Wakare no Gishiki - Summary
Wakare no Gishiki begins with a flashback of Hughes and Mustang, (presumably) not long after the Ishbalan war. Hughes visits Roy and finds him depressed, with his apartment in disarray and covered with alchemic symbols and crowded with buckets of blood. Mustang tells Hughes that it is for research into forbidden alchemy, but assures him that he hasn't practiced any of it. Hughes asks if he was planning to, and Mustang replies that he feels guilty for killing so many people during the war. Hughes replies that it was war, and that if Mustang didn't want to kill people, he shouldn't have become a State Alchemist, and that bringing the people he killed back to life wouldn't save him. He tells Mustang that if he wants to kill himself, there are easier ways to do it, and Mustang replies that he is too much of a coward to attempt the forbidden alchemy, anyway. But he has an idea for how to make the life he has left useful. Hughes asks Roy to tell him more about it.

Hughes is woken up by Sciezka and a visitor, Fuhrer Bradley. Bradley asks Hughes what he is investigating, and Hughes answers that he is looking further into the events behind Laboratory Five. Bradley asks if he is unsatisfied with the conclusion his own investigation came to, and Hughes tells him that he is, because he believes that there is still a conspiracy to create a Philosopher's Stone within the military. He receives permission for the Fuhrer to investigate further, and, at Hughes' request, the Fuhrer's secretary, Juliet Douglas, arranges for Dr. Marcoh to be brought back to Central for Hughes to question. The Fuhrer informs Hughes that only Juliet knows where Marcoh is, to prevent his location from being revealed should the Fuhrer ever be captured and tortured for information.

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