Bonus Chapter: Simple People

Set in the years before the main story begins, the chapter follows Edward and Alphonse shopping for gifts to bring home to Pinako and Winry ahead of a return to Resembool. Ed resists buying anything for Winry, but Al insists, pointing out that since Ed has once again wrecked his automail, a present might blunt her anger, and it is Al who settles on a pair of silver earrings after recalling that Winry recently had her ears pierced. Back in Resembool, the moment Ed shows off the damage and Winry moves to hit him, he thrusts the earrings forward as a shield. She is delighted, and by their next visit she has pierced fresh holes to wear them.

The pattern repeats as Ed wrecks his automail yet again and heads off a beating with another new pair of earrings, which she gladly accepts. When he finally asks why she pierced her ears to begin with, Winry explains that the woman from the military, Riza Hawkeye, once came to Resembool wearing a lovely pair, so she thought she might look nice in them too. Ed dismisses the reasoning as absurdly simple, and when he and Al leave the next morning they find she has added still more holes to wear every pair they keep giving her, purely because they were gifts, which sets off Ed's temper as he swears to buy no more if she insists on hurting herself. The scene then cuts to Eastern Headquarters, where Rebecca Catalina teases Hawkeye about growing out her once-short hair, wondering if some man prefers it long. Riza denies it, explaining she met a girl in Resembool with long hair and simply thought it might suit her, and when Rebecca calls that a plain reason, Riza replies that the reasons behind what people do in life are always simple.

The chapter was carried in the supplementary release Book in Figure: RED, published in Japan in December 2004. Riza's closing words echo a sentiment Maes Hughes voiced during the Ishval Civil War, when he told Roy Mustang he fought for the simple reason that he wanted to live. The title carries a double meaning, describing both people who decide on plain motives and those who long for an uncomplicated life against the weight of war. The story was later adapted into a Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood bonus OVA of the same name.