“Lettie!” Winry exclaimed.
The sobbing girl was Darish’s little sister. It seemed she had taken a tumble and brought down a shelf of merchandise with her. The metal scraps from a salvage of some sort or other had scattered and fallen into the sand.
“You think you can just waltz over here and break my precious merchandise?” yelled a large, menacing man who appeared to be the owner of the stall.
“I can’t believe anyone’d pick a fight with a small child,” someone in the crowd said.
“That guy set up shop at another street yesterday and picked fights then, too,” said another.
Despite their commentary, the onlookers only shot sympathetic glances from afar when faced with the red-hot threat the large man posed. They offered no help.
“The parts you just broke cost a hundred eighty thousand cens! You go and get that money from your parents!” the man roared.
“Excuse me!” Winry quickly threw herself in front of Lettie just as the man seemed like he was about to raise his hand against the girl.
“Oh, Winry!” Lettie’s eyes opened wide in surprise, but then she started sobbing even louder, almost as though in relief at Winry showing up to help. Winry stroked the sobbing girl’s heaving back and faced down the man.
The man loomed over Winry with a dubious look as she stood in his way. “Who the hell are you? You the kid’s sister or something?”
“Aren’t you ashamed? How could you threaten a little kid like her?!” Winry said indignantly, not backing down despite the man’s far taller stature. Lettie shouldn’t have broken the merchandise, but he had gone too far phrasing things as though he was going to extort her.
But the man didn’t even seem apologetic.
“Hah!” he snorted. “I’m the one who’s the victim here—my merchandise was broken! What are you going to do about that?!”
As though to shove her mistake in her face, the man thrust one of the broken wares at Lettie. It appeared to be an automail piece that started at the elbow, judging by the five finger-like appendages that flopped around.
“I just said to stop that!” Winry stood in front of Lettie, hiding the girl behind her back, but when her eyes fell on the automail, she cocked her head to the side.
“Did you really break this, Lettie?” she asked, unable to hide her doubt, which made a grin break over the man’s face.
“Ain’t that what I’ve been saying? Then how about you cough up the dough to cover the price tag, huh?”
“Are you sure it wasn’t broken from the start?”
“What did you—” the man choked up.
“Thought so.”
Salvaging and reselling automail itself was a respectable trade. As long as the automail was still functioning, it could be tuned up and reattached; if it was broken, it could be disassembled for parts. The exorbitant price the man was demanding was well within a range that should have guaranteed functioning automail.
However, after looking at the automail in the man’s hands and the parts scattered on the ground, Winry could see that they were pieces of junk that had been broken all along.
“That automail wouldn’t be operational even if you attached all the parts on the ground to it. The driving mechanism’s metal clasp is crushed and the joints are so old that they’re rusted. Considering all that, don’t you think you’re charging a bit too much for it?” Winry said. Her assessment would have been impossible without a close inspection for most inexperienced mechanics, but the piece’s condition hadn’t escaped Winry.
“B-but she still damaged my merchandise. It’s filled with sand cuz she knocked over the shelf!”
“Then we can solve that by cleaning it.”
A satisfied, bold smile broke out on Winry’s face as she pulled out an array of tools that filled both her hands.
The man’s eyes opened wide in shock. He was probably wondering who this fifteen-year-old girl was that she regularly carried a whole set of tools on her person. Lettie and the onlookers who observed the course of events from afar could only watch as Winry’s adroit hands moved.
Winry was showered in stares as she snatched the automail from the man’s hands, unscrewed the casing, and using a screwdriver, swept away the grit that had worked its way inside. Next, she rolled her shopping list into the shape of a thin straw and blew out the sand that had collected. She slotted the scattered parts into the appropriate places. As a finishing touch, she substituted the bolt of the driving mechanism, which had been crushed from the start, with another part that wouldn’t obstruct the automail’s functions.
“There, I don’t think you can complain about that. It’s fixed now, so make sure you take care of it,” Winry said.
It probably hadn’t taken her ten minutes. She’d even polished the automail until it was gleaming before returning it to the dumbfounded man’s hands. Then Winry led Lettie down and out of the side road by the hand. After Winry’s show of wonderful dexterity, the man and the spectators watched her leave with their mouths agape.
Winry and Lettie escaped past the ring of people and walked for a while before Winry had them stop at a small plaza with a fountain. She sat Lettie down on the bricks that surrounded the fountain and used the sleeve of her jumpsuit to wipe away the traces of tears on Lettie’s face.
“That was scary, wasn’t it?” Winry said. “But you’re fine now. Where’re your mom and brother?”
“I lost them,” Lettie said, downcast.
“Where did you lose them? Let’s find them together.”
“Near the bank. Mom said she was getting money for the automail ready, but then Darish suddenly said he didn’t need a new leg. I was waiting right next to them, but there were lots and lots of people and I got separated. And then I fell down in front of that shop.” Recalling the frightening ordeal brought tears to the girl’s eyes again.
“I see, so that’s what happened. At least you’re fine now. Let’s go find your mom and brother together, okay?” Winry said as she stroked the girl’s head. At that moment, someone called out Lettie’s name. When they looked over, Darish had just made his way into the plaza.
“Lettie! Where were you?! Oh, it’s you.”
Darish, hobbling over on his crutch, noticed Winry was standing next to his sister. A suspicious look came over his face and he said, “Why are you here?”
“I just happened to pass by right when she was getting into trouble with a man at a stall,” Winry replied.
“She got in trouble?” Darish scowled and looked down at Lettie. There was obvious worry in his eyes and concern for his little sister. However, the next moment, the words that came out of his mouth were shockingly stern and in complete contrast to his expression.
“You dummy!”
Lettie’s shoulders trembled at her brother’s unforgiving tone.
“You got in trouble? What did you do?!” he continued.
“But … but there were so many people and they pushed me … and then I ended up somewhere strange!”
“That’s why you shouldn’t have come! This town is too busy! Hurry up and go home to stay with dad!”
“Ugh … waaah!” Lettie sobbed at being shouted at, tears rolling down her face again even though she’d just finished crying.
“H-hey, you didn’t have to say it like that!” Winry said as she put herself between the siblings, which made Darish, who had just been about to say something, purse his lips quietly. Something similar had happened at the studio, but this time, Darish had gone overboard with his biting words.
“Lettie! Darish!”
They heard another voice from the edge of the plaza. Karen came running over, out of breath.