Creation began on 09-15-18
Creation ended on 10-01-18
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Living Alchemist: Turn Pain into Power, Hurt into Survival
The bothersome stench of meat hanging in the air, the stinging sensation of a bruised face, and the fear of failure as Shinji came to and saw that he was surrounded by animal carcasses preserved for distribution, seeing Maria and Denny strapped into chairs across from where he was, also strapped to a chair. There was a grinding noise being made, and he turned to his left, seeing a man sharpening a blade.
"Hey," he uttered to the man, but his voice didn't sound loud enough. "HEY!"
The man stopped sharpening and turned to face him.
"Oh, you're awake now," he greeted, and Shinji found his expression to be crazy because the guy made no attempt to hide it.
The blade he was sharpening was a cleaver, now glistening as he held it up to be seen.
"Why, Mr. Stein?" Shinji asked him.
"Huh?"
"Why? Your actions have clearly answered my suspicions that a butcher was responsible for these murders…but not a reason or motive for the drive. You're clearly the killer, but there's no understanding of your reason for being the cause of so much pain. If you're going to kill me, anyway, you can at least explain your reasons for committing such acts of depravity."
"You call it depravity, I call it choice," Barry expressed, holding up a sharpening rod. "I guess it all started when I killed my wife by accident. We were arguing over some nonsense…and I punched her in the face. She slipped and fell into our grinder. I didn't mean for it to happen, but when I saw her getting diced… I never thought it was possible for a person to end up like that…and I wanted to experience that again…and again…and again. There's something about hacking away at people that's so exhilarating and terrifying that you go to such lengths to understand every layer of it."
"So, your wife's unintentional murder sparked your psychopathy? You were traumatized by her murder to the point that you chose to murder other women…just so that you could relive it? I've heard of worse reasons. Some people actually wanted to believe that it was an alchemist that was the cause of these deaths."
"Oh, that's hilarious."
"You're not going to get away with this," Maria warned Barry, getting his attention. "The military will be looking for us, and you will be charged with capital offenses."
Barry approached her…and then stabbed her in her right leg with the sharpening rod.
"Aaaaurgh!" She screamed.
"Maybe, but not before I get three more kills," he told her, bringing his cleaver over his head. "I'll at least go to my grave knowing that I killed a pair of nobodies and a State Alchemist!"
FLASH! A bright light from behind Barry caught their attention and the butcher turned to face Shinji, who was now standing up, holding a metal rod, looking enraged.
"You've killed your last victim, Barry Stein," he uttered, his voice sounding darker, raising the rod up at him. "I'm taking you down."
"You take me down? What can you possibly do to me?"
-x-
"…I can't believe Shinji was actually working on this case," Alphonse told Edward as they had decided to look into the case Shinji was investigating. "This is insane."
"Someone actually did this to multiple women…and he's looking for the person responsible," Ed responded, looking at a picture of a female corpse. "Good God."
Knock-knock-knock! Someone knocked on the door outside of Shinji's room, and the brothers turned to face Nina, who was with her father…and the Flame Alchemist, who seemed bothered by something serious.
"Have either of you seen Major Ikari?" He asked them.
"No," they answered him.
"He left about an hour-and-a-half ago with his security detail," Shou explained to him.
"Sargent Brosh was instructed to call in case there was an update in the investigation."
"Maybe they're still following a lead somewhere," Al suggested to the Flame Alchemist.
"With Major Ikari, that leaves a lot open to discussion, especially since all three of you demonstrate the same ability."
Of course being told that left the Elrics suspecting that this man was suspicious of the three. More so on Shinji than them, but they were sworn to secrecy not to discuss that night or its aftermath and reversal. Because Shinji had gone to extremes to keep them out of trouble with the State Military, they owed it to him to never speak of their attempt to anyone, no matter what happened to any of them. So long as they kept the truth secret, they weren't hurting anyone because what happened wasn't meant to be repeated or echoed…and they had to keep Shinji's own secret safe.
"You sound like you don't trust him," Ed told Mustang.
"With anyone just starting out their careers with the State Military, everyone new is looked at with suspicion," he responded, and then walked away.
If that's true, then why do I get the feeling that you're especially suspicious of Shinji? Al wondered, worried that this man was going to be after Shinji more than anyone else in order to find out whatever there was to know about him, no matter what they did.
-x-
When one of Barry's butcher knives struck one of the ceiling lights, everything within the back of the shop was obscured by the constant flickering. This caused Denny, who had been set free by Shinji earlier to cut free Maria, and Maria herself, to see only bits of what seemed unusual because it wasn't making any sense.
"What in the name of…" Maria questioned, but wasn't sure what she was seeing.
