Two figures sat in a small yet opulent meeting room on the outer wall of the NQSC central tower.
"Thank you for indulging that request of mine Cor. I'm sure young Sunless was pleased to have gotten some first hand tips from someone of your status."
Cor slowly sipped from the drink in his hand and before setting it down and sending a glare back across the table. "I hardly had much choice when you came in with a cavalcade of cameras, Theresa. The last thing I want is the public thinking their government is the cruel one while your kind prance around like angels."
Theresa didn't rise or even frown at the crass language, instead only laughing to herself. "Perhaps I'll see if more Sankta operators wish to accompany me next time? Despite it all I doubt they'll agree to follow behind a Sarkaz like me, but leading actual angels through the streets would be a delight."
Her joke did nothing to soften Cor's frown but Theresa paid his expression no mind, seemingly unbothered by his mood. "I also wouldn't waste your breath putting on that stern facade around me Cor. As much as you've grown in the last several decades you're still the same young man who almost died protecting your friends in the Dream Realm. Admit it, if you had found young Sunless yourself I've no doubt you would have done the same thing as me."
Cor's frown evolved into a proper glare as the space around him began to subtly lose its color.
Theresa was one of the most frustrating Terrans he had to deal with. Her position as one of the three leaders of Babel granted her significant importance and as a result demanded that a certain level of deference and courtesy be given to her.
If she was simply a nauseatingly nice VIP then Cor would be less frustrated when dealing with her. His real issues stemmed from the fact that despite how she looked, Theresa was many decades older than him.
He wasn't sure how old she really was but sixty years ago when Cor had first set foot in the Dream Realm and nearly lost his team to a horde of nightmare beasts she had been the one that saved them all. The fact that she hadn't gained a single blemish, wrinkle, or grey hair in the sixty years since made Cor suspect that her true age might well be measured in centuries.
That frustrating asymmetry of information between Theresa and Cor mirrored the relationship between Babel and the Waking world as a whole. At every point of their shared history it seemed that Babel knew more than those of the waking world on top of being far more measured and wise in how they acted. Babel was slow to anger and navigated political tensions with calmness, on top of seemingly never rising to taunts or threats.
That led to a frustrating dynamic of almost paternal patronization between the Terrans and the Government, which continued to this day. It would be somewhat more tolerable if Cor could chalk that attitude up to blind arrogance on her part, and by extension Babel's, yet time and time again he had been forced to admit that there was wisdom to her actions.
Even now, as he bristled at being compared to his youth, Cor couldn't deny that had he ran into young Sunless he would have also given him some aid rather than leave him be. "I'm hardly the same wet behind the ears green horn I was decades ago Theresa. And even if I might have helped the lad myself, bringing recording equipment along to force the matter was unnecessary."
"Do forgive me for that then Cor, I hadn't thought it would trouble you that much." She sipped once more from her tea and frowned. "To be honest with you, Oracle and Kal'tsit insisted on me staying in constant contact with our waking world embassy before I came here. I ran into an issue during an expedition a few weeks ago and both of them are feeling rather defensive about me now."
Cor's glare softened, his prior mounting anger being tugged away like the tides being pulled by the mass of the moon. "I hadn't heard about any kind of expeditions recently."
Theresa blinked and rested her palm on her cheek. "We hardly send alerts to you every time we do things Cor. If Babel gave you a letter every time we sent expeditions to explore the Dream Realm I fear the weight of the paperwork would be enough to collapse this tower." She left out a soft chuckle at her joke and shook her head. "It was honestly nothing too interesting though. One of our scholars had a new theoretical model about the geography of the Dream Realm and predicted the location a Terran historical site should have landed in. She ended up being correct about it being there, which was wonderful, but sadly it seems the creatures of the Dream Realm took a particular liking to the place."
Cor sighed and shook his head, the unsaid part of Theresa's words clear to him. "I suppose there will be a new death zone added to the map of the Dream Realm then?"
