InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ In Pursuit of the Green Dragon ❯ Mistaken Identity ( Chapter 22 )

20. Mistaken Identity

They split up the chores with the efficiency born of their many travels together, and put the newcomers to work gathering firewood and drawing water from a nearby stream for whatever stew Kagome planned to concoct from her collection of heavy metal cylinders.

Inuyasha made a quick patrol around the perimeter of their camping area to ensure that no youkai lurked nearby, waiting to steal the precious jewel shards that Kagome carried.

When he rejoined the others, Alphonse was kneeling next to a neatly-arranged pile of tinder and kindling, examining Miroku's flint and steel in the last of the daylight, as if he'd never seen the simple loop of metal and piece of battered stone before.

"It goes over your fingers, like this," Kagome said, indulgently, slipping the loop over Alphonse's knuckles. "And then you just sort of hit the flint until you get a spark. Don't forget to hold it near the tinder, though," she added, with a wry smile.

Inuyasha remembered her first misadventures with trying to light fires, and from the slight smirk on Miroku's face, he was remembering, too.

"Hey, Kagome," Inuyasha said, sitting down at the base of a nearby tree and leaning back against its trunk. "Why aren't you using those 'match' things that you always bring from your world?"

She gave an apologetic laugh. "They're still at the village, in my other backpack. I forgot to repack then."

"And we didn't bring any matches, either," Edward added. "You know how you always forget at least one important thing when packing in a hurry...?"

"I think there's an easier way to do this." Alphonse looked up, pulling off the metal loop and handing it and the chunk of flint back to Miroku. "If you'll strike a spark on my signal, Miroku-sama," he said politely, then glanced over to Kagome. "Kagome-san, can I borrow your shards?"

Inuyasha stiffened in alarm. No one touched Kagome's shards, not even him!

But she didn't hesitate as she reached under her shirt and brought up the chain with its pendant vial.

Alphonse had grabbed a twig and quickly sketched a small circle with various sorcerous symbols.

Edward cast an uneasy glance in Inuyasha's direction. "Al, I don't think this is a good idea," he murmured.

Inuyasha agreed, though he would have let a crab-youkai tear off his lips before he said anything.

"It'll be fine, Brother," Alphonse replied, brightly. "How do you think we re-opened the well when your transmutation failed?"

Failed...? Edward failed? All--all this was for fucking nothing?

Inuyasha's gaze dropped to his fingers with their weak human nails. He suddenly felt like throwing up.

Except that would make him look weak.

He clenched his jaw so hard his teeth ached, and swallowed convulsively. I couldn't do anything. I failed Kagome...

In unison, Alphonse and Kagome touched their fingertips to the pattern in the dirt, and rose-colored light flared.

"Miroku-sama, if you please...?" Al said, frowning in concentration.

The monk deftly struck a spark from the flint and steel, and an instant later, the kindling was ablaze.

Souta and Edward scrambled to feed the fire with larger pieces of wood.

And Inuyasha was left with the unsettling realization that Alphonse was just as powerful a sorcerer as Edward. It had been easier to think of Alphonse as Edward's responsibility, his younger brother to protect and watch over. But to see Alphonse so powerful and confident in his own right...

He opened the well. He's the one who returned Kagome to this time, not me.

Meanwhile, Souta appeared to be highly excited by Alphonse's demonstration, and he was peppering the two brothers with questions about something called "combustion."

"Look," Edward was saying, in a slightly exasperated tone. "Fire alchemy is the most difficult kind of alchemy, because it requires so much control. Imagine what would happen if your oxygen ratios were off--"

"Here's the basic transmutation circle for producing flame," Alphonse interjected, eagerly, taking a stick and rapidly sketching out a series of interlocking circles and triangles, with what looked like a gout of flame and a stylized lizard in a patch of smooth dirt next to the campfire. "It creates a stoichiometric mixture with just enough air to completely burn the available fuel."

Souta nodded, and Miroku leaned in, fascinated by this new knowledge.

