Creation began on 02-06-18
Creation ended on 02-23-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Living Alchemist: Making the Grade
Central City was very bland for a country's capital location and the head of state, as Shinji set his feet outside the train station with the Elric Brothers.
"So, this is Central, huh?" He expressed. "Seems a bit different from what I had originally expected."
"Well, what did you expect?" Ed asks him.
"The people to be a bit more lively."
"Yeah, it is kind of dull out here," Al agreed with him.
Then Shinji noticed a few cars pass them by that had pipes sticking out the back of them.
"Those were…steam-powered," he uttered.
"Technological revolution at its newest," Ed stated. "Welcome to Amestris."
"Yeah… Quite revolutionary."
A woman walked past them…and Shinji got a good look at her: She was tall like Misato, not too bad-looking, but long, ebony hair, reddish eyes like Rei, and a dress that seemed to highlight her bosom a bit too much for his likes, something he attributed to that day he met Asuka on the Over the Rainbow. But there was something else about that drew his eyes toward her. He wasn't sure what it was, but he just felt a little…put off by her.
"Shinji?" Alphonse asked. "Shinji?"
"Huh?" He responded, sounding like he was lost in thought. "Yes?"
"You zoned out for two minutes," he explained. "Are you alright?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"I am fine."
-x-
"…So, Rei," went Ritsuko to the albino girl as she sat inside the repaired Unit-01, "how does it feel to be back in Unit-01 now that it's fully repaired?"
"It smells like Ikari," she expressed. "That is a good thing, is it not?"
"Yeah," said Misato. "It's a good thing."
Four months since the last attack, but some of the personnel didn't want to forget that the Third Child was dead because of NERV as a whole and not because of the actions of a few. Not even Asuka wanted to forget her role in baiting him to take on the Angel just because of the high synchronization.
"Still no luck with finding a new sub-commander?" Hyuga asked Misato.
"No, and Fuyutsuki has relocated to Sapporo."
"What about the rumors of the Unit-04 incident?"
"Still reviewing what happened."
The Evangelion Unit-04 incident. Not really much of an incident as it was a near-nightmare. As they were installing what was left of the power source of the Fourth Angel into the latest Eva made in the US, the NERV branch in Nevada almost caused a catastrophe when the core began to overheat. This prompted the American government to discontinue their involvement with NERV following their initial demand to build Units-03 and 04, no longer convinced that any research involving the Evas was truly beneficial to the people, especially since it caused the death of a child, which was a violation of the No Child Left Behind Law; due to the declining birth rate after Second Impact, any child, even one related to a megalomaniac with no heart, was just as invaluable to the world as money because they had to be the ones to lead what was left of the human race into whatever future was left to take, not the previous generation that had failed the world. And it was only NERV's special protection that kept the paramilitary agency from being disbanded and put to pasture for this infraction and any others that stemmed from the exploitation of children.
Sometimes, I wonder why we even have that law, thought Ritsuko; in her mind, the law was worthless because it didn't do much but stress how invaluable children were because not many couples or families left in the world had any. Children die everyday.
"You and Commander Ikari are the ones that killed him," she remembered Misato telling her, reminding her that, while she herself was responsible for her deceased ward, the faux-blond and leader of NERV were the ones directly responsible for the operation to force-salvage the Eva at the expense of the pilot's life. "His blood is on your hands."
-x-
It was quite the disappointment for the Elrics when they found out that Shinji was the only one able to take the State Alchemy Exam due to his three-year age difference. Apparently, it didn't matter how skilled the alchemist was if they were below the age of fourteen, the limited age requirement to enlist in the State Military.
Edward, however, got the feeling that it was mainly because Roy Mustang, the same State Alchemist that showed up in Resembool, suspected Alphonse and him of hiding something that they didn't want anyone else to know about. That…and because Shinji was there to clean up their mess before they could be found out.
"What would it take for them to be allowed to take the exam with me, regardless of their age?" Shinji had asked the guy.
"Luck," Mustang stated.
Luck, huh? Shinji thought as he and the Elrics walked down the street. "I'd say that you two have a shot to get in on the exam now. Not a great shot, but a shot nonetheless."
"It's not like we have any luck, though," Alphonse expressed. "These State Alchemists are older and more experienced than we are."
"Maybe so, but you two aren't bound by the limitations they're bound by yet."
"What do you mean?" Edward asks him.
"If their alchemy is based specifically for fighting, then they're predictable. They can only use it to cause harm, more or less. They can't exhibit creativity in other fields, such as rebuilding. If alchemy is capable of causing harm, then it should also be capable of mending those harmed by it. What is it that you stress about in alchemy that aids in its study? To understand, to deconstruct and recreate? Take what you know you're capable of…and expand upon it."
