Hagane no Renkinjutsushi - Volume 3 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

UNEQUIVALENT EXCHANGE

SHORTLY BEFORE Ruby led Alphonse off to meet Raygen, Edward had set out to find the boy he had seen the previous night. In his hand he carried the white petal that had fallen on his bed.

He followed the waterway downstream, and as he drew farther away from the middle of town, the air around him grew quite cool. At the downstream end of the canyon, high cliffs blocked out the sun’s light, casting a shadow that lasted all day long. Even in the middle of the day, this side of town stood quiet and empty. 

It had been too dark to see this part of town the night he and Alphonse had arrived. There were houses here, too, but all of them were shoddy and run-down, not like the ones near the mansion. Some leaned to one side, others lacked doors. Some had rotted clean through in the damp, dark air.

Edward walked farther until he reached the base of the cliff. Here, the artificial waterway ended. The water flowed freely out into a rocky riverbed. The cliff that ringed the village split here, into a narrow crevasse that went back a short ways before narrowing further to a close. Water rushed into the crevasse, crashing against the base of the cliff where it flowed underground through a gap in the rock.

Edward walked until he could see the crevasse more clearly. He had thought it very narrow, but on closer inspection he found it measured nearly six feet across at its entrance. The cliff here curved slightly, making the crevasse hard to see. You could easily pass your eyes over it and not notice it at all.

Right next to the crevasse entrance, perched above the rushing water from the waterway, the boy stood, tending a small bed of flowers.

“Hello there,” Edward called out.

The boy looked up, startled from his flower tending by the sudden interruption.

“Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. I saw you from my window and wondered what you were up to out here …” Edward gestured with his thumb back toward the house where he was staying. He looked up the cliff. “Wow, amazing. It really is high when you see it from here.”

The cliff was incredibly sheer. Edward’s neck hurt just looking at it. Edward pulled his eyes away from the cliff back down to the boy. “My name’s Edward. Came here just yesterday.”

“I’m Leaf,” the boy said quietly. He held a small red flower in his hand.

“You grow your flowers here?” Edward asked, gesturing with his head at the flower bed. Even in the shade, the patch bloomed with flowers of red, blue, yellow, and violet, a patch of bright color in the gloom at the cliff bottom.

“Yes. This kind grows well even in the shade,” Leaf told him. Pulling a vase out of his pocket, he stooped down to scoop water out of the rushing waterway below. Walking back up to the flower patch, he picked a red flower and stuck it in the filled vase.

Edward stood watching him care for his flowers, when he recalled the scene in front of Ruby’s house the night before. “So the town doesn’t think selling flowers is a useful occupation?”

Leaf laughed sadly. “Why should they?” he sighed to Edward. “Nobody in town needs flowers. Any land with good sunlight they use to grow crops, or they build houses for the people who earn well. Where’s the room for growing flowers? Besides, everyone’s so busy working, they don’t have time to appreciate the simple things … like flowers.” Leaf stooped to pick another blue flower and put it in the vase.

“I think they’re pretty,” Edward said, squatting down next to the boy. The flowers in the vase swayed gently in the cool breeze. The tiny blossoms were indeed quite beautiful.

“Thanks.” Leaf smiled sadly. “But you can’t earn a living with flowers. Even if I could sell them outside town, the flowers don’t hold up well in the desert, and besides, people up there can grow their own flowers. Down here, well… flowers don’t do anything for the town, they say, so I can’t get paid for this. But I’m not strong enough to lift rocks, and I couldn’t keep up when I tried polishing gemstones at the refinery.”

Edward frowned. This was a side of the town he had not seen. It made sense: in a town with special needs like this one, stuck in the middle of an unforgiving waste as it was, the residents valued things that directly contributed to the town’s welfare first. Anything else was deemed unnecessary.

Leaf lifted two thin arms. “My hands can only do what they were made to do … and I don’t think that should be such a bad thing.”

“Isn’t there any other work you could do outside the refinery?”

“Oh, I could grow vegetables or carry water or clean the waterway, but other people took those jobs already.” Leaf shook his head and stood, pointing across the waterway. “Back there is where I live. Back where the sun never shines, as far from the water as you can get and still be in the canyon. The people who don’t earn anything wind up getting pushed off to the edges like that.”

The corner of town where he pointed seemed lifeless and quiet, a stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of the factories upriver.

“Me and the others there can’t do hard labor … so we can’t earn a good living like those folks near the mayor’s place. That’s why we live in such shoddy houses.”

Edward nodded.

“This is equivalent exchange.”

He’s right, Edward thought. In a town that held equivalent exchange above all else, it only made sense that those who produced less received less, but here, downriver, the harsh reality of that law stared Edward square in the face.

“I can see how it would be tough to live here if you were stuck on this end of town.” Edward thought back to what he had been told as he came into town. “It’s amazing that no one ever leaves Wisteria.”

Leaf shook his head. “Of course people leave.”

“Really? But I thought I heard …” Edward began, when the crunching noise of something breaking drifted out from the darkened houses at the edge of town. The sound of men shouting followed immediately after.

“What language do I got to speak to get it through your head?”

“Give it here!”

Next to Edward, Leaf cried out, “Not again!” and broke into a run for the edge of town.