Theresa offered a melancholy frown. "For now it will be. It was hardly as bad as some death zones, the worst we fought before we fled was a [Corrupted Demon]. That said, I saw signs of a [Great Tyrant] farther in and despite being dear to my heart, I don't think that place is worth wasting lives to try and conquer. Perhaps one day after a generation of brave souls conquer their fourth nightmares we might be able to tame it though."
Cor hummed to himself as he sipped from his tea, his mood dragged down by the thought of another chunk of territory in the Dream Realm that was out of reach of civilization. It was far from an outlier though, in fact uninhabitable regions in the Dream Realm were far more common than habitable ones.
Humanity and Terrans had eked out small pockets of tenuous stability in the Dream Realm but they were few and each surrounded by vast areas of certain death occupied by Nightmare beasts too strong for most to stand against.
[Transcendents] were the highest rank that had been achieved by any known sentients in the modern era which only put them on roughly equal footing against [Corrupted] Nightmare creatures. Some truly exemplary Saints were able to hit above their weight class to hold their own against [Great] Nightmare Creatures but the number of people capable of that could be counted on one hand.
That led to any region in the Dream Realm with an abundance of [Corrupted] or stronger nightmare creatures being considered a death zone, a place to be avoided at all costs.
"Thats disappointing to hear then, more red marks on the map is never good." Cor raised his cup up to Theresa. "I suppose congratulations on your survival are in order though? Babel has a scant four Saints last I heard, losing one of them would have been a deep blow."
The Terran woman smiled at him and lifted her own cup in reply and sipped from it. "Indeed, still four Saints for now including myself. Though I have some confidence a few of our more promising Masters will be ready to take the plunge and challenge their third Nightmare in the next few years. Given enough time I'm confident they'll all manage to leave me in their dust."
Theresa set her empty tea cup down on the table and gently folded her hands in her lap. "As much as I enjoy the chance to rest and chat with you about things, my time isn't as unlimited as I'd like. I'd like to discuss Mister Emiya and Miss Tohsaka."
The old Saint slowly exhaled and set his own cup down before leaning back in his chair. "I don't know what about them there is to discuss Theresa. They're a pair of citizens like any others, one still in the throes of her Nightmare while the other is already awake and ambulatory. I don't know what about them you would want to discuss"
"Please Cor, let's drop the subtle half-speak. I already have a preliminary read of their medical records and I've been made aware of the details of the anomalous events that occurred during their nightmares. What I want is the rest of the details around them and a chance to ensure they are being cared for properly."
Cor clenched his fist and forced down a curling of his lips. "Bold of you to claim you want an end to half-speak when you're sitting there already aware of the situation. If one of your traitorous moles has already fed that much information to you, why even bother speaking with me Theresa."
Her eyes closed and Theresa took a slow breath as she replied. "That there are those in your government that reach out to us with information is nothing to be angry about Cor. The fact is maintaining such a monolithic force as your Government is nigh impossible. It's no shame that conscientious objectors reach out to us about questionable actions. What concerns me though is the fact that, just like us, various less scrupulous groups are now no doubt also aware of the two. All I want is a chance to look them over to confirm that they are not suffering from some strange disease, and study their records for Babel's research."
Cor shook his head in exacerbation. "Neither of them are Oripathy patients Theresa, I doubt whatever is wrong with them will be useful to you. Not that it matters either way though. Emiya has barricaded himself in Tohsaka's room and refuses to leave. Now hardly seems like a proper time for speaking with them."
Theresa shook her head "Breakthroughs come from many places Cor, even potentially unrelated diseases can shed light on one another. Though hearing Emiya has barricaded himself in there is worrying considering you were here handling personally. What happened to leave that young man so paranoid."
The crease between Cor's eyes deepened and his frustration grew at the memory of the last several hours "Interference from an outside party led to a misunderstanding. I've got a rotation of Masters at his room currently to keep an eye out for any more issues, but the fact that it happened at all means either Babel or the Legacy Clans had an interest in embarrassing the Government and turning those two away from us."
"Whether you believe it or not Cor, Babel had no part in anything like that." Theresa slowly laced her fingers together in thought. "It's very troubling to hear that the Clans might have taken an interest though. Some of the things that I've heard coming from them in the Dream Realm recently have been deeply unsettling..." Her words trailed off as she seemed to get lost in her memories.
