8 - Sword, Shadow, and Nephilim

When Shirou opened his eyes, he looked around to find that he is in the same room that he entered the Nightmare in. The only difference was that there was a woman dozing off in a chair next to him.

"Um, excuse me miss," Shirou attempted to wake the woman. He noticed that the women was quite attractive, even with the drool leaking out of her mouth and her endless snoring. He also noticed that she was wearing a government outfit which brings him to believe that he might regret it if he continued that train of thought.

"HELLO!" Shirou shouted to the heavy sleeper as she jumped out of her chair, and seemed to get into a fighting stance. Shirou guessed that she probably used a glaive, if her positioning was any indication.

Oh, well I guess I'm a weapon genius now.

[Attributes have evolved.]

So that's where that prickly feeling was from ever since the end of the Nightmare.

After the woman noticed that it was just him there, she had an embarrassed look on her face due to being caught dozing off on the job.

She coughed before saying, "Congratulations on getting back to the Waking World Sleeper Shirou," she looked at the clock with a questioning look, "You woke up surprisingly quick."

"Is that unusual?" Shirou asked.

"Not really, but it's better than the last kid I had to watch over. He was an outskirt kid and was stuck in his First Nightmare for around three days," she informed him, "Im an ascended that works for the government by the way, call me Master Jet."

Shirou had a somber look on his face after hearing her name. The misfortune of others is strong even if they are a Master. Just what were her parents thinking after naming her that. You don't see people naming their child "Car", "Train", or "Plane".

Master Jet seemed a bit confused on why he seemed so down, but brushed it off as him having to deal with a harrowing First Nightmare. "Don't get too hung up on your First Nightmare, the Winter Solstice is only slightly more than a month away you know?"

Although she completely misunderstood Shirou's dilemma, he understood how serious his situation is. Since he only has a month to train once he enters the academy, he won't be able to polish his skills too much before he enters the Dream Realm.

The term "Sleeper", refers to how all Dreamers will be put into a slumber once the Winter Solstice occurs. Shirou personally believed that Dreamer sounded much cooler than Sleeper, but didn't dwell on it too much.

"Can I ask a question?"

"Go on."

"Since you are a Master, wouldn't you have better things to do than watch over me? I thought that someone with an awakened soul core would have been stationed instead."

Jet sighed before explaining to him.

"Since it's so close to the Winter Solstice, Nightmare Gates have been opening up pretty often. There's not enough awakened to also check on all of the Aspirants, so I was called instead. It's gotten so bad that they had to send me across two different sectors in the past 4 days," she seemed pretty stressed with the situation.

Shirou noticed the bags under her eyes, and guessed that she probably hasn't gotten much sleep recently.

"Plus, there's not alot of Awakened like me who work for the government. Would you abandon wealth and fame to work abysmal hours and risk your life, fueled only by altruism and a sense of duty?"

"Of course."

Jet was completely thrown off by his answer. She could tell that he wasn't lying, nor was he a naive kid who just wanted to be a good person.

"How did any of what I just said sound appealing to you?" Jet asked in bewilderment.

"The helping people part sounded nice. Oh, but I wouldn't work for the government. It would be much easier to save people if I had more freedom."

"…You can't be serious."

"Huh? Was it not a serious question?" Shirou asked in curiosity.

Jet just looked at him wondering if he had a death wish. She sighed before pointing out of the room. "Go take a shower, you reek of Nightmare," she walked out of the room, "I'll be outside the front door, be there once you're done."

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Once Shirou hopped out of the shower and looked in the mirror, he noticed that his skin was much smoother, yet oddly sharp at the same time. Shirou guessed that it was probably caused by his [Living Sword]. He threw out a punch through the air, and noticed that his ability to throw a punch was improved by quite a drastic amount. As Shirou tried to figure out how this was possible, he recalled the runes stating that his attributes have evolved.

Shirou opened up his runes and saw that two of his attributes have changed.

Attributes: [Spark of Divinity], [Master of Swords], [Mind of Steel], [Anomaly].

[Spark of Divinity]

Attribute Description: [Every fire starts from a spark. Somewhere deep within your soul, a radiant spark shines with divine light.]

[Master of Swords]

Attribute Description: [Swords recognize you as one of their champions. Your ability with the blade is one that surpasses that of most, while your skill with other weapons is well above average.]

As Shirou thought about what these attributes might have to do with his skill in hand-to-hand combat, he realized that [Living Sword] gives him the physical attributes of a sword. This means that [Master of Swords] has recognized himself as a sword in the most literal sense, allowing him to not only wield weapons, but his own body with utmost mastery.

This is definitely cheating.

With this, his combat capabilities surpass that of most, if not all other Sleepers. Whether armed or unarmed, Shirou is not defenseless no matter the situation.

Shirou exited the shower room right after testing a few more punches. It felt almost as if his fists were stabbing into the air, but that might have just been his imagination.

He walked out of the police station wearing the uniform for the academy, and carrying a plastic bag that contained his favorite blue and white shirt. He would be going to the academy today, after saying goodbye to Miyu of course.

In front of the police station, Master Jet was leaning on a government issued vehicle, most likely what she would use to take him to the academy. As Shirou walked up to her, he asked her, "Can you take me to my house so that I could say goodbye to my sister? She'll probably get worried if she doesn't see me before we go."

Jet gave him a nod before pointing a finger towards the vehicle, as if to tell him "get in".

