Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto, Shingeki no Kyojin, nor Fullmetal Alchemist.
"I've got my eye on you."
Edward chuckled. "So you told me already. Still planning on drowning me?"
Mikasa said nothing. She stood in front of Eren, glaring with a hardened expression. Eren spoke up. "Leave 'em alone, Mikasa!"
Edward stuck the shovel in the dirt and leaned on the handle. He surveyed Mrs. Yeager's garden situated in back of the Yeager household. He marveled at how one person could plant so much without any modern farm equipment, not to mention any alchemy. From collar greens to mustards, tomatoes, string beans, lima beans, corn, okra, and at least a dozen other vegetables.
He was very grateful for what Eren and Mikasa's family had done for him. He had no doubt that he would have died if Mikasa hadn't pulled him out of the river that day. And what's more if Eren's father hadn't been a doctor he would've died despite the girl's efforts.
While her husband had been away for the past few days, off making house calls he supposed, Mrs. Yeager had taken a trip to the market that morning. Ed had promised her he'd weed the garden and pick her okra before they hardened, in part because he wanted to repay her family and in part because he wanted a chance spend sometime with Eren, Armin, and Mikasa.
Ed finished weeding. He bent down and picked an okra bud off of a bush. His mouth watered. It had been so long that he'd had fried okra. The plant could be found nowhere in his adopted world. Edward started to fill a bag. Okra grew quickly once it sprouted. One needed to harvest okra plants every other day until all gone in order to continue producing.
Eren fidgeted nervously. "Teach us how you did that."
Edward paused. Setting his bag on the ground. He thought a bit before responding. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have scared you like. I don't guess you've ever seen anyone do that before, huh?"
They all shook their heads. Mikasa spoke up again interrupting Eren and Armin, who were both squirming to say something. "You called it alchemy. What is that? What exactly did you do?"
Eren and Armin nodded furiously. Edward sighed. He took out another bag and began filling it. He gathered all the ripe okra and filled the bag to the brim. After a long while of listening to the silence of the children squirming, he said, "One is all and all is one."
The children jaws dropped and then their faces wrinkled up in frowns. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Eren said.
Edward chuckled. "It's the first lesson my sensei learned me when she taught me alchemy." Ed sat down in seiza position and motioned for the children to sit as well. They complied, lazily flopping on the ground in various positions. "Alchemy is the ancient scientific discipline of manipulating matter by way of natural energies. And fundamental alchemical truth is the foundation of everything that exists."
The children sat doe eyed, riveted and staying absolutely silent. Edward paused suddenly before his next words. He glanced quickly at a pocket watch he produced from somewhere. He made a quick decision. He stood up motioning for the children to follow. "You won't understand it with just words. Let me show you instead. Come with me."
After placing the vegetables inside for their mother, Edward led the children across the river to the outskirts of town. He had a meeting he'd sat up the day before to buy some property. They had to travel for quite some time before they arrived. The area had been decimated in a fire a few years back. This was the only building for blocks that was still relatively sound. And that wasn't saying much. Due to the King's tax burden the section had never been rebuilt. No one had the money for it.
A man was waiting for them.
Eren looked him over. He was a squat portly fellow with an unkempt beard. He stank of whiskey and cigars. "I've been waiting here all day! So you gonna buy the place or what?!"
Mikasa snorted. She wondered why Edward would ever do business with such a character. For that matter, why would Edward want to buy property in an abandoned part of town? There wasn't another habitable building for a radius of several blocks.
Edward gave the three story brownstone the once over. It was a tad bit scorched. But the fire hadn't damaged the structure... much. It didn't matter for someone like him anyway. "I'll take it."
Ed reached in his pocket and handed the man several gold pieces, all bearing the king's visage. The man's eyes widened and his hands started shaking. He'd only asked for several silver rounds. "Is this some kind of trick." He said. He was shaking so badly he dropped the coins. He scrambled to pick them up.
"I assure you this is no trick. This is exactly what I need. Thank you."
The man retrieved the coins and bit into one of them. Impossibly, his eyes widened even more. "But what are you going to do with this dump that you're willing to pay this much?!"
