A/N: Alright, here's Chapter 6 for you guys!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything . . . as usual.

Chapter 6

One week later . . .

""Come on, Al, take off the armor!""

"Um, I really don't want to . . ."

"But we want to see what you look like, Allie-chan!"

"Uh, um . . ." Al looked around nervously. He was currently backed up against the wall of the clubroom, surrounded by Hikaru, Kaoru, and Honey. It was after club hours, and the Hosts had been bugging Al ever since the girls had left about taking off his armor so they could see what he looked like. Of course, Al couldn't show them his real body, since it wasn't even there, but there was no way to tell them that without revealing what had happened to him all those years ago.

As the week had gone on, Ed, Al, and Crona had adjusted to the school pretty well. Crona had gotten a little closer to Tamaki in regards to becoming friends, but he was still having trouble connecting with Ed and Al, much to the disappointment of Medusa. The brothers, meanwhile, had gotten used to living at Suoh mansion number two; they enjoyed living the good life, even though they still hadn't found the clue to the philosopher's stone they were looking for, or a way to get back home.

The Host Club had also adjusted to having three new members. The boys weren't official Hosts yet, but they still talked with the ladies just as the real Hosts were doing, and some girls were even starting to request them specifically. Ed and Al had already been designated their own table. Crona had been offered one as well, but he chose to stick by either Tamaki or Haruhi- who he felt surprisingly calm around, which he guessed was caused by his (neither the brothers or Crona had realized that Haruhi was a girl yet) reassuring nature-, and Crona only occasionally sat with the other Hosts.

Anyway, the latest thing to get everyone abuzz was the fact that Alphonse Elric never took off the strange armor he was wearing. Everyone had secretly wondered why he always wore it, but the topic was formally brought up when Crona, Ed, and Al got their school uniforms and Al had refused to wear his.

"Hey, quit bugging my brother, will you?" Ed barked, returning to the room from helping Crona get a new uniform- the previous one had been too short for Crona's lean physique. Crona drifted into the room after Ed, self-consciously tugging on the sleeves of his sky-blue jacket.

"Brother! I'm glad you're back!" Al exclaimed, relieved. He managed to get away from the wall while the Hosts were temporarily distracted. When they realized he had escaped, the twins clucked their tongues and threw up their hands.

"Well, if he won't take it off willingly . . .," Hikaru said, grinning devilishly and linking arms with his brother.

". . . we'll just have to find some other way to see what's inside that armor," Kaoru finished, grinning as well. They laughed and walked off towards the closet that housed the cleaning supplies and Al stared after them, looking frightened.

"Oh, don't let them bother you," Tamaki said, patting Al on the shoulder. "They just like to get people riled up for no reason. Hey, don't stick your tongues out at me!" Tamaki exclaimed when the twins made a face at him. Tamaki whipped around to Kyoya. "Mother, our children our being rebellious!"

"What?" Ed exclaimed, not having a clue as to what Tamaki was yelling about. Crona also seemed to be giving Tamaki an odd stare, and he took a slight step away from the Host King. Said blonde immediately looked heartbroken and rushed over to crouch in a corner.

"Wah, and now even Crona's getting scared of me!" he cried. Crona looked startled. He started to take a step towards Tamaki but then he paused, not quite sure what to do.

"Just leave him," Haruhi said, coming up behind Crona and startling him. "He does this a lot. Give him a few minutes and he'll be perfectly fine."

"Oh, okay . . .," Crona muttered, averting his gaze to the floor. Haruhi cautiously put a hand on his shoulder and Crona flinched, but amazingly didn't try to push her away. Haruhi smiled slightly, glad that Crona was getting at least a little better at being with other people.

All of a sudden, there was a clanging sound, like hollow metal striking something, and everyone turned in the direction of Alphonse.

""Oops, sor- OH MY GOD!"" the twins screamed, and the rest of the Hosts took up a similar cry as well when they saw that Al's armor head had been knocked off, but there was nothing inside. Then, there was chaos. The twins, who had "accidentally" knocked off Al's head with a broom as they were cleaning, threw the brooms at him and ran to the other side of the room, where they huddled together, staring at the blackness inside the armor. Honey hid behind Mori, who quickly picked up his cousin and rushed over to the wall where the twins were. Kyoya and Haruhi just stood there with their mouths open, and Tamaki and Ed frantically tried to put Al's head back on, which was currently rolling towards the other side of the room.

