Makoto Naegi: Super Duper Luckster Superhero
Disclaimer:
Danganronpa is owned by Spike Chunsoft and Lerche
One-Punch Man is owned by ONE
Hello, and many thanks to those who read and reviewed this fic. I am really happy and this inspired me to bring in the next chapter, and here Naegi's JOURNEY to become a SUPERHERO commences, and you will get to see how his LIFE…and LUCK…would change and where this would lead to…?
Well, read on and enjoy!
Ch. 2: Shujinkō
The scene shifts to the planet Earth, and the scene zooms in right at the heart of Tokyo, Japan where the timeline now is three weeks after the events where Sayaka Maizono (aka Idol Mistress) took down a group of terrorists, and right now it is business as usual at the streets
The scene then showed that most of the streets of Tokyo are still brimming with life, in part due to the emergence of heroes who have graduated from Hope's Peak and are registered with the Hope's Peak Heroes Association, and the heroes' exploits significantly decreases the crime rate, though it hasn't completely subjugated the criminals as the criminals somehow found a way to commit crimes without being caught.
However, there are some crooks who are having second thoughts of committing crimes due to the increased presence of the heroes, as they are mulling in deciding to give up the life of crime.
"Damn…"
"So many crime fighters…"
"And in cosplay too…"
"What now…?"
"Think I ought to retire…"
"Me too…"
"You guys…"
"Geez…"
Elsewhere, the scene zoomed around the prefecture, where you can see the streets are filled with people and vehicles while everything is business as usual. As people are walking the streets and crossing the road, you can see them doing their usual thing;
- Walking the streets, some hanging around;
- Eating at restaurants and snack bars
- Some doing work and others selling their wares
Amid all of these, the scene shifts to Makoto Naegi, who just left his house to enjoy his day, even though he is lamenting how today was not a lucky day for him. Makoto's life has been nothing but normal up till that point - normal school, normal friends, and a normal family. He's pretty much the textbook example of a normal high school student. He is currently 14-years old and is just a few weeks away from graduating middle school.
However, something went wrong on that particular day.
It all started on a clear day after school. Makoto was in a cheery mood thanks to the weather, and he had a feeling that something good might just happen to him. One thought occurred to him - maybe he should take the long way home. He thought about doing something different than usual.
And that was the beginning of his misfortune. Makoto passed by a park, and saw a group of his friends trying to decide who to send to the convenience store in a game of rock-paper-scissors. They invited Makoto to join the game, and although Makoto would've usually refused it (he didn't know more than half of the people anyways), he felt that he might as well do something different in this case as well. Plus - there were about 10 people in the group. He didn't think losing was a big possibility.
"Oh well…might as well…"
Yet he lost on the first round. Everyone except for him put out rock, while he played scissors. His friends were astonished at just how unlucky Makoto was, but sent him off to the convenience store to buy them snacks and drinks regardless.
"Go on…"
"Buy us some snacks!"
"You lost…and that's the agreement!"
"Yeah!"
"Get going!"
"You better not try to run off with our snacks!"
"That's right!"
"We'll be waiting!"
Ten minutes later, Makoto was struggling with the two heavy bags filled with the stuff he got from the convenience store. He tried to distract himself by thinking of the music show that'll be on TV tonight - featuring a certain former classmate of his. Yet as his mood began to improve, misfortune struck again. Both of the plastic bags tore open at the same time, spilling their contents all across the pavement.
A few minutes passed and Makoto finished collecting all the cans and bags, but wondered for a moment, as he felt like the stuff he managed to gather was less than what he had started out with. He looked around and spotted an old man sitting on the bench. The old man slowly bent down and picked up a can of coffee that rolled to a stop at his feet, opened it up and drank it.
That can of coffee belonged to Makoto - yet the old man said he felt that it was natural to drink it since it ended up right in front of him. Makoto is flabbergasted at this incredulous excuse, and revealed to the old man that he seemed to be having a very unlucky day, complaining that he didn't do anything bad enough to deserve this streak of misfortune.
The old man laughed and told Makoto that he didn't believe in karma at all. He'd seen plenty of evil people be blessed with fortune, and plenty of kind people suffer all sorts of misfortune. In the end, he says, luck isn't something that a man can control, no matter how much talent one has or how hard one works. He suggests for Makoto to just accept things the way they are.
"…and that's life, boy."
"Er…"
"You should accept it…that's the way it is."
"Seriously, mister…I…"
"But don't think badly of it."
"Eh…?"
"I am sure a blessing will come across you…"
"…"
After finishing their conversation, the old man returned the half empty can of coffee back to Makoto and left, yet Makoto noticed that the old man had left his phone on the bench. He called out to the old man, who was already a distance away, but the old man seemed deaf to his calls. Makoto was conflicted - should he just ignore the phone and bring the snacks to the park, or should he leave those snacks and chase after the old man? He eventually decided on the latter, and rushed after the old man.
