Everyone had returned to the Curtis residence, where they sat once again at the dining room table to discuss, in detail, what Ed and Al had gone through.
This was a much more in-detail story than they had originally told Manami. The impact of it hit just as hard as before. She actually turned her head a few times to wipe away tears. Ed hadn't noticed, but Al did.
What he didn't notice was the immense guilt that she felt.
"That's everything." Ed finished, and Izumi was quiet for a long moment.
"Teacher..." He looked up to her. "You saw it, too..?"
"..." Izumi sighed and placed a hand on her stomach. "Before I met you two, Sig and I were trying to have a baby." She started. "We finally managed to conceive, but I fell ill... and so did the child. He didn't make it into this world."
Everyone's eyes widened.
"I attempted to bring him back to life. As a result, I lost parts of my inner organs. I was a fool..." She shook her head. "I should have told you two sooner."
Manami looked down to her lap. She had that same thought running through her mind...
If I stayed and told them everything, maybe they wouldn't have...
"Manami," Izumi quickly broke her out of her thoughts, and she looked up at her. "You aren't a student of mine, so you have no obligation to tell me any more than you already have, but..." Her eyes narrowed. "I can tell, by your expressions and lack of surprise... that you understand."
All eyes were on Manami now. Her eyes trembled softly, not knowing what to say.
"You said to me last night, 'I have done a lot of bad, and I want to right those wrongs.' I want you to know that this is a safe place to talk about it, but only if you wish to." Izumi said, her expression serious, but her eyes were soft.
"..." Manami looked down to her lap.
"... I lost my younger sister. She was only six. I attempted to bring her back, and ran away to leave everyone to think our family died in a house fire. To these two," She motioned her head towards Ed and Al. "I've been dead for the past six years, up until a few weeks ago."
Manami's eyebrows furrowed a little.
"There's just... one thing that bothers me..." She looked at Ed and Al first, and then to Izumi.
"... nothing was physically taken from me. My body is fully intact, inside and out."
Izumi raised an eyebrow.
"Something had to be taken from you..." She said. "You had to have paid a toll."
"... when the transmutation started to rebound, my parents came down to see what all the commotion was. The next thing I knew, I was looking at... that thing..."
Izumi and Ed's eyes narrowed in understanding. She meant Truth.
"And..." She clenched her fists tightly in her lap. "When I came back... my mom and dad were gone."
"!" Izumi's eyes widened in horror. "... you don't mean..."
Manami felt her bottom lip quiver, and she bit down on it as she looked down in shame. Her silence answered it all.
"..." Izumi was speechless for a brief moment.
"You kids... really went through hell." She said quietly, looking back to Ed and Al. "It must have been hard."
"I mean..." Ed managed to force a smile. "It was our fault... we knew we weren't supposed to."
Al slowly nodded after him, then looked down to Manami.
"... we want to right our wrongs." The brunette said quietly, eyes glued to her lap.
Seeing the three of them like that, carrying so much burden... it broke Izumi's heart. She went to stand up and approach them, going to pull the three of them into a hug.
"..?" Manami blinked. She knew why she would do this for Ed and Al... but for her?
"It's okay to hurt." Was all that Izumi said.
Manami's eyes widened. She didn't think those words would hit her as hard as they did, but... it must've hit Ed and Al just as hard, because she could hear soft sniffles and whimpers come from the both of them.
"We're sorry, Teacher..."
"Please forgive us..."
Yet Manami couldn't bring herself to say anything... she just lowered her head and shut her eyes tightly.
She barely knew this woman, yet she was treating her just as well as her own students.
She didn't deserve it.
"To think, you kids actually saw it and survived." Izumi went to look out the window. The sun was setting outside. "I doubt you know how impressive that actually is."
Manami did. She knew very little about alchemy at the time of her transmutation... at least, compared to Ed and Izumi, who had studied it for years before attempting.
She actually considered it a miracle that she was alive today.
"Still, I cannot accept the decision you two have made." Izumi turned to look at Ed and Al, her face curled in a frown. "You're expelled."
The three of them gasped in surprise.
"B-But, Teacher—"
"Al, stop." Ed quickly interrupted his little brother.
"I didn't teach you two to turn your bodies into that," Izumi spat, going to look back out the window. "The trains are still running. Get on one."
Manami stared in absolute shock. It was astounding how quickly Izumi could bounce back and forth between gentle and motherly, to cold and fearful.
Were they really being kicked out?
"..." Ed went to bow his head. "Thank you for everything."
Al slowly followed suit and bowed, and finally Manami could only look at them with the same shocked expression.
They were just accepting this..?!
Izumi said nothing as she turned to walk out of the room.
The three of them were silent as Sig went to escort them to the train station. They stopped at the entrance, and Sig turned to look at them.
"Feel free to stop by anytime." He said, making them blink in surprise.
"I-I don't think we—" Al started to say, but Sig shouted over him.
"You morons! Don't you see what your expulsion means yet?" He asked. "You aren't her students anymore. So you're free to speak to her as equals. Unless if you're too scared..."
"Huh..?" Manami was confused by that logic. Izumi kicked them out of the house... that didn't seem very welcoming to come back and speak "equally."
"Damn it..." Ed smacked his hand over his head and scratched at it in frustration. "Al, we haven't done what we came here to do in the first place!"
"... ah!" Al gasped, realizing what he meant.
"We're going back!" Ed announced before he and Al took off the way they came, leaving Sig and Manami together.
"... what?!" Manami yelled at them.
"Don't let her kill you!" Sig called after them, making Manami jump and whip her head to look at him.
