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.

History
Dollars/ Mika Harima Arc Masomi invites Mikado to Ikebukuro. Upon his arrival, he meets Mikado at the train station and shows him around town. He shows Mikado to Katoda's Crew, and later Simon. Then he 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 introduces himself in class. The day after that, he goes to Mikado's class and draws a heart around Mikado and Anri's name and says Mikado did a good move going with Anri.

Later he watches Anri being bullied and Izaya scaring the bullies off. Masomi then reveals that he went to Raika Acdemy because of Izaya. He also sees the epic battle between Shizuo and Izaya. The next day he says that Mikado has the moves for Anri, then hits on her. Mikado yells at him, but Masaomi tackles him.

They go to the park where he buys ice cream for the whole group. He then listens to Anri while she talks about Mika. That night, he getss called over by Mikado because Mikado bumped into a girl on the street and dosen't know what to do with the girl. 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 then leaves. The next day, he tells some men about Mikado's girl, and they come to question Mikado. They then 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 straight out, which Mikado yells at him for. Ryo tells them the truth, and says he was in the Dollars. At the end of school, Masaomi ends up in a big fight at the student council meeting, so he couldn't walk home with Anri and Mikado.

The next day he tells Mikado about the Dollars meeting that happend the other night, and that the Headless Rider really has no head. He then goes out to get lunch.Masaomi hits on Anri, causing Mikado to kick him in that face.

Saika Arc
Masaomi sees Anri being sexually harassed by Takashi Nasujima, so Masaomi jumps in, yelling "Mr. Nasujima, are you sexually harassing her?!" Takashi tries proving him wrong, but Masaomi pulls out a video camera and says that he recorded the whole thing and will show the teachers if he doesn't get away from Anri.

The whole video camera thing scares Takashi away from Anri. Masaomi then tells Anri to be careful around him, because he once went after a girl named Haruna Niekawa. In another instance he stops Takashi once 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 Scarves as their leader. He then has a flashback from when he was in middle school and made the Yellow Scarves. They were in a war with another gang called The Blue Sqaures, then he meets Saki. They talked, and then got together. Tthe only hard thing for Masaomi was that Saki liked an older man named Izaya Orihara becuase she thought he was a cool information broker.

Then, during the worse of the war, Masaomi takes Saki's advice,and goes to Izaya's place. Izaya tells him where the Blue Sqaures location is and so they go for it. They win each battle because of Izaya. One day Masaomi, in his room gets a call. He picks it up and on the other end is the Blue Square leader, Izumii Ran. He says that he has kidnapped Saki. Masaomi hears a loud cracking noise, and Saki screaming.

He throws his phone down on the ground, then picks it up and runs outside. He tries calling Izaya for advice. but he doesn't pick up. When Masaomi gets there, he pauses. He asks himself why he didn't go there that day. Luckily Katoda's crew came and saved her, and Izumii gets arrested like the others. Lateer, Masaomi is in the emergecy room with Izaya. Izaya started saying no one can ever change their memories but it ticks Masaomi off so he tries to punch Izaya.

Izaya blocks the punch and throws Masaomi to the ground. Masaomi gets up, and then Izaya leaves. At the end of the flashback, Masaomi hears one of his guys saying that someone was spying on them. Masaomi runs to see who it was. He then sees the Slasher on the back of the Black Rider's motorcycle. One of his men throws a metal pipe at them and the Slasher cut it in half, but they get away.

The next morning, Anri and Masaomi are feeling funny about each other. Then, they hear that the Dollars are being attacked by the Yellow Scarves. That evening Masaomi goes back to the hospital to see Saki and they talk about recent events. Masaomi gets another flashback of 2 months after the incident. Kyohei sees him and tells him that Saki can see him from her window. Masaomi says he never goes past this point, and so Kyohei picks him up and lectures him, saying that he should 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, asks Kyohei and his guys if they can go to a private 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 doesn'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.

Dennis gets angry because their talk is scaring the customers away so he throws a knife in the room, and tells them to stop talking about that stuff. Masaomi leaves and goes to Izaya's place. Izaya tells him that Mikado was the leader of the Dollars, adn Masaomi tells his men to stop the attacks on the Dollars. They don't listen and the next night they attack Ryo. The next day Masaomi tells Mikado the news.

That night, Horada tells Masaomi that his men were beating up each other for no reason. The next day, his men go after Anri. When she was on the chase, Masaomi grabs her and runs her into an alley. He teases her about her being the Slasher, and Mikado being the the leader of the Dollars. In the midst of his talk, Anri slaps him in the face and runs away. He eventually gets a call from Horada saying that he knew that Mikado was the leader of the Dollars, and he took control of the Yellow Scarves. He also tells Masaomi that he is weak and not needed before hanging up. An angered Masaomi makes the decision to run there by himself and take care of the Yellow Scarves.

Simon sees him and tells him that his face looks like he's going to kill or get killed. Masaomi denies him, but Simon says that in Russia, someone dies in every fight and continues to tell Masaomi  that this is Ikebukuro, and no one should fight. However, Masaomi doesn't take his words and keeps running. When he gets to the base, he confronts Horada. Horada throws a crowbar at his head, and Masaomi bleeds while picking it up. The Yellow Scarves then start attacking Masaomi upon Horada's orders. Masaomi manages to beat them, then gets hit in the head by a thrown metal pipe. Just when Horada is about to shoot Masaomi with his gun, a Yellow Scarves member under Anri's control stops him. Eventually, Anri, Mikado and Celty arrive at the scene, and the three friends notice each other.

Horada orders the rest of the Yellow Scarves to kill them all, but they fought back. Horada lets slip that he was the one who broke Saki's legs. Masaomi, frustrated, punches Horada in the face before falling down unconscious. Mikado then holds him up and asks him to wake up. He wakes up, then falls unconscious again.

He wakes up in the hospital, and the worried Anri and Mikado are relieved that Masaomi is alive and leave. Then Saki comes in and tells him that Izaya told her to go out and let the Blue Squares kidnap her and then kisses Masaomi in his hospital bed.

When Masaomi is better, he leeave Ikebukuro with Saki, and joins the chatroom as Byakura, constantly giving Izaya (Kanra) death threats.

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.