May Chang

May is a small Xingese girl whose fair skin sets off dark eyes and dark braided hair, which she gathers into two buns on either side of her head, letting several long strands trail down to her knees. She dresses in light and dark eastern garments modeled on Xing's royal style and carries a light-purple bag slung across her shoulder and waist, usually with Shao May cradled in her arms. In flashbacks to her younger years she tied her hair into two pigtails, much like Nina Tucker.

May feels everything strongly and speaks her mind, whether the emotion is warmth, gratitude, envy, or fury. Her vivid imagination leads her to leap to conclusions, such as picturing Edward and later Alphonse as gallant princes, yet that same imagination gives her rare creativity as an alchemist, letting her solve problems others cannot. She carries remarkable determination and courage for her age, standing firm against Mannequin Soldiers and even Father, and she crossed the desert alone with only Shao May against weather and hunger.

She treats the search for the Philosopher's Stone as a duty owed to her clan rather than a grab for power, and once she learns what the Stone truly is she recoils from it, pursuing it only out of obligation. She bonds easily with anyone who shows her kindness and cannot bring herself to abandon those in need, a warmth that leaves her open to manipulation, as when Envy plays on her guilt to keep her in Amestris. For all her skill she keeps a child's innocence and naivety.

A master of both alkahestry and martial arts, May can sense the chi of humans and homunculi, hurls range-extending kunai with pinpoint accuracy, and heals wounds within seconds. She first reaches the frontier town of Youswell, rescues Halling from a collapsed mine, and falls for a misread image of the Fullmetal Alchemist, setting off to find him. Just missing Edward at Resembool, she meets Yoki and Scar and joins them, being the first to recognize the mark on Scar's arm as the Dragon's Pulse. She heals Scar and follows Alphonse into Father's underground lair, and when she finally meets Edward and sees he is nothing like her fantasy, she attacks in a rage, revealing she can still transmute in Father's presence when Amestrian alchemists cannot.

Wounded, she hides inside Al's armor and is taken to Dr. Knox's home, where she recognizes and duels the rival Yao retainer Lan Fan until Knox stops them. After Alphonse insists he is taller, handsomer, and more polite than his brother, she transfers her crush to him and starts calling him her prince. She travels north to Briggs with Tim Marcoh to recover Scar's brother's alchemy notes, decodes them, and argues that alchemical energy flows from human souls rather than the earth's crust. She helps spring a trap that captures Envy, and Scar sends her home with the shrunken homunculus, but the kindness of Youswell's people guilts her into staying to help Amestris.

Returning to Central, she fights through Mannequin Soldiers, rejoins the group, and uses the Dragon's Pulse to guide them toward Father. She seals Riza's slashed throat with alkahestry, then throws herself at Father directly, only to be repelled and thrown back bleeding. Through the Promised Day she helps hold the line against his attacks, and at the climax she tearfully agrees to Alphonse's plea to swap his soul back in exchange for Edward's ruined arm. Her relief when a restored Al returns brings her to tears. She leaves for Xing with Ling, and after a two-year gap Alphonse travels east to study alkahestry with her, appearing beside her in the final family photograph.