21st Century Necromancer

Seeing that Yu Chen had stopped Classmate Shirai's suicide attempt, both Misumi Mikoto, who was watching the scene through a video call, and Hiromi Jounouchi, who had followed behind him, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Faced with Classmate Shirai still looking utterly confused by the sudden turn of events, Hiromi Jounouchi lost her temper and yelled, "Bastard! If you have the courage to commit suicide, why don't you have the courage to keep living? Why do people like you lose hope and choose suicide? There's nothing after death!"

"But... but I could have saved him!" Classmate Shirai, who had been knocked to the ground by Yu Chen, began to cry out, his voice filled with sadness and self-blame, "I could have saved him! I saw Xiaochi and the others getting caught, and I wanted to stop it, but I was too late... Yokoyama is dead, and yet I survived... Is this really okay?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Hiromi Jounouchi glared at him in frustration, grabbing his collar and pulling him up from the ground, "You couldn't save him, so you should live even more fully! Live your life to the fullest, including the part that Yokoyama couldn't live! Make it twice as amazing as compensation for him! That's how you honor him—not by dying with him!"

As Hiromi Jounouchi spoke, her expression of anger turned to one of sorrow as she earnestly gazed into Shirai's bewildered eyes and told him, "I am a doctor; I long to save every single patient, but still, some die right before my eyes. I can't save everyone! Some whom I could have saved also died before me.

If I thought like you do, I would have been consumed by self-blame and guilt a long time ago!"

But we cannot always wallow in sorrow and self-blame. The incident with Yokoyama Classmate is regrettable, and although you blame yourself deeply for not being able to save him, why do you have to die as well? Do you think Yokoyama will hate you because he died and you did not? If he really was your good friend, then he would never have wanted that. If you don't believe me, ask him yourself!"

With that, Hiromi Jounouchi dragged Classmate Shirai towards Yokoyama's body, not realizing that the phone Shirai had left on the table behind them was still on, the video call still in progress.

"Mr. Chen Yu, is Yokoyama still there?" Hiromi Jounouchi asked Yu Chen directly, not minding that Shirai would learn some things he shouldn't know.

Yu Chen, who had covered Yokoyama's naked torso with clothes from a nearby mannequin, looked back at Hiromi Jounouchi and at Classmate Shirai, whom she had brought over, clearly understanding what she meant. He frowned slightly before nodding, "Yokoyama's soul is still here. Say whatever you want to him."

After speaking, Yu Chen snapped his fingers, and a translucent figure appeared alongside them—it was Yokoyama, who had committed suicide.

Yokoyama looked at himself, seemingly amazed that he could suddenly manifest a physical form, but his surprise was short-lived. Another person, even more astonished than him, interrupted his shock.

"Yokoyama!" Shirai cried out Yokoyama's name through his tears, looking at his translucent soul, reaching out to touch him but afraid that doing so might cause him to disappear. His hand raised, he stood unsure of what to do next.

"Shirai..." Yokoyama looked back at Shirai, equally unsure of what to say. Although he had died, he saw everything Shirai had done and knew his own death wasn't Shirai's fault.

Classmate Shirai's self-blame and guilt, as well as the things he had done for himself and his desire to commit suicide accompanying him, were all seen by Classmate Yokoyama, who had been unable to prevent Shirai's suicide because he was already dead. Only now had the Necromancer given him a form to appear before Shirai, so he could finally talk to him.

"Yokoyama... I'm sorry! I couldn't save you! I'm sorry! I saw Xiaochi and the others getting caught, I wanted to call and stop you, but the call didn't go through! I'm sorry!

I rushed to school to stop you, but I didn't make it! I'm sorry!" Classmate Shirai knelt in front of Yokoyama, sobbing uncontrollably.

"It's okay, Shirai. My death is not your fault; it was my own impulsiveness. If I had listened more to your advice, I wouldn't have died." Yokoyama looked at Shirai with a smile and comforted him: "Thank you, Shirai, for everything you've done for me, thank you."

Upon hearing Yokoyama's comforting words, Shirai finally felt hope rising in his eyes again, he lifted his head to look at Yokoyama and asked, "But you're dead, and I'm still alive. Is that really okay?"

"It is, oh, I'm dead, but you're still alive. So, live well, for both of us, keep living," Yokoyama said, placing his hand on Shirai's shoulder. Even though he couldn't touch him, Shirai still felt the encouraging power transmitted from that hand.

"Wuuu~" Shirai's head dropped, tears dripping onto the ground.
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Watching Shirai's tears, Yokoyama patted his shoulder, then turned to Yu Chen and Hiromi Jounouchi: "Both of you, thank you for what you've done for us, thank you for saving Shirai, thank you."

Having said that, Yokoyama bowed deeply to them both.

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"Mr. Chen Yu, where did you send Yokoyama's soul?" After everything was settled, Hiromi Jounouchi, holding onto Chen Yu's hand on the way home, suddenly asked Chen Yu out of curiosity, "Also, didn't you say you were going to let Yokoyama seek revenge?"

"I lent him a bit of strength to go do what he wanted to do. As for whether he chooses to take revenge on Xiaochi or to make up for regrets he had in life, that's his business." Chen Yu smiled at Hiromi Jounouchi, revealing to her what had happened to Yokoyama.

Hearing Chen Yu say this, Hiromi Jounouchi couldn't help but be surprised and, after pondering with a furrowed brow, she then asked Chen Yu, "What do you think, Mr. Chen Yu, will Yokoyama choose revenge? Seeing how he was, it's hard to imagine he could do something like take his own life."

"Everyone has a hidden side they don't show, perhaps he was meant to be a bright and sunny person. Maybe the pain and hardships he suffered drove him to become as he did, leading him to choose suicide out of desperation and helplessness?" Chen Yu also felt a touch of sentimentality.

The profession of a Necromancer gave him a different perspective on life and death, but his thirty years of life experience and medical ethics still made it impossible for him to ignore a life passing before his eyes, "He harbored unyieldingness and hatred in his heart, such obsessions would prevent him from being reborn, so I gave him a chance to vent. As for how he chooses to enact revenge...

sometimes, death is not the most painful form of retribution."