Thinking quickly, Gudako poked Sasaku's shoulder to get the Ruler's attention before interposing herself into the slowing conversation. "It isn't surprising that you'd feel a little... out of sorts, since being summoned can be rather rough given the whole World's situation nowadays. da Vinci's occupied presently, so I'll schedule our usual routine to let you catch a breath first."
"Uh, thanks for the consideration," Shirou replied. "Wouldn't want to mess up Rider's timetable."
"You know how geniuses are; speaking of timetables, would you mind holding your scheduled classes in your room for now?" Gudako took the chance to move on her current objective.
"What? Oh sure, there's space there," the questioned girl replied after a moment. She knew full well, of course, that there were no classes scheduled for that period since they would have normally been busy running summonings and the resulting work items. "Guess I'll give you two a brief tour of the Servants' Quarters, though they don't really look any different than this area does."
"Most of Chaldea looks the same corridor-wise," Gudao added helpfully.
"Actually, now you mention it, maybe we should move there instead?" Shirou asked, looking around as his children quietly picked up various items that had apparently been provided to them for said classes.
"You could, but this room is properly set up for secured access links, so it would be convenient if you didn't," Gudako made the Masters' view on this clear. In the first place, the division was emergent from the natural fact that when they needed to add new rooms for the summoned Servants, the obvious choice was one of the areas of Chaldea unused at the time.
It didn't take long for everyone else but the newly summoned pair to say their goodbyes, though Kojirou made sure to take the opportunity to express a desire to test Shirou's new Servant-level abilities after the usual da Vinci routine. He sighed after the door closed behind the Four Houses' famous Saber, turning to face Sakura.
"Question for you, senpai."
"Shirou. What's on your mind?" What was on his mind was how ingrained that particular mode of address might be in his current partner, given that she - most of her variants rather - had probably only used that for their entire, if much shorter than his wife's, life.
"How did that Servant get out of my magecraft? She can't have the strength or the affinity that Lev Lainur had."
Looking about the room which looked mostly unchanged from when he had left it for Chaldea's Control Room, and not returned to his waiting children, months ago, Shirou finally decided to just sit on the bed while collecting his thoughts on what had happened after their summoning.
"Few things, I'd say. First is that Chaldea summons Spirit Origins at a very low power level, 'level one' is what da Vinci called it after her analysis of the system." Granted, it was entirely likely that said inventor had done upgrades, but at the time the Masters had agreed that it wasn't a bad feature since in general energy expenditure was already extremely high.
"And second, she has a sort of status clear or affliction resist or whatever you'd call it. Most importantly though, I think you didn't quite 'get' her because from the start she was meeting you halfway. Basically, she wasn't dragged into your space as much as she walked in freely."
"Huh? That's a thing?" Sakura was surprised by this particular explanation.
"I saw it quite clearly, there were hardly any visible effects on her hand, so obviously her Spirit Core was untouched. So yeah that situation was more like a conference call than absorption."
"Hmm. You do know quite a lot about this magecraft, huh?" The Servant Sakura raised a couple of fingers as something like a black mist emanated from her fingertips, slowly falling and then dissipating mid-air before touching the coverlet.
"Yeah..." he frowned upon the circumstances of that knowledge transfer being brought to mind. Back in London, Chloe had given him some advice which didn't make much sense to him at the time, given how his wife had been generally rather cool in the bedroom, but now he could remember that it had not always been the case. Though it was also the sort of thing he rather not remember for a different sort of reason - one which held no real fear currently, even without the protection of Avalon. Theoretically.
He stood up.
"So." Sensing his demeanor had changed, the dark Sakura narrowed her slowly reddening eyes. "What now?"
He started undoing his pants.
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(Sasaku's Room)
Several passing Servants looked at the trio in confusion. Not for any lack of recognition, though; if anything the Servants had more time with the two humans than the other humans in Chaldea. No, it was because the corridor outside tended to have an elevated level of magical energy density from its traffic. While the Masters certainly had no issues thanks to their Mystic Codes, and most homunculi didn't need to give it a second thought when doing sporadic scheduled cleaning, human children were another matter - as was the case with many mundane hazards as well.