“H-hey!” Edward chased after him. Panting for breath, he came to a small clearing between the tiny houses. In the middle of the clearing stood a makeshift table of half-rotted boards set across a large stone. Several cups sat on the table. Nearby, three swarthy men were shouting at some older men and youths with spindly arms. Edward counted ten people in all.

“You stole fruit from the town field, didn’t you? Just because you don’t make good money don’t mean you can steal what’s not yours!”

“We would never steal!” the oldest of the elderly men there protested. “How could you even accuse us of that?”

“You should be ashamed,” growled one of the tough men. “Sitting around here all day, while we work our fingers to the bone to earn our keep.”

“But we’re too weak to work in the factories!” the oldest said.

“Then you don’t belong here!” One of the strong men grabbed the oldest by the collar. Several of the old man’s friends rushed to his aid.

“Mr. Ivans!”

Leaf ran over to the two and tugged at the arm of the one shaking the oldest. “Please, no fighting!”

“You again, Leaf?”

“Maybe we don’t earn lots of money like you,” Leaf said hotly, “but that doesn’t mean we want more than our share! That doesn’t mean we would steal! Why do you call us criminals?”

“There’s jobs to be had, an’ yet you don’t work,” the man replied. “An’ if you ain’t earnin’ your food, you must be stealin’ it!”

“Face it—you’re nothin’ but dead weight for Mr. Raygen to carry. You all ought to leave town!” another spat.

The strong fellow with his hand on Ivans’s collar let go. “Leaf, just because you know Ruby don’t mean you get a free pass around here. Find some work. You might be small, but you can at least tend to the fields. And you can afford better than these people. Why are you always taking their side? Why not move out of that rat’s nest?”

“Because I can’t stand it that you all came here as equals, in the same straits, and then just because you make a little more money, you start calling the rest of us ‘these people.’ ”

Leaf might have looked weak, but he had strong opinions and, it seemed to Edward, nerves of steel. The boy stared down the hulking man in front of him. “All you talk about is kicking us out. Why not help us instead?”

“What, and ignore Mr. Raygen’s whole plan? His law? Didn’t he save you same as he saved all of us?”

“You do know the law, don’t you?!” the man next to him growled.

“Of course I do! But not all of us are as strong as you are. Some of us are old, or sick. How can you talk about equivalent exchange in front of us when it’s obvious there’s a problem? Or maybe you just don’t care about us?”

“Why you little—” The three men stormed at Leaf. One reached out and knocked the rotting table off the rock, spilling the cups and their contents onto the ground. Another raised his fist.

“Hold it!” Edward butted in.

“Huh? Who’re you?!”

“Was that payment for your stolen vegetables?” Edward asked coolly, thrusting a finger at the cups knocked over on the ground. “I don’t think so. You don’t have any proof that these people stole anything. Which means that you just knocked over those tea cups for no good reason … so by the law of equivalent exchange, you’d have to pay for that tea that you just spilled, am I right?”

“Who do you think you are?” The men glared suspiciously at Edward.

“Hey, it’s the kid who saved Ruby the other day,” one whispered. 

The man closest to him snorted. “Listen, kid, you’re new here, so I’ll give you a warning. Hang out with this lot, and people will think you’re a sluggard who doesn’t want to work for an honest wage, like the rest of them.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Edward replied with a cold smile. “What about the tea?”

The man tossed a coin in the dirt. “There. That should do just fine. I’m out of here.” The men walked off, shaking their heads. 

Edward watched them leave and picked up the coin. “They could’ve just apologized, but they threw money,” he muttered. “Let’s hear it for equivalent exchange.”

Behind him, the old man named Ivans and two other people who had fallen in the scuffle were rubbing their bruises and groaning.

“I can’t stay in this town any longer. I’m going to tell Mr. Raygen I’m leaving,” said one of them, a man wearing a threadbare jacket and a crumpled white hat.

“I stirred up some trouble in another town. That’s why I’m here. I’m not sure if I can I make do anywhere else,” said another, wiping the dirt off his elbow.

“Me either …” Ivans echoed sadly.

“Do you have any other place to go?” the first asked him.

“We have to stay here and resist them, get them to change the law!”

“I didn’t come this far only to have to start another fight. I’m going to try my hand at the refinery again,” said a gaunt man nearby.

“Kett! Work in your condition, and you’ll only get hurt again! Better to leave town. See about having Raygen find you a job somewhere else.”

A few of the men sat, bleary-eyed, their shoulders sagging in defeat. Others were angry, fists raised, talking about making change. One of the tired-looking youths stood silently and trudged off in the direction of the factories.

Leaf left the bunch and walked toward Edward. “Thank you for helping.”

“I’m not sure I did much of anything.” Edward handed the money to Leaf. “Give this to the people whose tea got spilled.”

“Sure thing.”

They stood awhile in silence, looking at the others.

“What were they saying about having Raygen find them a place to work outside?” Edward asked.

Leaf explained, “Mr. Raygen says he watches after every-one who comes in here, so when people decide to leave, he finds them work to do in other towns. Nobody here would have anywhere to go otherwise.”

“Very nice of him.”

