The next several days are filled with a lot of reading and a few surprising levels ups in Analyze. Repeatedly using the skill has slowly ground away at its level but I can feel its slow progress has come to a halt now that the level is in the mid-’80s. Sheska finally crashed and slept for most of the next day before running off with her new check to help her mom. There wasn’t much I could do for her; she was just old. I may have the ability to help someone with most physical issues, but I can’t undo the damages of time, the effect is to spread out throughout the body and it wouldn’t be healing something there is a fundamental problem with Telomeres shortening as time moves on. Once it shortens enough damages accrue inefficiencies pop up and the body breaks down. Even extending life is a bit beyond my power at the moment because of the sheer scale in the number of cells that would need to be affected.

I was a little nervous when I told Sheska that I couldn’t help her mom. I knew it wasn’t my fault but there was still this part of me that felt guilty over not being able to do something. She surprised me though when she was understanding. She just set down her book and looked me in the eye. “It’s fine… she’s lived a great life being a wonderful mother... If you could help that would have been great, but I’m not going to blame you for not being able to help. That’d be like blaming a story for not being written by a different author. It just wouldn’t make sense since it was outside of the book's control.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. “Thanks for understanding… it’s just, once you’re able to help some people it just seems like everyone assumes you’re able to heal anything. This last time… I feel like if I hadn’t already lost my arms they would be gone. It was risky despite having everything I could ready.” I rest my head in my hands. “I want to help but I also want to learn as much as I can. I’ve been procrastinating for a while now, somethings going on out there that could be dangerous… but I also just want to sit here and read with you.”

She laughs a little nervously at that. “Well… these last few days have been pretty fun.” She smiles for a moment. “You even taught me a few tricks that should be helpful.” She looks down as if feeling a little guilty. “If there’s anything I can do to help just let me know! I may just be a fellow bookworm, but I’ve read a story or two that might be able to help like I did with the Elrics? O-or something, you know um book-related?” She was going well until the end before she just sputtered off. She takes a moment to calm herself. “I-I also understand though that you need to go out and do more important things… You can help people but you’re lounging around with me. So how about I just save you a spot in my little library and once you go off and help some more people you can feel free to stop by for another readathon.”

I can’t help but smile at that. “That’d be nice… What do you plan on doing in the meantime? You aren’t working for the library or the government.” She seems to freeze for a moment.

She blushes a bit and hides behind a book knowing she was caught. “W-well… I did just get a lot of money… and my mother is being taken care of! It wouldn’t hurt to just take a break and read for a little bit longer… right?”

I raise an eyebrow at her. “Fine! I’ll find something to do, okay? I… I just don’t know what sort of job would accept a failure like me. I keep getting distracted by books…” She caresses the cover she currently has. “I try to apply myself but as soon as I give in I just can’t stop… I keep failing…”

“Well, you’ve learned a bit of alchemy lately so that should expand your options. I just hope that you find something that makes you happy.”

With that, we continue our small talk for a bit longer until I finally peel myself away. I know there is some sort of threat out there that needs to be dealt with… I’ve also been neglecting my other skills for too long. They just feel so secondary when Alchemy and Alkahestry can solve most of my problems, but I don’t know for sure if I’ll always have access to them in future worlds.

I went back to a small apartment I’d rented out for the time being and sat down to rest away from the distractions. I had a few missing notifications by this point, so I went through and applied some backed-up points.

Name: Jiang Du

Titles: Prodigy, Bookworm

Age: 16

Carried over skills: Rebirth, Mindscape, Unseen Eye, Healing

Health status 100/100

Afflictions: Sleep deprivation, Eyeless

Inventory: First Aid kit, Colt M1900(empty), Chunk of gold

Current skills

Analyze lvl: 92 Chi manipulation LVL 70 Disease resistance LVL 99 Poison Resistance LVL 87 Metabolism LVL 30 Physical Conditioning LVL 18 Empty

Attributes: 0 points

Strength: 10

Speed: 10

Endurance: 12

Resilience: 11

Thought speed: 12

Perception: 10

Current transmutation circles: Stone, Iron, General (alchemy, Alkahestry), Oxygen, Alexanders sculpture circle, destruction (low quality self-made), Ink (self-made only one kind of ink too with minerals in it), Ice cream (self-made), Water, Chimera, human transmutation (both self and other), Soap (self-made), Carbon (self-made).

