Chapter Three: The Full Metal Alchemist.

When Shiro arrived in the next world he was dropped of on the roof of a building.

When he looked around he could see a church and a big square.

Lots of people were walking around, talking to each other, selling, buying, like a normal day in a nice town.

In the centre of the square there was a fountain.

At first sight nothing seemed wrong, but when Shiro jumped down to the ground to take a closer look, he saw the fountain contained a red liquid something.

After he put his hand in and out to taste he came to the conclusion it was red wine.

Despite that everything looked normal.

Shiro, who had been carrying the fairy all the time, sat down at the fountain and laid the fairy down on the hard, cold stone.

What should I do with her? Shiro thought.

‘’Do you need a hand?’’ Someone suddenly asked.

Shiro turned around to see who spoke to him and when he did he saw two persons were standing behind him.

One of them, the bigger one of the two, was wearing a knight’s armor covering his entire body, head and face, and the shorter one wore a red robe and had his long, blond hair in a long braid.

‘’Do you need a hand?’’ The shorter one asked again smiling.

‘’Well…I guess. I don’t know what to do, so if you know please don’t hesitate to tell me.’’

‘’Don’t worry, I’ll take care of her. The name’s Edward Elric. People also call me the Full Metal Alchemist, but you may call me Ed. O, and this is my brother Alphonse. But just call him Al.’’

‘’I’m Shiro, nice to meet you.’’

‘’Come with me, I think I know where to go.’’

Then Shiro picked the fairy up again and followed Ed and Al to an inn.

There they spoke to the barkeeper who told them to take her to a room.

‘’Go up the stairs and enter the first door to your right.’’ He told them.

‘’Wait there for me.’’

When they went up the stairs they arrived at a long corridor with doors to the left and right, and as the barkeeper told them they entered the first door to their right and arrived in a small room with two one-person beds and a desk standing in it.

Shiro laid the fairy down in the first bed, put her under the blanket with her head on the cushion, and sat down on the second bed.

‘’Uuhhmm…’’ Shiro hesitated.

‘’Yes?’’ Ed, who was hanging against the desk, asked.

‘’I uuhhmm… I don’t have any money.’’ Shiro said.

‘’Don’t worry.’’ Ed said smiling.

‘’I’m a state alchemist. I’ve got more than enough money. I’ll pay for this.’’ He said.

‘’I don’t want to be of any trouble.’’ Shiro said.

‘’If I thought you’d bring me any trouble I wouldn’t have offered to help you, would I?’’

‘’I guess.’’

Then the barkeeper came in.

He was carrying a bucket of water and a small towel.

He took a look at the fairy and put a wet towel on her forehead while Shiro had a securing eye on her.

‘’There.’’ The barkeeper said.

‘’That’ll do it. Now she only has to rest. I’ll expect the payment tomorrow morning.’’ He said and then he left while Ed nodded acceptingly.

‘’Thanks.’’ Shiro said to the barkeeper’s back and then the door closed.

‘’Tell me.’’ Ed said.

‘’Where did you find her?’’

‘’I…I…I don’t know.’’ Shiro said.

‘’What do you mean you don’t know?’’

‘’I was unconscious and when I woke up she was laying in my arms.’’ He lied.

‘’I see… Do you know who she is?’’

‘’I’ve got no idea, but she felt warm, too warm, so I thought I had to do something. The problem was, what did I have to do? And that’s when you come in.’’

‘’I see. Well…I hope your playing fair with me, cause, you know, I aint doin this for everyone.’’ Ed finally said.

Then suddenly someone groaned.

Shiro quickly looked at the fairy and saw two beautiful eyes slowly opening.

‘’You’re awake!’’ Shiro yelled.

‘’Uuhhmm… Who… Who are you?’’ The fairy asked.

‘’I’m Shiro, are you alright?’’

‘’Yeah, I think so.’’ She said.

‘’Where am I? What happened?’’

‘’We’re in an Inn. We came here in order to find someone who could take care of you. You should thank the barkeeper later.’’

‘’Well...thanks. I’m Stephanie.’’

‘’I’m Shiro. Nice to meet you. By the way, where do you come from?’’ He asked.

‘’I come from a place called Elivia, how about you?’’ She answered.