“Maybe. The people who live upstream, they think we’re just excess weight, slowing down the whole town. They think he should just let us find our way on our own if we want to leave.”

Edward nodded and thought awhile before asking, “What’s this about you knowing Ruby?”

“We came from the same town. We both got caught up in the war, and we watched our town burn down to the ground around us. We didn’t have the strength to stand up and fight, so we fled. We met Mr. Raygen before he founded Wisteria. We were some of the first to come here. But …”

“But?”

“All of us then, we wanted to make a town so strong it wouldn’t fall, even if there were another war. But by making it strong, we left no room for the weak … and if that’s what happens, I’d rather not be strong at all.”

Edward was silent.

“This place down here is a wonderful world,” Leaf con-tinued, “but only for the strong. If you’re not strong, it’s impossible to keep up.” The boy sighed wearily. “Back home, whenever we would go out, like for a picnic, I would always fall behind because I was so small. I remember Ruby would always wait for me then. She would come back and hold my hand and help me along.”

Edward remembered the strength in Ruby’s eyes the other day. He could sense her iron will, her desire for progress at any cost. He wondered what her eyes looked like when she held Leaf’s hand.

“That was a long time ago, though,” Leaf said, shaking his head. “I don’t think that the way of things here is all wrong, but it’s certainly not right. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell people.”

Edward looked at the men dusting themselves off in the clearing behind them. It was dark in this corner of town—so dark only the people who really wanted to could even see it. When Edward lifted his eyes to look upstream, the shadows disappeared, the sun shone brighter, and the town bustled with the sound of factories. And there, at the head of it all, loomed Mr. Raygen’s mansion, its white walls so brilliant in the noontime sun that Edward thought anyone standing near it would surely be blind to the far side of town.

The dark side of town.

Edward had suspected that something unsavory lurked beneath Wisteria’s bright and cheery surface, but he was a little shocked at how clear the division between the light and the dark really was. He felt oddly uncomfortable, like he was staring Mr. Raygen’s hypocrisy right in the face.

He knew one thing for certain: Wisteria no longer seemed a paradise.

“So this would be the bad part,” Edward muttered, making a mental note to add this into his report. He just wished he could be happier about his findings.

Thinking about it, he had known all along that a town couldn’t really be as good as Wisteria had seemed, but now he realized that at the same time, he had hoped it was. He and his brother had stayed at innumerable towns on their journeys. Part of him had wanted to remember Wisteria as the happiest of those stops. But now that he had seen the truth, he couldn’t close his eyes to it.

“Just one more thing left,” Edward said to himself. He decided that once he finished his report he would leave town as soon as he could. He had a feeling it wouldn’t be long before Leaf and the others followed.

He glanced at the boy. Leaf stood apart from the wearied bunch of men, his gaze fixed on the flowers in his hand. With gentle strokes, he touched the petals with the tips of his fingers.

Edward noticed something. “Don’t you have any white flowers, Leaf?”

There were many flowers in Leaf’s patch, but none of them were white. 

Leaf pointed upwards. “Those flowers only grow in the sunlight. So I plant them up above.”

“Above?!”

Leaf pointed toward the top of the cliff above where they stood, some distance away from the main entrance to town. “I climb up the crevice there to grow them up top.” 

Though the steep cliff wall was pocked with many little cracks and protrusions, nothing even vaguely resembling a path stood out on its face.

“I thought there was only one entrance,” Edward said. “Can you can go up on this side as well?”

“If you go up the crevice. I’m light, and I’m used to it, so I can manage the climb. I don’t know anyone else who could. Also, you have to know the right way.”

Edward nodded, taking another look at the split in the rock wall above the waterway outlet. If you went as far into the crevasse as you could go, around the natural curve of the wall, no one in town could see you. So that’s where Leaf had been growing the white flowers that drifted into his room.

“But what if you get caught? Wouldn’t that be bad?” Edward asked. “If no one even wants the flowers, why take the risk?”

“I suppose you’re right,” Leaf admitted, “but these flowers are important to me. I keep hoping … hoping she’ll see the flowers and that they’ll remind her of who she used to be.”

Edward didn’t have to be told to know who he was talking about. Leaf looked up the cliff wall. He had a far-off look in his eyes, as though he were lost in thought, remembering something deeply important to him.

“I can’t keep doing this forever,” Leaf said. “Maybe it’s time to move on. I guess it’s not unusual for people to change over the years. She probably doesn’t even remember.”

Edward stood awhile, wondering what the white flowers meant to Leaf, what had happened between him and Ruby, but he could not find the right way to ask. In the end, he left without saying a word.

Edward walked straight up the main road, his eyes watching a plume of steam pouring from the domed factory. As he came into the sun again, he could feel his body warming. It occurred to him that the people living out here in the sun couldn’t possibly imagine how cold it was to live in the shade. It seemed so wrong … but how could an observer like himself hope to change things? He couldn’t make the sun shine on the whole town.

