"Guys, don't worry about it." Nagatoro said, lifting her arm up to showcase an injury on her wrist. "I'm telling you, it's nothing."

Maki Gamou, Nagatoro's best friend who commonly goes by the name "Gamo-chan," had a perplexed look on her face as she examined her wound closely. Alongside her was Orihara, Nagatoro's friend and rival, as well as a prominent member of the school's judo club whose skills were often considered to be on par with that of Olympic-level athletes.

"Well, it looks like a light injury.." Gamo-chan noted. In her mind however, the wound Nagatoro sustained seemed to be more than just that.

"I'm sure it'll be just fine!" Orihara replied, keeping a positive, optimistic smile on her face. "Come on, Hayacchi. Let's get you to the nurse's office for now."

Nagatoro gave her a smile back as she allowed herself to be helped up by Orihara. Gamo-chan gave her a playful pat on her back as the three friends began to walk out of the judo club room. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get very far before another one of the girls in the room spoke out towards them.

"You hurt your wrist?" She asked. The three of them stopped walking and they each turned around to face her.

The girl's name was Shikki. A rather serious girl, Shikki was a remarkably taller girl who towered over Nagatoro by nearly a foot, and she had a body that put nearly every other girl to shame. Her face knew no smile, and her stern eyes always seemed to convey grumpiness. Shikki was very passionate about judo, so much so that she despised those who she deemed "quitters." Such a belief was why the girl looked down on poor Nagatoro, who only recently returned to her martial arts career after abandoning it several years prior.

"It's just a scratch," Nagatoro said back to her. Shikki let out a quiet "hmph" and walked away from the girl, turning her back on her.

"You got hurt just from that? I guess you weren't really trying, after all." Two other girls who were always by Shikki's side began to chuckle as they followed their friend. Contrary to Shikki's stern demeanor, these friends were the exact opposite. One could only describe them as stuck-up, bratty followers.

"You're not gonna say anything back, Hayacchi?" Gamo-chan asked Nagatoro. She had a whole bunch of witty remarks to lob back at Shikki in response and was always ready to get snippy with her. Unfortunately, Nagatoro only let out a light sigh as she went back to walking out of the judo hall.

"Just let them say what they want," was all she said to her. Gamo-chan looked back at Shikki, then to Nagatoro. She shrugged and simply continued following her. Orihara did the same without saying anything.


The next day, Nagatoro met up with her friends after school in the library. Her group consisted of Gamo-chan, Sakura, and Yoshi. Sakura was considered the "matchmaker" in the group because of her experience with boys; she was the only one who had any sort of experience, in fact. She was also a rather poor academic achiever, who frequently underperformed in her studies. That wasn't to say that she wasn't a hardworking girl however, as Sakura was the only one in the group who was juggling a part-time job.

On the other hand, Yoshi was a ball full of energy. However, the poor girl suffered from social anxiety, which hampered her ability to comfortably express herself to other people. Thus, she was only able to do so with her friends, most notably Gamo-chan, who she became a sort-of sidekick to.

"Your wrist, Toro-chan!" Sakura exclaimed, leaning forward a bit so she could get a closer look at her friend's injury. "It's broken!"

Nagatoro had her hand held up. She had it covered in several layers of bandages, wrapped snuggly as it held her hand in place. Even so, her injury didn't seem to bother Nagatoro at all.

"It's all good, Sakura!" Nagatoro replied cheerfully. "It'll only take two weeks to recover. I'm completely fine. Besides, I've been hurt like this before. It's nothing new!"

Gamo-chan chuckled lightly as she took a large swig from her water bottle. "This is what happens when you jump right back into judo after not practicing for so long. Ya' get rusty!"

"What even happened, Toro-chan?" Sakura asked. "You've only been in the judo club for a few weeks, and you've already hurt yourself!"

Nagatoro paused for a moment. She simply bit into a chip and ate it quietly as if she were thinking to herself, before she answered her friend's question.

"Things got a bit rough during practice. It's no big deal though."

Gamo decided to chirp up and give her side of the story. "That girl Shikki totally beat Hayacchi up. It wasn't even a competition! It was more like.. a slaughter!"

