Creation began on 11-07-20
Creation ended on 01-17-21
Neon Genesis Evangelion
The Living Alchemist: Uncertainty
There were days when mercy was a blessing and days where retribution was a curse. This was one where their outcomes felt reversed, where retribution was the blessing and mercy was the curse. But not because of any conflict between neighboring countries or something like that on a greater or lesser degree. No, this day…was simply because of a move made by the Elrics that went against the teachings of their alchemy instructor…who had to draw the line between them…and severed their ties.
While Shinji understood that this was a negative in the brothers' relationship with Ms. Curtis, there was a positive to it, as well. Because their teacher/student relationship was put to pasture, this enabled the three to have a relationship as simple peers. Of course, it was anyone's guess what the three could possibly talk about that didn't revolve around alchemy, as there was much of their lives relating to it. But on a positive note, Mrs. Curtis wouldn't have to worry about coughing up blood each time she over-exerted herself; she had accepted the use of the Red Stone from Shinji to regenerate the organs either damaged or missing from her abdominal cavity as a result of the failed Human Transmutation she attempted to revive her dead child.
So, this is Yock Island, thought Shinji as he and the Elrics were on a boat carrying them and the Curtises to the small landmass in the water. This is where Ed and Al learned their survival skills.
"Why would you want to go to where these two went to learn alchemy?" Izumi had asked him, three days after he had used the Red Stone to treat her.
"There's always something worth seeing someplace one has never seen before," Shinji had explained to her.
The boat made landfall on the island and they got out onto the sand.
"Huh?!" Edward gasped.
"What is it?" Alphonse asked.
"There's fish bones here!"
"Fish bones?" Shinji questioned, looking down at where Ed stood, seeing a small number of fish bones scattered around. "Maybe they just got too close to sand and couldn't get back into the water in time?"
Al picked up one of the dead fish and held it in front of them.
"I don't think so," he told Shinji. "These fish didn't die of natural causes. They were eaten."
Shinji looked towards the forest of the island and got the strangest feeling that something was off. It made his nerves in his wrists tense and the ligaments in his spine feel like danger was near, despite the most dangerous of people and other creatures of similar intelligence having been dealt with before they even showed up here.
"What do you think, Shinji?" He heard Ed say to him. "Could someone be living on this island?"
Removed from his train of thought, the Living Alchemist responded, "It's possible. We would have to find them first."
-x-
Although they were warned not to attempt traveling through the Gate, Misato and the others at the Geo-Front had to try and see if it was possible after they had managed to contact Shinji on the other side of wherever it was that he now resided. And after the discovery made after he was asked to try and send the satellite probe and surveillance drone back through the Gate, confirming to the research crew that anything sent through could be sent back. All that was needed now…was a means to travel through safely, something that may have been part of the reason Shinji didn't want them trying to do so at all; machines could go through without much issue, but to transport an actual organism was simply the next phase.
"You think it's possible to send people back and forth through this thing?" Shigeru asked Hyuga.
"Not unless it can be done safely," he responded. "There's no way of knowing for sure, and if people that did end up inside the Gate ended up trapped in there because of something they did that had a price stuck to it, then we gotta make sure something similar doesn't happen here."
"Except we can't put a price on traveling through a portal. There's always a risk, something we don't expect to happen."
"There is one thing we can take from this."
"Which is?"
"We just found out that Shinji's alive, even if he's in another dimension."
Meanwhile, Asuka, having changed out of her plugsuit and back into her school uniform, had to consider the benefits of managing to get to wherever Shinji was outweighed the potential liabilities involved. Of course, the primary benefit of getting there was just to see the boy that the whole world thought was dead, and, if possible, bring him back to this world. Just knowing that he was alive and well wasn't enough, and telling the people that took his demise that he could no longer be considered deceased wouldn't have mattered, either, not unless there was definite proof of his continued existence.
Shinji, she thought as she vacated the girls' locker room, you need to come back to this world.
