Lesson 03 – School is a time and place between what is before and what is after
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Lesson 03 - School is a time and place between what is before and what is after

--- The morning after Case 3 ---

When Isabella arrived at school, she found Zaria lying face down on the desk.

It was enough to make her stop at the door and wonder what had happened.

Since she was almost late, she did not have time to ask before the lesson started.

------

Finally, after the lesson had ended curiosity over dread had won out. She was dreading the answer, because something that could tire out Zaria was probably something insane.

"Why are you so tired?" Isabelle asked while Samantha was peering at Zaria curiously from behind her.

"Some idiots decided to try to rob the Cursed Items exhibit."

That caused winces from Isabelle, Samantha, and the honorary cowgirl.

"Naturally they got found out before it happened, but to lessen the risk of exposure, we decided to wait until everyone else was gone, I dragged your aunt into the mess actually."

"Eri?"

"Mhm~"

"Your aunt?" Samantha wondered.

"She is a detective." Isabelle explained.

"That's cool." The wolf puppy was impressed.

"She is dating two shadow cats."

"What?" That was something Isabelle had not heard about.

"She is dating two shadow cats." Zaria repeated. "Your mom found out she is dating actually."

Isabelle nodded silently, now the morning at home made more sense. "I think that is why my mom called for a family meeting today."

Zaria peered at her phone. "For some reason I am invited too?"

The human girl wondered why Zaria was invited.

"Oh right, you better take Sammy with you." Then Zaria frowned. "Actually, I have a better idea." The albino typed something on her phone and then put it away. "Check your phones."

Isabelle and Samantha did that and found an invitation to the back room of 'Pleasant Pastures' for 18:30.

"Send that to your mother, I sent Eri a message to tell her cat that I'll help out at the cafe instead."

"Wait, I thought you were coming with us?" Isabelle wondered.

"I can be in two places at once."

That made sense, or actually, it did not.

"I even have several ways to do it."

"Do I want to know?"

"It is headache level unless you are fae, an archmage, a spirit, or can split and recombine yourself."

"""I don't want to know.""" The three normal girls in the know exclaimed.

Isabelle and Samantha looked back to the voice that had come from behind them, and found the honorary cowgirl standing patiently behind them, almost in touching distance.

Then the teacher came and interrupted everything else.

------

It was during the lesson that Isabelle remembered that the explanation why Zaria was so tired was missing.

The next break she tried again.

"So, why are you so tired?"

Zaria raised her head from the book she was using as a pillow.

"The banana escaped."

Isabelle looked left, and found Samantha attached to her arm, she did not need to look right to know what the softness pressing against her and dealing huge blows to her self-esteem meant.

"Don't worry I caught it, but it was an ordeal." Zaria smirked in a way that made the two girls holding Isabelle hold on tighter and the human girl in the middle wish she had never asked.

"First, the banana rampaged across the robbers."

The three listening girls had the feeling of a train wreck you could not look away from.

"Then it got a few cops, Isa's aunt, and a few of the CSIs."

Who in their right mind approached that place voluntarily anyway?

"Then the CIA guys tried to play important, and fell victim. When they were leaving the banana peel followed and they took it with them when they saw it."

People actually wanted cursed items?

"I realized it a bit later and caught up to them at the CIA headquarters. There the car slipped."

A slipping car made no sense, but the girls decided they were safer not knowing.

"As I was laughing how one car managed to wreck five others, the banana slipped into the building. After I collected myself, and dragged the two idiots at fault out of the wreckage, I followed it."

The girls agreed it was idiots.

"There I tracked it from the official basement floors 1 through 5 to the officially not existing basement floors 21 to 27."

That sounded off; did the banana peel skip 6 to 20?

"No, the floors between don't exist aside from a lift shaft, emergency stairs and a marking on the wall."

That sounded like a mad scientist hideout actually.

"There the banana peel caused several accidents, interrupted a demon summoning, threw me into the Hell Gate that a confused and panicked demon came from. I say interrupted because after the demon came through, it saw me, and then saw me fall into hell, it seems it panicked and splattered the summoners trying to get as far away from me as possible."

Somehow, Zaria scaring a demon seemed far too plausible.

"You three just thought something really rude."

And Zaria was back to reading minds.

"I am not reading your minds." Zaria laid her head back down on the book. "It took me two hours to calm hell down, they thought someone had offended me and needed reassurance, and then I had to fight off flocks of amorous fallen angels and succubae."

The story had taken another weird turn.

"I returned, found the demon several destroyed labs later, had to glass a floor that got contaminated by some sort of virus, and finally found it too scared to move, staring at the banana peel while guys with guns were trying to establish their 'supernatural breech protocol'."

There were protocols for everything it seemed.

"I sent the demon back, left the banana peel in their care, or them in its care, and went to have a chat with the real director, not the public one."