Cor nodded as his mind drifted to the developments of the Clans. With the height of human power stubbornly stuck at the rank of [Transcendent] until someone was able to conquer their fourth Nightmare any other possible avenue for gaining strength was always being aggressively explored. The Clans each had their specialties and while the civilian and commercial applications of their chosen field were lucrative and impressive, Cor knew that none of it compared to the secret experiments and developments they kept close to their chest.
"Whatever actions they take in the Dream Realm aside they won't act out in the waking world. Their recent pout of… interference, was little more than an illusion distracting some guards and a nurse being sent to make a fool of herself. Despite their strength the clans know better than to make a scene directly in the Waking World. We've over a hundred Saints at our disposal among the government, and thousands of Masters and Awakened." Cor shook his head and stared at Theresa, his eyes taking on a hard and determined edge. "For all the trouble they are, the Clans will not directly threaten those two so long as they're guarded."
Theresa looked up at Cor taking in the Saint's countenance and confidence. She offered him a small smile in return that didn't fully reach her eyes. "I hope that you're right about that Cor."
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Shirou's eye snapped open as he felt himself begin tipping forward. Before he could stumble, his fingers clenched around a spear planted in the floor and he steadied himself as he shook off his latest bout of sleep deprived weariness.
It had been three days since his self imposed vigil began and despite his newly gained Sleeper physique the fatigue from staying awake for seventy two hours was wearing on him.
As his eyes darted around the room and took in the continued lack of any change or intruders, Shirou's mind wandered back to his time here over the last several days.
His time standing guard began with a small burst of activity when the janitorial staff had come by to clean up the wreckage he created. He'd stood silently as it was all cleaned up, only moving to snatch a bottle of bleach off the janitor's cart and emptying the entire thing over the splatters of blood.
As the cleaners had left Shirou caught sight of Cor leading a procession of people down the corridor outside, including a number of people that appeared to be Terran, and a rather disheveled young man. Shirou's eyes had caught that boy's for a brief moment before the door to the room slid shut and left Shirou alone with Rin's sleeping form.
After that the only contact Shirou had with people were offers of food, water, and rest from the guards outside though those became less and less frequent as the days went on.
With nothing but time and the chance to recover from the hectic stress of the end of his Nightmare Shirou spent the first day free to look over his runes and take in the two new Memories he had gained.
The first new Memory was gained by landing the killing blow against the hulking mass of steel and fire that had been an enemy [Ascended].
When Shirou drew upon the Memory to bring it out of his soul it felt sluggish and took several seconds to manifest. He wasn't sure why that was but the lag time to call forth the Memory was enough that it seemed impractical to call upon it in the middle of a fight.
Seeing it in his hands was an impressive sight despite the time to draw it though.
Memory: [Honorguard's Bulwark]
Memory Rank: [Ascended]
Memory Tier: [1]
Memory Description: [A kingdom worshipped the blazing sun God, creator of all things. When War approached them they joined hands and all the kingdoms melted before their union. Their most devout of zealots joined the army of the chosen one and followed him into battle, bringing the unstoppable fury of the Sun to all who dared resist.]
Memory Enchantments: [Holdfast] Passive enchantment: Provides increasing protection the faster one advances forward.
The Memory took the form of a large tower Shield, roughly a meter and a half long half a meter wide. Its shape was typical of a tower shield, taking the form of a large rectangle bent to slightly cover the flanks and it was made of some kind of metal alloy with a yellow tint. The front of the shield bore a depiction of a stylized sun on its center with twisting rays of sunlight snaking across the rest of its surface in shades of orange and red.
Whatever alloy the shield was made of was something mystical in origin but that sadly did not mean the shield was granted any sort of supernatural lightness. Rather as soon as the shield took shape in Shirou's arm he was nearly thrown off balance by the weight of it and even holding it steady with one arm left him having to tap into his Reinforcement.