-x-
They were footprints, and judging from the size and indentation of them, they had been made by a small person that was barefoot. And they were recent, meaning that whoever was on Yock Island was possibly still around.
"That's weird," said Shinji as he found a pair of handprints in the mud in addition to the footprints, examining them.
"What's weird?" Izumi asked him.
"These handprints were made by two different hands," he evaluated. "The right hand is slightly larger than the left."
"And that's unusual?" Ed questioned.
"Not if you have a mild deformity that doesn't hinder your mobility."
"How much about the human body do you know about, Mr. Ikari?" Sig asked Shinji.
"Only as much as there is to understand, Mr. Curtis. The human body is still a mystery, whether it's being born with half a brain, having a skin disorder that causes the body to grow scales like a reptile, some of your organs develop on the reverse side where they shouldn't, or just something as insane as having more than ten fingers or toes. Some believe that the entire species has reached the end of its evolutionary potential, but the truth is that we're still young. Less than three-million years, a relatively short length of time when the dinosaurs and other organisms that lived alongside them were around for over one-hundred-fifty-million years."
"You believe that we'll one day evolve further than we have already?" Ed suggested.
"Evolution, even for a human, takes generations to show signs of even the slightest change, but, yes, human beings will eventually evolve further. Not today, tomorrow or even a century from now…but eventually…yes."
"But into what?"
"That's up to nature's factors, the universe's surprises, and whether or not people can move past their social discriminations and accept that they're all the same, that they all matter…even when you think they don't all matter."
Tweak! Shinji's head snapped over to where some bushes were, hearing a twig or branch snap under pressure by something of considerable weight.
"Shh," he turned back to face the others and pointed towards the bushes.
They carefully approached them and looked over it, seeing…a young boy with long, dark hair, pale skin, a shirt and trousers, and a large smile or grin on his face.
"So, someone was living here," Ed realized.
Shinji's eyes widened as he looked at the boy…and then at his right hand…before looking at Izumi and Sig.
No way, he thought, seeing a resemblance, but it would make sense when you think about it a little. If the child had been transmuted had grown up, this would be their appropriate age. If they were somehow able to escape from the confines of the Gate, they'd return to the same place they were brought to life for the first time. Izumi tried to revive her child on Yock Island; this boy has to be her child. The homunculus that she was unable to finish.
-x-
If the problem with trying to get through the Gate was this Equivalent Exchange that was how things worked in the dimension Shinji now resided in, then it was just a matter of getting through without having to suffer any drawbacks. The use of the Eva to keep the Gate open was one part, and then figuring out the right type of vehicle to travel in was the other part. Taking the Gate's structural size limitations, anything smaller than a car could suffice, but the goal was to send multiple people over.
"We could construct a miniature rocket that could seat six people in a straight line," suggested Aja to Fuyutsuki.
"But can it withstand whatever's in the Gate?" He asked her; they barely saw anything beyond what one of the assistants had seen when they first opened it, and they had only sent in two machines, not a significant leap to sending in people just yet without harming them…and they had no animals to use as guinea pigs.
"If the drone and satellite were able to move through it without any significant damage to their structure and ended up where the boy was, it should be possible for a rocket to make the same journey without harm."
"Except that the only way the drone and probe were able to gain entry into the dimension he's currently in was after he…transmuted or performed alchemy, trying to create something from something else around him."
This meant that it was likely that the only way anything could get into the other dimension was if Shinji did something that triggered the Gate being opened on his end. If the Gate functioned as a doorway, then it meant that doors could be opened from both sides, even if the other doorway was more metaphysical than physical.
-x-
"Brother, did you notice how Shinji was defensive of the boy we found on Yock?" Al asked Ed as they were practicing their martial arts again on the training yard of the Curtises' butcher shop.
"Yeah," Ed replied, getting thrown by Al to the ground. "He probably knows more than he lets on, but I saw the kid's right arm, too. It doesn't have the same coloration as the rest of his body does. What do you think?"
