Hajime Nagumo

Hajime Nagumo (ハジメ, Nagumo Hajime?) is the main protagonist of the Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou series.

After being called incompetent and betrayed by one of his classmates, Hajime falls into the abyss where his journey to become the strongest begins.

Appearance
In the beginning of the story, Hajime had black hair, brown eyes, and a slim body type. He also had a kind face and attitude. After falling into the abyss and eating the twin-tailed wolf monster, his body began to wither away. After he drank the ambrosia in the abyss to counter the effects of the monster meat, his body began to heal and grow stronger in the process. Due to the stress of this repeated revitalization, his hair turned white, a condition called Marie Antoinette syndrome. His eyes also turned red and his body gained tattoo-like red veins, a sign of becoming a demonic monster. These red marks also grant Hajime the ability to use magic without needing to use chants or incantations. He also grew 10 cm in height and gained a muscular, toned figure. The huge change in his appearance (along with his personality and abilities) made it difficult for those who knew Hajime before to recognize him at first, only recognizing him because of his voice and facial features (and that's only after taking a closer look).

Shorty after falling into the abyss, Hajime lost his left arm to the Claw Bear on the first floor. He would later lose his right eye during his battle against the Hydra. After completing the Great Orcus Labyrinth and gaining creation magic, Hajime would replace them with a mechanical arm and an artifact called the Demon Eye, respectively.

After he returned to Earth, Hajime's hair and eyes reverted back to their original color due to Kaori's restoration magic. He decides, however, to keep his mechanical arm and demon eye, which are disguised to look like his original arm and eye.

Personality
Hajime was originally a weak and average person with a timid and tolerant personality but with an extremely kind and gentle heart. While mild-mannered, he has a special type of bravery and strength of heart that would allow him to sacrifice his own dignity and well-being to protect a child from harm. Kaori noted that it would be easy to be a hero to fight against evil if one were already strong, but it takes true strength to go against evil if one knows that they are weak. His strength of heart is evident by his ability to keep calm when his class faced perilous dangers from a Behemoth, while Kouki had momentarily stood paralyzed by fear until being snapped out of it by Hajime. He had a Motto of "Hobbies First" and would put his hobbies over everything else despite ridicule by his peers. He was also considered mature.

After the betrayal of a classmate and falling in into an abyss, Hajime begins his descent to madness. The fear of dying and the pain of losing his arm coupled with days of starvation pushed him over the edge. His iron forged will to survive made him extremely ruthless and capable of killing any person who wants to cause him misfortune or get in his way. He would also smile in front of danger which made Shea call him a new species of monster called "Predator". He may be merciless, but he deeply cares for his comrades which is the last and only fragment of his lost kindness. As the series progresses, Hajime eventually does prove himself willing to help the helpless, particularly if his companions coax him into it, though he continues to demonstrate a cold demeanor. His methods, however, are usually pragmatic, frequently to the point of brutality, and he is stubbornly resistant to guilt trips and appeals to his moral compass, as Kouki repeatedly encounters, and refuses to acknowledge. He has no qualms after he murdered Daisuke Hiyama

During the Shunee Great Labyrinth, it's revealed that he has some doubts over whether or not he can live in Japan due to how strong he became and was scared of being referred to as a monster. Unlike other's who fall victim to the labyrinths doubt inducing traps, Hajime is able to endure the psychological torment.

While Hajime is usually blunt and cold to most people after his transformation and is not above expressing his annoyance with even those close to him, he is very spoiling towards those he loves and his family.

Initially, he had eyes for Yue and Yue alone, but after the incident at the Haltina labyrinth, where his feelings for his comrades (harem) were reversed, he realized how much they truly meant to him and subsequently started to accept the romantic attempts of the others around him. This is often shown in how he would flirt with Yue and later his other wives without concern for his surroundings. While he was against Myu calling him Papa, he quickly became a doting and overprotective father to her. When around his in-laws, Hajime is more respectful and patient than how he with his own birth parents, using polite language when talking with them, something his wives are still not used to.

One other trait that remains unchanged about Hajime is that he still remains an otaku, something Kaori points out. Hajime bases most of his creations and even his appearance off of things from animes, manga, and video games. He's even gone out of his way to create massive and extremely difficult to make Artifacts simply because it would be cooler. Hajime feels very self-conscious about this as he's fully aware it's all true. Being a Synergist at heart as well, Hajime can become so passion about what he decides to make that he won't stop or compromise until he finish what he started. This has led him to go overboard on more than one project and add many pointless but cool features to his Artifacts.