At first, she thought she saw Barry chop off one of Shinji's arms, but then it looked like Shinji had dodged and punched Barry in the face.
Denny thought he saw Barry get sent flying by Shinji, but it could've been Shinji knocking aside a large piece of meat.
"Aaaurgh! Urgh! Omfph!" They heard grunting.
Shinji, his face partially obscured by the blood that poured from his forehead, had transmuted a gauntlet over his right arm and knocked Barry across the back of the room before grabbing his leg and lifting up to a hook.
"Aaaurgh!" He yelled, and punched him hard in the face, letting him spin a little as he had done what he intended to do with the man.
Clap! He put his hands together and then slammed them onto the floor, transmuting a pair of chains that grabbed Barry's arms and bound them to the ground.
Barry, unsure of what he just experienced, looked at the upside-down kid and had to wonder out loud, "What are you?"
Shinji lowered to meet his face and responded, "I'm the guy that just caught and beat you senseless, you wretched and depraved meat sack. I could kill you, but there's been enough death. Whether the State Military executes you or not for your crimes, you will never walk the path of freedom again for the rest of your days…and you will never experience your sick pleasures ever again, either."
When Shinji walked away, the lights stopped flickering and everything seemed normal. But what wasn't normal was the fact that his actions weren't fully understood by his security detail.
"Are you two, alright?" He asked them.
"We're fine, thanks," Maria answered him, but was worried about his condition.
Shinji looked at her leg and sighed.
"Try to relax," he instructed her as he clapped his hands and placed them on her injury.
A small flash of light came and Maria felt some discomfort for a second before it ceased. When Shinji removed his hands, the injury she had was gone, and so was the pain.
"Thank you," she praised him.
"You're welcome," he responded.
-x-
When the military police got word of Barry Stein being the serial killer and that Major Ikari had been the one to apprehend him in his own shop, Shinji's very involvement in the solved case had made him the talk of the military. But there were some holes in the case because they couldn't understand how Shinji was able to apprehend him so effectively when it seemed as though the butcher was more than capable of hacking away at him and neither Sargent Brosh nor Second Lieutenant Ross could explain what they had witnessed accurately.
"We're not sure what we saw in there," Ross had explained when she gave her statement. "Shinji… I mean, Major Ikari…fought Mr. Stein and apprehended him. That's as much as I could see on account of the flickering light."
When Sargent Brosh gave his statement, it was pretty much the same, which made Mustang even more suspicious of Shinji. Even the confession from Barry Stein that confirmed that he was the killer was odd, as the killer seemed afraid of Shinji than angry at being caught.
"I don't know where you found this kid, but he ain't right," he had said during his recorded confession. "He could've killed me right then and there, but chose not to. The way he looked at me, even when his face was half-smeared in his own blood, it was like he was a monster, the worst monster to have ever been encountered before. He ain't human. I don't know what he is, but he isn't human."
"The military police will be talking about this for a few days," Mustang heard Hawkeye say to him as he finished reading the final report in his office.
"Yeah," he agreed with her, setting it down. "Where is Major Ikari now?"
"According to Second Lieutenant Ross, Major Ikari had asked for the location of Central Cemetery, something about paying his respects."
-x-
With a list of the names from the thirty-seven victims of Barry Stein and the location of the cemetery, Shinji had set down flowers on their graves, ending with the last victims.
"I helped the military police catch the guy responsible for your deaths," he addressed the grave of the woman he found in the back alley. "He's scheduled for the firing squad in another hour after being sentenced for his seventy-four charges. Even if they decided not to execute him, he'd still have thirty-seven life sentences hanging over his head. I hope you'll be at peace knowing this, ma'am."
He bowed his head and walked away. A soft breeze swept past his neck and he stopped for a brief moment, smiling.
-x-
"…Hey, Shinji, you got mail from people wanting to thank you for catching the bad man," went Nina to Shinji as he was reading a book on human anatomy, holding a stack of letters in her hands.
"Thank you, Nina," he praised her as he set the book down to accept the letters, seeing that there was a note atop them that wasn't related to the aftermath of the closed case. "It would seem that my presence is required at Central Command."
"Good luck out there!" Nina cheered him.
"Thank you again."
-x-
"…I'm surprised that you're not letting your success go to your head," said Mustang to Shinji as soon as he arrived to Central Command. "How do you feel?"
"Good," he answered the Flame Alchemist.
"Good?"
"I helped find the guy responsible and he's answered for his sins, I went to the cemetery and paid my respects to the deceased, and now I'm putting it behind me. It's good to have done something as right as this."
"Okay. Well, I'm not sure if it's truly luck or just some sort of guardian angel…or even some degree of intimidation or respect, but you're clearly going places, Ikari. You should be careful, though. There are some within the military that will be after your secrets for their own benefit."
