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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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 Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 3:06 pm
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Edward just frowned with an upset look on his face as he tried thinking up an idea, before snapping his fingers, and proceeding to quietly clap his hands, before touching a wall to transmute a listening horn next to his head, and then clapped once more before touching the ground, creating a microphone in the room they had been forced out of. of course, that was at the time that Crystal had mentioned the second sentence and the homunculi and all, making Edward frown and continue listening in closely, muttering under his breath 'Nina..'
Kuukyo meanwhile had listened quietly, pondering his options, before sighing a bit, tiredly, and not in the sense of physical tiredness, more like spiritual tiredness, like he felt older than he looked, his eyes dimming to a very dim blue, almost grey in color ".... you were right to come to me Crystal, because before i was sent out to do long term field work missions like now, i was the head of Alchemical R&D for the Military, and this project mentioned in Jake's notes, was one we both were working on. however it didn't start out that way, originally, i had wanted to have the Mechanical creatures and such much more like golems and familiars of sorts, instead of... that monstrosity. Bradley saw the potential in it, and Shou Tucker's work as the Sewing-Life Alchemist, even after he was discovered and arrested for what he had done to his wife, daughter, and dog." he took a breath, trying to keep from letting his hands shake "Jake wanted to go deeper into the ideas of what Bradley wanted, i somewhat agreed, up until it came time for actual testing and volunteers, i refused to do those experiments because of what exactly the notes entailed." he lowered his head "they.... forced me to either do the experiment or i'd end up being the 'volunteer' for the first experiments after about three weeks of telling them no, and that we should cease looking further into this. well, i finally caved after that, and i was the one that was set to perform the transmutation, as much as i hated it... unfortunately, i don't know if the test was successful or not, because i was flung into the wall by an explosion after the transmutation finished, and was knocked out for a day or two, after that, they sent me on the field trip stuff ever since."
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 3:51 pm
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 4:04 pm
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of course, edward had been listening to everything, an unreadable expression on his face, given from what he had heard, and from the fact he was clenching his fists and trying hard not to move, it was obvious that this entire mess stunk even moreso than dealing with Roy's presence. he had wanted to rush back in there, start beating the crap out of Kuukyo, maybe even do what he couldn't do to Tucker, and end the b*****d's life, for royally screwing up someone else's, volunteer or not, but he also froze when Kuukyo spoke up, with sounds of regret and bitterness
Kuukyo had sighed a bit, rubbing his forehead "... i see. well, as for knowing if it worked or not, i honestly don't, due to the fact that i -was- knocked out shortly after the transmutation.. and.. honestly, that wasn't all, because of the fact that regular human transmutation alone wouldn't have guaranteed it working." he said, moving to pick up his briefcase, opening it up, and pulling out a leather-bound book, with a -very- different symbol than the one he writes in for his ice Alchemy, and hands it to Crystal "this is the other half of the notes, and... an archived branch of alchemy that was once shelved." he said neutrally, though his eyes showing the utter depression over things "... i honestly did not want to go through with things, especially with Jake volunteering... , it led to a big row between me and Jake, unfortunately, after threatening my life, as well as any others i personally knew, which would've included you too Crystal... i had no choice, and even to this day it haunts me, in my second title... the Devil's Alchemist."
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 4:59 pm
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Crystal was understandably surprised to see the symbol on the cover of the leather-bound book that Kuukyo had handed to her. It wasn't a symbol that typically occurred in alchemy because it originated from a magic run used in the field of necromancy. However, Crystal knew from the various books she had been given by Jake to further her own studies on alchemy, when the practice of necromancy is applied to alchemical formulas, that's when you start dabbling into the much darker field known as sacrificial alchemy, infamous for using live animals as alchemical amplifiers to enhance the effects of transmutation circles in the absence of a philosopher's stone.
"Don't tell me you've actually used these circles," Crystal cringed as she flipped through the pages. It was awful. "I thought this was supposed to be forbidden alchemy."
Sure, golems were frowned upon, but sacrificial alchemy was almost as taboo as human transmutation.
*~*~*~*~*
A lone horse sped into town before phasing into the shape of a dog to start sniffing for the scent of a particular girl who had managed to give Envy the slip several towns back, prior to reaching the train station that had had that unfortunate accident with the engine hijackers. Envy was thankful to them since it had slowed down the girl's progress. He was also in luck because he caught the scent of the Elric brothers in this town as well. There was also the unmistakable scent of that poor stupid alchemist who had gotten mixed up in some research that he couldn't stomach.
