Listen to the music when you start reading! Gives awesome effect!
This chapter is dedicated to @kookies_with_jams!
Happy reading!
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Envy pov:
Her confidence was amusing. I doubt confidence would get her through this alive though. The people who guarded the warehouse weren't men from the military – they were mercenaries disguised in blue uniforms hired by the military to kill anyone who trespassed. No one knew that besides Pride and those mercenaries were merciless.
She tightened the lace of her shoes and stepped to the window after a brief glance around her room. I was quick to move out of sight so she didn't notice that she was being watched. It was going to be easy following her since she was going alone without anyone from her team in the military knowing. But I was expecting her to be killed for she was sure to get caught trying to get information on something that was forbidden.
I was curious of how she planned to break in. If she actually managed to get evidence, despite the security, despite how dangerous this all was, then she truly would be a worthy candidate to do our dirty work. We could use some blackmail, some torture, some pain infliction and have her do what we wanted to, whether it was getting information from places by going undercover or just making her turn against her own comrades. The thought of all the ways I could use to get her on her knees begging for her life when I was done breaking her excited me. I wanted to see that confident face contorted in pain and trauma.
This sounded like so much fun! I hadn't felt this way in years!
Standing on the building next to hers, I watched as she climbed up onto the sill of her window and jumped out of it, landing easily on the ground two stories below. She adjusted her glasses and pulled up her scarf up so now only her eyes behind the transparent glasses were visible. She began to walk through the alley and looked up when she reached the end of it.
The pipes and bricks that jut out were taken as support to climb to the roof on the building on which I was. Because of her full black attire, she was nearly invisible in the dark of the night. Humans walking on the main street were oblivious to her presence. It was a moment before she began to move though, touching her glasses once while she looked around. She was quick to narrow her eyes in the direction in which the warehouse was located.
How she made her way to it was surprising. She ran and jumped on rooftops, climbed over walls, sprinted through balconies and even houses with no one getting a whiff of her even once. She had passed by so many people, so many military personnel, State Alchemists – nothing stopped her. In so many places, she maneuvered around so skillfully, flexibly bending away and barely avoiding physical contact with anyone. Despite how obvious and normal her movements seemed, there was some sort of precision. She didn't hide or stop walking even for a moment and just moved around avoiding the soldiers without them even having the slightest clue that she was there.
She was perfectly stealthy.
Upon reaching the periphery of the military warehouses compound, she swiftly jumped over the compound and made her way across the openness and past the administration building where soldiers and mercenaries were stationed before climbing onto the roof of the store room closest to the sixth warehouse. Though this compound wall encompassed military land and she was a State Alchemist, she was not allowed to enter the premises without an official letter of permission. She had no choice but to sneak in, and she had done it so easily. Even I hadn't been able to infiltrate any part of the military's lands and buildings without using my shape shifting.
I was unquestionably amazed that a human could accomplish such a feat.
She stood still looking in at the warehouse – perhaps she was regretting coming here, realizing that she had no way to get past such heavy security. I smirked, but it faltered when she spoke.
"It looks like I'm on my own this time, Oba-san. Well, you'd be pretty useless here anyway, seeing that there aren't any surveillance cameras or anything you can hack into to help me. But I have to say, I do feel kind of lonely without you yelling into my ear."
Her words made no sense, and I didn't really bother with it. But I narrowed my eyes when she tapped the side of her glasses a few times and the size of her pupils changed ever so slightly.
"Two, four, five, six, seven...hmm, nine guards in total. I'm going to need a distraction."
Nine guards? Wait, there were nine guards! I hadn't even noticed the two guards hiding next to the warehouse until she counted them! How was she so sharp for a human? Humans were supposed to be stupid!
Scoffing, I figured that it surely had to have been just a lucky shot. Still, I found this human intriguing. I wondered though, why she constantly touched the side of her glasses. It was not much later that she reached for a slingshot. Picking up cement debris the size of a stone, she loaded it onto her slingshot and aimed it at one of the men standing guard. Her aim was perfect and the man was knocked out instantly.
It gained the attention of several others and had them leaving their positions to see what had happened. They were quick to realize that it was a deliberate shot from someone and they pointed their guns ready to fire as they searched for the source. This girl though, chuckled before walking around to the back of the warehouse that was now unguarded. She landed on the ground but made a face while looking up at the ventilator shaft on the side of the warehouse – it was the only way she could get inside. It was too high and I was certain that she had reached a dead end.
However, she only huffed and said, "Why are those always so high up? Well, whatever, it's time for some stunts."
She stepped away from the warehouse before sprinting and climbing up the wall within seconds and getting the ventilator's cover out of the way. With another sprint and jump, she entered the small shaft like a mouse burrowing into its hole.
"Being small in physique always does the trick," I heard her whispering echo in the shaft.
