Chapter 9: Central Library
It had been a couple of days since Ed and Al had arrived at their auto mechanic's house. Al was still banged up from their fight with Scar while Ed was waiting for his new automail to be ready. Winry had asked a couple of times what had happened but, Ed and Al didn't really feel the need to tell her.
"Why won't you guys tell me what happened?" Winry whined. Ed ignored her whining.
"C'mon Al," Winry said turning her head towards Al.
Al didn't like to ignore people he thought it was rude so unlike his brother he said, "Winry its okay all that matters is that we are fine no need to worry."
"NO YOUR NOT, look at yourselves. You're both busted up pretty bad, and you're telling me not to worry." Winry said.
While Winry continued to whine about the lack of information Ed suddenly remembered something. It was about the day they were attacked by Scar. When Scar made his big escape Ed could have sworn that he heard someone yell out their names. Some one with a very familiar voice his memory was still blurred a bit but, it seemed to be getting a bit clearer. Now that he thought about he did remember hearing someone at Eastern Headquarters saying something about a girl falling in after Scar but, no one found a trace of her.
"A girl," Edward whispered to himself while tapping his knee, in deep thought. "A girl, a girl, a girl…" Edward gasped as he realized who it possibly could have been. He jumped to his feet.
"What is it Ed?" Al asked while Winry looked from Ed to Al and back again.
"Al do you remember hearing someone call our names just before Scar escaped?"
"Hmmm…. Now that I think about it I do. It was kind of familiar you know." Al said questioning who it could have been to himself. Al gasped as he realized who it possibly could have been. "Do you think it was her brother?"
"Hey what are you guys talking about… Who?" Winry buzzed in.
"Nikooru," Ed answered.
"Winry I need to use your phone," Ed made a quick dash towards the phone in the other room.
After about 2 minutes he returned. "So?" Al asked.
"Well I called the hotel we had stayed at when we were in Eastern Headquarters… and asked them about Nikooru to see when she had left."
"So when did she leave?" Al asked.
"She didn't even stay the night when we left. My guess is that she figured out that we weren't going to be coming back so she left in search of us. She sure is a clever girl," Ed said putting his hands on his hips.
"I wonder if she is okay, and if that really was her?" Al said.
"Who are you guys talking about?" Winry said making a grumpy face.
"It's a friend; she has been traveling around with us. We are supposed to be teaching her alchemy but, sometimes I think she is the one teaching us," Ed said with a little laugh, "I think that was just an excuse for her to travel with us."
"She?" Winry looked a little worried.
"What if it was her do you think she is okay?" Al asked with concern.
"Yeah she'll be fine. Nikooru isn't weak you know." Both Ed and Al remembered the time Nikooru fell from a top of a tree to the bottom. Ed and Nikooru out of boredom had decided to have a tree climbing contest. Ed made it to the top first but, Nikooru wasn't too far behind him. Then snap…. Break… yell… a whole lot of umphs, and Nikooru was laying back on the ground surprisingly she was okay. Just proves how tough she is Ed thought.
"I wonder where she is right now," Al said looking out the window.
"Ah so this is Central" Nikooru said while stretching her arms towards the sky and grinning, "Never been here before." Nikooru had almost been around the whole country for some odd reason she never had went to Central before.
"Neither have I but, you don't see me grinning about it." Scar said.
"Can't help it," Nikooru said swaying back and forth on her heels.
"So would you tell me why you came here now?" Nikooru asked.
"Well if you really want to know it is because, the Fullmetal is supposed to be coming to Central Headquarters Library."
"I wonder what he could want there I mean there in that library so badly that he would travel all the way to Central for. Ha must be a really good book." Nikooru said with a smirk.
"Yeah you have a point. I never thought about that." Scar said thinking about what Nikooru had said.
"We should take a trip to the library."
"Yeah well I already knew that but, it is only for state alchemists. I tried a few years back to get into one."
"Well then shall we go at night?" Nikooru had an evil grin across her face. For some weird reason she liked the thought of sneaking in added some excitement to it. Besides she also wanted to check out the library to do some research of her own.
"Yes I guess so." Scar replied back with a little smirk.
"That wasn't too hard," Nikooru said placing her hands on her hips, "See and no one got hurt too badly."
Scar looked down at the 2 guards lying unconsciously on the ground, which had been around the library, "You know they weren't guarding the library we could have just avoided them all together."
A sweat drop appeared on Nikooru's head, "Ha…ha…ah I guess you are right," She said rubbing the back of her head.
"C'mon lets go in now." Scar said walking towards the library with Nikooru trailing a few feet behind him.
"Hey Scar I am going to look around okay I will meet you back here in like an hour or so okay," Nikooru said, and headed in her own direction.
"Didn't come here to read books," Scar sighed.
"Why would Ed and Al come here? Why? Think Nikooru they must have mentioned something… They were in Eastern Headquarters looking for a Marcoh…" She said making her way over to a catalog of the library. "There are quite a few Marcoh's if I just knew the first name. Think Nikooru. Think. Ah that's it Tim. Tim Marcoh. Right here." Nikooru said putting at the catalog. Then she headed off to find the book on her way she made a few pit stops snagging a couple of other books here and there. Two of which were about the Ishbalan war the others were alchemy books.
Just as Nikooru turned the corner she caught sight of Scar, and two other familiar faces that she wished she weren't there. "Oh no," she sighed.
"You're using the Elrics to get the stone." Scar said.
"Oh no I believe you know too much now." Lust said.
"Does that mean I can eat him?" Gluttony asked Lust who replied with a smile.
"Ed and Al" Nikooru gasped.
As their fight moved a bit away Nikooru made her way quickly to the book by Tim Marcoh that was really close to where Lust had been standing before. "Here it is." Nikooru said pulling the book out. "It's huge." Nikooru gasped. She put the book along with the 2 other books about the Ishbalan war in her hoe boe bag which she had emptied for just the occasion, ditching the other books she had picked up along the way.
Nikooru ran as fast as she could down the stairs noticing a fire that was engulfing the books on the second floor. She quickly found Scar downstairs being charged by Gluttony.
"You're homunculus," Scar said to Gluttony and Lust. Nikooru's eyes widened as she heard these words. She felt a bit scared.
He glanced over acknowledging Nikooru's presence then put his hand on the wall behind him causing a huge transmutation. The ground below Nikooru's feet collapsed this was the second time in a week now.
Nikooru's gasped for air as she found herself floating in a sewer luckily they had fallen into the clean water channel. The water wasn't moving fast. She soon found Scar unconsciously drifting in the water. Nikooru hurried to him, and helped escort him through the water making sure his head stayed above the water. They ended up drifting in the sewer for quite some time until it carried them outside of Central merging with a river. Nikooru dragged Scar's body onto the ground beside the river. It had been a long night, and now Nikooru was very tired just as she closed her eyes she could here the sounds of people approaching them.
"Where am I?" Nikooru said as she sat up. She looked next to her to see Scar bandaged up, and taken care of. She stood up slowly, walked over to the tent entrance, and peered out to see where she was. "Ishbalan," Nikooru said as her eyes widened with past memories.