Monaca Towa gets adopted by the Naegi family!

He never truly believed that his luck was good.

Sure, his luck had got him to attend the most prestigious school in Japan—Hope's Peak Academy—where he was almost guaranteed success in life upon graduation. But, he did have to go through a whole string of unlucky events on a day that he would consider "the worst day of his life." For every good event to happen to him, there would always be a hundred more bad events following close behind.

And when he looked back on that day—that beautiful sunny day—when his life turned upside down due to a certain person; he wondered what he had done wrong in life to deserve such a punishment.

He woke up to the sight of the morning sun glaring through the blinds of his window. Rubbing his eyes, he removed himself from his bed. There was no need for him to dress himself up since he always slept in his green hoodie and black jeans. In fact, apart from his school uniform, his wardrobe really only consisted of green hoodies and black jeans.

As he was heading towards the bathroom he was jumped by his little sister—Komaru Naegi. She was in high spirits for some reason.

"Awk! K-Komaru?!" He had almost fallen over from being jumped on, but he managed to regain his footing at the last second.

"M-Makoto! You must come to the front door immediately!" Komaru was breathing quite fast that he was worried she would pass out any second now.

"Eh? But I haven't even—"

"No buts! You have to see the surprise!"

A surprise? Now he was curious as to what this surprise could be. What had gotten his little sister this riled up in the early morning?

"Okay, okay," he said, a small smile on his face. "I'll go to the front door with you."

"Yeah! That's the spirit!" she replied before dragging him towards the front entrance of the house. He saw his parents standing by the doorway, smiles on their faces as they watched them approach.

"Ah, Makoto! Good morning!" his mum said.

"Good morning mum," he said. He glanced around his surroundings. "So um, what's the big surprise?"

His mother chuckled. "Why don't you see for yourself." She turned her head towards the door and called, "You can come out now! Don't be shy!"

The door opened, and he saw…

A girl in a wheelchair?

"Hello! Monaca is called Monaca! Nice to meet you Big Bro Makoto!" the girl said.

Big Bro?

"This may seem like it came out of nowhere," his dad said, "but starting today, Monaca will be living with us!"

Living with them?!

"What!"

Now this was definitely a huge surprise for him; who knew his parents had gone off and adopted a kid without telling them. But in hindsight, their behaviour in the last weeks—installing ramps on all of their doors, removing all of their carpets, reading articles about adopting a disabled child—should have tipped him off that something was up.

"Isn't she so cute?!" Komaru said. She walked right up to Monaca and gave her a massive hug.

"Awww, you're so kind Big Sis Komaru!" Monaca said. "Although… Big Bro Makoto doesn't look so happy."

"Huh?" He scratched his cheek. "Well, this is a bi—"

"Does Big Bro Makoto already hate Monaca?" Her eyes were on the verge of tears. "Does Big Bro want Monaca to leave?"

"Wait! Wait! I don't hate you! I was just surprised that's all! In fact, I think this is a wonderful surprise!"

"Y-You do?"

"Yeah! I'll admit that I was surprised to see you, but in time I'm sure you'll be a wonderful little sister! So please don't cry."

Despite looking like she was on the verge of tears just a second ago, Monaca smiled at him. "Yayyyy! Big Bro likes Monaca!" she said, and did a little twirl on the spot.

How was she doing that without using her hands?

"Now that Monaca has introduced herself," his mum said, "why don't we have a huge celebration to welcome her into our family?"

"That's a great idea!" Komaru pitched in.

"Then it's settled," his dad said. "Let's celebrate our newest addition to our family, Monaca Naegi!"

His parents and sister departed to the living room to prepare the party. He and Monaca still stood near the doorway, and as he stared at her he felt a shiver up his spine.

It should have made him happy to get another sibling, and yet he felt… afraid. Afraid that for some reason his whole life was going to take a turn for the worse from now on.

Monaca strolled over to his side and clasped her left hand onto his right. With a warm smile, she said, "I hope we can become best friends forever Big Bro!"

His fear for his future was evaporated at the sight of her smile. How could such an innocent possibly make his life worse?

With a warm smile of his own, he replied, "I have no doubt that we would become great friends Monaca."

After their celebration, Monaca moved into Komaru's room. The days after her arrival were peaceful, and were in fact quite fun with their newest member of the family. With no effort, Monaca had integrated herself into his family and had won over their hearts with her jokes and smiles.

He was pretty relieved by this. He still felt that strange feeling of fear from time to time, usually when he was alone with Monaca, but he always tried to dismiss it as him not being used to her presence yet. Besides, what was there to be afraid of with Monaca?