"What about you?" Al asks him. "How can you be sure medical alchemy is the best way to go?"
"I don't, but I don't want to fight anyone, anymore. I've experienced enough pain to last me a lifetime. To not be able to see other possibilities in life beyond those of conflict is to admit to knowing only what you know is possible…and never trying to find other ways."
Then Ed had to consider that using alchemy for medical practices could be possible. If Shinji was able to generate for him a new arm to replace the one he lost to save Al's soul, then it could be possible to generate legs and even replacement organs through the science of alchemy.
If he can do that, it wouldn't be Human Transmutation at all, he accepted.
"…Help!" The three heard a woman scream, seeing a man with a bag running their way. "That man took my bag!"
Something shifted within Shinji…and he got in the way of the man.
Slice. He brandished his kunai and swung it horizontally when the guy got close enough, sending a streak of blood across the pavement as he fell to the ground.
"Aaaurgh!" He groaned, trying to get back.
Slam. Shinji approached him and put his left foot on his chest, sending him back down.
"I hope you can give me one reason not to cut you further," he told him, but it was the way he said it that took the Elrics by surprise.
It was like he was a completely different person, one full of anger and a desire to harm.
"Aaaurgh!" Shinji then shouted, bringing his kunai down on the guy.
"No!" He cried, closing his eyes.
But when he opened them again, he saw the blade had narrowly missed his head by an inch to the left of his head; the fourteen-year-old boy had deliberately missed on killing him.
"Consider yourself lucky enough to continue living," Shinji told him and then took the bag from him and returned it to the woman.
"Thank you," she praised him.
-x-
"…Are you sure that it was a boy that did this cut?" Doctor Knox asked the men from the Military Police as he examined the injury of the man that was arrested.
"Three witnesses say it was a fourteen-year-old boy that injured this man to get back a woman's purse," one of them explained. "Is the injury fatal?"
"No, but that's the weird thing," Dr. Knox confessed. "The cut looks more like an incision than a stab or slice. And because it was made on his lower abdomen, it should've killed him, but he needs no stitching, and there's hardly a loss of blood."
"He ain't human," the purse-snatcher expressed. "His eyes and voice. He looked like he wanted to kill me, but held back. He sounded like he wanted to kill me, but held back. He's not normal."
"If he went and stabbed you in the left eye, you wouldn't be normal," the other police officer stated.
"I looked him right in the eyes and saw a giant with a horn surrounded by fire!"
Outside the examination room, Shinji and the Elrics, after Shinji gave his statement, wondered why the Military Police still wanted to see him.
"So you cut a purse-snatcher," said Edward. "You did a civil service. Last time I checked, people get thanked a little for helping to stop a crime that started some time ago."
"How does the military deal with civilians that take the law into their own hands?" Shinji questions. "I mean, what, do they get a reprimand, a slap on the wrist, a few hours of community service or do time in the brig?"
"Maybe it's got something to do with the way you look," suggested Al.
"What does my appearance have to do with anything I do?"
It was only because Shinji didn't know about the Ishval Civil War or the aftermath that resulted from the outcome that the Elrics gave him the benefit of the doubt. Whatever history he knew from his world would be vastly different from the history here…and over a century from today in a new era that hasn't come…and where alchemy was nonexistent.
"Most Amestrians don't take kindly to Ishvalans," Ed stated. "It's also difficult for them to accept people of different ethnicities based on their appearances, cultures and social customs."
"That sounds like discrimination and racism, if you ask me," Shinji responded. "If you dislike someone simply because they don't look like you do or even live the way you do or follow a belief structure that you can't understand, that shouldn't permit anyone, not even a more-civilized society, to inflict grievous harm upon them. Even in the darkest of suffering, one can still find peace in their sleep, but for those that willingly, intentionally, without any hesitation or remorse, choose to inflict suffering onto others, their minds can never enjoy that same peace when they sleep. Not with a guilty conscience that will remain with them until the day they die or until they atone for their sins."
"Speaking from experience?"
"I wish."
-x-
"…So…I heard you got asked to join NERV yesterday," said Asuka to Toji on the school rooftop during lunch.
The school jock, looking at the track across the yard, turned to face the redhead and responded, "What's it to you? What, are you going to tell me that I'm unnecessary because they have you and Rei?"
"No. I was actually going to say that you shouldn't bother with NERV because of the last attack."
"Why? NERV needs people to pilot the Evas and there are still Angels out there."
"You have any family?"
"What has that to do what I was asked?"
