InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ In Pursuit of the Green Dragon ❯ The Final Shard ( Chapter 34 )

Kasama Village, 16th-century Japan

"Just exactly what is the deal with the kid here?" Ed asked, at last, jerking his chin in Kohaku's direction. "And why does he have to die?"

Sango, Kikyo, and the boy all exchanged dismayed glances. Ed imagined silent communication passing between them: No, I don't want to tell him. You tell him! No, you tell him!

"This is Naraku's doing," Sango answered at last, her tone clipped and flat, as if she were trying to press down any hint of emotion. She released her brother from her embrace and stepped back a little. "When I was--before I met up with Inuyasha, Kagome, and houshi-sama, I was a professional youkai-taijiya, like most of the adults in my village. We were hired by a certain daimyo to exterminate a spider youkai. My little brother had just completed his training as a youkai-taijiya, and Father brought him along. It was going to be his first mission. Instead, we were betrayed." She stopped, obviously fighting for control.

Ed saw Kohaku's guilty expression, and remembered how he had spent years wearing his own guilt like a too-tight jacket. It had constricted joy and breath and any movement except his forward charge to find the Philosopher's Stone so he could get Al's body back.

He wondered what had happened, what Kohaku had done. And despite his curious question, Ed wasn't really sure he wanted to know.

And what could he say to Kohaku? I understand what you're going through, kid. My brother spent years locked up in a suit of fucking armor--no sense of taste, no sense of smell, no real sense of touch--and it was all my fault.

"Naraku had disguised himself as the daimyo's heir, and he set us up. He knew I was the youngest and weakest one," Kohaku said bitterly. "He turned me into his puppet. When--when I came back to myself, everyone except Ane-ue was dead. I had killed them all. And then the daimyo ordered the guards to execute us. We were...very badly wounded." He lowered his head, so that his shock of messy dark brown hair hid the pain in his eyes. His hands clenched spasmodically into fists.

So, the kid thinks it was his fault, thought Ed, sympathetically. Yeah, I know that feeling.

"I thought Naraku was my friend at first." Sango took up the narrative when Kohaku's silence had stretched to an uncomfortable pause. "Since he tended my injuries. I returned home, only to discover that youkai had attacked my village in the absence of all the taijiya, and slaughtered everyone. Naraku told me that Inuyasha was responsible, and gave me a jewel shard. He promised it would lend me the strength to exact revenge." Sango swallowed hard, and her voice dropped to a near-whisper. "I was still very badly hurt, so I took the shard. I attacked Inuyasha, and Kagome, and houshi-sama, and I almost--"

"Don't flatter yourself, woman, you were half-dead from losing so much blood," Inuyasha interjected gruffly. "It's not as if you had a real chance against me."

The hanyou walked under the shrine gate, and leaned against one of the vermillion-painted pillars.

Kagome, Al, and Miroku were nowhere to be seen, and Ed surmised that they were still asleep in the guesthouse.

Kikyo's head snapped up at the sound of Inuyasha's voice, and Ed saw the two of them exchange a long, intense glance.

"I still can't believe that you forgave me," murmured Sango.

Inuyasha tore his gaze away from Kikyo, and gave what looked like an embarrassed shrug. "Nothing to forgive. You were tricked by that bastard Naraku. He's pulled that shit with all of us, at one time or another."

Okay, this is all interesting in a horrible kind of way, thought Ed. But…

"I still don't get why the kid has to die, if Sango-san was the one who was tricked into attacking you. Wait," he said, as a sudden thought struck him. "This isn't like how it works in Creta, back home, where the man of the family has to take responsibility for everyone's actions? Because that's a really stupid law, if you ask me…"

"What--?" Kohaku and Sango both gaped at him.

"You mean there are places where I could, say, steal something, but my father or husband would be punished for it?" asked Sango. "That sounds very unfair, Edward-san."

"You said it," Ed agreed, fervently. "And I'm not just saying that because I'm a man."

"No--no, it's not like that at all," Kohaku said, after a few moments spent with a knotted brow, contemplating the idea that Ed had raised. "It's because of my shard. Or, what taking my shard away means."

Sango was looking distressed again. Kikyo still looked preternaturally serene.

Ed waited, his curiosity aroused, and hoped that they would get to the point soon.

Kohaku took a deep breath. "I...I died from my injuries, and Naraku revived me by embedding a shard in my back."

