Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Amestris doesn’t have quirks, it has alchemy. It has science. Because it’s cool and logical. Quirks aren’t fucking logical. Ed doesn’t like them.

He first found out about them on his post-Promise Day travels to Xing and some other neighboring countries. It seemed that the further he got from his home country, the more and more quirks popped up. He also got a glimpse into Xing’s “hero system” and it seemed to be very reminiscent of the State Alchemist program; starting at 18, kids are allowed to enlist in the military and begin training to start patrols for their assigned stations. The main difference he saw was that “heroes” weren’t automatically assigned a higher rank, like state alchemists were.

All in all, not that weird, once he got past the inherent shock of someone having a quirk in general. Really, it started getting weird the further and further he got from Amestris’ borders. Quirks got more fantastical and strayed further and further from the laws of alchemy that he’s known all his life- and, AND! People started having more and more chimeric features!

For some, it wasn’t truly noticeable. Some peoples’ irises were just slightly off when you really looked; like, crosshair details that encompassed the whole of the eye, or pupils that were shaped like hearts. Not all that weird. But then, he’d see someone with goat hooves for hands or the tails and claws of a lizard, and his mind would flash back to other chimeras he’s known and then he’d be sick. Because, well… it meant Nina never had to die. If there were people in the world who had a fucking toaster for a HEAD, then yeah. Nina probably didn’t have to die. But there was nothing he could do about that.

All this to say, when his allotted break from the military was over, and Mustang asked him back to Amestris, he felt relatively content with his knowledge of the world outside Amestris and he could just live the rest of his days vicariously through Al, who had moved to Xing. Al told him that “No, brother, I’m not moving to Xing because I like Mei. I want to study Alkahestry! I’ve told you this!” But Ed thinks that his little brother is a dirty rotten liar. (Besides, as soon as he announced he was moving, everyone back home placed bets on when the wedding invites will arrive in the mail. And Ed really needs Al to come to his senses soon because he has a lot of money riding on 3 years, 10 months, and 13 days. He got mocked for his specificity, but the rest of the team, those assholes, all chose dates within plus or minus two weeks of his. Assholes.)

His new job title (because of course Mustang wasn’t content with letting him stay as a simple state alchemist/researcher) was Head of State Alchemy. He essentially oversaw the selection, research, and placement of all the new state alchemists, as well as handling any erroneous alchemy problems that popped up. He saw a lot less fighting than he did in his days as a regular state alchemist, but he still found ways to make his days fun.

Ed was now the equivalent to a Brigadier General. It was a major jump up in rank, courtesy of his contributions on the Promised Day incident, and he once again made history as the youngest to ever hold this specific rank, but what else is new? The Colonel Bastard was now General Bastard, and was practically the Fuhrer in everything but name only. Every time Ed dropped by his office with a report, Mustang would lament him with tales of how he was “only making his constant paperwork problem worse!”, and Ed would remind of how he literally organized a coup and overthrew the last regime to specifically get this job. Then Mustang would bitch and moan some more, Hawkeye would say nothing but have a very specific look on her face like she regretted every decision she’s ever made that brought her here, and Ed would drag his feet around and sigh while waiting to be dismissed.

It was a very well-practiced song and dance.

So, imagine his surprise when he pops in one day and not only does Mustang not regale him with the various errors of his ways, but he also has a report in his left hand ready to be exchanged for Ed’s own.

“What’s all this about?” Ed asked as he grabbed the manila folder. The papers inside didn’t make the folder itself too thick, but the contents of said papers did make his eyebrows rise. “You’re actually giving me a mission?”

“We’ve received a request from the country of Japan. A hero was recently attacked by what they’re calling a ‘Nomu’.” Roy replied, pointing to corresponding notes in the open folder held in Ed’s hands. “This Nomu apparently showcased multiple quirks, which is said to be impossible, even for a country filled with the seemingly impossible.”

“Ok, what does this have to do with me, then?” As Ed began to leaf through the papers, skimming the notes and summaries of the report, he was getting an idea of where this was beginning to go and he didn’t like it.

“Since Amestris has opened its borders, more of the world has become aware of our alchemical power. In their letters to us,” Roy flipped to the last few pages, these ones type-written on thicker paper with a blocky-styled ‘UA’ logo on the top, “they’ve asked if it would be possible to use alchemy to combine multiple bodies and souls, and if so, if we might have… misplaced any alchemists who are knowledgeable in this area.”

Oh man, Ed really didn’t like where this was going, because- “As the Head of State Alchemy,” fuuuuuuuck, there it is. “The Fuhrer has assigned you this mission. Go out to Japan, determine if there are any missing alchemists- state or otherwise -and return them to Amestris to be tried in court.” He’s never hated this god damn General Bastard more in his life. “This is, of course, also a diplomatic mission, so you’ll need to be on your best behaviour.” Apparently Ed could hate the Bastard more because he followed that god awful statement with a shit-eating grin and- “You’ll also, of course, need to be in uniform for any official meetings and diplomatic events.”

Ed wanted to disconnect his metal arm and beat Mustang over the head with it. “Is it too late to be dishonourably discharged?” He hung his head in his hands as he sunk into the seat positioned in front of Mustang’s desk. 

He slowly started flipping the pages back and forth again, taking in more details as hit fate sunk in: a possible rogue alchemist skirting the lines of the taboo, a deadly chimera-adjacent creature, and to top it all off, he has to hang out at a high school. He never even went to regular school. 

Man, this was gonna fucking suck.

~

Nedzu was having a great time. His letters did indeed get through to Amestris, evidenced by the responses he received, and he was informed that they were sending the Head of State Alchemy- oooh, how fancy -equivalent to the rank of Brigadier General.

Nedzu wasn’t intimidated by the idea of a military presence, it wouldn’t be the first time UA had hosted a diplomat; if anything, the principal was looking forward to the argument that this would cause between himself and the Commission. He loved arguing with them especially; watching the complicated range of emotions flit across their face as they realized that they were never going to win the verbal battle. It was always a treat.

Their new ward would be here in a short two weeks! There was much planning to do, like who to send to collect the diplomat and where to keep him.

Chapter Text

In the, give or take, three years since the Promised Day, Amestris had updated a lot of their infrastructure, so travel to Xing’s borders only took about a week. He was given two weeks to get his ass to Japan and the first one was spent lightly studying Japanese and getting things in place for him to leave. He needed to order extra sets of automail from Winry, spare clothes, and a fuck ton of base materials so he could make whatever he was missing while he was away. He also packed the chemical reactions for anything he wasn’t used to transmuting for himself. 

The second week was mainly spent on the train to Xing and absolutely devoting himself to learning Japanese. After two weeks, Ed liked to think he had a pretty good grasp of his mission parameters and the Japanese language in general.  He couldn’t really do anything to practice besides reading and re-reading the books provided by the school he was going to, seeing as no one else in Amestris thought it necessary to learn the language. But he digresses.

The best part about going to Japan, really, was that he got to see Al, Mei, and Ling (and Lan Fan, he knew she was there somewhere) before heading off on his open-ended mission. Unfortunately, Al couldn’t travel with him out of the airport, but it was still nice to see him.

It took a full day of travel for him to reach Japan. It might have been more of a shock seeing so many sleek cars and large fluorescent screens if he hadn’t taken a year off to travel and see more technologically developed countries. Interestingly enough, no other countries seemed to have an equivalent version of their automail, or really anything even close to it, for that matter, so at least Amestris had that to lord over everyone else. 

Getting through the metal detectors in the airport had nearly started an international incident all on its own, but it helps to have a literal prince of the country by your side and advocating that “no, they’re not gonna turn into bombs, he needs them to walk and grab things”. It was still annoying, but all in all, he was allowed to get on the plane and truly get started on his journey to Japan.

The delegate sent to collect him from the airport carried a sign with his name printed on it in neat handwriting and waved as he noticed him approaching. The man himself seemed unassuming in his tan trench coat and matching fedora, but Ed knew better than to make any assumptions.

“Elric Edward? The Head of State Alchemy for Amestris?” The man’s eyebrows rose as he took in Ed’s appearance, clearly surprised that the person in front of him was a highly decorated military official. But no, his clothes couldn’t lie; he was in his bright blue Amestrian uniform and overcoat (at Mustang’s insistence, damn him) and extended his left hand to shake as he approached. “My name is Tsukauchi Naomasa, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Likewise. Are we headed straight to UA or do we need to start my paperwork first?” Retrieving his hand, he shoved it in his pocket and cocked his right hip as he stood in front of the man. He had been warned that when he arrived there would be a few documents that would need to be filed and general information to be recorded. Apparently, his basic military file wasn’t enough and they practically wanted his entire life history as well. He just wanted to get it over with.

