Title: Help My Sister

Disclaimer: Don't own.

A/N: This chapter turned out pretty dark. I mean, the last chapter was kinda dark with Scar slaughtering some of Ed's men off screen and then beating Ed to a pulp, but this one is definitely darker.

"Who is he?"

"He's a shinigami, and an important one at that. Shh Kotori."

The little girl looked at the man. "But Daddy Genji, how do you know that? What if he's a bad man?" An old woman with a bowl of warm water and some towels walked into the room. Kotori ran to her. "Granny, Daddy Genji brought in a bad man!"

The old woman smiled and knelt next to Genji. "Quiet child. If we are lucky then this man will be able to help your sister."

Kotori made a face. "Her? Why would he want to help her?"

"Because we saved his life, child. Now be a good girl and go play with your dolls."

"Yes Granny."

Ed groaned, and half opened his eyes. He seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. He felt a cool cloth being put on his forehead. He reached a hand up, but a smaller hand pushed it down again. "Granny said that if you wake up I'm to tell you not to move."

Ed opened his eyes the rest of the way to see a girl with short brown hair in pigtails and brilliant blue eyes looking down at him. "Where… Where am I?"

"You're at my house!" the girl exclaimed. "My daddy found you in the street and dragged you in. He's convinced you can help my sister."

The girl continued to babble while Ed managed to inch up against the wall behind him and look over himself. His leg was shot to hell, there was a thick bandage around his middle, and he suspected a few ribs were broken but other then that he was fine thankfully. Focusing on his reiatsu, he performed a healing kidou on himself. The girl gasped as the room was bathed in green light.

"Pretty! Can you teach me how to do that?"

Ed gasped and fell to the floor again as he ran out of energy. He had only managed to heal the ribs before he was out of energy. The door opened and a man walked in. "I thought I heard you talking Kotori. Welcome back to the land of the dead shinigami."

"Isn't that a bit backwards?" Ed muttered, rubbing his head. "How did I get here?"

"Kotori, go help your granny with dinner."

"Okay!" Kotori bounded out.

The man sat next to Ed's futon. "My name is Wakaba Genji. That was my adopted daughter Kotori. I found you two days ago in the street and brought you here."

"Did you find another man? There was another shinigami with me."

"Unfortunately he was dead before I found you. I buried him on a hill not far from here."

"Oh," was all that Ed uttered. "Two days, huh? Hawkeye must be about to lose it with worry."

"Hawkeye?"

"Yeah, my fukutaichou. I'm Edward Elric, taichou of Fifth Division."

Genji looked hopeful. "Since you're so important, do you think you could help my other daughter?"

"What's wrong with her?"

"Well, she wants to become a shinigami, but whenever she goes to sign up they turn her away, claiming classes are full."

"Maybe they are."

"She has seen the children of nobles sign up after she was turned away, and this has happened several years in a row. She desperately wants to become a shinigami, but she is starting to lose hope."

Ed pushed himself up again. "I might be able to help her, if she has reiatsu. Where is she?"

Genji sighed. "Alas, she's not here right now. She travels a lot."

An old woman poked her head through the door. "Genji, dinner's… Oh! You're awake then. I'm Hoshimi. If you're feeling up to it, dinner's ready and we'd be happy to share our stew with you."

"I'd love to." Ed was about to get up when he remembered he couldn't. "If someone could…"

Genji repositioned himself and slung Ed's arm over his shoulder. He helped Ed up and together they walked into the next room, which was some sort of kitchen slash dining room. Genji helped Ed over to a chair and he sat down, helping himself to some of the soup from the large pot in the middle of the table. Kotori was already slurping up hers. Hoshimi and Genji also sat down and served themselves. Kotori set her spoon down and fixed Ed with her big blue eyes. "What's it like to be a shinigami?"

Ed smiled at her. "It's a lot of hard work."

"But it must feel good, being able to defend yourself against evil hollows, and defend others."

"Yes, but to be able to defend yourself takes lots of practice and effort. That's what you do all six years at the Shinigami Academy. You practice a lot."

"What about that green light you made? Was that magic?"

Ed chuckled. "Kind of… that was kidou. That's another thing you learn at the Academy. You can do all kinds of neat things with it." Ed caught sight of Genji and Hoshimi looking at each other. "But I don't think you should become a shinigami. You're not suited for it. Besides, you can just brag about your sister when she becomes a shinigami."

For the rest of dinner there was awkward small talk. After that Genji helped Ed back to his futon and Ed, still worn out from the kidou he had performed earlier, was out like a light.

