ELEVEN

Dammit.

I sighed and sat down, resting my back against the shell. I had tried everything I could to tie the shell, but I've got no luck so far.

The jellyfishes swam around me, their light illuminating what would otherwise be a dark, saltwater pond.

Hey, since when do jellyfishes produce their own light? I've already noticed that way earlier, but this is the first time I'm thinking about this seriously. Evolution?

Why am I thinking about this anyway? I have a friend to help, but I can't do it alone. The shell's way too heavy for me to slide the rope underneath.

I looked at the shell's green center crack.+

No. Phos needs me, even if I can't lift it myself I have to at least try to do something.

Getting up, I attempted to lift the shell up again.

I swear I could feel my arms beginning to crack, but that's nothing compared to saving Phos.

Unable to keep it up anymore, I stopped, resting my head on the shell.

"I'm useless."

"Of course you can't lift it, nether Dia nor Bort can lift it on their own," a familiar voice from some green gem came out of above.

Looking up, I saw Jade descending, with Euclase following behind.

"Ah, Speaker, Euclase."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Dan," Euclase comforted, "nobody here can lift a shell on their own, except maybe for Sensei." They put a hand on my shoulder.

I sighed. "Thanks, Euclase. It's just..."

"Now's not the time, you two," Jade interrupted. "Here, Euclase and I will lift the shell while you put the rope below, alright? Put some spirit into it, and if you already have, put some more!"

"Yes!" I shouted, firing myself up.

"Good! Now we'll do this side first, grab the rope."

----------------

"It might be the middle of the night, but put some backbone into it!" Jade rallied.

"Heave ho!"

"PULL!"

It took a while, but with the help of everyone else we eventually managed to drag the shell out of the pond. With Dia and Euclase holding bowls of jellyfish around, Jade broke a chisel into one of the green-colored parts of the shell, revealing the pieces to indeed be phosphophyllite.

"Ahh, it's stuck in there really good. This is going to take a while. I need more light!"

Eventually, bowl after bowl of the peppermint-colored gem began to fill up, and the last bowl, being passed through all of us reached Dia, who immediately took off to Rutile.

"Alright, now what do we do with this shell?" I asked.

"Good question. Why don't we leave it here for now?" Euclase suggested. "I'm pretty sure everyone's tired already, let's call it a day and check on Phos first thing in the morning, alright?"

--------------------

Somehow, I couldn't sleep.

Even after checking on Rutile and Dia, the former who was putting Phos back nicely and the latter insisting on staying there until Phos is done, I still can't doze off.

Sitting on the windowsill, with my back resting against the side of the window, I looked up at the moons again.

Why am I so useless?

Throughout the whole day, from the fight with the snail to dragging the shell out of the water, I hadn't done much to actually significantly help in any way. They all say Phos is annoying and a freeloader, but the truth is, to me Phos compliments the mellower and quieter atmosphere with her cheerful, carefree, frank attitude. Like a lone candle in a dark room, if you may.

If any, I'm the one freeloading.

I sighed, lowering my head into my curled-up legs and closing my eyes..

Everyone's kind to me, which is great, but I really give nothing in return.

Something urged me to open my eyes.

Lifting my head up and opening my eyes, I noticed a butterfly flying outside. But this butterfly isn't like anything I've seen before, both in this world and in my past life.

This butterfly was larger than my hand, and what caught my attention was its orange wings with red details.

"Oh, hello there little guy," I called out. "You're a nice-looking butterfly, you know?"

The butterfly "danced" around, as though it understood my compliment.

I giggled. "You understand me, huh. Why not take a rest?"

The butterfly landed on the window grill, as if accepting my request.

"Nice, you're a special little fella."

I sighed and stretched out my legs.

"Well, at least you're carefree, doing nothing but flying around, eating pollen and doing your other stuff. On my side meanwhile, I kinda promised that I will protect someone and help another, but so far all that I did was nothing."

I lowered my head again.

"Must be nice, huh; doing everything at your own time and pace."

I felt something landed on my right knee. Looking up, I noticed that it was the butterfly, it somehow managed to crawl through the grill.

"Hey, you wanna stay with me?"

The orange-winged beauty fluttered its wings, and I took it as a positive response.

"Alright, this room will be shelter for you, but when it comes to food and water you'd have to look for it yourself."

The butterfly fluttered its wings again.

"Hehe, alright then."

Lifting my head up and looking at the moons again, I sighed.

"I really need to stop promising people things that I can't keep. Which means I can't make any, since I basically can do nothing."

I felt the butterfly take off, but before I could look down it began to annoy me, trying repeatedly to land on my face.

"Dammit, stop it! I don't want to hit you, come on!" I said in annoyance as I tried to get the butterfly away without hitting it.

The butterfly stopped and landed on the grille.

