Masaomi Kida

Masaomi Kida (紀田正臣, Kida Masaomi) is a resident of Ikebukuro and Mikado Ryūgamine's best friend from childhood. He was the one who encouraged Mikado to come to Ikebukuro. He is enthusiastic about picking-up girls, but seems to be a failure at it. He was depressed and lonely before Mikado arrived because his girlfriend was kidnapped and injured during a gang war between the Blue Squares and Yellow Scarves, which he led at the time. After Anri is injured during the Slasher incidents and the rising presence of the Dollars, he is forced to become the leader of the Yellow Scarves once more.

He despises Orihara Izaya for manipulating him when he first formed the Yellow Scarves, but returns to him again for information about the leader of the Dollars and discovers it is Mikado. He leaves Ikebukuro with his ex-girlfriend, Saki Mikajima, during the conflict between the 3 main forces in Ikebukuro. Masaomi has commented on not letting Mikado "go to the dark side", claiming that he has already gone through it.

Personality
Masaomi has a very friendly, enthusiastic, and outgoing personality, and is almost always seen fooling around, smiling, making bad jokes, teasing friends, and hitting on girls. He is shown to care deeply for his friends, having to act as a sort of big brother for Mikado as he adjusts to life in the big city and going to great lengths to protect those who are close to him. When Mikado first saw Masaomi in Ikebukuro, after years of separation, Masaomi's bubbly personality and bad jokes were what convinced him that the man greeting him was indeed Masaomi Kida. As the series progresses, it is revealed that Masaomi's enthusiastic, happy-go-lucky demeanor is actually a mask of his true, much less secure self. He appears to agonize over major choices much more than any other character in the series, although he falls short of being paralyzed by his fears, still being able to make important decisions when necessary. He also demonstrates a feeling of responsibility for those close to him, taking attacks on his friends very personally. Despite appearing carefree, his experience as leader of the Yellow Scarves makes him painfully aware of the realities of life, and his greatest fear appears to be allowing himself or his friends to "cross over to the dark side," preferring that they stay completely away from the color gangs even to the point of being ignorant of them.

Background
Masaomi founded the Yellow Scarves when he was in middle school, intending it to be a playful sort of team. As the Yellow Scarves grew, they became one of the notorious 'color gangs' that went around the city, occasionally fighting each other. However, as the gangs grew older, one of their rival gangs, Blue Square, began to get serious, stretching the boundaries of a typical gang of middle schoolers and becoming quite violent. The Yellow Scarves naively expected a fair battle, but Blue Square allegedly played dirty and only picked fights that they could win, devastating the Yellow Scarves. It was during the Yellow Scarves/Blue Square war that Masaomi met Saki Mikajima, a girl who recommended him to an informant, Izaya Orihara to help him fight his wars. Masaomi was, quite reasonably, put off by Izaya's personality and found it difficult to trust him, but Izaya's advice was sound, giving the Yellow Scarves intel on Blue Square hangouts and teaching them how to fight. The success Izaya brought to the Yellow Scarves led Masaomi to unintentionally become dependant on him for help, and Izaya continued to provide information until Blue Square was cornered and about to be finished off.

Thanks to Izaya, Masaomi and Saki saw each other and talked a lot, eventually deciding that they were, in fact, dating. Unfortunately, Saki was kidnapped and tortured by Blue Square in an attempt to lure out Masaomi, and end the Yellow Scarves. Masaomi sought Izaya for help, but Izaya would not answer his phone, and Masaomi was left helpless and unable to save her. Fortunately, Kyohei Kadota and a group of Blue Squares who were disgruntled by the gang's lack of honour betrayed their gang and saved Saki, although she had to be hospitalized for a year.

Masaomi left the Yellow Scarves after the war, and vowed never to go to "the dark side" again. However according to Izaya, the incident made Saki his "god," with her becoming the embodiment of his dark past that he could never escape from.

It was through chats with him that Mikado Ryuugamine decided to come to Ikebukuro, lured in by the sense of excitement and fun that his friend Masaomi described (Masaomi left out the harsher details of his life in the big city, including his gang experience, as he believed it better that Mikado never find out about them). Hearing about how bored he was with his small town life, Masaomi encouraged Mikado to join him and enroll in Raira Academy.