The next morning Ed was brought food in bed because Genji said he wanted to talk to him privately. "So, how do you plan on getting back to Sereitei without a leg?"

Ed shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know. I would ask if there's a cart or something around that I could hire someone to take me back in, but I'm sure they'd want payment up front and I have no money on me."

Genji nodded. "That they would. At any rate, you should stay here until my daughter gets back. And I've already spread the word that if anyone sees a shinigami they should send them here."

Ed slowly set his bowl of oatmeal down. "That… was a really bad idea."

"Why?"

"The man who attacked me is still out there, and when he finds out I'm still alive he'll be pissed."

"Made an enemy?"

"More like taking a grudge to the grave. I've lost track of how many times he's tried to kill me in my past life."

Atsushi raised a hand to knock on the rough wooden door. He had been wandering Rukongai looking for Scar, and had been approached by a pretty young woman. She had told him that there was a shinigami living at this house unable to return to Sereitei. So here he was, following up on info given by a complete stranger (though she was pretty). He knocked.

The door was opened by a middle-aged man with black hair. "Wakaba Genji, what can I do for you?"

"I've heard that there's a shinigami staying here."

"Oh, him? Come in, please come in."

Ed had been at the Wakaba's for a week now. Genji kept assuring him that his daughter would arrive back soon. No shinigami had shown up at the house, and there was no doubt that Yamamoto had assigned at least one more division to the Scar hunt by now.

Playing Go Fish with Kotori, Ed distantly heard someone knock on the door of the house. "Got any sevens?"

"Go fish!" Kotori giggled.

Ed picked up a card from the pile as the door to the small room opened. He looked up. In filed Genji and… a shinigami from Fifth Division. "Atsushi. You have no idea how glad I am to see you."

Atsushi's eyes showed relief. "I am sure that my joy upon seeing you alive is more. We were all sure you were dead after Yamamoto assigned Sixth and Seventh divisions to search for Scar as well. Hawkeye-fukutaichou hasn't been seen outside your office in days."

Ed set his cards down. "Do you have a carriage or something outside then? I really need to get back."

Atsushi was confused. "Can't you walk?"

"Unfortunately, no."

Atsushi then noticed the twisted metal below his left knee. "Well then I guess you're in luck. My carriage is right outside. Come, I'll help you there."

Kotori's large blue eyes looked at Ed. "Are you leaving?"

Ed smiled sadly at her. "Unfortunately I am Kotori. But don't worry, I might be able to find time to come back."

"Promise?"

Ed weighed his options. "Promise."

Atsushi helped Ed up, and together they walked outside. Genji, Hoshimi, and Kotori followed. Ed put his right hand on the side of the carriage to pull himself up, when he felt something move. He paused, looking closer at the carriage. Then he uttered one single word.

"Shit."

The carriage exploded in a huge burst of flame, throwing everybody back and giving them all considerable burns. Ed barely noticed himself being thrown against a tree and landing in a pile of bricks, paying more attention to flames licking at the remains of his arm with detached shock. Then it settled in, the fact that a bomb had gone off while he was virtually holding it. Dazed, he looked up.

Hoshimi had run into the house at Ed's first hint of danger and was now poking her head out the door. Atsushi was slowly standing up, a long burn coming down the right side of his face as well as some of his hair singed away. Kotori was stirring under a bush with many broken branches, and Genji was clutching at his left arm, all of the fabric from his sleeve burned away.

And a safe distance behind the flaming wreckage stood the perpetrator, Scar. Double shit.

Scar skirted the wreckage and approached Ed. "You don't stay dead, do you Elric?"

Atsushi, noticing that his captain was in danger, pulled out his zanpukto and charged at Scar. Ed looked fearfully at him, knowing the inevitable outcome. "No! Stop Atsushi!"

Atsushi did not pay heed to the warning, and Ed was forced to watch as Scar beheaded the shinigami with his katana. He turned back to Ed. "Now, this time I will make sure that I don't miss."

Kotori was horrified by all the blood. Screaming, she got up and ran around the house with the intent of running down the street. But she didn't get that far before she bumped into something… or someone. She looked up and hugged the girl. "Nee-san! There's a bad man, he attacked Daddy Genji and some shinigami! Nee-san, save us! Nee-san!"

The older girl removed herself from Kotori and looked around the corner at the scene. Kneeling, she picked up a hammer. She chucked it at the tan-coated man. It hit its target.

Scar… you're being counterproductive to Ed's limbs. There's my little joke so you all aren't too depressed.