Edward bounded down the stairs and found Olivia already serving eggs and pancakes to Shina and Alphonse. At the sight of food, he perked up and ran over to one of the two empty seats at the table. Shina glanced at the Fullmetal Alchemist without any expression and Olivia smiled at him timidly.
"Good morning," she said as she placed a dish in front of Edward, "I…I'm sorry about how m-my sister was, umm…acting. I, uh…hope that you can… forgive her."
Edward grumbled some sort of reply and started wolfing his meal down. Olivia sat in her chair and Shina merely picked at her food, her mind engulfed in thought. She kept on sending Edward blank glances and then looking back down at her plate, making everyone at the table uncomfortable.
Finally, after some time, Shina put her fork down at looked Edward directly in the eye. "Okay, listen," she said. "I've been giving it some thought, and I've made up my mind. I'll go with you guys to Central—on one condition. You have to beat me in an alchemy battle, otherwise I'm staying here."
Both of the Elric brothers stared at the Lightning Shard Alchemist in shock. Edward narrowed his eyes and then let out a laugh that echoed all throughout the cabin. "Beat you at an alchemy battle?" he repeated. "Alright, sure. I accept, though I don't think it will be much of a challenge!"
Shina snorted. "Like hell it won't. I'm gonna beat you, hands down!"
"Just try!"
Alphonse and Olivia sighed. They were both tired of their older siblings' bickering, and they hoped that this would stop it all.
"Alright," Shina said as she stood up from the table. "Meet me up at Windshire peak at eight forty-five at Crescent Lake. We'll have our battle there." The brunette alchemist was already running out the cabin when she made this last statement.
"Wait, how do we get there?" Edward called after her.
"Olivia will show you!" Shina yelled back. Less than a few seconds later, she was already running though the forest that she knew like the back of her hand and out of sight.
Edward and Alphonse looked at each other and then at Olivia. She let out and exasperated sigh and said, "Oh…Stay right here. I'll be…I'll be back in a little while." She walked into the back of the cabin and rummaged through a closet that looked like it had been abandoned for decades. She came back with a neatly folded piece of paper and spread it out across the table. It was yellow and torn with age, and was peppered with a musty scent.
"What's that?" Alphonse asked, peering over Olivia's shoulder.
"It's a map," the young girl replied. She brushed her waist-long black hair over her shoulder to keep it from falling on the article of paper. "My brother made it a long time ago when he…umm…was exploring this mountain. You should be able to find Crescent Lake easily."
"Great!" Edward exclaimed. He grabbed the map from underneath Olivia, folded it up, and put it into his pocket. "Thanks a lot! You're i way /i nicer than your sister."
Olivia laughed and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "You're welcome…Oh, and…and if you have any trouble find your way back here. I'll help you."
"Wait, you're not coming?" Alphonse inquired.
"Sorry, but I need to clean the cabin. I wish I could go…I really do…but I can't."
"Hey, you said your brother made this," Edward said. "If he did, where is he?"
Olivia looked at the clock silently and then closed her eyes in a smile. "You should get going. You have forty minutes, and…I'm sure you don't want to make my sister angry."
Edward wanted Olivia to answer his question, but he shrugged it off and started out the door. Alphonse bowed to Olivia in thanks and hurried after his brother. The blonde alchemist deeply inhaled the fresh mountain air, unfolded the aged piece of paper, and started up the trail.
center /center
Shina sat on a smooth boulder at the edge of the lake. Her hair blew in her face and she studied her reflection in the water. "Where are they?" she asked to no one in particular. "Maybe I should have given them instructions instead of letting Olivia tell them how to get here…" At that moment something rustled in the brush to her left and she heard the sound of footsteps. Edward stepped out from behind the shrubs, covered with twigs, dirt, and burrs, with Alphonse close behind him.
"Damn it," Edward whined. "I hate this forest." He began plucking the branches and burrs off of himself when Shina jumped down from her perch.
"It's about time," said Shina as she crossed her arms. "I was beginning to think that I was going to have to come find you guys."
"Shut up," Edward snapped back.
Shina sighed. "Let's get this over with. Rules…I guess there aren't any rules. Just use what ever materials you see fit. You can use hand to hand combat if you need to, and the last person standing wins. Ready?" Edward nodded and shifted his weight so that he was in a fighting stance. 'This'll be a piece of cake,' he thought. 'With skills like mine, this will go by fast.'
"GO!!"
Edward was the first to strike. He charged full speed at his opponent, clapped his hands together, and changed his automail arm into a blade, then slashed it at Shina with incredible speed. She stepped back just in time to dodge the sharp edge, allowing it to only slice through empty air. "Automail…?" she whispered. "Why does he have automail?" She didn't have time for an answer. Edward swung at her again and she could only jump back to prevent the weapon from hitting her. Performing a back hand-spring to avoid yet another slash from her offender, Shina landed gracefully on a sturdy branch on a near-by tree and smirked.
"I was hoping for more of a challenge from the famous child prodigy I've heard so much about, but then again, I guess it's hard to live up to such a high reputation," the Lightning Shard Alchemist mocked. "Being so short must make a hard task like that even harder."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL THAT A GRAIN OF RICE LOOKS GIANT TO HIM?!?!" Edward fumed.
"Oh, did I hit a nerve short-stuff? I'm i so /i sorry!" Shina said sarcastically.
"QUIT CALLING ME SHORT!!!" Edward yelled.
