After retirement I became a guardian of troubled youth

After returning to the Underworld, 1126 first took Ueno Hikaru to the Eye of the Underworld.

The Eye of the Underworld had a short, meaningless conversation with him.

Probably, the Eye of the Underworld said that since your previous performance was not bad, we will not pursue the mistakes made in this mission for the time being, and you will continue to work hard in the future.

Hikaru Ueno replied to it with a confused expression, "You are so strange."

And said in the "???" that filled the screen of the Eye of the Underworld,

"It's obvious that you didn't review it carefully when you formulated the task."

He said "I didn't forgive you" very indifferently, and then turned around and left in the "beep beep" of the eye of the underworld.

The letters that Ranbu wrote to him were still piled up in the cave and not read.

Hikaru Ueno lit up the cave, tidied up the messy bodies and heads of the little people, sat down in the deepest part, and began to read the letter.

After Chuya, Hikaru Ueno didn't meet a task target like Chuya and Ranpo for several years, and everything became orderly again.

At the beginning, he would visit the three children almost every month between missions.

In the first two years, the three children had a hard time, and they didn't have much contact with each other.

Occasionally, Ueno Hikaru would quietly accompany them for a night after they fell asleep late at night.

Eliminate the wounds accumulated on their bodies over a period of time.

Or quietly add a layer of Reaper's blessing to them.

But the blessing of death is something that is better than nothing.

Not much use.

Afterwards, their lives gradually improved.

With a stable residence and way of making a living, there is also a stable emotional relationship.

Ranpo meets a silver-haired swordsman who can live together.

He also joined a youth organization called "Yang" which was supposed to help the poor.

Shuji Tsushima changed his name to Osamu Dazai and worked for the powerful.

Hikaru Ueno didn't know what kind of work he was doing, but it was probably all mental activities that he had to do.

Those dignitaries paid him very generously.

That is, he changed employers a bit frequently. Every time Hikari Ueno went to visit him, the boy was working for someone different from before.

Moreover, as the three of them grew up, the connection between them seemed to increase.

Several times when Hikari Ueno went to see them, all three of them got together.

After confirming that their lives were on the right track and slowly getting better, Hikari Ueno gradually seldom visited them.

After all, 1126 was right.

The Eye of the Underworld has the ability to change a person's life and death at will.

But one day not long after he stopped seeing them, something happened suddenly.

The beginning of the accident was a somewhat strange mission.

Not to harvest souls, but to "discourage" a soul.

According to 1126's report.

A child appeared in the world, who had sought death many times, trying to change his established destiny.

The Eye of the Underworld has always treated this kind of "death" change of fate very casually, so it drew lots.

Draw "death" to fulfill the person's wish.

If you draw a "life", the person's life will not be changed.

Just, pretty outrageous.

It's as if in the eyes of the Eye of the Underworld, all human lives are nothing more than a lottery game.

But the object of this task is different.

The Eye of the Underworld is very concerned about his life and death.

According to 1126, it is because the life of this young man is related to the fate of many other people.

If he succeeds in changing his life, the workload of the Eye of the Underworld will increase a lot.

So every time this young man wanted to die, the Eye of the Underworld would send the god of death to "dissuade".

But it's clear that every time it's done little.

The boy even got worse.

Then this time, the Eye of the Underworld found Hikaru Ueno.

When 1126 delivered the task slip, Hikaru Ueno had just packed up the letter that Ranpo had sent recently.

Oh yes, the frequency of letters sent by Ranpo recently is much lower than before.

Once every 15 days is very stable, and there is nothing written in the letter.

It seems to be just a few pseudonyms written by hand, sometimes there is no pseudonym, just draw a circle.

While listening to 1126's narration, Ueno Hikaru took the note and unfolded it.

The unusual teenager's name was written on the note.

The moment he saw the handwriting clearly, Hikaru Ueno's pupils shrank suddenly.

— Osamu Dazai.

He was stunned for a while, held the note in his palm, and looked at 1126 who suddenly fell silent.

1126 opened his mouth, but made no sound.

Hikaru Ueno: "Say."

"...It's that kid."

Ueno Hikaru said expressionlessly, "I know."

1126 hesitated: "Well, he..."

Hikaru Ueno glanced at him, without any reaction: "I will ask myself why he chose to do this."

1126 nodded and stopped talking.

