CHAPTER ONE: FIRST ENCOUNTERS (OF TOO MANY)

TRUTH'S DOMAIN

SCENE: A large expanse of white, endless as far as the eye can see. A bloodied figure, blonde hair caked with dust, EDWARD ELRIC, stands before a large, looming Gate and a figure of blankness, TRUTH.

TRUTH: Welcome back, little alchemist. Have you come to take back your little brother?

EDWARD: My Gate. My Gate for my little brother. That should be enough, yes?

TRUTH smiles wide. It is an unsettling smile, but they seem pleased.

TRUTH: You have beaten me, for giving me the correct answer. Well done, alchemist.

EDWARD: Then let me see him! Take the Gate, take my alchemy, and I'll never come back.

TRUTH: Before that, I have a… proposal for you. In return, you will keep your Gate and your alchemy, along with your brother, whole and alive.

EDWARD: (in disbelief) …What?

TRUTH: There is a world where gods play and entangle the people in their games. They disregard the rules and toss the people around as puppets, playthings. In the future of this world, one will rise as a god but the ones destined to take them down hesitate to stick to their reality.

EDWARD: Why do you want me to be involved in whatever this is?

TRUTH: Because you have a good track record so far. I want you to put a stop to that hesitation. If they succeed in luring the world into a false peace forever then…

TRUTH shrugs, somehow.

TRUTH: You will take a little less than a year in that world, and when you return to Amestris, not a second will have passed. Sounds like a good deal, no?

EDWARD: This seems too good to be true.

TRUTH: I am unable to interfere directly with that world, and I do not enjoy seeing it spiral out of control. They do not practice alchemy there, although the concept exists.

EDWARD: So I'll be your puppet.

TRUTH: In a way. I am robbing you of being able to return to your family immediately. All you have to do is guide the heroes of that world on the right path.

EDWARD's eyes wander to the looming Gate in consideration.

EDWARD: I'll do it. Where do I start…?

TRUTH: You'll find the right people. Find the world beyond reality. Good luck, little alchemist.

The Gate before EDWARD opens wide, tiny black hands reaching towards him and wrapping him, dragging him in.

EDWARD: Wha…?!

The Gate shuts close, and silence rings.

TRUTH (humming): I wonder if those Gods will be displeased with my meddling.

When Akira first meets Edward Elric, he comes across a blonde blur that nearly rams into him on the streets of Shibuya. Akira almost kneels over from the hit but manages to keep himself on his feet. He tears his eyes from the ground and looks at whoever bumped into him.

A teen, somewhere around Akira's age, with bright blonde hair tied into a simple braid and shockingly gold eyes, his features distinctly European, stares back. He looks like a cosplayer of some sort, but the hair looks genuine and the simple t-shirt and black pants don't look like anything Akira can name off the top of his head. He's never met anyone with golden eyes, but he also doesn't think the other teen is wearing contacts.

"Sorry about that, wasn't watching where I was going," the kid — he has to be younger than Akira, the top of his head just reaches Akira's chest — says in jarringly fluent Japanese. "Where's the library?"

"Um," Akira says. He doesn't actually know where the library is. His movement range is limited to like, two stations per day and the only library he's even remotely familiar with is the one at Shujin. "I'm not sure. You might be better off checking with the station managers." He waves a hand vaguely towards the hustle and bustle of rush hour Shibuya Station.

The other teen grunts in acknowledgement. "Thanks." Then he vanishes into the station just as fast as he came.

Akira stares at the disappearing bundle of blonde as he whirls into the station, then shrugs to himself. As unusual as the encounter is, it honestly doesn't even top his list of strangeness. It's Tokyo, after all.

Akira's got five minutes till he clocks out from his quick shift at the convenience store when a young teen with a red hoodie over his head wanders into the store. That's a terribly bright shade of red, Akira thinks. The teen turns a corner into the drinks area, and Akira catches the sight of long, braided blonde hair paired with gold eyes. Ah, it's library cosplayer kid.

He watches Library Kid grab a water and an onigiri (teriyaki salmon, not a bad choice) then pause at the cooler with all the canned drinks. The kid nods to himself, coming to a decision, then grabs a large can of black coffee. He beelines towards Akira at the cashier, props down all his items with a huff, then fishes out a crumpled thousand yen bill from his pocket, placing it on the small money platter on the table.

