Hatching (before battle)
So, what do you think, Yoshihide? This concept is called "Minimalism."
A bold removal of the unnecessary for the preservation of the essence.
As you must be aware, the human corpus has far too many non-essential parts which harm the purity of it.
I'm scared...
Father... Where... are you...
Dad...
This is just too cruel... I don't wanna see it...!
.......
Yoshihide, that is because you are focusing only on the present. Allow yourself to look beyond the subject's momentary suffering - and there you will discover the perpetuity of the structure we will shape from it.
Let us review. The simplicity with which a straight line sunders is a primordial form of structuralism.
I will raise you as a precious pupil of mine, a companion to all of my future artwork. So please, Yoshihide - follow along with my classes.
To reveal the beautiful, original form of the human corpus to the world, the skin must be removed, and the spine severed. That approach, however, runs the risk of being far too safe with the composition.
After all, art is a culmination of moments and choices, and the suffering therein... Yoshihide, will you impart your impression of this piece, how it appears in your eyes...?
I'd say my tastes lean closer to...
... the appreciation of the negative space. Not this kind of butchershop job.
Butchershop, Yoshihide? I was simply hoping to replicate the striking visual imagery of Fauvism.
Nngh... Do you have any idea who I am?! I'm - I'm - !
Her squealing's getting... real grating.
I prefer my canvases quiet.
Ah, you are finally enlightened enough to engage with me in a discourse of tastes.
I'm so happy, Yoshihide...
Perhaps you will evolve beyond simply learning the art movements created by the other Maestros of the Ring, and...
... found an art movement of your own someday.
How I miss those days.
Nngh...
While we certainly had conflicting subjectivities when it came to our tastes... I helped to form the structure and the intellectual framework through which Yoshihide's unique aesthetic sense and her exceptional eye for artistic beauty could thrive.
Alyssa...!
.......
Agh... nngh... It... hurts... so much...
I am not fond of people like her who let their emotions get the better of them.
Most of them have... fragile, thin bones that break far too easily.
True strength comes in the form of agility and the patience to find an opening.
The body does not lie, after all.
Refer to my manikins for more elaboration on that subject. But I've already expounded enough upon the core of the matter.
... It's about whether... all of their senses are alive...
Precisely.
I suppose you have had the opportunity to enjoy a similar piece of artwork elsewhere? I'll admit, this approach is rather archetypal.
Ah...
Apologies, everyone. Let me continue.
... More manikins incoming. Prepare for battle.
Dammit...
Sinclair, listen. Let's just... focus on the mission, okay?
Don't look down, don't look away - look ahead.
B-but...
I know exactly what you're reliving. I was right there with you, in that village where that horrible carol was playing, where Effie was...
But... that's behind us now. It's over - what's done is done. There's no undoing it like the way Dante rewinds the clock.
Maestro, may I share some of the remaining ingredient with Fascia? She'll be happy.
You may, Albina.
Hnngh...
It's time... to leave that burning village, Sinclair.
Let's leave that painful memory in the past.
The past...
What sparked your wrath?
Please, do tell. What caused you to run headlong into this premature death?
Why...
If you were just after the Golden Bough, why...
... did you have to kill them?
Ah, camaraderie. Even your motivation is ugly.
To ask "why" the House of Spiders hunts is akin to asking someone why they exist.
I do not get angry. Anger makes things drab and monotonous. So, I will now proceed to elevate you into artistic completion.
... What a meaningful piece of art. Truly.
Pardon?
But if I were to add a few words of advice...
I think your work is rather uninspired.
.......
Hohenheim, what are you -
.......
Right. I'll use the Ampule on Faust and get her back on her feet if I can find an opening. The manager has to be... occupied with something else.
Though I may not look the part, I like to think I have seen far beyond my share of corpses.
It's nothing to be proud of, but I've spent years at a company full of these... "Abnormalities."
Many of which employed methods of killing my fellow staff that showed far greater artistic merit and depth than anything you have prepared here.
Let me think... ah, of course.
There was this employee who took on the role of the protagonist, staging quite a poignant play.
Their role was to slit the throat of the Captain they respected most, parade their lifeless torso around for 2 hours, and confess their sins to whomever they came across.
I watched the play from beginning to end, comforted only by the fact that I was never really that close with that individual. Because once a play had begun, the audience had to watch it to its curtain call.
You... have my attention.
Is there something you would like to impart about this... artwork I am working on?
A few things.
One, you're not making full use of your medium.
What you show me now is no different from one of those cursory autopsy reports I can find lying around in my office.
Your work can be boiled down to simply cutting open a corpus and rearranging its organs in neat order. I do recall, quite vaguely, some Abnormalities with neither originality nor creativity - much like this piece you're working on.
.......
And you've drained too much blood, far more than what is necessary. That limits the spectrum of color in your piece.
On a more positive note, the element I found most compelling upon closer inspection was the contrasting duet of veins and arteries. It is the kind of expression achievable only through a refined understanding of the human anatomy and its workings.
Ah...!
So you noticed it after all! That detail alone demanded more than 3 days of devoted labor, yet it failed to resonate with any audience - even with Albina!