Shinji tilted his head slightly to the left, wondering if he was supposed to feel threatened by Mustang or not. Whichever way the pendulum was swinging for him, he would have to be on his guard around the man; even if he had nothing to truly hide, he had to keep the Elrics safe.
"One other thing," Mustang said, and took something out of his desk. "Fuhrer Bradley finally found the best title to go with your State Alchemist license. I actually find it odd that he went to great lengths choose this for someone like you."
It was a packet with the Amestrian symbol on it.
Shinji accepted it and opened it to reveal a certificate that seemed important to have Bradley's signature on it.
"We give the name 'Living' to thee Shinji Ikari, in the name of the Fuhrer King Bradley," he read, which sounded confusing when he looked at Mustang. "Living?"
"Yeah," he responded. "Along with the pocket watch, each State Alchemist is given a symbolic second name depending on their talents or traits. I don't understand why or even how, but that's the designation he chose for you, Ikari. You're the Living Alchemist."
I'm the Living Alchemist, huh? Shinji thought, and nodded in acceptance of his codename. "It sounds positive. Please, let the Fuhrer know I like the way it sounds on my tongue."
As he left, Mustang pondered why Bradley chose such a name for Shinji, since it made no sense to label any State Alchemist with a word that designated mere existence. Codenames like Flame, which dealt with fire-based alchemy, Iron Blood, Silver or even Fullmetal dealing with the manipulation of metal or stone, or even Sewing-Life, which dealt with the chimeric branch of alchemy made more sense because they dealt with something one did. It made absolutely no sense to use Living as a codename…unless it was some sort of a joke or it had a meaning unknown to him.
"The Living Alchemist," he repeated, looking out the window behind him. "Sounds more like an alchemist with something to live for."
-x-
"Hey, Ayanami," went Asuka to the albino girl that was lying in a hospital bed after barely surviving a car accident in the city.
Rei, with a broken left arm and right leg, looked at the redhead that had been informed of the accident and wondered what else had happened while she was incapacitated.
"Commander Ikari?" She asked her.
"He didn't make it," Asuka revealed, turning away; unlike the girl, Gendo Ikari was not as fortunate due to what was a clear indication that his death wasn't an accident.
"Cause of death?"
"He would've succumbed to multiple contusions and four broken ribs if he didn't of severe head trauma caused to his left temple."
Of course, that was a medical way of saying someone got up close and personal to Gendo…and blew the left side of his head away with a loud firearm.
"Then…he has no one left to come back to that is a relative," Rei stated, which confused Asuka.
"What?" She asked her. "What are you talking about?"
"Ikari-Kun," she reiterated. "He's alone now. Even if he were still alive, any and all that were related to him by blood are gone."
Asuka then realized what the girl was getting at. It hadn't even been two days since the Geo-Front was officially closed off and the last of the NERV personnel left to parts unknown that the Evangelions were transported to Germany for diagnostics, decommission and dismantlement. And only a handful of people were trying to recall the fact that Gendo Ikari's only good thing was his only son that he had sent to die saving the human race…since it was common knowledge that the man didn't deserve him. None of them could deserve Shinji, anymore.
"You think he's alive somewhere when we saw what happened?" She asked Rei.
"Don't you?" Rei countered.
"I wish, but I can't undo what I saw that day."
"What will you do?"
"I've considered writing a book."
"A book?"
"Yeah."
Outside the albino girl's room, Misato, who heard of the status of Gendo Ikari, wondered who'd want the man dead and leave the former First Child clinging to life after a car crash that was clearly a deliberate hit instead of killing her to eliminate witnesses.
"Why not return to Germany?" She heard Rei ask Asuka.
"There's nothing left for me there," Asuka responded.
"I guess we're alike, then. We don't have anything left…or anyone."
-x-
"…I don't get your codename, Shinji," said Ed to the teen as they and Alphonse ate dinner with Nina and Alexander that evening. "I mean, I don't think it's a joke or anything demeaning, but… I just don't get it."
"I don't get it, either," Al agreed with his brother. "Sorry about that, Shinji."
"Don't be," he told them, eating a dumpling, not the least bit upset by their lack of understanding of his designation. "I barely understand it myself, but I'm pretty sure it relates to wanting to use alchemy for medical purposes only, even if I used it offensively or defensively."
"But you stopped a bad man before he could hurt more people," went Nina to him, "so even if you didn't do as you said you wanted to do with alchemy, you still helped good people out there today. The Living Alchemist protects the living, embraces life."
"Eh-heh-heh. Thank you, Nina."
"Arrf," Alexander added in.
