My head’s spinning...

My body feels so heavy, too.

I’m so sleepy... I can’t even open my eyes.

But my mind alone keeps gathering itself, growing clearer.

I... think I died before?

Then I ran into some damn glowing orb...

What did it say again...?

It said...

Oh, right.

It said it was going to make me a girl in my next life.

What the fuck?!

Anger at the damn glowing orb surged up, mixed with panic, and Ye Zhibai snapped her eyes open!

She opened her eyes as if jolting awake from a nightmare, and took a deep breath so forceful it nearly hurt.

“Cough! Haa... Hah...!”

She nearly choked herself to death again!

It took several deep breaths before she could get her breathing under control.

Only then did the sensations in her body slowly begin to return.

Smell, hearing, sight, touch—none of them were blurry anymore.

The air around her... smelled like disinfectant.

It was a little pungent.

As her vision cleared, she saw white tiles overhead and a spotless ceiling.

She could hear birds chirping outside the window, along with a slightly irritating... beep, beep, beep.

Ye Zhibai had been a medical student in her previous life. She knew that sound well.

It was the machine monitoring her heartbeat.

And she could feel the soft bedsheets beneath her palm.

All these real sensations pointed to one fact.

I... came back to life!

Alive, but not fully alive yet.

Her body still wouldn’t obey her. It felt as heavy as lead, and she couldn’t even turn her head to look around. All she could do was lie on her back and stare at the ceiling.

Calm down... First, just calm down.

Judging by the ceiling and the smell of disinfectant, she was probably in a hospital?

Then there’s a good chance that whole thing with the crappy little ball of light was a dream. Maybe I got hit by a car and some kind stranger brought me to the hospital... so I didn’t actually die at all?!

Yeah, exactly. Normally, there’s no way someone would get insulted by a god after dying. That kind of misery just doesn’t happen!

Right? Right? Nobody’s that unlucky.

So... turning into a girl was probably part of the dream too~

Phew, what a weird dream. I scared myself for nothing~

Maybe something had finally lifted from her mind. As she relaxed, Ye Zhibai instinctively let out a relieved breath.

“Hoo...”

Huh?

Something felt off.

Her heart gave a little lurch.

Even the heartbeat monitor’s beeping sped up along with it.

Hah... I must’ve breathed wrong just now.

Let’s try again.

She gently breathed out once more.

This time, the sound was a little louder.

“Hoo...!”

Huh?!

Wait, wait, wait!

My voice!

Why doesn’t it sound deep and rich like it used to?!

What the hell is with this sweet voice?!

“Hoo, hoo, hoo! Cough, cough, cough!”

So, whatever you do, don’t breathe out over and over without taking a breath in.

Choking on her own spit and coughing like crazy felt absolutely awful!

The coughing sent her lurching painfully against the head of the bed.

She shifted her back—which somehow felt much narrower now—and tried to lean against the headboard and sit up...

As her eyes, narrowed with discomfort, slowly opened...

She sucked in a sharp breath and stared in disbelief.

Her posture had changed, so her view had changed too.

Within her field of vision... the hospital room was far bigger than she’d expected.

It was huge.

There was only one bed in the enormous room. It was practically a VIP private room, the kind a hospital would set aside for treating someone important.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was the name tag attached to the head of the bed.

It didn’t say “Ye Zhibai.”

It said—Ye Zhibai.

Huh...?

That’s such a girly name. Honestly, Nurse, did you make a typo when you entered my patient information, or did you get two characters wrong at once?

So careless...

Yeah, right!!

If only it were that simple!

Ye Zhibai could clearly see a lock of silver hair rising and falling in front of her, then spreading across the bed.

It stretched along the sheets, almost reaching the edge of the bed.

She forced her gaze lower. There was far more than one lock of silver hair.

Brilliant silver strands spread out from around her, like a sea of silvery-white flowers covering most of the bed.

And following the silver hair down, Ye Zhibai saw her own legs, slender and clad in pure white pajama pants.

At the ends of those legs were two little feet, soft and delicate as works of art...

She tried wiggling her toes...

They really moved...?

Are these my feet?! Did they get two sizes smaller than before?

She raised her hands... They were just as delicate and smooth, with long fingers. Her arms were a lovely, snowy white.

Ye Zhibai’s face instantly went pale.

I... never had long hair, and my hair wasn’t silver!

That’s the hair color my dream anime waifu is supposed to have!

But now, this dreamlike long hair was so beautiful words couldn’t describe it.

Could it be... that none of that was a dream?

Did that inexplicable ball of light really turn me into a girl?!

Panic nearly overwhelmed Ye Zhibai. She desperately wanted to find out more.

“N-no... way... th-this... can’t...”

Ye Zhibai had to admit, she was pretty freaked out.

Only then did she realize that she seemed to have a little more strength than when she’d first woken up. She still couldn’t move freely, but she could manage small movements.

That wasn’t enough to be sure. Her palm began to slowly explore her body, feeling its way along her arm until it reached her chest—and stopped abruptly.

“Hm...?”

W-what is this strange, oddly soothing feeling?

Not too big, not too small—just right. Soft, and perfectly cupped in one hand.

The curve wasn’t pronounced, but it was like a work of art, soothing to the heart!

This was something Ye Zhibai had never touched in her previous life...

Ye Zhibai felt an urge come over her.

She gathered what little strength she had and gave it a firm squeeze!

“Ah...!”

A jolt of electricity seemed to shoot through her.

Ye Zhibai’s toes curled involuntarily.

?!

Did that pathetic little sound just come out of me...?

That helpless, delicate girl’s voice, like it’d topple over if the wind so much as blew?!

But that sensation just now was something Ye Zhibai had never felt in her more than twenty years of life.

The weakness left her hand slipping from her chest and falling naturally onto her upper thigh, near the middle.

E—emp—ty—!!

The heartbeat monitor let out the fastest series of beeps Ye Zhibai had heard since waking up.

Somebody help me!

My little bro—he’d been with me for more than twenty years, but never got to do a thing, never even made it onto the battlefield—he’s gone, aaah!!

Ye Zhibai couldn’t take it anymore!

She was pretty sure that damn ball of light hadn’t lied. It really had turned her into a girl.

But...! I really need someone to explain what the hell is going on with me right now!!

At least give me a mirror so I can see what I look like now, okay?

The little strength Ye Zhibai had recovered was almost completely spent.

The only thing she could do was try to slap the metal railing beside the bed, making a clang-clang-clang as she attempted to call someone over and ask what was going on.

As it turned out, she succeeded.

Ye Zhibai had only hit the railing three times.

The hospital room door burst open with a tremendous bang, as if it had been blown off its hinges!

It was like they were charging into battle!

Ye Zhibai shuddered all over in fright.

Along with the crash of the door came two urgent shouts.

“Young Lady?!”

“Miss Ye!! Are you all right?!”

“......”

From the corner of her eye, Ye Zhibai weakly raised her head and looked at the outrageous scene in the doorway.

It wasn’t a nurse who came in.

It was two... maids? The two young maids wore black-and-white uniforms, carried baseball bats, and stormed into the room looking fierce and wary.

When the two maids saw Ye Zhibai awake, staring blankly at them as she leaned against the edge of the bed...

They looked just as surprised as Ye Zhibai.

Ye Zhibai thought she heard one of the maids whisper urgently to the other, her voice trembling with joy.

“Q-quick! Go tell Second Miss... Young Miss is awake! She’s really awake!”