"The purpose of Education is to replace an empty mind with an open one."

~ Malcolm Forbes

Chapter four:

School

"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body."

"Humankind cannot gain without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange."

FullMetal stood outside of the large, intimidating school that was the DWMA, or as its really called "Death's Weapon Meister Academy". He had his old satchel that had the same emblem that was on his blades when he was in full weapon form. He hadn't really checked what was in it. Most that he knew that was in it was his old clothes, extra clothes that his "moms" had made for him, some spare hats, some money, the usual necessities, and his old elevator boots and cotton gloves. There was also his pocket watch that was in there, he hadn't looked at it for...who knows how long... that was about it...

He looked at the building for a good minuet. It was very large. The school had about six to seven towers on each side, and there were three giant candles on each side as well, three skulls in the middle, though the middle skull had spikes coming out of it. The entire building was perfectly symmetrical. In a way it was poetic.

"HEY NEW KID!" said a loud voice, it snapped FullMetal back to reality.

He looked over to whom he thought was the speaker. There standing next to three other people was a boy with spiky blue hair. He looked to be around fifteen years old and rather short, his height was equal to the blond girl next to the white haired boy, but he was well built. He had bright green eyes, he wore a sleeveless black shirt with a funnel-like collar, white trousers that were black from the knee down and just a little short of being full length jeans. On the front of his collar, two short strips of grey material adorned with rivets stretch down from the top of his collar to the breast of his shirt. He had similar strips wrapped around his neck, waist, in his pocket and on the ends of his trousers. On his hands he wore fingerless gloves with wrist weights and a band going around the back of each hand. He also wore basic black boots with white tips with a star shape visible on the toe of each boot. He had a star tattoo on his right shoulder.

Next to him was a tall girl, she looked to be one to two years older than the others. She had really long black hair that was tied up in a high ponytail with strands of hair to frame her face. She had indigo eyes, She wore a pale yellow sleeveless outfit with a skirt end that had slits down the side with a bright yellow star emblazoned on the right side of the chest. She also had a dark brown scarf and a tight dark brown stocking on her right leg starting just above the knee and white boots. She also had a sash around her waist that was similar to the blue haired boy's.

The second girl was fairly petite, looking to be around fifteen years of age. She had dusty blond hair that was tied into two pigtails, she also had emerald eyes. She wore a typical schoolgirl outfit and a black trench coat with a cloak-like end, a white blouse with a yellow sweater vest, a green stripped tie, a red plaid skirt, black boots with white buckles, and white gloves.

The second boy had white hair swept to one side and red eyes - FullMetal could have sworn to have seen eyes like his before. The white haired boy had pointed teeth, that FullMetal recognized, for he had teeth like that himself. The white haired boy wore a yellow and black jacket with buttons going down the front. Around his head was a prominent sweatband that had a sticker with the word "Soul" on it, and a circular logo featuring a red-lipped mouth with pointed fangs surrounded with the letters that spelt out "EAT". He had maroon pants, and yellow and black sneakers.

FullMetal knew that he was supposed to meet with someone who was going to show him around the school but he didn't expect so many people. He rubbed his left arm in nervousness.

The blue haired boy continued his sentence, "Are you going to just stand there all day or-!" the blond girl hit the boy on the head with a thick book causing him to fall to the floor, bleeding from the impact.

"Black Star!" the blond exclaimed, "Be nice, just because he's new and has amnesia doesn't give you the right to start picking fights!" she looked to FullMetal with a gentle smile, "Sorry about that, he just...can be a bit out of hand at-... well, all the time actually...I'm Maka Albarn," she pointed to the boy with white hair, "that's Soul Eater," then to the girl with black hair, "that's Tsubaki Nakatsukasa," then finally to the boy with blue hair, "and this idiot is Black Star."

"Lord Death must've told them about my problem..." FullMetal rubbed his arm, and looked away, "I-...I'm FullMetal Alchemist Mizune..."

"Well lets show you around the school, FullMetal." Maka smiled.

"Not until he fights me!" Black Star exclaimed, he jumped up and pointed at the Alchemist, "You. Me. Fight. Now!"

FullMetal took a step back. How were his mothers going to take the news if they found out that he had gotten into a fight on his first day of school? Something told him not to back out, and that he could win against the guy while reading a book and that it was an easy win. He didn't know how to take it, should he stand his ground or run away?