"Thank you, Alexander."
-x-
"…So, you gave him the name of Living Alchemist?" Lust questioned King Bradley as she lay on a slab beside Gluttony, who was restrained by a series of chains. "That seems to be his weakness; an alchemist that embraces life to the point where he doesn't want to take it. Do you honestly expect him to be able to do as desired?"
"It's not so much what he's expected to do that intrigues me about him," Bradley told her, and then removed the pieces of rebar from her body. "It's more of what he's capable of. He defeated you and Gluttony and freed Greed. If he's capable of alchemy that can hinder us, then until he can be properly manipulated, he'll be kept busy with other tasks that will test his mettle."
Now free, Lust extends her hand blades and swears vengeance upon the Living Alchemist.
"Can I eat him?" Gluttony asked, really wanting to eat the brat.
-x-
Even though the library had closing hours, all Shinji requested of the staff was three more hours as he searched through old medical books. He wasn't trying to make himself known for taking down a notorious serial killer of women or expect small favors, just a little extra time to expand his knowledge. Since one of the workers there was a woman that used to shop at Barry's, they bend the rules for him this one time.
"You're an unusual person, Major Ikari," went the woman that suggested this after-hour exception towards Shinji that was addressed as Sheska.
"Please, call me Shinji, ma'am," he responded, "and in what way am I unusual?"
"Well, you're younger than the usual State Alchemist, you're acting as the guardian of two boys that are also State Alchemists, and your first success was taking out a serial killer. As a State Alchemist, I had expected you to kill the guy, but instead, you caught him and the state executed him for all of his victims."
"Even if I'm a State Alchemist, I didn't become a so-called 'military dog' to kill anyone, ma'am. I joined the State Military with the aim of not to kill. There are three kinds of hands in life: The hands that end life, the hands that preserve life…and the hands that live life. I'd rather be the latter two pairs than the first pair. Which hands are yours?"
Sheska merely raised her left hand up and held a book in it.
"Hands that live life, thank you very much," she told him.
-x-
A week went by until Shinji, Edward and Alphonse were called to Central Command for their first assignment as State Alchemists.
"All three of us need to inspect this eastern town's coal mines?" Ed asked Mustang when they were informed of their assignment.
"That's right," he answered. "It's currently run by Lieutenant Yoki. He's been informed that you three will be there to see if the mines are still of value."
As alchemists, they had to be versed in the study of minerals, and if the mines were devoid of any coal or other valuable resources, then they were no better than regular caves. Most of the country's resources came from mining and agriculture, so it was a necessity to ensure that the locations these were derived from were still of value.
"How long do we have until we need to be there?" Shinji asked Mustang.
"The day after tomorrow," he answered him.
"I suggest you two do whatever it is you need to do before we head out," Shinji then told the Elrics, noticing that they had an expression of minor sadness on their faces.
-x-
"You three are leaving already?" Nina asked the three when they returned from Central Command. "Aw."
"It'll only be for a few days, and then we'll come back," said Al to her.
"You three promise?" She asked again.
"Yeah, Nina," Shinji responded, holding out his left hand's pinky finger. "I pinky promise you that we'll come back."
Nina then extended her left hand's pinky finger and clasped Shinji's.
-x-
Two weeks later
To think that most of Eastern Central Command was corrupted due to the misuse of power and acceptance of bribes, thought Shinji as he and the Elrics got off the train at Central Station. It only goes to show me that people are the same, no matter what time, place or even universe they're from. There's good and bad everywhere.
Shortly after arriving to Youswell to inspect the coal mines, Shinji, being the oldest of the three and therefore, the only one to be taken seriously by Yoki, found that the man they met was not only shown to be heavily influenced by greed, but was a man so corrupted by a sense of power that even he failed to comprehend that he was on a slippery slope heading towards failure. And the alchemist they met that Yoki had enlisted, Lyra (whom Shinji had to admit was quite attractive, were it not for her attitude mirroring Asuka's to a degree), a young woman that aimed to become a State Alchemist like they had, but her aspirations were becoming corrupt because of Yoki, which led to a brief altercation between them.
"Shinji, you may try to deny it to a degree, but you seem to have a bit of a taste for combat," Ed tells him as they walked out into the sunlight.
"Thank you, Edward, but I shall deny that as the truth once again," he told him, sighing. "Lyra wasn't as extreme as Barry had been…and I had more control over my actions."
"And you healed her and the people after the altercation," reminded Alphonse. "You didn't even need any bandages, just some water and dirt. You were like, the most amazing amateur healer I have seen so far."
"Thank you, Alphonse."
Although it had only been two weeks since they last saw her, they all missed Nina in their own way, and made the move to go see her first over reporting to Mustang about their return.