“This is the problem with staying in a place too long,” Edward mumbled to himself as he walked. “You come as a tourist, but give it a few days, and you’ll start seeing all the dirt you thought you left behind you in the last town. I think I’m more suited for the kind of trip we were on before—just me and Al, a clear purpose, and the road ahead …”

Edward knew it was a selfish thing to say, but behind the words lurked Edward’s frustration. He wanted to help these people, Wisteria’s lost, but he did not know how. Edward headed on toward Raygen’s mansion, more eager than ever to finish his business here and be done with the town. He stopped in at the house where he and Alphonse were staying, intent on bringing Alphonse along. “One thing’s for sure,” he muttered to himself. “I’ll have even more nasty things to talk about with the colonel when we’re done with this.”

Edward knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He looked inside. Alphonse had not returned. “Maybe he’s still helping out …”

Edward waited for a while, but when no one came, he resolved to head to the mansion on his own. Edward decided it was all for the best. Edward knew that his brother had grown very fond of this town in the short time they’d been here. He wasn’t particularly eager to tell Alphonse what he’d seen downstream just yet. He knew Alphonse wouldn’t take the news of the conditions on the shady side of town well. He’d have to tell him eventually, of course, but if he could, he preferred to delay the telling just a little longer.

Edward arrived at the gate to the mansion and looked up. The gate was closed. Through the bars he could see shrubs around the white mansion that stood in the middle of the grounds, surrounded by a high iron fence. Edward shook the gate, but it wouldn’t open. His loud clanging, however, caught the attention of the guards standing in the grounds at either side of the gate. 

Edward blinked. He was surprised to see guards. Issues with his law of equivalent exchange aside, Raygen seemed to all appearances a very kind man. Edward had assumed the mansion would be open to the public. He waved a hand through the gate at one of the guards.

“Excuse me!”

One of the guards walked over. “What?”

Edward blanched. The guard’s gruff attitude told him he wouldn’t have much chance of getting in this way, but he tried all the same. “Can you open this for me?”

“Not a chance.”

Edward frowned. “Why not? I just wanna talk with Mr. Raygen.”

“Sorry, kid. Only guards and their associates are allowed inside.”

“So … I can’t see him?”

“That’s what it means.”

“Huh.” Edward thought. He could always write his report and just fill in the leadership part by guesswork. However, he knew he’d run the risk of being found out. He could sneak his way in with Alphonse and force the guy to talk to them …

He looked up. The other guard had approached and was nodding at him. Maybe he still had a chance. “You’re the kid who came here yesterday, aren’t you?” the guard asked, the concern plain in his voice. 

Hah, Edward thought. Here I was, thinking of fighting my way through these guards, and this guy’s taking pity on me. He must think I’m some dejected child, sad that I can’t meet my hero, Mr. Raygen.

“You got lucky, meeting with him yesterday,” the guard said. “Normally, he’s so busy that he doesn’t have much time to come out.”

Edward nodded and was about to thank him when he noticed someone heading into the mansion behind the fence … someone very familiar.

“Al?!”

Edward grabbed the gate with both hands. Alphonse was just about to step through the door of the mansion. He turned when he heard his brother call his name. “Ed!”

Alphonse waved, and ran back toward the gate, Ruby joining him.

“Al!” Edward shouted, “How did you get in there?! Hey, guard!” He turned to one of the security guards. “That’s my brother in there! We’re related! Doesn’t that make me an associate?! Let me in!” Edward rattled the gates.

On the other side, Ruby frowned. “Like an animal in a cage …”

Alphonse chuckled. It was a good description, but Ruby hadn’t seen his brother at his worst yet, not by far.

Heedless of her remark, Edward kept shouting. “How did you get in there, Al? They won’t let me in!”

“I haven’t been inside the mansion yet myself,” Alphonse replied, walking closer. “We were just about to head in to have a chat with Mr. Raygen.”

“That’s right.” Ruby walked over and took Alphonse by the arm. “Let’s be going, shall we?” she said, throwing a disparaging look at Edward.

“But I thought only guards and their associates were allowed inside!” Edward protested. Why was Alphonse getting in and not him? And something else was bothering him, too. He called out to Ruby. “Say, what’s with the dress?” 

Until now, he had seen Ruby only in her security outfit—camouflage trousers and a military surplus jumper—but today, for some reason, she was wearing a long, billowing skirt. And the way she was holding onto Alphonse’s arm and talking so sweetly, it all seemed wrong …

Ruby chuckled.

“What?!” Edward frowned unconsciously at Ruby’s smile. Something was terribly odd here, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. This was not the Ruby he knew from the day before. He looked up at Alphonse, but Alphonse merely scratched his head.

“Actually, um …” his brother began.

“Actually what?”

“I’m getting in as Ruby’s fiancé,” Alphonse admitted.

“Whaaaaat?!”

Ruby held tighter to Alphonse’s arm. “That’s the only way he could get into the mansion. Alphonse likes our town so much, and he wanted to talk to Mr. Raygen, so I decided to introduce him as my fiancé. It’s the least I could do for him. Isn’t that right, Alphonse?”

“Pretty much.” Alphonse shrugged, obviously embar-rassed by the whole situation.

“That’s why you’re dressed like that?” Edward asked, dumbfounded.

“Just getting in the mood.” Ruby smiled.

“I gotta say, you look terrible in a dress.”

“How rude!”

“I don’t know, Ed,” Alphonse said meekly. “I think she’s kinda cute.”