‘’I come from an island known as Sulicia. It’s out in the Pacific Ocean.’’ Shiro said.

‘’O, and this is Edward and this is Alphonse, but I think you may just call them Ed and Al.’’

‘’Sure. Nice to meet you.’’ They both said.

‘’Shorty.’’ Stephanie suddenly said.

‘’W…WHAT!?!’’ Ed screamed.

‘’WH…WH…WHY’D YOU CALL ME SUPER ULTRA HYPER MEGA SHORT!?!’’ He screamed.

‘’Because you are.’’ She said with a smile.

‘’Calm down brother.’’ Al said.

‘’I’m sure she means well.’’

‘’Yeah, I bet she does.’’ He said angrily.

Stephanie giggled.

‘’I see you’re doing well.’’ Shiro said to quit the conversation.

‘’Aren’t you hungry?’’

‘’No thanks, You’ve already done enough for me. I don’t want to be of any more trouble.’’

Then a loud and hungry sound sounded and Stephanie laughed stupidly.

‘’Ed?’’ Shiro asked.

‘’Yeah, yeah, I’m goin, I’m goin.’’ He said still angrily.

‘’Thanks.’’ Shiro replied smiling.

‘’I think he doesn’t really like me.’’ Stephanie said.

‘’I bet he does. You just shouldn’t have said that, but don’t worry. It’ll all work out.’’

‘’I hope so… I don’t like it when people hate me.’’ She said sadly.

‘’Mmmm! What’s that great smell?’’ Stephanie suddenly asked.

‘’I think Ed’s back with your food.’’

‘’Hey, look what I got.’’ Ed said when he came in.

‘’The barkeeper told me it was his treat.’’

Ed put the dish on Stephanie’s bed.

‘’Here. Eat up.’’ He said with a big smile on his face.

Then Stephanie started to eat up her food and by the time she was finished the sun was already getting ready to go under.

‘’I’m stuffed. That was the greatest meal I’ve had in days.’’ Stephanie said.

‘’Thanks Ed.’’

‘’No problem Stephanie.’’ Ed replied with a big smile still on his face.

‘’Just call me Steph.’’ She said with a smile.

Then Ed yawned.

‘’I’m going to take a nap.’’ He said and afterwards he laid down on the ground and went to sleep.

While he did Shiro thought: I hope Yoh’s okay. I’m glad there aren’t any shadows here, but how long will they stay away?

‘’I’m going to sleep too.’’ Stephanie said.

‘’That meal made me drowsy.’’

‘’Yeah, Me too.’’ Shiro said and while he laid down in the second bed Alphonse sat down against the wall and they all wished each other a good night and afterwards they went to sleep.

That night Shiro had an awful nightmare.

[NO! NO PLEASE! PLEASE DON’T! INOE!!!]

Suddenly he woke up and he was looking into two beautiful eyes.

‘’Are you okay?’’ Stephanie asked.

Yeah, thanks, I’m fine.’’ Shiro said.

‘’Get back to sleep. I’m totally fine.’’ And after those words they both went to sleep again.

Later that night Shiro woke up again, but this time from hearing a loud scream.

At that time it was a dark and clouded night.

When he looked around he saw Ed and Al woke up too.

‘’Where’s Stephanie?’’ Ed asked.

When Shiro looked at the bed next to his he noticed Stephanie was missing.

‘’O no.’’ He said quietly.

‘’What’s wrong?’’ Ed asked.

‘’Follow me!’’

‘’What’s going on? Ed asked again but this time a bit frightened.

‘’I’ll tell you later okay? Just shut up and follow me. I think Stephanie is in danger.’’

They ran of towards the square and when they arrived there they saw where Stephanie was.

She was being held captive by a giant shadow who was surrounded by several smaller shadows.

‘’Damn!’’ Shiro cursed.

‘’What…What…What are these…these…things?’’ Ed asked with enlarged eyes.

‘’I’ll tell you later.’’ Shiro just simply said.

‘’First help me to defeat these things.’’

Shiro made his shadow slayer reveal again and after he did he screamed and, with a flash, he bursted through a line of small shadows, making them disappear.

When Shiro afterwards looked around he saw several shadows were closing up on him until he was completely surrounded.