Ed felt his brows rise. The jewel could bring back people from the dead? If only we'd known about the Jewel when we tried to revive Mother-- With an effort, he cut off his train of thought and forced his attention back to Kohaku.

"I don't remember much about the first few months," Kokaku was saying. "It was as if I were asleep, and dreaming strange dreams of living amongst youkai and doing Naraku's bidding. Every so often, I'd start to wake up, and realize that I really wasn't dreaming. At first, it was easier just--just to go back to sleep. I didn't remember who I was, or what I'd done. Naraku kept me as his slave, his...pet." He grimaced, looking like he'd just bitten into a piece of rotten food.

"Hey, Brother, Sango-san! Kagome-chan, you're awake? How did you get here so quickly?" Al looked as if he just woken up. His shirt was rumpled, his jacket was missing, and his short blond hair was sticking up in uneven tufts.

His sleepy expression vanished as he took a closer look at Kikyo. "Wait, you're not Kagome."

She shook her head, silently. Al said, a bit plaintively, "Brother, what's going on? Who are these people?"

"Hold on a moment, Al," Ed said, leaning forward to scrutinize Kohaku. "So, you died? And the shard revived you? And is keeping you alive?"

Kohaku nodded, and Ed frowned skeptically. Al's eyes grew wide, but he kept silent for now.

The kid looked perfectly healthy to Ed, a bit gaunt maybe, and definitely grimy from traveling, but otherwise, just a normal boy on the verge of adolescence.

"Are you sure about that?" Ed pressed. "I mean, you and Sango-san just told me that Naraku lied to you about a bunch of other important stuff."

Kohaku's eyes widened at Ed's words, as if he'd never considered the possibility before.

Sango said, sharply, "And what if Naraku didn't lie about this? We can't just take my brother's shard and--and hope for the best!"

"That's Sango's brother?" whispered Al. When Ed nodded, Al added, speculative, "Then the woman with him must be Inuyasha's old girlfriend." He looked oddly happy at this realization.

"Nevertheless," Kikyo addressed Sango, softly. "Kohaku's shard is the last one needed to make the jewel whole again." Her gaze was downcast.

"No," said Sango, stepping forward, and putting herself between her brother and the priestess. "No, you can't do this, Kikyo-sama. Please, I beg you!"

"Ane-ue, I have to," Kohaku said. "You know what I've done--what Naraku made me do!" His voice had gone hoarse, and he was staring at his sister's shoulder blades, the muscles in his jaw flexing. "I have to--no, I want to give Kikyo-sama my shard. It's the only way I can redeem myself!"

Sango didn't move, but Ed could see her eyes shining with unshed tears.

This isn't my business, Ed told himself. I've already fucked up enough here.

Guilt tasted like bitter gunmetal as he remembered what he had done to Inuyasha in the failed attempt to bring Al and Kagome through the well. Raising him over the lip of the well, afterwards, had been like lifting a corpse. Inuyasha had been utterly limp and cold, his tanned skin bleached to the grayish-white of dirty chalk, his long black hair trailing in the dirt and rice flour, blurring the useless lines and arcs traced there.

"Ever think that maybe dying is the easy way out, kid?" Ed heard himself say. Just couldn't keep out of this, could you, Fullmetal? mocked his internal voice.

Kohaku shot him an offended look. "What do you know about it?"

"Plenty," Ed replied. "And from personal experience." He lifted his right arm, and rolled back the cuff of his shirt, revealing the silver gleam of his automail wrist emerging from his rather grimy glove. "I won't bore you with the details about how I lost my arm and my leg--"

Ed saw Kohaku's skeptical gaze drop to Ed's trousers. With an internal sigh, he lifted his left pant leg to show the matching automail there. Kohaku's eyes widened.

"--but I can tell you, that when you've--" fucked up, uh, maybe I shouldn't use that kind of language around Sango's kid brother, "--done the unforgivable, it's harder, much harder, to tell yourself that you have to live, and try to make things right."

Kohaku gulped, and stared at the ground for a long moment. "And if you can't ever make things right?" he whispered, finally.

"Then you just have to find a way to live with that," Ed said, bluntly.

"Besides, Kohaku-kun," Al added, softly. "You don't want to make your big sister suffer, do you? I think she'd be very sad if you just...died." He gave the boy an encouraging smile, and ran his hand uncomfortably through his short blond hair, making it stick up even more wildly.

