[Spirit of Lust 2] Chapters 462 & 463. (Patreon)

Chapter 462: Eric comes clean.

I furrowed my brow in pure confusion at seeing Eric here. I mean, classes had started already. “Eric? What are you doing here?”

“I told the teacher I needed to go to the bathroom,” he said. “I… I saw you carrying Noelle to the infirmary. I needed to talk to you without anyone else listening.”

I suppressed a groan. Eric had a crush on Noelle, so you can imagine where my thoughts were going. Was Eric bold and crazy enough to confront me about me dating her again? Making an excuse to get out of class just to catch me alone? Apparently so.

Eric swallowed nervously, probably sensing my mood souring even more. “H-How is she? Is she sick?”

“No, just tired. She had a terrible night.”

Eric bit her lip. “So… The Yuria harassment really got to her.”

That made me snap my head to look at him, eyes wide as plates. I suppose Eric expected my reaction, because he smiled nervously at me.

“Eric… Be careful about whatever it is you’re going to say next,” I told him.

“It wasn’t me, I promise! It’s about that crap that I wanted to talk to you about, I swear!” Eric shook her head and waved his hands in front of himself. 

I decided to believe him for now, but I still couldn’t help but glare at him. I put my fist in my pockets and clenched them there, taking a deep breath to calm my head. Eric knew something, and now that he had admitted to it, I’d have him tell me everything.

“How long have you known about Yuria?” I asked him.

He moved from the middle of the stairs to lean back on the railing. “A few months already.”

Months? What? “How?”

He grimaced and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “Can I not answer that?”

“Sorry, but I’ll need you to tell me everything. You started this, now see it through.”

Eric winced. “I guess. Ugh. Well, you see… Um… That clip of Yuria shooting down a simp?”

Oh no.

“I was the… simp.”

Oh god dammit. This damn world really is as small as a tissue. But then again, it made enough sense.

“But how did you find out?” I asked him, keeping any judgmental tone out of my voice.

“I… I like V-Tubers, okay? I always browse streams with low views, then one day I caught Yuria’s first. Her avatar was so high quality that I stayed to watch. I ended up becoming a regular.” He was fidgeting, fingers tapping on the railing. “Months later, I heard a random conversation in my classroom. Your sister was telling some friends that she had a cat now, that Noelle and Alice found her and brought her to her place. She complained that you were against it but ended up convincing your mother. I didn’t think much of it, but then I heard that exact same story from Yuria.”

“Could be a coincidence,” I told him.

“It could, but…” He clicked his tongue. “The girl I had a crush on being my new favorite V-Tuber… I wasn’t thinking straight, okay? If Yuria was Noelle, then her friend’s brother was likely you. I got scared and… did that stupid thing. Ended up on the internet for it.”

Eric’s face was red from shame. Almost felt bad for making him tell me the story, but it was necessary. Honestly, Eric and I weren’t that different. We were both extremely withdrawn and bad with people. Difference was that I ran away from others while he was a yes-man. Despite the crap he and Julian pulled, I couldn’t bring myself to really hate Eric. That doesn’t mean I like him, either.

He took a deep breath and continued. “What really confirmed my suspicions was that time later she was playing a game with a character creator once and made her boyfriend. The guy was literally you. She even called him Olivier.”

I winced and held my forehead. “I told her that could get her caught. I really did.”

“Now, don’t get me wrong, Oliver. I don’t have a crush on her anymore. I’m not THAT pathetic. I want to move on.”

I nodded. “And… you haven’t told anyone about her true identity?”

Eric shook his head. “Like I said, I want to move on. But that I don’t have a crush on Noelle anymore doesn’t mean I hate her. She wants to keep that secret, so I have no business revealing it.”

I smiled, relieved. What I felt wasn’t strong enough to call it mind reading, but I did know that Eric was being genuine. “Thanks, Eric.”

He nodded seriously, meeting my eyes. “So now that I’ve told you that, I hope you’ll believe what I’m about to tell you next. I think I know where the Yuria harassment started.”

“Where?”

“I said I like V-Tubers, right? I’m in a few dedicated fan groups. You know, forums, DC channels, image boards… That includes an unofficial fan group of AniLove V-Tubers.”

I blinked. That was the agency trying to recruit Yuria. Grace did a background check on them yesterday and found them to be legitimate as well as fairly respected as a company.

“Oliver, you… haven’t changed your phone number, right?” Eric asked me.

“Since freshman year, you mean? No, it’s the same.”

“Then I’ll send you some images. Screenshots I took when I realized something might happen.”

Eric and I had exchanged numbers back when we were in the music club, though we never actually texted each other for more than club related stuff. He sent me the screenshots he mentioned and I looked them over.

They were images of a chat log. In it, people were discussing the Yuria clip that went viral and how someone had found out that AniLove had extended an offer to her. Little by little, a couple of people in the chat began to turn the rest against Yuria, saying that she clearly hated her fanbase, treated them like shit and would be an awful addition to the ‘AniLove Family’.

“What the fuck?” I muttered.

“It gets worse,” Eric told me. “I said that group is unofficial, but I’ve spent enough time in it to notice a few things. I’m fairly sure the two people egging the others on are two V-Tubers already contracted by AniLove using alt accounts..”

…

What the hell was happening?

************

Chapter 463: Sometimes helping is a difficult choice.

So… According to Eric, the reason Noelle, Yuria, was getting harassed on the internet was because two V-Tubers from the agency that wanted to hire her were basically sending their fans against her for… some reason.

“And you’re sure about this?” I asked him.

