Application for Lifeaftr - Hinata Hajime [Dangan Ronpa 2]

[thisisourfuture]

Player Information
Name: Sam
Age: Yes, 31
Contact:Discord - sam#4928, Plurk = skyheron, journal - starflare, e-mail - dreamingofyoutonight@gmail.com
Current characters: N/A

Character Information
Name: Hajime Hinata
Series: Dangan Ronpa 2
Appearance: Hinata front and back. Left eye is red.
Age: Early twenties.
Canon Point: Chapter 5 - Just exiting the elevator to start the trial.
Canon History: Game History. Hinata’s history
Personality: Ever since he was a child, Hajime Hinata has dreamed of joining Hope’s Peak Academy, a place that gathers the exceptionally talented. His yearning to become a part of the school bordered on worship, but the only way he could join was through the Reserve Department - that is, to pay a high fee to compensate for the fact that he had no talent. His parents paid for it and it’s hinted in chapter 3 that he was bullied for not having talent. He has a dream of a classroom where faceless students remark on his lack of talent and how his parents paid to get him in. Throughout the game, he subconsciously suppresses his lack of talent, possibly in an attempt to belong and escape feelings of inferiority. This is supported by his behavior when they first arrive. It’s only when everyone else accepts the situation, and he’s left by himself, that he decides to dismiss his misgivings.

In contrast to the Dangan Ronpa’s first protagonist, this guy is very pragmatic. As I stated above, he was distrusting of the situation established in the prologue, and fast to be wary of everyone- even himself- when Monokuma puts forth the rules of mutual killing. Instead of needing to be convinced to obey their vicious captor, Hinata tried to convince Souda that going to announced gatherings was the best idea, and fighting against it wouldn’t end well. It doesn’t mean he stays silent or refuses to speak out. Quite the opposite. He speaks his mind frequently, but his blunt speech can come across as aloof or cold.

He’s the type of person to think first, spending time to properly build what he wants to say before he says it. In the beginning, and throughout the game, Hinata keeps most of his thoughts to himself, only speaking what he feels is necessary to say. We get the full scope of his thought process as the player of the game, but to others, he is presented as a very calm individual who approaches them first.

Hinata definitely cares about his classmates; later goes far enough to call them his friends. He frequently makes a point to listen to and try to understand all of his classmates. He does his best to understand even Komaeda, who, to him, betrays he and the others during the first trial. Getting to know his friends, he worries when he says the wrong thing, and has the strength to go back and admit when he’s made an error. A good example of this is Tsumiki. Faced with her talk of abuse, he quickly and repeatedly becomes overwhelmed. He apologizes for each instance and eventually manages to communicate his thoughts on the matter. As the group’s trust in him grows, Hinata gets better at handling the stress and calms down a bit. He displays more patience, and willingly comes to have faith in his classmates.

All Hinata has ever wanted is to be proud of himself and to stand strongly on his own with confidence. At first, he believed he needed some amazing talent for that. It’s the reason he fought so hard to get into Hope’s Peak. It’s touched upon repeatedly, at the very beginning of the story and again at the very end, when he realizes he never needed to be anything other than himself. As Hinata’s story unfolds, we see he has an inferiority complex about his lack of talent compared to the other students on the island. He’s pretty sensitive about it and reacts with hostility towards Komaeda when the other boy becomes vicious and talks down to him.

While on the subject of Komaeda, it’s good to discuss Hinata’s friendship with him. He wouldn’t go so far as to actually call it a friendship- even in the Free time events, he refers to it as a stronger bond that might lead to eventual understanding. He starts off thinking Komaeda is a kind individual who stayed behind to help and guide him. But once his true colors are revealed, he’s distrustful and wary of him. He felt betrayed, but didn’t leave it at that. Instead, he continues to try and understand him, something that Komaeda meets positively. Hinata calls it fear. He feels Komaeda is too dangerous to be left to his own devices and he worries not getting his motivations.

Unfortunately, knowing them doesn’t seem to help either. His dread increases, but when their friendship breaks down in chapter 4, he reacts with anger and confusion. He did value what they had to some degree. There is enough understanding between them that Hinata is able to figure out the truth of Komaeda’s death based on what he knows of him. In light of those events, he wouldn’t be sure how to approach or handle his classmate. But nonetheless, he’d try, because not knowing is scarier.

It is much like how he worries over his lost memories and what they might entail. When he discovers he used to be Ultimate Despair, after the shock and a pep talk from a friend, he accepts responsibility for his actions. It doesn’t matter what those actions were, they were his choices. He sees no reason to excuse them and continues to move forward. Instead of choosing an easier road, he carries all the deaths, and all the things he did with him, into a future that is neither hope nor despair.

