Arrival in Akita
Tatsuya had settled into Yosen Highschool without problems. He was quick at making friends, he had always trained his Japanese and he had enough self-discipline to read up on all topics he would need to revise for class. Akita was cold but his school was well-heated. It was cozy and classic at the same time. A high class dormitory with a school far away from most civilization.
Of course that also meant it specialized in housing some very strange characters. A few students only came to a few classes and had others by themselves or in special groups. There were a lot of nerds unfit for normal society who had special courses after school to keep them from doing strange stuff. It was an all-boys school, so it also housed some boys who had messed around too much with girls for their parents´ liking. So regulations and punishments were strict, there was a lot of special support for different reasons and one could spend morning to night in courses and clubs.
Tatsuya did not like being away from people but of course his parents had wanted the best for him – so a private boarding school it was. At least they had a great basketball team, that had been his only wish. Well, he had had two. He had not wanted to be anywhere near Taiga, so Tokyo was out of question. It left Rakuzan and Yosen but Rakuzan was above his parents´ budget.
Yosen was okay. He would see the rest of Japan whenever they played basketball. For every game they would fly, live in hotels and eat in restaurants as long as he got in first string. Honestly, he wasn´t worried. He might not be the biggest or most muscled player but he knew his technique was great. Even the fact that he was an Omega did not worry him. He had lived with discrimination all his life. He had never cared and he would certainly not start now.
The school was full of male Omegas. It was another group that needed to be separated and protected. They had their own dorm which was securer than most prisons. They were not allowed to bring anyone else in, so not even an invited guest could be a risk. They got their prescription inhibitors and had a wide range of collars to choose from every morning (as it was the only allowed fashion statement in a school with uniforms, it was actually nice to wear them). If any of them decided to mate the school had family dorms, so that Omegas could continue their school career. Even if he ended up raped and pregnant by some twist of fate (and a lot of the Omegas here had suffered exactly that before coming here) this school would take care of him. It was what had persuaded his parents to allow him to escape their loving but slightly overprotective clutches.
So he was actually a bit surprised to see so many Alphas at the same school. He soon learned that most of them were not your average good-looking athlete but had some kind of flaw that made them an embarrassment to their parents. He had seen some boys with disfigurements, some punks, some pretty dumb guys and some Alphas with really nasty attitudes. He was sure some of them were here because they had raped people and somehow evaded prison. But security was tight so he wasn´t worried.
Of course the basketball club was full of Alphas. He had not expected anything else. All of them were as big as mountains and – quite honestly – most weren´t the sharpest tools in the shed. Their coach was an Alpha women who was stricter and sterner than even Alex (who was prone to screaming at Taiga and him all the time). When she wasn´t screaming in very short, easily understandable orders she was speaking slow and in no-more-than-seven-words-sentences. He knew from talking to her before that this wasn´t her normal speech which told him a lot about his new team. Their captain held a speech as well in the same manner, though it sounded like that was his normal way of speaking.
Wow – he would be surrounded by stupid oafs. Maybe one of them would be a bit sharper. Even though he had already learned that knowing each other´s reason for being here gave people an easy label. The group of dumb Alphas was large, they were nothing but powerful muscle. He did pity them a bit to be honest. Just like him they were born this way and did not fit into normal categories. They were Alphas unsuited for life – he was a rebel Omega intent on making something out of his life other than popping out babies. They all did not fit the category they were born with.
So he simply accepted the fact that he would need to speak slowly and carefully in his club. As with most simple characters the other players were genuinely nice and honest. In only their first session he got compliments from three different people and one of them asked him out. None of them were degrading, most boys seemed to adore him on sight. He knew it was only due to his pheromones but their attention did not leave a slimy feeling. Most likely they did not even comprehend that chatting up an Omega and praise him on his looks and smell could be insulting. And due to the fact that all of them seemed to know they were misfits, none of the boys seemed to expect him to actually deem them worth his time. Even the rejected one only smiled and nodded. He did not want to be mean but in his head he compared them to oversized dogs. They did as told, got treats for it and were glad for the attention.
The treat thing was no joke. When their coach grabbed a package of sweets and began to give out candies (three if you did well, less when you did not meet her expectations) he had been flabbergasted. But the players were really keen on getting their rewards. Even more they tried to console those who did not get three and gave them tips how to get all of them next time. Even their captain got candies like everyone else.
