A girl rounded the corner and bumped into something hard.

"Oh, I'm sorry," a voice said. "Are you all right?"

The girl rubbed her head. "Y-yes, I'm all right, Mr. . . uh. . ."

She stared at the massive, dark gray suit of armor standing before her. A guy playing dress-up?

"Um, I'm really, really sorry for bumping into you," she said. "Please forgive me."

"It's all right. My name is Alphonse Elric."

The girl shook his hand. "Oh, I read about you! You must be the Fullmetal Alchemist."

A frustrated growl startled both of them.

"I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist, idiot!"

The girl peered at the boy behind Al. He was blond-haired and golden-eyed. She blinked when she saw something shiny flashing brightly. A chain connecting to a pocket watch.

"Oh, my, you're a State Alchemist?" she asked. "What's your name, little boy?"

"I'm not a little boy! My name is Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, and I'm fifteen years old!"

"Really? You're a year older then me, but I'm an inch taller then you. Now, how is it that a puny little one like you became a State Alchemist?"

"I'm not puny, you little idiot!"

The girl frowned. "And I'm not an idiot. God, your temper's shorter than your height!"

"Who do you think you are! Didn't your parents ever tell you to respect your elders?"

The girl looked taken aback for a moment. After a moment, she sighed sadly.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, blinking. "Excuse me."

The girl ran off. Ed and Al looked at her as she left.

"She looked really sad," Al said. "What if she was an orphan?"

"We're orphans, too, but we don't run away with our eyes tearing."

"We're not really orphans, brother. Dad is still out there."

Ed shrugged. "Come on. We need to get back to H.Q."

"Ed, have you met the new State Alchemist yet?" Lieutenant Colonel Roy Mustang asked during lunch.

Ed put his fork down and shook his head. "There's a new State Alchemist?"

Riza Hawkeye nodded. "Her name is Kirina, the Miracle Quartz Alchemist."

"Just Kirina?" Ed asked. "She doesn't have a last name?"

"Well, she told us her mentor used to call her Kirina Miracle," Mustang said, shrugging, "but we thought that was an extremely corny name, so we decided against it."

"So why is it part of her name?" Ed asked, giving Mustang a pointed look.

"Good question."

"Kirina Miracle," Al said. "That sounds like a pretty name. Don't you think so, too, brother?"

"Kirina Miracle," Ed mumbled. "So the new alchemist is a girl?"

"Yeah, she's kind of young, too," Mustang continued. "She's fourteen, but at least an inch taller than Ed. Maybe more."

"SHUT UP!" Ed snapped. "I've already had someone call me short today, so you . . . uh . . . just shut up!"

"Brother, calm down," Al said, placing his hand on Ed's shoulder. "Colonel, you said she's fourteen. She must be very skilled."

"She's a prodigy in crystal alchemy. She must've been taught by someone who knew all there is about crystals. For the exam, she presented a new kind of stone that she called blue aura."

"She did say she started her training when she was four," Hawkeye said. "maybe that's why she's so good."

"When she was four!" Ed exclaimed. "Her mentor must've been some sort of super-alchemist! Where is she? Where's the Miracle Quartz Alchemist?"

"She's in there," Hawkeye said, pointing towards the library. "Be careful not to startle her. She's a little shy."

"Shy isn't the word," Hughes said. "It's more like she's extremely withdrawn. Oh, and get this. We've given her a whole stack of assignments and she's finished them in three hours."

"She'll definitely make the workload a lot lighter at the rate she's going. Although, she did look a little familiar," Mustang said, scratching his chin. "I know I've seen Kirina somewhere before, but I can't quite remember."

"Now, isn't that odd," Hawkeye said a little sarcastically. "I thought you knew the names of every pretty girl you saw."

Ed stood up and walked away.

"Brother?" Al asked, standing up. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go greet the Miracle Quartz Alchemist," Ed responded, smiling. "Maybe the reason she's so shy is because no one has bothered to do anything besides give her assignments."

Ed knocked on the library door. "Miracle Quartz Alchemist? Are you in there?"

No one responded. Ed tried the door, but it was locked.

"She locked herself in!" Ed exclaimed. "Well, this door won't stay locked for long."

Ed clapped his hands together and then clamped them on the door. With a burst of light, the door swung open. The library was well-lit. All the windows were open. Someone with long, black hair was straining to reach a book.

Al walked over to her and took the book of the shelf.

"Oh, thank---Oh, my!"

"Hey, you're the girl who bumped into Al earlier this morning," Ed said. "What are you doing here?"

The girl backed away nervously. Her eyes were incredibly wide, dark, and shone with a green sheen.

"I'm uh . . . uh . . . the, uh . . . Miracle Quartz Alchemist," she mumbled.

"You! You're the one who's been training since she was four?" Ed exclaimed.

"Yes, I, uh . . . my mentor taught me," Kirina mumbled, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"You didn't seem so shy when you bumped into Al this morning," Ed said. "What's up with this shyness now?"