Every artist craves the understanding of others. Art for art's sake is without meaning.
Yes, yes. That is what I was here for. To create a revolutionary artwork, something to move people... and to observe them.
But the others were still so attached to their hollow ambitions and ties to the secular world that they did not even pretend to understand my creations...
I have harsh words especially for Valencina, for always pickling her body in alcohol, stumbling into my space and almost destroying my work.
As for Rien... he is merely a self-inflicted imitation - no more than a simulacrum that mimics, at the behest of the Prescript, the fate of a certain Fixer in the Library...
Fuhu... I suppose I've gotten ahead of myself in all this excitement. Please do excuse my faux pas.
Returning to the subject at hand... If you were to work on this piece, how would you add the missing artistic element?
... The fasciculus of humans, when desiccated in an oxygen-deprived environment for days, begins to emanate a faint glow.
Perhaps you could use that as half-decent decoration.
Another thing - don't trap yourself in a box thinking that macabre violence and the exhibition thereof is all there is to art. Make your art tell a story that is unique to you.
An example:
While the rest of my body is unremarkable, I am the individual with the most remarkably genius brain in this company.
How about this? Split open my skull to reveal the brain underneath, and let that be your finishing touch. I hear that knowledge and the number of folds in one's brain have a direct correlation. This would be a good opportunity for me to observe that.
As you must be aware, compared to other organs, the brain is highly complex and fickle to work with. I assure you, it will be a good challenge.
Yes, I agree... the harder the material is to work with, the more exciting it becomes when I've finally tamed it as my own...
Now... Come closer, and speak your name to me.
... Hohenheim.
I have never been so ashamed of my own name.
S-stop, Mister Hohenheim...
W-what are you even trying to do?
We're all too hurt to do anything. Faust, Ishmael, and me...
Well... my best, I suppose.
But -
I am well aware. My gear and weapon are... utterly inadequate to defeat a man of such strength.
But what matters is that I am determined to never regret anything, ever again.
Besides, there are moments when gambling may yield a rather fascinating outcome.
Remember... at the check-up? My placement in your scale of power was...
I... I'm just not strong enough... I can't turn this situation around...
Stop thinking in numbers. Forget those rankings.
One may come to mistake numbers as the ultimate truth of the world, as something that interweaves both rationality and analysis; however, the numbers themselves are but conduits by which we may physically realize and translate the abstract into the present reality.
The present...
It is time, dear Hohenheim.
Thank you. Thank you for understanding me.
I will preserve and cherish you until the day I am gone.
Yes, and... while this may be an unnecessary concern, I would prefer it if you could avoid wearing something like that... wide-brimmed hat of yours.
Ah, this hat?
A long, long time ago, I wished to delve into the depths of the physical manifestation of my mind. Then, I realized that my skills were yet too immature to attempt such a thing... and bound it together once again.
Aha, so the hat is a kind of helmet or a brace, as the wound never fully closed...
And here I thought it was some horribly ill-conceived fashion choice.
And what significance does it bear in your present circumstance?
Well, I was hoping that...
... I should be able to inflict some degree of damage with my surprise attack.
How is it? I don't suppose you saw that coming.
It is an E.G.O called "Diffraction" - extracted from a particularly tricky Abnormality.
I'm curious if you ever learned the lesson that there's always more to reality than what meets the eye... or that the really important things are invisible to the eye.
........
Maestro!
... My amygdala is shaking. The corpus amygdaloideum is connected to the brainstem, which is involved in the brain's emotional centers.
Ah... when Yoshihide shattered that sword of mine so long ago...
... I believe I felt an emotion similar to this.
Hnngh...
This is our opening...! Faust and I are both almost healed. We can't give him any time to - agh...!
I can't let you do that. Not before we become friends.
... Ishmael! Faust!
Oh, you're the one who suddenly collapsed in the Research Facility, aren't you?
While wrath may indeed force your body to function beyond its breaking point... even that has its limits.
83% of your body has been heavily damaged. At that level, even properly wielding your weapon becomes a challenge.
The corpus works in immaculate ways indeed. Every cause and effect is crystal clear.
Dante... if you're watching... do something - please, do something...!
.......
I can't... rely on others to solve my problems... forever.
Don't leave. The others are gone - you're the only one left here to be friends with me and Fascia.
... Get off me.
There are faster ways, indeed. But I would prefer to choke the air out of him...
... because asphyxiation is the most appropriate approach to ensure that the subject suffers for as long as possible without leaving any damage to the corpus.
*choke*
And that is the Maestro's special brand of mercy.
He is demonstrating his act of creation before all of us...
Now, let us both become audience to this rare opportunity. Keep your eyes peeled to the end.
In the future, I want to be a Maestro who has surpassed even my Maestro. What are your dreams?
The future...
... Suffusing within me...
... is a scent...
A stench...
... I beg your pardon? My gallery boasts a perfect balance of temperature and humidity for the preservation of artworks. They are isolated from external contaminants at all times.
The stench that sticks... the stench of... rot...
I see...
The Smoke... was blue.