When I was sure she was inside and couldn't hear me following through the ventilator shaft, I climbed in as well. I remained in the shaft when I reached the end, watching as she stood on the huge crates that were stacked one on top of the other while scanning the entire warehouse. There were men inside the warehouse too, guarding the research but they hadn't noticed her enter.
She maneuvered through the warehouse on top of the crates, and sometimes getting down and walking on the floor. She was absolutely silent, not even a single one of her footsteps heard. Surprisingly, she didn't appear very guarded either – she walked calmly, confidently, coolly, like she had been doing this this all her life.
It was when she made it to the small door at the end of the warehouse that I made my way to her, close enough to see and hear. She scanned her surroundings once to make sure no one had seen her before she opened the door.
I was quick to step into the dark stairway that led to the underground research rooms after her. She had a strange, small light-source in her hand to give her a good view of the floor and walls as she climbed down the stairs. We reached an underground stone corridor at the bottom lit by candles. Switching off her light, she put the funny looking thing into her pocket.
All the walls reflected the yellow light and the girl looked around alert, her ears seeming to twitch at the softest of sounds. She walked in further until she reached the doors of the rooms where some voices could be heard.
She stopped near the doors and looked into one of the rooms where people were actually conducting the experiments. There were humans tied up with gags in their mouths and they struggled as they were dragged to the center of a huge transmutation circle on the floor.
"Bingo," the girl mumbled and I looked back at her to find her smiling widely.
She placed one hand on the wall behind her and with blue sparks, used a uniform layer of the wall to make a camera. Her smart thinking and clearly visible good skills had me smirking. Using a uniform layer of the wall would make no one doubt that they had been here and used alchemy no less.
Without the flash to alert the people of her position, she clicked pictures of the various transmutation circles, the people working on the research, the humans being used as specimens, and every other possible detail there was to make not of. When she had enough pictures, she took out the roll of film and turned the camera into a tape recorder.
With another brief glance to make sure she was still unnoticed, she held the tape recorder near the door to record the conversation happening inside. Despite the blood and brutality that was taking place inside, the screams of the humans under the experimentation, she didn't flinch even once. She didn't look like she was fine with it happening, but she didn't look scared. She wasn't weak hearted – any other normal human would have surely screamed, fainted or had a mental breakdown if they saw something such gore.
She didn't linger for longer than necessary – having enough proof of what was going on here, she collected the tape and transmuted the tape recorder back into the wall. She smirked while eyeing the roll of film and tape a moment before pocketing them safely.
Leaving the warehouse much faster – she didn't take the same route she had used to break in but went even further from the warehouse to the backside of the compound. Easily scaling the high compound wall again, she jumped onto the road on the other side of the wall.
Pulling her scarf down and taking off her hat, she moved away some loose strands of her hair. She smiled while looking up at the compound wall a moment before heading off in the direction of her house at a comfortable pace.
"Heh, not bad, little girl," I said with a smirk, watching her as she walked away. She was good, really good, perhaps even better than what Pride had described her to be. And she was someone that no longer interested just the old hag. Messing with her was going to be fun, and definitely something to look forward to.
Smirking wider, I turned and walked away in the direction opposite of hers.
Arisa pov:
"What do you mean you haven't got permission for an investigation yet?!" Col. Mustang yelled at the top of his lungs.
"U-um the thing is, Colonel, they said it has to go through Brigadier General Gran before we are granted p-permission. He's busy for the next t-three days so we can't do an investigation until he says so," Officer Furey said in a meek voice.
"WHAT?!"
"And since it's just an investigation, it's not first priority. We could get a warrant to search the warehouse as early as today if we had evidence though," said Lt. Havoc is a calm and mildly bored tone.
The conversation, despite the loudness of the colonel's voice, sounded rather far away to me. I was sleepy, having lost a good few hours of sleep last night from investigating the warehouse and I was currently taking a nap. I sat at my desk, my feet resting on the chair beside me while a book I was referring to while going through documents covered my face.
The room fell silent suddenly and it was enough to nearly put me to sleep instantly. However, I was snapped out of my daze when someone slammed their hands hard on a desk.
"Arisa, get up this instant! How can you be sleeping when your superior is asking for a report on a mission assigned to our team!" the colonel bellowed.
I moved the book off my face and opened my eyes lazily. Lowering my legs, I stretched with a blissful hum at the loosening of my muscles before I stood and walked around my desk to join the others. They all watched me skeptically but I didn't react to it.
"You know, joining the military is not to slack off. This is serious work," Lt. Breda commented disapprovingly.
"Yes, I know. So, what am I supposed to do?" I asked and yawned, angering the colonel more.
He slammed his hands on the desk again making me look at him. "This is not a game! If you have the audacity to think of all this so indifferently, turn in your pocket watch and leave! I will not tolerate subordinates who slack off! I expect my subordinates to show some responsibility!"
