Masanori saw quietly inside the private limo as it pulled up to the gates of the school. He stood outside the gates in the early hours before the sun had yet to rise above the mountain's distant horizon. Behind him the chauffeur moved his single bag out of the trunk before him then bowed.
"Will that be all, Master Masanori?"
Masanori nodded then rolled his luggage through the door, through the quiet halls and up to the school principal's office. His father was waiting for him, a sharp glint in his eye.
"I hope your extended break has given you time to reconcile with your actions."
"Yes… I have." Masanori said, lowering his head. The guilt he had felt a hundred times washing over him once more.
"I will be clear. Approach that omega again and there will be no second chances," The principal then sighed. "Though I will say, it is more relieving to see you do have some Alpha drive in you. Perhaps you attending the school was a worthy decision. One that will make one of you yet."
Masanori lifted his body, eyes wide with shock. "What…?"
"But that's neither here nor there, Masanori," He continued. "Return to your dorm. Your Council duties are suspended for the time being while Aruki-sensei settles the situation with the student guard you neglected to finish your report on, as well as your reassignment. That investigation is no longer your concern. Simply let this fade into the background."
Masanori nodded and left the office, still a bit stunned at how well it went. So much so he was jumping at the chance to listen to him, as much as he really did want to see him, to say how sorry he was.
But, it wasn't like he could face him anyway, or that he would ever want to see his face again. Whatever Takeshita Akira might have felt about what happened, Masanori hadn't forgiven himself.
Because in spite of everything and no matter what he tried, he couldn't let go of the memory throughout his rut, and even now.
Masanori wanted to bury himself forever remembering the half lucid state of insanity he had during his rut, and the name that etched itself into his mind like a tattoo.
He needed to stay away, for now. Nothing happened while he was gone, right?
…
Ren heard that Masanori had returned to the school that morning from a third party rumor. It had only been a week, but that was a long time for a senior student of his status, or at least Ren was told this.
"They said Masanori had said he took an extended break to let them focus on sports day preparations, and not participating was his form of punishment for failing to keep every student safe, due to the recent dismantling of the student patrol guard."
Ren frowned. "That sounds like a statement from a politician instead of a 17 year old…"
It all sounded weirdly adult to Ren. He was talking like a politician dealing with a scandal, wasn't he only a kid?
"Actually, they say Imada Masanori's birthday was back in April."
"W-What? Then that makes him one of the oldest kids in the school… wait, I missed his birthday!?"
Ren heard all of this from Chihei, his classmate who happened to have an assigned seat right behind him and was now willing to chat with him in between classes, unlike the rest of the class that still gave him a wide berth.
Ren was frankly getting tired of it, the glares and whispers.
'Do they think they can isolate me into submission? Well tough luck cuz I've made a ton of allies already.'
Particularly the Omegas, especially now that they had a clear common animosity towards the Alphas in the school, that he wasn't the only one who saw things as strange. He wasn't sure they were ready for the "your life is a lie" talk just yet, but he felt he had made progress, especially with their sports day victory, minus the actions and concurrent effects of a certain tall brooding Alpha he wasn't ready to mention yet.
He still believed in the outliers in the Alpha ranks of course, but the Omega's bitterness towards them only strengthened Ren's belief that he was on the right course about them. And hearing that they were told to keep quiet on what happened with Masanori made him wonder what else they were told to keep quiet about!
When it came to Masanori though… Ren, after much thought, Ren had long come to a conclusion about what happened that day.
'Masanori-kun… was definitely manipulated by the school to do that. I mean, mind controlled to attack me, just like Kanaseki!'
It made sense: after he had just attacked that delinquent and Masanori said he was going to take care of it, he must have gotten caught. As punishment, they used their mind control powers on him to make him attack him. Who else but the bad Alphas at the school to force the kind Masanori to act so aggressively. All of the groping, and kissing, and biting…
Ren could still feel the small bite marks. Like he wanted to eat him alive.
Ren ignored any heat on his face and reaffirmed to himself that it had to be the school. It made sense they would use sexual acts like that as a form of punishment, right?
'The students are not normally so promiscuous, it's just how they keep them in line by threatening them! Guess that also explains why they think making rumors about me being me a slut would work…'
Using groping as a form of punishment… it still didn't make the most sense but logically it was something a lot of straight guys would avoid. It sounded absurd, something straight out of a manga. But he was dealing with mind control powers here!
But there was still an issue. Akagi Naoto. His warning about what he had done to Masanori directly contradicted that idea. All his words just sounded like threats sure, but the way he had called him rotten, and a burden onto Masanori he almost seemed… remorseful? But if he was involved in causing him to act that way in the first place, why would he?
Regardless, Masanori was right about needing to stay under the radar.
'I'm sorry Masanori-kun… I should have listened to you more.' Then he wouldn't have to have been locked away.
Ren didn't know when he would see Masanori again even after being told he had returned to his classes, so he tried to focus on his previous efforts, along with a new one. Establish stronger allies, and figure out that mate bond ability to mind control.
