1 Meetings-AKA Info-Dumping 101(Part 1)

"Alright. So now that I've finished writing the second book, I'm thinking that we should do something to celebrate!" Makoto Inoue, author of the Fullmetal Alchemist light novels exclaimed.

"Hmm. Maybe we should do something special..." Hiromi Arakawa, who wrote under the name Hiromu Arakawa, agreed from across the table. "Although it's only the second book, maybe we could just celebrate how good the series is going so far?"

Hiromi Arakawa was the author of the well known manga series, Fullmetal Alchemist. She wrote under the pen-name Hiromu Arakawa so people wouldn't pass over her work because of her gender. Her work issued out in the Shonen Gangan, a manga publishing company in Japan.

"How about a party?" Shimomura-San, the sub-editor in chief at Shonen Gangan suggested.

"That's a terrible idea." Stated Nomoto-San, the editor of the novels that Inoue was currently working on. "We already have a busy schedule. We don't need to add to it with a party."

"Why not? I'm almost reaching the series' main climax. I personally think that it would be enjoyable to have some fun before going back to work." Arakawa shrugged.

Inoue nodded with agreement. "It'll be nice to get rid of all this stress."

Shimomura and Nomoto exchanged looks.

"I...guess so," Shimomura said although he looked unsure of himself.

Arakawa smiled. "Yes! I'll invite our colleagues from Shonen Gangan."

Arakawa then stood up, "I'm going to get some more cake. Why don't you make plans for the party?" She stated joyfully as she walked over to the cafe counter to get some more cake.

Nomoto blinked. "I thought we were supposed to discuss the novel..."

Shimomura shook his head. "Don't bother, Nomoto-San. You'll only tire yourself out trying to understand manga artists."

***********

Arakawa just left the cafe after she, Inoue, Nomoto, and Shinomura finished up their meeting at the nearby cafe. She was walking home, and by now the sky had turned dark.

Arakawa lived in Makubetsu, Hokkaido, Japan. And walking home was very tiring.

Arakawa continued walking until she stopped. A soft humming noise could be heard in the quiet streets.

'What was that?' She thought as she turned around to listen to where the sound was coming from.

She followed the sound to a dark alleyway. 'Great. Follow a mysterious sound in the middle of the night into a strange alleyway. Sounds like some cliched manga.' Arakawa thought as she snorted. 'Although, this does remind me of one of the scenes from my manga...the one where Riza meets Barry...'

Arakawa entered the alleyway, ignoring of the lingering thought in the deep, dark depths of her mind that she should've just turned around and went home.

***********

"Ow! Al, your armor poked me!" Someone exclaimed.

Arakawa froze. 'Armor? Al? What...?' Arakawa shook her head. 'No...maybe they're just....acting out my manga...?' She thought. But by this point she was unsure. 'But nevermind that. I feel like I've heard that voice before...where have I heard it....'

"Sorry Nii-san! It was an accident!" Another high-pitched voice exclaimed nervously.

Arakawa frowned. 'I recognize that voice too...where have I heard it before....' Arakawa thought deeply before she gasped. 'I remember now! That first voice...it sounds like the voice actor, Romi Park! And the second one...she's also a voice actor...Rie Kugimiya!'

Arakawa was about to sigh from relief until she heard shouting.

"Where are we?" Chimed in a third voice.

"Colonel!?" 'Romi Park' exclaimed.

At that second everything froze. Hiromi stood still as she tried to take in what she just heard. 'No. This is too weird...' She slowly started to walk towards the sound of the voices.

The voices grew louder.

"Edward? Alphonse? Colonel?" Another voice asked in a shocked tone.

Arakawa slowly peeked over the edge of the wall and what she saw shocked her.

A big suit of armor, a short boy with long golden-blond hair tied in a braid, golden eyes, a man with short spiky black hair and a blue military uniform, and another women in a blue military uniform.

Her jaw dropped in shock, and before she could stop herself she fell on the ground with surprise.

"Ah...!" Arakawa gasped a second too late.

Those strange people had noticed her.

**********

Inoue was about to enter her house when she suddenly got a text from Shimomura.

Shimomura: Inoue?!

Inoue: What is it?

Shimomura: Remember the book that you wrote? What was it called again?

