ooooo
"No." Temari swings her arm out. "Shut that door."
"Yeah. Got it." Kankuro drawls extending a single forefinger from where he leans on the far wall. Ed widens his eyes as he watches the door to sanctuary obey with a slam.
"I don't believe for a moment that your don't follow exactly everything of what we are saying." Temari says.
Ed stomps, fully intending to kick that damned door in, but pauses as a faint glittering of something catches his attention. He turns his head a little as if to answer Temari, and narrows his eyes at the glimmering strands of-- is that energy?-- he can see extending out from a space of empty air. The threads resemble the flow of an active array but lack all of the underlying structure. The more he tries to analyze it, the more it flies in the face of the science he knows.
The odd effect may be based on some sort of air array, he thinks. Figures. The one field of alchemy I haven't bothered much with.
The focus of the energy strands shift very subtly. Almost all of them point to the doll on one end. No. Puppet. And the other end seems to gather like it's converging...
"Is Fact: I can't." Ed replies in halfhearted Gibberish as a working theory forms in his mind: If the source is really human shaped, much like a mirror of the so called "Lord Kankuro" crouched down by the door is, then the calculation for the skull should place it roughly..
Ed is careful not to grin.
"Convenient is it? That you pick up a book and..suddenly can speak with us?" Temari snarls.
Instead, Ed scowls as he turns. At the same time, he flicks out his right fist. His knuckles slam with a satisfying meaty thunk onto the nothing. An "OOPH" and a swirling flicker of colors later, Kankuro's painted jaw appears: in the flesh. The sight of the jerk's face smashed bloody against his curled fingers has Ed smiling savagely, and he calmly checks his knuckles over the body slumps to the ground.
Somehow, the possibility of being poisoned feels so worth it.
Ed leans over to prone form as he hears a startled gasp behind him.
"For "small"." Ed says in a low hiss, and smoothly steps over the dark dressed body. He pivots suddenly on his living toes and punches again, aiming into the softness of placid kidneys. He is rewarded with a loud, pained grunt.
"And "dwarf"." Ed snaps as he shifts back to a balanced stance. He flicks his eyes the others in the room.
Temari's face twists with rage, and she darts two steps forward. Ed scowls her way, and she pauses with a calculated look to her dark green eyes.
"I pay what I owe." Ed says as way of explanation. He sees Shikamaru grasp Temari's forearm, and only when he sees her turn her head, does he take the remaining steps to the bathroom door.
ooooo
"We're getting nowhere here." Shikamaru says. Temari frowns as she helps Kankuro to sit up. His legs wobble, and he settles with them splayed out on either side before him.
"You think?.." Temari snaps.
"No. No. There was something." Kankuro says as he works his jaw back into place.
"What. Fear of puppets?" Temari demands.
"Not exactly." Kankuro says as the toilet flushes. He rubs his injured jaw. "What a punch. Sure he doesn't have chakra?"
The door creaks open, and Kankuro watches as Temari rises to tower over the short blonde. Ed's fierce golden eyes never waver from hers as he stands in the doorway, and Kankuro slides his eyes to his elder sister's hands as waves and waves of her killing intent spill over him.
"You were asked specific questions, regarding this scrap of cloth." Shikamaru says, breaking the tense silence. "Tell us."
Ed sighs, and slides his hands to grip his elbows.
"Said you yet. I up for sale. Saw two wide straw hats wearing cloaks with red cloud sitting with others."
"And..?" Temari snarls.
Ed shrugs.
"Fuzzy. Much very sick. Can no walk. No. Barely. Walk." Ed says, and pushes up sleeve to finger the tattoo. "Woke with these next day. Much fuzzy. Think next day. More days..no. Weeks.."
Ed frowns and looks off, then shakes his head.
"You mean to say you got sold?" Shikamaru says.
"Then why were you there with the others and.." Temari adds.
Ed shrugs, and shifts his weight as he glares back at Temari.
"Better be question. Who want sick slave?" Ed frowns, and runs one hand through his hair. "Should dead. Where I come of slaver would dump body."
Sent via a stray supercharged nano particle of unobtainium....
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