Parameter Supremacy: The Man Who Seizes a Harem Through Sheer Effort.

Harem Collapse.

We gathered again at the same family restaurant as yesterday, with the exact same members. Matsuri-chan had called us together, saying it was urgent.

Once again, I had Moe go home first. Leaving her alone for two days in a row felt too cruel, so I had at least explained that we were meeting to deal with the rumors.

Of course, I kept silent about the possibility that Satou — the person she had known the longest — might be the culprit.

Seeing Moe bow her head apologetically, murmuring words of sorry and thanks, made my chest tighten with guilt.

To prevent the rumors from spreading further, Moe and I had been avoiding any obvious contact for the past few days. That was also why she wasn’t here today.

Still, we made sure she wasn’t completely isolated in class. Shiina, Matsuri-chan, and I took turns subtly looking out for her. That was about all we could do right now.

I just wanted this situation to end quickly. All she had done was fall in love, yet Moe’s current position was unbearably unfair.

***

‘…and it seems he’s spreading the story indirectly so that it would reach Shiina-san.’

The recorded audio from Matsuri-chan’s phone finished playing.

“““……”””

The three of us remained completely silent. Honestly, none of us felt like speaking. From my perspective, Satou was the protagonist of this world, but setting that aside, he was just another classmate. We weren’t particularly close.

A complete stranger.

Maybe that was why I needed to be the one to break the silence.

I forced my heavy body to move.

“What do you two want to do?”

The amount of time Shiina, Matsuri-chan, and I had spent with Satou was like night and day. The weight of their emotions was probably incomparable to mine. Their childhood friendship had twisted into something unrecognizable. How would they choose to end it?

“I… I’m done. I don’t think of him as my childhood friend anymore.”

Matsuri-chan spoke in a quiet voice, but her tone was firm and resolute.

“After hearing the story from Fuuka-chan… the moment I listened to what she had to say, I stopped caring about him entirely. No matter what his reason was, the result is that he spread a malicious rumor that cornered Moe-cchi. I have nothing left to feel toward someone like that.”

Matsuri-chan’s resolve seemed rock-solid. Here and now, one childhood friendship had come to an end.

In truth, even I had thought it was unlikely that Satou would spread such a rumor.

It wasn’t because I trusted his character.

What I trusted were the three girls — Shiina, Moe, and Matsuri-chan. The three childhood friends of Satou. They were worthy of trust.

Far more than I deserved.

Perhaps I had unconsciously placed unconditional faith in Satou simply because he had managed to maintain those long-standing childhood bonds with such precious girls.

That was probably why I had told Shiina and Matsuri-chan that the chances of Satou being responsible were low. Maybe this was the backlash. The greater the swing of trust, the deeper the disappointment when it was betrayed.

I needed to keep this lesson in mind.

“What about you, Shiina?”

I steeled myself and looked at her.

“I…”

The expression on Shiina’s face was one I had never seen since the day we met.

“Honestly… I still can’t believe it. But… it’s true, isn’t it?”

A single tear slipped from Shiina’s eyes.

“I never thought we’d stop being childhood friends with Minato-kun. I like Ryuuji, so of course I have a boyfriend now, and something as vague as friendship between a boy and a girl… I didn’t know how long it could last. Still, he was one of my precious childhood friends…”

“I didn’t dislike him at all. We’re childhood friends. Obviously. Just like with Moe and Matsuri. There’s no way I could hate him…”

Her words trailed off. Shiina let out a long, heavy sigh.

“But… even so, I can’t forgive him.”

“Moe was being bullied… She had finally managed to live normally again after so long, but he pushed her back into that nightmare… I can never forgive that.”

“And trying to break Ryuuji and me apart with such underhanded rumors… I hate it. I really hate him.”

This was the first time I had ever seen Shiina express her anger so openly. I understood exactly how she felt — it hurt.

“What about you, Ryuuji?”

“Eh?”

Shiina turned her still-angry gaze toward me.

“What do you think about all this? About Satou Minato?”

A question that cut straight to the core. The tension in the air suggested that my answer might very well decide Satou’s future.

“I…”

I thought carefully. What had I truly felt about this incident? What did I want to do going forward?

***

There was one thing I understood clearly.

“At the root of it all… I think I’m the one at fault.”

“Eh?” “W-why?”