Inoue: Fullmetal Alchemist: The Abducted Alchemist, remember?

Shimomura: And who were the antagonists in that book?

Inoue: What is this? Quizlet? On my own book?

Shimomura: Uhhh...no not really. I just wanted to confirm something.

Inoue: Okay, I guess. Colt was the main antagonist. Gael was another antagonist. Ancy's uncle can be considered an antagonist...although he doesn't really appear much.

Shimomura: Much? He doesn't appear at all.

Inoue: He's mentioned though.

Shimomura: Whatever. Do you think you can come to my house? I need something important.

Inoue: Uhh...what do you need?

Shimomura: I need someone to help me CALM DOWN.

Inoue: What? Did you have a nightmare about the manga being unfinished on the deadline?

Shimomura: No. That's Arakawa's nightmare.

Inoue: Haha, I guess so. But seriously, what do you need?

Shimomura: .....

Inoue: Shimomura...?

Shimomura: .....it's about the Fullmetal Alchemist characters....

Inoue: ...?

Shimomura: .....they're at my house.

*********

"Oh! Sorry ma'am! Did we frighten you?" the armor,-no, Arakawa was absolutely sure who these people were by now- Alphonse Elric asked as he helped Arakawa up to her feet.

"U-um...um..." Hiromi could barely speak. After all, how were you supposed to react if your manga characters were suddenly living and breathing right in front of you!

"Oh, good job Al. You put her into shock." Arakawa's titler protagonist, Edward Elric chided as he smirked.

Alphonse huffed. "How do you know it was me, Brother? You could have scared her just as easily."

Another one of Hiromi Arakawa's characters, Colonel Roy Mustang spoke up. "I agree. In fact, I bet that the reason we are in this strange place is because of Fullmetal." He stated smugly.

Edward glared at him.

"U-um...excuse me...but..." Hiromi tried to speak but found that she couldn't. She was just in too much shock.

"Woah. Lady, are you okay? You sound like you're tongue-tied or something." Edward snickered as he smiled at Arakawa.

'I don't believe this! One of my own characters is smiling at me!' Arakawa practically screamed in her head. 'And another one is holding me! And...and...'

Arakawa took a deep breath in then breathed out. Right. Panicking wasn't going to help her figure out what was going on. "Uh...I-I'm Hiromi. Hiromi Arakawa. Nice to meet you!" She smiled brightly. 'Finally! Yare, yare, it took me forever to speak. Now I have to figure out how my characters are here...'

Edward smiled. "I'm Edward Elric, nice to meet you."

"Oh! Um...I'm Alphonse Elric...his younger brother....n-nice to meet you Hiromi." Alphonse stummered politely.

First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, who hadn't said anything up until now, smiled and held her hand out to Hiromi. "I'm Riza Hawkeye. Nice to meet you."

Arakawa took her hand with a smile and shook it.

"And I'm-" Roy was about to introduce himself when Arakawa interrupted him.

"Colonel Roy Mustang. The Flame Alchemist." She said calmly.

Roy blinked. "H-how did you know?"

Arakawa didn't respond and instead turned towards Riza. "You're known as the "Hawk's Eye, aren't you."

Riza's mouth fell open.

Arakawa didn't stop and then turned to Ed and Al, letting out the biggest revelation of all.

"And you two. There's nothing in Al's armor, isn't there? And Ed, you have an automail right arm and left leg. Those were results of Human Transmutation correct? When you tried to bring back your dead mother?" Arakawa pressed further.

[Also, I'm not going to explain that considering the fact that it's only mentioned briefly in one to two paragraphs in the book-although, I might mention it later.]

Edward frowned. "How did you know?" He demanded.

Arakawa's eyes narrowed. "Come with me." She turned around and started walking in the direction to her house.

Edward, Alphonse, Riza and Roy exchanged glances, then after hesitating, decided to follow Hiromi.

**********

Inoue: ....are you serious?

Shimomura: Why would I joke about something like this!?

Inoue: Well, I mean...are you sure they aren't just robbers that are cosplaying?

Shimomura: Who in the world cosplays manga!? You cosplay anime not manga, and since Arakawa's work isn't even halfway done and the anime is still well underway, I'm not exactly sure how people would manage to cosplay these exact characters.

Inoue: And who are these characters?

Shimomura: They're definitely not from the manga! That's for sure!

