The Worst Day in the Life of Makoto Neagi

Section Eight

It was after 10:00 P.M. Makoto had spent the better part of six hours giving his testimony. He was so exhausted, he didn't even have the energy to retort when his mother picked him up at the police station and started scolding him.
What a terrible day, he complained to himself, letting out another sigh as he and his mother left the station. I completely missed that music show too, he thought, remembering the TV program an old classmate of his was supposed to appear in. It wasn't the end of the world, though⁠—she would most likely make many television appearances in the coming months. She was, after all, a member of an incredibly popular girl group.
What Makoto really wanted to do was sleep. He wanted to go home, collapse into his bed, and put the worst day ever behind him as soon as humanly possible.
He did still have one thing to take care of tomorrow: apologizing to the guys he had left at the park. They probably assumed he'd pocketed their money and ditched them. He doubted they were happy, and he was sure he was in for a rough time convincing them of what had actually happened.
The very thought of what lay ahead for him multiplied Makoto's exhaustion. Seeing her son's dejected face, Makoto's mother did something unusual and hailed a taxi. The Naegi family tended to be rather frugal, but she must have felt bad enough for him to make an exception.
The drive from the station to their house took around thirty minutes, and the whole way, Makoto stared out the window at the scenery rushing past and prayed that nothing else would happen. It was only natural, considering how unlucky he had been that day. The air in the taxi was so tense, Makoto almost wished they had taken the train instead, like always.
But Makoto's worries were for naught. They arrived home in one piece. As he and his mother climbed out of the taxi, Makoto let out a sigh of relief. When he opened the front door⁠—
"M-Makoto! Big news! Big, big news!" his younger sister shouted, charging him. Her face was red as a tomato.
"N-News?" Makoto asked, his body tensing up.
"U-Umm, uh, I, uh, y-you... you promise you won't freak out?"
"Who's the one freaking out?"
"Good point," she said. She rested her hand on her chest, took several deep breaths, and then muttered, "Imagine everyone in their underwear," under her breath three times. "H-Here. Look at this," she finally said, extending her shaking right hand toward him. She was holding a white envelope.
"What is this?" Makoto asked, taking the parcel from his sister's hand and examining it. The envelope was a fairly thick paper, and "Mr. Makoto Naegi" was printed in large letters on the front. It was, indeed, addressed to him, but he didn't get what the big deal was.
"Th-The back," his sister said. "Look at the back."
"The back?" Makoto parroted, then flipped the envelope over. "Huh?!" he shouted, completely caught off-guard. "Kibougamine Academy Administrative Office" was printed on the reverse side of the envelope. "Kibougamine Academy? That Kibougamine Academy?"
"Yeah! The one and only!" his sister squealed, bouncing up and down like a rabbit. "Inside, it said you were selected to be the Super Duper High School Luckster! You get to go to Kibougamine Academy, Makoto!"
Me? The Super Duper High School Luckster?
The reality of the situation still hadn't sunk in.
"Hold on," he said, "you read my mail without my permission?"
"What's the big deal?" she asked, bringing her face almost uncomfortably close to his. "You're going to Kibougamine Academy! You know, the school where if you graduate, you're basically guaranteed success for life! You get to be one of them!" She was breathing so hard he could literally feel it.
Seeing how worked up his sister was, it finally clicked.
"I-I'm going... to Kibougamine Academy?" he asked as the unbelievable truth began to sink in. With trembling hands, he reached into the envelope and pulled out the letter. As his eyes raced across the text, he gulped.
"We at Kibougamine Academy have selected by lottery a single candidate from a pool of average students. Your name was chosen, and so we invite you to join us this year as the Super Duper High School Luckster."
"That's wonderful, Makoto!" his mother exclaimed from behind him, placing both hands on his shoulders.
"Hip hip, hooray!" his sister shouted, dancing as if she had been the one chosen.
"Where's Dad?" his mother asked. "Is he home?"
"Yeah, he's on the phone with Grandma and Grandpa!"
"They definitely need to know!"
Makoto's mom and sister squealed in unison, joined hands, and did a little dance. As he watched his family rejoice for him, a smile finally rose to Makoto's face. He chuckled, pumped his fist, and then started cheering.
"Y-Yeah... Yeah." At first, he was just muttering to himself, but eventually he too raised his voice in excitement. "Yeah!" he shouted with everything he had. What had been a day of nothing but misfortune had been flipped entirely on its head with one gigantic stroke of good luck. He saw the invitation as a gift from fate⁠—an undeniable reversal of his unluckiness.
However, the reality of it was quite different. It wasn't good luck that had led to his selection as the Super Duper High School Luckster⁠—but very, very bad luck. Had he not been chosen, he would have never met that strange mechanical bear, and he would have never been made to participate in the academic coliseum.
He would have never experienced any of those hopelessly despair-ridden events.
But he was chosen. He was selected to be the Super Duper High School Luckster. And that, more than anything else, was what truly made those twenty-four hours the worst day of Makoto Naegi's life.
At that point in time, though, Makoto didn't even have an inkling of a premonition of what was to come. He spent the evening celebrating with his family.
But that's perfectly natural. After all, this is a tale of something that happened before anything had happened yet.

And thus Makoto Naegi's worst day ever drew to an end.
He concluded the day... with a smile.