Lightbulb. "Ah, I remember the shitheads. They were attacking a girl."

"Attacking, huh?"

"They tried to rape a middle schooler in her first heat."

Tōkan whirls on his feet to face them now. Also, having his back to the wind helps a lot with the pheromones, shit they're strong. "Really? So Yamada had no reason to beat the two of you up, huh?" he asks, still projecting an image of being completely unaffected by the situation.

 "W-we couldn't help it!" says Karato, lowering his hand to place it between himself and Tōkan. Which proves to be a mistake, seeing the way he staggers when affected by the pheromones, eyes full of barely-contained lust.

Yeah. Given how much Tōkan himself wants to turn around and rail Inori right now, he hates that he's starting to understand what Karato is talking about.

Doesn't justify it, though. "Hey Yamada, you wanna beat these two up some more with me?"

"What the fuck are you doing, Kokonoe?" asks Subaru.

"A middle schooler, Subaru. I should fuck them up here and call the police on them." Nothing justifies that. Nothing.

"Hey assholes," says an Inori suddenly standing far too close to the four of them. "Shut the fuck up and fight me," he finishes, swinging his lead pipe in Tōkan's direction.

Tōkan leaps out of the way in the nick of time and takes a defensive stance. "What the hell, man, I'm on your side here!" And now Yamada is way too close, like, wow, what the fuck, dude, you're walking bait.

Yeah, he is. Hōji and Karato are still sporting the physical reminders of what trying to fight Yamada would result in but clearly that's the only thing stopping them. Well, and maybe being afraid of Tōkan, too. And maybe the law. Anyway point is they're barely holding together while they press themselves against a wall to steer clear of the fight and stay away from Yamada.

"You shitty alphas all talk too much," he replies, with another swing.

Which Tōkan dodges again. "Dude, chill the fuck out." Yamada needs to stop moving, he's spraying pheromones into the air like crazy and Tōkan is having trouble concentrating. "I don't want to fight you."

"Too bad, dickhead, I'm here to bash your skull in."

And he might succeed, too. Tōkan thinks even if he weren't in the middle of being affected by Yamada's heat he'd have trouble fighting this guy.

He still dodges. "I didn't do anything!"

"Today." Swing. "Still an alpha." Swing swing. "If you run into a middle schooler you'll be just like them."

Karato at least has the decency of looking embarrassed.

Yamada's right, though. Not about Tōkan specifically, of course, but even Subaru is having trouble here and he's not even into omegas.

Dodge dodge dodge this whole "talking" clearly isn't working and if things keep going the way they are either Tōkan is going to get seriously hurt or the others are going to gang up on Yamada and do something awful to him. He dodges once more, down into a crouching position this time, and from there he lunges at Yamada's midsection and then heaves him up over his shoulder.

(And that is close enough that even Tōkan's composure starts to actually crack. But composure or no he will still not do anything as disgusting as—as those two—)

"Tōkan?!"

"What the fuck are you doing, you prick! Put me down!" Inori yells, thrashing in Tōkan's grip. The lunge caused him to drop his pipe, and it's a lot harder to get out of this position without it.

"I am getting you the fuck away from here before anything we'll both regret happens!" Wow that sounded a lot less sexually charged in his head. Anyway, he starts sprinting away while the other three watch in frozen shock.

"Put me down! I'll fucking kill you!"

"Now's not the time to flirt!"

But between the physical exertion of running and carrying Inori he's starting to actually get really seriously affected by the pheromones and he really really does not want to get in rut right this minute! He never has and he'd been hoping he never would!

What the fuck is up with this dumbass alpha, Inori is going to break his spine.