Things seemed to be going from bad to worse. No, actually, things were OK. Then, it started to suck. Out of the blue, I'm transported into this...dome...thing... With trees in it... Then, I see Reiko, but some pointy-haired guy was beating her up, so I helped her out. Then, she has the nerve to yell at me about it. Well, SORRY, missy! Then, this total babe comes up, but she turns out to be some psycho not-quite-human thing called a "Homunculus". She even stabbed me in the shoulder, with her FINGER of all things! This might be pretty obvious, but there's something really weird about all of this. REALLY WEIRD.

Meanwhile, Reiko started freaking out, asking "Lust" as she called herself, a bunch of questions. I still don't know what a Homunculus is, but I saw Reiko stab her in the back with a kunai, and she got right back up as if nothing happened. It's almost as if she came back from the dead. I started to become concerned with all of this, so I thought I'd let her talk, so I could understand the situation a bit better.

"And just what are you, "Homunculi"?!" Reiko yelled to Lust.

She calmly responded, "We are artificial creations who are brought to "life" through the forbidden act of human transmutation."

Reiko and I both turned to each other, puzzled.

"A human what now?" I asked.

Lust looked very annoyed, but answered anyway.

"A human transmutation is when an alchemist tries to resurrect a human from the dead."

I was still confused.

"What's an alchemist?" I inquired.

"If you were made from a human who was supposed to be brought back to life, then that must make you... A zombie!" Reiko said thoughtfully. Lust, however, looked even more irritated and slapped her forehead in frustration.

"No, I'm not a zombie," she said angrily. "Are we even from the same planet?"

"Well, I don't know what an alchemist or a Homunculus is, so I guess we are," Reiko stated. "And that still doesn't explain how you were able to turn your finger into a dagger, or come back to life when I stabbed you."

Before Reiko could finish, a weird, short, bald, fat guy came out from behind a bush. He waddled over, and looked sad, in a way.

"You hurt Lust?" He said. He suddenly looked more menacing. "No one hurts my Lust. I'll kill you."

Reiko and I both backed away, frightened. Lust calmly walked next to the fat man and said, "Settle down, Gluttony, I'm fine. There's no need for any of that right now."

"But Lust, I'm hungry. Can I eat them? Can I eat them, please?!"

"Maybe you can later, if you're a good boy and do what you're told," a voice said from behind. It looked like that pointy haired guy woke up from that attack I gave him before.

"Envy," Lust said, "It's about time you woke up."

The fat man hid behind Lust. "Oh no," he said, "Envy's scary."

"You all seem to be pretty hunky-dory around each other," I said. "Are you friends?"

"You could say something like that," the pointy haired guy said. "We're all Homunculi, and we have four more friends hanging around."

"More like three. You know about how HE is..."

"Oh yeah... Always causing trouble..."

I didn't know who they were talking about, but I didn't want to get too involved. I just wanted to find a way to leave and get away from these weirdos.

"Wait just one second," Reiko stated, "If there are seven of you, and there are two of us... That would be unfair, especially if you ganged up on us. There must be more of us ninjas around too."

"Well, this is going nowhere," pointy hair said. "I don't care about fairness, all I want to do is get rid of these stupid humans. Shall we?"

It looked like we were going to get ourselves into quite a pickle, and there was no way to get out of it.

I haven't updated in so long, and here are 2 brand-spankin' new chapters. Merry (late) Christmas.