Spotlight hits Ruroni Angel she is wearing a beautiful green kimono that accents her eyes Hello everyone, it's that time again. Chapter 23 is up. Alright this is going to get a little confusing, the next three chapters are going to be in Letter form, so where not going to specifically hear the next few months from Dalka's view point. Sure we'll hear from Dalka, put will hear from her through others. someone whispers at Ruroni from just outside the spot light Well if you have a problem with it get out here, and stop hiding in the shadows. more whispers I don't care! You're not just some other editor. You're MY Editor. harsh whispering Fine then you don't have to introduce yourself.

Ruroni takes deep breath Alright everyone! I want to take this time to introduce my NEW editor! Mak-Kun!! Drags a slightly shorter then her Jr high guy on stage So from now on I'll be forwarding all grammatical complaints to him. Smiles evilly

Ruroni-san... Mak-kun whines why did you have to do that? You could have just said you had a new editor...

Oh... What fun would that be? puts Mak-kun in a headlock and starts to give him a nuggy I wanted the world-

Ruroni-san please stop Mak-kun

to know that- Ruroni

Ruroni-san stop Mak-kun

I had a new Genious editor Ruroni

Mak-kun flips Ruroni STOP NUGGYING ME

You... Ruroni laying on her back looking up at him You... Flipped me... You fought back... Wait a minute, sits up Editors aren't suppose to be able to fight back! How the Hell'd you know to do that?

Mak-kun flexes I've taken Aikido and Tae Kwon Do...

Ruroni Stands Yeah well, so have I and I'm a red belt!!! Charges Mak-kun

Mak-kun drops a paper out of his back pocket as he runs away. Camra zooms in, Paper reads Ruroni-chan and Mak-kun would like to express this sentament if they weren't trying to kill each other right now, PLEASE READ, REVIEW, AND ENJOY. P.S. Ruroni-chan does not own FMA or any anyother characters, except for the ones she makes up, and Dalka.

Riza Hawkeye sat at her desk in Colonel Mustang's office. She was going through the mail that got delivered to the office. Quickly she put each set of letters in a pile then dropped them off on the respected subordinate's desk, and then returned to her own to sort through her mail personally. She put her bills off to one side, better to open those privately. Junk mail went straight to the trash can next to her, unopened. That left only two pieces of mail. One was her monthly Gun specialist's magazine, the other a hand written letter.

Riza looked surprised at the letter she'd received. It was from Dalka Hesperus. She'd heard from her grandfather that the young female alchemist had been in contact with him and several other friends, such as Winry Rockbell, the Elric brothers, and even the Hughes's family. But she hadn't heard from Dalka in two months, why would the teenager send Riza a letter?

Well, she thought, only one way to find out. She pulled out a letter opener and smoothly opened it. She placed the letter opener back in her desk and glanced towards the colonel's office, she'd check to make sure he was doing his job before she read the teenager's letter. What ever the young alchemist had written could wait two minutes while Hawkeye used her gun to 'persuade' Mustang to finish signing a set of papers. After several gunshots rang out through the office, and the others in there exchanged nervous glances before hurry to finish their work, Riza returned to her desk, the picture of composer. She pulled the letter out of its envelope, and leaned back to read.

Lt. Hawkeye-

I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you, but I wanted the advice of someone I couldn't hear laugh at me. I'd ask my 'brother' or one of the women I'm sharing a tent with but… Well I'm afraid my 'brother' will think I'm a scared little kid, Lam isn't exactly the best or kindest of listeners and Ami is a busy most of the time. I don't want to worry Winry or the brothers by sending them this letter. You however have gone through war, you're rarely surprised, you're a female soldier, and you probably won't laugh at me.

Don't get me wrong my 'brother' is a great guy, tall, protecting, but also harsh when needed, and ready to let me make mistakes and learn from them, but I don't want him to know about this. I've finally come around to having him follow me almost everywhere, and he's finally come around to me asking stupid questions…but this isn't a stupid question…it's like being torn in two. Let me get on with it.

My trainer, I suppose you could call him, says I've finished my basic training. And yesterday Captain Sou told me he got orders to start… using me. I think that means I'm going to start fighting. That thought scares me more than hell it's self. And it's not the thought of fighting; it's the thought of killing. My grandfather spent several pages of his journal describing his first kill, and the feeling of having to cut someone down, or watch them fall knowing it was my bullet that killed him…I'm terrified. I have trouble going to sleep at night, with the sounds of guns firing.

I don't know if I could kill someone when it comes down to it…

I'm sorry I shouldn't have started this out so sadly. You should meet my trainer, Sergeant Major Jacob Douglas, is a great fan of yours. He has an album of your major kills and awards. Just kidding. He does say, however, that your one of the best snipers to ever come out of the woodwork. He wants to get a picture of you holding your 'famous rifle'. He's a nice guy when he's not yelling at me to pick up my knees, but some how I expected that. He always has on a funny shirt that he wears to tease his enemies, last week it was a shirt that read "Let's see if your aim is better then your looks" and then it had a big target over his chest. He's got three earrings, and a tattoo on his left arm of that creature on the flag. The tattoo reads 'Military Ace,' but sometimes I think it should read 'Military Brat.'

