Chapter 57: Scars of Ishval

At the home of the physician Knox, two recovering combatants, May Chang and Lan Fan, catch sight of each other and instantly treat the meeting as a challenge, each driven by loyalty to her own nation. Alphonse Elric steps in to defuse things but is rebuffed and told that outsiders should not involve themselves in disputes between their homelands. Knox ends the standoff by cracking both girls on the head, reminding them that they are still injured and belong in bed rather than trading blows. When May objects to his meddling, he waves off her protest and puts a morbid question to the two that frightens them into cooperating.

May Chang and Lan Fan confront one another and ready themselves to fight before Knox forces them to stand down. In a separate scene, Edward Elric calls on Riza Hawkeye while she showers, alerted to his arrival by her dog Hayate. He tells her that he has come only to give back the pistol she loaned him. As Hawkeye pulls on her clothing, a strange design is exposed across her bare back, hinting at a secret she carries.

This installment is the fifty-seventh chapter of the manga and appears in Volume 14. It reached Japanese readers on March 11, 2006, and saw its English publication on August 14, 2007. It follows Chapter 56: The Lion of the Round Table and leads into Chapter 58: The Footsteps of Ruin.