FMAB/JJK

He swiped through the thick history book with amusement written on his features.

Father had spoken theoretically about alternate worlds—worlds that were barred from other beings by the gatekeeper, simply known as Truth.

That he would be the first being to experience it among his siblings was an amusing thought. Then again, he was the only one with the mental capacity to be interested in the physics and the impossibility of it.

He doubted if Greed and Sloth were in his shoes, if they would’ve had enough brain cells between themselves to figure out they were on another earth.

With a flick, the pages moved. An earth where there was no Truth to judge and control. No Father to hover and order. None of those pesky state alchemists to bother and hide from.

No, this brave new uncharted world was for him and him alone. As it should be as the oldest homunculus and the insidious sin of—

“What’re you still doing here, brat!”

He stared up at his older cousin with a scowl. Toji Zenin. The stupid human stared down at him from its disgustingly tall height with a smirk and a still-healing scar on his lips.

He should’ve taken an eye but unfortunately, the annoying state alchemists were replaced with a more spiritually inclined version on this new alternate earth.

Jujutsu Sorcerers.

And like with his past life, he was unfortunate enough to be cursed with the presence of siblings, even if this particular one was just an older cousin.

“You can’t kill me with your eyes, gaki.”

“You can’t blame me for trying,” he replied with a sigh before closing the book and standing up. The walk to the shelf he had taken the book from was a short one, and he was trailed by the human.

“Your father has been looking for you,” his older cousin spoke from behind him.

“Tragic,” he replied uncaringly as he kept on walking after placing the book, his cousin trailing behind him continuously.

The man who claimed to be his father in this world was nothing but a temporary receptacle to his vessel. He did not care about the man and even less about the woman that carried his essence.

There was only one person he could’ve referred to as mother.

He didn’t particularly care about maintaining the facade he had in his past life. He had experienced the fleeting sensation of having a family. It was short, but that was the thing about human lives—they were particularly fragile insects.

“So what’re you doing now?” his cousin asked.

He had to strangle the urge to kill the older teen. His shadow had already shaped itself instinctively to spear the teen through his heart, and using the scarlet eyes that formed on it, he could see his cousin smile in response.

Waiting and anticipating.

That was what let him know it was a wasted effort. His cousin was fast. Faster than those rebellious, obstinate Xing assassins.

Faster than Bradley at his peak.

No, if he wanted to squash the annoying yet stupidly strong monkey that was his cousin, brute force was not the way.

He was not going to bash his head down that wall; doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result was madness, and he was not his siblings.

“Going to read more books,” he replied quickly the moment his shadow eyes saw his cousin raise his hand to slap the back of his head.

The stupid monkey was just as strong as he was fast.

Hopefully, the idea of staying in the clan library for longer than five minutes would be enough to send the older teen scurrying back to the training ground to continue his favorite activity: beating down the older clan members with the weak excuse of a spar.

“I’ve got something better in mind,” the teen replied with a grin, before snatching him up by the scruff of his neck, faster than his eyes could track.

Damn this human body he was reborn with.

“Unhand me this instant, you overgrown ape! I have better things to do, like revolutionizing sorcery and rediscovering the secret of immortality. I do not have time for—”

His words were drowned out as they blurred away in a series of high-speed movements with temporary stops where they slowed down at sharp corners. If he were any other person, the sheer g-force of the movement would’ve broken something.

The moment they stopped and he was let go, he dropped to his knees and continued to curse his cousin; unfortunately, the stupid lump of meat and bones that was his body was forced to hunch over, trying to recover from the torture, so he had to make do with cursing him and his lineage internally.

He could not wait to finalize and experiment on his theories; he had grown tired of this mortal body and all its inefficiency.

“What do you think?”

He looked up to realize they were in a private booth in what sounded like a stadium, judging by the amount of jeers and cheers that could be heard from around.

He took steps to the edge of the booth before tipping on his toes to see what was happening down there.

He was suddenly lifted and placed on his cousin’s shoulder; despite his softly uttered curses, he was not ignorant of how comfortable the new position was.

He held on to the black hair and stared down. There were horses in stables pawing at the ground, huffing and puffing as they strained at their reins, wishing to be let loose.

“Pretty cool, don’t you think? Ever been to a horse race?”

“No,” Selim replied, his focus on the horses.

“Which one do you think would win? I have money on the black one. The number 4.”

He shifted his attention to the one his cousin pointed out. It was a beautiful black horse, with a well-cared-for mane and powerfully built muscles. Yet that was not all. He might not have ever been to a horse race, but he knew them more than most.

Having owned and reared some over his multiple centuries of life before the invention of the more modern means of transportation. That was how he knew the horse was going to lose.

“You’re dumb; you should’ve bet on the brown one, number 8.”

It was not as big as the black one, with a somewhat patchy mane and rough look in general. But its eyes were bloodshot. It pawed at the ground restlessly and huffed and grunted aggressively.

It was drugged. Doped on something; it was not hard to realize this was a fixed race. Not that his cousin had the experience to figure that out.

“What? It looks—”

His cousin was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot and the release of the horses.

As he expected, the black huge stallion shot ahead first, gaining solid ground before starting to flag. The brown-coated horse charged past it aggressively, uncaring of the strain on its body, simply shooting forward like a spear let loose by a giant.

The moment it crossed the finish line, it stumbled and crashed to the floor, foaming and grunting in pain.

Which was well within his expectations; he doubted the people who drugged it cared much for its life expectancy. He expected it to be put to rest before the end of the day.

His cousin lifted him from his shoulder to drop him back to the floor before squatting to look him in the eye with a grin so sharp that Greed would’ve been jealous of it.

“What do you think about making some money with me, kid?”

He realized with despair the trap he had fallen into. “I refuse,” he stated adamantly with an upturned nose at the older teen. Maybe if he shut it down ruthlessly, he would escape the grasp of the teen.

“I shall not be a party to such uncouth—” He was interrupted once more by a set of thick arms that lifted him by his armpit before throwing him up only to catch him a second later.

“I knew I could count on you, brat.”

“Unhand me this instant, you freakish muscle-bound—!”

A/N. Just a snippet. Not seen FMAB in years but the idea while working today and didn’t leave till I wrote this on the spot. Btw if it wasn’t obvious (which means I did a horrible job. This is aPride reborn in the Zenin clan crossover.)

The next chapter of CE should be out in a couple of hours, now that I’m done with this brain bug.