That sounded really ominous.

"I reminded him why demon summoning and zombie making bioweapons were a no go, reported him to the president, whom I had to wake and who was not in the know of that part of the CIA. I also introduced myself, and had the secret service guys’ curse that they had taken the relaxing night shift."

Zaria simply had gone and had woken the president.

"Then I returned, picked up the banana peel, found two more floors wrecked by the fight between the containment team and the banana peel. I returned it to the museum, updated its incident count, and went to shower, made breakfast, and finally came here after eating."

"""..."""

"Everyone return to your seats, you can chat more after the mathematics exam."

Those words made everyone quickly return to their seats.

It was time for the harsh reality of school.

------

After the exam Samantha was emulating Zaria by having her head on the desk, Isabelle was feeling pretty confident, and Zaria had finished in a few minutes, then slept through the rest of the time.

Isabelle realized something else and whispered it to the honorary cowgirl. "Actually, did Zaria casually explain what is probably millions of dollars in damage caused by banana peel and several deaths by stupid?"

The busty girl thought about it for a moment. "When she tells it, it sounds so natural."

Isabelle nodded in agreement. "It's actually scary."

"Let's not think about it?" The honorary cowgirl offered.

"Yes, let's stop thinking about it, and think about meeting my aunt's girlfriends."

"Your aunt has girlfriends?"

"Two of them, shadowcats it seems."

"That's … what is a shadowcat actually?"

"I have no idea." Isabelle admitted, and looked at Samantha.

"Dunno, I think they are cats that can manipulate shadows or something like that." the puppy replied.

"I guess I'll see tonight."

------

School was mostly calm, aside from Zaria being too drained to bother holding back. During PE she outran everyone in the marathon by five of the eight laps around the sports field, then curled up in the shadows of a tree. When Samantha had stopped holding back and outpaced the others by two laps, she made the mistake of sitting near Zaria, and found herself cuddled by the asleep albino without a chance to escape.

It took Isabelle shaking Zaria to get her to release the poor puppy.

After school, the albino disappeared with a simple "See you later."

"That was a weird day." Isabelle stared at the empty spot. "Do you think she teleported?"

"Probably, so I am coming tonight as well?" Samantha asked the human girl.

"Seems like it, if you don't come I expect Zaria would come and kidnap you."

The wolfgirl shuddered.

"Let's go home and do the homework, I have the feeling we won't have time afterwards."

------

A little later at a certain shrine.

"What?" A catgirl asked an albino. "Why am I coming too?"

"Because you know them both, and you are actually sensible."

"Somehow it's a compliment that makes me worry."

"Don't worry, I am paying." Zaria soothed the catgirl.

"Fine."


This time a short one, the next chapter will be cluing in the mother on the other side.

With Zaria being the one doing the cluing in, sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Story Links

Spoiler

Discord Link - The good stuff manual is in #information
https://discord.gg/chtmk3t
Dramatis Personae
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RELHzgHz1Ww1jgiLAeTdMSkSnxaUw9G1mMyRKJ1L5bs/edit?usp=sharing

[collapse]

Discord comments:

Spoiler

Lazy Writer
decided to add the vampire loli to the mess
and the catgirl
no lich though
The Test Subject
Have we met the cat girl before? I can’t remember
Scratch that I remember now
Lazy Writer
case 03 catgirl
The Test Subject
The one with the scared father
Lazy Writer — Today at 17:42
yes
though I can admit that I understand him purrfectly
first you find out the cop you are facing has two shadowcats all over her, then that fluffy disaster comes along
The Test Subject
Agreed, but hiding behind your teenage daughter isn’t a good look even still.
Lazy Writer
well, it was a potted plant and the desk
both perfectly useless though
Joyeuse (Rita)
It's kind of an effective tactic towards Zaria
Now I am imagining Zaria settling near one village and the village people deciding to present her a cute girl as a sacrifice because they learned of her being very strong from an oracle (by tama) and that cute girls appease her
Jessy (Jessie)
Tama would definitely do that

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Poll: Want some shoujo-ai skinship with schoolgirls too? (yuri versions are discord only)
1: Yes!
2: Yes, seduce the puppy first!
3: Yes, we want some herd action!
4: No!
5: NOOO!!!! They are only 14!
6: Why is that even a question? Do what you want!

Want some shoujo-ai skinship with schoolgirls too?
  • 1: Yes! Votes: 18 18.6%
  • 2: Yes, seduce the puppy first! Votes: 25 25.8%
  • 3: Yes, we want some herd action! Votes: 11 11.3%
  • 4: No! Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5: NOOO!!!! They are only 14! Votes: 6 6.2%
  • 6: Why is that even a question? Do what you want! Votes: 37 38.1%
Total voters: 97
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