“We can get all the necessary paperwork filled out at UA and I can file it after I leave.” With that, they began walking to a non-descript black car and the trunk opened automatically as they got closer. Shoving his bags in the trunk, Ed made his way to the passenger seat, and then promptly circled the car because apparently everything was backwards in this country. First their whole system for reading/writing was completely fucked, then the names were expressed backwards, I mean sure, why not have the cars be opposite. Ed shouldn’t have been as surprised as he was. 

As they got in the car, Tsukauchi giving off what sounded suspiciously like a chuckle, Ed pondered the implications of the cars all having the steering wheels on the opposite sides from what he saw in Xing. Did the manufacturers just make mirrored parts for every car? Were only specific cars mass manufactured to be mirrored to lower production costs? Wait. How much of the world actually drove on the left side versus the right? Was Xing the one with mirrored cars? Did-

“So, how old are you, Elric?” His thoughts were cut short as Tsukauchi decided to strike up a conversation as they drove.

“I’m 18.” He ignored the bugged out look in Tsukauchi’s eye and decided to answer the questions that were no doubt bouncing around in the man’s mind. “I joined the military, of my own volition, when I was 12. I had a goal to achieve and the military was the only thing that could offer me the resources I needed. Our military doesn’t make a habit of recruiting children, I was an exception in how I practically forced the hand of the officials.” 

There was more to it, of course, but he didn’t feel the need to explain the whole thing about how if he didn’t join the military then there would have been a much higher chance that he would’ve been charged with the crime of committing the taboo. There was also the whole circumstance of him being a sacrifice and whatnot, but again, that’s a lot of beans to spill during a first encounter.

His explanation as it stood didn’t seem to make the guy feel better at all. If anything, it seemed to send the man deeper into thought, evidenced by the lack of conversation until they got closer to the destination. There was 10 minutes of blissful silence before it was broken by another question. 

“So, we were given a lot of basic information on you; your name, rank, position, etc. but not really anything more.” Here, he was given a side-eye as Tsukauchi regarded him with a friendly smile on his face. “What do you like to do for fun?”

After a pause that was likely too long, as he considered what he wanted to say, Ed said, “I like to read. I used to spar with my brother in my free time, but he moved away.” He shrugged as he adjusted in his seat, trying to find the most comfortable position on his automail ports. A full day of pressure changes made things difficult to begin with, add on that he was now in a more humid environment, and the pain and discomfort was now becoming more and more prevalent. 

His ports should calm down a little once he’s been here for a while and gets more adjusted, but the first few weeks were probably gonna really fucking suck. Something must have shown on his face as he got himself situated because Tsukauchi started speaking up again. 

“Are you uncomfortable? I’m not sure how different our cars are here compared to what you have in Amestris.”

“I’m fine,” Tsukauchi gave him a weird look, as if he could tell that Ed wasn’t telling the full truth. “And the cars aren’t all that different. The driver and passenger sides are swapped, but beyond that, your cars are really just more modernized than what we have.”

“Ah, then is nothing that much of a shock? What’s the most surprising thing you’ve seen so far?”

“It’s not that nothing's shocking…” Ed gripped his chin with his left hand. “I think if I hadn’t taken a year to explore Xing, and small bits of our other neighboring countries, then I would be more surprised by the transportation, advanced technologies, and how the people look.”

Tsukauchi raised his brow as his eyes widened. Unbeknownst to Ed, Tsukauchi was trying to figure out how this kid had taken a year long vacation and still managed to become a Brigadier General. What the fuck. The math was not mathing. He’s not entirely convinced the math will ever math. 

“How the people look? What do you mean by that?”

“No one in Amestris, to my knowledge, has a quirk; so, you won’t see anyone who has any chimeric qualities because of a quirk.” There were, of course, people who had chimeric qualities because of some variation of human transportation, like Heinkel or Old-Greed’s crew, but nothing quirk-based. It was way more prevalent in Japan from what he’s seen as they drove to UA; Ed briefly wondered if they considered he might not be used to it and that’s why they sent such a non-descriptive chauffeur, and then promptly discarded the thought as he remembered how surprised Tsukauchi sounded when he mentioned it. 

“Chimeric?” They were approaching a large, iron gate and Tsukauchi pulled an ID pass from his coat pocket. He held it outside of the window, raising it up and angling it towards the top right of the gate. The gate opened and they passed through. “Oh! You must mean ‘mutant’, that’s what we call that type here.”

Eventually, they navigated from the gate to a car park and got out to go see the principal of the school, as well as a few select teachers. Ed got a few odd looks, presumably because his bright blue dress uniform stood out among the students like a sore thumb. His long coat billowed out behind him as they made their way to the principal’s office; it was the only part of his uniform that he actively liked, he just wished it was a different color.

They made their way to what seemed to be a small conference room, with an oval table in the middle and four adults scattered around it. All eyes flew to him and Tsukauchi the moment the door opened, taking in his appearance and military uniform. A rat like creature sat opposite from the door, at the head of the table, to his left was a figure with a large hat and overcoat and another person with long, bright, yellow hair styled upwards above his head. Why did he do that? That seemed unnecessary. To the right of the rat thing sat a person that was absolutely swamped in bandages. Was that a personal choice? Maybe it was a stylistic choice because of how his quirk worked. Ed assumed he’d find out soon enough.

Ed folded his arms across his chest and cocked his right hip as he stared down the rat, he didn’t have a scowl on his face but it was a close thing. Mustang’s reminder that he was “a diplomat Ed, please do try to make a good impression. You’re not dealing with people who are used to you, so you need to keep your attitude at least somewhat in check, you brat” ran through his head. Ed resented the brat comment, but he could at least concede that starting things off with him being an asshole probably wouldn’t help any developing relations between their two countries.

“Ah! You must be Elric Edward, the Fullmetal Alchemist! I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.” The rat thing spoke up, Edward assumed he must be the principal, Nedzu. How this tiny thing was a principal, Ed didn’t know. It had a wide smile on its face and was stretching a tiny paw up to wave at him.

Ed could never let Mustang meet Nedzu; he just knew that that Bastard would make all sorts of jokes at his expense. He was getting angry just thinking about it. He had grown significantly taller after the Promised Day incident, but years of insecurity didn’t just go away over night.

“Likewise.” Ed responded, unfolding his arms to stand more at attention and give a two fingered lazy salute to everyone in the room. “You can call me Ed or Fullmetal. I assume you’re Principal Nedzu?”

“Yes, that’s me! Am I a rat? A quokka? A very small bear? The world may never know!” The principal clapped his hands at the end of the speech and gestured using his left paw to the people sitting towards his left. “These are UA teachers and pro-heroes Snipe and Present Mic.” He gestured with his right paw to his right, “And this is UA teacher and pro-hero Eraserhead.”

With both paws still spread out, he continued, “Eraserhead’s class is the one that was attacked and he was present for the entirety of the incident. He personally fought-” The mummified man- Eraserhead, Ed mentally corrected himself -scoffed at the principal’s choice of words, but didn't feel the need to interrupt and explain himself, “the Nomu and is currently the head of our investigation here at UA. Snipe and Present Mic are also helping out on the case. There are some other teachers involved, but they couldn’t all attend due to having classes to teach. I am sure you will meet them all in time.”

Tsukauchi interjected next to him as they took their seats, Ed next to Eraserhead and Tsukauchi at the head of the table in front of the door. “I’m a detective with the local police force and assigned to the case as a point of contact with UA. We’ll share resources, but UA takes the lead in the actual investigation. When the villains are caught, they get sent to the police for due processing.”

Ed pinched the bridge of his nose as he took all of the information in; it seemed like they made the entire process needlessly complicated. Why have two different branches of law enforcement? Also, why let the school handle this investigation at all?? ‘Oh, yeah, the bad guys attacked the school so we’re just gonna let them handle the investigation and they’ll turn the bad guys over when they catch them :)’

It was unbelievably stupid. They should just have one (1) branch of government that handles all things related to law enforcement and that’s it! This is probably the sole reason he has to fill out a thousand pages of paperwork (oh god, he’s starting to sound like Mustang. Things just keep getting worse.)

Ed released the air in his lungs in a heavy sigh as he tilted his head back, still pinching the bridge of his nose. “Do you have the Nomu creature in custody?”

“Yes.” Tsukauchi answered, “it’s being held at the local police station, though it’s been unresponsive since the attack on UA ended.”

“Ok, I’ll need to see it.” Ed released his nose and turned his attention back on the rat. “I also want the most current information you have so that I can get up to date with where everyone is at in the investigation.”

The rat smiled serenely at him, “Of course! We’ll get that all squared away in time, but for now, why don’t we get any questions we might have out of the way and then we can move on to paperwork!”

Present Mic’s left arm shot into the air, straight as an arrow, as he leaned his top half over the table towards Ed, “How old are you?”

Ed scowled. Was this going to be a common thing? Maybe he should wear a mask over his entire face and just say it’s an Amestris tradition or something. 

