Edward sometimes felt like he and Al had spent their entire lives chasing rumors -- that the boys who had grown up in Risenbool were some previous existence, and they'd been reincarnated through the blood and pain of their failed transmutation into their new lives as chasers-of-rumors. And, for each rumor disproved, he and his brother left a new one, trading stories of the Philosopher's Stone, the legendary substance that could fix all problems with the ease of thought, for stories of the Fullmetal Alchemist, a real person who improved the world bit by bit through his own hard work.