Kagome had turned her attention to helping Sango open the metal food cylinders, but even they looked interested in the explanation, which sounded like gibberish to Inuyasha.

"Now, when you're channeling energy through the transmutation circle, the hardest part is avoiding incomplete combustion," Ed said, picking up where Alphonse had left off, his earlier hesitancy apparently forgotten. "That's when you can't concentrate enough oxygen to allow the fuel--wood sucks as fuel, by the way, hydrocarbons are much better--to react completely with the oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and water--"

Inuyasha leaned back and let his head rest against the tree trunk. All this talk of sorcery was making his head throb, an insistent ache building behind his eyes and above his brows.

"Brother," interrupted Al, "I'm sure Professor Higurashi knows--"

At the same time, Souta said, dryly, "I do have some basic knowledge of physics, Edward-kun."

Ed sputtered to a halt. "Yeah, sorry." His fair cheeks reddened. "I forgot you know this stuff inside and out. I kinda got used to having to explain the basics of rocket fuel to our sponsors when I was in Munich."

"No offense taken," Souta said, graciously. "Now, according to what you've just told me, this transmutation circle is actually the equation for concentrating oxygen in the air. Now, assuming that alchemy follows the basic equation for combustion--"

Taking the stick from Ed, he wrote out a string of characters in the dirt next to the transmutation circle: CH4 + 2O2 + 7.52N2 --> CO2 + 2H2O + 7.52N2 + heat

"--how do you usually ignite the flame without matches or flint-and-steel?"

"Colonel Mustang--Brother's commanding officer at home, he was known as the Flame Alchemist --had gloves made from a special kind of cloth. When he snapped his fingers, poof!" Alphonse snapped his fingers, and simulated the resulting explosion.

Bet it wasn't as impressive as my Kaze no Kizu, Inuyasha thought, with a silent sneer. He let his hand curl around Tetsusaiga, which was leaning against his shoulder. Tomorrow you'll work for me, won't you?

There was a flash of movement beyond Edward and Souta. It was Kagome, empty canvas bucket held in her hand. "Tea, anyone? I'll just go down to the stream for some water."

Inuyasha gathered his strength before the effort of rising to his feet. But he was too slow--Alphonse had already jumped up. "I'll go with you, Kagome-san," he called.

Inuyasha found himself too tired to protest having his guard duties usurped.

But he was not too tired to watch the two of them together.

As they walked away from camp, he saw that Kagome was smiling and polite, like she was to everyone but him (and he was glad of it--her honest temper tantrums and shouting matches with him were something real, not the mask she showed that wimpy wolf Kouga or the others).

But Alphonse...Inuyasha swallowed hard at the way the tall boy looked at Kagome, how he smiled at her, glowing with joy like a paper lantern with a candle burning at its heart.

Inuyasha knew that feeling well, though years of wary self-control had taught him how to hide it from everyone. Alphonse, foreigner that he was, apparently felt no need to hide his feelings.

Edward's younger brother was in love with Kagome. His Kagome.

But how did she feel about Alphonse?

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes, studying them, recalling the bits and pieces of their interaction that he'd witnessed over the course of the afternoon.

She was polite to that boy, yes, but with an odd hesitation, something that was nearly a flinch when he moved too close. Had that tall bastard tried something...?

Yet, she was also comfortable enough with him to tease him a bit while they were walking this afternoon. And from what little he'd overheard, she and Alphonse had both been guests in Souta's home for the week that she'd been stranded on the other side of the well.

More than enough time to form a friendship...or had it turned into something more?

Fuck. Inuyasha felt a little nauseous at the thought. Alphonse was not only a full-blooded human, but he was also a scholar and an accomplished sorcerer, like his brother. Not to mention that Alphonse was much better-spoken, polite, and charming than Inuyasha's rough hanyou self.

How could Inuyasha possibly compete against someone like that?

With an effort, Inuyasha tried to suppress the surge of jealousy, but he knew that he had just spent the past two days being crankier and ruder than usual to everyone around him, but particularly Kagome.

He was probably driving her away, but he just couldn't help himself.