I held my hands up in defense, smiling despite being yelled at by my superior. "I'm sorry. You're right, it's not right for me to be so nonchalant about work. I will work harder from now on."
While I put my hands in my pockets, the colonel pinched the bridge of his nose with an exasperated sigh. Sinking into his seat, he asked, "Alright, have you filed a search warrant request for the investigation of the sixth warehouse? It's your job to try and convince the higher ups for permission along with the rest of us. The more pressure we put on them, the sooner we'll get permission."
"I haven't sent in a request yet," I answered, shrugging.
"This is – I can't believe I expected you would be able to serve the military well. You've been here less than a week and you don't follow orders and you're slacking off already. If this is going to continue, I should just ask the Fuhrer to dismiss you and-"
"But," I interrupted, smiling smugly while he narrowed his eyes at my nonchalance at the situation, "I think you should apply for a raid and arrest warrant. We should head to the warehouse today evening, just as Lt. Havoc said."
"Didn't you just hear what I said about getting permission?" he said, frowning deeper.
My only widening smile had him nearly blow his top. However, he didn't get the chance to as I stepped to my desk, opened the drawer and brought back a paper envelope with the developed photographs and tape. I placed it in front of him and said, "Perhaps you'll consider my suggestion after having a look at these."
Still disapproving of me, he made visible the contents of the envelope. His expression changed to surprise the second he looked over the evidence.
"These photographs," he mumbled, looking over them intensely.
"You should listen to the tape too. It has a pretty interesting conversation."
The colonel was quick to bring out the tape recorder from the drawer of his desk. The tape went inside, was rewound and played so everyone in the room could hear the conversation I had heard and recorded yesterday.
"C'mon you! Get moving! Stop struggling!"
"We have to finish this human soul-fixing research soon! The military already has their doubts and are trying to get a warrant to search the 6th warehouse. We have to finish this by this week or we'll get caught!"
"This week?! Are you crazy?! Even if we do, there will probably be so much evidence that human research was being done here! And if the prisoners tell-"
"Even if they find out we've been doing experiments on humans, they can't find us once we escape. And we'll just kill the prisoners before we leave so military won't get any evidence about us."
"You're right – they're just prisoners. Though some of them are civilians, we have to kill them in the name of our research and safety!"
"That aside, we've already experimented on 47 humans and none of them have survived! Will this even work? They just end up exploding into pieces of flesh because the soul and body to bond properly."
"Don't worry about them. Let's just do what we can. We have to keep trying until we get it right. We'll move out of here in three days."
"Ugh! This is so frustrating! Get that prisoner onto the transmutation circle already! Let's get back to work!"
The silence that followed along with the shocked expressions of those around me had my smile widening to a grin. It was a moment before everything sunk in and the colonel met my gaze, still in a state of mild shock.
"How did you get all this?" he asked.
Shoving my hands back into my pockets and shrugging, I said, "Let's just say that I have the talent to be...perfectly inconspicuous."
My grin was regarded with a wide smirk from Col. Mustang along with an excited glint in his eyes. "Why didn't you tell us sooner? When did you get all this?"
"Last night. Everyone was being too hesitant to get the evidence we needed, so I thought I'd take the initiative. Alchemy along with my skills of stealth surely did the trick, didn't they?"
Col. Mustang gave a hearty laugh while running his hand through his hair. He looked relieved and I was certain that I had done a good job.
"Lt. Hawkeye, Lt. Havoc, I'm giving you two responsibility of taking this evidence to the brigadier general and getting a raid and arrest warrant! Go now!" Both lieutenants saluted and were off to get the permission we needed to wrap up this case. Col. Mustang eyed me again, leaning forward on his interlocked hands. "Silver Wing Alchemist, I'm impressed. I didn't know you had such skills – I'm sure it will be very useful in further missions. Though I am curious to know how you have such skills in the first place."
"I learnt everything I know from my teacher – it was mostly for my protection because my past was only of being bullied and outcast for my alchemy. Silence, stealth and information gathering were his majors, but don't ask me what he did with those skills of his – I don't know about it. He left me right after teaching me how to survive in the harsh world."
"Well, whatever the reasons for you learning such skills, the military has surely got a valuable asset. You're going to get more serious missions from now on so you better be ready," he said.
"I always am. Now if you didn't mind, I'd like to take a power nap to catch up on the sleep I lost last night," I said and walked back to my desk.
"You may but keep your feet down." He eyed my feet that I was ready to put on my neighbor's chair.
I didn't and held my hands up in defense. "Sorry, Chief, I'll stick to my chair."
Covering my face with a book and leaning back, I settled in for a power nap so I would be energized and ready for some butt kicking that would surely ensue tonight in the sixth warehouse.
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Ahem, it seems that Arisa has got Envy's attention and interest. Although, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Whatever it is, it's the start of trouble!
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