Moving faster than either of the others could follow Edward seized the man by his throat, slamming him up against the wall. The children were startled by the sudden violence. Edward leaned close as if to whisper his next words. "None of your damned business."
Edward began to squeeze the man's neck. After struggling wildly for a bit the man's movements became sluggish. The children didn't know what to do; they grew sure they were about to see someone die. Edward waved his other hand to them to be quiet. For some reason they obeyed.
When the man became certain in his fading consciousness that he was in his last moments, Edward relaxed his grip so he could breathe again. As the man gasped for air, Ed inhaled, kneaded some chakra in his gut, and exhaled a pleasantly fragrant perfume in the man's face. The man inhaled and broke out into a fit of sneezing. When he finally stopped he quieted as if in a trance. Edward whispered in his ear. "You don't know me and never sold me anything. This building was destroyed in the fire all those years ago. You have no more business here. Take your money and never return."
In a daze the man nodded. He looked around shaking his head as if he no longer knew who he was let alone where he was. He didn't even seem to see the other people standing there. He looked down and saw the coins at his feet. He scooped them up and ran off as if he could not believe his good fortune.
Eren was the first to speak up. "What the hell did you do to that guy?!" The others clamored in unison echoing his sentiment.
Ed ignored them. He activated his doryoku and scanned the area. There was not another soul around for blocks. He nodded in satisfaction; he wanted privacy. He slammed his palm on the brick. In a flash of light, a seal was burned into the masonry. It would keep anyone outside from entering without his permission or seeing what went on within.
Ed turned towards them. Still scared they took a step back. Ed frowned at that. "Sorry again. I had to break his will in order for my illusion to work. At the moment he becomes certain he's about to die, he is defeated and surrenders. I let him go and he realizes he'll live. In the split seconds between defeat, desperation, relief, and gratefulness he's highly suggestible and therefore quite vulnerable to my genjutsu. He won't even remember what happened."
Ed walked into the burned out building and surveyed the surroundings with glowing red eyes. He grunted in satisfaction. With his normal blue irises, he turned to the children, who were more at ease but still somewhat skittish. Giving them the once over till he was certain they wouldn't freak out, he raised his hands and closed his eyes.
"You asked me 'what is alchemy?'."
He felt the ethereal energy flowing all around them and even through them, as well as the building itself. His chakra still hadn't returned to its normal capacity. However, it had rebuilt to a high enough level for his intended purpose. Alchemy didn't require so strong a grip on the ambient energy as Senjutsu. It would suffice.
He reached out with his chakra, grasping at the unseen energy. His palms clapped together. He dropped into a crouch and slammed his hands upon the ground. And suddenly sparkling red electricity danced around him. Hot gusts howled in the enclosed space, blowing their hair and clothing about, like gale force winds. The floor, the walls, the ceiling, and every portion of the building itself writhed, like a living thing. Archways melted into barriers. Doors sprang open in the middle of walls. Sections of the floor rose and assumed a myriad of shapes. The roof yawned high and wide.
Despite themselves, the children huddled close to Edward Elric. Like the eye of the hurricane, he remained an island of stability in a maelstrom of happening.
After a moment the raging creature, who's belly they happened to inhabit, groaned, shuddered, and instantly converted from a living being into a still, quiet building again. The surfaces shone in unblemished pristine condition, as if untouched in the past fire and especially the fluid pandemonium of just moments before. They stood in an atrium with a giant sparkling chandelier hanging from an arched roof of smoke stained glass and a double spiral crystal staircase, trimmed in gold, stretching high up to a balcony. Gaudy stone gargoyles guarded the now extravagant entrance way that they'd come through. Ornaments and paintings adorned the walls all about them. Armin counted dozens of doors and hallways leading to who knew where.
Ed spoke. "This is alchemy."
The children trembled. Their breath came in quick gasps. However, their breathy quivering was tinged with excitement now, more than fear.
He gazed upon their faces, waiting patiently until certain he held their attention. "Before I tell you any more. I want to know... what a titan is."
