Disclaimer: FMA belongs to Arakawa Hiromu
Notes: Oh, Roy . . .
Thirty-five: Letter
"Problems? What sort of problems?"
The whole office listened curiously to the messenger Colonel Mustang had just addressed.
"Well," the fellow said, stepping forwards. "These forms you were ordered to fill out last week" – he turned the files in his arms about so that Mustang could see them – "have been completed, as requested, but . . . entirely incorrectly! And not even with the right sort of answers. Here, where the profile of the terrorist Scar asked for the man's ethnicity, you've written 'mid- to late-thirties', and in the age section, you've written 'white, and shaved around the sides', even though the suggested space isn't large enough to hold such an answer!"
A wince appeared on Mustang's face. "I may have left an answer out somewhere and have forgotten to leave a line . . ."
"And recently , when confronting Ishballan troops with General Hackett and his battalion, the General asked you to watch his back while among the enemies. I'm informed that you stared at his back the entire time – in fact, you quite unnerved some of the other soldiers."
"I was ill," protested the Colonel. "I requested the day off to recuperate and it was denied me – I can't speak to the frame of my mind that day!"
The messenger, a Colonel himself, looked disbelievingly upon Mustang. "That's all well and good, but you will have to be more careful in the future. It seems you have a bad case of following the letter but not the spirit of the orders you're given."