Hello, humans and other beings reading the words on the page! It's a chapter update-y thing! So, how are you doing? …Wait, I can't hear you…

So anyway the reference winner is SapphireClaw! A lot more people got it than I thought, but that was the first response. It was America from Hetalia. (My new favourite. Watch out, Hetalians… I'm coming for your fandom!)

This reference:

"It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends."

So, not much super-important plot-yness in this chapter, but I felt like writing a fight scene. And so here we go! (I actually meant to do this yesterday, but the website was doing something funky...)

Of Swordfights and Scary Teachers

Roy was at a meeting…trying not to fall asleep.

Tyrell was at a meeting…trying to avoid everyone's gaze.

Claudio was at a meeting…trying to observe the other representatives.

Edward was in his room…trying to worry and study at the same time.

After slogging through yet another useless book, he slammed it closed with a grunt and stood up.

Roy was in that room with Claudio, where the man could do whatever he liked to him and no-one would even be able to tell. Edward hoped that Tyrell would be able to look out for him.

He'd already gone through three quarters of all the books he'd checked out, and really only found out things he'd already known. On the bright side, there were a couple of hopeful leads hidden within the pages.

The journal Hawkeye had mentioned remained naught but a myth to him so far.

He decided to go exploring to take his mind off Roy. He made his way out of the room, ruffling out his black bangs the way the Colonel had shown him and begrudgingly flattening out his one pointy spike of hair. It stuck out on the side of his head now.

Throwing on his short coat, he wandered down the corridor. Strangely, Inuya was nowhere to be found.

Waiting for the meeting to end, probably, Edward thought.

He managed to find his way to the front of the palace, where he exited and wandered onto the streets of Ranri. Personally, he preferred investigating new places without having a clue where he was headed. Tour guides and maps were for people with no imagination.

"Wonder if there's a connecting line for here and Amestris…" he muttered to himself, heading into town. Supposing that since Amestris and Kambei were pretty close countries, they would probably have a phone line that connected the two. He set that as his first goal.

Asking around, he managed to find his way to some kind of military base a few blocks away from Kin Palace. It was a pretty simple building, but heavily fortified. Two guards stood outside.

They wore leather-plated suits with open-fronted helmets that reminded Edward somewhat of the back of Alphonse's metal head. He guessed these were military officials, but their uniforms looked highly decorative and almost inefficient.

"Uh, 'scuse me…?" he said, addressing the two.

"Can we help you, kid?" one of them responded, a man of about thirty with a scant, thin moustache.

"Yeah, I wanted to make a call to a military base in Amestris," Edward explained. "I was told you could do it here."

The other man, younger this time, laughed. "What are you saying? You think any random off the street can just come up and make calls to another country?"

"I'm not some random!" Edward protested indignantly. "I'm actually the Full…ame alchemist's son! I'm Edward Mustang. Son of Colonel Roy Mustang? He's here for the alliance meeting? Representing Amestris?"

The two guards exchanged glances. One said, "Sorry, kid. We'll need a little proof of that."

Edward patted his pockets down, but his watch was back in the bottom of his suitcase, wrapped in a sweater and that was the only thing he could think of. Twisting his lips to one side, he made a proposal.

"What if I beat you in a fight?" he said. "If I bring you down, would that be enough for you? I've had a little military training with my father."

The guards shot him pitying glances as if to say, 'You poor delusional child. We'll throttle you'.

The younger man stepped forward. "Alright."

"Go easy on him!" his partner called. "He's just a kid."

"Armed or unarmed?" Edward asked, giving his adversary the choice of which fashion he would like to have his butt kicked in.

"Bold," the man commented. "Armed… You got a blade?"

Edward grinned, tossing his jacket to the side. He rolled up his sleeves to reveal his metal arm. "Right here!"

People had gathered in the street some way around the pair by this stage, curious as to what exactly was going on and why one of their soldiers had taken up arms against a child.

Edward, eager to impress, clapped his hands and drew out the thick exterior of his auto-mail into a blade, blue alchemic reaction flashing about his shoulders and ruffling his hair.