"I think Shinji has a reason to be protective of him. Maybe he has a theory about him. He's the only one of us that actually has more medical knowledge than we do."
Meanwhile, inside the shop, upstairs where the Curtises lived, Shinji had just finished his examination of the boy and left him in the spare room to redress while he spoke to the couple.
"Well, Shinji?" Izumi asked him, getting the impression that the answer was exactly what she knew it was going to be.
"Yeah," he responded to them. "He's definitely yours. Even if the resemblance is only mild, I can tell from facial structure, hair tone, nose… The only part of him that isn't his is his right arm. There's some evidence of regeneration on his left leg, so I have to believe that he's been on that island ever since the aftermath of the Elrics' attempt to bring back their mother."
"He…he took Edward's arm and leg?"
"Yes. Maybe not intentionally…but, yes, he did take them when they were taken from him that night. Somehow, he must've managed to get out of the Gate and ended up back on the island…and has been living there ever since."
"But," went Sig, "you undid what the Elrics did that night. Why does he still possess Edward's arm? Shouldn't it have been removed when you returned their homunculus back to the Gate?"
"Unfortunately, when I reversed their Human Transmutation, I was only able to return what was initially taken when their attempt was made, which was Ed's left leg and Al's whole body. Ed's right arm was a separate transmutation he made to regain Al's soul and attach it to a suit of armor after drawing a rune in his own blood. Back then, I wasn't an expert in medical alchemy, only knowing what I knew because I just ended up there in their basement that night. I was, however, able to transmute for him a replacement arm that is no different from the one he lost. Nobody in the military knows what they did and I'm not going to risk their freedom and civil liberties being taken from them just because they made one very, very bad move that was a violation against nature. Regardless of people's reasons to do what they do, if it's because of something as understandable as heartache… I can't and won't do something as cruel as forsake them when they're in a crisis or worse."
"You use one or more of your Red Stones on him… Are you confident that you can…finish what I was unable to do?" Izumi questioned, concerned over his ability to do the impossible.
"I can't lose faith," he replied. "I've done this only twice in my career as a State Alchemist…and twice in my life here. I won't transmute a person that I've lost because I know the risks involved…and because I fear I wouldn't survive such an attempt, regardless of my emotional state…but if I can complete a preexisting homunculus and return them to humanity…it's not breaking the rules as much as it's a loophole that can be exploited…and I'm not playing God. I'm not a deity. Not even one among insects. I'm just a man trying to escape the violence of his past, to never harm others."
"A man that uses alchemy to heal…is as rare as the Philosopher's Stone that nobody should ever come to possess, no matter how much they covet it. Please…just don't hurt him. He's already been hurt too much."
Shinji nodded in the positive; healing through alchemy was the same as a doctor using their medical expertise to treat those in need of aid, following the Hippocratic oath to do no harm. When he chose to explore medical alchemy, augmented by the previously-failed research into the Red Water and Red Stone, he still followed that oath. Even when engaged in conflict, his objective had to be the path of the least amount of harm. And now, reaching into his pouch of Red Stones to take one out, he sighed as he knew this was something that was far from his previous transmutations of Gluttony and Lust; they were created using random elements that could be found in the world to create the human body on a physical and chemical scale, but Izumi's homunculus was unique due to being created from the remains of her child, something that no other alchemist has ever been reported doing, assuming that anyone even reported on a Human Transmutation to the Amestrian State Military. But he had to remain objective on what he offered to do for Izumi; he said he'd do this, and he wouldn't walk away.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Sig asked him.
"The only drawback I ever suffered from doing this the second time…was just sleeping for most of the day," he told the man. "I still believe in the hidden potential of the human body and what it's still capable of."
-x-
"…I just realized something," went Winry as she and Pinako were taking inventory of their automail materials.
"And what is that?" Pinako asked her.
"If the military has ceased any plans for another war, won't Nina's father try to make her go back to Central and live with him?"
