Keiji Ueji

**Overview**
Gallery

**Keiji Ueji** (上エ地 圭二, *Ueji Keiji*) was one of the Abashiri Convicts.

## Appearance

Ueji has long, dark colored hair styled into braids, and is always seen wearing a hat with a pom pom at the top. He wears a coat with floral patterns, striped pants, white gloves, and long socks with Geta on his feet. A white sheet of either cloth or paper is draped over his face like a mask, which has two holes for his eyes (this seems to be tied around his head with a thin string). His eyes are dark in color, with a single vertical white line running through the middle of his irises (present as an adult and only during his second childhood flashback, possibly as a way to mark a before and after in his broken mental state. It's important to note the author seems like adding and substracting eye details for certain characters when something changes inside of them). He is usually carrying a box that is tied with a rope around his neck, in which he carries a puppet for his performance.

His most iconic characteristics are the several tattoos present on his face and neck, which he later explains were tattooed onto his skin by himself. His teeth look different than most character's, enough to give the intial impression to have been filed down to appear purposefully different, but it's confirmed they had been much the same even in childhood. He has dark circles under his eyes that rather than look like tattoos themselves, look like they're part of his natural skin. Curiously enough, these circles are present in both the current events and the flashback of his time in Abashiri prison (adulthood), but aren't present during his childhood flashback.

## Personality

He was described by Boutarou the Pirate as "a weird guy (...) whose favorite thing in the world is to see the look on someone's face when they're disappointed".

Ueji is a trickster that enjoys pranking others and lying to them in order to get a laugh out of their resulting disappointed facial expressions. The sight of a disappointed face seems to bring him an abnormal amount of joy, which is something that greatly contrasts with how bizarre the very source of his laughter is.

He also seems to be a very negative and pessimistic person despite his tendency to never miss the chance to lie and crack a joke, as was seen in chapter 244, when he explains to a child that "(...) this world... every minute of every day... is full of nothing but disappointments". It's unclear if when he says this he finds this "fact" to be a good thing because it amuses him, or if he considers this to be something bad. Prior to saying this, he had been telling the child about how he did his own facial tattoos, and how through bearing the pain, he started to think they made him stronger. He says "It's like you can paint over your entire self, and transform into a stronger person".

## Background

Ueji's childhood was a turbulent one, thanks to the high expectations put on him by everyone that knew him. He seemed to have been living a moderately privileged life in the large house he is seen playing around as a child is anything to go by, possibly thanks to his successful father. But despite this, he was deeply unhappy and troubled.

Ueji's father fought splendidly in the battle of Hakodate, and was apparently a very respected soldier thanks to that. And as a consequence, the pressure to live up to the same expectations was placed on him from a very early age, not only by his own strict father, but by everyone that knew him. He was constantly compared to his father in physical appearance, and was often told to study hard and live up to his expectations, that he should feel pride for being the son of such a man, and that he one day might become a great soldier just like his father. To Ueji, it didn't seem like he had much say in the way he wanted to live his own life. Maybe it was thanks to this that he began acting out at the Military Preparatory Academy, and refused to even make friends within the school, which was something his father disapproved of.

In the end, his father had quite the strict way of dealing with his deviancy from the rules. Ueji was told that if he was kicked out of the military academy, he would no longer be welcome in his own home. When his father warned him of this, he also added: "Aren't I always telling you? Don't disappoint me" which not only hints that his father was constantly pressing him to do as he was told, but that also serves to give us insight into the reasons why Ueji might be so drawn to disappointing everyone he meets, even if his reaction to this has evolved from sad tears in his youth, to joyous laughter in the present time. His father even went as far as presumably "giving away" Ueji's dog named Jirou, something that greatly upset Ueji to the point of filling the garden with large holes as he searched for his corpse, convinced his father had killed and buried his pet somewhere in the garden. He refused to believe the story of the dog being given away, arguying that it was too old of a dog like for anyone to want him, so he remained convinced of the dog's death and even yelled at his mother over it (something that made the woman scold him and bring up how disappointed his father would be if only he had heard him act out like that, which further hints at just how important his acceptance and pride were deemed). It's at this point, and seemingly thanks to the distress of losing the only thing he cared about and loved by presumed murder, that Ueji breaks.

