Episode 01 - One Who Challenges The Sun

February, Continental Year 1910, Rizenbul Village

It's a stormy night. Young Ed draws a transmutation circle on the floor as young Al looks on. When it's done, they bend down and begin a transmutation, but something goes wrong and they scream out. Winry and her grandmother go to the door of their house in surprise, and a cloaked Roy also hears the scream. Inside the house, Ed shrieks at the loss of his arm, and sees something moving inside the transmutation circle...

Present Time, Desert

Ed drags himself along the ground and flops down in the heat, wondering where Al is. A large armoured hand emerges from below the sand and seizes his ankle. Ed yells at Al, admonishes him and kicks him. All the sand that got inside Al falls out and buries Ed. Ed gets mad and chases Al in circles.

Present Time, Lior City

Ed and Al walk through the city; Ed complains of thirst. He sees a fountain and almost jumps into it before realising that the liquid in it is red. Al wonders if it's blood but Ed tells him it's wine and scoops some into a cup. He's grabbed from behind by someone who tells him children aren't allowed to use the fountain. It turns out that it's a stallholder, who takes them back to his stall and gives Ed a drink. Ed comments that the city must be wealthy to have a wine fountain. Suddenly, everyone in the city turns on their radios and a religious broadcast is aired. It's the High Priest of the Sun God Leto, Cornello.

The stallholder thinks Ed and Al make a weird pair and asks them if they're street performers. Ed says they're just looking for something, and asks who Cornello is. The people in the city crowd around him and tell him that Cornello is a miracle-worker and the representative of Leto, and that the city's wealth is thanks to him. Ed says he's not interested in religion and gets up to leave, but as Al stands up he dislodges the stallholder's radio which falls to the ground and breaks. Ed offers to fix it, but Al wants to do it. He transmutes the radio back to a working state and the people around are amazed, thinking it a miracle. Al tells them it was alchemy and they immediately dismiss it since it wasn't a miracle. Lust is drinking next to them and comments that the Full Metal Alchemist is quite famous around East City. The people think that the FMA must be Al, but he says it's not him, and they call Ed small. Ed gets mad and beats them up.

Rose has been buying offerings for Leto and turns up. Ed and Al introduce themselves and she takes them to stay at the church of Leto. The townspeople mention some tragedy involving Rose. As Ed, Al and Rose walk to the church Ed tells Al that he recognised the woman at the stall (Lust). Rose assures the brothers that they will find what they're looking for, and that Ed will get taller if he prays. Ed gets mad at Rose.

Cornello finishes his radio broadcast and Rose comes into the room to tell him about Ed and Al. Cornello tells her that there needs to be more time before a miracle can happen.

Rose stands in front of a grave in the churchyard. Ed and Al are watching from a window. Al tells Ed that it is the grave of her boyfriend, who died in an accident, and that after he died she went to Cornello since she had no relatives. Al says that the people believe the dead can return to life because they have an indestructible soul which can be resurrected. Ed says that it all sounds fake.

Cornello stands in the city square demonstrating his miracles by turning small things into huge statues. Ed and Al agree that it's alchemy, but wonder how the law of equivalent value is being broken. Rose insists that since the law doesn't seem to apply it must be a miracle. A small girl brings a dead bird to Cornello and he reanimates it.

In the church, Cornello tells a large accountant, Cray, that Ed was named a State Alchemist when he was 12, that he is a dog of the military and that he, Cornello, must protect his people. Cray says that he serves God's will. After Cray has left the room, Cornello thanks a shadowed Lust for telling him about Ed.

Rose is cleaning the altar and Ed asks her if she believes the dead will come back to life if she serves God without question. She says yes and Ed reads out the list of elemental composition of an average adult human body. He tells Rose that scientists haven't been able to create a living human body even after centuries of research and that he trusts that work more than prayer. Rose accuses Ed of blasphemy. Ed comments on the irony of alchemists, who are scientists and hence don't believe in God, being closest to God. Rose tells him he is not God, and Ed says that the sun is not a god either.

At that moment, Al, who has been watching around the doorway, is seized from behind by Cray. His head rolls off and into the room. Cray accuses Ed of being an enemy of God and points a gun at him. Al's body stands up and complains at Cray. Cray is surprised. Ed picks up Al's head and throws it at Cray's head, and Al catches it on the rebound. Rose is scared. Al shows her that he has nothing inside the armour and explains that this is punishment for violating the taboo of human transmutation. Rose runs away thinking that they are the enemies of God, and the brothers follow her to a room where they stand on the ground and she is on a balcony. Cornello turns up and stands next to Rose. Ed knows Cornello has the Philosopher's Stone and asks for it. Cornello holds up a hand with a ring containing the stone, and talks about how he rescued the city from ruin and brought it riches. He won't hand over the stone to Ed.

Cornello accuses Ed of being on the orders of the military, and is surprised when Ed says he doesn't care about the military. Rose accuses Ed of wanting to take away the hope of the city. Cornello transmutes the floor that the brothers are standing on to sand, and Al is buried in it. Cornello tells Ed that he can't draw a transmutation circle in the sand and releases an alchemy-synthesized chimera. Ed transmutes the sand to make a spear without using a circle. Cornello is surprised but transmutes his parrot into a giant one and sets it on Ed. The parrot breaks Ed's spear and grabs his leg, but it's his metal leg so he just kicks it off and then punches it away using his metal arm. The chimera runs up behind Ed and grabs his arm, chewing on it, but that was made of metal too so he kicks the chimera as well. Lust, watching in another room, points out Ed to Gluttony.

Ed tears off his mangled shirt and makes Rose look at the result of human transmutation. Cornello realises that this is where he got his title of Full Metal Alchemist.