Current quests:

Main quest: Stop Fathers plans from coming to fruition

Chain Side quest: Arrest two criminals or kill two guards

Chain Side quest: Copy Alchemists transmutation circles 2/4

New Chain Story Quest: Destroy Homunculi 1

Solaris must have made it to East city at some point since I finished the first step of that chain questline it just gave me another attribute point. My largest problem is stamina, I can use Chi techniques but only for short bursts. So I’m trying to split between Endurance and Thought speed to help with visualizing alchemy and Alkahestry.

I still haven’t selected my final skill… I’ll likely get another skill fusion this life so it should be worth it to get something now. But I’m not really in danger at the moment… I could need something more later… Decision paralysis is a pain… What else can I focus on? Physical conditioning just requires me to work out so that shouldn’t be that difficult. I suppose I should also start dedicating more time to Chi Manipulation.

Flipping a coin, I started practicing with Chi manipulation first. Sitting down and focusing on a held object quickly becomes frustrating… I know that I can push Chi into objects, that’s how my arms can function without a proper power source. The problem is when I try to push Chi into a further object it’s like a pressure built up in my hand that’s trying to push out but can’t, it slips between my fingers and all I’ve accomplished is make myself tired. My skill is supposed to make external Chi easier but it’s still so slow… I must be doing something wrong.

Even Zig isn’t much help since he couldn’t do it himself. He was only aware of the benefits being it strengthened the material and could improve the force exerted by a smaller blow. From his mother’s descriptions, I just need to become one with the blade and let the flow occur naturally… No wonder people have a little issue using it on automail arms it’s a bit difficult to take it any more literally.

It's during one of these moments of annoyance at the stick I’ve been practicing on that Zig grabs my attention. “My lord… Edward and Alphonsssse are requessssting you.”

I sit up frowning at the stick. “Well… It’s not like I’m making much progress here anyway.” From three days of work, my skill level hasn’t increased at all. I toss the metal rod back on the bed. “Where are they currently?”

Zig points out the window at a building not too far away. “They are currently in the library.” I can almost feel Zig wince slightly at the mention of the location.

“There’s another library nearby? Why haven’t I heard of this.” It seems like something that Sheska would have mentioned. Maybe they don’t have anything she doesn’t already have?

He gets slightly skittish, moving his feet a bit like a child being caught. “Calling it that issss a bit of an overesssstimate. The bookssss that were ssssalvaged were brought to a military building. They are being cataloged and ussssed currently by the Elricssss.” Ah well, that makes sense I suppose.

Finishing up a stretch I join him by the window. “Alright, lead the way.”

A short series of jumps across the nearby rooftops and I can already pick up the clear voice of Edward yelling followed by the calm sound of his brother. I can feel a pair of people outside their door. They feel… familiar, likely the two that are tasked with watching over the Elrics. Climbing up to their window frame I catch the end of a conversation.

“Brother, calm down. It’s just going to take us a few more days to figure it out. We already have most of it translated it’s just going to take time.”

“That’s just it Al, what good is this going to even do for us huh? We already have a lot of context clues… if we just had an example of the transmutation circle I’m sure I could use that as a guideline to decipher the notes faster! All we’ve learned is that it requires people, and we already knew that! There has to be something else in these notes…”

Al sits back and looks down… it’s hard to remember that the huge suit of armor is also just a kid. Edward seems to realize his mistake and winces. “Sorry, okay? It just feels like we are onto something here, but Marcoh left so many holes in his data that even if we had everything it may not make sense. I know using people is horrible, but we need to learn to adapt it to animals.”

I cough to get their attention. Edward immediately stands up and is already extending his blade arm when he sees it's me.

“Well… glad to see your reflexes are improving.” There is a small sense of pride at seeing someone you teach improve like that. He’s starting to control his anger a bit better, realizing when it gets out of control and raining it in.

“Hmph well, you were pretty loud. I guess Zig got our message to you then?” He leans a bit to look around me and see’s Zig hanging from the window outside.

I just nod. “Yeah, though there weren’t any details. Though it sounds like you just screamed them to all your neighbors.”

He rubs his head with a slight blush of embarrassment. “Well… it’s just been a frustrating couple of days… I have to give Dr. Marcoh some credit. He made deciphering his notes a right pain in the ass. Using context clues referring to chapters and page numbers with recipes and measurements. It’s time-consuming and a bit difficult to find the right titles when all we are given is ‘lion dragons tongue’. We managed to figure out large chunks of it but the further we get all that’s left is the obscure sections. Stuff that we either haven’t read yet or we never got a copy.”

