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

I walked home in a state of quiet, resigned shock. My "dual citizenship" had lasted for approximately three hours before the nation of my birth was summarily occupied by the very superpower I was trying to escape. My brilliant plan, my safe haven, had been turned into another gilded cage before I had even served a single shift. Reina Kujou did not play checkers. She played 4D chess on a board of her own design, and I was just a pawn learning the rules as she made them up.

The pastry box in my bag felt mocking. The bag of onigiri in my fridge felt like a relic from a simpler, more naive time (i.e., yesterday).

As I turned onto my street, I saw Yui waiting for me, not at the hedge, but standing directly on the sidewalk in front of my house. Her arms were crossed, her posture tense. She was no longer a friendly neighbor; she was a grim-faced general waiting for a field report from a disastrous battle.

"Report, Kaito," she said, her voice low and urgent, dispensing with any pretense of a greeting.

I didn't have the energy for a clever metaphor. I just gave her the bleak, unvarnished truth.

"She knows," I said, my voice hollow. "The paperwork went through. She knows about the library position."

"Good," Yui said, a flicker of triumph in her eyes. "Her authority is challenged. The negotiations can begin."

"The negotiations are over," I said, crushing her nascent victory. "She's not negotiating. She's annexing." I took a deep, weary breath. "She announced that in the spirit of 'inter-departmental collaboration', she will be conducting her personal study in the library on my work days. To 'supervise' me."

The triumph on Yui's face evaporated, replaced by a look of pure, unadulterated horror. She stared at me, her mouth slightly agape, her mind clearly struggling to process this tactical masterstroke.

"She... what?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.

"She's moving her command center into our safe house," I confirmed, the despair evident in my tone. "Our brilliant plan to create a sanctuary has just given her a legitimate, school-sanctioned reason to invade another part of my life. We didn't build a fortress. We built her a new summer palace."

Yui was speechless. I had finally presented her with a scenario so audacious, so completely outside her strategic planning, that her brilliant mind had stalled. She opened her mouth, then closed it. She ran a hand through her hair, her expression a mixture of fury and a strange, grudging respect for her opponent.

"She's... better than I thought," Yui admitted, her voice filled with a dangerous new energy. "She doesn't counter-attack. She absorbs. She incorporates. She turns our own weapons against us."

"So what do we do?" I asked, my voice pleading. "Do we surrender? Can the nation of 'Kaito' just apply for a peaceful annexation and get it over with?"

"No," Yui snapped, the fire returning to her eyes. "We do not surrender. We adapt. This calls for an emergency session of the war council."

"The war council?" I asked. "But... it's just you and me."

"Not anymore," she said, a cunning glint in her eye. "This is too big for just the two of us now. The Warden has escalated. We must escalate as well. We need more allies. We need to form a coalition."

Before I could ask what she meant, she pulled out her phone and began typing furiously. "The library. In ten minutes. I'm calling a summit."

"Who are you calling?" I asked, a sense of dread washing over me.

"The leaders of the other resistance movements," she said cryptically. "Go. Now. Don't be late."

Confused and more than a little terrified, I did as I was told. I dropped my bags at home, told my dad I was heading to the library to "get a head start on my new job," and walked back towards the school. The sun was beginning to set, casting long, dramatic shadows. It felt appropriate.

I entered the quiet, cavernous library. The main reading room was mostly empty, save for a few diligent students. Yui was already there, at the same large table where our fateful "study group" had taken place.

But she wasn't alone.

Sitting at the table, looking confused but intrigued, was Asuka Miyamoto. She had clearly been pulled away from her track practice, as she was still in her running shorts and a light jacket, her face flushed from exertion.

"Yo, Kaito," she said as I approached. "Your campaign manager here said it was an emergency. What's up? Did the Ice Queen declare you her personal footstool?"

"Something like that," I mumbled, slumping into a chair.

"Miyamoto-san," Yui said, her voice all business. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. We have a matter of mutual interest to discuss."

"Mutual interest?" Asuka asked, looking back and forth between us. "My only interest is getting my new hurdles and beating the Prez in a race. What's that got to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with it," Yui stated. "The authority of President Kujou has grown unchecked. She is using her power to monopolize the time and resources of valuable school assets." She looked pointedly at me. "She is over-burdening her staff and creating a hostile environment for other clubs. We believe it is time to form a coalition to promote a more... 'balanced' distribution of power within the school."

Asuka stared at her, then a slow grin spread across her face. "Wait a minute," she said, her eyes lighting up with understanding. "You're not just his 'friend'. You're his handler. You're trying to start a revolution against the Student Council! You want me to join your anti-Reina conspiracy!"

"I am proposing a strategic alliance to ensure fairness and student autonomy," Yui corrected primly, though her eyes betrayed her satisfaction.

"Dude, I am so in!" Asuka declared, slamming her hand on the table, earning a sharp "Shhh!" from the front desk. "Any plan that involves knocking the Ice Queen down a peg is a plan I can get behind. What do I have to do?"

Before Yui could answer, a new figure approached the table. It was Shiori Akiyama, her expression nervous but determined.

"H-Hamasaki-san," she whispered. "You called me? Is something wrong?"

"Akiyama-chan, thank you for coming," Yui said, her tone softening but still serious. "There has been a new development regarding Tanaka-kun's library appointment. An unwelcome development."

Yui quickly explained Reina's plan to occupy the library on Kaito's work days. Shiori's face, which had been so full of hope, fell. The color drained from her cheeks.

"She... she's coming here?" Shiori whispered, her voice trembling. "But... this was supposed to be a safe place."

"Exactly," Yui said, her voice firm. "Her influence is encroaching on your territory. It is disrupting the peaceful and scholarly atmosphere of the library. It is, therefore, a threat not just to Kaito-kun, but to the library itself."

Shiori's fear was slowly replaced by a quiet, simmering anger. The library was her sanctuary. Her home. And Reina was invading it.

"That's... unacceptable," Shiori declared, her voice filled with a newfound steel. She looked at Yui, then at Asuka, then at me. "What do we do?"

I looked around the table. It was the most bizarre, unlikely collection of allies imaginable. Yui, the master strategist. Asuka, the force of nature. Shiori, the quiet intelligence operative. And me, the beleaguered nation-state they were all trying to protect.

"We form the 'Kaito Tanaka Liberation Front'," Asuka suggested with a grin.

"We will call it the 'Alliance for a Balanced Campus Life'," Yui corrected, scribbling it down in her notebook.

"This is it," Yui said, looking at each of us in turn. "The first meeting of the Alliance. Kujou has made her move. Now, we plan our counter-offensive."

The library, once my hoped-for sanctuary, had just become the official headquarters for a revolution. And I was the reluctant figurehead, surrounded by a war council of girls who, just a few days ago, had all despised each other. My life was officially out of my hands.