“Really? Thank you, Alphonse.” 

Edward’s eyes shot from Alphonse to Ruby, then back to Alphonse again. This whole charade had just ceased to be funny. Edward grumbled under his breath. Here he was, worried about disappointing his brother with Leaf’s story … all while Alphonse had a ball pretending to be Ruby’s fiancé.

Ruby laughed even harder at Edward’s scowl. “What? Afraid I’ll steal your brother away?”

“Hey!” Edward felt himself blushing, though he wasn’t sure why. “No!” he blurted. “That’s not it at all! I just want to get in there, too!”

“Oh, that’s right, Ed. I’m sorry,” Alphonse said, remem-bering their mission. He hastily pulled his arm away from Ruby. “Why don’t you be Ruby’s fiancé? I think you play the part better than me, anyway. It’s hard to imagine me getting married in this suit of armor.”

“No way!” shouted Edward and Ruby together.

“Me? Marry that shrimp?!” Ruby added.

“Why you …” Edward growled.

Ruby grabbed Alphonse’s arm again, pulling him toward her. “I know Alphonse wears this armor because of what he believes in, isn’t that right, Alphonse?”

“Huh?” Edward gawked at her.

“Er … Ruby …” Alphonse began, but Ruby cut him off before he could explain.

“I think it’s wonderful! Why, I consider myself lucky to have gotten to you first!”

“Uh, thanks, Ruby, but …” 

Ruby yanked Alphonse’s arm, turning him back toward the mansion. She glared at Edward. “So long, brother-in-law!”

“Brother-in-what?! Hey!” Edward fumed, then stopped. He had an idea. “Okay, fine. So he’s your fiancé. How about you introducing me to Mr. Raygen as your fiancé’s brother?”

Ruby snorted. “Impossible. No one would believe you’re his brother.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?! This better not have anything to do with my height!”

“Okay, okay, okay. That’s probably enough of that,” Alphonse said loudly, waving his hands as he stepped between the two.

“Don’t stop me, Al!”

“Oh, you want to fight?” Ruby said. “No need to stop him, Alphonse. I’ll win.”

The two continued glaring at each other through the gate when they heard a scream coming from a distance.

“What was that?” Edward asked, whirling around.

“It came from the dome!” Ruby shouted.

Alphonse flung the gates open and broke into a run in the direction of the scream. Ruby and Edward followed close behind, their argument temporarily forgotten. When they reached the dome, they found a woman standing over a man who was sitting down, his leg wrapped in a towel. Neil stood nearby.

Alphonse waved at Neil. “Is he hurt?”

“Aye. He toppled the cart,” Neil replied, glancing over at one of the ore carts. It lay on its side next to a spilled load of rock and gravel. The man moaned, gripping his leg through the towel.

Edward took the towel off gently and looked at the injured leg. Blood soaked the towel, but the wound did not seem deep. The leg had begun swelling from the ankle up to the knee.

“Looks like you sprained it getting out from under those rocks,” Edward said. “It should mend with two or three weeks of rest. You’re lucky—the bone isn’t broken.” Edward clapped the man on the shoulder and looked up. No one else there seemed particularly pleased with the news of a light injury. Nor did they seem that concerned about the man. Instead they all gathered around the cart and began scooping up the spilled contents.

“I told him to give it up,” Neil grumbled, sighing loudly.

The man with the wounded leg shuddered.

“He hurt himself before, you know,” Neil told Alphonse. “Now he comes back saying he’ll work again, and not ten minutes later, this happens. He’s not earning money; he’s causing all of us trouble. Useless.”

The man lifted his face from his knee at the disgust in Neil’s voice. “Please, Neil …” the man said, clutching at the big man’s hand. “The cart was heavy! My hands slipped, that’s all! It won’t happen again, I promise!”

Edward recognized the man clinging to Neil’s arm as one of the older men he’d seen downstream. He’d seen him in the clearing, promising that he would try to work again.

“Please, you have to understand, I’m a wanted man outside Wisteria. The military’s after me! I can’t leave. Please, let me work …”

Neil frowned down at the man. “If you want to help out, then go carry water or something easier like that.”

“But you can’t earn a living wage like that!” he cried, despairing. The man’s arms slumped to the ground in defeat. His foot may have only been sprained, but his heart seemed crushed by this injury, coming so soon after his fresh start. A tear slid down his cheek and fell to the dusty ground.

As the old man softly sobbed, the sound of footsteps on gravel came from behind them. 

“I feared that scream sounded like someone I knew …” the newcomer began. It was Ivans. Leaf was standing beside him. 

“Are you okay, Kett?” Leaf asked, kneeling next to the injured, sobbing man, and giving him his arm to lean on.

“It’s just a sprain. He’ll be fine in no time,” Edward explained.

“I’m glad,” Leaf said, though he had worry in his eyes. Next to them, Alphonse stood staring at Neil and Ivans.

“Neil,” Ivans said suddenly, “maybe it’s time you reconsidered this.”

“Reconsidered what?” The big man raised an eyebrow.

“Determining pay based on what helps Mr. Raygen and the town might be good equivalent exchange, but there’s a gap between the rich and the poor here, and it’s widening. Do you want to make a true paradise here? Then we should go to Mr. Raygen, talk to him as a town. We must figure out something that’s fairer to all.”

