Fullmetal Ghoul

City of Heresy

Me: -snore-

Ed: Uh... Kori isn't awake and she's a demon if we wake her up... So... Kori does not own Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood or Tokyo Ghoul...

Me: -springs up- GOOD JOB PIPSQUEAK I'M PROUD OF YOU

Ed: WHO ARE YOU CALLING—

"Children of God who dwell upon the earth, there is no salvation without prayer and faith. The Sun God Leto will illuminate thy path. Behold! The Lord hath descended from his throne to save thee from thy sins."

A small radio crackled out, "For I am thy Father... I am the emissary of the Sun God..."

Al's silver eyes bored into the vendor, who squirmed slightly, and he asked, "A religious broadcast on the radio?"

"'Emissary of the Sun God'?" Ed scowled into his drink, his lip curling disdainfully. "What the heck is that?"

"Actually, I wanted to ask you two the same thing..." The vendor polished a cup absentmindedly, glancing up at the two strange outsiders. "You two street performers?"

Ed choked on his straw, and after much coughing and patting of the back, Ed managed, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what makes you think we're—" Another bout of coughing, "—street performers?"

"Haven't seen you around before," said the vendor as a way of explanation apologetically. "Sightseers?"

Ed grunted noncommittedly. "Hmm. Trying to track something down. Anyway," he continued, pointing his fork at the radio, "what's this broadcast?"

"You've never heard of Father Cornello?" Asked the vendor, looking startled. Ed scowled darkly.

"Who?"

"Father Cornello! He's a man who came to this town years ago and showed us the way of God. He works miracles! ...You aren't listening, are you, kid?"

"Nope," mumbled Ed into his fork. "I'm agnostic." He sighed and stood in a kind of final way. "Thanks for the eats. Let's go," he added to Al. The younger nodded and stood; unfortunately, his lanky form reached the ceiling and his silver head brushed the platform holding the radio, which fell towards the vendor's oblivious head.

"Look out!" Yelled Al, and he closed his eyes; a creamy shadow with scarlet streaks snaked from his back and knocked the radio from its course; Ed caught it, glancing at his younger brother, whose hands were on his knees, recovering from the sudden use of his kagune, which had never been quite right ever since the Resurrection.

The crowd of people gaped at them, then the vendor exclaimed, covering his head, "You can work miracles?!"

"Miracles?" Ed muttered, digruntled, before pasting a cocky smile on his face and saying confidently, "We're ghouls."

"Th... The Elric brothers," wheezed Al. "A lot of people... Have heard of us."

"The Elric... Oh, the Elric brothers? I've heard of you! They say the older is a State Ghoul called the Fullmetal Ghoul, Edward Elric!"

They crowded around Al, crowing and admiring, and the silver-haired ghoul shot a furtive glance at his older brother, who was scowling darkly, and he took it upon himself to say timidly, "Er, it's not me, it's him!"

"Huh?"

"You mean the little guy?"

Al clapped a hand to his face. Leave it to clueless humans to set his brother off...

"I'M NOT LITTLE! DON'T CALL ME MIDGET! OR SHORTY! OR SHRIMP!"

Al sighed and held his brother back before he destroyed the entire street and mumbled, "Brother, calm down."

Ed tore himself out of Al's grasp, snarling, "It's me! I'm the Fullmetal Ghoul! Edward Elric!"

"S-Sorry about that..."

Ed turned away and tromped down the street, seething. "Stupid humans..."

Rosé's head turned at the sound of heavy footsteps, and she was surprised to see that a young boy and a silver-haired male who appeared to be his older brother entering the church. The red-coated smaller figure dropped into a pew and tilted his head back, grinning up at the statue of Leto, though from her vantage point, it appeared to be carved into his face, a cruel leer.

She cleared her throat and said cheerfully (or as cheerfully as she could with the fearsome look on his face), "Are you here to join the church of Leto?"

Ed pulled his lips back in what was evidently a sneer this time. "Nah, I'm agnostic."

"That's not a real answer! If you believe in God, you can hope and pray with faith each day. It's wonderful!" She stared down at him for a moment, then added fervently, "If you have faith, you'll grow taller for sure!"

Ed sighed. "Jeez, do you honestly believe that if you pray, the dead will come back to life?"

Rosé didn't even hesitate. "Yes, I do!"

Ed grinned ferally, the dangerous ingredients taunting him, his young voice echoing in his head. "Water, 35 liters; Carbon, 20 kilograms; Ammonia, 4 liters; Lime, 1.5 kilograms; Phosphorus, 800 grams; Salt, 250 grams; Saltpeter, 100 grams; Sulfur, 80 grams; Fluorine, 7.5 grams; Iron, 5 grams; Silicon, 3 grams; and trace amounts of 15 other elements."

"Huh...?"

"Those are the components of the average adult body," Ed said, smirking, though Rosé couldn't shake the feeling that it looked awfully sad.

"Humans come in cheap. Those are things you could get from a shop with a child's allowance."

Her blood boiled and before she could stop herself, she yelled, "Humans aren't playthings! God will punish you for saying such words!"

It stung badly when Ed only laughed. "God won't do such a thing. I've come too close already for Him to let me back up. But..."

His golden eyes narrowed at her. "I hear the priest—This... Father Cornello—has been working miracles with incredible wings and tails and those sorts. Is it true?"

Rosé's eyes brightened when he actually showed interest in Letoism instead of laughing at it. "Oh, yes! It's amazing, I've never seen anything like it!"

Ed exchanged a subtle glance with Al before saying charmingly, "Hey, I'm kinda interested... Mind showing me to the priest?"

Rosé could easily say her own troubles paled drastically in comparison to the Elric brothers'.

The older was in constant pain from his automail kagune, and the younger's senses and kagune had never been the same. Durin the last twenty minutes, Ed had showed her his silver kagune, which was exactly like normal kagune excepting the metal bolts and other painful-looking things in his back, blocking off the excess kagune that could easily cause him death, and Al had been shot multiple times but had not even blinked an eye. He'd simply dug them out (Rosé gagged), applied antiseptic that he'd produced fro his pocket, and had bandaged them neatly with an air of having done it before.

Oh, and Ed had revealed Father Cornello's nefarious plot.

"You'll never win against the ability the Ghoul Stone can give me!"

"Aagh—" Rosé winced, knowing he must have used his kagune, "—Too slow!"

There was a loud, and sick, slicing noise, then Fathr Cornello's stuttering "Y-You can't win! Ever! With the Ghoul Stone, I—"

There was another gruesome sound, rather like flesh intertwining with muscle, then Father Cornello's screams. Ed's faint words could still be heard, though.

"A-All that trouble... All that research... And the Stone... Was fake..."

Rosé felt a slight twinge in her heart, knowing that now, she could never see her love again. But then there was a rumbling, and a crash, and static sounded.

Later, she learned that the statue of Leto's fist had been found sliced clean off and aimed into the ground.

She had to give it to him for creativity.

"How dare... You give me... A fake...?!"

"Did you really think we'd give a inexperienced country priest like you the real Stone? You're only deluding yourself!"

"Hey, Lust, can I eat him?"

"No, no, Gluttony. You'll get a stomachache from eating this foul man. If you eat this second-rate... No, this third-rate fool..."

"ARGH! YOU'RE MOCKING ME—YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE!"

Shunk.

"Oh, and when things were going so well, too! Father won't be pleased."

Crunch.

"Hey. I told you not to eat that."