"You... didn't like what I said?"

Fluttering.

"But isn't that the truth? No, don't do that again, I really don't want to hit you, but that's how things have gone, no? Not looking at whatever happened back in that world, I didn't do anything to actually help Phos or anyone in any way. Even if that snail isn't Phos, Dia was the one who did everything she could to help. Me? I just tagged along behind."

No reaction.

I sighed.

"You don't have any answers, I guess. That's fine, everything's on me anyway when it comes to the person at fault. Everyone back there blamed me for everything, so I guess... that's the truth."

I lowered my head again and closed my eyes. Although I felt like I wanted to cry, no tears came out.

"Why did Mr Almighty pick me? I'm just not worth it, am I?"

I felt something land on my chest.

Opening my eyes, I saw the butterfly looking at me.

"What?"

The butterfly moved a bit, but kept at the same spot.

Oh, the spot.

I noticed that it had landed a bit towards my left chest, just at where my heart is. Or rather, where my heart should have been if I were human.

"My heart? What with it?"

The butterfly just flapped its wings in response.

"Well, yeah, that's how I died, heartache. Thinking 'bout it, that night was pretty agonizing, I really felt like I wanted to die. Wait."

I thought for a moment.

"You want me to follow my heart?"

Happy fluttering.

Ah, so that's what it wanted to tell me. But why follow my heart? I mean, I really don't get it. Trust my feelings? Right now I'm feeling pretty worthless, so that's probably not what I it wanted to tell me.

I went back to more thinking again.

The butterfly took off, flew around my face for a moment as if it were saying "Think about it for a moment, alright?" before finding a spot at the other side of the room, resting.

"Well, alright, I'll think about it."

I looked up to the two moons and allowed myself to sink into my thoughts.

---------------------

I felt something land on my right leg.

Opening my eyes, I noticed that it was just the butterfly. Seeing that I've woken up, it took off and began to flutter around.

Oh, it's morning already.

Stretching myself, I noticed that I dozed off while thinking last night.

Is there something that I've forgotten?

I stood up, stretching more. Judging from the sunlight, I noticed that it was a bit too late in the morning. Well, I'm probably up earlier than Phos still, that girl sleeps early and wakes up late every single day.

Well, anyway, I'll go wake her up.

Oh right, wasn't she being pieced back by Rutil-

Oh, that's what I've forgot. Dammit, I need to hurry.

"Hey," I told the butterfly, "you stay here and do whatever you want, you can go out to look for food or something if you want. I'm in a bit of a rush now."

Brisk-walking out of my room, I looked around in the rooms.

Nobody around.

Well, sh*t.

Running towards the stairs, I decided on a whim to just leap down the whole flight. I'm 7 and a half, why not?

Oh wait, I'm brittle.

Managing to barely slow down enough, I leapt down some few steps before tripping over and landing flat on the floor.

Good thing nothing broke. I guess I really should slow down.

----------------------

"Rutile! Rutile!"

"You're late, Phos is already up and running," was the reply as I approached their corner.

"Yeah, overslept. How's Phos?"

"They're okay, back to normal. Was shouting at the creature though, saying how they understand the thing."

"What?"

"Yeah, you heard right," Rutile confirmed, "Phos was talking to the snail earlier on. You should go find them, perhaps you could fix things up."

"Alright. Where is she anyway?"

"'She'?"

"Oh," I noticed, "it's nothing, I'll go look for Phos now, thanks!"

Walking away as quickly as I can, I was glad I didn't leak out more.

Damn, that was close. Now, maybe I'll go to the site where the shell was first.

----------------------

Wow, bingo, there's Phos.

"Hey there, how are you feeling?" I asked, approaching the blankly-staring gem.

No reply.

"Hey," I asked again, waving a hand over her eyes, "are you there?"

Noticing squeaking, I noticed that to her left there was the snail in the bowl.

"Ah, so you're here to-"

Phos grabbed the bowl and tossed the snail into the pond, earning a few squeals from the creature.

"Oh, hi there Dan," Phos finally replied. "Just spacing out, that's all. You weren't there ya know, you really worked yourself off, didn't you?" they added on, shooting a grin at me.

"Eheh, well, Dia was the one doing most of the job, I didn't do much. Anyway, Rutile told me you were talking to the snail, what's going on?"

"Nobody understands her other than me," Phos said as the snail climbed back to land, tired.

"Darn," she told the creature. "Can't you shrink anymore?"

The creature held onto the bowl and began squeaking.

Phos looked up to the moon in the air.

"Well... I mean, if that's true I might feel sympathetic, but..."

"Forget about it!" Phos suddenly shouted, staring at the snail. "Why am I the only-"

"How are you feeling?" Yellow Diamond asked, running past the three of us.

"Don't overdo it!" Zircon added, running past too.

