Talk:Hajime Kokonoi

An ACCURATE Representation of Kokonoi Hajime
Hajime Kokonoi (Kokounoi Hajime), or Koko (ココ Koko), is one of the top executives, and one of the first members, of the Kanto Manji Gang. Prior to his membership in Kanto Manji, he was the 10th Generation Black Dragon Elite Guard Captain and later, a member of the First Division Tokyo Manji Gang. After getting forced by threat of violence to his best friend and his captain by Yasuhiro Muto, Koko reluctantly joined Tenjiku as its Treasurer.

Appearance
Koko is of a lean build and a tall stature. He has black hair in a deathhawk style, flowing wildly on the right side of his face, while the left side has rectangles shaved on it. He has fierce piercing black eyes and tall arching brows making his face look eternally angry. He often is sprouting dressed up attire often matching the detailing on his golden earrings. He wears red eyeliner frequently.

During the Bonten timeline, however, he kept the shaved rectangles on the side of his head and grew out his hair past his shoulders, instead dyed a light shade of platinum.

Personality and Story
Due to his involvement with crime and obsession with money making at a young age, Koko sees the world as a series of calculations. Kokonoi is a very commonly misunderstood character, most notably by his childhood best friend, Seishu Inui. Koko is very much action driven, given the fact that he isn't very gifted with words.

His childhood crush on Akane Inui, his best friend Seishu's older sister, led him to promise her that he would protect her against anything. Right after he did that, however, the Inui household went up in flames. Koko, with no regard for his own well-being, ran into the crumbling building, set on saving Akane from the fire. Unfortunately for him, the person he saved was Seishu, not Akane.

Once Akane was in the hospital, with a 40 million yen charge for her recovery, Koko promised her unconscious body that he would raise the money for her. So then, he delved himself into a life of crime at the age of 11. His cleverness led him to being approached by several powerful figures, which all but started to blur the main reason why he started making money in the first place.

Seishu contacted him one day informing him that Akane had passed away. He was crushed by guilt, of not having raised enough money and overall, failing her and the promise he had made to her. While his life of crime had put a wedge between his friendship with Seishu, he then attached himself to the boy and followed him instead, feeling the guilt of not being able to save Akane and wishing to make it up to Seishu by doing everything he could for him.

Seishu ended up going to juvie for his violence in the Black Dragons, a gang he had joined in his youth run by Shinichiro Sano and then Izana Kurokawa, and Koko was right there for him when he got out. Seishu was hell-bent on reviving the former gang, much to Koko's dismay. Seeing as he couldn't convince his old friend otherwise, Koko suggested a classmate of his, Taiju Shiba, to run the gang instead of Koko. While Seishu was disappointed that Koko didn't think he could do it himself, getting beaten up by Taiju took him down a peg. Taiju agreed to run the gang, as long as Koko ran it. Taiju knew Koko as a money-maker, and he wanted to use that ability.

Koko joined Black Dragons beside Seishu, making money for the gang just like he was used to. The night that Toman would ultimately beat the 10th generation of the Black Dragons, Seishu asked what Koko would do, to which Koko replied that he would stick with Seishu. He also mentioned, when Seishu brought it up, that he had forgotten the promise he had made Akane all those years ago.

This isn't entirely true, Koko remembers how he promised Akane to protect her, but he failed at doing so. Instead, he focuses his energy on protecting Seishu not because he sees her as Akane like Seishu thinks, but because he doesn't want to fail anyone else. While both of them struggled with losing Akane, Koko was focused much more on the safety and happiness of Seishu, following him wherever he went in order to keep him content.

Right after Toman beat the Black Dragons and therefore took in the former members, Koko and Seishu joined under Takemichi's leadership. They were then approached and beat up by Yasuhiro Muto, who threatened to kill Seishu and Takemichi in order for Koko to join Tenjiku because of his money-making prowess. Fearing the endangerment of his best friend and captain's lives because of his own capabilities, he agreed to join.