Ueno Mitsutomo nodded slightly, and disappeared directly in place.

Shuji...

No, it's Osamu Dazai.

The place of death chosen by Osamu Dazai was a river in Yokohama.

When Hikaru Ueno reached the bank of the river, the boy who had fallen upside down in the river under the setting sun happened to float in front of him along the current.

The pair of straight and slender legs sticking out of the water twitched from time to time.

Hikaru Ueno pulled him out of the water, emptied the water that filled his lungs, and put him on the ground.

The boy's first reaction after waking up was to touch his body, and then said regretfully, "What, didn't you die again..."

Hikaru Ueno looked down at the wet boy and asked, "Are you disappointed?"

Dazai suddenly looked up at him.

The indifference and disgust on his face disappeared in an instant.

He got up and approached Hikaru Ueno, looked him up and down, back and forth, left, right, left, right, and right several times, then sat cross-legged on the ground and laughed.

"It's true—"

The boy's voice faded from the softness of his childhood, and brought a bit of world-weary laziness.

There was no trace of tenderness in those iris eyes, which resembled his mother very much, only a superficial smile remained.

"I thought this would find you."

Hikaru Ueno froze for a moment, then tilted his head: "Just for this?"

"What?" Osamu Dazai blinked, a little dazed.

"You committed suicide so many times just to see me?"

Osamu Dazai came to his senses, nodded under his gaze, and said with a smile, "That's right."

He shrugged and said casually, "Because Brother Guang is the god of death, so if you want to find you, you can only use this method."

Hikaru Ueno looked at him, his tone still calm: "Why do you want to see me?"

"what."

Osamu Dazai held his chin and said with a smile, "Because Brother Guang hasn't visited us for a long time."

"I thought Mr. Death had long since forgotten us."

Although he said this with the intention of complaining, he still had a smile on his face, without any unhappiness or complaints.

As if expressing an emotion that had nothing to do with him.

Hikaru Ueno: "I just don't think there is any need to see you anymore."

He paused, not noticing Dazai Osamu's eyes that suddenly darkened, and continued to explain: "The last few times I visited you, you all had a good life."

Osamu Dazai smiled and nodded: "Yeah, I guessed it."

Hikaru Ueno frowned slightly.

He vaguely felt that something was wrong with the young man in front of him, but there was no clearer "signal".

Osamu Dazai suddenly supported him with one hand, stood up from the ground, and approached him.

"Speaking of which, I thought Brother Guang would be angry."

Hikaru Ueno was puzzled: "?"

"After all, I committed suicide many, many times just to find Brother Guang."

Hikaru Ueno didn't deny it, he patted the boy's head and explained seriously: "This behavior is indeed ill-considered."

"but."

Hikaru Ueno hesitated for a moment, and decided to tell the truth.

"I don't feel 'angry'."

Osamu Dazai was slightly startled, and the slight smile floating in his eyes suddenly disappeared.

He stared at Hikaru Ueno for a while, then suddenly laughed again, but his voice was cold: "Is that so..."

Ueno Hikaru brought the topic back: "I will remember to see you in the future."

He paused and said, "So, don't kill yourself again. Can you?"

Osamu Dazai laughed again, and responded briskly without hesitation: "Okay."

His voice was light and fluttering, revealing an unreal feeling.

Hikaru Ueno wanted to say something, but Osamu Dazai had already waved at him.

"You still have other tasks to do." The boy said empathetically, "Hurry up and go."

Hikaru Ueno insisted on finishing what he wanted to say: "If you have anything to do, you can write to me."

"Address to Huangquanjie No. 1388. The addressee is Ueno Hikaru. It can be delivered to the mailbox in the world."

"Ok~"

Hikaru Ueno touched the boy's head for the last time, then turned and left.

……

But Osamu Dazai never sent him a letter.

Until Hikari Ueno received the same task for the second time.

The second time, he found Osamu Dazai unconscious in a burning house.

After the boy woke up, he still laughed and joked with him like last time.

Hikaru Ueno had a vague feeling last time, but this time he felt it clearly.

Osamu Dazai was just joking with him, but in fact he didn't listen to him at all.

And he didn't even tell him the truth.

But Hikaru Ueno didn't realize this at the time.

He suddenly realized it when he was coaxed and coaxed back to the Underworld by Osamu Dazai, staring blankly at the little man's hair in the cave.

