Crossover Together ~クロスオーバ 一緒に~

Both sides got busy from there onward. With Sombra working his plan of attack to finally go to motion, Team Harmony was basically, for a lack of a better term, doing the same thing. Odds are the world will be in the middle of a warzone anytime now, and with what they've gone through so far, they got to get themselves ready with as much as possible. Victoria, Seitenshi, and Celestia got their own troops under their own word, and training and planning with them was pretty much guaranteed after they got the plan down pact. As for Team Harmony, they pretty much got the same idea in mind, and kept their mind on their upcoming battle as much as they could, even more so than their actual school work for Orora high, which was understandable. Gakuho didn't bother them too much, getting word on what they were doing not too long after the meeting. What else could he do? With enough dirt on his hands already, anymore drastic action on his part to keep the system in tact was, now, out of question. for much of the team, the news on Sombra was probably the biggest thing they've got on him yet, and explained ... well, a lot. Nagisa was now fully understanding where Sombra was coming from: his anger for humans stemming from an attack on an Angel, and only growing from there as time went on by. Sure, there were still gaps missing, but that was the least of their issues here. Besides, with their luck, those gaps would be filled either way.
Kyoya's training school also went on with a bit of a hit, and with plenty of students coming in (most of 3-E of course), who were truly starting off strong. With training tips from Kyoya, along with Morgiana, Gaara, and so on, improvement on the students was surely showing promise. Good thing too: they needed to be ready the minute an onslaught would start. And as far as they all were concerned, an onslaught was inevitable at this point. It was just a matter of when, not if.

As weather now started to shift to far warmer weather, and spring now in full swing, outside activity became a lot more proper. for Envy, Hinano, and Nabiku, they took this time to head off to the spring swimming pool off by 3-E to hang out. Or, Hinano and Nabiku were mainly, Envy trying to get his training up a bit more on a nearby tree. Hinano and Nabiku knew the importance of training as much as the next guy, especially since both knew what Envy had just gone through, and they both could see he was doing pretty good with it all.

"Go, Envy, go!" Hinano cheered. Envy was doing a pretty good job nonetheless. He ended his practice with an air spin, and kicking the tree good and hard, before hopping back to Nabiku and Hinano. Envy was feeling pretty good with himself, a smirk on his face.

"You've really been showing a lot of spirit lately, Envy," Nabiku noted. Envy did some air punches as she said that, in the zone more than anything.

"I'm not letting this pass by me. Sombra's on his way and he won't even know what'll hit him," Envy said with confidence. Though admittedly, regardless of if it would be him who'll face Sombra or not, he still had demons coming for them all she he had to be ready same as everyone else.

"Well hopefully. But Envy, you had us both very worried when you ran off with the others."

"I know, I didn't tell ya because you'd come with me no matter what," Envy concluded, which was actually true, both Hinano and Nabiku blushing in embarrassment.

"By the way ... when is he coming?"

"We're talking about the ruler of Tartarus here, I think we'll all know when he'll show up full power," Envy said, not bothering to sugarcoat it. Why would he at this point?

"Well Envy, no matter the case, we're all going to try our best. I'm not going to let my home get destroyed, I don't know about you," Hinano proposed. Envy stopped on a dime.

"Wait a minute, no you can't!"

"What?"

"Hinano, Nabiku, this is literally hell that's ready to come out! You know what they'll do to two innocent people like you?" Envy pointed out.

"That shouldn't matter! Envy, this is our home, everyone's home," Hinano insisted.

"Had any of you even faced an actual demon before?" Envy questioned. Hinano and Nabiku glanced to eachother, thinking a bit on their own experiences. However, when it came to fighting an actual demon, the two really didn't have much to go off of.

"Eh ... we did meet a Mega-Banette a long time ago. And I was found by this giant moth one time. ... does Tataoka count?" Nabiku asked.

"I don't know if humans count, but I guess that works. And don't forget Korosensei teaching us this whole time and he's a demon.," Hinano added. Envy was left blank. Sure, there was Korosensei, but the other few times caught him off guard. And that didn't include their encounter with Tirek either.

"... Eh, nevermind."

"It'll be fine, I promise. You can count on us, Envy," Hinano promised, with a smile on her face. Envy paused and simply looked to her innocent smile. Such a sweet grin, and Envy admittedly knew there was no way he could say no. Nabiku looked willing herself on the matter, and all Envy could do was nod.

"Well, with our luck, you'll probably end up fighting anyway," Envy shrugged.

"Do you know when he might be coming?" Nabiku asked. A question that they really weren't sure how to answer.

"Who knows? It could be tomorrow, next week, or next year," Envy said.

"Whenever he'll come, we'll be ready for him," Hinano said. Well, Envy could say that his friends weren't going to leave him, not on their own accord at least.

"Speaking of which, I've heard that Ciel's been improving a lot in his training," Nabiku pointed out.

"Eh. Well, he's not getting hit as much," Envy shrugged. Improve may or may not be the right word, but with what memory the three could get from their training sessions alongside Ciel Phantomhive, it was worth something. They just hoped that Ciel would be ready enough to fight anyone head on, as a fight with a full blown army was inevitable. Words could only do so much.

"You guys wanna check on him? I heard he's getting some extra training today, maybe we can stop by and see how he's doing," Hinano suggested.

"Sure, why not?"

.......

"Steady your balance, Ciel. Keep your shoulders loose, and your arms at attention."

"I'm more than competent in handling a gun."

With the rifle in hand, and aiming at the ready, Ciel's training course shifted from physical to projectile, and Korosensei, joined by Kyoya, was getting Ciel Phantomhive to practice his marksmanship with a hunter's rifle, courtesy of the demon teacher and loaded with anti-Korosensei beads. No way was Korosensei leaving any kid with a live gun, not if he had anything to do with it ... even if it was for a kid with plenty of use of a real gun. As for his target -

"Hey octo-head? I'm up for training and all, but WHY THE HELL AM I BEING SHOT AT?!"