The observing crowds ooh-ed and ahh-ed, pointing and murmuring at the strange foreign phenomena they were playing witness to. A boy with a metal arm that alchemy could turn to a blade!

The opposing soldier looked baffled for a second, but then seemed to accept that this was Edward's weapon of choice. "Alright. As our bushido instructs, we shall introduce ourselves before we duel. I am Saburo Haruyama, a samurai of the Kambei Defence Force. Swordsman and martial artist."

Edward hadn't the slightest clue what the flip 'bushido' or 'samurai' were, but he played along anyway, saying, "Edward Mustang, son of Colonel Roy Mustang. Martial artist and alchemist."

The other guard, the one who was waiting outside the door, called out, "On my count - one, two, three, hajime!"

Edward figured 'hajime' meant 'go' and charged forward to meet his adversary.

Flinging his right arm up, he caught Saburo's sword in a block and swept out a kick with his leg. But regardless of it's stiff appearance, the foreign armour allowed for fast movement and the man quickly sidestepped.

Edward dodged backward as Saburo's long sword slashed down centimetres from his nose, cutting neatly though a few strands of hair. Sharp sword! Edward thought hurriedly, flashing his arm up to the left side of his face to block another swipe.

Alright, he thought as he held the parry in place. His advantage is his reach. His blade is a lot longer than mine, so I won't be able to do much damage unless I get in close enough. My advantage is my size and speed. I can get in under his guard and take him down from below. His disadvantage is his armour - I have greater mobility than him. My disadvantage - his strength and reach. This is what I have to use.

This time Edward summoned the strength to sweep his arm up and around, forcing Saburo's blade downwards with a grunt and taking advantage of their close range to swing up another kick - aimed at the man's head.

Saburo withdrew his blade at unbelievable speed and brought it up to his face, leaving Edward pushing against air with his arm, and his kick aimed for a steel blade.

Please Winry, live up to your standards! Edward thought as he adjusted his strategy, not even attempting to slow his left leg as it swung for Saburo's helmet.

This caught the 'samurai' off guard as he hadn't been expecting it and he tensed his blade for Edward's incoming foot.

At the last second, Edward feinted before putting his weight onto his hands and bringing his foot forward to smash it back into Saburo's face. Thank god his auto-mail was light enough that he still moved quickly.

Saburo let out a muffled exclamation, swinging his sword down to strike Edward's leg as he retracted it. It glanced off the metal, tearing the fabric of his trousers slightly but leaving him otherwise unscathed.

Saburo's eyes narrowed as he caught the glint of steel though the tear.

Edward kept up his momentum, cartwheeling away from Saburo and landing into a crouch. Saburo charged forward with is sword poised to strike down on Edward's head, enticed by the boy's open position.

Perfect.

With lightning speed, Edward shot forward underneath the samurai's raised arms and pointed his own blade up at the man's chin.

The two halted. Edward was the victor.

Saburo stood in a deep stance, his sword and arms held above his head and looking down on Edward, who was standing right in front of the man with his auto-mail knife right at his throat.

Cheers erupted from the crowd of onlookers, and the two backed away from each other.

Saburo bowed his respect to Edward, his eyebrows raised as he sheathed his sword. "Nice fight."

The crowd dispersed, some calling out congratulations to Edward and others talking excitedly about what they'd just experienced.

The older guard blinked in surprise as Edward drew near, clapping his hands and returning his arm to normal.

"So," Edward began. "Can I go in?"

"I guess…" the man trailed off. "That was amazing… Saburo's no easy opponent, but you took him down in a matter of seconds."

"I've fought and beaten stronger," Edward told him with a shrug. "And fought and lost to stronger yet."

The two guards exchanged a glance before stepping aside to let the boy through.

The first person he encountered within the building was a young secretary behind a bamboo desk, who looked up at him with dark eyes as he walked over.

"Can I help you?" she asked softly.

"Yeah, I'm trying to make a call to Eastern Command in Amestris. Do you know where I can do that from?" Edward asked.

The woman cocked her head. She looked sceptical for a moment, but then shrugged it off coolly. "If the guards let you in, I suppose it's okay."