“80% sure, at least,” Eric said. “Like I said, I’ve been in that group for a while and I’m not the only one who’s noticed the signs. Those two accounts never post while the streamers are live, have said things they shouldn’t know and deleted the posts, and they were the ones who revealed that Yuria was getting an offer. Who else would know that besides people inside the company?”

Regardless, even if these two people weren’t from AniLove, this showed that the Yuria hate was artificial. “Just throw some nasty rumors into the wind and the unthinking masses are sure to do the rest. It always works that way.”

“It does.” Eric looked away from me, his face full of shame. I’d believe he wasn’t involved with the harassment, so the shame was likely because he was aware that, if it wasn’t because he knew Yuria was Noelle, he WOULD be involved with it.

“And why are you telling me this, Eric? What do you want to get out of this?”

“...” Eric bit his lip. “Nothing. I just… Look, I know I said I’m over Noelle, but… Feelings don’t go away that quickly. I couldn’t just do nothing when I knew I could help. To ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom, it’s indolence.”

I raised my eyebrow at him, a little taken aback by that last part. Eric knew what he had done, blushed in embarrassment and shook his head.

“Just… A quote I like. From a game. Figured I better start putting stuff like that into practice instead of just marveling at them in my bedroom.”

“It’s a pretty nice sentiment,” I admitted. I looked down at my phone, glaring at the logs Eric sent me. “If this turns out to be true, I’ll owe you one. If you need anything, let me know.” Eric opened his mouth to speak again, but this time opted for staying quiet and nodding once. “Now let’s go back to class before we get in trouble.”

“R-Right.” He turned around and began to make his way up the stairs.

“Hey, Eric,” I called to him, making him stop. He turned his head back to me. “Thanks,” I told him.

He turned from me again, now walking faster to get away. I let out a heavy sigh.

Really, that couldn’t have been easy. I wonder if I could’ve done the same. Yes, Eric was awkward and… a little weird, but he wasn’t a bad person. Going up to his crush’s boyfriend to give him info to help her… How many people would have rather laugh at the misfortune? Saying things like ‘they wronged me, so they deserve it’? Plenty, I’m sure.

Eric was in an unexpected position to help, but he could’ve stayed quiet. He could’ve just enjoyed our struggle from afar, from a position of power where he knew exactly what was happening and didn’t need to lift a finger himself, but he didn’t. I really owed him one.

He was clearly taking steps to grow, too.

***

The rest of our free time at school was spent glued to our phones, trying to gather as much information as we could on the matter. I showed the girls the logs Eric sent me, but we didn’t yet tell Noelle. We wanted her to stay away from the internet for a while longer, at least. 

During lunch I got a text from Diana. We’d been trying to find a day to get together again, and she said she’d have the whole afternoon free thanks to finishing some work earlier than expected. She asked if we wanted to go to her house again.

“How about it, Noelle?” Alice asked the redhead. “Do you feel up for it?”

Now a bit more rested, Noelle nodded fervently. “I don’t want to go back home yet. I know I’ll end up reading comments again. I want to stay away from that.”

“We might have a lead on what’s going on, though,” Grace said. “Let’s go to Diana’s and put together what we’ve found out.”

I felt bad for bringing the issue to her house, so I texted back telling her we were dealing with some weird drama. I asked her if it was okay if we went to talk about it at her place and she said it was more than okay.

With that plan, we went to see Diana after school. We saw Red barking excitedly from a window and Diana opening the door for us soon after. I was so used to seeing Mila and the others practically every day that seeing Diana’s face after a few days felt like a big deal to me. Not to mention she looked great in her tight jeans and black V-neck shirt.

She let us in and closed the door behind us. “Okay, so what’s the drama you were talking about?” she asked, coming up to me for a quick greeting kiss. “What happened?”

Alice sighed. “Noelle’s internet persona is getting bullied hard. We’re trying to find out what’s going on and if there’s anything we can do to stop it.”

“I’m… I’m sorry,” Noelle told Diana, looking downcast. “I’m just bringing the mood down with this stuff…  And you just happened to have the afternoon free. M-Maybe we shouldn’t have come to bother you…”

Diana smiled and went up to the redhead. If Diana was a fair bit taller than me, seeing her standing next to Noelle was almost biblical. If my eyes were at about neck-level with Diana, Noelle was at chest-level.

“Hey, I said it was fine. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to help.” Diana put her hands on Noelle’s shoulders. “More importantly, how are you feeling? Say it clearly.”

Maybe because of the pressure of the older woman, Noelle felt compelled to admit something she hadn’t even told us yet.

“Confused… Kind of worthless… and like a burden,” she said, her eyes watering, her voice cracking.

“And do you think that’s true?” Diana asked her. It was nothing more than a question, one with no hidden meaning or intentions. “Do you truly believe you’re worthless and a burden? Even with all these people here worried about you?”

Noelle looked around, saw us all standing there, watching her. She shook her head and answered. “N-No. I don’t believe it.”

“Good.” Diana pulled Noelle into a hug, surprising the smaller girl at first before she happily returned it. After a moment, Diana pulled away, her hands still on Noelle’s shoulders. “Now, I’m not going to offer you alcohol to drink, but I do have ice cream. I have mint and raspberry flavors. Want some?”

Noelle giggled. “Mint, please.”

“Coming right up.”

I watched her go into the kitchen with Alice and Grace behind her to help with anything she needed. Then Sarah elbowed me lightly in the ribs and looked at me puzzled.

“Wasn’t she supposed to be bad with people?” she whispered.

I chuckled. “Seems that’s only at the beginning.”

Noelle, at least, looked in a much better mood now than before. I’d have to learn to do that.