Ed in Cosplay World

ED IN COSPLAY WORLD

(Author’s note: I decided to write this after I saw a cosplay video on youtube.com, so decided to play off of it)

“Darling?” I could hear Rachel’s voice in my head, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get it out. Since we had been separated, I couldn’t go through a day without hearing my fiancee’s voice in my head.

“I’ll find you a way back to you somehow,” I kept swearing to her in my head. That’s when I would always wake up from my dream. I wasn’t in my time anymore, and hadn’t been for a while. I was in what whoever is reading this would call “modern day,” but to me it’s “the future.” When I’d first been dropped into this strange place (I don’t mean to call it strange, but I’m sure that you, my reader, will understand how strange it was for me), I was in an alleyway where no one could see me in the darkness. I looked to either side of me and saw sunlight shining on the surrounding streets.

“Where am I?” I said. Feeling my way through the garbage laying everywhere in the alley, I made my way out to the street. “Am I still in Germany?” I looked around, and saw a huge crowd surrounding an enormous building which had words on it that read Anaheim Convention Center. “Who are all the freaks?” There were girls dressed up as all sorts of strange and beautiful creatures, and some guys that almost looked like they came out of the stone age. And there were a lot of people with what looked like little oars with words printed on them that I had no idea what meant. That’s when I spotted them -- CENTRAL MILITARY! I hadn’t seen them since I’d gone back to Germany from the other side of the gate. Had they somehow been brought to this side of the gate as well?

“Edward Elric!” I suddenly heard called. I turned around and saw a crowd of people taking pictures of me.

“Can I help you with something?” I said.

“Cool costume, man!” said a guy. “How did you get that auto-mail to look like it does in the show?” I was dumbfounded. What were they talking about? What costume? What show?

“Come on, we’ve gotta go get in line for Vic’s panel!” said a girl, grabbing me by the jacket.

“Who’s Vic?” I cried, trying to pull away from her.

“You don’t know who Vic is?” she cried. “He plays Ed in the show!”

“WAIT A MINUTE!!!” I yelled. “I’m not going anywhere until somebody explains to me what this ‘show’ is that you people keep talking about! This isn’t just some costume! This is my real hair, and this is how I dress! And who the hell is this VIC guy?!”

“Whoa, take it easy, shorty!” said someone in a green school-uniform-looking outfit.

“And for the first, last, and only time, STOP CALLING ME SHORT!!!” I cried. “Now will someone explain to me what’s going on?”

“First of all, way to be in character,” he said. “And secondly, let’s do what she said and make our way to this panel everyone’s talking about, and I’ll try to explain. Now, just take a deep breath, and follow me. Hey, Kuwabara, let’s go!”

“I’m comin’, I’m comin’,” said another guy nearby. “Hey, who’s the shr…” To keep me from making another outburst, the guy in green put his hand over the mouth of the other guy and shook his head.

“I’m not a shrimp,” I said, trying to remain calm. “Why does everyone keep saying that I’m short?”

“It’s a running joke for these people, I think, just like it is with our pal Hiei,” said the one in green. “By the way, I’m Yusuke Urameshi, and this is my friend, Kazuma Kuwabara, and I think we’re in the same shit that you are. We don’t know how we got here, but we were suddenly here around all these people who seem to know who we are. You see that picture over there?”

“Is that supposed to be me?!” I yelped. Yusuke nodded, and I shuddered. “Is that supposed to be some sort of wanted poster?”

“Nah, it’s just publicity,” he said. “Although, I have noticed that there are a number of girls in a fan club for the TV show, Full Metal Alchemist, and you and your brother are the stars. Let me put it this way, if they knew you were the real thing, that WOULD be a wanted poster.”

“Oh, god,” I said.

“You may want to go see the movie they have out, cuz I’ve heard that the guy who voiced your part is supposed to be there, and then he’s got a discussion panel later on,” Kuwabara said.

“I, on the other hand, am going to go with Keiko to see Laura Bailey, who voiced her part in MY show,” Yusuke said. “She’s already saving a place for us in line.”

“I think I’m gonna stick with you guys,” I said, suddenly becoming wary of the crowd.

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about, as long as you don’t attract attention to yourself by reacting when people tease you,” Yusuke said. “Let the people take pictures if they want. It’s just fun for them.” We suddenly heard someone yell out the name Vic, and a ton of people started racing to where the girl was pointing. Using my powers to freeze time for a minute on everyone but myself, Yusuke, and Kuwabara, we quickly cut our way through the crowd and right up to where Vic Mignogna was standing, standing there until the spell wore off.

“Well now, this is a surprise,” he said, looking at the three of us. “These are really great costumes, guys, and they’re both from shows that I’ve worked on. Tom, get the camera over here!” I smiled sheepishly, almost afraid to speak. “What’s your name, by the way?”

