Title: Collars and Brands
Chapter: 12
Author: c2t2
Notes: Now with chapter titles!
0o0o0o0
After the omega women left, Izuku nervously eyed the camera on the ceiling, but slowly eased his hands away from his crotch. Somehow, eyes on him through electronics weren't as viscerally humiliating as in person.
The temperature of the room was comfortable, but the air currents over all his exposed skin was giving Izuku shivers. Usually, he was only in his underwear when he was changing, and only completely naked when bathing. He was not used to this.
He began to explore his new room.
On one side of the room was a desk piled with textbooks, one chair, and a western-style bed. The other side of the room was sectioned off with a tiled wall and floor drain. It contained a toilet and a sink with a detachable showerhead. There was toilet paper and a hand soap dispenser but no other soaps or towels.
No toothbrush, either. That would be a problem.
The chain clinked and the weight tugged on his collar as Izuku wandered over to the desk to look at the textbooks.
Literature, English, French, Art History. Those were normal enough subjects.
Some of the other textbooks were… odd.
Flower arranging? Interior decorating? Hostessing? What was that all about?
There was a whole stack of "Cooking" textbooks, focusing on different ethnic cuisines. That could be useful, but Izuku was a cooking novice at best and he didn't see a 101-level anywhere.
He did find an introductory-level textbook for a different subject – "Conversation." Izuku could definitely benefit from that. He was terribly awkward, especially around girls. But he didn't know there were classes devoted to such things.
Then there were about a hundred different variations on "Etiquette," seemingly one textbook for every major world region.
Finally, "Household management" promised to be boring but practical.
These textbooks must reflect the classes that were taught at this omega school. Private omega schools taught normal, college-prep subjects like any other high school, but apparently public schools like this one mostly prepared omegas with skills that might serve their eventual alphas.
Finished with his inspection of the textbooks, Izuku tested the chain's reach. It was anchored in the center of the ceiling. Izuku found he could barely reach the furthest corner of the room as long as he was standing upright and the chain was pulled taut. At least the bed and the bathroom area were within easier reach; he could do what he needed with minimal inconvenience.
Izuku returned to the center of the room. He had done the physical exploring, now it was time to do the mental version.
He thought through everything that had just happened. His fingers itched for a notebook to help him record his thoughts, but he would have to do his thinking unassisted this time.
Izuku hadn't signed any papers.
That was important, and Jeni had implied that it was the reason he hadn't been drugged and molested.
She also said there were other people somewhere who were refusing to cooperate, which was making the legal transfer to this school harder. Izuku's mom was obviously one of those uncooperative people. Were there others? What about the UA administration? Did Izuku dare to hope that they were refusing to process the transfer paperwork?
What about the public? Had news reached the media that "Kodama-chan" had been abducted from UA and locked in an omega finishing school to await his fate as breeding fodder in the camps?
Izuku sat on the bed, then shifted around a little bit as the rough texture of the covers were itchy on his bare butt.
He couldn't do anything about his situation for now. What could he accomplish here? What was available to him?
He could read textbooks to pass the time, but that would feel a little like admitting defeat.
He could exercise. Izuku knew many ways to do strength training using only his body weight. But where to begin?
If he had his full range of options, he would put more work into moving while using Full Cowling. But he couldn't do agility training while he was on a chain and locked in a single small room.
What else did Izuku have available?
Well, there was that idea Yoroko had casually mentioned when scolding him.
Izuku's hands and arms were a mess. They would never be the same.
But he could use his legs to fight.
Legs were sturdier than arms. The bones were stronger. Izuku already knew basic kicks from martial arts units in gym class. If this was as good of an idea as he suspected, then he would need to expand on that foundation. Ordinarily he would ask Iida to train him, but Izuku didn't have access to Iida right now.
Thankfully, the strength of kicks did not increase with their level of difficulty. Quite the opposite, in fact. If Izuku understood it correctly, fancier, showier kicks tended to be less powerful than the basics.
Izuku would start his training with a hundred roundhouse kicks.
0o0o0o0
There was no clock in his prison, nor any windows, so Izuku didn't know how much time had passed when he finished his workout, sweat dripping from his naked body.
