Fullmetal Exorcist – Chapter 11 – All is One, One is All

Ed gave boosted himself from the ground to dodge a knife hurled to his feet. He then gave a clap with his hands and placed his hands on the floor of the training room, and an eruption of blue lightning ensued, and a great amount of wood from the floor warped into a big dome that encased his attacker.

"Hey! No fair!" the person inside complained. Ed then snickered.

"Well, Al," Ed clapped his hands again and allowed his younger brother to be set free. "You never win if you don't have a trick card in your sleeve."

"You break the rules all the time," Al walked to the end of the room and took a big gulp of water from his mug that Lenalee had happily offered him.

"I was meant to break them, and you know it." Ed rolled his eyes and looked about the training room. Out of all the training grounds he's even been, this one was quite impressive, with several obstacles, but enough elbow space to bust a move with alchemy.

Lavi was currently trying to wrap up his "reading homework" and was slumped against a wall, his nose in the book.

"Hey, Lavi," Ed called, and the redhead looked up. "You ever wondered why we can't say the beansprout's name around here?"

Lavi looked up at the ceiling to think and then he shook his head. "Nope. Not a clue. Maybe because he's part Noah that Leverrier doesn't want a show out of that. Otherwise, Lenalee, Yuu, and I will be very looked down upon for knowing the guy. That's my theory."

The doors opened again, and Kanda, Winry, and Lenalee entered, seeing the other three settled on one side of the room.

"You're up this early?" Lenalee tilted her head in confusion.

"Of course," Al smiled. "To balance out our work in Central, Brother trains at dawn to not stress himself when he signs paperwork and all that."

"What brings you guys here?" Lavi asked, most notably directing the question to Kanda.

"We were looking for you." Winry answered. "I was going to ask Ed about the automail upgrade."

Ed then turned blue. "W-wait… you mean… n-now…?"

"Of course, silly!" Winry then grabbed the boy's arm and dragged him from the group. "You want to break your arm again with outdated equipment or not?!"

"You never put in painkillers when it comes to this!!!"

"Stop whining and get moving!!!"

Lenalee giggled at Ed's dramatic exit, and Al and Lavi sweatdropped. Kanda, on the other hand was indifferent.

"Hey, Al," Lavi turned to the younger Elric brother, who turned to him.

"What?"

"Roy Mustang, the marshall inspector… does he ever train?"

"Yeah."

"What is his Innocence?"

"He can snap his fingers," Al explained. "And he can blow up almost anything. Sometimes my brother calls him a pyromaniac."

"Then what did he teach you?" Lenalee asked. Al then sweatdropped.

"We had two teachers…" he answered. "Well, the second one was my godmother… Izumi Curtis…"

Al began to tremble furiously, and Lavi raised an eyebrow.

"Whoa… calm down. What's gotten you so worked up? You're like the beansprout when he hears about his master…"

"Um… uh… Izumi was very… very strict… Master didn't help Brother either…."

Al's head was swimming with that long tale of how he and his brother became fully fledged Exorcists…

"HYEEEE?!!!??"

Izumi was unfazed by Ed's shocked cry.

"You have Alchemic Innocence, too?!!??"

"Yes, I did," Izumi frowned. "And I did the same mistake as you."

Ed and Al gasped. Currently, they were in London, at Izumi's flat. Roy was leaning on the archway to the living room, listening in.

"What do you mean?" Al asked.

"I tried to bring someone back to life," Izumi sighed. "Actually, two people. First my brother when he died in battle, and my son, who died before he ever entered this world."

Sig, who was busily making dinner in the kitchen by chopping carrots, was doing his work more slowly now. The room was completely silent for a moment, until Izumi clapped her hands.

"All right," Izumi smiled. "Let's get started on training, shall we?"

Al and Ed looked up at their new teacher in wonder at what she was going to do to them. Little did they know how hellish it could be…

"First, you're going to have to stay on this island for a month," Roy began, and the two boy's dropped their jaws.

"WHATT!!???"

"Well, you are," Izumi continued. "You two have to survive by yourselves here. One is all, All is one. Find the meaning of it while you're here. If you can't understand it, then you can't continue."

The two brothers face faulted.

"Wait!!" Ed shouted. "What about my automail?!"

"Well, find a way to maintain it!" Roy smiled. "Winry must have taught you something!"

The first days were not so great. The brothers couldn't come to bring themselves to kill even a rabbit at a moments notice when they caught one (after twenty tries), and they lost their prey. Fishing became more frustrating. Keeping meat away from the other animals that lived on the island was adding to the angst. But later, they realized the true meaning of life, and they progressed after that. How, you say? You just have to read the manga to find out.

