Shelves shifted and opened, Medusa walked out from the strange door one step at a time, “Perhaps…” she dragged the word out, “I was a bit too hasty in your development.”

My mouth opened slightly, a dumb look crossed my face as I considered the implications, “Hah…?” My mind ran at full speed. For the first time in weeks, I started thinking about what I had been doing. “…What did you do?”

“I motivated you!” she answered, “Your plan was to learn how to fight, so I gave you just the right nudge that you’d think of Briggs. It was only later that I realized that Briggs was… not the place for you.”

“Not the place for…” I was Poe R.R. Acti. And in every occasion where I had encountered an authority figure, when had I ever acted in blind faith of them? Even with Urahara, I was completely unsure of his motivations and wasn’t certain about trusting him. It took his bribery to get me on his side and, even then, I’m fairly sure he found a way to screw me over… maybe… I wasn’t sure.

Joining the military was a tricky, unpleasant business that I never wanted to do. Since I was here, however, and since I had the unique and rare opportunity, I decided to take it. Originally, my plan was to learn in the east. Would it be a casual environment? Probably not, but I had the feeling it wouldn’t be nearly as harsh as its alternative.

And what was that alternative? The north, of course. Certainly I would have thought going there would be a good idea if it could benefit me, but I didn’t have allies up here. Roy, at least, knew the truth of what was happening in Amestris. Major General Armstrong… didn’t. Since I arrived here, I’d done nothing to rock the boat, I’d just been trying to get better, trying to get stronger and faster and…

For what? What could I gain from any of that? I was plenty strong enough to screw over the plans of people much better than me in all fields and on all counts. That was what I needed, not more power to fight them and bind them and break them. That would be useless to me.

I was the last person in the world who either needed or deserved that kind of strength.

“You messed with my head, again.” I noted aloud to her, “You… You put thoughts in my mind…”

“I didn’t,” she defended herself. “Oh, Ars… I just made you more motivated to act. I increased that motivation until you were willing to become the man you had to be.”