Inoue: Wait, then how do you know that they're even Fullmetal Alchemist characters?

Shimomura: You know the art that Hiromi-san did for the book?

Inoue: For Gael?

Shimomura: Yes.

Inoue: What about it?

Shimomura: ...The dude in my house looks exactly like him....he's even holding the GUNS!

Inoue: Wait, and you're just standing there? What are they doing?

Shimomura: ...I'm hiding in my closet.

Inoue: ....

Shimomura: What?

Inoue: ....baby.

Shimomura: ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿!!!!!!!!

Inoue: Uhhh...not going to ask what that means.... anyways, just wait there. I'll sneak in through the back door of your house.

Shimomura: Okay...hurry!

Inoue: Got it!

Inoue broke into a run as she tried to find Shimomura's house.

'Let's see...turn right...wait at the intersection....then turn left...turn right again....then left....go straight until I arrive at the town square....' Inoue went through the way to Shimomura's house in her head until she arrived.

She sharply inhaled as she stood in front of Shimomura's house. The house gave Makoto an eerie feeling. A bad feeling.

Inoue took a deep breath and shrugged that feeling off. 'That's ridiculous. There's no way Shimomura was correct. He was probably just joking.' But no matter how many times she told herself it wasn't true, somewhere deep in her mind, she knew that Shimomura wasn't lying.

Inoue stepped into the front yard and slipped into the backyard using the backyard gate. She ran through the backyard as quietly as she could and rapped on the backyard door.

"Shimomura-san!" Inoue whispered. No response. "Shimomura-san!" She whispered, louder this time, but she still received no response.

Inoue waited for a few seconds until the door opened to reveal Shimomura, who was wearing a light blue nightshirt, matching blue pajama pants, fluffy blue slippers, and a blue nightcap.

Inoue looked Shimomura up and down and then started snickering. "You look ridiculous." She stated bluntly between her giggling.

Shimomura grumbled with annoyance. "Oh shush. All my other clothes were burned up."

Inoue rose an eyebrow but chose not to ask. Instead she said, "Anyways, where is this 'Gael' character?"

Shimomura looked around nervously then said, "Come inside. And whatever you do, DO NOT MAKE NOISE."

Inoue blinked then followed Shimomura inside the house.

Shimomura led the novelist through his house as quietly as he could, making wild gestures occasionally to signal to Inoue to make a turn or walk up the stairs. Of course, Inoue had no idea what the heck the gestures were actually FOR, considering the fact that all she had to do was follow him.

After the fourth or fifth gesture made by Shimomura, Inoue sighed with annoyance and grabbed his wrist, stopping him in his tracks. She pulled him down to eye level with her hand and gave him a stern look. "Alright Shimomura, that's enough. What is this really about? And you better give me a straight answer and stop this ridiculousness!" she growled.

Shimomura blinked innocently. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Alright. I know this is hard to believe, but you've got to trust me."

Inoue smiled then leaned in. "Thank you. It better not be something impossible, or else I'm leaving." She declared firmly.

Shimomura took a deep breath and then opened his eyes. "It's a surprise, so just continue to follow me, okay? But still, stay quiet." He said seriously.

Inoue looked confused but nodded. 'He better not be tricking me again...'

***********

Arakawa led the four characters to her house as quietly as she could, to attract as little attention as possible.

Surprisingly, the characters followed her with no objection. This shocked her, considering how she wrote out the character's' personalities. They were all very observant, and the only one that would probably trust her easily was Alphonse. She frowned. Maybe she was just overthinking this. After all, isn't it weird enough that her characters were actually breathing and walking right in front of her? Well, behind her really.

Ironically enough, the characters in question were plotting behind Arakawa's back.

"Who do you think this Hiromi person is?" Edward whispered to Alphonse, Riza, and Roy, who all leaned in closer to hear the short Alchemist.

"Well, she seems nice." Alphonse shrugged.

"Maybe. But I'm still not sure if we should trust her. Who knows? She could be planning to kill us for all we know." Edward shot.

"We don't know for sure though...and that's a problem. But we also don't know where we are. The last thing I remember is sitting in the car that we were driving after that battle at the train station. Also, why would she be planning to kill us? That reasoning doesn't even make sense!" Roy thought deeply.

