Chapter Summaries

Sogo Doma encouraged Eriri to acknowledge her love of manga and helped her compare her experience with Mashiro’s. He explained that Mashiro’s friends supported her art, while Eriri’s upbringing had shaped how she hid her interests, leaving her to think about whether Aki could have understood her.

• Sogo Doma prompted Eriri to admit that she liked manga, and Mashiro Shiina asked whether she drew it.
• Sogo Doma revealed that Eriri had submitted work and been rejected, while Mashiro asked why Eriri had no editor to guide her.
• Sogo Doma reminded Mashiro that her art studio had dwindled to two people, then challenged her to stop blaming herself for others leaving.
• Sogo Doma explained that Eriri’s upbringing in a diplomat’s family had influenced how she presented herself and suggested that reliable friends could have understood her.
• Mashiro said Rita was her friend and explained that Rita had helped her submit her manga.

Sogo Doma explained how Mashiro and Rita supported each other as friends, while Eriri reacted with disbelief. At the Service Club, Yukino Yukinoshita questioned Utaha Kasumigaoka about the yuri romance in her light novel, and Utaha teased her until she became flustered.

• Sogo Doma told Eriri that Mashiro and Rita helped each other pursue their goals, and Mashiro agreed.
• Mashiro wondered how she could help Rita, and Sogo said friends supported each other in things they could not accomplish alone.
• At the Service Club, Yukino Yukinoshita criticized Utaha Kasumigaoka's light novel and questioned its yuri plot.
• Utaha teased Yukino about her interest in the novel and suggested that reading it had awakened a preference in her.
• Yukino denied having any interest in romance and said she considered Utaha dangerous, leaving her flustered when Utaha pressed her to explain.

Sogo Doma returned to the Service Club with Mashiro Shiina after her makeup exam and teased Yukino Yukinoshita before submitting a second request. He asked Mashiro to adapt Kaoru's story into a manga, leaving Yukino, Utaha Kasumigaoka, and Eriri Sawamura surprised that he wanted to record it.

• Utaha Kasumigaoka teased Yukino Yukinoshita about her story, while Eriri Sawamura and the others praised Utaha's work.
• Yukino tried to send everyone away by arguing that Mashiro Shiina's request was over, but Sogo Doma said he had another request.
• Sogo joked that Mashiro wanted Yukino to imitate a cat, prompting Yukino to order him out.
• Sogo revealed that his real request concerned Mashiro's manga and suggested she adapt Kaoru's story.
• Mashiro said Ayano had encouraged her to draw things around her, and Sogo agreed that Kaoru's story could become a manga.

Sogo Doma proposed using Yukino Yukinoshita as a model for Mashiro Shiina’s creation, imagining a story about her Service Club and a gloomy male protagonist. Yukino challenged his plot ideas, but Mashiro and Utaha Kasumigaoka agreed that a clumsy provocation could draw Yukino into helping him.

• Sogo Doma asked Yukino Yukinoshita to serve as a reference model for Mashiro Shiina’s creation.
• Sogo imagined a story about a beautiful, famous girl running a mysterious Service Club, and Yukino objected to his teasing description of its work.
• Sogo suggested Shizuka Hiratsuka and a student council president could lead a gloomy male protagonist to the club.
• Yukino questioned why she would help an unmotivated boy, and Sogo proposed provoking her into a bet.
• Mashiro Shiina and Utaha Kasumigaoka agreed that Yukino’s competitive spirit could make the plan work, leaving Yukino stunned.

Sogo Doma’s remarks led the Service Club to imagine Yukino Yukinoshita as a heroine before Shizuka Hiratsuka arrived and joined their banter about harem manga. The chapter left Shizuka protesting Sogo’s teasing while Yukino remained unconvinced by her reassurances.

• Sogo Doma suggested Yukino Yukinoshita could inspire a heroine, and Utaha Kasumigaoka began drafting the character while Mashiro Shiina observed Yukino.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka entered the Service Club and questioned why Sogo was among the girls.
• Sogo teased Shizuka about being a plot device and called the club a harem-manga setting, prompting reactions from the others.
• Yukino joked about Shizuka’s love of passionate manga, then revealed she understood what a harem was.
• Shizuka tried to reassure Yukino, but Sogo mocked her for encouraging students to start a harem, and she called him a brat.