"Mental issues should be checked out asap," Neptunite went as she walked past, earning a frown from Phos.

"Let's play cards tonight!" Benitoite chimed in, also walking past.

The snail was just whistling as the other gems past.

"See, since I'm the only one who seems to understand you, everyone else thinks I'm going crazy!"

"I believe you," I interjected without thinking.

"You do?" Phos asked, both them and the snail turning around to face me.

"Well, yeah. Call it a gut feeling or something, but I know you aren't lying."

Phos' mood immediately brightened.

"Thank you Dan!" she cried out while hugging me tightly. "I knew that I can always count on you, my sweet little kouhai!"

"Eheh," I managed to reply.

"Still," Phos said, releasing their arms and squatting down, looking at the creature, "can't you do something about this?"

More squeaking. Damn, I wish I could follow whatever they said.

Phos dropped her head and stretched forward. "Why do you have to gulp down me, of all people?

"Just this once." Huh?

"You just looked so tasty," an unfamiliar voice said.

"Phos, are you okay?" Dia asked briefly as they passed by.

"No," was the reply.

"Hey! My Diamond!" I heard the creature shout.

Wait, what? Did God just give me the same ability to speak to this snail?

"My, what a wonderful place. Chock full of cuties! I'm into the slightly stuck-up type. Like the one with long black hair, or the redhead who's out at night!"

"You met Cinnabar?!" Phos shouted as they got up and looked at the snail.

"Quite clever, that one..." the snail went as it (or she, feminine voice), slouched down inside the bowl. "One brief consideration of the traits in my kind, and Cinnabar instantly knew you were in that shell. The reason you are back here now is entirely thanks to that."

Phos looked down.

"So Cinnabar saved me again, then... That's not good. Nope, definitely bad" Phos sulked, plopping herself facedown while sitting on her legs, with her butt in the air.

I couldn't interrupt here, I guess.

"You don't want to let that one see you slip up, right?"

"Yeah? What are you trying to get at?" Phos asked. "Cinnabar shared a secret with me I bet no one else knows, other than Dan here. I don't know why, but I want to imagine Cinnabar wouldn't have just told anyone. You know..." Phos continued, sitting back up, "no one's ever counted on me for help before. That's why I have to be the hero this time around. Okay!" Phos suddenly shouted, jumping up. "Time to get serious!" Oh, there's Rutile.

"Me too, me too!" The creature replied.

"No, you just go take a walk or something! Go play with Dan or something!"

"Do allow me to break you down and put you back together one more time," Rutile interjected, grabbing Phos' arm.

"No, Phos is telling the truth, the creature's really talking," I interrupted, earning the surprise of both Rutile and the snail.

"Surely you can't understand me, can you?"

"Somehow I can," I replied, "let's just say something hit my head. Figuratively."

"Oooh, how nice. Danburite, is it? You were tagging around with Dia yesterday."

"Yeah, that's me."

"I love your twintails, it makes you look even cuter with how cute you already are," the snail replied, making me blush a bit, "but anyway, I am the king who rules over all of the Admirabilis, Ventricosus!"

"Well, hello there I guess. You can call me Dan, it's shorter and easier to say quickly."

"Wait," Phos interrupted, squatting beside me, "you understand her too?"

"Yeah, apparently. I don't know what hit me, but suddenly I can hear her talking."

"Perfect! Now the two of you understand me! Hey, can I call you Discount Diamond?"

"Eh? Discount Dia? I'm not Dia you know, I'm my own self."

"Eh, yeah, you just look a bit like them, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

"Looks like you too have gone mad," Rutile interrupted, grabbing Phos and I and pulling both of us up. "I'll break you two down and put you together then, come with me."

"This is some mental thing!" Phos blurted out as the both of us tried to get away. "It's just stress! Stress, I say!"

"But this reflects on me and my practice!" Rutile replied.

Phos reached down and grabbed the bowl.

"Take this!" she shouted, throwing Ventricosus at the doctor.

The snail landed on the doctor's right leg.

"You will not get away with this!" Rutile shouted. "Just listen to me, doctor's orders!" she continued, proceeding to kick Ventricosus towards Phos.

Poor Ventrico went straight up into the air, screaming.

What goes up must come down, however, and that applies to the king of the Admirabilis too.

Unfortunately, she landed on Sensei's bald head, just as he was talking to Dia along with Jade and Bort.

The three of us just stared in shock.

"I'm definitely getting blamed for this..." Phos muttered as Rutile took the time to sneak away.+

"I'm not running," I assured her. "I'm sticking with you on this."

Jade had buried her face in her hands, Bort had put her head against a pillar and Dia had already fell to her knees alongside her black-haired partner, all three of them giggling.

"We're screwed," Phos muttered.

"Definitely."