My bunkmates are Lamya 'Lam' Jones, and Ami Killroy. Both of them are great people and competent sergeants. Personally I think they will rise pretty quickly if they don't quit the military. Lam's a real fighter and has the body of one. She has a no nonsense rule when it comes to her guns, but she taught me more about the hand gun then Jacob could. Now I have my own and she's teaching me how to properly clean and take it apart. Ami's a little different. She has an attitude more like Mustang's if he were a girl… Sorry just started laughing as I pictured that in my head. Ami's basically a flirt, but she does have some morals, unlike your Colonel. She can fight like a wildcat; I've seen her go out on recon, and come back looking like she took out an entire battalion. In the practice field she can even beat the crap out of my 'brother'. She despises it when people bad mouth someone they don't even know, and while she seems to go through a boyfriend a month out here, I think she actually likes one of the other soldiers who's attached him self to me.

I think his name is Byan, he's only a corporal, but he's a good guy. Average fighter, okay face, not my A class material but nice. He like photography, so far he's become obsessed with getting a picture of me doing my signature alchemy as he calls it. Actually everyone is. They've all seen me do normal alchemy, but they want to see why I was named the Angel Alchemist. I've decided to leave that a mystery until I either need my wings or I'm ordered to use them, and I haven't found a need to use any of my other special abilities.

My 'brother' Lt. Genz Bresslau, is one of the best out here. Sometimes after a long day of me running around the practice field he shows a real soft side, and carries me around on his shoulder. (Riza smiled trying to picture Dalka sitting on someone's shoulder.) He's almost twice my size and is the only person in camp that has his own tent. He makes Alphonse look like a child's play thing. Now that my basic training is over I've managed to talk Genz into fighting with me, I haven't won any matches but it's only a matter of time.

I'd love to keep talking to you about the people here but mail call is coming around so I'll end by saying thanks. Thanks for if not replying to me at least for reading this, because I know you'd never just throw a letter like this away.

Thanks again,

The Angel Alchemist,

Dalka Hesperus

The letter was a total of two and a half pages long with a long doodle on the last page that filled up the empty space and looked like a tattoo Riza had once seen of a dragon. The second half of the letter had been comforting, Dalka seemed to be fitting in, and making friends, or comrades, but the first part of the letter worried her. Dalka wasn't sleeping well, and Riza knew how important sleep was to a soldier. The girl was only just sixteen, and already gone diving head first into a war. Though she'd put up a strong face, in the letter, Riza had almost heard her crumbling away. Some sort of a maternal instinct had kicked in while she'd been reading that letter, and Riza wanted to take the next train out to make sure the fellow female soldier was holding up alright. The letter had been dated about a week and a half ago; things could have taken a drastic change. But the calm Soldier in Riza suggested otherwise.

Dalka didn't want to be babied. The fact that she'd written a letter to Riza, who was far away in East city, was testament to that. Dalka did want advice but not a concerned comrade coming down from somewhere to check on her. Riza sighed, the only worth while thing she could think of to do would be to write a letter to the teenage superior. She looked around the office, everyone appeared to be working. She stood and went to check again. This time all she had to do was turn the safety off and the colonel went back to work. She checked her own work pile, quickly finishing it and then pulled out a paper from her stationary.

Riza could be seen for the next hour working single mildly on a letter, though her comrades thought she was doing paper work. When it was finished she placed it in an envelope writing the address to Sou's company on it, and depositing it in the out going mail before she went once more to check on Mustang another time, and to take away his finished work.

"I noticed you working on something private, Hawkeye," Roy said before Riza could take away the papers.

Riza nodded, "Major Hesperus, wrote me asking how I dealt with my time at war. I didn't have any work at the time so I thought it was appropriate to write a reply to her, Sir."

Roy leaned back in his chair, "How is the newest female alchemist?"

"I suppose she's doing as well as any teenager could when faced with her responsibilities, Sir" Riza smoothly answered.

Roy raised an eyebrow, "You think it was wrong to force her into this, as well?"

"Sir," Riza started choosing her words carefully, "Many people have said it was wrong for you to turn Ed into an alchemist when he was only twelve, I'm sure they would also say it was wrong for you to force a sixteen year old girl into the military as well."

"Yes but what do you think," Roy cornered her into the question.

"I think you'll do right by both of them, Sir" Riza avoided a direct answer skillfully. "Now please get back to work, I don't want to waste too many bullets today."

Ruroni is currently sitting on her new editor Well I hope everyone liked this chapter.If you as worried about Dalka as Riza is, make sure your here this time next week. Please Review I love to hear from you guys, yes that includes those of you who are girls.

Mak-kun is turning colors, Ruroni continues to smile at the camera I'd like to thank my new Editor, Mak-kun for joining me out here and letting me introduce him. Ruroni Notices that Mak-kun has turned blue OH MY GOD!! MAK-KUN!!! Startes shaking him BREATH!!! MAN, BREATH!!! Am I going to have to give you the heimlick? Because if I do, I can ask my friend to do it. looks at a really girly guy

Mak-kun sits up I live!!! I don't need that guy to kiss me!!! Mak-kun puts up his hands between Himself and the She-male, turns to Ruroni You have really weird friends...

Ruroni smiles I know. Aren't they wonderful?

REMEMBER REVIEW!!!