Editor's Notes:

Hi everybody! Before we start with the Story, I just want to say a few things.

This story will take place near the beginning of the story. I'll specify where it takes place and what storyline have already happened before the start of this timeline.

This story starts after episode 8, specifically a few days before the special Valentines Chapter. Naoto and Nagatoro already know eachother, and he's aware of her friends, as well as knowing their names.

Just like always, I will be giving some of the Bullies, specifically Sakura's Upperclassmen, Names. Guy A (Spiked Hair) will be referred to as Riko. And Guy B (Bowl-Cut) will be referred to as Haru

Naoto was sitting in the Art Room, soetching an apple. Despite it being his second year at Kazehaya High-School, he hadn't really done much outside of simply attending. Naoto wasn't exactly the outgoing type. He'd usually sit quietly in the corner of his classroom, jotting down whatever it was the teacher spat out.

Rinse and repeat the process. He never really hung out with anyone, let alone make friends. School was simply a tedious task he had to get trough. All except for one thing.

To Naoto, the Art Room was like an Oasis, a place free of worries both inside and outside of the school. It was his safe haven from bullies and pretty much everything else that left a bad taste in his mouth. Or at least it was.

Ever since the day he accidentally exposed his 'Work in Progress' Manga to a bunch of Underclassmen, a certain girl among the group made it her new life goal to make his life more 'Interesting.' Wheter it was teasing him, calling him a Virgin, or making him draw her, Nagatoro had an array of weapons prepared, in order to make sure he wouldn't ever get to have time for himself.

At first, Naoto thought it was hell, trying his best to ignore the girl, but as time went on, he slowly grew to get slightly more accustomed to her, either ignoring her teasing or simply having conversations with her. Nagatoro had even introduced him to her friends, to whom she introduced as her boyfriend.

For all that was worth, Naoto could confidently call Nagatoro a friend if not anything else. Maybe even his first one. She was the first one to go out of her way to talk to him, even if it was to tease him. Something about her felt different than the other Bullies, given the fact that he was able to remember her face vividly, unlike those of the people who had made his life hell.

From the smell of oil paints, to the quiet sound of his pencil scraping against the Canvas, Naoto was very familiar with these things. But recently, he had stopped appreciating these mundane and calming factors. No matter how much he sketched or how quiet the room was, his stress levels were up and high. From his eyebags, to the way he sluggishly struggled to get from one room to another, one thing was obvious: Something was keeping Naoto up at night, and it never let him sleep.

How long had it been? Naoto wondered how long ago it was that the Nightmares started. It was a Normal day when he suddenly woke up covered in sweat, having experienced a horrible nightmare he couldn't remember. Ever since then, the nightmares kept coming every single night, but Naoto always failed to remember. Every time he woke up his memories from the dream up and vanished, and all he could remember was the fact that these dreams were all horrible, given how he'd wake up in a pool of sweat.

Nevertheless, pondering about it wasn't going to help. He simply assumed that enduring the process would eventually make it stop. All he had to do was endure and get trough it.

"Senpai!" The voice of his Kouhai could probably be heard from the floor bellow, as well as her footsteps which quickly grew closer as Nafatoro slid open the door to the Art Room, welcoming herself in. "What are you doing? Are you drawing dirty things?" She smirked.

Naoto did the only thing he knew when she was around and instantly blushed, shaking head quickly. "N-N-No! I'm drawing an apple!"

Nagatoro sighed. "Thats so boring. Why don't you draw something more exciting? Like dirty stuff?"

"What is your obsession with having me draw dirty things?" Naoto said, before turning back to his painting and continuing to sketch the apple in front of him.

Nagatoro walked up to him, standing besides him and crouching down so she could see the drawing. Nagatoro wasn't a big fanatic of Art, but she could tell that this drawing was impressive. Nagatoro continued to observe him sketching, before eventually noticing some faint black eyebags bellow his eyes.

"Senpai." Naoto turned to her. "Yeah?"

"Have you not been getting enough sleep? You look like crap."

Naoto wiped his eyebags with his hand, gently grazing his own glasses. "I guess you're right. I've been gaming a lot lately, so I haven't gotten much sleep."

"As expected of a virgin loner like you,

"S-Shut up!" Naoto knew he couldn't tell her the truth. If he told her that he was being kept up by nightmares, she'd either not believe it or she'd somehow find a way to make fun of him for it, so the best he could come up with was that he was up playing games all night.

"What are you even doing her-"

Right before he got to finish, the door slid open again, as Nagatoro's classmates entered the room.

