The Alchemist and the Sin

Chapter 10

After their small break in Risembool, the group traveled to the slums of Kanama where they met Ed’s father, Van Hohenheim. He had an interesting tale about his life. Being a walking and talking philosopher's stone. Everyone who heard his story were utterly shocked by such an event. Skyla had realized from Hohenheim's story that history was about to repeat itself, but way worse. Father’s pursuit to be at the side of God’s was going to slaughter an entire country full of both guilty and innocent citizens. The cruel reality of their situation had finally shown itself. Ed and Greed could easily tell from her expressions of her vast concern and slight fear of the inhumane event actually coming to fruition. Of course, there was one other who could agree with the trio. Hoenheim had a strong feeling that the young girl was aware of what Father was up to. It took a moment before Skyla and Hoenheim were left alone. Greed told her to stay with Hoenheim for now since he could protect her. They sat in silence for a while, the only sound was the crackling fire.

“How long were you associated with him?” Hoenheim asks her suddenly.

“For a while, it was about a year after I committed the taboo.” She says as she pulls down the plastic disguised as skin. The automail underneath now shining in the dim light of the fire.

“Is the homunculus aware that you are one of the possible sacrifices?”

“Yes. Father explained to him my situation before we left. All the homunculi know. So does Ed.”

“I see. You probably know about as much as I do about the promised day, am I correct?”

“I guess so...”

It went eerily silent until Hoenheim grabbed the plastic covering her automail before ripping off. She let out a yell as he did so before he threw it into the fire.

“What’s the use of hiding something that people already know you have.” He states bluntly before returning to his seat near the fire.

She repeated his words in her head as she questioned the entire reason she even used the plastic. All of those she was really close to knew she committed the taboo and lost her left arm in the process. She stared at her automail as her many thoughts swirled. That’s when she had an epiphany. She brought her automail arm closer her as she inspected and put together the materials used. Hoenheim watched her curiously. Her actions were fairly peculiar without words to them. It wasn’t until she quickly stood up that he decided to speak up.

“What are you up to?” He asks ask she prepared to clap her hands together.

“I have a good feeling the other homunculi are gonna find us soon. I need to confuse them. And I have the perfect idea.” She says as a smirk covers her face as she clapped her hands together. She quickly placed them on her stomach, right over an apparent scar as the blue light that signals transmutation began covering her body. Her entire appearance, inducing her left arm.

Hoenheim’s eyes were wide at the end product of her transmutation. She looked exactly like the homunculus from earlier. The only difference was that her left arm seemed to disguise itself as Greed’s ultimate shield. Every tiny detail was considered in this transformation.

“Amazing...absolutely astonishing.” He says in clear shock.

“Thanks. I kinda took the idea from a certain homunculi.” She says but her voice is different. It wasn’t her voice, but the voice of the one she was disguised as.”I’ve gotta go. See ya.”

She finishes quickly before sprinting towards the forest near the city.
The change did affect her speed since she quickly could see through the trees a fight between Ed, Greed, Darius, and Heinkel. She did her best to stay hidden until it was the right time to attack. She eventually noticed Gluttony who was standing next to Pride sniffed the air.