The whole nudity thing had been an unexpected impediment. He wasn't used to certain parts being quite so floppy while he was trying to exercise. At least he hadn't accidentally hurt himself.
Izuku was currently practicing Air Chair while attempting to read the Introduction to Conversation textbook. His legs were screaming in pain and there was sweat dripping down his back and into his butt crack. The level of effort required to hold his position left him almost no concentration left over to comprehend the textbook, so he wasn't getting much out of it.
Izuku straightened with a relieved sigh and the pain in his muscles eased. There was a clatter at the door as a tray of food was shoved through a slot that Izuku had failed to notice before now. A few moments too late, he realized this was an opportunity and scrambled to the slot.
"Hey, wait!" he called through the door, "Can you tell me what's going on?"
Whoever had dropped off the tray either hadn't heard or simply ignored him.
Izuku took a moment to examine his food. The nutrition in it was… adequate. There was too many carbohydrates and not enough fiber, plus it had the soggy, spongy texture and bland taste of all institutional food, but there was sufficient protein for Izuku's needs, which was the most important part. The rest of his complaints were just nitpicking.
Izuku ate the food and, not knowing what else to do with the tray, pushed it back out of the slot. Then he sat at the desk to read the conversation textbook for real. It was actually somewhat helpful.
Some unknowable amount of time later, the lights dimmed. Were they on a timer? It must be bedtime.
Izuku was more than ready to sleep after the day he'd just had. But there were pre-bedtime things to do, things that were more difficult than they should have been.
First, he rinsed all the sweat off himself with the detachable showerhead, being careful not to get his hair wet since he had no shampoo or towel. He used a few squirts from the hand soap dispenser to wash himself as best he could and then rinsed off again.
Then while he was air-drying, used his finger as best he could as an improvised toothbrush. Gross, but it was all he had.
Finally, after he was dry enough, Izuku slid between the scratchy sheets and closed his eyes, the awful texture making him long for pajamas as he drifted off to sleep.
0o0o0o0
When the lights turned back up, Izuku assumed it was morning. The green-haired omega was already awake and doing sit-ups when sounds from outside alerted him to another opportunity for gathering information. He put his ear to the tray slot and listened through at the voices and commotion of a dorm full of girls getting ready for school. He tried to open the flap and peek through, but there was another flap on the other side of the door as well, blocking his view.
"Hey, can anybody hear me?" he called through the door. None of the murmuring voices were very close, but it was worth a try.
Either nobody heard him, or nobody chose to respond, and after a few minutes Izuku lost hope in this tactic. The omega students likely couldn't give him much new information anyway. They would know more than he did about the day-to-day running of the institution, but nothing relevant to Izuku's particular and extremely atypical case.
The hallway quieted down as the girls left for class. After the dorms had been silent for a while, Izuku heard footsteps and another tray was dropped through the slot on his door. This time he was waiting for it and much faster to pounce and shout through the crack
"Hey, can someone tell me what's going on?"
"I'm sorry, young lady, I just work in the kitchens," came a woman's voice from the other side of the door. "You got put in the solitary confinement room, so you know what you did." The footsteps started up again and faded down the hallway.
"Young lady?" Izuku asked out loud. He had a distinctly male voice last time he checked.
Unbeknownst to him, male omegas were so rare that his breakfast deliverer thought it more likely that Izuku was a girl with some kind of hormone imbalance than an actual male omega.
Izuku ate his food and waited. He lost track of time while reading the Introduction to Conversation textbook.
0o0o0o0
The click of the door's lock was so loud, Izuku jumped.
For the first time since he was put in here, the door handle turned and started to open.
Izuku was suddenly conscious of his nudity and dove for the bed, yanking the blanket off it to wrap around his waist just as Jeni walked through the door.
"Kodama-chan, are you feeling more cooperative today?" Jeni didn't waste any time getting to the point.
"Cooperative?" Izuku asked, "I won't do anything until somebody at least tells me what's going on! Where is my mother, is she okay?"
"Don't play dumb. Your current conditions are entirely due to your own actions. If you would sign the forms and let us complete the cavity search, then we could start getting you settled and you can begin your classes."