Not too enthused. Turned out, it was Hoopa who was going to be the target practice, much to his annoyance no less.

"Someone has to be a target, and I've been it MORE than enough," Korosensei answered. not that he was getting tired of it, but some change would be nice.

"... Can I at least use my ring?" Hoopa asked.

"Oh, sure, go ahead." WAY BETTER. Korosensei and Kyoya stood wayside as Ciel focused on Hoopa. Hoopa quickly got his ring out. It wasn't any shield by any means, but with it teleporting things away, it worked just as well. All Hoopa had to do was keep his ring up and bolt like a maniac, and that was exactly what he did, giving Ciel a speedy target to shoot at. By the time Envy, Hinano, and Nabiku arrived, Ciel was shooting up the sky, Hoopa freaking out with each one of those shots.

"Evening, Envy. Come for a visit?" Kyoya asked.

"We're checking in on Phantomhive, that's all," Envy replied, the three seeing Ciel shooting around five to seven shots in the sir. Hoopa got them through his ring, but the ninth shot coming in slipped just passed his ring, and whacked his horn, sending him in a spin.

"HIT THE RING, NOT ME!" Hoopa yelled.

"No one said I had to, Hoopa," Ciel stated. Eh, true, but he wished someone did. Hoopa simply groaned.

"Damn good shot," Envy commented.

"Ciel's always had a talent for marksmanship, even with just one eye. All we're doing is perfecting it," Kyoya explained. Well, considering he technically was Sebastian, he would know from his years with him. Hoopa kept as much distance as he could at one point, but like a hunter after game birds, Ciel aimed his rifle high up into the sky, and with a well-aimed shot, actually shot the hoop out of Hoopa's hand ... and shot an extra bead at Hoopa for good measure.

"Disarm the enemy. Then finish him off," Ciel told himself. A little lesson in battle he picked up with his tips and tricks from Kyoya and Korosensei. Hoopa landed, dazed from the hit to the head, as Ciel decided that was good enough for him.

"If you need me, I'll be heading home. Korosensei, if you may," Ciel said, ready to head on back himself.

~~

It was something like this that much of the group was doing. Aside from this, the exact idea was still hard to swallow for some: Hiromi Shiota being the prime example of this. She had seen the video on said disk given to her while ago, and she was left beside herself with everything. Nighttime, and she was simply left alone with herself. Again. Seitenshi, Victoria, everyone but her believed Nagisa was capable of making his own decisions, and clearly, capable of defending himself if the footage was indeed anything to go by. She just looked outside the apartment building to the city out before her.

"Nagisa ... Come on, get yourself together, Hiromi. ... I-It's probably just for a movie or something. No way would he really do any of that in real life, right? ... Yeah, maybe he did get into Hishimaru and didn't tell me yet."

Still in denial unfortunately. This time though, it was still nagging her mind somewhat: would Seitenshi get involved in it or no? A movie won't explain that, or the authenticity of it all. Nor would a movie explain the working magi shield Aladdin had used on her already. Eventually ...

"Mom? ..."

Speak of the devil: Nagisa Shiota had finally came back home for the first time in days. Nagisa felt that, especially after the big story back at 3-E, that he had to come back to his own house sooner or later. A long day of extra training for a demonic onslaught left him a bit battered, but alright. Soon it was Hiromi and Nagisa seeing eachother eye to eye.

"Oh, hi. You uh ... look a bit worn out today," Hiromi said.

"I went through some training, that's all. Nothing to worry about," Nagisa replied, having a seat on the couch. Nagisa could tell she had finished up the disk by seeing it in her hands, and the blank screen on the TV.

"So how was your day?" Nagisa asked, looking up to her as he laid down.

"It was fine. ... And how was yours?"

"Alright," Nagisa simply replied. Not much of a conversation. Hiromi placed the disk on the table, Nagisa seeing this as he looked to her, his head upside down on the rim of the couch.

"Guess you saw that disk?"

"Yeah, I did. I'm happy you've finally got into Hishimaru after all."

Nagisa felt himself cringe on that statement. He would say something, but what would convince her now?

"Yep, she's in denial. Might as well play along," Nagisa thought. No way would he ask himself this out loud, not with Hiromi standing right there.

"Surprise," Nagisa sighed. When he looked again though, he could see that Hiromi was ... having trouble in believing her own statement. Sure she had a smile and all, but in her eyes there was doubts on her own statement. Nagisa didn't bother to bring it up, and simply relaxed himself, his eyes looking to the ceiling. He felt like he should say something. Something a bit calmer than how he did on the rooftop.

"... Mom?"

"Yes?"

"... I ... I'm sorry for what happened on the rooftop. I know you're just trying to look out for me. But ... I'm not a kid anymore. I'm in my senior year now, and I've got a firm grip on my life. ... I'm old enough to make my own decisions. I'm not saying your decisions never were valuable, but I'm not ... Well. I'm not you. I am not you. I'm me. I'm Nagisa. I'm very sorry but, I can take care of myself, mom. ... You do understand, right? ..."

There was a long silence that hung in the air. Nagisa tried to make this message less painful, and better to take in, but lord knows what will happen now that it was brought up again. Nagisa tried making it clear already, the others tried to, and that didn't seem to work. So if this didn't work, then it was the last time he was going to try. Hiromi didn't move an inch, thinking back on her history with her son. Hiromi turned to face her son fully, but while Nagisa waited for the beating that she would bring up, she instead placed her hand on his head. Her fingers gently went through his blue hair, but he didn't feel hurt. She didn't yank on it, tear it, or anything.

"... Nagisa I ... I ..." Hiromi tried to think up what to say to her son, but she just couldn't figure it out. And even more so, Nagisa saw her eyes begin to water up.

"Wow. I've never seen her like this before. Who could blame her though? She just found all of this out. If I really am apart of her playthrough, then she must not know how to continue it," Nagisa thought. It was a crossroad from here: either continue on her current playthrough, or pick the option to start her RPG over again. And Hiromi didn't know what option to choose. Hiromi's eyes just screamed a very confused and distraught state of mind, as she literally was on pause.
But while she didn't have a clue how to continue, another scenario came up in Nagisa's own RPG. His Demon Sense went off again.

