After retirement I became a guardian of troubled youth

Ranpo and Yukichi Fukuzawa, the president of the detective agency, finished handling the commission, and when they returned to the detective agency together, they found an "uninvited guest" sitting in front of their desk.

It was a black-haired kid who looked somewhat familiar, judging from his size, he was only about seven or eight years old.

When the two of them entered the door, the child was lying on his desk with his back on his back, building pyramids with poker cards in a bored way.

He has used up a deck of cards, and there is another new deck of cards that has just been opened in his hand.

The young lady who was in charge of the reception next to her turned her head in embarrassment when she heard the movement, and called out to the president.

The boy heard the movement and turned his head to look over.

He moved a little bigger, the table shook, the tall tower of playing cards collapsed instantly, and the playing cards were scattered.

Edogawa Luanbu stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly recalled, stretched out his hand, opened his eyes and shouted: "Ah! You are the one—"

He originally wanted to talk about the magic thief's child, but suddenly thought of something, got stuck halfway, hesitated for a while, and said under the watchful eyes of the president Fukuzawa Yukichi, "That kid in the playground!"

The boy nodded, pressed his right hand on his chest, and bowed to salute him.

"My name is Kaito Kuroba." The boy smiled cheerfully, "I'm here to thank you."

"Ah." Ranbu was stunned for a moment, then he understood, and waved his hand at him puffing up his cheeks, "Don't thank us, if you really want to thank, just thank Dazai alone."

He paused, and muttered in a low voice: "Anyway, this is a temporary decision he made on his own."

"Then I'll trouble you to convey it to him for me." Kaito Kuroba said, "We're going back tonight, so we won't be able to find him in time."

"Okay okay, I got it."

"I also brought you a small thank you gift, and I asked this sister to help put it away." Kaito said, showing a sweet and obedient smile to the lady next to him, "I hope you will like it."

There was a knock on the door that had just been closed, and a handsome man with a mustache stood at the door, nodding his head gently to them.

"I'm here to pick up my child and go home." He smiled and held up a white card in his hand, "He said he came here this afternoon."

Ranbu looked up at the card with great interest.

Many symbols with unknown meanings were painted on it with immature brushstrokes.

He nodded and commented with satisfaction: "You are a father and son who are in perfect harmony."

The man froze for a second, then laughed.

Kaito Kuroba collected the loose cards on the table and handed them to the reception lady, ran over, grabbed the man's clothes, and proudly said to Ranbu, "Of course."

The man patted his head, thanked Ranpo and the others, and left with Kaito.

Luanbu grabbed the doorknob and stared at the figures of two people, one big and one small, going downstairs for a while, then closed the door.

"Actually, I don't want to thank you at all." He muttered in a low voice.

It was definitely not what they expected for Kaito Kuroba to know the "true identity" of the couple so early.

Fukuzawa Yukichi next to him cast a vaguely curious look: "Ranbu?"

"Well," Luanbu thought for a while, "I did that kid a little favor."

"With those two?"

Luanbu nodded, then thought of something, suddenly shook his head vigorously: "No, no, they won't come here, the president should stop thinking about it."

Fukuzawa Yukichi felt a little uneasy about it: "Then they...?"

Luanbu stroked his chin, pretending to think seriously, but actually said what he said very casually: "Maybe I will be abducted to become a gangster|hand|dangba."

Fukuzawa Yukichi: "...?"

……

According to the usual practice, Ueno Hikaru went to the Eye of the Underworld first after returning to the Underworld Realm.

Of course, this is his "usual".

Under normal circumstances, after the death mission is completed, there is no need to report to the Eye of the Underworld.

But who made him "task fail" so frequently.

"That..." 1126 suddenly stopped Ueno Hikaru before he entered the Eye of the Underworld, hesitating as if he had something to say, but finally shook his head and mumbled "It's okay".

Ueno Hikaru glanced at him, nodded slightly at him, and walked into the eyes of the underworld.

There will never be any changes in the Eye of the Underworld, it is empty and bare.

Communication is all about yellow text made of gravel.

That yellow color is only a little darker than the color of the space, and it's a little hard to make out.

Ueno half-closed his eyes.

Unless there are some extra punishments outside the rules, the Eye of the Underworld basically does it directly without saying a word.

Gravel condenses into words.

Ueno Hikaru looked at it, and suddenly sneered very lightly.

In addition to "randomly draw one of the seven souls" and "Ice cave confinement", it really added a long additional penalty at the end.

