Chapter Five: You can See Me?

Still Ed's POV

' I've seen that before...back in Risembool in the cemetery...but how...?..why? ' I thought as I stared at it as it danced in the air. It was that same butterfly I saw. It fluttered calmly in the air in front of me, I couldn't help but be stuck in a trance just staring at it. Its red glow made it seem brighter in the faint glow of the moonlight. The crimson butterfly drifted by and slowly faded away in the dark shadows.

" What...What was that? Where'd it come from? " asked Alphonse, clearly confused.

" I saw it before..."

" Huh? You did? "

" Yeah...back in Risembool in the cemetery. " I replied, the butterfly still seem to hold me in a trance as I said that. But what came next was even more surprising to me. A swift wind seared through my skin that made my spine tingle and from the wall of the warehouse beside me, a figure emerged. It was as if the person was a spirit, they just walked through the wall. I nearly jumped out of my skin when that happened, I turned torwards the third person that so happened to join us just recently. The moon illuminated the face of the person and soon I come to realize that it was the mysterious girl back in the cemetery with that monster. I stared at her, mouth slightly agaped. She didn't seem to notice me or Al beside her, she stared on ahead and gripped her sword that was strapped to the right side of her hip with her left hand. I finally recovered from my shock and surprise when she spoke softly.

" It's getting close, I can feel it. "

" What is? " spoke up Alphonse almost just as quiet. Instead of responding, she began to advance forward. I shook myself out of my subconscious and ran up to her before she would disappear like she did last time I tried confronting her. She seemed suspicious and she might be the one who's causing the noise so I decided to take her as an enemy for now. Once I was about a foot away from her, I grabbed her by the shoulder and shoved her into a nearby wall. She gave a grunt as I had her pinned up against the wall with her back facing torwards me with her hands securely behind her.

" Alright, who the hell are you? Are you the one who's causing all this trouble or what? And don't play dumb cuz I've seen you before back in the cemetery in Risembool so answer! "

" Brother! She didn't do anything! "

" How could you know for sure Al? She might be sent by someone. For all we know, she could be an enemy. " I said to Al. The girl was silent before she turned her head around as much as I would allow her with surprised eyes as she began speaking finally AND directly to me.

" You...just shoved and pinned me to this wall. But how can you do that? I'm not supposed be seen by human beings, are you saying you could see me? " Now that caught me off guard, I was confused at what she said. It's as if she's talking like she's suppose to be a ghost or something but I could see her just fine like a normal person.

" What are you talking about? I could see you clearly and who you calling human being?! You're a human too you know... "

" On the contrary, I'm not. " She replied calmly and before I knew it, I was the one being pinned on the wall. Apparently, she's one to recover from her shock quickly. She used the wall to flip over me and landed behind me before I even had time to react. I shook out of her grip and swiped at her with my automail arm but she jumped back a fair distance to avoid it, her fingers grazing over her sword's hilt and she was in a defensive position like I was.

" Brother! Please, fighting isn't always the answer... "

" Al, you heard her. She's not human so who knows what she might do to us. " I said in a scowl to Al, I then turned back to the girl dressed in black again, " So who the hell are you? Are you some sort of Homunculis? " I saw her face change from a serious one to a confused one like back when I pinned her on the wall for the first time.

" A Homunculi? What on earth is that? " She questioned but then her confused face struck with realization, " I remember you now, you're the one I saw at the cemetery. "

" Yeah, that was me alright. Gee, nothing sure gets passed you. Considering you just disappeared like I wasn't even there! "

" But I thought surely you wouldn't be able to see me since no ordinary human beings can so why should I bother talking to you? I thought perhaps you were delusional. "

" Hey! I AM NOT!! " I shouted angrily. She seemed to have lowered her guard down a bit because her left hand that was hovering above her sword slowly lowered to her side. She stood up straight and her eyes seemed like they were seeing right through my soul. I stood my ground and kept strong, not letting a small gesture like that fool me.

" Answer my question! Who are you?! " I demanded. The girl in front of me sighed as if she's tired of saying the same thing over and over again. I was on my last straw before she finally spoke.

" I'm not sure whether or not to tell you but I guess I will since you want to know. And clearly you won't stop pestering me about it anytime soon. I'm a Shinigami. " When she told her answer to me, I was confused. I never heard any race called the 'Shinigamis'. She must've sensed my confusion and Al was dead silence about it so I guess he didn't have a clue either.

Himiko's POV

Oh god...What did I get myself into? I heaved a sigh, clearly these guys don't have a CLUE what a Shinigami is. It literally translate to 'Death God(s)' but that would probably freak em' out so I'll just tell them the simpler term.

" I'm a Soul Reaper. " I finally said. They seemed to get it...Well some what. The short blonde one was staring at me like I'm retarded or something and its starting to annoy. It was after a few minutes before he finally found his voice again instead of giving me these looks.

" A...Soul Reaper? I heard of a Grim Reaper before but nothing like that... " I mentally sweatdropped, this guy is really starting to bug me.

" It works the same way. I'm a Shinigami in the 13 division of the Soul Society. My duties are to lead spirits from the human world to the Soul Society or to damned them to the underworld, depends on how they were before they died. The two main spirits we deal with are wholes which are normal spirits and hollows which are bad spirits that eat human spirits living or dead. "

" Wait wait wait! Woah! Stop and rewind! " exclaimed the blonde, " Let me get this straight... " I stopped my explaination and listened to what he had to say.

" So you're sent by this Soul Society to our world to help spirits get to that place or send it to the underworld. And these things called hollows are spirits that are terrorizing the human world by eating living and dead human spirits? "

" Yes. "

" I don't believe that. " I was takenaback by his abrupt comment, I thought he actually understood all of this but I guess I was wrong. I furrowed my eyebrow and I frowned slightly.