She wouldn't actually kill them... would she?
"You got to have good stamina to keep up with them, huh?" Sig looked down at her. She sighed and looked back to the direction where they ran off.
"I'm still getting used to it..."
Sig walked back with her until they made it back to the shop, where they could hear yelling before they even made it to the property.
"Just go home!"
"We won't!"
"I'll chop you up!"
"HUH?!" Manami squeaked. Sig waved his hand, as if he were dismissing it.
"We're staying!" She heard the Elric brothers yell.
... and then there was silence. Manami and Sig peeked through the door to see Ed and Al on their knees, Izumi looking down at them.
"..." Izumi sighed heavily. "You brats."
Ed and Al breathed a small sigh of relief.
Sig then stepped inside, Manami following.
"Al, you've seen the Truth as well?" Izumi spoke.
"No, actually... I don't know anything about it." Al answered, making Izumi put her hand on her chin as she thought for a moment.
"It's possible... he lost the memory from the shock of it all." She said. "Let's work on getting his memory back. That's a good start."
"Ah..!" Ed realized it. "Al lost the most... so he should know more than any of us..!"
"Well," Izumi's dark eyes fell on Manami, and Ed followed her gaze. "That might not be entirely true."
Manami blinked in surprise, but then she caught on. "Oh..." She looked down. "I mean... even with everything I saw, I didn't see anything that would be of help..."
"It may have been circumstantial," Izumi looked back to Al. "Which goes back to my original theory: We need your memory back, in order to start fixing your mistake. But..."
"Yeah..." Ed shuddered, and so did Manami.
"What's wrong?" Al asked.
"It's traumatizing." Manami answered quietly.
"It could make you go insane." Izumi added.
"Or turn you into a vegetable..." Ed whined.
"I think I actually was a vegetable for a little bit." Manami shuddered again.
"E-Even so..." Al stammered. "I don't care! I'll do whatever it takes!"
"Right," Izumi turned away. "I'll try asking my doctor at my next appointment. Until then, we've got a library you could read up at." She smiled back at them.
"As far as tonight goes, you kids must be hungry. Come help me set up for dinner."
"... y-yes ma'am!" The three of them jumped up.
A few weeks passed. Ed and Al spent every day reading up on the library's books, but Izumi had asked that Manami stay with her while Ed and Al were out. She was insistent on helping Manami get her arm to heal as quickly as possible. Despite that she was technically breaking a military order, both Manami and Ed agreed with Izumi.
They also didn't mind the space, at least for a little bit.
Manami had gone to Izumi's room one morning, and Izumi examined her wound and watched as Manami did some arm stretches.
"So, you can raise your arm all the way up now. I think it's safe to say that you can use it again." Izumi watched as Manami did so, and even went to hold her shoulder with her other hand so that she could roll it a few times.
"Yeah, I think the whole inside tissue finally repaired itself!" Manami smiled at her. She still had a bit of a scab on the outside, but it was starting to scar more than anything at this point.
"Thanks so much, Miss Izumi." She went to use both arms to put on her overcoat.
Throughout this time, Izumi had given her medications, herbs, and even small weights to lift so that her arm stayed in shape during this healing process.
"Of course," Izumi smiled. "You need to be in top shape if you're going to run around with those two. I trained them to be strong, after all." She went to grab something that looked like a medication bottle off her bedside table.
"Well, I'm off to my doctor's appointment." She went to walk to the door. "If you could help Sig start dinner downstairs, that would be great."
"Of course," Manami went to follow her out the door. "It's the least I could do!"
The evening came, where Izumi was sad to come back with only one piece of advice from the doctor:
A strong shock could resurface Al's memories.
"We could find the nearest haunted house..." Manami joked, but no one laughed.
"I just figured I'd bash his head in until he remembers." Izumi said casually, making the three kids jump.
"P-P-Please don't..!" Al cried.
"Otherwise... we would just have to wait." Izumi crossed her arms.
Who knows how long that would take... which means...
They were back to square one.
The three of them heaved a sigh.
"... GAHH!" Ed suddenly yelled out, making Manami yell out in surprise.
"Geez! What?!" She yelled back at him. "Scared the crap out of me..."
"I-I forgot..!"
"Forgot what?" Al asked his brother.
"This year's assessment..." Ed began to sweat, and Manami gasped.
"Your State assessment?!" She cried. "How could you forget?!"
"I-I don't know..! But I have to go to Headquarters now or I'm losing my certification..!" Ed quickly went to go to the room he and Al were staying in, everyone following.
"Don't you have to go, too?" Izumi turned to look at Manami, who jumped a little as she realized that she was right.
"Sure do..." She quickly exited the room to go to her own across the hall so that she could gather her things.
When she and Ed walked to the front door, they turned to look back at Al and Izumi.
"We'll go to South Headquarters. It's only three stations away from here. Worst case scenario, we'll be back tomorrow morning."
"I'll come with you—" Al offered, but Izumi grabbed him by the string that hung from his helmet.
"Why don't you stay here, Al?" Izumi asked, her voice so kind and inviting.
And that was terrifying.
"I need a sparring partner." She said simply.
"Y-Yes ma'am..."
Both Ed and Manami managed to hide their disappointment that Al wasn't coming, mostly because neither knew how it was going to be with the other... alone.
Oh well. There was nothing that could be done about it now. It was only going to be for like a day.
"We'll be back!" Ed went to wave as he bolted out the door, Manami right behind him.
"H-Have a safe trip..!" Al called after the both of them.
He got a bad feeling after the door closed behind them.