Tatsuya did not feel like he needed sweets to motivate himself – he did not even like candies – but he went with the flow and ended up with three of them. He was told that the new ones would be tested after five training session. Now that he saw who he would have to go up against he got a bit insecure. The other six were all Alphas, two of them dumb giants, one of them a punk and two of them were people he could not label. Those two kept their heads together and laughed about some team members after calling them imbeciles or idiots.
Okay, true, this team was full of good-natured giants unable to function on their own but that did not mean it was okay to call them names. On the way back to the locker rooms he was quite annoyed and kept to the nice giants. When they changed he could practically feel everyone´s eyes on him. As always it disgusted him a bit but he had learned to ignore it over the years. There would always be some idiots in the world. If they stayed on the team he would ask for his own changing room. All those giants looked at him too but their gazes were okay in his book. He knew they did not mean anything bad by it. At least he hoped so. They did not give off a dangerous feeling like the other guys.
“Hey”, one of the giants said to him, this one had lavender-colored hair. He steeled himself for some utterly stupid question or another compliment, so he was a bit surprised by the question posed to him: “Aren´t you going to eat your sweets?”
“Eh? Err, well, no, not right now.” He had simply put them on his bag. Could it be that they were more of a temptation than his nearly naked body?
“Newbie, eating other people´s sweets is forbidden”, the captain lectured the giant who had asked that question. “It´s not allowed to bully others for sweets.”
“I did not bully him”, the guy drew out his words and looked back at him. “Did I bully you?”
“No, it´s okay. You only asked.”
“Asking is not allowed too. We are too big. That might scare others. So asking can be bullying”, the captain explained in his very simple ways, “Asking smaller people for things can be bullying.”
Tatsuya blinked. Wow. They really did teach some basics to people here. So that was why all those giants seemed so genuinely nice. Their coach taught them manners.
“Let me guess: You don´t get candies when you bully people?” One of the strange Alpha newbies snickered. “Who cares about three little bonbons when you can bring a cutie like this to suck your dick?” He made a vague gesture in Tatsuya´s direction.
“It´s not allowed to make sexual comments. You could hurt an Omega. They can feel exploited”, the captain drowned on. It seemed he had really learned his lines. Tatsuya began to understand why he was the captain. In his very own way he was the one-eyed man in a group of blind sheep.
“Why should I care? Is that really the worst they can do here? Take away candies?” The guy shook his head. “Man, you´re too dumb to even understand how much you get played here. You´re fucking huge, you can just take what you want.”
“That is wrong. If you force people they won´t like you. Coach Araki likes us because we are good boys. She´s a good teacher.”
Tatsuya just hurried up to get into his clothes. He was sure that if he asked his captain for help the captain would help without question. Still it would not be the worst of ideas to get out of the situation before it escalated.
“And what will she do? Hit you with that bamboo sword? Does that really hurt with all those muscles you have? Why do you want to please her? For candy?” The guy scoffed at the captain with all the arrogance an Alpha could show.
“No, they listen to her because she means well and they know that. You are simply an asshole”, Tatsuya told him in no uncertain terms, “You don´t deserve people that like you. I would chose every one of them over you in a second.”
“You say that now but if you were in heat you would not even look twice at them. Omegas look for good genes and these here are all simpletons. You´d let me fuck you, don´t even deny it.”
“Stop saying such things or I will tell our coach”, the captain warned the guy.
“You might get my body in a weak moment, true, but you would never get my heart and soul. So your ass would be in prison sooner than you can apologize.” Tatsuya smiled at the other. Why did such guys always think he was defenseless? He knew how to attack back. “You´re here because you raped someone, didn´t you?”
The other guy paled. Being a known rapist was the worst that could happen to you here. Those guys were shunned, no, ostracized. Everyone looked down on them. The school took them in and they seemed to have some special program to reform them but the students weren´t as kind.
“I am not!” The guy looked around in panic. “You make that up because you are pissed at me.”
“Then maybe you shouldn´t piss people off. All of these guys already learned that. You are the one lacking.”
“Fuck you!” The guy screamed, took his bag and fled.
The one who had talked with him before looked at the wall, his face just as white. Tatsuya studied him for a moment but he seemed harmless now. So was he a rapist too? Or had he just been unfortunate to talk to the other guy? The punk had simply kept out of this, that made him alright in Tatsuya´s book.