Akira glances at the teen's face briefly as he collects the money — lines of exhaustion and heavy eye bags make him look old and strung out. Before Akira can stop himself, he says, "You should take a nap or something."

The teen startles, then frowns. "You're like the fifth person telling me that today," he laments. He fiddles with a long silver chain clipped to his pants (Leather? In summer?) then stares at Akira rather impatiently as he bags his items up.

"Well then, maybe you should listen to five people today and take a nap," Akira says, waiting for the little receipt to print. "Or at least eat a full meal. The beef bowl place is cheap and fresh."

Library Kid gives a skeptical glance as he takes the bag of food from Akira. "Yeah, sure. Thanks." He turns and leaves, not even taking his receipt.

Akira has a strange feeling he'll see the kid again.

Akira can't even muster surprise when Library Kid walks into Ore No Beko halfway through his shift, with hands stuffed in pockets and still wearing the exact same bright red hoodie from last time. Akira doesn't really have any time to process his entrance, because he's picking up orders for tables one and five and seven and twelve and there's an extra large bowl for eleven and a small mala special for six.

Library Kid sits down at number sixteen, in the far corner, and waves a hand at Akira. He shoves the ticket with the order to Akira, and Akira scribbles the table number at the back before he forgets. "I'll have an extra large beef bowl with extra veggies."

"Got it, Library Kid," Akira says without missing a beat and sends the order into the kitchen. He doesn't even realise he's said that aloud until Library Kid stares at him for an unnervingly long time.

He should ask for at least a small pay raise, because he has to clear tables five and twelve and three more customers just walked in and there's the giant extra large beef bowl with extra veggies that Library Kid ordered, along with the bell chiming off from the kitchen, and somehow he's the only person on the floor. As small as he appears, the mental image of Library Kid swallowing the extremely large portion of rice baffles him slightly. Maybe he's going through late puberty? Not even Ryuji can eat that much in one go.

"Here you go," Akira says just to be polite because he's not sure about how to make up for calling the kid Library Kid out loud. The hefty tray clatters onto the table, and Library Kid's attention has shifted entirely to the steaming beef bowl. Comically, the bowl is larger than the kid's face.

Then, the teen starts absolutely devouring the bowl. Which is saying something, because Akira's worked enough shifts to see all kinds of people and he has never seen anyone eat a bowl at this speed. It's concerning, unnerving, and frightening all at once. He could definitely give the Big Bang Challenge a run for its money. Akira doesn't realise he's staring until the bell in the kitchen rings for his attention. Man, he's really off his game today.

By the time the crowd finally dies down a little and emergency manpower swoops in to help, the teen is gone.

The chime of the entrance bell at Leblanc signals a new customer, and Akira looks up from behind the bar to find —

"Oh, Library Kid." "Beef Bowl Guy!"

Clearly, they've made an impression on each other.

Thankfully, the cafe is empty, so no one but Morgana (listening through his sharp feline ears at all times) can hear their strange outburst, and Library Kid settles down on the seat closest to the television in a huff. The teen gives a cursory glance at the television as it garbles out tourist destinations in Akihabara, then shifts his attention to the signboards hanging above the counter.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd almost say you were stalking me," he grumbles under his breath. "Hey, one curry rice for me."

Huh, he's really here as a customer. Akira almost considers the idea that he got hunted down for Phantom Thief activity, but the only interactions they've had were concerning food, so that's just Akira's paranoia talking. "Got it."

Library Kid gives him a sharp, guarded glance. "Why do you work everywhere?"

"Why do you show up at all my jobs?" Akira shoots back. He scoops the appropriate serving of rice onto the plate, stares for a moment, and then scoops an extra serving onto the plate.

"I dunno, I like food?" Library Kid shrugs in such an exaggerated way that makes Akira think he's just as bizarrely confused about meeting this many times as Akira. "Geez, why are you everywhere? What's next, a drag bar?" His nose twitches and his brow furrows, like he's trying to think of the most unlikely place that Akira would work at.

Akira stays silent and scoops a generous portion of steaming curry onto Library Kid's plate. Sojiro won't mind, business is slow and he likes feeding everyone who comes through the door anyway.