"Huh, this is much larger than Saber's place," Matthew noted as their teacher Ruler opened the door to her room, ushering them inside. "Aren't all these rooms exactly the same size and layout?"
"Anne and Mary have one like this," Sasaku muttered while adjusting the ambient energy like a thermostat.
"Well there's two of them, even though they're one Servant. And why would you also need a larger b-" Matthew paused as Iri tried to shush her brother.
"We didn't actually have anything scheduled, but I'm sure you knew that," she tried to restart the conversation.
"I doubt you'd really be able to focus on it anyway," Sasaku allowed with a positive air. "Suppose it would be more productive to tell you about what just happened."
"Mom... isn't our mom." Matthew stated with sadness and maybe a tinge of disappointment.
"That's, well, sort of true." Sasaku glanced at Iri who didn't have anything to say on the topic. "It's hard to fit everything together, but suffice it so say she had a hard life."
"Because she's the really dangerous one they have in the drawings?" her son asked. "Doru is the one who knows her best, and he's the one whose the most frightened."
"... so basically there's times that Sakura becomes really strong. Sort of like the first Chloe, um well you haven't met her but your father did. Unfortunately, those times she also becomes quite... different than your mother. That means that when it comes to summoning, that's who's the most likely to show up, unless the system just prevents it."
"Which it had been doing," Iri added, receiving a nod.
"This is a bit awkward to say, but please understand why we rather keep them, uh, under observation for now. Probably the Masters will want to wait for a few days just to be sure," Sasaku explained.
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(Chaldea Cafeteria)
"You know," Siegfried commented while apparently pondering a piece of braised meat. "I know that when I put it in my mouth, my body tells my brain something about its taste and texture. But the functional value of it isn't necessarily correlated to that experience."
Doru just shrugged as the head of the Einzbern ate his bite before continuing, "Does the world even care about the experience or perceptions of anyone non-human?"
"Oh come on," Doru frowned. "There's three of us who are half-human, and one of you asks that question?"
"The World prefers suffering to stagnation, but is that because it experiences the latter and not the former."
"Do you think about the experience of the goat whose flesh you are chewing at this moment?" Doru replied. "In so many cases the humans' gods don't really care that much about them, and we pretty much know it's literally the case that the old Greeks were right that divine beings are basically inhuman, in behavior and nature."
"... do you think the World could do more to us than the Incineration?"
"Hey my non-boss, I don't have to tell you that we're running down our supplies, so unfortunately even if that is the case, we'd be certainly done in currently."
"I'd like to believe that with Emiya and Matou we'd be able to come up with something that won't leave us vulnerable to crossing the finish line only to discover there's a firing squad there."
Doru made a frustrated sound, realizing that of course that was what was on the other's mind. "If they've been summoned I'm sure that will work out just fine, but I doubt any serious breakthrough research will arrive since Chaldea isn't set up for the necessary exploration."
"We have Servant-level beings though."
"I'm sure that Anaz might plausibly believe that's a skeleton key to the World System, but 'ghost liners' are not even that stable as people in many ways."
*meow?*
The two of them, and a good number of those around too, turned to look at a small cat that was standing near one of the cafeteria doors looking confused and lost. A little while later, its kitten status was made clear as a larger cat appeared to grab it by the scruff of its neck and bring it away. A couple of those nearest quickly got up to follow the pair.
"You know," Doru commented after the scene had finished playing out. "It certainly feels as though that one knew something was up. Always hard to tell with beasts."
Siegfried simply shrugged and said nothing. Doru's section naturally had the vets and there was nothing exceptional about the totally mundane mother cat besides her inscrutable decision to sneak into Chaldea just before giving birth to her small litter of kittens, likely as the Incineration was going on. And while Sasaku apparently enjoyed conversation with Tamamo Cat, the bestial Servant was if anything even harder to understand despite apparently being able to verbalize like any other person.
