The story continues with the Elric brothers accompanied by Major Armstrong to find his mechanic for the fix of his automail arm and leg. Granny Pinako and Winry try their best to finish the fix within three days since the brothers are rushing to return to the Central. It gives them some time to take a break and Edward uses this opportunity to visit his mother's grave. This follows with the story of Elric's brothers' past told by Granny Pinako.
After they leave their hometown, they take the first train in the morning to go to the Central. Major Armstrong leaves the Elric brothers to 2nd Lieutenant Maria Ross and Sergeant Denny Brosh to escort the brothers to the National Central Library. Unfortunately, a mysterious fire occurs few days before their arrival, which burns all the books in the library. In the meantime, the headquarter is searching for Scar in order to solve the case as soon as possible. On the other hand, Lust tells Gluttony about her discovery during her trip and she managed to destroy the documents for the philosopher's stone before the arrival of the Elric brothers.
However, the requested documents seem do not exist in the library catalog and the library staff suggested to the Elric brothers to ask Miss Seska for further details. Miss Seska confirms the existence of the documents before the fire. Apparently, Miss Seska is a bookworm and she remembers every word in the documents and compiles the entire contents for them.
Alchemist documents have their own codes to prevent ordinary people to gain the knowledge and also to avoid from the wrong purpose. They need some knowledge but a lot of patience to decode the documents. After ten days, they able to break the code but shocked with their discovery. When Major Armstrong knows the truth, it reminds Edward of Mr. Marcoh's words - the truth behind the truth. Among four alchemic research institutes, there is one which is suspicious and located beside the prison which probably provides the raw material to create the philosopher's stone. Ignoring Major Armstrong's advice, they sneak out and investigate the building by themselves. This leads the brothers to battle against the guardsmen with the name 66 and 48, respectively. Both have an interesting background but similar physical experience with Al. Will the brothers have the chance to learn the real story behind the human experiment?
Rating: ★★★★
Previous volume: Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 2 (Fullmetal Alchemist #2).
More reviews can be found on Goodreads: Fullmetal Alchemist Vol. 3 (Fullmetal Alchemist #3).