We finish a nice meal and make pleasant conversation. Eventually, we sit there in a moment of quiet. Izumi clutches her stomach slightly. Looking at Edward and Al with a slightly guilty look. "It must have been awful wasn't it?"

Al cocks his head to the side. "What do you mean teach... Uh, I-Izumi?"

She shakes her head. "Trying to bring someone back... I... I should have warned you two. I forced my child to suffer dying twice but you could have learned from my mistake. I could have helped save you from that pain."

Edward looks frozen for a moment his real hand absently wandering over towards his automail arm. "It's fine, I did this to myself after all. Besides, it really hasn't been that bad."

Al chimes in too. "Yeah! Recently I've even been able to taste food again through Edward. I have this whole journal of stuff for him to try again and for me to try myself once I get my body back. All we need is a philosopher's stone! Well that or just enough time, Jiang promised to help us out with that."

Izumi quirks an eye at that. "You mentioned being able to help heal me and now you might be able to heal the both of them too? Or were those just empty promises?"

I can see her muscles start to tense as she grips her glass. "Back in my home country, I made a beating heart from nothing but cells and tissue. Later on, when Zig was caught in an explosion I used that to help bring him back... It's why I lost my hands and eyes. I wanted to learn as much as I could. I spent days in the library learning reading everything I could get my hands on. So I lost my hands and sight."

Izumi looks over at Zig. Who is slowly eating under his mask. "But he's still here... did you... did you succeed?"

I can't help but bark out a laugh. "No! He was in the process of dying... I only sort of succeeded. You can't bring someone back from the dead at least not in a traditional sense. You can repair a body to the point that it's functional though including the mind. Just when I brought him back he sort of combined with the materials I had on hand." Zig lets out a hiss of annoyance before taking off his mask. His face is still a bit tough to look at. Randomly riddled with scales his powerful jaw slowly worked on the meat he'd just eaten. His eyes lazily stared at Izumi as if to see how she'd react.

Surprisingly she didn't react that much beyond being a bit lost for words and staring blankly. "Oh, well then... what do you mean by not being able to bring something back through the traditional sense?"

"I dragged his soul back with the help of another animal. My pet snake wiggles. When I started my transmutation he hadn't fully died yet. Did you know someone can be revived after a couple of minutes without a heartbeat? By all current methods of detection, he was considered dead. But he likely could have been recessitated just in the state he was in he likely would have died during the process."

She looks at Zig for a long moment dragging her eyes back to me. "T-then how is that different than what we did that failed?"

I put down my tea. "Well, you attempted to recreate a new body for someone right?" She nods and so does Edward.

"Well, frankly it's impossible to make an exact copy of a body from memory. A small mistake here in a protein fold or a small mistake there in the amount of calcium and the whole thing falls apart. Not to mention that brains operate on neural pathways storing all your memories making everything that is you who you are." Not entirely true I suppose since I have memories from past lives that I doubt is stored within my brain but I'm sure I'm more of an exception rather than the rule

"So... that wasn't my child I brought back at all? It was just... a lump of flesh?" She stares off into the distance again.

I'd already had this discussion with Edward and Al before. They were still shocked by it but they've had time to process it.

Her eyes turn to me again slightly more desperate this time. "R-right... well... to help me have a child sooner. In the past, I met another alchemist from central. He was traveling around and he also talked about the philosophers stone."

Edward scoots to the front of his seat. "Really? Who was it?"

She shares a look with Sig wrinkling her nose for a moment and he lets out a sigh. "His name was Van Hohenheim."

She lets out a long sigh. "Yes! That's what it was! Hohenheim. Last we saw him he was heading towards that little church town to check out those Leto fanatics."

Edwards's smile drops instantly. "tch that bastard is still alive?"

That's interesting. "Do you know him?"

He crosses his arm Al's looking at the floor now too. "Know him? Yeah, he's our biological doner. I won't call him a father after he abandoned us and never came back."

Ah okay... "Well if he's also studied the philosopher's stone then he might be able to help in the creation of one that doesn't depend on human souls."

Edwards's face goes white. "What if he's already working on making one out of people?!" He quickly shares a look with Al.

Drama queen. "Relax, even if he is that's another reason to find him. Then we could put him in jail for some petty revenge."

Edward breaks out into a smile then frowns before settling for a thinking face. "I don't know if I should be happy about the idea of arresting him or sad at the idea that he might have killed people to study philosophers' stones."

"Let's just cross that bridge when you find him. For now, let's investigate the nearby homunculus and heal your teacher."

Izumi all but yells."One of those monsters lives near here!?"