Sango nodded, and turning, placing a hand on her brother's shoulder. He sagged a little under her touch, his bluster gone. He looked like just a kid now, dressed in a short, ragged, blue yukata worn over leather armor similar to Sango's.

But he was as old--or as young-- as Ed had been when he'd taken the State Alchemist's exam, and started on his own quest for redemption. Old enough to bear the burden of his sins, and to decide what to do about them.

Ed saw Kikyo's expression became even more remote as she watched them. He wondered what she was thinking.

He glanced over at Inuyasha, saw how intently his gaze was fastened on the priestess, and knew exactly what he was thinking. And it wasn't longing for an old girlfriend, either, no matter what Al might be hoping. Ed was as intimately familiar with the various flavors of anguish and guilt as a gourmand was with vintages.

More unfinished business, he thought.

"But even if I want to live, how can I?" Kohaku said, sounding weary and defeated. "I still have to give Kikyo-sama my jewel shard. Or bad things will just keep happening."

An idea began to form in the back of Ed's mind. Maybe, just maybe, he could finally be of some use here--

"So, Naraku told you that the jewel shard embedded in your back is what sustains your life. It's what binds your soul to your body, correct?" Ed asked, carefully.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Al stiffen. In the next instant, he felt his brother's hand clamp around the bicep of his left arm, fingers digging into muscle with bruising strength.

"Excuse us, please," Al said, politely enough, to the others, just before forcibly dragging Ed some distance from the group.

Ed didn't resist--much. He was still working out the details of a plan, but he knew that nothing would happen if he couldn't get Al to agree to help. Despite Ed's increasingly frustrated attempts, his brother was still the only one who could use a jewel shard to power a transmutation.

"Brother, what are you planning?" Al demanded in a fierce whisper as they came to a halt inside one of the shrine's gravel-paved courtyards.

Ed shook off his brother's grip. "I'm thinking that there's a way that we can keep Kohaku's soul bound to his body after he surrenders his shard." He fixed Al with a meaningful look.

"That's what I was afraid of." Al didn't try to hide his dismay. "Brother, we can't. That's human transmutation!"

Ed flinched from the remembered horror clouding his brother's eyes, and pushed away the memory of the gruesome...thing...they had created, all those years ago.

"I know, Al," he said, quietly. "But it may be the only way to save Sango's brother."

"But--" Al began.

Ed's hand shot out. His fingers clenched the soft, wrinkled fabric of his Al's sleeve. "It's her brother, and the only family she has left. I have to try." Ed's voice cracked, and he took a deep breath, fighting for control. "Besides," he added, once his voice was reasonably under control again, "I know how to do this. It worked on you, didn't it?"

"The blood seal!" For an instant, Al looked excited despite himself. Then he frowned. "But you bound my soul to a suit of armor, Brother. I'm not sure it will work on a real body...and besides, what happens when the blood seal washes away? Kohaku-kun has to bathe sometime, after all." He wrinkled his nose, imagining it.

Okay, so Al thought it might work...if they could find some way of affixing the seal to living flesh. "I was thinking," Ed said, slowly, "That maybe a tattoo would work. We could use a donor's blood mixed with ink."

"And who would that donor be?" Al asked quietly. "It can't be one of us--not if we want to be able to leave here, and go home."

Ed nodded, acknowledging the problem. The transmutation was a constant, if low-level, one. Someone would have to be bound to Kohaku's transmutation circle, to supply it with energy, just as Ed had once supplied his brother's armor with the energy to exist and move.

"But will you help me, Al? If I can convince Kohaku to do this, I mean."

Al stared at him for a long moment, chewing on his lower lip. "All right," he said, finally. "I think--I think it might work. And you're right: we have to at least try to save him."

"Thank you," Ed said, sincerely, and his brother grinned back. "Okay, let's tell the others."

* * *

"I'll do it," Sango said, before Ed had even finished his explanation. "Whatever it takes."

"But is it dangerous? To my sister, I mean," asked Kohaku.

"There won't be much of an effect," Ed assured them. "She'll be hungrier, and tire more easily. And if she gets sick, you'll be weakened, too."

"And if I die?" Sango asked, cutting right to the heart of the matter.

Ed shrugged apologetically. "His lifespan will be bound to yours."

"I see. Well then, I suppose I shall have to take care not to die," she said, with a small smile.