"No," Izuku shook his head, "I need to know what's going on before I sign anything. What is happening with my mother? What about my school? Internship applications are due today."
"This is your school and we are your legal guardians. It will be official as soon as the judge rules in our favor. All you're doing is making this process slower and painful."
"I won't do it." Izuku held his ground.
Jeni didn't know it, but she had made a mistake yesterday. She told Yoroko in front of him that there were others who were not cooperating with this. Izuku held firm because he knew he had allies still fighting for him on the outside.
"You don't want your clothes back? Your phone? You don't want out of this room?"
"Not enough to sign away my rights. Not without counsel. Where is my mother? I need to speak to her."
Jeni finally gave him some information, although after she spoke, Izuku almost wished she had left him in the dark.
"You couldn't see her if you wanted to. Your mother has been arrested for hiding your omega status."
0o0o0o0
"My mom is in jail?!" Izuku panicked, and his quirk activated unbidden. Lightning arced over his skin.
"Calm yourself. We will not be intimidated by displays of your quirk. You should know by now that misbehavior will get you nowhere here."
"My mom can't be in jail! She's an omega! Do you know what-?" Izuku cut himself off. He was talking to another omega after all.
"She should have considered that risk before committing crimes."
"My mom didn't commit any crimes."
"That is false. At the very least, she falsified paperwork involving your dynamic and bribed doctors to do likewise. Presentation happens at the onset of puberty and you are visibly well into that phase of your life. You have been an omega for some time now, but the adults around you have conspired to hide that fact from the world."
"That's not true!"
"If that is the case, it will be sorted out in court. Meanwhile, you will reside here, where you will be kept safe."
Jeni left after refusing to give an anxious Izuku any more information than that.
His mother was in jail.
At this rate, he was going to make himself literally sick with worry, so Izuku took the frantic energy from Jeni's statement and did pushups until he collapsed.
Note to self: collapsing onto a tile floor while naked is hazardous for those with dangly anatomy.
Lunchtime came and went before anything else happened.
Izuku hadn't expected to hear the grinding of the door's lock again that day, but he heard it for the second time and grabbed his trusty blanket before Yoroko and a classy-looking omega strutted in.
Even Izuku, who knew nothing about fashion, could tell the new omega's suit was expensive. She had minimalist glasses and straight black hair pulled into a severe bun. Her omega collar was so highly polished it must be chrome-plated. Izuku could see his distorted reflection in the metal.
"Kodama-chan, this is your lawyer, Yumi." Yoroko indicated to the new woman
"What," the lawyer's voice was clipped, "is this outrage? Where are my client's clothes?!" If she was faking the fury, she was a masterful actress. Her face had flushed darkly when she saw Izuku. She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of Izuku and his hastily-wrapped modesty blanket
"Kodam – I mean Midoriya-san – refused to comply with the mandatory intake contraband search. Until he cooperates to complete the search or the judge grants us the right to sedate him and do it ourselves, he must remain isolated from the other students here.
"Isolated is one thing, but keeping him chained and naked? The first thing I am going to do once I leave this compound is alert the media. I recommend you leave immediately before you incriminate yourself further."
Yoroko hesitated, looking like she wanted to say something.
"Go! I have the right to counsel my client!"
Yoroko left.
"Uh," Izuku said before Yumi could start, "Just so you know, there's a camera up there," he pointed to the corner of the ceiling, "so this room isn't private."
"Do not worry about that, Midoriya-san. The cameras here have no audio feed. You may sit with your back to the camera so you cannot be lip-read, and we will discuss your situation."
"O-okay." Izuku sat on his bed with his back to the camera, "First, I don't want to sound rude and ungrateful, but how do I know you're not working for the omega school and trying to trick me?"
"I was hired by UA to be your lawyer. If you had doubts about my veracity, the principal told me to use the name Yagi Toshinori. Does that mean anything to you?"
That was all Izuku needed to hear, "Okay, I believe you. Thank you for your help."
"There's no need to thank me. UA is paying me handsomely."
Izuku could imagine that being the case.