"All he had left was his father…and that man doesn't bat an eyelash for him, and he made the choice that killed him. You still have people in your life, so you should walk away from the Eva while you still have them."
It was the first time Asuka had ever said something of this sort to someone asked to become an Eva pilot without a reason based on her pride. She felt that the least likely to want to become pilots were those that actually had someone to lose, not those that had nothing left to lose. Even if it was viewed as a hindrance to NERV, the redhead didn't want the same people that were responsible for Shinji's death to be responsible for some little girl's big brother if something bad happened to him; she might've thought of Shinji as a jerk and embarrassment to the Eva program, but Asuka never wanted his or any other death on her conscience. If she could keep this stooge from the inside of a plug, then maybe she could begin to move on from this grief over what happened to Shinji.
-x-
It was not what Shinji had anticipated when he was asked to sit inside an interrogation room and wait for a few minutes. But then the door opened again…and an elderly man with an eyepatch and the woman whose purse was snatched came inside.
"You must have no idea who I am, do you?" The elder man questioned.
"Sorry, sir, but no," he answered back.
"My name is King Bradley…and I'm the Fuhrer of Amestris."
"I'm sorry, sir. Fuhrer…as in…like a president?"
"That's right."
Shinji, simply because of his culture's requirement of him doing so, stood up and bowed to the man.
"My apologies, sir," he uttered; if he were in the presence of the Emperor of Japan, he'd be doing the same thing.
"No apologies necessary, young man," King Bradley told him. "I should actually be thanking you for your public service. You stopped a man from stealing my wife's purse."
Shinji bowed again, this time to Mrs. Bradley. To be in the presence of a government leader was one thing, but to be in the presence of a relative of a government leader, such as a spouse or child, was another thing.
"Ma'am," he greeted.
"You're the man applying for the State Alchemy Exam," she responded.
"Yes, I am. Although I didn't expect to be the only one out the three of us that came to Central and found out that they stress over age, regardless of how skilled an alchemist is."
"Oh, that's right, you were with two boys when you stopped that man."
"The Elrics, Edward and Alphonse. They are, more or less, my responsibility outside of Resembool."
"You? But you're barely fifteen."
"I was merely asked by their guardian…and I couldn't really say no."
-x-
"You're late," the woman, the same woman that Shinji noticed when he arrived in Central, heard a voice say to her in the darkness. "I'm guessing the alchemists you discovered weren't up to par with the State Alchemists here?"
"Not even close," she uttered, looking to her left in the darkness, seeing the silhouette of an oversized individual and an average-sized nimble person with dreadlocks. "There is something else, too. We might have a problem here in Central."
"A problem? A threat?" The nimble person asked.
"A kid. He arrived earlier today. I can't prove it, but he might be dangerous if left to his independence."
"Can I eat him?" The oversized individual asked her, sounding like a man drooling heavily.
"I'll go see him first…and then we'll see what happens," the nimble person responded. "He might not be much of a problem if dealt with by me."
-x-
"Hey, you never mentioned the kid you saw in Resembool when you went there was the same one that stopped that guy from stealing Mrs. Bradley's purse," Mustang heard Hughes say to him, having found out from someone else who found out from someone else. "He's the one you suspect of hiding something from the State?"
"There's just something about him that is…unusual for someone his age," he told Hughes. "It's hardly his appearance as it is his awareness. I asked about him, but there seems to be no records of him ever living in Resembool…or anywhere else in Amestris, for that matter."
"Well, Amestris is a big place…and any place elsewhere is bound to be bigger. He could be from outside the country."
"How do you explain him getting across the borders, then? Someone had to have seen him and kept a record…unless he just fell out of the sky somewhere above Resembool."
"Or it's just likely that some soldiers took pity on a bunch of nomads looking to integrate themselves into Amestrian society a few years ago, and he was one of them. Whatever happens will happen in due time, and what wants to be known will be known."
But that didn't stop Mustang from suspecting that the Ikari boy knew something and was keeping quiet about it. He would have to keep an eye out for him until he slipped up and revealed his secrets, whatever they were, since he appeared to be within the Fuhrer's good graces for helping his wife. In a month's time, the teen…and the Elrics would be taking the Alchemy Exam.
Luck was clearly on his side today, he thought, now wanting to see how the kid could fare in the exam.
To be continued…
A/N: Just to confirm for some of you, Shinji shall exhibit a degree of split personality, in which one side will demonstrate a propensity towards violence, but will be influenced by a desire to help the people that get hurt, and the other side will be the one seeking to use alchemy for medical purposes. Some of the inspiration for what Shinji will do in the future came from an episode of CW's Black Lightning series and the their theme song.