Sig also looks worried. "Do you think that they may want to hurt us? Are they a threat to Izumi?"

Good question... their whole reason for being nearby could be because... "Edward, you're a sacrifice."

He leans back in his chair. "Yeah? That's what that homunculus called me so what?"

"Remember when I was asked how I lost my eyes and arms? What if that's why you were registered as a sacrifice?" Edwards eyes widen as does Izumi's.

"That means..." "I'm/teacher is also a sacrifice!"

"So they probably have a homunculus following each of the different sacrifices so they are ready for whatever is going to happen!"

"Lust was following me when we traveled! We ran into Envy at the lab... maybe there was another one nearby? Or they learned that Lust was missing so reassigned Envy to follow me instead or they were Al's follower..."

Sig looks a bit uncomfortable at the idea of someone following them. Izumi just looks pissed off. "You mean someone might have been following us! Those bastards!? I'm going to go kick their ass!?" I gently put a hand on her shoulder as Sig puts his hand on the other one.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

She stops and glares at my hand. "My honey bear is allowed to touch me. You are not. I'm only giving you this warning once." I quickly take my hand off her shoulder.

"You are still injured. Let me perform the surgery first. I need to put in an order for a few materials. We can go handle whatever this thing is first alright? I'm pretty capable and Edwards has been improving a lot recently."

She huffs. "Please, that brat wouldn't last ten seconds against me."

"Yes, but after 15 you'll have to spit up blood and nearly passed out." She huffs in annoyance again but doesn't deny it as Sig directs her back to her chair.

"We'll look into them and figure things out. Worst case scenario I kill them on the spot, best case we learn something from them and capture them."

Izumi shrugs but Edward frowns. "We aren't killing anyone."

I'd roll my eyes if I could. "Look they aren't even human. Do you have any ideas how we will capture that monster from the 5th lab? It was able to burrow through solid concrete through its feet without us even noticing. What are you going to do?" Besides I need to kill them for a quest, they need to die eventually anyway.

Edward just slams a fist on the table causing it to break slightly. "But if I can't consider them human! Then what does that say about my brother? O-or others like them huh? Don't they deserve to have a fair chance? Don't they deserve to live?"

I thought he'd worked through this... "Okay? And that means they are allowed to keep killing? Are their lives worth more than their victims?"

He looks down conflicted at his fist. "No! Just... we need to give them a chance?"

Izumi cuts in now. "How about I give you the chance to pay for that table you brat!" Edward cringes away looking at the table looking a bit embarrassed.

"R-regardless! I just... I can't just watch as you kill someone. I can never let someone just die in front of me." He looks towards Al for support but... Al looks away.

Edward's righteous rage just melts off his face. "Al... what? You can't agree with him can you?"

Al looks down at his hands twiddling his thumbs a bit. "Brother... He has a point... Since I don't sleep anymore I have a lot of extra time to think. It's just, maybe sometimes... in the right circumstances it might be okay to well... kill." His voice trails off near the end, expecting for his brother to outburst or knowing that he might not look at him the same again.

Edward just stares at Al for a long while. Clearly not able to fully understand what he just said. He eventually blinks and turns to Izumi like he's seeking an answer.

She just snorts. "What why are you looking at me? He's right."

Edward reels back clearly not hearing that answer he wants to hear. "B-but he's my brother? He should agree with me... I... let's just deal with them first okay? let's just... can everyone just think on it tonight? We can go see them tomorrow morning with cooler heads." He glances at Al likely because he's going to try to convince him tonight. His fist clenched hard as his gaze seems to flicker in the direction of the homunculus.

Turning his way he quickly looks down and away from me. "Works for me I don't intend to go out tonight anyway."

"G-good. Then uh I guess we need to go find someplace to stay for the night..." He pauses looking at Izumi who matches his gaze unflinching.

He's learned since he searched for Scar right? "You'll wait for me and Zig tomorrow morning right?" Edward freezes for a moment before turning with a smile. "Of course! I'm not an idiot. I learned from the last time with Scar." Hmm, maybe it was just my imagination then...

"Is that all? Well, have a good night folks!" Without anything else further he walks out. Al stays for a moment, almost torn between staying and leaving but eventually gets up and follows Edward out.

"That brat's gonna get himself killed one day. Joining the military but refusing anyone to be killed in front of him?" Izumi shakes her head shaking away the thoughts.

She turns to me. "Guest beds are down the hall on the right and left. Extra blankets are in the closet in the hallway. Don't make a mess of it and try not to make any noise after lights out."

Sounds reasonable. "Yes ma'am."

Now, what do I do for the night? Physical conditioning could use a bit of a boost? I haven't really worked to level that up much. Martial arts also needs a bit of work.