She pointed with one wide-cuffed hand at a corridor. "Down there, there's a group of phones. They're all connected to lines spanning the desert and into Amestris. Go ahead."

Edward moved down to the phones, picking one up and punching in the number for East City. He waited as the dial tone whirred in the earpiece.

There weren't many soldiers in this part of the building; Edward had only seen two so far. One was in the front office and another a few paces down a corridor he'd passed to reach the phones.

"Hello, you've reached Eastern City military base. Are you in requirement of assistance, or would you like to be connected to one of our officers?"

"I need Lieutenant Hawkeye, if she's available."

"That's alright, but we need you to give us your name and access code first. Precautionary measures, we can't connect to outside lines without them."

"It's Major Edward Elric, Fullmetal," the boy said quietly, making sure he wasn't overheard. "And my code… Uhh, gimme a sec 'til I find it." He reached into his jacket pocket and rummaged around in it for the scrap of paper he'd taken from the inside cover of his research journal.

Sneering, he grumbled out the code Roy had specially issued him with; "It's 'Under-Sized-Oaf 2-X-4-0-0'."

"Code verified. Please wait while I put you through…"

Edward ground his teeth as the hold music sounded.

"Good morning. Colonel Roy Mustang's office, First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye speaking."

"Hey, Lieutenant. It's Ed."

"Oh, good morning Edward. I trust that things are going well over there; you're both settled in and all? Everything alright at your end?"

"More or less," he replied, fiddling with a paperclip he'd found on the counter.

"'More or less'?" she echoed, sounding slightly concerned.

"Yeah, well," Edward scratched the back of his head, frowning a little. "There's been a thing."

"What kind of thing? Are you both okay?"

"Yeah, we're both fine. The Colonel's in a meeting as we speak," Edward assured her. "But you see, something went a little…weird out in Old Ishbal."

A pause. "Go on."

"Well, we came through it about three days ago, and Roy didn't take it so well," Edward began. "I was lying on the floor of the coach because I was pretty hot. My auto-mail was on fire. So I stupidly asked him if we were anywhere near Kambei yet. He looked out, and he must have seen some specific place or something because suddenly he was having a panic attack."

Hawkeye was silent and Edward, feeling somewhat guilty, continued. "I hafta say, I was pretty much useless out there. This guy called Tyrell - he's like a witch doctor magic healer guy, also another representative; from Orato - he helped Roy. It was him that did it all. Afterwards he was fine and we went on our way."

"I see," Hawkeye murmured. "It must have been that market district."

"He said he almost burned to death there," Edward told her quietly.

"Yes, I know the place," she said. "Is that what you called for?"

"No, there's more," Edward said. "On our second day here, the Emperor threw some kind of ball thingy. All the representatives were invited, and me too. That Prince Claudio guy from Aerugo was there too, and he gave Roy absolute hell, no holds barred. The jerk just went on and on about Ishbal 'til Roy snapped and actually left. No-one really noticed that he'd gone until I shouted at Claudio and ran out after him."

He continued. "And then yesterday, we were at the pool when the prince showed up again. He didn't really do anything, I think he just wanted to flaunt his power. But something must have clicked in Roy's head 'cause he started to act a little twitchy for the next few minutes, but then he got over it."

"Understandable," Hawkeye said evenly. "The fact that someone else now has the upper hand won't appeal to the Colonel one bit. And the pressure's probably started to get at him by now."

Edward let out a deflated sigh. "As far as keeping the promise I made to you goes, I've been pretty pathetic. Sorry, Lieutenant. I tried my best to stop any harm from coming to him, but…"

On the other end of the line, Hawkeye smiled slightly. "It's alright, Edward. The Colonel has a lot to deal with. I don't need you to protect him from harm. There isn't really anyone there that would be capable of inflicting wounds on him, apart from perhaps yourself if you tried. I need you to make sure he doesn't accidentally bring himself down. He can fight well enough that he doesn't really need anyone protecting him, but he's hopeless at matters of the heart sometimes. The way he thinks, it all comes down to rationale and he often tries to sort things out in a straight, logical fashion. He doesn't seem to realise that some people act for reasons that don't benefit anyone and that they do it for their own pleasure."

