"Fury?"

"Colonel! Aren't you at that training school?"

Roy sighed. "Yes, Fury, I am. Unfortunately, our plane blew up and we need a ride home. I also want you to send a skilled alchemist, because the school's combat hall blew up too, and we need someone to fix it."

"Why don't you fix it, colonel?"

Roy glared at the phone. "Because I'm only good with fire, Fury. Not building."

"Sorry, colonel! I'll send a jet right away. Expect it in two to three days."

"Right. Thank you, Fury."

"No problem, colonel."

He hung up. Roy gently set the phone back on its cradle and looked at Cynthia. "We're out of here in two to three days, at the max. For the time being, we'll need two or three spare rooms."

"What do I look like, a lapdog?" Cynthia protested. "Ask the school personnel."

"What ever happened to being 'cute and cuddly?'"

"Cute and cuddly… Oh, please. Go FRY yourself."

"That's harder than you think, you know."

"Shut up."

A piece of paper was shoved into Roy's face. "What's this?"

"A tardiness slip. You held my up for swordplay, and now I need a written late slip."

Roy scribbled his name on the line. "There…"

"Thank you. Enjoy your stay, Colonel." She spun around and went back to the broken combat hall to retrieve her halberd.

"She'll be harder to turn than I thought…" Roy muttered. "However, not as hard as Hawkeye."

Roy leaned on the doorframe, watching the swordplay class. Inuyasha, as usual, had the class get with their sparring partners and practice. Roy was very interested in Cynthia and that Edward boy. Cynthia had been forced to change weapons, and when she came back from the armory, Roy was surprised at her choice. The blade was long, and curved, resembling a pirate's cutlass. In fact, Roy was pretty sure it WAS a pirate's cutlass.

He watched the two spar for a moment, then turned his eyes to someone else. Envy, and his friend, Lust. By close examination, Lust fought dirty. Ever so often Roy could see a sly kick, or a quick scratch. But Envy brought his katana down hard over Lust's head, which she narrowly deflected with her long knives. Envy jabbed at Lust's legs, making her dodge in such a way to make her trip over her feet. She landed on her back and had no time to move when she found the point of Envy's blade at her neck.

Good fighter. Roy thought.

Lust and Envy were finished with their spar, so they went to sit against the walls with several others pairs of students.

Cynthia and Edward were still fighting. Cynthia had a small bleeding cut on her cheek, and Edward's left sleeve was torn in two places. It was just hit and run with Cynthia; she would slice at Edward repeatedly, then pull back to dodge and defend. Edward, however, was all-offense. Jab, slice, slide, and swing. He had no actual defense.

In they end, Cynthia's blade was laid across Edward's head and Edward's was pressed against Cynthia's neck. A draw.

"OK, everyone, listen up." Inuyasha began. "We're gonna have a little history lesson."

He pointed up at the wall. High up, higher than anyone could jump, a halberd was mounted behind glass. "That is Bankotsu's halberd. It contains immense power, and two shards of a jewel called the Shikon no Tama."

"Inuyasha and I have hunted for a long time for the pieces of the ancient jewel," Kagome said, striding up with her bow. "In our younger days, it was all we did. But we have long since given up on the jewel, after we killed a terrible demon name Naraku. Bankotsu was one of his pawns, a man of immense skill with a halberd. We took his halberd, disabling his main skill. And there his halberd is today. It if forbidden to touch the sacred halberd, for it still carries a great evil."

Cynthia had returned her cutlass and got back her halberd in time to hear this. She blinked and suddenly got a light headache. Bankotsu. She thought. Where have I heard that before?

Inuyasha looked at Cynthia. Her gaze was fixed on Bankotsu's halberd. Her examined they way she stood, the way she held her halberd. Inuyasha knew she had no relation to Bankotsu at all.

"It has been ten years since we took it from him." Kagome went on. "In honor if this, we're going to have a dance, here at eight o'clock tomorrow. If you need something to wear, you can call your parents back home and ask them to ship you something. Most of you were required to bring something nice, so I hope you did."

Erk. Cynthia didn't hear that. She had nothing…

"Inuyasha. Please send Cynthia Suhn to Lalaurana's office." A voice crackled from the speaker.

Cynthia didn't need to hear it twice. She reported to the office.

"HEY! Cynthia!" Lalaurana jumped up from her desk. "I'm sure Inuyasha sent you. I TOTALLY forgot to tell your parents that you needed to bring something nice! Eek, don't hate me!"

Cynthia just looked at Lalaurana. OK. Lalaurana acted so young for her age.

"Sooooo!"

Lalaurana pulled open a closet. In it was every kind of dress imaginable, in every style. "I've taken the liberty of giving you permission to use MY closet!"

But Cynthia wasn't listening.

"OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THESE SHOES!"

"I HAVE GOT TO KEEP THIS!"

"LALAURANA! CAN I USE YOUR JEWELRY TOO?"

"Of course-ourse-ourse!" Lalaurana cheered. "BUT! Don't touch the black dress over there! I'm wearing that!"

"Really?" Cynthia pulled out a gold dress and held it up to herself. "Who are you going with?"

"That military man from Amestris. Roy, I think." Lalaurana swooned. "He is sooooo hot!"

"Eek, I know!" Cynthia smiled.

"Who are you going with?"

"Mm. I dunno. Maybe I'll go alone, or with Ed or something."

"Ed and Envy are going to ask you out."

Cynthia glanced up. "How do you know?"

"Oh, please. Trust me." Lalaurana held up some earrings. "Ed is totally into you, and Envy is CHASING you. It's so obvious its not even funny."

"I know Envy's after me, but Ed? Sure. Hey, how does this look?"

