Makoto Naegi Secret File

The DVD/BD vol.1 of Danganronpa: The Animation came along with a 25~ page booklet featuring a short story written by Kazutaka Kodaka himself, concerning the circumstances that led to Makoto’s enrollment in Hope’s Peak Academy.

Plot
The novel begins with Jin Kirigiri talking to the board of directors about  the results of their annual draw for this year’s Ultimate Lucky Student. The members of the board are decidedly unimpressed, for they firmly believed that luck should not be considered a kind of talent and that the headmaster was wasting their school’s resources. Jin tries to convince them otherwise. He is having a hard time convincing the board that luck is a ‘talent’ worth considering, until he brings up the topic of a certain person.

Nagito’s absolute and superior luck is enough to shut the entire board of directors up, and they eventually decided to leave Jin to his own devices. Jin took out a folder containing the information concerning this year’s Ultimate Lucky Student, and revealed to the board the result of the lucky draw - the name of a female high school student.

The scene shifts to Makoto, 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. 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 the 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 convenient 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.

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 convenient store to buy them snacks and drinks regardless.

10 minutes later, Makoto was struggling with the two heavy bags filled with the stuff he got from the convenient store. He tried to distract himself by thinking of the music show that’ll be on TV tonight - featuring a certain previous classmate of his. Yet as his mood began to improve, misfortune strikes 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 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 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.

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 just 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 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 Akafuku Jutarou. He was man whose life has 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, Akafuku 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.

Akafuku 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 Akafuku, pinning him on the ground. The old man was a kendo master.

At that precise instant, one though 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. Akafuku 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 Akafuku riding on the motorcycle that once belonged to the postman. Akafuku 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.

Akafuku 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 after 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 a ordinary high school student.

At that moment, the motorcycle that Akafuku 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 Akafuku’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 Naegi Makoto - but he himself would not realize this until much later.

The scene shifts back to Kirigiri Jin, who has been informed that the letter addressed to that year’s Ultimate Lucky Student has been burnt up in an unfortunate accident involving a robber and a motorcycle stolen from a postman. Having heard that, Kirigiri Jin decides to hold the lottery again, because he feels that the misfortune of having her admission letter burn up disqualifies her from being accepted as Ultimate Lucky Student. In fact, he’s already gotten the results of the draw - Naegi Makoto.

In the meanwhile, 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. Fortunately, he arrived home rather smoothly - only to be greeted by his enthusiastic younger sister, who told him that a letter from Hope’s Peak Academy had arrived for him, accepting him as this year’s Ultimate Lucky Student.

Makoto was overjoyed - he felt like all the misfortune that he’d experienced in this day had been overturned by this news, but little did he know how wrong he was.

Characters

 * Jin Kirigiri


 * Makoto Naegi
 * Komaru Naegi


 * Akafuku Jutarou

Mentioned

 * Nagito Komaeda
 * Sayaka Maizono

Quotes
"We keep telling you, luck is no talent."
 * "At times,  can surpass even the most brilliant of talents and all kinds of hard work. Isn’t that precisely why all of us give our blessings to  as much as we harbor a deep-seated fear of it at the same time? It might be easy to write it off as simple as lucky accidents, but I simply cannot overlook it in that manner. Is  really just an element of uncertainty, or is it a talent in its own? To make that clear, we need a sample to-"

An annoyed voice interrupted the headmaster’s words.

"In the first place, what we call luck is no more than a matter of  human impression.  When something with a low probability occurs, we label it as luck, as simple as that. Everything is merely the result of the observer’s subjectivity. However, in reality, things simply happened because they did. No matter how low the probability,  things that have a possibility of happening will happen regardless.”
 * "However, is that all there is to it?"

"…your point being?"

"For example, the  Ultimate Lucky Student from last year…”

Upon hearing those words, all members of the board paled.

Almost as if the headmaster brought up a taboo topic that should be left alone.

"If everything happened because they did, then why do things always seem to go his way? When I see him, I cannot bring myself to write luck off as mere result labeling."

"Even then…we all knew how  that  turned out.”

He spat out his words. All members of the board had sour faces. This always happens whenever topics concerning that particular individual was brought up.

The person they were talking about was  a certain male student  who enrolled in the school as the previous .

Indeed, he was a problem child. An incredibly problematic one. He meddles with the affairs of other students and causes nothing but problems. What’s more, the worst thing about this is that he himself didn’t mean any harm. His existence is a source of constant worry to the headmaster, but-

"Still, we have no other choice but to acknowledge his luck. Don’t you think his power is one befitting of being called a talent?"

All members of the board remained silence. Because they could not find any words to refute the headmaster’s statement."
 * "Why did this happen to me…"

If a girl happened to pass by and help Makoto out as a result of his current predicament, it would more than make up for the string of unlucky incidents that he’d experienced so far - but there was not a person in sight. Though it was quite a major road, it was located in a residential area quite far away from the park. It’s certainly not impossible for it to be devoid of people, but Makoto felt like blaming that on his misfortune as well."
 * "In an instant, Makoto had a different look in his eyes.

His eyes harbored a firm and incredible strength that did not seem to belong to someone who came off as a somewhat weak-willed and completely normal youth.

The strength of an unbending will, unwilling to give up no matter how dire the situation is or how powerful the enemy is.

And his body moved before he could think.

It was an instinctual action on his part - an action that represented the very essence of Makoto.

In other words, Makoto Naegi is someone who would take a stand in situations like these."
 * "He would probably never meet the youth again in his life. Of course, it would spell trouble and doom if he  did  meet the youth again, since his identity as a robber was no secret anymore.

He didn’t want to rely on luck again.

It was fortunate that his luck won this time - but he didn’t want to go through anything like this ever again.

In other words, he was afraid of the kind of luck that Makoto possessed - but Akafuku himself didn’t realize this.

Or perhaps he was simply pretending not to."
 * "Yes, he thought that was undoubtedly a case of good luck.

He even thought of it as a present from luck.

However-

That wasn’t the case at all.

It was undoubtedly a case of bad luck that Makoto was chosen as .

Because if he wasn’t selected as , he wouldn’t have met that strange mascot, and wouldn’t have to participate in the mutual killings.

He wouldn’t have been involved in that  school life of despair.

However, Makoto was chosen.

He was chosen as the .

And that level of misfortune is enough for this day to be called the Worst Day in the Life of Makoto Naegi.

However, it was still too soon for Makoto to realize this.

He didn’t even feel any sense of foreboding - he was simply sharing in the happiness with his family.

That’s to be expected.

Because this is-

An incident that took place before anything truly began.

And thus, the Worst Day in the Life of Makoto Naegi came to an end.

The person in question-

Spent the last moments of that day with a smile on his face."