No matter how many friends she had, for some reason it was always these three that tailed behind her at all times. Maki Gamou, or Gamo as everyone called her, was who he could only assume to be her best friend, as he often saw them both hanging outside of school, even if they often got into playful fistfights. Yoshi seemed to prefer sticking to Gamo, often repeating the exact same words she spouted out. She seemed the most airhead out of all of them.

And lastly there was Sakura, who Naoto didn't know that well. From what he heard of his classmates, she enjoyed hanging around and 'toying' with boys, as well as their heart.

"S~up!" "S-UP!" Gamo and Yoshi shouted out consecutively, as Sakura simply waved as she walked inside, before all of them sat down at the big table in the centre of the room.

Naoto sighed. "Do you guys have any reason to keep barging into my clubroom uninvited?"

"Come on, Paisen. Don't be like that. I know you're happy as hell about having so many girls around you, considering you've never talked to one before."

Naoto pouted as the other girls laughed at his expense. "It wasn't that funny." He said. "And answer me, why are you here?"

"Oh. You know Riko and Haru? The ones who always hang out with Sakura?" Gamo asked, to which Naoto nodded. "Yeah, I know them a bit. They're next to my class, buy they're kind of dicks to everyone, including me."

Gamo chuckled at that statement, before resuming. "Anyways. We were sitting at our usual spot for lunch when they approached us and started acting all flirty and annoying, so we decided to leave." She chuckled. "They got so mad when we told them we were coming here."

Naoto gulped a bit. "Why'd you tell them you were coming to the Art room? Now they're probably going to blame me for you leaving!"

Sakura tried to calm him down. "Don't worry, Senpai-Kun~. I know them, and I don't think they'd do that.~"

Naoto sighed once more. "I hope you're right." The rest of the time, the room remained calm. The girls mostly spoke with eachother as Naoto sketched endlessly, with Nagatoro repeatedly trying to get him to draw her, which he openly refused due to being embarrassed to the girl's delight.

After a while, the girls finally left again, leaving only Naoto and Nagatoro in the room. Naoto decided to stay for a bit longer than usual, so it was getting quite late. And to make it worse, it was starting to rain.

"Se~n~pai! Escort me home! I didn't bring my umbrella." Nagatoro exclaimed as Naoto finished the last details of his drawings before shoving the canvas aside and standing up. "S-Sure. As long as you're fine with it." He blushed, grabbing his bag as he took out an umbrella.

The two of them promptly left the emptied building, quickly ending up in front of the exit. From here, Naoto could see the outside. It was almost pitch dark. Naoto wasn't sure how late it was, but it was probably around 8 to 9 pm.

He opened up the umbrella in his hands, before leaving the building with Nagatoro. The sound of the raindrops tapping against the fabric of the umbrella above them was somewhat calming to him as he looked at the night sky.

In all honesty, Naoto was glad that Nagatoro insisted he take her home, as going home and sleeping meant he'd have to face those nightmares again. He still didn't know what they were about, knowing only that he'd prefer to avoid having them.

"Senpai? You're staring off into the distance. It looks creepy as hell." Naoto flinched as he realized that Nagatoro was all up in his face. "H-Huh?! S-Sorry. It's nothing." Naoto responded.

Nagatoro was confused as to what had Naoto so shaken up. Despite acting as usual like most of the time, she could clearly tell that his movements were more sluggish and tired than usual, along with his sleepy and raspy voice along with the fact that he kept zoning off into the distance. "Are you sure, Senpai?"

Naoto nodded. "Y-Yeah." They continued to walk, taking a slightly longer route in order to chat a bit more, before finally making it to Nagatoro's house.

"Are you sure you don't want to come in?" Nagatoro asked Naoto. "My parents are coming late, so I could make us some hot chocolate and we can play like last time." She chuckled, reminding him of the time she beat him by cheating in a multitude of ways.

The boy shook his head. "No thanks. I'm fine. I should go home quickly. It's getting quite late, and I still have to do something at home." Nagatoro nodded, before waving him off as he turned back and started to walk home trough his usual route.

Thump.

Thump!

Thump!!

Naoto's head wouldn't stop pumping. It felt like the most awful headache someone could have, and it wasn't the first time he felt this. He had been having headaches at random intervals the last few days, and it was always a pain. "I feel sick." Naoto said to himself.

He decided that he should probably find himself a place to sit down and wait out his headache, as his house was still quite far away. He looked around, quickly noticing a bench with a small wooden roof to protect from the rain. "Score!" Naoto thought to himself, turning to the bench, before he felt a push from behind.

A push? Naoto didn't have time to ask himself where the push came from, as he suddenly tripped on the wet grass, staining his shirt and all his other clothing. He looked at his dirty hands and clothes, before turning around to see whoever it was that pushed him.