Riza sighed. "Well, it seems like Hiromi knows something about us and where we are. So let's just follow her and try to get some answers."

The group followed her to a tall building that reached the sky. It was made of reflective glass and the crew could see their reflections in it. Upon closer inspection, they realized that some parts of the building were actually made of actual glass, and they could see parts of what looked like offices inside.

"I-Incredible...." Edward gaped, staring at the building with wide eyes and his mouth wide open.

"I-It's taller than any other building I've ever seen..." Roy mused while wearing the same expression as Edward.

"Yeah. Makes me feel like an ant in comparison with this building." Alphonse stared, shocked.

"Do you really work here, Hiromi? It's incredible." Riza turned towards Hiromi Arakawa with a warm smile.

Arakawa returned the smile with an even brighter smile, "Thank you, it's nothing really. In fact, this isn't even the tallest building in the world. The tallest building is somewhere else in my world...but we'll get to that later. Right now let's get to my office, and we can discuss everything there." Hiromi said this last part seriously as she turned and walked toward the entrance of the building.

Ed, Al, Roy, and Riza's jaws dropped open as Hiromi casually opened the door to the building.

'Wait...this isn't even the tallest building...?!' Alphonse thought with shock.

'This Hiromi person...is...is incredible...' Roy thought with awe.

'Wait a minute...there's something wrong with her wordings...' Edward and Riza were the only ones who were thinking this through.

'Instead of saying, 'somewhere else in this planet.'...' Riza thought.

'...she said 'somewhere else in my planet.'' Edward continued in his thoughts while narrowing his eyes at Hiromi.

Hiromi Arakawa was someone strange, that much was for sure to these characters.

*********

"Nomoto-san!!!!" Hiromi shouted as she entered the building.

The secretary looked up with surprise and then smiled brightly, "Hello Hiromi-san. Are you here to see Nomoto? He's about to finish up a meeting with another manga artist."

Arakawa gave a bright smile. "Yes, thank you very much secretary-san!"

Edward and Alphonse chuckled as they walked inside the building.

The secretary looked at her with wide eyes. She blinked slowly and each blink seemed like time wasn't working properly for her. "U-uh-uh....u-u-ummm..." the secretary laughed nervously and quickly looked away with wide eyes.

The two brothers exchanged looks. Did they do something wrong?

Hiromi glanced nervously at the secretary and then ushered for Ed, Al, Riza, and Roy to follow her.

She led them to the elevator and then to Shimomura's office on the fourteenth floor. The whole time receiving strange looks from almost everyone in the building.

"What's with all the stares? Is it because of my armor?" Alphonse leaned in and whispered to Hiromi.

"Ah! Um..no...it's just that you four are celebrities here..kind of..." Arakawa explained nervously.

Edward, Alphonse, Riza and Roy exchanged unsure glaces.

Arakawa led them to a door down the hall and opened the door. After everyone came inside, Arakawa closed the door and locked it.

She let out a sigh of relief as she turned around and found her face to face with a frightened Nomoto-san.

"ARAKAWA-SAN!" Nomoto hissed with wide eyes. He pointed behind him shakily as he tried to speak. "Who. Are. These. People...?!"

Arakawa grimaced. "I'm going to explain it in a bit. But weren't you supposed to be in a meeting with a manga artist?"

Nomoto shook his head. "No, I finished an hour ago."

Arakawa blinked. "But didn't..." she faltered. 'That's weird. Secretary-san said that Nomoto-san was in a meeting with a manga artist...she almost never makes a small mistake like that...I wonder what's wrong...'

"Okay, that's enough stalling!" Edward put down his left foot which made a clunking sound which echoed throughout the whole room.

Nomoto and Arakawa turned around to face the young teen, who had an irritated expression on.

"You keep saying that you'll tell us soon, but we want answers NOW! Who are you? Where are we? How do you know so much about us? And what do you mean by "my" world? Huh? Answer me Hiromi!!!" Edward demanded as he gave a sharp stare at Arakawa and Nomoto.

"U-Um...brother..." Alphonse started to nervously protest against his older brother.

Edward turned his glare toward his brother. He was about to say something when Hiromi interrupted him.

"No, you're right. I'll stop." The others stared at her with surprise. "I'll stop stalling and tell you everything. The truth this time."