"Oh, this is going to be fun!" Envy spoke gleefully before dashing further into town, making a beeline for the shabby looking hotel that the group was spending the night at.
*~*~*~*~*
"No way," Crystal flinched when she sensed that unmistakable aura of too damn many souls all crying out in continuous agony. "How did that b*****d catch up with us so fast?"
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 5:13 pm
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Kuukyo winced, while sighing "unfortunately i have, as i said, i'm not proud of it, and part of the Sacrificial Alchemy circles were used in a multi-tier array with the circles known for Jake's work." he said while clenching his gloved fists, before snapping his head up in the direction he felt an alchemic pulse that wasn't Ed or Al or himself or Crystal, given he had just sent out a sensory pulse just now ".... damnit... one of -them-?" he muttered, while gently taking his own journal back at least to repack it lightly as well as pack up the other stuff scattered around his bed that wasn't originally in Edward's suitcase, before pushing the briefcase under the bed for the moment, and got out of bed with a finished pair of gloves for Al, as he spotted the microphone, and growled a bit "damnit." he muttered, before kneeling to it with an ice cold tone "Edward, Alphonse, we will be talking about this later. now dismiss the microphone and get your behinds back in the room, we've got incoming hostile!"
Edward had paled when he had heard the name, though he wasn't in Central long during the mess, he -had- heard talk of the Devil's Alchemist, but once he heard Kuukyo's tone directed at them he winced "buste-- wait what?" he looked at the speaker skeptically, before doing as asked, looking to al "looks like we're going to have to confront them later over this, let's make sure we protect them." he said to his brother, and headed back to the room quickly.
Kuukyo had put on his shades once more as he cracked his knuckles rather tightly, a slow cold haze of a mist seeping off those hands "don't care who Central sent... they won't get to you Crystal, not if i'm still alive. i failed in protecting Jake from them because of his insistence it'd be okay, but this i won't fail on."
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 5:45 pm
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"Wait, what?" Alphonse was just as confused as Edward, but was even more taken aback when Kuukyo mentioned the incoming hostile. "What's going on now?" he asked as he followed his brother back into the room.
"What he means is that there's a homunculus headed our way," Crystal tried to explain. "And it's the same b*****d that's been hunting me since I took off from home a few days ago."
"I'm so glad you haven't forgotten about me!" Envy boasted as he smashed through the back wall in the guise of a huge grizzly bear and then started swiping into the room, specifically at Kuukyo. "So, you want to play the hero, do you? Too bad for you, Wrath doesn't care whether you live or die so I can actually go ahead and kill you." With that, he took another wild swing at Kuukyo.
Crystal had ducked down between the two beds, slipping her own gloves onto her hands to get ready to fight. Pressing her hand against the wooden floor, Crystal transmuted the wood into a barrel shape around the over-sized grizzly bear while also causing the wood to fossilize by replacing the organic matter with silicates and quartz from the ground to make it into much harder and heavier petrified wood. Envy's wild movements ceased as the barrel fell on its side with him still inside, briefly unable to move as he then decided to transform into something smaller to escape, assuming his humanoid palm tree headed form.
"Just so you know, that was really annoying," Envy muttered to himself.
"Yeah, but you're forgetting I'm not the only one in the room," Crystal pointed out.
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 6:42 pm
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 8:34 pm
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Alphonse quickly slipped on one of the pairs of gloves given to him by Kuukyo, tucking the rest of them into the tin concealed beneath his armor's apron, and then clapped his hands together, pressing them down against the floor to send a wooden spike up into Envy's torso just as the huge fist sent by Edward came to slam full force into the homunculus launching him outside through the hole he had made earlier in the back wall.
Crystal, meanwhile, approached the barrel of petrified wood she had already transmuted and pressed a gloved hand against the material to reshape it into a draconic form. When she pulled her hand away, the draconic golem began to move on its own toward Envy, moving with surprising speed to bite into his neck and shoulder with a belligerent roar. This startled any nearby townspeople out of the way while the draconic golem continued its assault on Envy by shredding open the homunculus' torso with its sharp claws.
"Face it homunculus, you're gravely outnumbered here," Crystal stated firmly.
