With her mind empty, she finished her shower and returned to the bedroom she had found earlier; the scent of body wash still lingered at the tip of Xiao Chun Miura’s nose, and as she pushed open the door, another fragrance greeted her.
For a high school girl’s bedroom she was entering for the first time, Xiao Chun Miura’s initial impression was that it smelled nice—and that it matched the atmosphere of its owner.
Besides the basic bed, wardrobe, desk, and dressing mirror, there was no other noteworthy furniture in the room.
Within the clean and tidy decor, the most eye-catching bookshelf was filled with items that left an impression of “Xiao Chun Miura.”
Reference books used since elementary and middle school, along with various literary works, were arranged neatly on different shelves; on the desk below the bookshelf, a desk lamp was placed reasonably.
Other than that, there were no elements on the desk or elsewhere that symbolized a typical girl’s room.
Looking at it this way, the entire room was understated, ordinary, even somewhat lacking in personality.
——In fact, it was pretty similar to her own high school room in reality.
Xiao Chun Miura thought.
She walked toward the single bed by the wall, passing by the dressing mirror— and subconsciously glanced at it.
The girl reflected in the mirror wore a daytime shirt and school skirt, with steam still rising from her head; her fair legs, invisible in the bathroom mirror, were now revealed in the dressing mirror.
Her face, freshly washed, was red and delicate, with damp hair clinging to her bright white shoulders.
Xiao Chun Miura shuddered again inside.
“Don’t look… don’t look…”
She muttered to herself, repeating the words and forcing herself to calm down, stepping away from the mirror.
After everything that had happened today, her mind was already exhausted.
She didn’t want her mood to be influenced by any more irrelevant things.
Being too interested in her own body was not good—she felt that if this continued, it would become a serious problem.
With this awareness, Xiao Chun Miura temporarily banished those embarrassing thoughts from her mind.
***
She rummaged through the wardrobe and found something like pajamas, replacing her shirt and school skirt.
Climbing onto the bed, Xiao Chun Miura burrowed into the light pink bedding.
With the blanket covering her, she could clearly feel the pressure on her chest.
The unfamiliar sensation made her toss and turn for a long time.
It wasn’t just her chest—every time she moved, the fabric of her sleep pants rubbing against her skin brought a delicate, unfamiliar itch.
A woman’s body, these strange sensations, seemed to make all her senses extra sensitive.
Xiao Chun Miura gritted her teeth.
……She would have to live in this body from now on.
She had to get used to it.
Forcing herself to ignore those novel and intriguing feelings, Xiao Chun Miura turned off the bedside lamp.
To avoid her thoughts running wild from the new sensations coming from her body, Xiao Chun Miura tried to fall asleep while planning her actions for tomorrow.
The experiences of the day had already confirmed that the current time in the game world matched her predicted progress.
Now was the first night in the game world; aside from the incident during the day when Kanzaki Sou was supposed to have contact with Kondo Haruka, the two would also discuss it on chat software at night—
In the original game story, Kanzaki Sou apologized, and Kondo Haruka responded with the classic tsundere childhood friend lines like “I forgot about that a long time ago,” “Are you still thinking about it? Don’t tell me you actually like me?”
Xiao Chun Miura blinked.
She had stopped Kondo Haruka from jumping into Kanzaki Sou’s arms during the day, so that incident shouldn’t appear in their chat at night.
…Logically, it should be like that—she could say she had prevented the event from developing further.
If things went well, she hoped she could keep stopping Kondo Haruka like today.
…She didn’t consider things like “breaking up a couple” or “sabotaging a romance.”
Ultimately, to her, these two were both NPCs in a game—her own consciousness was that of a living person, but to them, no matter what, they were just data generated by code.
Rather than worrying about Kondo Haruka’s feelings or whether Kanzaki Sou would miss out on true love, Xiao Chun Miura cared only about her own survival.
——She didn’t feel there was anything wrong with deliberately preventing Kondo Haruka and Kanzaki Sou’s relationship from developing.
If someone had to be blamed, then let it be the “reason” that pulled her into this world.
…Thinking this, Xiao Chun Miura recalled the plot after the first day of the common route in the game.
The selling point of Brilliant and Shining! The Love Story of Starshine Academy was its vibrant, immersive school life, with detailed depictions of the protagonists’ high school days—thanks to this, the game’s common route had plenty of buildup, and before the sports festival arc, the male lead Kanzaki Sou interacted with many other in-game characters.
This wasn’t a bad thing for Xiao Chun Miura.
As long as she remembered the general events—like when and why Kanzaki Sou interacted with whom—she could find excuses to enter the scene in advance and start a conversation or meet him.
As long as they became acquaintances, even if not friends, her future interactions with Kanzaki Sou would appear less awkward to others.
After all, with a background like Xiao Chun Miura’s, blending into Kanzaki Sou’s circle without a good reason would definitely attract attention.
At that point, she couldn’t use “like” or “interested” as excuses for her actions—she could say that to Kondo Haruka because Haruka herself was interested in Kanzaki Sou and wouldn’t spread the news.
But others wouldn’t keep the secret—they didn’t want to date Kanzaki Sou themselves, but learning someone was interested in him would naturally spread like gossip, making her instantly famous in the school.
——The social death would be unimaginable.
……Her current short-term goal was to secure the part-time Librarian job.
Even if all other opportunities fell through, according to the plot, Kanzaki Sou was guaranteed to visit the Library—barring interference, in the original storyline, Kanzaki Sou checked out the Library before trying various club activities.
The only person likely to interfere was herself.
Thinking of it this way, she could definitely create a chance to meet him in the Library—compared to other uncertain opportunities, becoming a Librarian as soon as possible was an effective and efficient choice.
“——Alright!”
Pleased with her plan, Xiao Chun Miura let out a small exclamation.
Then, silence fell over the room again.
……The excitement dissipated as soon as Xiao Chun Miura heard her own voice.
It was not a sound she was used to.
It was the voice of her current self.
The girl curled up, burying her face in the soft, fragrant pillow.
The touch of her hair spread from her ears to her neck, making Xiao Chun Miura once again aware of the reality.
This female body was undeniably alive.
——It was hers.
“……”
“……Ha.”
She no longer felt like thinking about anything else. After the excitement faded, the exhaustion became even more pronounced.
In the darkness, after a long silence, Xiao Chun Miura let out a gentle sigh, made no further sound, and closed her eyes, drifting into sleep.
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