“What even was that?”
“Who knows? Not like I can do anything but watch from here.”
Roy had been distracted by Edward’s eccentric behavior, but at those words, he stopped paying attention to what was going on outside and looked at Havoc.
Havoc pulled the newspaper on his lap closer toward himself. “Well, seeing as how I found Fullmetal before you, I guess I’m not completely useless. I don’t know why he’s trying to draw attention, but I suppose I could provide support indirectly, by say, calling this number.”
Havoc pointed at the “Person of the Week” article.
As Roy bent down to peer at the paper, Havoc slowly dragged his finger to the bottom of the segment. There, the article concluded by urging people to nominate upstanding citizens they spotted within the city and provided a phone number to contact. The article then stated that at the end of the year, the nominee introduced in the most popular article, along with their nominator, would receive a prize of one hundred thousand cens.
“We can split it fifty-fifty,” Havoc murmured into Roy’s ear.
Roy raised his head, meeting Havoc’s eyes. There was no trace of Havoc’s recent misery or pain in his pale blue eyes. There was that happy-go-lucky expression, and that hint of sass in his voice. It’d been too long since Roy had seen Havoc looking like himself.
“Fine. We’ll use it to pay for drinks when we celebrate your discharge from here,” Roy replied, giving a quiet smile and a firm nod.
Havoc hadn’t given him a clear answer about his future, and Roy didn’t intend to ask for one. But regardless of whether rehab worked out, Havoc would follow him. Roy believed in him.
Roy stood back up and looked out the front window at the wide blue sky.
“Still, I can’t make sense of whatever Fullmetal’s doing,” Roy said.
“Yeah, wonder why he’s doing all that?” Havoc asked.
“I’ll have some time off in a few days. Maybe I’ll go check in person.”
There was no doubt that the Elric brothers were trying to draw attention, so nominating them in the newspaper was unlikely to cause them trouble—even if Roy still hadn’t a clue what their true motives were.
Havoc picked up the binoculars at his side and looked at the city again. He commented, “Man, they’re still going at it. Now they’re in the twelfth sector. He’s standing on a residential building’s roof.”
“Before that, he was climbing a streetlamp,” Roy said.
“Yesterday, he was on top of a fence.”
Roy and Havoc shared a few moments of silence.
“He keeps climbing higher,” Roy said.
“Seems like it.”
As the saying goes, what goes up …
Neither of them needed to say more as the same thought crossed their minds.
a few hours later …
As though to validate the conversation between the two officers, Edward fixed a chimney, then used that as an excuse to climb to the top of it. Alphonse looked up at him and felt overflowing joy.
“You’re incredible, Ed!”
In any other situation, if Alphonse had seen Edward raising his hands high in the air and shouting his name like that, the little brother would have admonished him with a “What are you doing?!” But this time, it was different.
Even though they were doing this to find Scar, it still made Alphonse, gentle person that he was, incredibly happy to help those in need of assistance.
“Well, that’s one truly upstanding alchemist.” From among the overwhelming throng of people, Alphonse heard voices praising Edward.
“He fixed our broken roof, y’know.”
“I got my chair fixed.”
“He didn’t complain or anything, just smiled and did his transmutation.”
As the people happily chatted amongst themselves, some approached Alphonse, who was still devoted to being Edward’s cheerleader. “Hey, I heard you’re that alchemist’s younger brother. Your brother’s a good one.”
“I know!” Alphonse gave a big nod in response.
Short-tempered and violent, always wearing a scowl, foul-mouthed—Edward left terrible impressions on everyone they encountered during their travels, but the true Edward was a deeply compassionate and kind person. As his younger brother, Alphonse was both happy and proud to have people recognize that.
Hoping that they’d be able to remain in everyone’s good graces, Alphonse raised his fans to continue promoting his pride and joy, his older brother. “The alchemist up there is Edward! He’s Edward, the state alchemist!”
“Um, ’scuse me!”
As Alphonse cheered next to the crowd, a small hand grabbed at his loincloth to catch his attention. Meanwhile, Edward began his descent from the chimney toward the outstretched hands of the cheering masses.
“Can he fix my toy too?” A young girl looked up at Alphonse nervously, clutching a wooden horse. “I came because I heard that a nice little alchemist could fix it for me.”
“Of course.” Alphonse knelt on one knee, gently stroking the girl’s soft hair, which got him a smile in return. Alphonse couldn’t physically show it, but he smiled back.
Then he froze.
Little alchemist. That’s what the girl had said. Little. The forbidden word. The trigger that would lead Edward into a terrible rampage. Alphonse had a moment of panic before remembering there was some distance between himself and Edward. He allowed himself to relax.
“Hold on for just a second, he’ll be right …”
Alphonse looked back at the chimney, then jolted.
Edward was staring their way.
He had frozen, still on the ladder coming down from the chimney, hand raised toward the masses, but he was staring at Alphonse and the girl with a dark expression. There was no way he could have heard her from his current location, especially with the roar of endless cheering. Despite that, the gaze he was throwing them oozed with suspicion.
He couldn’t have heard, right? Alphonse swallowed his horror and hastily cheered, hands in the air, “Ed, you can do it!”
With Alphonse cheering and pretending nothing was amiss, Edward cocked his head once more, before once again smiling and waving while he descended the ladder.
“Whew, that was close.” Alphonse breathed out a sigh of relief before taking the girl’s hand and leading her through the press of people who had gathered below the chimney to get their items fixed.
“Ed, can you fix this girl’s toy next?”
“Yup, let me finish up over here, and I’ll be right there!” Edward raised a hand to acknowledge Alphonse before accepting a ceramic doll from an elderly woman in front of him.
“There’s a crack in this doll my husband gave me. Is it fixable?”
“Not to worry!”
Edward pirouetted on the spot before coming to a perfect stop in front of the elderly lady, flashing his sparkling white teeth and striking a pose.
At first, the pose had seemed too flashy but, curiously, now that it’d become part of the established routine, Alphonse found it comforting and suave. Alphonse watched as Edward placed the beautiful, elegant doll perpendicular to him on the ground and brought his hands together.
“All you need is the touch of State Alchemist Edward Elric and …”
The spectators let out an awed “Ooh!” at the dazzling flash from the transmutation. Countless eyes trained on the radiating light, eventually watching it fade.
What appeared in its place was a doll, its porcelain skin smooth and without a single crack. However, its previously diminutive face now seemed disproportionately large and, in place of a dress, it wore strange clothes with swirling patterns. It was honestly less like a doll and more like a bizarre, archaic artifact.
“Ed!” Alphonse buried his face in his palms before sprinting to his brother’s side to whisper in his ear, “I thought we agreed not to get creative!”
“But!”
“No buts! I’m so very sorry. We’ll return this back to the way it was immediately.”
After dipping his head apologetically at the elderly lady, who was frozen in shock, Alphonse snatched the doll out of Edward’s hands.
“Hey, what are you doing to my art?!”
“You mean your arts and crafts?! We’re here to earn a reputation as good people. Isn’t that what we agreed to do?”
“That’s why I remade it cooler.”
Edward seemed so sincere that Alphonse had to hold in a groan. There was nothing he could say. He forced himself to power through it and passed Edward the small wooden horse from the little girl waiting nearby.
“Anyway, Ed, fix this toy for her. You got that? That means returning it to the way it was.”
“Ugh, what’s with you?!”
Edward pouted childishly. Alphonse turned his back on his brother and placed the doll he had given a makeover to back on the ground to retransmute it.
Because their current goal was to make State Alchemist Edward Elric a household name (in a good way), Alphonse had planned to avoid using alchemy himself, sticking instead to a supporting role for his brother.