Crona finally realized why Al's soul wavelength was so strong; it was because the boy was nothing but a soul. Amidst all of the chaos, Crona was able to get a faint glimpse of the glowing orb floating around inside the center of the armor. However, he noticed that the little wispy tail end of the soul seemed to be attached to a blood-red mark on the back of Al's armor. He frowned and made a mental note to possibly try and ask Medusa about it later.

After a few minutes, Ed and Tamaki were successfully able to reattach Al's head. Tamaki attempted to get everyone's attention, but they were too worked up to listen to him. After a few unsuccessful tries, Ed had had enough. He tapped his brother on the arm and Al helped lift Ed onto his shoulders.

"SHUT UP!" Ed yelled, and then there was complete silence. "Thank you. Now, I know-"

"See, I warned you, Tamaki!" Kyoya exclaimed, cutting Ed off and pulling Tamaki away from the brothers. "Didn't I tell you that those two were bad news? And now look- one of them has no body! I knew 'alchemy' was just a codeword for some type of dark magic thing!"

"Yeah, Tama-chan, we warned you!" Honey piped up from atop Mori's shoulders.

"Hey, don't cut me off when I'm talking!" Ed yelled, and the clamor that had begun to start immediately ceased. "Listen, I know this looks bad, but it's really not! Okay, well, actually, it is a little bad, seeing as how Al has no body and all . . . but that doesn't mean he's dangerous! We've been hanging out with you guys for what, a whole week? And had Al ever laid a hand on anyone? No! He's perfectly harmless!"

"But . . ."

". . . he has no body!" the twins exclaimed, and the clamor started up again.

"Everyone, please!" Tamaki said, and the noise once again petered down. "These two have been staying at my mansion for the past week, and I know that Alphonse wouldn't hurt a fly! There is a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why Alphonse is like this, which I'm sure the brothers would have no problem explaining to you, seeing as how we ended up in this situation-"

"But Tamaki, you don't understand," Haruhi said. "Al has no body! How is he alive and walking around? There's nothing inside!"

"His soul is in there!" Ed said, gesturing to his brother. "That's how he's still alive!"

"But how is that possible?" Kyoya asked.

"His soul is attached to the armor," Crona said quietly. He gulped and looked at the ground when everyone turned their gazes on him. "I-I mean, couldn't you see it? It was connected to that red mark on the back of where his neck is supposed to be." Everyone just stared at him, and Ed frowned in confusion.

"Al, do you mind?" Ed asked, grasping the strings that came out of the top of Al's armored head.

"No, go ahead," Al sighed.

"Sorry about this," Ed said apologetically, tugging Al's head off. Everyone stared into the armor, but all they could see was darkness. They noticed the blood seal that Ed had drawn all those years ago, but they couldn't see the supposed soul that Crona had claimed was attached to it.

"What do you mean his soul is attached to the armor?" Kyoya asked. "I can't see anything."

"Can't you?" Crona questioned, frowning slightly. "It's right there- that glowing orb in the middle, that's his soul . . . oh no . . ."

Suddenly, Crona realized that he was the only person who was able to actually see Alphonse's soul. Medusa had mentioned that he was the only one who could see the glowing orbs, but he had completely forgotten.

"Wait- you mean you can actually see Al's soul?" Ed exclaimed, staring at Crona with complete fascination.

"Uh, um . . ." Crona started to back up towards the door, knowing that Ed was going to suddenly realize his plan, and then everything would be ruined.

"That's amazing!"

"Huh?" Crona paused, his eyes wide with confusion and terror. Ed was smiling at him like Crona was the most wonderful person on the planet. "W-what?"

"Wow, what a lucky break!" Ragnarok said suddenly in the back of Crona's mind. "That stupid kid actually seems impressed by you! We can definitely use this to our advantage!"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so . . .," Crona agreed meekly. Ed hopped off of his brother's shoulders and started to walk over to Crona.

"So how do you do it? What does a soul look like?" he asked.

"Wait, wait- hold on!" Kyoya exclaimed. "You still haven't explained how an empty suit of armor is able to walk and talk on its own!" He gestured to Al, who was currently fitting his head back into place.