[I know what you want to ask me, I promise you, end that person's life early. ]

[However, in view of your recent mission performance, Reaper 077, in the future, you will no longer receive missions from Yokohama and its surrounding areas, and will not be allowed to enter Yokohama. ]

[I will monitor your movement trajectory in real time. Once the trajectory shows that you have entered Yokohama, we will immediately implement the same punishment as this time. ]

Ueno Hikaru held the sickle tightly, watched the handwriting being blown away by the wind, and said in a cold voice: "Actually, I'm a little curious..."

"What are you worried about? Or say."

He paused, raised the corner of his mouth: "What are you afraid of?"

"The three children?"

A wind and sand suddenly blew up in the space, and the long hair hanging behind her was blown up by the wind, and the white section at the bottom quickly expanded upwards.

Hikaru Ueno narrowed his eyes and smiled fearlessly.

The moment he let go, the sickle fell straight down, knocked on the ground and scattered into scattered debris, which was swept by the wind and filled the entire space.

……

The Eye of the Underworld stripped Ueno Hikaru's "desire".

He was locked in the ice cave, and after thinking about it for a while, he felt that he hadn't changed much, so he followed suit.

When I came out of the ice cave, it was estimated that several months had passed.

Even 1126 seems to be a bit higher than when he entered.

The young Reaper looked at him, still faltering.

Hikaru Ueno raised his eyebrows, and while walking towards the residence, he urged coldly: "Say."

"I, I will help you collect all the letters sent from the world during this period and put them in your mountain...well, your residence." 1126 paused, his expression became ugly in an instant, "But..."

He fell silent again, as if he found it difficult to speak, and he didn't even dare to look at Ye Guang.

However, he didn't need to say it.

After a while, the two gods of death teleported to the entrance of the cave where Hikaru Ueno had been staying before.

Hikaru Ueno looked at the scene in front of him, his footsteps froze, and his expression turned cold.

The raging fire devoured all the caves, and the bright red flames almost burned through the black sky.

Some of the gods of death stood on the opposite bank and watched, whispering to each other in amazement.

The fire set by the Eye of the Underworld almost burned everything that Hikaru Ueno had in the Underworld.

His habitat, the testimony of his rare pleasures, and the evidence of some emotions from the world.

"I, I tried to stop it..." 1126 looked like he was about to cry, and his voice became a little rough.

"It's okay." Hikaru Ueno narrowed his eyes and cast his gaze to the opposite side.

The expressions of those gods of death who watched the excitement suddenly changed, and they hurriedly disappeared while pushing each other.

Ueno Guangleng said indifferently: "It has nothing to do with you."

1126 froze for a moment, his Adam's apple rolled: "Yes, but those are..."

"It's not something so important." Hikari Ueno said, "It can be burned if it wants to."

1126 froze, opened his eyes suddenly, and stared at him without blinking.

Hikaru Ueno was a little uncomfortable being stared at by him, and cast a suspicious look with his head tilted.

1126 raised his head and looked at him, opened his mouth, but finally said nothing, and lowered his head in frustration.

Hikaru Ueno held out his hand to him.

1126 was stunned again, then raised his head blankly.

Hikaru Ueno: "Mission."

He frowned slightly: "It asked me to come out this time, not because it has another mission."

"Oh." 1126 suddenly said, "It, the Eye of the Underworld, said that you need to go there in person this time."

Hikaru Ueno thought for a while, then nodded.

"understood."

He raised his hand and paused in mid-air.

1126 tilted his head in doubt.

Hikaru Ueno put his hand on the head of the young Shinigami, and rubbed it twice gently.

He withdrew his hand expressionlessly, twirled his fingertips, muttered something softly, and disappeared in place.

1126 Yoyo came back to her senses, and recalled what the other party muttered just now.

Seems to be……

"Different."

……

Ueno Hikari felt that he had been coming to the Eye of the Underworld very frequently recently.

He really didn't like this place. After entering the space, he knocked twice with the sickle, urging the other party to hurry up.

[I have chosen a new place of work for you, you will be satisfied. ]

"Where?" Ueno Hikaru asked shortly, without emotion, but showing a bit of impatience.

[It was a very peaceful city. ]

[The work there is very easy. ]

Hikaru Ueno let out an "oh" and urged, "Tell me the place."

[......]

He suddenly choked on the Eye of the Underworld, and the gravel condensed into a string of dots, probably wanting to express his dissatisfaction and a little bit of grievance with this.

Hikaru Ueno stared at this series of dots, and continued to maintain the "indifferent" jpg.

The Eye of the Underworld probably knew that it was boring, so Dian Dian stubbornly maintained it for a while before changing it to a name.