And Ren had one at the top of his mind. So, after classes that day Ren arrived at the Beta Dorm. However he was stopped at the door.
"We're no longer allowed to visit each other's dorms you know. Not since, y'know."
'Is this the school trying to stop me from meeting Yuki-kun, or just a coincidence?' Ren wondered.
He needed someone to talk to, to explain to him what instincts he needed to get better at so he could harness his power, to figure out how to expand his instincts like that Alpha delinquent said, and who would be better than Yukihiro?
So Ren redoubled his efforts, searching for the beta they called Yuki. But Ren soon found his usual method of simply asking questions to the other students was getting nowhere. No one wanted to talk to him, at all.
He tried to talk to the only betas he knew from his club, but he was out of luck there too. Kokichi just shouted some random nonsense about type matchups when he found him in the courtyard and when he went to their club room Shino insisted that he stay away from the day since he was reorganizing furniture with some help, seeming out of breath, so he left him alone to save his muscles.
He even asked Kakeru Yaruno that evening, but he was still avoiding him, much like everyone else.
"You'll just twist something up again." Was all he said, and ignored him with all his being.
Crestfallen, Ren sulked into his bed. 'They even turned you away from me, Yaruno-kun? Fucking animals!' Ren gritted his teeth and punched his fist into his pillow. The rumors really were bad! Ren was determined to figure out how to control this mate bond of his so he could find the asshole that had started these rumors and force him to undo it!
In reality, Yaruno understood from what he heard that somehow his lackluster explanation of what a bond was had caused the incident, and he was completely to blame for why Masanori showed up there during his rut to stop it. Yaruno knew it wasn't either of their faults, but he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty.
He sighed. The best he felt he could do was try a little better.
"Who do you wanna talk about again?" Yaruno asked.
Ren lifted from the pillow. "Yaruno-kun?"
"I don't know a Yukihiro that's a beta… but I know one that's an Alpha. You're talking about the student council, right?"
"Student council…" Ren sat up more. "Oh, you mean the mysterious 7th member! Do you know!?"
"He's a hermit they say, does all his work remotely." Yaruno went on to explain. An Alpha with a high absence streak, only still accepted into the school because his test scores were always so high, and because he'd always come in just enough days to not be forced into expulsion.
Ren found it off that he had the same name as the beta that he knew. Was it possible, the Yukihiro used a fake name with him? That would make sense considering the sensitive information he gave him! So no wonder he couldn't find him even as he looked around the school in search of him. There was no way he was actually this mysterious elusive member of the student council. He met him sitting by a tree by the lake, hardly hermit behavior.
"Well how do I find him?" Ren asked.
"He's probably in his dorm room, but you won't be able to just enter the dorms anymore. Plus there's that outbreak going around, so you'll just have to wait until he comes around for the next mandatory appearance at some school thing." Yaruno answered.
'But who knows when that'll be.' Ren thought with a sigh.
…
Ren decided the only thing that seemed logical in this situation. Stalk outside the Beta's dorm. If he couldn't get in then he'd have to wait for him to come back out. He at least knew what Yuki looked like so he was bound to see him return to his dorm eventually, right? Ren had a theory that he leaked the info to him after the beta dorm experiments; that made a lot of sense to him.
Because of this he got a glimpse of Akagi Naoto hanging around the dorm. He just seemed to be pestering some students for something. Ren was currently hiding inside a bush so he had no reason to worry about him seeing him. Ren was pretty tired of him too. During morning announcements Ren couldn't focus at all with his eyes glued to him at all times.
'Will he ever quit? I know you're not such a big shot anymore so now your glares are even more irritating than they were before. I mean it's not like I did all that stuff with Masanori to myself. It's the school's fault: go glare at them instead.'
What did he say he thought he did to Masanori anyway? Ren was sure he didn't do anything to make him kiss him and touch him like that. Ren shook his head. 'No. Nothing besides the rumor that I'm a slut, for some reason. The school caused that, right?'
That was a contradiction too, so Ren wasn't entirely sure about his theory. He wondered, just a bit, how involved Akagi Naoto was with the school's actions after all. Not that it mattered at the moment, as he was busy looking for a beta student. Not an Alpha at all so he should be safe.
"Hope he doesn't come in from the back." Ren muttered. While watching, he silently fiddled with the phone that was the original person of his body, Takeshita Akira. He had no chance of cracking it with its use of a letters and numbers password, but the hope of figuring out who the heck the person he was inhabiting gave him the motivation to keep going.
'Think I've tried everything combination of initials, names, and possible birth years. The year is still the same as when I last remember it originally…'
Ren was covered with a large shadow. He looked up to see Akagi Naoto.
"Ah…." Ren was speechless. How did he find him? He was busted.
Akagi Naoto pulled him out of the bushes and into the light of the setting sun. He looked ready to pummel Ren, and he was sure he would, if students around them didn't start to stop and whisper some more.
His face tensed. "You're coming with me." And Ren didn't even have time to grab his bag.