Chapter 88: Ishbal Amestris Xing

Victoria bit her lower lip while she frowned deeply at the wound on Laila's knee. "What the hell did you do to yourself this time?" she asked while she felt a headache coming. Even though Victoria was a little bit younger than the blonde, she sometimes felt like she was at least five years older than Laila who was most of the time unable to walk five metres without somehow hurting herself - according to the redhead at least.

"I tripped over Nick's ball," Laila said while she pressed her fingernails into her palms. "Make it stop!"

The redhead glared at her brother who was kicking around the football with Elicia and Cai before she returned her attention to her sister's wound. "What would you do without me, Laila?" she asked as she disinfected the injury. "Honestly, pay more attention to yourself! You have just one body!"

Laila winced in pain. "It burns!" she exclaimed. "Vicky, make it stop, please!"

"You know that Riza will kill me if she ever hears that I am using alchemy to close your wounds," the younger girl muttered as she looked around. The playground, however, was empty since most of the other students were still taking their mid-term exams. The red-haired girl carefully drew an array on the floor and concentrated. She had excelled her alchemy-classes with Jade and since Laila often hurt herself, she had a lot of experience by now. But it still amazed her to see how the wound closed itself.

The blonde exhaled before she hugged her saviour. "Thank you so much, Vicky," she said. "You are the best out of us! Why can you already transmute that well?"

Victoria pressed her lips together before she rolled up her sleeve and showed her flawless forearm to her sister. "You remember that I accidentally cut myself some weeks ago, right?" she asked. "Well, if I had let it heal on the normal way, I would have gotten a scar … and that would have been so, so dumb. I have nothing against the scars I got so far … but I didn't want a scar to remind me of my clumsiness when it comes to handicrafts. That would have been embarrassing for someone who won a race with hurt knees." She shrugged. "Well, so I decided to try it. If it would have failed, it would have been my own body, so it was only me who carried the risk."

Miles and Scar were eating their lunch than one of their fellow Ishbalans barged into their tent. "Brothers, an amestrian woman demands an audience with you! She brings a slightly injured brother and is severely injured herself! She is very tall and … unarmed from what I saw, so she is maybe an alchemist!" he exclaimed. "She didn't want to give a name … but she says that it is urgent…"

Miles frowned. "Describe her a little bit more," he said while he tapped impatient rhythms onto the rough surface of the table. "Did she look like a soldier … or like a civilian?"

"To tell the truth, from what I saw, I would have said that Ishbala sent us an angel," the messenger said as he looked down. "But from what I heard, she has to impersonate devil himself. She cursed a lot than we accidentally hit her shoulder than we tried to get out of her what she wants here … and she knocked out some of our guards with a simple punch."

"That would answer why she didn't have any weapons with her," Scar stated while he took a sip of his tea and grinned slightly. "And honestly, the warriors were knocked out by a woman without a weapon who also just came from Ishbala-knows-where and should be a little bit tired?"

The very moment, the entrance to the tent was ripped open and a woman with the face of an angel walked straight into the tent while she dragged one Ishbalan with her. She looked around in the tent before she folded her arms in front of her chest. "I believe that everyone here heard who became the first chancellor of Amestris two days ago," she said darkly while she started to pace around in the room. "And I am also sure that it was in your interest that the press didn't hear of the assassin who tried to kill Mustang, right?" she tapped her chin. "Well, be happy that Elric and I were there to keep that little friend from killing the new chancellor … because there would have been nothing left of Ishbal if the wrong people would have heard of the incident." She snorted. "I don't think I ever met such a bad assassin before," she added. "I really hope that no one trained this failure."

Scar pushed away his food tray and sighed. "Excuse me, Miss, but who are you?" he asked. "Who are you working for and why don't we have you in our files yet?"

She huffed. "The name shouldn't matter," she said, "and I work for no one. I just would gain nothing from another war, so I did my best to prevent it." She bit her lower lip. "Though I have to admit that it was Elric who knocked this guy out first after I took a slight blow towards my shoulder," she added.

The men saw the fact that her previously probably white bandage was getting redder and redder with every passing moment and somehow they assumed that the blow hadn't been as slight as she claimed.

Miles suddenly narrowed his red eyes. "Wait a second…" he said slowly. "I saw your face somewhere."

She hissed as her foot moved backwards to bring herself into a position to fight back easily. "So?"

