The Same Coin

Warmongers

Winry reluctantly took a seat across from Hisoka, folding her hands in her lap while still holding the business card, and pursing her lips together tightly.

"What can I do for you?"

"I want you to tell me about automail, of course."

"You already heard about automail," she countered with a frown. "I know you were listening when I explained it to Chrollo on the airship."

"You were explaining it in casual conversation to a stranger. I expect you to explain it to me now, directly, as a customer."

She hesitated. It wasn't unheard of for hobbyists to sacrifice their limbs of their own will in order to upgrade to automail, but the majority of those people were warmongers — people who wanted to be indestructible in battle. Thinking about that now though, perhaps she shouldn't be so surprised by his inquiry.

Winry sighed.

"Automail is mechanical, armored prosthetic limbs. They're surgically connected to the nerve ends so the wearer can move them at will as they would their own appendage. Steel is the most common material, but I've also used carbon fiber and aluminum, too.

"The installation process is the most difficult, and it has to be done by a bio-mechanical engineer. In the cases of accidental amputations, often more of the limb needs to be removed for clean connections to be made. First time installations require each nerve to be connected to a permanent housing unit on the body, and that is incredibly painful — but nothing compared to what happens when all the nerves connect simultaneously when the automail limb is attached.

"It takes years to recover from the surgery, plus the time it takes to learn to master using the new limb. On average I'd say three years." To that Hisoka pouted. She sighed, and thought of Ed. "It has happened faster, but that's very rare.

"Maintenance needs to be done on the limb often. You have to oil it frequently. There will be times where upgrading becomes necessary — those are both expensive and painful. Environmental extremes can cause a lot of discomfort as well. I heard about a man who had an automail lower leg, but because of the metal he ended up with frostbite above it and had to have the rest of his leg amputated."

"How does the automail function?"

"What's Bungee Gum?" Winry countered, and Hisoka blinked then gave her an almost leering smile.

"I believe this is my appointment. If you have questions you want to ask me, I can schedule one for you."

She blew a puff of air upward out of frustration, puffing her bangs. "There are steel plates, and underneath the armor are the wires, pneumatic actuators, motors, gears, so on and so forth. It's all enclosed in the limb."

"And what precisely is your role? You told the Boss you complete the process start to finish."

"I do. I am capable of doing the bio-medical engineering and partial amputations, but I'm still new at that. Each automail I install though is custom-built. I design and assemble them myself, then I also perform the connecting and finishing stages. What's Bungee Gum?"

"I don't think my appointment is over yet."

"Unless you want me to start measuring so I can get cutting," she said, "I have nothing else I can tell you. There isn't even automail on this side of the world anyway, and I don't appreciate you using it as a ruse to get me up here." She threw the appointment card back at him.

Hisoka caught it easily, then gave a flick of his wrist. It came careening back at her. She didn't even have time to flinch before it embedded itself in the armchair beside her head. Her question about why he had really had her summoned was immediately forgotten.

Winry stared at it in awe before yanking the card out. She touched its corners carefully before bending it in half. It was as ordinary as could be.

"How did you do that?" she asked, glancing at him.

He touched his fingers to his chest. "I am Hisoka the Magician."

"Listen, I grew up around alchemy, you can't fool me into believing this is magic. There's some sort of science to it."

"Alchemy?" Hisoka repeated, his angular brows rising.

Winry paled. "It's—It's a kind of science," she stammered. "Back where I'm from alchemy is... common."

"Alchemy isn't science. It's a metaphysical art."

"No, it's science." She realized too late the trap she'd walked into, and she sighed.

"Correct my misconceptions," he invited.

"It's the science of equivalent exchange and transmutation and—" She cleared her thoughts. She was used to explaining automail, but alchemy was Ed and Al's area of knowledge. Her own understanding of it was tertiary, but she could try. "It's the ability to create objects out of raw matter, or turn something into something else."

"Hmh. That sounds like conjuration."

"Conjuration?''

"You had your aura nodes opened — that is the first step to controlling Nen. Conjuration is one of the six disciplines of Nen, wherein the user can manifest objects from their aura."

"What is Nen?"

"It is a technique where someone uses their aura to facilitate abilities."

"That sounds more like magic than alchemy does. Is that what Bungee Gum is, though? Is it Nen?"

"You are exceptionally quick." Hisoka rested his chin on his knuckle. "I predict that, when you come into your own, you'll be a manipulator."

"A what? And why?"

"Bungee Gum is one of my Nen abilities, and it has the qualities of both gum and rubber," he diverted.

"Like chewing gum? Candy?" Hisoka nodded. She continued, "And I couldn't see when you used it on the airship because my aura nodes hadn't been open then. But it's what you used to move me to higher ground in the airship."

"Exceptionally quick," he repeated, and he looked pleased, eyes closed and smiling at her. Then he announced, "I am leaving Heavens Arena."

"Why?"

"I'm attending the 286th Hunter Exam, and with the excessive recovery time for surgery, I simply can't pursue this automail topic further until that's out of the way. I will meet with you again afterward." Winry sunk further into the seat, her shoulders slumping. "Does that prospect not please you?"

"Not really."

"That's a shame. But if you won't accept my company willingly, that makes me obligated to remind you that I saved your life tonight. You would have died, sooner rather than later, if I hadn't instructed you through closing your nodes — which, interestingly, the Boss didn't see fit to do even though I presume you spent most of the evening with him." Winry flinched. "So I will be seeing you again in the near future, to continue our discussion about automail... and alchemy. And, in return, when I see you again I'll teach you more about Nen."

"I want my gun back."

Hisoka drew it out from behind him and offered her the grip.

"Take it for now then. Once I teach you more, you'll never need it again." Winry took her gun from him and tucked it back where it belonged, then started walking away. "Aren't you going to ask me when you'll be seeing me again?" he called from behind her.

"No. It doesn't matter when that is, it'll be too soon," she said as she opened the door.

"Hmh."