Library Discussions (Edward, Yusuke, Axel, & Open)

[Edward Elric]

As he walked back over to the desk he was sitting at, Edward saw two guys, a sleek black-haired teen about his own age probably, and a red-haired young man, sit at a desk near him, separated only by a bookshelf. He barely noticed though. Frustration was growing in him at a rapid pace.

Finally, he snapped and slammed the book shut and slammed his palms against the table. "Dammit! There's not a damn thing in any of these books about alternate worlds!"

"Um Edward...I'd like to get back home to Central too, but please...do be quiet in the library."

Ed calmed himself and smiled. "Yeah, sorry about that Sheska. I wouldn't want to be responsible for you losing your job. I'll be quieter, I promise."

He looked at the bookshelf next to him, pulled out a few that looked promising, and delved back into his research.

[Axel]

Axel noticed a librarian and a short blond haired boy on the other side of the bookshelf talking. Yusuke looked as bored as was humanly possible. Axel waited until the librarian and the boy were done talking before he looked at Yusuke.

"So...where to begin..." Axel crossed his fingers and laid his chin on his hands as his elbows rested on the table.

"Well...I don't know if you know this but...there are many different worlds out there. As you can see..." Axel waved a hand at the area surrounding them before resting it under his chin again. "Your world obviously isn't the only one."

Axel noticed he had caught the attention of the blond on the other side of the bookshelf.

"You see, whether science says it or not, every single star in the sky is a world. Have you ever looked up at the stars and seen some flicker out? Well...that means that a world has died...disappeared...vanished...been taken over. Got it memorized?"

Axel tapped the side of his head to emphasize his point.

[Yusuke Urameshi]

Yusuke frowned. "Gee, I never would have guessed. And here I thought this place was a dream." he said snidely. He leaned in closer and looked Axel straight in the eyes. "Sorry, this is still odd to me. But I do understand the different world's bit...just not on this level. See, where I come from...how to put this."

Improvising, Yusuke held out his hand and allowed Axel to see the tiny orbs of Spirit Energy flowing around four of his five digits. "Where I come from, there are three different planes. The Living World, Spirit World, and Demon World. I died at one point and got to come back, that's how come I can use these powers."

He put his hand away and let his energy fade back to normal. "So how is this world bit any different where you're from? And explain your powers if you could. I've seen demons with fire energy before, but your aura doesn't feel like a demons. But..." he added, leaning in closer with an arrogant smile. "I can tell you're not human either. So just what the hell are you exactly?"

[Axel]

Axel smirked. "Well well...I knew you were different but coming back from the dead? Now THAT'S a trick I've never seen before."

Axel chuckled and shook his head.

"Okay well, remember how I said that the worlds vanish? Well...they vanish for one reason only: Heartless."

Axel glanced out of the corner of his eye to see if any passers by were listening in on their conversation.

"Heartless are what people become when they lose their hearts. Yeah I know...it sounds kind of silly and fairytale-ish but it CAN happen. Anyway, Heartless are dark beings who try to steal other's hearts, even though they actually have hearts of their own. See...they can't REGISTER the fact that they have hearts so they try to steal the hearts of others to feel complete."

Axel leaned over the table. "When Heartless take over an entire world, they find the very heart and soul of that place...and when that happens well, it's sayonara world. The world ends up disappearing and the populace that HAVEN'T been killed or turned into heartless are either teleported to a new world or they die."

Axel's face grew dim with each passing word as he remembered the destruction of his own world and how hard he and the others had tried to defend it.

"Well you see, when Heartless are created something else is also made: a Nobody. A Nobody is the opposite of a Heartless. It has a soul, but no heart. You could say that Nobodies and Heartless are the Yin and Yang of each other, one is the heart of the person and the other is the spirit of the person."

Flashes of memories he'd rather forget crossed his mind as Axel talked.

"There are EXTREMELY rare cases where a person with a strong heart is attacked by Heartless. When this happens, instead of the normal procedure something else happens. A Nobody and Heartless are formed but each usually retains the memories of their past life. The Heartless takes the form of who the person was, while the Nobody takes a similar but different form of the same person. If the two halves of the person ever come into contact, then they can become one whole person again and retain both sides memories."

Axel rose his hand in front of his face and stared at it as he turned it over.

"To put it simply...I'm a Nobody. My world...my world was destroyed a long time ago."

Axel's hand dropped to the table as he looked to the side. "My friends and I, we...we were trying to save the world again. Which, let me tell you is no easy feat. Anyway, we were trying to save the world because Heartless had come out of nowhere and overrun Midgar. At the time, I was in an organization called the TURKS and we were sort of...missionaries, if you will. We did what we were told and usually didn't ask any questions. Well this time...my partner Rude and I asked...and were punished for it."

