't work on you?"
"...shit."