"Nagisa?" Hiromi asked. She felt the shiver under her hand, but Nagisa didn't answer straight away, getting up to his feet. He gave mom the hand signal to keep quiet, as he went over to his window, and looked outside down to the street below. He looked up and down the street for a bit, and soon he began to see a few dark figures slip through the night, racing across the street to a different location. This wasn't good, but Nagisa was, actually, more annoyed.

"Starting already? Geesh, we're not going to get a break anymore," Nagisa sighed, though this one came out loud, whether he meant to or not, as his hand met his forehead.

"Break from what? What's the matter?" Hiromi asked, concerned.

"Look, I need to go. I'll be back later," Nagisa said, arming himself up with his Halo Blade at his side. He wished he wouldn't have to leave her hanging like this, but with demons roaming around outside, he had to do something. They would be looking for his friends anyway, and if he could get them before they could do that then great. Hiromi didn't try to stop him this time, as she heard him go on out, and left her alone with her thoughts again. No.
She had to figure this out, one way or another.

.......

Being as silent as he could, Nagisa followed his demon sense as best he could do, in order to figure out where the nighttime demons were going. It was a bit bad that he had to cut off his mother for the sake of this, but duty calls, and if experience told him anything, it's that he can't let this situation just go by and expect nothing to happen. Nagisa didn't need too much time until he managed to locate his quarry: a set of demonic entities prowling through the city. Both of them were hellhounds, though these look a bit more standard: black dogs with red glowing eyes. His demon sense told him as well that these were lesser demons compared to the Houndoom they met before, but a demon's a demon.
both said hellhounds didn't seem to notice Nagisa above them yet, as they scurried through the shadows towards their next destination, moving very quick. Nagisa kept good pace with them.

"Where're they going?" Nagisa thought, trying to keep with them, but also keeping out of their radar. Both hounds fail to notice their own shadow up on the rooftops, and eventually he found both hounds heading to a particularly troubling sight: the capitol. This was never going anywhere good.
Nagisa got himself up ahead of the hounds, and with a good jump, Nagisa just got himself into the capitol walls, leaving the hellhounds off outside. It wasn't until he looked down from the boundary line did the hellhounds see him, and growled menacingly up at them. He had these hellhounds cut off -

*shiver*

But not all of them.

"Damnit, they're already in there?!"

He was trying his hardest, but apparently he still had a ways to go. Looking into the area, focusing his demon sense on the stronger force, Nagisa managed to figure out where this other demon was, the hellhounds moving away and trying to find another way in. Before Nagisa realized it, both hellhounds got themselves in and moved passed Nagisa, just as another figure moved on out from the main building. And this demon didn't come out alone either.
Chrysalis was back. And she had Ed and Winry in custody. Both kids looked passed out, but none of them had any injury to speak of, as if knocked out on the spot. The hellhounds went right up to her. What surprised Nagisa the most was how little security was actually coming out: no Al, no guards, nothing. The only one up right now that would try to stop her was Nagisa.

"Oh no you don't." Nagisa took action, and it took little time before Chrysalis saw him. She would go up after him, but she was under order, and unlike some demons she didn't want to disappoint. With a quick whistle, the hellhounds charged at him, but all it took was a few quick slices for a fast defeat. He didn't had time to deal with hounds, but the hounds were actually more of a distraction, and there was a lot more than two for him to fight. One lunge after another sliced them down quick, one after the other as each hellhound tried to take him out.

"Damn mutts," Chrysalis groaned, quickly working out a portal into the ground nearby. Nagisa managed to take down a good ten hounds in his slicing and dicing before he realized a portal even opened up.

"Don't you dare!" Nagisa yelled. He just got them back, he wasn't going to lose them again like this. With him trying to get to the others though, four hellhounds jumped him from the back, and pinned him down. One got him by the back of the neck, another standing right on him, and the other two holding him by arms and legs to keep him down. Chrysalis smirked on seeing him down on the ground.

"Much better. You just can't leave any demon alone can you, Nagisa? What, come for another taste?~" Chrysalis cooed. Nagisa found it actually ironic for her to be so cheeky after what he did already. He tried to get up, just for the hellhound on his back to bite into him. Any movements and his spine will break and he won't move at all.

"Alright. Good thing you showed up anyway, I was going to get you, but looks like it'll be easy."

"Don't tell me: you want to throw me back in Abaddon right? Or perhaps to Sombra's palace?" Nagisa asked, his voice strained from the weight of the hounds and the stinging pain of the biting.

"Nah, I got a far better spot for you three. But first, to deal with these two," Chrysalis said, giving Nagisa a pat on the head.

"Ed! Winry! Wake up!" Nagisa shouted. But for some reason both of them didn't. Were they already dead when he showed up? Chrysalis stretched and readied the portal. Nagisa tried to get the hounds off of him, struggling as much as he could as the hounds dug their teeth into him. Passed out, Ed and Winry were lifted up, and tossed down through the portal like trash. In a burst of energy, Nagisa got himself free and rushed forward, just catching Winry by the arm ... just for Chrysalis to kick him into the portal! So, Nagisa, Edward, and Winry were off out of the world again, and Chrysalis felt pretty good with herself.

"Done and done. Have fun in the realm of the dead, bitches," Chrysalis chuckled.

~~

"Ugh ... what the hell? ..."

It took him quite a bit to come on to, but after being tossed like trash, Edward came back around. his head was pounding, but upon waking up he found himself ... well, somewhere. Where exactly, he had no idea. And he just couldn't see anything anywhere, no matter where he looked. The sky was very dim and the brightest thing around was probably the very faint shine off his own metal. The ground was cold and dry, and he couldn't tell if it was day or night. He tried to get his memory together, but the more he tried to remember the details, the more his head started to hurt.

