Interlude: Another perspective

Anna Lyst's POV

I woke up early. Pussyni was still sound asleep at the bottom of my feet. When I got out of bed she protested with a piteous “Nya”.

Ever since I had that éclair, I found my thoughts wandering to Claire more often than not. From the start I had found her irresistible to tease. But now I felt I needed to protect that precious girl, and right now I was worried sick about Claire. That date she was going on was with one of the presumably biggest girl-predators around.

I felt responsible that she was forced to go on that date. I had no experience with dates myself, but if I were to go from what I knew from manga, and especially from visual novels, it would clearly mean that Claire was in serious danger. Those knightly prince types were not to be underestimated.

Well, it seems like just waiting here inside my apartment isn't going to work for me. I decided to go, and take a look from afar to make sure Claire was okay. “This isn't stalking” I assured myself “After all I am doing this for her and not for me.”

I remembered they were supposed to meet at the tram stop 'Bourse' at 11 am. So I went a little earlier and waited pretending to be looking through some goods in one of the shops in that area.

At around 10 to eleven I saw a crowd gathering and I heard something about some celebrity. Must be some stunt if a celebrity was walking the busy touristic streets of Brussels on a Saturday at this time.

Suddenly I saw the girl that I recognized from the video as the prince jump inside that crowd and a few moments later she was walking out with Claire in a princess carry. I felt some strange jabs in my chest area seeing that.

I felt really bad having ignored that whole crowd situation. I came to protect Claire, and failed before it even started. I knew after yesterday that she became famous. Okay I had not expected it to be to this extent, but I should have put two and two together. Now she was in even greater danger. That prince sure moved fast starting a date off with a princess carry. I expect nobody else would be able to pull that off.

After that they wandered through the streets. I saw them try on some silly sunglasses, and I decided to go inside a shop out of fear of being noticed.

Then they seemed to be going on a chocolate tour. That was a famous date activity in Brussels. The Prince sure had done her homework.

They were almost constantly walking hand in hand, and at one point the prince even layed her arm on Claire's shoulder. My heart was beating fast seeing that. I felt really anxious. Claire really was in danger because the prince was really really way too smooth.

Then they ran into a rather skinny girl, for a second it seemed like she would start a fight, but then she walked off. By the time she passed me, she was crying.

Then it happened. The reason I was here to protect Claire from that predator. I saw the both of them walking into a hotel. But strangely it seemed like it was Claire leading the prince. Quite fiercely too.

I went inside ready to put a stop to this, but saw them walk into the bar. I sighed relieved. I was really worried there for a second.

I went to the bar and sat at a spot where I could hear them but we could not see each other. I heard them talking about the date, and Claire was clearly just doing what she set out to do. She seemed completely in control. I felt silly for being here. I should've trusted her more. She had proven many times over the last week that she had a really strong character . By the way their conversation was going, I could deduce they were about to leave, so I decided to leave first and go home, before I got spotted.

I left the bar and went outside. When I came out the skinny girl from earlier was waiting there and walked up to me.

“You were following them weren't you?” she asked me.

A little ashamed I nodded.

“I am Mia, let's go and talk somewhere more out of sight, perhaps we can help each other.”

So this was Mia, the other girl from the case. This might not be such a bad thing that I got caught after all. If I did well, I might even impress Claire.

We went into a local bar and both of us ordered a glass of wine. I tried measuring up the girl in front of me, and although she looked intimidating in the street, she now looked a lot smaller and I managed to get myself together, and take on my professional demeanor.

“So you wanted to talk, Mia.”

She looked me in the eye and seemed to have gathered her courage and then said “You want Valerie to stay away from the girl you like and I want that girl to stay away from Valerie.”

I did not like this, It is clear she wanted to make me do stuff for her that I would soon regret. She was a veteran bully after all...

“Oh, but I was just here to make sure Claire was safe, after I made sure she was gonna be okay, I decided to leave and go home.”

“You are lying! Valerie is always seducing pretty girls to get back at me. Just like she is doing to your Claire. I hate her!”

That attack hurt more then I would like to admit, but I decided to be the adult and steer the conversation:

“Well I do not know what exactly happened between the two of you, but I overheard Valerie talking about it too Claire.”

“What were they talking about me? What did they say?”

She took the bait, so I explained the conversation I heard. Meaning that Valerie admitted to doing this to torment Mia but also that she is still in love with her.

Mia smiled relieved at that but then turned sour again. “I know this whole situation is all my fault but I just don't know a way out anymore. We are hopelessly stuck in this vicious circle of hurting each other. I hate it. I hate to bully other girls, but I cannot help it. I feel so angry when I see girls hanging around Valerie. I get so angry when I see girl couples. That should have been mine to have, but because of her I had to throw it away.” Mia was crying now.

Witnessing such tragic yuri feelings, I was having trouble not going into otaku-mode. My super excited shiny eyes might just have come through for a moment here. But I got into my counselor mode and went to comfort her.

“There, there, I think I might be able to get you a second chance, all hope is not lost.”

Mia looked up with questioning eyes “What do you mean?”

“Well you are a student at the immaculate institute, so you must have heard of the FBY project I set up.”

“And what about it?”

“ Well as a matter of fact it was created to help facilitate situations like the one you girls are in at the moment. So maybe we can try to help you and Valerie out? Discuss it together with us and decide on a right plan of action on how to conquer her? Because this situation is a lot more dangerous than it looks and if it continues much longer who knows where it will lead. There have already been casualties from yurilessness, you know.”

I saw a lot going through Mia's head. She was considering my offer. I saw her face go happy, angry,sad, confused and then happy again. It seemed happy had won. She nodded a bit shy, especially if you compared it too how strong she was talking to me just a little earlier, and got her phone out.

“Let us switch line id's” She said.

“Okay, I will try to get us to meet with Claire tomorrow to discuss strategies.”

“What that girl is gonna be there?”

“Yes she is our director, did you not know, it was announced for the entire school?”

I didn't go in on the fact that Claire was already working the case from the Valerie front. It would be easy for her to figure that out, but the way she was reacting to Claire's name, made me realize it would be better not to mention her any further because it might trigger Mia.

“I skipped all that boring stuff...”

She looked a bit less enthusiastic, but still agreed to meet. I would send her a line message as soon as I got the okay from Claire.

My mood had drastically improved since the moment I had left the hotel. Knowing that I might see Claire tomorrow did wonders. I never felt much attraction to spending time with other people, but for some reason I always looked really forward to the time I spent with Claire and the girls from the FBY. I should try to make us meet at Claire’s. If I did that, maybe I would even get to see Claire's room!