This is a Full Metal Alchemist and Rising of the Shield Hero Fanfiction only.

The next morning I find myself sleeping on the ground my clothes with clear signs that the blood that sprayed on it has dried overnight, and still being hugged by a half raccoon girl holding my arm like her life depended on it.

Honestly add at least fifteen years of growth and hopefully maturity, and people would think me and this raccoon girl did something last night that most people would expect in their honeymoon, which as I think this is making me both regret ever thinking it and made me wonder one thing why do I think this? It's sick.

She looks like she is old enough to be my daughter for crying out loud, I really need to either a heavy drink or get laid, I am not kidding I really need to get laid. Does the town where the Inn has a brothel? No, of course, they don't. They do have a bar, but with how many people actually go to and believe in what the church of the three heroes preach would I take that risk?

Why the hell am I thinking of Lust just as Raphtalia is holding my arm asleep? She was a spirit, a disembodied voice, granted the way dad used to describe her, much to the discomfort and anger of mom know that I think of it, she was an absolute beauty, nice body, sultry voice, seduction apparently was as natural to her as breathing.

I can't move or I will wake her up, and I can't transmute without being able to draw a transmutation circle and use both of my hands, I could read, but silly me I already finished reading all the books I got in my inventory, I really need to buy some new ones. Do they even have bookstores in this world?

What am I going to do to get my arm free without making me act or appear as a total pervert? If I had regeneration abilities, I could probably try and bite my arm off, no I am of course kidding, that would really hurt and scare her, we just got through her last cause of night terrors, I hope, I sure as hell don't want to create a new reason for her to scream at night.

I don't know why but I suddenly fell asleep again, and finally woke up when she stopped grabbing my arm. I looked at her and she finally seemed to calm down, "So Master Mustang I hope you don't mind me asking, but who are you? Why is getting stronger to fight against the waves of calamity so important?"

I guess I never told her or she simply forgot, might as well tell her. "I am one of the four cardinal heroes, I was summoned to defeat the waves and save the world. I honestly don't know why Melromarc would ever want to summon me, but I can make a guess on their motives."

She looked at me and then at my arm, "So you really are the shield hero?" I looked at her and smiled, I guess she still didn't believe I was even after she saw me use my abilities, then again, I wouldn't blame her, to anyone else it probably looks like magic.

I simply touched her head and for some reason, I couldn't help but laugh, "That is me, the shield hero. So you know I never would put you in danger without good reason, trust me Raphtalia, I will fight the waves and with your help, we can prevent other people from suffering because of the waves."

I slowly stood up and began to walk towards the remains of the three-headed dog, why did this have three heads? I was sure it only had two. I simply began to cut the dead body of the beast into pieces and began to feed pieces of it to my shield.

With each piece of the beast I fed to my shield, another shield was unlocked, it was until I was almost done when Raphtalia walked near me, "You know Melromarc probably hates you more than they do those of my kind right? Why fight for them? Why put life in danger for people that do not appreciate you or even like you?"

Well, these were pretty serious questions coming from a kid, I am impressed with her maturity. I guess I should give her an answer to these questions. I began to feed minerals and metals we had mined earlier to the shield and asked her to sit closer to me as I asked her to help me feed the raw materials to my shield.

I hope this makes her feel more relaxed and be able to tell her the answers she clearly needed. "In my world, I was a soldier, a warrior, I was taught from very early on that I should use my abilities for the common good." I stopped her from feeding any more minerals and metals by saying this, it was not intentional but she was so focused on what I was saying she actually stopped what she was doing.

"I was trained to be an Alchemist, my main form of Alchemy is what you saw, Flame manipulation, or Flame Alchemy, I was taught this simple code ever since I was a little boy, even before I became an Alchemist, Alchemist be thou for the people. This has been my moral guide ever since I became an Alchemist."

"I am not doing it for praise or for recognition, I am only doing it to help people. Granted I would like to receive some manner of compensation for my work, but even if there isn't any reward, I simply can not turn my back on innocent people in need."