“Do you want to say something too?” The lavender-haired giant from before asked the other guy staring at the wall.
“Wha- err, no. No, sorry. I didn´t expect that. I´m shocked. Really!” That one looked at the others with slight fear in his eyes.
“Oh.” The giant hung his head, a pout on his face.
“Why does that disappoint you?” Tatsuya asked him curiously.
“If he had attacked you I could have had- have- I mean, I protect you.” The sentence seemed to have been a bit much for him. Grammar wasn´t easy, true.
“That´s very nice but I can look after myself”, Tatsuya explained.
“Would you give me candy if I do well?” The boy tilted his head.
Tatsuya looked at him for a moment. Really? So the guy wanted to be his knight in shining armor to get more sweets? That was … cute somehow. He seemed a bit like a dog wanting to please to get a treat. Tatsuya decided to pocket the candies. Having them lie around in open sight might be a bit harsh for people who wanted candies that much. Instead of giving an answer he asked the lavender-haired giant in front of him: “What is your name?”
“Murasakibara Atsushi”, he said intent on pronouncing his name in the right way. It certainly was no easy name, it must have taken him a bit to learn.
“My name is Himuro Tatsuya.”
Murasakibara scrunched his eyebrows and finally said: “Can I call you Muro-chin?”
Maybe his name was too complicated. Well, the nickname wasn´t too bad so he nodded. He decided to choose another topic: “So which class are you in?”
“S1”, Murasakibara answered without any concrete intonation.
“Only S1?” Tatsuya had already learned that S1 was the class for intellectually impaired boys. Most only had some main topics in that class and spent easier classes like music or art with the normal pupils.
“Only S1”, Murasakibara sounded pretty resigned. He seemed to have accepted long ago that normal classes were too much for him. Tatsuya had heard others mutter the class name in shame or anger but never with such a downtrodden tone. While others seemed to try and hide their weaknesses Murasakibara did not seem to care much.
“All of us went there”, their captain informed him good-naturedly, “Teacher Tsueda is nice but strict.”
“I like her. She hasn´t hit me yet”, Murasakibara answered in his droning voice.
Tatsuya felt his stomach drop. The boys were hit here? Wasn´t that a bit harsh? They might be on a low level of intellect but they were still human. Were corporal punishments by the school still allowed in Japan? He really needed to look that up.
“She never hits people. She doesn´t even scream. But she cuts down your candies and your pearls”, the captain explained to Murasakibara.
Tatsuya simply wondered about pearls. Were pearls some kind of reward? Did they have a reward system that went beyond candies? It would be a good idea because while these boys were doing a lot of sports he had seen others that were overweight. Murasakibara and the captain spoke about their favorite candies, so he used that time to wish everyone a good day and leave the gym.
The guy who had been joking about the giants in the club with the other boy that had left jogged up to him. Tatsuya looked at him mildly annoyed, so he held up his hands and said: “Sorry about before. Hideki treated you horribly and I just wanted to tell you that I did not support his words.”
“In that case you should have told him that and not me. If you see something that is wrong, man up and do something”, he admonished the boy. He had been forgiving in ground school but he was lon past the phase. He was fed up with people keeping silent while others were hurt. “And you aren´t better than him, you joked about the captain and our sempais as much as he did.”
“Yeah, well, okay, but they are … you know … they are pretty dumb.” The boy looked uncomfortable.
“Yes, they are. They were born this way. Just like I was born an Omega. I don´t make jokes about Alphas and whatever else I could label you with, so don´t make fun of things other people can´t do anything about. I`m sick of hypocrites like you. If you think Omega-bashing is wrong, then think before you bash other people too. It´s not like any of them can do anything about the fact that they are intellectually impaired.”
“Err, ehm … sorry?” It was always kind of satisfying to see how easy it was to intimidate even the most bad-ass Alphas. “You pity them, huh?”
“I pity them as much as I pity myself for being an Omega or you for being an Alpha. Do you feel my pity?” He stared the bigger man down.
“Ehm, err, I mean, err … so … would you like to go on a date with me?”
“What do you think?” Tatsuya lowered his voice dangerously.
“No?”
“Exactly that. Grow up before you ask me again.” He scoffed at the other and left.
He hated idiots. These kind of idiots, not the intellectually impaired ones.