“18. Why do you style your hair like that?” 

The man spluttered before muttering a very pouty “It looks cool…” as Snipe barked out a laugh beside him.

“I think we were all just expecting someone a little older.” The bandaged man cut in. Ed directed the full power of his scowl towards him. “As long as you’re capable of helping with the case, and defending yourself if need be, then I won’t raise any concern with you being here.”

Ed’s scowl lessened. 

“I’m the Head of State Alchemy for a reason. If there’s a rogue alchemist running loose, or alchemy involved at all, I’ll find them and bring them back to Amestris to stand trial.”

“Great!” The principal clapped his hands, pulling the attention of the room back to him, "Speaking of alchemy, I think we’re all curious to know more about it, would you mind explaining what it is you can do?”

“Alchemy can be used for a variety of things.” Ed began, “Back home, it was mostly used for combat, but we’ve started branching out and studying more applications. First and foremost: Alchemy is a science. The base concept for all transmutations is the Law of Equivalent Exchange. You can’t just make something out of nothing. For example:”

Ed clapped his hand and placed them on the table. Blue lightning arced across his hands and forearms as he raised a small shield from the wooden table. The lightning seemed to etch portions away from the base of the shield for design as the wood was being simultaneously pulled from and pushed back into the table. 

The shield was as long as Ed’s forearm and was wide enough for him to splay both his hands across the back. The two sides branched out from the bottom point and formed three points at the top that had symmetrical dips in between them. The shield had the same dragon crest etched onto it that was stamped into his watch. 

He passed the shield around as he began to explain, “This shield wasn’t made from nothing. I used the wood in the table to make it. Transmutations like that require a constant balancing of equations as I add and subtract mass from the new shape I want to make, as well as from the mass I’m starting from. If you’re using a starting point of something that has a larger amount of mass then what you’re trying to make, like using a portion of a large wooden table to make a small shield, then things are easier because you can just constantly pull without needing to worry too much about how much you’re taking. Then, when what you’re trying to make is finished, like the shield, you can put the excess back into the original source.”

Ed reached back for the shield and broke it in two before clapping again to transmute the first half back into the table. “It’s not enough to just know how to manipulate the shape of the mass, you also have to know what material you’re working with. I could still do exactly what I just did if this were a stone table, but the materials would be different, and thus the equations would be different.” Half of the whole was filled and he pointed at the smooth finish across the top. “If done perfectly, you can form and replace material without leaving any marks. There would be no discernible evidence that a transmutation occurred." 

He transmuted the other half of the shield back into the table, being sure to break a few carbonyl groups from the cellulose structure and release some extra water molecules. A rougher surface was left, evidence of a slightly improperly balanced transmutation. “These marks indicate a transmutation that’s improperly balanced as it’s finished. Most of the time, you can get away with an imbalanced equation, as long as what you’re forgetting to balance is part of the equations that form the structure of your transmuted object and not the overall composition. The end result doesn’t necessarily need to be pretty when you’re in a hurry, after all.” 

He clapped his hands once again to smooth out the table; it would be rude to leave it alchemically marked. “If the Nomu were in any way made by the help of transmutation, there’s very likely going to be marks left over. Biological transmutations are notoriously difficult to finish unaltered.”

“I see…” There was a gleam in the principal’s eye that Ed wasn’t entirely sure he liked. “And you’re doing all of these equations in your head? It must be very hard to keep track of it all.”

“Yes, most alchemists utilize arrays that help to perform specific aspects of transmutations in order to minimize the amount of equations they’ll need to keep track of. Arrays can be designed to target a specific material or chemical reaction to keep things broad, but most alchemists choose to specialize in a specific field.”

Eraserhead spoke up again, “Do you utilize arrays?”

“No. I’m really good at multi-tasking.” Eraserhead hummed at the explanation while the two other pro heroes spluttered. The detective just looked tired.

“You said that most alchemists choose to specialize in a specific field,” Pro-hero Snipe breached, “what’s your specialty?”

“Officially?” Ed smirked, “I specialize in transmuting stone and metal compounds, so just various types of earth. However, there’s a reason I oversee all of our State Alchemists and their research.” A grin began to form on his face; he does love to brag and Al wasn’t here to humble him. “I specialize in any and all types of alchemy. If I don’t know it, then I learn it.”

Ed’s smile began to fade and transform into a pout as he remembered, “There’s only one field of alchemy that I haven’t been able to reverse engineer, but even I’m not crazy enough to really attempt it beyond the theoretical.” Yet, he added mentally.

“”What field is that?” Present Mic asked, with an anxious look in his eye.

“Flame Alchemy. The only person in Amestris who is capable of using it is my old commanding officer.” Given that his new commanding officer was the Fuhrer himself, technically Mustang was still his CO, but on paper it was Grumman. He wasn’t about to explain that though.

The table fell silent for a bit as everyone seemed to digest everything that was said. Ed picked at the sleeve of his uniform; he was tired from travelling all day (really the better part of a week if you count his travel to get to Xing first) and he still had to file paperwork. And his ports were really starting to smart for his attention the longer he didn’t have anything to distract himself with. Ugh. Stupid humid atmosphere.

He began to rub his shoulder, as it hurt more because of the force of gravity acting against him to pull down on his arm. “Well. I’m very tired from travelling, so if we’re done with questions I would like to get all the paperwork squared away and rest for the day. Tomorrow I can start getting myself updated on where the investigation is.”

“Of course!” The principal produced two stacks of paperwork that he had been keeping next to him under the table. He pushed the thicker one towards him, “This is information for the police force and the Japanese government. Mostly diplomatic forms and expectations, consent waivers, and other things.” He pushed the thinner one over, “This is for UA. In order to avoid any red tape and work in a legal gray area, we are going to hire you on as a temporary, international substitute.

“You won’t be expected to teach any classes, though you’re welcome to if you’d like. You can also sit in on any classes, we just ask that you try not to cause any distractions for the students. Your ‘salary’ is room and board here on UA campus, and a stipend to buy whatever you need during your stay. You won’t officially be paid, as we don’t want any allegations of bribing a foreign military official, but if you need something, just let us know and we’ll do what we can.”

Ed half-listened as he leafed through the paperwork, filling out the customary fields for his name, age, rank, and quirk. He wasn’t really worried about how they wanted to play this for their own government. He knew that Mustang trusted him and wouldn’t blindly believe whatever bullshit any tabloids tried to spread. He would try to stay out of tabloids though. He didn’t have the same reputation here as he did in Amestris- he didn’t have any reputation here.

The rest of the government paperwork was summaries of their laws that most foreign diplomats might not be aware of. There were the obvious like not killing people, or break any other normal laws, but the one that caught his eye was about hero work. He couldn’t use a quirk without a license, even in self-defense he could get in trouble if he caused significant damage to a person or the surrounding area. Would it still apply if he had to use alchemy to fight, since it wasn’t technically a quirk?

He repeated the question out loud and the principal hummed an affirmative, explaining that while he was here, his alchemy would be treated the same way a quirk would be. They couldn’t just not hold him up to the scrutiny of the law because of the technicality that his massive destructive power was a scientific application and not a quirk. Maybe, if he wasn’t a foreign diplomat the outcome would be different. Some food for thought.

“So, how do I go about getting to legally use my alchemy?”

“Here on campus, you’re allowed to use it freely within reason. Don’t go breaking anything you can’t fix,” Ed snorted, “or making any unapproved changes, and there won’t be any issues.” Ed nodded in understanding, they weren’t really asking for much.

“Using it outside of UA is another matter. You’ll be granted some leeway, since being a teacher here grants basic approval for things like use in self defense, but if you do something like seek out a fight, then you could have all privileges revoked.”

The bandaged man leaned against the table, sighing before he spoke up, “However, if you are with another licensed hero and they grant you permission to use your quirk as you see fit, then they become responsible and will be held liable for all damages- bodily or otherwise.”

Interesting. So basically don’t get in any fights, and if he does, make sure he’s with another pro that will be willing to shoulder any blame. Looks like he’ll need to make some friends.

He continued to read through and fill out the paperwork, handing the appropriate stacks to the principal and the detective next to him. He was handed a pass by the rat, stating “This will grant you access to most areas. If the door doesn’t open for you, then you’re not allowed in.” and a plastic card for purchasing whatever he might need, if they don’t already have it on campus.

The detective left without much fanfare and he was led to where he would be staying by the mummified pro, Eraserhead. “Your bags were already moved from the car you came in and brought to your room, so you won’t need to worry about those.”

As they made it to the second floor, in front of a door with a label reading ‘Fullmetal’, Eraserhead pointed his right index finger downwards and said “I’m in the block of the apartments on the ground floor, and so is Present Mic. Every teacher apartment is labeled with their hero name. Snipe, who was in the meeting earlier, and Ectoplasm, who you haven’t met yet, are on the floor above you.” He pointed upwards before continuing, “There are others who live in this complex besides them, and I’m sure you’ll get to meet them in time.”