Then he screamed and he span around with his shadow slayer stretched out slicing all of the surrounding shadows.

‘’Come on Ed! Can’t you lend me a hand?!’’ Shiro yelled at the still shocked Ed.

But after a few seconds Ed snapped out of his trance and put off his robe revealing his right arm, which was… an auto mail?

Ed had a metal arm? Shiro thought surprised.

Then Ed held his hand over the hand-part of his auto mail and suddenly a shining light came from under his hand and the hand-part of the auto mail changed into a sharp, pointy, knife-like thing.

Ed screamed while he ran towards the closest shadow before slicing it in two.

‘’Yeah! That’s more like it!’’ Shiro yelled.

And together they fought the shadows to their death until only the big shadow was left.

It cried out an awful sound hurting Shiro’s and Ed’s ears and they both fell onto the ground holding their ears and screaming out of pain.

‘’We’ve got to do something about that awful sound!’’ Ed yelled.

‘’I know! But what?!’’

Ed desperately ran towards the shadow and cut its leg, but ,as with Yoh, the wound instantly healed.

WHAT?! Ed thought before he got punched into Shiro’s direction.

‘’You can’t hurt it with your regular attacks! Only I can!’’ Shiro yelled.

‘’Couldn’t you’ve told me that a bit earlier?’’ Ed yelled back.

‘’Sorry! I forgot!’’

The shadow was still using its voice as its main weapon against Ed and Shiro so that they weren’t able to fight normally.

Then suddenly Al jumped towards the shadow punching its throat with full power, making the shadow fall down onto the ground.

Because of the falling the shadow accidentally threw Stephanie into the air, but luckily Shiro was there to catch her.

Now Shiro and Ed were able to move freely again.

‘’Thanks Al. you can’t be hurt by its sound because you don’t have no ears.’’ Ed said.

‘’No problem brother.’’ Al said.

‘’Now beat that thing up.’’

‘’I will.’’ Ed said.

The punch into its throat made it impossible for the shadow to bring forth not a single sound.

The shadow had lost its main weapon, and as vengeance the shadow smashed into Al destroying about two-third of his armor, or should I say body?

‘’AL!!!’’ Ed screamed.

‘’NO! YOU BASTARD!’’ Ed screamed.

Ed clapped his hands together angrily while he ran towards the shadow and when he was in front of the fierce beast he kneeled down and placed his hands onto the ground.

Then again a shining light came from under his hands and with a blast a massively big canon was revealed.

‘’TAKE THIS YOU UGLY MONSTER!!!’’ Ed screamed, and with those words the canon fired.

When the smoke of the blast was gone Ed could see, despite half of its body was gone, the shadow was still alive, but it was unable to move because of the massive damage to its body.

‘’WHAT?!’’ Ed yelled.

Then the shadow started to regenerate itself.

‘’NO WAY!’’ Ed yelled.

‘’SHIRO! DO SOMETHING!’’ Ed desperately and half-crying screamed.

Shiro ran towards the big shadow and before it could completely regenerate itself Shiro jumped into the air and screamed.

‘’SHADOW SLASH!!!’’.

Then a black, half-moon-shaped, energy-slash flew towards the shadow and sliced it in two, just like when Shiro was with Yoh.

When the shadow had disappeared Ed ran over to the remains of Al’s body.

‘’Are you alright?’’ Ed asked.

‘’I’m fine brother. Just fix me up and I’ll be fine.’’ Al said.

‘’I was so scared Al. I thought I would lose you too.’’ Ed said crying.

He touched a weird sign on the inside of Al’s armor and then the armor started to repair itself.

‘’Is that alchemy?’’ Shiro asked.

‘’Yes. It is.’’ Ed said while he rubbed away his tears.

‘’Pretty cool huh.’’ He said.

‘’Yeah!’’

Stephanie, who had been laid down on the ground by Shiro, woke up from her unconsciousness and looked around confused.

Then she saw the others and still a bit dazed she flew over them.

‘’What…What…happened?’’ She asked when she arrived.

‘’Stephanie! You’re awake!’’ Shiro said happily.

‘’Yeah. I was sleeping and then suddenly I woke up and saw that “thing” was carrying me. Then I screamed and what happened after that I don’t know’’.

