Full Metal Alchemist 4th Episode

This is the second flashback episode in a row. Edward is going to become state alchemist. He's travelling with his younger brother Alphonse by train and they are both sad because they left their village. They're going to meet Roy, a state alchemist that visited they while Edward was ill.



When they have to stop at a station to change train, they help to capture a pickpocket, so a policeman tells them that in a village nearby there's a famous alchemist named Majihal and that now the village is haunted by zombies. Edwards remembers that he read some of his father's letters that were sent to Majihal that spoke about Human Transmutation. They decide to go and visit him.As soon as they get off the carriage they see some fireworks and they face the children that are trying them, the children's leader is a girl that wears boy clothes. Both Edward and Alphonse slip one over the other and they're saved by Majihal himself.

In his house they talk about Human Transmutation and about their father's letter and Majihal says that Human Transmutation is impossible and forbidden. After that an old woman knocks at the door and gives some jam as a gift to Majihal, after a while even the father of the children's leader arrives with his daughter named Close and apologizes for what has happened before. Close is angry because her sister was killed by a woman that should have died years ago and she runs away, Edward and Alphone chase after her till she is about to fall into a channel but Edward freeze it in time. Close informs that many young ladies have been killed by the ghost of a woman called Karin.

Edward questions Majihal about her and he narrates that she was a very beautifil woman that grew blue roses and that she died falling with her cart while she was taking them to the town to sell them. Both the children and Edward decide to go after the ghost of Karin, moreover Edward hears strange noises in Majihal's house. At the cemetery Edward and Alphonse fall into a hole dig by the boys, soon after the ghost appears and Majihal burns it with an alchemical spell, but Edward have heard the same sound he heard before. Back to Majihal's house he starts looking for an hidden door when the woman that visited the house a night ago advice him not to do that. As soon she finish her speech Edward falls into a hidden passageway and finds a room full of dolls that look like Karin. However he's hypnotized by the woman and Alphonse is hit in the back by Majihal. After that they've gained consciousness Majihal explains his intentions: since he's not able to do Human Transmutation he's started kidnapping young ladies and tried in vain to bind their soul to a doll. This is in his opinion the only way to make reborn Karin, the girl he once loved.

After the speech Close comes to thank him but she's kidnapped and chosen as a victim however the woman disagrees with him so he's knock her down. Edward and Alphonse breaks free and try to stop Majihal, first they help the woman noticing that she has a blue rose in her hair and consequently Edward realizes that she's the real Karin who had lost her memory and that after twenty years has come come back to meet her lover. When he discovers that Majihal refuses to believe it and attacks Edwards but he's killed in the fight.
Finally Close wearing girl clothes thanks both Edward and Alphonse for having saved her and says farewell to both of them.