“I do have thoughts about Satou spreading the rumor. When I think about Moe, it makes me angry. But honestly, being called a cheating scumbag… I feel like it’s only natural.”

““……””

“It’s a fact that I was temporarily living at Moe’s house. If Satou happened to see that, it’s not hard to understand why he would misunderstand our relationship. Plus, it’s true that I’ve been going back and forth between Shiina and Moe. Honestly, aside from the cheating part, I don’t have any real defense.”

I could only offer a bitter smile. This was the result of my own shortcomings.

“I’m not saying I don’t understand why you two can’t forgive him, and I won’t interfere with how your relationship with Satou develops from here. Though if you suddenly said you were breaking up with me to date Satou, I wouldn’t stay quiet.”

“Fufu, stop it. That would never happen.”

My half-joking remark managed to loosen Shiina’s tension just a little.

“Personally, I don’t feel like Satou did anything so terrible that it shakes me to the core. I’m angry about what happened to Moe, but I’m prepared to protect her with my life. So… yeah. I don’t plan on doing anything to Satou myself.”

Matsuri-chan planted both hands on the table in a Y-shape and rested her face on them.

“Sagara-cchi, you’re so mature~”

Her smile was ambiguous — part admiration, part disappointment. Hard to read.

“Even if I don’t do anything, Satou will suffer on his own.”

I gave Matsuri-chan a slightly wicked smile.

“What do you mean?”

Shiina looked at me with clear curiosity as well.

“I’m Shiina’s boyfriend. I’m the boyfriend of Shiina, the girl Satou likes so much. Just that fact alone is enough to make him suffer.”

“Fufufu. I see. Then we’ll just have to get even closer, won’t we♡”

Shiina had completely regained her composure. She wrapped her arm around mine and leaned in close.

“Geez, Sagara-cchi can be pretty mean too~”

Matsuri-chan seemed to be in a slightly better mood as well, grinning as she watched us.

“But you know, there’s an even better way to make him suffer, right?”

At Shiina’s words, both Matsuri-chan and I tilted our heads in confusion.

“You know? Back in middle school, the boys used to call me, Moe, and Matsuri ‘Satou’s harem.’”

“Huh? What the hell? That’s gross.”

Matsuri-chan’s harsh reaction made me smile bitterly as well.

“Right? It’s disgusting. But what if that entire ‘harem’ ended up belonging to Ryuuji? I wonder how he’d feel then.”

A shiver ran down my spine. This wasn’t the usual refreshing Shiina. There was something almost devilish in her smile.

“H-hmm… W-well… that might not be so bad…”

Matsuri-chan twirled a strand of hair around her index finger, her face bright red as she looked away, clearly not entirely opposed to the idea.

If we kept going like this, the conversation would head in a strange direction. I needed to steer it back.

***

“Let’s set the Satou matter aside for now. Next is the rumor itself.”

Thanks to Matsuri-chan’s spy work, we had identified the source. However, that wasn’t the core problem. The real issue was how to counter the rumor that had already spread and restore Moe’s position.

“For now, maybe we just have to wait for the rumor to die down naturally?”

That was Shiina’s opinion. It was certainly a reliable method. After all, the rumor between me and Mahiru-chan had disappeared before I even noticed. And back then, I hadn’t even properly denied it.

“But~ what do we do until then? Keep spending time separately from Moe-cchi?”

“Ugh… I don’t like that. Moe didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yeah. I’m a guy, so honestly, rumors like this don’t really affect me much. But Moe isn’t as thick-skinned as I am. Plus, she’s a girl. If she gets dragged into any real trouble, it could turn into another stalking incident. I want to avoid that at all costs.”

“You’re right~ Normally, how do rumors even disappear…?”

Shiina and I both clutched our heads. What were we supposed to do?

How do you erase a rumor? Go around telling every single person spreading it that it’s false? No, that was impossible. Even if we could, it would take far too much time. So what then?

Overwrite the rumor…

What about news scandals? How do politicians put out fires when scandals break?

***

Ah. That’s it. I got it.

“We overwrite it…”

“Overwrite? Oh… right.”

Shiina seemed to catch on immediately.

“Eh? Eh? What? What do you mean~?”

Matsuri-chan still looked lost.

“We replace the current rumor with an even more sensational one.”

“Sen…sational? What does that mean?”

“Geez, Matsuri. It means something more stimulating or shocking.”