"Damn you, Chrysalis, you cheater. Where am I now?" Ed groaned, getting to his feet. No one else seemed to be around, but who can confirm anything in a place like this? Ed needed some sort of light, somehow, but that was easier said than done as he couldn't see beyond five feet at best. Ed tried to get some sort of vantage point in this landscape, but regardless on where he was walking, it just left him wandering with little direction, if at all. If he could make out anything at all, it was the skeletal trees, but that was about it. ...

"Ed! That you over there?!"

A good sound to hear, and the first good sign since being dumped in this place. Ed turned around, and could just see that Winry was rushing his way. Edward was happy at first, Winry stopping about ten feet away with a make shift torch lighting up the empty space. He could guess she got it after some quick engineering from the dead trees, but another thought struck him.

"Winry! ... Wait a minute." Winry looked a little puzzled as Ed pointed to her. "How could I know you're not Chrysalis in disguise?"

"Come on, Ed. Do you want me to recite the exact mechanics of your automail down to the last bolt?" Winry asked.

"Ok, you're Winry," Ed answered. Mainly that was to avoid a long draining talk with her though, but at least he can say this wasn't another trick from Envy 2.0. With the subject brought up though, Winry started to grow suspicious too.

"And what about you, how could I know you're not Chrysalis? You runt."

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A RUNT, YOU JERK?!" Ed screamed, immediately trying tp punch her lights out, Winry moving fast enough to dodge the hits.

"Ok, it's you," Winry sighed. no one can truly mimic Edward's rage, no matter how hard they try.

*arrrrooooooo*

That distant howl reminded them both of the situation they were in, and Ed stopped his anger rampage for a moment. Clobbering Winry wouldn't get them out of here, wherever they were. Their torches, while giving them plenty of light, didn't show them the extent of the land they've fallen under. With their light, they could only get about twenty feet of clear vision, and even then it wasn't much help as all they could see was cold ground underfoot.

"Now what do we do?"

"We find a way out of here, that's what. Just stay close," Ed instructed. What else could she do? With little to now knowhow on that could be lurking around here, it was not a good idea to stick around and figure that out, so Ed and Winry picked a direction and started walking. And walk the two did. With Winry's torch to add some light, both of them went on through the landscape with, admittedly, little idea on where they were going. As far as the land was concerned, they could barely make out themselves in a ravine of sorts, rocky and without any life to -

*grrrr*

"Already?" Ed thought. Not even five minutes and already in dire trouble: Ed and Winry both looked around. It was a bit hard to tell at first, but something did eventually begin to slowly come out of the shadows towards the two. A dog-like shape began to move out into the dim light. The body appeared belonging to a large dog, Rottweiler, but the head was demonically humanoid with glowing red eyes, and large serrated teeth that almost outgrew the jaws. And the pack numbered at a good fifteen. Both of them kept a sharp eye on these things, but Winry never seen such horrifying animals before. Her time in Abaddon didn't give her anything like this. And they ALL were locking their eye on her. ...

"Winry, get back here!" Ed called, but Winry wasn't going to stay around, not with those hellhounds. Ed kept many of them at bay himself with his alchemy activating, but one of the dogs saw Winry run, and actually managed to slip by Ed, despite his alchemy. Winry kept running until she ended up on the back wall, finding herself trapped with this creature blocking her path. The snarling beast barred its human teeth. It had been so long since human flesh had entered its domain, and it wasn't going to let her go so easily. Winry had nowhere to go it would seem.

*neigh!*

Neigh? The dog heard the odd sound above Winry, and one look was all it really needed to give a warning howl. All the dogs stuck with Edward heard it loud and clear, and all of a sudden they all turned and ran for it, tails between their legs. Winry rushed back to Ed by that point, but they were a bit less relieved. There was only one thing that intimidates a predator. A bigger one. In the dim light of the lands, that ended up finding themselves stuck in some sort of shadow from the top of the wall, something looking down at them. They turned around just in time to see said creature jump off the balcony, and landing down a foot away from them both in a loud crash!

"W-WHAT THE -" Ed could barely get his words out, stumbling back on seeing this thing. The animal, in essence, was some sort of horse, and according to the saddle on its back, a domesticated one. One look at the head however, and both Winry and Ed immediately realized this was no ordinary horse: two bulging eyes glowing a purple hue, a large nose, and overly-sized human teeth, giving it a sort of demonic, almost goblin-like face. Saved from the demon hounds by an even more demonic horse! Its mouth was foaming, as if it had rabies (probably not far from the truth), and it reared back on its hind legs, a bellow echoing from its maw. Ed and Winry could only make a run for it before it could crush either of them under its hooves. It didn't take very long though for the horse to catch up with them, whacking Edward and knocking him onto his back. Winry skidded to a stop, only to turn and see the horse standing right on top of him, frontal hooves pinning him down on both of his hands, Ed staring eye to eye with this monster.

"Human." it hissed. Its long tongue then came out, and gave Edward a long, hearty lick, from his chest to his face. If this beast wanted a meal, then it got one. Ed tried to kick it off of him by its stomach, but that was about as successful as spitting at it, and it didn't even faze the creature. It opened its jaws, the rancid breath of rotting meat hitting Ed's face, as it readied to bite him down onto his head for the finishing blow. As for Winry, she was left completely shaken at this display, but seeing the saddle gave her an idea. It was a bit risky, but it was the best shot she had for saving Ed.
So she went for it: she raced right up to the horse, and before the horse even realized what happened, its reigns were being pulled back hard. Winry had mounted it, and it wasn't gonna take that sitting down. It neighed good and loud, bucking like a mad man to get Winry off of it, Ed getting to his feet.

"GET OFF!" it bellowed. Winry forced it to go back from her friend, but this angry bronco finally got Winry off of it in a swing of its head.

"Winry, come on!" Ed called, rushing to her and helping her up as the horse got itself together. These two had to go, and they race off as fast as they could. The horse galloped at them fast, but this time Edward didn't took another chance, and with a quick activation of alchemy, sent the horse flying away from them.