"Shut up!" Nagatoro retorted, not exactly liking being teased by her friend. "It wasn't like that, Gamo-chan. I just got hurt, that's all."

"Suuuure!" Gamo-chan and her friend Yoshi simply laughed.

Sakura frowned, not liking the idea that her friend was beat up by someone in the judo club. She merely looked on at the girl in front of her and let out a quiet sigh.

The girls continued to chat amongst themselves. Gamo-chan kept teasing Nagatoro until she decided that enough was enough, wanting to make it clear that she was only playing and not wanting to actually hurt her. The girls would talk about all sorts of things, from school, to movies, to music, and then to boys, not necessarily in that order. Their chatter and giggles were also quite loud, almost to the point where it became obnoxious. Thankfully, the library that they were in was empty, so the group was bothering no one.

"Seriously, no way!" Gamo-chan giggled as she looked at Nagatoro, waving her hand up and down.

"I felt so bad!" Yoshi exclaimed, taking a bite out of a chip. Sakura and the rest of the girls looked at her and began to giggle as well.

"So I met this guy earlier.." said Sakura.

Just as the girls kept on gossiping, they heard the door to the library open. All four of them went quiet as they turned to see who had walked in. There, they saw a boy. A rather thin looking boy, to be exact.

This boy's name was Naoto Hachioji, a second year student. He was the only active member of the art club after its President, Sana Sunomiya passed down the responsibilities to him when she reached her third year. Simply put, Naoto was a loner; a nobody. He had only a very select few of friends, and while being in the art club did help him meet other people a little bit, he was still confined in his tiny social bubble. He was dressed in the school's usual uniform, and his hair was extremely curly and messy, which was almost fluffy even. Nagatoro herself noted that it resembled a sheep's coat in her head.

Naoto adjusted his glasses as he scanned the room. When he locked eyes with the group of girls in front of him, he gasped. He seemed to have froze for a second before he bashfully looked away from them out of nervousness. A small blush even appeared on his face as he tried so desperately to avoid eye contact with them.

The girls just kept staring at him, not doing anything. They said nothing, nor did they even give him a wave. Their silence did nothing but make the poor kid's anxiety worse. Then, they simply turned away from him and went back to talking as a group, as if he was never there.

"Anyway, he sent me a message on LINE.." Sakura continued.

Naoto gulped, braced himself, and then began walking. He spotted an unoccupied table in the furthest corner of the room, one near where the girls were sitting at. He was as stiff as a rock as he hurriedly walked past the group of girls. His head was pointed downward, and his eyes were locked on to the floor. Sure enough, he made it to his table and quickly plopped himself down on one of the chairs, before pulling out a large sketchbook from his bag.

For a moment, he looked at the group of girls. They didn't seem to mind his presence at all. In fact, it was like they didn't even know he was there. The girls just kept laughing and laughing loudly as they always have been.

"I'm never going to have anything to do with that species," he thought to himself as he listened in on their gossip.

Nothing happened between the two parties at first. Naoto only kept to himself, working on his very own manga which included a self-insert of himself as its protagonist, Siegfried. Nagatoro and her friends merely kept yapping and yapping about various things. They must've broken the library's "Please Keep Quiet Rule" a thousand times considering how loud they were. At one point, silence filled the room as Naoto batted them a single eye, only to find them all staring at him. A huge blush appeared on his face as he quickly looked away to go back to his manga.

Eventually, Sakura got up and made her way towards Naoto's end after being asked by Nagatoro to retrieve a book. Naoto tensed up, having felt her presence looming closer and closer. Sakura had her hands innocently behind her back as she scanned the shelves for her target, while Naoto was absolutely frozen with nervousness. He was so nervous in fact that he accidentally knocked over his things when he tried to reach for his backpack, which quickly alerted Sakura to his presence. With his sketchbook now on the ground and its contents visible to everyone, his face couldn't get any redder as Sakura crouched down to pick up his stuff.

"Oh no oh no oh no oh no," was what he was repeating over and over in his head. Naoto cursed himself for being so clumsy in front of girls.

What he actually said was a very soft, and stuttery, "Sorry."

Sakura smiled as she read one of the pages of his manga. "Oh God," she yelped excitedly. "Look at this!" It wasn't long before her friends began to make their way over to them.