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(Somewhere?)
"Really, it's obvious that we're being used here. Again," one of the girls said in a tired voice. "There isn't a compelling reason why we should bother when it's clear you just need us as an excuse to come back after dying."
"Is it that bad of a deal?" Sakura asked in a neutral manner. "By now people must be giving out brochures for Chaldea."
"Pfft," one of them scoffed.
"Of course it's great for you," one of the more volatile members exploded. "Since it's your husband and your children. Hooray, how nice; he never noticed -us-."
"Eh, I thought it was okay," one of them replied with either a thoughtful or ironic angle.
"Must be nice to be so delusional," the previous one fumed. "You know the man never met, let alone knew you, right? He was there for her, and we're basically voyeurs third-wheeling on someone else's relationship Or it's some Leah-esque deal going on."
"You're kind of overstating the case," Shirou said while casually strolling into the conversation and looking around at those present. "Hey."
One of them shook her head as though to clear it. "Just how did you get here? Here's not even a place one gets to."
"Well it's kind of like sharing a dream, isn't it?" he replied, identifying the one individual he had expected to be there. "We have a single Spirit Origin now, so it's not that surprising."
"Ah, so that's what this was about," one of the previously quiet ones concluded with an air of understanding. "You need to 'close the gap' huh?"
"Well, it's also the sort of thing appropriate when you've literally come back from the dead," Shirou shrugged. "But to that earlier comment, yes, I'm different from the Shirou you might know, having like fifteen years on him and all."
"Hardly looks like it," someone retorted, though in a complimentary tone, if anything.
"Thanks, you too."
"No, you're wrong there, since all of us but her," pointing out the one Shirou had previously taken note of, "died pretty soon after this point. We're here to make up the power level, so to speak, since neither of you would cross the bar alone or even together. Yeah, collectively we're most of the Saint Graph but you two are definitely the power couple so to speak. Especially since there's like a Chaldea Fame bonus."
"Question: are you all here like, souls and stuff?"
"Nah, there would be problems if there was more than one soul in a body, even if two souls in one Saint Graph is stable. But it can be a sort of composite soul," the thoughtful Dark Sakura answered him. "We can't really just 'disband' without effectively killing her, and of course you'd go too. Ah, but I think she'd have something to say about that, right my Chaldean self?"
"Eh... it's a bit odd to complain about it since I'm not sure why you'd even be here if it was that unsatisfactory to you," Sakura replied. "You can't blame me for the fact that the World basically shredded your souls when you did die, because we're pretty scary in those scenarios."
"What? That's all you have to say about this?" the angry one fumed. "Why act like we somehow agreed that you get to lead?"
Shirou turned to look at his wife for a moment before the realization sank in. "Ah, this is a bit awkward to say, but the problem is likely that... you're mostly the 'legend' of Matou Sakura with a small bit of your souls surviving, while she's the soul of the human who lived in this branch. With this Imaginary Numbers Space subsection of her consciousness or dreams, you can sort of express yourselves individually but outside, not so much."
"So it's sort of like Chloe," Sakura added to his explanation. "She has the legend of an alternate version of herself, is what she told you."
"Yes. I know this seems really unfair to you, but pretty sure you can't actually leave or take over," Shirou said in a sympathetic tone. "Sorry."
"You hardly care, since you don't know us." One of the spoke up from the side, but without real emotion behind it.
"I know somewhat, so while the Fifth Grail War obviously worked out differently for you-"
*slap*
Shirou paused as he was abruptly interrupted by a full-armed slap. Though perhaps to the deliverer's surprise, it made no impression on him, despite normal contact with her being extremely corrosive.
"I guess I deserved that," he reflected, right as with a *thwack* the girl who had attacked him was suddenly thrown backwards into the darkness, landing nearby with a thump.