"That should keep it busy," Winry said. Ed looked back though, and the horse not only shook off the hit, but actually landed on its hooves.

"Not for long, move!" Edward said, the two running as fast as they could. The horse saw them cut a corner down the path, though instead of running, it went in a trot. It could catch up to them easily, so it didn't need to waste any energy in a reckless race. As for Edward and Winry, the two didn't bother to look on back, knowing that the demonic horse was coming their way. Still, as they kept going, one sight ahead of them made them stop cold.
As if the land of demonic monsters wasn't enough of a horror, the two found themselves facing an entire ravine of corpses. All decaying, rotting, all displaying of past victims of whatever had went through here. Even a few demons could be seen amongst the corpses, all as dead and rotten as the rest of the bodies. The ground itself was completely covered in blood, as if it had just rained blood around the place. The sight of so many horrid corpses made them both feel sick, but the whinny from the demonic horse reminded them what they were trying to get away from.

"When in Rome."

"Wait, wha -AAHH!"

Short time later, the demonic horse caught up and found itself in the save ravine. It expected to find Winry and or Edward, but it didn't find either of em. It was familiar with this place, and went right on in, its hooves splashing through blood and walking over crushed bones and flesh as it searched for its targets. It took a few sniffs in the air, but for some reason their scents weren't picked up at all. It looked around a bit more closely, and amongst the bodies, it saw a particularly familiar one in the form of Ed! Here though, he was completely covered from head to toe in blood, sprawled out in such a way that it really looked like he was dead. Winry was doing the same thing not too far away. to the horse, both sure looked dead, and it leaned in a bit closer to Edward, sniffing him a little bit. It gave a good snort at him before it decided to just move on. It was not above scavenging, but the bodies were just too putrid to eat, even for a demon like it. With a snort, it moved on and out of sight. ...

"UGH! This is so disgusting, I can't believe you talked me into doing this," Winry yelped, jumping to her feet and shaking the blood off of her. Ed did the same thing, wringing the blood out of his hair as he got it off his hands and arms.

"Oh shut up, it's better than the real thing. At least that thing's gone," Ed concluded, though he didn't enjoy it either. Who would enjoy pretending to be a corpse anyway? Winry and Ed got a good amount of the blood off of them when -

"Well look who's having fun."

Come on, more trouble? Winry and Ed followed the voice off nearby a rocky outcrop, and there was the one who got them into this trouble in the first place, Chrysalis! She looked down to them with a sinister smirk on her face, finding some fun in seeing them act out as corpses for the minute.

"Were you there the whole time?!" Winry yelled.

"I don't know, what would you want to hear?" she joked, nonchalantly.

"I can't believe you -"

"Please show us the way out of here!" Ed suddenly shouted. Well, his tune changed quickly.

"She dumped us here, and you decide to grovel?!"

"If it means surviving, I'll be her best friend!" shouted back Ed. Chrysalis felt a little bit taken aback by how quickly it took for one of them to grovel, even more so with it being Ed to do so, but still entertaining for the demon queen.

"Ha! You think you're going to escape from this realm with your bodies in tact? you're in the Shinigami Realm, kids."

"Shinigami Realm? Wait, this isn't the Underworld?" Ed wondered. Winry was frozen in fear on that answer, though it seemingly made the hellhounds and demon horse a bit more probable now.

"That's right: you humans die and think you end up in heaven or hell. Well, this is where violent deities go to die. You think you've been tough before, good luck finding a way out of here, we'll have your world by the time you do," Chrysalis mocked. No way will she blabber on where to go to these guys.

"Where the hell do we even go?!" Ed asked again. Chrysalis jumped down from her post, landing just inches from Edward, grabbing him by the mechanical arm. Winry thought she would break it, but Chrysalis had other ideas.

"Oh you go west, find a pit, and throw yourself into it to be eaten alive. That'll be peachy. Oh, one thing first." And then, same as before, she opened her mouth, and started to suck away at Edward's alchemy! Winry was a bit quicker about it this time around, and tried to make her stop, the demon queen only getting about half of the alchemy from Ed. Not all of it, but enough to not make him a complete powerhouse of alchemy. And Chrysalis followed up this with a mockery of laughs. Was it really going to be that simple? As for Chrysalis, she decided to leave both kids to their fate, and moved on out of sight from them both. Ed and Winry tried to find her, but passed the outcrop, and she was completely gone. With the only person actually having some information about this place now gone, Ed and Winry were truly stuck. While they didn't know where to go, they weren't going to be staying around this bed of corpses, especially with that demon horse still roaming around.

One thing was clear: they had to go.

~~

Nagisa woke up with quite a startle, the fall itself knocking him out upon landing. Ed and Winry may have needed time to wake up, but his landing only lasted for a few minute before his own sense of demonic activity forced him to wake up. His view on the world was just as dark and foreboding as Ed and Winry's, but Nagisa found himself up instead on a outcrop rather than on flat ground, and once more he just couldn't really make out any sign of either Ed or Winry. A bit odd though, the demon sense going off was actually very low, more of a very slight nag than a shiver, which made where he might be even more confusing.

"What's this place? ... There doesn't feel like much demon activity around here," Nagisa wondered, looking around as best he could. He closed his eyes and focused as best he could on what his demon sense had to say, his eyes no better than any other human in this kind of place. The exact placement was a little too hard to make out, very scattered. It was too bad Ed and Winry didn't have any demonic energy to work off of, otherwise finding them would be a bit easier.

"Ok, keep it together. This won't be too hard: just find Ed and Winry, make a portal back, and get out of here. Ed can use his alchemy to open it, no problem. I just hope they're alright," Nagisa thought. Straightforward, but he just needed it find them first, and he didn't waste any time in starting his move. Or, he tried to, but he couldn't see how far the drop was. Instead, his rush turned to a bit of a crawl, as he scaled down the drop off, keeping a sharp eye out for whatever will be roaming around this place. A few stray stones going down the cliff echoed throughout the area. However, Nagisa listened closely, and they only stopped sounding after one second.
He was closer than he thought. With a jump, more sure this time, Nagisa got to the ground level, and tried to figure out where he was.

