The story is now transitioning to the next part of the story. A big key for the Elric brothers is to understand what makes Xing Alchemy different from the Alchemy that they use. At the same time, she is traveling with Scar to retrieve his older brother’s research. Curious what he found out before he sacrificed himself for his brother. We even have Kimblee going after Scar to retrieve Professor Marcoh. Though it feels evident that he is not Pride.
On Roy’s end, he is learning how Central is much more separated from the rest of the military. Essentially they test whether you are willing to cooperate with Bradley’s vision. If not, you get sent somewhere else. They must know that Rika’s connection to Roy’s master. It is quite evident that with the homunculus, Central is plotting something, but what is it exactly?
As Ed and Al group up to head north, they eventually meet up with Armstrong’s older sister. It’s interesting how the weather conditions impact Ed’s automail as it becomes a hindrance in battle. Essentially now they need Winry to come; otherwise, they will be useless going forward.
Oliver Armstrong does give a rough first impression to the brothers, but over the course of the volumes, it becomes evident there is more to her than meets the eye. Her point about purification arts and it having uses does seem like something that can feel not right, but at the same time the world is cruel. In fact, the first impression of the north is that the environment is much crueler.
Though it is through Miles that Oliver is someone who looks more at what you can do than what you appear to be. Miles comes from many different ethnicities, so it could be easy to prejudge him. Central, for instance, would more than likely prejudice Miles before he could do anything of note. While it might be a while until Ed warms up to her, her intentions are good even if she comes across as rough. It’s interesting that Sloth is up north; I’m curious what they had planned for him.