Edward blinked. Hawkeye's analysis was spot on. It was no wonder Roy trusted her so much; she knew him like the back of her hand.

Hawkeye's tone changed. "Don't get me wrong; he does know what feelings are. Even he leans towards things he likes and away from those he doesn't. He gets swayed by emotion the same as everyone else. But when it comes to a point where his own emotions are too strong for him to handle…" She continued in a lower voice. "…that's when he doesn't know how to react and so he does whatever the first thing is that comes to mind, regardless of consequence. That's why you don't ever want the Colonel in a real state of anger, Edward. Because when he is, there's no telling what his first thoughts will be."

Edward shifted his weight to his other leg. He felt somewhat uncomfortable to be hearing this.

"And when he's addressing a subject he doesn't care about either way, he acts like a little child and leaves the matter for other people to deal with. Namely, myself. But he's very like you sometimes, Edward, so you should understand what I'm saying when I tell you that what I need you to do is not protect him from harm, but from himself."

"So what you're saying is that I need to stop the Colonel from doing anything stupid?" Edward asked, a small part of him slightly offended/concerned that the woman had compared him to Roy, but another quite pleased that she trusted him enough to tell him all this.

"Yes," Hawkeye responded. "To summarise, the way the Colonel has beaten his mind into a more logical style of thinking over the years isn't always the best way to handle things. Granted, it is useful for the kind of life he leads, but it means he gets confused and irritated by strong displays of unnecessary emotion. That's probably what's causing these attacks; he's scared by the amount of feelings he's not used to. Emotions of fear, helplessness and rage are his greatest downfall. And revenge. Bring harm to anyone close to him and he will hunt you down and burn you to cinders, no matter the cost. And when too many emotions threaten to overwhelm him, he snaps. That's what I need you to watch."

Hawkeye paused again, and a sort of half-laugh came from her end of the line as she said, "He's also incredibly narcissistic."

Edward smirked. "I think we all know that. On a different note, how's Al?"

"He's fine," Hawkeye said. "He spends most of his time scouring the library, but he misses you."

"Yeah, I…" The boy looked around to check for passers by before blushing a little and going on to admit, "I miss him too."

"He's here in the base, you know. I can fetch him if you like," she offered.

"I'd appreciate that."

There was silence for a number of seconds.

"Alright, here he is. Thank you for everything you've done, Edward."

"Right. Thank you for everything you've done."

"It's my pleasure. Here's your brother."

"Right."

"Hello?" Alphonse's tinny voice echoed into the phone. "Big brother?"

"Hey, Al," Edward greeted affectionately. "What'chou been up to?"

"Basically…" Alphonse seemed to be racking his brains. "Nothing."

Edward grinned. "I can't say the same, man. I went down to the library a few days ago, and Al, you wouldn't believe the kind of books they got there. All kinds of crazy stuff I've never seen. I checked out a tonne of books and started to go through them. I've turned up a couple of promising things, but I only wrote them down in my notes. I'll tell you about them when I get back."

"I hope you're still resting enough," Alphonse said. "I'd hate to be sitting back here doing nothing whilst you work all day."

"It's not work, Al, it's learning," Edward chided. "If anything, you should feel the opposite. I enjoy reading through these books. Even if I don't turn up anything, I'll still be all the better alchemist for reading them. I mean, there aren't that many books on alchemy, since it's fairly new here. I guess that it was only introduced by Amestris when we became allies, but they did have their own primitive form of alchemy here. That's why most of the books are all kinds of crazy weirdo stuff. Way different from ours."

"How so?" Alphonse asked.

"Well, their style is all focused on the human soul. Where our alchemists strive to create a Philosopher's Stone, they strive to create the perfect human soul. It's really weird. Thing is, they use all the same principles I did to bind your soul to your armour. I think that maybe somewhere around, there might be something about how to do that in reverse… So far, nothing, but I'll keep looking."

"That's great. I'm glad to hear you're having fun doing it too." A pause. "I wish I could have come with you."

"Yeah, I'll have to tell you everything when I get back. This country is so different. The clothes, the customs…" Edward grinned. "The food."

"Leave it to you to think of your stomach above everything else, you glutton!" Alphonse teased.