————————————————————

When Shirou entered his father's eastern mansion, he immediately heard footsteps before a head of black hair rocketed towards him.

"You got a really strong aspect, right?!"

"When you go to the Dream Realm, you'll be killing Unholy Titans, right?!"

"Of course, you'll seduce every girl in the academy!"

…Is it really okay to leave her here unsupervised?

"Yes, no, and impossible," Shirou was more confident in his ability to kill an Unholy Titan, than seducing the female population of the academy.

"Anyways, I'll be gone for at least a month, so don't open the door for strangers, if you run out of food theirs money in my room, make sure to brush your teeth, don't go into the shed, don't go into the old man's room, don't harass anyone, don't brag about your older brother going to be an Awakened, follow evacuation procedures if a Nightmare Gate opens, if anyone tries to jump you, then just tell them that I'm an Awakened, also…"

This went on for a few minutes before Master Jet knocked on the front door.

"Coming!"

Shirou turned back to Miyu before saying, "Just don't do anything crazy and stay safe okay?"

Miyu nodded as Shirou stepped back, patted her on the head, and walked back out of the front door. When he exited the mansion and closed the door, he can hear Miyu shouting.

"He's already got a grown-up in his trap!"

…What did I literally just tell her?

Shirou turned to Master Jet, who was looking at him with narrow eyes after that last comment.

"So, what is this "trap" that I'm supposedly ensnared in?"

"…Don't worry about it too much, it's just what

kids do… I think…"

"Well, I have to worry about it considering that the one who is doing the ensnaring is also planning to seduce all the girls at the academy."

…I don't think Miyu is too old to get spankings, right?

————————————————————

As Jet was driving the government vehicle, with Shirou in the backseat, she decided to give him some words of advice.

"When you get to the academy, they're going to ask you questions about your First Nightmare. They will also ask you if you want therapy sessions. The therapy sessions are really just a trap designed to get information on you, so you should probably decline it. When being asked about your First Nightmare, just give them enough information for them to be satisfied, but don't tell them about the exact capabilities of your aspect, or even worse, your flaw."

Shirou nodded his head. Although the effects of Shirou's flaw hasn't activated yet due to nobody getting hurt in his vicinity, he would rather not give away a potential weakness to the government.

Master Jet then proceeded to say, "You should also try to get to know the other Sleepers there, since you're all going into the Dream Realm together. It would only be beneficial to get allies during your time at the academy."

Shirou understood the logic, yet he couldn't help but feel a little bitter at using people just so that he can help himself survive. He then remembered that they were also going to try to use him to survive, so he ended up not minding it as much. He felt the vehicle start to slow down.

"We're here."

After Jet stated those words, Shirou looked out of the window. He saw an enormous red gate with a black-haired boy and a white-haired girl standing in front of it. The shadows seemed to be quite deep on the side that the boy was standing on, while the sun was shining where the girl was standing. As Shirou was looking out the window, he heard Jet tell him something.

"Oh, the pale boy over there is Sunless. He's the kid I was watching before I was stationed in your sector."

The door to the vehicle automatically opened, and Shirou walked out onto the ground. He heard some parting words from Jet before she left.

"I'll be off now. Good luck, you'll be needing it." With that, Jet drove off and left Shirou with Sunless and the silver-haired girl.

Sunless turned around and looked at Shirou. His eyes were, strangely enough, pitch black. It was almost as if they were absorbing the light around him. He noticed that Sunless seemed pale and malnourished, if his height had anything to say about it. He was almost as short as Shirou, but Shirou was around a year younger than when most people get infected by the Nightmare Spell.

Just by looking at him, he could tell that Sunless had never swung a sword in his life. From what he remembered Jet telling him, Sunless was from the outskirts, meaning that he lived in poverty all his life.

Shirou put a polite smile on his face and waved to Sunless. Surprisingly, the boy scowled at him, seemingly offended by something. He turned around and stared straight at the gate, ignoring Shirou's existence.

Shirou with a confused expression on his face, turned to the silver-haired girl. Shirou didn't know what type of genes were necessary to achieve such a result, but he had only seen such strange colorations on Ingvild's silver hair with hints of purple.

Shirou then remembered that his hair is crimson, and decided to dismiss such thoughts otherwise he'll be labeled a hypocrite.

The silver-haired girl was abnormally tall, the exact opposite of Sunless, and was wearing what seemed to be a government issued tracksuit. She also was listening to something if those headphones were any indication. Her eyes were a clear grey color. She seemed quite attractive by Shirou's nonexistent standards.

Now that I think about it, I haven't met a single unattractive girl since the First Nightmare began…

Even the mysterious Aspirant that Shirou met in his First Nightmare was attractive to him. Even if she was wearing rags and seemed as if she was going to kill everyone in a room.

Oh right, she did do that.

Shirou wondered what she was doing now. He did not understand how two people could share a First Nightmare, but the evidence was glaring.

She should have survived considering that her wound was closing up.

Shirou was pulled out of his thoughts as the gate to the academy opened up. Shirou took one last glance at Sunless and the tall girl. They then proceeded to walk through the gate at almost the exact same time.

While the two individuals to the left and right of Shirou were being bathed in light and shadow respectfully, the sound of gears grinding against each other can be heard with each step that Shirou took.

Who knows? Maybe I'll run into her in the academy…