Hmm, Zig should be able to help with that. "Hey Zig want to spar outside before bed?"

He seems to turn to me in utter confusion before nodding.

Leaving the windows unlocked we head out into the town, finding a nice secluded spot to spar.

At first we traded light hits warming up but soon I was rapidly dodging blows from Zig as he slowly devolved into rabid random slashes.

"Control yourself... you're a better fighter than this." I duck under another one of his swipes and punch his chest... even with my advantages he doesn't budge. Neither of us are using Chi since that could end poorly but It's still a bit annoying to see him shrug off a solid punch to the liver.

He glances down at me annoyance and anger oozing off him. "Ssssshut up!"

He swings down towards me again. Slipping by him again the further into the fight we get the easier this is... It's not even training anymore.

"Let's just stop here. I'm not gaining anything from this and you aren't either."

He looks like he's about to keep attacking me but freezes and stares at his clawed hands for a moment. Shaking his head he mutters out a response. "Yes my lord... forgive me. I... when fighting it'ssss harder to rein in."

"It's fine just you aren't much of a bodyguard at the moment if I'm able to dance around you. I didn't even use alchemy or Chi. Not that my hits really do anything to you now without those."

For a few hours after that Zig meditated and I went through various exercises and forms. Mixing what I've learned from Shimada and from my family together. The progress on martial arts shooting up extremely fast due to already knowing how to fight.

After finishing off my work out Zig joins me in walking back to the butcher shop. That's when we notice the Chi source following us. We'd had a few people walking by stop to watch for a moment so I was somewhat numb to the feeling of eyes being on me. But as we left a pair stayed locked on my back. Feeling it the source is skulking along the rooftops near us. It's not the homunculus that's on the other part of the town still.

Zig makes a small gesture. "Missssing anything in your workout my lord?"

I give a small gesture back to show I understand "No no I didn't miss anything. I might add in a bit of a run though."

I start steering us towards a building that's a little shorter than the others. Using Unseen eye to gauge what's following us. It's a bald man in a cloak. He's scaling the sides of the buildings and interestingly he has a tail... Once he's on top of the shorter building we make our move.

"Hey Zig your shoes untied." As he bends over as if too mess with his shoe I sprint towards him and he catches my foot boosting me to the roof in an instant. The figure that had been following us is stuck still, wide-eyed at my sudden appearance from down below.

"Gah!" He turns and starts to try to get away but he doesn't have a chance. He's somewhat scrawny but his hands seem to have a sort of special grip on them. grabbing him by the cloak and pulling him back he falls on his tail.

Looking down at him his eyes are rapidly darting around looking for a way out. "Not so fast. why were you following us?"

He stops struggling but pulls his cloak over him a bit to try to cover some of his more animalistic features. "I-I wasn't following you? It was a misunderstanding?"

"At least come up with a better lie." Right as I say that Zig hefts himself over the side of the building the guy in front of me seems to shrink in his presence.

"P-please don't kill me! I-I was just watching! G-greed my boss, he'd be interested in meeting you two! He's really good to his subordinates and he'd be able to get you anything you want! Uh money, woman or er men whatever! Just uh..." He glances between the two of us. "Please don't kill me...."

Wow... he broke pretty fast... I didn't even start hurting him yet. "Alright... where can we find this Greed?"

His eyes start shining with hope. "R-right that way!" He points towards the direction of the homunculus, yep that just confirms it. "I can show you! Just don't hurt me!" Letting him go for a moment he immediately tries to start running away until Zig grabs his tail causing him to stop dead in his tracks.

He slowly turns his head towards us. "I-I was just showing you the way?" He tries weakly, noticing that neither of us believed him his head slumps down.

"Alright, let's just do this." I reach down and touch the floor a brief moment of transmutation and I'm holding a chunk of stone.

His eyes are wide when he sees me do this and fights a little as I transmute some stone cuffs around his arms.

"There, even if you run now you won't get far so don't bother." Damn... we were planning to do this tomorrow morning but I guess we are doing this tonight.

"It's going to be a long night Zig. Alright, show us to your boss. Move slowly now, no sudden movements." The Lizardman nods rapidly, a few tears in his eyes and he starts showing us the way. He pulls at his restraints every once in a while but we still make decent time, eventually, we come to a bar in the shittier part of town. Looking down at it the place looks like it's had better days, its sign barely on and the bar left unattended. The feeling of the homunculus is coming from below it. That's not the main problem though, down the street is Edward trying his best to sneak along towards the bar on his own like an idiot... damn it, I was right, he hasn't learned a thing.