His calls were once again drowned out - this time by the sound of a bus coming to a stop ahead. The old man immediately took off towards the bus station - Makoto panicked slightly and upped his own pace as well, and managed to hop into the bus after the old man in the nick of time. Makoto found the old man sitting in the back, and just as he was about to head there, his legs wobbled from the intense running and he lost his balance. Just before he crashed to the ground, he instinctively grabbed onto something. He heard the sound of something tearing, and fell to the ground regardless.
Makoto's sole consolation was that he managed to soften his fall somewhat by grabbing onto the mysterious object, but even that turned out to be simply a continuation of his misfortune.
He happened to tear open a bag, from which spilled dozens of precious jewelry. The owner of the bag, someone looking like your average salaryman, immediately took out a knife and demanded everyone to freeze.
That man was named Jutarou Akafuku. He was a man whose life had been blessed with fortune for as long as he was alive. He found himself in several dangerous situations in the past, but he survived all of them thanks to a series of unlikely coincidences and lucky accidents. He believed that luck was his strength - yet he did not want to admit that. In fact, he sought to eliminate all traces of uncertainty and luck-dependent factors in his job - that of a robber.
He works alone, and only takes on jobs that he knows he can fulfill with absolute certainty. And thanks to his careful planning, he had been extremely successful thus far. He was just done robbing a small jewelry shop, and was on his way home, dressed as a salaryman that nobody will think of looking at twice.
It all went smoothly, until he was involved in somebody's misfortune. It was a misfortune powerful enough that he could not overcome even with his unnatural luck.
In the meanwhile, Makoto was experiencing a minor breakdown thanks to the series of incredibly unlucky events. And to think it all started from him taking the long way home - he couldn't even wrap his head around everything. Correctly identifying Makoto as the cause of his recent misfortune, Jutarou decided to take him hostage, and got the driver out of his seat by threatening to slit Makoto's throat if he didn't comply.
"Hey, driver!"
"!"
"Get off the seat!"
"Are you serious?"
"Do it or I'll cut that brat's throat!"
"Don't!"
"Then get off!"
"Okay, okay…"
Jutarou sat Makoto down in the driver's seat and used him as a hostage. In the meanwhile, he ordered the passengers in the bus to gather the scattered pieces of jewelry for him, promising their safety if they cooperated. However, just as someone finished gathering all the pieces, the old man, who had been faking sleep up till that point, sprang up and tackled Jutarou, pinning him on the ground. The old man was a kendo master.
At that precise instant, one thought ran through Makoto's mind particularly strongly - he must save the old man.
We get a slight hint of Makoto's optimism and willingness to fight, but that was all for naught as the bus suddenly accelerated - Makoto had accidentally shifted the gears and stepped on the gas pedal. The bus lurched forward, throwing both Makoto and the old man off balance. The old man yelled at Makoto to step on the brakes, which Makoto did immediately, putting the bus to an abrupt stop that knocked him off balance once again. As he was regaining his balance, his hand accidentally brushed over a button.
It was a button to open the bus's door. Jutarou saw this as an opportunity and immediately hightailed it out of the bus. The old man was writhing on the ground in pain, and shouted at Makoto to chase after the robber. Makoto couldn't believe that he'd ask someone of his stature to chase after a grown man - and capture him, no less. But for some reason, the entire bus seemed to be in agreement. Makoto sought out the bus driver for assistance - surely he would point out how ridiculous this situation was - but found the bus driver passed out. How unlucky.
Left with no choice, Makoto jumped out of the bus, only to crash into a postman who took note of the bus's erratic movements and came over to check. Both of them fell over - Makoto lamenting his bad luck again before noticing Jutarou riding the motorcycle that once belonged to the postman. Jutarou was frustrated with the series of irregular happenings that disrupted his careful planning - something like this had never happened before, and threatened Makoto by saying that he'd hate Makoto for the rest of his life if he ended up being arrested.
"You brat!"
"…"
"This is all your fault!"
"…"
"My day went bad because of you!"
"…"
"I'm gonna curse you for the rest of your fucking life!"
"…"
Jutarou started the engine and accelerated, believing that he could escape successfully with this motorcycle. He'd have to abandon it eventually since post-delivery motorcycles tend to stand out - but that'll be a while ahead. The postman shouted at him, and Makoto simply stood there unmoving. He was tired of the streak of misfortune that seemed to follow him at every step, and decided to give up and do nothing. He just wanted to go back to his normal daily life as an ordinary high school student.
At that moment, the motorcycle that Jutarou was riding tipped over and threw the man across the street. The motorcycle spun wildly and hit a streetlamp before exploding in a shower of sparks and smoke, burning up the bag of letters that the postman had put on it.