Protecting and teasing Mikado for his naiveness became a hobby for Masaomi, and helped him become a little less depressed about his life. On the first day of school, Mikado followed Anri Sonohara in volunteering to be class rep; Masaomi, and many other guys, were amazed at his apparent boldness (Anri is considered by many to be quite attractive, and the implication was that Mikado was going after her. Mikado however insists that he had other reasons). They all became friends after that, and started the trio of protagonists of the series, which Masaomi playfully describes as a love triangle.

It wasn't until much later in the series, when the Slasher incidents began, that Masaomi had another run in with the underworld. When Anri was attacked by the Slasher (it was actually one of Saika's "children" who attacked her; Anri is the original Saika and she had nothing to do with the Slasher incidents, although all of this is unknown to Masaomi), Masaomi was enraged at the attack on his friend and felt the need to use the Yellow Scarves power to hunt him down. The Yellow Scarves were quick to welcome back their old leader, although Masaomi found the gang to have changed drastically.

As rumours went around that the Slasher was part of the mysterious "Dollars" gang, Yellow Scarves started hunting down Dollars members, although this proved difficult due to their characteristic "invisibility." Tensions rose sharply when the feared Black Rider was seen helping someone with a Japanese sword escape a group of Yellow Scarves; the Black Rider was a known member of the Dollars, and this was seen as solid proof that they were in league with the Slasher. After this, the Yellow Scarves, still strong after years of laying low and gaining strength off of the resentment the city felt towards the Slasher, fully mobilized, hunting down everyone who was suspected of being with the Dollars and beating them up.

Of course it was unknown to Masaomi that the Dollars were actually 'led' by Mikado, and that Anri was now the Slasher (and fully in control of herself). He still disagreed with the unneccesary violence against innocents, but his gang was out of control, and ignored his orders to stop, continuing to assault the Dollars while the Dollars did nothing in response. Masaomi grew fed up with the clear insubordination of his gang, and began sensing their mutinous intentions; his suspicions were confirmed one day as he walked into the Yellow Scarves base to find Horada in his 'throne,' blatantly taking control of the gang. It turned out that as the Yellow Scarves started letting anyone join them (this was to allow those who opposed the Slasher to fight him/her), Blue Square had actually infiltrated the gang. The fact that Anri was using Saika's children within the Yellow Scarves to try and stop attacks against Dollars members helped create a sort of chaos within the gang where members started fighting each other; Blue Square took this as an opportunity to 'remove' those still loyal to Masaomi and place those still loyal to Blue Square within the gang. Horada put out an execution order for Masaomi to be carried out by his own gang; fortunately Celty Sturluson (the Black Rider) found out, and brought Mikado and Anri with her to save Masaomi. Masaomi proved able to hold his own in battle, taking on several Yellow Scarves at once, and was able to survive long enough for his friends to come to his aid. It also turned out that Kyohei Kadota and his group, now with the Dollars, had also infiltrated the Yellow Scarves, and joined Masaomi's side in the battle. It was after this battle that all three friends (Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri) learned of each other's parts in the whole war and came to terms with it.

Although Masaomi survived the battle, the execution order against him still held, and the Yellow Scarves were still strong, so it became impossible for him to freely show himself around the city. He had been avoiding Saki because of the guilt he felt for her injuries, but his scrape with death led him to visit her to try and repent; Saki surprisingly didn't mind his absence OR his habit of flirting with other girls, as she believed that he would always find he loved her more. She also revealed that she allowed herself to be kidnapped by Blue Square on Izaya's orders, and as usual she followed his orders unquestioningly. It turned out at some point, she actually realized that Izaya was simply playing destructive games with people for his own amusement (Masaomi becoming dependent on him, Saki being kidnapped, and him suddenly ignoring Masaomi's calls for help are an example. The Slasher/Dollars/Yellow Scarves war is another, although he had other reasons for spurring that one). Towards the end of the war, she overcame her idolization of Izaya and sold him out to Simon Brezhnev. Although surprised, Masaomi revealed that he also knew that Saki was faking her inability to walk. Eventually they both forgave each other for their actions, and Masaomi overcame the paralyzing guilt that forced him to stay away from Saki, and the two disappeared from Ikebukuro together.