"Black Star..." Tsubaki whined, "I don't think it's a good idea..."

Neither did FullMetal...

"What? I need a challenge!" Black Star said bluntly.

"I think it's a good idea." Soul smiled, "It will give him a good feel of the school, after all he is in our class. He'll have to fight Keishin Eggs..."

"Hmm," Maka hummed, "I guess you're right about that... but its up to him"

They all looked at the Mizune. The words that Soul spoke resonated with him, he had a point, he just had to think of it as practice... that's all.

"A-...Alright, one fight...that's it..." he mumbled.

"YAHOO!" Black Star cheered. "FINALLY! A NEW CHALLENGER!"

The three other students got closer to the school and FullMetal dropped his bag by the stairs. He and Black Star made some distance from each other. He waited for his opponent to make his move. Black Star charged after him. On instinct, when Black Star got close enough, FullMetal jumped up and used Black Star's shoulders to balance his weight as he did a front flip. Before he could turn around, FullMetal swept Black Star's feet. FullMetal backed away a few steps and transformed his finger tips into blades as Black Star got up.

"You're a Weapon?" Maka gasped.

"Nice." Black Star grinned. "This is gonna be good."

Black Star charged again and FullMetal waited. When Black Star was close enough, the Alchemist made his move, he charged at him and slashed down, there was a loud bang and several pieces of earth shot up from the impact, fleeing from the ground that they belonged to as a cloud of dust appeared around the site. FullMetal saw Black Star come from the cloud around them. FullMetal returned his hand to normal and caught Black Star's fist and threw him several feet away, making the cloud flee from the flying, blue haired boy.

The Meister got up and glared, he began charging at him once again

The Gold-Scythe turned his braid into the triple bladed part of his weapon form, along with the chain, he grabbed what little handle there was and threw it at Black Star but he dodged it on time.

"Ha! You can never hit a big of a guy as I am!" Black Star exclaimed.

But FullMetal grinned. He used the chain to wrap around Black Stars foot. With a mighty tug of the chain, the star fell on his face with a loud thud, and a lot of blood was seeping on the ground under Black Star's head.

FullMetal chuckled, "The bigger they are the harder they fall..."

"That's an understatement..." Black Star croaked.

The Alchemist de-summoned his scythe and chain. He got his bag and turned to Black Star who was still on the floor. "It was nice sparing with you..." he couldn't help but tease the blue haired boy for some reason, it was like if it was nothing more than a game. Though he wouldn't tell anyone... he felt as though he hadn't been the one fighting. Not once did he feel like he actually knew what he was doing, he felt as though it was all pure instinct, as if everything he did was complete instinct. He just knew what to do, but at the same time, not a clue what was happening. He just knew how to fight, but yet, he never fought anyone or had any training what-so-ever... well that he knew of.

"That gotta hurt," Soul muttered.

FullMetal watched as Tsubaki was telling Black Star that he ought to be more careful about what opponents he picked and other such things. He looked at Maka, "Maka, is Tsubaki, Black Star's sister or something?"

Maka giggled, "No, she's his Weapon partner, like the way Soul's my Weapon."

"What kind of Weapon are you anyway?" Soul asked.

"Oh...I'm a Triple-Bladed Gold Scythe." FullMetal answered.

Soul grumbled something that was incomprehensible and walked over to Black Star.

Maka frowned at Soul and sighed, "Here, how about I show you around."

After a long tour, the two made it to the roof, and from what they could see, Black Star and the others were gone. FullMetal then asked a question that he had on his mind, "Um...Maka, why did Soul get mad when I told him what kind of weapon I am...?"

"Oh, its because of the fact that you're Scythe like him, except he has one blade, not to mention you can concentrate your form and summon your blades and chain to multiple parts of your body, like the way you did when you summoned your blades as claws. Soul can only turn his right arm into his blade when he is in full human form." Maka explained.

"Oh..."

He couldn't help but feel bad yet not, he shrugged and said, "Maybe he just needs practice... I just did it all on instinct..." after a long silence, without thinking he asked Maka to take him to the nearest store. She asked why and on impulse he said, "I need a notebook and a pen...". It didn't take long and he was able to get a thick black notebook that would be able to fit in his pocket, along with a black pen. They went back to the school and he asked if they could go to the library. FullMetal was utterly mystified by the sheer size of the place. From floor to near the ceiling were books filled with knowledge. He asked Maka when school started.

