Ren stood there frozen, wondering how to proceed. His brain unable to even process the sounds he was hearing.
Groaning. Squelching and thumping he knew the source of. Grunts that turned into moans-
Ren shook his head and covered his eyes, even though he was facing them. 'This school really is off the rails! Doing things like this in the middle of the school day! How can a school so nice have kids so undisciplined?!'
He thought and thought about every strange thing he had seen so far. Those seniors, the harsh security, his sexist ex-friends, those boys against the locker... the boy from the infirmary. None of it made any sense! What was all this Alpha and Omega stuff?!
Then Ren was hit with a powerful smell. It was only a small amount but it was so pungent to his nose his head spun. His knees buckled, and his bag dropped from his hand onto the floor.
"What was that?" A voice around the corner spoke up. "Do you smell that?"
Ren started to feel heavy. He didn't notice it until now, but his body suddenly felt hot. His vision started to shake. Ren could hear footsteps approaching. He grabbed his bag and got up as best and he could. The two boys approached, looking at him.
"An omega...." The one in the back spoke. The look on their faces freaked Ren out, but he couldn't quite move just yet.
And that smell... A certain thought came to Ren's mind, that terrified him. A wave overtook him, a all consuming heat that clouded his mind and made him WANT what they were doing, for himself. Suddenly his heart was exploding in his chest, his skin pulsing with a sudden throbbing ach. It was suddenly sensitive and desperate for touch, anyone's touch, THEIR touch. Almost like he wanted to, to join them...
No. What? That doesn't... Ren quickly backed away, reeling from his shock, before bolting out of there in a rush. They called after but Ren kept running.
'W-Why did I think that?!' He internally screamed. 'What's going on with my head? My body-! I feel like I'm going to melt!'
He ran and ran till he was nearly back to the lunchroom. He didn't know what to do, he couldn't think-
Slam!!
He runs right into someone, their smell completely throws him off his feet. He's caught and pulled back up by a familiar face.
"You...." the boy from the infirmary started to say.
But then there was a chime. This chime was a signal, meaning the lunch was ending. And they were right in front of the doors to the lunch hall. The boy's face tightened and he grabs hold of Ren's arm, dragging him away.
"What...?" Ren's words seem to slur.
"Come this way, hurry!" The boy commanded. Even if Ren wanted to disagree, he was in no state to argue.
———
Ren woke up. With a fevered groan and bleary eyes, he rose from the ground. He looked around.
He was on the floor of a small room, illuminated by a warm lamp light that hung from the wall. A sour smell filled the air, and he was under a white blanket with a strange texture.
Next to him was a bottle of water, still cold but already growing warm.
Ren fumbled in his head trying to remember how he got here, with no luck. 'Right, wasn't there that boy again? Or did I imagine it....' At some point, he blacked out?
Then the door opens. The boy comes back in, closing the door but not coming closer.
"Good, you're up. Use this," He tossed him a small package to him. "It'll lessen your symptoms enough that you can head back to the dorm; I already have someone coming to take you soon."
Ren gazed at him blankly. "What's....what the heck happened?"
"It's what I thought," They said. "This must be your first heat, isn't it? You should know to be more prepared, especially in this school."
"Heat? What?" Ren looked up perplexed, not for the first time today.
The boy stared. "...You know you're an omega, right?"
Ren in his daze suddenly remembers his conversation with the boys at lunch. He looked back up in shock.
"I'm not a girl!"
The boy looked at him with a confused worried expression. He shakes his head. "You're clearly too out of it to think straight, I'll-"
The boy suddenly flinches, and looks away, covering his face.
"Hurry up and use it already, he'll be here any moment."
Ren opened the package up.
"... What the hell is this?"
The boy glanced at him. "Seriously? It's a suppressor. You inject it in your arm."
Oh, he understood. But...
He stared down at the suppressor. He looked up at the boy, a strained look on his face...
Ren takes the suppressor. For a while nothing happens, but soon the heat lessens, and he feels like his head can breathe again.
"Good," The boy said. "You didn't have any suppressors or pills in your bag, you should be more prepared next time, ok?"
Ren nodded.
"It's important that you bring some next time, alright? Alphas around here are like elite lions, pouncing without a care in the world. Don't get into trouble."
He's interrupted by the door opening. The boy addressed someone in the doorway.
"Great, take good care of him."
"Wait a minute....." Ren mumbled, but the boy was already gone.
They arrived at his dorm room. Somehow, the day had passed him by and it was after school already. The room currently was empty.