[and Sheng. ]

[You will like it there,] it asserts, [that place is for you. ]

Ueno Hikaru Ueno Hikaru thanked him and reached out to grab the note that fell from the sky.

……

Working in the city of Bingsheng is indeed very leisurely.

Although the Eye of the Underworld hadn't done anything good, at least it was barely honest.

He even gave Hikaru Ueno the right to live here.

You know, this is the lifelong dream of many gods of death.

But Hikaru Ueno didn't particularly care about it. For him, it's pretty much the same wherever he lives.

Being able to carry it with Bingsheng all the time is just a little more convenient when doing tasks.

There are really few tasks here.

Let alone war, even car accidents are rare.

This is a place so peaceful that people always have the illusion that "death doesn't even exist here".

But birth, old age, sickness and death are the natural laws of life.

Hikaru Ueno had rarely witnessed such regularity before.

After all, what he had been in contact with before was the death of a child.

But after coming here, the Eye of the Underworld handed over all "deaths" to him.

So after coming here, what Hikari Ueno saw the most was the natural death of people after aging.

A soul that dies in this way is very different from a child's soul.

The child's soul has a clarity and innocence that is unworldly.

And these souls are transparent and peaceful.

There are even some old people who will have a friendly chat with Hikaru Ueno before heading to the underworld.

For example, praising him for being handsome, or asking Huang Quanjie if he has any friends who have passed away.

Of course, some people cheerfully asked him when he would retire, and urged him to be full of hope for the future.

This continued from autumn to winter.

Until a certain winter afternoon.

On this day, Hikari Ueno received a rare task to harvest the souls of children.

A ten-year-old boy died in an accident.

He's going to pick up that soul at the crossroads.

This crossroads is the starting point of all karmic encounters in Bingsheng.

It is also the end of Ueno Hikaru's ordinary and peaceful life.

Of course, the cause of the incident was not the ten-year-old child.

This child was no different from the many, many souls he had seen before.

At first, he was excited about his strange state, and then he didn't believe that he was completely dead and could not return to the reality of his body. After repeated attempts and pleading with him to no avail, he fell into a breakdown, sat on the ground and cried.

Ueno Hikaru has always felt that after coming to Bingsheng, his patience is much better than before.

Now facing such a child, he always stood aside with no expression on his face, and took him away directly after the other party finished crying.

It should have been the same process today.

But when he approached the child who gradually stopped crying, a sudden change occurred.

Suddenly, with the sound of the wind, an iron rod lay in front of his eyes, blocking his way.

This attack was really sudden, Ueno Hikaru's pupils shrank, and he quickly took two steps back.

He looked down, and the black-haired boy with crutches had cold eyes.

He raised his head and stared at Hikaru Ueno, with a murderous intent in his raised black eyes.

The young man looked about the same age as Osamu Dazai, and he looked cold, exuding an aura of inhumanity.

But at the same time, there was still a childish look on his face.

The combination of the two feelings only made him seem... more lovable.

Ueno Hikaru and the boy looked at each other, blinked slightly, a little surprised: "Can you see me?"

Like random steps.

In other words, it is even more unusual than Luanbu.

Ranpo was able to see him at the time, and it may be because he was about to die.

But this black-haired boy still has a long lifespan.

The boy snorted coldly, completely ignored his question, and asked coldly, "What are you going to do to him?"

He glanced at the boy hiding behind him.

The soul actually looked similar to this young man, but when the two of them stood together, it gave the impression that the young man was much taller.

The soul shuddered and shrank behind him, whispering: "Yun, Skylark, he, he wants to kill me."

The boy named Skylark frowned suddenly, and his expression became even colder.

"He's dead." Hikari Ueno explained, "I'm only responsible for taking his soul away."

Skylark glanced at the boy behind him.

"He, he is talking nonsense!" The boy pointed at Hikari Ueno angrily.

It seemed that there was a skylark blocking him, and he also became much bolder.

"He just wants to kill me! The villain!"

Hikaru Ueno raised his hand and pointed behind the two of them.

Just as he raised his hand, before he could even speak, Yunque's expression froze, and he rushed towards him holding the kidnapper.

Hikaru Ueno was stunned for a moment, and based on the principle of not harming ordinary humans, he retreated helplessly under the pressure of the opponent.

Every attack of the young man was extremely fierce, with a posture of killing him with one blow, and he moved towards the fatal place.

Ueno Hikaru retreated several times in a row, seeing that the boy showed no signs of easing up, and was even getting tighter and tighter, plus that soul was sneakily planning to escape...