Ed nodded as he began making his way inside to his new living quarters. They were definitely much nicer than any of the government dorms he stayed in. It was pre-furnished with two rooms, a bed in one and a home office set up in the other, a living/dining room, kitchen, and bathroom; all had the expected amenities.

He nodded in approval. He had made much less work for much longer before, this shouldn’t be bad at all.

“Any questions?” He couldn’t see the man’s face, but Ed would bet anything (even eat his shoe, again) that it was meant to be more of a rhetorical question and he wanted nothing more than to leave. So Ed waved him off with an affirmation that, no, he was fine, and began to unpack his belongings.

First things first, he needs to get out of this awful fucking uniform.

Chapter Text

Aizawa wasn’t sure how to feel about the foreign diplomat. The kid is barely older than his current homeroom. And he’s a Brigadier General. What the fuck is going on in that country.

He had called Tsukauchi after showing Fullmetal to his apartment and asked if he knew anything else about the kid that wasn’t mentioned in the meeting. Apparently, Fullmetal had “forced the hand of the military officials”, his words, to let him join when he was 12 years old, because he had something he needed to do. Again. What the fuck.

He tried to force the thought of Ed being a literal child soldier from his brain as he faced his class full of twenty heroes in training. He would laugh at the irony if he wasn’t so tired.

He started the day fielding questions from his students about why All Might subbed for him during Hero training the day before, because of course his students would be unbearable when they know he’s only ever missed classes when he’s been grievously injured and physically incapable of attending class. A stern glare from him had the class dropping the topic, but he knew they would be back at it sooner rather than later.

After his homeroom, Aizawa spent his time up until lunch revising his lesson plans and grading papers that he had assigned to class 3A. He had assumed that their foreign diplomat would be cooped up all day going over all the information they’ve compiled in the investigation, and that they probably wouldn’t see him until tomorrow. So he’s surprised when he sees the young man poke his head into the teacher’s lounge and scan the occupants until his eyes make contact with Aizawa’s own.

Ed pushed the door open further and began making his way to Aizawa with a haphazard stack of paper in his hands. “Ah! I was looking for you. I tried the principal’s office first, but he shoved a map of the school in my hands and informed me that I would likely find you here.”

Aizawa noted that the man seemed to be more rested, the slight bags that had been forming under his eyes seemed to have gone away, and he appeared less tense than he had been in the meeting yesterday. His overall demeanor was more cheerful if the slight smile on his face as he spoke was anything to go by. 

He was also no longer in uniform, choosing instead to wear what looked like black combat boots, black leather pants, and a black form fitting top with a bright red jacket resting unzipped on top. There was a thin chain connected to a belt loop on his left side that led into the front left pocket of his pants.

Aizawa glanced back down to the papers in his hand, noting that his gloves from yesterday were still present. There was a barely noticeable design stitched into them; the same dragon crest that he engraved onto the shield yesterday and that was displayed as a patch on his military uniform. A requirement by his government or personal preference? “Is there something you need clarification on?” They had translated their documents to the best of their ability for him, but it was entirely possible that something had gotten mixed up.

“Yes. The notes from the case files state that you… took heavy damage from the Nomu and you weren’t awake for most of the fighting between it and some of the students before this All Might guy arrived.” Ed eyed him up and down in all his bandaged glory, “I want clarification on a few statements made by some of the students about how the Nomu moved and responded to orders. Seeing as they’re your students, I figured I should talk to you first before trying to go track anyone down.”

Clarification on the Nomu’s reactions and movements? What was it about the statements that indicated alchemical interference? “You think talking to my students can help determine if the Nomu was created by alchemy?”

“Yes.” Ed nodded his head decisively. His light demeanour began to shift into something more serious; his eyes becoming hard and his mouth setting into a thin line, foregoing the small smile it had been set in previously. “It would be a lot to try and explain right now, but the absence of reactions from the creature is actually more indicative of alchemy then not.”

Aizawa had to trust that Ed knew what he was talking about. He didn’t necessarily want to, but had to. They specifically requested an expert, and Ed is who was sent directly from the Fuhrer of their country. 

“Alright.” He didn’t want to agree. He didn’t want some random diplomat talking to his class, his kids, and he thinks that Ed knows that. He could already feel a migraine coming on; could already hear the questions he’s going to be bombarded with by his students. “Who do you want to talk to?”

~

After lunch, he has meaningless humanity courses that he could ace in his sleep. The only class he’s really looking forward to is their hero training. It’s a two hour long block that they only have three times a week, so Bakugou really fucking hates that instead of being able to go directly there and bash his classmate’s heads in, he has to wait outside the changing rooms with fucking Frog Face of all people.

Their sensei had been waiting in the hallway with some random extra, and there was no way he was a student because UA was strict as shit about uniforms, and his attire was too fucking bland and atrocious to be a hero costume. The extra stood with his hands shoved in his pockets and his hips cocked, head tilted up to the ceiling, acting like Bakugou was the one holding him up. 

Aizawa-sensei had pulled him aside on his way to hero-training and kept a hand on his shoulder as they waited for Frog Face. Apparently, Goldilocks here needed to speak to both of them about the Nomu. He endured the teasing of his passing classmates with his normal decorum, as they taunted him about being in trouble, with his lips curled into a sneer and his eyes filled with white hot rage. He’d get them back ten-fold when he was allowed to go back to class.

Frog Face stopped and stood next to him as soon as their sensei called out for her to wait, no hand on her shoulder needed to keep her from flying off the handle and storming off to hero-training. They still waited for a good five minutes after the rest of their classmates left for their course, until Goldilocks tilted his head back down, finally gracing them with his attention.

“Is there a room nearby that we can use? I can ask the questions in the hallway but I’d prefer to get the clarifications separately so they don’t accidentally influence each other’s memories.” He sounded young, and if he was asking questions about the USJ incident then he was almost definitely not a student. Bakugou narrowed his eyes as he glared at the new extra. 

“There’s a room down the hall on the left that we can use. Take your pick for who you’d like to speak with first.” The extra looked him up and down with a blank face before smirking, letting out a quick ‘heh’, and pointing at Frog Face. 

Aizawa turned to Frog Face, “Asui. Go with Fullmetal and answer his questions, you’re free to make your way back to your classmates when he releases you.” His sensei then turned his attention to him, “Bakugou, you’ll wait here with me until Fullmetal is ready to speak with you.”

Bakugou could explode on the spot right now.

His sensei immediately pulled out his yellow sleeping bag and set himself up against the wall as Bakugou began skulking in his hero costume. “So who’s this Fullmetal extra?” He grunted as he leant back against the wall with his arms hanging against his sides; he would cross them against his chest, but his wrist grenades made it difficult.

“He’s a substitute teacher here at UA.” Bakugou tried to channel all of his rage into his glare as he stared down at his teacher; that piece of shit extra was a sub?! “He was recently brought on to help with a facet of the investigation into the League of Villains.”

“Ok, so what the fuck does he need to talk with me for?”

“It seems like you’ll just need to wait and find out.”

He’ll say it again: he could explode on the spot right now.

~

“Hello Asui, I’m Fullmetal. I’m here to ask you some questions regarding the Nomu attack at the USJ.” Ed extended his left hand to the green girl as they sat at opposite ends of a desk.

“Nice to meet you, kero. Please call me Tsuyu.”

Tsuyu’s demeanor was calm and steady; she didn’t seem to be particularly worried about having to speak privately with a stranger. She likely placed a lot of trust in her teacher. “I know you’ve already given your statement of the attack to the police, but I’d like to ask you a few more questions about the Nomu itself. Are you ready to start?” Tsuyu nodded her confirmation and Ed leafed through his stack of papers until he reached one that he had pre-written questions on and readied his pen to write down her answers.

“Alright, can you describe to me how the Nomu looked?”

Tsuyu put her hand to her chin in thought. “It was very big, kero, about as big as All Might. Its torso and arms were bigger than its legs and its brain was exposed, kero.”

“When you say ‘exposed’, do you mean that the brain was open to the atmosphere or was there a see through covering?”

“It was open to the atmosphere, kero.”

“Great, thank you. Was there anything else that looked wrong about it or any feelings you got from it that you can’t quite explain?” It wasn’t sure-fire proof of alchemy, but most people were able to tell when something was specifically a chimera. Even the ones like Heinkel that shifted had a vague aura to them that was just not quite human. 

But, it’s different here. People normally look different and aren’t just generic human. That’s part of the reason he wanted to talk with someone who had a ‘mutant quirk’. Not only was Tsuyu an observer during the fight, so she likely got a good look at the creature, but she also had personal insight of behaviours typical to a mutant quirk.

