Chapter Text
One thing about Ed was that he hated his job. Roy always had him doing the worst things ever, and now he was going to a continent that had only been discovered a few years ago!
Specifically, a country called Japan. This was one of their first times communicating, and they, apparently, offered money and technology if Amestris sent over men to help them with problems.
Ed didn't pay attention to the meeting at all. His joints were hurting, so he just agreed to whatever they asked him to do. He didn't know he was agreeing to leave the entire continent for years, potentially. Alphonse couldn't come with him.
The day before he left, he spent the entire day with everyone. Alphonse, Winry, even the idiot prince and Roy, who made fun of him for being soft.
He didn't want to leave.
He began to set sail early in the morning, staring at the morning sky. Just an hour in, some tears began to fall out of his eyes, because holy shit, what if he never saw his brother again because of this stupid mission? He couldn't handle the thought, so he sat down for a while.
His tears began to come down more intense. The only things other than weapons and necessities that he had were a stuffed animal of a cat Ling bought him and a painting of his family, minus his father.
He was tempted to turn around and go back home, but he couldn't. This is what he agreed to, even if it hurt like nothing else.
So, after two grueling days, he landed in the harbour, where he saw a man and a... mouse. What the fuck? Was that a chimera?!
Ed felt his chest tighten at the sight, but he just waved.
A man with... wings. Wings, approached Ed and placed a hand on his shoulder. He flinched, and the man took his hand away.
"What the fuck?!" Ed exclaimed. Were chimeras normalized in this country? That was horrible. This had to be a good enough reason to go back home.
A man with black hair sighed.
"Welcome, Elric," the emo man said, leading him away from the dock. Elric? That was gross. Ew. He hated being called his last name.
"It's Ed," he corrected in a rude tone, "What the hell is this? Is everyone here a chimera?"
"A... chimera? Are you talking about quirks?" quirks? What?
"The mouse. And the bird-man," Ed clarified.
The man chuckled.
"Those are called quirks. In Japan, over 90% of the population has them..." this time, Ed actually paid attention.
By the end of the ten-minute-conversation, Ed finally understood, feeling an exponential amount of relief when the man said it was genetic and not a human caused modification.
Then, Ed noticed how hot it was. He wanted to take off his jacket, but he didn't know how the people would react to his scars.
"Do you have any questions?" the man asked, sitting on a bench, motioning for Ed to sit next to him. The teen gladly did.
"Why the fuck is it so hot?" he asked, pissed off. The man chuckled, "Is this amusing to you?!"
"It's Japan, of course it's hot," the man responded. Ed crossed his arms, "You can take your jacket off, kid. No one is stopping you."
"...fine," he took his jacket off. Luckily, the man didn't question the scars littering his arms, though he did glance at them with a sympathetic and understanding expression.
Ed hated pity.
"I didn't pay attention to the meetings I had about this. What do I need to do?" He admitted, not ashamed in the slightest, "Also, what's your name?"
"Shouta Aizawa, I'll be your homeroom teach-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Ed interrupted him, "Hell no. I'm not going back to school."
"It's not a regular school. It trains students your age to be heroes," oh..! What the actual hell?
"What the fuck? Why does that exist? You're training kids to be soldiers," Ed argued, disgusted. Were child soldiers normal in this country?
"You're also a child soldier."
"That's different. I have to be one."
"And why do you have to?"
He couldn't tell Aizawa.
"...I just do. Stop questioning me."
Aizawa sighed, "I'm not saying it's right. The moment I think a student's unfit, I expel them. I think it's as fucked up as you do, but it's necessary."
Ed glared at him. No explanation could explain it or convince Ed that it was, in the slightest, good, necessary, or okay.
"What do I need to do?" he asked, wanting to get this mission over with. He refused to die in such a fucked up country, or really, spend more than a year in it.
"There's a group of villains who pose a great threat and have attacked my class numerous times," why would he continue his class if such dangerous people were threatening them?!
"...fine. But only to protect your students, I'm not doing this because I care about your hell-sent country," he clarified, getting closer to Aizawa to make it even more clear that he didn't at all approve of it.
"Understandable," Aizawa said, nodding. The two sat there in silence for a moment until he continued speaking, "There are two places you can sleep. There's a dorm for faculty, and a dorm for students."
"Shit. Do I get my own room? I'm not sleeping in the same bed as someone else," that'd be gross. He slept in the same room as Alphonse since they slept in hotels, but that was different. They were brothers. He didn't want to sleep in the same room as a stranger for god knew how long!
"Yes. Your own room. I will warn you, though, Class 1A is very loud and annoying," Aizawa noted. Good to know, Ed thought.