During the Tenjiku fight, Seishu approached Koko, wanting to get him back. Koko was not on board, begging Seishu to get a grip and understand that Toman was not going to win the fight that day. His smarts were correct, there was no possible way Toman would beat Tenjiku that day. Two of their strongest fighters were not in attendance and their numbers were much smaller. He was looking out for Seishu, wanting him to be on a winning team. Seishu wasn't having it, and that was when Koko came clean. He allowed himself to be used by so many people for his money-making prowess, basically seeing it as the only way he could have any meaning in life. He also assumed that Seishu only kept him around to fund his pipe-dream of reviving the Black Dragons. Seishu isn't hearing any of it, repeating that Akane is dead and not listening when Koko says that he is aware Akane is dead, wondering if she would be angry with him for all that he was doing.

After their less than satisfactory fight that was left unfinished, Koko approached Seishu after Emma's funeral and admitted that he wouldn't be able to support Seishu anymore, and it was better they went their separate ways. After the disaster of Tenjiku, Koko realized that his ability to make money would continue to send him deeper into darkness, and Seishu shouldn't have to be involved in that. He told Seishu to not go down the wrong path, knowingly doing that himself. He realized Takemichi was a much better influence on Seishu than himself, so putting aside his own safety and happiness, he chose for Seishu to be happy and they did not speak again.

The next time they'd see each other would be after the Battle of the Three Deities, where Koko brought Takemichi's unconscious body to Seishu at the bike shop he worked at with Draken. Koko urged Seishu to get Takemichi to a hospital, despite the fact that his own boss was the reason why Takemichi was in that state in the first place. After Takemichi was transported to the hospital, he explained to Seishu the events of the fight. When Seishu asks if he is happy, he smiles sadly and says he is, that following Mikey is like betting on a winning horse. It's clear that he is lying, but he does this so Seishu wouldn't worry about him.

Seishu smiles remembering this memory with Koko before joining Thousand Winters (now named Toman 2nd Generation), knowing that he still has a chance to save his best friend. He is now approaching Koko at the fight, singling him out in the crowd of Kanto Manji members with his tunnel vision and yelling out his name desperately, not angrily, showing that he still wants to fix their friendship.

Overall, Kokonoi Hajime is an extremely selfless character, while not good with words, he speaks his love through actions. He sees one purpose for himself in life, to be used by others to make money. He struggles with saying exactly what he wants to say, along with crippling guilt over something he had no power to control and that he had no responsibility to fix. However, he tries to make up for this guilt by doing everything he can for the happiness and safety of others, namely Seishu, instead of his own. His own benefit is never his concern, he focuses on the well-being of others rather than letting himself be happy.

It's very common to misunderstand Koko's intentions, since Seishu sees no worth in himself and believes Koko only does what he does for Seishu because he sees Seishu as Akane. This ties back to when Koko rescued Seishu from the fire, calling Seishu by Akane's name. However, it has been several years since they lost Akane, and Koko has moved on and uses this tragedy as an opportunity to protect Seishu instead, knowing how much he had been through. Given the fact that he is so used to being used for money, he believes that Seishu is just like everyone else, using him for money so that Seishu can rebuild the Black Dragons, but he allows him to do so because Seishu's happiness comes before his own.

Financial Prowess
Koko has unparalleled financial ability. Ever since his young age, he researched multiple forms of making money by reading books, learning of methods both legal and illegal in the process. As a result he was capable of performing complex criminal schemes involving stealing along investing said money in criminals so they would steal and engage in criminal activity on his place which would in turn create greater profits for himself.

His monetary ability is highly known in the delinquent world, with many gangs seeking him because he can make them rich. In fact, Koko is a major figure in multiple different timelines in which he serves as a major executive in all the most powerful gangs in each timeline, being in charge of the finances, therefore making him a central piece for the success of more structured and dangerous gang organizations.

This, of course, is due to how he drowned himself in the world of making money illegally at a young age, his success infiltrating his impressionable mind and making him believe that this was his only purpose in life. He allows himself to be used by others in order to be useful to them, since he sees nothing else he is good for.

Fighting Prowess
Besides his financial skills, he's also shown to be a capable fighter, being able to fight on par against Inui.

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