Sometimes, all it takes is one key moment to turn one's life around. In the case of mercenary Alex Mustang, a chance encounter with an ancient book begins a chain of events on his road to redemption.
HyperDimension Neptunia belongs to Compile Heart...
"To put it simply, they were attempting to revive their deceased mother." Said Roy as Akari gasped apon hearing that.
"S-So that turned their mother into some water bender?"
"Honestly that would've been better off happening instead of what actually happened."
"What do you mean?"
"The mother you saw wasn't what they created. What they created was far, far worse."
"W-What was it?"
"It was a monster." Said Roy as he tossed a photo over to Akari.
The girl grabbed and looked at the photo as what she saw horrified her.
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It limbs and head were all misaligned and contorted to inhumane degrees as it had it's abdomen ripped open with it's rib cage exposed and torn in half all the while laying in a massive pool of blood.
Whatever that thing was, it certainly didn't look like the woman Akari saw in the tunnel last night.
"H-How did this happen!?"
"Well you see, Alchemy abides by one universal law. That being Equivalent Exchange. In order to gain something, something of equal value must be lost. While they did indeed have every component that made up the human body, they forgot one crucial item. Something that couldn't be acquired."
"What was it?"
"It was a soul. Nothing could ever equal the value of a human soul, hence why Human Transmutation is impossible. The brothers didn't consider that. When the transmutation was performed, the exchange wasn't satisfactory. As a result, the gods of Alchemy had to find the equal tradeoff themselves. To abide the exchange, they'd take Alphonse completely, disintegrating his body into nothingness." Explained Roy.
"Then, how is that suit of armor able to talk?"
"That's where Edward comes in. Along with taking Alphonse completely, the gods also took his left leg. Edward was the only one who saw what they created. Feeling immense guilt for having brought his younger brother into it, Ed approached a discard suit of armor and drew a blood seal on it. He'd perform a desperate transmutation and by some miracle, was able to bond Al's soul to the suit of armor. As payment for that, the gods would take Ed's right arm."
"I see. So that explains their current predicament."
"Correct. A few days after the incident, I was called over to that area to find what they had put it as an alchemy prodigy. Riza and I went over to the town and ended up at the Elrics' house. We saw that it was empty so we looked around to find anybody. We would up stumbling into the basement and saw that creature. I immediately knew something was horribly wrong and demanded to know where the brothers were. Eventually, we were guided to where the Elrics were staying. After a brief confrontation, I had offered Ed to participate in the Ztate Alchemist Exam and join us. Fast forward to today and here we are." Explained Roy as Akari nodded and thanked him for the information.
"To think that the thing they're being tasked to take down bears a striking resemblance to their mom." She said.
"Must be another cruel twist of fate by god. Anyways, I sincerely hope you don't tell them that I told you anything. The only other person who knows aside from us and Riza is the kid and that's because the Elrics are very close with Alex. They basically treat him as a third brother. Obviously I don't need to explain how this is all extremely personal to them." Said Roy.
Akari nodded as she got up and left his office. As she was leaving she saw the brothers coming into the building.
Al woukd give Ed a little nudge to his arm as Ed noticed this and sighed a bit.
"Um............t-thanks for saving us, Ms. Akari. We were screwed back there if it weren't for your quick thinking." Said Edward as Akari heard this and simply smiled.
"No problem you two. Any friend of Alex is a friend of mine." She sajd as both Ed and Al were immediately surprised at her response.
"You know who Alex is Ms. Akari?" Asked Alphonse.
Akari was surprised by that question as she giggled a little. "Of course I know him. Why wouldn't I?"
"Maybe because Alex has never told us about you." Said Ed.
Akari was a little shocked hearing that Alex had never told them about her but she immediately brushed that aside.
"I see. Well then allow me to do the honors. Greetings Elric brothers. My name's Akari Satsuki and I'm the mother of Alex Mustang." She said with a smile seeming proud of that last statement.
When the brothers heard that, they had faces of disbelief.
"Y-You gotta be joking right?" Asked Edward.
Akari was a little confused as to why the brothers had still doubted her but also shrugged it off.
"Of course I am. Here look." Said Akari as she pulled out an old photo of her holding Alex when he was about five.
"Isn't he just adorable? This is one of my favorites." Happily said Akari as she gushed over the picture.
The brothers' faces however remained in pure shock and disbelief as Akari ceased her gushing as she didn't know why they were reacting the way they did.
"B-Brother. That means Alex....................he................" Said Al trailing off as Ed immediately ran off in anger as he shouted in pure rage.
"That lying asshole!"
"Brother!" Shouted Al as Ed ran away as fast as he could.
Akari was only more confused at Edward suddenly running off as she turned to face Al.
"W-What happened? Was it something I said?" Asked a worried Akari however she wasn't given an answer as Al ran off after Ed as Akari ended up following Alphonse.
As the two ran after Ed, the blonde boy's thoughts were in a swirling frenzy right now.
'That jackass! He played us all along! He freaking knew didn't he!? He's been faking it all along!' Shouted Edward in his head as he eventually made it to the door entering the apartment complex.
After a few hard knocks the door opened to reveal Alex's sister Akame opening the door all the way showing Alex on the couch.
"Hel-." Before Akame could finish speaking, Ed quite literally shoved her out of the way causing Akame to fall to the floor which Alex didn't take very nicely.
"H-Hey Ed the hell was that for!? Don't just shove my damn sist-!"
It was sudden, but in an instant Edward punched Alex right in the face.