"Edward Elric," the teen says out of the blue as Akira sets down his plate along with utensils. Akira blinks at him blankly, and a few seconds more than necessary pass by before it hits Akira that he's introducing himself.

"Kurusu Akira," he replies.

"Great, nice to meet you, non-stalker Kurusu Akira," Elric says, stuffing a really large bite of curry into his mouth. "Wow, this curry fucks," he remarks, then stuffs another. "Good to finally not call you Beef Bowl Guy."

"Good to finally not call you Library Kid."

"Why do you call me Library Kid anyway? I'm not even a kid." The last line is said in such a way that Akira thinks he's trying to convince himself rather than anything else.

"You bumped into me in Shibuya and the first thing you said was 'where's the library' and then left."

A considering look comes over Elric's face, then realisation. "You're the one who didn't even know where the library is!"

Akira splutters. "You're the one who asked me where the library is!"

Elric shovels the last bite of his curry into his mouth — he's already done? — and points a wet spoon at Akira. "Yeah, but I was asking for directions. Most people should know where their local library is!"

Akira throws his hands up in defeat. "Why would you want to go to the library anyway?"

Elric arches an eyebrow like he's asking the most incredulous question on the planet. "To do research, what else?"

"You're a kid!"

"I'm sixteen!" Elric nearly shrieks.

Akira pauses. Looks at Elric, who's a full head shorter than him. Blinks. Points at himself.

"I'm sixteen."

Elric howls in indignation. "Monsters, all of you! Freaks of nature! I can't stand it!" He throws down a few coins on the counter, enough to cover the meal and then some. "I'll be back for more curry!"

And he's gone again, hands stuffed into his pockets like the moodiest teenager Akira's ever met.

The entire encounter didn't even last fifteen minutes.

One week later, Akira finds Elric at the booth closest to the entrance of Leblanc, surrounded by towers of books and sheets of notes in chicken scratch handwriting of a language he doesn't recognise, mixed with a generous portion of English and Japanese.

The spines of the books are frighteningly thick and slandered with intimidating titles like Stability of Phantom Wormholes and Espitomology and Cognition and The Emergent Multiverse. Interestingly enough, the book that Elric is currently pouring over is a fiction novel in English, and judging by the few lines he can see over the towers of books, it's not very good.

"Research?"

Elric grumbles something inaudible, looks over his notes again, then scribbles something. "What does it look like to you, dickhead?"

Akira opts to ignore the insult. "Why are you doing it here anyway?"

"Cos the librarian kicked me out." Before Akira can open his mouth to question that, Elric continues, "She said I need to eat and breathe air that's not occupied by books, otherwise, the next time she'll see me is when I'm a corpse under piles of books." He rolls his eyes. The only thing that's missing is the air quotes, but his hands are too busy scribbling notes in three to five languages and flipping through the very crowded, sticky noted fiction novel.

"Huh" is all that Akira can find in him to say. Akira should be the last person thinking this, considering his experience with being labelled as a delinquent, but Elric is really pushing the limits of stereotypical delinquency. Blonde hair, foul language, rude attitude, topped with a short fuse. The idea that Elric frequents the library to the point where the librarian thinks he'll die and forget all bodily needs clashes harshly with the delinquent idea.

"Boss said I can take up space to research," Oblivious to Akira's inner thoughts, Elric steamrolls ahead. He jabs a thumb at the empty bar, where Sojiro is probably out for a smoke or a grocery run. Akira belatedly realises that Elric and Akira are left alone in the cafe. Does Sojiro trust him that much? "And that he'll let me start work next week, which is great because I want to learn that curry recipe and bring it home."

Sojiro is hiring him?

Akira blinks in silence at these revelations. "Huh," he repeats. The onslaught of exams completely fried his brain from the past few days and the fact that he has to work with someone in Leblanc isn't really hitting him, even though said future coworker is slamming him with a sledgehammer about that fact.

"Yeah, yeah. Looking forward to working with you and all that," Elric says, waving a hand in dismissal. Wow, this guy's an asshole. Why did Sojiro decide to hire him?

Just to be a dick back, Akira snatches the fiction novel off Elric's hands — "Hey!" — and looks at the cover. Beyond Worlds For You by Isshiki Wakaba, complete with obnoxious pink and red hearts slapped on the entire cover.

Akira doesn't realise the significance of the book until way, way later.