"Well… don't you think this is overboard?" Roy sweatdropped. Izumi began to polish the knives she was working on. These were going to be Al's first weapons.

"Well, you remember when you, Sokaro, and I were placed in Siberia for training." Izumi frowned. "We had to survive by ourselves back there, remember?"

Roy turned a sickly green and then dismissed the thought before returned to normal colors. Sig raised an eyebrow as he continued to cut away at the meat he was planning to cook.

"Oh… right… that… I think Sokaro was the best out of all of us…" Roy commented.

"He was a madman, and still a madman," Sig sighs. "Whenever he wants to be…"

"Say…" Roy looked at the crackling fireplace. "You think we should return to the Order, give Sokaro a big welcome hug or something?"

"I'm not going back with those bastards," Izumi snorted. "Leverrier's way too much for me. If you really want to go back, you should try becoming an Inspector or something. And get the kids in, too, if you want."

They had completed their training, and they knelt down before their two teachers. The month was gone, and the two adults returned to the island.

"All is the world!" Al stated.

"And One is me!" Ed completed the explanation, and Roy and Izumi smiled.

"Well done, boys," Izumi smiled. "Come on, let's get back to London."

They all clambered into the boat and Sig began to row.

"How come there's two people to train us?" Al asked.

A year since then, he had been trained by Mustang, while Al was trained by Izumi. Of course, since they were brothers, they would obviously have time for joint lessons very frequently.

Since Roy was called in to be a new Head Inspector, he brought Ed along.

"Master, where do we go next?" Ed asked, swinging his suitcase as he walked along the corridors of the station. He was already missing Al already.

"We're part of the Black Order now," Roy turned to Ed. "We need to find a place to stay if we need to go to any missions. Besides, I'll be going to have some people who are going to work under me, Fullmetal."

"Like a king or something?"

"Not exactly," Roy looked up at the orange skies.

"Boss!!!" A familiar voice rang Ed's ears. The two turned to see several people waiting for them: a woman with blond hair pinned up; a man with sandy brown hair and a cigarette hanging from his mouth; a rather buffy man who seemed to have a strong ego; a man with white and gray with sunglasses; a man with square glasses; An orange haired man; and a man with dark brown hair. Ed recognized these people. They were the Finders that had visited him back at the days when he was still recuperating from torture.

"Sir!" Fury saluted, and Mustang smiled. "All preparations to the office are complete."

"Good," Roy smiled. Havoc then looked at Ed and then to Roy.

"Boss, who's the new kid?" He pointed out. Breda then nudged him in the shoulder.

"You don't remember?" Breda looked at him perplexedly. "That's Edward!"

"Oh my!" Armstrong looked at the blond teen. "Is that you, Edward Elric!?"

"One and only?" Ed shrugged, and the following welcoming display from Armstrong became far too much for him to handle.

"I actually get an office?" Ed asked. "At twelve years old?"

Roy sighed. "Yes, you do. Because I'm the Head Inspector for the London headquarters here, the only way I can fully monitor you is to give you a desk job. Don't worry, you'll be traveling quite often, so I doubt you'll need to reach your desk at all."

All of them were walking down the hallways of the newly built London headquarters, and Ed looked around. The surroundings were quite more futuristic than what he had seen from other buildings. Steel walls stretched on for many miles, and a big foyer resided up front, where a large flag of a silver cross hung before the archway to any other room.

Scar, who was holding Ed's suitcase, was walking beside him and his Master.

"Scar…" Ed said quietly. "You didn't need to carry my luggage."

"That's fine, Ed," Scar didn't look at Ed, only up ahead. "Your rank is much higher than mine, so it's a privilege to help you."

"T-Thanks… Scar…"

Ed swung his alchemically transformed staff and struck Roy's arm. The older man smiled, and snapped his fingers, causing a burst of flames to fly at Ed's face, who flipped backwards and spun his staff so quickly that the flames were canceled out. His arm began to ache, and he noticed his fingers had some burns on them.

"Well, seems that you might need extra work on the combat work," Roy smiled, and put his gloves away. Ed then thought this was a good chance to catch Roy by surprise, and he launched himself forward. However, Roy spun around and snapped his bare fingers quickly, and Ed was blown back by flames.

"What was that?" Ed asked his master, and Roy sighed.

"You honestly think that I would be that idiotic to keep my guard down.