Sogo Doma teased Shizuka Hiratsuka for mistaking his question about harem manga for a fantasy about becoming a harem protagonist, then threatened to expose her encouragement of that fantasy. The other girls refused to witness their confrontation, leaving Sogo facing Hiratsuka’s threat of force and her challenge about hitting a teacher.

• Sogo Doma denied imagining himself as a harem protagonist and accused Shizuka Hiratsuka of seeing filth everywhere.
• Sogo Doma joked that Hiratsuka would be socially ruined if people learned she had encouraged her student to pursue a harem fantasy.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka threatened to hit Sogo, but he argued that her fists could not reach him and called her violence another threat to expose her.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka asked Yukinoshita, Kasumigaoka, Shiina, Tamaki, and Sawamura Eriri to testify, and they all claimed they had seen nothing.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka challenged Sogo to hit a teacher in front of everyone, and Sogo replied that no one could see anything.

Sogo Doma argued with Shizuka Hiratsuka and the others before ending up stuck to the ceiling, where Yukino Yukinoshita redirected the conversation to Hiratsuka’s supposed forest training camp. Hiratsuka admitted Toyogasaki had no such activity and explained that she had taken on the job to cover a shift for a senior who wanted to go on a blind date.

• Sogo Doma’s attempts to justify his threats failed when Ako Tamaki, Yukino Yukinoshita, Utaha Kasumigaoka, and Shizuka Hiratsuka called out his deliberate wrongdoing.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka confronted Sogo, but he avoided fighting her by sticking to the ceiling, and the two traded challenges while the others watched.
• Yukino Yukinoshita asked why Hiratsuka had mentioned a forest training camp, and Utaha Kasumigaoka confirmed Toyogasaki had no such activity.
• Hiratsuka recalled how her senior called to ask about her blind dates and then revealed that she herself needed help covering a work shift on the day of her own blind date.
• Hiratsuka’s senior asked her to cover the shift, reminding her of the blind-date prospects she had arranged for Hiratsuka and threatening to curse her if she refused.

Shizuka Hiratsuka tried to recruit Yukino Yukinoshita’s Service Club for a forest training camp, hoping to get help with a favor she had accepted. Sogo Doma exposed her motives, and Hiratsuka admitted she was helping someone else.

• Shizuka Hiratsuka pitched a forest training camp to Yukino Yukinoshita as a way for club members to get to know one another.
• Yukino explained that she was the Service Club’s only member, while Mashiro Shiina asked if she and Yukino were friends, and Yukino warmly agreed.
• Sogo Doma, clinging to the ceiling, pointed out that Hiratsuka had come to Yukino because she needed help with a troublesome task.
• Hiratsuka confessed that she had accepted a request to help someone, and Yukino froze at the revelation.

Shizuka Hiratsuka tried to persuade Yukino Yukinoshita to help supervise a rural outdoor camp, but Sogo Doma exposed the request as Shizuka’s responsibility. Yukino declined, leaving Shizuka to apologize and plead for help.

• Shizuka Hiratsuka reminded Yukino Yukinoshita that the Service Club helped those in need, while Sogo Doma accused her of trying to talk Yukino into something.
• Sogo Doma questioned whether Shizuka was passing her own work to Yukino, and Shizuka insisted the request was not hers.
• Shizuka explained that she had agreed to fill in for an old friend supervising around thirty or forty children at a rural outdoor camp.
• Sogo Doma argued that Shizuka was shifting her own responsibility onto Yukino, and Yukino firmly declined to attend the camp.
• Shizuka panicked at the thought of handling the event alone and apologized for not explaining the situation honestly from the start.

Shizuka Hiratsuka asked Yukino Yukinoshita for help, but Sogo Doma accused her of treating Yukino as a tool and mocked the Service Club’s small membership. Mashiro Shiina misunderstood the discussion, decided she wanted to join, and Yukino was left acknowledging that the club had barely done anything beyond tutoring Mashiro.

• Sogo Doma accused Shizuka Hiratsuka of seeking to use Yukino Yukinoshita as a tool after Hiratsuka apologized and asked Yukino for help.
• Yukino explained that the Service Club aimed to teach people to solve their own problems, while Sogo pointed out that she was its only member.
• Mashiro Shiina insisted that she and the others were part of the Service Club, confusing the distinction between being in its room and joining the club.
• After Sogo described the club’s activities using examples involving Mashiro, Mashiro decided that joining was fine.
• Yukino explained that the club accepted requests and helped solve problems, then admitted she mostly waited for requests that rarely came.