Makoto walked towards the accident site, unable to believe his eyes. What he found was a bent and broken can of juice - the cause for the motorcycle overturning, and one of that cans that Makoto accidentally spilled all over the streets just a while ago, and one that he wasn't able to locate when he searched for missing cans.
It was a series of impossible coincidences caused by Makoto's bad luck. And this situation was merely a result of Makoto's overwhelmingly bad luck managing to defeat Jutarou's careful planning and luck. It rendered all sorts of talent and hard work futile.
Yet this was not the end of the worst day in the life of Makoto Naegi - but he himself would not realize this until much later.
The scene shows that the police arrived, and mistakenly, and unjustly, arrested the boy, believing that he is the culprit, and as he pleaded his innocence to no avail. As he is being hauled towards the police car, the bus passengers stepped out and told them that the boy is innocent and pointed at Jutarou being the true culprit, but the policemen ignored them.
"Hey, stop!"
"That kid's innocent!"
"The culprit's over there!"
"Are you cops deaf?"
"That boy stopped the hostage taker!"
"Let the kid go!"
"Someone do something!"
"Those damn cops are stupid!"
-x-.
Meanwhile, the hours passed and the scene showed that Makoto was returning home after a long period of questioning by the police (and of course, he missed Sayaka's performance on the TV that he was looking forward to). He was dead tired, yet his nerves were still on the edge as he was wary of more unfortunate things happening to him on the taxi ride home.
He wondered aloud what did he do to deserve this and why did this happened to him. As he sighed aloud before entering his house, he did not notice that a scout from Hope's Peak Superhero Academy was following the boy, having seen what Naegi did, and though it may be considered LUCK, the scout smirked seeing that Naegi has the POTENTIAL to be a hero.
Discreetly approaching the mailbox, he managed to take a peek inside and learned the boy's surname and address number, so he took out his smartphone and used the internet to scan information about the Naegi family, and eventually learned about the boy's identity.
He has a feeling that Makoto Naegi might be the next hero in the making, depending if he is aware of his own potential.
"Hmm…that kid might have potential to be a HERO…"
He then secretly spied on the residents inside the house and saw the boy explaining to his parents and younger sister about what he went through, and his younger sister teases him that he could become a superhero, which he dismisses, saying that he does not see himself as a superhero-type, reasoning that anyone can do that and he did that based on believing the right thing.
"Goodness, Makoto…"
"You could have gotten hurt…"
"But mom…dad…onii-chan just stopped the robber!"
"Not really, Komaru…"
"I'm betting that he could get enrolled at the academy for superheroes and stuff…"
"Hmm…what do you think, dear?"
"Must be worth a try, honey…"
"Mom! Dad! Knock it off! There's no way I could end up there!"
The Naegi family, and the scout, identified as Koichi Kizakura, are unaware that someone else is monitoring the boy himself, as you can see that what appeared to be a sophisticated , high-technology-like drone is inside the house, its lens focused on Naegi, as it appeared that the drone has been secretly trailing Naegi all day, and somewhat witnessed the exploits that Naegi did, such as unwittingly foiled a hostage taking inside the bus and indirectly stopping Jutarou from escaping from a crime he nearly succeeded.
The scene then shifts at outer space, where a rather huge UFO ship is hovering, and it showed that three humanoid-like aliens are observing Naegi, and while one of them voiced his disapproval, the other two appeared to be convinced of Naegi's being.
"It appears that we have found our candidate…"
"Yes…and he is the one…"
"Are you sure that Earth boy is the one who should inherit it…?"
"Yes."
"We have already monitored his exploits."
"But look at him! He appeared to be…"
"We have seen it. That Earth boy is humble and kind. He even risked his own life to save others and stop the villain."
"Fear not, my comrade. We will monitor him. In the event that he becomes undesirable, then we will take action."
"Fine then."
-x-
At Hope's Peak Superhero Academy, Jin Kirigiri was informed by Kizakura about finding a potential student who could become a superhero, and he received the information that Kizakura provided, where Jin read the profile about Makoto Naegi. Though he was hesitant, he eventually believed Kizakura's words after hearing how Naegi's presence helped in stopping Jutarou's plans of escape, leading to him being exposed as the jewel thief.
He took a deep breath as he is going to have a busy week as he intend to tell the Steering Committee about his intentions.
"I hope that things will go smoothly…"
To Be Continued...
Hope you liked this chapter, and while there is not much action here other than Naegi getting in the face of the villain of this chapter, the story make up for it and the stage is set for Naegi becoming a superhero…
Moreover, Hope's Peak isn't the only one eyeing Naegi, but also a UFO hovering over the solar system, and three humanoid aliens seemed to have an interest in the boy.
Preview:
The next chapter jumpstarts the story as it will show the BIRTH of a superhero, and the villain fodders are about to be introduced…
See you in 4 to 6 weeks…
Reviews are welcomed...