Chapter 7: Laws of Heaven and Earth

Just as prism said, after around two and a half hours, a knock was heard on Alphonse's door. As Alphonse's meditative focus broke, he stretched a bit, attempting to get some extra blood flow in his limbs.

Slowly Alphonse stood and began walking to his door. "Who is it?" He asked.

"It... It's me." Sarah responded with slight hesitation. Alphonse opened the door slightly and looked through the crack.

"What do you need?" He asked. Despite her calm and collected face, Alphonse could tell shew as hesitant to speak even a word of what she is about to say.

"Sorry, but... I asked your mom about what happened to you... I... I knew a small amount, but it was nothing compared to all the new information I have..." Sarah said with heavy pauses as if continuously thinking about her phrasing. Alphonse responded by opening the door a bit more, revealing the rest of his face.

"How much... Did she tell you?" He asked, while both trying to avoid and maintain eye contact. Subconsciously, Alphonse already knew what she was told, but he wasn't sure if he was truly ready to face all of the information at once.

"She said she told us everything she knew... Certain parts, such as when you were alone with your fa- Raeloph... She doesn't know anything about..." Sarah said.

"So she told Min Li to?" Alphonse asked in the same manner as before.

"How did you-?" Sarah started.

"You said the word 'us'..." Alphonse interrupted. "Anyway... There was nothing for you to apologize about, I never said it was a secret, and even if it was, my mother wouldn't have known. In all honesty... I never thought I'd leave that house..." Alphonse said with a slight amount of gloom to his tone in the last sentence as the door opened the rest of the way.

Sarah suddenly threw herself at Alphonse as she gave him a tight hug, Alphonse didn't even have any time to react to her movements. Unsure of what to do, Alphonse just stood there, slightly dumbfounded. After a few moments, Sarah's grip loosened a bit, but not fully.

"What... Er... Why did you hug me so suddenly?" Alphonse asked in confusion.

"I... Just felt like it..." Sarah responded warmly.

'Somehow... That doesn't seem like a real answer...' Alphonse thought to himself. After a few more moments, Sarah released her grip entirely and stepped back with a warm, gentle smile.

"May I... Come inside?" Sarah asked.

"... Sure..." Alphonse said hesitantly. Alphonse moved to the side as Sarah walked in. Soon enough, they were both sitting at the table silently, drinking tea. After a few extra moments, Alphonse looked at Sarah. "So... Was there something you wanted to talk about?" Alphonse asked.

Sarah shook her head. "I just thought it might be nice to have some company for a while." She responded.

"I guess sometimes..." Alphonse said. "In psychology, they say that the personality is defined by seven or eight years old..." Alphonse said in an attempt to make conversation. "It might've been philosophy though..." Alphonse said as a clarifier.

"I wouldn't know which, all I know about psychology are a few major names, and the same goes for philosophy..." Sarah responded. "Why bring it up?" She asked.

"A person's mind is fragile, even small things can affect it in major ways... So what kind of effect would reincarnation have on a personality?" Alphonse asked though the last part was almost mumbled.

"That's... A good question, actually..." Sarah said as she went into contemplation.

"Reincarnation, usually, is just the soul moving from one body to another, but in our case, we kept our memories. I would guess that it only has an effect if you retain your memories, and how big that effect is dependant on the strength of your mind, but that could be totally wrong..." Alphonse thought out loud.

"Perhaps it depends on the type of reincarnation... As far as I am aware, there are three. The first is, you reincarnate without memories, the next is you reincarnate with memories, but the memories and personality take over the body, and the third is what happened to us, we get the memories, but the personality doesn't take over, we remain as the same person we were previously. What if the type of reincarnation is determined before birth?" Sarah posited

"Well, that makes me wonder, does everyone reincarnate?" Alphonse asked.

"In accordance with the laws of heaven and earth, everyone reincarnates unless they begin the path of cultivation since they go against heaven's will." Sarah said.

"But those laws were created by a theory made by a person, and remember, people, are fallible. What if it's actually the case that there are certain requirements that you must satisfy in order to reincarnate, and from there it determines whether or not you keep your memories and such." Alphonse responded.

"I'm... Having a hard time keeping up..." Sarah said as a small headache formed in her head.

"Nevermind then..." Alphonse said as he went into contemplation. After a few moments, Alphonse looked back at Sarah. "Do you... wish you were in your past life's time period?" Alphonse asked. Sarah as caught off guard by the sudden question and jumped a little.

"Erm... Sometimes... I mean, the technology is convenient, but everyone I know is here and now." Sarah said. "I would definitely have a hard time deciding amongst the past and future, but overall... I would stay here, in this time..." Sarah said with several pauses.

"If the technology was convenient, then why not create it here?" Alphonse asked.

"Because that would mess with the timeline, who knows what kind of effect that would have on the future..." Sarah said.

"I already told you, didn't I?" Alphonse asked though Sarah's response was just a confused expression. "There are several inventions in this time period that shouldn't exist... This time period will be forgotten, so it doesn't matter." Alphonse elaborated.

"So we can bring science and technology to this era and it'll be fine!?" Sarah asked as she stood up excitedly. Alphonse nodded after jumping back slightly.

"For some things, we may need to find a replacement, but that should be fine..." He said.

"You... You're willing to help, right?" Sarah asked.

"I don't mind, but we both still need to train... So... We should start working on it at a later date..." Alphonse said as he avoided eye contact slightly.

"Okay! I'll train a bit at my place, after all, we can't do much if we don't get stronger!" Sarah said excitedly as she got up to leave.

"Alright, I'll be training here..." Alphonse said lightly with a quiet sigh at the end. 'I don't get this... I am both happy and slightly sad she is leaving this building...' Alphonse thought to himself.

{Analysis: It would seem that you are starting to accept your own emotions. Would you like a deeper analysis?} Prism asked.

'No.' Alphonse answered immediately.