He was handed a bottle of pills. He took them hesitantly.
"Don't forget to have them next time," The tall senior explained. "And don't forget to tell this to the health monitor, alright?"
The tall senior put his hand on his right shoulder. "Take them every four hours until it passes, and don't forget next time. Get some rest." And he left for the night.
Ren sighed. He was not planning to rest, he had some planning to do.
Because Ren had been thinking a lot, and he'd finally come to a conclusion.
He moved to his desk, turning on the little lamp and pulling out some paper. He starts writing.
This place, this 'school'.... was actually a school for the crazy, some kinda insane asylum!
The escort back to his dorm, the overdone security, the bizarre behavior from other students and how he needed to "watch out" for "Alphas", the pills and suppressors...! All of it combined was just too freaky! Something about it just wasn't normal, what else could it be except they're all out of their mind? That boy especially, acting like taking something called a suppressor was normal! Suppressing what? He only did it because he was worried what the boy would do if he didn't with that look in his eye...
So this person he was inhabiting....was crazy. It's why this sickness had suddenly come over him, because he hadn't been taking these.....pills, right? Why he had such bizarre thoughts in that situation!
It just didn't make sense, those thoughts he had, it must be because of this person then, isn't it? Could being body-swapped give you someone else's insanity?!
No, if this person was the crazy one, then they would have had the pills on their person, right? But he found nothing like that in his things when he looked though them.
Ren held his head, trying to comprehend this experience into something that made sense, something that felt right.
'No, this Takeshita kid can't be the crazy one, it must be something else...'
Ren was not planning to rest.... but he found himself drifting off, until he found himself sleeping at the desk.
———
Ren woke up the next morning still at his desk, the room still empty. He was still feeling bad, so he didn't have to attend class. Every hour or so someone would come in and check on him, always keeping him on his toes.
Ren sat at his desk eating breakfast, going over his notes from last night.
It was clear that something fishy was going on, but he couldn't understand why.
This sickness he was under: why does he have it? Was it just him? He asked the next time someone came in.
"Am I the only one that has to take these pills?"
The boy seemed to think it was some joke. "You kidding? It's medicine, everyone has to take it when their heat springs up; It's in the school rules. Don't think of slacking off on taking them." He warned. The boy was just thinking of the well-being of everyone else in the dorm, the pheromones of another omega could be bothersome to those trying to study and rest here, and the rules were there to prevent accidents.
Ren didn't know this, so saw it a different way.
'So everyone one has this 'heat?' thing? That's... Really weird. It's even in the school rules to do so? What even is this heat thing?'
From his best recounts from before he took the pills and just a bit this morning, for the most part it's like having a bad fever. Except for one thing. The sickness.... It made him incredibly horny.
Yesterday, it had already made him feel strange in a way he was sure he had never felt before: his head fogged and his mind felt more foreign than this body he was moved into.
But before he took the pills this morning he felt it differently, more strongly. He never knew he could be this horny before, like all sense and reason completely blow right out the window, his mind going blank with nothing but a vague desire for the touch of... Someone. Something? He wasn't sure.
'So everyone else gets the same illness as well? If it were a normal fever or cold they would call it that, but they specifically call it a 'heat'. A specific illness that everyone gets, that everyone has to take a certain medicine for...'
Ren was now convinced. There was something going on at this school. This sickness was strange in nature, perhaps...
"Maybe it's a weapon? To keep people in line?" He muttered.
But that clearly doesn't make sense, why would a school want their male students to be all horny? He remembers now, there are no girls in the school...
His face lit up as something dawned on him. "Oh course!"
It's to get them addicted to the pills of course! They'd have to rely on it to keep sane, So everyone just takes them without issue.
"But why test this drug in a school...?" He muttered. And a school full of boys at that. It made sense now, why does everyone seem to be messing around so openly: if you put a group of horny boys together for too long, then something's bound to happen! No girls, well that's to prevent smaller problems from cropping up!
He scribbles furiously in his notebook, trying to write out every possible explanation for what this sickness could be.
"....but what is triggering the symptoms in the first place? It makes sense for it to be the pills, but he never had any till yesterday, so...."
He pondered. "What did I eat yesterday.... Lunch!" He stands up triumphantly. 'That's exactly it! Right after I left the lunch room I felt like this, so they must be drugging the food!'
He stops and looks over at his breakfast, half finished. He pales. "Damn it...."
———
Later that day, one of his roommates began bringing in work for him.
"The teacher said send it in through the school email." He explains.
