Halfmetal Alchemist: Chapter 10

Supersonic Alchemy

"Anri, you're sittin' around again! Why can't you just get off yo' rear and do somethin' useful?" the bartender glared at the longhaired man sitting in his bar. "Eh, don't bother me man. I've got enough on my plate as it is without you busting my ears." he looked at the man thoughtfully and got up. "Hey... have you heard of the town Rizenbul, that got half of it wiped by lava recently? Messy case, isn't it?" The bartender nodded and continued to polish a glass with a dirty rag. "Yes siree, wiped clean, quite a job it was. Now... you've heard of a new Fuhrer Mustang, haven't you?" Anri's eyes narrowed and examined the man. "Heard of him? I need info. I come from a bit of a backwater town... or back sand, as the case may be, Lior, you know." Anri leaned on the barstand idly. "What can you tell me about the new Fuhrer Mustang?"

The barkeep thought for a minute, then put his glass in the rack to remove a dirty one. "Well, I've heard he's the son of the Fuhrer who was in power before Fuhrer Bradley, and that he was in the most recent Ishbal War, both of them in fact." Anri slammed his glass on the counter. "And the first Fuhrer? What of him?"

"He was killed in Central Park, and buried in Eastern Cemetary. Nobody rightly knows who killed him though... that Fuhrer was a good man, he was. We were better off with him than Bradley. Hey, are you alright?" Anri stared at his glass in deep thought.

"Murdered you say?" The barkeep nodded. "Thanks, that's what I needed to know. Now, this new Fuhrer... is his son?" The other man nodded again. "His name, can you recall? And where he might be now?"

"Well, I know his name's Roy Mustang. And with the decimation of Rizenbul, I'd bet hard earned money that he's there right now."

"Hm... I see. Thanks, I'll be on my way now." Anri got up and left without a word, and the barkeep watched without a word as Anri disappeared from view almost instantaneously. He blinked and walked up to the door, peering around to see if the man he had just conversed with had indeed disappeared. There were footprints, sure, but no man to fit them. He turned and rubbed his eyes, sitting down heavily on a wooden stool. The glass was sitting, empty, on the table, and he blinked again. "Maybe I should go back to being a farmer... you get all sorts of freaks in bars..."

Anri looked back to see if anyone was watching him and stopped his antics. He looked at the notes he had scribbled down and grinned broadly, pleased with himself. "Barkeeps know everything, that's what I always say. The problem is, no one ever listens.

"Let's see... Roy Mustang, Fuhrer, Rizenbul. Yep, that's all I need. But who would've thought? Another Fuhrer Mustang! Hah!" He clapped his hands together and held them up in the air. The air wavered and rendered him invisible, and he clapped his hands to the red machines that made up his legs, akin to automail, but much more advanced.

Everyone who was passing by saw large clouds of dust on the road to Rizenbul, and watched in awe, rubbing their eyes and checking their foreheads to this dust eruption popping out of nowhere.

One more chapter, chapter 10! Yay! I do update fast on weekends, but unfortunately, for the next week, you can expect updates to be a bit slower due to camp! This one is depressingly short, but! I like it. I don't want too much revealed till he catches up with Roy and the others. Anyway! I love my constant reviewers, so keep at it guys, and I'll keep up with this!

Also, as an answer for miroku-has-darkness's question, this is set way after the show ends, and after Ed gets sucked into Munich, if I interpreted your question correctly. In fact, this is so far ahead, that the the microscopic bean sprout has already come back and gotten lost again, much to Roy's exasperation!

One more thing! In response to Apparition7, Ultimus really bothers me too, and I created him! My characters seem to take a life of their own once I create them... scary...

Well, I'll be back next chapter, so until then, bye! -T A

Just because I'm so annoying, I've got two other stories online here... one is Beach Party with Maes, for all you fans of little Maes's pure childlike deviousness, and the other is a bit of a prologue-ish thing called Lord of the Engagment Ring, where Fullmetal will attempt to get Roy to let him marry his sister! Flames and metal all round for that one, I'm almost dreading writing what will happen!