Yukino Yukinoshita explained why the Service Club should wait for people who genuinely wanted to improve, while Sogo Doma pointed out that almost nobody at school knew it existed. Shizuka Hiratsuka persuaded Yukino and the others to accept an off-campus activity helping children, while Yukino’s hidden uncertainty about her own future remained unresolved.

• Mashiro asked what the Service Club should do if no one sought help, and Yukino said they should wait for people who genuinely wanted to change.
• Sogo Doma challenged Yukino’s refusal to publicize the club, using Eriri Sawamura’s ignorance of its existence as an example.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka proposed that the club look for children needing help outside school, framing it as practice for future activities.
• Yukino, Utaha Kasumigaoka, Mashiro, and Ako Tamaki accepted the proposal in unison.
• The narration revealed that Yukino’s pride, family pressures, and habit of following Haruno’s path had left her uncertain about her own future.

The chapter explained why Yukino Yukinoshita kept trying to surpass her sister, Yukinoshita Haruno, and why Haruno tried to push her onto a different path. Yukino accepted Shizuka Hiratsuka’s request to help children, then the group teased Sogo Doma about being a harem protagonist.

• Yukino Yukinoshita’s achievements and shortcomings were constantly measured against Yukinoshita Haruno, pushing her to work harder and seek her mother’s recognition.
• Yukinoshita Haruno tried to make Yukino resent her so Yukino would avoid the difficult path of becoming the family heir.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka supported Yukino and created the Service Club to help her make friends and find her own path.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka asked Yukino to help children in need, and Yukino agreed because she would not abandon a commitment she had accepted.
• Sogo Doma called Yukino Shizuka Hiratsuka’s disposable pawn, and Shizuka retorted that he was a harem manga protagonist.
• Sogo Doma denied wanting a harem as Utaha Kasumigaoka and the others looked at him suspiciously.

Sogo Doma argued that the short span of youth made keeping a harem foolish, provoking Shizuka Hiratsuka and the girls with his remarks about them becoming old ladies. Shizuka insisted he was less kind than harem protagonists, while Utaha Kasumigaoka privately reflected on how much he had helped her and others.

• Sogo Doma explained that humans differed from animals through their emotions, then argued that a harem was pointless because its members would grow old.
• Sogo Doma called Shizuka Hiratsuka an old lady and said the younger girls would become old ladies too, angering them.
• Shizuka Hiratsuka accused Sogo Doma of using his reasoning as an excuse because he could not build a harem.
• Shizuka said Sogo Doma was less kind than other harem protagonists, and Utaha recalled how he had supported and guided her and their friends.
• Shizuka acknowledged Sogo Doma's looks, academic ability, and family background, but repeated that he was not as kind as other people.

After the make-up exams, Umaru panicked about an upcoming dinner gathering because she had neglected her cooking training. Sogo Doma decided to disguise himself as her and take her place, despite her promise that this would be the last time she relied on him.

• Sogo Doma joked about men preferring younger women, and Shizuka Hiratsuka and the others threw him out before he could warn Yukino Yukinoshita about her.
• Umaru worried that she would embarrass herself at the dinner gathering because she still could not cook.
• Sogo Doma pointed out that Umaru had spent her training time watching anime, playing games, and pulling for SSRs instead of practicing cooking.
• Umaru begged Sogo to help her, and he disguised himself to look like her so he could attend the gathering in her place.
• Sogo threatened to leave Umaru to handle the gathering herself, but he relented after she pleaded, and she promised this would be the last time—then amended it to the last hundred million times.

Sogo Doma, disguised as Umaru, visited Megumi Kato’s home and talked with her while they waited for their friends and prepared food. Megumi shared how easily her family overlooked her, while Sogo struggled to keep up the act and privately blamed Umaru for the situation.

• Sogo Doma acted bashful at Megumi Kato’s home, and Megumi reassured him that he could feel at home there.
• Megumi told Sogo that her older sister was preparing to marry and that her family sometimes forgot about her.
• Sogo praised Megumi’s cuteness, and Megumi revealed that Umaru ranked among Toyogasaki’s cutest girls alongside Sawamura Eriri and other school belles.
• Megumi asked whether Umaru often made bento for her Onii-chan, and Sogo pretended that her brother was lazy and unambitious.
• Sogo agreed to help prepare food before Nanako and the others arrived, while privately resolving to deal with Umaru later.