He tattoos the kanji for "dog" on his forehead, and goes to see his father immediately after, clothes still dirty and his forehead bleeding. His father is mildly annoyed at first, but quickly becomes deeply disturbed at the realization that he wont be able to wipe that thing off of his son's forehead with nothing but a rag, and Ueji breaks out laughing at his father's plainly disappointed face.

At some untold point in time, and after very likely being kicked out of his childhood home and academy, he begins abducting children and burying them in his garden (it is left unclear how he managed this, if he was truly kicked out of his house, if he drove his parents away from their home, or if he acquired another home to carry this out). He is eventually caught and sent to serve a life sentence at Abashiri where he was tattooed by Nopperabou while he was on death row, and from where he later escaped along with the other tattooed convicts.

## Plot

### Boutarou the Pirate Arc

Sugimoto's group had been searching for Boutarou the Pirate and ended up in an Ainu village in the Sorachi river valley, where they asked an Ainu man if he knew anything about a japanese man asking about gold dust with a strange tattoo. The Ainu man replies that no Japanese man with that description had been seen around the kotan, but that there had been rumors of there being a man with strange tattoos lurking near the coal mine in Utashinai. The Ainu man adds that the strange man was working as a candy peddler, a detail that would later make Sugimoto and Shiraishi doubt that this man in partcular could really be Boutarou, since they both agree that someone like him wouldn't take up such a job. Interestingly enough, Shiraishi doesn't seem to have any idea who this other potential convict could be, as it seems he had never even heard of Ueji Keiji before, or seen his face.

In his first appearance in this chapter, Ueji is seen selling candy in a coal mining town in Utashinai, and calls out for a little boy to come closer and get a free sample of the candy he is selling. The child, excited, heads over his way to take the candy, only to realize Ueji had given him a piece of coal. The kid is disappointed and Ueji gets a laugh out of that, but promptly apologizes to avoid the kid running off, and instead tells him to follow him if he wanted to see something "much better than candy". It's easy to assume the child doesn't make it out alive as they head out into the woods together.

Ueji is seen again in the next chapter (233), where Sugimoto's group catches up to him thanks to a child letting them know there was a peddler with strange tattoos very close by. Shiraishi is the one to approach him from behind, asking for some candy. Despite the fact that only Ueji's eyes are visible thanks to his mask, it's implied that he is surprised and recognizes Shiraishi immediately. Ueji then tells him to take a closer look, because the candy was going to pop out of the box he carries, apparently not missing the chance to prank someone since all he does is make the puppet inside the box peek it's head out to scare Shiraishi. Ueji doesn't laugh, which implies Shiraishi wasn't really disappointed by this at all, and instead just startled. The mood quickly changes when Shiraishi asks him about the strange tattoos he had heard that he had, with Sugimoto chiming in and agreeing he'd love to see them. At this, Ueji promptly lifts his mask to show them his face with a wide smile, which takes Sugimoto, Shiraishi and Asirpa off guard, as they can't believe his face is like that. Ueji adds, quite proudly, that he made them all himself, and Sugimoto soon states what a waste of time it all had been, obviously disappointed by them apparently following a bad lead. Ueji sees Sugimoto's genuinely disappointed face, and bursts out laughing, and the group glances at him before just leaving him be.

As Ueji retreats, he says "Boss Wakayama's face was pretty great too, though!", something that Asirpa instantly picks up on, and as she turns to look at him, he says "you'll never be able to find the gold!" and disappears without a trace.

