Brief Commentary:
LOL, too much time on my hands. :D So here's the next chapter for all you young whippersnappers. (Is completely disregarding the amount of homework Aiiro still has to do over the weekend) I'ma get myself a sodie can so that I can stay awake while writing this time - having caffeine around the house is very handy in such situations and things. Anyway, I was extremely bored and took it upon myself to skim through this whole story up until chapter twenty-two, and I have one question:
How can you guys like this? It's so poorly written and people are described so awfully that I feel like tearing my hair out. D: How do you STAND this story?!
Reasons Not For Your Ears
Chapter Twenty-Three
"Eh? Winry-san, you look very confused," Ling remarked, a proud smile dancing across his lips. She stared at him in silence. Taking this as an excuse to continue, he grinned, "I have background knowledge on everyone in this town - I even know where Scar tends to stay every now and then.
"If you know where he is, at some points in time, then why don't you go and kill him?" Winry asked irritably, leaning back against the side of the bed.
"Don't be foolish!" Ranfan burst out, "It's much to risky for Ling-senpai and myself to just march out and kill him!"
Taken aback by the unexpected reaction, Winry drew her legs up a little closer to herself and hugged her knees, nodding for Ling to continue.
"I even have some basic background knowledge on Paninya-san," Ling straightened himself and grinned again, as if the interruption had never even occurred. He began to recite Paninya's information, "Occupation: high school student, intelligence quota: 102, habits: being nosy, eating rice, exacting her beliefs of 'revenge' upon others, personality: easy-going, lazy, recently quick-tempered and upset from her father's murder-"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Winry interrupted him, waving her hands in a signal for him to stop. "You mean you have background information on everyone here?"
"Yes," he responded cheerfully. "Even on you, Winry-san. Occupation: high school student, intelligence quota: 113, habits: chewing your lip, over-thinking things, personality: stubborn, sympathetic, parents were murdered at the age of twelve, no, eleven, and the murderer has still not been fou-"
"Please stop," she cut in sharply. She could practically feel herself bristling. "I'd prefer that you not talk about that so freely."
He smiled, completely undeterred.
"Certainly."
After a few moments of an uncomfortable silence, Winry spoke up again.
"So...do you have the background information for Scar?"
"Of course we do! Do you think Ling-senpai is incompetent-"
"Ranfan, please calm down. Yes, Winry-san. As a matter of fact, we know almost everything about him, except where he is at this moment."
Slowly, reluctantly, Winry asked again,
"What is his history like?"
"Hm," Ling scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Let's see...at one point he was a normal citizen here in this country; had a wife and son. Very kind people; a little isolated, but kind. Due to a terrible accident involving a truck and two smaller cars, they were all critically injured, although he managed to pull through a little more quickly. Unfortunately, his wife and son did not live, and out of anger, he killed the two doctors that had been treating them...then he traveled to our country, again, with a seemingly ulterior motive, and began to cause terrible ruckuses out on the streets. Officials tried to stop him and confine him, but those were killed. And eventually, great leaders of our country swearing to put him in custody were also murdered. Now he has fled here with the ulterior motive he has now."
Winry felt her insides twist at one of the facts Ling had so calmly recited.
"...how long ago was it...when he killed the two doctors?"
"Eh, Ranfan...what do you think? Four years or so ago?"
"I believe it was actually five years, Ling-senpai," she corrected him.
"Ah, that's right! Five years," he grinned over at Winry, puzzled when he saw how pale she had gone.
"So...they...they were killed...five years ago?"
"Is something the matter, Winry-san?"
She opened her mouth to speak, but found that she couldn't bring herself to.
"Ranfan," he said suddenly, voice bright, as if he had just made a great discovery, "Make any possible connections between Winry-san's history and Scar's."
"Yes, Ling-senpai," Ranfan scurried out of the room with Winry's file clutched in her hand. Much rummaging could be heard as she busied herself moving from place to place, as if looking for something. A small "ah" was made as she found what she was searching for. The small flipping of pages resounded off the walls in the now silent room. After a minute or so, she returned.
"Ling-senpai," Ranfan reported, "Winry-san's parents were killed within the same year that the two doctors Scar murdered died also. The date of Winry-san's parents death is also one of the estimated dates for this act."
She glanced over at her.
"Winry-san, what were your parent's occupations?"
"They..." she said softly, voice hoarse. "...they were doctors."
Ling clapped his hands together and said cheerfully
"Well then, we have a new theory, Ranfan! The probability that Scar murdered Winry-san's parents has gone up by sixty-nine percent!"
Ranfan scribbled something onto Winry's file and nodded vigorously, eyes bright at the new possibility. Winry, meanwhile, was distraught, confused, and exhausted by Ling's energy, even in such drastic situations. Slumping against the bed behind her, she closed her eyes and tried to push away the thought. But...Scar had killed her parents? Her eyes were shut more tightly as she attempted to suppress the tears from leaking out. She barely heard Ling and Ranfan discuss their new 'theory.'
"But what would be his motive for going after Winry-san?"
"To further his revenge, possibly?"
"But why would he need to do that?"
"Who knows? We'd have to further investigate his inner mind, and you remember how exhausting that is, Ranfan."
"..true. Perhaps it would be better to, once he's in our hands, ask him ourselves?"