Sogo Doma disguised himself as Umaru while visiting Megumi Kato, but Megumi’s uncanny attentiveness and their effortless cooking teamwork made her suspect his identity. The chapter ended with Megumi quietly telling him she was certain he was not Umaru Doma.

• Sogo Doma heard Megumi Kato say Umaru had been acting strangely and learned that Umaru’s smile showed how much she cared about her brother.
• Megumi served tea so smoothly that Sogo wondered whether she should become an assassin, then recalled Umaru’s strange advice about helping someone cut in line.
• When Nanako and the others arrived, Megumi anticipated Sogo’s cooking needs and supplied each ingredient and tool before he asked.
• Nanako and the others praised Umaru’s cooking and knife skills and admired how well Megumi coordinated with her.
• Megumi quietly told Sogo that she was certain he was not Umaru Doma.

Megumi Kato recognized that Sogo Doma was not really Umaru and explained how Umaru’s warmth helped her and Nanako overcome the isolation that often came with standing out. She revealed that Umaru’s friendship had changed her view of people who excelled, and credited Umaru with bringing her and Nanako together.

• Megumi Kato noticed differences in Sogo Doma’s appearance and behavior, including his feet, and asked what had happened to Umaru.
• Megumi Kato deduced that Umaru was not as skilled at cooking as she seemed, while Sogo Doma wondered how much she had figured out.
• Megumi Kato said Umaru had seemed so perfect that being around her could make others feel inadequate, but Umaru treated her friends sincerely and naturally.
• Megumi Kato explained that Nanako had been bullied and isolated for being beautiful and outstanding, while she had been too afraid to defend her.
• Megumi Kato recalled that even Utaha Kasumigaoka had been isolated, then said Umaru’s friendship helped her become friends with Nanako.

Sogo Doma cooked with Megumi Kato while disguised as Umaru, but she recognized him and teased him into admitting he was Umaru’s brother. He encouraged Megumi to have confidence in herself, then returned to Umaru, who cared more about her phone game than his efforts to help her friends.

• Megumi praised Umaru for befriending isolated classmates, and Sogo struggled to keep his identity secret while preparing food.
• Megumi realized Umaru’s lunches had always tasted like Sogo’s cooking and promised to keep his disguise secret.
• Megumi guessed Sogo was Umaru’s brother, and he accidentally confirmed it while denying the accusation.
• Sogo encouraged Megumi to take a chance on changing her image and reminded her that Umaru would support her.
• Sogo left by leaping out a window, and Megumi worried about explaining Umaru’s sudden departure and return.
• Sogo returned to Umaru, who complained that he had been slow and admitted she had feared Megumi would recognize him.

Umaru Doma befriended Nanako and Megumi Kato, then secretly took over a game while Sogo Doma let her enjoy time with her new friends. Outside, Sogo ran into Kotaro Katsura and his companion Elisaki, who insisted that women only slowed him down when he drew his sword.

• Umaru Doma introduced herself to the class and declared that she wanted to be friends with Nanako and Megumi Kato.
• Nanako worried that befriending her would make Umaru unpopular, but Umaru reassured her and said she valued both girls.
• Umaru tricked Megumi Kato and the others with a switcheroo, then took over the game until her team lost.
• Sogo Doma left Umaru with her friends and thought that she had made good friends, unlike him.
• Sogo Doma encountered Kotaro Katsura and Elisaki, and Katsura declared that women only slowed him down when he drew his sword.

Kotaro Katsura insisted that Elisaki was a samurai rather than a woman and tried to convince Sogo Doma to duel her. The argument ended with Katsura claiming Elisaki was a missile-launching weapon, while Sogo accused him of making excuses for his wife fetish.

• Katsura told Elisaki not to let feminine beauty cloud her judgment, then denied that she was a woman despite Sogo Doma's reminders.
• Katsura challenged Sogo to duel Elisaki so she could discover her samurai spirit, frightening Elisaki with talk of severe injuries.
• Sogo pointed out Elisaki's chest, but Katsura insisted her body contained hidden missile launchers.
• Katsura claimed Elisaki's power would be sealed when she became a wife, and Sogo told him to make her his wife already.