“It was… empty, kero. I made direct eye contact with it from my hiding spot multiple times, kero, and it was like I didn’t register to it at all.”

“Alright.” Ed made a note. “You also stated to Detective Tsukauchi that it only engaged when it was ordered to by a villain- Shigaraki. Can you elaborate on what you meant by that?”

“My group was late to Aizawa-sensei’s fight, kero. We arrived when he was finishing up. The Nomu had been stationary next to a few other villains, kero, but when Shigaraki ordered the Nomu to attack, it immediately moved, kero.”

“It wasn’t moving at all before being ordered? No fidgeting or looking around?” Ed’s face was becoming more grim as he wrote down his notes.

“No. I didn’t notice it move a muscle until Shigaraki spoke, kero.”

“And there was no hesitation? What about when it was attacking Aizawa and was told to stop?”

Tsuyu flinched as she forced herself to recall watching her teacher be beaten to a pulp in front of her. As she remembered his limp body while the Nomu gripped his head. “...No, kero. It was like someone pressed a pause button on its movements.”

Ed made another note. “Alright, thank you, this has all been very helpful. I have no more questions.”

Tsuyu made to stand as Ed waved her away from his still seated position. As she reached for the door handle, Ed spoke up again with a grim smile on his face. “Ah, Tsusyu? Please don’t mention any of the questions we talked about to any of your other classmates.” He absently straightened out the piles of paper in front of himself. “If they won’t drop it, you can tell them to come ask me personally. Aizawa can direct them to where I’m at or set up a meeting.”

Tsuyu nodded her acceptance and left the room, no doubt preparing to be hounded with questions by the more curious of her classmates.

Ed sat in the silence of the room as he made a few more notes, physical and mental, before he went to grab the other student. Bakugou seemed far more impatient, so he could wait a bit longer.

He found the frog-girl’s comments concerning; it’s definitely like a poorly-made chimera to have no thoughts or movement, but it is odd that it would follow orders so well. It almost sounded like an inbetween state of an incomplete chimera and a fully-fledged one like Darius or Heinkel. Could this evolution be because of interference of a quirk? What was the effect of using alchemy to transmute a body that had unique characteristics, such as a quirk? 

Also, why leave the brain exposed? Was it the result of poor balancing of the structure? Not enough time to finish the transmutation? Stylistic choice? It would certainly be more intimidating to fight a creature that just had its brain open to the world. Did it not need it to process orders? Any level of brain exposure to air would damage the proteins, so why leave it exposed?

Did it eat? Did it sleep? How long before the attack was it made? Where did they store it?

These were all horrible, but necessary questions. Ed spent five minutes writing them down, and another five minutes writing base theoretical answers that he might be able to confirm when he sees the thing for himself.

He would’ve written down more, but he was interrupted by the door slamming open and a very angry 15 year old storming into the room. “Oi! Frog Face left 10 fucking minutes ago! I have shit I need to do so can we get started or what?!”

Is this how Mustang felt when Ed was under his command? Is this what Karma is? Now he has to work with a younger version of himself? He wants to think that he wasn’t ever nearly as rude as this fucking brat, but he would probably just be lieing to himself.

Ed scowled as he waved his hand towards the seat that Tsuyu had previously occupied. He may be in Mustang’s position, but that doesn’t mean he had the man’s patience or composure. “I was getting my notes in order you brat. But yes, we can get started.”

Bakugou bristled at being called a brat but threw himself into the chair regardless. “Fucking finally…” He mumbled as he glared at the man now sat in front of him. Bakugou watched as he shuffled and straightened out his papers. He couldn’t prove it, but it felt like Goldilocks was stalling just to piss him off.

Ed was definitely stalling just to piss him off. It was fun to watch the kid bristle, sue him.

“Alright.” Ed began, “Let’s get started. I’m Fullmetal. I was brought in to help investigate the Nomu and I have some questions regarding your original statement to Detective Tsukauchi.”

Ed was choosing to interpret Bakugou’s grunt as ‘yeah, sure, whatever, let’s get this show on the road.’

“Great. Can you describe the Nomu for me?”

“It was fucking big, as big as All Might. It was top heavy and muscular. Had claws and shit too.”

“Uh huh…” Ed gave a blank look to Bakugou, “Anything else about it that was weird?”

“Its brain was exposed? Fucking stupid if you ask me. You’re just showing off its weak point and begging for someone to exploit it.”

“Did you?”

Bakugou sneered, “Did I what?”

“Did you exploit that weak point?” Ed rifled through his notes, mostly for show, as he recalled in the original statement that this kid tried to fight the villains. “You were part of the fight, right? Did you try attacking its brain?”

“No, I was too fucking busy making sure that their shitty fucking warp gate couldn’t help them escape!”

Ed hummed in response, “I see… Well, in any case, you watched it fight. What was that like?”

“It tanked hits like they were fucking nothing. The Half-n-Half bastard-” Half-n-Half? Ed doesn’t have a good enough grasp on Aizawa’s students to know who that is. Context clues would have to do. “-froze it and kept it from moving, but it just ripped its own limbs off and fucking grew ‘em back. Didn’t even act like it hurt.”

“Did it move to attack on its own?”

“No. It waited until that fucking Handsy bastard sent it after someone.”

“Did it move at all until it was told?”

“No, it was fucking weird. Stood like a statue until it was given a target.” Bakugou’s palms crackled as he remembered the speed the creature had as it barreled towards him, intent on killing him.

“I see… Well, that adds evidence to some theories I’ve had. Thanks for the clarification, you’re free to go. Don’t tell any of your classmates about anything I asked you.” Ed glanced up at him lazily as he finished writing down some more notes.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ed looked back up to Bakugou. “You made me miss 30 minutes of hero training just to ask me like 3 fucking questions??”

Ed gripped his chin in mock-thought and smirked, “Yeah.” 

“I fucking hate you.”

Aizawa could hear Ed’s full laughter as he watched Bakugou storm down the hallway and to Gym Beta for hero training. He should have told Fullmetal to talk to Todoroki or Midoriya instead; it would have caused less of a headache.

Ed made his way towards Aizawa as the man tried to un-cocoon himself. He still had a grin stretching across his face as he asked "So, who's Half-n-Half?"

Aizawa sighed.

Chapter Text

When Ed finally got back from seeing the Nomu, he made a beeline for the principal’s office. Before he could even reach to knock on the door, it was opening and the rat-like creature was holding up a teapot. 

“Tea?” He asked calmly, like Ed wasn’t panting in the doorway, gripping a stack of photos and notes in his right hand and running his left through his hair, ruining his braid.

“That thing is all sorts of fucked up.” Ed stormed the rest of the way into Nedzu’s office and began laying out the crumpled papers and photos out on the desk. “I have no idea how they did what they did.”

Nedzu began pouring out two cups of tea, ignoring for now that their newest ‘teacher’ was shoving all of his papers to the side to arrange his own notes. “I take it there were signs of alchemy being used to create the Nomu?”

Ed pointed to a few close-up photos he had taken of the Nomu, where its skin was flaking up in small rectangles along the edges of the brain and at the edge of its fingers and toes. “There were, yes. If I hadn’t been looking specifically for it, it could’ve been easily missed.” 

Ed accepted the teacup being held out to him and he began to sit back, heavily, into the chair in front of Nedzu’s desk. The principal began walking around his desk, peering at each photo and reading Ed’s haphazard notes.

They talked for a while in Nedzu’s office, throwing around theories to each other and summarily discarding each one when either of them would throw out an aspect of quirks or alchemical rules that disproved their current working theory. Ed was having a great time, regardless of the topics they were discussing. It had been so long since he was able to have a discussion like this; since Al had moved away, he thought. 

Mustang indulged him, if he was in the mood to ignore his paperwork and Ed was able to get him away from Hawkeye long enough to have a worthwhile conversation. She was the deciding factor, because she had a sixth sense for when Mustang was ignoring his work and was always able to find them. It kept things exciting, trying to find new ways to kidnap his old CO and see how long he could hide him for, but they were never able to really talk about things for long enough that Ed was really fully satisfied.

Luckily, Ed didn’t have that problem here. Nedzu didn’t have a Hawkeye. It ruled.

Apparently, it only took a good hour and a half to get somewhere, which was a good thing, but now they needed to confirm their theories. 

You see, Ed and Nedzu figure that the Nomus aren’t being created by alchemy alone; that idea had been thrown out nearly immediately. Are you able to mesh two bodies together using alchemy, without committing the taboo? Yes, of course. It’s incredibly difficult but it can definitely be done. Shou Tucker did it with his wife and daughter, on separate occasions, after all. There’s also the chimeras created by the Homonculi, but those were made with a philosopher’s stone, so they came out a little better than most others would.