Inuyasha scowled. "I still think it's too dangerous," he said. "I don't trust him." He pointed a claw-tipped finger at Ed. His scowl deepened, and his golden glare swept to Al. "I don't trust either of 'em." His head bowed briefly, as if conducting a swift internal debate, then he said, "Let me do it. I'm tougher than you are, Sango. If something goes wrong..."

As Ed's face grew hot at the reminder of his earlier failure, Sango shook her head. "Thank you, Inuyasha. You are a kind and generous friend, but Kohaku is my brother."

"Ane-ue," said the boy, in a tone of deep gratitude.

"This transmutation works," Ed told Inuyasha, with utter certainty.

"It's commonly done in your world?" the hanyou asked skeptically.

Ed shook his head. "It's actually forbidden to perform alchemy on human beings, because of the risks."

Inuyasha snorted.

"But I paid the price--" Ed tapped his automail wrist. "--because I had to save my brother, and the only way I could do that was to learn how to anchor Al's soul to the armor. My right arm was the price for that knowledge." He met Inuyasha's keen gaze. "I know I haven't done right by you. I hurt you, very badly, but that was because I was trying something I'd never tried before, and I didn't know about the jewel shards. But this--I've done this before. And I want to save Kohaku. I'm the only one who can."

"I hope you're right," Inuyasha said, gruffly. "Sango..." He stopped, and it was obvious to Ed that the hanyou changed what he was originally going to say. "Don't hurt her, Edward, or I'll make you sorry your foreign ass ever came through the well."

"I'm already sorry," Ed retorted. "And--I'll do my best."

A sharp nod, a flash of wide scarlet sleeves, and the hanyou was gone.

* * *

The rest of the group joined them shortly thereafter, and as Ed had expected, the news of what they proposed led to questions. Lots of questions. And most of them from Miroku.

"I did not realize that this alchemy of yours can bring people back from the dead," he said, sitting cross-legged on the wide porch surrounding the guesthouse. Miroku's hands were tucked into his wide purple sleeves as he watched Ed grind an ink cake in preparation for his transmutation.

"Not quite," Ed said, forcing down the old regrets that rose like bile in his throat. "All I can do is an anchor a soul at the moment of its departure."

"So you will have to time this spell very carefully, once Kikyo-sama removes Kohaku's shard."

No shit, thought Ed, irritably, but he forced himself to answer the monk politely. "Yes, Miroku-sama."

He picked up a knife, tested the sharpness of the blade, and immersed it in the bowl of pure alcohol he had distilled from a jar of the shrine's sake. There was a calligraphy brush and a folded bandage sitting next to it, as well as a box containing a needle and sutures...just in case. He hoped they wouldn't need to stitch anything.

As if reading Ed's mind, Miroku asked: "And Sango--what danger to her?"

Ah, this was the heart of the monk's concern. "Not much," Ed answered honestly. "Not like Kohaku. She's aware of the price."

"I see," Miroku said. More quietly, he asked, "And that price--will she still be able to bear children?"

Ed blinked. "Ah, yes. She might be a bit more tired, but she's pretty strong. I don't think it will be a problem."

He saw the tension leave Miroku's body as the monk exhaled with relief. "Good. Now that Naraku is dead, and the jewel on the verge of being completed, I find my thoughts turning toward matrimony."

"Would it matter if she couldn't have children?" Ed asked, very carefully not looking up from his task. "Would you have to marry someone else, then?"

"No!" Miroku snapped, then relaxed. "I want to marry Sango, no matter what. But children--children would be a blessing."

And if Ed took that away from them, it would just be one more thing he'd screwed up in a long line of fuck-ups. He sighed, but didn't say anything else.

The conversation obviously concluded, Miroku rose.

Ed finished grinding the ink cake, and looked up. Al, hovering nearby, straightened.

"It's time," said Ed, and tried to ignore Miroku's flinch as he settled himself next to Inuyasha and Kagome, who were sitting some distance away.

Sango and Kohaku came forward, followed by Kikyo. The rest of the group arranged themselves some distance away, where they could watch, but safely out of range of any alchemical rebounds.

At Ed's gesture, the boy seated himself in the center of the transmutation circle chalked onto the smooth boards of the porch. He had already removed his leather armor, so when he opened his yukata, and pushed it down his shoulders, he revealed the deeply scarred skin of his back and chest.

Kohaku said he'd had been killed by castle guards, and from the looks of the white and pink scar tissue writhing over his pale skin, he hadn't died easily. Ed noted the puckered marks of arrows, interspersed with the longer lines of spear and sword. Ouch.