"It wasn't above everything else! I mentioned clothes and customs first!" Edward defended himself. "And seriously, the food here is great. They got those sweet thingies on th—"

"Dango," Alphonse cut in.

"—ick, and all kinds of meat cooked in a hundred ways. You just can't go hungry here! They've got like…" Edward paused and licked his lips. "…everything."

Alphonse's insubstantial breath sounded out a sigh. "I wanna go there when I've got my original body back and taste it all… Yum."

"Eeyup, 'm sure you'll love it 'ere," Edward said, distracted by the sight of a female soldier making her way down the corridor. First he'd seen, although he supposed it was probably nothing out of the ordinary.

Alphonse snickered. "Bro, that sounded really funny, the way you said that."

"Waht? Laik theeus?" Edward said, filling his voice with as much thick country twang as he could muster.

"Yeah!" Alphonse said, laughing. "It's funny!"

"Ah don't see it, Ayl! Whut's so furnny 'bout a nice bayckwawter ayccent?"

Alphonse cracked up, struggling to choke out, "Stop it brother! That's too funny!"

"Ah cayn do uh stupider wun if ya laik!" Edward offered, pulling a dumb expression. "Laik a sassy womun! Or Mystor Garfiel!"

Alphonse continued to laugh, but managed to scold, "Don't make fun of Mr Garfiel, brother…!"

"Ooh, are you sure you don't want me to do him, thweetie?!" Edward said in a half-decent imitation of the eccentric auto-mail engineer's voice. "I guarantee it'll drive you crazy!"

"Okay, okay!" Alphonse protested between fits of giggles. "That's enough! Be serious now!"

"Alright, alright…" Edward said, grinning as he adjusted his voice to it's normal pitch. "Is there anything important you want to tell me? Everything is going well in Amestris?"

"Everything is fine here. Lieutenant Colonel Hughes and First Lieutenant Hawkeye are working together to fill in as acting Colonels in Mustang's absence. Hawkeye said that normally, a different Colonel or a Brigadier General would be asked to step in, but apparently there's a lot going on and everyone is busy at their own posts. Weird, huh?"

"Yeah, I'll admit it's a little odd that just about everyone is busy now…" Edward said thoughtfully. "And even though Mustang's got his hands full tracking Scar, he got deployed to Kambei anyway. It all seems a little fishy to me."

"Mr Hughes thought the same," Alphonse informed him. "And he told the Lieutenant as well. She says that it's probably just a coincidence, but that we should keep an eye out for anything strange all the same."

"Hmm…" Edward stroked his chin in puzzlement. Shaking his head, he said, "So, is that all?"

"Pretty much," Alphonse replied. "Aside from the usual rush to finish overdue paperwork, it's pretty uneventful here."

"Okay then," said Edward. "I guess that's all we have. I'll see you soon, if I don't call you between now and then."

"Yeah. See you soon. Be careful out there, brother! Don't do anything reckless!"

"I'll be fine. Thanks for your unneeded concern, though. Just stick the Lieutenant back on. Bye, Al. Look after yourself."

"You too. Bye. Here's Hawkeye."

Pause.

"Is that everything you needed, Edward?"

"Yeah, that's everything I called for. But speaking to Al, I remembered something. On the way here, our coach was attacked by some amateur thieves. I didn't think it was anything to worry about, I mean, we did them in and it only took us about five minutes…" Edward frowned. "But something Al said made me think. He said it was odd how Roy was the only person available to take this job, even though he was still pretty busy himself. There were probably other Colonels that could have taken it but they also happen to be somehow preoccupied."

"Well, yes, that did cross my mind a couple of times," Hawkeye admitted.

"But these bandits, they knew who we were. They knew we were Amestrian ambassadors and they knew exactly where our coach was going to be at which exact time. Even though the coach was scheduled a day late, they still got us. Mustang thought it was suspicious at the time, but we didn't pay it much mind. Now it just strikes me as odd. As if someone is setting us up for all of this."

"Yes. It does seem that way. But who would have the sufficient data and power to make that happen? And for what motive?" Hawkeye replied thoughtfully. "Who would be able to orchestrate a thing like that?"

