A/N: Just a quick thanks to everyone who reviewed. Thankies...
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or Shaman King.
ASecond Chance
Chapter 3: New Experiences
Sleep is a blissful thing, but unfortunately, it never lasts. Such was the case for our three travelers who were awakened by an incessant pounding on their door.
"Room-service," a cross voice called, penetrating through the door and into the quiet hum of the room.
Ed groaned. There was a reason that he was still in bed, and it certainly wasn't beauty. "Come back later!" he shouted grumpily. He turned over as he heard the woman outside their room leave. Retreating back into the warm depths of his covers, Ed shut his eyes again, but alas, he would not sleep any longer. Hao had gotten up and was moving around the room, not trying even the slightest bit to be quiet. He moved around in the room for a while doing various things before taking his toiletries and entering the bathroom, the door slamming shut behind him. Ed scowled and sat up, grumbling under his breath about people who had no consideration for others. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned and began to stretch as Al's spirit watched. Seeing Al still sitting in the exact same spot, Ed smirked. "How you doing down there?"
Al glared at Ed. "Just cause your taller now doesn't mean anything. It's only because I don't have legs anyway."
Ed just shook his head. "Now you know what it feels like." He began to get out of bed when he thought of something. "Oy, Asakura!"
The bathroom door opened and Hao came out, a toothbrush in his mouth and his hair dripping water.
"Since you're the one who got Al like that, could you tell him how to move? He'll be even more of a nuisance if he can't even move on his own," Ed said, paying no heed to Hao's annoyed expression.
Hao frowned in return. "Link him with your furyoku," he said around his toothbrush. With that, his head disappeared back into the bathroom and the door shut again.
Ed looked at the closed door blankly. "Furyoku? What the hell is that?" he growled, coming back to himself. However, despite his shouting, the bathroom door didn't budge. "Asakura!"
Silence.
"Damn it Asakura! Get your ass out here!"
When nothing happened yet again, Al sighed. "Let it go, nii-san. He'll come out sooner or later."
Ed scowled. "Fine."
A few minutes later, Hao came out. His hair was still wet, but no longer dripping water and his eyes had returned to their customary nonchalant look. When he noticed that the two brothers were in the exact same spots he'd left them in, he let out a sigh of his own. "Did it work?"
Ed glared at him. "Did what work?"
"Can he move now?" Hao elaborated.
Ed put on a fake smile. "Well…that depends."
"On what?"
And there went Ed's last nerve. "IF I KNEW WHAT THE HELL FURYOKU WAS, I WOULD TELL YOU! Unfortunately, I do not, so you'll have to deal."
Hao gave Ed an amused glance. "You don't know what furyoku is?"
If Ed had a gun, he probably would have shot himself at this point. Either Hao was extremely hard of hearing or he thought there was something funny about this. "Obviously not," Ed fumed, losing his patience (not that he hadn't already). "Would you care to enlighten us?"
Hao chuckled. "I am assuming, then, that you haven't heard of shamans either?"
"Oh of course. There are shamans all over the place," Ed said sarcastically, before blowing up again. "WHAT THE HELL IS A SHAMAN?"
Hao shook his head. And they call this a military. "Alright Elric, history lesson." Ed opened his mouth, but Hao cut him off before he could speak. "No, shut up and listen for once." When Ed shut his mouth abruptly, Hao smiled and continued, "So, you want to know what a shaman is. Well, a shaman is, for the most part, an improved version of a human. They can see the spirits of the dead and can link those spirits to themselves. Then, using this link and furyoku, which I mentioned earlier, the shamans are able to use the dead who haven't passed on for something called spirit integration.
"Now then, that being said, something to keep in mind: there have always been shamans. As long as there were humans, there were shamans. Humans and shamans come together like yin and yang, good and bad, light and dark, et cetera, et cetera. And every 500 years, a shaman tournament is held."
Ed snorted. "Right, and all the little shaman fight each other to become the best shaman in the world," he said, intending to be sarcastic, but realized he had failed when Hao replied.
"Exactly, and the winner of the shaman tournament earns the title shaman king." Seeing the incredulous look on Ed's face, Hao smiled. "You're lucky too. This year is the next shaman tournament."
Unfortunately for Hao, Ed was a bit slow on the uptake and still didn't believe Hao, despite the latter's serious tone. However, on the bright side, Al seemed to be doing just fine.
"Ano, Asakura-san…" Al began and Hao faced him. "What does that have to do with us?"