" What is there not to believe? " I asked in a voice that was clearly annoyed.

" Well, basically everything. Apparently I'm not a person to believe in things like spirits of the departed, its unreasonable. "

" You see me don't you? Isn't that proof enough that you could see spirits? Like what you call a sixth sense? "

" Like I said, I don't believe in spirits either way. " I was getting REALLY annoyed with this little twit.

Normal POV

Himiko was at her last straw before she settled to the idea of teaching Ed a little respect. She rushed torwards him and with one hand, she performed a kido spell on him. The spell forced Ed's arms to be bound by an invisible force behind him which prevented him to move whatsoever. The force of it made Ed collaspe on his knees and remain there til further notice.

" Brother! " cried Alphonse, worried for his brother.

" Damn it! I can't move! What the hell did you do to me?! " shouted Ed, struggling to regain control of his arms again and his body. Himiko stood in front of him, smirking triumphantly with a shine of amusment glinting in her eyes as she watched Ed's useless struggles.

" Its called a kido. Its a demon art spell a shinigami can perform, it can either destory, heal or restrain someone. "

" Why you! " shouted Ed angrily, not liking the fact that he's being overpowered by a girl.

" Umm...he's not going to be like that forever right? " asked Al.

" No, of course not. The spell will eventually wear off in a couple of hours or if I choose to remove it. " Himiko smirked in reply, enjoying every moment of Ed struggling.

" Undo it right now! " demanded Ed.

" Or what? You won't be able to do anything as long as the kido is still active so what harm could you do to me? I've lived ten of your lifetime, I could kill you on the spot if I wanted to for your ignorance if it weren't for my orders so you should be grateful for that. "

" How's that even possible? " questioned Al, " That'll make you at least 150 years old! "

" Its complicated. " replied Himiko, she turned back to the struggling Ed, " I wouldn't struggle if I were you. It's useless and it'll only cause damage to your soul. " At that warning, Ed stopped struggling.

" Now, as long as you be a good little boy, I'll undo the spell so you could just leave. Ok? "

" HEY WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO LITTLE THAT HE COULD BE SQUISHED BY AN ANT?!?!?!?!? " shouted Ed rather loudly. Himiko flinched at the level of noise he was making and waited for him to calm down so she wouldn't have to deal with his hissy fit if she let him go. After a few more minutes of waiting, Ed finally calmed down from his rants.

" Are you done? " asked Himiko with her arms crossed.

" Yes... " muttered Ed almost inaudibly. Himiko sighed and undid the kido with a simple hand sign and Ed was free to move again. He stood up and brushed off the dirt on his clothes.

" You should get going, the hollow that is prowling around here might show up anytime soon. It's dangerous. " But before Ed had a chance to reply, a deep howling echoed around them. Himiko gripped her zanpakuto and scanned the area around quickly, " You have to go, now. I can handle this by myself. " Just then, the hollow crashed through one of the warehouses. It resembled what looked like a lizard but what's suppose to be the hind legs was replaced by eight legs that looked like it belonged to a spider. And of course, it had a mask on its face with red markings on it.

" Get outta here now! " shouted Himiko for the last time as the hollow charged right torwards them. Ed and Al began to back away and ran the opposite direction as Himiko stood her grounds. The two dashed around a warehouse but were confronted by yet another hollow, one that looked like a giant with a mask for its face.

" Brother, what do we do? These are spirits, do you think our alchemy will work against them? " asked Alphonse, backing away slowly as the hollow advanced torwards them.

" I don't know Al but it's worth a shot! " Ed said and clapped his hands together and transmuted his automail arm to a single blade. He charged torwards the hollow and slashed at it with his blade but like Al had said, he passed right through it. Stumbling to regain his balance, Ed was obviously had no luck in defeating the hollow.

" Ok..Maybe that wasn't such a good idea...but let's try this! " Ed transformed his blade back to its normal self and charged head on at the monster that was looking for him.

" Brother are you insane?! " Shouted Al worriedly. Without giving an answer back, Ed clapped his hand when he neared the hollow and pressed them both against its large legs. The monster gave a howl and surprisingly enough, its body started to dissolve like its been struck by acid.

" What did you do? " asked Al as he ran up to his brother, glancing at the spot where the monster once stood.

" Easy, since spirits are made out of ectoplasm, I changed the substance of it using alchemy to beat the hollow! Pretty cool right? " Ed grinned. Al sweatdropped a bit but was nonetheless thankful that they know some way to get rid of monster spirits.

" Anyways, now that we have nothing to fear, let's go find that Soul Reaper..." Without waiting for an answer from Al, he took off running with Al racing to catch up with him. Once they arrived back where they left however, there was no sign of the girl anywhere. Walking into the area more, Ed scanned around to see any signs that she might've left. Walking ahead a bit more, Ed continued his search with Al closely following him. After a moment of walking around, they finally came across a figure that was slouching against one of the warehouses.

" Hey! " called out Ed before he ran torward the figure, upon closer inspection, it was the same girl except this time, she was wounded. The shinigami looked up from resting and gave a tired glance at Ed.

" You again? " she breathed.

" Be thankful we found you, you're badly hurt..." retorted Ed, " Wait a minute, if you're a Soul Reaper than how come you can still get wounded...? " The copper haired girl heaved a tiring sigh at Ed's question but shook her head.

" Its complicated..." was her only answer.

" We can take you back to get you treated. We can't exactly leave you here by yourself..." offered Al.

" I guess we can't..." muttered Ed, less than happy about that fact, " And if you don't mind asking...What's your name? "

" Its Himiko..." Was her last reply before she fainted.