"I doubt that her father will try to make Nina return to live with him. Shinji and the Elrics are very protective of her. They don't even talk about her father in front of her when they're here, especially Shinji and Edward. With Edward, I can understand, but with Shinji… It's like he's got something to hide that's related to what this Shou Tucker did that put him on their dislike list."
"Well, State Alchemists are different from regular alchemists due to doing things that regular alchemists rarely ever do, and he is called the Sewing-Life Alchemist. His alchemy revolved around creating chimeras."
"He might be the girl's father, but what he did to her was unforgivable."
As they were tacking off what materials they needed, Nina was outside with Alexander and Den playing catch when she noticed someone walking near the Elrics' house. At first, her initial thought was that it was someone from the people her father, the Elrics and Shinji worked for coming to take her back to her father, and she ran to the porch of the Rockbell house, hiding from them. She still had nightmares about what her father and that man he worked for did to her, and she didn't feel safer than she did here in Resembool.
Who is that? She wondered as the man came closer to the Rockbell house.
As he got closer, Nina started noticing that he looked a little bit like Ed and Al.
"Excuse me, little lady," she heard him say to her. "Yes, you hiding behind the banister on the front porch there. Do you live here?"
Nina simply nodded that she did.
"Do you know a lady named Sara? Sara Rockbell?" He had asked her.
Nina nodded that she didn't know anyone by that name as he came closer.
The front door opened and out came Pinako and Winry.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Winry questioned.
"Heh," went Pinako. "You've been gone for a long time, Hohenheim."
"Huh? Granny, do you know this man?"
"Yeah, that's right, you were too young to remember him, but this is Hohenheim. He's Ed and Al's father."
"This man is Ed and Al's father?" Nina asked, seeing some resemblance between this man and the brothers, but not too much so. "They're not here right now. They're off somewhere with Shinji and the Curtises."
-x-
All Ed and Al got from Izumi and Sig when they found Shinji asleep inside the shop was that he was exhausted from the traveling they had done. It was something they found odd since it was only something he had done only once, during the operation to rebuild Ishbal. Not just that, but the fact that Shinji, being older than they were, should've had more energy to spare. Unless, of course, he exhausts it all in performing transmutation after transmutation in succession…or on one transmutation that he knew would leave him drained of energy.
I'd like to know what he's thinking more than half the time he's not with us, Ed thought as the night slowly past by. And why's Teacher and Mr. Curtis so cheerful about that kid we found?
Unknown to the brothers due to their fellow alchemists and friends not telling them, Shinji had completed another Human Transmutation, restoring Izumi and Sig's homunculus son to life, which, unknown to everyone but Shinji, had the unexpected bonus of returning Edward's original right arm. However, the restored boy had only basic information; how to walk, talk, count to ten, wear simple clothing, but everything else afforded to people was something that had to be practiced, learned, like everything else in the world.
The Gate never ceased to be intimidating to Shinji every time he stood before it. The eyes that stared at him every time the doors opened looking as though they could pierce into his soul, learning all of his secrets, his quirks, his history, anything and everything there was to know about him. He could see a phantom of his father, devoid of any sense of self, but he was looking at him…as if something lingered in him to be criticizing towards his son.
You selfish child! Shinji heard an echo of his voice in the darkness of the Gate. You would use your power to restore life to these meaningless strangers, but you won't raise a damn finger to rescue your own father from this endless misery?!
You can whine about my decisions all you want to, but you aren't worth transmuting, even for one day, he expressed to Gendo. I've seen people that have actually suffered from trying to create human beings in an attempt to resurrect people they lost to the unfairness of the world, and even if they paid more than what they intended to, the one they covet to bring back to life won't be the same as they were before they died. Homunculi, alchemically-created humans, will never be whole unless those with the will to finish them exist in addition to the Red Stone. I'm not your puppet that moves every time you try to manipulate the strings. I've washed my hands of you, the Angels and the Eva. I use alchemy to help people, not harm them, and you're not someone that even deserves any shred of what could be called a second chance. Why do you want me to bring you back to life so much, knowing exactly what you're going to do the instant I might do so?
