The day finally came... the group had made it to Resembool.

As they walked down the familiar dirt road that would lead to the Rockbell home, Manami was silent. Everyone could see the terror in her face, but no one dared to ask her about it. As long as she kept moving, things were fine.

But, it was when they reached the graveyard that Manami came to a stop.

"..." Ed stopped as well, looking back at her.

"You guys go ahead." She met his glance and smiled weakly. "I have something I gotta do."

"You sure?" Ed asked her, while the other three looked amongst each other in confusion.

"Yeah. I'll meet you at the house." Manami felt a lump form in her throat, but she managed to resist the urge to swallow it until the guys all turned and went to walk away.

She watched them until they disappeared behind the hill up ahead before she turned to look back at the graveyard. She took a deep breath as she approached the gate to the cemetery and slowly opened it. She hesitated for a few more moments before stepping inside.

Where the Kami family tombstones resided, she didn't know… so Manami started by walking down a row she chose at random and inspected each tombstone along the way.

She stopped at the sight of the first two tombstones with names that she recognized:

Urey Rockbell

1873- 1908

Sarah Rockbell

1879-1908

Manami imagined the day that Winry's parents left, how sad Winry must have been… it was weird to think that they died after she herself left Resembool… she wasn't there to console Winry… and as far as Winry knew at the time, she lost a friend and both her parents in the same year.

Manami took a shaky breath and clapped hands together twice, in front of her face, before she bowed her head. This was how she had been taught to pay respects at a grave, by her father.

She continued on to another row of tombstones, and stopped at the sight of another tombstone with a name she recognized:

Trisha Elric

1878-1904

Manami remembered the day of Trisha's funeral vividly. How much Al cried. How, though he tried to be strong, she even saw Ed shed a few tears. Ed and Al loved their mother more than anything, that went without question… she died from the same plague that took Shiori two years later.

Winry losing her parents… Ed and Al losing their mom… and she herself losing her sister. Their past had so much death… and Manami couldn't help but wonder where they would be now, if they all stayed alive. No human transmutation… no houses burned down… no tolls to pay.

Manami stopped herself from continuing this train of thought so that she could clap her hands twice and bowed her head to Trisha's grave, silently paying respects before moving on.

After a while longer of searching, Manami felt herself slow to a stop and freeze at the sight of the first Kami tombstone…

Shiori Kami

1901-1906

Manami felt her chest tighten up immediately. She suddenly got flashbacks of the day that Shiori died, where she gave back the locket that Manami had made for her…

Manami reached up to touch the locket, but quickly realized that it wasn't with her at the moment. Oh yeah... Al had it...

Memories of Shiori's funeral rushed through her mind... how she played the piano and felt so dead inside. She let out a pent up breath when her eyes moved to the tombstones next to Shiori's…

Kai Kami

1877-1908

Renee Kami

1879-1908

Manami felt her eyes water when she thought of her parents. How her mom often made her practice the piano every day. How her dad would teach her things that 'grandpa would have taught you if he were still here.'

Their smiles. Their laughs. Their hugs. Their warmth.

The monstrosity that they became... because of her.

Manami started to shake, and she felt her legs wobble before they gave out and she fell to her knees.

She hugged herself tightly, as if she were desperately holding herself together so that she wouldn't fall apart. There was only one more tombstone that could be after her mother's… and she didn't want to look at it. She squinted her eyes shut and hugged herself tighter.

She had to… she had to look at it.

"..." Manami slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head to see the last tombstone:

Manami Kami

1900-1908

The thoughts came rushing to her mind. The funeral. The whispers of how tragic that the year after the youngest daughter, the rest of the family died only two years after. The questions on how they all died in a single night. Ed, Al, and Winry at the funeral with Granny Pinako... crying.

Her mind wandered to the fact that the only body that was under their tombstone was Shiori's. The rebound of her human transmutation that was the fusion her parents' bodies, burned to ashes under the rubble of her home… to this day.

All because of one stupid mistake… that ruined not just her own life, but her parents' lives, too…

And she ran away from it. She ran away from it all.

All she could think of… is how disappointed Shiori must be…

"..." Manami took a shaky breath as the tears overflowed nd started streaming down her face. She gritted her teeth and hunched over, bowing her head lower and lower, until her forehead touched the grass in front of Shiori's tombstone.

"I'm so sorry…"

She spent a long moment quietly sobbing, while keeping her forehead pressed to the ground as some tears fell onto the grass.

Finally, she moved to sit upright and wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

"Some big sister I am... I fail at bringing you back, and... it's my fault mom and dad aren't really here with you... and then I don't visit for seven years..."

Manami sighed heavily before going to lean her head back and look up at the sky. It was a beautiful blue, with white fluffy clouds rolling along… just like she remembered from her childhood.

How many times she ran under this sky with her childhood friends and little sister, laughing and playing without a care in the world.

"... every now and then, I wonder how it would have went if it were the other way around... if it were me down there in the ground..." Manami felt another lump form in her throat.

"I definitely don't think... it would have ended up like this." She shook her head. "You wouldn't have been this stupid..."

She stared at Shiori's name, reading it over and over again before finally shifting her gaze to the tombstone with her name.

"... I know it's awful of me to say, but I can't tell you how many times I wished it was me down there, instead of you."

There was a pause before she sighed and shook her head. "But, that's not the way this went. And I know I screwed up… really screwed up…" She corrected herself.

"But... I'm trying my best to fix things, now..." Her eyebrows furrowed. "It took me way too long, but I needed to see this. I needed to come back and face it."

She took a long, deep breath.

