Uncle Hikigaya is Forever Young [61]

It's ironic, really.

When the younger Yuigahama-san was alive, even until his death, he never truly improved the lives of his wife and daughter.

Yet after his sudden demise, by some twist of fate, Mrs. Yuigahama and their daughter, Yui, finally managed to settle down.

The company Yuigahama-san worked for was a global leader in ICT. Sure, their attitude toward lower-level staff was basically: "Do your job or get lost," but at least they weren’t shameless enough to leave employees entirely without insurance.

But how much could group insurance like that even amount to?

Just 2.8 million yen.

That was less than a third of what the former "Hikigaya Ryōhei" earned at the peak of his career—including salary and everything else.

Put bluntly, Mr. Yuigahama was scraping the very bottom of society, almost crushed into the mud. Meanwhile, back then, Hikigaya Ryōhei had once glimpsed a chance—just the slightest possibility—to break through the iron walls that cage those born into poverty.

Yet fate, fickle and cruel, plays its games as it pleases.

Admittedly, buying group insurance could count as a company benefit.
But from another angle, it was just a convenient method for the company to offload its own risks—especially since Yuigahama-san worked in a place notorious for sudden deaths.

Mrs. Yuigahama, holding back tears, was promptly informed after receiving the insurance payout that this was the total extent of the company's responsibility.

And then—there was nothing more...

Well, HR did offer one more thing: if she were willing to publicly thank the company, they could generously throw in an extra million yen as a "humanitarian gesture."

Even now, Mrs. Yuigahama couldn't forget the bone-deep chill she felt at that moment.

She, who had never struck anyone in her life, slapped that well-dressed animal across the face right then and there.

I, Yuigahama Asuna, refuse your filthy money!

Is exchanging a life for money really worth it?

And besides, even if you risk your life, you're not guaranteed to actually get paid!

This few million yen was certainly a huge sum to the Yuigahama mother and daughter—but still painfully inadequate.

Later, Mrs. Yuigahama discovered her husband had secretly bought personal life insurance. A month afterward, another twenty million yen fell into her hands.

Yet, there was no joy at all.

She still vividly remembered a night two weeks before Yui’s father passed away, when he'd texted her, saying he might not be able to endure it much longer.

But back then, she’d been juggling part-time jobs while nursing the baby. Amid the numbing fatigue and daily struggles, she'd overlooked it entirely...

"How can one hold both worlds intact—betray neither Buddha nor thee?"

Mrs. Yuigahama softly shook her head, murmuring those words under her breath.

“Mom! Why’re you spacing out?”

Suddenly, a pair of slender arms wrapped around her neck, and a sweet fragrance enveloped her.

Her daughter had returned home.

Caught off-guard, she was startled, quickly patting her chest to steady herself.

“Ah! You nearly scared me to death!”

“Hehe!”

“Enough playing around! Hurry and wash your hands—dinner’s ready!”

Pretending mild annoyance, the single mother gently pulled her daughter's arms away, a calm smile still lingering on her face.

“Got it!”

“Oh right, did you properly thank Hikigaya-kun yet?” Mrs. Yuigahama asked after her daughter.

“Um…we didn't really talk much yet—but I exchanged numbers with Komachi-chan! We agreed she'll teach me chinese chess tomorrow!”

“Oh-ho!”

...

That night, the Hikigaya family finally settled into their newly rented home, which, truthfully speaking, was neither spacious nor particularly new.

Still, they shared their first meal at the new place.

At least now they didn’t have to squeeze so tightly together that reaching for chopsticks risked colliding elbows.

They hadn't owned much to begin with, so moving had been quite effortless—didn't even require hiring a moving company.

Apart from their precious rice cooker and soy milk machine, it was mostly clothes, kitchenware, bedding—

And the ever-growing piles of Ryōhei’s books.

This new place was your typical standalone house, the so-called "ikkodate."

It seemed pretty old, somewhat worn, and rather narrow in layout.

There was a bedroom downstairs and two rooms upstairs—a children's bedroom and a study.

Thus, Komachi and Akeno could share one room, Hachiman had another, and he himself had one. It felt adequately comfortable.

Since Nakano-san had hurriedly returned to the countryside with his wife, many old furnishings and clutter were left behind for Ryōhei to deal with.

Right now, he was strapped for cash—utterly broke, really—so he gladly put the old furniture to immediate use.

He didn't mind being laughed at.

Poverty was poverty, after all.

Ryōhei was precisely the type who valued practical gains over pride—his skin was thick when necessary.

After an exhausting afternoon settling in, he planned to thoroughly clean the place tomorrow.

Now, after dinner, Ryōhei found a rare moment of leisure.

Watching two little girls playing chess in the living room, and seeing Hachiman quietly reading a book,
he sat by the curtain-drawn window facing the tiny garden.

He felt an unexpected, small, but definite sense of happiness.

May life get better and better from now on...

He lounged comfortably on an old recliner, feeling his tired body begin to ease.
As boredom blended with comfort, Ryōhei suddenly remembered something and asked Hachiman to bring over an unopened bag from the move.

He'd realized earlier during the afternoon’s unpacking that it contained yearbooks and things like that.

The original "Hikigaya Ryōhei" had kept them in surprisingly good condition.

Since he had nothing better to do, he decided to flip through them casually.

Teaching at Sōbu High had made him deeply aware of just how important interpersonal relationships could be.

Having mostly adjusted to being "Hikigaya Ryōhei," perhaps now he should try inheriting some of those abstract things—like connections and acquaintances.

Who knows, it might be useful someday.

Or at least spare him awkwardness if he bumped into a familiar face on the street.

Ryōhei began flipping through them, book by book, page by page, quite quickly—just glancing here and there.

"This one's from university, huh…hmm…there are quite a few girls? Maybe because it was a teacher's college? Munetani Mashiro… Itō—wait, this one’s a guy… and here, Tōsaka—wait, no, crossed out—it's Saionji Sekai… this surname seems familiar somehow…"

Ryōhei merely skimmed casually. He recognized the words, of course, but the emotions and memories within them were utterly lost on him.

Seven or eight minutes later, he reached for the high school yearbook, blowing away the dust before opening it to the first page.

“Uh!?”

An eerie, unsettling feeling rushed over him, nearly causing Ryōhei to sneeze.

What should've been a clean first page was now covered in faded, reddish scribbles, like ghostly graffiti.

No, not graffiti. On closer look, they seemed to be hastily scrawled words—

[Die, die, die…]

---

A/N: Brief recap of the currently (officially) introduced female characters (excluding young girls and old women), convenient for everyone to place their bets: Kazusa, Setsuna, Nanami, Dango (Yui), Big Dango (Asuna), Yukino, Haruno, Kikyou-angel, Mafuyu, Editor (Sonoko), and Shizuka…

This is a fan translation of 比企谷大叔永远年轻 by Stargazer All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!