"Oh, right . . .," Ed said. And with that he launched into the story he had told Tamaki a week ago, about how he and Al had tried to bring their mother back from the dead but only ended up mangling themselves in the process. As he explained, the Hosts gradually got a little less uneasy, and when Ed had finished and everyone had had a chance to absorb all of the information, almost all of them took pity on the brothers, much as Tamaki had done, though Kyoya was still suspicious.

After the Hosts had gotten over the explanation of Alphonse and agreed not to tell anyone about the brothers' story, Ed and Al turned their attention to Crona, wondering how he could see souls and what they looked like. Crona said that he would explain later and excused himself from the room, claiming that he had something going on that evening and he was going to be late if he didn't leave now.

He made it outside and breathed a huge sigh of relief, joyful that his plan hadn't been revealed and that it seemed that Ed and Al were much more inclined to try and become friends with him. He started off towards the house he was staying at, wondering what Medusa would order him to do next . . .

Meanwhile . . .

Medusa turned on the computer and typed "Suoh, Tamaki," into the school record search engine. She had already examined the files of everyone in this so-called "Host Club" that Crona had been hanging out in after school, but it never hurt to check them out again in case there was a small detail that she had missed that could indicate that one of the members was the pure soul. She hadn't admitted it to Crona, but even Medusa herself had no real notion of how to find the pure soul; the only lead she had was that the person owning the soul went to Ouran Academy, and even that clue had been told to her by someone else.

After reading Tamaki's file, Medusa sighed and was about to type in "Hitachiin," when there was a loud knock on the office door. Medusa frowned, wondering who would want to bother her this late in the evening; she knew that most of the staff had gone home already.

"Come in!" the witch commanded, closing the window on the computer screen. She looked towards the doorway and let out a little gasp when a woman wearing a long, low-cut green dress entered the room.

"Lust!" Medusa exclaimed, standing up, and the woman smiled. She brushed her long, black hair out of her face and walked over to Medusa, stopping in front of her desk.

"It's been a while," Lust said as a greeting. She surveyed Medusa's current form- as Chairman Suoh-, and raised an eyebrow. "You seem to have changed."

Medusa chuckled.

"Yes, well, this isn't the most ideal form I'd have chosen, but it gets the job done," the witch said. She cocked her head to one side questioningly. "You're here earlier than I expected." Lust nodded and walked over to the window, staring down at the entrance to the school.

"I thought you might need some help," she explained. "I realized that I hadn't given you much to go on besides the name of the school the soul resided in, so I thought if I came sooner we could figure out how to find it faster. Besides, I have a feeling that those Elric brothers might need a nudge in the right direction as well."

"Thank you, I'm sure you're help will be very useful," Medusa said. "I've sent Crona, my son, to become friends with the Elrics, with the hope that he can help edge them along to creating a philosopher's stone."

"Is this the boy you were telling me about that you used to create the Demon Sword with?" Lust asked, and Medusa nodded, grinning almost devilishly. Lust stared down at the school gates and then she noticed someone leaving the school building. "Oh, is that your boy down there now?"

Medusa went over to the window and looked where Lust had indicated. Sure enough, she saw Crona hurrying out of the gates, his pink hair illuminated by the setting sun.

"Yes, he's scurrying around as usual," Medusa commented. She crossed her arms in front of her and turned to Lust. "So, how did you get the Elrics here so quickly? I thought it would take at least a week, at minimum."

"Oh, I just planted an obvious clue right in their path and they jumped at the chance to follow it." The corner of Lust's mouth turned up in a smirk. "They know about the pure soul and how it can be used to create the philosopher's stone, but they think they can find a way to make the stone without actually killing anybody. Ha! Idiots!"

"Excellent," Medusa grinned. "Then they'll definitely try and find out how to create the stone as soon as possible. I'll get Crona to help them along; any hints or clues you want to give to the Elrics, I'll send through Crona."

"Good. Our plan is going right as scheduled." Lust turned back to the window and glanced at Medusa out of the corner of her eye. "And . . . our deal is still standing, correct?"

"Of course," Medusa said. "Don't worry; I haven't forgotten."

"Good."

Lust started to chuckle darkly, and Medusa soon joined in as well. They then started to discuss the next step in their plan, their laughter still echoing around the room.

A/N: Woot, we're now past Chapter 6! Just so you all know, this story is looking like it's going to be at least 10 chapters long, so don't worry about it ending anytime soon! Once I get a little closer to finishing it, I'll start putting the chapters up weekly, but for now you'll have to stick with a two-week update schedule! Sorry! ^.^