June 17, 2004. The class adviser of class 1-B, a sad-looking middle-aged man, had just announced the arrival of a new student. Upon hearing that it was going to be a boy, most of the female students couldn't help but wait in anticipation, hoping that the new guy will be a handsome one. As Serizawa Naoya walked in, their hearts were filled with disappointment. It wasn't that he was so ugly. He was mediocre. But the girls didn't need any more of that as they had seen plenty of mediocre-looking guys already. He had gotten more reactions from the boys, however. His lightly dyed hair faded from black to blonde to the tips. He had pale skin, dead, boring eyes, and a noticeable ear piercing. One could tell that he was some sort of delinquent. 

"Introduce yourself." the teacher spoke to him.

Serizawa didn't bother scanning the place. Or rather, the faces of the other kids. He knew what he had to do and didn't plan to waste energy. 

"Name's Serizawa Naoya. Nice to meet ya."

Unsurprisingly, he only got an awkward silence as a reply. He heard the teacher saying something before he was directed to an empty seat at the back. Hours went by with the class lecture resuming. Outside the window, the depressing weather could be seen. Dark clouds blocked the sunlight as the damp air moistened the window glass slightly.

Before Serizawa knew it, the day was over. The students started packing their bags and preparing to finally go home. Others had gone to their friend groups to go hang out somewhere else. Not a single soul tried to approach him during the breaks they had. With the way he introduced himself, it was no surprise. Serizawa also stood up, ready to leave the room when a commotion by the exit caught his attention. How could it not when he needed to use that exit too?

A female classmate was lying on the ground, blocking the exit. Two boys walked over her while laughing at the girl's miserable state. Judging by her position, it was likely that she had been tripped into falling.

'Nagano Rika.' Serizawa's eyes were locked on her as she quietly got up by herself and dusted off her skirt. No one else batted an eye on what happened. They just laughed it off and carried on. 

That concluded the first day of Serizawa Naoya as a first year student. 

The next day came. It was another gloomy morning. Nevertheless, Serizawa came to school early to fulfil his student duties. As he walked to the entrance of the building, he saw a familiar figure tiptoeing to reach the locker. Nagano was barely tall enough to see what the inside of her locker looked like, but she seemed like she was trying her best to keep her things tidy inside. She didn't pay attention to him as she quietly minded her own business.

Serizawa turned his head towards his own locker to get started with the day. After changing to his indoor shoes, he grabbed his bag and started walking to the main hall. 

After making a turn in the corner, he came across three boys going to the lockers, two of them familiar. They were wearing these sinister grins that at one glance, he could tell they were up to no good. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second before they completely passed him by.

And he was right on the mark. He heard a loud bang, as if something just hit the metal surface of the lockers. Serizawa stopped his tracks at a distance, barely enough to hear what was about to happen. 

"It's your fault." one of the boys' voices reverberated weakly across the hall. It was still early enough that not many students were present in the area. There were more things that they said to her but it wasn't loud nor clear enough for Serizawa to understand.

"Fucking witch. Get out of our sight."

As their laughter faded, Serizawa carried on walking to their classroom. Some students were already there and the chairs had already been arranged. As he was walking up to his desk, he couldn't help but notice one desk that looked a lot different from the rest. He still remembered who was supposed to sit there. Vulgar words and disheartening messages were doodled across the desk with chalk. 

"So that's how it is." Serizawa whispered to himself. He took his seat and then waited for the class to start.

Moments later, he saw Nagano entering the room and then walking up to her desk. He expected some kind of reaction from her but she just simply grabbed a cleaning cloth and manually erased the doodles on it. It wasn't long until laughter directed at her filled the room. And as if that wasn't enough, someone threw a crumpled paper on her head. 

Her face was as emotionless as a corpse as the whole class made fun of her. As if going through the same shit every day had made her as numb as rock. Serizawa was the first to notice that wasn't the case when his observing eye noticed a slight flinch when the same boys from earlier entered the room. The one in the center that seemed to be their leader immediately saw Rika, went up to her desk only to disrespectfully hit the top of her head with a rolled paper. The girl couldn't do anything but to look down silently. Even though Naoya tried his hardest, he couldn't think of any reason for her to endure any of this for so long.

"What's wrong?" the boy kept taunting her while hitting her head. "Didn't you say you were better off alone, huh? All you need is yourself, huh?" he ultimately threw the paper at her face which earned laughter from the crowd. "Where's that gotten you, huh? You fucking witch." The boy stood up straight before kicking her desk. He then looked over to the new student who was observing the situation silently. A wide grin crossed his face as he walked towards Serizawa. "The fuck do you think you're looking at?"

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Serizawa looked at him straight in the eyes before responding. "It would be less trouble for you if I kept my mouth shut, wouldn't it?"

The boy looked over to his friends for a moment as they laughed. He then looked back towards Serizawa who didn't break eye contact. "It would be less trouble for YOU if you keep your mouth shut." he replied.

In a controlled fashion, Serizawa let out a deep breath. "Alright."

"Good. Be a good fucking dog will ya." saying that, he tapped Serizawa's shoulder as he walked away.

"Hey, Amamiya-kun. Don't tell me you're gonna pick on the new guy too." a girl from the crowd said jokingly amidst the laughter and chatter.

"I'm not picking on anybody." Amamiya said as he and his friends took their seats. "We're all just having fun."

It was still a few minutes away before the class started and the room slowly got filled with the students. Serizawa turned to a random boy sitting beside him before opening his mouth to speak. 

"Hey."

