An Alchemist's Anguish

A scarred stranger ambushes Brigadier General Basque Grand alone at night in Central and kills him with a strange destructive power. In East City, Edward and Alphonse report to Mustang about Reole and wonder whether chimera research might point the way to restoring their bodies. As thanks for their work, Roy connects them with Shou Tucker, a State Alchemist who two years earlier certified by producing a chimera that could speak, though Mustang notes the creature only begged to die before perishing. Tucker, impressed that Ed survived human transmutation, opens his home library to the boys, while Alphonse befriends Tucker's lonely young daughter Nina along with the family dog Alexander.

A message reminds Tucker that his yearly assessment looms and that a poor showing could strip his certification, leaving him desperate. The brothers, moved by Nina's loneliness, spend a day playing with her, and Tucker even promises to do the same. When they return, however, the house is unnervingly quiet, and they find Tucker unveiling a new talking chimera that addresses Ed as "big brother." Ed pieces the horror together: Tucker fused Nina and Alexander into the beast, just as his first speaking chimera had been made from his vanished wife. Tucker deflects by accusing Ed of the same sin, of gambling with his brother's body in the name of ambition, and Edward flies into a rage, beating him until Alphonse restrains him. Meanwhile Hughes, leading the investigation into the murders of State Alchemists, and Armstrong deduce the killer targets those who traded the people's service for government funding. In the aftermath, the scarred man reaches the Tucker home, condemns Shou as a strayed alchemist, and destroys him from within, then gently ends Nina's suffering before revealing his red eyes.

The episode adapts Chapter 5, with its title card featuring the array from Armstrong's gauntlets alongside a plain circle. Basque Grand's death goes undepicted in the manga; Arakawa joked that Scar simply caught the general staggering home drunk, but the director chose not to stage it that way. The 2003 series handled this material across a differently paced arc, and the story is closely tied there to its own "Night of the Chimera's Cry" installment.