Email? Ren didn't have a way to access the internet, so he had to ask.
"Can't I turn it in in person instead?" He did all his school work yesterday like that!
"No." He said flatly. "Why? Do you need to borrow my laptop?"
"Y-your-? Wait-" but he's already pulled it out of his bag: a sleek older laptop, a chronic dark grey.
"It's logged into the school's system already, so you can just borrow it for the day." When seeing Ren's confused expression he explained how to login in and find the specific teacher's email if he was having trouble.
Ren stared at the laptop forebodingly. It's what he was after all this time: internet access. Now he could find himself, find out who he's become, and where exactly this school even is...
But he wasn't so sure anymore. This school was already (possibly) drugging him, who's to say they aren't monitoring him as well? If they are....
It isn't possible, but they could be connected to why he's suddenly in another body. If they are, then if he looks up his old self, then they'll know that he's onto them...
He put his hand up to stop him, but while lost in my thoughts his roommate had already left. He stared at it nervously. 'Well, if I only use it for work, then it'll be fine.' He finds his school password among the few school things that were down on paper, and got to work.
As the day drew on he had completely convinced himself: the school was some kinda testing lab, monitoring and testing these students to see how the drug affects them. It's clear to see why a school is the best place to test this drug: school keeps to a tight schedule, and kids are easier to control than adults, so it's perfect to maintain. Take them away from civilization to a 'boarding school' and there was no one to stop them!
And now it's clear they used young men specifically, because of how hormonally different they are in this part of life than any other! If they got too heated due to the drugs they could blame the student, call it a normal part of growing up, and everyone would accept it as normal, none the wiser!
But he wasn't a teenager anymore, he moved past that stage in his old body and felt he knew what it was actually supposed to be like in this time in his life, so he was the only one who figured it out.
He had no idea how he ended up in this body, but now was not the time to focus on it! First, he needed to find an escape!
In the evening he planned to ask his roommate for help, but he hesitated. If they were really monitoring them, one of them could be the one making the reports. He should check the room for cameras or something, but even if they aren't, until he got his bearings it was better to not risk this information getting out just yet anyway.
His other roommate Kakeru, the one who always plays music through his headphones too loud, went to another room "until you're better." he said.
'As if. I'm sure they just put him elsewhere so they don't question why I'm having such weird symptoms! Brush it off as a normal cold!'
So, Ren made a plan. He drew a nap from memory, trying to remember when and where they entered the library on the first day. Why did he zone out on the first day?!
He remembered it. On the second floor, four doors down from where his English class was in 3rd period.
Curfew wasn't for another few hours, so he had some time to kill. So late afternoon, Ren snuck out of his room to find the library and hopefully some answers.
He found it easily.
The library was a pretty impressive size, looking at it it probably takes up two floors by itself. Ren sneaks past the librarian, who was distracted with a student, and rushes towards the back of the shelves.
'Ok, history....' he began to scan the shelves. Every school he's gone to had one, and this one was no exception. "History of Wakai Seisai High, School of Youthful Brilliance, huh...." He plopped down in the corner of the library, hidden from view.
'Established in 1973, Wakai highschool started as a disciplinary school for troubled youth...hmm...'
And after that the book drones on and on about totally normal, highschool things. They won a major league in 1997, a fire burned down a wing in 04, things like that. There were a few mentions of those 'Alphas', whatever that was about.
"He slammed it shut and sighed. "The beginning was the most interesting part of the book."
He didn't know what he expected. Of course the school would hide their darkest secrets away from the public view. If he wanted information he was going to have to-
"Ew, look at this!!" A voice exclaimed out from the shelves. Ren was going to ignore it, but he noticed that the sound was coming from the rows he had to go to. He peeked out at them: a group of three peering their head into with a picture of the human body. Kids getting grossed out by anatomy books: classic. What are they, middle schoolers?
"Hey, look at a male omega's reproductive system? Wild ain't it?"
Ren tensed. There it was again. That Omega stuff. The school, it must have planted them there, which means all that stuff that boy from the infirmary was spouting must be somehow related to the school too!
"How's anything supposed to fit in there?"
"Beats me."
"Woah, you a virgin man?!"
"Uh, no, I-"
And his friends drags him off belittling him, leaving the book half on the shelf hanging precariously.
It tilts, it slips-
Ren catches it. He holds it in his hands.
'Hmm, I know it's all a bunch of hogwash, but maybe looking real quick will finally ease up my confusion on everything.' With this, finally I can figure out what this Alpha and Omega thing is all about.