Clause

Clause is a child of roughly ten or eleven who first turns up in scruffy, boyish clothes, prompting Edward to twice remind her she ought to dress like a girl rather than a paperboy. When the brothers prepare to leave the village, she catches them off guard by appearing in a dress with her hair worn down, a shift so complete that they barely recognize her.

At the outset Clause is brash and combative, carrying herself like a tomboy and fixated on avenging her sister. She snaps at Edward and pushes him to help her track down the cause of the death, refusing to let the grievance rest. After the Elrics pull her out of real danger, that hostility falls away and she turns gentle and openly thankful, even chasing them down to apologize for how she first treated them.

Clause's older sister was among the earliest victims of the village alchemist Majhal, who was obsessed with binding the soul of a girl named Karin to a lifelike mannequin. Bent on revenge, Clause tries to recruit Edward and even lunges at one of the Karin figures, only for Majhal himself to rescue her. When she visits his home to thank him and finds him attacking the brothers, Majhal seizes the moment to use her in one last transmutation meant to revive Karin. The Elrics break up the scheme and free her, and a changed Clause sees them off as they travel onward.