“I’m Ed Elric,” I said, and everyone laughed, thinking I was just joking around. Everyone laughed except me, Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Vic. He smiled, but he didn’t laugh.

“You boys look like the real thing,” Vic said. “Each of you give us your favorite lines from the show.”

“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return,” I said, the first thing that came to my mind to say. Everyone cheered, and I realized that those words were familiar to them, so I just decided to go along with it. “And if you call me short one more time, I’m gonna make YOU short!”

“I’m warning you, I’ll bust into Spirit World and pull you back out myself!” Yusuke yelled, then he turned to Kuwabara and raised his hands level with his head like he was praying, or doing an alchemy spell. “This one happened while I was dead, so you may not remember it, Kuwabara.”

“Uh…” Kuwabara said, completely dumbfounded.

“I don’t want you to think I’m weird or anything, but please, please, please, just kiss me!” I think that Yusuke was just as surprised as everyone else when Kuwabara responded by actually doing it!

“YAOI!!!” screamed one of the girls as Yusuke came out of shock and wrapped his arms around Kuwabara’s neck.

“Oh my God, it‘s really happening! I know that didn‘t happen in the show!” Vic said. “Please tell me you’re getting this!”

“Wow!” Yusuke gasped when he was finally able to come up for air and stood upright. “I had no idea you felt that way about me… Kazuma.”

“He said my first name!” Kuwabara squealed. “He actually remembered my first name!”

“Is this for real?” I said, hardly believing what I was seeing.

“Nah, it’s just a publicity stunt,” Yusuke said.
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“What is this shit?” I cried when I saw what was available at the concession stand. Somehow, the German marks that I’d had in my pocket when going through the gate had miraculously changed to American money, and boy was I glad. To think that equivalent exchange had saved my skin again. But what I saw, five dollars for what looked like a sausage link, was pathetic. “What’s with the rip-off of price?”

“There’s enough people who don’t want to leave the convention to go try to find food elsewhere that they know they’ll make a profit off of people here,” Keiko said. “So, how old are you, Ed?”

“I’m 22,” I said apprehensively, fearing another short joke was coming.

“People are wrong about you being short,” she said, smiling. “You’re what, five feet, nine inches?”

“Yeah, how’d you guess?” I said, glad that someone was finally starting to get it right.

“Because you’re just a few inches shorter than Yusuke,” she said. “He’s just under six feet tall.”

“You’re taller than Hiei,” Yusuke said with a smirk. “Like I said, don’t take things so personal. They don’t mean anything by it, really.”

“BROTHER!” came a voice that was wonderfully familiar, and I turned to see the young man who was the great Alphonse Elric standing in front of me.

“Al!” I cried. “You made it here too! It’s wonderful to see you!”

“Brother, why are you all dirty?” Al said.

“When we were separated, I woke up laying in a trash pile in an alley,” I explained. “I wouldn’t mind if I had a change of clothes.”

“I have some for myself, and since we’re about the same height now, they should fit you,” Al said, pulling his backpack off his back. Looking around, Al asked me who these people were, and introductions were made. “You should go change, Ed.”

“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said, ducking behind a group of bushes. Clapping my hands together, I placed one hand on the stack of clothes and one hand on my leg, and used alchemy to change them. Seeing the slight explosion, Yusuke, Keiko, and Kuwabara looked at me with dumbfounded expressions.

“How the hell did you do that?” Yusuke yelped.

“Should I explain or do you want me to?” Al said with a smirk.

“It’s called Alchemy,” I said. “Where we come from, the laws of equivalent exchange govern the science, and depending on what it is, you can get almost anything. The only thing you don’t ever want to try is human transmutation. Al and I tried that once, and we were nearly destroyed for it, and it caused more problems than I can count.”

“I’m surprised it works here,” Al said. “When we were in Germany, it didn’t work at all. Could this be another gate, to yet another world?”

“With everything I‘ve seen over the last ten years, I‘ve decided to stop ruling anything out until I have definite proof of it,” I said. “I never did ask you, how did all of you manage to get here? I mean, what was happening just before you got brought here?”

“We were all in class at the university we go to,” Keiko said. “There was what felt like an earthquake, and then these symbols appeared on the floor that were linked together by a line.”

“Were they circles like this one?” I asked, pointing to a transmutation circle tattoo that I had gotten on my flesh arm. Yusuke nodded, and Al and I looked at each other.

“Someone opened a gate somehow,” Al said.

“I never imagined that we would find yet another world,” I said. “Between our home in Risembool, Munich, and now here in America, we’ve found some strange things, and had to completely restart our lives so many times. I hope that this will be the place where we finally get some peace.”

“I want to go home,” Keiko said. “Mom and Dad will be so worried about me when I don’t call home.”

“Don’t worry, Keiko,” Yusuke said. “I’ll find a way to get us all home, including these guys. But first, we’ve got to find out what brought us here.”

End Chapter 1
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