Alphonse was staring in awe at the draconic golem since this was really the first time he'd seen Crystal use her alchemy to create such a thing. It was so life-like that he would have believed it was a real dragon if he hadn't seen how it was made for himself. To be honest, it was a little bit scary. And the fighting ability the draconic golem displayed raised some questions about just what sort of a person Crystal was to be able to give it those sort of capabilities. Of course, he was mostly afraid that Crystal might turn out to be another of those girl's very much like his and Edward's teacher--nice one moment and terrifying the next.
Envy struggled against the draconic golem with obvious annoyance, being weighed down by the heavy petrified wood material that Crystal had used as the base material for the golem. That was the only reason he was having so much difficulty with the damn thing. It was bloody heavy. "Dammit, this isn't fair!"
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 8:49 pm
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of course, Envy wouldn't notice, but the cold hazy mist started flowing around the area and was permeating the area, as a solid -snap- would be heard, and envy would easily be unable to see anything but white as his eyes froze over, and then spiked down into impaling the eyeballs directly, and some small spikes to dig into the skull and head a bit. Kuukyo of course just stood neutrally near Crystal, Edward, and Alphonse "Life isn't fair, you whiny emo palm-tree." he said with a cold gaze glowing from behind his shades, as he snapped his fingers again, and tried to send spikes lancing through Envy's feet next.
Edward just frowned, and clapped his hands, touching the floor to bring up a wooden lance in make similar to the ones he always makes when in a fight, spinning it into a defensive pose to stay near crystal as well "this is the guy bugging you Crystal? good grief, he's a complete pansy." he said with a sarcastic annoyed tone in his voice.
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Posted: Wed May 07, 2014 8:59 pm
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"Well it never occurred to me that I might be able to just fight him before now," Crystal responded. "I was too busy running away from his messed up aura."
The draconic golem pounced on Envy again, knocking the homunculus on his back and then the draconic golem sat on him, pinning Envy down beneath its heavy weight. Blind, with ice shooting up through his feet, and unable to move on account of the weight on his chest, Envy flailed in dismay. However, once he managed to regenerate enough to think straight, he weaved around the draconic golem by shifting into the form of a large snake and then into the form of a cheetah to dash away from the scene altogether with a definite 'Oh s**t' look on his face. There was no way he could fight these guys so all that was left for Envy was to survive long enough to report back to Central.
"I think he realized he couldn't win," noted Alphonse. "Do you think we should go after him?"
Crystal shook her head. "I think we should repair the damage we've caused to the hotel and try to get some sleep. That b*****d probably won't be bothering us again for awhile after that beating."
Of course, she couldn't stop Kuukyo and/or Edward from going after Envy, but it would be pointless out in the open when Envy could move so fast.
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 2:35 pm
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Edward looked ready to follow Envy indeed, but was stopped by a mere hand moving in front of him, with Kuukyo shaking his shade-covered eyes as he frowned "like crystal said, we should stay and deal with the damage, at least that idiot realized fast enough he wasn't going to get close enough to harm any of us." he said, amused, while moving a bit to take off his gloves, though he tended to wear them constantly, it was due to the fact of the circles etched in his palms and the back of his hands like old scars, but still clear enough to be seen as he idly pulled out some chalk and began working on drawing up circles to transmutate things back to normal with Crystal's help.
Edward just frowned in general at Kuukyo, before shrugging, and proceeding to clap his hands doing the same, with at least two alchemists working on it it'd go by faster, though Edward made note of the circles on the man's hands he was using with a narrowed glance.
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Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 6:08 pm
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 2:45 pm
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it didn't take long for the four of them to return things to normal, though once things were normal and they were back in the room, Kuukyo proceeded to sit down on his bed, lean forward, with his suitcase atop his knees, and assumes the Gendou Ikari pose while looking to Edward, who was mildly sweating "... why were you listening in on mine and Crystal's conversation?" he asked with a calm tone, though the fact he was still wearing his gloves, AND his shades, showed he was -not exactly- happy with the brothers at the moment.
Edward had winced while looking to the ceiling a bit lightly "... when were you going to tell us about being the Devil's Alchemist?" he asked with a still nervous look on his face, getting a narrowed glowing gaze from Kuukyo Edward just flinched even further "okay okay! i was curious because some of the stuff crystal mentioned was suspicious, especially if she recognized human transmutation circles, and hearing the stuff about her brother going missing and the weird assassin she mentioned, it was all too damned fishy."