******

Edward, Alphonse, Riza and Roy sat there in stunned silence as Hiromi finished up her explanation.

"S-So w-we're really just..." Riza stuttered while staring at the floor with wide eyes.

"I-It can't be..." Alphonse groaned as he put his head into his palm.

"Our whole life....i-is really just a l-l-lie...." Edward stared at the ground with wavering eyes.

Roy glared at the ground. He just couldn't believe it. It made absolutely no sense. He couldn't just sit down and believe that his whole life was just a manga! Not even actual literature!? Although, he did sit down and take the information...which was weird...moving on.

Arakawa inhaled deeply which caught the others attention. "Well, if you're done with the disbelief, I believe we should discuss something else that's more important: how did you get here?"

The four characters exchanged looks, then it was Roy who spoke up. "If what you said is true, then you probably already know what's going on right now, right?"

"Well, not exactly." Arakawa admitted. "See, just by seeing and talking with you I can't tell what part of the story you came from-I'd have to be given more clues, like what information you know or what you were recently doing up to this point."

"Well, the last thing I remember before landing in that alley was talking to Fullmetal in the car...he was explaining to me how he paid off his debt for getting abducted..." Roy mused.

"Ah!" Arakawa and Nomoto exclaimed with surprise.

"THAT'S IT!" Arakawa exclaimed.

"What's it?" Alphonse asked.

"In our world, a close associate of mine is making a novel series of you guys, and recently she just finished the second book which is called Fullmetal Alchemist : The Abducted Alchemist." Arakawa took out a book that was in a drawer. The book had an orange cover with a picture of Edward on the bottom right smirking while his brother Alphonse stood behind him to the bottom left. At the top left read Fullmetal Alchemist, and below it read the title which reached almost the edge of the cover. The cover read 'The Abducted Alchemist'.

"So this book is about Edward getting abducted by the terrorists?" Riza asked.

Nomoto and Arakawa nodded. "Yeah. This book explains everything about the bombings, the kidnappings and it even has a short one to two paragraphs about Ed and Al's transmutation." Nomoto explained as he handed the book to Edward to look over.

"Interesting...do you think this could help us get home?" Edward asked.

"Maybe. If we find out how you somehow ended up in our world...then we might be able to get you home. But until then...keep a LOW PROFILE! I have many readers, and if someone spots you outside, then there's going to be questions. Also considering the fact that gold eyes isn't really a common color. Also, we have strict gun laws here and that isn't our country's militia uniform. Not to mention that people wearing armor is very rare. If you do find someone who does that in Japan, then they're probably very weird so...you might want to stay hidden for now. Well, unless they're cosplayers...but yeah." Arakawa explained.

Roy groaned. "Then what are we supposed to do?"

"Ummm....you can talk with some of the editors who work here, maybe help out a bit...I'm going to inform everyone who you are...so yeah.." Arakawa looked thoughtful for a second. "Oh yeah! We're having a party!" She chirped happily.

"A party!?" Edward, Alphonse, Riza, Roy and Nomoto exclaimed.

"Wait...you and Inoue were serious?" Nomoto spluttered.

Arakawa frowned, "Well of course. Did you think I was joking?" she deadpanned.

Nomoto's jaw dropped all the way to the floor, like he was an anime character or something.

Ignoring the "anime character Nomoto-san", Arakawa explained about the party idea she and Inoue had earlier that day.

"A party huh? That sounds like fun. Maybe if we find out how to leave this place, we'll stay until after the party." Edward mused.

"That's great! Let's have the party here inside Shonen Gangan...maybe we can find a scientist that can help you out!" Arakawa chirped excitedly.

"Alright...I guess I'll make flyers." Nomoto said reluctantly. "But first, we should probably tell Shimomura and Inoue about the party, and that we've taken over Shimomura's office." Nomoto rolled his eyes. "We should also tell them about our little "guests" here."

Nomoto said the word 'little' before Arakawa could stop him.

She groaned. Edward Elric had already noticed his wordings.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE HIM UNDER A MAGNIFYING GLASS!? I'LL BREAK DOWN YOUR FEET AND STICK EM' ON YOUR HEAD!!!!" Edward screamed as he lunged at Nomoto who hid behind the desk, whimpering in fear.