So, the third time.

Well, Ueno Hikaru didn't wait for the third mission to come to him, he took the initiative to find the Eye of the Underworld, asking for a mission related to Osamu Dazai.

This time, he found Osamu Dazai in an abandoned shipping container.

When Hikari Ueno arrived, Osamu Dazai, who chose the method of cutting his wrists, had not completely lost consciousness.

Blood spilled from the wrist and flowed all over the floor.

Sensing his presence, the boy opened his eyes with difficulty and glanced at him, then suddenly laughed.

He could no longer make a sound, but Ueno Hikaru clearly recognized what he wanted to say through his mouth.

"See you again, Brother Guang."

The boy greeted him like this.

It was as if they met not at the moment of death, but by chance in the street on an ordinary afternoon.

Hikaru Ueno stepped forward and covered the boy's dimming eyes.

Those eyes blinked slowly and weakly, and the thin eyelashes gently rubbed against his palm.

Ueno Hikaru looked at the boy's slender figure, and activated the ability specially given to him by the Eye of the Underworld in this mission, bringing the boy back to life.

The environment of this abandoned container is really hard to describe in words. Hikari Ueno cleaned up Osamu Dazai and carried him to the house he bought for Chuya before.

After Zhong Ye joined the "sheep", he lived with those people most of the time, only occasionally coming here for half a day.

Ueno Hikaru had seen the boy sitting by the window when he came to see him, so he knew this.

The house is still there.

That was the only place he could stay in the world.

So Hikari Ueno took Osamu Dazai there who was still in a coma.

He sat by the bed and waited for the boy to wake up. He waited motionlessly from the dawn of the day to the sunset, only to see the boy's eyelashes tremble slightly twice.

Ueno Hikaru observed the whole process of Osamu Dazai waking up.

It is said that the whole process is actually only a few seconds.

The whole process from regaining consciousness to being fully awake, to looking sharp and vigilant at him, took only five seconds.

That's an unnaturally fast pace.

In the second second, when he just opened his eyes, there was only bottomless weariness in those eyes.

It seems that I am not tired, but tired of the world.

Then in the third second, all the burnout turned into alertness.

In the fourth second, Osamu Dazai looked away from the ceiling and landed on him precisely.

As a result, Ueno Hikaru clearly felt the malice contained in it.

In the fifth second, Osamu Dazai, who was fully awake, recognized him, and smiled with his eyes bent.

Those vigilance and malice disappeared in an instant.

But they did exist.

Hikaru Ueno and Osamu Dazai stared at each other for a long time in silence.

Then Ueno Hikaru opened his mouth first: "How are you going to lie to me this time?"

Osamu Dazai froze for a moment, and the smile in his eyes grew stronger.

He asked indifferently, "Did Brother Guang feel it?"

Then he muttered to himself: "Then there is no way to cheat this time."

"Okay." He spread his hands under Ueno's gaze, "Then I'll tell the truth."

"Actually, I didn't commit suicide because I wanted to see Brother Guang."

He gestured a short distance with his hands.

"It's just that there is a little expectation while committing suicide."

"After all, there are so many gods of death in your place, it's really hard to meet you by chance."

"I just want to die because I feel bored."

When Osamu Dazai said this, he tilted his head slightly, and the smile on his face faded in an instant.

The inorganic kite eyes seemed unable to reflect even the slightest afterglow of the setting sun.

Ueno Hikaru looked at him, faintly feeling the faint expectation hidden under the calmness of the young man.

As if waiting for him to ask further.

But Ueno Hikaru didn't ask anything.

He just looked at Osamu Dazai calmly and said, "I'm not leaving."

Dazai was stunned for a moment.

"I'm going to be here with you until you find your 'fun'."

It was like a small stone was thrown into the calm water, causing tiny waves.

There was a flash of panic in Dazai Osamu's eyes, and then the stone sank into the sea, and everything returned to silence.

He laughed, and there was a large expanse of sunset behind him.

"Okay."

The boy responded with a relaxed tone.

"Brother Guang, what are you going to do?"

When Dazai Osamu asked this sentence, there was a sudden "click" from outside the room.

It was the sound of a key opening the lock.

Ueno Hikaru was also stunned for a moment, then looked at him very calmly and said:

"Just do it."