He stopped suddenly, raised his hand to block the boy's blow to his face, and grabbed his left turn.

The boy struggled for a while but did not break free, his slender phoenix eyes narrowed, looking more and more fierce.

He turned over suddenly, kicked his waist with his right leg, and the crutch in his left hand slammed Ueno Hikaru's right arm hard.

The next second, Ueno Hikaru looked at him indifferently for a second.

The boy's pupils shrank suddenly, as if he had expected something, but it was too late.

Hikaru Ueno directly supported the turn with his right arm, and reached his waist with his left hand, grabbing his ankle.

He picked up the boy by the legs like a kitten, took his crutches and threw them aside, and then controlled the boy to turn to the soul that hadn't run away completely.

That soul is still unwilling to give up, not only wants to run away by itself, but also drags his body along the way.

This is convenient for Hikari Ueno.

He shook the boy in his hand, motioning him to look over there.

"He is indeed dead, already in a state of separation from the body."

The boy who was hanging upside down snorted coldly, bent over and struggled vigorously.

A look of "I won't listen to your bullshit".

The soul noticed the movements of the two of them, and was startled. It dragged its body even harder, trying to escape from this place of right and wrong as soon as possible.

Ueno Hikari was a little distressed and sighed.

The soul couldn't escape in a short time, he hesitated for a moment, and decided to deal with the little black cat that had killed halfway in his hand first.

He turned the "little black cat" around and lifted it a little higher.

The boy stared at him angrily, as if he wanted to kill him, very fierce, like a cat with its tail raised up and meowing to threaten its owner.

Hikaru Ueno cut to the chase: "You have delayed my work."

Skylark boy ignored him.

Hikaru Ueno didn't expect the other party to answer other than "huh", and continued on his own: "This is very troublesome, so I don't need it next time."

Skylark boy tilted his head: "Hmph."

"I let you go now, can you guarantee that my work will not be affected in the future?"

"Humph."

Hikaru Ueno: "..."

It seems that it is not working.

There is a vague feeling in his heart that tells him that this kid is probably as difficult to deal with as the three he met before.

Fortunately, this was just a coincidence.

The boy's lifespan is still very long. If there is no accident, the next time they meet, it will probably be a long time later.

Just as he was thinking this way, the boy suddenly bent over to support himself, and wanted to attack him again.

Ueno Hikaru had no choice but to carry the person a little farther away, and then quietly used a little bit of ability.

The struggling young man suddenly quieted down and closed his eyes as if he had fallen asleep.

I don't know how many articles in the "Reaper's Code of Practice". If a creature repeatedly tries to prevent soul harvesting, the Reaper who performs the task can put the other party into a short-term sleep state.

Hikaru Ueno put the sleeping boy by the wall, thought for a while, picked up the crutches that had been thrown on the ground and put them beside him, then turned his head to look at the soul and his body that had just disappeared around the corner.

In the next second, Mr. Death caught up with the fleeing soul.

"No, don't, me!"

"I'm sorry, I've been delayed for a long time." Ueno Hikaru raised his sickle, his expression and demeanor didn't mean "sorry" at all.

The scythe cut through the boy's soul, and his howling of pain stopped abruptly.

Ueno put away the knife expressionlessly, and said to the air coldly: "It doesn't hurt."

Not far away, the boy's parents came after receiving the news.

Seeing those two figures, Ueno Hikari froze for a moment, then turned and left.

……

Ueno Hikaru really felt that the last encounter with that boy named "Skylark" was just a not-so-good accident.

I also really feel that such an accident in a short period of time, it is impossible to have a second time.

But the truth is, it was just three days later.

On a snowy morning, he met this black-haired boy again when he was harvesting the soul of an old man who had died of natural causes in Bingsheng Hospital.

Seeing Hikari Ueno from a distance, he raised his crutches and rushed over without hesitation.

It seems to have been waiting here for a long time.

This time, his expression was colder than last time.

It seemed as if he had seen some unequal enemy.

Hikaru Ueno sighed sincerely, gripping the sickle.

A little worried.

Right now, he just feels that Chuya, whom he met for the first time, is quite cute.

The cold abductee had already come before his eyes in a blink of an eye.

If the sharp edge had any substance, it directly cut Ueno Hikaru's high collar.

He easily subdued the boy like last time, and looked at him upside down.

Hikaru Ueno thought for a while and said, "You know what?"

"When you see my face, you are responsible for me." This is learned from the storybooks that the three children have read.

The boy stared at the lower half of his face that was exposed outside, and was stunned.