Chapter 13: Quills and Pencils

"No, I don't." Huang Fei responded.

"Then how do you know what PTSD is?" Sarah asked.

"I take it you have memories of a past life then. The answer is simple. I looked at someone's memories, in fact, it's the person in that room, his name is Alphonse." Huang Fei answered. Sarah became shocked.

"For how long has he had them?" Sarah asked.

"Eight years, coming in on nine. It's incredible the personality didn't take over him." Huang Fei said lightly. "I have a question for you, what age do you mentally think you are?" Huang Fei asked.

"That's a hard question... Intelligence wise, 15 in the modern era... Maturity wise 15... But because of how the memories affect me I still feel the same about myself... I feel like a nine-year-old... It's strange, but the memories don't feel like they're mine, it's like if you read a book, you take away from the main characters experiences and use them to make yourself smarter or more mature, or maybe you just so happen to learn new information from that book, it's like that, but on a bigger scale." Sarah explained.

"Intriguing... It was similar for Alphonse as well as far as I can tell... I did quite literally go into his memories, so of course, I would know..." Huang Fei said, almost mumbling as Alphonse walked out from the patient's room.

"Will I be going back soon?" Alphonse asked quietly. Huang Fei nodded.

"Alphonse, time to go back." Xiao Shi said as he entered the alchemist's building. Alphonse walked over to Xiao Shi and nodded. "I'll lead you to your home, memorize the way here and back by your third appointment." Xiao Shi said.

"I should leave as well..." Sarah said as she started to walk away.

(6th moon, 1st day, 459 Lu.)

Alphonse slowly got up as he looked around. 'I'm feeling better than yesterday...' He thought to himself as he heard a knock on his door. Alphonse stood up and got off of his bed as he stretched a bit, then walked towards the door. He opened the door and saw Sarah.

"How'd you sleep?" She asked.

"I didn't." Alphonse responded.

"Well, anyway, I have been assigned to teach you kanji, so I'll be here everyday to teach you..." Sarah said.

"Oh..." Alphonse said.

"I know you're probably angry with me... I want to say this now... I'm sorry. I didn't realize just how much my words hurt." Sarah said sheepishly as she avoided eye contact.

"The words aren't what hurt, it's what they reminded me of that hurt." Alphonse said.

"Right... Still, I'm sorry... Anyway, do you know English?" Sarah asked as she regained her composure.

'Ye- Wait, how do you know about English?" Alphonse asked.

"I have past life memories as well, and that life was in the future." Sarah said.

"Oh, like me then." Alphonse said. "I know how to read and write English, but I have no experience with kanji." Alphonse said.

"Alright, for now, we will just make translated scrolls for you so you can train while I am teaching you to read kanji." Sarah stated.

"Seems like a good plan... But why are you so nice all of a sudden?" Alphonse asked. An embarrassed expression appeared on Sarah's face.

"I... I realized what I did and said is wrong, that's all... What happened due to your father was your father's fault, that is what I learned from my memories..." Sarah said. Alphonse motioned for Sarah to enter as he moved towards the table. Sarah entered the building with a small bag and closed the door.

Sarah walked to the table and placed the bag on it. "Am I learning first, or are the translations being done first?" Alphonse asked.

"I'll tell you what to write, you write it in English on this scroll." Sarah said as she pulled a scroll out of her bag. Sarah handed the scroll to Alphonse along with ink and a paintbrush. "Unfortunately they have yet to invent pencils." She said.

"Don't ask why, but I know how to make pencils..." Alphonse said.

"How quickly can you get one made?" Sarah asked.

"Depends on the materials available, I know a few ways." Alphonse said.

"What materials are you able to make it with?" Sarah asked.

"A stick, coal coke, some kind of adhesive, a small piece of metal about the size of pencil lead, the process is a bit complex, it would take a day or two, and that's assuming we can even find coal." Alphonse said.

"Coal shouldn't be that uncommon, but what about graphite, isn't that necessary for a pencil?" Sarah asked.

"That's what the coal is for. You can turn coal into coal coke. With coal coke I can make graphite through a high-temperature process, which I will likely need help with." Alphonse explained.

"Just what kind of person were you?" Sarah asked.

"A normal one." Alphonse responded.

"I don't believe that... What kind of person just memorizes the way to make a pencil?" Sarah asked.

"Everybody has their own interests." Alphonse said as he shrugged. "Anyway, we would have to make an airless furnace, which basically means a furnace without an outside breeze, misleading name, right?" Alphonse said.

"Alright, well since that'll take a while, we will have to start today with paintbrush and ink." Sarah said.

"Wait, Maybe not." Alphonse said.

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.

"Quills are easy to get and make, we just need a bird and a knife, after that, any adjustments I may want are easy to make." Alphonse said.

"I have seen plenty of birds around here, so getting a feather shouldn't be hard... Plus we will save money on ink... It'll take time out of the lesson, but it would be more efficient to write with something like that, so let's go get a bird." Sarah said hesitantly.

"I'll go get a bird and pluck its feather." Alphonse said as he exited the building. After a few minutes, Alphonse came back with a few feathers, each of them is white.

"That was unnervingly fast." Sarah said. Alphonse didn't respond to what Sarah said in the slightest.

"do you have a knife?" Alphonse asked. Sarah looked in her bag and grabbed a sheathed dagger out.

"Will this work?" She asked. Alphonse nodded and grabbed the dagger. After a few moments of cutting the end of the feather, Alphonse held the feather up and looked at it.

"Done." He said.

"Already?" Sarah asked. Alphonse nodded.

"It's really easy, I told you that already." Alphonse said dully as he slid the ink tray to his right and opened the scroll leaving rectangular stones on the top and bottom of it.

Sarah began reading off the instructions and Alphonse wrote them in English. The technique is several pages long with directions drawn as pictures here and there as well as several diagrams.

Alphonse wrote the words and fit all the directions on two scrolls, separated into sections, each page, and what is supposed to be on a diagram. When including the diagrams and drawings the directions come out to five scrolls.

Alphonse's handwriting isn't amazing, but it's better than it was in his previous life and looks decent. "It's time to practice kanji." Sarah said as she pulled out a new scroll. Alphonse set the scroll he was writing on previously to the side, letting the ink dry and was handed a new scroll with two rectangular stones.

Sarah walked over to the same side as Alphonse, then began to write a few kanji for Alphonse to copy. The characters Sarah showed are the characters for person, fire, and inside.