"Class starts at seven..." she stated. " its nearly five right now, we have about an hour or so to kill... Why do you want to be in the library?"

"To catch up and or get ahead of the class... I know little to nothing of what you all learned, and all the information must be in books... so I need to study..."

"Oh..." Maka said, realizing the obviousness.

He scanned the titles of the books and pulled one out titled Souls and Transformations, when he read the first few words of the first page, he sat down at the nearest table and unknowingly tuned out the world...

He didn't know how long he had been there, reading, writing, analyzing, and unknowingly decoding. He didn't even know that he had tuned out the world around him until he had finished a book and heard...

"...ullMetal!...FullMetal!"

He looked up and saw Maka sitting across from him. There was a man next to her. The man was tall, and had silver-grey hair and big, round glasses. Strangely and slightly illogically, he had a large screw going through his head. He also had stitches going across his face. He wore a turtleneck that had large black stitches on it separating the several shades of grey from each other, along with a white doctor's lab coat that also had stitches on it.

"Finally," Maka said with a smile, "FullMetal, this is Doctor Franken Stine, he's our professor and school doctor. Professor Stine, this is FullMetal Alchemist."

"Nice to meet you." Stine smiled. The smile seemed to be fake because his voice was very blunt and emotionless.

"Likewise..." FullMetal mumbled.

"I'm a bit impressed," Stine said as he fixed his glasses, "Never had I seen a student read over forty books in little under an hour, let alone take notes on all of them..."

"I..." FullMetal looked at the several stacks of books around him. His jaw dropped, he had read all those books...in under an hour... he gulped, "I read all those...I-...I didn't even notice."

"Yeah, not to mention it took me a while to get you to finally get back to reality," Maka said, "You tuned out the world. Black Star even came in here shouting and he tried to attack you and well..." she turned to a corner of the room. FullMetal looked were she was looking. There in a far corner of the library, was Black Star on the floor bleeding from his forehead again, along with a large hole in the wall. FullMetal covered his mouth in shock. "Yeah, I don't know how you did that... I blinked then I saw that..."

Stine ignored the bleeding student and simply turned to look at the clock that was in the room then changed the subject, "Hmm... its already almost seven, we all better get to class Crescent Moon."

"Right!" said Maka and FullMetal in sync.

FullMetal got his notebook and pen and began walking to class, he knew where it was because Maka had shown him where it was when they first walked into the school.

Maka was surprised when Stine pulled her behind as they were walking to class. He made sure there was distance from them and FullMetal.

"Maka," Stine said in a quiet voice, "Do you notice anything strange about FullMetal's soul?"

She looked at Stine then at FullMetal. She hadn't thought about looking into FullMetal's soul, she did what the professor had asked of her. She closed her eyes and then opened them, activating her Soul Precept, the ability to see souls. She stopped in her tracks. Strange didn't even describe it. The amnesiac's soul was...huge, it rivaled Stine's in both size and flexibility. The soul's wavelength was...hard to comprehend. It would make very small waves that were like that of which Maka's soul would make, but as soft as the one's Tsubaki's would, but then after a good minuet three larger waves would be made from FullMetal's, they were rough and strong like the way Black Star's and Soul's were, but still different. The small waves were like if Fullmetal was unsure of himself, the larger ones were as if FullMetal was cocky but as strong as a solider. It was like a mood swing...

"What's wrong with his soul?" she mumbled.

Stine frowned, "It's a combination of Madness and amnesia... Don't tell anyone this Maka..." Stine's voice got quieter, "FullMetal was a keishin when he had his memories, he was purified by the Mizunes, who are a family of witches, they said that with the amount of skill and power he had, he could've been the next Asura in about a week, and they didn't want that, so they purified him, which is how he lost his memories. After that, they adopted him. I have a small theory but its going to take a while to figure out if its right or not, so for now, just make sure that he gets on the right track, if he shows any sign of being over come by madness come to me right away, got it?"

Maka nodded, "Got it."

They then continued their way to class, not knowing how things with FullMetal were going to turn out. Not knowing what his fate was. Not knowing what will go about with time. Not knowing that someone, somewhere was looking for him... missing him... wishing that he was there with them...