All told it was an impressive if somewhat unwieldy addition to Shirou's arsenal. He doubted he'd be able to charge forward with its bulk very easily but even without using its enchantment, having such a solid defense was useful.
The second new Memory he had gained though was a far more curious one.
When Shirou contemplated its runes they appeared before him without issue but their contents led to a number of questions.
Memory: [Fragment of Home]
Memory Rank: [Unformed]
Memory Tier: [1]
Memory Description: [A soul destined to save the world was scorched and melted by Evil. A guilty heart poured it into a mold and formed a human blade. This stone is a relic of that soul's birthplace, forgotten after fire claimed burned it clean. It carries a faint warmth, and echoes of a promise now forgotten.]
Memory Enchantments: [Everdistant] Passive enchantment: Memory cannot be destroyed or removed from wielder's soul. Memory cannot make contact with any persons.
Any hope Shirou had of shedding light on the Memory vanished when he tried to call it forth from his soul. As soon as the process of pulling it into the world ended a small chunk of pure white stone appeared above his hand and began to drop down. Yet the moment it was about to land in Shirou's palm it shimmered and vanished from sight.
For a moment Shirou had thought it had disappeared back to his soul but when he looked around he saw the stone resting on the floor on the other side of the room.
The strangeness of the Memory grew more pronounced when he tried to walk over and pick it up to look at, only to find his hand grasping empty ground when he got close. A faint clattering on the ground behind him was enough to see the stone now resting back on the far side of the room he had come from.
That ensuing game of impossible tag continued on for longer than Shirou would ever admit to others before he finally decided to return the Memory to his soul, no closer to holding it than when he began.
Even without touching it though he was able to view its runes and consider the implications of it.
That had been the Memory he gained when he killed himself in his Nightmare, for however brief a time that had been. The fact that its rank seemed to have been the same as his rank at the time supported the idea that it was made from him which made the details of its description all the more intriguing.
After Shirou busied himself looking over his new Memories and runes as much as he could he started delving into his newly rediscovered [Projection] skill.
He found that unlike calling on his Memories, the act of projecting weapons into his hands was much faster, though it was still taking him one or two seconds. The things available to him to draw upon and create were extensive and as Shirou tried and went through the gamut of them he realized that they were all weapons that he had laid his hands on inside his Nightmare.
The longswords he had used, his dual scimitars, the various weapons of the armory, and even the siege bow that he had destroyed after pushing too far. All of them were able to be called upon and manifested into his hands, though he did notice that the less like a blade things were the harder they were to call upon.
The most difficult thing so far had been his bow, which felt as difficult to manifest as [Reinforcing] his arms was. Interestingly though, once he suffered the dull pain of drawing in energy to project his weapons, they didn't require anymore to remain. At one point on his second day Shirou had even tested that fact by creating a pile of weapons in the corner of the room which numbered in the dozens before the ache of manifesting them and the mounting exhaustion he felt became too much to keep bothering with idle experiments.
Since then Shirou's focus had been entirely on keeping himself awake and keeping an eye on the door to the room. Despite Cor's words and assurance that nothing untoward would happen he remained convinced that leaving Rin alone would be a bad idea.
And so all he could do was wait for Rin to complete her Nightmare and wake up. Hopefully that time would be before he passed out completely from exhaustion.
"Shirou…?"
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Shirou spun around at the sound behind him. Rin was still laying on the table restrained yet her head was rolled to the side and staring at him with hollow blue eyes.
"Rin! You're awake!" Shirou rushed to the side of her bed, quickly reaching out to grab her still restrained hand. Despite his hold Rin didn't react and only continued to stare ahead with a dull thousand yard stare.
Several seconds passed with no response before Rin's eyes slowly closed. "I suppose I am, aren't I?"
When her eyes opened again they had gained a small spark of awareness, whatever memories were plaguing her before being pushed aside. "This isn't the station I fell asleep in." She flicked her eyes down at herself and over Shirou's disheveled state. "What happened to my clothes, and why do you look like you haven't slept in days."
Shirou tempered his excitement and lightly shook his head, both to clear his thoughts and continue keeping himself awake. "We're in the center of the city. Something happened when we went into our Nightmares so they moved us to the city center. Whatever it was destroyed our clothes."