Hinata prefers to take action rather than wait around for it to happen. He notes that himself. Each time he is overwhelmed by what’s been said by another classmate, he comes back anyways and apologizes if he did anything wrong. This boldness carries over into how he acts during class trials. Even if the truth is painful, he will accept it and carry on for the sake of the friends who were executed, and of those still left.

But in the past, long before the program and before the terrible events that lead to the fall of the modern world, Hinata was a normal highschool student. He got into his beloved Hope’s Peak and from what we see in chapter 3’s dream, talked about as if he isn’t around, but this was in regular high school. On its own, this is vague, but when supported by what Hinata says when asked about school in Free time events, it paints a picture. He has never felt he belonged and doesn't stand up for himself when called talentless or ordinary. He pretended he couldn’t hear, but the insults and comments still sank in.

He has never felt at ease at school. Revisiting what he said at the beginning of the game, ‘I'm ashamed of my lack of individuality’, ‘And by joining that school, I could really aim to hold my head high...’ Hinata fulfilled his lifelong dream of joining the school he held above all other things, and to boot they wanted him for their project. Whether they told him the risks and what was going to happen or not, Hinata was chosen because of his love and devotion to the school. Why on Earth would he say no to them?

He had the chance to do something that even he could recognize as a grand achievement. Thus Hinata stepped into the project of creating Ultimate Hope and came out the other side as Kamukura.

All of what made Hinata’s personality had been erased, leaving behind the human version of a supercomputer. They crammed him so full of talents he could easily discern and solve every riddle presented to him. People became like ants, as inferred in chapter 0 between chapters 5 and 6 - he understood the nature of anyone he came into contact with instantly. The talentless were worthless. He cared about no one and was bored with everything. The unpredictable was exciting, but never for very long.

It wouldn’t take much for Junko to push him to kill and give into despair. His beloved school had used him, and, as he remarked, even she used him. What she proposed could be seen as an end to all of the boring things, including himself. She offered something different from the life before him that would otherwise drag on because everything Kamukura encountered was easy to solve. In Chapter 0, he remarked that the world was reaching its end, instead of evolving. It's interesting he says this, and could have been how Junko convinced the easily bored, 'hope' of the school to commit murder for her. What would he care about something that is stagnating? It would be easier to erase it all than to sit and watch a world that is assumed to never change.

After he killed the student council, he was kept hidden as the school sought to protect him, their ‘greatest hope’. It’s talked about in Dangan Ronpa 0 Novel, by the headmaster during their meeting to decide what to do about the ‘incident’.

Except it was too late, he had become part of the despair soon to sweep through the entire world.

When brought into the program he didn’t care about the outcome, as he’d have no part in it. Hinata would. All the same he used the despair left behind by Junko, an AI containing a copy of herself. He did it to use her, possibly to bring Despair. No matter what his motivations were- though despair is the most likely- Kamukura came to an end.

Abilities: ✎ Tolerant - Hinata has to handle the situations within the game, being under suspicion in the latter portion of the game, and having no idea what his talent is, all at the same time. His tolerance is so high that he simply lets Souda be wary of him and continues on. Instead of trying to force immediate change upon Tsumiki, he understands that she is going to have to gradually change. Saoiniji’s vicious behavior persists into the end of her free time events, but rather than tell her to change, Hinata simply doesn’t add to it.

✎ Good Listener - He has always let people say what they want to say. It’s only when those things might be meant to harm others or to compare him to people he’s not happy to be compared to (Komaeda) that we see him protest. He wants to belong, and to understand other people, so naturally, he listens to everything he can so he might establish a bond.

✎ Ambition - Let’s not forget that Hinata has been aiming for the top school, one you have to be scouted for to even get into. He didn’t let lack of invitation stop him. Instead, he somehow convinced his parents to pay the steep fees, and got in. In Japan, highschool requires an exam. He did his original exam, plus this one. Rather than letting his status as a Reserve Student stop him, he continues to lead investigations and push forward.

While he suppressed that he had no talent of his own, he continued to act like an equal to everyone else. He dislikes sitting around and prefers to be doing something. During murder investigations, he doesn’t make small talk, remarking that he doesn’t have time for it.

✎ Think First - Even at the start of the game, Hinata chooses to consider what is going on first instead of panicking. Each time he’s faced with a seemingly impossible situation he chooses to go back over everything he’s learned. His reactions to a lot of things could have been a lot worse! Like the despair fever, if he had chosen differently. It’s this trait that leads him to the answers he’s seeking and makes him a good person to rely on.

