Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Demonic Misadventure ❯ Alphonse ( Chapter 7 )

Zeal & Nightmare: *warp in*

 

Envy: Why is she here?! *points to Nightmare*

 

Nightmare: Because. *smirks*

 

Envy: -.-;;

 

Aku: ENVY-KUUUUUN!!! *glomps Envy*

 

Envy: WACK!!!

 

Miranda: Awwww. ^^ Cuuuute!!

 

Dante: You're scary at some points…

 

Miranda: Who? Me???

 

Dante: …to others.

 

Miranda: Heeey. What's that supposed to mean?

 

Zeal: Shut up, sis. We're starting in a minute.

 

Miranda: So? That's then, not now! *CLUNK* OWCHIE!! @_@

 

Zeal: *wielding her frying pan* Any more smartassed comments?!

 

Dante: Uhh… not here.

 

Solo: None.

 

Aku: Nuh-uh.

 

Envy: … *meekly raises hand*

 

Zeal: Yes?!

 

Envy: Uh… what's the chapter about?

 

Zeal: *blink* … *blink* Good question.

 

Envy, Miranda, Solo and Dante: *tumble to the ground anime-style*

 

Aku: …??? *blinks curiously, poking Envy with her sword*

 

Envy: Why do ya always pick me for that?

 

Aku: …I dunno.

 

Nightmare: *sweatdrops* Didn't you say on the way here this was about the blonde brat?!

 

Zeal: Huh?? … Oh! That's right! *rears back and sends everyone flying through the portal with her frying pan*

 

Aku: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

 

Envy: GAAAAAAAAAH!!

 

Solo: ITAAAAAIIIIIIII!!!

 

Dante: YAAA-HOOOOO!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 7: Alphonse

 

Aku, as usual, was as chipper as could be, skipping ahead in front of the trio, though her slightly crooked way of walking caused a couple of people to look up in surprise. Solo and Dante didn't seem to attract much attention, save that of several passing females.

 

Actually… Envy was the victim of similar looks, though with him, it varied between females and males, which was starting to work on his nerves.

 

Aku almost tripped over her shoelaces, several times in a row, and yet she never actually hit the ground. Somehow, she constantly managed to stay up only just, before skipping ahead again. It was pretty hilarious to see several people try to catch the almost falling girl, only to see her skipping back onto her feet without any help. That was good for a few snickers.

 

But that began to bore pretty quickly.

 

“So where exactly are we going?” he finally asked.

 

“Well, first things first,” Solo said simply, walking a little faster and grabbing Aku by her shoulder (“Oy!”) stopping just outside some sort of restaurant/gameshop. “We seriously gotta get some meat on those bones of yours, girl.”

 

“I'm fine!” Aku protested, but she seemed a little unsure of herself. Not for lying, but because she probably didn't want to eat because of what she was.

 

Dante rolled his eyes. “No, you're not kid. You weigh little to nothing, you seriously gotta eat.”

 

Aku pouted sadly, before looking to Envy with teary eyes. Envy sweatdropped a little, before rubbing the back of his head a little. “Well uh… that is to say…”

 

Solo sighed and promptly picked up Aku (not without protest). “Let's just hurry before they're sold out already!”

 

Aku eventually stopped wailing, realizing she couldn't win. She was outnumbered with three-to-one.

 

And to make it worse; they were all boys.

 

 

 

As Envy had already thought, the place was a combination of a restaurant and a gameshop, for when the kids were done eating. That way, they wouldn't be a bother to their parents, and Envy wouldn't blame `em.

 

The games didn't really interest him that much. What did, was how Aku was shoveling her 16th bowl of miso ramen into her mouth. For some time, Aku had seriously protested against eating, refusing everything she was offered. But that was before Solo had ordered some ramen for himself. Aku had instantly perked to attention at the mention of ramen, and snatched away Solo's breakfast when it had arrived, gobbling it down in mere seconds and slurping up the soup with her hair almost hanging in the burning liquid.

 

Solo hadn't been that bothered and just ordered another bowl for himself (making sure to order two more for Aku while he was at it). Envy was taking small bites off his piece of toast, now drenched in yolk, while keeping his eyes on the small Demon with the large appetite. It was almost like she had a bottomless pit for a stomach.

 

“Seconds please!!” Aku chirped happily, holding out her now empty bowl.

 

“I think that was more than seconds…” Envy mumbled a little as a waiter came to bring the girl another bowl, taking the other away. Aku'd already dug in even before the guy'd left.

 

Regardless of how slow he ate, he still finished earlier than Aku or Solo. Dante was nowhere to be seen, so he decided to explore for a minute.

 

Many of the children were playing simple games, like Twister, Monopoly and other board games, but there were also several harder games, like virtual (motor-) racing, skiing, and even shooter games. Oddly enough, there were no slots for money, and he saw no one walk around with a wallet or some cash stashed away somewhere. It was weird…

 

At a certain point, Envy passed the arcades, and suddenly found himself overwhelmed by the amount of sound drumming in his ears. Scanning around, he spotted several of the same type of contraptions, each showing about the same kind of screens, along with a number of eight arrows in front of it and two horizontal poles behind them.

