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500 – I Really Do Want to Help Kyousuke-kun Build His Harem Palace
🕑 Added 2025-09-06 15:00:13 +0000 UTCThe moment Nishimiya Shouko’s eyes fell on the braided cord Kyousuke-kun always wore on his wrist like a protective charm, it was as if a mist had been swept away.
All those vague, blurry feelings she couldn’t quite name before suddenly became crystal clear.
‘Kyousuke-kun…’
Her expression twisted into something complicated.
Her round little cheeks puffed up and deflated again, just like a pouty baby pufferfish who couldn’t hold onto either anger or memory for too long.
But the clearer her thoughts became, the more tangled her head felt.
Could it really… be okay?
Her cute little face scrunched up, and after a long inner struggle she finally lifted her head toward her human chair and stammered:
“B-but…”
Kyousuke gave her an encouraging look.
“What about Naoka? And Utaha, and Eriri… They’re not as easy to deal with as Yukari, you know.”
Yes—in this silly boy’s eyes, Yukari was apparently the most “easily bullied” of them all.
Of course! Yukari was good at running away, while she—Shouko—had long since learned how to face things head-on.
She didn’t even apologize anymore!
Okay, maybe she couldn’t twist words around like Sakura did, but at least she could be stubbornly unreasonable when she needed to be!
…Probably.
Kyousuke narrowed his eyes a little.
He was embarrassed, but at the same time, seeing that Shouko was thinking entirely from the perspective of helping him build a harem.
He couldn’t help but let out a huge sigh of relief.
‘Ah. I’m a sinner.’
‘A happy, enviable, damnable sinner.’
“Shouko, you’re really brave now. You’ve even got the guts to discuss something this dangerous.” He grinned teasingly.
“Ah…”
The words caught her off guard. A beat later, her face flushed crimson.
Nervous and a little indignant, she mumbled:
“It’s all because of you, Kyousuke-kun. I only think about these things because it’s you.”
She didn’t even dare imagine it—if Naoka or Eriri ever found out she’d been secretly plotting with Kyousuke-kun about how to persuade them into becoming his girlfriends…
She’d be dead. Definitely dead.
In her mind’s eye, the scene already played out:
Naoka in a dark, closed-off room, needle in hand, aiming straight for her;
Eriri brandishing a paintbrush, ready to draw unspeakable things all over her body;
Utaha calmly observing, notebook in hand, jotting down every detail of her suffering while planning the next punishment…
And that was without factoring in Miki or Yukari. The real nightmare was Sakura.
Out of everyone, only Mitsuha might show mercy—but Sakura?
She’d been trained since childhood; she could kick each of them flying with a single strike.
“We can’t tell them! I don’t know anything, I didn’t say anything!”
The imagined scene of shattered sisterly bonds was so vivid, Shouko quickly blurted it out.
“Hahaha, of course I won’t tell.” Kyousuke chuckled.
Of course he wouldn’t.
Just like last night—if she hadn’t happened to stumble upon what happened between him and Sakura, no one would’ve known.
The thought made Shouko feel a guilty sense of relief… though at the same time, a little pang of loss.
“I don’t mean I want to pretend this never happened, or hide our relationship from the others…”
Kyousuke’s voice softened as he explained:
“I’ll spend my whole life sorting this out. I won’t let it tear you apart, and I won’t let it hurt you.”
Shouko’s lips pressed into a thin line, her mind whirling with thoughts.
“It’s not like I’ve never fantasized about a future like that. But no matter how I picture it, I just can’t believe it could actually happen.”
Her head bowed, the little bun of hair on top pointing toward Kyousuke.
She loved this family they had now, loved being surrounded by everyone.
She often wished time could just stop here forever… but she knew it couldn’t.
“But!”
She lifted her head again, those round, bright eyes locking on him with a fierce glow.
“Because it’s you saying it, Kyousuke-kun, I believe it really will come true!”
Maybe she couldn’t believe in the future itself. But she could believe in him.
“…Idiot.”
Kyousuke shook his head with a helpless smile, then leaned forward and gently bumped his forehead against hers.
“Heehee~~”
Shouko beamed foolishly, and in that instant, all her worries seemed to vanish like smoke.
“Let’s go. Time to head home.”
“Mm!” She answered with all her might.