"But who's to say he would cooperate?"
"I know a few torture methods, Ling-senpai."
"Ah ha ha! Well, that's true."
Eventually, Winry fell into what she thought to be a blessed sleep as the dialog between the two continued, hoping that she would be able to escape the frightening reality that she lived in.
Her dreams did not provide much escape.
He stood across from her, sweat and blood caking both his skin and hers. In her hand she held a trembling pistol, pointing it towards his chest, while he had a hand-gun aimed for her head. He let out a snarl and fired rapidly at her, smirking as he noticed every wince she made from each shot. Some how, no bullets buried themselves into her flesh, and she was left standing shakily with tears streaming down her cheeks.
She, in turn, fired at him, a sob escaping her lips as each bullet shot from the small barrel. She still had a lot of ammunition to go through, she realized bitterly. She flung herself to the hard cement ground as he returned the 'favor.' How much longer until he was out?
Standing again, she tried to stop her trembling hands from missing as she shot at him - it narrowly missed the side of his skull, as he managed to duck out of the way at the last second. He stilled unexpectedly as another figure came into view. Terrified that it was another person who had arrived to kill her, she shot and shot at it until it slumped to the ground, apparently dead. With a tiny sigh of relief, she flinched at the sadistic grin on his face as he seemed to realize who she had just killed.
"Congratulations," he hissed at her, "You managed to take the life of the only ally you had with you tonight."
What? She peered more closely at the bloody corpse lying on the cement, and her body froze in horror.
It was him. She had killed him. Murdered him.
BANG, BANG.
She hurt, suddenly.
"Oi, Winry-san?"
Her eyes shot open, her breaths coming short and ragged as she began to realize that Ranfan was shaking her slightly, concern written on her face. Ling sat on the far end of the room, a frown on his lips. Winry realized with a slight blush that she was covered with sweat and had probably puzzled them with her nightmare - she seemed to have been thrashing in her sleep.
"Are you okay, Winry-san?" Ranfan asked quietly, her hands retracting themselves to her sides.
"Y-yes...um, what time is it?"
"Oh, it's been a few hours since you fell asleep," Ling offered kindly. "You seemed to have been suffering from a...oh, is it called a 'bad dream,' Ranfan?"
"I believe it is correctly interpreted as a 'nightmare,'" she corrected.
"Ah, yes, a nightmare," he smiled at himself. "Do you mind if we ask what it was about?"
"Uh," Winry cautiously wracked her mind, "I...I can't really remember."
Ling looked only slightly disappointed.
"I see. Oh well."
At that moment, Winry grudgingly remembered that her grandmother probably had no idea where she was - she would likely get a stern, concerned bad mouthing if she didn't let her know that she was all right.
"...Ling," she said quickly, "Do you have a phone I can use?"
"Certainly," Ling replied happily. "Why do you need it?"
"I forgot to let my grandmother know where I was."
"Ah, actually," he blinked, "it might be better if you kept this location anonymous. For Ranfan and my safety reasons."
"Oh...okay," Winry agreed.
"All right then! Ranfan, please fetch Winry-san a phone."
Within moments, a phone was present in Winry's hands and she was busily dialing her apartment's number, shrugging off the intense looks Ling was sending at her fingers as she punched in each digit. Holding the phone to her hear and listening to it ring, Winry subconsciously chewed her lips as her stomach squirmed anxiously. By the second ring, her grandmother's voice crackled over the phone.
Hello?
"Baa-chan? This is Winr-"
WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!
Winry was forced to hold the speaker away from her ear, wincing at Pinako's volume level.
"Baa-chan, I can explai-"
WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU COME HOME YESTERDAY AFTERNOON?! I WAS SCARED SHITLESS, WINRY!!
"Baa-chan, please listen," Winry spoke rapidly, praying her grandmother wouldn't interrupt. "Yesterday...I, um...slept over at Paninya's house...and I totally forgot to tell you."
Her grandmother gave a disgruntled snort.
Really, Winry? You simply 'forgot'?
"Y-yeah," she laughed nervously. "And, um, I'll be-"
Ling suddenly intercepted the phone from her and said kindly into the phone,
"Winry will actually be staying over again tonight. She got a pretty bad bump on her head, and it's not good for her to move around so much. Is that okay with you, Pinako-san?"
She blinked in surprise as she noticed how well Ling had changed his voice. He actually sounded like a girl - not in an embarrassing way, but more of an impressive one.
...who is this?
"I'm another friend who decided to stay over," he replied calmly.
I see. Well, how did she bump her head?
"Ha...you see, we were unintelligently running around the house," he made his voice sound sheepish, "and she slipped and fell backwards - she was actually out for a little while."
How long is a little while? Pinako sounded doubtful.
"Oh, only fifteen minutes or so," Ling assured her. "But, yeah, the bump is pretty big, so she'll just be over again for tonight, okay?"
Well...alright.
"Thanks a lot, Pinako-san!" he said cheerfully. "Bye bye!"
He promptly ended the conversation by pressing 'End' on the portable phone, and flashed a thumbs up at Winry.
"You now have an excuse to stay here another night - and this time it's perfectly honest."
Badabing, badaboom. :D There may or may not be more updates as the three day weekend goes on. I'm hopefully leaning towards more...but my mountain of homework is rather intimidating to look at.