…That was until she caused a certain prank that got him into trouble…

He stretched himself at his desk. After five hours of sitting and typing at his computer, he had finally finished the last bit of his assignment from school. All he needed to do now was save it and—

A sudden scream coming from his sister's room surprised him. This also caused his mouse to move just a bit towards the do not save button, and with a click, all of his hard work was gone in a single moment. He could only sigh at this; this event was just another case of his bad luck.

"And it took me five hours to complete it…" he muttered. He got up from his chair. "But I'll worry about that later; right now my sister's in trouble!"

He rushed to the door of her room and slammed it open.

"What's wrong Komaru?!"

"I-It's… m-missing," Komaru replied. To say her room was a mess would be an understatement. It would be perfectly fine to say that her room looked like a hurricane had come in, followed by a tsunami, and then they both came back for another round.

Komaru was in the middle of turning her bed into an art piece, and before she could further her career in interior decoration, he shouted, "What's missing?!"

"The latest album from Sayaka!" she answered. "It was right here on my desk and now it just disappeared!"

"… Oh." To be honest, from the scream he heard he had expected something a bit more horrible, something like she saw a ghost in her room.

"This is so bad…" Komaru dropped herself down on what was left of her bed. "I spent so much of my allowance on that album! And I even had to wait in a long line to get it signed by Sayaka herself! How can I even call myself a Sayaker…"

He could see her eyes were getting watery. He tried to think of something to say to cheer his sister up, but then their parents came in.

"Komaru! Makoto! What happened here?!" his mum said. "We heard a scream and thought something horrible had happened!"

"I-I lost the latest album from Sayaka…" Komaru whimpered.

"… Oh." From the looks on their faces, his parents probably expected something really horrible, something like seeing a ghost in this room.

"Where did you last put it?" his dad said.

Komaru pointed to her desk. Well, what's left of it from her frantic search.

"Are you sure you didn't just place it somewhere else?" he asked.

"No! I am absolutely positive that I left it right there!" she replied. "I went to the bathroom for five minutes and when I came back it vanished!"

It was at this moment that Monaca came into the room. She looked around her surroundings with raised eyebrows.

"What happened here?" she asked. "Were we robbed?"

"We weren't robbed. Komaru just lost an important item of hers," his mum answered. "It was an album that she had bought from the store."

He narrowed his eyes at her. If the album wasn't in Komaru's room, then perhaps someone took it when she wasn't looking? Out of everyone in the house, there was only one person he suspected…

"Monaca… do you know where the album might be?"

"Huhhh? Is Big Bro trying to accuse Monaca of theft?" She looked hurt by his question. "That's so meannn Big Bro."

"Well, I wasn't trying to sa—"

"After all, Big Bro Makoto was the one who asked Monaca to take it."

… What?

"What?!"

"Makoto, is this true?" his dad asked.

"Of course no—"

"Big Bro asked Monaca to give him the album," Monaca interrupted. "He said he only wanted to have a listen to it, so Monaca took it when Big Sis wasn't looking and gave it to him."

Monaca looked down at the ground, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Monaca is realllly sorry for making Big Sis cry. If Monaca had known this would happen she wouldn't have listened to Big Bro… "

"You don't have to apologise," Komaru said. She wiped away her own tears as she got up from her destroyed bed. "Thanks for telling the truth Monaca!"

The tears in Monaca's eyes evaporated as she giggled at this. He could only stare at her.

Monaca… was lying to his family by saying he took the album!

"Y-You got that wrong!" he shouted. Everyone in the room turned towards him.

"I-I never told Monaca to give me the album I swear!" he said. "Besides, even if I did have the album I would have given it back right away!"

"Well, why didn't you Big Bro?" Monaca asked. She placed a finger under her chin, her expression making it look as if she were deep in thought.

"Because I don't have it!"

"Then why don't we take a look inside Big Bro's room?"

"Huh?"

"If Big Bro realllly doesn't have the album, then we shouldn't find it, riiight?"

… He got a really bad feeling about this.

"Well, I guess that makes sense…" his mum said. "We should check Makoto's room."

His family and Monaca headed towards his room. Once they were standing near the doorway, Monaca pointed at his wardrobe.

"I saw Big Bro place the album inside his wardrobe," she said.

They approached it. His dad opened up the wardrobe and just as Monaca said, the album was there, hidden in the back of the top shelf.

"Th-There's my album!" Komaru pointed at the album. She moved through them and grabbed the item out of the wardrobe.

"See"—Monaca looked at him—"Monaca didn't lie at all." She sounded very pleased with herself.