Normally, Ed would assume that that’s what this whole situation was: the work of some deranged alchemist who somehow got their hands on a philosopher’s stone. But, he needs to remember that he’s not in Amestris right now. He’s in the outside world and the outside world has quirks.

Ed also doesn’t want to explain to Nedzu about philosopher stones, because there is absolutely no way that anything good would come from that.

It complicates things, somewhat. He has a sneaking suspicion that Nedzu doesn't believe his 'some Alchemists can just do that. Through the power of friendship or something.' explanation for how "Yes, technically alchemy on its own is sufficient to make this thing, but it would be way more complicated and very unlikely if that's actually what's going on. Focus."  Which, fair.

So they have two main theories.

1. An alchemist merges the bodies and the quirks at the same time.
2. An alchemist creates the bodies of the Nomus first, and then the quirks are somehow put in afterwards.

There are pros and cons to each theory, but personally, Ed is hoping that the second explanation is what’s really happening. This, of course, means that it’s highly likely that the first theory is what’s taking place. It would be just his luck.

If an alchemist is merging the bodies and quirks at the same time, then it means that there is a very skilled alchemist that is running around performing soul transmutations. The cons to this situation vastly outweigh the pros. Really, the only pro is that the alchemist likely wouldn’t be any good in battle if it came down to it, which is good for Ed.

If an alchemist is just creating a large amalgamation and then someone else steps in to transfer quirks, though? That’s better. It would imply the existence of someone who can temporarily remove a quirk and then re-instate it, which Nedzu said would “really not be ideal” and did not elaborate. It’s better for Ed though, because it means he’ll just need to find an alchemist that is an expert in biological transmutations and not soul alchemy.

As far as Ed knew, he was really the only expert in soul transmutation, but maybe there was an unknown alchemist from the 5th Laboratory that got away.

He’d have to ask Mustang to look into that, which means they likely wouldn’t get answers for another week or so. 

Ugh, why couldn’t their countries be closer to each other.

~

After talking with Nedzu, Ed went back to his room to write a coded letter to Mustang. It’s not like he didn’t trust UA, it was standard procedure for any military correspondence that was not being handled in-house. Mustang should really be thrilled that Ed is willing to follow protocol at all. 

He included the number to the phone that UA provided to him, should Mustang want to use that for faster communication at any point, and a request to please look into any alchemists that may have been involved in the 5th Laboratory that were currently listed as missing.

It was far more likely that the alchemist would be listed as ‘dead’ but Ed knew that The Bastard was thorough and would make sure that nothing would be overlooked. Now all he had to do was mail the damn thing.

He didn’t know how to do that. 

His options were to either go talk to Nedzu, which would probably devolve into some heated discussion and then Ed would forget to mail the stupid letter, or he could find some other teacher and make them help.

Well, he hasn’t bugged Aizawa in a while.

~

Aizawa wasn’t in the teacher’s lounge, which was slightly annoying, but it meant that Ed got to explore the campus until he found him. He poked his head into a bunch of classrooms that provided no results of the scruffy man so he had to expand his search to the outer grounds of the campus.

It was towards the end of the school day, so maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised to see the teacher with his students in a large gym, but Ed didn’t know the man’s schedule and also didn’t really care to learn it. Life should have some adventure, Ed thought, and if he learned Aizawa’s schedule then it would take all the fun out of interrupting a bunch of classes and causing confusion.

Ed sauntered in, with his letter tucked into a pocket on the inside of his jacket, and stopped next to Aizawa. He received a side-eyed glance and a small frown before he spoke, “Is there something I can help you with?” The man sounded bored, but Ed saw how sharp his eyes were as they flicked back to watch his students flip around through the air and throw punches at each other.

“Just need to know where I should go to mail a letter back to Amestris, and where to collect future ones. What are these kids doing?” A few students had turned to look at him and it seemed like the class as a whole was beginning to slow down at the intrusion, save for a few select students.

Aizawa hummed in response to his request about the letter and glanced down at him again, “I don’t have a substitute to watch my class, so you’ll have to wait until it’s over for me to show you where to go. I have my students preparing for a sports festival that UA hosts every year.” He turned his attention back to his students, “Don’t get distracted by any interruptions, catalogue it and then keep focused on the fight in front of you. A lapse in focus during a real fight can result in death.”

The students, properly cowed, began their spars again.

“What’s a sports festival?”

“It’s a televised event between all the students based on their year. They compete in a tournament to show off their quirks for potential internships with hero agencies.”

Ed hummed in response but his face screwed into a grimace as he thought about it. It seemed like a bad idea to show anyone, potential employer or not, your whole arsenal. You can figure out a lot about someone just by watching them fight.

Hell, Ed thought, Mustang knows most of my tricks but not all of them. He had been working on reverse engineering his flame alchemy in his downtime, to give his mind something else to think about besides the case he was currently working on. It was good to stay focused, but Ed could get obsessive and sometimes that didn’t yield very good results; just created more questions for him to agonize over.

“They’re sloppy in their hand to hand.” Ed noted to Aizawa as he watched a blond kid misjudge  a clear feint and step directly into it instead of away. There were a few promising students, like a student with a tail, another kid with dual toned hair, ‘Half-n-Half’ his mind supplied, and the boy that Ed had questioned a few days ago; but most of the students looked like they had never taken any type of fighting class in their lives.

Him and Aizawa lapsed into silence as they both stood and watched the students. Ed absently rubbed his shoulder and tsked whenever a student did something particularly sloppy, while Aizawa stood with his hands in his pockets and categorized which students to pit against each other next.

The longer they stood, the harder Ed rubbed his shoulder. He hadn’t really exercised in a useful way since coming to Japan and it was coming back to bite him in the ass; soon his leg was going to start acting up and then he’ll really be having a bad time. He could also see Aizawa glancing at him more and more often through the corner of his eye. He wonders how long it’ll take for the man to crack-

“Do I need to send you to the nurse?”

“HAH??” Ed gaped at Aizawa. He’s not one of his shitty students! “I’m not one of your shitty students!”

Both men ignored the outraged call of “WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHITTY??” that echoed from somewhere among the students.

“You keep rubbing your shoulder. If you’re hurt you should go visit the nurse.”

“I’m not hurt, really,” for some reason Aizawa doesn’t look too convinced, “I just haven’t been exercising as much as I normally do.” Aizawa’s expression didn’t change. “My ports need motion or else they just constantly feel dragged down by gravity. I also haven’t gotten used to the humidity of Japan yet, which isn’t helping.”

Aizawa’s face scrunched up, in his first show of any emotion that wasn't 'bored' since Ed had come into the gym, as he mouthed the word ‘ports’ to himself. Probably some sort of mistranslation, he thought to himself. He smoothed out his face and returned his attention to the shorter man in front of him.

“So you just need to spar?”

Ed’s eyes gleamed as he looked up at Aizawa, a shit eating grin on his face. “Yeah, you offering?”

Aizawa had the distinct feeling that he shouldn’t have asked.

Chapter Text

Aizawa turned to Edward. He could hear the slowing of his students’ fights behind him as he spoke, “Fullmetal, most of my bones are broken.”

Ed blinked.

“Those bandages serve an actual purpose? I thought that was just part of your costume.”

Aizawa blinked.

“No.” He returned his gaze to his students, who were now all fully stopped and watching in rapt attention. Why couldn’t they pay this much attention during class? “But in the interest of training my students against varied martial arts, you can fight any student that volunteers.”

Aizawa couldn’t deny that he was interested in seeing how Ed fought. There was no chance that he wasn’t talented, with his rank being what it is, but no one actually had any proof of his caliber. How would he rank against his top students?

Would he even struggle?

Ed reached into an inner pocket of his jacket and pulled out a letter, “Here, hold this.” He then unceremoniously stuffed the letter into a fold of Aizawa’s scarf and turned to face the class. “Alright! Who wants to fight?”

Ed’s grin was sharp as an explosion rang out through the gym. Bakugou was already rocketing towards them.

~

Ed hadn’t come into the gym looking to fight children, but he’d take what he could get. And, from what he could tell of the previous spars he had been watching, the kid currently acting as a homing-missile flying towards him was pretty decent. He definitely wasn’t on Ed or Al’s own level, but Ed thinks he’ll get there with enough time.

His grin morphed into a smirk as he clapped his hands and struck his palms to the ground. 

As much math as alchemy was, it was also visualisation. You had to not only know the current crystalline structures of what you’re trying to alter, but then also visualise where the polymer chains would end and begin.

Pulling excess stone and earth was all well and good, but from which chains were you pulling and to which chains were you placing. It’s actually quite brutal for what seems like such a delicate process, but for all intents and purposes it’s like forcibly evicting a fish from its spot in the ocean and placing it further into the ocean.

Ed felt the rush of alchemy flow from his palms into the ground he now commanded, forcing the structure to raise and bend backwards as he jumped off, leaving a long, bent column in his wake.