They began reading over its lines. The very same lines that he wrote. He couldn't help but think that they were making fun of his work based on the tone of their voices. They even compared it to Two Piece. Naoto simply closed his eyes and pointed his head back down at the ground, trying to calm himself down by taking slow and steady breaths.

"It's okay.. It's okay.. Just don't look at them.."

Then, as if God Himself swooped in to save the boy from his predicament, Naoto heard one of them walking back to their table to collect her things.

"Yukko said she's at the restaurant with her boyfriend now," Gamo-chan called out to her friends, putting her bag over her shoulder. "You guys comin' with?"

Both Sakura and Yoshi nodded with excitement, eager to meet their unseen friend's boyfriend. On the other hand however, Nagatoro merely picked up the remaining papers of Naoto's manga from the floor, and after a few seconds of looking over them, turned towards her orange-haired friend and shook her head no.

"I'll go later," she told her. Gamo-chan raised an eyebrow as she began to walk towards the exit with Yoshi and Sakura following suit.

"What? Ya' got a thing for weirdos or something?" She asked. Nagatoro said nothing as her friends left the library, giggling about Yukko's boyfriend along the way.

Naoto opened his eyes to find that the friends were gone. He was just about to let out a sigh of relief before he turned and saw Nagatoro take a seat across the table in front of him. With her elbows planted down on to the table and her chin resting firmly on her hands, the girl smiled at him. Naoto couldn't help but think about how cute she was.

"I'm a first year," she told him. "You?"

Naoto nervously readjusted his glasses. He struggled to even keep eye contact with her. After a moment of hesitation, he finally let out a shy, shaky response.

"..A- A second year."

He saw Nagatoro's smile widen, as if she were delighted at his answer. "Really?" She asked. "Then that means you're my Senpai, then."

Upon hearing the girl call him her Senpai, Naoto froze. He just stared at her, not sure how to react. It made it even harder for him to keep looking at her. He had to look away.

Nagatoro began reading over the lines in the manga, much to the dismay and embarrassment of Naoto. He feared what she was doing. She's got to be making fun of him. There's no way she's actually interested in his manga. As Nagatoro kept reciting the lines word for word, it was soon made apparent to her that its MC was indeed a self-insert of the boy in front of her.

"Siegfried is you, right?" She asked him. "This is a self-insert and you've projected yourself as a swordsman?"

Naoto quickly shook his head, trying to cover his own skin by lying. "..Not really.."

"Oh, I'm not making fun of your creativity, Senpai." Lies. Naoto insisted that she said nothing but lies. Nagatoro had such a smug look on her face when she said that that it seemed impossible for anyone to believe it. She kept going on and on about the connection between the MC and himself, at one point even saying that she "felt sorry" for the both of them. As Naoto begrudgingly listened on, he looked at her again and couldn't help but notice her bandaged-up hand.

"..Your hand," he interrupted her. Nagatoro stopped her babbling and looked at the bandages. "..what.. what happened?"

"Oh, my hand?" She raised her arm up to show him her injury. "I just hurt myself during practice. No biggie, Senpai."

"..practice?" Naoto asked. She plays a sport here?

"Yeah, practice! I'm in the judo club! We were practicing yesterday, and I went a little too rough. It's really nothing major though."

"..is that so.."

A big grin of excitement formed on Nagatoro's face as she leaned in slightly towards the boy. Naoto found himself shocked and even recoiled a bit due to her getting suddenly getting closer.

"Say, Senpai! Are you in any clubs too?"

Naoto adjusted his glasses again. He cleared his throat, and after a second, he slowly nodded.

"..I'm, uh.. I'm in the art club."

"The art club? That's cool! I should've guessed. These are nice drawings after all, Senpai."

Naoto's face went red when he heard the girl compliment him on his drawings. It just somehow felt good to know that someone took a liking to his work. Still, a small part of him.. doubted her. Like she was using it as a way to somehow gain an angle on him. Before he had any more time to think about that, Nagatoro suddenly rose to her feet.

"Want me to show you the cool fighting moves I can do?" She asked him. She had a very big grin on her face. Naoto gulped as he turned his attention back to her bandaged wrist.