"I thought your Innocence was an Equip Type!"

"It is," Roy smiled, showing the hands he had taken gloves off of, and the gloves were back on again. "You just didn't see my body movements."

Ed was puzzled by Roy's quick reactions. How exactly was he able to do it that quickly? Surely, the man had no gloves on when he snapped. Ed was sure of it! Never mind that. Al will go ballistic that Ed had injured himself again… for the hundredth time. He was going to meet him today to go to Surrey for some mission.

"There's about a hundred Level Three's around," Hughes explained. Roy nodded at every word and then he thought.

"If they're all concentrated at the point where the Innocence is, we'll need to lure them out."

"How do we do that, Master?" Al asked, and Roy then looked at Ed.

"What?"

Ed was panting ferociously, and he was backed against a wall. The five Level Three that managed to corner him were inching closer. He grit his teeth in frustration.

"Damn you, Master!" He clapped his hands and slammed them into the ground where a great many columns of sharp stalagmites shot from the ground piercing through the Akuma, and they exploded away.

"There's the little boy!" Another cry of an Akuma made Ed rush with adrenaline to jump over the tall wall and keep running. He had only a bit more distance to cover before he could finally get a rest.

"Eat this!!!" Ed clapped his hands again, and he transformed his blade into something even better.

"Brother… is something wrong?" Al asked the older Elric as they scanned their surroundings. Ed had come worn out from running all over town, and they landed themselves in a broken down restaurant.

"The Akuma must have done a number on this town," Ed analyzed the great amount of poisonous dust. "We'll need to find that Innocence fragment, immediately."

Al had no real position in Central just yet, since he was still with Izumi, but Roy had recommended him to be in the medical department.

"Good thing Roy is up there facing the Akuma…" Hughes sighed. "Otherwise, we wouldn't make it out…"

Al then looked to the two. "Would Master get out?"

"Of course he can," Hughes smiled. "Do you even know what Roy's synchronization rate is? He's a Marshall, so he's broken critical point. He should be able to dispose of those Level Three's very easily."

A loud explosion from a church tower crackled throughout the deserted streets. All three of them stared up as they saw someone jump from the burning spire and landing softly at the ground, making Al gasp in awe. That is impossible, to jump from such a height and landing so carefully. However, that person was ambushed by an Akuma, but a quick snap caused the Akuma to explode at the mercy of the Exorcist.

"Roy! Good to see you back!" Hughes waved his arms, and Roy frowned.

"Hughes, behind you!"

Ed didn't hesitate to clap his hands and form a blade on his automail arm and flipped backwards to flank a Akuma, shredding the demon to pieces. Roy then smiled as he approached the waiting three.

"Good job, Fullmetal, Alphonse, and Hughes," He nodded, and then Ed frowned.

"Next time," Ed growled. "Don't ever make me the bait again."

"Sorry, but you're such a short stack," Roy smiled. "With you as bait, Akuma have more exciting game."

"Shut up, Master, and don't call me short!!"

"Th-That's… really…" Lenalee sweatdropped. "Your Masters are very… strange…"

"Hey!"

The resting Exorcists spun around and saw someone with a big stack of unidentified objects. Actually, the objects were bucket loads of notes, and things to sign. Behind the large stack of paperwork was none other than Reever himself. The Australian Section Chief waved his free hand.

"Kanda!" he called. "You're needed in the Chief's office!"

Kanda snorted in annoyance and walked away. Way to keep the morning nice and calm.

Kanda stepped boldly into the Supervisor's office, noticing the others in the room. Roy Mustang, again, was overlooking the operations of the room, and the Exorcists, that would be accompanying him would be Krory and Chaoji. He sulked slightly, and Komui looked up from his papers.

"Oh! Kanda! You're here!"

Then a flurry of heavy panting came from behind the Japanese samurai.

"O-Ow…" Kanda turned around and saw a very weary Ed, clutching on a nearby pillar for support.

"Did Winry's operation tire you that badly?" Roy called out to his apprentice. Too tired to shout back, Ed merely gave a death glare before joining the three other Exorcists.

"Alright, then," Komui smiled genuinely. "Let's start with briefing, shall we?"

A/N: Ehehehe... that wasn't much, and it sounds very boring at this point. The next chapter should be better. It's going to be the Majahal arc, just with some tweaks to fit the plot. This time poor Ed might get some face abuse, and that means punching and slapping. Kanda's character is going off the wall, and he's so OCC now, once I look at it. well, blame Allen for disappearing and making kanda feel sad, like everyone else.