At the base of his neck, a strange, irregular bump marked the spot where Naraku had inserted a jewel shard under his skin.

Sango knelt at Ed's side, and pushed back her sleeve.

Kikyo and Al stood out of the way, but close enough to move quickly into place when their time came.

"First," said Ed, loudly enough that Sango's friends could hear, "We're going to transmute the tattoo onto Kohaku's skin." He looked at the boy, who was beginning to shiver a little in the cool, late-afternoon breeze. "Any preferences as to where I put it? It won't need to be very big."

"It doesn't matter." Kohaku shrugged awkwardl. After a moment, he added: "On my back, maybe?"

"All right." Ed fished up the knife from the bowl of alcohol, and on cue, Sango proffered her arm.

This was the part he hated--hurting someone. He took a deep breath, and drew the blade smoothly across the tender skin just above her wrist. Deep enough to yield a sufficient quantity of blood to make the ink, but not too deep...

Sango inhaled sharply as Ed made the cut, but her arm remained perfectly still in his grasp.

"Sorry," he muttered, dropping the blade back into the dish of disinfectant. He tugged at her hand to position it over the mound of powdered ink.

She huffed, a small sound that might have laughter, or absolution, as her blood dripped sluggishly down and beaded on the dark powder.

"Come on, come on, come on," muttered Ed, hoping he wouldn't have to cut her again. But he couldn't afford for the blood to congeal, either.

Sango moved, clenching her fist, and the blood dripped faster. Ed let out a breath.

"Just a little more," he said, picking up a tiny split-bamboo whisk and beginning to mix the blood and powder into a thick, oily-looking black paste. Drip, drip, drip...

"Okay," he said, scooping up the bandage and pressing it against the cut. "You're done."

She nodded silently, and slid her fingers over his to hold the bandage in place.

He removed his hand, gave her his best smile, and picked up the shallow dish of ink-and-blood mixture as well as the calligraphy brush. Now came the tricky part.

Ed knelt behind Kohaku, mindful of the carefully-drawn lines of the transmutation circle, and dipped the brush in the blood-ink paste. Carefully he traced the deceptively simple transmutation circle on the scarred skin between Kohaku's spine and the curve of his shoulder blade. The glistening reddish-black trails echoed the pattern of dried blood that had once served to animate an empty suit of armor with Al's soul.

Goosebumps followed the tickling path of Ed's brush, but Kohaku didn't move a muscle until Ed had finished.

Ed stepped carefully out of the transmutation circle. His part was done. The rest was up to Alphonse.

"Al," he said softly.

When his brother didn't respond, Ed looked up, and followed Al's gaze to where Inuyasha and Kagome were sitting, side-by-side.

Inuyasha said something, his perpetual scowl lightened for once, and Kagome's eyes widened with an expression of mingled shock and amusement. She shot Ed an embarrassed glance, and reached up to tug playfully on one of Inuyasha's puppy ears, obviously delivering a half-hearted reprimand. He only smirked down at her.

Al slumped a little, his entire bearing radiating confusion and disappointment. "But what does she see in him?" he muttered, plaintively.

Ed sighed. He wished with all his might he could fix this, and save his little brother from a broken heart, but--

"Al, focus!" he barked. "We're saving Kohaku, remember?"

Al started. "Of-of course, Brother."

A blush washed up from his neck and over his freckled face as he turned resolutely away from bickering couple, and placed his hand on the jewel shard that had been placed on one of the chalked lines of the transmutation circle.

"Kikyo-sama, if you please," Ed said, as politely as he could. He picked up the knife, once more covered with a sheen of alcohol, and proffered it.

She took it, and glided gracefully over Kohaku's side.

At the touch of her hand on his shoulder, the boy bowed his head, drawing taut the skin over the bump of the embedded shard.

"Kohaku," breathed Sango. She knelt just outside the transmutation circle, still holding the bandage to her arm. The hope on her face was painful to see, and Ed looked away.

It was all up to Kikyo and Al now, anyway. He'd done his part by creating the larger transmutation circle that would allow his brother to feed the jewel's energy to the two smaller arrays within the circle. One array would embed the pattern of blood and ink just under Kohaku's skin, creating a permanent tattoo in the shape of the second array. Once that was done, the second array would trigger, binding Kohaku's soul to his body.

Or so Ed hoped. It all came down to a matter of timing.

Could Kikyo coordinate the removal of the shard with Al's activation of the transmutation circles?

