In a certain home in Yu City.
Two young girls were sitting on the floor.
One of them was wearing a pair of spicy hot denim shorts, and her black crop top was so short that it revealed her toned, firm abdomen with visible oblique muscles. She had on a trench coat that resembled a detective’s overcoat, patterned with many grids divided by yellowish-brown lines, and perched on her head was a matching detective hat.
The other girl was dressed in a red-and-white shrine maiden outfit, her eyes tightly shut, murmuring something under her breath.
Her two small hands, peeking out from the wide sleeves, were clasped together as if in prayer.
Between them lay several candles giving off bright, flickering flames.
“Hey, Natsukawa-chan, is this spirit summoning thing of yours actually going to work? ‘Cause I’m not feeling a thing over here.”
Ritsuka Tachibana looked at her close friend sitting across from her, her eyes shut tight, and couldn’t help but feel a little bored.
Sure, she was the one who first suggested trying out this so-called spirit summoning, but that was just a spur-of-the-moment idea. Now that several minutes had passed with absolutely no results, her interest had naturally fizzled out.
“What kind of effect were you even expecting?”
Mirai Natsukawa opened her eyes and shot her a look of annoyance.
“Supernatural stuff doesn’t actually exist anyway. If you hadn’t said you wanted to give it a try, I wouldn’t have bothered doing something like this at all.”
Even though Mirai Natsukawa had grown up in a shrine in Sakura Province since she was little, as a modern girl, she didn’t believe one bit in gods or ghosts.
These days, everyone preaches science, and she firmly believed that any phenomenon could be explained through scientific means.
“Hey hey, but you’re literally a shrine maiden yourself! As a shrine maiden, not believing in spirits and deities—man, you’re quite the rebel, aren’t you?”
Ritsuka Tachibana knew very well that her good friend was a typical materialist, so she was really just poking fun at her.
“It’s not like I wanted to be a shrine maiden in the first place. The shrine literally has no other girls left, and since they raised me, how could I not give something back?”
That’s right—the shrine Mirai Natsukawa belonged to was entirely made up of men, and they hadn’t gained a single new girl in a long time. Even Mirai herself had been an abandoned child they found and took in when she was little.
“Meh, whatever. It was just for fun and killing time anyway. Since it’s not working, let’s just forget it.”
Ritsuka Tachibana waved her hand and got ready to stand up and turn on the lights.
But just then, the flames of those several candles, which had been perfectly steady until now, suddenly began to flicker wildly.
The next second, Ritsuka Tachibana, who was about to get up, froze completely stiff.
….
Xia Xi and Luo Xinyu had spent the entire afternoon in that little cabin where they first met. It wasn’t until after they’d finished dinner that they finally got ready to head back to their respective rooms.
That said, right now Xia Xi was using Luo Xinyu’s body, so naturally he was going to sleep in Luo Xinyu’s room. Meanwhile, Luo Xinyu—the actual owner of that body—was being sent off to the guest room instead.
“Don’t lock the door tonight, you know~”
Those were the words Luo Xinyu whispered in Xia Xi’s ear before she left.
Xia Xi obviously knew exactly what she meant—she wanted a thrilling little nighttime raid. Locked door or not, it didn’t matter to him; he’d just sleep soundly and if Luo Xinyu woke him up, he could always use the excuse that he was too tired and go back to sleep without anything happening.
Besides, Xia Xi didn’t think their young lady actually had the guts to make the first move and take things further. At most, he figured she’d do what Xia Yue did sometimes—sneak into his bed and just cuddle up to sleep.
After washing up, Xia Xi lay down on that soft, plush bed that originally belonged to the young lady, covered himself with the fragrant-smelling quilt, and reached out to grab the white teddy bear beside him.
“Didn’t think Xinyu would keep a plush bear on her bed like any ordinary girl, huh.”
He fiddled with the teddy bear for a bit, but soon grew bored and lay down, ready to sleep.
He could’ve pulled out his phone and scrolled through short videos or read some fun web novels to pass the time, but since they’d swapped bodies, they’d swapped phones too—meaning Xia Xi was now holding Luo Xinyu’s phone.
If he used her phone to watch those spicy, borderline thirst-trap videos, he might as well be jumping headfirst into a fire pit.
[Detected that the host hasn’t found a new swap target for a long time. To ensure the host maintains a “healthy” romantic circle, the host is now required to use the next swap target slot within ten minutes.]
[Penalty for refusal: Permanently remain swapped with Luo Xinyu, and Luo Xinyu’s personality will be modified to yandere.]
Xia Xi had been on the verge of peacefully drifting off to sleep when the sudden system notification beside his ear made him jolt wide awake.
The last time he used the fixed swap target slot given by the system was with An Xiaoyu, and that was ages ago. Why was the system suddenly bringing up the slot now?
Hadn’t it been working fine all this time?
Xia Xi started recalling the targets he’d gotten from using that slot each time…
The first one, no need to overthink it, was naturally their young lady, Luo Xinyu—mm, legs paralyzed, unable to walk, all alone.
The second was Liu Yiyi, and she was a whole other level of heavy. Back then, Xia Xi had swapped over and found her in the middle of attempting suicide.
The third was Bai Xiaocha. There wasn’t much to say about that girl—she was only connected to his little sister, and seemed to have a peculiar obsession with taking down Xia Yue and becoming the one in charge.
And finally, there was An Xiaoyu. That poor girl had suffered at the hands of her father, and on top of that, her mother was seriously ill. She was truly pitiful.
Putting all that together, there was no way the system suddenly asking him to use the slot meant anything good!
Chances were, the next swap target would be yet another troubled girl.
Even though Xia Xi really didn’t want to use the slot, it wasn’t because he was afraid of troubled girls—it was just that he already had way too many girls involved with him as it was. On top of that, his relationship with Luo Xinyu had just taken a step forward, so it really wasn’t the right time to go messing with other girls.
But not using it wasn’t an option. He definitely didn’t want to be stuck inside the young lady’s body forever—even if becoming a gorgeous, wealthy young lady like Luo Xinyu was something many people dreamed of.
And who knew what Luo Xinyu might do with his body once the system changed her personality to yandere?
What if, taking advantage of the strength of Xia Xi’s male body, she locked him up in some dark little room and started pulling all sorts of yandere-style moves on him? That would be seriously bad news.
Left with no choice, Xia Xi finally decided to use the slot.
[Searching for swap target… Search complete. Target: Ritsuka Tachibana.]
[Please choose your swap method.]
“One-way swap.”
Xia Xi didn’t want any stranger suddenly popping into Luo Xinyu’s body, so there was no way he’d choose a two-way swap.
[Swap complete. The level-1 version of the target’s skill has been granted to the host. Wishing the host a pleasant swap journey!]