"EDWARD! WINRY!" Nagisa called. However, the only sound he heard was the silent wind and his own echo going back to him. Nagisa started to go on forward a bit, trying his best to find some sort of sign of either of them, but got nothing but empty landscape.

"This is bad. This is night time down here. If even half of what they said about the Underworld is true, we're as exposed as ever. They couldn't have gone too far, I better find them before something else does," Nagisa thought. This got his walk turned into a run, as he tried to figure out where the heck they've ended up. Nagisa had no clue where to even go, or for that matter where he was going. It was during this that he began to see a light off ahead of him, the brightest thing he could see in this place so far.

"Is that them?" Nagisa wondered, rushing over to see. The sight of what he saw next made him skid to a halt: Ed and Winry were indeed there, but ...

"AAHHH!"

"No, no, no, wait, it's us!" Ed shouted. He was glad to see him, but seeing Nagisa freak out and aim his blade right at them both. Who could blame him though seeing them head to toe in blood?

"I know it's you, but what the hell happened?!"

"No, calm down, it's fine - this isn't our blood. We had to ... well, improvise."

"Improvise?" Nagisa questioned.

"It's complicated."

"Oh, nevermind. Glad to see you two are okay," Nagisa replied, calming down a little bit. It took a bit, but Nagisa began to notice a little bit of suspicion coming from their side after they got their minds at work.

"Wait a minute ... Are you Nagisa? Or is this another trick?"

"Guys, I swear I really am me, and I can prove it."

"Ok, go. What'd we do so far?" Ed questioned. Nagisa cleared his throat.

"We first met over back in Amestris, both of us on our way to central. You went with us on the same train and saved us from Lust and Gluttony before we arrived there. You even got Twilight training for a bit before Pluton showed -"

"OK, I get it, you're Nagisa, gotcha," Ed said. He didn't had time for a long exposition dump, but if he could come up with this on the fly then he got it right.

"And you're Ed and Winry. But wait, what even happened? I tried to get you and you both were unconscious. Did Chrysalis get you?" Nagisa asked.

"That bitch disguised herself as Seitenshi and got everyone in a meeting just to knock us all out!" Ed answered. Not too detailed, but it was good enough.

"Even Alphonse?" Nagisa questioned.

"Wait ... did she get him? I don't think he even showed up," Winry said. The only person who couldn't be knocked unconscious and he wasn't there to help them out? What kind of sense is that? Ed didn't think about that until it was brought up, but Nagisa found them now, and the next step was a route off back home.

"Don't worry you two. Come on, let's get back," Nagisa said, as he began to carve out a similar underworld portal into the ground. He only needed a minute before completing the circle at their feet.

"Ok, Ed, light it up, and let's go. ... Ed?"

Ed was actually a little hesitant, all things considered, but if it means getting out he had to try. So, like any other alchemic trick, he clapped his hands together, and slammed them into the ground, focusing as hard as he could muster. Unfortunately for them all, the only thing he managed to get out was a few sparks, not enough to activate the portal. A long silence ...

"Uh. E-Ed?" Winry asked, feeling a shiver.

"Hold on, I got it," Ed said, trying over and over again, to the point when it was just him whacking his hands into the dirt. Still nothing happened. Sure, a few sparks came out, but that was all he had to show for it at the best of it all. Nagisa could take a hint on what might've happened if Chrysalis was involved, and seeing this made him feel a bit nervous. Chrysalis and company were still on the surface somewhere, and with them in here, what's to stop them from ripping their home apart?

"Please don't tell me she sucked away your powers, Ed," Nagisa said.

"W-Well ... not all of it," Ed admitted, feeling defeated as he simply sat there. But she might as well, since they couldn't get out of here now with what Ed had left. Ed tried one more time, the hardest he could do with as much focus as he can, sparks coming out of the ground, but it just wasn't going to be enough for the activation.

"This is bad. Ed, come on, it has to work!" Winry said, freaking out.

"Winry, everything will be okay, I promise. We're in the Underworld, there has to be a way -"

"No we're not," Winry shivered.

"We're not? ... But then where are we?" Nagisa asked, looking around.

"T-The Shinigami realm. I've heard rumors about this place: this is where the worst go after they die, deity or otherwise. Who knows what'll be lurking around here? not even the highest ranking angels or demons want to be here." That last part sealed the deal for Ed and Nagisa. Sure, Ed got the word from Chrysalis already, but the extent of such an idea made this place a lot more horrid than they imagined it to be. The demon hounds, and demon horse were just scratching the surface, far as the three were concerned.

*neigh*

Speak of the devil. Nagisa and Ed jumped over to Winry, and it seemed that the demonic horse from earlier had just found them after seeing the sparks of light. With the light from the torch it just made the horrifying equine even more scary, the flicking fire light reflected off its blood-covered muzzle and glistening teeth. Ed tried to work some alchemy, but it was not strong enough, and all it did was shove the animal back. and even then it was only about two feet. Nagisa could sense the demonic energy inside this creature, and got his halo blade at the ready.

"Stay back, demon," Nagisa demanded, his blade aiming right at the creature's face. It didn't look very fazed by the threat at all, its nostrils flaring up and sniffing the fresh meat. It opened its jaws, ready to bite, and Nagisa went for broke, his blade stabbing the beast right in the head.

It bent.

"... Oh no."

In a quick jump, Ed, Winry, and Nagisa made a run for it, narrowly avoiding the lunge this demonic horse did onto them. The horse was so strong the ground cracked underneath it, and all three teens made a mad dash away from the monster.

"Hey! That went well!" shouted Ed.