‘’Ed, Al and I heard your scream. We saw you were not laying in the bed so we ran of to the square. There we saw that big shadow was holding you. We fought of those smaller shadows but had a hard time beating the big one, but eventually we were able to defeat it. I think you must have lost consciousness.’’ Shiro said.

‘’So that’s what those things are called.’’ Stephanie said.

‘’What? You mean you’ve seen them before?’’ Shiro asked.

‘’What?! O…I uhm… No, I’ve never seen them before.’’ She said while laughing stupidly. ‘’Let’s head back inside’’ Ed said.

‘’Yeah. Let’s do that.’’ Shiro replied.

And so Shiro, Stephanie, Ed and the now fully repaired Al went inside to go to sleep once again.

When they arrived in their room, Ed asked Shiro something.

‘’What were those things we just fought? What did they want with Stephanie? What was that weapon you were wielding just now and why are you the only one who can kill them?’’ ‘’Wow!’’ Shiro said.

‘’One thing at a time.’’

‘’Those monsters we fought are called Shadows. Only a shadow slayer can make them disappear. And the weapon I was using just now…’’ Before he could finish Stephanie said amazed ‘’Was a shadow slayer.’’

‘’Yes’’ Shiro confirmed.

‘’And what they wanted with Stephanie, I don’t know.’’

‘’This was the first time I had seen a shadow’’ She said.

‘’The elder in our village many times warned us to watch out for those black things, but I had never actually seen one.’’

‘’That elder sounds like a wise man.’’ Shiro said.

‘’O yes, he surely is. He knows a lot about many things.’’ Stephanie said.

‘’So… what do you have to do with them?’’ Al asked.

‘’Well, that’s kind of a long story.’’ Shiro said.

‘’We’ve got enough time.’’ Ed replied.

‘’Well…okay.’’ Shiro said knowing that he could trust Ed and Al.

First Shiro sat down on his bed again and then started to tell them about Khan and Defcon one.

About his sister and Yami, and about what happened with Yoh.

‘’Wow.’’ Alphonse who had been listening carefully like everyone else, said when Shiro finished.

‘’That’s some story.’’ Ed said.

‘’Now I feel sorry for you.’’ Stephanie said.

‘’I hope your sister is okay.’’ She said sadly.

‘’I’m sure she’s fine.’’ Shiro said convinced.

‘’Cheer up.’’ Ed said.

‘’We’ll help you find her.’’

‘’Brother. Did you forget about the stone?’’ Al said.

‘’O, yeah, sorry Al.’’ Ed replied.

‘’I’m sorry Shiro, but we can’t help you at the moment. We are looking for a stone called “The Philosopher Stone”. It is said to have great powers when used for alchemy. We need to find it in order to get Al’s body back. How could I forget about something that Important.’’

‘’Don’t worry.’’ Shiro said.

‘’But still, thanks for the offer, but I don’t want to get you two involved into any of this.’’

‘’By offering to go with you we are getting ourselves involved into this, so don’t worry about that. But you know what? Once we’ve found that stone and have gotten Al’s body back we’ll come and help you.’’ Ed said.

‘’Until then you’ll have to do this on your own.’’

‘’Okay,’’ Shiro said.

‘’I can live with that. Tomorrow I’ll head out again, but for now I’m going to rest up a bit.’’

Stephanie, who hadn’t understood a thing of Ed’s story yawned and went to bed too.

Ed laid down on the ground again, Al sat against the wall again and after that they once again went to sleep.

The next morning Shiro woke up roughly by hearing a loud noise.

When he opened his eyes he saw an upset Stephanie was flying around the room and he saw Ed and Al were doing their bests to calm her without success.

‘’What’s going on?’’ Shiro asked sleepy.

‘’She saw my auto mail and then she totally freaked out.’’ Ed explained.

‘’Calm down Stephanie.’’ Al tried but then Stephanie accidentally rammed Al’s head of revealing his empty inside.

‘’It…It…It’s…empty.’’ She said with wide eyes.

‘’It’s…’’ She said and then she fainted.

When she woke up Ed nicely explained to her what she had seen and that calmed her down a bit.

‘’Our mother died when we were still little.’’ He started.