"I don't know," Edward admitted. "It couldn't have been Claudio. He wouldn't know where we were going to be, or that our coach came late. I'm not even sure this is worth the trouble of investigating. I just thought you should know." Edward shook his head. "No big deal."

"Nevertheless, thanks for telling me," said Hawkeye. "Be careful where you tread, Edward, and keep an eye out for anything else that strikes you as suspicious. Anything comes up, let me know."

"Will do," Edward confirmed with a nod. "Goodbye, Lieutenant."

"Stay safe. And one more thing; if the Colonel seems like he's the mood to reminisce about 'certain' times, don't let him near alcohol. Especially not now - if he's a little shaken up, I don't want him drinking. Okay?"

"Got it. No beer for Mustang."

"Goodbye."

"Seeya."

And the dial tone sounded once again.

"Two yakitori, please," Edward ordered, tapping his metal fingers against his shoulder. He felt the taps on his shoulder, but he didn't feel his fingers meet flesh.

"Okey-dokey." The vender turned into his stall and reached backwards, taking out a couple of skewers spearing chunks of chicken dripping with sauce. "That'll be 280 yen."

"Here you go."

Edward took his snacks from the man and bit a piece off one, munching on it contentedly. It tasted good. Sort of like…victory.

"Hey, shortie over there!"

Edward's shoulders tensed. Something hot flashed in his chest. Whoever that is better not be talking to me…!

"Yeah! You with the yakitori wearing the western get-up!"

Alright, it's me - this guy's getting thrashed! Edward whirled around, his fists clenched around his two yakitori. His eyes flashed as he opened his mouth. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT, YOU JERK?! ARE YOU ASKING FOR A FIGHT?!"

A young Kambeian man shook his head as he approached, smiling awkwardly and exposing his palms. "No way, dude!"

Edward, now puzzled, swapped his enraged expression for a confused one. "So what do you want?"

The newcomer grinned. "The name's Shiba. I just wanted to say hi - saw you fight that samurai back there. That was pretty awesome."

"Oh. Thanks," said Edward. As an afterthought, he added, "No thrashing required."

"Phew. I'm glad." Shiba put his hands behind his head. "That was a really awesome fight you had before; I don't think I'd be able to take you on. Where did you learn all that?"

"Yeah, well…" Edward had a horrible mental image involving a deceptively innocent toilet slipper pressed into the back of his skull with the strength of a certain bear-slaying martial artist/alchemist's foot. "I guess it depends on who teaches you…"

"Yeah, I guess so!" Shiba ducked his head. "Well, I'll see you, then. Great work!"

Edward nodded. "Thanks. Seeya."

As Edward watched Shiba's retreating back, he reflected on Hawkeye's words.

"I don't need you to protect him from harm. There isn't really anyone there that would be capable of inflicting wounds on him, apart from perhaps yourself if you tried. I need you to make sure he doesn't accidentally bring himself down. He can fight well enough that he doesn't really need anyone protecting him, but he's hopeless at matters of the heart sometimes."

He frowned as he took another bite of chicken. If it comes down to it, I'll definitely be able to watch Roy's back in a fight...but I'm not so sure I could keep his emotions in check. I mean, he's so hard to read… And if Alphonse's words are anything to go by, I'm not the best there is at handling this stuff anyway.

He looked up to the slightly grey sky, swallowing the last of his food. Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

And that's that. Sorry if you got bored, but there's gonna be a lot more excitement a chapter from now. (I've written away into the distance, and I'm getting to the AWESOME bits! AARGH!)

So, I got into Hetalia thanks to my friend (also on - Toph Hitsugaya) and we just went around and decided which one of the characters all of our friends were. She's Poland and I'm America. So far, we've got the Italy brothers (both are one person), Russia, Japan, Canada, Spain, France, Iceland and Lithuania, but no Britain… Wah.

AND IT'S NEARLY MY SCHOOL HOLIDAYS! MUAHAHAHAHAHA! YESSSSSS!

Well, I shall appear in writing next chapter. ZAKURO AWAY! *NEWNEWDOODOODOORAINBOWLALALA!*