I took some minerals and began to draw a few transmutation circles, I placed a mineral on one of them and Raphtalia was looking at me with absolute curiosity, I think I have done this before in front of her, I changed the crystal into something else, I continued to change metals and minerals into materials they either were not present or things people in this world didn't know existed.

I fed the transmuted minerals and metals to my shield to unlock even more shield abilities. "Master Mustang I swear, I shall be by your side till the end of time and beyond. You are right, we should not abandon people even if they are too dumb to appreciate it. I will help you defeat the waves and save our world." Again I was never expecting a kid to make such an oath to me.

As we were getting ready to leave the mine, I began to collect minerals and metals as I walked towards the exit of the mine. As we walked outside we were greeted by a sight that I was not expecting. Several men were walking towards the mine and they seem to be carrying a stretcher and some medical supplies.

The minute they saw us, they dropped the stretched and the bandages and ran towards us, the guy who told me about the mine was with them and he was the first to reach us.

"You are alive! I can't tell you how happy I am to see you made it out of that monster den, I felt so guilty after you went to the mine. We thought that you might be injured so the people in our village came to try and help you, I hoped you would be alive."

I know he is happy but did he have to shout? "There is nothing to worry about it just took us a little bit of work clearing out the mine, we got so tired that we sort of needed a nap. Sorry to cause you and the other to worry. There we a ton of monsters and so it took us quite a bit of time to clear them out."

That is when one of the men who finally reached us grabbed me by my shoulders, the man was an elderly gentleman, but from his grip, I could tell he worked hard all his life. "You mean to tell me the mine is clear of monsters? Our people can go to? The mine is safe?" I told him to please stop shouting, I also told him the mine was clear, the structure safe and the mine could start selling minerals and metals as soon as they wanted.

I regret saying that with this many miners near me, they all began to give me this really painful group hug, I swear some of them were even crying. "How much do we owe you for doing this for us?"

I was looking at the old man and began to laugh, "Are you kidding me? You never requested my aid, you never hired me to do it, of course, you owe me nothing. Come on, people I really need to begin hunting for some food, me and Raphtalia are starving we haven't had anything to eat in a whole day."

This made people begin to laugh really loud and that is when they began to walk towards the village with us. As I walked over to the center of the village I began to dump all the raw minerals and metals I had mine on my way out. The elder of the village and the others began to separate them into piles.

When he was done, he looked at me with this smile on his face, "You might not look it, but you got some choice goods here. I will give you one gold for the entire lot. Seeing you got stuff of this quality from our mine sure make me remember my younger days, and no, I will not have you tell me you are donating this, you will take the gold piece or I simply will not be able to live with the guilt of feeling like I ripped you off."

He simply would not let up, so in the end, I accepted. I did do something that they never expected, I did notice that the support beams in the mine have either never been reinforced or the monsters really did a number on them, so I decided to go and meet a contractor in the royal capital.

I was nothing major, I went to the business and the man looked at me with this odd glare in his eyes, yep, another member of the church by the looks of it, "What do you want? Make it quick, I don't want people thinking I give handouts to miserable wretches like you." Boy with this sort of welcome it sort of explains why his construction office is as empty as a graveyard.

"It is nothing for me actually, have you heard that the miners at Lute managed to clear out the mines? Boy, let me tell you, those miners are some tough guys. Well besides this news, I was asked by the village leader to come and tell you he wants you to go back there and reinforce or upgrade the support beams in the mine, do you have an estimate on the cost of such a thing?"

He looked at me still glaring, but since it was not for me, he did not refuse, "I would say to reinforce around five silver pieces, but to upgrade the support beams I would say no less than one gold piece." He must expect me to beg but this guy has no idea who he is dealing with.

"How about you improve the rails inside the mine as an added bonus? I know that you can do better than the price you gave me, think about it, the quicker they get started mining metals, the more supplies will be available to you, consider it an investment on your future business."

