Chapter 70: The First Homunculus

An earlier scene fills in how Winry reached the north. Held at the base of the mountain, she was collected by Solf J. Kimblee for the drive up to Fort Briggs. During the ride he spoke gently of her parents, asking whether they were the Rockbell doctors lost during the Ishvalan war, claiming his unit had recovered their bodies and that he reached the site too late. He praised the couple for standing by their principles to the end and said he regretted never meeting them.

In the present Winry fits Edward with lighter automail built for the cold, scolding him for arriving unannounced and questioning why the brothers were locked up. Kimblee smooths it over as a mix-up he will personally resolve, earning her thanks. Pulling her close, Edward tries to steer her away from Kimblee and nearly reveals the man's history as a killer in Ishval, but the memory of Hawkeye also recalling his feelings for Winry leaves him too rattled to speak, and he mutters the periodic table to steady himself while Winry quietly wonders why she loves such a strange boy. Captain Buccaneer shows off his own heavy Mad Bear prosthetic before Winry heads off to tour the fortress workshop, and Kimblee tells Edward it is time to talk business.

Locked in his cell under the watch of Zampano and Jerso, Alphonse works out that Kimblee means to keep the brothers apart and is using Winry as leverage, so he resolves to wait for an opening. At a fresh, hidden mouth of the underground passage, Olivier Armstrong sends Buccaneer, Henschel, Karley and a handful of soldiers down to search and recover; Buccaneer asks that the way be sealed if they fail to return within a day. Armstrong privately tells her officers that Raven's death was hers to answer for and orders them to pin the blame on her alone should anyone investigate. Deep in the tunnel the team finds slaughtered horses, dismembered comrades and metal cleanly sliced apart, then two shaking survivors who beg them to kill every lamp because light draws the shadow. The eye-covered darkness slides across the wall toward them but abruptly withdraws, pulled away by something else, and the group retreats.

In Central, Mustang buys information from the flower seller, learning that defense-minded Briggs will need the offensive strength of the eastern forces; when he asks who she is, she answers only that her family has served the Armstrongs for generations. At the Fuhrer's residence, Hawkeye delivers documents and feels a hostile presence at her back, spinning to find young Selim Bradley, who mistook her for his father. Mrs. Bradley dotes on the boy and mentions he is a distant relation on her husband's side, which stuns Hawkeye, since Mustang told her that King Bradley is an artificial being with no true kin. The earlier sensation and this contradiction point to one answer, and Selim confirms it by rising from the shadows. He offers to spare her because she kept her weapon holstered, provided she stays silent, then lets his darkness pour out and names himself the first homunculus, Pride. At Briggs, Kimblee informs Edward that the Fuhrer has ordered the boy to help hunt Scar and Marcoh in the north and to inscribe a Crest of Blood into the fortress.

The chapter's spine is the exposure of Pride: Hawkeye's chance meeting with Selim Bradley, the slip about his family ties, and his emergence as the eldest homunculus who now holds her secret. Alongside that, Winry's arrival is shown to be a trap meant to split the Elrics, the tunnel expedition confirms a lethal presence stalking Briggs from below, and Kimblee finally hands Edward his marching orders to track Scar and Marcoh and scar the fortress with a Crest of Blood.

Kimblee's kind words to Winry are half-truths that hide his standing order to kill her parents, a task Scar completed just before he could reach them. The chapter also marks the debut of a redesigned automail set for Edward, visibly different from his earlier limbs. As a minor gag, Mustang's cover purchase of flowers while chatting with the seller runs him 35,200 cenz.