Roy walked around in his new office while the rest of his cabinet stood in a neat row in front of his desk.
There was Jade who he had hired as Minister for Science (and that made her responsible for all the state alchemists. She had thrown a fit when she had realised this).
Next to her stood her younger brother, the new Attaché for Humanism in Economy who was very proud of his posh title.
Olivier had gotten what she had wanted: the post as Foreign Minister. (Drachma had already congratulated.)
Her husband was Minister of the Interior and very happy with the job so far.
Riza had become Minister for Families and Social Issues while a very grumpy and unhappy Jean had become Health Minister (and for this job [and to keep Rebecca as his fiancée], he had had to stop his smoking forever. He had been livid.)
Roy had been more than happy with his crew but he knew that there wouldn't be many state alchemists in the future for Jade's evil plan to raise the difficulty of the written examination. She had been one of the few who had been able to get every single question right (the last proof Roy and Phil had needed to be sure that she wasn't human) and she would demand the same level from everyone who would try to get a job.

"…I still don't get why I have to hand over the state alchemists to Jade," Olivier said once more.

Her dark-haired friend smirked widely. "Oh, I never noticed that you actually want to spend time with your little brother," she said innocently. "Furthermore: it wouldn't have been so great if the military would have kept the state alchemists when we want to be a peaceful country know." She winked. "And I will kill the next reporter who asks me if my relationship with Claudio has political reasons."

It was the most annoying rumour so far and Olivier had offered more than once to beat the next one up who would mention it – because she could it always blame on her pregnancy. Everyone felt with Jade who suffered more than she let on and those who really knew her saw the hurt expression in her eyes.

"Try to tell yourself that these guys aren't worth it, sis," Phil said caringly while he wrapped his arms around her and held her in a protecting embrace. "They are just jealous of you because you are a very sweet girl who scored herself a really decent boyfriend who is also influential."

He might not really approve of this relationship himself because Jade had always been able to attract the guys who were basically insane enough to make Nerissa in one of her little phases look perfectly normal. He still shuddered when he thought of the strange guy who had been obsessed with his sister when they had been younger. That guy had been very creepy – and violent when he had had realised that Jade would never belong to him. But when he had finally realised this, he had gone on a rampage in order to destroy the person who had been very close to Jade at this time: Phil Mustang, Jade's little brother. One day after school, Phil had been nearly killed by the stalker if Jade wouldn't have saved him. It had pained him so much to see his sister's tormented eyes and even though he hadn't been her greatest fan at the time, he had made a point out of staying on her side, no matter how much it hurt.

Claudio was, in many ways, a huge improvement to Jade's previous suitors who had been interested in nothing but her money and her pretty face – when she had been lucky, so Phil couldn't bring himself to hate the prince that much. He was just careful because he didn't want Jade to get hurt again.

"Very well," Riza said as she took her coat. "I need to get the kids from school. I see all of you later."

Jun Li's blue eyes were narrowed as she shook her head and took the kunai from Cai. "I know that you can to better," she said while she performed the smooth and agile movement she expected from him once more. "I know that you are probably bored because we keep repeating this movement for days … but I can see that you are still not ready for something more complicate. I expect the best from you."

The little prince dropped on his knees. "You are killing me," he whispered. "Why, Jun-Jun, why?"

She chuckled as she sat down in front of him. "I am making you work so hard because I don't want you to be killed by some assassin. I heard from your friend Laila that Miss Nerissa won't be back in town for weeks and when she comes back, I want you to be as good as her."

Cai exhaled deeply as he got back up. "You are a slave driver, Jun-Jun," he complained. "But – hey, no Yao ever turned down such a challenge. Miss Nerissa is surely talented … but I will be better than her one day." He grabbed the kunai she was handing him. "Here we go!" he exclaimed.

His uncle chuckled before he got up. "Hey, Junny," he said while he wrapped one arm around her waist. "I just got to realise that you didn't spare with me for a long time…"

She raised an eyebrow. "Bring it on," she said while she took some of her favourite weapons. "But you know that you never got me down in all the years we know each other."

He laughed. "Let's make a bet," he said while he stretched his hands. "Whoever wins is allowed to wish for something. You know the rules of our fights, right?"

She nodded shortly before she inhaled deeply. "Of course."

They were used to fighting each other for fun. He could nearly predict where she would move to and she suddenly realised that her sense that allowed her to feel his chi wasn't as strong as it used to be. Trice she had to avoid him last second and the fourth time, she tripped over his leg that was suddenly on her side and fell down. She glared up at him and pouted. "So, what do you want?" she asked.

He smirked widely.