He flipped in the air, zeroing in on Bakugou’s approach above him. He threw his hands up into a block as the spiky-haired kid met him in the air. His feet met solidly with his forearms and Ed shifted his right arm to grab his left ankle while he twisted his upper body to throw Bakugou and shift the momentum.

Ed preferred fighting on solid ground, for obvious reasons, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Bakugou threw his palms behind him and let loose smaller explosions to slow his fall. 

Ed got into a ready stance as they landed, with his arms set to block and his left leg forward in case the kid tried to sweep him.

With a small pop, Bakugou shot up from the ground with his right arm already positioned to throw a hook. Ed smacked it away and went for a jab to the throat, mindful of the strength behind his metal arm.

Their hand to hand continued for a short time, with Ed deflecting or outright dodging Bakugou’s hands as explosions went off left and right in his personal space. For his part, Bakugou was holding up remarkably well, but he was taking far more hits, mostly from Ed’s right hand, and Ed could tell it was getting to him. 

Ed could hear the gasp ripple through the class as he wasn’t able to dodge a feint and had to absorb the point blank explosion to his right arm. He could tell that Bakugou was exercising restraint; there wasn’t nearly enough explosive force behind it to blow his arm smooth off, all it succeeded in was burning up the material of his jacket and making him jump back a bit.

He crouched slightly and shook out his arm a bit to make sure that no damage beyond anything external was done and looked up through his lashes at Bakugou, “Good job, can you find the other one?”

Ed surged forward, and the fight resumed. He pushed harder against Bakugou’s defenses until he was forced to just block and redirect over and over; Ed wasn’t gonna let him get another opening like before. The first half was mostly a warmup for him, now he was gonna have some fun and see how the kid fights under more intense pressure.

He held up well, but lost the fight when he redirected a kick from Ed’s right leg. Ed immediately moved with the momentum of the redirection and forced his right leg back to the ground and struck out with his left. It caught his opponent in the middle and Ed relished in the strangled rush of air coming out of his mouth as the kid fell to the ground.

Ed smiled innocently as he stared down at him. He’d be fine. Probably.

There was force behind his kick, but not enough to break anything. Would his ribs be bruised? Oh, for sure, but he’d be fine so long as he rested.

He turned back to the class watching him and was confused at their stares before he remembered: Ah yes, my shiny metal arm. 

He elected to ignore their increasingly questioning stares and made eye contact with Aizawa.

There was a beat of silence and then, “Fullmetal makes more sense now.”

Ed threw his head back and cackled.

~

Bakugou ended up grudgingly conceding defeat and spent the rest of the class trying to glare a hole through Ed’s head as he sparred with other students. None of the other students wanted to full on spar with him, but he was happy to train with them all the same; throwing them on their asses over and over again as he ruthlessly exposed the weak points in their forms.

He felt that he had a better understanding of Teacher, now.

The kids, rightfully so, were skeptical of his metal arm but quickly learned that questions about it would go largely ignored.

He wasn’t really ashamed of it anymore, and wasn’t as dedicated to no one seeing them, but his automail still tended to bring more questions than not; especially for people who have never seen such an advanced prosthetic before. The way he saw it, these kids didn’t deserve any answers from him regarding something that wasn’t really important.

The rest of the class period carried on in this way: a student approaches Ed for help with training, Ed pummels them into the ground, they ask questions about his automail, he makes up an insane response that is very clearly not the real answer ("I fought off a pack of wolves." "They just did that"), rinse and repeat.

At the end of the class period, Aizawa sidled up to him, extending his hand for Ed to grab his forgotten letter. “Come on, now that class is over I’ll show you where you can send this.”

The two made their way out of the gym, not sparing a glance to the disappointed members of the class they were leaving behind, and began their trek back to the main building of the campus.

It was a quiet walk, with both men content to walk in silence, until it was broken by a loud screech. The two men tensed and whipped around to see Present Mic barreling towards them with his right arm extended and pointing directly at Ed.

At Ed?

Huh??

Ed looked at himself - oh right, my arm is still exposed.

Present Mic seemed to reign himself in more the closer he got to Ed, evidently absorbing the aura of ‘if you ask any probing questions you’ll get a very metallic tasting knuckle sandwich’.

Present Mic glanced to Aizawa, swallowed, and then looked back to Ed. “Ah…” He rubbed at the back of his head, “I wasn’t expecting to see you walking together… Were you observing Eraserhead’s class?” He moved to clasp his hands in front of him and plastered a very innocent look on his face.

Ed, deciding to, very graciously in his opinion, ignore the original yelling and pointing to his metal arm, spoke, “Yeah, I had to wait so he could show me where I can mail this letter, so I can get in contact with my CO back in Amestris.”

“Why don’t you just email?”

“What’s email?”

“You know, like,” Mic waved his arms around, “a form of electronic messaging…”

“Does it use a computer?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Amestris doesn’t have computers.”

Mic went very still. “...”

Ed gave a very deadpan look, with one eyebrow raised.

“You know,” Mic shifted, “I just realized that I have something I need to do.” He pointed down the hall in the opposite direction. “Way over there gottagobye!”

And like that, Mic was jogging down the hall and around the corner.

~

After successfully learning how to mail his letter, Ed walked a bit more with Aizawa and asked about his class schedule. He’s likely going to be at the school for a while, and his class clearly needs all the help they can get with training.

“I’d be happy to help them train some more,” Ed offered, “it would be good experience for me too.”

Aizawa looked at him. He really stared into his eyes, which Ed thought was a bit weird, but whatever. His shoulders sagged and then he responded, “Sure. I’m sure they’d be willing to take whatever extra training they could get before the Sports Festival.”

“Cool! I’ll pop in whenever they have hero training then. I think this is going to be fun.”

“Fun for you, a headache for me.”

They began to split at Aizawa’s apartment door, and Ed turned to the door leading to the staircase, to retreat to his own apartment. “Nah, it’ll be fun for both of us!” Ed pointed at him, “I get to beat up your kids and you get to watch!”

Ed couldn’t prove it, but he’s choosing to believe that Eraserhead smiled, if the small huff of air he heard was any indication.

The next morning, a small slip of paper had been unceremoniously shoved under his door. Ed smiled at the class schedule as he set to work repairing his jacket. “Hero training: quirk application, huh?”

Chapter Text

In direct contrast to how he felt two days ago, Ed was now having a terrible time.

He wasn’t getting any further in his research for the case he’s been helping on (he’d be taking it harder if anyone else was making any headway, but everyone else seems to be stuck in the same rut he’s in) and someone (Ed’s choosing to believe it’s that fucking rat) put a notice on his door that representatives from the HPSC, military, and local police force want to meet him. When he confronted Nedzu, who neither confirmed nor denied that he put the notice on his door, all he was told was that “they just want to ask him some questions about how his work at UA is going. You’ll be fine.”

He understood the HPSC and police force being there, but not the military. Apparently, again according to Nedzu, it was because Ed was military so Japan’s military had to send someone of equal or higher rank since he was interacting with public institutions. And now since there was going to be a military presence, Ed had to dress in his highly decorated military uniform. He could probably have gotten away with not wearing it if it was only going to be the HPSC and police in attendance, but if Mustang heard that he didn’t do, like, the one thing he’s supposed to, he’d probably get himself stationed down in South City.

Ed shuddered at the thought, he’d never survive the heat.

So now Ed had to make sure his uniform was pressed and actually organize his notes on the case he’s working on; make them presentable and whatnot, so he could hand out packets to keep everyone updated. It was more annoying than anything else and he wasn’t looking forward to it.

It would be easier to organize his notes if he could solidify how exactly the alchemist is doing what he’s doing. He could throw out anything that strictly won’t work, put the ‘maybe theories’ at the end, and the ‘for sure this stuff’ at the beginning of the packets.

Except, he couldn’t do that because he doesn’t know if there’s some random quirk involved or if it’s strictly some new fangled use of soul alchemy.

He was going to rip his hair out of his head.

~

Meeting the students of Class 1-A in the gym was a nice little reprieve from his terrible, no-good, horrible morning. He gets to beat students up and learn more about quirks and how they work, and the students get the honor of being under his tutelage.

A win-win for all involved, he thinks.

Ed notes that the explosive kid he fought a couple days ago doesn’t seem to take his eyes off him for very long. He’s not sure if it’s more indicative of a crush or a declaration of war, so he elects to ignore it even harder.

He lazily watches the students for the first twenty or so minutes, categorizing how they train with their quirks on their own, and he notices a few things.

One: Some of these quirks make absolutely no god damn fucking sense.

Two: The green haired kid has absolutely horrendous control of his quirk. He honestly seems like a bigger danger to himself than others, if the rapidly blooming bruises on his fingertips, and the way he clutches them after every flick, is any indication.