I'm your father! You have to do as I tell you! Whenever I say, however I say!
Shinji sighed and shook his head in the negative towards him.
Would you bring me back if you were in my place? He asked him.
I don't have time to waste on a useless pilot! Gendo responded.
Well, then, you know why I could never be bothered with listening to what you want me to do for you. You order me to transmute you, just so you can live again, and then…you'll just do what you did to me back when I was little, right after my mother died. You'll just abandon me all over if I so much as tried to bring you back. And I don't have the nerve to attempt such a move. Would you even care if I didn't survive? I could end up losing parts of my body that I can't survive without. Lungs, heart, kidneys, liver. But I won't take that risk, even for you. You lost your life because of your faults, Father. Your faults! Not because of me! I'm not the reason you ended up in the Gate! As far as I'm concerned, you can wander around in it until God-knows-when! In the meantime, I will be off doing whatever I can to help those in need of my skills. Because I'm someone interested in helping those hurt by others, not hurting them.
I will make you pay for this, boy! Do you hear me?! You can't just walk away from me whenever you desire to!
But Shinji refused to be pressured and bullied by the whining ghost of his father. The man was dead, and Shinji couldn't and wouldn't change his fate. And a homunculus version of Gendo would probably be no different from the ones named after the Seven Deadly Sins, depending on which of the vices he acted on the most. Whether or not it was avarice, laziness, arrogance, jealousy, malice or just insatiability, that was on Gendo, because he was a damned soul, unworthy of mercy or redemption.
Shinji! Gendo yelled as his son turned away from the Gate with another little boy; during the entire time he was there, Shinji was after the soul of the Curtises' son, having paid the price in another day's worth of his potential energy.
Slam! The Gate closed on him again, sealing him back into the darkness.
Shinji had opened his eyes to the sunlight of the new day.
I slept through the remains of the entire day yesterday? He thought as he got up.
"Thank you, sir," the boy from yesterday uttered, and Shinji was surprised that he was there.
"Aah!" He gasped. "Oh…oh… Ah, you're welcome, uh… What do I address you as, young fellow? Do you have a name?"
"Nozomu," the boy revealed; Shinji had to assume that Izumi chose that name due to having a sense of hope returned to her.
"Nozomu," he repeated. "I'm Shinji Ikari. It is nice to make your acquaintance."
"Shinji!" They heard Ed's voice yell out as the Fullmetal Alchemist came into the room and had an expression of anger. "We gotta go!"
"Huh?"
"You're not going to believe who just showed up in Resembool while we were gone."
"Humor me."
"That bastard! Hohenheim!"
That was a surprise to Shinji. To receive word that Ed and Al's father was in Resembool meant that there was more to be in store for the three in the future. And worse: Shinji would now have to honor the promise Ed made him make regarding Hohenheim. He wasn't really looking forward to seeing it happen when it did. He might've been asked to do something he was uncomfortable with doing, but it didn't mean he was expected to enjoy the act when it came time to fulfill it.
Hohenheim, he thought as he felt hunger take hold of his stomach. You might be in for a rude encounter when we meet, face to face.
To be continued…
A/N: The upcoming inauguration ceremony has gotten people into uproars and making them misbehave in ways that aren't making anyplace safe to be in for extended periods of any day, but at least this story has been updated. What did y'all think? He healed Izumi of her Abdominal injuries and completed her Human Transmutation of the child that would've become the homunculus Wrath. The name had to be OC due to having no name to begin with. And again, Gendo, even when trapped inside the Gate, reduced to a whining phantom of his former self, tries to make Shinji do as he says, only for the Living Alchemist to refuse him and tell him that he's in the gate because of his own faults, not his son's. What do you think is going to happen next now that Hohenheim has resurfaced?