"..but.. your wrist!" He reminded her. "Don't you think you shouldn't.. overdo it?"

"Overdo it?" Nagatoro burst out laughing. "It's okay! It's not like I'm gonna hurt myself. I'm just gonna show you some basic moves, that's all."

"Still, you really shouldn't.." Naoto bashfully looked away as he scratched his head, not really wanting to take the chance of her accidentally making the injury worse by doing too much. His concerns however, were immediately set aside when the girl suddenly leaned in towards him.

"It'll be fine, Senpai. Don't worry," she said with a smile. Naoto's blush became even more apparent when she thinned the gap between them.

He simply stood against the wall, watching her push a few tables and chairs out of the way to make room for herself. Once she had the floor ready, Nagatoro stood still, taking in a deep breath of air to prepare herself. Then, Naoto saw something cool happen in front of him.

Nagatoro dashed forward, punching the air front of her with her good arm. In quick succession, she followed up her attack with several spins, ending it off with a marvelous kick, leaving her foot suspended in the air for a few seconds before dropping it back down to the floor. She then took on a mighty pose, and spoke with sheer confidence.

"I live only through combat," she said. "I have long abandoned my womanhood!"

Naoto noticed just how elegant her form was. She did all that so flawlessly. So easily.. He saw her drop the act and slowly turn around to face him. The look she was giving him was like she wanted him to do something. Perhaps to follow up her performance with his own..

He thought long and hard about what he should do, until he finally realized what she was wanting. The line she had spoken out was from his manga, where his self-insert of an MC tried to make a move on his female comrade, only for her to reject his advancements. He looked back at his manga and saw that after the woman said the line, the MC then complimented her beauty while brushing her hair with his hand.

Naoto thought to himself, "There's no way she really wants me to do that! She was just showing me her moves! Was she really reenacting my.."

He gulped. It seemed like forever, but Naoto finally managed to gather up the courage to actually approach the girl from behind and reenact the MC's part in real life. With a deep breath, he slowly approached her, shaking like a damn Chihuahua caught in a blizzard. He was super nervous, super being an understatement, even. Once he was right before Nagatoro, it took him a bit to extend his arm out. He then went in for it.

Slowly, he reached for her. Slowly..

..slowly.. then..

..SLAP!

Nagatoro immediately swatted his arm away from her. Naoto recoiled, taken aback by the sudden movement. He saw her turn around to give him a smile, a devious smile. One that meant nothing but trouble.

"Wow, Senpai!" She yelled. "I didn't think you'd actually go through with it!" Nagatoro began walking towards him. Naturally, Naoto began stepping back from her, but she kept advancing forward. It was like there was an invisible force field of intense energy that kept pushing him back as she walked towards him. Naoto kept trying to put some distance in between them until his back finally slammed against the wall, his face profusely red as he looked at the girl before him anxiously. Nagatoro swiped the pages containing the scene they were reenacting and held it up in front of his face.

"But there's no WAY you were really able to do that, Senpai! Not your virgin-looking ass!" His eyes widened at being called a "virgin-looking ass," but he had no time to comprehend it as he saw her point a finger at him.

"That's a manly version of yourself!" She continued. "You're nothing like that! You're the exact opposite, Senpai!"

Naoto didn't know what to think. Here was the girl, who he thought had a genuine interest in his manga, now poking fun of his self-insert tactics and his inability to be like the manga version of himself. He had no choice but to look away. Readjusting his glasses yet again, Naoto turned his head to the side, avoiding eye contact with the girl. Nagatoro, however, persisted. She put in the effort to remain in front of him by moving around him.

"Are you seriously looking away, Senpai?" She asked, having her hands innocently behind her back like she wasn't antagonizing him. "You know, it's very rude to not looking at someone when they're talking to you."

Naoto continued to be pushed by the girl until she had him slammed against the bookshelf. Some of the books even fell to the floor when he collided with it. Nagatoro gave him the biggest, most devious look ever as she had the boy trapped against the bookshelf by her presence.

"Senpai! Can I tell you something? You're kind of.. wait no."

"..you're actually VERY creepy!"

Tears began to slowly trickle down from Naoto's eyes. The poor boy didn't even know what was happening. He was sandwiched in between the shelf and the girl, and he was totally powerless to do anything. Naoto was at his weakest here, being slowly but surely driven to the point of tears by a first-year girl.