"How do you think she's been with just Alexander?" Shinji asked the brothers.
"Probably sad," suggested Ed.
"There aren't that many kids her age that live close by, too," added Al.
"We should get her a gift before we head over," Shinji insisted on such an idea.
"Yeah," the brothers agreed with him.
Their first order of business was to hit a toy store, then the Tucker house, spend time with Nina and Alexander, then report to Central Command.
-x-
Up on the roof of Central Command, King Bradley was being reported to by Lust, whose orders had now been to follow the Living Alchemist from a distance.
"So, how did he perform?" He asked her.
"He may have more power over alchemy than we suspect," she suggested. "He was able to heal people that were injured by another alchemist in Youswell…and this was achieved without a Philosopher's Stone. Not even an incomplete version of it. There is something about him that…isn't like other alchemists that exist out there. Who is he?"
"That's what I'd like to know myself," Bradley expressed. "Is he a capable fighter?"
"When he needs to be or when his life is in jeopardy, yet, he exhibits absolutely no capacity for killing. It's like he can't bring himself to do what he is required to by the State Military because of some misplaced sense of self-righteousness or morality."
"He did say he desired to use alchemy for medical purposes. Doctors have an oath they follow to do no harm onto others, something he seems to follow to a degree."
"That's useless. No matter how hard people try, they can't escape their primitive impulse to kill others. It's something that will follow them to the end of time."
"Whether it follows him to the end of his life or not is up to him. He's a virtual unknown still."
What Lust didn't share with the Fuhrer was her personal belief that this boy wasn't going to live up to their master's expectations at all, not if he wasn't interested in the Philosopher's Stone to the point of creating one.
-x-
"Why did you need to get a wrench, Edward?" Shinji asked the young man as they were a block away from the Tucker estate. "Nina doesn't know anything about tools."
"It's not for Nina," Ed explained. "It's for Winry."
"It's an odd gift for a childhood friend."
"She's into automail now."
"So, she's a grease monkey, then."
"She's a what?"
"Uh, that's someone that works with machines, a mechanic."
"Yeah…I guess she's that. Just don't let her hear you call her that. She might just hit you with a wrench aside the head."
"I've been kicked in the face before by a girl. I'm pretty sure I can handle a blow to my head."
"By a girl with red hair, you mean?" Alphonse asked him. "The aggressive girl you used to live with alongside a woman that drank a lot?"
"Yeah… I miss them."
"Maybe alchemy can help you get back someday," Ed suggested.
"Maybe, assuming alchemy works that way."
As they walked outside the fence of the estate, Shinji suddenly stopped…and clutched the stuffed dog he had gotten for Nina that looked like Alexander. He was starting to feel a sense of dread emanating from within the house.
"Shinji?" Al spoke. "Shinji?"
"Something doesn't feel right," he expressed.
The brothers looked at the house, but couldn't see anything that hinted at something wrong.
"Maybe it's because we were gone for two weeks," Ed suggested, trying to alleviate Shinji's concern. "I mean, two weeks away? A lot can happen."
Yeah, Shinji agreed with him…to a degree, including things that don't need to.
They entered the house, but it was so quiet and dark. It hadn't been like this when they first arrived; there was a measure of quietness to it, but there was a tinge of happiness because of the little girl that lived here. And in Shinji's heart, it felt like someone had snuffed out the happiness.
"I was able to create a chimera able to speak and understand human speech," Shinji recalled Tucker's initial success to how he became a State Alchemist. "…A chimera able to speak and understand human speech…"
He walked into the dining room and couldn't find it in him to turn the light on, yet could see things clearly. There was something on the table in a bowl that he noticed, some sort of crumpled paper. Taking it out, he straightened it out to reveal a partially-burnt drawing of five people and a dog: The Elric brothers, himself, Alexander, Tucker…and Nina herself. But why would anyone try to destroy such a nice drawing?
Flash! He saw a boy, a possible, slightly-older version of Ed, punching Tucker in his face…in front of a creature that looked like Alexander…but with less muscle and more fur.
"Edward, friend," the creature had uttered.
Flash! He was returned to the dining room and found himself pressed against the wall behind him, the drawing in his left hand restored to its original state before it was burnt.
"Nina," he uttered. "Alexander… Tucker…if you so much as do what I fear you may do, there will be repercussions to face."
"Shinji!" He heard Alphonse's voice call out as the sound of footsteps came running into the room. "Shinji! It's Nina! Her father, he…he…"
"Where are they?" He asked him.
Al led him to a room downstairs…where Ed was punching Tucker senseless in front of a chimera that looked exactly like the one from his vision.
