The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 5) Catching Up
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
When we were alone in the lab, Sloth asked, "How long was it for you?"
"You remember both timelines, right?" I confirmed. "I spent about a year and a half in the soul reapers' world after you died. Things went mostly like you remember, but without you there, our victories were less complete, and we suffered more losses getting there."
"Like what?" she asked hesitantly.
"Kaien Shiba never came back to life and provided us advanced warning about Aizen's forces. We weren't as prepared for them and ended up massively underestimating them. It wasn't until we met Nel that we were fully up to speed, and you know how late in the campaign that was.
"Without her bringing you back, it took us an embarrassingly long time before we learned how powerful and important Orihime's powers were, so a lot of the casualties stayed dead. Sorting out the zanpakto rebellion was a lot bloodier without you. And that's not getting into all the times having one extra fighter made a difference.
"One of the biggest ones was Senna. Without you there to bring Soken back, we didn't find out about the shadow realm. Senna ended up having to sacrifice herself to keep both worlds from being destroyed. She didn't survive, and the Valley of Screams never went on to become the seed for a proper afterlife in our home world."
"I'm surprised you didn't use your wish from Kyubey to put things back the way they're supposed to be," said Sloth.
I shook my head and took out a notebook. "I never gave up hope that I'd find a way to bring you back. I studied my memories of your Soul Gem in the pensive, developed artificial Grief Cubes, and focused a lot more on understanding how the hogyoku worked. My designs were incomplete, but I was close to a way to use what I'd learned to grant my own wishes."
"Why is there a dragon in these design notes?" asked Sloth as she flipped through the pages.
"I based the design and the aesthetics on a manga Ichigo loaned me," I said. "The important thing is Kyubey gave me the information I need to finish it."
"So, we're going to use this to fix what happened?" confirmed Sloth.
"I figure it's better than relying on Kyubey to fix things, no matter how many new leafs he's turned over."
"Before we get started, can I get my homunculus body back?" asked Sloth.
"Sure," I said. I made a gesture and a reigai, an artificial spirit body, appeared.
Sloth touched her bright red Soul Gem to the body and animated it. The body she had been using didn't collapse like I expected. It just disappeared.
"What was that?" I asked.
"You know how witches can create a body using grief energy?" asked Sloth. "When Madoka brought me back, she removed the limiter preventing me from using witch powers."
"Since you can use grief, that means you don't need Grief Cubes or someone with space time reversion to keep your Soul Gem clean, right?" I confirmed.
"That's right," said Sloth. "Unlimited power, just like we used to talk about."
"It'll go well with the Oin," I said, separating myself form the artifact's power and manifesting it back into a physical form in my hand.
"I thought you must be using that," said Sloth. "So, I guess I should brace myself. I remember how much taking human form for the first time as a homunculus hurts."
"Not this time," Is aid, taking out a glowing red crystal the size of my fist.
"A Philosopher's Stone?" gasped Sloth. "How do you have one of those?"
"No one died for it," I said quickly. "The Oin lets me control matter and energy in any way I can imagine. I know how the Stone's made, so I could use the Oin to manifest as many as I wanted. I have a dozen more."
I held out the Philosopher's Stone and a homunculus body appeared lying motionless on the sofa. Sloth lied down and merged with the empty body, and the equipment built into the reigai copied her memories and personality from her Soul Gem into her new homunculus self.
Standing up, Sloth shifted her Soul Gem to ring form and willed her default black dress to appear. A quick twirl confirmed her oroboros mark was right where it belong,ed over her shoulder blade. I looked down at the Philosopher's Stone in my hand, looked up at her, and smiled.
"What?" asked Sloth.
"Try using your Ultimate Escape," I said.
Reaching down to the couch, her hand passed through it. She turned to me and asked, "When did you learn to grant homunculi abilities?"
"It's the Stone," I said. "It's always been the Stone. Shao used one to create you and you got the Ultimate Escape. Dante and Hohenheim had Philosopher's Stones and the homunculi they made had the Ultimate Shield, the Ultimate Disguise, the Ultimate Eye, and the Ultimate Maw. Izumi created Wrath without a Philosopher's Stone and he didn't have any extra powers, just like the homunculi I made."
"What about Lust and the previous Sloth?" aside Sloth. "They weren't made by people with Philosopher's Stones, and they had powers."
"But Dante got her hands on them afterward and she had a Stone," I said. "By the time Wrath came along, her Stone was depleted, but she'd have been able to grant powers to the other two."
"What power did you give yourself?" asked Sloth.
"I didn't," I said. "I just figured this out when I was making your new body. Also, I'm not sure there's any reason it has to be limited to just one."
"Dante's homunculi only had one each," said Sloth.
"Dante was creating slaves," I noted. "She wouldn't want them to get too powerful or she couldn't control them. You want to give it a try?"
"Go for it," said Sloth, spreading her arms and puffing out her chest.
Burst after burst of light from the Philosopher's Stone enveloped Sloth. When they stopped, the first thing she checked was that she could still phase through matter with her Ultimate Escape. She again effortlessly passed her hand through the couch.
"Okay," I said. "You haven't eaten any red stones yet, so nothing you do will depend on them. Try the Ultimate Shield." Her body was coated in grey armor harder than diamond. Then she resumed human form. "Ultimate Spear," I said, holding up a coin. Sloth pointed at it and her finger extended out, punching through the center of the coin and retracted back. I flicked the coin to her and said, "Ultimate Maw." She bit the coin in half, chewed, and swallowed. "Ultimate Disguise." A line of blue light ran form the bottoms of her feet up to her head and she now looked like me, only shrunk down to her normal height.
"Looks like I still need red stones to add or remove mass," said Sloth, resuming her usual form. "Still pretty awesome. Couple of questions, though."
"Shoot," I said.
"Why Gluttony's Ultimate Maw?" she asked. "We don't need to eat, so what's the use of being able to eat anything?"
"I figured being able to gnaw through restraints and eat our way out of prison cells would come in handy," I said. "Besides, the main point of Gluttony's power was that he could turn the people he ate into red stones or a Philosopher's Stone without using alchemy. I knew neither of us is big on cannibalism, but having a way to recharge if we're ever stuck on a world without alchemy again seemed like a good idea."
"I guess I can live with that," said Sloth. "It's not like having powers means we have to use them. Second question: What about Pride's Ultimate Eye?"
"Honestly, I have no idea what it did or how it worked," I said. "All we have are a few accounts of it in action and we don't know anything about its mechanism or how it felt when he used it."
"I guess that's fair," said Sloth. "Are you gonna do you next?"
"I think so," I said. The Philosopher's Stone pulsed over me, endowing me with the same set of powers Sloth had just demonstrated. After testing my new powers, I tossed Sloth the Philosopher's Stone and said, "Eat up."
She ate the stone like an apple then said, "I haven't said I love you since coming back to life."
"It's been a busy couple hours," I said. "I love you too."
Author's comments:
The Philosopher's Stone was never an artifact our heroes could use freely. Recognizing the horrific cost associated with its creation, they always had to keep it in reserve rather than experiment with its powers. Now that it can be had without the price, a lot of options open up.