Axel clenched his fist and glared. "We were sent out to the front lines where people we used to fight against who had now become our friends were fighting for their lives. We fought for days but it was all in vain. The Heartless ended up overrunning the entire city and then the world. At the time, my partner and I were trying to find and save our friends but...the Heartless were surrounding us and I ended up staying back to hold them off. I-I should be dead right now..."

Axel looked at the table and slammed his fist on it's surface and chuckled darkly.

"But apparently my heart was too strong and I was 'reborn' into this. A shell and distorted mirror image of the man I used to be. So yes...I suppose you could say I'm not really human Yusuke. My ability is the ability to control fire. I can make it do my will, make it appear out of nowhere, make it do anything I want it to. I can also create portals of darkness and travel through that dark realm to any place I desire. So yeah...I'm a monster I guess you could say. I can feel my Heartless self drawing closer but..."

Axel grabbed his chest where his heart should be. "It hurts. It hurts far too much. I don't think I want to know if everyone died. I want to know but I don't want you know... I want to find out if somehow Rude, Cloud, Tifa...hell, I want to know if ANY of them managed to save themselves. But...everytime he seems to come closer...the place where my heart should be hurts like I'm being stabbed."

Axel laughed grimly. "Heh...and they say we don't have hearts or emotions!"

[Yusuke Urameshi]

Yusuke was stunned by the detailed history Axel told him. He wasn't sure if he was quite ready to buy all of it, but considering how his day was going so far, he couldn't think of any reason not to either. "Damn. That sucks man. Sounds like it was one hell of a battle."

He leaned back, reclining the chair with his foot on the table. "When we die where I'm from, it's all over normally. The only reason I got to come back is because I died saving a kid."

That's when an idea came to Yusuke. "Hey...maybe if we can get back to my world somehow, I can get Koenma to cut you a deal. To bring them back to life for you."

A darker idea came to Yusuke's mind. Wait...if what he said was true...am I...was my world destroyed! he thought. Unknown to him, his aura started to build then and there.

[Edward Elric]

Edward hadn't been able to stop himself from listening, ever since the red-haired man named Axel had mentioned 'other worlds'. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. This doesn't make any sense...the laws of alchemy should make that kind of stuff impossible! Dammit! What the hell is really going on here!

Then he heard the black-haired one named Yusuke say something about bringing people back to life. Ed lost it then, and ran around the bookshelf and pointed right at Yusuke's face. "If you're seriously considering trying human transmutation, you're even dumber than you look. And that goes for both of you!"

[Axel]

Axel blinked. Brought back to life? Could that really be possible?

His head turned as chair legs scrapped the carpet and the kid who had been listening to their conversation ran around the bookshelf. He pointed at Yusuke and yelled a few things which were lost to Axel before shouting again.

"Listen here kid...I know you've been listening to our entire story and I guess it is a little much to take in but you don't have to get quite so worked up about it."

Axel cast a glance at Yusuke and saw his energy building.

"What the hell is wrong with...oh shit it was something I said wasn't it. Fuck... Axel put a hand on the blond boy's shoulder and leaned close.

"Listen kid just a word of warning, that guy is seriously getting pissed about something and I have NO idea what it is, but the last time that happened the coffee shop in the mall that I work at blew up. I'd REALLY hate for that to happen here...I like books...really I do." Axel patted the kid on the shoulder a few times.

Axel sat back down in his chair and rested an arm over the back of it. "Now what was that about transmutation? Isn't that a form of magic or something?"

[Yusuke Urameshi]

Yusuke was about to get even more pissed about the short blonde calling him dumb, but Axel's words reached him, and he calmed his aura down. "I'll let that fly this time you little runt, but I am not in the mood for crap right now."

He watched as the kid freaked, and started making random and hilarious threats. "You've got a lot of spunk if nothing else. Ok, why don't you answer Axel here's question. What the hell is a transmu-whatever?"

[Edward Elric]

It was probably a good thing Axel's hand still rested on his shoulder, because it was the only thing keeping him away from Yusuke at the moment. "SHORTY!? OH I'LL SHOW YOU SHORTY!? JUST YOU WAIT TILL I GET OVER THERE!!!!!! ARGH!!!!! I'LL CUT YOU OFF AT THE KNEES SO WE'LL BE EYE LEVEL!!!!!"

Ed suddenly stopped moving, and looked like someone had just died. Then he fell to the floor and grabbed his head, flailing around. "NOOO!!!!! NOW I JUST INSULTED MYSELF DAMMIT!!!! NONONONONONOOOOO!!!!!!"

Sheska and a few other librarians came over to kick them out, but somehow the Axel guy was able to smooth things over.

