Episode 6 (2009 Anime)

Hughes sees the brothers off from East City with Major Armstrong as their guard, since neither boy could stand against Scar alone. During a morning stop Armstrong spots Dr. Marcoh, who bolts in fright. Alex explains that Marcoh once studied alchemy's medical uses before vanishing after the Ishval war, and Ed, hoping for insight into biological transmutation, insists they get off and find him. The townsfolk know the man only as "Dr. Mauro," a healer working quiet miracles. When they corner him he assumes the worst, but the Elrics calm him enough to hear his confession: haunted by his research being turned into a weapon of slaughter, he now spends his life mending the sick.

Marcoh admits his work aimed at the legendary Philosopher's Stone and pours out a small amount of red gel to prove it, an incomplete version that could fail at any moment yet carries the true powers. Ed connects it to both the war and the object Cornello wielded and begs to see the notes, but Marcoh, unsettled that one so young serves the military, sends them away.

At the station Ed tells Armstrong his conscience would not let him rob the town of the stone that heals it, and the major decides not to report the doctor's location. Marcoh reconsiders and hurries over with a note, convinced Ed has the will to face a terrible truth and the talent to reach the truth hidden behind it. The message names the First Branch of the National Central Library. At home, Marcoh finds Lust waiting for him.

Reaching Resembool, the boys present Armstrong to Pinako and Winry, who despairs over Ed's wrecked automail and promises a rebuilt arm and adjusted leg in three days. While Ed visits his mother's grave, Pinako tells Armstrong she has known the brothers since birth and was a friend of their long-vanished father, and that Winry's parents died serving as front-line surgeons in Ishval. She also reveals that Ed torched the family home the day he earned his certification, leaving himself no path back. After the painful fitting of the new, less durable arm, Ed carefully restores Al's shattered armor around the Blood Rune that anchors his soul. The group departs at dawn, and only later, waking from her exhaustion, does Winry realize she left a bolt out of Ed's arm.

The episode adapts the manga chapters "The Road of Hope" and "A Home with a Family Waiting." The explanation for why Armstrong was assigned as escort is dropped here, and Marcoh, who stows the stone in a cupboard in the manga, instead keeps it in his coat pocket. Lust's earlier pursuit of the Elrics and her threat to destroy the town are cut, details later filled in by Envy during Episode 24, and Armstrong's friendly sparring match with the boys is likewise removed.