After his words Shirou looked down at the restraint table for a control knob of some kind before remembering the way that Cor had freed him. "As for me, I've been standing guard the last few days since I finished my Nightmare. The staff collected blood samples from you while you were in your nightmare and didn't want to give them a chance to collect more after I destroyed their first batch."
Shirou turned back around to look for the switch or control panel to release Rin only to stop at the sound of bending metal and steel clattering to the floor. Rin sat on the table, the tan lines on her arms alight with blue as she tore off her restraints. "In that case we need to get out of here."
She reached down to grab hold of the last two manicles on her legs only to come up short when both of them clicked open on their own.
"I can understand your desire to get out of here Miss Tohsaka, but that's no reason to destroy government property."
Saint Cor stood in the open doorway to the room flanked by two government agents carrying paperwork and a change of clothes. The trio walked into the room and Shirou stepped back, quickly tracing a weapon into his hands and taking a vaguely protective position in front of Rin.
Despite the reaction Cor didn't seem bothered and instead turned his attention to Rin and proceeded with his introduction. "I'm glad to see you're awake, and that you seem to have come out of your nightmare still coherent. My name is Cor, I'm a Saint that works with the Government."
Cor gestured at Shirou "Your friend has a clear and valid reason to be mistrustful of us and he's done a surprisingly good job standing guard, but I would like to personally confirm that it was unnecessary caution on his part. Neither of you have anything to fear from the government, all we're interested in is making sure that people are safe, be that our mundane citizens or those on the path of Awakening like yourselves."
Neither Shirou or Rin replied to the old Saint's words, and after several seconds of waiting for an answer that didn't come, Cor let out a sigh and continued. "I suppose it wouldn't be that easy to mend the bridge that's been burned by our mistake. Let's get through your debriefing and then you two can be on your way."
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
The next half hour was spent going over the same debriefing that Shirou had received days prior, though now tinted with a lingering sense of mistrust being sent Cor's way. The Saint endured the glares sent his way without complaint and remained professional throughout it all, offering advice with paperwork and giving aid with forms as though it was a typical workday.
After all the paperwork was ironed out and the fresh clothes were given to Rin the two extra agents headed outside, leaving Cor and the pair of Sleepers alone. "With all of that out of the way, the last matter I need to discuss with you two are your next steps." He gestured a hand at Shirou "You've already gotten a brief about the Sleeper academy and the First Journey to the Dream Realm and your vehement refusal to attend without Miss Tohsaka was noted. Now that she's awake though I want to strongly advise that you both attend as soon as possible."
"And if we refuse?"
Cor looked at Rin as she sat on the table, her expression carrying a firmness that she had slowly regained as the earlier explanations went on and she was given a chance to collect her thoughts. Her question was a combative one but hardly something Cor couldn't answer
"There are no consequences if you would like to go off on your own. Dying from here on won't lead to either of you letting a Nightmare creature into the waking world, it would only be a tragedy for yourselves. Based on the lack of public safety risk, there are no laws requiring that Sleepers attend training or go to a certain location for the first journey. You're completely free to do anything you'd like." Cor held up a finger "However, the academy is a free chance to get extensive training on how to face the Dream Realm, and it has the infrastructure to keep Sleeper bodies healthy while in the Dream Realm. If you leave yourselves in an apartment building and journey to the Dream Realm your bodies may starve to death before you make it back."
Despite the mistrust and doubt the pair held, the prospect of trying to set up something to take care of themselves on their own while they were both catatonic was grim. Cor seemed to pick up on that hesitation "I can also help assuage any concerns you have about the incident that occurred by letting you know that the Academy is currently a joint venture between the Government, Legacy Clans, and Babel. There's a degree of circular accountability there that's higher than anything you might find elsewhere."
