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Hajime Hinata and the Drive to Understand Others

Out of everyone in the SDR2 cast, Hajime himself is markedly the least tolerant, especially at the beginning. His entire arc is honestly largely about his rigidity and learning to be flexible with the rest of the class. Just based off his wariness in the prologue and how long it took him to click into the idea of just enjoying the trip, he has a long way to go. Even then, though, it wasn't necessarily his other classmates themselves that he was intolerant of. He was just freaked out about the situation and was perplexed that no one else seemed to be. It wasn't that he thought they were wrong, per se. It was more that he couldn't wrap his head around their point of view.

However, moving on through the rest of the game, Hajime goes out of his way to work to understand where the others are coming from, and becomes increasingly more tolerant and willing to work with his classmates the more he gets to know them. Even Nagito, who leads him around trials by the nose in a MUCH more overt and condescending way than Kokichi ever did with Shuichi. Hajime comments as much during many of the trials, how he knows Nagito's pulling some bullshit and it's frustrating him but he still goes along with it because he knows everyone is just trying to survive in their own way. He rolls with Nagito's punches to get to the bottom of things, even if he doesn't understand why Nagito's doing it the way he does in the moment. At the end of the day, Hajime knows that Nagito has some kind of logic set that he subscribes to, and wants to understand it so they don't have to constantly fight and make things harder for themselves (see: Nagito's FTEs).

Actually, the entire THEME of the FTEs in SDR2 is Hajime's desire to get to know his classmates and most importantly, understand their logic and motivations. He wants to know why they are the way that they are, not so he can change them, but so he can better mesh with and comprehend them as they are, to the point most FTEs to my knowledge end with something to the effect of "I think I understand XXX a little more now!" From that approach alone, Hajime is quite famous for ending his FTEs in a very close and friendly relationship with every single one of his classmates.

Shuichi Saihara and the Rigidity of One's Own Beliefs

Shuichi meanwhile is constantly at odds with Kokichi and telling him to stop doing what he's doing because he is intolerant of Kokichi's point of view. He doesn't get Kokichi at all and he doesn't really try to beyond a bewildered exclamation of Why!? for no reason other than to vent his frustration. He doesn't engage with Kokichi's methods in any way, making snap judgements as to whether Kokichi is lying or telling the truth (usually that he is lying) without inquiring further, and honestly spends most of his time trying to compete against them because he inherently believes that those methods are wrong simply because he can't make sense of them.

This even rings true in his FTEs where Kokichi spends the whole time goofing and playing games, and rather than engage with and try to understand the language Kokichi is speaking, Shuichi spends the entire time hung up on the inane concept that Kokichi made a threat on his life in the very first FTE. And it's like, I know, I KNOW about the good ending to Kokichi's Shot Through the Heart event. I know that Shuichi's best outcome with him is to tell him that he could tolerate Kokichi's lies, but that's not understanding, that's not comprehension.

That's a defeated white flag of "you do you, I'm too tired to fight you on this anymore."

Shuichi doesn't really want to understand any point of view that doesn't fit in well with his own. He gets along well with many of his other classmates, but that's primarily because they don't challenge his worldview as heavily as Kokichi does. Then, since the player is intended to engage with the story through Shuichi's perspective and Shuichi carries the driving ideology for the rest of the class, Kokichi suffers greatly for it.

Hajime's Approach to Kokichi

Don't get me wrong, he would be frustrated. He would be so, so frustrated with Kokichi's bullshit. However, I don't think he would be any more frustrated than he already is with Nagito's meandering nonsense during class trials. And above all else, he would not reject the fact that however Kokichi sees the world is real and sensible to Kokichi, and that in itself makes it worthy of understanding.

With all that in mind, I imagine that when faced with Kokichi's lies, he would take a more inquisitive approach: asking lots of questions regarding the details of any given story Kokichi may spin to better understand the narrative Kokichi is going for and thus deducing his intentions. Don't misunderstand—he would not necessarily believe anything Kokichi says. However, he wouldn't automatically accuse Kokichi of lying, either. Rather, he would treat Kokichi's words with the sentiment of Schrodinger's Truth. It is simultaneously true and false until Kokichi's intentions are deduced, thus coloring the reasoning behind the claims themselves.

Remember, Hajime values the idea that everyone has a reason for their actions and that reason follows a logic set and intention that can be examined and understood. Peko is very cold and distant due to a very strong sense of duty and justice. Gundam is very fantastical in his language because he feels more comfortable engaging with the world through fantasy. Akane is always laser-focused on food because of a poor childhood. They have reasons behind acting the way that they do, whether Hajime knows those reason or not, and those reasons and the behaviors attached to them should be respected.

So while Kokichi's lies may be frustrating and confusing at first, Hajime would not disregard the fact that they hold some sort of meaning to Kokichi, and so it would be better and more productive to engage with those lies on Kokichi's level. That would mean poking and prodding to get to the bottom of things. Needling around to feel out the truth. In Kokichi's infamous words, cornering psychologically.

So no, he would not believe everything Kokichi says at face value, but he wouldn't not believe it, either. He would recognize that Kokichi is very deliberate in the way he words things—little breadcrumbs to follow to whatever Kokichi thinks is important—and would very directly play his game and pry into those words to find whatever Kokichi is trying to show him. The claims themselves are not the important part, it's the greater topic and the implications such a claim entails. Just like Nagito does, Kokichi is trying to point at a particular detail without outright saying so, for one reason or another, and Hajime would recognize the value of that.

Putting this Approach into Practice

As an example, I want to examine the nature of Kokichi's FTEs and how Hajime might approach them. I dunno if I might want to write an actual fic of it at some point—it honestly sounds like a fun exercise—so I won't go into too much detail, but the way I think it would start is like this:

The instigation and overall behavior from Kokichi would be relatively the same. Hajime would come asking about his organization, so Kokichi would divulge a lot of (frankly ridiculous) information about it in a grandstanding lie, only to end the conversation threatening to kill Hajime for knowing too much. The only things I think might change are what specifically Hajime would focus on in this interaction.

From the very beginning, there is one thing that Kokichi always consistently does when talking about his organization that I think Hajime would take an interest in:

Kokichi always, always follows this format when introducing his organization:

He is the leader of a secret evil organization.

It has 10,000 members.

He is a liar.

Him being the leader of an organization is the truth.

It's like clockwork and I think Hajime would find that very interesting. It isn't really about the organization at this point, it's about the wording itself. Kokichi always introduces himself this way, so beyond the literal claims, what could the intention behind this format possibly be?

And Hajime might conclude that it's a tutorial.

Through this one scripted introduction, Kokichi conveys two very crucial things:

He lies, but he doesn't lie about everything.

He often lies about specific details of things that otherwise are true, either to embellish or for some other purpose.

So what does this mean for Hajime? That means this is a precedent that he is going to have to get accustomed to and figure out how to work with. Kokichi treats himself like a puzzle and he wants Hajime to figure him out. From this, he can finally start to think about what Kokichi is telling him:

He is the leader of a secret(?) evil(? probably not) organization.

It does NOT have 10,000 members.

He lies a lot, so don't take every detail of every thing he says at face value.

But at the end of the day there is always a grain of truth somewhere to be found.

From that point on, I imagine the way Hajime approaches the interaction and the details he decides to focus on would be very different. He would still be frustrated over the fact he has to do it at all, but he will do it anyway because at the end of the day he wants to understand Kokichi as he is.

And to understand Kokichi, he has to engage with him on his own terms.

Conclusion