"Ed, stop!" Shinji told the older brother, rushing over and grabbing him to keep him from killing the unstable man.
"Shinji!" Ed yelled. "He turned Nina into a chimera! He doesn't deserve any mercy! Look at what he did to her!"
Shinji looked at the chimera, at Nina and Alexander, and then back at Edward.
"And he will face the consequences for what he did to her," he told him, and grabbed Tucker by his shirt. "Why, Tucker? Why did you do it? Was it because of your pending assessment…or because of Basque Grand?"
"I wouldn't expect you to understand," Tucker responded, "but ever since you three showed that you could perform alchemy without the need for circles, Grand felt threatened by any possibility of any in the military trying to claim credit for finding you three…and before then, he was angry about the Laboratory Five incident because of what he was working on was discovered and he couldn't take control of the situation. He took his frustrations out on my lack of progress in refining chimeric alchemy. One way or another, he made it clear that I was going to have to show better results."
"So you decided to go with Human Transmutation, since human beings are more malleable to work with than regular animals, knowing that it was forbidden to attempt. Yet, you showed no fear of the outcome of your act. Because Human Transmutation is often unpredictable, there's no telling what could happen…unless you tried it before, didn't you?"
"He did," Ed revealed; he never mentioned it, but he did some investigating into the first chimera that Tucker created that got him his State Alchemist license. "He used his wife, Nina's mother."
Shinji's grip on Tucker's shirt tightened as he lifted the man up to his feet.
"How depraved are you?" He asked him. "If I had the will to do so, I'd end you without hesitation…but then I'd be robbing a little girl I saw as a sister to me of her father when he should rot in prison for his crimes."
"No matter what I did, I was going to lose everything," Tucker stated.
"Even if you had lost your license, you wouldn't have lost everything. You made the choice to believe you would…and just made it so that you would."
"Shinji…" They heard Nina's voice, and Shinji turned back to face her.
"Nina…gomen nasai ("I'm sorry"), Nina… Gomen nasai…gomen nasai…"
Neither Ed nor Al knew what it was Shinji was saying, but could only assume that it was some sort of apology where he was from. They had left her alone with her father…and he turned her into an abomination of alchemy.
A tear fell from Shinji's left eye.
-x-
Although the Elrics complained that it was unfair to her and not right to do so, Tucker and Nina were taken by Basque Grand and his men with orders that they and Shinji speak to nobody about what had happened.
"What?" Basque had questioned Shinji before the unit had left with the Sewing-Life Alchemist and his daughter.
"What you just ordered of the three of us," Shinji had responded, "you can deny it all of you want to, but you knew this would happen. I can't prove your involvement, but you should know something. Whether it's greed or curiosity, a desire for power or recognition, there will always be a price to pay for your attempts. When that time comes, you had best be ready to pay."
Basque and his men then left…and Shinji and the Elrics were forced to relocate from the former Tucker estate.
"What did you mean by that, Shinji?" Al asked as the three were in a hotel for the time being, sitting by a table, referring to what he told the Iron Blood Alchemist.
"That man made Tucker commit a dreadful crime against humanity and nature," he explained. "He's responsible for a little girl becoming a blight of nature upon us…and one way or another, there will be a price he will have to pay for his involvement, the same as Tucker."
"How can he pay for his involvement…if he can walk away with Nina being condemned to life as a research specimen?" Ed questioned. "We didn't do anything to stop them from taking her."
Shinji held up his kunai…and slammed it onto the table, startling the brothers.
"Believe in angels, Edward," he told them. "Believe in justice. Believe…in retribution."
-x-
The night was cold and the Fourth Laboratory was engaged in heavy research on an unwilling subject. And worse, Shou Tucker, who should've been in jail for his crime…was instead working on refining the process of chimera creation.
Nina, still conscious within the chimera that was herself and Alexander, could not understand why her father and these people were hurting her further…and wondered where the Elrics and Shinji were at a time like this. She really missed them (cue to the theme of Black Lightning).
Smash! A door in the hallway was punched opened, revealing a figure dressed in a black coat over a black shirt and pants, their whole head masked by a dark oni mask with dark hair.
"Who are you?" A State Alchemist demanded, raising a rifle at the individual.
Clap! The figure clapped their hands and slammed their left hand on the floor and their right hand against the wall, transmuting them to their will.
The wall bubbled beside the man and out reached a large hand, grabbing him tightly.
"Aaaaurgh!" He screamed, and three more men ran out of the room.
Clap! The figure clapped their hands again and slammed them onto the floor, pulling something out of it.
It was a pair of curved swords, which they used to cut through the two men in front of him, slicing at their knees.
"Aaurgh!" They groaned, and one of the two on the left tried to draw a transmutation circle on the floor.
