Ed and Al were both dumbstruck at what Hikaru said. Ed fainted and fell right on the white marble-tiled floor.
"Brother!" Al shouted in shock.
"Edward Elric!" Armstrong also shouted as he ran over to Ed. His body was lying flat on the ground with his face facing the high-up ceiling. His eyelids were shut and it seemed as if he passed out for a moment.
After a few hours since he fainted, Ed awoke to see that he was in large room pinned down to a small wooden chair with metal locks sealing him to it. He had his clothes stripped off him, except for his pale, light blue boxers. Ed wondered who had done that to him as he began to gaze around the room in amazement, until he came across the wall to the right of him. The wall to his right had a crazy amount of tools that looked as if they were used more for murders than for rebuilding things, especially the giant, sharp chainsaw. That scared Ed the most.
"Where the hell am I?" Ed shouted aloud. "This better not be a torture chamber! I didn't do anything! I'm innocent! This was all Armstrong's fault! He led us here! I swear I didn't do anything!" Ed began to kick his legs around frantically trying to break free, but it was no use.
"Um… Edward, can you calm down, please?" Hikaru said softly as she walked into the room and grabbed some thick brown gloves. She slotted her hands in them and made sure that they were tightly placed on. She then walked over to where Ed was sitting, looking like an upset captive being put to torture.
"Did you have to lock me up to a chair like this?" he asked. "I feel like I'm being tortured for information."
"Sorry…" Hikaru apologized sadly, "But this is the only way I could keep you still until I finished with your arm." She went over with a ruler tape and measured his arm length. She wrote down the number on a small blank piece of notebook paper and then moved down to his automail leg. "Can you stretch both of your legs forward, please?"
Ed did as he was told and lifted both of his legs into the air, straightening them. Hikaru then measured both of his legs, starting with the human one first. She saw that the automail leg was shorter than his human one. She wrote down the size number on the paper and told Ed to place his feet back on the ground.
"It seems that you grew, Ed," Hikaru said, cleaning off a large table to making room for her to fix the arm and leg.
"Yeah," Ed agreed and boasted. "I'm growin' really tall!"
"Actually," Hikaru added, "I think you're still pretty short."
That comment enraged Ed till he almost exploded! He moved wildly in the chair trying to break free and attack Hikaru.
"DON'T CALL ME SHORT, MIDGET, OR SHRIMP!" Ed shouted with flames of anger burning in his eyes.
"Edward," Hikaru quietly said as she held her head with her hand, "this is probably why I kept you locked up in the chair like that."
"So you just kept me locked up in a chair so I can't pound you for me calling short?" he shouted back at her.
"No." She answered. "The reason why you're locked up like this was your brother's idea. He told me that you acted wild at times and this was the only I can keep you still."
Ed turned his head away from her looking at the wall to his left. Hikaru only sighed and turned around to face him.
"You know you're the first customer I ever had, Edward…" Hikaru said softly with deep sadness in the tone of her voice. "I think this makes me feel… really happy…" She caught his attention when he turned his head around and faced her again. She walked over to a wooden chair that she placed next to Ed and sat on it. "You know what Ed?"
"What?" he asked hoping that she doesn't call him short again.
"I was only joking about calling you short, Ed. I'm sorry." She apologized. Ed was so shocked that he almost fainted again. This was the first time someone apologized for calling him short. She then continued with a small smile on her face, "Since you're taller than me, I think you should be the one calling me short."
Ed's jaw dropped in shock. First was her apology, and now she commented that he was tall. Ed sat in the small wooden chair, now motionless as well as speechless. There was silence for a moment in the small room, and not a single sound came out of both Ed and Hikaru's mouths. Hikaru calculated all the measurements on the paper and walked towards the small wooden stairs, which led to the workshop's exit. She noticed that the door was slightly opened and quickly closed it. She turned the lock on the doorknob and jumped off the stairs landing on the hard wooden floor.
There were faint sounds coming from outside the white, sturdy, wooden door of the workshop. It sounded like two voices whispering to each other. Those quiet voices belonged to Al and Armstrong. They were whispering to each other about what they heard in the workshop.
"Major, did you hear what she said?" Al whispered as he stood up from the floor.
"I believe so, Alphonse." Armstrong confirmed as he quietly stood up as well.
"That's the first time I heard anyone talk to my brother that way." Al said as he walked around the mansion with Armstrong. "He's probably even more shocked than me."
"Well," Armstrong said as he rubbed his chin in deep thought, "I believe this is only the beginning. You and your brother will have a long way to till you two will reach the end."
"What do you by that, Major?" Al asked in confusion.
Armstrong opened a door to bedroom where they were told to stay. After he turned the knob, he turned to face Al and answered, "As this journey continues, you two will find the answers. You both may not notice them, but in the end it will all become clear"
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After at least several hours of working, Hikaru finally finishes with Ed's automail arm. She runs over to Ed, who was sleeping on the chair. She placed the metal in the hole in his right shoulder and began to check to see if she was accurate on her measurements. She lifted his human arm and checked to see if the arms were aligned correctly. Everything seems to be precisely accurate with the automail arm, so Hikaru went back to the table to work on the leg.
While she was working on the metal leg, Ed seemed to have woken up and noticed the automail arm sitting on a different table. Ed was delighted to see that she was finished his arm and was amazed that she finished it pretty quickly.
"You're working on the leg already, Hikaru?" Ed asked in amazement.
"Yeah. Am I going to slow for you?" Hikaru asked.
"Nope." Ed replied. "We got loads of time. The military assigned me to look for a thief, who's been stealing stuff from the Central Library, and I'm supposed to be looking for the Philosopher's Stone so me and Al can return back to normal. But since you're working at a fast pace like this we'll be heading out by tomorrow morning."
Hikaru went back to work and as several minutes pass she seems to be done with the metal foot. Ed was surprised to see her working speed as he was thinking of something to talk to her about. That's when a question of curiosity popped inside his head.
"Hikaru," Ed spoke to catch Hikaru's attention.
"Yes?" Hikaru replied with her mind still focused on the automail leg.
"I was wondering about what you said to me when we were fighting Scar." Ed began. "You said that I had 'wings', the 'wings you were searching for'. What do you mean by that?"
That really caught Hikaru's attention as she turned around with a sad look on her face and answered, "That is something not even I know. I can just see them. For example I can see them right now. You have them, Edward…"
"I still don't understand, Hikaru." Edward said, now even more confused.
"This journey leads to many paths and you must decide which paths you should follow. Decide carefully because your decisions affect us all, Edward…"