Chapter Text
“Hello again, my lit~tle al~chem~ist!”
“Any chance you’ll just let me go because I wasn’t the one doing it?” Edward asked, exhausted. He’d been on a simple recon mission and had gotten sucked into the human transmutation that had been happening.
“Of course not, but I think I can make a deal that’ll satisfy both of us!” Truth replied.
“...what?” Ed asked, wary.
“In exchange for your alchemy back and a safe return passage, you and I will go to a different dimension.”
“That’s incredibly vague, thanks.”
“All will be explained in time. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to give you much more than the language of the world we’re going to.”
“There it is again. We?”
“Yes! In order for you to make it though and have your alchemy, I will be coming with. It’ll be something like how your friend shared his body with Greed. And don’t worry about the people of our world not having alchemy, we’ll be returning to the moment we left.” Ed sighed.
“I think we both knew I never had a choice. Fine, I accept. But I hope you have a plan for taking care of my automail.”
“I can provide an instructional manual. The world we’re going to has much more advanced technology, so they should be able to follow it.”
“Fine. Let’s get this over with.” Ed said with a sigh.
– - –
When Ed came to, it was to a room full of people looking at him with outright suspicion. They were all dressed weirdly, too.
‘What the fuck, Truth?’
‘Oops!’ Truth replied, not sounding the least bit sorry. Ed got to his feet with a groan.
“Hello. Sorry for dropping in like this, it wasn’t my fault. I’m Ed, Edward Elric.”
“Hello Elric-kun! I am principal Nedzu of-” but he didn’t get to finish his sentence because Ed’s eyes widened with panic.
“Who-what-I’m sorry,” Ed said in a panic. Nedzu frowned. He hadn’t seen this kind of reaction before.
“What are you apologizing for?” Nedzu asked, curious.
“You’re a chimera, yeah?” Ed managed through his panic. “I’m sorry someone did that to you. I hope they burn in hell.”
“Ah. May I ask how you knew? Most assume I’m merely an animal with a quirk, which I technically am.”
“The fuck is a quirk?” ‘Truth. What the fuck! Could you not have prepared me anymore?’
‘No, unless you wanted to lose something else.’
‘Fine. I’m still not happy though.’
“You don’t know what a quirk is?” a tired-looking man asks disbelievingly.
“Nope.”
– - –
It takes way too long, but eventually everything gets explained. Ed explains the world he came from, and Nedzu explains where he has landed. It isn’t long before he’s registered to take the UA entrance exam in ten months, which Nedzu says should hopefully be long enough for him to get mostly caught up, given his track record of being a genius.
– - –
Ed walks out of the written portion of the UA entrance exam with the feeling that he probably passed. He has a good feeling about the practical portion, considering.
‘Cocky bastard.’
‘Shut the fuck up. You’re a bastard too. And I have good reason to believe that I’ll pass.’
‘Whatever.’
– - –
Edward glared at the door. The door did not respond because it was a door.
‘Edward. Just because the door is stupidly big does not mean it is making fun of you for being short.’
‘I’m not-’
‘Let’s not have this argument right now and instead just ignore it and go in.’
‘Fine.’ Ed sighed and walked into the room. Predictably, it was empty. Ed was living in the staff dorms on campus, which were less meant for the staff to live there all the time and more so meant for if they had a particularly draining patrol and didn’t want to have to commute to UA in the morning. Ed found his seat and plopped down, resting his head on the desk. Surprisingly for Ed, it wasn’t long before another student entered. He had blue hair and glasses, and when he looked around the room he seemed surprised to see Ed.
“Ah, hello! I wasn’t expecting anyone to get here before me! You must be even more studious than me!” Ed breathed a laugh, and Truth seemed to agree with his thoughts as they laughed too.
“Nah, I doubt it. I love learning stuff but I’m not exactly what one might picture when they think of someone who cares about grades or respecting authority.”
“Then why are you here so early?”
“Nunya.”
“Nunya what?”
“Nunya business.”
‘Clever. When did you learn that, first grade?’
‘Shut up. And he fell for it anyway.’
“How rude! You could’ve simply told me that you did not wish to answer.”
“Whatever.” Ed replied, hoping the teen would leave him alone soon.
“I am Tenya Iida! Who are you?”
“Edward Elric, but you can just call me Ed if you want.”
‘My, how forward~’
‘Shut up.’
‘Is that all you can up with? Tsk, tsk, you’re losing your edge.’
‘Shut your mouth you bastard before I go to sleep right here so I can punch you.’ Ed had discovered very early on in this adventure that if he focused as he went to sleep he could drag himself and Truth into something of a mindscape so they could talk face-to-face. Or, well, face-to-barely-a-face.
– - –
The classroom eventually started filling with people. The last to enter was a green-haired teen. Well, last to enter besides Aizawa. Speak of the devil…
“None of you noticed me. In the field that could mean life or death. You lot are entirely irrational. Hurry up, grab your gym uniforms, and meet me at ground ___ with them on.” As soon as he started leaving Ed was up and grabbing his gym uniform.
– - –
Ed was one of the first out of the changing rooms. He and the green-haired boy had both changed in stalls. Thankfully Ed had gotten a long-sleeved version of the gym uniform which he pared with gloves. While it wouldn’t be long before they found out, Ed didn’t want to deal with questions on his first day.
‘That and you like being dramatic.’
‘Like you don’t, asshole.’