Substitute Alchemist - Bleach X FMA Crossover [HAITUS]

Chapter 7 - Rekindled

"I understand, Alfred, and it's alright. This had to be done. Thanks to Grant's idea, we were able to get into the city without any problems, let alone suspicion. Now that we're here, we can effectively evaluate the situation and decide how to tackle the problem." I said with a smile.

Just as Alfred had said, Grant had suggested an easier way of getting into the city. It was obvious that we would be shot down by the mercenaries the minute they saw the military uniforms or our State Alchemist pocket watches so he had suggested that we pretend to be commoners to enter the city.

We had got off the train one stop prior to Polaris City to leave behind out pocket watches and military uniforms in the local Command Post and buy some props that could make us look like blacksmiths. I was the one who suggested the blacksmith idea actually, since I didn't want to leave my Zanpakuto behind. Grant suggested that me and Alfred to pretend to be a couple, and the rest of them as Alfred's brothers, so we could infiltrate the city as a family. I thought the Alfred taking the lead role in this little drama of ours was a good idea too because he was patient and would most likely deal with the situation better.

After out act had been put together, we boarded the next train to Polaris City and now we had successfully got into the city.

Major Rolf didn't want to participate in our 'foolish' act though so he had gone off on his own once we arrived at the railway station. He said that he would find his own way into the city while doing some scouting as well. He didn't say that he would meet up with us later which made us assume that he wasn't going to work with us on this mission. Even though the others were indifferent, I couldn't help but tell him to be careful while on his own and he had, as expected, ignored me.

"From the looks of it, there are quite a lot of mercenaries loitering around." John said with a hand near his chin in thought. "Many of them were carrying guns so it will be difficult for us to attack them head on. The others were carrying daggers and knives though – I think we can handle them with our long range alchemy."

"That's true. Rolf said that he will scout the perimeter of the city and I hope he reports in with us later. I'm a little uneasy though because I have a feeling that he's going to do something reckless. It won't be good if he tries to face those mercenaries by himself." Alfred said with a frown.

"Let's just hope he doesn't do that." I spoke up. "Anyway, we should rest for tonight and go for a tour around the city tomorrow after we hear the rules and regulations of this place."

"That's a good idea, Kiana. The travel was strenuous today so getting some sleep will help us regain energy. Why don't we go out for dinner now? I'm sure everyone's hungry." Alfred suggested and it was followed by growls of hunger from John's, Grant's and Alfred's stomach.

I chuckled as the three of them blushed. But my stomach too let out a growl soon after and we burst out laughing together. We then headed out of the house to a restaurant just a block away from where we were staying to have our dinner. On our way to the restaurant and even as we entered, we had noticed that we were being watched. Men who looked like mercenaries had been keeping an eye on us since we were new to the city so we had to be flawless in our acting. Although, I'm not entirely sure if my acting was flawless – even though I had dated two guys in the past, things didn't seem to click between us and the relationship didn't work out in the end. Well, they weren't serious relationships to begin with and we had gone out on dates just to get to know each other before we concluded that our attraction towards each other wasn't strong enough to continue as a couple. So I was yet to experience the feeling of actually falling deeply in love with someone. As such, pretending to be Alfred's wife was difficult to say the least.

Nonetheless, we managed to keep up a decent act – enough to fool the mercenaries watching us. I used casual and more so friendly gestures that even couples did such as holding Alfred's hand or leaning my head against his shoulder and so on.