 

As he looked around again, he spotted a crowd a little bit away. Quirking a brow, he started toward it, but found himself having a bit of trouble seeing what was happening.

 

Of course, that didn't stop him for long, and he dropped to the ground and started crawling through people's legs in order to get to the first row of whatever was so interesting. Finally reaching said row, he stood up, ignoring the people behind him and looking on, blinking in surprise.

 

Two girls were dancing in front of one of the contraptions, and while one of them was radiating confidence, the other was, for lack of better words, screwing up, big time. The girl screwing up had wavy, dark brown shoulder-length hair, and he could just make out a set of dark brown eyes (well, one of the set). She was dressed about the same as Envy, and he finally realized why Dante had picked his (Envy's) outfit.

 

The other girl had soot-black hair and piercing emerald eyes, which were shimmering with excitement as she stomped her feet on the four arrows she was poised over.

 

Envy took one look on the screen, and began to understand as he saw arrows flashing across the screen, on the beat of the music coming from the contraption.

 

 

 

Iyaiyai, I'm your little butterfly

 

Green, black, and blue, make the colors in the sky

 

Iyaiyai, I'm your little butterfly

 

Green, black, and blue, make the colors in the sky

 

 

 

After that, there was a bit more of “Iyaiyai” before the song came to an end. The brown-haired girl sighed in relief and leaned back across the pole behind her, while the other girl just stretched her legs, a merry smile on her face.

 

Envy watched as something began to scroll over the screen. The brown-haired girl groaned as it stopped. “NO!! Not C again!!”

 

“Whee!! Triple A's again!!” the black-haired girl chirped, making a bit of a pirouette as she said it. “Sorry girl. You just need more practice.”

 

“Yeah, I know…”

 

“Pff. That wasn't that hard!”

 

The two girls whipped around to face Envy, who had his hands stuffed in his pockets and was looking at them with his Envy-smirkâ„¢. The brown-haired girl bit her lip worriedly, but the other girl looked a bit pissed.

 

“Well!! If you think you're so tough! Come up here and try me on!!”

 

Envy hadn't counted on that to happen, so he was a little confused about what to do. That is… until…

 

“Unless you're scared, of course… Scaredy-cat!!!” she shouted with a wide grin on her face, and Envy felt a vein begin to pulse on his forehead. He'd been called a scaredy-cat one too many times, and this was the last straw.

 

“I accept your challenge!!”

 

 

 

Though he wasn't sure how the game was supposed to go, he was sure it wouldn't be that hard, as long as he hit the proper arrows at the right time. The girl was using her feet to pick a song, obviously knowing which one to use.

 

Envy wasn't that familiar with songs, so he figured he'd just watch the arrows. Finally the girl had picked and hopped up and down a few times as the screen was loading, before standing on her mark.

 

Envy did the same (though he didn't hop) and watched the screen silently. What he didn't know, was that the girl had set the levels to Heavy, which was probably the toughest level to finish. Not to mention that the song was gonna be hard too.

 

As the arrows began to zoom up the screen, Envy paled and did his best to keep up, but was finding it a bit hard to do so. He was doing pretty good for a beginner though, and he tried to ignore the girl beside him, who was almost calmly stomping her feet down on the arrows. She probably knew the song by heart already.

 

 

 

It seemed to take hours, before the song came to an end, and Envy's knees almost buckled under his weight. He had somehow managed to keep up, but he wasn't about to ask how.

 

As he looked up at the scores, he had to suppress his urge to strangle the machine. “C…” he grumbled.

 

The girl had an A, not as good as the previous song, but still way better than Envy.

 

“Hey, not bad, rookie!” she suddenly said, making Envy look up in surprise. “This is one of the harder songs. I didn't manage this one until I practiced for five months. And even then, I constantly got an E.”

 

For a moment, he glowered, before everyone looked up in surprise.

 

The girl choked on air. “The Twins are here!!”

 

Envy blinked, looking at her, before turning around as the crowd began to step back, and nearly choked himself.

 

The two girls walking over were obviously twins, but… at the same time, they weren't identical in the least.

 

One of them looked downright evil, the other… well, disinterested, maybe.

 

The “evil” sister had a long mass of dark violet, almost black, hair, and a set of vicious red, serpent-like eyes. She was part-Demon, he could tell. The massive fangs visible when she grinned almost hungrily gave her away almost immediately, as did the sharp nails on her hands.

 

The other sister had, unlike her “evil twin”, stark-white hair and shivering icy eyes, also serpent-like. He couldn't really tell if she was part demon too, though her eyes already suggested it.

 

The evil twin, spotted someone reaching out to her, and whipped around and hissed furiously, making the girl scream and leap back. Snickering icily, she straightened up --- only to get a smack from her sister. “ITAI!!”

