Fullmetal Heart

Edward wakes in a hospital bed with his bodyguards Ross and Brosh nearby and Alphonse standing in the corner, his armor still stripped of its limbs. Shaking off questions about the fifth laboratory, Ed frets that he came within a hair of the truth about Marcoh's research. Ross slaps him and reminds him he is still a child who ought to lean on adults. Ed calls Winry to Central to rebuild his automail, and she hurries out, silently guilty over the bolt she once left out. The next day Hughes visits and privately gathers Ed's account of the homunculi, the chimeras, the ouroboros tattoos, and the arrays meant to forge a Philosopher's Stone, promising to carry the investigation forward himself.

Winry arrives, apologizes for the arm she assumes was flawed, and lets Ed keep blaming his own recklessness. She notices the brothers have stopped speaking and storms off, running into Hughes, who invites her to Elicia's birthday party to give the boys room to rest. At the celebration Winry bonds with little Elicia, and Hughes assures her that men like Ed and Al bottle up their troubles rather than burden those they love. After the repairs are done, Ed apologizes to Al, but Al erupts, accusing the family of hiding that his soul and memories are fabricated and that Alphonse Elric never truly existed. Refusing every reassurance from Ed and Winry, he flings Ed aside and leaps down to the street, fleeing as the two watch in grief.

The episode adapts the manga chapters Fullmetal Body, An Only Child's Feelings, and Fullmetal Heart, and its English dub title is Heart of Steel. As an in-joke about creator Hiromu Arakawa, cows wearing glasses appear in the background during the milk argument, echoing her self-caricature from the manga side stories. Izumi Curtis and her husband briefly pass through the train station before Winry meets Armstrong, ahead of their formal introduction. Director Seiji Mizushima described this installment and the previous one as pushing the leads to the edge so their struggles could be seen anew.