"Before we do anything, I need you to sign this confidentiality agreement, and this release stating that I am able to file paperwork on your behalf."
Great, more signature stuff.
She had given him evidence that she was working for the top brass at UA, which is the only reason Izuku was considering doing this. Still, he carefully read the paperwork to ensure there was nothing about drugging or molesting him before he signed.
They began.
"So, let's start with you telling me how you got here. Start from when you were taken from your classroom and leave out no detail until I walked through that door."
"I'd – I'll do that, really, but first, I need to know. Is my mother really in jail? Is she getting help, too?"
Yumi nodded, "Inko was taken before you were. Under Japanese law, a person may be arrested and detained without bail for 48 hours by the police on suspicion of having committed a crime. Then the suspect appears before the prosecutor when the police present the evidence of Inko's crimes. If the prosecutor concurs, he or she must then obtain a warrant of detention from a judge within 24 hours."
"My mom didn't commit any crimes," Izuku insisted.
"The police believe otherwise."
"So even if UA gets me out of here, I might have nowhere to go?"
"Do not worry, Inko is receiving counsel as well, since her case is related to yours."
Izuku let out a breath of relief.
"If that is all, then let's begin."
Izuku recounted the events of the past day or so to his lawyer, who both recorded him and took notes. Afterward, Yumi packed up her things and left Izuku with some advice.
"Do not sign anything or reveal information to anyone else. You never know what might be incriminating in court. You have UA on your side, so don't mess this up."
She left Izuku feeling much better than before.
Minutes after Yumi left, Yoroko and Jeni arrived to hand over the bag containing Izuku's clothes. "We will have to completely redo the inspection upon your entry into the general population," Yoroko explained, "but it is not necessary for you to go naked in the meantime."
"Ah, okay."
They turned to head out of the room.
"And… my phone?"
Jeni gave a decisively unladylike snort. The two of them continued to leave the room.
Izuku realized something, "Wait!"
Yoroko turned back to face him. Jeni kept walking.
"I can't pull a shirt over my head with the chain," he grabbed and rattled the offending object.
"Oh. I'll get the key, then. Just don't try any funny stuff." Yoroko turned and left before Izuku could say something stupid, like his quirk already being able to break chains. Yes, saying that would be highly foolish.
A few minutes later, Jeni came back through the door alone. She undid the padlock securing the chain to his collar, and Izuku was finally, mercifully allowed to get dressed.
As she was re-securing him, Izuku spoke up, "So, uh, I need other stuff too."
"Well aren't you just needy," Jeni snapped, evidently in a bad mood, "What do you want?"
Izuku gestured to the bathroom side of the room. "Soap. Toothbrush. Towel. That sort of thing. My teeth feel disgusting."
"At Omega Institut Pierrefeu you are expected to supply your own toiletries."
"I was kidnapped at my real school and brought directly here."
"That is not my problem."
"It could be," Izuku felt uncharacteristically sassy, "I imagine my lawyer could make it your problem."
Jeni heaved a gusty sigh, "Oh fiiiiine. Is there anything else your majesty wants?"
Izuku bristled, how dare she act like he was being unreasonable for asking for a toothbrush! "Yes, actually. My collar is starting to chafe. I need it off for a few hours a day to heal."
"Well that certainly isn't my fault. Your previous keyholder is refusing to hand over your key. The blame rests squarely there." She turned and left, unaware of the ray of hope she had just given Izuku.
0o0o0o0
The next day, Izuku's lawyer came to see him again. She scowled at the chain but nodded approvingly at Izuku's clothing and new toiletries.
"You are looking far better than yesterday, Midoriya-san. Has the institution been treating you well?"
"Things got a lot better after you came here," Izuku admitted, "Thank you."
Yumi nodded curtly, "Are any of your needs not being seen to?"
"Well, I really could use a collar-cleaning kit, since it can't be taken off me," Izuku assumed Yumi already knew why it couldn't be taken off – Aizawa was refusing to comply!
"I'll see to it. Anything else?"
"My phone?" Izuku ventured.
"That will be much harder to arrange. The institution cannot treat you inhumanely, but denying access to your phone is not an excessive human rights violation."
