Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Bluebird's Fantasy ❯ Out West ( Chapter 7 )

One Year Later

 

Armelia glanced at sidelong at the handsome young man seated at the outdoor café table, reading a worn book with pages falling out. He looked different. Maybe an Easterner with his hair and eye colour. Tossing her blonde hair back, she tried to get his attention. No use. He was absorbed in his book. Why was it that all the cute guys out there were so nerdy? Calling over a waiter, she whispered something and pointed at the handsome dark-haired man.

 

He tried to concentrate, he really did. But time and time again the words `This is stupid' kept going through his mind. Why did Rena have to write an entire code based on some stupid comic books?! A waiter tapped him on the shoulder, surprising him horribly. Shocked, he flung the book up into the air, sending the waiter's tray crashing to the floor. Quickly catching the tattered book and pocketing it, he began to apologize profusely. He was such a klutz. “Sorry! I'm really Sorry!” he said. He was met with a blank stare. Sasuke thought for a bit. Damn…he'd been speaking the wrong language.

“I'm really sorry sir,” he said in fluent, unaccented Western, “I'll fix it right away.”

“F-Fix it?”

Sasuke with a piece of chalk was already drawing a transmutation circle around the broken pieces. Pale blue sparks and electricity crackled, and there was one perfectly restored tray and cup. Quickly regaining his composure, the waiter pointed inside the building.

“The young lady there sends you this coffee and hopes you will join her.”

Oh God not again…

“Ah…I'd throw out the coffee, I'll…I'll join her…”he sighed.

Picking up his books and papers he walked over and sat down. The woman was staring at him with the biggest smile ever, as if he was some sort of exhibit or something.

“I just saw you do that Wonderful trick!” gushed the girl.

Struggling not to say a scathing remark, or run away, he smoothed the ends of his book.

“It's not a trick, it's alchemy…”he said his eyebrow twitching slightly.

“You're an ALCHEMIST?” she squealed clapping her hands together.

His eyebrow twitched again. He couldn't take this…he had to get out of here…

“What are you reading?”

“Notes.”

“May I?” she asked extending a hand.

He raised an eyebrow, there was probably no way she could read the characters.

“Go ahead, knock yourself out…really…” he muttered.

She couldn't make head or tail of this book. It wasn't the words, well it was. The entire writing seemed to be characters from another world or runes for that matter.

“It looks very complicated. I don't think a girl like me, could understand this stuff”

Despite himself, he smirked. At last she was getting somewhere!

“Rena would be very upset to hear that.”

She almost spat out her drink. `RENA'?! A woman?!

“Who is Rena?” she asked immediately.

He pulled out a photo from his wallet. Was this his girlfriend? A cute blonde girl of maybe 16 years wearing a blue military uniform and the military cap at a sloppy angle grinned out of the photo, alongside the younger self of the young man in front of her. From the uniform, she guessed that the man was a Major and the girl was a Lieutenant-Colonel.

“That's my little sister,” he said tapping the picture, “If she heard you say that, she'd probably have chucked you across the street.”

“A girl like her was a Lieutenant-Colonel?” she asked incredulously.

He looked surprised.

“Oh you can tell her rank?”

“My father's a military man. You're a major?”

He nodded stiffly.

“What's your name?”

“Kusanagi Sasuke…wait…no…Sasuke Kusanagi…” he struggled to think of it.

“My name is Armelia Kastlegard”

“Nice to meet you Kastlegard-san” he said getting up and grabbing his things.

“You're from the East?”

He left quickly, without answering. She stared after him. She had to learn more about him…

Back home, he had never had girl trouble. But as soon as he had stepped off the train…WHAM! These Western girls were crazy. They were pathetic, simpering and fluttering their eyelashes…he shivered at the thought. He kept telling himself that he had grown up with abnormal women. But then again, there were tons of women in the army and those who weren't were just as aggressive. Sakura-chan for example, was perfectly capable of hauling a full grown man off into the hospital single-handed, or even beating the crap out of him. Here the men were strange, as they got offended so easily, he had offered to help a man build something and had nearly gotten his head bitten off. Sometimes he wondered WHY he was here, but then Rena's journal would remind him. The legend concerning the Homunculi originated here, there was something about a vanishing city. In his room, above a store, he tackled the code again. He didn't get it. The entire code was based off the adventures of two alchemist brothers and their search for the philosopher's stone over 300 years ago, and on top of that, the comic book version. He never really did understand Rena's obsession over those stupid comics, but now that he thought about it, you would have to have read and noticed every little detail about every single panel in those books…that's why it got on his nerves. A flutter at his window that an unwanted visitor had come in. He knew who it was.

“What is it Palm tree-san?” he asked boredly, without turning to face Envy.

 

The two of them were on first name terms now. They actually kind of got along pretty well. Well, better than Envy and Greed did. Sasuke had actually had a nice conversation with Envy once, and Envy sometimes brought Wrath/Rena along. Sasuke had managed to talk to Wrath a couple of times, to see if he could figure anything out from her. So far all he did find out, was that she didn't remember being Rena, or that he was her brother. It was as if the Homunculi were born without memories of the person they were. Envy was always present when these conversations were carried out, so if the conversation seemed to be getting out of the acceptable limits, he would stop it.

“Hey now Sasuke-chan, is that anyway to call a friend?” grinned Envy.

“If you'd tell me what the hell is going on, maybe, just maybe I'd consider you a friend.”

That was partially true and they both knew it.

“Oh, Veggie-head.”

“Well…that's a new one Sasuke-nii-chan!”

“Don't call me that,” growled Sasuke, glancing backwards at him.

Envy grinned at him.

“Well, I'm just asking, where's Wrath?”