Cor grabbed a small plastic card from his pocket and pressed it against his tablet before handing it to Rin. "I don't often have free time in the waking world so there I've a fairly decent sum saved up. That card has some money from my personal account on it, as an apology for the incident that occurred. Alongside your Sleeper stipend it should be beyond enough to set you up lavishly for the next month." He stood up and headed to the doorway. "I'll go ahead and leave it at that. I do hope you both make use of what the Academy has to offer but even if you don't I wish you the best."
He was about to walk out the door but paused at its threshold, looking back at the two and the uniforms they wore. "You can keep the uniforms. Despite the screw up, I hope that one day you two might wear them officially."
With those parting words the door clicked shut and Shirou and Rin were left alone.
The silence between them dragged on until Shirou moved to break it. Before he could speak though Rin held a finger up to her lips and gestured at the room around them. "We can talk after we're away from the station."
Shirou nodded at Rin's words and the pair left the room stepping out into a vast yet empty hallway. Despite both ends of it being so far off that an olympic sprinter would struggle to clear it, there was no trace of Cor in sight.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
It was nearly half an hour later that the pair had made their way out of the Police station and into the civilian mass of the central tower. Their uniform played a heavy role in them both making it out easily as the officers inside were quick to offer aid to them when they looked lost, though Shirou's unwashed state did turn a few heads.
Once the pair made it out of the district seven station the design of the tower expanded into different architectural styles. A large road ran in a circle through the middle of the floors and after crossing it from the station the central tower began so much like a high end city that it was easy to forget they were inside a megastructure.
The pair wandered in a seemingly random pattern, taking in the sights of high end shops and apartment blocks lit by artificial lights as they went up and down freight and pedestrian elevators. After wandering for several hours, and hopefully throwing off any tails, the pair settled down at a restaurant that was serving what looked like japanese cuisine, if you squinted a bit when you looked at it. Despite not quite being what he remembered though, Shirou was pleased to see that such a high quality place actually had real ingredients.
Between their uniforms and a display of the amount of money Cor provided them, the pair were able to get a seat in a booth at the far back with no issue, along with a healthy spread of food and drinks. A word to the waitress about not being disturbed along with a decent tip practically turned the back of the restaurant into a no man's land.
It seemed like a suitably solid level of isolation for them to sit down and properly talk, yet when Shirou moved to speak Rin still held up a finger in silence.
As Shirou looked on in confusion Rin pointed at Shirou's steak knife and made a familiar grabbing motion with her hand. It took Shirou a second to understand what she meant before his eyes widened and he projected a copy of the knife to hand to her.
Shirou was still confused but didn't question it as Rin nodded to him. His curiosity grew and then turned to panic as before Shirou could try and stop her Rin sliced the tip of her finger to the point that blood began to flow. "RIN! What are you…?"
"Shhhhh!" His concern was answered by another shushing motion as Rin began running her bleeding finger across the table. She began to quickly trace out a series of symbols Shirou didn't recognize, drawing them with a speed and surety that spoke of experience. When the pattern was finished she drew a circle around it all and forced a current of energy through her arm.
The markings lit up with the same blue-green glow as Rin's limb and suddenly the ambient sounds of the restaurant around them faded and became muffled, as though a bubble of cotton had formed around the pair. "There we are. That should be enough to keep anything we say private."
Shirou looked down at the fading mark on the table, trying to commit it all to memory. "What was that Rin?"
She looked at him with a confused expression, "That's a simple bounded field to distort sound waves and discourage attention. Something I recalled learning from my father when I was a child. Despite the amnesia I know we were close recently so you should also know about that."
Shirou shook his head. "I got some of my memories back but not all of them. My memories drop off again at the start of highschool."
Rin hummed in thought, "That's the same as me then. Other than a few months in this world my memories of earth drop off at the start of Fuyuki High. That doesn't explain why you don't know about this though, I saw you performing magecraft earlier with no issue. Basic bounded fields are introductory for any Magus."
"I must not have been trained properly then. The only thing my father taught me was how to create circuits from my nerves." Shirou held out his hand and called forth a projection, drawing up a perfect replica of the steak knife Rin had used to cut herself "The Projection I use…" he drug the knife over his skin as his arm glowed blue, the knife teeth chipping as he did " and the Reinforcement I use were both things I figured out on my own after he died. In fact after what I experienced in my Nightmare I'm doubtful about my fathers first lesson on my circuits too. I was able to call on Reinforcement before I remembered everything and it didn't feel like I remembered from when I was a child."