The kids glanced at each other, struck speechless. They could not believe what they heard. This time Armin spoke up. "Buutt... how the hell don't you know what a titan is!?"
"Humor me." Edward said.
Armin pulled out a children's history book that he and Eren had been reading earlier that day. It told the story of the fall of humanity. Ed took the book and flipped through a few pages. He read for a few moments. He whispered a single word that the children struggled to hear.
Suddenly he slammed the book shut and said, "I need to study this. It's about time you were headed home. Come back here tomorrow around this time and I'll tell you everything you want to know."
Eren ushered the children out of the doorway between the leering gargoyles, despite the massive protest that ensued. As the doors slammed shut behind them, they looked back and saw what was apparently the same old burnt out brownstone staring back at them.
The children had crossed the river after about an hour's travel, arguing, swearing, and fussing all the way. However, the general tone of their conversation remained one of awe.
"Can you believe it?" Eren said. "It's like magic! Real magic!" He let the word roll off the tip of his tongue in a loud whisper, "Alchemy."
Swiftly, he swung around to face the others. "Do you know what this means?"
Armin nodded. Mikasa stared intently.
Eren shouted, unable to contain his exuberance, "We can fight! If we can learn... if we can know how to do what he does... we can fight!" Eren said this with a twisted grimace on his face. Stressing his last words and scowling from a visage of savage glee.
Suddenly his face assumed a far away expression. Switching gears, he nearly pounced on Mikasa. Foolishly, he ignored her fist poised as if she'd thought she might have to strike him. "Mikasa! You have the best ears out of all of us! What was that word he said? I couldn't hear it, but I know you did!"
Before she could answer his question, the loudest sound they'd ever heard in their lives, sandwiched somewhere between a crash of lightning and a deafening explosion, shook the ground and the buildings around them.
"What the hell was that? An earthquake?" Eren shouted.
The children were stunned. They gazed about them curiously. Passers-by were pointing in awe and walking through the streets towards the great wall. Eren and the others fell in with them. He said, "Lets go take a look."
Suddenly Armin broke off down a side street. Eren called to him, but it was as if he were in a trance and didn't hear. Mikasa and Eren followed. The street led to an open area in the town square, where onlookers gathered, rumbling in confusion and pointing excitedly at the wall. The children's eyes followed their gaze and they gasped. A vast column of smoke rose from beyond the wall.
A loud thump and crunching sound came. The crowd gasped and screamed in obvious distress. At first the children didn't understand what they were gawking at, understandably so, as they'd never seen such a sight before. However, as they focused their eyes, they realized they were looking at an enormous skinless hand gripping the upper portion of the wall, which visibly cracked under what must have been incredible pressure.
"It can't be!" Armin exclaimed as the others gasped in horror. "That wall's like... fff... 50 meters tall!" Armin shouted.
Just then Mikasa whispered something. The others couldn't make out what she'd said. An ominous cloud descended over Eren's demeanor, as he asked, "What was that, Mikasa? What did you say?"
"One word. That's all I heard. " She stared at the other two. Their hearts collectively thumped in their chests; each child could hear his own pulse. Whoosh! Whoosh! "Ōnyūdō."
As her words settled in their ears an explosion, almost as loud as the first, shook the ground again. Fragments of stone hurtled through the air overhead only to crash into numerous buildings behind them. In that moment with only the barest conscious understanding, the children and much of the remainder of humanity reacquainted themselves with the dread of living with the shared humiliation of caged animals.
The hundred years of serenity behind Wall Maria had ended with a crash.
Author's notes: Okay. For starters, I'm sorry I haven't updated this in awhile. I had some health problems for about a month and afterwards I was too depressed to work on this. Now though everything is okay and hopefully I'll be able to keep up a regular update schedule. I'm not going to make any promises though. Hopefully, the chapter isn't too long for some people.
After I got back to work on this, I decided to go in a different direction than I'd originally intended when I started. I had intended to spend some time back in the Narutoverse, but I think it'll make things simpler if I confine that to flashbacks. I hope that the people who are reading this will enjoy it and keep reading. Please share any comments and reviews. They are quite welcome.