Envy sat in the window and looked out.

“Not too far off, keeping watch.”

“On what?”

Envy stuck his tongue out at him

“Not telling!”

Sasuke glared at him. Envy decided to change the topic a bit.

“Well, to give you an update, Wrath has started thinking for herself a bit, thanks to you, that's a good thing you know,” he added looking at Sasuke.

“I've gotten sick of her asking me what to do every time there's something up,” he sighed. Sasuke nodded.

“Anything else happen?”

“Oh…well this has really nothing to do with us, so it's a harmless bit of information…She dumped an entire bucket of mushed up humans on Greed's head when she got mad…”

Sasuke had a shocked/disgusted face.

“HUMAN remains?”

Envy didn't seem to notice, or really care that he was shocked.

“We cleaned out our new home. Father's been having a mid-life crisis of some sort…”

 

Sasuke knew a bit of this `Father', he was apparently the one who created and controlled the Homunculi. Controlled, in a loose sense of the word, from what he gathered, the Seven Homunculi didn't exactly obey everything he said, in fact, they hardly ever did exactly as they were told to. Out of all of them, Sasuke had only met Envy, Greed, who he sometimes called Sunglasses, Gluttony and Wrath. He had yet to meet Lust, Sloth and Pride, and find out what they were capable of.

 

Suddenly, the shop owner's son, called up the stairs to Sasuke.

“Hey! Sasuke-san! There's some people here to see you!”

Envy glanced down to see who it was.

“It's a horde of women…”

“The West is insane…” sighed Sasuke, packing a bag.

Envy nodded sympathetically.

“You're telling me.”

Peering out the window Sasuke, looked worried.

“Ummm…Palm-tree…they've seen you!”

Cries of `There's a woman with him!' reached the window.

Envy glanced down at his apparel then up at Sasuke.

“Do I look that girly?”

Sasuke opened a door on the ceiling, and started climbing out.

“It's the skirt!” he called down as he ran out on the rooftops. Envy decided, not to use the door, but instead, jumped up, punching a hole through the roof. The two were running alongside each other.

“What are you doing? You can't die!” exclaimed Sasuke.

Envy shrugged slightly, “These women are strange. I probably would get killed quite a bit…” he said, jumping across rooftops. Both chanced a glance back. The women had made it to the roofs and were building makeshift bridges across the roof tops.

“Why are they chasing you anyway?”

“I dunno! All I know is that all of these ones are some women that approached me at some dumb café!”

Envy seemed to assess him.

“Well, you are pretty good looking…” Sasuke had a horrified look on his face.

“Compared to Greed and Gluttony…” The horrified look was replaced with a glare. Greed wasn't actually that bad looking, just Envy didn't like him.

Suddenly they realized they were surrounded.

“Khsaa…”swore Sasuke softly, “I can't believe I didn't notice this!”

Envy had clapped a hand to his eyes.

“I can't believe I got caught by a bunch of stupid human females!”

Suddenly there was a flash of golden light and an immense wall, erected itself around Envy and Sasuke. On top of it, kneeling, was a blonde girl, wearing an indecent outfit. A tight black sleeveless shirt that went up to just below her chest, a black skirt that only went up to her knees, and barely at that. She was barefoot, with black cloth shin-guards and gloves. Her body was most interesting. From an opposite building, she watched with her binoculars. It seemed to be an entire transmutation circle that went from her neck down.

“Wrath?! What the hell are you doing here??!” yelled the green haired youth of indeterminate gender, she had seen earlier. It sounded like a man, but it wore a skirt…Wrath? What kind of name was that?

 

“I'm saving your hide!” retorted Wrath irritably. Envy glared at her.

“I was worried…” she added softly.

“What about surveillance?”

“No longer necessary.”

Envy sighed. “You killed them didn't you?”

“No, that serial killer did. They fit the criteria of his method.”

“So…you killed them…” said Envy.

“Shut up.”

“Who are you telling to shut up? I'm older than you! You've been spending too much time with Greed!”

“Gomen…Nii-san”

“I told you not to call me that!” muttered Envy, glancing over at Sasuke. Sasuke looked upset. `Nii-san', Older Brother, was what Rena had called Sasuke. The human would just have to accept the fact that Wrath wasn't his little sister, she may look like her, but she's different.

A rock hit Envy's face.

“Ow,” he said, not meaning it. Suddenly spikes erupted from the wall, killing some of the women.

“Oy Wrath!” shouted Envy, “What the hell was that for?” he asked.

Wrath gave him a disapproving stare.

“What the hell are you doing, letting you get yourself hurt?” she retorted. Envy couldn't come up with a comeback to that. Humans were stupid, but these Westerners were in a whole other category. Envy glanced out into the night.

“Alright Wrath, let's go…Wrath?” he looked back and down. Wrath had just killed a couple more of the women, she was smiling, as she blew up some of them.

On top of starting to develop her own personality, Wrath had become quite a bloodthirsty little girl. The wrathful aspect of her had come out, magnified. Any insult, or slight action of aggression, was either interpreted as a threat or an incentive to fight. And when it came to fighting, Wrath usually won. Envy knocked Sasuke out with a swift blow to the back of his neck. Better for him not to see this bit about Wrath, the general idea he had about Homunculi was better for their and Father's purposes.

 

The girl stared openmouthed in horror at what she saw through the binoculars. The indecently dressed girl called Wrath, had jumped down and people had exploded. Could this girl be the serial killer who had been terrorizing the nation? The green thing and the blonde girl vanished just as she noticed a figure getting up. She focused her binoculars on it. Black haired, male, possibly 20, slight Eastern features, possibly mixed, he was wearing a military uniform. This could get interesting…