"I'm not sure of what to do here." Kirina pointed to a stack of books. "I've been studying crystal alchemy so I may be of better service to the State."

Ed made a face. "Why would you want to do that?"

"It's my job."

Al pointed to Kirina's pendant. "That's an interesting stone."

"It's a heart-shaped twinning quartz stone," Kirina explained, taking it in her hand and staring fondly at it. "This sort of quartz is very rare and follows the 'Japan Law' of twinning where two crystals are flattened at right angles and naturally form a heart shape."

"I've always known that quartz was one of the most common crystals, but I never knew that they could grow into a heart shape," Ed said.

"Did you know that some quartz stones are dangerous?" Kirina asked her cheeks pink with excitement. "Cat's eye quartz has traces of asbestos fibers in it. In large quantities, cat's eye can be dangerous."

Ed snapped his fingers. "So that's why the word quartz was added to your name. You know a lot about quartz, don't you?"

Kirina nodded. "It was the first stone that my mentor showed me. Quartz is a very interesting mineral."

"Not really," Ed said. "They're only used in jewelry that wannabe alchemists use to protect themselves."

Kirina shook her head. "Quartz can be used to generate electricity. Using alchemy, I can produce a piezoelectric effect which causes an electric bolt to come out of the stone."

Ed raised an eyebrow. "Wow. Now wonder you're a State Alchemist."

"Kirina, who was your mentor?" Al asked suddenly.

Suddenly, Kirina became very nervous. "I don't know if I should say. I could get him in a lot of trouble."

"Don't worry," Ed said casually. "We're not snitches. We won't say a word at all."

Kirina shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't say. I might endanger more people than just my mentor." Kirina grabbed her bag and ran out of the library.

"Kirina, wait!" Al called.

Ed bent over and picked up a dusty, old book that had fallen out of Kirina's bag. The title read Crystals and Crystal Growing. Ed opened the book and saw writing on the flap.

"'To Kirina Miracle. I hope this book helps you achieve your goal. With all my love, your mentor'," Ed read out loud. "Ahh, even this doesn't say who her mentor was."

"Brother, did you see them?" Al asked.

"See what?"

"The scars on her arms and legs. They looked like old laceration wounds."

Ed's eyes widened. "Lacerations?"

Al nodded. "I wonder who caused them."

Ed opened the book once more and started to read it. He flipped through it and noticed writing different from the stoic print on some pages. This writing was loopy and a little lopsided, but still readable.

"A diary?"

Al looked at him. "What did you say?"

"I think this is her diary."

"Oh, then we should return it to her." Al ran out of the room, leaving Ed to read. The first few paragraphs of the entry were stained with blood, but the rest was clear.

"' At the moment, I'm sitting under a tree and writing. I get the feeling that there's something I owe and not just to my mentor. Something to apologize for. I need to apologize to someone, even though that someone may not be considered human. Still, it's hard to think of it as not humans. It has feelings. It felt pain, right? Anything sentient must feel pain, shouldn't it? Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe, there's nothing to apologize for. Maybe'"

The entry came to a sudden halt. Ed turned the page. Nothing was written on it except the structure of crystals. The rest of the blank pages were just that: blank.

"'I need to apologize to someone, even though that someone may not be considered human'," Ed read aloud again. "Not human? Could she be taking about a homunculus? And why does it stop suddenly? Why are there bloodstains on this page?"

"Brother!"

Ed shrieked and snapped the book shut.

"What is it?"

"Why were you reading her diary?"

"I wasn't reading it!"

"Then why did you suddenly close the book?"

"I'm trying to learn about crystals, okay?" Ed frowned and opened the book again. "Next to biological alchemy, crystal alchemy is probably the next hardest thing."

"What about agricultural alchemy?"

"Ugh, don't interrupt my thoughts now. Anyway, where is she?"

"She already left."

"Where does she live?"

"I don't know. She hasn't told anybody where she lives."

Ed rubbed his chin. "Hmm, now isn't that weird?"

Al looked up from his gaze on the ground. "What are you getting at?"

Ed considered telling Al what he had read and the bloodstains, but decided against it. He smiled and said. "It's nothing. Never mind."

Oh, God, I am so, so, so, so , so sorry! I especially apologize to Hiromu Arakawa for making such a stupid mistake. Thank you to the person who caught it. Thank you so, so much!

So she finally met the Elric brothers. And like the rest, Kirina mistook Al for Fullmetal. Basic plot, right?

The book the Ed picked up does exist, so you might want to go check it out (Why am I recommending books now?).

You might have noticed that Hughes is still alive in this. He stays alive. (Didn't I say this doesn't follow the original storyline?). I just hated the episode where he died. It was so unfair. And when Elicia began asking her mother why they were burying her father that just about broke my heart in two. So for the sake of not making this thing more miserable than it already is, I fudged a couple of things and made Hughes alive. (That's not a guarantee that he'd going to keep appearing. He might appear a little later on).