That Which Is Lost

Marcoh has slipped Ed a note directing him to seek the deeper truth hidden at the First Branch of the National Central Library, and Ed keeps it secret out of distrust for the military. Mustang, meanwhile, is spared any punishment from the Führer for concealing Marcoh's whereabouts, since Bradley claims he only meant to shelter the doctor. With Al's armor cracked and Ed's automail arm broken, leaving him unable to transmute, Mustang assigns a bodyguard for the trip to Winry, and after everyone else declines the duty falls to Major Armstrong, to Ed's dismay.

On the train, Hughes confirms that the method behind Nina's death three years earlier matches Scar's killings, which gives Ed a fresh reason to hunt him, and grants him access to the library. Unknown to them, a paperboy whose sister Scar abducted overhears the plan and passes the library tip to the killer, who releases the girl unharmed. In his room, Marcoh answers a knock expecting an envoy and instead finds Lust, who wounds him and, using Gluttony and a hostage, forces him to reveal where his notes are hidden.

Ed discovers Al is gone, mistaken for cargo and left at the previous station, and Armstrong stops him from leaping off the train. A boy finds the fallen armor and dons it, hoping to intimidate a rival gang, while Ed and Armstrong reach the drop-off point. Ed's lingering anger at Armstrong over the Ishvalan war lets him break free when the major is overcome, and on the road a small girl knocks Ed out and steals his automail leg. Al, playing along as talking armor, learns the boy wants to prove his strength through violence, so he seizes control and pretends to be cursed until the boy strips him off. Ed learns the girl only wanted to ease her grandfather's burdens and offers a referral to Rockbell Automail, but the old man, a veteran who lost his leg in Ishval, refuses, saying survival itself was what he gained and he will not trade it away. His words leave Ed wrestling with his own ambition. Reunited, the brothers reflect that their first meeting with Mustang years ago in Resembool may not have been the coincidence they assumed.

The episode adapts Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 of the manga. The wiki notes a plausibility issue, since the boy who carries off Al's armor could scarcely bear its weight, given that both series depict it as a burden only a powerfully built man can manage.