"Migu?" Energy looked up at me after I plopped the brain down on the porch's chair.

"I'm sorry." I turned around, "But I should at least talk to him first. He came all this way after all, it'd be rude to send him away without an explanation."

"You... Heh." He accepted this rather easily, "You surprise me at the worst of times, you know that?"

I chuckled back, "I get the feeling I just can't do anything right."

With this solemn yet promising nod, I ran to catch up to my depressed friend. Elegy was sulking, and though he wasn't planning to throw in the towel just yet, surely, he definitely felt the need to recuperate by himself for a while. This blow he was dealt was hard to recover from.

"Elegy!" I yelled out to him.

"...You're back." He turned around carefully.

To which I sighed, "I came to apologize again."

"Is... that so?" He took a deep breath, "You've got nothing to apologize for."

"But I still want to." I shook my head, "I came to tell you clearly why it is we can't join you again."

He felt this was unnecessary. Rude, even. It was one thing to shoo him away after he ran up to us, begging for our help, but I should have at least let him think up another plan in peace. This proper apology of mine was selfishly wasting precious time for him, but he still let me speak—I think he figured it'd get me off his back quicker, so that's why.

"I miss Vastoria." I calmly restarted the conversation from zero.

"Then why not come and help?" He raised an Eyebrow.

"Because I'm worthless. No, worthless can't even begin to describe it. Most of the time, I was the one causing us all the extra trouble. In the end, it's just like Selzion said..."

The self-pity was so disgusting it made him want to puke. Elegy always believed that everyone was capable of doing incredible things, so long as they were willing to make the necessary change themselves. I know that, but this is nothing more than making blatant excuses just to willingly wallow in my self pity. In the end, I'm just the worst...

"...Hm." He wanted to say something, but kept it to himself, however, opting to nod along instead, "Well, you did cause us some trouble back in the day."

"You were supposed to deny it." I frowned.

"I'm not gonna sugarcoat it." He groaned, "But well, you also did a lot of good for us as well."

"There it is!"

"Heh, you know this trope too well." He joked, "You did a lot of good for us, Migu. I'll be honest, most of the time I'd fall back on your words to keep trying to find a way to save Vastoria."

"That's so... Eh?" I paused, "That's it?"

"What else were you expecting?"

"I dunno, I thought you would name off some of the things I did to try and remind me of how good I am." I shrugged, "You're saying my existence is the only good thing I had going for me?"

"Don't blame me for that." He stared back in a deadpanned manner.

"Urk..."

Truth was, I really didn't do much of my own accord. You could argue there were some smaller things that snowballed into this large and complex situation we were in now, but when it came time to actually name each one off, Elegy ended up coming up short. But fittingly enough, my words ended up giving him an idea.

"But, why do you make it sound so bad?" He asked me, "You said your mere existence is important enough to us, didn't you? That should be all the convincing you need, shouldn't it?"

"Ah." I realized, "No, but... Apart from that..."

"Apart from existing? Look, most people exist their whole lives without bringing anything to the table." He chuckled, "In comparison, don't you think you've got an incredible headstart on them? If just existing gave us so much, then just imagine what choosing to actively help us again will accomplish on top of that."

What's he doing? At this rate, my peaceful life with Energy will be... gone. This heavy feeling in my chest, it's... anger? Frustration? No, it's something worse. I've felt this before, I know it—this is guilt. It's like my body is actively lashing out against my self-pity and negligence towards the team, so it's sending signals directly to this numb heart of mine.

"Elegy, no..." I looked away, "You're not supposed to be convincing me, you know?"

"Sorry, but you did that yourself." He shook his head, "Migu, no matter what anyone says, you're my strength."

"Your..." I looked him in the Eyes, "I am?"

"Yeah, and I'm sure the others feel the same way as well." He nodded, "You're our beacon of light, at least for now. As far as I'm concerned, you can go back to Energy's side."

"Huh? What's this about?" I cocked my head back, "You're giving up on me?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"I see you still don't get it." He shook his head, "You're gonna be our strength regardless of whether or not you're joining us for the ride. Nothing will change if you don't go with us."

Heh, not sounding very convincing anymore, dude. Actually, it kinda sounds like he's actively trying to get me to not join him. Yeah, nothing will change if I don't help, huh? That's basically confirming that I was useless this whole time...

"Elegy." I put my hand out, "Good luck."

He looked a bit puzzled by my gesture. Awkwardly, he put his hand out to take what I was giving him, but he only found out what it was after I handed it to him. A singular pair of sunglasses.

"Pheh, you think these are gonna make a difference?" He snorted.

"Small changes make a big difference." I smiled back.

"Oh? Okay then." He nodded as well before turning around, "Good luck to you as well."

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***

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And with that, we had parted ways, but not in the way you might think. Elegy did go off to do his own thing, but I did make a promise of my own to him. I'll help from the sidelines, I'll be their strength!

"Gramps!" I ran to spook him, "Let's go."

"So he did it, huh?" Energy tiredly replied, "You're really doing this?"

"Hm? What of it?" I questioned his words, "You're coming with, right?"

