Nozomi Kotonami

Nozomi Kotonami is the elder sister of Kuon Kotonami. She is a shut-in that has trouble talking to anyone face-to-face. Despite this, she is very outgoing online and over the phone. She and Kuon are the admins of IkeNEW!, a sensationalist website that often posts false information and scams for profit. She was previously one of Izaya’s female worshipers.

Characteristics
Nozomi is described as having an overall gloomy aura about her. She has dark circles under a pair of yellow eyes, and her hair is a somewhat light shade of gray.

Perhaps due to her status as a shut-in, Nozomi wears very minimal clothing. She is shown in illustrations sporting an open light blue-green hoodie with no top, or even bra, underneath in addition to a pair of striped panties and thigh-high socks.

Background
Nozomi and her brother, Kuon, were orphaned at a young age. Their foster family abused them terribly and they were often denied basic necessities such as adequate food and clothing. At some point, the two catch the attention of Izaya Orihara and he ruins the abusive family, teaching the siblings how to survive on their own. From then on, Nozomi becomes one of Izaya’s worshipers. Eventually, Izaya orders her to date one of the high ranking members of Yellow Scarves(implied to be Yatabe) along with Saki, though she dumps him shortly afterwards.

After Izaya disappears from Ikebukuro, Nozomi suffers a breakdown. She loses her ability to communicate properly and spends her time simply chanting his name in the corner of her room. Kuon, who had always been distrustful and jealous of Izaya, claims that he will become the missing informant’s replacement in order to allow his sister to go on living. From that point on, Nozomi begins to slowly recover, and by the current time of the series, is able to speak and function again mostly normally so long as she is not directly in the vicinity of another person.

History
Nozomi is the admin for the IkeNEW! website and writes using the handle Lila Tailtooth Zaiya. When the “tail” and “tooth” sections are translated into Japanese, it becomes an anagram of the name “Izaya Orihara.” Nozomi uses this handle, and her and Kuon intentionally model the nature of their news site in a way that they believe Izaya would run one had he done so himself. In doing this, they hope that any other girls that worshiped Izaya might see it and believe the site is actually run by him, enabling them to move on with their lives.

Despite being a shut-in, Nozomi is not a NEET and makes enough money for both her and Kuon to live off of through her online businesses. This is the other reason for the sensationalist nature of IkeNEW! as most of her money comes from ads on the site. Because of this, it’s of no concern to her whether her stories are ridiculed or written off as fake, so long as they continue to catch the public’s attention. As a gimmick for when she makes administrator comments, Nozomi often embellishes her sentences with catchphrases such as “nari” or “moja“ for certain periods of time before moving on to a new phrase.

When Kuon goes missing after meeting up with the Headless Rider, Yahiro and Himeka attempt to check and see if he is at his home. When they receive no response upon knocking at the door, the two turn to leave, but Yahiro is able to hear Nozomi’s footsteps from inside the apartment. Out of fear that the person inside may in fact be one of the kidnappers, Himeka decides to pick the lock and let herself and Yahiro in. Once inside, Nozomi is visibly distraught and often shivers and avoids eye contact. Nonetheless, she serves the two snacks and tea before moving to another room to continue their conversation over the phone. After she’s out of sight of her guests, Nozomi becomes incredibly talkative, divulging details of her and her brother’s past and revealing that Kuon let himself be kidnapped purposefully.