The Kansai Villain’s Rebirth: I Accidentally Ended Up With a Harem. - Chapter 2: A Kansai Man Saves the Heroine.

A Kansai Man Saves the Heroine.

Natsume Shina—your textbook “gal” type. Bleached blonde hair in true gyaru fashion (apparently the school I attend is pretty lax about dress code—piercings and all are allowed). She’s relentlessly bright, bubbly to the point of sparkling—the picture of an extroverted girl who lights up any room. She’s friendly with everyone and gets along with ease. In the original story she’s a childhood friend of the protagonist, Toshiya Imamiya—and the other two heroines are childhood friends with both Shina and Toshiya as well.

Sunny and guileless, she toys with people’s hearts by accident: the way she moves, the way she speaks, the little gestures that make the protagonist’s pulse race. But that very gyaru look is a double-edged sword—she attracts sleazebags like moths to a flame. In the game, when Toshiya throws himself between her and danger, he gets beaten up for it. Still, seeing him protect her so wholeheartedly is what draws her to him; she summons up the courage to confess, and Toshiya accepts—so they start dating.

The kisses are surprisingly maidenly for a gal, and players online were melting—tweeting things like “so sweet!” She’s that charming.

Then, from a blissful school life, everything flips. Shina resists Tennouji at first—she flat-out refuses him—but he forces himself on her. They give her some unknown, dangerous drugs (how a high school kid got hold of that stuff is a mystery), and she starts sliding into the pleasure of the acts. Eventually… she becomes addicted to the highs of sex under the influence. She clings to the edge for a while, but the final blow is a public play staged in front of Toshiya.

“We love each other this much! Don’t interfere!”

“Ten-chan, it feels so good!!”

Seeing that destroys Toshiya. It destroys the player. He’s shattered—consumed by pleasure and despair. Of course, Tennouji and Shina get arrested afterward, and for a moment everyone breathes as if released from Tennouji’s curse. A few years pass: Shina leaves the rehabilitation facility intending to live a normal life and to start over with Toshiya. The credits roll. You think it’s finally over—Tennouji’s the absolute worst, you curse the writer, and you close the game.

Then comes the post-credits scenario.

Waiting for Shina after her discharge are Tennouji and his cronies, grinning like the scum they are.

“You got me locked up too, you know. You really think you can just be rehabilitated and go live like a decent person?”
They take her away with those lecherous smiles, pump her full of drugs again, and this time she can’t escape. She’s traded from man to man, thrown into illegal establishments.

“P-please—give me the medicine! I’ll do anything!”

The CG shows Shina, broken and drugged—her route ends there. The screen fades to the title. I remember wanting to scream, then picking up my monitor and chucking it out the window. Whoever wrote that scenario must have had Tennouji inside their head—that’s how vile it felt. Absolute garbage of a writer.

That’s the fate that befalls Natsume Shina in the original game. But now the real Shina is standing right in front of me—about to be dragged into a situation that might lead to that drug-addiction ending. There’s no way I can just ignore it.

So I stepped out from the corner and put myself between the sleazy guys and her.

“Excuse me for intruding!” I said.

If I’d still been my scrawny, chubby old self, just being in front of them would’ve made my legs buckle. But now? Now I’m Tennouji Daiki: tall, broad, and nothing about me trembled. I even found myself smiling calmly as I walked forward.

“Huh? Who the hell are you?” sneered a lanky blond guy.

“What are you doing, dragging one of my classmates into a place like this?” I asked.

“None of your business! Beat it, creep!” came the retort.

“And what’s with that weird dialect? Are you stupid?” one of them snickered.

At that, heat rushed to my head. Those idiots had just mocked Kansai dialect—the speech that runs through the world. And not only that—they’d called me stupid. [TL Note: MC uses kansai dialect.]

“Being called ‘stupid’ pisses me off more than being called ‘dumb’. And thanks to you, I’m hungry now—my dinner’s gonna be late, you know.” I snapped.

“W-w-wait… Tennouji… kun?” the lanky guy stammered.

“I don’t give a damn, idiot! Go die already!” I shot back.

The lanky one swung at me. For the sake of legitimacy I let him land a hit—big dramatic swing right to the face. It should have hurt. But it didn’t. Not a bit.

“Oi—does that hurt?!” he yelled, baffled. “What did you do? I hit you and nothing—”

“Damn you! Take this!” the chubby one growled, and he punched my stomach.

A dull, thudding hit—more of a poke than a blow. It didn’t hurt at all. Right—when I checked the mirror before leaving, my body was solid muscle. My abs were carved. No wonder the defense was good. Time for proportionate force.

“Then it’s my turn.”

I made a light fist and tapped the lanky guy in the face.

“Let’s get this over with so I can eat. Squeeze—bam.”

He flew back like he’d been blasted and went headfirst into a trash bin at the alley’s edge. Just seeing that, the chubby guy cried out and bolted.

“Ah—” one of them whimpered and ran off.

Shina froze, unable to process what had happened. Maybe she thought I was one of their friends—no way. I’m a decent high-school student, for crying out loud.

“You okay? Did they hurt you? Shi—ah—Natsum-san?”

“Uh… yeah. I’m not hurt. I’m—okay…”

“Good. Let’s move—staying here is risky. Come back out to the main street.”

“Y-yeah… but…”

She suddenly slumped down. Maybe the adrenaline left her and her legs gave out. Not good.

“You alright? If you want I’ll carry you.”

“Y-yeah… I’m kinda… still shaking.”

“Of course you are. You were almost attacked.”

She clung to me tightly. Light. And she smelled so good. Ten years—or more—of a life cut off from girls had numbed me to this, and now that wasn’t the case. How to put it? Weird feelings rose up. And yes—this world is the world of NTR HAZARD. Carrying the real Natsume Shina felt—well—she smelled nice. Soft. That’s all.

***

“Tea okay?” I asked as I handed her a cup.

“Yeah! Th-thank you for saving me. If you hadn’t—” she stumbled over her words.

“Lucky for you I heard you. Good timing.”

“Really… if Tennouji-kun, you hadn’t come…”

“Forget the bad stuff. It’s best to move on. It was awful, but don’t dwell.”

“Y-yeah. But I can’t forget that you helped me. I—”

“You don’t have to worry about that. You can even forget that I helped, if you want.”

“No way!!” she cried, determined.

“Oh, is that so?” I said.

We talked over café au lait. Of course—this girl never forgets a debt. In the game, it was Toshiya’s rescue that made her fall for him; it’s the same here. She’s the type to cling to gratitude and to press forward earnestly. Even when Toshiya tells her not to bother, she insists. She holds grudges too—if someone torments Toshiya, she goes at them with terrifying force. It’s that very boldness that—well, in the original game—stoked Tennouji’s drive and led to the drug-ending.

Even years after release, Shina ranked high on popularity polls for visual novel heroines. The other two girls were up there too. So sitting on a bench, sipping tea with Natsume Shina—the same Shina the game drove into ruin—felt extremely surreal.

“Ah, it’s getting late. I should get going. I’ll walk you home.”

“N-no! I can’t cause you more trouble!”

“What are you talking about? Are you seriously going to leave a girl who almost got attacked here alone? Dressed like that, someone else’s bound to try something.”

She hesitated, wringing her hands—thinking maybe she shouldn’t trouble me further. There was no way I could leave her. A man would lose his honor if he did.