"Actually seeing my name on a tombstone like this... it makes me realize that I'm not ready to die yet."

Manami then clapped her hands and went to touch the tombstone, deconstructing it into a pile of rubble.

"I didn't think I'd get another chance to fix things, but... it turns out, the only one who really took away that chance was myself." She went to wipe her eyes with her sleeve again before going to stand up.

"I'm alive... and I'm not going to run away anymore."

Manami stared down at Shiori's tombstone as she continued. "I can't make everything right again, but... I'm gonna work my hardest to put together as many of the broken pieces as possible... at the very least, I'm helping our friends."

She paused once again, her eyes glued to Shiori's tombstone.

"... I can only hope that you can forgive me. That mom and dad can forgive me."

Manami then went to turn her head and look out in the direction of where the Rockbell house would be.

"I don't know when I'll be able to come back after today... or when this journey will be over. But one day… I will come home."

By the time Manami made her way to the Rockbell house, the sun had started to set. She stopped in front of the house to look up at it.

It was just as she remembered. It was miraculous to her that not much had changed…

She slowly went up the front steps and opened the front door, noticing that it as eerily quiet when she stepped inside. She suddenly flinched when she heard yelling and barking upstairs.

"Drop your guns!"

Manami gasped. Was the military here?!

"What the hell is going on here?"

"You're Kimblee's men!"

"And you're from Briggs!"

"?!" Manami quickly ran up the stairs to find out what all the commotion was. It was coming from Winry's room..!

"Everyone calm down, lower your guns!"

"Quit shouting at us!"

"Will someone shut that dog up?!"

"What's happening?!" Manami was the last to enter the room before Winry exploded.

"EVERYONE OUT OF MY ROOM!"

She went to shove Manami out, but she resisted.

"W-Winry?!"

"Huh?" Winry recognized her voice, but…

"It's me!" Manami took off her glasses.

"Manami?! Y-Your hair!"

"I-It's a long story…" Manami let out a yelp as Winry quickly hugged her.

"You two are alright..!"

"Yeah..!" Manami hugged her back. "And you're okay too!"

Manami glanced behind Winry to see Ed sitting at her workshop table. He looked frazzled.

"I was so worried…" Winry sighed in relief when she pulled away from the hug with Manami.

"We were, too…" Manami chuckled weakly.

"Isn't Al with you?" Ed asked, and both the girls' eyes widened.

That's right… Al had to have been with Winry at some point! He may even be with her now!

"H-He's at the train station right now!" Winry turned to Ed.

Manami's eyes widened more, and her heart began to pound in her chest.

Al was here?! She could see him again, after all this time?!

"He's with Miles… but the train is going to leave soon!" Winry said.

"Then we have to go!" Manami turned to turn the door. She heard Ed's footsteps behind her for a moment, but they quickly stopped.

"..?" Manami stopped as well and turned to look back at him. She could see that Winry stood behind him, looking just as confused.

"What's wrong?" Winry was the one to ask. "Don't you want to see Al?"

"..." Ed glared to his feet and clenched his fists.

"Of course I do… but…"

"But what?" Manami asked, impatient.

"... we're fugitives." Ed said bitterly. "There's bound to be a bunch of soldiers at the train station. I can't… risk anyone seeing me."

He looked up to Manami.

"But… you can go, Manami."

"Ed…" Manami started, but Ed cut her off.

"Turns out your disguise was a good idea." Ed forced a smile. "You go ahead and make sure Al is okay for me."

Manami hesitated, her eyes wide. She wanted to go, more than anything... but what good would it do to keep Ed and Al separated?

"There's no time to argue!" Ed said, like he had just read her mind. "You have to go now or neither of us will catch up to him!"

For one more moment, Manami hesitated... but ultimately, she finally gave in to her desire.

"Here, I'm going to leave this." Manami shrugged off her knapsack and tossed it to Ed. "I'd rather it stay here where it'll be safe."

It wasn't so much the knapsack as much as it was the journal inside it… along with the pictures.

"Right." Winry walked up next to Ed and took the knapsack from him before smiling over at her. "I'll put it somewhere safe… until you come back home."

Manami smiled slightly, happy that Winry understood her reasoning for leaving it here, other than keeping it safe.

She would be reunited with her belongings again… when she returned home for good.

"In the meantime," Winry had a shirt that she grabbed from her closet in her other hand, and she tossed it to Manami.

"Your shirt's dirty. Take this and change when you get a minute!"

"Oh..." Manami looked down to herself to see her shirt covered in patches of dirt. She didn't even realize...

"Now, go get your man!" Winry said to her.

"Huh?" Ed blinked.

Manami quickly turned to run out of Winry's bedroom before any questions could be asked. As she ran down the stairs, she stuffed Winry's shirt in her pocket as much as it could fit before reaching to grab the pair of fans in her back pockets.

"Hey— whoa!" Greed started to talk to Manami when she made it to the bottom of the stairs, but she shoved past him to bolt out the front door.

As she jumped over the front steps onto the dirt road, she could hear Ed call out to her from Winry's balcony,

"You two be safe, you hear me?!"

Manami looked back to see Winry and Ed, and she shot one last smile them as she whipped open her fans and crouched in a ready position.

"You two be safe, too!"

And with a BOOM, she waved her fans behind her and launched herself forward to glide, and then run. Winry and Ed watched from the balcony as she repeated this process and sped down the dirt road, once again leaving behind her home…

Manami took one last glance to the graveyard as she passed it, where her family's graves lied… but no longer did her own tombstone lie with them.

No… she was alive. She was going to make things right, and then come home. Or die trying.