"You were out of line, even if you're me," Sakura enunciated slowly and clearly, her eyes starting to glow slowly with the destructive light of a fire. "Let's be clear: you're here because we're all linked to the Grail so the small bits of you that were attached to Grail fragments basically got pulled along with me. He didn't have anything to do with it, I didn't have anything to do with it, it just happened along the way."
"Don't take it too personally," one of them helped the fallen one to her feet. "Some of the crap that's fifteen years ago for you was yesterday to us."
"It's more tiresome than just, you know, totally losing it and then kicking the bucket to a mass of Counter Guardians from orbit, but I'm not going to have a fit over kinda-sorta coming back," another one added. "Out of curiosity though, what happened to Shinji ?"
There was a brief moment of silence before Shirou answered, "We don't know since it seems to have been covered up efficiently by, who else, the Church clean-up team. Legally it didn't change much since when he stopped being Missing and was Presumed Dead, Sakura already inherited all the Matou estate; her grandfather left it all to her and they were very sure he was dead."
"Smells fishy, since I don't think that man would leave behind a corpse."
"Church clean-up team. The whole situation with Kotomine made them really eager to get everything under the rug, so to speak. Maybe Martha, as a Saint if not as a Ruler, also provided a bit of a push. We'll never know, of course."
"Oh yeah," Sakura recalled suddenly, "Shinji was by then literally missing a hand, since he took some spears to it. If he couldn't be found, it's probably because he wasn't anywhere to be found."
"Hmph," one of them snorted. "Enough of him. Why even start this discussion if there's actually nothing to be resolved in the first place?"
"Wanted to head that conflict off at the pass pretty much," Shirou answered. "Trust me, way back in London it was already pretty uncomfortable to hang around you all. I know we hadn't actually met until now, but you know what I mean."
"You say that, but it sure didn't stop things from getting hot and heavy fast once the door clos- I see... that was what set this off."
"Forgot you wouldn't know about that mechanic. I wouldn't go so far as to say I literally developed PTSD from experiencing your memories, but pretty damn close."
"It's a mechanic," one of them stated in a doubtful tone.
"It's been since the very old days," Sakura told her. "Well, Anaz dug it up pretty quickly when it came up, but yeah. Put crudely sex is magical. As a more technical example, it's possible to push very high transfer rates of magical energy like that. Thankfully."
"Having to keep the Crest Worms fed, yeah?"
"It's not so troublesome when you can use our magecraft to eat directly from the Fuyuki leyline, but yes." Sakura wasn't particularly interested in discussing the issue for obvious reasons.
"Well, that ongoing cost is why the Einzbern gave up on those beasts even though our last bit of research was done during the era of Blade Generators," Shirou expanded on the topic. "But anyway I think none of them actually made it over in our Spirit Origin, though they can show up in this Imaginary Numbers space."
"To be expected, really." Sakura looked about, but the group was just surrounded by a featureless void at the present. "For the reason you mentioned I kicked most of them out of my body and I think for the other mes here they would've gotten absorbed and broken down eventually."
"Come to think of it, I'm a bit surprised you even died, since the space inside you is rather corrosive to anything that gets past your skin," Shirou mused.
"Most likely the bomb set in the Control Room was prepared with fragments that could deal with that. Clearly it was, since that sort of capability isn't accidental or free."
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Notes:
Sakura from Another Aria doesn't have the black dress or Rin's hair ribbon (Shirou gave her one around the time they got married) and switches to either black eyes or as seen fire ones. Meanwhile, Dark Sakura is as the usual one, red eyes and all.
Shinji (in Another Aria) lost his hand in chapter 23 (Realm's Armory: s/12858714/23/Another-Aria) and it was Sasaku who hit him because he was unknowingly standing in the line of fire. It was actually amputated later on due to being totally wrecked from that attack. His death is only sort of implied in the story though, and not 100% confirmed anywhere else.