He continued to glare at me, "Are you sure you aren't doing this to gain something?" I pretended to look hurt and touched my chest with my hand, "Who me? I barely got enough to buy a single slave and eat the cheapest menu set in the worst restaurant, do I look like I am rich? No, I told you the village elder pretty much told me to come and tell you this."

He looked at me and then he looked at Raphtalia, "Alright I guess the elder is right, this would be a good investment if they manage to increase the metal supply, the blacksmith has been hurting, and I need to buy metal beams, and nails, alright, ten silver pieces for the support beams and five silver pieces for all the other rails."

I placed the fifteen pieces on his desk and he promised that he would get to work immediately, he wouldn't want to upset the leader of Lute if the news of the mine I told him was true.

I walked out and walked towards the apothecary who I sell my medicines to, "Hey, Roy did you happen to bring me a new batch of your medicines? I am running out, it seems people realize your medicine is good, I can barely keep it stocked."

I smiled as I placed another cart full of healing potions on his counter, "Sure did, hey did you hear what happened at Lute? Boy, those miners sure are tough, they cleared out the mine of monsters, but you know some of them got hurt, so the elder asked me to come here and ask you to send him about five silvers worth of bandages and salves to deal with the injuries they got from dealing with the monsters."

I placed my remaining five silver that I got from the elder on the counter, "You sure are funny Roy, you know I also heard a rumor that a man wearing a shield and a half raccoon girl cleared out the mines themselves. I also know the elder gave you a gold piece for doing it, so drop the act, I appreciate it but you don't need to give credit to other people."

I sat down on a nearby stool and looked at him, "I guess I really should know better than try to pull one over on you, I just don't want Lute to suffer because of me." He laughed and looked at Raphtalia.

"You better help this guy keep a tighter control on his coin purse, or else he will donate to needy causes till he doesn't have two copper pieces to rub together. Take the five silver and don't you forget to take your fifteen silver for this medicine you brought me, and yes, that includes the money you forgot to pick up last time."

Raphtalia grabbed the coin pouch and walked towards me with a smile. As we left the building a group of soldiers came running towards us. As soon as we were walking towards Erhard's shop we got surrounded by these soldiers and they took out their swords and pointed them at us.

"Are you the shield hero?" I, of course, told him that I was, I mean the shield on my arm was a dead giveaway. "Shield hero you are ordered to come with us to the castle, the king wants to speak with you about a sensitive matter."

I don't like where this is going, something about this stinks and I don't mean the smell that is coming from the soldiers who very much need a bath. "By all means, lead the way, I guess it goes without saying that I can't make a small detour right?" He didn't answer he simply began to push me towards the castle.

Well, the atmosphere in the castle hasn't changed much at all, I still felt like I am something they think they have to scrape off the bottom of their boots. Did the guy really need to keep pushing me, I am walking, there is no need for this rudeness is there?

As I walked into the throne room I saw the other three heroes and they were all glaring at me. "Mustang you swine, I knew I should never have let that young woman near a creep like you if the knights hadn't taken you in, I was going to hunt you down like the vermin that you are!"

I decided to ignore Motoyasu and decided to look at the King who had this smug look on his face. "I am a little confused here, a little explanation would be appreciated, your majesty." He stopped looking at me with a smug look, now he looked angry, almost furious for some reason.

"You dare pretend you did nothing, I heard the report from that young woman that wanted to help you by joining you, she said you got her drunk, and then you tried to force yourself on her in the very Inn were we provided you and the other heroes with free lodging."

"There is no greater crime that you could have committed, to force yourself on a woman, had you not been a hero, you would be executed on the spot, yet you dare to pretend you did nothing wrong!"

Raphtalia and I looked at each other, "So let me get this straight, this happened last night in the capital right?" Ren looked at me with this look of disgust on his face, "You know it happened last night and on the capital, stop pretending you worm, you know very well where you committed your crime!"

I could not help but to laugh, "Boy, don't you lot look foolish, hate to break it to you Ren, but I wasn't in the capital last night, I do a job for the Village elder of Lute last night, so you see, I wasn't even staying at an Inn, I had to stay all night in the mine doing some work."