"Make me, short-ass!" Shina replied. She leaped from her roost and flew over Edward's head. The Fullmetal Alchemist whipped around and brought his hands together, transforming the branches at his feet into a three-foot staff. He ran towards Shina, giving her enough time to alter a pile of twigs into a staff that rivaled Edward's. They both hacked at each other at the same time, causing their poles to break in the force of impact. Shina threw the useless timber over her shoulders and slapped the ground with her right palm, creating a cage around her opponent. Edward dropped the broken staff and dived out of the rapidly closing bars. He scrambled to his feet to dodge a blow from Shina's newly-created stone sword. He stopped for a few moments to catch his breath. Shina stopped and did the same.
Shina smirked and ran at Edward full force. Edward pulled his automail blade back, ready to strike as soon as Shina got close enough; he swung, but never hit. As soon as she was within range, Shina grabbed Edward's arm in mid-swing and grinned at him in a malevolent way.
"Now you're in for it, shorty," she said. She tightened her grip on the metal limb and there was a burst of green light. Edward felt his whole body throb and his body suddenly go numb.
"Wh…what the hell is this?" he asked, barely able to move his mouth.
"You like it? It's one of the things I love about being the Lightning Shard Alchemist," Shina said. "I can conduct electricity that exists in the air and use it to my advantage. Like that, for instance. I can paralyze opponents by sending jolts of electricity through their bodies."
"Why you—" Edward started to say. He was cut off when Shina grabbed him by the collar of his black jacket and jerked him forward. She brought her knee up swiftly and hit him directly in the stomach. A small stream of blood fell out of Edward's mouth and he fell onto the ground, wheezing and gasping in an attempt to regain the lost air in his lungs. Shina smiled in a way that sent chills down Edward's spin and kicked Edward on the ground.
"Sorry if that hurt, bean sprout," Shina said with a slightly evil tone in her voice. "Looks like I win."
"Not if I can help it," Edward said with an ironic grin. He slowly brought his right hand to his left and transmuted the ground beneath Shina's feet into restraints made of stone, which quickly gripped her ankles and her wrists. She gasped and realized that she was just as immobile as her opponent.
"How can you move? I sent enough voltage though you to make you stay at a standstill for at least twenty minutes!" Shina yelled.
"I can only move my automail, but it's amazing I can, isn't it? I've got the world's best mechanic," Edward stated, smiling somewhat as he remembered his childhood friend Winry who was in Resembool.
Yeah, I guess that I is impressive…for a short kid who's got an even shorter temper," Shina taunted.
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Edward yelled.
All the two alchemists could do at that point was to yell at and tease each other. Alphonse watched the military members brawl from the shade of a near-by tree. To his surprise, Olivia stepped out from behind the undergrowth to the right of the tree and sat down beside him.
"I thought that you had to clean the cabin," Alphonse said.
"I did and I…I have. I thought I'd…come see how Edward and Shina are doing," she replied quietly, pulling her knees to her chest. They watched their siblings in silence, and after a while Alphonse decided to break the uncomfortable stillness.
"You didn't answer my brother's question earlier," he said. "You did say that your brother made that map, but you never told us anything about him. What happened to him? Where is he?"
Olivia winced at this statement as though she had been slapped across the face, and waited a few moments before replying. "I…I don't really want to talk about it…"
"Why not? I mean, why won't you talk about your own brother?"
"I just don't want to talk about it…" Olivia tightened her grip on her knees and rested her chin on them.
"But getting it off your chest can help. Just tell me and—"
"I said I don't want to talk about it!!" Olivia yelled; it was the first time Alphonse had ever heard the girl raise her voice. He noticed that her eyes were beginning to fill and he decided to drop the subject. He wondered what could make such a calm topic so difficult for Olivia to discuss.
By the time Alphonse looked back at the young military members, they had engaged in combat again. Edward's paralyzed body had began to function sometime earlier Shina had broken through her imprisonment. But the two alchemists weren't in the best shape to be fighting. They were reaching their limits, and it was beginning to show. Edward's pant leg was torn open, revealing the automail leg beneath it; his face was beaded with sweat. Shina was beginning to feel dizzy; she had taken several blows and her body was adorned with multiple minor injuries. Both of them were staggering. Shina held her upper left arm where Edward had cut her with a wooden rapier. Edward cringed from a sharp pain in his right thigh, which had been severely bruised by Shina's stone rod.
"Didn't…think that…you'd be…this much of a…challenge…" Shina said between breaths.
"Well…that…makes two…of us…" Edward said in the same manner.
Gritting her teeth, Shina placed her hand on a tree, transforming part of it into a blunt sword. Edward braced himself for impact, but barely had enough time to register the fact that the Lightning Shard Alchemist was lurching at him when he felt a severe pain in his abdomen. He looked down to see that Shina had whacked him as hard as she could in his stomach with her dulled weapon. The force of the strike caused him to fly multiple feet backwards and he landed on the unforgiving ground on his back. Shina realized her chance and used the last of her strength to slam her hand down onto the earth beneath her, creating restraints on the Fullmetal Alchemist's wrists and ankles. The blonde alchemist struggled for a few moments, and then slumped back against the ground, accepting the fact that he had been pinned down and defeated.
Shina smiled for a little while and then collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. She heard running footsteps approaching her and saw Olivia's worn-out, dulled brown sandals in front of her face. She smiled again and struggled to get up, but her limbs would not respond. Finally giving up, Shina closed her eyes and let herself be engulfed in darkness.