If he’d acted on emotion at the end of the game, rather than thinking it through, the outcome would have been rather bad, especially because his panic would have infected the others.

✎ Intelligence - While Hinata isn’t the brightest tool in the shed, he isn’t stupid. Once he figures out the trick to a situation, person, or subject - he catches on fast and can solve it.

✎Honesty - There isn’t a single point that Hinata lies to other people. You can go back over the material and see every answer he gives is honest. It doesn’t matter how painful the truth is, he says it. Every trial is a good example of this, especially the fifth trial where he had to choose Nanami to be executed.

✎ Confidence - It takes a lot of confidence to state your opinions without backing down from them. Hinata is surrounded by all these brilliant people and yet he acts as their equal. He is even brazen enough to say when they’re wrong. During the fourth chapter on, time and time again he’s told he’s nothing much to sneeze at, yet he keeps working to solve the mysteries surrounding him and his friends.

It goes without saying that to own your past and accept what you did before is another example of a strong sense of confidence.

✎ Rational thinking - You can’t build or destroy an argument if you can’t keep a clear head and think rationally. Using his logic and what he learns, Hinata’s thoughts during problem solving is very precise. He is the sort of person to pose as a question to himself as, ‘What does this tell me? How can I apply this to now?’
Inventory: Electronic handbook - contains map of the islands, data on his classmates, and a digital pet feature. Monokuma file - containing the details of the chapter 5 murder (only the condition of the body and time, date.)


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Comments

Canon Update

[thisisourfuture]

Appearance: N/A his appearance will be the same since he has his real body.
Age: 22
Canon Point: End of Dangan Ronpa 2.5, there is no canon measurement of difference but it seems like a couple of days between the events of 2 and 2.5. It will feel like weeks due to the Neo World Program's own sense of time.
Canon History: Updated history.

Personality:

"The future isn't a path, it's like an endless sea...You can try to go anywhere...But it doesn't mean you'll get there. Even so, I will keep on living. I will keep on living as Hinata Hajime. My future... lies here." - Hinata Hajime, Dangan Ronpa 2, The Day Before the Future (Epilogue).

Hinata Hajime doesn't change a great deal between entering the trial room to find out who killed Komaeda and waiting for Komaeda to board a boat with the rest of the class. He is still the same determined individual that accused his classmates because he wanted to believe in them. His desire to understand everyone and work with them still remains. But there are a few differences between the stressed, insecure, and faulty memory ridden protagonist of Dangan Ronpa 2 and his wiser, more relaxed self at the end of 2.5.

It's important to start off by covering Kamukura Izuru. At the end of Dr2, the two parts of Hinata merge into one person. He chooses to live as Hinata, making that who we're dealing with from that point on. Yet portions of Kamukura remain. Hinata has all the talents he did and uses them only when he feels it necessary. He does what needs to be done. He doesn't stress about talent anymore. They're tools in his arsenal. Nothing more.

Having all his memories and skills makes for a much calmer man. He takes situations as they come and responds with what he feels needs said, about the same as before but with less stress involved. He still has his full range of emotions and is just as loyal. But he's far more willing to see just what someone has to say before he makes a decision.

Hinata's confidence and sense he belongs among his classmates will make him a steady rock in most situations. He'll be much harder to tip off balance. Hinata in the epilogue, 2.5, and dr3 hope side will take much more punishment just because he knows he can. He's sturdy and if this is what it takes to help someone. That's fine by him.

New Abilities:

✎ Ultimate Hope - With his mind blended with Kamukura Izuru's Hinata gains a number of talents. Supposedly all of them, but nerfed down to the following.

✎ Ultimate Analyst - As it says on the tin he has the talent to quickly calculate probability and odds to an incredible degree. Most subjects with this talent are constantly bored and while he shows tendencies he still has his full range of emotion. Nerfed this down to better awareness and better quick thinking in combat.

✎ Ultimate Soldier - Hinata has quickly defeated anything thrown at him since he woke up from the Program. He's shown heightened speed and strength in various forms, from ripping open thick steel to get into a building to soundly defeating squads of talented individuals with nary a pause. Nerf: comes with an exhaustion caveat- the greater his feats of strength or heightened skill, the faster he will wear down.

✎ Ultimate ??? - Hinata revived all of his classmates and even created an Ai of his own mind for that purpose. It's possible it's a combination of technical, medical, and therapy talents but I'm willing to nerf this down to basic tech understanding. Nerf: basic tech understanding- additionally, has a heightened amount of medical knowledge if you would like him to.

✎ Anti-luck - nerfing Komaeda's abilities when in close proximity. (has permission from Komaeda's player.)