Inori is opening his mouth for a retort but before he can do that someone calls his name: "Hey, Yamada! Fancy meeting you here!" He looks over Tōkan's shoulder at the trio that's glaring at him. "How 'bout we finish what we started the other day?"

"...do I know you?"

Tōkan's turned around by then and is frowning at the three. "Jochi," he tells the leader of the little gang. "What are you doing here?"

    "Your little omega boyfriend here needs to learn a lesson, Kokonoe."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"Oh, I remember you guys." He tightens his grip on his lead pipe. "You were going after that boy last month. You want another round? Bring it."

    "I'm going to kill you," says another person who showed up behind Inori and Tōkan, with a friend. And then there's another three coming from over there, too.

Well well well, if it isn't the consequences of Yamada's decision to beat up every alpha (and a number of betas) up and then show up every day at the gates of an all-alpha school. "Seriously, guys? Eight of you? Against one little omega? Has your pride sunk that low?" But there is, actually, no way they can fight eight people at once.

"I'm not little. And I can take you all. Bring it," he repeats.

    "Guess we'll have to beat both of you up," says another one of them, "since you insist on protecting him, Kokonoe."

"Allow me to propose an alternative." Then he tackles Inori again and dashes off into the distance while carrying him over his shoulder.

"Put me down!!!" he shrieks. "You stupid alphas are all the same, just doing whatever you want, you don't give a shit about anyone but yourselves—"

"Will you shut up, we cannot fight eight people at once!"

"Maybe you can't, but I can so put me the fuck down and let me at them!"

This deserves no response, especially not at the cost of the breath he needs to outrun the eight of them while carrying Yamada, even as small as he is. It's a good thing Tōkan is very in shape, and an early bloomer to boot so he's had a longer while of simmering in his alpha hormones than most other alpha kids their age.

After they're out of sight he makes his way to the school's athletics storeroom and shuts the door before finally dropping Yamada back on the floor and slinking away from him.

"Goddamnit, Yamada."

"—what! You're the one who dragged me here, I should be complaining."

"You're delusional."

"Well get out of the way then, if you don't want to fight there's no point in being around you, I wanna find those guys and beat them up."

"Delusional," he repeats. "And no, you are not leaving right now, the teachers are all over the place and I don't want my father to hear shit about this."

"...your father?"

"...did you not hear what I said? I'm Kokonoe Tōkan. This is Kokonoe High. My father is the school owner and headmaster."

"I'm not paying attention to shit like that. And what's it to me anyway? I don't care what your father or whoever else hears."

"Well I don't care what you don't care about, we'll leave when I can't hear people outside anymore and go out the back—" But instead of that what he immediately hears is the voice of some other students approaching the storeroom. "Shit. Hide!"

And it's not like he's waiting for Yamada to comply before he's behind some stacks of boxes pulling the omega with him.

Inori at the very least has the grace to stay quiet while they sit next to each other and wait for the kids to leave.

When they do Tōkan gets up again and says, "Right then, change of plans, let's leave before anyone else gets in..." But he stops talking as he gets to the door and tries to open it and notices that the outside is chained. "Oh goddamnit."

"What."

"They locked the door."

"—this is your fault! Fix it!"

He's already got his phone in his hands and is texting people. "I'm working on it! In the worst case security's gonna make the rounds, though, right? But maybe I could get my friends to come... Where is the key even kept?"