After the main story, a mysterious user named "Bakyura" became a member of Mikado's private chatroom (at this point the chat included Mikado, Anri, Celty, and Izaya, although not all the users were aware of the identities of some of the others). The way he spoke, his general demeanor, and the timing with which he joined led Mikado to suspect that this user was actually Masaomi; although Bakyura ignored Mikado's inquiring PMs, he repeated jokes, Masaomi liked to make with Mikado (at Kanra/Izaya's expense). Although Masaomi and Saki's whereabouts are unknown, Mikado states confidence that Bakyura is Masaomi's way of staying in contact, and that the friends will meet again in the future.

Dollars/ Mika Harima Arc
He invites Mikado to Ikebukuro. Then he meets Mikado at the train station,and then he shows Mikado around town. Then later he shows Mikado to Katoda's Crew,and later Simon. Then tells Mikado to stay away from Shizuo, and Izaya. Masaomi does bring Mikado to the place where they see the Black Rider.

The next day for some reason he was tired at school. He did introduce himself in his class. The day after that he goes to Mikado's class,and draws a heart around Mikado,and Anri's name and saying Mikado did a good move of going with Anri.

Later he watches Ani being bullied,and Izaya scaring the bullies off. Then he reveals that since because of Izaya he went to Raika Acdemy. Then he sees the epic battle between Shizuo and Izaya. When Simon comes in he tells Mikado it's time to go,but Mikado grabbed Anri and ran with her. Then the next day he said that Mikado has the moves for Anri. Then hits on her. Mikado yells at him,but Masaomi only tackles him.

Then they go to the park where he buys ice cream for the whole group. Then he listens to Anri while she talks about Mika. At night he gers called over by Mikado because Mikado bumped into a girl on the street,and dosen't know what to do with the girl. So Masaomi comes to see the girl.

He dosen't believe she was chased from a Black Bike,and tells Mikado to take care of her and leaves. The next day he told some men about Mikado's girl,and they come to question Mikado. Then they think Masaomi and Mikado are liars and leave.

Then Masaomi amd Mikado go to the roof to see if Ryo Takiguchi is a part of the Dollars. Masaomi asks the guestion staright out,which Mikado yells at him for that,but Ryo told the truth,and said he was in the Dollars. At the end of school Masaomi was in a big fight in the student council meeting so he couldn't walk home with Anri,and Mikado.

The next day he told Mikado about the Dollars meeting that happend the other night,and told Mikado the headless rider really has no head. Then goes out to get lunch. When Mikado goes where they eat lunch Masaomi was hitting on Anri so he was kicked by Mikado in the face.

Saika Arc
Masaomi saw Anri being sexually harassed by Takashi Nasujima so Masaomi jumps in yelling "Mr. Nasujima are you sexually harassing her?" Then Takashi tries proving him wrtong,but Masaomi pulls out a video camera and said that he recorded the whole thing and whould show the teachers if he dosen't get away from Anri right now.

Then the whole video camera thing scares Takashi away from Anri. Then Masaomi tells Anri to be careful around him, because he went after a girl named Haruna Niekawa one time. Then in a other point he does stop Takashi again from sexually harassing her near a soccer court.

Yellow Turbans Arc
After seeing Anri in the hospital because of the slasher he rejoins the Yellow Scarces as their leader,but then he gets a flashback where he was in Middle school he made the Yellow Scarves. They were on a war with an other gang called The Bkue Sqaures. Then one day he met Saki. They talked and then for some reson they got together. But the only hard thing for Masaomi was that Saki liked a older man named Izaya Orihara becuase she said he was an cool Information Broker.

Then during the worse of the war Masaomi took Saki's advice,and went to Izaya's place. Izaya told him where the Blue Sqaures location was so they went for it,and they won each battle because of Izaya. but one day Masaomi in his room gets a call. He picks it up and on the other end it was the Blue Sqaure leader Izumii Ran. He said that he kidnapped Saki. Then Masaomi heard a loud crack noise,and heard Saki screaming.

He threw his phone down on the groud. Then took it and ran outside to save her. He tried calling Izaya for advice but he didn't pick up. Then right when Masaomi got there he paused and stood. He asked himself why he didn't go there that day. Luckally katoda's crew came and saved her,and Izumii was arrested like the others. Then Masaomi was in the emergecy room with Izaya. Izaya started saying no one can ever change their memorys,but it gets Masaomi ticked off so he tried to punch Izaya.