Sitting beside him Rin had reacted to Shirou's explanation first with wide eyes and a slack jaw, and then by burying her face into her palms. "Of all the idiotic, moronic, self destructive ways to practice magecraft. What kind of fool would teach a child to cannibalize their nerves just to use a spell. You're lucky that you never bothered practicing or you would have wound up a quadriplegic or a corpse!"
Shirou scratched his chin in thought "No, I distinctly recall practicing. In fact every night after school I would try to cast a spell as many times as I could until I blacked out, then when I woke up I'd try again."
Rin looked up from her hands, eyes locked in a glare that could have peeled paint. Before she could properly deconstruct all the newly revealed issues with Shirou's mystic education she let out a sigh. "Putting your… lack of magecraft talent aside for a moment, we should discuss the matter at hand. Namely what happened to us and what we should do now."
She looked down at herself and looked back up at Shirou. "Assuming the memories we have can be trusted, we both lived in an entirely different world up until three months ago. And from our behavior we seemed to have come here intentionally."
Shirou nodded his head "From what I remember we were both preparing for the spell. So not only did we expect to contract it, we were seemingly intending to get it."
"That at least gives us some kind of direction to work off of. Assuming our prior selves were competent and rational, continuing on the same course they set would be wise." Her eyebrows scrunched up in thought as she spoke "Although it's possible that going further is the wrong course. It was likely no coincidence that we regained a portion of our memories after conquering the first Nightmare. We also weren't planning to lose them to begin with so there's a chance something unexpected occurred that we should change course over."
Shirou nodded his head. "For the time being it doesn't sound like we have a choice about continuing though. Cor said the next step will be involuntary so we may be better off saving our worries about the future for after that."
Rin nodded back "Agreed. The main things we need to decide on now are the academy and how to behave around people." She took a sip from her drink, swirling the glass as she stared down into it. "While we're safe here we should take the time to fully figure out our next steps. I'm of the mind that we should attend. While leaving ourselves vulnerable may lead to more samples being taken, it's preferable to figuring out how to care for ourselves remotely for who knows how long."
She received a yawn and a groggy nod in reply. "There's also probably a lot of information we should try to get. The Dream Realm doesn't sound as balanced and tailored as Nightmares are so we could easily… be caught… off… guard."
Rin nodded at Shirou's sleepy words, a reply on her lips about the importance of staying vigilant cut short by the feeling of a head leaning against her.
Rin stiffened for a moment and turned to the side, seeing Shirou asleep and leaning against her. Her face heated up in embarrassment and for a moment she had an instinctive desire to push him off her and continue on with the planning.
That thought was squashed down when she recalled that he had been awake for over eighty hours keeping watch over her. Not only that, he had been forcing himself to stay awake until the both of them were somewhere safe, and he seemingly trusted her enough that he thought nothing of falling asleep beside her.
Rin could admit in her own mind that she wasn't that comfortable around him just yet, and would be looking for separate rooms that she could put her own personal bounded field up around in the future. Despite the reverberating echo of her [Flaw] rattling around in her head, Rin wasn't ready to acknowledge it's existence or the implications it carried, but she would admit that having someone like Shirou next to her might make it tolerable.
The fact that he was trusting her like this afterall, was far from trivial in Rin's mind, neither was the fact that he had been serving as her body guard while she slept.
Though his current position was a problem. Sleeping while sitting was bad posture and would lead to him being stiff. In a purely pragmatic sense it might even cause him to sleep longer given how poor of a position he was in. Therefore moving him into a better spot would be the best way to make him wake up sooner and get off of her.
With that justification in mind Rin slowly and delicately lifted Shirou's head from her shoulders and laid him down across the bench, letting his head rest across her thighs.
Ironing out all the details of their plan could wait. For now Rin would begrudgingly take up the role of a pillow, at least so long as Shirou didn't wake up and see her.