"Aww, are you crying, Senpai? Are you really crying?" Nagatoro asked, holding out a rag to wipe his tears. Naoto simply stared meekly at the girl, unsure of what to even do.

"S- s- stop it," was all that he said.

Eventually, after what seemed like endless hours of nonstop, psychological torture, Nagatoro finally let up on the boy as she grabbed her things. Naoto himself was left slumped against the bookshelf, looking down at the floor in defeat. Nagatoro left the hand rag folded neatly besides him as she darted off out of the library, but not before giving him a playful wink and an innocent wave. She acted like she didn't just torment the ever-living Hell out of him.

"Sorry for messing with ya', Senpai! You can have that, by the way. Bye!"

Naoto heard the door open and close. Then, he was left totally alone. Defeated, shattered, and broken, he simply stared off at the wall in front of him. He gritted his teeth and squeezed the rag in his hand.

"..I let a first-year make me cry.."


Naoto had his eyes closed shut as his forehead was resting on the palms of his hands, his elbows being planted down on to the table.

After the whole incident in the library, Naoto walked himself home. Along the way, he decided to stop by his favorite family-owned restaurant. He figured that a quick bite to eat would be enough to take his mind off of what just transpired earlier. He was really fond of their ramen bowls, after all. They were simplistic, yet they tasted absolutely heavenly.

Except this time however, his beloved ramen bowl couldn't ease the stress he was experiencing. What Nagatoro did seemed to have really done a number on him. Naoto couldn't stop hearing her voice in his head. They kept mocking him. Over. And over again.

"Are you crying, Senpai?"

"You're supposed to look a person in the eye!"

"Creepy!"

"Pfft!"

It wouldn't stop. He was powerless to do anything against it. Every fiber of his very being wanted to just rip his hairs out in a desperate attempt to make the voices go away.

He hadn't even touched his ramen bowl. Naoto began cursing himself. Why him? Why was it him that she decided to torment? Couldn't it have been another guy?

"Why did I even walk into that library.." He thought to himself. Naoto opened his eyes to look at his manga which was laid out in front of him. He just read it over and over, examining it closely. He cursed himself again as he realized how much leverage he had given the girl to use over him after he failed to keep his work to himself.

"If I just kept this hidden.." Naoto sighed. He opened up his bag and shoved the sketchbook in there, before getting up to leave the restaurant silently. His ramen bowl was left completely untouched.

Unbeknownst to him however, something had hitched a ride in his bag.


Naoto returned home soon after, still not feeling the greatest. His parents weren't home, which was to be expected. His parents, while very loving towards their son, were also very hardworking and committed to their jobs. Their busy schedules meant that Naoto would often come home to an empty house. He called out to them just to make sure that he was home alone, and after receiving no answer, he took that as a confirmation and took his shoes off to change in a more house-appropriate and comfy attire.

Naoto then grabbed his things and walked over to his room. It was one you would expect from your usual suburban high school teen. A simple bedroom designed to fit only one person comfortably, with only a single bed, table, shelf, lamp, drawer, and a small TV.

Naoto plopped himself down on to his bed and simply stared at the floor deep in thought. Nagatoro's taunting voices still lingered in his head, echoing their insults repeatedly. He took a deep breath to try and relax, hoping that a nice session of solitude in the safety of his room would calm him down. The boy thought about whether he should continue working on his manga, or if he should just toss it after what just happened. After a deep breath, he zipped his bag open to pull out his sketchbook. What was on his hand however, would change him forever.

He looked and saw a thin, eight-legged creature on his hand. A spider, with an unusual color pattern on its abdomen that he'd never seen before. He froze for a second before he yelped in pain as the spider dung its fangs into his skin.

"AH!" Naoto screamed in pain. Quickly, he slapped the spider off with his other hand. It was enough to knock it and send it tumbling down to the floor, and sure enough, it was dead. Startled after just being bit, Naoto stared at the spider with wide eyes, before turning to the bite on his hand. There was swelling, and one could see the marks the fangs had left. Naoto rushed to grab a napkin to dispose of the spider, before darting to the bathroom to tend to his bite.