Neil spat. “Fair? What’s fair mean to you? You want to give people who don’t work the same money as people who do? I’m sorry, but I’m not sweating fifteen hour days here for nothing. And frankly, I don’t think someone earning as little as you’s got the right to tell me how our town should run.”

Ivans was not so easily dissuaded. “Why is it that you work fifteen hours, again? Is it to pay back Mr. Raygen for giving you a helping hand? Or do you just want more money?”

Neil frowned silently.

“This is how our town will perish, Neil. Weighed down into the ground by the law of equivalent exchange.”

“Don’t blame Mr. Raygen for your lack of effort!” Ruby put in suddenly. She had been quietly helping to pick up the stones that had fallen from the cart, but this last comment from Ivans had set her off. “You weren’t happy with your life before, right? That’s why you joined Mr. Raygen, right? To build a new world, a strong world, better than the last one. Just because you can’t keep up doesn’t mean Mr. Raygen’s wrong. If you can’t build our world, you should leave!” Ruby was furious. Her voice held the conviction of one who truly believed what she said and would hear no other views on the matter. 

The crowd fell silent until Edward spoke. “Hang on. Ruby, I’ve got a question for you.” All eyes turned toward the young alchemist.

“What?” Ruby asked suspiciously.

“Would you say the people living here in Wisteria are living, thinking people … or puppets, like in a puppet show?”

Ruby frowned. “They’re people of course,” she replied, rolling her eyes at the inane question.

Edward shook his head. “Not if they stop asking questions they aren’t,” he said quietly.

Ruby raised an eyebrow, not understanding, but she noticed the look of sympathy in Edward’s face and it bothered her. Ruby turned and began to leave when a thin, gangly-armed boy stepped in her path.

“Leaf …”

Leaf held a colorful bouquet of flowers in his hand. Some of them were white. He held them out to her. “For you, Ruby.”

Ruby favored him with a cold, withering glare. “I’m tired of telling you this, but I’ll say it once more.”

Alphonse looked up, startled at the lack of warmth in Ruby’s voice. This was the first time he had heard her talking to Leaf. He stood next to his brother, quietly watching the two.

“Flowers don’t put food on the table of anyone in this town,” Ruby explained. “Why do something that doesn’t help at all? Why?”

Leaf was silent.

“You remember when our village was burned to the ground?” Ruby continued. “Didn’t you say you wanted to become stronger then? Didn’t you say you wanted to become strong enough to live on your own? But now that you’re here, where we have a chance, all you do is grow flowers and stand next to all those folks who don’t want to work …” she finished with a glare at Ivans and Kett standing behind him.

“You’ve changed, Ruby,” Leaf said sadly.

Ruby’s response was cold and hard. “Yes. I’m not the little girl with tears in her eyes anymore. I made my choice. I decided to change. Why haven’t you? Isn’t our future worth working for?” Ruby’s voice was unwavering and firm.

To Edward, who had seen firsthand the conditions downstream, this side of Ruby, her way of only seeing the good in Wisteria and ignoring the bad, set off alarm bells in his mind.

“Fine,” Ruby said, relenting. “I’ll take the flowers, but this is the last time.” She snatched the bouquet out of his hand and, like she had the day before, plucked out the white ones and handed them back. Leaf pushed her hand away.

“I’m not growing these for the town, Ruby. I’m growing them for you. Why can’t you see that?”

“What you mean? See what?”

“Don’t you remember, Ruby? Don’t you remember the white flowers?”

Ruby’s glare faltered ever so slightly. “I said I don’t need them!” she shouted, tossing the flowers to the ground. “You’re the one who needs to open your eyes!”

“Ruby …” Alphonse began, startled at her sudden rage, but before he could speak, Ruby ran off without saying another word.

“How could you forget?!” Leaf yelled after her. “You know what happens when people don’t treat each other like human beings! You saw!” The words shot out of his small body with surprising volume and echoed around the town, running along the cliffs before dying into windblown silence.

“Leaf,” Edward called from behind him. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late for that,” the boy said, looking down at the white flowers scattered on the ground. “She’s changed. I guess we all do.” 

“What will you do?” Ivans asked, turning to the boy.

“I’m leaving,” Leaf said, raising his face.

A look of sorrow passed over Ivans’s weathered features. “Why not stick it out here, just a little longer? We might yet get our chance to voice our thoughts to Mr. Raygen. We might be able to change these laws.”

“No,” Leaf replied. “I won’t raise my fist against Mr. Raygen. Some people have it rough here, yes, but his equivalent exchange has made some other people very happy.” He thought a moment. “I suppose I just wanted Ruby to realize this wasn’t perfect. I didn’t want her to think this was really paradise.” Leaf leaned over and helped Kett to his feet.

“Leaf, I’m leaving too,” the injured man said, dusting himself off. “Let’s leave together, now, today. We’ll ask Mr. Raygen to find us work in another town.”

Leaf nodded.

Watching the two talk, Edward had the sudden real-ization that he wasn’t seeing something unusual for this town—many others had surely left before in the same way, and many more would leave in the days to come. Wisteria was an easy place to come to, but a hard place to stay. The rumors had it all backward. Edward looked up at the cliff walls, hearing the distant echo of the factory sounds. “They can’t live down in this hole forever,” he said quietly.

