The Tokoyamiverse 3

Bullies

Requested by @we_normal_bloxey

"Ducks!" Darkshadow screamed for the millionth time that single minute

1-A had for the first time in a long time, a free weekend

whilst others decided to home, to the mall or just stay in

Tokoyami, Koda, shoji and Ojiro had plans to go to the park

Koda hoping to truly get over his arachniphobia and see if he could befriend any squirrels whilst the others simply wanted the fresh air and rest on a cool tree

the four found a nice spot to set up base, even bringing a picnic

but the peace did not last long as Darkshadow quickly became restless even after chasing butterflies and making daisy chains

not wanting to disturb the peace further, tokoyami gave in to his sibling's demands

"I'll catch up, just need to let darkshadow feed the ducks, or else she'll throw a tantrum" Tokoyami sighed as he stood up, gave a stretch and grabbed the bag of seeds 

"ducks! Ducks! Ducks!" Darkshadow simply chanted, pushing their shadowy beak against tokoyami's back to make him go faster

the boys waved him off, shaking their heads with amusement

"here you go" Tokoyami sighed as he watched as he watches her happily start feeding the ducks

taking a breath tokoyami was in pure peace

the cool breeze, the satisfying sound of water splashing and the smell of freshness filling his nostrils

Nothing could ruin this moment

"freak beak?" a voice asked

tokoyami's happy attitude depleted instantaneously

those familiar voices...it couldn't be

"no way it is!" Another voice exclaimed

Refusing to turn around tokoyami was pulled into what looked like a friendly headlock

but for the raven, it was anything but

"that's not my name" Tokoyami stated timidly, trying to push the person's hands away but the hold only tightened

"aw come on chicken little, nothing wrong with a little banter, especially between friends" The one that was head-locking him laughed, the other too coming into view

why...why were they all here

"yeah, don't you remember us ?" one of them asked snottily

"How could I forget" Tokoyami murmured much to the boy's amusement

"Hey! Let go of tokoyami," Darkshadow said as they came to his defence

but it was clear that darkshadow was just as scared as him

the memories of all their "pranks" filling his mind

it was dizzying

the force-feeding, the Chinese burns, the constant verbal harassment, the trippings

and no one to talk to

not that his teachers or parents were any help, they never believed him

even though the raven had never lied in his life

"I need to go" Tokoyami tried as he felt too nauseated to continue, a small hope that as they grew perhaps they may have matured

"no stay, we've got a lot of catching up to do," the boy said as he changed their position to pull his arm against his back

that hope was quickly extinguished

"say, you still like bird seed don't ya?" one asked as now both his arms were instantly wrapped behind him, one of them stealing dark shadows seeds and making the shadow completely disappear, pulling it apart and trying to squash it into tokoyami's beak

only for a saviour to come to his rescue

"What do you think you are doing?" The deep voice of Shoji asked from behind them

catching the boys off guard and giving tokoyami the chance to break free, instantly going behind Shoji where Koda invited him in a protective grasp

Ojjiro came to Shoji's side to create more of a barrier between Tokoyami and the bullies

"Who are you?" Shoji lowly demanded

"We're birdfr...uh, his friends" One of the boys tried to lie

Ojjiro looked back to tokoyami who shook without looking him directly in his eyes

Ojjiro shared a knowing look with Shoji, allowing the octopus-like boy to continue

"you don't seem very friendly, especially with how we saw you treating him" Shoji continued 

"We were just-" one tried but was quickly cut off by a hard gut whack to their stomachs courtesy of Ojjiros tail 

"leaving, great choice," Ojjiro said with a look of disgust

"especially as we have plenty of plans for you if you don't know" Shoji warned

and with that, they saw the boys pitifully run away with their tails between their legs 

"you ok Tokoyami?" Shoji asked as they were finally out of view, allowing concern for their friend to finally be seen

"yeah" Tokoyami whispered, still not wanting to leave Kodas to embrace

"old high school bullies ?" Koda asked softly

Tokoyami merely nodded

"I used to think what I could do to them after becoming stronger, make them repent for their constant teasings, yet...I am just as weak as I was back then" Tokoyami said with disappointment in himself

but his friends were quick to stop any self-dwelling from happening

"It's not about that Toko, these guys tormented you for years, it's completely normal to still fear them" Ojjiro reassured as he came to pat the raven on his shoulder

"yeah, but now you have us to protect you, you're no longer alone like you were in school" Shoji added

"we'd be the same, and we know you'd do the same for us if we ever came across our bullies" Koda also added as he gave another hug to tokoyami

"yeah, we bullied need to stick together " Ojjiro laughed

earning a laugh from everyone, including tokoyami thankfully

"thank you all, I really appreciate your words" Tokoyami thanked

"no prob, now how about we don't let them get the last laugh and go to hot topic" Shoji offered as he went off to quickly gather the rest of their picnic stuff

"sounds good" Tokoyami agreed as he finally felt self enough to walk out of Kodas protection

and so the four students headed off

Tokoyami sighed in relief that after all the years of being ridiculed and pestered, he had eventually made friends that he trusted and knew had his back