He sat there, unperturbed, "I... have no choice, do I?"

"Don't say that, of course you do!" I jolted, "I'm not gonna force you or anything."

Why does he sound so sad?

"Of course you're not, you're a good girl." He smirked, "But you need me, don't you? That's just how it is."

"Energy...?"

"Migu, I've lived through a cursed time, and I've learned one singular lesson from the experience that followed me even to the afterlife." He sighed, "A person is measured by how useful he or she is."

"That... can't be true." I grimaced, "At least not anymore."

"You think it's not one of those rules that just exist throughout time?" He queried, "Like 2 plus 2 being 4, it's just the unwavering truth."

No, but that's such a dehumanizing way of looking at it! If a person is only worth as much as they're useful, then that's the same as saying you can't love someone without them having some form of benefit for you! It's an ugly way of thinking, that's all!

"You seem perplexed." He noticed, "Then let me enlighten you. Tell me, who do you want us to look for?"

"Sheep, of course." I shrugged, answering the obvious, "We need his wings."

"If he didn't have wings, he'd just be an extra person on the team." Energy continued, "Not bad, but certainly not as useful. You'd do better looking for Hats."

"Hats? Why him?"

"His strength." Energy then stopped himself, "Oh right, he no longer has his golden arm. But did you notice? You were left completely baffled about me telling you to pick him over Sheep because you already 'knew' he had outlived his worth."

What's he saying? He's spinning the story to make me sound heartless.

"Oi... I'll look for him too, you know?" I frowned, "It'd just be more efficient to go for Sheep first."

"Efficiency, is it? You're just constantly confirming my ideology, and yet you're asking for more proof." He clicked his tongue disappointedly, "Migu, I am a brain that requires your body to move around and make the best use of my own powers."

"Yeah, exactly!" I interjected, "So-!"

"Don't you get what's going on? We're pawns." He elaborated, "Pieces of a puzzle we can't even begin to solve in our heads. We can't grasp the full picture that we ourselves are a part of, because Elegy and the Gods are the ones moving us into place."

"So your tactic is to rebel?"

"I have no tactic—I can't move, therefore I have no say in the matter." He took a deep breath resignedly, "You're my body. My arms, my legs. You call the shots—if you want us to run back in, then I can't do anything to fight back against that."

I'm your body. Your arms and your legs. In other words, I'm Energy's strength. Geez, geezers are so difficult to talk to! At the end of the day, we're both batting for the same team, but we're batting against each other either way! I get what he's saying now.

"Hey gramps." I picked him up from his chair.

"Careful now." He looked up at me, "What is it?"

"I gave away those sunglasses you hate so much."

"Eh!?" He jolted, "When'd you...!? To whom!?"

"I gave them to Elegy, since he seemed to appreciate them more than you did."

"Wha...!? But I...! Urk, t-that's fair..." He sulked.

"You're not mad?"

"No, why would I be?" He heaved a deep sigh, "I should have... treasured them more when I had the time."

"Yeah, but they're gone now." I smirked, "And no matter how hard you try and spend just a bit more time with them, they'll never come back to you before."

Dang, I didn't think he was actually so attached to them. I could've sworn he would be happy to see them gone... But this might actually be even better.

"Indeed. They're gone." He agreed halfheartedly.

"Hey gramps." I smirked, "I'm off to go help Elegy."

"Oh yeah?" He seemed to get what I was aiming at.

I asked the question again, "Yep, you're not mad?"

"No, why would I be?" He chuckled, "I'm coming with. No descendants of mine will go untreasured."

"But you said I don't have any worth?" I raised a curious Eyebrow.

"Hey now, watch your tongue." He grunted, "Don't go making me out to be the bad guy, I said no such thing."

"Then how come you said you'll treasure Elegy and me?"

"I'm taking the average of both of you." He snickered, "The average of infinity and one is infinity, so the math checks out."

"So my worth is one..." I sobbed quietly.

Despite this burn, however, he insisted it was an okay rating overall.

"Look at it this way." He smiled, "I rate my mother 1 point for giving birth to me."

"That's stingy." I stuck my tongue out.

"I'd rate anyone who died of old age in my era a hundred points." He continued.

"That's really nothing compared to Elegy, though."

"I don't count Elegy." He elaborated calmly, "Hey, did you know? Infinity isn't a number in math. There's nothing "objective" about it. It exists beyond that."

So Elegy's rating being infinite isn't a good thing? Man, old people rambling makes no sense...

"Let me dumb it down for you a bit more." He chuckled, "There're millions of people alive in the Living World, and they all meant zilch to me. Most, I've never even met."

"Wow, so even some of the people you've met counted as zeroes?" I furrowed my brows.

"You get it now?" He finished up his presentation, "I'd need to owe someone my life to get them up to a 1. Past that, we run into diminishing returns."

So that's the conclusion he came to. Heh, I think I can get behind it. Really, as long as it gets him to rejoin the team, I wouldn't mind whatever he said.

"So basically, I'm more efficient than Elegy?" I smiled smugly.

"Don't go spouting nonsense now. He'll always be better than you at anything you try to do."

Geez, shouldn't have even asked...