In the whistling wind, Edward thought he could hear the precarious balance of the town tipping.

ALPHONSE SAID NOTHING during the long walk back to their house. Inside, Edward plopped down on his bed, risking a quick glance at his brother. It was impossible to read Alphonse’s expression in the unchanging armor face. But Alphonse’s silence as he sat on the chair by the wall spoke volumes about the pain in his heart.

Wisteria was a new world for Alphonse: a happy town, governed by a kind man, where equivalent exchange had created a way for people to put their troubled pasts behind them and begin anew. He had even thought about joining their community. It seemed almost a dream, but reality had rudely interrupted and cut his dream to pieces. Alphonse wasn’t dumb. He understood there was no such thing as a perfect place. Yet Raygen’s kindness had deeply impressed him. So few people willingly took in those with nowhere else to go. Yet now he saw that Raygen’s equivalent exchange had set townsperson against townsperson in the worst of ways.

In the space of a few minutes, Alphonse had gone from dreamlike fantasy to bitter understanding, and the shock was great.

Edward sat awhile, unsure of what to say. It occurred to him that Alphonse might not want to talk at all, and so he stayed silent. Edward lay back, looking up at the ceiling, dangling his legs over the edge of the bed. After a short while, Alphonse spoke.

“Your foot …”

“Huh?” Edward sat up.

“Your foot,” Alphonse repeated, pointing at Edward’s feet where they hung off the edge of the bed.

“Oh! Sorry,” Edward apologized, realizing he hadn’t taken off his shoes before lying down. He sat up and began working the laces of his right shoe.

Alphonse was still staring at his foot. “You’ve got a blister, don’t you?” he said.

“Huh? What?” Edward looked up at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Your blister,” Alphonse repeated, pointing at Edward’s left foot. “When we were walking in the wasteland, before coming to Wisteria, you got a blister on your foot. I know.”

So Alphonse had noticed the blister. It didn’t hurt anymore, thanks to the long soak. Edward hadn’t even thought to mention it. Now that Alphonse had brought it up, he wondered why. Edward sat patiently and waited for his brother to continue.

“It hurt, didn’t it? I know you didn’t say anything, but I noticed you limping a little.”

Edward thought he was walking normally by the time they had reached the town, but he must have still been unconsciously dragging his foot. Leave it to his brother to notice something like that. After years of journeying through trackless wildernesses together, Alphonse was an expert at watching his brother walk. He would have noticed a pebble in his brother’s shoe before Edward did. 

“Oh, right,” Edward admitted. “But it doesn’t hurt anymore. Don’t worry about it.”

Alphonse shook his head quietly. “That’s not it.”

Edward raised an eyebrow.

“I wasn’t worried about your blister.” Alphonse lifted his face and stared into his brother’s eyes. “But why didn’t you tell me?”

“Huh? Well, I just figured I’d grin and bear it … and besides, you’re my little brother. I’m not going to go crying to you about every little bump on my foot …”

“That’s not why you didn’t tell me,” Alphonse cut him off. “You didn’t tell me ’cause you didn’t want to hurt my feelings.” Alphonse pointed at his own chest. “I don’t get hungry. My feet don’t get blisters … and I’m strong as an ox. Ed, if you’d just told me your foot was hurting, I could have given you a piggyback ride the whole way here. But you didn’t say anything …”

Edward sat silently.

“… because this isn’t my real body, and you didn’t want to remind me. If I had my real body, I wouldn’t be able to carry you. In my real body, I’m just a kid. That’s why you never complained.”

Edward was the one who had affixed his brother’s soul to the walking suit of armor. He knew better than anyone else that Alphonse didn’t get tired, didn’t feel pain, and never slept. And more than anyone else, Edward believed it was his fault.

Alphonse shook his head. “I want to get back my original body, sure I do, but why shouldn’t I use this body in the meantime? When I see you holding back like that … it hurts.” His voice held not a trace of accusation or sadness, but Edward could guess at his thoughts. He knew how tough their long search was on both of them, and Alphonse wanted to do everything he could to lessen his brother’s burden. He didn’t want Edward to hold back on account of his feelings—not just this time, but all the times before too.

At the same time, Alphonse had trouble offering help with his armored body, knowing how dedicated Edward was—how dedicated they both were—to getting their original bodies back. Sometimes, Alphonse even worried that, if he started relying on this new body too much, he might forget what his old self was like. That’s why the townsfolk of Wisteria had impacted him so much. These people had lost limbs, family, lives, and yet they pressed on with whatever strength they still had. They kept their eyes forward, filled with pride. It made Alphonse realize how fixed he and his brother were on the past.

“I thought Mr. Raygen might understand what I’m going through. Maybe he would have good advice for me,” Alphonse said after a long silence.

“I see now,” Edward said, nodding. His brother wasn’t blaming him, but he realized now the grief his words and actions had caused.

Another long silence followed. The sound of the water rushing through the waterway nearby seemed unusually loud.

“Al,” Edward began hesitantly, “do you … do you want to stay in Wisteria?” 