"Faculty dorm. Definitely," Ed decided. Adults or a bunch of irritating teenagers? He shouldn't have to tell you what he'd choose.
"Okay. Definitely don't blame you there. Let's go," Aizawa said, standing up and leading him to a parking lot. Holy shit, there were a lot of cars! Of course Ed had seen lots of cars in his life, but never this many.
They were so... fancy, too. Like... he couldn't even begin to describe them. Various sizes and colours. It was astonishing.
"Never seen a car before?" Aizawa said, unlocking one of them and opening the passenger door. When Ed sat down, he found it strangely comfortable.
"Not like these. They're so... fancy," he tried to explain his emotions, but this country was indescribable, and it only got moreso as the man began to drive.
He stared out the window in amazement. They were going faster than Ed had ever gone in a car, too. They passed a sign that said 100 KM/H. What. How? How could a car go anywhere near that fast? That was genuinely insane.
It took them ten minutes to get to a giant glass building. The building was shaped kind of like the letter H. How odd.
They walked beyond the building and into an area with numerous H-shaped like brown ones. Aizawa brought him into one, and Ed wanted to just- stare at it for hours.
"You need a shower, kid," Aizawa said. The boy really wanted to punch him. It wasn't like his boat had a built in bathroom! What was he meant to do?!
"What was I meant to do?! Boats don't exactly have showers!" he yelled loudly, crossing his arms. God, did he have no common sense?
"Relax, pipsqueak-"
"Don't call me that!"
"Relax, kid. I didn't say that boats have showers or that it's your fault. Just hit the showers when you get to your room. You'll have your own," the man explained, sighing. Ed wondered how long it'd take for him to get tired of him.
"...fine," he grumbled, following Aizawa to a dorm room. When they arrived, he was amazed at how large it was.
He dropped his bag on the bed, slammed the door in Aizawa's face, and opened the door to what he assumed was the bathroom.
It was the bathroom, with a bathtub and shower head, and a mirror that was unnecessarily fancy, in Ed's opinion.
Regardless, he ran the showerhead. He loved how hot it got and stepped into it, undoing his braid in the water. He felt tears form in his eyes.
He began to cry.
He missed Alphonse. Would he ever see his brother again? This country... as amazing as it was, if it was so dangerous that they begged Amestris, a country they'd only ever communicated with once or twice, for help... it must have been real bad.
He didn't want to die here. What would Ling say? Probably to try all the food. And to befriend all the people. He wouldn't be very helpful.
Wait. Since when did Ed do things based off of what fucking Ling would do? He hated Ling... right? Did he? The guy was so annoying, but-
Holy shit. Ed missed Ling. How could that be? His tears stopped, and he felt really annoyed, at both his... friend and himself.
He turned the heat up and tried to think about... literally anything else. He couldn't. Jesus fucking Christ.
Even trying to go back to the thought that he was going to die in Japan didn't distract his mind. He wanted to say hi to Ling.
Christ.
it must have been the shower making him think that, right? He could never not hate the prince. With that thought in mind, he stepped out of the shower and into the main room. He noticed that there were clothes hanging from the door. Huh, Aizawa must have put those there.
That was nice of him, he thought, before he realized the shirt said 'KICK ME' in the back. Asshole. Regardless, it was all he had, so he begrudgingly put them on.
He sat on the bed, trying to process everything that happened in that singular day. Animal people. Magic people. The technology. Ling.
He decided to try and get some rest, but the moment he laid his head down, there was a loud knock on the door. Ugh.
"What?!" he yelled, annoyed that whoever it was was disrupting his sleep. He just got here! He thought that he deserved even just a few hours.
"Calm down, kid. I'm just going to introduce you to the rest of the staff," even worse, it was Aizawa. Even if they only met a few hours ago, Ed knew he hated the guy.
Despite that, the boy sighed and stood up, feeling a bit dizzy. He wanted water. Groaning, he opened the door and stepped out.
"I hate you so much," Ed grumbled, referencing his shirt. Aizawa chuckled, "Don't laugh at me, you asshole!"
"Let's go, kid," he requested, beginning to walk away. Having no other choice, Ed followed him, slouching. A person with blonde hair looked at him. When Ed glared at him, the boy just waved and smiled, before a different boy with black hair stopped him. Freaks, Ed thought, not caring that that was rude.
Aizawa ended up leading Ed the same direction as the two boys. They were staff? They looked to be probably Ed's age. That was... strange.
They entered a meeting room. There were... a lot of people. He knew it was a school, but the size of the room and amount of staff freaked him out. He sat down in a chair, waiting for someone to say something.