### Town of Reunions Arc

Ishikawa Takuboku mentions to Hijikata's group, right after talking about the serial prostitute killer in Sapporo, about a case that intrigues him. At the same time, someplace else, Shiraishi reads what seems to be the same newspaper and asks Sugimoto if he has heard about the case before: Several children disappearing all throughout Hokkaido. At the mention of a child abductor, Boutarou speaks up and suggests he knows who the kidnapper could be. After Boutarou describes Ueji's physical appearance, Asirpa exclaims that it has to be the same guy with the face tattoos they had seen before, and it is then revealed that Ueji Keiji is one of the 24 Abashiri escaped convicts. After taking a look at the places from where the children had been abducted, both Ishikawa and Sugimoto's group come to the same realization that the kidnapper is moving in a specific direction, having abducted children from Asahikawa, Utashinai, Iwamizawa, and Ebetsu in that order, in what seemed to be a beeline for his destination: Sapporo.

Next time we see Ueji is in chapter 244, in Sapporo. He is in the town singing and offering his candy, when Toni Anji recognizes his voice and tells Ushiyama, who instantly remembers him as "that demon". We see Ueji approach a young boy who is calling out for his lost pet, and ask him about it, mentioning he saw him searching for his pet the day before as well. Ueji then asks if he's looking for a dog that has a black spot on the side of his nose (which makes the child get excited and hopeful) and then points in the direction where he had supposedly last seen the dog in question. Ueji scorts him over to the area he insists the animal was at, and casually mentions "that cat with a spot on the side of his nose". This instantly makes the child stop and correct him, saying he's looking for a dog, not a cat, and the realization washes over him that his dog is still as lost as before. Ueji takes a good look at the child's disappointed face and starts to laugh at it, to then quickly say that he's only joking, and that he knows he's looking for a dog. It's at this point that the kid asks what happened to his face, and Ueji gladly tells him all about his tattoos.

Ueji then coerces the child to go look near the side of a building, where a dog laying on the ground is visible, which excited the kid yet again. But it doesn't last long, seeing as once he got close enough, he realized the dog had been decapitated, and when he turned around, he saw his pet's severed head inside the puppet box that Ueji carries around. Instead of the desired disappointment, this causes the child to become upset and horrified, which doesn't satisfy Ueji. The man settles for slowly asphyxiating the child instead, making sure to do it slow enough that he has the chance to give him hope that he'll be released, to then admit he's only kidding, and obtaining this way the priced disappointed expression he was going for.