The boy's shoulders jumped, his head facing away from him. Even though he wanted to pretend he hadn't heard anything, there was a risk of attention being drawn to him so he just answered. "W-What is it?" he turned his head towards Naoya reluctantly.

"I'm Serizawa. What's your name?"

"I'm Takagi." he replied.

"Don't worry, I don't want to bother you. But can I just ask some questions?"

The boy adjusted his glasses. Serizawa completely understood why no one would want to associate themselves with a clueless newbie like him, especially when severe case of bullying was rampant in their school. If ever he became the target, there was a risk of getting caught up. 

"Alright." Takagi answered.

Serizawa checked their surroundings if anyone was possibly listening to their conversation. When he deemed it clear, he spoke. "When did the bullying of Nagano Rika start?"

There was a short silence. Why was he asking that question? Was there a way to dodge it? What would happen to him if he answered? What would happen if he didn't? Those questions ran through Takagi's head in a fraction of a second he locked eyes with Serizawa. Because the last thing he wanted was to be on bad terms with who ever was the most powerful— or at least with someone more powerful than he was.

"I.." he mumbled. "I don't have the details. But it has been going on for as long as I can remember."

"Do you know why it started?"

"W-Well.. there was a rumor that she was a witch or something. But of course such things don't exist. They were just light teasing at first. From what I heard, she has always been associated with the title witch since middle school." he replied. "I don't know why Amamiya-kun also started to bully her." 

Serizawa stared at him in silence as he processed the information. He then leaned back to his seat and whispered, "That's all. Thank you."

Moments later, the teacher arrived and the class started like nothing ever happened. After the class, the bullying continued at lunch break. When the classes ended, they resumed to cause inconvenience for Nagano Rika in every way possible. 

Days went by, Serizawa witnessed all of her suffering. And how she silently took it all without any signs of retaliation. It wasn't just Amamiya and his group but also the other female students in and outside their class who used her to raise their own social status. They would push her small body against the lockers, steal her things, vandalize her desk, pour water on her head, physically harm her, and do other things a sensible human would normally not endure. Because aside from it being inconvenient, the humiliation was the most bitter part of it. Perhaps she thought they would stop eventually if she stayed stoic and showed no reaction. That or it could be that she had just completely given up. 

Serizawa took his seat, arriving to school early as usual. There were five or six people who had arrived before him, including Nagano Rika who was sitting one desk ahead diagonally at his front right. Fortunately this time, she arrived early enough that no one had vandalized her desk just yet. 

As usual, other students started to show up. And then the moment Rika had been dreading for came. Every single day, as if a routine from hell. Amamiya and the two others arrived.

"Tch. So early in the morning." he scoffed.

"B-But Teach has been scolding me about this." the class treasurer replied meekly as he held a notebook which seemed to be a payment log. "Only your fees are unpaid."

"Shut the hell up, man." he said as he scanned the room. "Oh right." Amamiya walked towards Nagano and then sat on top of her desk. "You got some money?"

Nagano nodded wordlessly.

"Sweet. Give me."

The treasurer's face darkened by Amamiya's behavior, but he couldn't speak up in fear. 

Nagano Rika pulled her purse out. As she was unzipping it, Amamiya grabbed it from her hands in impatience. "How the fuck do you move so slow." he said before taking whatever was in it and throwing it at the treasurer's chest. He then placed the purse back down on her desk. "God damn, see? You can be useful after all." he remarked, prompting his friends to crack a laughter.

"U-Uh... Amamiya-kun.." the treasurer mumbled once again after collecting the money from the ground.

"What?" he replied, irritated.

"T-This is only three thousand yen.. Your debt is five thousand.."

"Oh fuck off." he turned to Nagano once again. "You don't even have enough money you bitch." he then kicked her desk, causing the girl to flinch. Amamiya took the log book from the treasurer's hands and then started slapping Nagano's head with it, though she showed no reaction. Her head stayed facing down, hiding whatever expression she was making, but she refused to make any sound whatsoever. "How can you be so useless and pathetic?" he continued to hit her, his voice becoming louder and more violent, as well as the force behind each hit increasing. "All you had to do was pay up my debt!!! Useless fucking bitch!!" with his anger not being contained anymore, he straight up grabbed her by the hair and swung her head around. Even his friends could no longer laugh at what they were seeing. "Come on, say something!!!" he screamed at Nagano's face that was already contorted in pain.

Amamiya stopped his movements when he saw in his peripheral vision a guy calmly walking up to them. It was the new student from a couple of days ago. 

"What?" Amamiya faced Serizawa with rage in his eyes. "Got a problem?"

No one was fully sure of what had just happened. But in the next seconds, Amamiya fell to the floor, no longer conscious. Some saw Serizawa's coat gliding through the air but they couldn't see what he really did. Was it a punch? Did Serizawa just punched him to sleep? No one knew for sure.

"What the..." one of Amamiya's friends murmured with widening eyes as he stared at Amamiya's body. "What the hell happened..?"

All of a sudden, all eyes were on them. Some watched in satisfaction while others were in shock as the most powerful student in their class just got dropped. And this time, they saw what he really did. He also punched the second guy so fast that so much as blinking would cause them to miss what he did. The guy fell to his knees and then his face planted on the floor between Serizawa's shoes like a vegetable. The third guy watched in horror as Serizawa stalked him with a blank emotion. He walked slowly towards the guy who was desperately backing up.

"Hey man... you can't just punch someone like that.." he said with shakey voice.

Serizawa scratched his head. "Is that so.."

"Y-Yeah.."

With a front kick to the stomach, the third guy went flying across the room, even dragging some of the desks with him along the way.