"But they could do that, couldn't they? Get some of those alphas together, get them all to say it was out of the blue, and then who's the judge going to believe, them or the omega riffraff," he says, with a high degree of distaste leaking through his voice and his face, "that come to testify in Inori's favour? If any even come, rape and attempted rape cases are..."

"Kokonoe-san is correct, but even a single alpha coming against this story would suffice to practically guarantee that no prosecutor will take the case if we can find one, and even if we cannot the more victims we get the less likely it will be to work. But the most important ace we have is actually Inori-san's reputation. He is well-known in many Tokyo high schools as the 'Shikiri demon'—their words, not mine," he adds, with a small smile. "The guardian angel of those oppressed by alphas, the rumours of him rescuing people from such dangerous situations have become very widespread."

"...back at school people just say he's crazy, violent, and unstable."

"At Kokonoe High, the elite all-alpha school, that may be the case. My son is a senior at Wani High and has heard many different stories about Inori-san, without having ever met him. And my wife and I have been keeping track of him for a while, now."

    "...you have?" wonders Kuroji, seemingly unable to decide what emotion he's feeling right now.

"Certainly. And that, more than anything, almost guarantees this will not go forward. Prosecutors do not accept cases they do not know for a fact they will win, in this country."

Wait... their son is at Wani High? Ōta... Aoki? Well isn't that interesting. He'll file that for later, though, this is more pressing.

"What about the money, though? I... would've expected this wouldn't have even started, normally, it must be Hirune pulling strings."

"We have no evidence of this, of course, and we must work with what we have regardless. That said, even if hypothetically such a situation were to be the case, that is not outside the realm of our expertise. Trust, if not my word, my track record. This will be, at worst, a headache."

    "So... what happens next?" wonders Harutsugu.

"Police may hold him in custody for up to two days before they either get a prosecutor to pursue the case or let him out, although with Makino here it'll likely be less. Then the prosecutor has another day to accept the case, and if they do, Inori-san may be held up for another twenty days at most while prosecution and police gather evidence."

    "Twenty-three days?"

"It either gets dropped or goes to trial before that in the majority of cases," Kaiyō reassures them. "And each step here is less likely to lead to the following. A prosecutor will only take the case if they are being paid enough to overcome the hit to their reputation in the likely chance that they lose such a high-profile case—which I must warn you this will become, if it advances, I'm afraid—but the Hirune are not likely to be willing to part with that much money. And then if they do, we will have a long time to gather our own witnesses and," in a lowered voice, "learn more about whatever may be motivating this, if hypothetically there were anything less than fully legal happening in this investigation."

"Ōta-san, this actually makes me feel a lot better to know. Thank you so much."

    "Trust in us, Kokonoe-san. We will be keeping you updated. Right now all we must do is wait; Inori-san's interrogation may last a while, but Makino is more than ready to be at his side for however long it takes. You will be able to visit him afterwards."

And so they wait. Ōta excuses himself after a while to go back to reviewing some cases and at one point gets up to go have a teleconference meeting with a client. Morning turns to afternoon, and Harutsugu goes to get them all takeout for lunch since they're definitely not leaving the precinct until Inori's been released and it seems the cops are being dicks and taking their sweet time. They are required by law to provide Inori with food and water, at least, he's not being tortured or anything, but it's still many hours to be questioned for.

Ōta Makino eventually shows up, in the dwindling hours of the afternoon, looking prim and proper and professional and exactly like what a person who had just spent several hours in an interrogation room being prim and proper and professional would look like. She makes a beeline for them, and they all stand up. "You must be Inori's parents and Kokonoe-san? It is a pleasure to meet you in person, and I trust Kaiyō gave you an overview of the situation." She turns to Kuroji and Harutsugu. "You have a very remarkable child, you must be very proud of him."

    "—we are," says Harutsugu, looking surprised.

"He did not give an inch to the interrogators and merely repeated that he would wait for his lawyer every time they tried to goad him, from what I understand. He was perfectly collected and... I must say, I have met forty-year-olds who are more easily swayed or, well," a small bitter smile, "bullied by authority than he is. I would say he is approximately the ideal client, here."