That’s an interesting idea… “You could always hire Sheska. She knows more western books than me. She might be able to search her mind faster than you can search these bookshelves.”

Edward shrugs… “I’ll give her a shot… I don’t know how much I can really afford to pay her. I haven’t really shown any progress in my research yet so I don’t have a whole lot. I kind of got excited and gave her a majority of it already for this pay period…”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “So you’re nearly broke? Oh well, we can figure something out.”

He walks over to a map and pulls it out. “I think I have an idea of what to do… Dr. Marcoh’s notes mention that they needed…” He swallows for a moment. “L-live subjects. We also know this was something sanctioned by the government. So, where would be the best place to get bodies without anyone noticing?” He starts circling places on the map.

I think about it for a moment. “An orphanage?” His hand stops for a moment, and he looks at me in horror.

“N-no a prison… they wouldn’t… you don’t think?” He looks at Al.

“No, no the notes mention needing a lot of lives. An orphanage wouldn’t be able to sustain that many…”

That doesn’t make sense. “Not even in war? Lots of soldiers are lost everyday families back home don’t always work out.” Both Edward and al look down for a moment at that.

“R-regardless I’d like to check my idea first…” He takes up a pen and circles several locations.

“Here is a map of every major lab within Central city.” Huh… interesting there are eight of them arranged in a shape… The names of these cities still bug the crap out of me. Surprised they didn't just name it Middle city.

He takes out another pen. “And here are the locations of every prison.” He circles several areas but the most important one is right next door to one of the labs he’d circled.

Looking at the city structure I can’t help but ask. “You have this many prisons? Why?”

He looks confused for a moment. “Well, we need to make sure that bad guys are kept locked upright? The military takes care of things all over Amestris.”

“Are you sure that the military is only catching those that have done wrong? Three prisons of that size within one city?”

Edward looks shocked again. “N-no the military wouldn’t do that… There might be a few bad people in it. But for the most part, we do good. It’s unfortunate but there are those out there that would a lot of wrong. But that doesn’t mean that innocent people would just be locked up for no reason.”

Oh… he’s not aware of politics or military dictatorships. He’s grown up in this and it’s all he’s known.

Creeeaaak THUMP

Turning towards the door the two officers from before are standing there, one of them having fallen forward slightly.

The one with medium blond hair stands up awkwardly. “Haha w-well, we uh… We were just looking in on what all the shouting was about.”

The woman, lieutenant Ross? Also laughs awkwardly. “Y-yeah… we didn’t hear anything.” Her eyes look down at the map. Edward quickly tries to hide it.

She takes a few steps closer looking at it. “That Lab was shut down years ago. Something about an unsafe work environment and got abandoned.”

“Well, it’s also the most likely place for illegal experiments.” He looks at me then back to her.

He awkwardly coughs. “Uh, are you familiar with where the orphanages are in the city?” She looks at him confused. “Are you seriously thinking that they might have been experimenting on orphans?” The short blond-haired guy sighs before taking a pen and marking a few spots none of them near any of the labs.

“See? I don’t know where all of them are but none are near these places.” That’s interesting.

Ross looks at him weirdly. “Why do you know where that many orphanages are? You don’t have any weird habits do you?”

He winces before laughing. “No! No, growing up in one if you’re a troubled kid you move around a lot. I moved to East city for a new start but that doesn’t mean I forgot everything.”

“Well, I think it’s decided then. We head to this shut-down lab and check things out. See if there are any remnants of their old experiments.”

Ross just starts shaking her head. “No, we need to tell our superior officer and you can wait here. You can’t just move in on property like that. What if the place is really dangerous? Or if it’s filled with toxic material?”

He looks over at me. “Right, I guess it won’t hurt if we wait another day or two.”

Ross smiles. “Good! Wait here and we’ll go tell him. Do you mind if we take the map?” Edward gestures to it.

It doesn’t take long. The moment the two lieutenants leave Edward grabs his coat. “Let’s go, we don’t have much time.” Zig and I both leap out the window. Edward follows quickly behind slightly less grace but he’s getting there. From above I hear a soft… “Brother I don’t know if I should jump… it’d be pretty loud.”