Are the Kids I Picked Up Really All Right?

I am Cangming, a dragon of noble blood, accidentally stranded in the Heian era.

I planned to command the winds and rain, rule the demon world, and live a carefree life, until I started picking up kids.

One pickup turned into a thousand-year-long parenting encyclopedia, written against my will.

Every kid I picked up was a handful:

The little Muzan from the Heian era was weak, sickly, and sensitive. I worried about his health insurance every day, afraid he'd get it into his head to become a demon king who couldn't go out in sunlight. And don't get me started on that ungrateful Sukuna, who brought along little Uraume, a kid he'd picked up himself, and ran rampant, turning the jujutsu world upside down.

In the Warring States period, I picked up little Yoriichi. He was gifted but stubborn, so I tearfully shoved him into a room with his sour-faced older brother, another kid I'd picked up, and spent every day mediating their family disputes.

At last, I made it to the modern era, thinking things might get easier. Then I picked up a white-haired, blue-eyed kid who wrecks the house every day with his best friend, and a little one who likes to wear bangs and keeps pondering philosophical questions like, "Should we eliminate non-sorcerers?" So I immediately hit him with a copy of Core Socialist Values!

Yokohama is no easier. One little kid, who seems to be a sentient bandage, wants to drown himself every day. Another, with starry eyes, is always hurting himself. They make me shed fur by the handful with worry. The clever green-eyed kid has gotten himself in trouble again by running his mouth (sob). At least there's a tiny orange-haired kid and a tiny red-haired kid to comfort me... Oh, and there's an elementary schooler who leaves death in his wake wherever he goes. The police have nearly pounded our front door off its hinges!

Not to mention, one of the kids I picked up was abandoned by his own family!!! Abandoned!!! He had a perfectly good life at home, but insisted on becoming the top killer for some criminal organization.

Guided by the principle that "anything made by dragons is top quality," I raise them with care.

Other people raise kids to care for them in their old age. I raise kids to stop them from wrecking the world. Years later, I look at the demon king who stirs up storms, the invincible King of Curses, the strongest sorcerer, the Port Mafia's fixer, and Gin of the Black Organization... and wonder: Did I succeed or fail as a parent?

Life as a demon is hard, but... when I see them all crowding around me and calling me "Dad," I figure, oh well, what else can I do but keep them?

This is a story about raising kids. There are plenty more little ones besides those mentioned in the blurb.

Mo Xi won't write a tragic story. Everyone will get a happy ending.

Apologies for the out-of-character portrayals. The story starts with all of them as kids, and Mo Xi will do their best to keep their personalities true to the originals.

Theme: Love, companionship, and proper guidance are the fundamental forces that shape a person's character