Kuroharu do look like they're swelling with pride, at that, but Tōkan is just grinning widely. "No one gets Inori-kun to do anything he does not want to do," he says, with deep, deep fondnes.

She looks at him, then, and says, "And you must be a remarkable young man, for him to love you so. I'm afraid I had some preconceptions about you in advance, which have been thoroughly dispelled by now, and I must apologise for them."

"Ōta-san, I wouldn't dream of holding it against you for a second. Kokonoe Tochima is my father, I'm an alpha from Kokonoe High, you are completely correct to be wary of me and I can only respect you for it."

    "Tōkan-kun has been nothing but a blessing in our lives," Kuroji says. "He and Inori-kun... are very good for each other, and I am proud to call him family."

"Kuroji, you're going to make me blush."

Makino and Kaiyō exchange the type of looks that only people who have been together for decades can exchange, then she says, "Well, you are free to go see him, now. He will need to remain here overnight, and Kaiyō will stay here on retainer for him should anything come up. I got all of your numbers from Inori-san and have messaged you our contact information, and we will message you or call you for anything important. Nothing is likely to happen, though, you should rest easy. Now if you'll excuse me, I should return to the office." She embraces her husband for a moment and then departs.

Harutsugu talks to the person manning the reception, and soon enough the three of them are sitting at a table with Inori, there. Tōkan kissed him as soon as he saw him, and after some flailing and blushing Inori yielded and kissed him back, and now he's just holding Inori's hand and looking at him with an adoring gaze on his face.

Inori is trying not to let that distract him.

    "Are you alright, Inori-kun?" asks Harutsugu.

"Fine. Was a waste of time."

    "How did it go with Ōta-san?"

"Okay. I dunno, they just kept asking slimy questions trying to get me to say stuff I don't mean like I'm some five-year-old they can trick."

        "What did they want to know?" wonders Kuroji.

"They had this whole list of, like... times I kicked someone's ass. And were asking about 'em as if I'd remember them all." Shrug. "And they kept being like, trying to make me say I started it, or I couldn't be sure the alphas were a danger. Fucking pissed me off."

"Ōta-san said you were the perfect client and that she'd met 40-year-olds less capable of holding their own than you were."

He shrugs again. "I'm the strongest," he says, but even under the mask the faint pink is visible.

"They said you'll need to stay here overnight."

    "I'll stay here with you 🥺," says Harutsugu, eyes watering. "I won't leave my baby alone here."

"...why? You're just gonna sleep badly outside."

    "I want to be here for you if you need anything."

"...'kay."

They stay there a while longer, catching up or just chatting, which of course Inori does not love, but this is going to be a very long while anyway, so he might as well get used to the tedium now.

Eventually they have to go, though, and Harutsugu once again gets all teary-eyed when he has to say bye to Kuroji. "I'll call you if anything happens," he says. "I'll miss you, I love you very much."

    "I love you too, Haru," Kuroji says, fondly exasperated.

"Tōkan-kun, stay over at our place tonight?" he asks. "It... would feel good, to have you there, so you can be with us if... if anything comes up."

"—yeah, sure, I can do that. I'll come visit him here tomorrow, too."

"I know you will."

    "We should go, then. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye~~~! I'll miss you~~~~!"

    Kuroji rolls his eyes but gives Harutsugu a quick peck on the lips before leading Tōkan back to the car.

"...you know, Kuroji-san..." he says, once they're driving. "Your relationship with Haru-san gives me a lot of hope."

"Hope?"

"Yeah. I... knew that in theory it was at all possible for an alpha/omega couple to work, but... you two are so happy. I didn't really believe it, before."

Kuroji smiles, flushing softly. "I see what you mean. I'm a very lucky man, Harutsugu is everything I could have hoped for. And... it may be hard to believe, but it only gets better, from where you are. Our relationship has only grown over all these years, I couldn't imagine feeling the way I do, right now, back when I first started dating Haru."