Lalaurana looked at her. "Perfect. Let me do your makeup and you'll look amazing."

"Hey, Cynth!" Envy was waiting for her outside. It was late, almost eight o'clock. "Lalaurana showed you her closet?"

Cynthia just shot him a cold glare.

"You still hate me from last night, huh."

Cynthia started to walk away. Envy caught up with her. "At least let me walk you back to your room…"

"Whatever."

While Cynthia was in Lalaurana's office, Envy had told Lust what he was doing, and Lust agreed to do her part.

"Ed?"

Edward was working at his desk. He was doing a report on alchemy, hoping to impress the colonel from Amestris. He looked up, recognizing the voice. "Lust?"

He stood up angrily and pulled open the door.

Lust looked sad. "I forgot the key to my room… I know that Envy gave you a spare key in case he needed you, so could you walk me back?"

Edward glared at her coldly. "Why should I?"

"Because I don't know where Envy and Wrath are…"

"…Oh, fine. But not a word of it to Envy, do you hear?"

"Yes, yes! Thank you."

Edward and Lust maneuvered their ways through the dark hallways until they came to Lust's room. Edward slid in the key card and opened the door. "There. Night."

"Thank you for walking me back." Lust fluttered her eyelashes. "How can I repay you?"

"Repay me?" Edward laughed. "For a stupid thing like…" His eyes widened like saucers.

Lust

Kissed

Him.

Envy purposely led Cynthia through the halls so they had to pass his dorm room to get to hers. Envy had been babbling the whole way, making Cynthia close to screaming. She glared at her feet, wondering why she had even let this creep walk her back to her room.

Because he's hot, dammit.

Oh my God, am I thinking to myself?

Yes.

She suddenly saw two pairs of feet. Her eyes slowly lifted, to see

Edward

Kissing

Lust.

She felt a pang in her heart.

Damn her.

Damn Lust.

She opened her mouth to scream, but only a strangled yelp came out. Her breath choked in her throat. She pushed past Edward and ran back to her room to collect her things.

Riza had just set up a picture of her parents when there was a knock on her door. Probably the colonel, again… She sighed and pulled it open, surprised.

"C… can I stay with you for a while, Miss. Riza?"

"…And so you like these guys named Envy and Edward, and Envy's roommate is Lust, and Edward was kissing Lust."

"Yes, that's it."

"That's… Terrible." Riza glared in the direction of her colonel's room. "I've had to deal with many situations like this with my colonel."

"Yeah, I can see why."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Hell yeah."

Riza and Cynthia were sitting on Riza's bed, a bowl of random chocolates on the table beside them.

"God… I just can't seem to get over it." Cynthia muttered, grabbing the bowl and popping a chocolate in her mouth. "Never really known a mom. Always grew up with dad and the boys. Mum died early, and Lalaurana is barren and cannot have children. Me, being her closest female relative, was sent here for training to take over the school when Lalaurana is unable to. I have a lot to learn. Lalaurana is almost thirty-five years old, even though she acts like she's fifteen." Cynthia set down the bowl with a grim smile. "I have a lot to learn by attending Lalaurana's school for indiscriminate grappling, and I have to learn it in the five years I shall attend before returning to Tokyo until Lalaurana's death."

"Barren?"

"There was a terrible accident in her early years. She was young, and was learning to harness all of her power. One day she pushed herself too hard." Cynthia closed her eyes. "I don't remember exactly what happened. But I do remember her explaining it to me several days earlier…" She began to recall the memory.

"Wow, aunt Lalaurana!" Cynthia exclaimed. Her tiny, four-year-old voice was small and squeaky. "You're so sweaty! But your arms are so thick!"

Lalaurana pulled herself up once more. She was doing single-handed chin ups on one of the HTH combat hall's bars. She dropped herself and looked at her little cousin, ruffling her hair. "You have to train, Cynthia."

"What if you train too hard?" Cynthia asked curiously.

Lalaurana laughed. "Don't be silly, Cynth! No one has ever trained TOO hard."

"Yeah, but what if they do?"

"Well…" Lalaurana sat she and Cynthia down in a bench, hanging a towel around her shoulders. Lalaurana's arms began to throb. Shit, Lalaurana thought. That hurt…

"First, your muscles begin to ache, telling you you've been working them too hard. You'll start to sweat, but much more than I am right now. You'll start getting tired, then you'll probably black out. Sometimes you'll get sick, or something. Who knows? Anything can happen. You could even fall into a coma!"

"Wow!" Cynthia shivered. "That's scary. I'll never train too hard!"

Lalaurana laughed and smiled. "Cynthia, you won't have to. Just you wait, one day I'll get married and have a brilliant daughter to take over the school."

"But that didn't happen." Riza concluded.

"You got it." Cynthia reached onto the table for the chocolate.

"Lalaurana sounded serious." Riza pointed out. "What changed her?"

"Lalaurana would be just like she is. But she has to take certain pills to keep her in check. You see, she's barren because she had to have some organs removed. And in the emptiness where they're supposed to be, is a great pain, which can only be suppressed by that pill, that makes her act like a gossipy kid. Back in Tokyo, my dad is looking for another one, a pill that works the same, and DOESN'T make her act weird."

"I see. By the way, who…"

"She's going with Roy."

"I'm assuming ROY asked HER."

"Right."

"So who are you going with?"

"…Envy…"

"You could just go alone, you know."

"What, and be the only loser without a date? I'd look like a freak! And Lalaurana is making me all real pretty for the dance…"

Riza froze. Standard, monotone Riza would have just brushed it off. However…

"One second… I have to go visit Lieutenant Havoc. ON STRICT BUSINESS!"