"Well, seeing as not everyone knows about the shamans and I do, that would have to mean that…" Hao trailed off, letting the two alchemist brothers piece the rest of it together.
Eventually, Ed responded. "So you're saying that you're one of those shaman people and you're in the shaman tournament so when we arrive at wherever you're from, we'll be attacked by other shamans?" He uttered the word shaman slowly, as if he was testing how it felt on his tongue.
Hao nodded. "Which is exactly why I can't travel with anyone who isn't a shaman or they might get killed."
"But we're not shamans," Al pointed out.
"Not yet, but as long as you're in that form, Ed can use you as a spirit. That way, you'll be fighting together and you might stand a chance against the other shamans, once you get used to it."
Ed was getting lost. "Right, whatever, but that still doesn't tell me what furyoku is or how I'm supposed to use it to get Al to move."
Apparently, this was going to take a while. Hao moved back over to his bed and sat down. "Furyoku is basically a mix of physical stamina, mental capability, and spiritual energy. For the most part, it's mana. When used by a shaman, furyoku increases the damage of attacks depending on how much furyoku is used and what it is used for."
"Great. And that shows me how to make Al move, how?" Ed retorted.
"It doesn't. However, truth be told, the only reason why Al can't move is because he's acting as one of 'my' spirits, so to speak, right now."
"Then why the hell don't you make him not your spirit?" Ed demanded.
"Because then he would just go back to the armor," Hao said, eyeing Ed calmly. "First, you have to learn how to do some level of spirit integration before I can let him go."
Ed frowned. "Then hurry up and tell me what to do."
Hao smirked. "Patience, Elric. Patience. Anyway, there's really nothing to tell. You have to figure it out on your own."
Ed blanched. He wasted all this time to tell me that? "What do you mean 'I have to figure it out on my own?' I don't even know what you're talking about," he shouted.
"Just open your body to him and you'll get it sooner or later." That was all Hao said before leaving the Elrics yet again, for breakfast this time. Sadly, despite the three hours that Ed slaved away at it, it would be later rather than sooner that he achieved actual integration. On the other hand, he did manage to link Al's spirit to himself so the younger Elric was able to move once again, but by the time Hao came back, Ed had long since given up on integration and moved on to less frustrating matters.
At the moment, Ed was looking through the packet of papers that Lieutenant Hawkeye had given him before they'd left. When he saw Hao, he put the papers away and got up. "About time you came back. We need to get to this Tokyo place or whatever as soon as possible, and now that you're back, we can go. So, where's this gate of yours?"
Hao was silent, his mysterious smile the only sign of emotion on his face. He glanced at Ed and then at Al, walked into the room, grabbed his luggage, and walked out.
Ed took that to mean Let's go and followed with his belongings, Al trailing behind in all his ghostly glory. Minutes later, they had checked out of the hotel and were out on the road. From there, Hao led the way, walking pointedly through the twists and turns of the alleyways as if he knew them as well as his own house. When he finally stopped, they were in the middle of a street. Children could be seen playing at one end and a small neighborhood rested at the other. There was no gate in sight.
"Ano…why are we stopping?" Al asked. "There's no gate here."
Hao sighed. "Obviously," he answered. "We have to open the gate." Without any further ado, he began to draw a transmutation circle on the ground. It was different from all the other ones that Ed had seen, but he could feel the pent up power surrounding the circle. When Hao's hands came in contact with it, everything around them lit up with the traditional blue light of alchemy, leaving nothing its original color. The bright cerulean intensified becoming a blinding white and their surroundings began to disappear into the vast expanse of light. Ed squinted to make seeing easier and barely made out signs of a gate with huge doors. The gate seemed to be moving towards them at an alarming rate and just when Ed thought they were going to smash into it, the doors flew open and they passed through without having to move a muscle. Ed turned around in an attempt to see what happened to the gate, but there was nothing behind him. Apparently, they had passed the gate and were no longer within sight of it. As Ed turned back around to face Hao, the light melted back into blue and eventually gave way to the colors of the scenery around them, scenery like none the Elrics had encountered before.
Huge buildings rose up in all directions and people bustled about around them. Cars honked crazily and voices filled the previous silence. The Elric brothers gaped at the city around them in wonder and Hao smirked.
"Welcome to Tokyo."
A/N: Sorry, this chapter was rather uneventful. (Is the story moving to slow?) I'll try to update soon to make up for that. Speaking of updating, I'm going to try to update once a week, but I can't guarantee that it will happen. I might get bogged down with homework or tests or other stuff so yeah…anyway, please review.