Kuukyo just kept his gaze on Edward for a moment, letting him rant and such on things, and giving him the answer "... so you were too curious for your own good. fine.. i guess that can't be helped." he said with a tired sigh, looking to Crystal "think we should finish up our talks with them involved, or just leave it for another time?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2014 3:17 pm
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"Well, I think we pretty much covered everything the two of us know at this point before the palm tree interrupted our discussion," noted Crystal. "So, I think for now I'd rather just call it a night so I can figure out where to go from here in the morning. Honestly, I think getting involved any further is probably tantamount to suicide, but I also don't think I'm going to have any other choice if the military is going to just keep sending homunculi assassins after my brother's research."
Alphonse, meanwhile, was thinking back to how Crystal had acted on the train and how she had so openly admired him and Edward for being the famous Elric brothers while also suggesting that she might like to learn more about alchemy from them, but after seeing the girl in action both during her escape from the train as well as just a few moments ago during that fight with Envy, Alphonse was beginning to suspect that there might not be anything he and his brother could teach her that Crystal couldn't already figure out for herself. Whether she realized it or not, she seemed to be a real natural at advanced level transmutations. No mere novice could construct a successful, functioning golem, that's for sure. Even so, Alphonse was still certain Crystal's attitude toward him and Edward was genuine. So, with that in mind, disregarding her alchemical talents and apparent fighting skills, she was just an ordinary girl who had gotten tangled up in something awful that for whatever reason involved the military and homunculi. And, whether Kuukyo liked it or not, now that Alphonse and Edward were aware of those facts, it wasn't as though they could just pretend to forget about it and leave things alone anymore. Alphonse was fairly certain that Edward would insist that they do whatever they can to get the girl out of this mess. He knew that he certainly didn't want the possibility that Crystal might be killed hanging on his conscience.
Alphonse watched as Crystal left the room to head back to her own so she could, presumably, try to get some sleep, although given everything she'd been through, Alphonse wondered how she even could. At any rate, that left him and Edward to get things sorted out with Kuukyo.
"Sorry Kuukyo-san, but even if you're against it, I just don't see how we could possibly ignore this whole situation now that we've found out about it," Alphonse spoke up so that Edward wouldn't have to. Kuukyo might be able to threaten and intimidate Edward with his alchemy, but that approach didn't carry nearly as much weight for Alphonse. "You can lecture us all you want to for eavesdropping, but as our supposed friend and ally you shouldn't be keeping these sort of secrets from us in the first place." The huge suit of armor folded his arms over his chest in a disapproving manner.
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Kuukyo_Fushichou Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2014 6:37 pm
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Kuukyo had kept his silence while watching as crystal left, before looking to the elric brothers, and listen to Al's words at the moment, pondering them for a moment as his glowing gaze had finally dulled down, letting his shades hide his eyes once more, even if he was still in the Gendou Ikari pose at the moment "... i had no intentions of letting Crystal go alone from here, especially since that Homunculus ran off instead of being killed..." he sighed, his shades glinting, before he took them off, showing tired, world weary blue eyes as he looked tiredly to Alphonse ".... i'll leave it to you and Edward to invite her along with us to Xenotime and stuff, at least let her know that with all of us together, we're a capable team that can keep her safe." of course, he then turned and sat his briefcase down with a tired sigh once more "... and the reason i kept this secret is because it's one of my biggest regrets, given i did not want to ever reveal myself to Crystal as the Devil's Alchemist, nor to you two, given the stigmata behind that title haunts me to this very day. it's also why you don't see me use more than simple Ice Alchemy."
Edward just blinked, raising an eyebrow "so.. wait, you regret using this second alchemy? wow... not to mention why you used it the first time, from what you mentioned..." he then sighed, thinking hard "... would the hunt for the Philosopher's stone lead directly to that particular alchemy?"
Kuukyo had shook his head as he was about to go to sleep himself "... not directly, no. some of the arrays may have been modified from original sacrificial alchemy, but in of it'self, Sacrificial Alchemy itself isn't enough to create a Philosopher's Stone, and i had not completed the work on connecting it to that stone, so i don't know if it's possible, not that i would try anyway... Good Night, Edward... Alphonse."
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