I died.
I vaguely remember how I died, but it's not a memory I particularly want to recall.
Even so, if I try to remember, my profession was a bodyguard, and I remember throwing myself to protect the person I was escorting just before I died, but there is no memory after that.
So, the only conclusion I can think of is that I am now dead.
But is it possible to think that you are dead?
Is it possible to think in such a place with nothing, right now?
Or perhaps, now I am not alive but have become a ghost after dying?
As these thoughts filled my mind, slowly from the dark place with nothing, a bright light began to flow.....
"Waaah~!!!!!Waaah~!!!!!!!"
I began to live a new life.
Moreover, I was reborn as a baby with the mind of a 27-year-old from my previous life.
Regardless of my will, I was just crying, and
it became the trigger for my second life, which was like a fantasy.
Before I knew it, 10 years had passed since I started living this new life.
If there is a difference from my previous life, it's that in this life, I have no parents.
My parents died in a traffic accident when I was 8 years old, and the inheritance came to me, but since there were no relatives to take care of me, I was placed in a facility,
and fortunately, my life wasn't so severe that I had to touch the inheritance, so there wasn't much difficulty in living.
With the support of the orphanage, I entered elementary school, and the one thing I felt was
that my body is different from ordinary people and has overwhelmingly different physical abilities.
Honestly, think about it, can a child who is only 10 years old bend steel bars?
Do you think there is an elementary school student who can lightly swing a fist at a wall to crack it and, with a bit more effort, collapse the wall?
The answer is no. Thanks to that, I have been living while hiding this power to some extent.
"......So, is there a reason you called me, Director?"
I had been continuing my ordinary life when the orphanage director called me, and upon entering the director's room, the person I saw there was
"........Is she a new child?"
A girl with purple hair and purple eyes was standing quietly.
But peculiarly, the star-shaped pupils engraved in her eyes felt very unusual, but what puzzled me most while looking at this child was
that her eyes were dead. Including my previous life, my mental age is in my mid-30s, and from my perspective, the emotion in this child's eyes was, without exaggeration, the worst.
No, perhaps since I myself lack much in expressing emotions, it might be that, but at least I trusted my instincts.
This child is broken in many ways.
As if noticing my gaze, I looked more closely at the girl staring at me..... Suddenly, I remembered a friend from my previous life who was also a bodyguard and a self-proclaimed otaku who claimed not to be an otaku.
[Hey, lately I've been watching a manga that's getting an anime adaptation this time?]
[So?]
[Hmm.....the manga... I mean, from the perspective of having read the original, this anime adaptation is really well done, you know~?]
[So, you're telling me to watch it? Why beat around the bush like that?]
[Sigh... you're too blunt, aren't you? Are you a machine!!]
[You expect too much from someone who has always been low on emotional expression.]
[Tsk tsk~ Well, what can I expect from you!! Anyway, so the title of this anime is....]
Oshi no Ko.
That's right. Looking at this girl in front of me now, I remembered.
The child in front of me is Hoshino Ai, the mother of Hoshino Aquamarine and Hoshino Ruby, the protagonists of Oshi no Ko, and a future idol belonging to B-Komachi.
In my previous life, at my friend's request, I watched the original, and in the original, Hoshino Ai dies.
The emotion I felt at that time was only one thing.
It was merely pity.
I pitied Hoshino Ai, who was abandoned as a child, lived in a facility, didn't know true love, and tried to fill it with lies.
Before she was killed at the end..... before her life was cut short, I pitied Hoshino Ai, who realized love.
And I pitied the children who were broken by Hoshino Ai's death.
That's right..... the emotion I felt watching Oshi no Ko was nothing more than pity.
Before I knew it, my emotion was pity as I looked at Hoshino Ai, and seeing Hoshino Ai just standing there even under my gaze, I felt pity again.
"Yes, this is Hoshino Ai, who just arrived. Since you are the most mature, I entrust this child to you from now on."
The director said, looking at us gazing at each other.
To put it bluntly, he wasn't that good of a person. But that doesn't mean he was a bad person either.
The director was simply someone doing his job in the director's position, and it should be seen that he had no emotional attachment to the children.
For me, that was more comfortable, so I didn't pay much attention, but in reality, when the director was absent, I was the one who filled that position,
so it seemed that I, who had the director's trust, was to take care of this child.
"......I understand."
"Good, go ahead. Take good care of her from now on."
With those words, the director left the room, saying he was going out, and after the director left, Hoshino Ai and I just looked at each other, then
"First, sit over there."
".......(nods)"
Seeing Hoshino Ai sit on the sofa at my words, I said
".......I'll introduce myself first. I am Hoshino Yume. I'll be the one taking care of you from now on. I'm 10 years old. And you?"
".......Hoshino Ai, 7 years old....."
"Okay."
With that, the child who fell silent, I decided to guide to my room where we would live together.
Really... it would have been better not to remember memories like those from my previous life....
To feel pity for a child I'm meeting for the first time....
There was no greater absurdity than this.