Arc I: A Woman's Dream I

Utaha Kasumigaoka arrived at the family restaurant fifteen minutes before their scheduled appointment. She spotted them at the back, occupying a booth meant for four people. On a past occasion when they met up in this place he had been difficult to spot in lunch time crowd. He blended in nicely and didn't stand out as much and he would have liked to keep things as such. But things didn't work out the way he wanted and now he was stuck with the enviable job of tutoring a bunch of beautiful women who proved to be more than a bit handful for the once proud loner.

"Utaha Kasumigaoka."

Seishirou Tsugumi spotted the older woman as she approached their table. She didn't like the female light novel author all that much. In fact if she was being honest, she didn't really like anyone in their little study group. The red headed fashionista was extremely poor in her studies and needed guidance every other minute and showed no real signs of improvement, even though a week had passed since their little arrangement began. Meanwhile the faker in the glasses who had started out pretending to be real nice and amicable, acting like she was the ideal girlfriend material had finally revealed her true colours and it turned out she was as despicable as their rotten tutor.

"You forgot to add senpai, kohai-kun." Utaha said coolly.

"Excuse her rudeness for a second senpai –"

"Or you could do what I do and ignore her completely."

Nino Nakano smirked in triumph. This was turning out to be her lucky day. She had spent over an hour trying to pick the perfect outfit for their little tutoring session and it looked like her efforts had bore fruit. For the second time this week he chose to sit next to her in the booth. He even took off his jacket and loosened his tie before attending to her needs and really who could blame him. She didn't really like to boast and she wasn't particularly vain about her appearance but even a blind man could agree that she was the most beautiful woman in their little study group. Sure, the blue haired Seishirou Tsugumi had bigger breasts than hers but for some reason she wore really masculine clothing which didn't accentuate her curves at all. She wasn't really cute or feminine and so far she had never shown up to one of their little tutoring sessions wearing a dress or other articles of clothing which might make her look more appealing than her in any shape or form.

No, she wasn't a real threat. But the same could not be said about the woman she had underestimated since the very beginning.

"Ah, don't mind Nakano-san, Kasumigaoka-senpai. Hikigaya-kun has been giving her a really hard time."

Nino Nakano blinked. "Wha?"

The brunette smiled and adjusted her glasses. "Now, now, there's no need to be embarrassed, Nakano-san. We all saw how Hikigaya-kun broke the bad news to you about your slipping grades. He didn't really mince his words, huh."

Nino Nakano sputtered. "He can be strict as a tutor. I don't really mind."

"I see he sat next to you." Utaha observed.

"She needs special attention." Seishirou grumbled. "She has a lot of catching up to do. In fact, Hikigaya mentioned something about heading to the campus library and borrowing easy to understand reference books with a much simpler language scheme which would be more suitable for her current level of learning." She looked at her and spat indifferently. "I think she is a lost cause."

Nino flushed with righteous fury. "You are just jealous because he sat next to me for two days straight and pretty much ignored you for the entire duration of the tutoring session."

Seishirou Tsugumi blushed. "Why would I be jealous? I don't l-like him or a-anything."

"What a typical tsundere response." Utaha-senpai commented. "You disappoint me, Tsugumi-chan."

"And you-"

Hachiman Hikigaya tried to block out the usual back and forth which often took place when these women were gathered in a single location. He really missed the old days, back when he was a rotten dead fish eyed loner without a care in the world. Those were the days of innocence, the days of peace and tranquility which he had unfortunately left behind back in his first year as a normal university student at Akihabara-U. He should have realized it was too good to be true, he should have known better than to think it would last a lifetime. The news of him winning the multimillion dollar scholarship because of a technical error had proved to be the highlight of his short lived life. Everything went downhill from there – he got drunk, he got in an accident, he died, he came back to life. He was forced to take on important roles on campus, be a resident assistant, an embedded tutor, set up a volunteer service club, become a member of the new student council and lastly take on the role as a den mother of the first ever sorority house on campus. Needless to say he was miserable and overworked, having to dress up and look good for the sake of appearance. He didn't like the jacket, the matching trousers, the waistcoat and the tie but the numerous ladies who had become a near constant in his current lifestyle seemed to prefer the more refined look. He had to bear with it because as he learned rather quickly, life would be a lot easier on campus if he didn't get into too much trouble with the women in his life. But as was apparent with this situation, he couldn't quite hope for the women to get along with each other as well.

"This is your fault." Hachiman mumbled.

"I don't know what you mean."

Chizuru Ichinose smiled. During the early days she had come to their little tutoring session while opting for her more nerdy, diligent looking student persona, choosing to wear dark framed glasses, a butterfly accessory and sporting double braided hair in pigtails. But after a couple of these meetings, she had gotten a good idea at what Nino Nakano was trying to accomplish and she had upped her game. No one beats her in the looks department and as far as she was concerned her pride as a professional rental girlfriend was at stake. All of a sudden it didn't matter that he wasn't one of her clients. She started to treat him as one and so he ended up getting the whole girlfriend experience, even though he wasn't really aware of the psychological battle taking place between the two women. Over the next few days, she changed her outfit to cute looking floral printed tops and short skirts, clothes she usually wore on dates, but she didn't risk taking off her glasses. He had such striking eyes and his gaze was awfully scrutinizing. If he caught onto what was going on, he didn't mention anything in passing which to his credit was the smart thing to do in this situation.

"Hikigaya-kun, who would you say is your favourite student?" Utaha Kasumigaoka asked.

All three women turned their eyes on him. Nino Nakano scooted closer to his side. Seishirou Tsugumi and Chizuru Ichinose leaned forward from their side of the table. Hachiman Hikigaya found himself trapped. Really what was wrong with these women, why did his opinion matter so much to them. He had a sinking feeling it had something to do with his new found riches and the power and influence he currently wielded on campus. These were also women who were a part of the newly formed sorority and the university administration, displaying their extremely sexist mindset had made him their manager cum leader, the den mother as they lovingly proclaimed, despite him belonging to the opposite gender.

They didn't really care much about him but he had to care for them and now he was struck with the difficult choice of picking a favourite. He looked at their beautiful faces, their excitable eyes and lowered his gaze to take in the contents strewn across the table they currently occupied. Pens, notebooks, reference books, empty styrofoam cups came into view. The idea came to him on its own accord and though it wasn't really all that original, it had to do for now.

"Who's up for dessert?" he said awkwardly as he picked up the menu from the table which had been there at his disposal from the start. He should have thought about this sooner. They were in a family restaurant for god's sake. "It's my treat."

A/N: Okay, this is my last attempt at writing a harem. If this fails, I'm giving up and moving onto other projects. Or picking the one-shot approach which is easier. Now, I have selected the women I want to feature in this particular arc, you have met four of them in this chapter and in the next chapter I will introduce the last woman (sensei).

However there will be other women in this harem – in fact there will be a total of 72 women (The total number of members in the sorority house). However I will get to them later (Please suggest other names to include in the harem. Make sure they are characters who belong to a harem anime).

But for now you, my dear readers you have to make an important decision and that is to pick the POV for the next chapter. Here are the options:

Option 1: Hikigaya POV.

Option 2: Nino Nakano POV.

Option 3: Chizuru Ichinose POV.

Option 4: Seishirou Tsugumi POV.

Option 5: Utaha Kasumigaoka POV.

Option 6: Hina Tachibana POV.

Please pick any of the above options.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading this chapter.

Leave lots and lots of reviews, follow and fave.

Won't betray your dreams.

P.S.: Please PM me or mention in the review the 72 women you wish to see in this fic. Remember, they have to be female characters from harem anime.