"I'm gonna bury you up to your head, you son of a bitch!" He shouted.
Smack! The masked figure did a front flip and kicked the man in his face with his right black boot, sending him falling before clapping their hands again to transmute.
Grabbing the second man by his uniform coat, the transmutation rendered the man an inflatable balloon or ball of helium, bouncing around and unable to move.
"Hey!" He whined. "This is crazy! Who are you and what do you want?!"
"Want?" They finally spoke, a distorted voice that was so heavy you couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman under the mask. "I'm here for the innocent…and I will crush any and all parties involved in this desecration of life."
"Gaaarugh!" The third guy yelled, holding a baton.
Clap! The masked person transmuted swords into a pair of armored gauntlets and blocked the State Alchemist's attack, three times, before punching him under his jaws.
"Your basics are poor," the figure expressed. "Why don't you try some imagination?"
He grabbed the man by his right arm and caused another transmutation that left him fused by his clothes into the wall behind himself.
"This one's for the living," the person stated. "This is for living life."
They walked down the hall and stopped in front of a door…only to transmute it into building blocks that fell away, revealing Tucker, Grand and some men in white coats around a dog chimera with a saddened look.
"Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?" He asked them.
There was something about this mysterious person, and she didn't know what it was or why, that made her feel a sense of being protected, that everything would turn out okay.
The men in white coats got tense and fled the room.
"Sorry, sir," one of them uttered to Grand, "but I have a wife at home, and we're trying to have kids ourselves. This is Tucker's mess, and you forced him to make it."
Basque Grand looked at this mysterious person and demanded, "Who are you?! Identify yourself?! You think you can just waltz in here and interfere with research approved by the State Military that will improve our future?!"
"I don't care about your military or your research," the mysterious alchemist expressed beneath the mask. "I'm only here to save a life that was tortured by the likes of you two."
Tucker then looked at his chimera daughter and understood that this mystery man was here for Nina. Somehow, he must've found out about his work on chimeras and came to put an end to it.
"You…can't take her," he told the man.
"Shou Tucker, with the knowledge you possess, combined with your behavior and willingness to do whatever it takes to prove that you're capable of getting results…I've seen all I need to see in order to confirm that you are an unfit parent to your daughter. So I will crush you…after I crush the Iron Blood Alchemist…because he's no match for anyone, anymore."
"You dare say I'm weak?" Basque Grand retorted, raising his right arm, transmuting the armor of his gauntlet to cover his fist. "I'm a combat-experienced veteran of the Ishval Civil War! I'm the Brigadier General of the Amestrian State Military! What are you?!"
The masked man took a step forward…and suddenly, Basque Grand felt an aura of power emanating from him…and his arm felt heavy.
Tucker felt the same feeling of power from the man.
"I'm the guy that just needs one shot at you," he told Grand, and then shot like a bullet, seemingly defying the laws of gravity and physics, and let the Iron Blood Alchemist have it in between his legs, followed by a punch to his jaw, sending the brigadier general flying backwards and crashing onto a medical table, knocking over surgical tools.
"Ahh…" Grand groaned, clearly unconscious from the assault.
"That was for the people," the man said. "This is for embracing the gift of life."
Tucker picked up a scalpel and brandished it in front of the man.
"Do you really think a scalpel will do anything to me? If I have to…and I stress 'if', I will cut off one of your arms…and then one of your legs, and then I will cut off half your face while I'm at it. You will be this one-armed, one-legged, half-faced abomination, trying to move through the streets of Central City…like a turd…in the wind."
"Just who are you, you persistent stranger?" Tucker demanded.
The man then removed his mask for a second, letting Shou see his face, which caused the Sewing-Life Alchemist to reel back in fright before putting it back on.
"You breathe a word of this to anyone, and you will pay a price you can't hope to imagine," the masked man threatened him as he came over for the chimeric daughter. "Bear with me, Ms. Tucker. To return to what was once your original state, what you have become must be undone."
"You can't undo a chimeric transmutation," Tucker told him. "I fused them together completely. Separating them will likely cause more harm than help."
"Equivalent Exchange, Tucker. To obtain, something of equal value must first be lost, but the reversal is also true."
"You must give up what was obtained to reclaim what was lost?"
The man clapped his hands and placed the right hand on the chimera's head and the left on the chest, the brain and heart, respectively, and focused solely upon what was desired from this transmutation. He desired the little girl and her dog, two separate beings, pure, innocent, happy and carefree. Their smiles, their laughter, the dog's faults and the girl's curiosity as the chimera began to glow bright blue.