He could only stare at his wardrobe. He was almost positive that the album wasn't there when he left his room! Unless…

He pointed at her. "You must have placed it there when I left my room!"

"Now, now, Makoto," his mum said. "No need to shout at Monaca."

"Yes, mum…"

"Jeez, Big Bro really wants to place the blame on poor me." Monaca frowned at him. "If Monaca really was the one who placed it in the room, how did she manage to place the album on the top shelf?"

Now that was a good question. How did she place the album on the top shelf? She could have reached the top shelf by standing on a chair, but the problem with that theory was that Monaca was bound to a wheelchair. He was almost certain she placed the album there, but unless she could magically walk again it was impossible to prove it was her.

An even better question would be why would Monaca even do this? For the whole time she was living with them she had done nothing like this before, so why did she do it?

"Now that the album has been found everything should be fine right?" his dad said.

He looked at his sister, who was… standing as still as a statue for some reason.

"Umm, K-Komaru? Is everything all right?" he asked.

Komaru turned around to face him. In her hands was the CD—snapped in half.

"Yeah…" she answered. There was no emotion in either her voice or her eyes. "Everything is all right…"

"You, uh, don't look so good…"

"I'm fine Makoto… absolutely fine." Komaru turned her lifeless eyes to the door. "I'm going to head back to my room now…"

"Y-Yeah, sure. Go ahead…"

They all moved aside and watched as Komaru shambled out of the room. Everyone in the room turned their attention to him once she was outside.

"Makoto, I hope you can explain why the CD is snapped in half." His mum was shaking her head at him.

"I don't know!" he answered. "I really didn't take the album!"

"Well Komaru is really upset right now," his dad said. "So I hope you'll buy her another copy."

"B-But I—"

"No buts!" his mum said. "You're just going to have to buy Komaru another album!"

Seeing that he couldn't persuade his parents, he gave up trying to defend himself. When he asked his parents how much the album was, the answer nearly made him faint from shock.

"I-It costs that much?! B-But that'll leave me with almost no allowance at all!"

"Well I guess it's a small price to pay," his mum said. "Next time, please ask Komaru if you want to borrow her stuff instead of making Monaca take it."

And with that, his parents left the room. Now the only people left in his room were himself, and the perpetrator of this whole incident.

"How did you do it?" he asked.

"Do what?" Monaca answered. She was still acting all innocent. "Big Bro has to be a bit more specific than that."

"How did you place the album on the top shelf?"

"Oh, that? Don't you know that a magician never reveals his secrets? A better question would be why I did it."

"Why did you do it?"

"Because I wanted to see what kind of reaction Big Sis would have!" She beamed at him with a smile.

"B-But why?! What would make you even do such a thing?!"

"Because! I! Was! Bored!"

He staggered back a bit from the sudden outburst. It was a miracle that his parents didn't enter the room again due to the volume of her shouts.

"I! Was! Bored! So! I! Decided! To! Have! Some! Fun!"

He could only stare at her in disbelief. He had never seen this side of Monaca before; she had always acted so cheerful and kind when she was around him and his family. But maybe he was starting to get a little glimpse at the mischievous personality she hid underneath.

"Is something wrong Makoto?" And just like that, Monaca was smiling at him as if her tantrum had never happened. "It's just a prank Big Bro, no one got hurt."

"You made Komaru cry though!"

"She'll get over it. Besides, you're going to get her another copy anyway, so why get angry at poor little Monaca?"

"Because you framed me for it!"

Monaca looked sad upon hearing his statement. "Please don't be mad… Monaca realised she did a horrible thing, so let's forgive each other okay?"

Tears were starting to fall from Monaca's eyes, and he couldn't help but feel a little guilty at his outburst, justified or not. He guessed it was just a part of his kind nature.

"Fine…" he said. "I forgive you… But promise me you'll never do something like this again."

"I promise!" she raised her pinky in front of him. "See! I'll even make a pinky promise with Big Bro!"

He was a little touched by this small gesture. He guessed she was still a good child at heart, although a bit mischievous. Her personality reminded him of another classmate of his; he shudders to think of what would happen if they were to meet.

"Fine then." He returned the gesture. "Do you promise to never do something like this ever again?"

"I do! Cross my heart and hope to die!"

"Then I forgive you." And with that, he interlocked his pinky around Monaca's little finger. "I'll go tell Komaru that I'll buy her another album. Hopefully, it'll calm her down."

He left his room to tell Komaru the news. If there was one good thing to come out of this event, he at least didn't have to pay for the damage done to his sister's room…