Under the disdainful gaze of a crow perched nearby, the two stupid upright apes finally left, and the bird could finally go back to sleep.
But then—
“Damn it, there’s no way I can finish all these forms! What kind of idiot expects that?! Bastard, moron, jackass…”
The sudden shouting startled the crow.
Tilting its head, it quickly figured out the source.
A man in a suit had collapsed to his knees, yelling at the top of his lungs.
Two equally wobbly men in suits stood beside him, swaying like drunks.
Idiots. It wasn’t even that late, and they were already this drunk?
No way they’d survive the next round.
Fresh-faced newbies in the workforce were so unreliable—if their boss caught them, they could kiss the last train goodbye.
Meanwhile, Kyousuke and Shouko strolled down the street, hands clasped together.
Tokyo really was a city of contradictions, its double-sided nature as extreme as its people.
By day, raise your voice a little too much and you’d earn glares.
By night, people sprawled across the sidewalks, shouting and laughing.
By day, finding a single trash can was nearly impossible.
By night, the entire city became a trash can.
Any random flowerbed could be filled with enough empty bottles to stock a vending machine—beer, oolong tea, juice, milk tea…
Some bottles half full, some with just one sip gone, some with only a mouthful left, as if carefully reserved for the next group who might plop down for a midnight tea party.
And if there really was a next group, the smart ones would pick the bottles with just one sip left.
Because if someone had tossed out a half-full drink, it probably tasted terrible anyway.
Shiningly dressed elites, drunk salarymen barely holding it together by 8 p.m., high school girls in uniform… all kinds of people gathered here.
No matter who you were or what you wanted to do, nobody cared—except maybe the police box officers stuck with the night shift.
At moments like this, the sheer tolerance of the metropolis was on full display.
But for anyone just trying to take a peaceful stroll, it was a different story.
Crowds of sketchy drifters lingered on street corners, drifting after people like zombies—especially if the target was a lone woman.
Of course, none of this mattered to Kyousuke.
All that mattered was holding Shouko’s hand tightly, listening to her soft, pleasant voice as she rambled about trivial things.
Her cheeks were still rosy, whether from leftover heat from earlier or just the joy of walking hand-in-hand with him, she couldn’t tell.
Either way, it was enough to make her giddy.
“…Ena senpai really is the sweetest person. I told her over and over it wasn’t necessary, but she still insisted on giving me a thermos. It’s just a shame her ‘Drink Water Every Day Club’ has only one member so far—herself. So pitiful.”
“Eh? You didn’t join either?”
Kyousuke tilted his head, puzzled.
Shouko didn’t seem like the kind of person who’d turn down a request like that.
As far as he knew, she was even a member of two different clubs at once:
“Flat Chests Are Justice” and “Happiness You Can Hold.”
The former had welcomed her with the reasoning: “If even a busty beauty like Shouko-chan believes flat chests are justice, then surely our justice is the truth.”
The logic reeked of Yamauchi Sakura’s twisted rhetoric, but annoyingly enough, it made sense.
As for the latter club, well, her sheer presence was all the credibility they needed.
If not for Shouko’s repeated refusals, her seniors there would’ve already pushed her into the role of president.
Given all that, if Ena senpai was sacrificing her own rest time just to practice with Shouko, their relationship must be solid.
So why wouldn’t Shouko join the “Drink Water Every Day Association”?
At the question, a faint shadow of gloom crossed Shouko’s face.
“I couldn’t pass the entrance test… Ena-san requires every member to drink three liters of water every day.”
“…”
Kyousuke froze, then burst out laughing.
Drinking normally was fine, but unless you were some kind of water fanatic like that “Hydration Princess,” forcing yourself to chug liters daily was basically torture.
Still, Shouko’s moods never lasted long.
Just holding Kyousuke-kun’s hand was enough to make her giddy again—no way she’d let something so trivial get in the way of her happiness.
“…Even though I didn’t do too well today, being able to perform like I did was already a huge step for me.”
She was talking about the voice-acting practice she’d shown him earlier.
“The moment Kitani-senpai called me ‘big sister,’ I just froze. My whole body locked up—I had no idea how to respond. I panicked and blurted out ‘Senpai!’ way too loud. Ugh…”
She sighed. Work was hard.