Izaya blocks and throws Masaomi to the ground. Then Masaomi gets up,and Izaya leaves. At the end of the flashback Masaomi hears one of his guys saying that someone was spying on them. So Masaomi ran to see who it was. Then he saw the slasher on the back of the Black Riders motorcycle. The he saw one of his men throwing a metal pipe at them and the slasher cutted it in half,and they got away.

The next mouring Anri,and Masaomi was feeling funny about each other. Then they hear that the Dollars are being attacked by the Yellow Scarves. Then during the evening Masaomi goes back to the hospital to see Saki. They talk about recent events. Then Masaomi gets an other flashback where it was 2 mouths after the incident and Kyohei sees him and tells him that Saki can see him from her window. Then Masaomi says he never goes past this point so Kyohei picks him up and lectures him about that he should go there and say sorry for what Saki went through. Then Kyohei leaves.

At the end of the flashback he leaves the hospital. Then goes to the Russia Sushi place,and askes Kyohei,and hisguys if they can go to a privite room in there with him. So they do,and Masaomi asks them what should he he do about the Yellow Scarve war. They all suggest that he should go with his gut,but Masaomi says he dosen't know what he can do with it. Then Simon comes in saying to not fight at all,and eat his sushi. Then when he leaves they keep talking.

Then Dennis gets angry because their talk is scaring the custormers away so he throws a knife in the room,and says to stop talking about that stuff. Masaomi leaves and goes to Izaya's place. Izaya toldhim that Mikado was the leader of the Dollars,which Masaomi when he heard it sdays to his men to stop the attacks on the Dollars. His men dosen't listen becuase the next night they attack Ryo. So the next day Masaomi tells Mikado the news.

Then at night Horada says to Masaomi that his men where beating up each other for no reason. So then Masaomi questions them and they say they don't know. The next day his mern went after Anri. When she was on the chase Masaomi grabbed her alone,and ran her into a alley. Then he teases her about her being the slasher,and Mikado being the the leader of the Dollars.

So all his talk makes Anri slap him in the face and run away. Then he gets a call from Horada that he knows that Mikado was the leader of the Dollars,and he took control of the yellow Scarves. Then tells him that he is weak and not needed. Then he hung up. asaomi angry makes the desition that he'll run there by himself,and take care of the Yellow Scarves.

Simon sees him and told him that his face looks like he's going to kill or be killed. Masaomi denies him,but Simon told him that in Russia every fight some one dies in it,and tells Masaomi this is Ikebukuro,and no one shold fight. But Masaomi kept running. Then he got to the base,and confronts Horada. Then Horada throws a crowbar at his head. Masaomi bleeds and picks up the crowbar. Then the Yellow Scarves start attacking Masaomi. Masaomi beats them all.

Then gets hit in the head by a thrown metal pipe. Then he falls down. Then Horada puts a gun on Masaomi's head,and tells him he's going to die right there. Then one of the Yellow Scarves whacks the gun with a metal pipe and said mother would be sad if he died. Then Anri comes in cutting down the door. Then Mikado,and the black rider come. Then the three freinds notice each other.

Horada orders the rest of the Yellow Scarves to kill them all. But they fight each other. Then Kyohei pulls off his mask and they surround Horada. Then Horada slips and said that he broke Saki's legs. Then Masaomi punches Horada in the face before he fell down uncostus. Then Mikado holds him up and asks him to wake up. He wakes up then falls uncostus again.

Then he wakkes up in the hospital and worried anri,and Mikado were relived that Masaomi was alive and left. Then Saki came in there and told him  that Izaya told her to go out and lets the Blue Sqaures kidnap her. Then he said her legs weren't broken at all. Then kisses Masaomi in his hospital bed.

When Masaomi was better he left Ikebukuro with Saki,and joined the chatroom as Bykura.

Light Novel
Light Novel specific spoilers about this character per volume/chapter.

Volume 05 & 06 : Kida and Saki are working as field agents for Izaya, gathering information for him to use as a way to support themselves. Recently, Kida and Saki were asked to gather information on Yadogiri Jinnai. Kida is suspicious about the job due to the fact that it was given so suddenly and the fact that the area they're supposed to search in is very remote and isolated. Masaomi is also unsettled due to the fact that there aren't any real computers in the town they're heading to and he can't log into the chat room. Saki says that he's become too addicted to the internet and also wonders why Kida can't simply just visit them instead of just going on the chatroom. Masomi replies that he just can't see them because he fears that they won't accept him if he did go back.