"Think you can do better, be my guest!" shouted Nagisa. The demon horse started to gallop after them, but unlike before, Nagisa grabbed Ed and Winry and with his own speed actually gave the horse a harder time catching up. Even with the added weight, Nagisa was as fast, if not faster than the galloping equine. The animal clamped its jaws down time and again, trying to bite into its prey, but It just couldn't get a proper bite out of them, despite being so close. Edward got his mechanical foot up and kicked the animal square on the snout, making it slow down, and the kick so hard it kicked off a couple of teeth! It bellowed a groan, skidding to a halt and gave them all enough time to race off out of sight. Their mad dash though, while it got away from their monster, did make Winry drop her torch, and it didn't take long until they were left in the dark. Nagisa didn't bother to slow down until the demonic energy was hardly any, and he began to slow down.

"Glad that's over. You two alright?" Nagisa asked, just to see both Ed and Winry completely winded. Both were not used to running that fast, not at all. But at least they got some distance between that beast, and them.

"Be with you. In a minute," said an exhausted Winry, just managing to get the words out between breaths. Well, they may be tired, but at least they got out of trouble.

But the question now was where do they go from here?

.......

"...WHAAAA?! NOT AGAIN!"

It took a while before news of this happening got around, but since many of said witnesses were either kidnapped or unconscious, it didn't go around until the following morning, and even then they had little idea on what exactly happened. Seitenshi, Victoria, Undertaker, and Korosensei (who was freaking out again). As for Alphonse though, he surely didn't look too good. Hard to say if it was hellhounds who tore into him or Chrysalis herself, but when they did find him, he had his arm missing (again), and Alphonse did not feel well at all with the situation.

"I'm sorry, everyone," Alphonse simply said. Though, what else could he say in regards to this?

"It isn't your fault, Al," Seitenshi made clear, placing a hand on Alphonse's shoulder. Alphonse may be strong, but he's not invincible.

"Well then again, I'm surprised at you: Chrysalis managed to put us all to sleep, but yet you still didn't do much yourself when she showed up."

"Not helping Victoria," Seitenshi stated. All Victoria did was shrug on the response, but she was still right. Then again, Alphonse's quick crippling was the least of their problems right now.

"Well, on the bright side, most of the hellhounds had been taken care of. Undertaker, Korosensei, you're familiar with the Underworld. Got any idea on where they might've ended up?" Seitenshi questioned. It only made sense that they would end up in the Underworld again, and if anyone knew knowledge about the Underworld it would be those two. Undertaker didn't say much, looking out the window as Korosensei thought it over.

"Well the odds of them being anywhere in particular are fairly slim: an Underworld portal can open to anywhere that the caster sets their mind to, and if they have no idea it's just placed at random. Even someone like myself can't accurately pinpoint something like that," Korosensei admitted, unfortunate to say.

"Oh. Undertaker, what about you?" Seitenshi questioned. Undertaker kept his gaze off outside, looking to the outer floor. From where he was, it would be the perfect spot to observe the portal opening if he was there at the time. His signature grin ended up on his face before he turned over to the others.

"I have one idea where they might've ended up."

"Well, what is it?" Seitenshi asked. However, Undertaker didn't answer right away, instead going up to Victoria. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, Victoria eventually smiling contently herself.

"Is that so? ... Well, in that case, we should be going. It would be morning in that realm by now."

"Wait, you? Where do you think you're going, you can't just jump on into the Underworld without knowing what to do -"

"We're not going to the Underworld," Victoria stated. Korosensei started to calm down.

"Oh, good."

"We're going to the Shinigami Realm."

"WHAAAAA?!" AND he's off again.

~~

With morning in one world, the Shinigami Realm also was starting to turn to morning. The Underworld gloom of the pitch black night began to fade to a far more hazy, light grey sky with a slight hint of fog everywhere. Not enough that it was completely blinding, but still evident nonetheless. For Nagisa, Ed, and Winry, it was far from a peaceful night. They didn't sleep at all since they arrived, and the whole time they didn't even stop moving. Then again, if they were to stop, odds are some monster would be on them no doubt, so rest was all but impossible. They were tired, on edge, and with Alchemy and holy weapons barely much use, as vulnerable as they could be. Sure they had their own fighting skills, but quick kills were NOT going to happen, and they can't waste any time.

"Worst. Night. Ever," Ed groaned.

"We're all tired, Ed. But at least we can see," Nagisa replied. Not the best view, but hell it beats pitch black like they've been doing already.

"I don't know where you're going: this realm doesn't connect to the Underworld, Overworld, or Surface world. All we're doing is wandering to nowhere," Winry said, remembering what lessons she was told of back in Elysium. They were still vague, but that was what she got from it all when it was said and done.

"Stop saying that, every world connects to somewhere!" Nagisa snapped. Things like that kept being brought up, and it could also be him not getting much sleep, but he was getting sick of hearing it.

*aroooooo*

The howls in the distance made their skin crawl, but at this point they've been hearing that for hours now. It'll be way too soon when they get out of here from those hellhounds. Nagisa's demon sense was still vague, but went up slightly with the howls heard. He covered his ears this time.

"As if the Underworld wasn't bad enough. At least the Underworld I have some sort of grip on what's going on. My friends were demons, and I've got a bit of a hold on how things work. But here ... What rules even apply here?"

Nagisa's inner monologue was cut short when he began to see something further ahead of him, making him stop along with Edward and Winry. With so much land of complete abandon and waste, it was a bit of a surprise that a building-like shape began to be shown amongst the fog. And a very big one at that. They weren't sure if it was a trick of the eye when they saw this place, but with hellhounds roaming everywhere, they weren't going to take the chance with it.
So, the trio didn't hesitate, and went right up to the door. Upon looking in, it almost mirrored the Library off back in Elysium, with three floors full of various books containing who knows what. It wasn't exactly a perfect place, but all the same, it sure beats roaming around nowhere. Now they at least had some sort of point to work with. No one looked to be inside here, so they had the place to themselves thank god.

"Finally somewhere more comfortable," Nagisa sighed.

"Last thing I expect. What kind of information do you think's in here?" Winry wondered, looking around at the book shelves. Ed wasn't entirely a bookworm, but with nothing else to do, he might as well see what was what.