“The worst part was that it threw Kitani-senpai off too, so even he couldn’t keep going. Then he told me, ‘Don’t look at my face—treat it like studying.
Just focus on the script or the monitor. Or better yet, really think of me as your little brother.’ So after that, I just kept hypnotizing myself in my head:
Kitani-senpai is my little brother. Kitani-senpai is Yuzuru. Kitani-senpai is Yuzuru. Over and over.”
“When you practiced earlier, none of that showed at all. Looks like it worked pretty well.” Kyousuke raised his voice a little, leaning into his strength: compliments.
Shouko sighed again, this time kicking at the fountain’s edge with her small foot, looking utterly dejected.
“It did work—too well. One day I went into President Matsuda’s office, and Kitani-senpai happened to be there too. And without thinking, I called him ‘little brother’…”
She turned her head, hiding her face in the shadow so Kyousuke-kun wouldn’t see how mortified she was.
“Pfft—now that’s a disaster.” Kyousuke laughed mercilessly.
“It was! The most embarrassing part is, Kitani-senpai didn’t even get mad. He just used Chi-chan’s voice and called me ‘dear big sister.’”
Her voice was filled with despair, but a smile tugged at her lips anyway. Somehow, as long as it was with Kyousuke-kun, even humiliating stories turned into joy.
“…Oh, and don’t be fooled by Kihara Saki-senpai’s aloof looks. She’s just as funny as Ena-san.
You know how in the manga, Miu always gets beaten up and sprawls flat on the floor?
During practice, Ena-san said, ‘You can’t understand the character’s feelings unless you’ve actually taken a fall yourself.’
And then Kihara-senpai just—actually faceplanted on the ground.”
Shouko waved her handbag around enthusiastically, as if she were about to do a live re-enactment of Miu and Kihara Saki’s pratfall right there.
“And then? Did it actually help?”
Kyousuke played along with the question, already plotting in his mind.
If it really worked, he’d get everyone in the dorm to start calling Shouko “big sister,” just to help her fully embody Ito Nobue’s character.
After all, their household was hardly less chaotic than the manga Neighbor, Neighbor, Neighbor.
“Of course not! As soon as she got up, Kihara-senpai yelled that she’d been tricked and gave Ena-san a huge karate chop.”
Shouko swung their joined hands downward hard to demonstrate.
“And then!” she added with dramatic emphasis, like a rakugo performer signaling the punchline.
Kyousuke, the lone audience member, leaned in instantly. “And then?”
“Ena-san just collapsed—bam! Flat on the floor. It looked exactly like Miu’s fall. Her forehead smacked the wooden floor so hard it scared both me and Kitani-senpai.”
Probably drank too much water, Kyousuke thought to himself.
“But she just jumped right back up, forehead red and all, and shouted, ‘That’s how it’s done!’ Then she told Kihara-senpai to stick her head out so she could experience it properly.”
Shouko imitated the scene with uncanny accuracy.
“But Kihara-senpai just gave a cold little smile and said, ‘Thanks to your performance, I already understand perfectly well what kind of idiot Miu is. No need to try it myself.’”
“At that moment I panicked, thinking Ena-san would get mad at being outplayed. If it had been Eriri getting teased like that by Utaha, she would’ve exploded on the spot.”
Shouko giggled at her own words.
Maybe it was because her heart felt lighter, or because the unfamiliar crowd around them made her feel oddly free, but she was more relaxed than usual when sharing these little stories.
Of course, when it came to pranks, Sakura would’ve been the more fitting example.
But unlike Eriri—who was both clumsy and stubborn.
The one who always ending up getting tricked instead—Yamauchi Sakura was a seasoned mischief-maker.
She never failed, even if it meant sacrificing herself in the process.
“And then?” Kyousuke asked again.
“And then Ena-san didn’t get angry at all. She just planted her hands on her hips and burst out laughing. I thought she’d broken her head on the floor!
But then she said, ‘In that case, why don’t you quit this job and recommend me to the production team as your replacement?’”
“Hah, now that’s something.” Kyousuke whistled.
“Hehe, right? I was stunned! Then I started worrying about how Kihara-senpai would react.
But she just gave another cold smile and went right back to practice, like nothing had happened.”
Shouko’s eyes sparkled with awe. The world of adults is so complicated.