It wasn’t an entirely unreasonable question. Alphonse had seen the bad that came from Raygen’s equivalent exchange, but he had also seen the good. If he stayed here, he would be freed from the specter of his original body, free to start over with what he had now—and Edward wouldn’t stop him.

He clutched his hands together, waiting for an answer. 

Alphonse stood. “Ed, do you like who you are now?” He sat on the stairs next to the door, looking out at the water rushing by.

“Huh?”

“I like how I am,” Alphonse continued. “If I can help people with this body of mine, that would make me happy. I think it’s really great what the people of this town say, that you have to live as who you are now.” Alphonse looked at his brother. “But I also heard what you said to Ruby back there, about people turning into puppets if they forget how to ask questions.”

“Yeah?”

“I wanted Raygen to show me the way,” Alphonse ex-plained, “but that would just make me another puppet, following orders. What you said made me realize that. I can’t just forget who I was … but I can accept who I am now. What I was was me, and what I am now is also me. I’m not one or the other. People aren’t that simple.” Alphonse’s voice had the clarity of someone who had worried about something for a long time before making his decision.

“A-Al!” Edward stammered, blushing.

“Thanks, Ed. If you hadn’t said that, I might have forgotten who I used to be. I mean, it is pretty nice, not get-ting hungry, not getting cold, not getting tired.” Alphonse laughed. “About the only thing my original body has going for it is that I’m a little taller than you. But it is my body. And I do want it back.”

“You jerk, you had me worried for a second there,” Edward said, grinning and rapping Alphonse on the helmet with his fist. “What you said before, about me not asking you for help … It doesn’t matter if you’re a walking suit of armor or not! There’s no way I’m asking my little brother for help.”

“See, you shouldn’t hold back like that, if I can make things easier—” Alphonse began. 

“Me, go crying to you?! No way. No piggyback rides for me, even if my whole body’s a giant blister!”

“Oh, I get it. This is pride,” Alphonse guffawed. “How cruel … Here I am trying to help out any way I can, and you won’t let me.” He stood and pointed a finger at his brother in mock accusation. “I’ll give you a piggyback ride one of these days. Mark my words.”

Edward chuckled. “Just try it! Once you get back your original body, it’ll be me giving you that piggyback!”

“You sure you could?” Alphonse asked, putting his hand on his chin in thought. “As I recall, I was taller than you …”

“What difference does that make?!”

“About two inches.”

“Feh.”

The brothers laughed. Above them, white clouds drifted through a blue sky, sliding over the edge of the cliff and disappearing. Edward made a fist and stood in front of Alphonse. His brother made a fist of his own and placed it over his.

“We’ll find a way to get back your true body, Al, but until then, enjoy what you got!”

“Roger!”

Edward stretched and yawned. “Well, guess it’s about time to leave this town,” he said, grabbing his traveling trunk. Now that he had seen the dirt beneath Wisteria’s shiny surface, he wanted to leave at the first opportunity.

Alphonse raised a hand. “Wait, Ed.”

“What? Who cares about the observation. We’ve done enough. We’re not getting in that mansion, anyway.”

“That’s not it,” Alphonse said. After a moment’s hesitation, he added, “Didn’t you think it was strange?”

“Strange? What?”

Alphonse pointed outside, in the direction of the mansion. “How could a person as kind as Mr. Raygen be so blind to the problems his law of equivalent exchange is causing in his own town?” His gaze ran over the tightly closed gates and the wall surrounding the mansion—a perfect barrier between the people of the town and Raygen. “Why would someone open his arms to people in need and then shut them out with walls?”

“Yeah, that is strange. I don’t know how important this guy thinks he is, but he does seem obsessed with privacy.”

Alphonse nodded. “There’s something else, that thing you said to Ruby about forgetting how to ask questions. I think you’re right. Ruby and Neil have forgotten that right along with their rough past. They’re so obsessed with the money they can make off equivalent exchange, they’re forgetting to be human … the perfect loyal workers.”

“Or loyal troops,” Edward added.

“Exactly.”

Plenty of people out in the wasteland didn’t like the military these days, and it wasn’t hard to imagine that some of them would want to make an ideal country, free from the military’s reach. Some dissidents with wealth and charisma had even tried to usurp the military’s power and required constant observation.

“Dig up lots of jewels, use the money to make a seccession state … this equivalent exchange could be nothing more than a convenient way to get people to stay in the town as cheap labor … and as soldiers.”

“Maybe we should look a little deeper, see what we find?” 

Alphonse was silent. Ivans and Leaf might have had it rough, but Neil and Ruby were happy here. He hesitated to destroy that. “I don’t know about reporting this place to the military,” he said at last. “But I do think the people of the town have the right to know the truth. How can they decide what they want to do with their lives any other way? That, and I need to know what he’s about.” Alphonse had been so impressed with Raygen’s kindness, he hadn’t thought to question it—and he knew many of the other people in town felt exactly the same way. He wanted to find out the truth for their sake, as well as his own.

“What he’s about?”

“Raygen. I want to know what he’s really up to, because I’m starting to worry that this two-faced town takes after its mayor.”

Edward understood. “Right. I’ll go with you.”

“Thanks, Ed!”