"Alright class, I know you've been looking forward to this trip, after all, Towa City may be small, but the Towa Group is one of the leaders in technology in the world." Our teacher said to us. "Now, do remember to check in regularly, at least every other hour, and be sure to let your chaperones know where you are at all times."

We just listened intensively to her, waiting for it to end. The teacher knew this, after all, many of them came along to see the 'cool robots' the company was building.

Oh, perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Makoto Naegi, and well, I'm hopelessly average. In all honesty, I cannot say my future looks bright.

My little sister is much more sociable than me and tends to have better grades than I did when I had her classes. Then again, I didn't have an older sibling who went through those classes and had four years to digest that information. I'm a bit jealous of her, really. Unlike me, she already has her own passion, she absolutely loves mangas, don't tell her this, but almost everybody knows she isn't that great of an artist. She can spin a tale for sure, but the artistry is not her strong suit.

Me on the other hand? Well, like I said, I'm average. I really have no goal in mind other than to live a happy life, get married, have kids, and grow old with the love of my life, but then again, there aren't many who would say otherwise, are there?

"Anyways, children, with that you are free to go. Be sure to meet up in the hotel lobby in five hours so we can get a head count and get lunch okay?" The teacher announced receiving cries of agreement.

Never in my wildest dreams, that someone as hopelessly average as me, would suddenly find my world upside down within those four hours... nor would I expect what happened to ever occur to me.

.oOo.

I decided to stay with two of my classmates who wanted to check out the machines that made the robots. We, like everyone else, were given a tour of the facility.

"These machines here are a bit of a prototype." The woman gestured to the large window to our left, "They are currently manufacturing a robot capable of doing very minimal labor tasks. However, the difference between what currently exists, and ours, is the complexity the Towa Group is willing to go for success."

The robot in question had a humanoid shape, it was fairly easy to tell, even as soon to be high school students, what the complexity was. "As you can clearly see we are not aiming for a mere robot where the function is prioritized, we wanted to make it almost natural, comforting. I would go deeper into explaining the psychology and explain why, though I don't think that would interest most people." The tour guide chuckled.

"Excuse me, who had the idea for them anyway? Wouldn't it be easier to just focus on the objective rather than something that needs to look nice?" My classmate asked with the other nodding in agreement.

"Er..." The tour guide faltered at that, "Well... that is... oh how do I put this..." It was clear the subject was a bit touchy, or she didn't know.

That's when one of her coworkers came in, "One of the Towa family had the idea, some of the higher-ups disagreed in the action, however, they eventually relented knowing the profit would outweigh the cost. Though it is still in its primary stages, our research has shown that it currently functions at a well enough level to enter the marketplace as is, though without the aesthetics. Simply put, we could call it quits as is, but it would be too large and the processing speed would be ineffective. As such the creator had suggested compacting the design, and make it look more welcoming. Or, well, that's what we had been told." He laughed. "I can take over from here, it's your break right?"

Our tour guide nodded in thanks, "See you kids, around." She said with a smile, leaving us with the new guy.

"Sorry about that, the... creator, is not exactly well-liked by many workers here." He scratched his cheek and laughing a bit awkwardly. "Now is there anything else you kids wanted to see?"

I shook my head no, really that was what I had wanted to see. My other two classmates, however, did want to keep going. I couldn't exactly blame them, but to someone like me, that was the highlight of the tour, seeing something that advanced and wondering if I could make something like that someday.

I excused myself and walked outside. There really wasn't many interesting things going on in Towa City at the moment. The city was relatively small, and the Towa Group pretty much funded everything going on in it, from big businesses to the convenience stores and corner shops.

While I was busy walking around the complex, I saw a park. I decided I would head over there and just rest and watch the kids play.

I know it's a bit odd... but seeing kids smiling, laughing, having fun. I envy them too. You see, even though I claim to be average, I suppose the fact I realize that sets me apart a bit. What I mean by that, is I am not naive. I can be unreasonably optimistic, but even I know when words, actions, dreams are impossible.

I look at the world, and when I was younger, I would think to myself,'one day I'm going to do something to change the world for the better.' but, that itself was foolish. When I take a glance at the world, I can imagine the horrors that exist in it too. For every thriving society, there is another in peril. There exist wars, famines, natural disasters, murderers, and all kinds of evil in the world. Though just as I accept the existence of bad, I know there is some good in the world, charities, blood drives, people working for the sole reason of helping a complete stranger.

That is why I wish I had the mentality of a child still. There are so many phrases in the world like knowledge is power and ignorance is bliss, or, power corrupts, absolute power, corrupts absolutely. That got me thinking, if knowledge is power, eventually it will corrupt, won't it?

I couldn't tell you when I started thinking so cynically, started seeing every person out there, as someone who was probably better than me. Eventually, though, I stopped. I have to thank Komaru for that, my little sister.

It is kinda funny, in a sad way. I envy her, yet she saved me from thinking this horribly forever. Who would have thought that a little girl, able to make only simple sentences, could inspire someone from thinking the worst of people?

Some kids... they have it easy. Their parents look after them, shielding them from the cold truth of the world we live in. The others, the ones like me or have it even worse?

Well, anyways, I just sat down on the brick wall planter. I just watched the kids go by, and I was content just watching them have fun, it reminded me of her again. Of my sister that is. I remember the days all my troubles would melt away, and she would run around, have fun, swinging, sliding, playing hide and seek.

That's when it happened. That's when everything changed for me.

That was when... a little girl in green hair ran into the playground, crying.

.oOo.

The girl continued to run, until she was between the gaps of the planters, crying as if to hide from the rest of the world.

Something inside of me panged, it almost hurt how similar she looked like my sister when she was younger, bar the green hair of course.

I couldn't help myself and walk over to her, before crouching down to be at eye-level. "Neh, are... are you okay?" She didn't say anything just shook her head. "Do you want to talk about it? Er... well if you want to, your parents probably told you not to talk to strangers."

"Dad doesn't care about me."

"Eh?!" The hollow tone of her voice scared me. It sounded... broken. "Now, now... I'm sure you don't mean that, and if you do, your parents probably didn-"

"My dad said it to me. He tells me that every day, nii-san too." That same empty tone.

Part of me was worried about her. Perhaps it was the resemblance or the mere fact she was a child still.

"..." I was too shocked to even say something back right away. Eventually, I managed to find the words. "Then... how about I be your nii-san? Even if it's just for today?"

She stopped moving. Slowly, she brought her hands away from her face, now stained with her tears. It angered me, her family was doing this to her? "You... you would do that for me?"

I smiled gently, "Of course! You remind me so much of my little sister, and if your nii-san doesn't want to be nice, than today I'll prove to you I'm better. My name's Makoto Naegi... can I get a name to go with your cute little face."

She grinned a little, holding her hand out, "Monaca's name is Monaca, nii-san."

And with that, my life changed.

Star here, enjoy the prologue?

If you aren't aware, the first few chapters are pretty much going to be Naegi, the introduced characters thus far, and the new addition. Of course there may be others added in, but I'll try to focus on one at a time until I'm satisfied with where I am at. Oh, and by the way, this is pre-Hope's Peak. So Naegi won't be the SHSL Lucky Student until then. So for now, he's hopelessly average.

Well, I'm not gonna promise I can upload often, college starts up again tomorrow. However, I just love the series.

If you guys wanna read more about this, tell me!

Up next (Three chapters):

The Maid

The Manager

The Programmer

(May not be in that order)