"Well, one way to find out," Ed replied, going for one of the books. Though, it admittedly didn't seem to give them much help, as the book seemingly was all about a singular person and their life story apparently. Nothing that could help them, nor was it anyone of interest. Winry and Nagisa did the same thing, but their books were mainly about the same concept: someone's life story from birth to death. Nagisa found one of them that was eerily close: a demonic entity in particular. He never met him before, but reading through the details did make Nagisa feel a little bit uncomfortable.

"There's sure a lot of details to this. Birthdate, youth, their education, and their exact time of death. Not even our best history books are this accurate ... unless ..." Nagisa felt a new idea come up as he looked at all of the books. Putting the first one back, he started to skin through the various books, seeing them in alphabetical order. He went through each letter, until he found T amongst them. And one word confirmed his suspicions ...

"Tirek."

"You say something, Nagisa?" Winry asked, as Nagisa pulled out the book. He quick began to skim through the pages until he got to the end of it. And to his horror, he found the exact, detailed narration of Nagisa killing Tirek in that same area of Central. Every detail of the fight, every cut gained, and a section even wrote down those last words he spoke just before Nagisa got his blade into his throat. It was a more bitter memory he was seeing in these pages, but what concerned him the most was how it got here in the first place. Ed and Winry looked over his shoulders and saw the book itself.

"Whoa, Whoa, WHAT? How the hell did that get here?" Ed asked, wide eyed and shocked.

"I-I think I know who this place belongs to."

Before either of them could answer, they both then began to hear the front door open up. They were not ready for another fight, and quickly moved off out of sight as two newcomers began to venture on into the library's interior. The three hid off behind one of the book shelves, only hearing the voices. ...

"Ah. See you've been keeping this place tidy since the last time I've visited. and here I thought you'd leave this place to pot," said one voice. A second voice snickered.

"Oh, come now, I'm not that much of a slob in this kind of field, you know that. Besides, if they are going to be anywhere, it will be here. After all, it's the only settlement within miles on miles in this realm if they came in from Japan," said another voice.

"Hold up, that sounds familiar," Ed whispered. Nagisa shushed him, as he gently moved some books aside to peek through. He left enough of an opening to show only one eye, but when he looked, he didn't see anyone there at front. He had little room to look, but no sign of anyone anywhere.

"Wait, where'd they go?"

"Knew you'd be here.~"

Spinning around and yelping at the sound, the trio found their newcomers were already behind them. They first thought of a fight, but on a second look, it turned out to be Undertaker and Victoria! Creepy, sure, but at least it was someone they knew wasn't there to kill them all.

"Oh, Undertaker, it's you. Victoria too."

"Naturally. Of course, why wouldn't I miss the chance to show you three around my existence's work?"

"Y-your work? Wait, you wrote all this?" Ed asked, pointing to the book Nagisa had. Undertaker chuckled as he plucked the book out of Nagisa's hand.

"It took you until now to figure it out? I say, you humans can be so foggy in the mind sometimes. No offense to you of course, princess," Undertaker noted. Victoria ran her fingers through her hair before responding.

"No, I agree: you're in the Shinigami Realm inside a Library categorizing souls and you couldn't figure out it's the reaper's doing until after being told right out. Really now," Victoria agreed, a bit more cynical this time around, her gaze more focused on the books rather than the others with her.

"We've been up all night, give us a break!" Ed snapped. Victoria sighed, and moved on passed them, she and Undertaker bringing them on out into the main lobby of this library. Victoria kept her back to them as she stopped over by the door.

"Convenient we would find you at the library anyway. Undertaker told me on the way that he wanted to show you three a few things, isn't that right?" Victoria noted, only then turning around to face them. Undertaker snickered, who at this point was standing behind them.

"Nothing gets by you, does it?"

"We don't have time for a tour, we need to get back home before Chrysalis goes and destroys everything," Nagisa made clear.

"Needn't you worry about her: she came in this realm with you didn't she? Odds are she's trying to figure out where to go herself. For once, it's you who actually has the upper hand here. I only have a few items to give you anyway," Undertaker noted, though he said this uncomfortably close to Nagisa, enough to give him shivers. Though he did have a point there, though who's to really say if she already left the realm or not? With a wave of his finger, Undertaker signaled them to start following him to the upper levels of the library. Victoria kept some distance from them though, the lingering smell only now hitting her nose.

"Seem you spent a bit more time in this realm with that kind of Oder."

"Hey, we were trying to survive, and Ed got us rolling around in corpses!" Winry retorted. That got Ed ticked again.

"Don't put all the blame on me!" Ed snapped. A whistle from Undertaker got their attention though, and he actually already got a few books with him. Since there was three of them, they figured it was one for each, but when he got down to them, he gave all the books over to Ed instead.

"There you go, how about you take your time to look through these? It'll be worth your while," Undertaker promised. Ed was a bit unsure, but he just needed to see the title of said books to figure out what this was about. Looking down to the first book, it showed an all too familiar picture. A family portrait if you will: of him, Al, and both his mother and father. The Elric Family.
Ed moved the first book and saw the second one was a similar look on it, but instead showing Winry with her parents. The Rockbell family. Ed gave that one to Winry to look over, but the third book they got was a bit more ambiguous. This one looked less like a history document and more like Twilight's spell book, an odd medieval incantation symbol up on the front of it. Undertaker took that one and gave it to Nagisa.

"And this one's for you, my boy."

"For me?"

"Take your time to look through them all ... OH, and one more thing." This one came from the sleeve of his own coat, coming out as a slip of paper, folded up in a small neat square, small enough to fit in between his two fingers, giving it to Nagisa specifically. Nagisa took a look to it and then back up to Undertaker, able to see his green eyes from the angle he was in. He honestly had some mixed feelings about this, and he went on to look at the paper given to him, unfolding it quick and giving it the once over. ...

"... We better get this back," Nagisa concluded.