In an attempt to save Nomoto's life, Edward's younger brother held him back.

"Brother please! He didn't mean it like that!" Alphonse tried to reason with Ed.

Arakawa sighed.

*One of those off-screen character camera confessions*

Arakawa: Oh this is cool. I'm sure you're probably wondering what the heck that was about right?

Arakawa: *Laughs nervously*

Arakawa: Well, Edward is kind of sensitive about his height....so...yeah. In case any of you ever meet him-hopefully you don't though, it would probably be kind of crazy if you did- whatever you do, Don't. Call. Him. SHORT. He's short for a valid reason so-

Arakawa: *Realizes what she just said*

Arakawa: *Laughs nervously* Oops.

Edward: WHO ARE YOU CALLING A TINY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK???!!!

Edward: *Chases Arakawa with a stick*

Arakawa: I didn't say that much! Geez, why I wrote him like that is beyond me....I think it was for comedy relief...oh well, less focusing on that and more focusing on surviving!

*End of off-screen camera confession*

"Wait. What are the chances that Colt came here too?" Roy asked warily.

Nomoto snapped out of his fear for a moment to answer the question with another question. "What in the world do you mean? We don't even know how you got here, let alone wether or not others arrived with you, so what gives you the fact that Colt might be here as well?"

Roy shrugged. "I don't know. I just have this bad feeling..."

"We'll worry about bad feelings later. Right now we should-" Arakawa was interrupted by the door suddenly slamming open, making everyone in the room jump with surprise.

A gasping, pink-faced, Secretary-San was gasping for breath as she put her hands on her knees to relax herself.

"Secretary-San? Are you okay?" Nomoto asked, concerned.

"It's...Shi..." The secretary tried to say. "Shi...mo....mu...ra..." She continued gasping between syllables.

"What is it lady? Get fit! Honestly, people these days are so lazy!" Edward remarked rudely.

Secretary-san glared at Edward.

*Camera Confession(With author-ME)*

Secretary-san: *Starts sobbing* Why is my name Secretary-san!?

Author: Suck it up secretary.

Secretary-san: *Wails* But that's not FAIR!

Author: Well, life isn't fair. And I can't believe it's the child telling the adult. Honestly, usually it's adults saying stuff like that but now it's the kids. What is going on today? And you really do need to get fit!

*End of Camera Confession(With author-ME)*

"Secretary-san." Arakawa stated, turning Secretary-san's attention towards her. "Is it about Shimomura?" she asked seriously.

Secretary-san nodded quickly. "I just got a message from him...and it wasn't one asking for new clothes, that's for sure."

"What?" Alphonse whispered in utter confusion.

"There was an incident once when Arakawa accidently burned up Shimomura's clothes..." Nomoto responded awkwardly.

"What was the message?" Arakawa demanded, ignoring the two whispers in the back.

Secretary-san gave her a grim look. "It's best that you hear it with your own ears."

*****

"ARAKAWA! NOMOTO! This is bad! Me and Inoue are held captive by Gael! Gael and Colt, COLT HIMSELF! That's right, the character that was introduced in the new book-the antagonist! I know I might sound crazy, but it' true! Inoue is with me. Right now we're trying to hid from Colt and Gael, but that's hard to do since they have GUNS with them!"

"Shimomura-san! WATCH OUT!"

A loud sound of shattering glass was heard before the message was cut off.

Dead silence filled the room as they all tried to chew on what Shimomura just said.

"So...Colt really is here." Roy stated uncomfortably.

"Gael too. This is bad. We have to figure out where they went and save them." Edward turned to Arakawa, who was bust staring at the phone that gave the message Shimomura sent.

Arakawa didn't respond and instead asked Secretary-san a question. "Secretary-san...when did you receive this transmission?"

"About five minutes ago, why?" Secretary-san answered.

"Did you contact the police?" Arakawa slowly asked.

"No...not yet." Secretary-san admitted.

"One last question..." Arakawa slowly turned around to reveal the date and time the message was received. "Why does this say the message was received last week?" She asked dangerously.

Edward, Alphonse, Roy, Riza, Nomoto, and Secretary-san gasped with surprise. Although, Secretary-san was gasping for a different reason.

Silence filled the room as Arakawa waited patiently for an answer.

Her answer finally came...in a way that she would never expect.