He doesn't know what to say to that. That dream felt real. It seems like his dreams usually do, when he has them. This was full of things he misses, but no, he didn't react like Eiji did. For Eiji, these places away from home are a prison. For him, it's life he shouldn't have had to start with. At Inugami, he was inexplicably human. Here, something stranger, but fundamentally code. What would happen if he went home, when he's this impossible to start with? Can he? Maybe that pleasant illusion is the best he has.

It bothers him more thinking about that now than it did when he woke up.

"Was it what?" Eiji started to say whatever that was for a reason, and it's probably an easier subject than the part where Ankh didn't wake up crying.