#rustedbullet

~

Over the next few days, Fefnir decided to make a routine patrol of the outer areas of Neo Arcadia. While he needed to do so anyway, his ulterior motive was definitely to try and see if the strange child had had any interactions with the reploids and humans that were local to the area. The humans didn't really seem all that keen to converse, as he expected, but the casual conversations he had with some of the reploids in the outer area stated that they had never seen the boy before.

But the one human he had managed to stop on a routine inspection, on the other hand...

"Yeah, a few years ago. I saw that kid. He was just getting food, though."

The human quickly made his retreat, and that made the General ponder the implications of what he had been told.

If the little kid didn't go near reploids... then did that mean he had been seen by the human population?

Well.. there was only one sure fire way to find out.

~

It was rare that he'd ever need to disguise himself, but in the times that it was needed, or rather, he felt he could not get the answers he needed as a reploid, regardless of his status, the Fire Guardian was able to disguise himself rather effectively.

His helmet, his shoulder armour, and the top half of his leg armour came off his body as he placed them in the wardrobe in his office. Such bulky armour would've made it nearly impossible to wear any semblance of clothing. However, doing so put him at risk of attack as the majority of his heavier armour, save for that unable to be removed without surgery (his arms, his chest, his lower legs) was now gone.

But thankfully, his disguise made him nearly indistinguishable from a normal human being. 

Which, of course, was the point.

Once his armour was removed, Fefnir quickly reconfigured his balance he wouldn't fall flat on his rear end, and then proceeded to 'get dressed'. He never really fancied clothing, since he found it rather restrictive, and unneeded.

But he clipped in his auburn hair attachment to cover his whole head, and it took a moment for him to get used to the sensation of having, as he called it, a 'fuzzy head'.

It was incredibly strange not having his usual helmet and horns, and everything that came with it.

He clipped in the communication covers to hide his non-existent 'ears', he then proceeded to put on the second skin body suit to cover his arms and torso (it was annoying getting it over his forearms) and then his 'belly top', as he called it. Jees, were the fashion police obsessed with showing off stomachs or what?

The pants came on next, and Fefnir could not get over not having his armour down there. It was strange to even FIT into pants, let alone wearing them.

He made quick work of his war stripes on his face with some face paint to cover them that matched his skin tone. That took care of the last problem.

With the belt on, the Guardian-turned-human looked over his look with a frown to make sure everything was in place.

"Light above, I look bloody weird," Fefnir huffed.

But most importantly, and he smirked, he looked nothing at all like himself.

Good.

~

Hiding his signature was the last thing he needed to do, and luckily, he was able to mask it enough that most common sensors wouldn't pick it up. He needed to lay low for an hour or two during his break time in order to get the information he wanted.

Hopefully, it'd be plenty of time.

The Guardian slipped out of the centre of Neo Arcadia and joined in the hustle and bustle of the main streets. No one looked twice at him... and it was strange. As he walked along, hands in his pockets, pretty much unnoticed among the sea of civilians... the Guardian felt a few strong emotions.

A feeling of acceptance among the people he fought to protect...

... and a strong desire to protect them, more than he ever had.

He had to smile slightly to himself as he felt those things. Who knew that turning himself into a human as far as appearances went would have such a profound effect on him. Fefnir enjoyed the ambience of the atmosphere for the time being while it lasted.

Soon enough, the reploid made it to the outskirts of Neo Arcadia by taking a transerver to his location. There, he wandered about with the populous (that had since thinned out on the outskirts), and looked around. The stores here were mostly some food stands and other misc items that he had no need for, such as music and video devices that plugged into the audio receivers that everyone wore, humans and reploids alike.

Despite the ever present animosity towards reploids, Fefnir couldn't help but think that they were growing closer and closer alike.

The Guardian smiled a little bit once more before he found his way over to food stands. This was the bit he wasn't looking forward to... after all, it was impolite to ask for information and not... take his 'rations'...

Alas, if only Ciel was still around so he could bring her food...

Well, that DID give him an idea.

With a smile, the reploid went over to the first tender to chat.

~

Straightforward questions were met with being pointed on a wild goose chase finding other children who vaguely resembled the one he was looking for. However... he soon learned that not so straightforward answered yielded different results.

"Quiet, polite kid. Never seen one with eyes like his before. Didn't stick around much, though - just came by and left. That was about four years ago, though. Suddenly stopped showing up, I wonder why..."

Further along the path gained older results, some of which Fefnir was shocked to hear, indeed.

"When I was younger he used to come by every so often to the store. some ten or so years ago? Haven't seen him since..."

"Never caught the kid's name, but I think I remember him from when I worked at Petite Clothing almost... thirty years ago, now."

Thirty years ago? The Fire Guardian had been pretty surprised to hear that, to say the least.

He moved onwards to other stores and got more information. Names, too - 'Kirin', 'Conan', 'Ranpo', 'Kudo', 'Byako'... all strange names, for sure. But it became clear as he reached a reploid store owner (though it was very hard to tell that she was one) that he had seen the child as far back as ninety years ago.

Just what was going on?

~

Fefnir soon returned to his office after three hours and locked it so that he could change out of his disguise, his mind full of thoughts on the mysterious child. But several things had come to light from the investigation.

He changed his name often, avoided reploids and stuck to humans. He never stayed in the same place, and only hung around one shop for four to six years total. The characteristics all matched his assessment, and how he looked, since his eyes were so distinctive.

As the Guardian sat down after taking off his clothing to re-attach his leg armour, he sought out the memory of the parade he had been in shortly after his activation. He knew he had seen him somewhere before.

The search continued inside his archives as he stood up and reconnected his shoulder armour, and took off his hair attachment to re-attach his helmet. Then, he ran a balance re-configuration before he closed his wardrobe and went to wash off the face paint.

Once he was cleaned up, his search got the match he had been searching for, and he played the archived video.

He walked over to his desk as the video played, and he sat down on his chair before be brought said footage onto a screen in front of him. He watched carefully as his much, much younger self looked around the area.

And there he was.

He had to pause and rewind the clip, but there in the crowd... it had to be him. Same slanted eyes, blue colour, and that unmistakable bow tie.

This child was over one hundred years old.

The Guardian shut off the clip and slowly slumped back into his chair in some shock. How... was it possible? 

He would've loved to have talked to Harpuia about this, being the head of the science division, but no... it was best to keep this very much to himself. He grimaced a little in annoyance at the idea of his stuck up brother knowing he had essentially let an unregistered child go.

No, he had no desire to talk to his winged sibling about this, on second thought.

With that in mind, he stretched his arms and picked up a stack of paperwork to take to the Gardens to work on. And maybe later... he would go and have a look through the library.