"What's up, four-eyes?"

It was Riko and Haru, the Boys from the class next to him, as well as being the ones who always tried to hit on Nagatoro and the other girls. Before Naoto could say anything, he was met with a kick to the stomach, causing him to cough in pain.

Could already imagine why they were here, and his theory was confirmed when Riko spoke again. "You fucking loser. How is it that they want to be around shit like you?"

Naoto's days had been pretty calm lately outside of his nightmares. Having someone like Nagatoro caused him to lower his guard, forgetting the position he was in: the loser, the nerd, the lowest of the low. He wasn't even string enough to defend himself as the two boys ganged up on him.

The lamp-posts nearby illuminated this horrid scene, as Naoto was relentlessly beaten by these two boys. He knew they were delinquents, and he knew that they were constantly assholes to him, but he never thought they'd go this far just because Nagatoro and the others spent their time in his clubroom, which he didn't even ask them to do.

Naoto at the least managed to block direct strikes to the face, the damage instead being directed onto his arms, which he used as protection. The kicks to the stomach were getting so bad that he felt he would either cough up blood or start throwing up. "Why did this happen? Why can't I defend myself? Are you such cowards that you strike me at night, when no one is here to see?"

"I really hate people like you."

That same sentence rushed trough his head as he was beaten. He tried to get up multiple times, only to be struck once more, causing him to lose his balance. The overwhelming pain alongside the loud thumping headache in his head was getting to him.

"I really hate people like you"

Riko and Haru picked him up, throwing him at the bench. His back was smacked agains the wooden bench, injuring him. "S-Stop." He tried to get back up, but Haru held his hand from behind as Riko walked up to him, ready to give him the pummeling of his life. At this point, it wasn't even about him hating them anymore.

"I wish you died. I wish you died. I wish you died."

With every punch, his built up anger slowly built up, causing his thoughts to get worse as the thumping in his head increased.

"I want you dead. I want to kill you. With my own hands."

Naoto couldn't hold it back anymore. He didn't care if the beating got worse if he said it. If he was going to get beaten relentlessly, he should at least find something to say

"F-Fuck you, virgin." Naoto understood the irony in that sentence, but he knew it would especially get under his skin. From Rikos face, he could already tell that he had struck a nerve with that sentence.

Naoto followed trough by trying to spit on the boy, although instead of spit, it was blood that flew out of his mouth and into the boys pants. Despite the situation he was in, this got a good chuckle out of him. It felt good to have at least a smidge of control in such a situation.

"You fucking bitch. I'm going to gut you." Riko reached into his pocket, pulling out a box cutter. This even got Haru worried, as he shortly let Naoto go. "Calm down, Riko. Beating this loser ass is one thing, but using that is a whole 'nother bag of worms"

"Shut the fuck up. I won't let a little shit like him say that and get away with it." Riko said, kicking Naoto down.

"Kill him."

That was the only thought in his head at the moment. He needed to do something. Run, fight back, anything. Anything or he'd risk not coming out alive today. But despite all the other options he seemed to have, his brain automatically directed to a single one.

"Kill him. Kill him. Kill him."

The thumping was replaced with those same words repeating in his head as Riko approached with the box cutter. Riko pushed Naoto down, as he struggled to push him down. Riko was about to lower the cutter to wherever he was aiming. Naoto closed his eyes, at least wanting to spare himself the horror of seeing himself get stabbed.

"KILL."

Nothing. Nothing was happening. Why hadn't he been stabbed? And why was Riko not attempting to push him down anymore?

Naoto opened his eyes, only to see Riko sitting on top of him. His expression seemed shocked, as if within a millisecond, something had happened right in front of him. Naoto looked at the boy, before noticing something leaking from his neck.

Blood.

Blood slowly started to pour out of the boys neck, as Naoto watched in horror. Riko wasn't even changing expressions at the sight of this, and the reason why became clear to Naoto when he pushed Riko down from him. The second he pushed Riko, his head split from his body, as if he had been decapitated. Maybe that was why his expression didn't change when the blood started to gush out.

Naoto looked behind himself, seeing Haru. The body was already on the floor, having met the same fate as Riko, ending up decapitated on the floor. The blood of Riko was splattering everywhere as the body fumbled around before smacking against the floor.

Naoto looked at his hands, now covered in blood. Shaking. Shaking. They wouldn't stop shaking.

Why won't they stop shaking? Whats happening? They can't be dead. What's happening?" Naoto's brain was overwhelmed. He didn't know what to do standing in the middle of two decapitated students.

All his body could do was instinctively shake, as a scream of confusion, fear and shock left his mouth.