 

“Still causing trouble, eh girls?” a familiar voice suddenly said, as Dante popped out from behind Envy (`When did that happen?!' Envy wondered in surprise).

 

“Dante,” the two chorused.

 

“Same ol', same ol',” the whitehead responded quietly, and Envy just spotted the girl's fangs. “Yourself?”

 

Dante just shrugged. “Just catching up with an old friend,” he said, gesturing to a man that had stepped up beside him.

 

Envy looked over --- and almost tumbled over.

 

Standing there, was Al!! However, not as the set of armor he'd known him; no, this Al was as real as humanly possible. His short blonde hair and copper eyes couldn't be mistaken for those of another, and he was dressed in some simple trousers and a white shirt. He seemed to be around his late-twenties, early-thirties. Smiling a little, he raised a hand and waved meekly, just like the armored Al had done numerous times before.

 

The Twins just nodded to him, before the evil twin said: “So… You still chicken or what?”

 

“No, I managed to get better. …A little.”

 

The evil twin smirked wickedly. “Reeheheheheheheally now?” she questioned.

 

The other sibling smirked as well. “Sounds to me like you're challenging us.”

 

Dante smirked. “Actually…”

 

“We are,” Al finished.

 

 

 

Envy, like many of the others, were watching the four contestants take their marks, and the girls were doing a few quick stretches, but were otherwise silent, safe their grins that never left, revealing just how similar they really were. Al and Dante were talking to each other for a bit, before taking their places.

 

Dante cracked his knuckles, though that didn't seem to make much sense. Of course, Dante hardly ever made sense as far as Envy knew.

 

Al blew in his hands, seeming to say a prayer of kinds, before getting ready as the screen loaded.

 

And then the music began. At first, things weren't that exciting, and more than a little boring… but suddenly the pace began to speed up, IMMENSELY, and he, along with several others were vaguely wondering if their feet were even touching the ground. The girls were dancing to the beat in perfect synch, like they were sharing each other's thoughts. Al and Dante were doing a little less better, but they somehow managed to keep up, though Al was biting his lip worriedly from time to time.

 

Envy wasn't paying attention to the arrows, and was instead trying to follow the dancers' feet as they touched the arrows to the beat, which seemed almost impossible.

 

“Salieri Strikes Back…” he heard from besides him, spotting the girl he'd `fought' against earlier. “That's got to be the hardest song ever… over 2000 steps and 5 minutes long… Almost impossible to pull off.”

 

“I noticed…” Envy mumbled.

 

Those five minutes seemed to last an eternity, and Envy eventually lost track of the number of steps, but finally, the song ended… and Al promptly collapsed, while Dante bent over to lean on his knees, panting for breath. Yet the Twins seemed to be fine.

 

They watched the scores, and the girls smirked when they were revealed. “Tied,” they chorused. “Impressive.”

 

Dante just smirked, while Al just lay spread-eagled on the ground.

 

 

 

“She ate HOW much?!” Al asked, not really believing what he was hearing.

 

Solo just smiled a little. “About 40 bowls.”

 

Envy whistled. He'd known the girl was hungry, but that was just ridiculous. Aku was just grinning brightly, kicking her feet about happily and obviously not aware of what she had done. Or maybe she had, and was enjoying that immensely.

 

“Esh… Well, that'll probably cost a buck or two-hundred…” Dante grumbled, heading off to pay the bill.

 

Envy looked at Al, who had collected his coat, which was a dark blue copy of Ed's. Or at least… what he'd been used to from the shrimp he'd known. Unable to hold it in, he asked: “So, how's Ed doing?”

 

Al looked up in surprise, as did Solo actually. “Well… uh… I… I don't know…” Al mumbled, looking down. “Niisan's away most of the time… I haven't really seen him lately…” Looking up, he asked: “Do you know him or something?”

 

Envy was tempted to shout “Yes!” but decided not to, and instead, said: “You could say that…”

 

Dante returned a little later. “Alright! Enough dawdling! Let's move!!

 

 

 

-OWARI

 

 

 

Envy: WAIT A BLOODY MINUTE!!!

 

Miranda: Huh?

 

Zeal & Nightmare: Now what?!

 

Envy: What the hell are you doing in the story?!!?

 

Miranda: Because it's fun!! ^_^

 

Aku: YAY!! ^o^

 

Envy: --;;

 

Dante: Interesting… I'm getting curious about how this'll work out.

 

Solo: Same here.

 

Envy: Well I'm not! It stinks!! *WHAP* GACK!!!

 

Miranda: *holding a dead fish* CHAAAAAAARGE!!!

 

*battle ensues… again*

 

Dante: WAHOO!!! *dives in*

 

Solo: Hey wait up!! *hops in*

 

Zeal: Oy…

 

Nightmare: …Are we the only sane ones here?

 

Zeal: Since when were you ever sane?!

 

Nightmare: … My bad. Never.