鋼の錬金術師 (FullMetal Alchemist)
Chapter 3 Upstream.
Ed went out of the house. A big group of men came by the road. They surrounded the house, and aimed at him with spears and arrows.
"Are you the Full Metal Alchemist?". One of the soldiers asked.
Ed studied him carefully. He had to answer somehow, and he was quite sure he was going to get killed. His metal hand was out there to be seen.
Their armors where dark green, and their helmets had red feathers on top.
"You must be an Elite Troop of Xing".
"We are the Longtan Assasins".
Long: Dragon in chinese. Tan: Lake, or pond. Pond of the dragon.
"And you are here to kill me?".
Right after he said this, many spears and arrows flew at him.
o0o
A wall grew in front of him, covering the attack. Hohenheim came out of the house, and then tranmsuted a tunnel under the wall.
"We're leaving".
Everyone started going into the tunnel, running.
Some spears started falling from above them.
Ed ran into the tunnel, and transmuted the entrance.
He heard the wall getting smashed, and many men making the ground crumble.
"We can't go by train".
"There's too many of them. We can go through the river without leaving a trace".
"What about Pynako?". Winry yelled.
"She'll be alright. They only want me, Lust, Ed and Al". Hope said.
"Move". Hohenheim said steadily.
He started pushing them, and they soon were out right in front of the river.
"We have to walk against the current. We'll be in Dublith in no time". Ed said.
He turned, clapped his hands, and made the cave dissappear.
"Let's go". Al said, waving his arm.
o0o
"Damn it! If I'm telling you to use Rentanjutsu to move this giant mass, you must do it!".
"But! My Lord! I will be punished with death if I do it! I'm not allowed!".
"In times of war, everything is allowed! And you will be killed, by myself, if you don't do what I'm telling you to!".
The alchemist clapped his hands, and turned Gluttony's container into a wagon.
"We'll have to push it. That's gonna take long". Envy said.
Ling's body was quite convenient.
"Why didn't you do what I told you to at once?". He said, complaining to the alchemist.
"I… I…".
Envy pierced his chest, turning his arm into a spike.
"Just as the Full Metal pipsqueak that time".
o0o
A slight breeze shook Ed's hair slightly.
"Something's happening". He said misteriously.
"What's up?". Hohenheim asked.
"Uh… Nothing".
"Sigh… The assasins must have found out that we ran away". Al complained.
"Let them try to find us". Lust said. She had been behaving darkly lately.
o0o
"We have found nothing, sir!".
"Damn them! We've been looking for over five hours. It's already midnight. They must be far away now…".
"We'll keep searching". The guard said.
"Uh… Take a rest".
The guard turned around, and walked close to the Elric's house door.
The floor rumbled and broke underneath him. He fell down, and rolled through the dirt.
"So that's it!". The general said.
He jumped down, and looked at the tunnel.
"Light some torches! We found where they are".
o0o
It was past midnight. Armstrong was standing, looking at the road they had put behind. Everyone else was surrounding a campfire.
"We have to wake up soon tommorrow". Ed said, yawning.
"We've walked for almost seven hours!". Winry complained.
"By now, they must have already found the tunnel". Al said.
"They are walking with the current". Hope said. "They'll see they are going the wrong way, though. This fire gives us a way. We're up hill, anyways". He said, smiling.
"Well… We can sleep for three hours. But not more. There are only three more hours of walk ahead of us". Hohenheim stated.
Everyone went to sleep, but Lust. She stood awake, keeping guard, and thinking.
o0o
"The sun won't rise in another three hours". The general said. They had been walking downstream for a long while now.
"General!" A soldier shouted, pointing at the horizon upstream.
A shining spot, and a cloud of smoke floated away in the distance.
"Son of a-".
o0o
The river was calm now. They had been walking for some hours.
Winry and Ed held hands.
In the back of the group, Mei Yang and Ran Fan walked slowly. Every once in a while, someone went back, and helped them a bit.
Hope made Mei sit on his back.
"I'm an Homunculus. I don't get tired easily. And you're light!". He said, trying to bring her up.
Xiao Mei ran through the rocks, and reached Al.
He picked Xiao up, and scratched him behind his ear.
The little bear regained that super relaxed expression.
o0o
A boy, with long, black hair, sat at huge boulder, looking at the coming and going salmons.
His metallic right arm was sort of broken. The middle and the index fingers wouldn't move. He looked around, just as if someone was calling him from the wind.
A group of people was walking upstream, and he recognized the big bald one right away.
"They're here!". Wrath said, jumping into the water.
o0o
"Big brothers! Big brothers!". He said, crawling out of the water.
He shook his hair, and ran up to Ed, hugging him.
"I knew you were gonna come!".
Ed smiled slightly, and pat Wrath's head.
He turned around, and hugged everyone else too.
"This is so cool! Where are Envy and Ling?".
Everyone made a deadly silence, and all the faces changed. Wrath, coming out of his little brother mode, understood that something wrong had happened, and also was about to happen.
"Come. Let's go see Mom".
o0o
The butcher shop was quite busy. Everyone in town went there now that Izumi returned, because her amazing story made her almost miraculous.
She was serving people happily, cutting a chicken with amazing skill.
She saw Wrath coming in, and smiled. He walked past the counter, and then Ed and Al came in too. She smiled, and was about to greet them, but also Winry, Hohenheim, Ran Fan, Mei, Hope, Armstrong and Lust came in.
She chopped a chicken's head very quickly, put it in a bag, and tossed it to the woman she was serving. She apologized a lot, and pushed her out.
Then, she closed the door, and put up the closed sign.
"Come in". She said, changing her happy expression, and walking to the living room.
o0o
"We'll be at Dublith in no time".
o0o
"So… That's what happened". Izumi said, thoughtful.
"…Well… Yeah…". Ed and Al said.
She looked up at them, very seriously, and her expression changed.
"What's going on?". She said.
"I… Was… Made… A state alchemist…". Al said, pulling the silver watch out.
If Ed hadn't cured her when tresspassing the Gate, she would have vomited blood right there.
o0o
Hohenheim put himself in front of his sons, and stopped Izumi. She looked at him in rage, but he looked back with his serious expression.
She saw.
Seig came close, willing to defend his wife, but Armstrong stepped in front of Hohenheim, and looked at Seig.
"We meet again". He said. He had been so serious very few times.
They started fooling around with their muscles.
"Roy Mustang, and by the way, the new Fuhrer, granted Al the position of state alchemist in order for him to accomplish a mission. He wants Al and Ed to gather all the Alchemists they met during their trip, and probably make them state alchemists too. Mainly, it will be to help in the battlefield". Hohenheim explained.
Izumi looked at Hohenheim's expression, and sat down, sighing.
"Alright. I'm doing it".
"Come out!". The general shouted.
