**World's Top Daughters, Five Senses Linked**

"Black-Stocking Female Monster..." Utaha's lips curled dangerously, her high heels clicking a crisp rhythm against the ground. "Looks like this middle school student needs a lesson in social etiquette."

"I'll be a high schooler soon! And I'll be in the same school as Brother Qiu! The same class!"

"Then I'm still your senior at that school."

Utaha suddenly leaned in close to Eriri's ear, her breath stirring the stray hairs at her temple.

"Is this how you treat your upperclassman?"

"Guh—!"

Eriri's pupils quaked as she instinctively stepped back.

"S-Senior? This... you... I..."

Jiang Lianqiu rolled his eyes.

This island nation's outdated senior-junior culture, so ridiculous he couldn't even bring himself to complain, was being pulled out as an ultimate weapon against Eriri.

Though he was intrigued by Utaha Kasumigaoka, Eriri was still someone he'd watched grow up. If it came down to it, the young girl was now the closest to him.

Jiang Lianqiu wasn't about to let Eriri keep getting bullied. He placed a hand on her head and ruffled her hair gently. "Got everything you wanted?"

"Guu..."

Normally, being patted on the head in public would trigger Eriri's tsundere streak, but with Utaha Kasumigaoka right there, the girl not only didn't resist but proudly wrinkled her nose at Utaha.

She didn't know why, but even though they'd just met, she felt this black-stocking female monster would be her lifelong nemesis.

Back when she'd found Brother Qiu's school shoe locker overflowing with love letters, she hadn't reacted this strongly...

Utaha Kasumigaoka knew when to quit. She waved at Jiang Lianqiu. "Well then, that's it for today. See you after the new semester, Lord Qiu~"

Turning around, her long black hair swung with a scent of gardenia as she walked away gracefully.

"Hey hey! She's gone! Stop staring!"

Seeing Jiang Lianqiu's gaze linger on Utaha's retreating figure, Eriri looked up, grinding her teeth in grievance.

"I just went to buy something, and you got tangled up with that gloomy girl... So, what happened? What were you talking about?"

Jiang Lianqiu timely pulled out the Love Beat from the shopping bag, explaining the earlier situation, and added, "If I'm not wrong, this Senior Kasumigaoka is the author of this book, Kasumiko herself."

"Huh?" Eriri's eyes went wide, shocked that the senior she'd soon be in school with was already a debuted light novelist.

But then she thought again—hadn't she already started setting up booths at comic conventions?

From that angle, the other had only debuted in high school, while she'd had works since middle school.

Win!

For some reason, Eriri proudly lifted her head, looking down her nose at the distant Utaha Kasumigaoka.

Jiang Lianqiu: "..."

—You really are good at that Spiritual Victory Method, Haki Eriri.

Though she hadn't said it, a decade of being together made it all too clear what was on her mind.

...Scene Break...

That night.

Jiang Lianqiu was soaking in the spacious bathroom of his own bedroom, eyes closed, submerged in the bath.

During the day, though Utaha Kasumigaoka's matter had stirred up Eriri's emotions, the young girl had quickly thrown herself back into their date.

She'd even run home to change clothes, dressing up elaborately before going with him to a so-called normie couple date spot.

They'd only returned home after dinner outside in the evening.

Time ticked by, and as the clock passed midnight, a moment later, precisely to the second, his age hit fifteen—

—Half-reclining in the bath, Jiang Lianqiu's heart suddenly pounded violently.

His closed eyes snapped open, but what he saw made his mind spin.

The familiar bathroom was overlapped with a completely different scene.

Beyond his own senses, a whole set of another person's five senses assaulted his brain.

...Scene Break...

Under normal circumstances, what humans 'think' they see is actually the result of photoreceptor cells in the retina receiving external light, transmitting signals to the brain, which then synthesizes them through a complex series of calculations.

It's hard to say whether the external information from the eyes or the brain's synthesis matters more.

So—what if, during the visual nerve's transmission of light signals to the brain, the brain could 'out of nowhere' receive an extra set of visual and even all sensory signals?

The answer: a person would feel like they were 'seeing two overlapping worlds,' or even 'possessing two bodies at once.'

At least now, the Cloud Knight rookie, young girl Su Shang, practicing her sword in the courtyard, in a sudden dizzy spell, unconsciously looked down, glanced between her legs, and discovered something that made her face drain of color—

"Ah! I've grown something weird!!!"