Descent

Chapter Six

Alphonse was back in Xing.   

After his brother had been found, and his living arrangements had been decided, Alphonse and Mai had headed back to her home country to deal with a new web of crime that had sprung up in there absence. According to the report that he had been sent, there was a band of eight men using Rentanjutsu to kidnap and enslave children, or sell them to other countries as slaves. Slavery was strictly against the law in Xing, ever since Prince Ling Yao had become Emperor, but there were people who still made huge profits off of slave trading. And besides, anything that's against the law makes the job pay even more money. Ling needed help, he was too busy dealing in negotiations with other countries to look at it himself, and all his battle forces were already caught up in capturing a serial killer and mass murderer that had escaped from a neighboring country and into Xing, and was now killing by the dozens. So he had asked Mai and Alphonse to help out, and, of course, they had obliged. Not to mention it was a serious offense, but child slavery was so wrong. Alphonse hated it, and it was the only reason he had been so willing to leave his brother behind.

Well...the main reason.

The other one was...his brother was afraid of him. He knew he was, otherwise why else would he have trembled every time he gave him a hug or a pat on the back? It broke Al's heart to see his brother like that, and he knew he would be in safe hands, with Colonel Hawkeye.

Al's head snapped up as one of the slavers walked idly past his hiding spot. Alphonse silently cursed himself for not paying closer attention and focused himself. Mai was hiding in the bushes directly opposite him, on the other side of the clearing where the slavers where camped. In the middle, surrounding a large yet-to-be-lit bonfire, where the slavers' tents. There were four of them, each only just large enough for two men to fit in. A little way away were the children they had so far captured. There were fifteen kids, all tied at the wrists, ankles and necks. Each child was connected by a rope that threaded through a loop made at the neck ties, so that they all were connected, and not one could slip away without dragging the rest with them. It was simple, but effective. It was easy enough for one child to make his way out of the camp if they were all individually tied, because kids knew how to be silent when they wanted to be. But it would be a butt-load harder if they all tried to escape at once. As silent as they tried to be, fifteen feet moving out of sync all at once would make an alarming amount of noise. Besides, it was easy not to notice one missing child. A lot harder to miss them all gone. Alphonse reviewed the plan in his head one more time.

At sundown, when the slavers lit and huddled around the fire, Mai would sneak silently around the camp and place several shurikan on the ground in the pattern of a Xingese Transmutation Circle. Then, when she was finished, she would send Al the signal, and together they would both use their combined knowledge of Alchemy and Rentanjutsu to Transmute a massive cage around the slavers. It was a simple plan. But Alphonse liked it that way. Easier to remember, so less likely that he would make a mistake. He sat patiently in the shrubs, waiting for nightfall. It was only a few hours away, but already his muscles were beginning to cramp. Hopefully, everything would go smoothly and he wouldn't have to fight.

He barely noticed when it became almost too dark to see, and, for the second time that day, cursed his ill attentiveness. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Mai give him the signal, and, without further ado, he clapped his hands together and slammed them into the ground. The earth where Mai had lain the shurikan began to crackle with red energy, and it sunk in on itself, then reformed, creating dozens of steel bars that towered into the air, eventually curving inwards and meeting in the middle. To top it off, a ring encircled them all, so the bars could not be bent outwards more than an inch or so. The eight slavers, now trapped, began to scream and shout and curse as Alphonse and Mai made themselves visible. One of the men inside quickly drew a circle in the ground and pressed it with his palms, and was completely shocked when nothing happened. Alphonse smiled. That little bit was the result of months of research he and Mai had undertaken. After all those months, they had found a way to combine techniques from Alchemy and Rentanjutsu together, so that nothing inside certain creations could be altered alchemically. It had taken Mai several days to invent this particular Transmutation Circle, and it was the only reason they needed the shurikan. Had they not known that one of the slavers was a Rentanjutsuist, Alphonse would simply have clapped his hands and made a regular cage.