It's relevant to mention that it's in this very chapter that Boutarou the Pirate tells Sugimoto's group the story of how he met Ueji Keiji. He tells them that Ueji lied to him for years about a dead aunt he had never met but that supposedly existed, that wanted to visit Boutarou but wouldn't dare because of her social standing. He'd describe her and even the accent in which she spoke, and had Boutarou completely fooled up until he mentioned it to Ushiyama (who was always chained to Ueji when doing phsycial labour outside) and the man told him he had never seen the woman Ueji claimed to have seen so many times. When Boutarou went and confronted Ueji about this, the trickster laughed at his disappointed face, confirming it had all been nothing but an elaborate prank to get to disappoint Boutarou and laugh at his expense. This story serves to cement the fact that Ueji seemingly will go to great lengths to get what he wants, and is smart enough to pick up on personal details he can use for an elaborate lie he is willing to keep up with for years on end.
After Sugimotos and Hijikatas groups stakeout on the brewery to catch Michael Ostrog, Ueji spots the signal firework from the commotion and heads over. Knowing that both groups are present and with the desire to disappoint everyone, he climbs to the top of the brewery tower and strips, laying himself bare and revealing that he had already tattooed over his skin, ruining Nopperabos code. To his dismay, Hijikatas, Sugimotos and even Tsurumis group are unfazed. As they've only been collecting the skins to keep them away from the enemy, and they could still possibly decipher the code without needing all 24 skins. Ueiji becomes disappointed from the lack of response and falls to his death from the tower. When Ueji catches a glimpse of his own disappointed face in the window, he laughs moments before hitting the roof decapitates him.
Ueji isn't seen until later at the Sapporo Brewery, where all the parties involved in the gold hunt are to clash together for the sake of obtaining Jack the Ripper's skin. As the crowd gathers thanks to the fire caused by the chase inside the brewery, and the fireworks that had been lit as per part of Sugimoto's and Hijikata's plan, he expresses excitement at the apparent fact that everyone has come to get the criminal from the newspapers.
Taking advantage of the firefighter's high ladder, Ueji pulls them down and hijacks it for the sake of climbing atop the Sapporo Brewery tower, to both have a better view and make sure everyone will be able to see him. Once on top, he yells to catch everyone's attention, strips completely naked to reveal that he tattooed his body over the original tattoo Wilk had given him, to render it completely useless. As this happens, he yells "now the code can never be solved".
It's clear his goal was to disappoint everyone staring up at him, but his plan fails miserably as everyone turns their heads away to ignore him. Tsurumi makes a remark about the code being able to be solved even without all of the 24 skins, and Sugimoto, separetely, claims that everyone already had figured that out. Everyone, but Ueji Keiji.
Ueji, realizing that no one cared about his tattoo having been ruined, feels extremely disappointed. Atop that high tower, and feeling distressed, he loses his balance suddenly, and slides down the top of the tower, until he finally slips and falls to his pitiful death: being beheaded by what seems to be the base of the tower. He was able to get one last laugh however by seeing the reflection of his disappointed face in the window.

## Trivia

* Keiji had a lot of elaborate tattoos on his body:
	+ The large tattoo on the left side of his forehead is read as "dog", and it was a punishment tattoo given to criminals during Edo-era Japan, specifically in the Aki province (located on the western part of modern day Hiroshima prefecture). It was tattooed on in parts, first the horizontal stroke, then the left stroke, and then the right stroke. Each of these strokes were added after the criminal committed a crime, adding up then to the full kanji if he were to reoffend.
	+ The large tattoo on the right side of his forehead is read as "evil", and was also a punishment tattoo given to criminals by force during Edo-era Japan. This one was given to criminals in the Kii province (located in modern-day Wakayama prefecture).
	+ The tattoo on his cheek that resembles a flower might have been based on a family crest based on the plum flower.
	+ The rest of his tattoos, such as the long arrow-like one pointing to his eye, the one to the right of this one that looks like a cross that end in forks, the one on his other cheek that looks like a cross inside a box surrounded by X's, are all Ryukyu tattoos (a kingdom whose islands are today part of the Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures). These tattoos were placed on the back of women's hands to ward off bad luck and make them more desirable for marriage. The tattoos themselves were called "hajichi", and they varied from island to island. Ueji has tattoos on his face found on three different islands.
	+ The tattoo on his chin appears to be Ainu in origin. The closest match the translators were able to find was an Ainu design motif for Owl.
	+ When it comes to his entire body, there seem to be a few tattoos inspired by Hajichi tattoos, like the one on his neck and the x's and +'s all over his body, and some, like the stripes that surround his right forearm and right calve seem to once again be a type of tattoo given to criminals in Edo era Japan.
	+ On the right side of his body, coming down from the ribcage and over the right side of his stomach, he has tattooed his own name "Keiji" in hiragana.
	+ On the left side of his body, starting on his left hip and going down the front of his right thigh, he has tattooed his family name "Ueji" in hiragana. Right below this is a kanji that seemingly represents "Ro", which paired with the "Ji" from "Ueji" would make "Jiro" - the name of his childhood dog.
	+ On the right side of his body, starting on his right hip and going down the front of his right thigh, he has tattooed his family name again, "Ueji", this time in Kanji. Below that, not far from it and nearing his inner thigh, he has the kanji for "Dog" tattooed again (the same as his forehead), most likely in reference to his pet once again.