Tucker in disbelief as the man attempted to undo what he had done to Nina. There was no chance of reversing the transmutation he had pulled off; it was a perfect fusion of human and beast, completely irreversible. Unless he was a skilled and powerful alchemist or had a Philosopher's Stone in his possession, there was no chance in Hell that he could achieve the impossible.
Be open to the possibility of returning to your previous state, Nina, thought the man. Believe that you will be restored, that the Elric brothers and Shinji Ikari will be waiting for you to return. Your life is still desired by others that care for you to live it out.
When the glow ceased, Tucker saw that his beliefs in irreversible chimeric transmutations was nothing but a belief that he believed in. In front of him, the man was holding his daughter, unconscious, nude, but very much alive, and his dog running around the room.
"Arrf, arrf, arrf!" Alexander barked, stopping beside the man as he turned to remove his dark coat and drape it onto the girl.
"Let's get you out of here," he told her as he carried her out of the room.
"Please, how did you do it?" Tucker pleaded. "You gotta tell me how."
The man looked at Tucker and the Sewing-Life Alchemist could see through the mask that he wasn't going to get anything from him, not after his unforgivable crime.
"You're the Sewing-Life Alchemist, aren't you?" He asked him. "Use that brain of yours and find out on your own. Use regular animals, not humans. Do what you did again, and you will know a suffering that you can scarcely imagine surviving."
He then left out the room with his daughter and dog, leaving him alone.
Tucker was reduced to having nothing. He had nothing…and nobody.
-x-
"…So, how was Rei doing today?" Kaji asked Misato as they were at the park in Tokyo-3. "You did see her at the hospital today, right?"
"Yeah," the purple-haired woman responded. "The doctors say she'll be in recovery for a month, but they don't know what will happen with her after she's declared fit to leave."
"I haven't received any contact from Asuka's relatives after NERV was disbanded. I keep calling them, but all I get is their voicemail. It's like they don't want to hear about her."
"With NERV no longer a necessary organization, I expected anyone here under orders to work with our branch to be recalled back to their countries, including Asuka, but her family doesn't call for her to return? I'm starting to wonder if what Rei said to her in the hospital was right."
"What? What did Rei say to Asuka?"
"That they don't have anything or anyone. It probably stems from Shinji not being around. I don't blame her for believing in that. Even Asuka doesn't see a reason to return to Germany, even though it's required that she does."
"And what do you think?"
"I think I'd trade the Evas away to see Shinji again, alive and well, if I could."
"The Evas were a curse from the very beginning."
"Anything noteworthy on the news?"
"Nothing on Japan or Germany, but about a month ago, China claims to have found something unprecedented. Maybe they're just trying to forget about NERV, but whatever it is they claimed to have found, it must be better than what a paramilitary agency was doing."
"Yeah, maybe."
-x-
"…Shinji!" Shinji heard his voice being called by one of the Elrics as he stirred from slumber, still exhausted. "Shinji, wake up!"
Opening his eyes, the young teen awoke to the new day and gripped his kunai.
"What is it?" He asked, seeing Alphonse beside his bed.
"Nina," the younger Elric brother uttered. "She's here."
"What?"
"Nina's here. Ed and I woke up, and she was asleep on the sofa. She's human again."
Shinji got up and followed Al into the hotel living room…where he saw the little girl on the sofa with her dog at the foot of it.
"Good morning, everyone," Nina greeted them, holding onto the dark coat that she was wearing.
"Nina," Shinji expressed, wanting to believe that this girl was truly the one he met and lived with before her father harmed her. "How is this possible?"
"A stranger came for me…and brought me here last night," she explained to the best of her ability. "He said you three were waiting for me."
"Yeah," sighed Ed, happy that she was here. "Yeah, we were waiting for you."
"Nai-nai," Nina pointed to the kunai in Shinji's left hand; she couldn't pronounce the name of the small blade exactly…and still called a transmutation circle a magic circle because alchemy looked like magic, making no doubt that this girl was the real deal.
"Welcome back, Nina," Shinji greeted.
No doubt there would be problems on the way, such as how to ensure that Nina would be protected from her father and Basque Grand, but for now, the three men just wanted to enjoy the fact that this little girl that was like a sister to them was back to normal and in their presence.
Embrace life, Shinji, Shinji heard a voice similar to his own say to him in his mind. Life is your power, life is your reason for being, and life is your greatest blessing. Embrace it.
To be continued…
A/N: Well, what do you think? Longer than I had planned, but we finally get to see Shinji get his symbolic second name that certainly goes well with his feats. He is now the Living Alchemist, but he still has a ways to go before fully adjusting to what he can really do. And anyone thinks the Eva universe will eventually switch from the undone war with the Angels and the research and exploitation of the Evas to whatever it is that was claimed to be found in China?