Chapter 25: Master and Apprentice

Edward and Alphonse finish confessing their failed bid to revive Trisha and Ed's decision to become a State Alchemist. Izumi reacts by sending them to buy two coffins, then admits she attempted the same forbidden act and lost internal organs for it. Her fury gives way to grief as she draws the boys into her arms. She insists that principle forces her to expel them both, and Edward accepts the dismissal while Alphonse protests. On the way to the station, Sig explains that being cast out actually makes the brothers Izumi's equals, welcome to return. Realizing they never asked for the help they came for, the two rush back and kneel before her, and the memory of their first plea softens her into agreeing to aid them.

Izumi wonders whether Alphonse, whose entire body was the toll, retained more knowledge than she or Edward, and worries the returning memories could unbalance him. Alphonse insists on trying anyway, and Izumi mentions an acquaintance who might help before setting the brothers to preparing dinner. In East City, Mustang finally beats General Grumman at chess as a parting gift, deflects a joke about marrying the general's granddaughter, and secures the transfer of several trusted officers to Central alongside his own reassignment.

Mustang gathers his people one by one. Heymans Breda, Vato Falman, Kain Fuery, Jean Havoc, and Riza Hawkeye each receive the summons, and Mustang orders all five to follow him to Central, brushing aside Havoc's protest about a new girlfriend. Back in Dublith, a strange stooped man named Bido accosts the brothers begging for money, then reveals he knows Edward is a State Alchemist and that he bonded his brother's soul into armor. When Edward kicks him away, Bido displays a lizard tail, knocks off Alphonse's helmet, and scales a transmuted wall to escape. He reports to his boss in a shady bar, a man flanked by two women who orders the brothers brought in alive as honored guests, flexing a left hand marked with a snake devouring its own tail.

The teasing about Grumman's granddaughter is later confirmed in the Perfect Guidebook 2 to point at Riza Hawkeye. Bido's sunglasses-wearing master carries the same ouroboros mark as Lust, Envy, and Gluttony, hinting at a shared origin. The 2009 anime omits both Grumman's granddaughter remark and Izumi's mention of an acquaintance, while the 2003 version has Izumi strike Edward down before embracing him rather than sending the boys for coffins.