After they return from their trip, Kida logs on to the chatroom to catch up but no one is on. He tries to check the archive history but finds it empty as well. He logs back on again the next day and asks Mairu and Kururi for an update on what he missed. The twins are confused as they remember Masaomi being on the day before. Kida is alarmed about this and asks if Taro Tanaka was on as well. The twins say yes and Kida immediately makes the assumption that his account was hacked and also has a good idea as to who is responsible.

Masaomi calls Izaya and asks him what he said to Mikado in the chatroom and why he hacked into his account. Izaya simply taunts Masomi about why he doesn't simply just call Mikado about it and about how he's simply acting like a coward. The insults hit a little too close to home and Masaomi lashes out at Izaya who promptly hangs up on him.

A few hours later, Saki asks Masaomi if he was lonely. Masaomi tries to deny it, saying that he has her. Saki sees through the lie and says that while she can be Masomi's lover, she can't be his friend in the same way Mikado and Anri can. She says that, from the way he described them, it would be impossible for his friends to abandon him and even if they did, She would be there to help him back up. Saki goes on to say that if Masaomi's friends are in danger, then the only person who can, and should, help them is Masomi himself. reinvigorated by Saki's words, Masaomi packs a few changes of clothes and heads out to Ikebukuro to help Mikado.

Masaomi isn't seen until much later after Mikado tried to apologize to Chikage. He see's Mikado break down in tears and immediately stops himself from calling out to him. He realizes that, with the way he was right now, he wouldn't want to be seen in that state by Masaomi. Masomi turns and leaves, deciding to re-introduce himself after Mikado had recovered.

Volume 08 : Masaomi learns about Mikado and Aoba going around and expelling dollars members and decides to investigate. Masomi learns that Mikado was chasing after Ruri Hijiribe's stalker and decides to intervene before he could do anything rash. When he returned to Ikebukuro he says sorry to Shizuo, but Shizuo just poked him and Masaomi flew in the air.And was outcold. But wakes up after an hour.

Later He arrives too late and sees that Mikado has already been beaten severely by Adabashi Kisuke. Masaomi manages to get the jump on Adabashi long enough for Mikado to light him on fire. Masaomi is shocked at the level of cruelty that Mikado had shown and is disturbed at how Mikado can simply smile through it all. He yells at Mikado for what he was doing but Mikado simply brushes him off and walks away.

Masaomi eventually runs into Anri as well and the two of them have a rather cheerful reunion but both are worried at Mikado's recent behavior. Masaomi eventually decides to reform the yellow scarves with the sole purpose of bringing Mikado back to his senses as well as to crush the Blue Square remnants that have assimilated into the Dollars.

Volume 09 : Masaomi continues to frequent the chatroom and greets several of the new members that have joined (including Saki who joined at his invitation). He tries to get in contact with Mikado via private chat but Mikado simply replies that he'll be leaving the chatroom and logs off. Later, he enters Russia sushi with a yellow scarf around his neck and asks Kadota for advice.

Volume 10: Walker asks Masaomi and the Yellow scarves were behind Kyohei's coma. But they didn't know anything thing. Then later Masaomi whacks his friend's head to find out that a smell of gasoline was in the room.

Volume 11: In one point Masaomi and Chikage do fight.

Trivia

 * His favorite subject is English while his least favorite subject is History.
 * His favorite quote is "Love is a Leveler."
 * At first Masaomi was like comic relief until he rejoined the Yellow Scarves.
 * He likes eating meals with girls, and dislike eating when he's only eating with males.
 * He used to have brown hair then dyed it to yellow.
 * In Volume 04 of the Light Novels, Masaomi starts singing the "tsun tsun dere tsun" song as a joke on the chatroom upon Izaya calling him a tsundere, and cites Sakurashin town as the song's origin. Both the song and the Town he mentions come from the manga "Yozakura Quartet" (another manga series written and drawn by Suzuhito Yasuda, the artist for Durarara!!), which implies that Durarara!! also takes place within the same universe as the aforementioned manga series.
 * He sang "Linda Linda" in the rapping CD.