The hand holding the knife moved, and Ed found himself holding his breath as Kikyo delicately flicked the blade against Kohaku's skin.

An instant later, the shard gleamed between her bloodied fingers.

"NOW, Al!" shouted Ed, but his brother had already slapped down his hands, and the rose-colored energies of transmutation were racing along the chalked lines.

The light reached Kohaku, and the array that Ed had painted onto his back blazed, kindling into golden fire. The boy arched with a muffled exclamation, his head thrown back, his spine bowed, his face contorted.

Sango whimpered, and fell onto her hands and knees.

The final glory of the transmutation flickered, pulsed with one last burst of golden energy, and faded away.

Kohaku toppled over, still convulsing, and the floor boards gave a great hollow thump. He drew a long sobbing breath, drew himself into fetal position, and went utterly still.

A moment later, Sango's arms collapsed beneath her, and she pitched forward. Ed flung out a panicked hand, catching her by the collar (and possibly sparing her a broken nose), and lowered her gently.

"Kohaku-kun!" "Sango-chan!" "Sango!" Ed heard the concerned cries from the onlookers, but couldn't spare the attention to reassure them.

He stared at Sango's prone form, noting the gentle rise and fall of her ribs, and breathed relief.

Al had scrambled to Kohaku's side, and was gently turning the boy onto his back. He pressed two fingers against Kohaku's throat, searching for a pulse, then sat back on his heels with a relieved expression.

"He's all right," he assured the onlookers. "Just unconscious."

"Same here," reported Ed, and not a moment too soon because Inuyasha was awfully close, and his glare threatened partial dismemberment, at the very least. "They're going to be all right. We just need to let them rest."

He met Al's gaze, and felt his mouth stretch into a triumphant grin. Finally, he'd managed to do something right in this world!

Al grinned back. He rose to his feet, dusting off his trouser legs, and with a small, courtly bow, handed Kikyo the shard he had used to power the transmutation.

"I can't believe it's finally over," said Kagome, coming to stand next to Kikyo.

The two young women favored each other with polite but slightly uncomfortable nods.

Miroku threw himself to his knees at Sango's side, and lifted her head into his lap, stroking her pale cheek.

She stirred, and murmured, "Houshi-sama," before relaxing back into sleep.

Ed saw the monk's tension evaporate. His hand returned to linger against the skin of Sango's face, tenderly tracing the arch of brow and curve of her jaw with his fingertips.

Kagome fished out a tiny cloth bag hung around her neck on a braided string. She opened the drawstring enclosure, and turned the bag upside-down. Her large fragment and a smaller one tumbled into her hand. Silently, Kikyo opened her palm, revealing the other two shards.

Standing side-by-side, they stared down at the pieces. "Um," said Kagome, after a period of silence. "Now what? It's still broken."

"Allow me," said Al, which earned him a glower from Inuyasha, hovering protectively nearby.

The two priestesses shared a glance, then gave Al their shards. He drew a stick of chalk out of his trouser pocket, and swiftly marked a simple transmutation circle on the floorboards.

There was a flare of light, which cleared to reveal an unblemished sphere sitting where the five pieces had been just moments before.

"Here you go," Al said, handing the jewel to Kagome.

Ed didn't miss the deliberate brush of his fingers across her palm.

Neither did Inuyasha. Ed heard him actually growl at the sight.

Kagome, her eyes wide, stared down at the completed jewel. Then she turned, and offered it silently to Kikyo.

Kikyo studied the glowing sphere, nestled in the palm of her hand. Her lips moved, and Ed caught the barest thread of a whisper. "What do I do, now?"

Her head lifted, as if she sensed Ed watching her, and her dark eyes locked with his. But her question, when it came, was not what Ed had expected her to ask. "Having bound a soul, can you also unbind it?"

He looked over at Kohaku's unconscious form. Unbidden, the alchemical equations for undoing what he had just done raced across his mind.

"I think I could," he answered Kikyo. "But why would I want to?"

She smiled enigmatically. "It was just a question, Edward-sama."

He shuddered.

Canon and Historical Notes

youkai-taijiya - demon exterminator

daimyo - a feudal lord, similar to a medieval European count or an earl, who owned lands, collected taxes, and had an armed force of warriors personally pledged to his service

ane-ue - an old-fashioned, extremely respectful term for an older sister

As always, thanks to Ginny, aka kokoronagomu, for beta-reading.