Conflict at Baschool

Still rattled by the truth about Selim Bradley, Riza Hawkeye briefly mistakes her own dog for Pride the moment she gets home. Mustang telephones her under the guise of a flower vendor to gauge how she is holding up, though she brushes off his concern. Out in the field, Miles briefs Kimblee and his men that Scar has probably gone to ground in the abandoned mining settlement of Baschool, dividing everyone into search teams. Darius and Heinkel attach themselves to the Elrics, who slip away using a staged report and a fake wall raised through alchemy. By sheer chance, May Chang stumbles onto the boys' hideout, and reunions stack up as Dr. Marcoh, his face surgically changed, and the schemer Yoki both turn up.

Yoki recounts his long slide into ruin after Edward tricked him out of the Youswell deed with counterfeit gold, a fall that included a lost fortune at a casino and a disastrous break-in at the Armstrong estate. Ed lays out what he has since pieced together about crafting a Philosopher's Stone, the buried history of Amestris, and the strange defect in the country's alchemy, which is why the brothers were chasing alkahestry. Elsewhere Scar clashes with Jerso and Zampano, who shed their human shapes into full chimera forms; the Elrics arrive, and Ed neutralizes Jerso's pinning saliva by transmuting it into ice. Scar then discovers he can no longer decompose Ed's cold-hardened automail, and Winry's sudden appearance lets the boys wrestle him down just as Miles and his squad move in for the arrest. Deep under Fort Briggs, Buccaneer's group escapes the mine tunnel only because Armstrong slipped the sealing crew a stopped watch, after which a military delegation arrives demanding she account for the missing Raven. A blast tears through the building, and Scar reappears on the rooftop with Winry held hostage.

The episode draws on Chapter 71, Chapter 72, and Chapter 73. The pattern behind its title card comes from the Dragon's Pulse tattoo running along Scar's arm. Although Yoki had been left out until this point, he is granted a nearly five-minute flashback packed with new scenes of his misfortunes. This served as the closing episode of the third season. In the Japanese track Jerso and Zampano keep their normal voices while transformed, but the dub layered effects over them that make Zampano occasionally hard to follow.