When Manami woke up the next morning, it took her almost an hour to get out of bed. She just felt so hopeless... that, and she didn't know what to expect of the Elric brothers. She knew that she had an obligation to physically be with Ed for the day, but she also had a feeling that he and Al probably wanted to be alone.
There was only one way to find out.
She made her way to the hotel where Ed and Al lodged. The only reason she knew where they stayed was because they would stop here while she walked home from the library every night. She went inside and asked the person behind the desk where their room was, and made her way to the second floor.
"Alright..." Manami mumbled to herself as she stopped in front of the door labeled 211. She slowly lifted a hand, tapping the door with just two knuckles.
"... it's me," She said quietly. "Um... I didn't know if anything was planned for today, so..."
There was no response. She even waited an extra moment before sighing softly.
She understood, but now what was she supposed to do now?
"Please wait, sir!"
"They're still resting!"
Manami turned her head at the sound of Ross and Brosh's voices, but all she saw was... "?!"
"Miss Kami!" Alex Louis Armstrong approached her. That wasn't someone she had seen in a while... "Glad to see that you've safely returned! Are you here to see the Elric brothers as well?"
"Y-Yeah," Manami stammered. "But they're probably just—"
"Excuse me!" He went to bang on the door.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Elric brothers! Can you open the door?" He continued to bang on it, getting rougher by the second. He started to jiggle the door handle to realize it was locked. He sighed heavily through his nostrils before he yanked on it so hard that his hand went through the door!
"Edward Elric!" He roared, now opening the door.
The Elric brothers whipped their heads to see Armstrong standing at the open doorway. Manami stood next to him, staring at the doorknob in Armstrong's hand, mouth wide open.
"What a tragedy! To think that the secret of the Philosopher's Stone would be so horrid!" He cried. "I cannot stand aside quietly and allow this to pass!"
Wait, how did he know..?
Manami looked to see Ed sitting on the couch across from Al in a tank top, glaring at her.
"What?!" She shrieked. "Don't look at me! I just got here!"
And then his eyes fell on Ross and Brosh behind her.
"W-We're sorry..."
"When a guy like him gets so close, we had to talk..."
They quickly went to change the subject. "Ed, your right arm is a prosthetic?" Brosh asked, and Ed jumped a little.
"U-Uh yeah, during the Civil War there was..." He seemed hesitant to say anymore, and Brosh nodded.
"That's too bad... sometimes the truth really can be cruel."
Ed's eyes widened.
"The truth..?"
He looked down for a moment, his brain whirring in his skull.
"What's wrong?" Al asked, while Ed put a hand on his chin.
"Do you remember what Marcoh said..? 'The truth behind the truth...'" Ed thought aloud. "Could there be... something else?"
A small light of hope glowed in Ed's eyes. "Major, do you have a detailed map of Central City?"
"Why, yes..." Armstrong reached into his coat pocket to pull out a folded map. He opened it up and smoothed it down on the table in front of them. Ed looked it over for a brief moment.
"Do you know how many alchemic research labs are in Central?" He asked, and Armstrong studied it for a moment.
"There are currently four locations," He grabbed a pen from his breast pocket and circled them. "Among these four, Tim Marcoh worked for the third." He pointed to it with his pen.
"I passed through all of these after I got my certification..." Ed mumbled, his eyes scanning over the map. "None of them looked like they were doing research that was really groundbreaking..."
But then he noticed something, and pointed to it. "What's this building?"
Ross looked over his shoulder to see.
"There used to be a fifth laboratory, but it was evacuated due to structural concerns. It's now abandoned, and since it's danger of it collapsing, entrance is prohibited."
"That's the one." Ed said immediately, earning everyone's surprise. "See? There's a prison next to it. To make the Philosopher's Stone, they need live humans, so they would be decently supplied with that prison next door. Death row inmates don't have their remains returned to their families... so it would be simple to say they were put on death row, but actually used to make stones."
Manami's lips curled into a frown. They were prisoners, but... she still couldn't get past how awful of a concept that was.
"So now what..?" She asked quietly.
"This is all speculation at this point." Armstrong replied. "The military may have no connection to this. The research organization may have acted independently."
"Who's overseeing it?" Manami asked.
"That would be the Iron-Blood Alchemist, Brigadier General Basque Gran." Armstrong answered, his arms crossed.
"So we talk to him, and then—"
"He was murdered by Scar, just a few days ago." Armstrong cut Ed off. "Hence why you two are partnered up. This serial killer is going after State Alchemists, and taking them out rather quickly. Among those killed, some may have known about the truth. If there are any remaining that do know the truth, this will get messy."
He then went to pick up the map and fold it up. "I will take it upon myself to probe into it and inform you later. Until then, the Second Lieutenant and Sergeant are to keep quiet on the matter!"
"Like they were supposed to in the first place..." Manami muttered.
"And you three are to stay put!" Armstrong looked to them, noticing Ed's expression. He could read right through it. "You were thinking of sneaking inside and investigating, weren't you?!"
He bent down to eye level with Ed, glaring intensely. "You will not! A child should not be put in such a dangerous situation!"
"Okay, okay!" Ed shrunk under his glare and backed away. "We won't do anything..!"
