I Accidentally Built a Harem of Girls Who All Hate Each Other

Ms. Chizuru Mori's voice was like honey laced with a mild, pleasant poison. It was smooth, sweet, and I knew, with absolute certainty, that it was going to be the death of me.

Her presence seemed to suck all the air out of the immediate vicinity. A few of the male students nearby, who had been oblivious to Reina's distress, were now staring openly, their gazes fixed on the school nurse. Ms. Mori, in her casual teacher's polo shirt and shorts, somehow managed to look more alluring than a supermodel in evening wear. The clipboard she held seemed less like a tool of her trade and more like a prop in a very specific type of movie.

Reina, realizing her hands were still gripping my shoulders in a shockingly intimate way, snatched them back as if she'd been burned. A furious, deep red blush bloomed across her face, a stark contrast to her pale, water-slicked skin.

"Nurse Mori," Reina said, her voice tight with humiliation and rage. "This is not what it appears."

"Oh, I'm sure it isn't," Ms. Mori purred, her eyes crinkling in amusement as she took in the scene. "It just appears that our star Student Council President had a little trouble in the deep end, and our friend Tanaka-kun here played the valiant hero. A classic damsel-in-distress scenario. How wonderfully dramatic."

Her playful commentary was like salt in Reina's very deep, very fresh wound. "I was not in 'distress'," Reina snapped, her pride stinging. "I simply... lost my footing."

"Of course you did, dear," Ms. Mori said with a placating smile that was anything but. She then turned her full, undivided attention to me. Her gaze swept over me, and I felt like I was being X-rayed. "And you, Tanaka-kun. Always in the right place at the wrong time, aren't you? You seem to have a magnetic attraction to... complicated situations."

I could feel a hundred pairs of eyes on us now. The entire swimming class had ground to a halt. Ms. Sato was striding over, a thunderous expression on her face. Asuka Miyamoto was treading water nearby, her mouth hanging open in shock. And on the other side of the pool, I could see Yui. She wasn't angry anymore. Her face was a mask of pale, cold horror. The mission hadn't just failed; it had been strapped to a rocket and fired directly into the sun.

"What is going on here?" Ms. Sato's voice boomed, overriding the nurse's sultry tones. "Mori, what are you doing here? And Tanaka, why are you not swimming laps?"

"Just doing my rounds, Sato-sensei," Ms. Mori said cheerily, holding up her clipboard. "Checking on students with medical exemptions. And it's a good thing I was here. It seems Kujou-san had a bit of a scare."

Ms. Sato's sharp gaze fell upon Reina, who looked like she wanted the pool to evaporate and leave her standing in a dry, empty hole. Then her gaze shifted to me. It was a look of profound, weary disappointment. The look of a teacher who had just graded a thousand-word essay on safety only to find its author at the center of another, even more hazardous situation.

"Kujou, are you alright?" Ms. Sato asked, her tone professional but concerned.

"I am fine," Reina bit out, pushing past me and stalking towards the pool ladder, her every movement radiating humiliation.

"And you, Tanaka," Ms. Sato sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "My office. After school. Before you go to your 'special project'."

Another detention. A pre-detention detention. My life was becoming a turducken of punishments, each one stuffed inside a larger, more horrifying one.

"But—" I started to protest.

"No 'buts'," Ms. Sato cut me off. "Just... be there." She blew her whistle with a furious blast. "Everyone! Out of the pool! Class dismissed!"

Students began scrambling for the exits, a buzz of excited, scandalous chatter filling the air. I was the center of it all. The 'dead fish' had become the shark in the fish tank.

I hauled myself out of the pool, my limbs feeling heavy with dread. As I walked towards the locker room, I passed Yui. She wouldn't even look at me. She just stared at the floor, her face pale, her knuckles white as she gripped her towel. She walked past me without a word, a cold, empty space in her wake. The ceasefire was over. The cold war was back on, colder than ever. Angel had gone dark.

In the locker room, the whispers were barely concealed.

"Did you see that? He totally had his hands on her!"

"Kujou-sama and Tanaka? And the nurse?"

"What does she see in a guy like him?"

I changed as fast as I could, desperate to escape. As I was shoving my wet trunks into my bag, a hand clapped me hard on the back. It was Asuka Miyamoto.

"Dude," she said, a look of genuine, unadulterated shock on her face. "You've got some serious moves."

"It was an accident," I mumbled, not looking at her.

"Accident?" she scoffed, a wide, disbelieving grin on her face. "You went after her when no one else was looking. That takes guts. The Ice Queen looked like she was actually going to drown. You saved her." She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "So what's the deal? You got a thing for the Prez?"

"No!" I said, probably too quickly. "I just... helped."

"Right. 'Helped'," she said, winking. She slung her towel over her shoulder. "Well, whatever it is, it was pretty cool. I didn't think anyone had the guts to even talk to her, let alone... you know." She made a vague gesture that encompassed the entire poolside rescue. She looked at me with a newfound respect, as if I had suddenly leveled up in her eyes. "See you around, Kaito."

She jogged off, leaving me reeling. My act of kindness had been interpreted as a heroic, romantic gesture by the one person I thought might actually see it for what it was. Another day, another catastrophic misinterpretation.

The rest of the school day was a blur of misery. I felt Yui's icy silence from across the classroom. I felt Reina's hateful glare boring into the back of my head. I felt the curious, speculative stares of my classmates. I was no longer an invisible boy. I was a myth. A legend. Kaito Tanaka, the Harem-Building Rom-Com Protagonist. It was a nightmare.

When the final bell rang, I didn't even try to protest. I just packed my bag and began the first leg of my punishment-filled journey. I walked to the P.E. faculty office, my heart heavy.

Ms. Sato was waiting for me. She was sitting at her desk, arms crossed, her expression stern.

"Sit," she commanded.

I sat.

She stared at me for a long, silent moment. "Tanaka," she said finally, her voice tired. "I don't know what your game is. I don't know how a quiet, unremarkable student like you has suddenly become the center of so much drama involving the most powerful girl in school and the school nurse, but I'm going to give you some advice."

She leaned forward, her expression deadly serious. "Stay away from them. Kujou is a shark in a world you don't understand. And Nurse Mori... she's not playing around. She finds your flustered, kind-boy act amusing. And she gets bored easily. You are a toy to her, Tanaka. And when she's done playing with you, she will break you. Do you understand me?"

Her words were harsh, but for the first time, they felt... protective. She wasn't just a demon instructor. She was a teacher, genuinely warning me about dangers she understood better than I did.

"Yes, sensei," I said quietly.

"Good," she sighed, leaning back. "Now get out of here. Go to your detention. And for the love of God, try not to fall on anyone on your way there."

I left her office, her warning echoing in my ears, and began the long walk to the Student Council room. To face the warden. To face the shark whose life I had just saved, and who, I had no doubt, was going to make me pay for it.