"I suppose it's good for networking."

"Hughes at least isn't too bad."

"As these people go, sure."

"Sure."

The celebration doesn't go too badly, either.

Shortly after, Akira has her first assignment - she's going to be touring military hospitals, healing old injuries for veterans. She suspects she'll be kept moving pretty quickly, and the military doesn't want her to bring her children along.

She can probably fight that, but it'd cost her good will - will El and Bellona be alright here? Hughes and Mustang by now both know about Dante, and Mustang's a good combat alchemist, if something goes wrong...

"I'm fine here. She didn't go after us."

El is suspicious that maybe she kind of did, but they can talk about that later.

"Yeah, we'll survive."

"You guys are careful, yeah."

She pats Bellona, and nods at El, and returns to getting ready for her trip.

And El and Bellona can get on with playing with the cats. And studying alchemy. And teaching September.

A part in the background of El's mind busies itself thinking about things to study that Akira would disapprove of while she's gone.

Akira, fortunately for the sanity of everyone involved around two contrary tiny geniuses, disapproves of exactly zero studying. Actually experimenting on animals (even though this is actually legal) or non-consenting humans (the law about this is vague and opaque and manages to look like it's making this illegal without actually doing that in any way that'd even remotely stop the government) without a very thoroughly explained and justified reason is a no, though.

Bellona, meanwhile, starts collecting newspapers. Apparently there's a serial killer around, targeting adult women and leaving their bodies all chopped up for people to stumble on. Bellona seems to have gotten bored, gotten a map of the city, and started plotting where the bodies were found, alongside totally-for-investigative-purposes photographs she acquired... Somehow... ("I asked Hughes and he said they weren't killed on location, and he's really at his wit's end with this investigation, but I think this guy's not actually that creative - he's got a signature thing to do with the bodies, that's stupid - so if I was a just-bright-enough serial killer... I think I can figure out where the next body's gonna be, and be first on the scene, I've got some theories about what he's doing but I need to analyze the bodies and Hughes doesn't think he'll be able to get me into the morgue...")

"Sounds like fun. How long before he kills again, do you think?"

"Hm... I think next body's going to be found day after tomorrow, but see here, there's a gap between the women going missing and their bodies turning up - he goes after a lot of middle class women so I think his current victim's this one, reported missing two days ago... If we're really good at this we can maybe get him while she's still alive - that's Hughes' hope right now, I think he wouldn't have given me this much if he wasn't out of ideas."

"Well, we won't know if we're good until we try."

"Yeah!"

"So whereabouts should we start looking?"

She points out a few locations on the map. "He probably has a truck, one people won't question being odd places at odd hours, with room to hide a body... He'll need a lot of space - either a warehouse in a less used area or somewhere insulated or a rural site for while he's holding on to the women, since neighbors are bad for him..."

"We should check around town first because that's easier for us to get to." She plots out a reasonably efficient route between the target sites.

"Yeah! Luckily I don't get tired walking..."

"Well, if it comes to going around to all the farms, we'll see how I feel."

She laughs.

Ready to head out?

Might as well.

The first few sites are a bust, but at least they're a walking distance bust. The next one's a bit farther - probably all they'll be able to hit today, even taking the bus.

There's not much, even there. A few people walking slowly or loitering about, a freezer truck with a logo for a local butcher's parked nearby, some stores close to closing, middle class house wives doing the last of the day's shopping and considering where to eat for dinner...

"...Do butchers make house calls?"

"Dunno?"

"Butcher truck'd be a pretty good cover for a killer. Insulated, mobile. Got all the tools. No one blinks if you come out blood-spattered."

"It would. And you could keep the bodies from going bad too fast, if you had some ice or a refrigerated warehouse. Wanna poke around it?"