"We'll wait for your report, Major." Al added.
"Alright. You two, come with me."
"Yes sir." Brosh and Maria followed Armstrong out of the room. Armstrong kindly repaired the doorknob with alchemy on his way out.
"..." Manami scratched the back of her head.
"So... you're really not gonna do anything?" She asked.
Ed didn't say anything. She sighed heavily.
"You know I have to go with you, right?"
"You're only required to be with me at daylight hours," Ed noted. "You can go back to the Hughes' and—"
"And then tomorrow we hear that you two got yourselves killed, and I get reprimanded?" Manami glared at him. "No thanks."
Ed wanted to protest, but he didn't know how to.
"You just want to look, right?" Manami sighed through her nose. "If we just look, nobody will know, nobody will get hurt. I guess it'll be my job to make sure that's what happens."
"Good luck..." Al muttered.
That evening, Manami left the hotel first to make it seem like she had went home. On the way, she stopped at a phone booth to call the Hughes Estate to inform them that she would be home late tonight, since Ed and Al had a "breakthrough" in their research. She met the boys at the corner of the street right where Lab 5 was, and they scurried over to find walls surrounding the entire building, barbed wire curled at the top. The entrance was completely blocked off, but what was strange was that there was a guard out front...
But the real question was... how do they get in?
As Ed and Al discussed their options, Manami was scanning the wall. It was about twelve feet tall, and the barbed wire would penetrate anyone's shoe...
"We gotta go over." Ed said to her, and she nodded.
"Need a lift?" She offered, and Ed raised a brow. That was an odd question.
"I got one from Al." He pointed his thumb to Al, who was cupping his hands together and positioning himself. Ed jumped up and Al launched him to the top of the wall, carefully landing on his automail leg before pulling the barbed wire off and lowering it for Al to climb up, after he had launched Manami.
Al looked to her, noticing that she was reaching in her pockets.
"You ready?" He seemed to be ready to throw her up, but she shook her head.
"That won't be necessary."
"?" The Elric brothers looked at her in surprise. They noticed that she had pulled out two fans, and with a flick of the wrists they had opened up. She readied herself and eyed the top of the wall. Twelve feet, about thirty-five degrees... There was a small spark as she flapped her fans downward, like a bird flapping it's wings, and she launched up to land on the top of the wall gracefully.
Ed's jaw hung open. "Wh-What did you just do?!" He whispered, and she blinked.
"Oh... you didn't know?" She smiled sheepishly. "That's why they call me 'Wind.'"
Ed shook his head as he looked down to see Al, his hands still cupped and ready to launch Manami, frozen in shock at what he just saw.
"Come on..!" Ed couldn't help but chuckle as Al snapped out of it and began to climb.
One by one, they dropped down and landed on the other side of the wall.
"Why didn't you say anything about your alchemy?" Ed asked Manami, who simply shrugged.
"You didn't ask before. We don't have time now, either." She said as they eyed the property. The back door was sealed shut with just as many plans of wood as there was on the front door.
But Ed noticed... a vent.
"Al, lift me up." He waved his brother over and got lifted to be eye-level with the vent with a quick scoop. He managed to pull the gate off the vent and peered inside.
"Seems like it goes inside..." He mumbled, and then looked down to Manami.
"... you really want to get in here through an old, dusty vent?" She held up her arms crossed over each other in the shape of an X.
"No way. Absolutely not."
"Okay, you can stay here with Al. I'll be back in a bit." Ed said simply as he went to crawl inside.
"H-Hey! What did I just say?!" Manami whisper-yelled. "Get back here you... ugh!"
"You should be able to fit in there with him," Al pointed out. "I told you before, you can't get him to stop once he's found a way."
He offered to lift her up, and she sighed. She walked over and he helped her up. Looking at it this close, she wondered if she was even going to fit...
"You gonna be okay out here by yourself..?" Manami looked down to Al, who nodded.
"I'll be just fine! Brother's more likely to get in trouble."
"Alright... here I go, then..." Manami struggled to get in, but she managed to make it inside. The smell of old dust and probably dead rats filled her nose, making her face twist in disgust, but she kept crawling.
"I swear, if something crawls on me in here, I'm bringing this whole building down..." She muttered to herself.
"Stop complaining. You didn't have to come in." Ed retorted, making Manami roll her eyes.
"Neither did you." She spat.
Manami noticed how Ed was increasingly getting further ahead of her. "How are you crawling through this so fast..? I can barely move in here."
"Probably because I'm smaller than you—" Ed stopped himself, cringing at the fact that he had called himself small. Manami didn't notice. After he recovered, he noticed an opening.
"I see something..!" He announced as he made his way to it and kicked through the gate so that he could hop down, gracefully landing on his feet.
Manami followed suit, standing upright and realizing how many cobwebs were on her.
"Ew, ew, ew..!" She quickly went to wipe off her body and her hair to make sure no spiders were lingering.
"For a building that's 'not currently in use,' there's plenty of lighting in here..." Ed noted.
Manami looked around. "Still looks abandoned. It's possible they just haven't cut off the ghost lighting."
"Only one way to find out..." Ed began to walk, Manami following close behind him.