Better to appear rude than weak. If they were angry with him, at least they respected him. He couldn't bear the thought of his friends pitying him.

Anything was better than that, he told himself, but the reassurance sounded hollow and false.

Against his will, he remembered how it had felt, waking up next to Kagome, looking at her sleeping face, feeling the warmth of her body next to his. And he wanted that again, wanted to be able to put his arms around her, wanted to feel her heartbeat against his fingertips and the palm of his hand, and the soft brush of her hair against his neck.

He wanted her, but it seemed that all he could do was drive her away.

Then he caught sight of Edward. The sorcerer was watching his brother and Kagome, too, his mouth drawn down in a tight line of pain, his eyes shadowed with aching loss.

A spurt of anger ran through Inuyasha.

How dare that bastard Edward look miserable at the prospect of having Kagome as his sister-in-law?

He should be happy and grateful, damn it, not looking as miserable as Inuyasha felt...

"We're almost out of firewood," Edward said abruptly.

Scrambling to his feet, he turned on his heel, obliterating the scratched patterns in the earth, and strode away into the woods.

ooOoo

"I seek the son of the Inu-no-Taisho," Envy said. "He has long silver hair, and travels with a human girl and a small youkai."

His tone was conversational enough, but he was in dragon form, and had one clawed foot wrapped firmly around a terrified young farmer. They were at the edge of a rice paddy not far from the Bone-eater's Well.

The villager's eyes widened, but he shook his head wildly.

Envy grinned. "Don't know, or just don't want to tell me?"

He tightened his grip the tiniest bit, and let a claw pierce flesh. It slid home in that soft patch of flesh between the bottom of the ribcage and top of the hipbone.

The man screamed, and the sharp, scent of fresh urine joined the rusty smell of fresh blood.

Envy waited, not very patiently, until the scream died away to whimpers. Then he repeated the question.

"G-gone!" gasped the man. He was sweating profusely, though his skin felt unpleasantly cold and clammy. "Inuyasha and the others left today. They took that road, dragon-sama!" He pointed, his arm shaking with terror.

Inuyasha. What a stupid name.

Envy flung the human away with a disdainful flick of his wrist, ignoring the way the man's shriek silenced abruptly after hitting a tree trunk several meters away. Without any youki to feed his red stones, a mere human wasn't worth the trouble it took to eat one.

Envy wiped his forefoot fastidiously in a clump of grass, and took to the sky. The sun was sinking rapidly in the west, but he wasn't overly concerned. Homunculi had excellent night vision, whatever shape they took.

Envy flew silently through the orange-stained sky, following the rutted dirt road that led north. His eyes strained in the twilight to catch sight of any figures along the road, or any spot of firelight through the trees below.

He found them just about where he expected a half-day's walk to end up.

Circling silently overhead he studied the group. No little girl and no little imp, but several adult humans.

And one silver-haired--ah, that fucking miserable monk!

It wasn't him.

The exhausted-looking kid slumped against a tree bore only the most superficial resemblance to the proud, powerful taiyoukai that Naraku had showed Envy in his magic mirror.

And the silver-haired kid wasn't even a full youkai. Envy had seen enough hanyou during his time here to recognize one of the pathetic creatures when he saw one. His soul would be useless.

There was nothing for Envy here.

Then, in the next instant, he caught sight of two other humans, coming into the clearing.

Some human girl and...and...

Was that really Alphonse-fucking-Elric, both hands occupied with lugging a full bucket of water?

Envy hung in the air for a second, gaping. How did he get here...?

Didn't matter. Because if Alphonse Elric was here, then the Fullmetal Shrimp couldn't be far away.

With a triumphant scream, Envy folded his wings and dove, deadly claws extended.

Canon and Story Notes

All hail Wikipedia for a succinct explanation of the physics behind flames, fuel-air ratios, and combustion. I'm not a chemist or physicist, so any errors in extracting the pertinent info for Ed's explanation of fire alchemy are mine alone.

Thanks, kokoronagomu, for serving as my beta reader!