"Well then, can you tell me what's going on with everything?" Izuku flicked his eyes back over his shoulder to the camera. Yumi couldn't tell him anything confidential, but there had to be something. Izuku was miserable being cut off from the whole world like this.
"Well, your case has reached the press. The hashtag #freekodama is trending and there are demonstrations in the street."
"That's great!" Izuku exclaimed, then thought twice when Yumi didn't mirror his enthusiasm, "Isn't it?"
"Well, perhaps. It all depends on the judge that hears your case. Judges are appointed, not elected, so public opinion only has limited pull on their decisions."
"Oh. Well, it still makes me happy that other people want me free."
"Yes. The public's view of omega rights is changing much faster than laws and institutions are keeping up."
"I'm glad things are changing for us," he gave his fellow omega a sincere smile.
"Is there anything else I can do for you before I go?" Yumi asked.
Izuku got an idea, "Well, actually, I could use a lawyer's advice on a certain topic. You see, my mother's collar…"
0o0o0o0
Izuku explained the situation with Inko's collar, and received a rundown on omega collar law from Yumi. After a back-and-forth and few clarifying questions, Yumi drew a conclusion.
"Well, it sounds like you need a whole load of money to buy your mother a new collar."
"Yes, but my mom won't take charity."
"Would she accept the money if it was yours?"
"That's much more likely to work. Do you have an idea how I can do that?"
"Yes, unfortunately."
"Uh… what do you mean, unfortunately?"
"Just for having this idea I feel like a child molester."
"Oh no! I don't want to sell myself to get Claimed!"
"That's not what I was thinking, although considering your intersecting demographics, you could sell for the highest sum a human has ever gotten on the black market. No, I was thinking of something almost as creepy but substantially less horrible."
"Which is…?"
"Sell your slick."
"My… slick?" Yumi was right. That was creepy.
"Didn't you learn about alphas and slick in your Alpha and Omega class in school?"
"I didn't take the Alpha and Omega class. I was a beta until a month ago."
"That's impossible."
"So they keep telling me."
"Well, a quick biology rundown – I would say 'good lord, I'm not being paid enough for this,' except let's face it, I am being paid enough to justify pretty much anything. Anyway, betas and omegas have five sets of taste buds – sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami. Alphas have all of those plus a sixth set of taste buds. These extra taste buds are connected directly to the pleasure centers of the alpha's brain, and are activated by a compound found only in omega slick."
Extra taste buds. Izuku vaguely recalled something like that from his first attempt at reading an Alpha and Omega book. He had skipped right over it.
"Okay, I can see how that would make omega slick valuable."
"It is beyond valuable. It causes euphoria without any of the side effects of alcohol and other drugs, so there is a huge demand. It can be found in countless high-end expensive products for alphas. No lab has been able to reproduce the compound, so the only way to get it is the natural way – harvested directly from the source. Not all slick is equal either – a mated omega has more of the compound than an unmated omega. A young omega has more than an older one. And finally, male omegas have concentrations several times higher than any female omega. You are not mated, but you are male and very, very young. You should have some of the most potent slick in the world."
"So, uh, how do I go about harvesting my slick?"
"You're actually considering this."
"Yes. I want to save my mother. As long as I don't throw my whole life away to get mated, I'm willing to do whatever it takes."
"I admire your determination, Midoriya-san. This is definitely not my job, and ordinarily I would leave you to do it yourself, but in this case, the situation is time-sensitive. I can take you to a place that will harvest your slick, and also allow for a few other money-making opportunities. All above-board of course."
"They won't mind that I'm only sixteen?"
"Of course not. If you'd taken the ABO class, you'd know that omegas don't have a legal age of consent. Omega presentation itself is considered sufficient to mark the age of consent."
"Yuck. …Wait a minute, you said YOU would take me to that slick-harvesting place?"
"I could. I am able to file paperwork on your behalf, after all. Since slick harvesting is legally classified as a medical procedure, I can get you a medical pass out of the compound."
That didn't make sense, "It's considered a medical procedure?"
"Legally, yes. It's a convenient loophole that is exploited by many young omegas, and I'm sure it isn't at all related to the huge sums of lobbying money spent by the slick-processing industry."