Finally calmed down (to a degree), Ed decided to answer their questions. "Ok, you wanna know what a transmutation is huh? I guess the quickest way would be to show you." He then clapped his hands together, and slammed his palms onto the table in-between them all. It turned into a hideous (although it was artistic in Ed's eyes) rocking horse before their very eyes.

"In Alchemy, we can change one substance into another substance of equal mass and matter. This is called the law of equivalent exchange."

He glared at Yusuke again. "That's why you'd be stupid to try to bring someone back to life. Me and my brother...Alphonse...we tried to bring someone back once. Our mother." He removed his jacket and right glove, revealing his auto-mail arm. "And this is what happened. My left leg is the same. Things aren't meant to come back from the dead. At least...not in my world they aren't."

[Axel]

Axel blinked as lightning surrouned the kid's hands and the table that they had been sitting at turned into a strange looking rocking horse.

"...I liked that table...it was a nice cherry red and matched my hair." Axel frowned as the other two looked at him and blinked a few times.

Axel blinked as he stared at the boy's creation. "...Does that rocking horse have fangs?"

He noticed Ed look at him and slump forward a little, making him appear even shorter.

Axel quirked his head in thought. "So wait...transmutation is kinda like the Morph materia then. Cool, that's one less thing down for me to understand. On the other hand um...just who are you and what does our discussion have to do about bringing people back to life?"

Axel frowned. "Man...at least he didn't destroy the library. I think I attract just as much bad luck now as back in the old days. " Axel sighed. "Man...I want a cappuchino. I have a feeling I'm going to need one before the day is over...or a beer. Yeah...beer sounds better.

[Edward Elric]

Ed clapped his hands again, and returned the table to normal. "Oh right. I guess I haven't introduced myself yet. My name is Edward Elric, and I come from a town called Risembool." He slumped into a chair, pulling his jacket and glove back on. "And as for bringing people back to life...I just don't want anyone to go through that. Ever again!"

He slumped forward onto the table, and put his hand on his face while he talked. "What I just showed you isn't even the worst of it. When we tried to bring back our mother, I lost my arm and leg as you saw. But my brother...Alphonse...he lost his entire body. The only thing I could do was attach his soul to a set of armor sitting in the corner. And to top it all off...we didn't bring our mother back. Not the way we wanted anyway. There's a good chance...we created a monster that day. A humonculi."

He looked up at the two of them. "That's why I'm trying so hard to get back to my world. My brother Al is all alone right now, and that's not a good thing right now! There are people after us, and it's him they want more at the moment! He's my little brother, I have to protect him!"

He sighed, and looked at Yusuke only. "So it's true though? In your world, you were able to come back to life? How?"

[Yusuke Urameshi]

Yusuke shrugged. "How the hell should I know. I mean, I don't know the specifics. I was just given new life and powers, and had to do some cases for them. I was something called a 'Spirit Detective'."

He nodded to Axel. "Come to think of it...wouldn't what you told me be kind of coming back from the dead to? Being a 'Nobody' was it?"

[Axel]

Axel blinked at Yusuke's question.

"I...guess it is in a way. I mean, when we're reborn like this we're OBVIOUSLY not exactly the same person. My friend Roxas had no memories of his former life even though the rest of us knew who he had been. R-O-X-A-S. Roxas. Got it memorized? Anyway, another friend of mine named Namine had all of her memories, but my boss used her to get to this guy named Sora that we were tracking down. Roxas was Sora's Nobody but after a year they finally found each other again and became one whole person, the complete Sora."

Axel sighed and shook his head. Thinking of his lost friends Roxas and Namine was NOT going to help his mood any.

"So...I guess in a way it's like getting a second chance at life...but at a VERY steep price."

Axel glanced over at Ed.

"Seems like we've all had a pretty rough time. Tell me something..." Axel sat down in his chair and threw his arm over the back of it again. "How exactly did you two get here? I mean...I...well..."

Axel glanced to the floor then back at the other two. "...I died. So how did you two get here then? Don't tell me you guys died too...because this isn't exactly what I imagined heaven to be like, and it's not cruel enough to be hell. Are we in Limbo or Purgatory maybe?"

[Yusuke Urameshi]

Yusuke looked worried for a minute. "Dammit, I'd better not have died! The last thing I remember was a car racing toward me, but it should take a lot more than that to kill me now!"

He was getting pissed again, but kept his energy under control. He looked to Ed. "How about you kid?"

[Edward Elric]

Ed thought for a moment, ignoring the 'kid' line for possibly the first time in his life. "I'm not sure. The last thing I remember was falling into a river and...I guess I could have drowned."

He looked at the worried look on the two's faces and chuckled. "Don't get your panties in a knot, I think we're ok for now though. I know the librarian here, Sheska. She's from my world. She didn't get here any way like that at all, she just blinked and was here."

He leaned forward again. "There's got to be something else. But more importantly, is WHY are we here?"