Three: The girl with the long, black ponytail has a very interesting quirk. He’s practically frothing at the mouth keeping himself from barreling over and asking her a million questions. Her quirk is really the closest thing to alchemy that he’s ever seen and he has So. Many. Questions.

But he needs to prioritize.

Point one is more of an over-arching, terrible, observation that he doesn’t think he really, truly, comprehended until just now.

He decides to unceremoniously shove it into the “Not Right Now” box that he keeps in his brain for things like this. It can be kept, on the pitiful back burner (more like candle-flame), with all his other realizations about himself and his various traumas and whatnot, for him to process in his own time (never.)

He moves on.

Point two, technically, isn’t really his problem but the kid is clearly struggling and for all that Ed is an asshole, he is, also, unfortunately, a bleeding heart. Ed sighs. At least his brother isn’t here to watch him struggle.

Point three is where he really wants to start. Her quirk reminds him so badly of alchemy that the sudden wave of homesick-ness he feels threatens to nearly bowl him over.

He turns to the green haired kid, because the girl probably won’t die if talks to her second, and begins to make his way over.

He feels the way the whole class seems to bristle, on guard but curious, as he makes his first move since entering the gym. He feels Aizawa’s side-eye, too, but Ed doesn’t falter in his steps and the hero makes no move to stop him.

Ed keeps a neutral expression, even though he desperately wants to laugh, as the kid pales further and further. He makes eye contact with the kid and jerks his chin to the side, a clear order to follow, as he meanders to an unoccupied area of the gym. The student - Midoriya, his mind supplies, fought the Nomu during the USJ attack. Powerful emitter quirk - dutifully follows with his head hung low.

“Your quirk causes you trouble.” Ed starts when Midoriya looks up at him. It’s not a question but he nods furiously anyways. “Tell me how it works.”

Midoriya must have absolute faith and trust in UA and the teachers they select, he thinks, because he immediately dumps a sob story on him - literally, the kid is sobbing immediately - with no hesitation.

Ed doesn’t interrupt and he lets the jumbled story flow in one ear and out the other as his mind works furiously to sift through the information being dumped on him and pick out the most useful parts. It’s like trying to catch fish as they fall over a waterfall.

“-wherever I focus my quirk, my bones break! I have to limit it to my fingers because other wise Reco-”

“-but I don’t think my body is really suited to my quirk yet - I’ve only had for like 6 months - you see I cleaned up this beach-”

“-so I have to give it my all! Go ‘Plus Ultra!’ you know? That’s what All Might-”

“-and Aizawa-sensei keeps erasing my quirk at the last second, because he doesn’t want me to keep breaking my bones, but that’s the only way I can use my quirk! I have to focus it in the last point of contact to emit the power even though All Might-”

Ed can really only regret his decision to talk to Midoriya first, when his fifteen minute story is done and Midoriya looks at him with tear tracks staining his cheeks but mercifully dry eyes.

He heaves a long sigh and moves to sit on the floor with his legs crossed under him. Midoriya hesitantly mirrors him but says nothing as Ed poses his hands to clap; in prayer position but not quite touching.

“There is only one law to Alchemy:” Ed begins. This will either be a very informative talk for Midoriya, or the most cryptic experience he’s ever had, Ed privately thinks. “Equivalent Exchange. All is One and One is All.” He elects to ignore the way the kid blanches at his words. “You cannot make something out of nothing.”

He presses his hands together and places them on the floor, light crackling around his hands as he pulls a cube from the concrete floor. He hands it to Midoriya and lets him inspect it before gently taking it back and fixing the divot he made in the floor.

“Transmutations like that require a constant balancing of equations as I add and subtract mass from the new shape I want to make, as well as from the mass I’m starting from. If you’re using a starting point of something that has a larger amount of mass then what you’re trying to make, then things are easier because you can just constantly pull without needing to worry too much about how much you’re taking.”

He puts his hands on his knees and looks expectantly at Midoriya.

At Midoriya’s blank look he tries again.

He claps his hands and braces them on the floor again, but this time as he pulls up he doesn’t disconnect the stream of concrete that follows his hands. Now that he’s taking his time, Midoriya can see that the lightning isn’t just crackling around Fullmetal’s hands, but also around the chunk of concrete that protrudes from the ground in front of him. Ed lets the transmutation flow continuously as he begins his explanation anew.

“When I perform a transmutation, I am acting as a conduit for the energy required to manipulate mass.” He shapes the cube again, but doesn’t disconnect the transmutation.

It’s an odd sight, watching concrete behave almost like flowing water but still keeping the rigid shape of a cube.

“The intent to manipulate mass begins with me and ends with me. I start the process and channel the necessary energy through myself and then I end the process. At no point do I focus energy anywhere but the whole of the transmutation, because in this state, you cannot affect one area” Ed deliberately triggers a rebound, careful that it is a small burst of energy that serves to only push his hands up and away. “Without affecting the whole.”

The flowing amalgamation of concrete has crumbled haphazardly back into the hole in the ground and Ed smooths it out.

“All is One and One is All.”

Midoriya’s eyes widen before he suddenly springs up and stares at his hands. He gives Ed a hasty bow before running to Aizawa. Ed snorts as he watches the kid run away, a lazy smirk stretched across his face.

He hopes he helped but only time will tell.

Now he gets to talk to that girl that has a quirk similar to alchemy! It’ll be a nice treat, he thinks, before he has to work on the packets for that stupid ass function.

Of course, nothing ever works out for Ed, because Truth hates him.

Actually, he thinks Truth might like him, which is somehow so much worse.

The moment he moves to stand and walk towards the girl with the ponytail, he’s blocked by Bakugou who is now sporting a truly impressive scowl.

Well, he’s been sporting a scowl the whole time, but now that it’s up close it seems more impressive.

For a while, neither of them say anything. Bakugou just stands there, scowling.

The only truly redeeming thing about this unexpected stand-off is that Ed is just slightly taller than Bakugou. He doesn’t know how he would feel if he wasn’t. (He does. The answer is: Rageful.)

It isn’t until Ed averts his eyes to step away and find that girl with the ponytail - he really needs to learn her name - that he is once again blocked by Bakugou. It’s with a hand to his left arm this time.

Ed glances down, and then back to Bakugou, before flicking his hand off. He does, however, angle his body to better properly face the student now that it seems he’s figured out what he wanted to say.

“Fight me.”

That’s what he stopped him to say?? I could be talking to someone about alchemical theories right now! This is such bullshit.

“No.”

The scowl, which had lessened, somewhat, is now back full force on Bakugou’s face as he practically spits “And why the fuck not?!” in Ed’s face.

If he were a better man, Ed thinks, he would recognize that this is a child that’s still learning. Still learning how to grow into something that resembles a functioning adult, how to talk to people and interact properly, how to say ‘please’.

But Ed is not a better man. And, it should also be noted, Ed is also still a child, even if he did have to grow up too fast and punch a wanna-be god in the face.

So what he responds with is not something mature, or level-headed; no, instead he responds by sticking his tongue out and saying “Because I don’t fucking wanna!”

The sucker punch that comes next is entirely predictable of course and Ed easily dodges. Ed continues dodging as he yells “Aren’t you supposed to be using this time to train your quirk and not sparring!?”

He is answered with something he thinks is closer to rage-fueled scream than a yell, he even thinks he can make out the words “DIE” and “SCUM” somewhere in there, which, rude.

Before Ed can reach out to grab Bakugou’s forearms and slam him into the ground behind him, the explosions cut off abruptly and Bakugou is suddenly swaddled in bandages.

“Bakugou.” The previously writhing mess of bandages goes still. “Fullmetal is correct. You are supposed to be focusing this training time on your quirk, and not by sparring.”

Somehow, the shape that is Bakugou wrapped up in the capture tape deflates in midair, and Ed is beginning to wonder if the physics they have in Amestris are just not the same as the ones in the rest of the world.

When Bakugou is lowered and subsequently released from his time out in the mummy-roleplay jail, their training time is almost over and Ed has missed his time to talk to the student with the ponytail.

“What the hell, man.” Ed is only slightly glaring at the student in front of him, who, conversely, is radiating ‘DIE’ with his entire being. Directly at Ed.

“I’M GOING TO BE THE FUCKING BEST!” Bakugou yells, pointing directly at Ed. Truth, this was so embarrassing.

Ed’s face scrunches up, “Yeah…sure, man…” What the fuck is he supposed to even say to that?? “You can do whatever you put your mind to? Or…whatever?...”

Is he… trembling?... Ed thinks, What the fuck is wrong with these kids.

“I’m going to be the best.” Bakugou starts again, his voice calmer but no less full of conviction. “And if I’m going to be the best, than that means that I can’t lose to some stupid fucking hero like you!”

Ed feels like he should be offended.

“Dude, I can’t even beat my brother in a fight.”

Bakugou screeches.