Yumi was showing a different side of herself – a gift for sarcasm.
"I'm a little surprised the omega schools allow that."
"All institutions are legally required to allow people to leave if they need medical treatment. It doesn't hurt that the schools get a big cut of the money, either."
"Wait, I don't want to give a ton of money to the place that imprisoned me!"
"You won't. Not if you do it now. Since you didn't sign any paperwork, you are in the unique position of not belonging to any school or other institution at the moment. Normally, I would not have offered to take you, but this is a time-sensitive issue. You can take home the whole payment, but it has to be done now."
Izuku felt his whole body go cold in terror, "'Now' as in NOW?"
"Not exactly. I meant 'now' as in I can file the application today, and tomorrow the clinic will test the sample for its concentration of the euphoria compound and offer a rate of a certain amount of money per milligram of slick. If we agree to the rate, then you'll do it."
"The… sample?"
"Yes, sample. It's exactly what it sounds like," she said, answering Izuku's question before he asked it. "I'll have to go get a cotton swab and a plastic bag and come back here. Now I really am starting to feel like I'm not being paid enough for this."
0o0o0o0
In far too short a time, Izuku was left alone with a cotton swab and a plastic bag to receive the sample once he produced it.
Now he just had to produce his slick.
It's not like he didn't know how. One of the only silver linings to this whole omega ordeal was that he didn't need to use conditioner as lube anymore. As long as he was properly aroused, his slick would take care of the need for lubrication in the shower.
Still, this felt completely different. Izuku first glanced over at the bed, and then at the toilet with its detachable shower wand. The shower was what he was used to, but there wasn't a proper shower in here and it would be very uncomfortable to lie on the cold tile floor without the contrast of warm water cascading down on him.
The deciding factor was the camera in the corner of the room. The awful device was watching his every move.
Fine, bed then.
Izuku undressed and slid between the scratchy sheets. He held the swab in his left hand and then used his right to slide down his body, down between his legs to stroke himself.
It took about thirty seconds to admit that nothing was happening.
He was starting to get hard from the stimulation alone, but he was wound up so tight that he wasn't producing any slick.
Izuku needed to relax.
He tried breathing deeply, but that just made the air in his blanket cave go stale. Leaving a hole in the blankets for air helped, but didn't solve his original problem.
The knowledge that Yumi was waiting was stressing him out so much that this was never going to work.
He would need to use his most precious fantasy.
Izuku didn't want to wear this one out, so he almost never used it during his morning shower ritual.
He closed his eyes and imagined.
The fantasy started on a shaded raft in the middle of the calm ocean. Izuku and his lover were alone, with nothing that could be seen for miles.
This was the only time Izuku's partner would let him do this. Only when they were so alone that no living soul could possibly see what they were doing. They were here in the ocean, out of range of any remote-viewing quirks. The shade prevented spying from any overhead satellite.
Izuku rolled his partner over onto his hands and knees, taking the time to trace his hands down his warm skin and the swells of strong muscle corded down his body. He eased his lover's legs apart and his partner arched his back, presenting himself for Izuku's fingers.
Izuku pushed one finger inside, taking the time to kiss all the way down his lover's spine from the base of his hairline to the top of his tailbone before he added another finger…
Izuku's could feel his body producing slick. As soon as the first drop seeped out, he abruptly cut off the fantasy and dabbed the swab through the thick fluid, quickly sealing it in its plastic bag and throwing it out of his blanket tent before covering his face with both hands and heaving a sigh that sounded a little like a sob.
After gathering his wits, Izuku rummaged around under his blanket tent, finding his underwear and yanking it up over his hips without consideration to his erection or the second and third drops of slick that were still dribbling out his ass. Trousers followed, then his shirt, and finally Izuku threw off the blankets and retrieved the sample bag off the floor.
He knocked on the door to let Yumi know he was ready, and the lawyer opened Izuku's door, taking the sample from him with the promise that she would drop off the application immediately and Izuku would hear from her again tomorrow.
0o0o0o0
That night, Izuku dreamed of red eyes and a raft on the ocean.