#hpa

The others remembering him as a classmate who in a normal environment was just a good natured prankster who could be mean (he tried to push them all away many times before giving up lol, his trust issues wouldn't be nearly as bad outside of a death game) but not evil nor sadistic, and at the end of the day just strived to make everybody laugh, pre-game. (In-game he strived to save as many people as possible and tbh even if his plan failed Kaito would've died anyway so it did kind of work in the end, but that's not the point✨)

Kokichi's classmates would also remember on some level that his organization is pacifistic, (yes DICE is real and yes Kokichi can't look them in the eye after breaking their rule💪) because I think it's possible for him to purposefully let slip that much to at least some of his classmates, if there was trust between 'em, and it would be a great display of it given how dear DICE is to Kokichi.

Kokichi would still come from a bad background (in-game he says that his is different than Kaito's, who has loving guardians, so that's my assumption) so naturally he wouldn't be fully trusting even without the killing game, but he wouldn't be paranoid (Is it paranoia if they're really out to get you?) to the brink of a mental breakdown.

So, put together the memories of an endearingly mischievious but good natured Kokichi who everyone knows likes to help in roundabout ways VS the Monokuma-esque mask Kokichi put on in the killing game where he disguises his every good intention as sadistic, so much so that his crashout in ch 4-5 is dismissed as a malicious lie.

I'm thinking about how Kokichi and Miu would be great friends outside of the killing game and how remembering that plus the trauma would be an absolute BOMB of mixed, conflicting feelings. They were allies at some point in the killing game, but the betrayal and guilt on both ends would sting so much more if they had actually been close friends before!

I'm also contemplating Kokichi and Gonta's relationship, and how Gonta would know without a doubt that Kokichi's despair before his execution was real (in this AU Kokichi would feel even more guilty for involving Gonta in his bullshit, 'cause how could he EVER doubt that Gonta could be anything but genuinely, truthfully kind? He only realized that when Gonta forgave him just before getting killed, and now they both have memories of being close friends; the difference between Pre-game Kokichi telling Gonta he may be naive but not stupid, and In-game Kokichi hammering in how stupid Gonta is because he's trying to push him away and get him to break, because there's no way someone could ever be that kind, right?) and they would both blame themselves even if everyone turned out alive in the end. (I think in ch4 Kokichi improv'd a LOT and his actions weren't as calculated as he let on, because he was gonna get killed and no one but Gonta would believe him, and we don't really know how Kokichi initially reacted to the secret of the outside world, so any amount of irrationality can be attributed to his fragile mental state, but I digress.)

Kokichi and Kaito would've still been rivals but overtime they would've understood each other and become close friends, so now they have the memories of that gradual relationship of unspoken friendship and comraderie plus the traumabonding of the hangar! Isn't that neat? Taking part in what is basically an assisted suicide and then finding out the guy you killed was really just some kid who liked playing games and pranking people!

A kid who did some fucked up shit and acted like a dick, but it's not like he's alone in that; I want to highlight just how much the Killing game twists people's minds, of how the desperation it creates in everyone's mind makes it so everyone can be capable of heinous actions. Of how it does make sense that someone like Kokichi (whose organization has a don't kill rule) would plan a murder if cornered and threatened to be murdered himself.

That desperation is a bit exaggerated when it comes to characters like Kirumi (though her selfless devotion was selfish after all, in a way. Way to play god, prime minister!) and it's vastly different with Korekiyo, but I feel like it does resonate humanly well in Kaede and Gonta, in separate ways.

Everyone is capable of murder and their past memories remind them that even people who are good at their core can do evil acts, so it's hard to dismiss the culprits (and culprits by proxy like Kokichi) as inherently evil, and yet there are so many conflicting feelings that nobody knows how to even begin to dissect.