Still little? What does he think he is now? Stephanie thought, but she kept it to herself.

‘’After that we wanted to bring her back and since we had been training the arts of alchemy we tried. To do so we had to give something of equal value in exchange. In order to bring our mother back Al had to give up his entire body and I had to give up my leg, but what we got back was not what we expected. Although it was our mother the “thing” we saw that time was anything but human. That’s when we realized the dead can’t be brought back to life. But because of our foolishness Al had lost his body and I had lost my leg. In a final attempt to save Al’s soul I gave up my arm to prevent his soul from going through the gate to the world of the dead and I put it into that armor. Now we’re looking for the Philosopher stone to bring Al’s body back.’’

When he finished Stephanie was totally quiet.

‘’I…I…I’m sorry.’’ She said.

‘’I didn’t mean to…I just…’’

‘’Don’t worry.’’ Ed said.

‘’It’s not like you see a talking armor every day.’’

And after that they went down stairs to get some breakfast.

When they had finished they went outside to say goodbye to each other and on the way: ‘’Where are you going now Stephanie?’’ Shiro asked.

‘’I’m going with you.’’ She said.

‘’What? But why?’’

‘’I’ve got my reasons and besides, you look like you could use a bit company.’’ She said smiling.

After Stephanie had said that Shiro became quiet.

‘’Hey, come on.’’ Ed said.

‘’She’s right you know. And now you’ve got yourself a travel partner.’’

‘’I guess you’re right, but I don’t want to get her into any trouble.’’ Shiro said.

‘’Don’t worry. I think she would bring you more trouble than you can bring her.’’

‘’Hey?!’’ Stephanie said.

‘’What did you mean by that?’’ She asked a bit angry.

‘’Nothing Steph.’’ Ed said while he laughed.

Then they said goodbye to each other and Shiro, with Stephanie sitting on his shoulder, walked out of the crowded town and after they had entered the forest Shiro stopped at a certain distance away from town.

He raised his hand revealing his shadow slayer again and suddenly he started to hear those voices in his head again.

‘’Master, It’s time for him to go to the next world.’’ A womanly voice said.

‘’Okay. Start the interdimensional travel system.’’ Shiro heard a manly voice say.

‘’Yes master.’’

Then Shiro started to whisper again.

Interdimensional Travel System Activating……………

‘’Huh? Did you say something?’’ Stephanie asked.

Revealing Dimensional Gate…............Requesting Gate Access…………...

A dimensional portal opened in front of them.

‘’Shiro? What’s wrong?’’ She asked.

Gate Access Granted……………

‘’What’s going on?’’ She asked frightened.

Dimensional Gate Open!

‘’Shiro?’’

Then the dimensional portal opened and sucked them both in.

While they drifted between dimensions Stephanie thought: So that was what was happening. If he…then maybe I should…but…

‘’Shiro?’’ She asked.

‘’Huh?’’ He replied.

‘’I’m sorry.’’ She said.

‘’I lied to you. That wasn’t my first time seeing a shadow.’’

‘’Huh? What?’’ Shiro answered.

‘’I’ve seen them before. In my world I am the fairy princess. Our world had to suffer a shadow invasion. It is now fully consumed by darkness. During the invasion in a final attempt to save me and to give our world a final chance the elder opened a dimensional gate and sent me of into another dimension. He told me to look for the one wielding the shadow slayer, and that person shouldn’t look evil. With that person’s help our world might still have a chance. At first I didn’t know what to look for, but then I met you. I knew from the moment I looked into your eyes you were someone special. That look, those eyes, the courage and the hope, that warm feeling. And when you mentioned the shadow slayer I was sure. You were the destined one. You are the legendary hero who would help save the different dimensions and free them from shadows. You are the one our elder always spoke to us about.’’ She said excited.

‘’He said a legendary hero would come and while wielding a dark blade he would be the one to save us from darkness for once and for all. You’ve got to help us, please Shiro, please.’’ She begged.

‘’Don’t worry. I’ll help you. But we’ll first have to find your dimension. Once we’ve found it I will do everything I can to save it. But until we do we’ll just have to wait.’’

‘’Thanks Shiro. I’m glad I met you.’’

And then again a new gate opened and sucked them in.

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